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[-
IKRAM SEHGAL -] |
 Don’t
Underestimate
the Empire
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Till the PML (N) Ministers walked
out of the Federal Cabinet, Pakistan was a State in
paralysis. Ineffective governance in the face of looming
crisis is criminal neglect, mass perception takes
it to be worse. The attempt at national reconciliation
by Asif Zardari had given PML (N) political indispensability
far exceeding their second place status in the national
electoral polls. While leaning over backwards for
compromise and cooperation with the largest party
in the Punjab is certainly required, in the hard world
of politics display of goodwill is taken to be weakness,
the PML (N) treated it as such.....more
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The
Runaway Bride
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When marriages are not made in Heaven,
the Heavens do not fall when they come apart. A tremendous
setback for the process of national reconciliation
notwithstanding, when one of the major partners in
the Coalition (the “odd couple”) walked
out on May 12, what to talk about the Heavens even
the Coalition did not fall, and is not likely to.
One must concede that the PML (N) tried its best to
compromise, it had boxed itself into such a situation
politically about the restoration of the Nov 3 judiciary,
it’s credibility among the electorate would
have been seriously impaired if it had stayed in the
Federal Cabinet. “Restoration of judiciary”
is extremely important but certainly not more important
than “Roti, Bijli aur Paani”, presently
a desperate necessity for a vast majority of the populace.
......more
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Standing
Firm with China |
The manner in which events have unfolded recently
in Tibet suggests that this was no happenstance; there
was method in the madness as properties of the Han
Chinese were singled out for destruction. By March
14, large scale attacks on non-Tibetan ethnic groups
unleashed a pillage of rioting, looting and burning.
James Miles of “The Economist” who returned
from Tibet confirmed that this was pre-planned and
orchestrated, to quote his interview with CNN, “What
I saw was calculated targetted violence against an
ethic group, or I should say two ethnic groups, primarily
ethnic Han Chinese in Lhasa, but also members of the
Muslim Hui minority in Lhasa.” Any doubts about
the unrest being anything other than organized activity
were put to rest by the calculated manner many Chinese
Embassies and Consulates were attacked by ‘Tibetan’
protestors in several countries almost simultaneously.......more
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