Here is the link to the original conversation:
https://pakpoliticaleconomy.com/?p=1774
As Jayant Bhandari and I conversed, a few others joined. Since they commented publicly, below are copied, though anonymously, what did they add.
Anonymous 1: “state fulfilling its constitutional role/responsibilities”, “Form a political party to work as an institution”. ??? How much longer can grown-ups believe in these fairy tales of a benevolent state controlled by a political process – when the reality, right before their eyes, is so different, and not in a good way?
Khalil Ahmad: I fear you miss the context of the discussion. The context is Pakistan and India, especially.
Anonymous 1: Pakistan and India – even more so. Transpose the western idea (a fairy tale, really) of a enlightened benevolent state responsive to political process inputs, and viola! – we have two examples of prosperity and peace – India and Pakistan
KA: First I didn’t talk …
سیاسی قضیے: اتوار 11 مارچ، 2018
ایک جانور بھی کسی جگہ رہتا ہے تو اسے اس جگہ سے کچھ نہ کچھ لگاؤ ہو جاتا ہے۔ مگر یہ پاکستان کیسا ملک ہے، اس کے اشرافی طبقات کو ستر برس بعد بھی اس ملک، اس کی زمین، اس کے لوگوں سے ذرا بھی تعلق نہیں۔ ملک کی سیاست اور معیشت پر نظر ڈالیں تو یوں محسوس ہوتا ہے کہ جیسے مالِ غنیمت کو لوٹنے کی دوڑ لگی ہوئی ہے، اور یہی وہ سبب ہے کہ ہر ادارہ سیاسی ریشہ دوانیوں سے گہنایا ہوا ہے۔
زیادہ دور نہیں جاتے۔ صرف گذشتہ دو حکومتوں کو پیشِ نظر رکھ لیں، یعنی پیپلز پارٹی اور حالیہ مسلم لیگ ن کی حکومت۔ ابھی اس قضیے کو رہنے دیتے ہیں کہ انھوں نے کیا کیا اور ان کی کارکردگی کیسی رہی۔ ابھی صرف یہ دیکھتے ہیں کہ ان کے ساتھ کیا کچھ کیا جاتا رہا۔ غالباً انھیں ایک …
Countries may be likened to individuals who are resourceless and in order to grow and progress need help from their near ones, dear ones or they borrow from a professional lender. That may be understood as the reality of setting-up a business for which capital is a sine qua non. Such attempts of likening countries with individuals appear quite promising, but are paradoxical. The case of Warren Buffet may be used, for instance, for Pakistan to follow. Is it so? Or it tears apart the likeness between both?
In the first place, individuals are individuals, and countries are countries. One cannot be both. In the second place, countries are political-legal entities wherein millions of individual human beings inhabit. Thus one man’s struggle may not be likened to the struggle of millions of individuals under a state. An individual may be resourceless or
Mr. Khan now be serious! Somehow the circumstances have made you a political leader. Now you lead a political party, which has a considerable following; no matter which class or classes it consists of. The followers of your party, they are all Pakistanis, and enjoy the same political choices as the followers of other political parties do.
It was just non-serious and out of sync when recently you spoke in Islamabad, and said, ‘I was boring; New Pakistan was not anywhere on the scene coming into being. Then I thought something had to be done.’ Regarding this, you need to ask yourself: Is it political? Is there in politics anything like boring, and that it exhorts you to do something, such as organizing rallies and doing “political fun.”
It’s quite a pertinent question that must be put to you and you must answer it clearly; no hanky-panky, please! What you
Mr. Prime Minister! You are better placed than any other Pakistani citizen, since you are sitting in the center of the state. The office you occupy by virtue of your electoral mandate is where the state authority converges, and it is from where authority flows to other institutions of the state in accordance with the dictates of the constitution of the country.
Mr. Prime Minister! You are the Chief Executive of the state of Pakistan, and as far as flow of information regarding the affairs of the state is concerned, in comparison to you this writer is merely an ignoramus. In case the present government of your party is toppled, the first casualty will be you, the prime minister; that means whatever future plans are being hatched anywhere, or whatever conspiracies are being woven in any quarters of the corridors of the powers against your government, you must be in
The cities and suburbs of Pakistan are bursting with millions of teeming citizens, old and young, men and women and children alike. They earn their livelihood by small selling of goods or services which unimaginably involves hard labor with meager income. Or they are employed by private entrepreneurs who have to incessantly struggle against the vagaries of state’s regulators and tax officials. They form the larger chunk of a population of 18 million plus. It is they who cast vote to send a political party in the parliament, but cherish no hope this will ameliorate their life conditions they know from their past experience. This is one side of the picture.
The other side reveals itself in the headlines of the daily newspapers and news channels. One newspaper’s headline reads as: army chief pays morale boosting visit to ISI HQ (Inter-Services Intelligence Headqarters). Another headline says: defense ministry seeks cancellation
