From: jamalin@newton.ccs.tuns.ca (Nadeem Jamali)
Subject: Re: Private Education in Pakistan
Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1992 02:33:49 GMT
Organization: Technical University of Nova Scotia, Halifax, N.S.

In article <8247@news.duke.edu> shafqat@neuro.duke.edu (Saad Shafqat) writes:
>In article <1992Dec26.032031.20490@newton.ccs.tuns.ca> jamalin@newton.ccs.tuns.ca (Nadeem Jamali) writes:
>
>
>>A large part of your postings is about Asif Zardari. You have referred to him as
>>a corrupt person a lot of times. I really wonder what makes you so confident
>>about these claims. So far, each of the cases decided upon has shown him
>>innocent. 
>
>Nadeem sai'n, lets be objective about this.  Asif Zardari is innocent
>only by default.  Witnesses have not come forward to corroborate the
>charges against him.  This is not surprising considering that the judge
>appointed to hear the case, one Mr. Junejo, was gunned down to his
>death in broad daylight by masked gunmen on one of Karachi's main
>thoroughfares.  Note that I am not accusing Asif or his sympathizers
>of the murder.  I am merely saying that this has scared potential
>witnesses into silence, regardless of who might have done it.

Saad bhayyay, let's be objective. Innocent unless proven guilty is not
a rule made specially for Mr. Zardari. Your acknowledgement that 
you don't have sufficient evidence to prove Zardari's involvement in
Junejo's death does not support the contention that he was involved.

First, judge Jonejo was no angel. The way he started giving PPP people
death sentences clearly shows what he was up to. As regards fear of
Zardari, come on Saad, you cannot be serious. You as well as I know
how governments are capable of manipulating courts in Pakistan. Can
you imagine a court being influenced by the opposition. And let me say
that it is not MQM we are talking about. Asif Zardari is just the husband
of an ex-PM who was removed from power on some arbitrary charges. He's 
been in Jail for so long just because charges were laid on him... now
when it comes to proving the charges, the government has failed again and
again. This is quite clearly a way of harrassing Benazir Bhutto... in the
same way as the rape of Veena Hayat. This guy is being tortured in jails
every day. Even Sindh high court is outraged by the President's decision
to limit their powers.

>
>It is easy to see why Judge Junejo's murder would be taken so
>seriously.  There has been an undercurrent of anarchy in Sindh
>for some years now.  Young boys looking for excitement have
>robbed banks during working hours and gotten away with it.  

So now you're going to accuse Asif Zardari for what MQM did...

>Dacoits rule residential neighbourhoods at night and the law
>remains powerless or chooses to be so.  Cars are stolen more
>often than they are sold.  It is an atmosphere that has bred
>insecurity and validated the gun culture.  Is it little
>surprise then that an explicit or implicit death threat,
>such as the murder of the judge appointed to rule in the
>case, will have so powerful an impact ?
>

Again we reach the same stage. It's so frustrating to try 
discussing with you. You just have a perception of what you
consider a fact and your whole purpose in a discussion is
to try to prove that you're right. Never have I seen you
make even a semi-conscious effort to understand anything
beyond your preconceived ideas. The approach you take puts
serious limitations on your ability to engage in a 
_sincere_ discussion.

>In fact, the reason I feel safe in talking like this is
>because I am not in Pakistan.  In 1989, Asif Zardari

You're lucky that you feel safe here. Remember 1990? After my
postings about MQM, my family started receiving threat
calls in Karachi.

>evicted a family from their house on Marine Drive in
>Clifton saying he needed the land for property development.
>I know this because the people kicked out then rented a
>house from my father.  I was deeply incensed by this event
>and drafted a letter to Dawn, leaving my name out of fear.
>It was never printed.  Perhaps if I had penned my name it
>might have, but then I might not be here today.  Earlier,

I don't want to say that you're lying. But the fact remains that
the only reason you're expecting people to believe this is that
you're saying this. At least for me, that's not enough.

As regards your being here :) who do you think you're kidding?
Every newspaper was printing every possible nonsense about him
every single day. Those that didn't, were being constantly 
harrassed by MQM. How many media people did Asif Zardari get
killed :) Compare that with MQM's score :) :)

I've seen so many Karachiites (and specially you) talk about the
threat to their lives if you spoke "the truth" :) It's really
funny. You people have never faced any genuine threat. Now let
me tell you how it is to live in Karachi as a Sindhi-speaking
person. Has anyone ever fired at your house. Have your father's
MQM students ever tried to kill him in his office? It gets
real close you know. My father saved his ass only because he pulled
out his gun before those guys could shoot. How many times have you
had to pick up guns and wait for MQM black tigers to come and 
attack your house? How many times you've had to tell your 12 years
old brother and the women of your family that if everybody else gets
killed, it's their turn to pick up guns. How many times has your
brother in 7th grade come and told you that some olders guys have
told him that they'll kill him if he goes to school the next day?
and how many times have you thought that they just might?

Do you have any idea how it feels to sleep with a rifle under your
pillow every night? Even my mom does. What do you do if something wakes 
you in the middle of night... switch on the lights eh? We have to shut
the main power off, load our guns, and find our way to where we have
to take position. I watched this movie Malcolm X
a couple of days back. It's this scene where this guy has a gun in
his hand and is standing next to the window. The bastard didn't have
to fear for rockets coming in :) :) :)

After reading so many of your postings, I can think of so
many reasons why your article wasn't published by Dawn :) :) May be
the SilatMan should start a paper and then you can be the editor :)

Now, let me mention a case. You must have at least heard of Dr. Saleh
Memon. He's in Jinnah Hospital too. He lived just next to Bilawal
House (Asif Zardari's residence). You must be at least a little bit
aware of how religious and conservative this person is. Asif wanted
to buy his house because this was the only house in the rectangular
region that he did not own, because of which the concrete boundary
wall could not be completed. I'll explain what had necessitated the
wall, some time later. In any case, that house in a way made the
PM's house very vulnerable. Asif offered to buy the house but Dr. Memon
declined. He was never given any problem. He described Zardari as a
perfect neighbour (of the type Islam wants :) ). Commenting on
rumors af the kind Karachi's people are so fond of making about anyone
they don't like, he told me that a person who can be such a good 
neighbour cannot be a bad person. If I recall, he even referred to a
few ahadith :) :)

>in 1987, I was rotating as a medical student in the
>Emergency Room of the Aga Khan University.  One Friday
>evening Asif Zardari was wheeled in on a stretcher.  He
>had fractured his leg playing polo and was admitted under
>the Orthopedic service.  This man was a nuisance: foul-
>mouthed and viscerally arrogant, harassing the nurses and
>female medical students with total abandon.  His manner
>betrayed a crass and thoroughly classless upbringing.  This was
>before he was even married to Benazir, so it is easy
>to see what he would have "evolved" into once he became the
>Prime Minister's spouse with all its attendant license for
>badmashi.  (BTW, the reason he was tolerated in AKUH in 1987
>was because his half-sister, Azra Hakimali, was a resident
>in Pediatrics at the time - perhaps you know her).

Again, it's just your word. I and many others won't consider that
enough. The way MQM has made a joke of judicial system, I don't
trust any supporter or a so-called ex-suppoter of MQM. I remember
how hundreds of thousands of people of the "Muhajir" race came to
the courts as witnesses in favor of MQM people because the Qaid-e-
Tehreek Altaf Hussain :) told them to. You want to screw a system,
take it to Karachi.

I know Asif and his father from Nawabshah. I do not believe what
you're saying is true. A far-sighted person that you are :) I'm not
surprised that you can choose to see so many things..

>
>Is Asif Zardari guilty of what he has been charged with ?  
>It is not yet clear.  All the cases have not yet been heard.
>But what if evidence continues to be lacking, should he then
>go free ?  Of course he must.  No evidence, no case.  But
>what goes around comes around.  In Sindh's anarchic atmosphere,
>one doesn't need a court to convict.  One of his many enemies
>will undoubtedly get back at him sooner or later.  Perhaps,
>in fact, he is safer in jail, like Mark David Chapman ....
>

I agree that he might just be safer in a jail. But let me point out
something. If the above words are said about a criminal, they sound
very good. When they are said about someone who's a victim, they
bring tears in any sane person's eyes. It gives the same feeling as
one gets when Shaikh Ayaz says... "sutch waDo Dohari aahai". But then,
who am I talking to ??

>
>With regards,
>
>Saad.
>
>
>-- 

Nadeem

-- 
Nadeem Jamali                                     jamalin@newton.ccs.tuns.ca
						 
School of Computer Science			  
Technical University of Nova Scotia		  (902)420-7527  
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