Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Rant of the Day

I have to admit I'm not particularly fond of PPP Senator Faisal Raza Abidi's appearances on television. But that's just because, my ears having been bled from the apparent dominant paradigm of anchors and participants on Pakistani television talk shows, I have a general aversion to over-emotional and LOUD grandstanding. And nobody gets more emotional and louder than Senator Abidi.

However, this typically cataclysmic rant from him on Aaj TV's Aaj Ki Khabar programme on March 17th (which one missed partly because the England - West Indies thriller was on the same night and partly because one doesn't normally bother with Aaj in any case) deserves to be heard. To be fair, he only let loose after the other participants (including the host Absar Alam, Khalifa-ul-Waqt Ansar Abbasi, Justice (retd) Tariq Mahmood, PMLN's Pervez Rashid and Jamaat-e-Islami's cretinous Fareed Paracha) all pointed fingers at the federal government for either letting 'Raymond Davis' go or lying about it.

But more importantly, if you can look beyond the political grandstanding and the ear-splitting volume of Abidi's splenetic fury (I'll admit it'll take some doing), he also makes some rather pointed and valid arguments against those casting the 'Raymond Davis' issue as one of national honour and 'ghairat' as well as the silent sympathisers of extremism and the opportunistic judicial system.





Yeah, so what indeed about the 23,000 plus Pakistanis killed by the Pakistani Taliban? But if you thought this could coax some soul-searching from apologists for extremism such as Fareed Paracha, you'd be sadly mistaken. Paracha subsequently responded that by letting 'Davis' go, the government had blocked people from collaring the people who are actually behind terrorism in Pakistan (i.e. it was 'Davis' and his Blackwater cohorts, it's never the Taliban and their ilk). As I said, cretinous.

17 comments:

AHK said...

Well done Abidi in pointing out the hypocrites in the media - but i have never understood the govt.'s stance that the judiciary is letting these people lose. Isn't it the job of the govt. to investigate & prosecute these people - if their prosecution is weak what else can the court do? Lock the people up because they THINK they might commit crimes in the future?

Anonymous said...

Justice Tariq Mahmood was looking at Faisal Abidi with such envy and seemed to be saying with his eys: Exactly my thoughts. Wish I had the guts.'

Noor-ul-Ain Hanif said...

Nice blog and the tittle of your blog urge me to read the blog and pass a comment.

Anonymous said...

Pakistan has very weak investigation gathering system - If you meet a police man, he'd tell you how they 'help' the evidence by 'additions' that are easily then countered by Defence - weakening the whole case
Prosecution is hardly well directed & important evidence is missed at each juncture

that said..courts don't always act with common sense - they have tendency to give 'relief' to senior lawyers etc
and the recent C Ifthikar & cohorts attitude to down the govt at every instance has only made things worse
Courts have become anti-state, instead of being an extension of the state

Its court against the coalition Govt - not independent judiciary as was promised - no wonder most men of integrity have parted ways with from the clique

Nosha said...

Abidi should've been the new Info Min. This guy can have all these ghairat asses for breakfast!

Great clip.

Khalid FAROOQ said...

Dear Blogger

Federal government's point of view is very valid. But the liberalists in this country are as extremist as rightists are. I mean, no one has condemned USA for their lie about the diplomatic status of R Davis. Even bigger is the confusion behind what his actually identity is. I mean I never listened to conspiracy theorists but once he was caught killing people on the street, I have been forced to lend an ear to malicious activities being carried out by the foreign spy agencies. It is pleasant to laugh at the ghairat brigade and talking satire about the state of mullahs, but it is difficult to question what the gunman's real identity was. And if Taliban kill people on street, how can it justify americans to do the same? What kind of argument is it that? If they don't atack fareed Piracha, its okay. I am not concerned about him at all. I am concerned about Pakistan. And that concern forces me to make some sense of the job description of Davis. So, finding pleasure in such condemnation as hollow as Senator Abidi sounded is useless if you are not aware of the ground realities. Dominating a talk show doesn't necessarily mean that your points are valid. It just needs a bit of loudness in your voice. BTW, who was the new lawyer sent by? Why didn't the government pursue the case of espionage against him? Time to ponder. Regards

NarayaN said...

May be, just "may be", it's time to throw the stupid "Blood Money" law out of the civilized portions of the Paksitani society? It's not possible to do it across the nation - lest we re-create the "Swat"-i situation & the mullah-brigade ups the ante for *true* Islamic law.
.
Once you put a "common-sense" & "rational" law - in just 1 or 2 districts & provide some incentive/s to the Sikhs, Ahmadis, Buddhists, Christians & of course, the 'kafir' Hindus to move in, to these districts, you'll see how the progress happens.
.
Where there are opportunities, crowds are attracted. Remember, even before Islam & it's law, civilized societies not only existed but flourished - and they did so right at the same land that you call Land of the Pure (as a direct insult to the Land of the Hindu/kafir or impure).
.
If you want to progress, you need have progressive thoughts - and not stick with a 1400- years old barbaric laws that call for amputation & stoning by death.
.
My 2 paisa worth of kafir thoughts.
.
MN

Anonymous said...

@Khalid Farooq : The Govt or the Army never claimed (openly) that Davis was involved in espionage.... only the rabid media and the even more rabid "new age" media - (read blogs). There was no espionage case filed against him in the court. Think about it....

Nangyal said...

could agree more with this badmash looking guy. btw. i don't know anything about him.

Nangyal said...

* I couldn't agree more

Anonymous said...

To repeat:

One basic fundamental fact is being missed by all concerned. If Pakistanis go to other countries to impose punishment on them, people of those countries will come to Pakistan to impose punishment on Pakistanis in return.

At least Americans didn't hijack a airplane full of Pakistanis to get Raymond Davis back, like Pakistanis hijacked a planeful of Indians to get back Omar Sheikh who was in an Indian prison for murder and kidnapping.

-Sadhana

Anonymous said...

Anyway good rant.

Anonymous said...

Despite despising the ranting Senator Abidi, the blogger XYZ chose to bring in the devil's testimony for the sake of his argument. It is called 'the sweet is gulped down but the bitter is thrown out' better read 'the bitter is uttered on TV' in the Senator's case. What I liked the most in the video is the way Senator Abidi spoke...in a spitting image of Allama XYZ roaring from a pulpit while drumming the beat of innocence for his side. Only the Senator has guts to outsmart Quaid-e-Tehreek with his ear-bleedig oratory!

Yusaf Khan said...

Fantastic work by Abidi. What pisses me off is that the why doesnt the PPP do more of this to confront the Taliban. The PPP had a great opportunity after the murder of Taseer Shaheed to take on the jihadi element but they squandered it by blaming the PML-N. If the PPP and the ANP come out swinging like this many in the silent majority will get the strength the condemn the extremists in our midst. This is the only way to confront the Taliban apologists.

Muhammad Asif Raja said...

Give me a break man! The actual point that the journalist raised in the early going was lost in the midst of this reel off. The point was wheter government acted as a party in this blood money deal or not.Bottom line... open for Federal and Punjab Government.

observer said...

@AHK
"if their prosecution is weak what else can the court do?"

On 'weak prosecution' there was an interesting news in the papers yesterday.
Apparently two prospective suicide bombers got caught with suicide jackets complete with about 600 grammes of RDX, detonating switch and grenades. The court allowed the duo to walk as they were not arrested while 'using the explosives or threatening to use them'.
The prosecution standards of Pakistani courts must be very high indeed.

observer said...

@AHK
"if their prosecution is weak what else can the court do?"

On 'weak prosecution' there was an interesting news in the papers yesterday.
Apparently two prospective suicide bombers got caught with suicide jackets complete with about 600 grammes of RDX, detonating switch and grenades. The court allowed the duo to walk as they were not arrested while 'using the explosives or threatening to use them'.
The prosecution standards of Pakistani courts must be very high indeed.