Phones being disconnected in the middle of interviews… psychological stress… uncertainty… book being bought like hot cakes.. this is what the life of Dr. Ayesha has become after the book launch .
Dr. Ayesha is being called an Indian and US agent … her credibility is being questioned and there are reports of a malicious media campaign being launched against her .
All this because she has done an academic case study of the Army’s corporate interests which highlights the welfare work that the khakis are doing for their own admittedly at the cost of the tax payer.
The book may be a “pack of lies” or it may not be. Why isn’t an open debate held over it ? Why isn’t the Army willing to appear on a show with Dr. Ayesha and let them debate the book so that citizens can find out what the truth is ?
We would like to call for :
An immediate end to the intimidatory tactics being used against Dr. Ayesha
Calling for an open debate on the book presenting both sides of the picture.
What do you think?
Despite tall and false claims of the government, freedom of expresseion is still a question mark??
The big lies:
Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Muhammad Ali Durrani Wednesday says “freedom of expression is hallmark of the present government which would defend it at all cost.”
May I ask this government (Military) is this freeom of views, harrassing the writers and jounalists for not writing against military.I believe that they should have courage to face the truth and accept the reality.If we general masses have courage to read President’s book which is full of lies, then military should also have courage to face the truth against him.
This is the first time that we are hearing these facts and ugly realities about otherwise called and treated as ‘holy cow’! Lets spread the accountability circle to all.. no one should be out of the peoples rights to know and hold those accountable that are in power… We as civil society forces are with Ayesha for doing a right job..
I hope the book also gets translated to Urdu so that more people can read it.
Yeah lets help make it a bigger hit than the Musharraf’s “IN THE LINE OF A LIER “. I would like to request the people who gets a chance to read the book to share some excerpts from it at this site. Lets share the truth !
Aqil! Just to share with you that the Oxford University Press is translating the book into Urdu so that more and more people can read it. Watch this space for news about that.
Nasir ! This is a good idea. Some of the excerpts we have already shared with our readers under the post titled “Bubble of Army corporate efficiency bursts” but we ‘ll for sure share some other excerpts.
For the past few weeks not only the writers but electronic media in Pakistan is under great pressure and the govenrnment had adopting each and every tool to hide facts and truth and the Ayeshah’s book is another set back for Military rule in Pakistan. I also request to Ayeshah to publish her this book in Urdu as majority readers would know the facts and acts of Pakistan Army in the country.
its a sad state of affairs that in pakistan,despite the goverment boasting of freedom of speech and expression, a book is under ban.now this is the true color of an army regime…what else can u expect…..!
being a true libral i strongly object the stance of Army regime agaist this book and request all the fellows to join hands together for LIBERTY…
thanks
zahid khattak
i firmly suport the campaign against the ban on this book
Individual, I will be surprised if sooner or later you don’t get an anonymous (not so anonymous anymore) call or visit. I am sure you will hang-in there with all the support you can muster but Time is changing fast.
I am sure no one in this space would like you to pay for our bluntness.
I will be sad to lose this space, and YOU.
Well Im just waiting for the Imam Kaaba to tell us whether to read/buy the book or not…considering our good friends in Islamabad have rolled in the BIG GUNS to get Divine backing for the Musharraf regime.
The Imam still hasnt replied to my query whether buying an extra copy of the book and passing it on as ’sadqa jaariya’ can be done with my zakat money or not.
i fully endorse the demands for immediate halting the character assassination campaign against Dr. Ayesha.
Well done Ayesha for writing such an investigative book on military. You must be happy that the government has come to your rescue and your book got wide publicity without spending extra money on its promotion.
government’s unsuccessful attempt to block the book launching ceremony, further earned shame and public hatred.
Although we had been entitled byh the gov. as democratice state but unfortunatley we arent able to feel that entitlement and as Maam Ayesha had gliterring focused on FF and Milatery Inc. and the fact n figure she had mention is no doubt 80% gloriously mared that things out (coz i dun read the while book so far)its really hittin for both thts why the effortlessly efforts had been made by gov. but cant make it
well done ayesha (maam)
i wud say u shud have to glittered the history right hostory
democracy as it mentioned by Abrham Lincon “for the people , by the peopls ;to the peopls ” as the era changes defination aslo as our beloved Presdient thinks democracy ” far the people ,too the peope , buy the people”
i wud say again maam Ayesha u had done gud job u have to enlinthend on history
MAAM Individual !!
some some excerpt wud make us not to buy tht book as it was difficulkt to approach for the student so wud u post book ova here
did not red the book of the Dr Ayish but the obstructions created bye the government to launch the book shows the real face of the freedom of expression and media .
we the peoples of the civil society are with the Ayisha sidiqa she congratulations for her work first time her book brought the facts in front of the peoples I think critic is very important for a healthy society any institution is not a holy cow let the things come for debate.
While I do plan to read the book at some point, for now, I am just curious to know whether it also covers the educational institutions and how Faujis get preferential treatment in admissions as well as their special quota in civilian jobs.
It is about time that we started asking them whether they are mentally retarded and hence incapable of competing on merit to necessitate these special seats and other policies that favour them over civilians as affirmative action for their inclusion.
Individual: thanks for sharing the news that it is being translated into Urdu.
General ! Time is changing, Individual’s site is saying whats said in the Supreme Court Bar’s Seminar ! How many will be hanged ????? The end is near, and offcourse people like the Individual deserve credit for providing people the chance to learn and share the truth !
While I haven’t read the book except a few exrtacts here and there, I did watch Dr Ayesha talking about the book and its contents with KAMRAN KHAN on Geo. I appreciate her effort, only I found a certain ignorance about the army as an institution in her arguements. She sounded as if it is “The Army” which owns and runs these economic organisations. She seems to forget that the Army consists of over 500,000 people…97% or more of which is the troops. The officer class makes only a very small percentage of this number. Secondly even amongst the officer class it is the higher echlons…the generals who are in decision making roles and frame policies. If there is any beneficiary of this economy..it is this select group of a few hundred individuals who benefit from this. The rest are just common people…working and labouring like any other common man on the street, paying their bills and bying sabzi and atta in the shabby bazars. It is these common soldiers and officers who live hundreds of miles away from their families for extended periods on meagre pays…it is these people who serve in places like Kashmir and Siachin or Waziristan and the deserts in horrible conditions. So blaming the whole institution is a gross injustice to these 99% of common soldiers and officers who just serve the nation. Ironically it is these select elites whom the politicians and buisness elite of the country co-opt and help to errect the buisness conlomerates that DR Ayesha is talking about. I wonder if Dr Ayesha has researched this nexus of the feudal, buiness and Military elite and how they help to keep each other at the top.
Well said Zarak!
Dr. Ayesha has peeked into very important segment of our society. Her book is a very good schalarly work. In our country it has been made a taboo to talk about anything military on the pretext of national security. Even the parliament is not allowed to discuss allocation on allocatio for defence in the national budget. This is different from practice in democracies around the world. Those who discuss their defence budgets threadbare in Parliaments are not less concerned about their national security then us. Over the decades their defence proved more impregnable then ours. We too should come out of the closet and hold discussion and debate about financial aspects of defence forces. Such disucssions will make our defence forces more effecient and would help better utilization of the resources.
At the same time efforts should be made to releave the defence forces from extra burden so that they can pay their full attention to national defence.
We all are with you Dr.Ayesha for the sake of intellectual freedom. Probaly the Council of Social Sciences (COSS) would do better to arrange a seminar on the issue of intellectual freedom in Pakistan.
This is in response to what Mr. Zarak Khan had to say. I have been very careful in drawing a distinction between the handful of generals and the rest of the military. What I have argued in the book is that the military elite monopolizes national resources with the rest of the ruling classes that include the landed-feudal, the top industrialists, businessmen and veen the media barrons. I am not targetting the rest of the military. I apologize if someone gets this impression. The boom should be out in the market tomorrow or the day after. Please read it and see what I have to say
I would also like that in all this uproar about the launch and military’s negative publicity, no one is lookign at the key argument of the book which is that military economy is essentially a part of elite predation. It is not jyst about the military but the larger and combined interests of the military elite, the landed-feudal, the top industrialists, top busonessmen, senior ciivl bureacracy, judicuiary and other members of the ruling elite. I really wish that the governemnt hadn’t thrown this fit and allowed people to see what was inside the book. In any case, the uproar is proving my conclusions right that there is somethign like the military fraternity which includes the serving and retired military plus some ciivlian cliants of the military who all benefit from this economy. The manner in which the retired generals have also joined hands wiht the serving shows how critical is this economy for their political survival.
Why aren’t you people discussing something that is more fundamental i.e. the corrupt and ingenuine basis of the country (if it can be hardly called that)…ruled by something that is a colonial legacy…
Is not Pakistan a malignant tumour that is a threat to the population it has held imprisoned since partition as well as to the region and the world at large?…There is problem with the very basis of the country the macho-machine is pretending to defend.
Even Dr. Ayisha Siddiqa has admitted that the problem is more primordial than it seems…that is it was a state handed down by the British Imperialism to an evil collosion of a survile fuedals class and a colonially-constructed civil-military bureaucracy…Therefore, it has intrinsic flaws that can never be corrected until dismantled for good or radically redefined and re-organized according to the wishes of the various groups(but this is almost an impossibility)…
Here I will request the woner of this site to launch threads about two very important issues…
1. The elite-cooption by British Imperialists and their later-Pakistani-heirs with special reference to the Islamabad-settled “Pathans” affiliated with the Muhajir-Punjabi ruling classes in a subservient position…
2. How the Punjabi-dominated establishment and their survile “Pathan” servants are injecting radicalism into Pashtun Society to nuetralize Pashtuns quest for a distinct identity and political autonomy, maintain strategic influence in Afghanistan, and extort $$$s from USA @ terror. Is not this taking Pashtun society to a situation of civil war…?
Dear Ayesha,
Its a quest for survival. Only the few (who have the brains and nerves to coopt and plunder in an organized manner) are destined to rule and the rest are sheeps.
This not my theory but one school of thought among many. I agree to the extent that YES there is a fraternity of the ‘Few’ in the larger interest of the ‘few’ infact the basic survival of the ‘few’ ….but… are sheeps destined to remain sheeps is the question that interests me most.
Hello sheeps this is a wake up call. Wake up and you may die (but you may live), dont wake up and you will never live.
It seems a desprate situation in country who ever (Judiciary, media, apposition, Religious groups) try to show mirror to Pak Army, either mirror is being broken or person, how long it will go like that and time has changed so much in the last 8 years and now evry individual know whats happening around the country so my suggestion is to Cheif Sahab is to surrender himself or try not to do such mistakes in future. Dr. Ayesha you have done a graet job by exploring the facts and no one can stop you to show all of us whats this all about. We all are with you
Dear Dr. Ayesha Sadiqa:
One question that often intrigues me is why one never comes across any voices of army valas who acknowledge the predatory role of the milbus.
I mean we do hear people (albeit few) from the privileged class in the civilian sector that acknowledge the elitist nature of the state and the fact that they are themselves benificiaries of a predatory system where a small elite is enjoying luxuries at the expense of the vast majority.
Are there any such voices in the military at all? If so, where are they and how can they be strengthened? If not, why and what can be done to change the situation?
Aqil:
I am just reading a book on Hugo Chavez of Venenzuela and the it further strengthens my view that you will never hear a loud voice inside the army about its elitist structure. One of my arguments in the book is that the structure of the military is equally elitist. The soldiers do not even get half of what the officers at the top receive. The difference between Venenzuela, for instance, and Pakistan is that while the former is inherently a revolutionary army, Pakistan’s is a professionally trained post-colinial institution where the command flows from the top and the structure is very centralized. It will take much more furore on the streets to see any divisions within and don’t forget that there were instances of unsuccessful coups, some in the name of the people and other in the name of Islam. Yet, none has been successful. This is not an institution which will withdraw unless there is sufficient critical mass in the civil society that can gel together and show a stronger face. And here I am not talking about any battle. What we are witnessing is a typical problem of post-colonialism.
I apologize if this appears a bit off topic; unfortunately, I don’t see any other thread for posting it.
Please check the following news story:
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=59944
This is none other than Benazir Bhutto, who is also busy trying to negotiate a deal with Mush. Why can’t Benazir trust the party workers in every constituency to decide who gets the party ticket through an intra-party election? Where is the moral outcry of all those analysts who have been calling for the unconditional return of BB and NS in the name of democrasy?
No wonder the military-feudal-industrialist nexus continues to thrive, it is always the ruling elite that makes the decisions while the poor party workers hailing from the suffering awam are only to be used as pawns.
Dear Dr. Ayesha:
Thanks for your response. If we go along with your assertion that it’s going to take a lot more anger on the streets to make an impact, then the question that naturally follows is what’s needed for that to happen?
One question that is probably worth asking is whether it is possible to overcome the military without first developing a vibrant pro-people center in the civilian sector.
I found your daily times article on the co-opted intellectuals interesting and thought provoking. However, please allow me to suggest that the co-opted intellectuals also include those in the anti-establishment camp who have been regularly calling for the return of BB and NS in the name of democrasy, thus (intentionally or otherwise) narrowing the space for better and more promising alternatives to emerge. Even if we accept that that tainted politicians are a lesser evil compared to military rulers in principle, we can not deny that both BB and NS have also been totally unable to mobilize the masses against the military regime. On the contrary, the widespread juxtaposition of their names with democrasy continues to make many people reluctant and unenthusiastic about democrasy. Perhaps if we were to ditch such figures that are a bad advertisement for democrasy, and instead look for ways to produce newer and better alternatives, we might have a better chance of making some headway.
My dear General, you are limiting the meaning of the term “survival” by associating it exclusively with something that can only be called “brute-force”. This reductionist approach is typical of the men trained in the animalistic tradition to overpower.
Human society has moved far ahead the age of dinosaurs…and has grown far more complex-than it was few centuries back-in structure as well as dynamic behavior with a multitude of actors and players interacting in a variety of ways and roles to maintain the thrust ahead …Brute force is not the fundamental motive agent in today’s age…It is only a derivative factor…resulting from the creative and productive activity of the society as a whole…For a creative society, you’ve to give freedom…
And how come you call a parasitic and extortionist entity like Pakistani army the creative fragment…that also in the face of the fact that its performanace in its own domain has been abysmally poor?…Which war have you won so far, for example,…and which realms have you captured except conquering your own people again and again…?
Having said that, let me also point out that Dr. Ayisha is trying to de-emphasize the colonial origin of Pakistani army by associating the “whole problem” with post-colonialism…which would sort of imply that the “dinosauric force” is reversable to its original benign role…The reality is that the baby was born illigitamte….as a result of illicit relations between imperialism and its local cronies i.e. the survile feudal class…(Please don’t give me example of Indian army…that is another ball-game)…
Let me urge the owner of this site again to launch a special thread on how the establishment of Pakistan has injected religiousity in Pashtun body-politic in order to dilute their national self-consciousness/identity and neutralize their quest for autonomy which has pushed that society to an unstable state…. of internal anarchy, civil war, and cultural and social void!
Let me tell my dear General another thing also…That is “coopting” is the ugliets expression of the most ignoble and base instincts and motives of human-specie…
How come you sell your own people and then take pride in it…rather put that forward as a philosophy of life…How come you betray your own kind and then call them sheeps…?
Gladiator, You are so kind!
They are sheeps because they can be betrayed.
There was a time when Mehmood Ghaznavi was the chosen ‘few’ and he crushed/looted/plundered Indian sheeps. How do you feel about those Indian sheeps?
Worry not, one day you may become the Master once again and there will be many sheeps around.
Morality, my friend, is a heavenly concept. Sounds nice in a religious speech. Of course I want to go to the Heaven. So keep writing, reading and listening. You may confuse the angel. Salvation attained.
Hahaha my dear General, your mind thinks but only straight…Survival isn’t just the animalistic instinct of an individual…Even animals don’t entirely rely on individual effort… Have even seen how a herd of cows scares a beast away…Survival more is in collective strategy…If that were not the case, there wouldn’t have been the need for socio-political cohesion, organization, structures, institutions, cultures, etc. All these things have roots in basic human impulse of survival ensured by “group” struggle…
Those that part from the “group” or “herd” ultimately become extinct (as well as degraded) both in physical sense and in the sense of carrier of a unique culture and value system…
Hahaha my dear General, your mind thinks but only straight…Survival isn’t just the animalistic instinct of an individual…Even animals don’t entirely rely on individual effort… Have ever seen how a herd of cows scares a beast away…Survival more is in collective strategy…If that were not the case, there wouldn’t have been the need for socio-political cohesion, organization, structures, institutions, cultures, etc. All these things have roots in basic human impulse of survival ensured by “group” struggle…
Those that part from the “group” or “herd” ultimately become extinct (as well as degraded) both in physical sense and in the sense of carrier of a unique culture and value system…
So why beat the morality drum?
Wipe off the tears, cover your wounds, get organized, revolt, rise and get in power and have a face lift of a big fish. Clear up the pond of rival fishes, scare the hell out of little fishes and isolate them in barbwire quarters. Let Altaf Hussain’s grandsons and Musharraf’s great-great grandsons get busy on the liberal trumpet. Let them fill spaces for the individualland blogs while WE tango in Islamabad!
By the way key ingredient of social capital is ‘TRUST’. Do you have it among your blood brothers? You should contemplate the recipe. Start Now.
I have not read Ayesha’s book, but her comments in Individual Land, and those of others. To me her academic research work provides Pakistani civil society and its posterity, a documented record at the turn of the century, desribing the state of:
#civil-military relations;
#control of the military by democratically elected representatives of the public who have sent to the National Assembly;
#barriers and interests opposing a country’s transition in building norms and processes of public accountability;
# limitations in civil society’s institutions of democratic governance.
Generally speaking, diffusion of knowledge through such studies (courtesy OUP) should be seen as a value addition to a society’s attempts to develop its democratic directions, and to that extent, Ayesha’s seminal contribution to her country, needs to be understood.
As all countries, including India and the US (in order to take two examples which come readily to mind in South Asia), have had and continue to have, problems in developing democratic governance of their militaries. It is the capacity and readiness of the society to intellectual engage and debate such issues, that would help a country to advance its institutions for social justice and equity; rule of law; public probity through accountability, and public confidence in a justice/political system of the state. Ayesha’s intellectual pursuit should be seen as one such attempt to build public understanding and inspire others.
I wonder if the beneficiaries in military systems realise, that, maybe some day, their progeny can also become vicitims of a predatory political legacy?
Jack
I Googled for something completely different, but found your page…and have to say thanks. nice read.