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roundup Sorry, you
still can’t vote Yeh Woh politics Give homeopathy
a chance From despotism
to democracy
roundup The incident on the Durand
Line border in Mohmand Agency on November 26 was waiting to happen. There had
been a build-up of frustration and anger due to other incidents on the long
and porous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan that had contributed to
the distrust characterising relations among the two neighbouring countries
and also the United States, the overbearing superpower that somehow becomes a
factor in every international crisis. Foreign Minister Hina
Rabbani Khar’s statement that everything should be put in black and white
in context of her country’s troubled relations with the US in future was in
a way admission of the fact that many aspects of their relationship were
opaque due to the tendency of Pakistani rulers such as General Pervez
Musharraf to make secret decisions primarily meant to advance personal rather
than national interest. A case in point is the
small Shamsi airbase in Balochistan’s Kharan district where the US had
based its Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and other assets and was using it
to launch drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas. Successive Pakistani
civil and military rulers had kept this a secret from their subjects
apparently due to fear that the nation won’t approve of it. Only now it has
emerged that the airbase was leased out to the UAE for use by its petro-rich
Sheikhs fond of hunting protected species such as houbara bustard in the
Balochistan desert and that the ruling Al Nahyan dynasty in turn gave it to
the Americans for using it to practice head-hunting of humans in the tribal
borderlands. How can this happen is a mystery and also shameful and it raises
questions whether all this belated talk of sovereignty is believable or not. Disagreements already exist
between Pakistan and the US over the chain of events that caused the Mohmand
Agency incident on the night of November 26. The inconclusive and divergent
outcome of separate and joint investigation of past border incidents
haven’t helped and it remains a factor in contributing to the lack of trust
in each other in probing the recent happening. The US, the dominant Nato
member whose helicopters were involved in this and every previous incident of
cross-border raids, has been insisting that the attack wasn’t deliberate.
Its spokesmen, along with the Afghan officials, have been claiming that the
US Special Forces operating in the border area were fired at from the
Pakistani side of the Durand Line and that close air support was requested to
attack the position from where the fire was originating. A disproportionate
force comprising jet-fighters, gunship helicopters and drones was then
scrambled to hit two small ill-equipped border posts helplessly located at a
height of 8,000 feet. It was a cowardly attack because any soldier who moved
was strafed and reinforcement troops sent from a downhill post to find out
the situation and possibly help the injured were also attacked from the air
and killed and maimed. Pakistan, on the other
hand, is convinced that its borders were violated and its forces were
attacked from the air without any provocation. Its military authorities have
already established a strong case and even shared it with the national media.
They are in no doubt that the Nato attack was an act of aggression and
intentional as it continued even after the Pakistan Army had conveyed to the
US-led coalition forces through the well-established mechanism put in place
to avoid such incidents that its troops in Mohmand Agency were under attack.
So strong was the conviction in its account of the incident and such was the
level of anger in Pakistan that the government took three major decisions not
only to protest the Nato air strike but also send a strong message that
henceforth there would be no compromise on protecting Pakistan’s
sovereignty and honour. Critics would say this
would not have happened if Pakistan had adopted a tough position on the issue
of its violation of its sovereignty by the US in the past. Also, it remains
to be seen if Pakistan would remain firm on its new-found obsession with the
question of sovereignty because it hasn’t fared well on this count in the
past. Of the three steps taken by
Pakistan to show its anger and record protest over the Mohmand Agency
incident, the first to undergo a test would be the international conference
on Afghanistan in Bonn on December 5. Pakistan has announced boycott of the
conference, labelled Bonn-2 as it is seen as a continuation of Bonn-1 held in
December 2001 in which major decisions about Afghanistan’s fate in the
post-Taliban period were taken, but it is under tremendous international
pressure to take back its decision. At the moment Islamabad seems determined
to stay away from the Bonn conference and all indications are that it would
stick to its decision to express its resentment over the actions of not only
the US and its Nato allies but also Afghanistan. The US appealed to Pakistan
to attend the event even if it is a lower level of participation. Germany as
the host nation also sought Pakistan’s attendance and so did other friendly
countries. The unhappiest country over
Pakistan’s boycott was Afghanistan. President Hamid Karzai phoned Gilani to
request Pakistan’s participation. The Afghans saw it as an unfriendly act
because they believe there can be no peace and stability in Afghanistan
unless Pakistan is on board with regard to any peace-making formula due to
its closeness to the Afghan Taliban. Pakistan has made it clear that its own
security and sovereignty were more important than striving for peace in
Afghanistan. In fact, Pakistan is angry with Afghanistan on three counts as
it feels Kabul acted in an unfriendly manner by accusing Islamabad and its
army of involvement in former Afghan president Prof Burhanuddin Rabbani’s
assassination without providing any concrete evidence and then signing a
security agreement with the Indian government for training of Afghan army
officers in India. The third cause of Pakistan’s anger was the use of
Afghanistan’s soil by the Nato forces to launch the recent cross-border
raid in Mohmand Agency. Pakistan even took the rare step of lodging a formal
protest with the Afghan government over this incident. The message of
disapproval from Islamabad was loud and clear and it should also be seen as a
severe setback to any hopes of moving forward any peace process in
Afghanistan with Pakistan’s support and mediation. The other two Pakistani
decisions could also have consequences. December 11 is the deadline for the
US to vacate the Shamsi airbase and there are indications that the military
is mobilising troops to take control of the property as soon as the Americans
move out. Though the US authorities have said they have alternate
arrangements in place for launching drone attacks, the loss of Shamsi airbase
would be felt by the Americans and also seen as an unfriendly act by
Pakistan. They could even equate it with lack of Pakistan’s commitment to
fight the so-called “war on terror.” Far more important for the
US and Nato is Pakistan’s decision to block supplies for the more than
140,000 coalition forces deployed in Afghanistan. Right now the blockade of
trucks, trailers and oil-tankers carrying fuel, food and according to some
reports even arms and ammunition for the Nato forces via the Torkham and
Chaman border towns to Afghanistan has been termed indefinite rather than
permanent, but Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar and Interior Minister
Rehman Malik, both not known to be particularly well-informed about the
military’s thinking, have said that the decision was irreversible. Though
the US has developed the alternate northern route via Russia and the Central
Asian states to supply Nato forces in Afghanistan and is also using planes
for the purpose, the Pakistani route is far more useful as it is short and
less costly. A permanent blockade of Nato supplies by Pakistan would be seen
as an extremely unfriendly and punitive act by the Western nations and would
lead to irreparable harm to Islamabad’s relations with the US and its
allies. It seems Pakistan would not take things to that extreme and would
want to mend ties with the US provided the latter seeks a formal apology for
the cross-border raid in Mohmand Agency and agrees to iron-clad guarantees to
prevent recurrence of such incidents, becomes willing to review its
relationship with Islamabad in line with the latter’s genuine aspirations
and past complaints, and is ready to keep Pakistan’s interests in view vis-à-vis
India during the course of decision-making with regard to the end-game in
Afghanistan.
Sorry,
you still can’t vote Once again, women voters
have been barred from exercising their voting rights in the recent
by-elections in district Kohistan of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP), where only
three women voters out of about 18,000 were able to caste their votes. The by-election for
provincial assembly constituency PK-61, Kohistan 1, which was vacated after
the demise of Awami National Party (ANP) MPA Maulvi Obaidullah, was conducted
on November 24. As many as 84,590 voters are registered in PK-61, including
65,786 male voters and 18,804 female. The seat was won by Sajjadullah Khan,
an ANP candidate backed by the Pakistan People Party (PPP). According to the
preliminary election observation report of the Free and Fair Election Network
(FAFEN), an Islamabad-based independent election monitoring body, no female
voters were seen on the election day, reportedly due to an informal agreement
among political parties to prevent women from exercising their rights to
vote. “All the candidates
belonging to different political parties, including the ANP, PPP, PML-Q), JUI-F
and independent candidates, decided in a jirga on November 17 that women of
the constituency would not be allowed to caste their votes,” a local elder,
who attended the jirga, told the scribe. “Some of the candidates suggested
that male members of a family be allowed to cast votes on behalf of their
women, but the idea was rejected by the jirga members.” This was also corroborated
by ANP MPA Bushra Gohar, who informed the National Assembly that women were
barred from voting under an agreement reached between contesting candidates
at the office of the district coordination officer. She also demanded
nullification of the result of Kohistan by-election won by her own party. “Casting vote is the
fundamental right of every Pakistani woman and if women were barred from
exercising their voting rights, how can we legalise such elections?” Gohar
questioned, adding that it is a mockery of an election when female voters are
not allowed to cast their votes. Kohistan is a conservative
and backward district of Pakistan with the lowest Human Development Index (HDI)
along with Shangla, Dera Bugti, Tharparkar and Jhal Magsi districts. In the
past elections, including the general election of 2008, women in Kohistan
district were barred from casting their votes. In Shangla, a neighbouring
district of Kohistan, women were also barred to cast their votes in PK-87
by-election held on January 29, where only around 100 women out of 59,711
registered female voters were allowed to cast their votes. Similarly, in the
by-election of NA-21 Mansehra-cum-Tor Ghar held last year in January, women
voters were kept away from casting their votes. The practice of barring
women to exercise their voting rights has been going on for years in several
parts of KP and Fata, and conservative tribal customs support this ban.
Shangla, Upper Dir, Lower Dir, Karak, Bannu, Battagram, Kohistan and Tor Ghar
(Kala Dhaka) are the districts of KP where women are traditionally kept from
voting. Normally in every election, workers of political parties take the ID
cards from female voters and cast their votes according to a formula agreed
upon by all contesting candidates. In the past elections,
especially in local bodies’ elections, media reported that all religious
and so-called progressive political parties reached agreements at district
level through jirgas to bar women from voting. Even in one case, Mufti Gohar
Ali, a pro-Taliban leader of JUI-F of Mardan, had warned that violators of
such accord would be fined Rs500,000. Some political analysts
think that growing militancy and Talibanisation in KP and Fata is a major
threat to participation of women in politics. Threatening pamphlets issued by
militants and religious extremists were plastered on walls in some parts of
KP and Fata in previous elections, warning women of suicide attacks if they
came out to vote. “We don’t allow women
to go to polling stations and show their faces to strangers as it is
un-Islamic and against our Pashtun traditions,” says a leader of the ANP in
Kohistan, adding that the practice of women voting had led to tension between
local Kohistani tribesmen in the 2008 general polls. But some commentators
completely deny it, saying that barring women from voting rights has nothing
to do with Pashtun traditions. “The ANP and the PPP, the so-called liberal
parties, have also signed several accords in different parts of KP not
allowing women to cast votes,” Aqeel Yousafzai, a Peshawar-based political
commentator, laments while talking to TNS. “Kohistan election
indicates a completely failure of the government, especially Election
Commission of Pakistan (ECP), to create a favourable environment for
women’s participation in the polls despite the media reports published
before the polls stating the candidates are conspiring to prevent women from
voting,” he says. “Kohistan is a peaceful area of the KP where Taliban
militancy doesn’t exist and the government has complete writ in the
area.” “All NGOs are busy in
development and charity work in the flood and earthquake-hit Kohistan, but no
one has bothered to sensitise and educate men and women of the area about
politics and voting rights,” Syed Latif, a social activist working in Tor
Ghar, tells TNS. “Pakistan has ratified
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 2010 and
the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women (CEDAW) in 1996. These legal agreements obligate the government,
including the ECP, to take all measures necessary to ensure that women’s
right to vote can be implemented in practice throughout the country,
including Kohistan,” FAFEN said in its recent report, demanding the ECP
declare null and void the results for constituencies where women are
prevented from voting. The
writer is a journalist and researcher and works on militancy and human
rights. Email: zia_red@hotmail.com Yeh
Woh Pakistan is a high-stress
country. Its population has to contend with long power outages at home,
assorted discriminations and injustices at workplace, and routine humiliation
at the hands of security officials in their own streets. Hot weather, oily
and spicy food, pollution, an abundance of sexual desire, and no way of
satisfying it, only add to the strain on already volatile tempers. If this society is still
functional then, it’s all down to ‘comic relief’ which, thankfully, is
in no short supply. And this is one area where police too does its bit:
mostly situational comedy. Walking to work every
morning, I used to pass through a small link street on which the only
building was that of Kohsar Police Station. I quietly amused myself as I saw
armed Elite Force men (they are a notch above the blue-clad police and have
the motto ‘No Fear’ inscribed on their black shirts) position themselves
at the street corner, stopping all vehicular traffic. Then a barrier was
erected at the entrance and sandbag bunkers started appearing on both sides
of the street. Then a wall started going up around the building. One morning when I tried to
enter the street, one of the Elite came up to me, smiled and said he knows I
use this route to go to work, but he has orders not to allow even pedestrians
onto the street. I was dumbfounded. ‘But this police station is meant to
protect me, right? And you are telling me their security will be compromised
if I walk past it?’ I think I saw him going slightly red in the face.
‘Sorry but I have to obey the orders’. I went round the block,
through an unpaved dirt track dotted with puddles caused by overnight rain,
still a bit puzzled. Then I stepped onto a patch of mud. I looked down at my
soiled shoes and burst out laughing. I am made to walk through mud and water
just to protect the local policemen! Policemen who had their weapons stolen
from this very police station! That was a while ago.
Today, Islamabad police has set up shop on every road amusing motorists with
unanswerable questions like ‘where are you coming from?’ If you wanted to
go a kilometre and a half from F-8 to D-ground you’ll have to pass three
check posts manned by at least four armed officials each, who you’ll most
likely find chatting among themselves or standing on the roadside not even
glancing at the traffic that may include a car driven by a potential suicide
bomber. The sharp shooter positioned behind a bunker of sand bags is usually
on lunch or smoke or prayer break leaving behind a machine gun dangling on
sand bags. The other day I took my
family out for a cinematic treat. The nearest cinema is about 30 km and a
dozen check posts away. The traffic suddenly came to a standstill on the
eight-lane Islamabad Highway at the Zero Point junction. Probably an
accident, since it’s not a regular naaka. We crawled towards the bottleneck
only to find a hastily set up roadblock manned by two sentries who seemed to
be discussing their marital problems with their backs to the traffic. Turning on to the airport
road there was another pile up that was again caused by an irregular
roadblock by policemen who were animatedly discussing something other than
the fate of motorists. And there was another long queue at the entrance of
the cinema because each vehicle was being checked by hawk-eyed security
guards and every driver was being asked if they were carrying anything
suspicious. As if people are supposed to break down and say: ‘sorry I am
carrying two persons with me who plan to explode themselves in the cinema
hall.’ By the time we got into the
hall the first half of Rock Star was nearing its end. That’s the half with
funny bits. The rest of the movie was an endless repetition of Ranbir Kapoor
performing as a rock star, Ranbir slapping policemen around, Ranbir being
taken to jail … I found the film quite confusing but my son who was mad at
all the delay caused by police check posts, picked up other ideas. How many
days you have to spend in jail for slapping a policeman? He asked me at the
first naaka on our way back. masudalam@yahoo.com
politics Faisalabad’s Dhobi Ghat
was packed with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz workers on the Sunday evening of
November 25 seemingly to demonstrate their political wrath against the
federal government, loudly chanting “Go Zardari go”. Watching the colours of the
political landscape of Pakistan from a 40-foot high container’s top,
especially arranged for the press on the left side of the ground, was an
unusual experience. People thronged the venue to listen to their leader Mian
Muhammad Nawaz Sharif. They seemed mobilised, but not charged. In speeches that lasted for
several hours, there was hardly any speaker, except Nawaz Sharif himself, who
did not directly or indirectly target the emerging popular politician Imran
Khan. The “go Zardari go” chants notwithstanding, the PML-N’s
Faisalabad public gathering was an attempt to show strength especially to the
PTI, reclaiming its title as the real popular political party of the Punjab
province. Political temperature of
the country is rising these days, especially after Imran Khan’s
‘historic’ jalsa at Minar-e-Pakistan about a month ago. The predictable
entry of former Pakistan People’s Party senior vice-chairman and former
foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s in the PTI has added extra flavour
to this politically charged atmosphere. The PTI’s emergence as
the third power, allegedly instrumented by the establishment, backed by the
public spirit aspiring for a “change” has suddenly brought the party in
the mainstream politics. More candidates from the PML-Q and the PPP are
expected to join the PTI in the coming days. The Memogate scandal of
Hussain Haqqani and the recent Nato strikes at Pakistan border killing at
least 24 Pakistani soldiers in one go have also impacted the already charged
political scene of Pakistan. The PML-N has taken up the Memogate issue to the
Supreme Court for more political mileage.
Noted political scientist
Rasul Bux Rais says that Nawaz Sharif has two major targets in his politics
now: Asif Zardari and Imran Khan. “After seeing the rising strength and
popularity in public, Nawaz Sharif has to come out and counter Khan’s
political image,” he says, adding, “His stand on the Memogate scandal and
his party leaders’ reaction to the PTI rallies show that Nawaz Sharif has
finally realised that staying quiet will not politically benefit him at
all.” “Memogate scandal has
provided an opportunity to the opposition parties to press the ruling party
and get political advantages by highlighting the issue at different
forums,” observes political scientist Prof Dr Farooq Hasnaat. “The issue
has added fuel to the fire as the opposition parties were already geared up
for their future electoral campaigns.” The PTI is mainly
attracting the urban vote-bank of the PML-N with its right wing public
support. Gradually, it is becoming the combination of the PML-N’s lost
electoral reservoir and disgruntled (or rejected) PPP politicians, those
disagreeing with President Zardari’s policies. Dr Hasnaat says that it is
extremely important to analyse the PTI graph and its current popularity.
“The PTI is definitely making inroads in youth and women. Fifty two per
cent population of the country now consists of women and their role means a
lot if they actively participate.” He thinks that if Imran Khan is getting
positive signals from ‘certain corners’ then he will be able to have a
good show in Karachi in December 25. On the other side, the PPP
is also struggling for its political survival by, sometimes secretively and
sometimes openly, countering the army policies over foreign and internal
security issues. Both the PPP and the PML-N are moving in the same direction,
but at 180 degrees from each other because of lack of trust. They blame one
another for political victimisation and backstabbing. The PTI and the PML-N, both
sharing the same ideology, are now in competition for displaying patriotism
and power. The major and perhaps the only difference between the two parties
is that one enjoyed the establishment’s support in the past while the other
is enjoying the same support now. “Imran Khan is the leader
of the future,” views Rais, maintaining that the popularity of Sharif and
Zardari will be further lowering in future. He believes Imran Khan will have
a good show in Karachi because Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) will not be
able to resist him. “Also, it seems there is a kind of truce between the
MQM and Imran Khan.” Political experts believe
the continuing differences with the military establishment over foreign
policies and the lowering graph of the PPP and the vendetta of Nawaz Sharif
against the army’s role in politics is once again providing an open
opportunity to the military establishment to nurture a third power — making
the PTI another King’s party for the coming general elections. Every ‘yes
man’ in politics will happily jump on the PTI’s bandwagon considering it
another opportunity to enjoy power. vaqargillani@gmail.com
Give
homeopathy a chance Whenever there is an
epidemic outbreak like that of dengue in Lahore for the last three months,
the government is under great pressure to provide adequate treatment to the
affected and control the epidemic. Such a situation certainly calls for
utilising the available resources in the best interest of the people. A good
number of patients went to homeopaths for dengue treatment and recovered
fully. This calls upon the government to integrate homeopathy in the national
healthcare system. Recently, the Punjab
government decided to offer dispensaries for adoption. “Masud Homeopathic
Hospital has adopted five dispensaries, All Pakistan Textile Mills
Association (APTMA) two dispensaries and Nishat Group has also adopted two
dispensaries. APTMA has bought two cell separators and four CBC machines. The
doctors here will be homeopaths and medicines homeopathic,” says a district
health officer of the Punjab government. Now that Punjab Chief Minister
Shahbaz Sharif has opened public private partnership in this area, more
resourceful groups need to come forward and adopt homeopathic government
dispensaries. After all they say Pakistan is one of the most charitable
countries in the world. There is no shortage of
homeopaths either. According to the ex-president of the National Council for
Homeopathy, Dr. Mahmoodul Haq Abbasi, 36-37 thousand homeopaths are getting
their licenses renewed every year which shows they are practicing while
approximately there are one lakh homeopaths in the country in the absence of
any homeopathic college and hospital in the public sector. Dr Khalid Chaudhry, who has
his homeopathic clinic in Lahore says, “If we get the facility of free
dengue tests, homeopathy can prove how a dengue positive patient when tested
after homeopathic treatment shows dengue negative report.” While blood count test is
conducted free of cost at many places in the city, dengue test is conducted
only in hospitals on the prescription of an allopath. “Panadol, which is
given in case of high fever by allopathic doctors in general, results in
further sweating and fluid loss. There are medicines in homeopathy which help
speedy recovery. We too advise maintenance of good fluid level in the body by
taking nimkol, vegetables, juice extracted from papaya leaves, lemonade and
any juice available,” says Dr Chaudhry. The DG Health directed
homeopaths a fortnight back not to treat patients who complain of high fever
for four days with severe headache and nausea because these are symptoms of
Dengue shock and Hemorrhagic fever. Homeopaths were asked to refer such
patients to a hospital, but homeopathy has good cure for dengue and many
patients who went for homeopathic treatment, have recovered from the last
outbreak. Dr Salim Sheikh, son of
late Dr Abdus Salam Sheikh, a known homeopath, says homeopathy has not only
effective cure in all kinds of dengue situations, it is also cheap. “Who
can treat a patient for Rs 5 per day.” Dr Salim who himself had
dengue in early September and fully recovered from it, went on to inform TNS
for the benefit of the readers, dengue symptoms and corresponding medicines
in homeopathy that have cured thousands of people by now. According to Dr Salim
Sheikh, who practices single remedies in homeopathy, 99.9 per cent of the
medicines are used in 30 potency, but the dosage is according to the
condition of the patient and that only a doctor is competent to prescribe. Dr Nadeemur Rehman says
dengue was discovered 200 years back and homeopathic medicines were first
determined and published in 1920 in Boericke’s Materia Medica. Dr Nadeem
finds it important to clarify that “homeopathy treats the patient, not the
disease. It treats the body as a whole and does not divide it into
compartments”. While there is a Royal
Homeopathic Hospital in the UK, there is no government homeopathic hospital
for the masses. In Pakistan too, there is no homeopathic hospital in the
public sector while homeopathic treatment is very cheap and the medicines are
known to be free from side-effects. saadiasalahuddin@gmail.com
From
despotism to democracy In the last two weeks,
Egypt has seen violent clashes resulting in the death of at least 42 people
and injuring thousands more, but at the same time, it has seen hope for a
better future through the use of the ballot box. These are the kind of times
that Egypt is passing through, violent and turbulent, but containing seeds of
better future and hope. Egypt caught the Arab
Spring flu last spring, and with 18 days of protests managed to get rid of
the seemingly well-entrenched Hosni Mubarak, that blew winds of hope and
optimism throughout Egypt and the Arab World. Since then Egypt has faced
riots, alleged human rights abuses and persistent socio-economic problems
culminating in the just-held phase one of elections to the lower house. In
spite of reported incidents of irregularities and some violence and despite
earlier apprehensions that the elections may not be even held at all, the
elections seem to have been quite fair and trouble free. The first euphoria after
the removal of Mubarak has been replaced with the realisation that the fight
for democracy is not over yet. The process started with the assumption of
power by the military high command. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF)
is headed by Mubarak’s former Defense Minister Field Marshall Tantawi. He
is 76 years old. Many feel that he is not the man people should expect to
bring a revolution. Many commentators feel that the military is afraid of
what the future may entail, and therefore wants to control events, and
considers itself the best guarantor of national interest and wants to phase
Egypt into a controlled democracy, whereas the youth of the Tahrir Square
heady with the whiff of freedom that they have felt in their nostrils,
don’t want half measures. They want the whole gamut of pure, unadulterated
democracy. It is a classic case of a tussle between the doctrinal purists and
the worldly wise practical establishment. Perhaps, both in their own way
wanting to do what is best for the country. The SCAF planned to hand
over power to a civilian government in 2013 through a phased process of
elections to the lower house, then upper house, writing of the constitution,
and holding of presidential elections. However, the violence of the last few
weeks has forced them to cut short the transition timetable by a year, and
now the power is to be handed over in 2012. In the meantime, the army’s
image has taken a hit. Egypt has never been
democratic. It will take decades for the nation and its institutions to
become fully democratic. We have had periodic periods of democracy in
Pakistan, and have a fully independent judiciary and a fiercely independent
press, and even then democracy is still evolving. Egypt never had democracy,
its revolutions so far have been coups. Some want absolute pure democracy;
others are afraid of the Islamists hijacking it and still others only wanting
a stable and prosperous Egypt. Egypt since the Arab Spring has been in
periodic convulsions with troubles erupting regarding minorities’ issues,
law and order problems, constitutional issues, transition to civilian rule,
etc. Tahrir Square has always been not just about free elections, but also
about ‘dignity, freedom, equality and social justice’. The achievement of
these goals, entails more than just a political process. The first phase of
elections has been held on November 28 and 29, 2011. Muslim Brotherhood is
expected to be the main winner which is why it is not taking part in the
current protests and hence being criticised. Regardless of the elections, the
protestors are determined to stay in Tahrir Square, as many of them do not
trust the SCAF’s promise of handing over power to the civilian government.
Some even boycotted it, others only took part to circumvent the Muslim
Brotherhood’s coming into power. Would the elections being
held be fair and free? Would one election change it all? Time will tell. The
elections seem to have been quite free, although the electoral process is
very complex, and critics feel that such complexity can easily lead to result
manipulation. CNN reports that many young supporters and members of the
Muslim Brotherhood have broken off from the party and joined the Tahrir
Square protests. Protestors want the Field Marshall and the SCAF to resign
now. Many of them don’t trust the regime’s promise of holding
Presidential elections next year. However, a big test for the revolutionaries
is their ability to draw huge crowds, although so far the crowds have not
been as large as during the Arab Spring. The task for Egypt’s
revolutionaries lies in navigating the revolution through snags, possible
surprise attacks onto a stable functioning and institutionally entrenched
democracy. Democracy is a process and takes time to set in. Egypt is learning
the same lesson the hard way. As one observer put it, earlier the people saw
the Army and the people as one, now some at least have started seeing the
Army and police as one. The Military high command needs to quickly move to
dispel any such notions, and take charge of the change for the betterment of
Egypt and its people. Democracy requires a change
in not just the institutional makeup, but also in the mindsets. It is,
therefore, a journey that is made in stages and not in one go. It could take
a long time for a fully functional democratic setup to become entrenched, but
it is a goal well worth the effort. The Egyptians should not give up. The
writer is a Lahore based political analyst and lawyer.
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