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Archive for category Asif Zardari Crook Par Excellance

Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd) Pakistan Army: Free & Fair Elections vs Clean Contestants

LETTER TO EDITOR

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February 18th, 2013

 

Free & Fair Elections vs Clean Contestants

 

The CEC has once again assured the public to hold a free and fair elections and this is probably the umpteenth assurance coming from him.  What I am longing to hear from him at least once is that he will ensure that only the clean and honest politicians will be allowed to context the elections.  What is the use of the elections how so ever free and fair those may be if we have to elect from the same corrupt and dishonest lot of the politicians?! Mr. Justice CEC please assure us that only the clean and honest contestants would be there for us to elect from as we do not repeat do not want to elect the same rotten lot of politicians once again.

 

Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)

Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)
30 Westridge 1
Rawalpindi 46000
Pakistan
Tel: (051) 5158033
E.mail: [email protected]

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Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd) Pakistan Army: Leaders & Leaders

LETTER TO EDITOR

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February 18th, 2013

 

Leaders & Leaders

 

At least I am fed up of listening to the incessant rhetoric and harangues from the highest to the lowest leaders of the PPP  eulogizing ZAB and/or BB  just for the sake of praising them on each and every occasion whether in context or out of context! Anything they do (though frankly not much) for the public good is always extolled to be in accordance with the vision and wishes of the late Shaheeds – one or the other or the both!  Don’t they have anything of their own to offer to the people?  Will they ever grow up to be able to conceive or visualize something  good for the country all by themselves or will they always keep us and themselves reminding of the ZAB and the BB?  It is comical to watch BB’s picture placed dutifully and cautiously on a table (at times not bigger the size of the picture itself) so that it remains prominently visible throughout the interview given by these leaders – whether the baby Bilawal or the stalwart Amin Faheem – what to talk of the hubby President perching it on the UN General Assembly podium!  Has anyone  in the history of the UN GA ever done so?

 

Whether they realize it or not, such cult worshiping goes against them.  They are living under the shadows of the Shaheeds and martyrs – a shadow like that of the proverbial banyan tree that doesn’t let anything grow under it.  No one takes such pigmies seriously, on the contrary consider them to be void of any vision, planning and leading the people. It is time they showed some mettle of their own and proved themselves to be capable of leading the nation from the front and not through the stilts of the shaheeds.

 

 

Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)
30 Westridge 1
Rawalpindi 46000
Pakistan
Tel: (051) 5158033
E.mail: [email protected]

 
 
 
 
 

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The Mean Streak of Control Freak Asif Zardari Censored in Pakistan: How cruelly Zardari really treats the poor masses of Pakistan

Web of silence?

By Huma Yusuf
Concerns about online free expression grew last year after the passage of the Prevention of Electronic Crime Act.—File photo

Unknown-39In yet another ironic twist, our civilian, democratically elected government passed the act even though it was a vestige of Gen Pervez Musharraf’s regime and encapsulated his increasingly authoritative attitude towards press freedom.

Much has already been written about this legislature, which aims to curb cyber terrorism but employs vague language that could be invoked to slap serious charges on anyone who owns a computer.

Under the act, the PTA can arbitrarily invoke hazy definitions for what constitutes spamming, spoofing, stalking, ‘terroristic intent’, or a terrorist act to put someone behind bars for years. Indeed, the act is peppered with words such as ‘lewd’, ‘obscene’, and ‘immoral’, which are not legal terms and are thus highly subjective. In other words, it is up to the authorities’ discretion to determine what is unacceptable.

For months, there have been calls to redraft the law and to bring it in line with international legal standards for cyber crime as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The PTA’s decision to block a YouTube clip and a website recently are reason enough to renew that call.

Admittedly, Pakistan does not have the poor track record of China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other countries that restrict online free expression by filtering or blocking content or monitoring activity — at least till now.

But it is absolutely essential that the Pakistani authorities do not go down that route, for it is an affront to press freedom at large and would be another setback to this country’s newest exercise in democracy.

The fact is, online monitoring and blocking are modern versions of old-school tactics to rein in a free press, such as detention, harassment and intimidation. Around the world, attacks against bloggers and other individuals who post content online is the first front in authoritarian crackdowns on press freedom.

Unknown-9After all, individuals who go online are more vulnerable to censorship than professional media personnel because they do not have the backing of organisations or unions, nor do they have adequate resources such as money, lawyers or awareness about their right to free speech.

Until now, the PTA has only blocked a handful of websites. But Internet connectivity is becoming widespread — according to Internet World Stats, there are currently 18.5 million Internet users in Pakistan, a 13,716 per cent increase from 2000.

As more youngsters go online, we are bound to see a new generation of citizen journalists posting video clips, images or blogs that document official transgressions such as corruption or torture.

To ensure that their right to do so is protected, we must speak out now against the PTA’s blocks as well as the cyber crimes act that support such actions.

There is already a push in the US and EU to include violations of online free expression in countries’ human rights portfolios. If we do not set a precedent for protecting online free speech, the PTA’s activities could become yet another issue that makes us pariahs among the international community.

Pakistan has long prided itself on having a relatively free press, and military dictators and civilian governments — when flagging their democratic credentials — point to the open conversation in the country’s column inches and on its airwaves. The government should make a policy decision to extend that conversation into the Pakistani websphere.

 

Courtesy: Weblog: There are no Sunglasses

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