MQM & UK police

The way we roll

Published in The News on June 8, 2014

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This refers to the editorial, ‘The Altaf story’ (June 5). Can you really blame MQM party workers for not believing that the UK police are totally independent and that even the British prime minister cannot order the transfer or dismissal of a lowly police constable?

They probably think the Pakistan government has great influence on the British government and can persuade it to withdraw the case against their leader. They have seen such things happening in this country, so it’s only natural for them to believe that pressure of ‘dharnas’ (sit-ins) will have the desired effect.

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi

Asif Zardari holds the cards

Posted on Chowrangi.com on February 19, 2008

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The most powerful man in the country today appears to be Asif Ali Zardari. To all intents and purposes, his actions during the coming days will determine the future course of Pakistan. If he bends to Bush’s pressure and fails to remove Musharraf, the country is headed for troubled times (by the way, George Bush may now be the only friend of Musharraf in the West). But if he restores the judiciary, and Musharraf leaves, people will heave a sigh of relief. Today’s bullish performance of the Karachi Stock Exchange gives an indication of things to come.

If there’s one segment of the population which wants Musharraf and the old order to stay, it’s the businessmen and industrialists. They feel that the PPP, the MQM and the Q-League will form a coalition government, and things will continue as they were before (more privatization and corruption, more stock exchange and property scams, etc.). But if Zardari follows the path of least resistance (perhaps to save himself from the corruption charges still pending against him), he will lose the support of his party, which will be in danger of splitting.

Let’s hope he acts in a statesman-like manner and takes the best course for the country’s future.

 

Shakir Lakhani

Who should I vote for?

Posted on Chowrangi.com on February 17, 2008

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I have not voted in the past two elections, because I know that nothing will change in Pakistan as long as the candidates are crooks. This time too the candidates in my locality are not the kind who can be called honest. I will not name them, but the reason I don’t want to vote for them is because they belong to parties which have a very poor record. One is the party which has reformed itself a bit by changing the face of Karachi, but the members of this party are unfortunately well-known for their unnatural subservience to its chief. Both the other parties are well-known for being corrupt. The founder of one of the parties played a leading role in the break-up of Pakistan in 1971. This party had three stints in power, but unfortunately its leaders chose to enrich themselves rather than serve the country. The remaining party is also known to have very corrupt leaders who chose to spend eight years in the comfort of a palace in Saudi Arabia rather than face the rigors of jail in Pakistan. If they had chosen to remain in the country, international pressure would have forced the government to release them and they would have turned into heroes. But then, the leader of this party wanted to impose sharia in the country, not because he loves Islam, but to make fools of the people. (In fact, sometimes I think having sharia would be a good idea, if it leads to punishing these corrupt leaders who have ruined Pakistan).

So I think it would be better to stay at home rather than cast my vote for people who will only loot the country and make it much poorer than it already is.