Monday, August 3, 2009

Two trucks and a jeep can derail democracy

The most profound statement about the state of political affairs in Pakistan was made by the least politically eloquent individual, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who headed his own faction of Pakistan Muslim League and was the prime minister under General Musharraf. Commenting on the latest verdict by the supreme court of Pakistan in which the apex court declared some decisions made by the former general unconstitutional, Chaudhry Shujaat observed that " two trucks and a jeep have been used to disrupt democratic rule" in Pakistan in the past. For the entire statement, please visit daily Dawn by clicking HERE.

As a journalist in Pakistan, I have, more than once, witnessed coups staged by military. In 1993, I remember watching the 111 brigade driving its large trucks with yellow headlights on the Constitution Avenue in Islamabad on its way to depose the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Mr. Hussain rightly points out the fragile nature of civilian institutions in Pakistan that the military has overrun in the past using a handful of soldiers crammed in two trucks and a jeep.

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