Posts Tagged Maulana Tahir Qadri

Western Diplomats in Islamabad are agitated.  West loves Pakistani politicians, because they are absolutely corrupt and can be bought off with a penny.  These status quo agents in Pakistani politics keep the political pot boiling.  This situation also keeps, the minds of common people distracted from constant hunger, disease, and economic deprivation.  Like Pakistan bureaucracy, Pakistani politicians are “Londees,” or kept Whores of Western Powers. In dictatorial regimes, the same politicians were whores of Pakistan Agencies. Generals Aslam Baig. Asad Durrani, and Brig.Imtiaz are living witnesses to political bribery and nepotism.  Islamabad is ruled by manipulative, evergreen bureaucrats, who worship, the Mammon.  Most of the noveau bureaucrats are intermediate fail, Sindhi or Punjabi PPP Jiyalas. Pakistani media and press are also agitated, because their owners, who  are bribed annually with $50 MM largess from countries like the US are worried about losing that manna from their foreign masters. Most of them are anyway, “londees of Western Intelligence Agencies or  Paid Keeps /Mistress of  Western Intelligence Agencies.

 GEO, ARY,and Duniya TV (Malik Riaz Fame) are the Media Whores of Pakistan, who sell their Mother, Pakistan,  for 50 Million Dollars.

So as we present excerpts from The Financial Times Article, the West is Worried that Qadri-Padri might turn out to be a double edged sword.

Islamic scholar urges Pakistan reforms.  

A respected Islamic scholar has burst on to Pakistan’s political scene, threatening to storm the capital with a mass public protest unless his demands for sweeping electoral reforms are met this week. “I will lead an ocean of people to change Islamabad,” vowed Tahirul Qadri, who last month returned to Pakistan after four years abroad.  A fragile transition Zardari cancels Iran gas pipeline talks Charles Leadbeater Look at Pakistani society Pakistan’s security business booms. To the consternation of many established politicians, including the coalition government of President Asif Ali Zardari and its main opponents, he is calling for comprehensive political reforms before a general election set to be held between March and May. Mr Qadri, until now considered a minor force in politics as leader of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) or Pakistan People’s Movement, attracted tens of thousands of people to a political rally in the central city of Lahore on December 23, one of the largest such gatherings in recent memory. “People who came were not just my supporters,” he told the Financial Times in an interview at his home in Lahore. “Pakistanis are anxious to see major changes in the way their country is being run.” Mr Qadri draws his support from Pakistanis who are frustrated at the domination of politics by a handful of elite leaders from well-known families and who are embittered by the parlous state of the economy. Some commentators have compared him to Anna Hazare, the anti-corruption campaigner in neighbouring India, who emerged last year as a voice for middle-class resentment over entrenched corruption and patronage. Since Mr Qadri’s December gathering, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement – the main political party from the southern city of Karachi, allied to Mr Zardari’s Pakistan People’s party – has decided to join Mr Qadri’s Nizam Badlo, or change the system movement. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf led by Imran Khan, the former cricket star turned politician, is widely expected to join future protests too. By contrast, leaders from Mr Zardari’s PPP and the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, the two biggest political parties, have united in accusing Mr Qadri of disrupting the build-up to parliamentary elections this year. The polls are being hailed as the first chance for Pakistan to see a smooth transfer of power from one elected government to another since the country was created. In the interview, Mr Qadri warned of Pakistan’s “break up” unless ruling politicians are forced to abide by laws that have been openly flouted by them for years. He said he wanted tax evaders, loan defaulters and those with criminal records to be banned from standing for elections, because the existing system led to illegitimate results and “immoral and unethical” governments. “The whole process is a total negation of the principles of democracy,” he said. “I only want the constitution to be enforced. Law breakers are the lawmakers in Pakistan,” he said, noting that in some past cabinets no minister had paid income tax. “Seventy per cent of parliamentarians are tax evaders.” Pakistan’s domination by tainted politicians and the rise of domestic terrorism, he said, had damaged the country’s reputation. “There are parts of Pakistan where the government has no control. Internationally, we are seen as a threat. In the past five years, the government has not formulated laws on terrorism.” Mr Qadri, a moderate Muslim, is not alone in complaining about tax evasion by Pakistan’s corrupt elite and its inability to tackle terrorism. According to by Ehtisham Ahmad and Michael Best of the London School of Economics, only 0.9 per cent of Pakistanis pay tax, compared with 4.7 per cent in India and 80 per cent in Canada. Violence by Islamist extremists and criminals is rampant in various parts of Pakistan. The US and other western nations are ambivalent about Mr Qadri’s sudden reappearance in Pakistani politics as they seek to restore stability in the region amid a withdrawal of Nato forces from neighbouring Afghanistan. “He brings in an element of unpredictability to future politics, said one western diplomat in Islamabad. “ With others [from mainstream parties] you can predict intentions, but not with Qadri.” 

Additional reporting by Victor Mallet in New Delhi Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2013. Details