Category Archives: Politics

Cry Or Laugh ? May be do both!

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One may think that when someone gets an extortion letter from Taliban, others will have sympathy for the victim. But when leaders of MQM, a political party in Karachi long suspected of extortion activities of their own, announced that they are receiving threatening extortion letters from Taliban, the reaction of vast majority? —————you have to read one liner comments below from Dawn to grasp and appreciate it. Over 95% of the comments have a similar theme. It is a sad but fun reading.(F. Sheikh)

MQM Receiving Extortion Letters From Taliban

“Can anyone else see the irony in it??”

“ in this news Pakistanis are banned from seeing irony!!!”

“Choron ko par gaye mor !”

“What goes around, comes around!!!!”

“May be now they have started sending these letters to each other instead of others”

“Two wrongs just might make this right.”

“Isn’t this called tit for tat? or God’s justice? 😉

“Good! Payback time.”

“What a serious joke? How come extortionists be extortionated?”

“A taste of your own medicine.”

“What goes around comes around”

“Now they would know how it feels”.

“probably their own people not happy with their wages protesting in their own way.”

“It’s their own letters. Someone just forgot to mail them out.”

“he thought ”What goes around comes around” comes to mind and ”What you sow so shall you reap” one Gangster group trying to extort from another Gangster group how ironic.”

“The kind of brainwashing that propaganda machine against MQM has done in visible in the comments. The victim are displayed as culprits.. this is the irony of Pakistan.”

“ Respnse to above comment-@Javed Apparently, you are among the lucky ones. We are glad for you.”

“Please don’t kid us sir. We have lived our entire lives in Karachi and know what the score is.”

“My God am I happy after having read this article.”

“No wonder, London is writing these letter for the party leaders…we all know he is broke now.”..

“Seems like turf war between two mob families.”

“Live by the sword die by the sword”

“Qiamath kee nishani Sign of hereafter”

“@GA Don’t know why, but this NEWS made me laugh. Lately newspapers have been full of bad news, I had to try very hard for a NEWS to make laugh, this was it. Now, it looks like there are more than one BhattaKhor parties in town?”

“ISIS & USA” By F. Sheikh ( Brief Thought)

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USA has jumped again in Middle East to take a lead in war against ISIS.  Again there is no clear end game, and it may turn out to be as disastrous as our previous endeavors in Middle East.

ISIS originated out of blue as a consequence of Iraq war when our backed ex-PM of Iraq Mr. Al-Maliki refused to accommodate Iraqi Sunni in the Government and embarked on revenge killings. The situation has not changed much even with the election of new PM of Iraq. The Iraqi Sunni still prefer to back ISIS than Iraqi Government. The Kurdish Army is still poorly equipped. Many nations have promised to join the fight, but they, especially Gulf States, will provide fig leaf support as in the past.

Even if we are successful in eradicating ISIS, then what will follow?  There is a strong possibility some other extreme group will rise to fill the vacuum because there is no strong legitimate Government that can effectively govern the area grabbed by ISIS. We are betting on moderate Syrian rebels, but as history dictates, they may not turn out to be as moderate as we think.

At present it is a civil war and we have jumped into a civil war. We should have let it play out and when other neighboring states were threatened, these states should have taken the lead against ISIS and we should have just supported them. These States deliberately did not take the lead, because they knew USA will jump in. Now we have become the face and target of this war and these Middle East states will take a back seat and blame USA to appease their masses. It will further fuel anti-USA sentiment and terrorist activity.

Although recent barbaric beheadings by the ISIS is an evil act, but in many other aspects it is just a matter of toss of coin to differentiate between ISIS and many current Middle East states. If we have let this civil war play out, ISIS and these states may have been busy settling their scores among themselves, and most likely USA and other Western States would not have become the target.

We may become a party in this civil war, but we cannot prevent this civil war. Let Middle East stand for itself or face the music.If we are doing this to prevent the oil fields falling in the wrong hands, the corrupt rulers has the same incentive to prevent their source of income fall in the wrong hands-and it may force them to defend themselves.

“All Political Systems, Including Democracy, Are Liable To Decay”

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A worth reading book review by Sheri Berman on” Political order and Political Decay “ by Francis Yukuyama.

“ Yet if the United States illustrates how democratic states can develop, it also illustrates how they can decline. Drawing on Huntington again, Fukuyama reminds us that “all political systems — past and present — are liable to decay,” as older institutional structures fail to evolve to meet the needs of a changing world. “The fact that a system once was a successful and stable liberal democracy does not mean that it will remain so in perpetuity,” and he warns that even the United States has no permanent immunity from institutional decline.

Over the past few decades, American political development has gone into reverse, Fukuyama says, as its state has become weaker, less efficient and more corrupt. One cause is growing economic inequality and concentration of wealth, which has allowed elites to purchase immense political power and manipulate the system to further their own interests. Another cause is the permeability of American political institutions to interest groups, allowing an array of factions that “are collectively unrepresentative of the public as a whole” to exercise disproportionate influence on government. The result is a vicious cycle in which the American state deals poorly with major challenges, which reinforces the public’s distrust of the state, which leads to the state’s being starved of resources and authority, which leads to even poorer performance.” 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/books/review/francis-fukuyamas-political-order-and-political-decay.html?ref=books&_r=0

Posted By F. Sheikh

“Pakistan On Edge” By F. Sheikh

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( Brief Thought)

Since last elections Sharif brothers continue to rule in old ways without realizing that Pakistan’s political landscape has changed. Imran Khan badly wanted another bite of the apple while he is still popular and did not want to wait for the next elections. Tahir ul Qadri wanted mayhem to prove his credentials. All this brought Pakistan to a collision course resulting in needless loss of innocent lives and bodily injuries.  All the politicians, and a Pir turned politician, used masses for their personal devious designs in the name of democracy.

Army is having a meeting of its core commanders today. I hope Army does not use this irresponsible behavior of politicians and violence in the streets to grab the power and impose Martial Law. No matter how terrible and irresponsible behavior of politicians, Martial Law is never the solution. It puts the country back to square one. The politicians have made this mess and they have to learn and clean this mess. This does not put country in danger. A Political process, no matter how messy, does not put country in danger. Such slogans are made by opportunistic forces. Let this process play out and have politicians find the way out.