Taal Matol
Whoops!
Now see what you have made me do! I had been giving deep thought to the phenomenon for some time, and I wanted to share my insight with all my friends. I spent months thinking and then days writing, and just when I thought I had come up with a wonderful piece of analysis they went and announced the end of load-shedding! This is ridiculous! What am I supposed to do with my brilliance? Well you'll just have to suffer it. Here it goes!

militancy
Mixed results
Formation of lashkars backed and armed by the government has contributed to further polarisation of the heavily-armed tribal society
By Rahimullah Yusufzai
Military operations in Bajaur and Swat are continuing with no end in sight and a new one could be launched in another tribal agency, Mohmand. There is talk of defeating the militants with the help of tribesmen armed by the state and organised into lashkars. But this doesn't mean that all contacts with the Taliban have been broken. An exchange of prisoners recently took place in South Waziristan through the mediation of a tribal jirga with Baitullah Mahsud-led Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) winning freedom for 21 of its men after releasing 18 paramilitary troops and other government employees.

As America's first black leader in the White House, Barack Obama is positioned to write a new chapter in a long story that began in slavery and persecution and has only now begun to seriously address inequality. His challenge will be for history to remember him as an agent of change, not merely a symbol of it. That's easier said than done.

On every level America will be changed by this result -- its impact will be so profound that the nation that considers itself superior to all others on the planet will never be the same. In a sense the policy changes could be the least of it. It's the way the nation sees itself that will change -- a nation finally casting off the burden of history where only a few decades ago social progress used to be measured by whether blacks could ride a bus, not whether they could run for president. In that sense, by his election alone, Obama has delivered change and his stunning electoral success represents the triumph of the story of America: where anything is possible and where all dreams can come true. A black Obama has set the new gold standard for ambition and achievement and by winning the White House he has added color to the aspirations of millions, if not billions.

Righting the wrongs

It's not just the US electrified by the shifting sands of time. The big wide world outside the US has also invested in the hope of change and it looks like it has been vindicated. The overwhelming election of Obama demonstrates the ability of the American people to change, to choose a new destiny, to correct the course that a country should take when it is wrong. The Bush years have been terrible for the world in more ways than one, and Obama himself seemed to acknowledge this in his victory speech. "If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer... know you didn't do this just to win an election and I know you didn't do it for me. You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime -- two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century."

From the outside, looking in

For the world in general and places like Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq in particular, the litmus test of a successful Obama presidency will be about salvage and repair of the colossal damage done to the world (and America) during the Bush years. He will have to implement unpopular but necessary policies to set the world and America back on course. It will be far from easy but the world is ready to give him a fair chance if he is willing to bring change beyond the shores of America as well. Obama's spectacular victory at the hustings has restored America's status as a beacon of hope. A small window has opened where the way outsiders see America has changed. Obama's election is set to transform the world's perceptions of America. Respect and admiration for his country slumped during President Bush's years in office. Surveys conducted during the campaign showed that if non-Americans were allowed to vote in the US election, Obama would have also scored massive wins in all but a few countries.

Obama himself seemed to acknowledge the fact that his leadership will be more than just about leading America and that his promise of change extends to the rest of the world: "And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world -- our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand. To those who would tear the world down -- we will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security - we support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright -- tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope. And what we have already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow."

The return on goodwill

Obama's triumph is not just America's gain; it is an important victory for the rest of the world that is tired of a US in the likeness of George Bush, the policies he espoused and the terror and turmoil that selfish American belligerence has wreaked on the world. As he formally settles into his job in the new year, Obama will have at least one asset no other American president since Kennedy has enjoyed -- a huge reservoir of international goodwill. While that is based partly on the simple fact that he is not George Bush and partly on the widely-held belief that in picking a black president the US is somehow closing one of the darker chapters in its own past, it is not clear of course how deep that reservoir might be nor how long it will last. The economy is in recession and the US, at war on two fronts overseas, faces profound questions that will require quick answers. The US is undeniably one of the most important economic entities in the world, and with the ongoing financial crisis, most want someone who can lead the US out of the pit, and the world with it. Obama showed a distinct advantage over McCain on economic policy during the campaign and if he comes good on his promises, the US coming out of the recession will benefit everyone. Obama has also promised to withdraw troops from Iraq and since it's all about the economy in the end, without the war(s) the global economic situation can improve.

The impact on Pakistan

Closer to home, Pakistanis and Afghans will be watching how Obama perceives the region in his vision of how events here impact on the America he will have to govern. Afghanistan will likely be the top foreign policy priority for him as the fight against the Taliban insurgency is not going well. His actions will, in all likelihood, be shaped by the draft report of America's 16 intelligence agencies that recently warned that Afghanistan is on a "downward spiral." He visited Kabul last summer and advocated sending more troops here. He is likely to depend on the advice of David Petraeus, who was in the Pak-Afghan region even as Obama swept to victory, on a surge in Afghanistan. Obama has made comments about the US getting tougher with Pakistan over safe havens for the Taliban and al Qaeda in the tribal areas. He is also likely to lean on Afghan President Hamid Karzai to do more to end endemic corruption and ineptitude.

It is also safe to assume Obama's focus on Pakistan will center round prodding and supporting Islamabad's battle against al Qaeda-Taliban militancy in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. Because of political transitions in both Washington and Islamabad (with Bush and Musharraf mercifully in the past), Pakistan desperately hopes Obama will change the relationship from a military-centric outlook to a more nuanced one and broaden US engagement. A Democratic administration is expected to support Pakistan's fragile transition to full democratic rule and change the Republican administration's focused ties with the army.

Walking the talk

More specifically, Islamabad expects Obama to walk his talk on increasing financial assistance by supporting a bill that promises $15 billion in non-military assistance to Pakistan over 10 years that his Vice President Joseph Biden has pushed, increase market access to Pakistani products, set up the Reconstruction Opportunity Zones in the tribal areas and help Islamabad and New Delhi come to a broad consensus on Kashmir so that Pakistan's India-phobic security paradigm is transformed and in the process dilute the military's primacy over the national polity.

While it is expected this will happen, Obama is likely to tie its focus on strengthening Pakistan's democracy and the economy by tying any aid to Pakistan's performance in combating the al Qaeda-Taliban combine. Obama has been making strong assertions on unilateral strikes against suspected militant targets inside Pakistan, if necessary without the approval of Islamabad even though Pakistan insists these attacks violate its sovereignty and weaken its own counter-insurgency actions. Whichever way Obama goes on Pakistan, Islamabad has the best chance yet in two decades on an engagement with the US that puts democracy in Pakistan at the center of that relationship. Pakistan cannot afford to mess up this opportunity.

Obama has made history a thousand ways by winning the White House. As he attempts to make history in the way he exercises it, he will be weighed down by high expectations in America, in the world and in Pakistan. By electing Obama, American people have made two fundamental statements about themselves: that they are profoundly unhappy with the status quo, and that they want a new start. The world is ready for a new beginning and so should also be Pakistan.

Ali Ahmad Kurd, the new president of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), first went to jail as a 17-year old student in Mustung district of Balochistan.

Son of Baloch politician Mir Abdul Aziz Kurd, politics and activism were in Ali Ahmad's genes. Born in Quetta in 1948, Kurd was among those who protested the dismissal of National Awami Party (NAP) government in Balochistan as a student.

During the lawyers' movement that began last year, Kurd became a household figure because of the media images of his fiery speeches.

Following his victory in SCBA election, TNS took an opportunity to have a chat with Kurd to discuss the future of the lawyers' movement. The title "the firebrand lawyer" makes so much sense once you talk to him in person. Excerpts follow:

The News On Sunday: Many people think that the decision of not having the scheduled sit-in protest outside the parliament in Islamabad on June 14 was a turning point in this movement. Do you agree?

Ali Ahmad Kurd: As far as the June 14 sit-in protest is concerned, it was not a turning point. From the very first day, we were very clear in not making the lawyers' movement into a violent movement. The biggest reason to postpone the sit-in was to avoid any confrontation with the parliament. No doubt the judiciary is one pillar of the state and the assembly another. We did not want to damage the other pillar, which is in fact the creation of people, but to have a peaceful restoration of independent judiciary. It should be clear that the present democracy and assemblies were created as result of the lawyers' movement that evoked a spirit of awareness in the people of Pakistan.

TNS: How can you say that the lawyers' movement "created" the assemblies and the present democracy when the lawyers themselves boycotted the 2008 polls?

AAK: The whole political environment was created by the lawyers' movement. Though we did not go for elections but it doesn't mean we are not the creator of these assemblies.

We decided to boycott the elections keeping in view the situation when Pervez Musharraf had imposed emergency and arrested his opponents including the SCBA leadership and the picture was not clear of what will happen tomorrow.

Moreover, we admit that boycotting general elections was a mistake. Though many people from SCBA wanted that elections should be contested and even I submitted my forms in two constituencies of Rawalpindi from where Sheikh Rashid was running. I strongly believe that I could have defeated Sheikh Rashid, but we had to abide by the collective decision -- of boycott -- and withdrew my nomination papers. This we had to do in the larger interest of the body.

TNS: Suppose the deposed judges are restored back to their 2/11 position. How can we call the whole apex judiciary independent when there will be state-picked new judges, those judges who preferred to take oath from the sitting regime and the third and small group of deposed judges? In this situation, is there any chance of dreaming for full independence of judiciary?

AAK: Those people who make a mark in history are lucky. The judges who took fresh oath were in that list but lost their dignified position by taking the oath. The demands of lawyers' movement is based on principles. The restoration of all deposed judges including Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry is based on principles.. The decision will set a precedent for the future and would create an overall impact. Our stance is approved by the public at large.

We believe two things are necessary for setting up an independent judiciary. One, restoration of judiciary to its Nov 2 position and second, to declare Pervez Musharraf's Nov 3 move as unconstitutional. All of these judges will never be in the judiciary for ever and such steps will become safeguards for the forthcoming judiciary.

TNS: What is the future strategy of the movement? Especially after issuance of your statement showing readiness to have dialogue with the government.

AAK: I will not disclose the main points of the strategy at this point. However, I am a firm believer that the future of lawyers' movement is quite bright. We will acquire our goals by any means necessary and we will use every kind of technique and pressure on the government. Dialogue and pressure, however, are two separate strategies that cannot be mixed. The Oct 28 results prove that public is with us. Even common citizens took interest in the elections of a professional body that showed their concern.

I am ready for dialogue with the government and I will welcome the Law Minister if he has any positive things to say. There has, however, not been any contact made from the government. The congratulating statements on my victory issued by President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Gillani and Attorney General Latif Khosa are good signs. We believe that all parties are bound on their commitment to restore the judiciary on its Nov 2 position. We are firm believers that Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar is sitting in the Court Room 1 unconstitutionally and he has usurped this office.

TNS: Did the PPP try to manipulate the SCBA elections?

AAK: I do not blame the PPP of attempting to manoeuvre the SCBA election for the victory of their candidate. It was not the PPP but a few elements in the party who tried to influence the SCBA election. But time has proven that PPP lawyers are with this movement and with Kurd, that is why they voted for me. Moreover, I went to each and every voter of Pakistan personally. PPP lawyers showed full love and support.

TNS: Do you think there is need of bringing a change in the policy and procedure of appointing judges?

AAK: First, we are interested in the restoration of judiciary. After that happens, if the government considers that the procedure of the judges' appointment should be changed, the bar is ready to sit with them and give its point of view. I personally believe that the current procedure should be changed. I believe that those senior lawyers who allegedly manoeuvre this position on political or social grounds are not independent judges.

Now see what you have made me do! I had been giving deep thought to the phenomenon for some time, and I wanted to share my insight with all my friends. I spent months thinking and then days writing, and just when I thought I had come up with a wonderful piece of analysis they went and announced the end of load-shedding! This is ridiculous! What am I supposed to do with my brilliance? Well you'll just have to suffer it. Here it goes!

It is well understood that it is wisdom that leads men to make a virtue of necessity. By that same token it is bloody genius which leads them to turn a pain in the butt into culture! Which is what we are busy doing, which tells me we must be geniuses.

It is put to the test often enough as we keep on developing shortages of this, that and the other; and then there is the shortage that has stayed faithfully with us over decades, which is that of electric power. That may sound strange in a place which has one of the world's largest river system and the world's largest hydro-electric dam to set an example.

Experts have estimated that we could have a set of a dozen major dams in a cascade, each one extracting oodles of power and saving the water for all our irrigation needs. We haven't built any one of these because every time we try to someone threatens to kill himself if we do. Don't ask me why. They have never told me. The upshot is we have barely half the power we need and they have to resort to what we call 'load-shedding!'

That means every hour, for an hour you have your power cut off while your neighbours have a ball, and then for an hour you have power while they sit around twiddling their thumbs in the dark. There is no point cribbing about it because there is no alternative and if you get to demonstrate outside the power company they blow raspberries and tell you to go sit on an egg!

The good thing is that subtly and slowly we are changing our whole way of life to cope with it. Like say in mealtimes! Next time you get an invite for lunch, at eleven, don't think your friends are country bumpkins who rise with the sun and go to bed with it. It may just be that they have no power from one to two!

That means if they try to feed their guests at noon, by the time they get to the ice-cream, it is all soggy and runny because the fridge has switched off and if you wait until the power comes back, they get lunch at three thirty! The same is true of dinner and you can see hosts desperately trying to squeeze the meal in the hour of power so people don't have to grope about for their food on the plate.

You might think it is fashion to have a perpetual three day stubble adorning the chin. Not so. Each member of the family gets just thirteen minutes of light in the bathroom each morning. That means the menfolk can shave only every fourth day, or try to shave every day and nick themselves all over in the dark and go round with pieces of sticky tape all over the face. A three day stubble looks better! I believe they are also developing a new regimen of the monthly bath, but I'd rather not go into that!

Military operations in Bajaur and Swat are continuing with no end in sight and a new one could be launched in another tribal agency, Mohmand. There is talk of defeating the militants with the help of tribesmen armed by the state and organised into lashkars. But this doesn't mean that all contacts with the Taliban have been broken. An exchange of prisoners recently took place in South Waziristan through the mediation of a tribal jirga with Baitullah Mahsud-led Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) winning freedom for 21 of its men after releasing 18 paramilitary troops and other government employees.

As if this wasn't enough, another tribal jirga brokered a prisoners' swap soon afterwards on Nov 6. Under the deal, Baitullah Mahsud's lieutenant Maulana Rafiuddin, a young man apprehended by the police some months ago from Doaba in Hangu district, was freed by the government in return for 10 soldiers, including seven from the Pakistan Army and three belonging to the paramilitary Frontier Corps. The jirga delivered Rafiuddin to a group of clerics in the Orakzai tribal agency, which is adjacent to Hangu and has emerged as yet another base for Pakistani militants. It was in Orakzai, the only tribal agency not to border Afghanistan, that a suspected suicide bombing killed up to 160 tribal elders and commoners during a jirga that was called to raise a lashkar for taking on the militants. The bombing put paid to any hopes of dislodging the militants from the bases in the mountainous Orakzai Agency, which due to its central location is now the rear base for members of Taliban groups from Hangu, Kohat, Darra Adamkhel, Kurram Agency and other adjacent areas.

Reports from Orakzai said Rafiuddin was warmly welcomed by militants by firing into the air for about an hour with light and heavy weapons. It was indeed an achievement for Baitullah Mahsud to get his close aide freed and the fact that he agreed to release 10 soldiers to win freedom for Rafiuddin showed his importance. In the past also, Baitullah Mahsud has used kidnappings of troops and important government officials, including Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan, Tariq Azizuddin, to secure the release of his men from government custody.

On his first trip to Pakistan, the new commander of the US Central Command, General David Petraeus, received briefings not only in Rawalpindi-Islamabad but also in Peshawar, the headquarters of the Pakistan Army's 11th Corps that is spearheading the military operations in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Swat district. The fact that he flew to Pakistan a day after taking over his new job explained the importance that he and the US Army attached to the country in its long-running and faltering "war on terror."

A visit to Peshawar, meetings with the civil and military high-ups and an aerial view of the battleground FATA was, therefore, a must for General Petraeus, who is said to be keen to replicate his Iraqi formula in the tribal areas by paying and arming the tribes to take on al Qaeda and its allies. The lashkar-raising in FATA and in some of the districts is being described as a replication of the Iraqi recipe that led to reduction of attacks on US forces and stabilised Iraq's Sunni-populated Al Anbar province for a while due to expulsion of al Qaeda fighters from the area but is now reportedly unravelling due to a host of factors. A number of the Sunni tribal elders who raised the armed militias have been assassinated and it certainly would demoralise their followers and embolden the al Qaeda fighters who until recently were unwelcome in Al Anbar.

Richard Boucher, the US Assistant Secretary of State and the American pointsman for Pakistan credited with guaranteeing the political deal between late PPP leader Benazir Bhutto and the then President General Pervez Musharraf, accompanied General Petraeus during the visit. Having been to Pakistan several times and known to all those Pakistanis who matter, he in a way was escorting the General and getting him acquainted with the country's ruling elite. It could be one of Boucher's last visits to Pakistan before President-elect Barack Obama takes charge on Jan 20, 2009 and appoints his own men and women at the State department. General Petraeus, however, would continue in his new position and, therefore, there was need for him to meet and size up the Pakistani rulers before reviewing the US Army's difficult military mission in Afghanistan and making the necessary changes to achieve some of its objectives. Fully aware that victory in Afghanistan isn't possible without Islamabad's cooperation, it seems General Petraeus wants to firm up his military plans for the region after talking to the major stakeholders such as Pakistan.

On its part, Pakistan tried to convince General Petraeus to put an end to incursions and missiles strikes by the CIA-operated, US drones into Pakistan's tribal areas as it was damaging the credibility of the PPP-led democratic government and contributing to the anti-US and pro-Taliban sentiment in FATA and rest of NWFP. Time and again, President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani have publicly spoken out against these cross-border attacks and termed the missile strikes by the pilotless Predator planes as counter-productive. General Petraeus, however, gave no assurance that such attacks would stop. All that he said was that he understood Pakistan's position and sentiments on the issue. He also tried to justify the missile strikes by claiming that three out of the 20 most wanted al Qaeda figures were killed in these attacks in Pakistani territory.

Subsequently, while talking to the friendly US media he made the argument that the nature of the threat to Pakistan while fighting the "war on terror" had made it Pakistan's war and not America's. He stressed that al Qaeda was the common enemy of Afghanistan and Pakistan and ought to be jointly tackled. Most Pakistanis, though, believe that Pakistan's unconditional participation in the so-called "war on terror" under former President General Musharraf had brought America's war to Pakistan and made their country a battleground.

While the possibility of a military operation in the Mohmand Agency is being highlighted in the media following the dropping of leaflets by army planes asking the people to expel the militants from their area, the government appears ill-prepared to handle yet another influx of displaced people. Already, tribal families have started abandoning their villages in Anbar, Qandaharo and Lakarro areas in search of safer places in and outside Mohmand Agency. More could decide to leave in view of the unannounced curfew that was enforced several days ago and following the closure of educational institutions, government offices and market-towns. The militants, led by the young, hardline commander Abdul Wali alias Omar Khalid, have contributed to the worsening security situation and the subsequent displacement of the people by abducting seven government officials and tribal elders and executing one of them, Amir Taj, who happened to be a former clerk in the political administration of Mohmand Agency. The government is also blaming the militants for an apparent suicide bombing at the Nahaqi checkpoint recently in which three people including security personnel were killed. The security forces also alleged that 10 al Qaeda members, all unnamed except one, were hiding in Chinari area of Mohmand Agency under Taliban protection. The allegation, which could provide the US military an excuse to bomb Mohmand Agency, had also caused panic and was prompting some people in Chinari area to migrate to safer places.

Bajaur, which neighbours, Mohmand Agency, is far from stable despite intense military operations that began on August 6 and have caused the largest displacement of people in Pakistan's history. The lashkar-raising plan got a momentum after the initial success of the tribal revolt against the militants in Bajaur's Salarzai area. The Taliban were expelled and their houses demolished when the Salarzai tribal lashkar took on the militants. The uprising gave courage to tribesmen elsewhere in FATA to organise similar lashkars but the success of these government-backed endeavours was limited. The suicide bombing in Orakzai Agency dampened the spirits of the lashkar organisers in the tribal areas. The militants appeared determined to foil the lashkar-raising idea and already the tribal elders who formed the lashkar against them in Salarzai area of Bajaur have been targetted through bombings. One such suicide bombing on Nov 6 killed eight Salarzai tribal elders and commoners and injured another 100. The lashkars have achieved mixed results in tackling militants. At the same time, the formation of lashkars backed and armed by the government has contributed to further polarisation of the heavily-armed tribal society and created conditions that would result in even more blood-feuds and bloodshed in the tribal areas.

It was March 12, 2007, the first working day after the chief justice of Pakistan was unconstitutionally removed from office. The lawyers had decided to take out protest rallies all over Pakistan against the illegal act of March 9 on the call of Muneer A Malik, then president Supreme Court Bar.

This was my first chance to participate in a political rally and I had no idea what it would be like. We began walking from the Lahore High Court towards Regal Chowk where we were met with a wall of armed policemen. The lawyers were forced to turn back. We were right in the front of the rally when we saw some of our colleagues being severely beaten up.

We turned around and started running towards the High Court but it seemed the police wanted to teach us a lesson. In the confusion and chaos, a female colleague fell down and barely survived the stampede but not before she had severely ruptured her thigh tendon.

We all helped her get on to her feet and were turning around when, to my shock, I got hit on my shoulder by two latthis. I instinctively got hold of the latthi, turned around to face the policeman and told him to hit me from the front and not like a coward. The experience left me seriously disturbed. I had lived a very protected life till then, without ever being personally exposed to the brutal realities. That moment changed everything.

Then on, I did not miss a protest or a rally. I wanted to become a part of the change that seemed inevitable. It seemed the people had woken up. We achieved our first success when the chief justice was reinstated on July 20, 2007. But the ecstasy proved short-lived. On Nov 3, 2007, Musharraf declared 'Emergency Plus' -- a term unknown to the world -- under which the entire judiciary was removed by one stroke of pen.

The Human Right Commission of Pakistan called a meeting in Lahore on Nov 4, 2007, to discuss the situation. There were about 55 people gathered to vent their frustration.

The meeting was not yet over when the authorities ordered the arrest of all people sitting in the meeting, including 22 women of all ages -- women in their 80s to young teenage girls. We were pushed and shoved into the police bus. We could hardly breathe. It was suffocating and scary; we did not know what lay ahead.

One of the women was claustrophobic; it seemed she would choke. She started screaming. Her daughter begged the policeman outside to open the sealed door but to no avail. They kept us seated in the bus for at least half an hour before moving it. It was mid-afternoon and it seemed we would be roasted alive.

We were taken to Model Town police station. On my maiden visit to a thana, we were told to hand in our cell phones. Some of the older women suggested they would never keep women in thanas and we will be released soon. But hour after another hour passed and all we were told was that they were waiting for orders from above. We could be sent to Bahawalpur or Mianwali Jail because the government wanted to send out a clear signal that it would not tolerate any demonstration or protest of any kind.

I was in along with two brothers, worried about my elderly parents. I just could not believe this was happening to us when we had done nothing. Had the meeting finished without these arrests, we would have all gone home disillusioned and hopeless.

After spending 13-14 hours at the thana, we were moved to three different homes that were declared sub-jails. The fear of the unknown persisted. The next day we were taken before the magistrate where again we were left in the buses for an hour. We thought we'd get our bails and the ordeal would end.

Instead, after recording our statements before the magistrate, we were sent to Kot Lakhpat Jail. It was a traumatic experience because no one knew what was happening. How long we were in for and under what charge? We spent five hours at the jail before being again taken back to the sub-jails.

Till the next evening when we were released, without any clear orders, the fear of the worst hung on our heads. We had heard what had happened to the lawyers on Nov 5; they were brutally beaten up and jailed. Even after we were released, we were told not to use our phones or go back home as we would be picked up again. We were told that the names of some of us were booked for other serious offences.

In those dreadful days, we used code words on cell phones. The treatment of lawyers, sent to jails all across the country, was meant to make examples out of them for the rest of the community.

In December, Justice Shahid Siddiqui of the Lahore High Court was given a notice to vacate his official house in GOR I. In case he did not, he was threatened he would be forcibly removed. The lawyers and civil society decided to guard his home and property. I was in the night shift. It was bitter cold and I was running fever when the police came to pick us. There were seven of us and over 50 policemen and women were sent. They dragged us into a bus. If memory serves me right, it was SHO Race Course Thana who abused me and my friend. I felt extremely humiliated. I had never heard such language before. Along with seven of us who were guarding the place, they also picked an innocent driver who was accompanying a guest of the judge.

I hurriedly called my brother who came before we reached the thana. As he inquired about me, he too was arrested.

We were thrown in two separate cells. The one where we were put had two other women. It was bitter cold and the floor was filthy and freezing. I was running high fever by then. My friend wanted to use the loo which lay right in front of the men's cell, fully exposed. I stood guard outside while she used the loo, feeling worse than an animal.

I could not believe this was my own country where we were being treated worse than murderers. We could hear a crowd building outside the thana. I could not stop my emotions and my tears started falling. We also started chanting slogans from inside to tell the crowd outside we were in high spirits. The policemen, feeling threatened, pacified the crowd outside and told them to disburse or it would create problems for us.

We were put in a bus again at 4am. It was getting colder. I could not stand up straight as the fever was really high. I wanted to go to the toilet but just could not. We were taken to a prison at the other end of Lahore where we were kept in two different cells. For the first time I felt scared. We were kept there till 9am before being taken to the cantt magisterial court. Instead of taking us in front of the judge, we were driven to Kot Lakhpat Jail.

I had done some work in that jail for the underprivileged women who could not afford to get a bail for themselves. Good deeds do help sometimes. The female jail superintendent recognised us and gave us a relatively better place to stay. We were put in a quarter where there were three other women; two were in for murder and one for corruption.

It was all very terrifying. The women who had been there for long had nothing good to say about the judiciary as they had suffered hard due to delays by the "inefficient judiciary."

Two days in the jail were an eye-opener, to say the least. But the worst experience still remains the one at Race Course Thana and the policemen who dealt with us. The jail, in comparison, was much better, more civilised.

I grew by many a year in those few months. I realised there was so much to be done in this country before we could really call it a democratic state.

A whole night of watching TV and finally the impossible happened -- a non-white person has been elected to what is arguably the most powerful position in the world. Barack Obama once again showed how good an orator he is and as he spoke the inevitable comparison another young man -- he was white though -- entering the White House around half a century ago cropped up. One could see Oprah Winfrey in the mammoth crowd at Chicago's Grant Park and the Reverend Jesse Jackson as well -- both not able to hold back their tears as the Obama speech went on.

The election is clearly a boon to America's image with the rest of the world, not least because of its own sordid past with regard to minorities, especially blacks. Having a black man, the son of a Kenyan immigrant, who spent chunks of his childhood overseas, as opposed to the dim-witted isolationist-minded president who preceded him is going to positively affect America's perception in the world. Of course, this is not to say that its foreign policy will overnight make a U-turn but as opposed to the Bush era, when America was perceived to be an arrogant superpower riding roughshod even over the wishes and opinions of its close allies, there may well be a discernible change.

In any case, Europe and much of Asia had been very optimistic of an Obama presidency, particularly since they would understandably prefer an America that at least listens to their concerns, respectfully disagrees (if that be the case) and considers its action with regard to their consequences -- something that was never the hallmark of the Bush administration.

The resounding victory also clearly shows that many Americans thought of the economy and what it would do to their own financial position and that they did not care too much about his past (as conjured by Fox News and other muckrakers) or whether he was friends with a man considered to be pro-Palestine. To say that befriending Professor Rashid Khalidi, an academic at Columbia University, would be something to be ashamed of shows the narrow-minded and xenophobic nature of the attacks that John McCain's campaign made on Barack Obama. The latter was constantly being labeled as a 'socialist', particularly by Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, as if this were a slur. It may have been to conservative Bible-thumping Republicans but clearly wasn't to most other Americans.

President-elect Barack Obama will inherent an economy that is experiencing its worst recession in almost a century. He will also inherit two very unpopular and complex wars that America is fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and then there will also be the al Qaeda to deal with. The biggest change, quite possibly, will come on America's domestic agenda but here too there is the possibility that he may have to temper himself and take everyone along, lest he be portrayed as a radical leftist -- which apparently is a very bad thing in America. During his speech at Grant Park, an hour or so after it was more or less official that he had emerged victorious, Obama made it a point to include even gays and lesbians when he said that he would be the president of all Americans. This is not something that a Republican or even a more centrist Democrat would say in his or her very first speech and it may well ring some alarm bells with the Republic right.

What will happen in Iraq and Afghanistan in the long run under Obama is something that remains to be seen but it would be fair to expect at least a substantive change in the way the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are being run and managed. As for Pakistan, he will probably be better than McCain. This is because, unlike conventional wisdom would have us believe in Pakistan, the Republicans are no real friends of the country. For that one only has to see the conduct of Ronald Reagan's administration with Pakistan, when it played a pivotal role in making Peshawar the base of anti-Soviet operations inside Afghanistan. Similarly, George W Bush said one thing and did another -- i.e. the frequent drone attacks -- and with Obama Islamabad will in all likelihood know what one is getting into. Of course, this assumes that the Pentagon is full on board the Obama presidency.

And what does the election tell us about America (and perhaps this is something that the Republican party itself needs to pay particular attention to)? Well, for starters, that for many of them, and particularly the younger generation race is not as big an issue as is made out to be, that while racism may well be widespread, attitudes are changing and, perhaps more importantly, those who are in fact racist are dwindling in number. Further, it may well be that many white Americans overcame the race barrier by voting for Obama (though overall the white vote went slightly in favour of McCain) perhaps -- subconsciously -- to atone for their sins and those of their forefathers. And that the most important issue was the economy, given that it was in an advanced stage of meltdown, and that in such a situation voters don't really care whether a candidate is patriotic enough or has strong anti-communist/socialist skills. (And perhaps the best thing personally was that the annoying Joe the Plumber's home state gave a resounding yes vote to Obama).

The writer is Editorial Pages Editor of The News:

Email: omarq@cyber.net.pk