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Friday, September 3, 1999
Periscope On Pakistan
The Indian Express brings you clippings from the Pak media`Nawaz used to untie my shoelaces' NATION: Leaders of Joint Opposition unanimously called on the Prime Minister to step down voluntarily, lest the masses would throw him out of power. The Chairman of the Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PAT), Dr. Tahirul Qadri, while addressing the ``Go Nawaz Rally'' of the Joint Opposition at Faisal Chowk, said the masses would not take a sigh of relief till the ouster of the Nawaz Government. He said it is shameful that the Prime Minister, heaping taxes on the people, pays taxes of only Rs 477 despite possessing assets of around one billion rupees, which he had shown in his nomination papers in the 1997 elections. Once a Prime Minister of Norway had submitted his Income Tax return with a delay of 20 days, Qadri said, as a result of which the Norwegian Supreme Court had sacked his government. But, it is deplorable that the Supreme Court of Pakistan is silent in Nawaz's case, he added. He alsoalleged the police shot at and wounded 40 PAT workers, coming for the rally. ``Shahbaz Sharif, before issuing the directive of firing at PAT workers, should have recalled the time when he used to untie my shoelaces when I was his teacher,'' Qadri said.The Indian mindset at the helm NATION: In examining what Mr. Jaswant Singh was saying (in his press conference) one has, of course, to make allowances for his government being a caretaker one and that it is facing a tough election. But that should not mask the mindset of the people at the helm who are reported to have a fair chance of coming back to power. What informs the thinking behind their mindset is a delusion of grandeur -- betrayed by boasts of being a ``great power'' not answerable to anyone for its aggression against smaller neighbours and imagining itself a neighbour of Afghanistan, whose affairs it has to manage. The problem of Kashmir only being occupation of Azad Kashmir by Pakistan and the ending of ``foreign-sponsored'' terrorism inthe Valley. While a good deal of this dream can be traced back to the days of Pundit Nehru, it is partly being nourished now by the US which never tires of getting lyrical about the ``biggest democracy of the world''. The nostalgia surrounding the Talbott-Singh meeting in the State Department, still has the US in a sort of euphoria. That being the situation what will come out of the Jaswant-Sartaj meeting is not difficult to imagine.Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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