Category Archives: Politics

Thinkers Forum USA January 2014 Lecture Meeting

Posted on by
Reply

Thinkers Forum USA January 2014 Lecture Meeting

Arab Spring and Liberal Democracy

In Continuation of the Article post on TF 4/13/2013

“THE ORIGIN OF DEMOCRACY AND ITS ROLE TODAY”

By Mirza Iqbal Ashraf

On Sunady, January 26, 2014 at 3;00 PM

At

48 New Main Street, Haverstraw, N.Y. 10927

 SYNOPSIS: Since the first waves of revolts launched as ‘Arab Spring’ swept the Arab world, it seems uncertain that western liberal democracy will take hold in that part of the world. So far there are no signs that the future of Democracy in the Arab world is bright. Without any doubt one of the key question is whether Islam is compatible with democracy? Whether the basic concept of divine sovereignty and man as a divine-viceroy adopted by the ruling elite or the military dictators, are willing to give up power in favor of the popular sovereignty? Is it the religion of Islam, or the tribal cultural and traditional ethos, or the astonishingly only poetically based literary and cultural heritage of the pre-Islamic Arabic language and literature, barricading the emergence of liberal democracy? Is the Spanish concept of “Twine Toleration” that may consolidated liberal democracy in Arab world intertwined with the belief of the religious-oriented masses and the political leaders can help indigenize a form of liberal democracy? Is there a possibility that the Arabs should not conclude that politics and religion have a common object, but that in the beginning stages of a nation “one serves as an instrument of the other.” Or the Middle Eastern should follow what the renowned America poet Walt Whitman reflected upon liberal democracy as: “. . . For I say at the core of democracy, finally, is the religious element. All the religions, old and new, are there.” And what President Barack Hussain Obama views, “. . . Our law is by definition a codification of morality, much of it grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition.” And much more to express, know and discuss for all of us.

Mirza Ashraf

NEW ALLIANCE OF IRAN AND TURKEY

Posted on by
Reply
Iran, Turkey’s New Ally?
 By Vali Nasr in New York Times
WASHINGTON — A bribery and corruption scandal has plunged Turkey into crisis, seriously undermining Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s authority. Mr. Erdogan now faces serious challenges from both secularists suspicious of his Islamist agenda and his erstwhile ally turned rival, the cleric Fethullah Gulen, who leads a powerful Islamic movement from his perch in Pennsylvania. Sluggish economic growth and setbacks in foreign policy have only spurred the critics.
The political bickering is unlikely to let up before next year’s crucial presidential election, in which Mr. Erdogan is expected to run. He will have a difficult time repairing the tarnished image of his Justice and Development Party, or A.K.P. The economy will not give him a boost, but foreign policy might — if he can show that Turkey will once again play a central role in the Middle East.
For over a decade, Turkey cultivated ties with its Arab neighbors. Turkish diplomats and businessmen were ubiquitous across the region, opening borders and trade routes, promoting business and brokering political deals. Turkey’s spectacular economic success and its stable Muslim democracy were hailed as a model for the whole region.
In the past year, however, Mr. Erdogan’s Middle East policy has gone adrift. Tumult across the region has eroded Turkey’s influence and dented its economic aspirations.
Disagreements over Syria and, more so, over Egypt have alienated the Arab world, placing a wedge between Turkey and Saudi Arabia in particular. The Turkish model for Muslim democracy is, after all, a milder version of the former Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt — which, with Saudi help, the Egyptian military and secularists have done away with.
Turkey has denounced the ouster of Egypt’s Brotherhood government, but it can do little more than protest. Even doing that too volubly led to the expulsion of Turkey’s ambassador to Egypt.
At the same time, disapproving Persian Gulf monarchies have cut back trade ties, hurting Turkey’s economy. All this has come at a difficult time for Mr. Erdogan.
Turkey’s relations with Israel have remained strained since a clash in 2010 over an aid flotilla to Gaza. And as Turkey’s pivotal role in the region declined, the United States stopped looking to Ankara for advice on how to manage the Middle East. Instead, Washington became concerned that the antigovernment protests sweeping the Arab world might destabilize Turkey, too.
On the foreign policy front, at least, Mr. Erdogan’s luck may have changed. Now that America and Iran are talking seriously, things could be different. In sharp contrast to Israel and the Persian Gulf monarchies, which have been alarmed by the interim deal on Iran’s nuclear program, Turkey sees benefit in serving as a bridge between Iran and the West and in providing the gateway to the world that Tehran needs as it emerges from isolation.
The Iranian turn has come at an opportune time for Turkish foreign policy in other ways, too. Iran has influence with Iraq’s Shiite-led government and Syria’s Alawite elite. In Iraq, where a crucial oil deal hangs in the balance, Turkey needs Iranian cooperation. It also needs Iran’s help on Syria.
For further details, please click the hyper-link for New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/30/opinion/nasr-iran-turkeys-new-ally.html?src=recg

The Arab Sunset

Posted on by
5

The Arab Sunset

The Coming Collapse of the Gulf Monarchies

 

Since their modern formation in the mid-twentieth century, Saudi Arabia and the five smaller Gulf monarchies — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — have been governed by highly autocratic and seemingly anachronistic regimes. Nevertheless, their rulers have demonstrated remarkable resilience in the face of bloody conflicts on their doorsteps, fast-growing populations at home, and modernizing forces from abroad.

One of the monarchies’ most visible survival strategies has been to strengthen security ties with Western powers, in part by allowing the United States, France, and Britain to build massive bases on their soil and by spending lavishly on Western arms. In turn, this expensive militarization has aided a new generation of rulers that appears more prone than ever to antagonizing Iran and even other Gulf states. In some cases, grievances among them have grown strong enough to cause diplomatic crises, incite violence, or prompt one monarchy to interfere in the domestic politics of another.

It would thus be a mistake to think that the Gulf monarchies are somehow invincible. Notwithstanding existing internal threats, these regimes are also facing mounting external ones — from Western governments, from Iran, and each other. And these are only exacerbating their longstanding conflicts and inherent contradictions.

HOME BASES

As a proportion of GDP, the Gulf monarchies’ purchases make them the biggest arms buyers in the world.

The existence of substantial Western military bases on the Arabian Peninsula has always been problematic for the Gulf monarchies. To their critics, the hosting of non-Arab, non-Muslim armies is an affront to Islam and to national sovereignty. Their proliferation will likely draw further criticism, and perhaps serve as yet another flashpoint for the region’s opposition movements.

Among the largest Western installations in the Gulf is al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, which owes its existence to the country’s former ruler, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. In 1999, al-Thani told the United States that he would like to see 10,000 American servicemen permanently based in the emirate, and over the next few years, the United States duly began shifting personnel there from Saudi Arabia. Today, al-Udeid houses several thousand U.S. servicemen at a time and has also served as a forward headquarters of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), a U.S. Air Force expeditionary air wing, a CIA base, and an array of U.S. Special Forces teams. Nearby Bahrain hosts the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and the entire U.S. Fifth Fleet, which includes some 6,000 U.S. personnel. The United States recently downsized its force in Kuwait, but four U.S. infantry bases remain, including Camp Patriot, which is believed to house about 3,000 U.S. soldiers and two air bases.

The United States plans to further expand its regional military presence in the near future. As CENTCOM recently announced, the country will be sending the latest U.S. antimissile systems to at least four Gulf states. These are new versions of the Patriot anti-missile batteries that the United States already sent to the region and are meant to assuage the Gulf rulers’ fears of Iranian missile attacks. Tellingly, the announcement did not reveal exactly which states had agreed to take the U.S. weapons. Yet analysts widely assume that the unnamed states are Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE.

To read the rest of the article, please click the hyper-link…

 

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/140096/christopher-davidson/the-arab-sunset

Shared by Noor Salik

The Judiciary of Pakistan and its Role in Political Crisis

Posted on by
1

The Judiciary of Pakistan and its Role in Political Crisis

By Syed Sami Ahmad

A Review by Mirza Ashraf:

 

Though I have been reading articles and books about Pakistan’s historical, political and current problems, but it is only because of Syed Sami Ahmad Sahib’s book The Judiciary of Pakistan and its role in Political Crisis, that I have known and understood the root of present crisis in Pakistan. This book reveals the dismal state of the most prestigious institution of judiciary in Pakistan and the disastrous role of some of the Justices and Chief Justices that started soon after the death of the first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan. Before reading this book, I would sometimes blame the politicians, sometimes the Army Generals and at another time the people of Pakistan for all the problems in the country. But now I believe that the root of the crisis in Pakistan is because of a wrong tradition of injustice and favoritism for personal gains laid by the Judges and Chief Justices of Pakistan. They forgot and many of them are still forgetting that human societies are established on Truth, Justice and Hard work. Societies disappear as a group or a nation when there is no justice.

 

Sami Sahib in this book has daringly exposed the disastrous role played by the 2nd Chief Justice after the creation of Pakistan, Chief Justice Munir by unjustly empowering Governor General Ghulam Muhammad who had dissolved the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan, a sovereign body which could make and unmake laws, on October 24, 1954. Maulvi Tamizuddin, being the President (what is Speaker today) of the Assembly filed a petition against Ghulam Muhammad’s unconstitutional act. The historic judgment of the Chief Court of Sindh (what is High Court today) restored Maulvi Tamizuddin. But Ghulam Muhammad, after transferring and retiring the rightful Justices, picked up a junior person, Justice Munir as the Chief Justice of the Federal Court. Justice Munir and his companion Judges at the behest of Ghulam Muhammad, over ruled the judgment of the Chief Court of Sindh. In order to strengthen Ghulam Muhammad’s grip, Justice Munir laid the foundation of the most vicious “Law of Necessity” for which the whole nation had to pay the price that plunged the whole nation into chaos and crisis. This clearly tells that a civilian Governor General, and an unjust Chief Justice, are responsible in blocking the road to democracy in Pakistan and at the same time opening the door for the army dictators to step in. I am in shock to know what Sami Sahib has cited about Justice Nasim Hasan Shah saying, “So long the army rule is there, no judge can afford to be independent. No judge would like to be crucified.” What an irony that in the first place it was a Chief Justice who introduced the Law of Necessity and paved way for the Generals to derail the democracy and scrap or suspend constitution of the country, and now another Chief Justice is showing his helplessness to stand for justice. I am here reminded of six lines of a poem from the Arabian Nights, which I quote here:

 

When the unjust judge

Without justice judges,

Horrible, horrible things are done;

But more horrible things are done

When justice judges

The unjust judge.                    (The Arabian Nights)

 

The Judiciary of Pakistan and its Role in Political Crisis, as I view, is not just a history of unjust and just judges and of many disastrous decisions which has brought that nation to current crisis, it is rather a “Ruling of justice judging the unjust judges.” I wonder, if Syed Sami Ahmad Sahib, an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and a President of Sindh High Court Bar Association, can stand against the Generals like, Ayub, Yahya, Zia, and Musharraf, and against the corrupt political rulers and did not bow before the unjust judges of the highest courts, how come these Judges and Chief Justices cowed by the dictators would judge unjustly. During the book launching ceremony moderated by Brother Mahfooz ur Rehman attended by another distinguished member of Thinkers Forum Dr. Riaz Chaudhary on December 22, we watched a very daring speech by Syed Sami Sahib as a President of the Sindh High Court Bar Association addressing a gathering of the lawyers in the presence of Prime Minister Juneju, openly condemning the Martial Law without fearing the dictator General Zia.

 

Chapter 14 of this book on Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah vs Syed Sami Ahmad, President of Sindh High Court Bar Association, relates a very interesting story of the courage and bold stand of Sami Sahib for the sake of truth. It is a rebuke to Nasim Hasan Shah’s remark, “So long the army rule is there, no judge can afford to be independent. No judge would like to be crucified.” I would dare to add a line in Khalil Gibran’s famous poem, “Pity the nation where a Chief Justice is the servant of a dictator.” For sure, only honest and unselfish sons of a nation show courage to stand before a dictator, even if they have to pay the price of their life.

 

حرف ِ حق  باعث ِ آزار  ہے اشرف  لیکن
دیکھ اُنکو جو سچائی کا جنوں رکھتے ہیں
بات ممبر پہ کہیں ۔ دار پہ سمجھاتے ہیں

زندگی رشکِ صداقت کا ستوں رکھتے ہیں

 

The incident is related as Sindh Police under the patronage of Pakistan People’s Party’s Chief Minister of Sindh Abdullah Shah, had trespassed into the premises of Karachi Bar Association, firing, shelling, stoning and assaulting the lawyers including lady members. Sami Sahib received an SOS telephone-message describing the grave situation, which had never happened before in the history of any of the Bar Associations of Pakistan. He immediately summoned the meeting of the members in which it was unanimously decided that as President of the Bar he should contact the Chief Minister of Sindh to stop police’s firing and shelling. Many attempts to contact the Chief Minister proved futile. It was decided to meet the Chief Justice Hafeez Memon of the High Court of Sindh to seek his help. The Chief Justice was in the tea room and did not respond to many messages that there was an emergency and the members of Bar were waiting anxiously for him. The situation was becoming bad to worse because of firing and shelling. Sami Sahib immediately left for the chamber of the Chief Justice of Pakistan Sajjad Ali Shah and entered in where he saw him relaxing on a sofa, and Chief Justice Hafeez Memon and the Attorney General of Pakistan sitting there sipping cups of tea. As soon as he entered the chamber, he requested Hafeez Memon to grant the Bar members immediate audience and help stop the brutalities of the police. The Chief Justice of Pakistan told Hafeez Memon to go immediately to his chamber meet the members who were helped and their request was granted to speak with the Chief Minister of Sindh who invited them to meet him in his office. Sami Sahib met him on emergency basis which though proved to be an exercise in futility except that firing and shelling did not occur thereafter.

 

Sami Sahib’s effort to save human lives brought the result of a show cause notice served to him and three other Supreme court lawyers for forcing an entry into the chamber of the Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah who was relaxing on a sofa. Sami Sahib fought his case to prove that there was no breach of law and as a President of the Bar, it was his lawful as well as moral duty to do whatever was necessary in emergency situation to save the lives of those who were being fired at, shelled, and stoned. Still Sami Sahib was asked to say sorry for entering the Chief Justice’s Chamber, which he as an honest and brave person refused to say. Consequently, another Justice, Muhammad Munir Khan arrived at about 9:00 am and after giving an order against Sami Sahib flew back in the evening. Sami Sahib and two of his colleagues, without being heard were suspended from the practice of the Supreme Court for a period of two years.

 

I believe that the unjust justices, who rise unfairly to highest posts, are innerly abased by a guilty complex. They know that they cowed, bowed and submitted themselves for personal greed before the dictatorial powers, and thus by forcing every other just and honest person to submit to them they seek a satisfaction for their own guilt. This is what the Qur’an clearly invokes, “The unjust people follow their selfish desires without any knowledge.” Interestingly another Justice, Abdul Razzak, later on told Sami Sahib that Justice Munir Khan was repenting for not giving Sami Sahib an opportunity of being heard. “Ha’ay us zood pasheman ka pashaman hona.”

 

I could not help expressing my dard-e-dil, summed up in a short Urdu Ghazal, which I believe was more intense and painful for Syed Sami Ahmad Sahib while writing this book. Arising from my heart and mind, this Ghazal, on the footsteps of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, relates the pathetic and distressing state of Pakistani nation’s sufferings. I am now convinced that it is because of the unjust judges and chief justices in Pakistan, daringly exposed with proofs and full references, in the book, The Judiciary of Pakistan and its Role in Political Crisis, that the whole nation is in dilapidated state.

 

روسیاہ منصف و حَاکِم کی جو روداد آئی
جانِ شوریدہ سے انصاف کی فریاد آئی
کلمہء صدق و صفا لب پہ گنہگار ہوا
کوئے ایوان ِ عدل میں شب ِ بیداد آئی
شرمسار طوق و رسن دار و زنجیر ہوئے
چلتے پھرتے ہوئے مقتل کی جو ایجاد آئی
کیوں ہوا قتل نہ مقتول نہ قاتل کو خبر
قتل ِانصاف سے یوں صَرصَر برباد آئی
دورِ آمر ہو یا جمہوری مگر دیکھ اشرف

سخن و تحریرِ سمیع  سے شرح آزاد آئی

 

Mirza Ashraf

 

Other Books by Syed Sami Ahmad Sahib:

 

1. Struggle Against Martial Law

2. The Judgment That Brought Disaster (Tamizuddin Khan Case)

3. The End of Muslim Rule in India

4. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan: The Saviour of Muslim India

5. History of Pakistan and Role of The Army

6. The Trial of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and The Superior Judiciary In Pakistan