The Restoration of the CJ – Winners and Losers

Iftikhar Chaudhry – Winner – PCO Judge or not, Corrupt or Not, the restored CJ has been vindicated and his part in the whole two year struggle has been quite exemplary. He has tried to remain neutral (as much as that is possible in an essentially political struggle) and in triumph and failure has been quite dignified, something rarely expected or achieved by prominent figures in Pakistan.

Asif Zardari – Loser – Cornered into submission by the lawyers, the public, Nawaz et all, the army, the ever present 'external forces' and even people within his own party. Nobody in Pakistan trusts him anyway and Zardari and Co's. belated attempts to give this one a positive spin aren't really succeeding.

Lawyers of Pakistan – Winners – The real winners, more so than even the CJ. He at least was fighting for his seat, they were fighting for the supremacy of the Law of the land. Kudos to them. They deserve to be feted.

Shujaat Hussain & Co. – Losers – The Q League tried to blackmail whoever they could during the crisis and with its resolution they will once again be thrown back into the dung pile they belong in. Their opportunism will not endear them to either of the two major players. (Having said that and knowing Pakistani politics, they will be playing some kind of role pretty soon - and not likely a positive one)

Nawaz Sharif – Winner – At the crucial juncture of his house arrest, Nawaz's decision to come out fighting endeared him to his party and essentially gave the momentum to the Long March when it seemed to be flagging (and at a time when the brave people congregated at the Lahore high Court seemed to be losing the fight to the Police). He's won a few more supporters over this for sure and proven his hold over Punjab. It is unlikely that the order to disqualify him and his brother won't be taken back pretty soon.

Pervez Musharaf – Loser – The man who started it all. Had been on TV regularly over the last few weeks, nowhere to be seen now. Time to haul him up by the collar and ask some serious questions about his 8 year conduct.

People of Pakistan – Winners – The students, the civil activists and everyone else who protested in whatever way, proved something that everybody had stopped believing in Pakistan. The people do still care and indeed still have power. Probably the best positive to come out of this all.

Rehman Malik – Loser – The definition of loser. With the crisis at its highest, with section 144 effective in the whole of the country, with hundreds of activists being arrested, Rehman Malik on Live TV was denying everything. This is the kind of person that needs to be kicked out of Pakistani politics, soonest.

Sherry Rehman and Raza Rabbani – Winners – Their principled stance could only have endeared them to their constituents and the people of Pakistan. It takes bravery of the highest order to stand for a principle, especially in the corruption ridden halls of Pakistani politics.

Salman Taseer – Loser – Another of those who were more loyal than the king. He will have a hard time in the Punjab Governership role in the very near future. When power is this tenuous, it behooves one to wield it with circumspection.

Feel free to add any you think deserve to be winners or losers, or to disagree with my list.

Pakistan and nobody else to blame for the attack on the Sri Lankans

I'm quite fed up with all the bullshit spewed forth by every Pakistani whenever anything goes wrong in the country. It is never our fault. There is always a conspiracy theory and everyone else from India to the US to the Jews and everything in between is to blame.

The horrendous unpardonable attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team is a case in point. Within minutes of the attack people had started blaming RAW, the sister concern of the ISI in India. Whether RAW had anything to do with today's attack is besides the point. The truth is that the security lapses that led to this tragedy were horrendous and the blame for them lies squarely on the Pakistan Government and the PCB.

Presidential level security had been promised to the Sri Lankan cricket team, but what they got was a cheapass bus, two rickety police jeeps (with under trained, incompetent policemen) and a couple of motorcycle riders. Having suffered Presidential motorcades for the last 30 years I can assure you that is not how President's travel in this country.

I remember once counting 106 cars in the motorcade of the useless Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari. Musharaf had decoy routes and cars and a huge entourage, not too long ago I had to wait 45 minutes on a road adjoining The Mall because Musharaf was going to pass that way, in the end they decided on a different route! Unarguably the most useless President of Pakistan ever, Rafiq Tarar, had a huge posse of Police protecting him years after he had left the presidency. Zardari has literally hundreds of policemen and his own personal force protecting him at all times. With all due respect to Leghari, Musharaf, Tarar and Zardari, the Sri Lankan players' lives were and are far more important than these hopeless pieces of lard we call Presidents.

6 policemen gave their lives in the ensuing battle, they are to be saluted and the nation should honour these heroes who gave their lives in the line of duty, but, that should not take our focus away from the fact that these were Punjab Police personnel, much less trained than Presidential Guards or Army Commandos and equipped with much inferior weaponry, not to mention the shabby vehicles they were travelling in. Presidential motorcades have shiny brand new double cabin Toyota Hilux 4X4's filled with commandos armed to the teeth.

If the Sri Lankan's were being given President level security let us have Zardari travelling in non-bullet proof vehicles from now on. We need to find out who was responsible for this state of affairs. Who authorized such abysmal security. Heads need to roll.

The other area we need to carefully think of is the lack of condemnation for such heinous acts among the general population of our country. As said before we blame everybody else for our ills, we are somehow always the aggrieved party. How many of us will come out into the streets to protest this incident? Is this issue less important than reinstating a corrupt Chief Justice, or the equally corrupt and unethical PML Nawaz leadership? And if we fail to protest against incidents like these do we have a right to blame anyone?

Introspection is a tool often neglected in our society. Since in the defeatist philosophy of our culture, everything that happens is either God's Will or the machinations of unseen forces we have come to a point where we have stopped even the basic thought processes.

Time to stop this stupidity.Time to start thinking again.