[Note: This is from a few months back. I had intended to post it but never got around to it. But seeing Choti in the news reminded me of it and thought I’d put it up as it does shed light on what you have to become to become a leader in this country. Though this piece does focus on one MPA from Choti, it is pretty much true of every politician (though this one is among the more “decent” ones)]
Watch (it begins about the middle of part 3):
News Beat with Meher Bokhari Oct 26, 2009 SAMAA TV 3/5
News Beat with Meher Bokhari Oct 26, 2009 SAMAA TV 4/5
I was pleasantly surprised watching this MPA from Southern Punjab. I think he did an excellent job taking on Ayesha Siddiqa and knocking out her claims. I especially loved it when he challenged her that she had never been to the tribal area that she is pretending to be so aware of and was sitting in Islamabad claiming to be an expert on the area, all she had to offer was “I visited Bahawalpur two weeks ago.” Now Bahawalpur hardly comes to mind when you think “tribal area”! (Interestingly, being asked again and again to go visit the place, both the host and Ayesha just would not agree.)
But I want to focus on two similar things said by both : “I am a son of the soil!” and “I am daughter of the soil”.
Well, we know a lot about Ayesha Siddiqa already so I would just raise this one point: Here she is going all crazy arguing for a military operation against her “motherland” — Isn’t that like a daughter asking strangers to come rape her mother?
Now let’s look at the other fella, the “son of the soil”. Strange isn’t it that not only did not raise a voice against theft of land by the Chaudhrys of Gujrat in his mother’s home town (she is from Distt Rahim Yar Khan) but went all-out to defend it one more than one occassion, even staging a walk-out (the land in question is Robert’s Farm and it’s 1,600 acres). Isn’t that like a son defending the strangers who raped his mother?
What makes this defense by Leghari even more bizarre is that only days earlier, the Chaudhrys had pissed on him by stealing the PAC-I chairmanship that was his (Just before the vote for which he was the party nominee, Moonis got him out of the room saying he wanted to have a word. As he went out, the rest of his party-mates quickly nominated Ch. Zaheer and voted for him. When Mohsin came back to the room, it was already too late).
FLASHBACK: This reminds be of another much older case. As luck would have it, due to some quirk, “an honest” — not my word but the party in question’s — person got appointed as DCO, Dera Ghazi Khan. Now by coincidence, the Nazim at the time was none other than (now Senator) Jamal Leghari, the elder son of Farooq Leghari. Of course this was a problem because you see Jamal doesn’t have an honest bone in his body and there was a hurdle in the way of his stealing the district funds. So Jamal runs to daddy and asks him to get rid of the DCO. Daddy — oh, so honest daddy — immediately runs to the Chaudhrys (remember Pervaiz Elahi was the CM those days) and demands they transfer him out. Pervaiz asks for alternate names and Farooq provides three. But would you believe it that seeing the names even Pervaiz Elahi, one of the most corrupt people on earth, is shocked as the three names given by Farooq are maha-corrupt even according to Pervaiz. So seeing it might open them up to future trouble, the Chaudhrys refuse. So Farooq then runs to Islamabad and meets Musharraf and gets the honest DCO transferred and installing one of most corrupt ones in his place. This is a true story — honest!
And how did our “son of the soil” act? Did he take the side of the “honest” DCO or the “maha-corrupt” one? Well, read it and weep:
DERA GHAZI KHAN: Transfer of Dera DCO ends row -DAWN – Local; 24 August, 2004
Just One More:
Don’t want to pile it on but this too needs to be mentioned. In Southern Punjab, one of the major curses is private moneylenders who give money to the poor people at VERY HIGH interest rates (300% to 1,500% and even higher). I am glad that the issue was taken up by the Punjab Assembly and a committee formed to look into the matter with our Mohsin Leghari appointed the convener. Question I have is how far will it get when I can state it for a fact that most of these moneylenders in a certain area happen to be relatives of Mr Leghari?
Concluding Remarks:
The sad thing is I know Mohsin Leghari is one of the best lawmakers. He is educated (Aitchison, US), from a good, well-to-do family (and Farooq, son Jamal, etc. are amongst the elite). But if this is what the best are doing, can you imagine what the worst are up to?
And no surprise is there that events transpired in Choti the way they did? I am curious though who are the backers of SDPO Iqbal Chandia and SHO Noor Muhammad, Abdullah Chandia and Naeem Abbas are. They don’t/did not act in a vacuum but under the ‘sur-parasti’ of those named. Of course no fingers will be pointed towards the ‘sur-prasts’ — except mine 😉
P.S. Do see this as well.
F*ck Politics 
What to do my friend – when people like that are put on the news?
When will they put you and me on?
I got an answer to the question from the former weapons inspector in Iraq. After having eaten 900 mice, he went to ‘Hajj’ saying there are no weapons in Iraq. A few years later, while speaking to a young audience, he stated on the topic of being heard as somebody important and worth listening to, something to the effect: ‘you have to give a reason for people to want to listen to you’.
He of course, after his ‘Hajj’, was refering to himself, and his military background – I think the talk was to the graduating class of some military school. Can’t rememeber.
But the “reason” he mentioned works all around. And that’s why these MCs are on air.
You know what I fear most? The guillotine gone wild – because behind it, as in France, are usually the crypto revolutionaries out to create chaos to destroy existing order.
But only the fear of that guillotine can perhaps make some house-negroes righteous! But I think these ones in our beloved paki land will just escape to their masters. Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa’s resume PDF is archived on my website – you can see that she is eminently employable. And Hoodbhoy already has a permanent email address at MIT and was even invited to speak at the 911 memorial to the muslim mind and terrorism. Nothing to fear for them – for how can the white man lose this time around? There is no fear of Nuremberg, and there is no fear of retribution from the masses – for every guillotine to come about in the future, would surely only be a controlled one to settle scores and clean house.
But guess again. According to Bezmenov, the former KGB agent in his interview to G. Edward Griffin, and according to the methods employed by the crypto-revolutionaries against both the Czar’s Russia and against the Armenians in Turkey just, as their un-encrytped brethren divided up the spoils of the Ottoman empire and got the Balfour Declaration passed, shows that useful idiots are the first ones to be shot by their own masters after they have served their purpose. These interviews are on my website.
Perhaps these learned scholars of Pakistan can be informed of that lesson of yesteryear – for nothing else can put god into a stoned heart which invites invaders to fuck their own mothers.
I am told that it is said on the frontlines that, ‘there are no atheists in the fox-hole.’
Zahir Ebrahim
Project Humanbeingsfirst.org
Zahir
@Zahir
“When will they put you and me on?”
Right after “the guillotine gone wild” (presuming of course we do not make that cut) 😛
(FYI: French guillotine exhibition opens 33 years after the last head fell :))
I do want to differ on one point. You say our paki house-negroes will be employable. I say they are already employed (as in they make a pretty penny on the talk circuit — making more now then if the were regular employees)
And I do want to correct one thing I said above i.e.
Actually I have more contempt for guys like the educated, well-to-do fellas because they know better what is right and what is wrong and they have no compulsion to act bad as they are financially secure, have respect, etc. — and yet they choose to do it.
BTW: Here is an example of the other:
Wow! Who is this interviewer? And what program was this? Does he have the chutzpah to invite even incumbents, or only formerly in power? But even that’s amazing! Too amazing in fact. So I am curious: can you send him my letter to the scholars who issued that Terrorism Fatwa:
Click to access letter-to-fatwa-authors-response-to-the-fatwa-on-terrorism-in-the-service-of-empire-by-zahir-ebrahim-march-24-2010.pdf
I want to see his level of courage. Can he invite me on his show to address this terrorism fatwa?
That, my anon friend, is the real litmust test. All can take their “truth” out on imbecilles and inconsequentials.
Can he stand up in that show and assert 911 was an inside job, war on terror is fabricated, Pakistani military, politicians, judiciary, and lauded NGOS to HR organizations are all on the take or part of the criminal enterprise aiding and abetting it through both comission an omissions?
Send me that program!
Zahir Ebrahim
Project Humanbeingsfirst.org
The program is “Point Blank” and the host is Mubashir Luqman. This particular show is of 15 March 2010. You can watch it here (I haven’t seen the full show so don’t know what else is in it).
“Does he have the chutzpah to invite even incumbents, or only formerly in power?”
Well he does. Here was an interesting one with Sharmila Farooqi and another appearance of him on another show with Fauzia Wahab.
Sure he does some great shows BUT don’t let that fool you. He also does shows that are totally fake. Watch e.g. this July 20, 2009 “interview” with an “would-be suicide bomber”: complete ISPR bullshit (a decent stripping of it here though I would have gone a lot further — I did comment somewhere but I can’t seem to find it; will post it when I do find it).
One must also keep in mind he is a general’s son, was groomed by Salman Taseer and Najam Sethi, was rewarded by Musharraf as ‘Minister of Information Technology, Punjab‘ in the caretaker government, still a very good friend of Musharraf (says Mush was the best thing that ever happened to Pakistan), is shameless at doing shows like the one I talked about here.
On Edit: He is also a big MQM supporter ( killings in Karachi are always blamed on JI or Talibs), attacks in Lahore Islamabad are RAWs doing, mess in Balochistan is always India’s doing (a line which Talat Hussain also pushes again and again) and nothing to do with army/FC actions. So basically he follows all ‘establishment’ scripts.
Re: that Sharmila show I mentioned, I think she beat him at his game…he seemed to have come unprepared.
And I must mention: I am glad Jamil Bugti let him have it.
Oh I keep forgetting things…Before the show, he used to produce third-rate Lollywood films (so you know where his creativity has been honed 😉 )