Overseas Pakistani Friends

By Qaisar Sultan

There is an interesting question arising from the legal challenges to a fragile democracy in Pakistan: Can a constitutional democracy amend the very spirit of the constitution that it is based upon? Who is to decide these matters and to accept without any reservation? The Supreme Court is mainly concerned about its survival and any proposed amendment has to protect the power of justices for the appointments of judges. In USA, the decision of appointing chief justice and justices of the Supreme Court judges lies within the power of the president; and requires the approval from the senate.  The elusive constitutionality of the 18th.amendment and the executive order to bring back the judges have been kicked around as a tattered doll dragged between the Supreme Court justices and wicked democrats defending their positions by sharing and playing with the absurdities and ambiguities inbuilt and revised in the constitution. While the contestation goes through peak to valley, the vagueness and distortion of the constitutional issues of the state, carried out by less than mediocre inept and dishonest politicians and judges, the relief and justice to flood ravaged country is nowhere to be found, except for the American aid and promises. Continue reading »

By Qaisar Sultan

Who says that the Pakistanis have not shaped some great philosophical debate? One of our democrats, Qayyum jatoi, who happened to be a federal minister, surmised a new theory of justice. Jatoi said in an emotional outburst, “All the groups- Sindhis, Pakhtoon, Balochi, Saraiki, and Punjabi- should get an equal share in corruption”- Rawls, after hearing this new revolutionary theory of justice, must be turning in his grave.  Who he thinks getting the lion share of corruption money? Jatoi’s boss, Zardari, is supposed to be on the top of the list. Most of politicians from Southern Punjab are as corrupt as any other politician in the country. But Jatoi was not talking about civilian corruption; he meant the corruption money of the military. Jatoi did not stop there; he continued his frontal assault, “We provide the army with uniform and boots, not to Continue reading »

By Qaisar Sultan

There is a dilemma faced by the nation regarding the Supreme Court’s dubious inability to contain an irreparable damage done to the country by corrupt, evil, inept politicians who have become the legislators in Pakistan, an insult to the term and its concept. There seems to be stretched out long debates, intentional delaying tactics, cute excuses, confusions, rumors about some kind of payoff to some judges by the politicians and threadbare legal arguments and waste of money of the tax payer. During the Musharraf regime, there were genuine fears of all kinds. When general Musharraf ignored the Supreme Court, the question was asked: Who could make him to surrender to the decision of the Supreme Court; and what could happen if he refused to listen to the Supreme Court’s decisions? The question is: What the Supreme Court can do to force the democratic and supposedly a constitutional government to abide by the decisions of the highest court in the country? Continue reading »

The debate regarding the secularism is complex and divisive in a fanatical society as ours. After sixty three years, we are still engaged in the debate if Pakistan was created as a theocratic state (Islamic state) or just for the Muslim minority in the majority Hindu India. When Mr. Gandhi alluded to the brotherhood between himself and Mr. Jinnah, he countered the ploy by suggesting that Mr. Gandhi had four votes against one of mine, meaning under that set up the Hindu majority would dominate the Muslims- That was the clarity of Mr. Jinnah. We know that he was not a religious man. Most of his friends before joining the Muslim leagues were Hindu and Parsi intellectuals. The Muslims intellectuals of India were mostly orthodox. Mr. Jinnah hardly practiced the religion; and ate and drank that his heart desired; he loved dogs. After his law education, he wanted to be an actor and was hired to play a role in a prestigious theater company in Shakespearian play; he was a liberal and westernized man. Mr. Jinnah’s ideas about a secular state was not even possible due to religious mind set of his followers; most of them waited for him to die so that they could change everything that he believed in- He was truly  an enlightened and secular man. Continue reading »