Muslim League, Military and Media: making of the Pakistani Sangh Parivar

Muslim League , Military and Media: The Pakistani Sangh Parivar

By Dr. Mohammad Taqi

March 21,2010

http://pakistanlink.org/Opinion/2010/Apr10/02/02.HTM


“… the (class) struggle (in France ) created circumstances and relationships that made it possible for a grotesque mediocrity to play a hero's part."
(The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon)


As the diplomatic hardball between the USA and the Pakistani delegation- including Generals Kiyani and Pasha- wound up, there remains more at stake then just the ruthless endgame in Afghanistan .

It is a matter of time before the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) replaces the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) to form federal government in Pakistan .

Punditry is fraught with the risk of making a wrong prediction and geopolitical events almost never follow the common sense but the bigger risk is the above scenario coming true - either through snap or term polls.

The Pakistan Army ’s party-line regarding the future of Afghanistan - and its role therein - has been enunciated very clearly in Washington , D.C and before that in Brussels . The part that the Pakistani security establishment desires to play in Afghanistan is not possible without having a political realignment at home.

Even a beleaguered and politically fumbling President Zardari and a floundering Asfandyar Khan, at the head of the secular PPP and the Awami National Party (ANP), respectively, are considered major stumbling blocks in the fruition of the national security agenda unraveled by the Army Chief in February 2010.

Mian Nawaz Sharif ’s volte-face last week, on the constitutional reform package has been misread by many as a move at the judiciary’s behest. However, the PML-N leaders involved in this change of heart and its net negative outcome vis a vis powers to the provinces, point towards a stance in sync with the Army establishment. The prayer-beads wielding judiciary may indeed have served as the stick in this process.

In its present form, the PML-N is the Army’s natural political ally in its quest for the strategic depth in Afghanistan .

Having played its cards well during the lawyers’ movement, the PML-N has evolved from an urban chauvinist enterprise, to a neo-populist party with its core communalist identity intact. The net outcome of the lawyers’ movement was a grotesque mediocrity playing the hero’s part.

An Islamized, yet sufficiently pragmatic, urban Pakistani nationalist voter is the demographic that the PML-N caters to. In this, the party and the Pakistani Neocon media have found a confluence of interests, which is not entirely coincidental.

Like the PML-N, many in the electronic media, used the lawyers’ movement to distance themselves from their fundamentalist past and created a centrist illusion around them. Those who shot to prominence via exclusive interviews with the Al-Quaida leaders or deriding the secular-nationalist leaders through the state-owned Pakistan Television, re-marketed themselves, with great success, as the face of the modern and “liberated” Pakistani media. A good case study would be to track the careers of top three Urdu talk-show anchors, twenty years back.

However, it was only a matter of time before the centrist façade of the PML-N and its media allies came off, revealing an alliance of the extreme right-wing forces that has remained intact since the heyday of the Pakistani-Saudi-US anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan .

Whereas Shahbaz Sharif ’s fascist gaffe is still being written about in the English print-media, the Urdu television anchors killed the story in less than 48 hours. And they never did pick up on Justice Khawaja Sharif’s callous remarks. The very same coterie of the media anchors - taking cue from the GHQ- had ripped the PPP government apart over the Kerry-Lugar Law for weeks on end.

Neither were Mr. Sharif’s remarks off the cuff nor their suppression by the media incidental. He was speaking his mind and that of his voters. Slip of tongue, if any, was Freudian. Similarly, the elder Sharif – though overplaying his hand - is pandering to the Pak-nationalist voter base.

What we have at our hands is a Muslim League-military-media nexus trying to get all its ducks in a row before the final phase of the decade-long Afghan war .

In a world where there is zero tolerance for the old-fashioned jihadist Mullahs, the two former epicenters of the militant-Islamist combine Jamiat e Ulama e Islam (JUI) and the Jamat e Islami (JI) are being replaced by the PML-N as the new matriarch of the Pakistani Sangh Parivar (Family of Associations).

T he JUI and JI are not just unpalatable for the West but they are too outdated to be sold successfully to the Pakistani urban voters who are Islamized enough to don a beard or hijab but smart enough to send their kids to private schools and put their faith in the neo-liberal market economy.

The Hindu fundamentalist Sangh Parivar in India had replaced the out-dated Jana Sangh with the BJP in 1980 and made full use of the hate-mongering media houses to destroy the vestiges of the Nehruvian secular polity. A Congress party that was rotting from within, Rajiv Gandhi and his incompetent and corrupt secular government expedited the process.

While Sangh Parivar– led by the BJP in electoral politics – started as a formal alliance of the Hindu revivalist groups, the Pakistani version is an informal alignment of various political groups with the media – especially electronic - developed with the blessing of the security establishment.

PML-N’s connections with the Sipah e Sahaba and the Taliban are both by design and default. It now is the hub of the concentric circles of jihadist outfits of various shades and is their sheet anchor in the parliamentary politics.

We are dealing with a mass phenomenon – akin to the Hindutva of the BJP and pretty close to the European fascism - which creates a vivid enemy image by amalgamating elements from past ethnic, national, religious and social prejudices and the real or perceived current crises. This amorphous yet highly tangible image of an anti-Pakistan and anti-Islam West and the USA , is then projected through the modern media techniques with slick anchors leading the charge.

The enemy image is tangible enough for most to blame the USA within minutes of a suicide bombing in Pakistan . However, it is too amorphous for anyone to really know what to do with it. The opinionated talk-show hosts keep it abstract so that the common man keeps falling back on the crutches of Pak-nationalism, Islam and anti-West sloganeering of the PML-N, which appear like the panacea to evils.

The BJP – like the PML-N now – had used religion as a detonator in its hate-filled Molotov cocktail of religion, nationalism and communalism and then the media to lob this bomb into the Indian living rooms. BJP’s fundamentalism always took a backseat to its communalist-nationalism. The PML-N and jihadist punks of the “wake up Pakistan ” campaign a la ARY television use enough religion to keep the pot simmering but make it subservient to the Pak-nationalism of the GHQ variety.

Interestingly, the RSS antecedents of the BJP didn’t wear Khaddar or dhoti but sported the British Khaki shorts - they were about eighty years ahead of Hamid Mir, Talat Hussain and of course Zaid the red-hat Hamid.

Shahbaz Sharif’s remarks, his law minister Rana Sanaullah’s association with the terrorists of Sipah e Sahaba, PML-N local leader’s alleged involvement in the Gojra massacre of the Christians, are events which would have potentially brought a PPP or ANP government down, had they happened on their watch. The fade-out of these stories from the tele-media was well-orchestrated and efficient.

On the other hand, the views opposing the rise of the neo-fascist PML-N seem like a parallel play between the English editorial writers, op-ed columnists, bloggers and a lone TV anchor . Apparently we are talking past each other and certainly past the fumbling, floundering secular leaders.

Are the PML-N and its patrons in uniform and the holy lands, then invincible, and their game plan fait accompli? The answer might be disappointing yes, unless those opposed to the rise of fascism in Pakistan get their house in order.

Without a coherent and cohesive secular response to the might of the “fair and balanced” rightwing media collaborators the Sangh Parivar ’s Pakistani franchise is opening shop near you.

(Author teaches and practices Medicine at the University of Florida and contributes to the think-tanks www.politact.com and Aryana Institute. He can be reached at mazdaki@me.com )

USA: the dawn of health care reform

USA: the dawn of health care reform

By Dr. Mohammad Taqi & Dr. Arshad Rehan

http://pakistanlink.org/Commentary/2010/Apr10/02/01.HTM

March 23, 2010


The landmark health care reform has been approved by the US House of Representatives and signed into law by President Barrack Obama, as we write these lines.

In a departure from decades of societal and political inaction, President Obama has delivered on his top domestic policy election promise.

“Health care for all by the year 2000” was the declaration of the 1978 WHO meeting in Alma Ata. 32 years later something similar has been pledged to be delivered through the present health care reform.

The political perfection of the reform would have been a bipartisan consensus on the agenda and the nuts and bolts of its implementation. While “it aint broke, don’t fix it”, could never be claimed about the US health system, the bipartisan consensus still remained elusive. Doing nothing however, was not an option and even in the present state, the bill’s passage is a giant leap forward.

Many aspects of this reform – being dubbed as a new social contract- are fairly clear but additionally there are issues and initiatives that remain obscure. Like President Obama, we think that this is not a radical change but it is a major step forward.

As physicians who dedicate their lives to providing quality health care, any measure that makes health services more affordable for the American people is a top priority for us. We welcome the expansion the coverage to include some 32 million, heretofore uninsured, American citizens.


While it is not a universal coverage, it seems pretty close to it. It is projected that, in an incremental manner, about 95 % of the population – citizens and legal residents- would eventually enter the doors of health care system. The legislation proposes to do so through multiple measures.


An expansion in Medicaid to include families under 65 with gross income of up to 133% of federal poverty level and childless adults is a key component of the bill. The uninsured and self-employed shall be able to purchase insurance through state-based
exchanges. Additionally, it includes the eligibility of the low-income individuals and families, wanting to purchase own health insurance, for subsidies.

Small businesses are being offered tax credits to make health coverage for their employees affordable. Up to 35 % tax credit on premiums will be available immediately and would increase to 50% in 2014. This, in theory, adds to effectiveness of the employers to retain work force and for employees to move between jobs. The ability to buy insurance without risk of being denied coverage should certainly help the Americans who lose jobs with employer-sponsored health plans.

For the Medicare population the reform closes the so-called donut hole i.e. the prescription drug coverage gap which affected the nation’s elderly usually towards the end of the calendar year. The Medicare population has been pledged to receive rebates and discounts on the brand name drugs as well. Another important aspect is the approved coverage of preventive services for Medicare patients.

The Americans with employer-provided health care plans, no major shift is proposed in this legislation but they shall be able to add “adult dependent” children to their current policies. Combined with claiming adult dependent children on taxes, this could provide some reprieve for many families going through the economic crunch.

Some of the rather notorious practices of the insurance industry are to be regulated to prevent them from denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions or charging them higher premiums, capping or limiting annual coverage and dropping coverage for the extremely sick patients. This is a welcome move to protect one of the most vulnerable sections of the population from economic ruin and physical suffering.

The fine print of the plan also emphasizes overhaul in medical and nursing education and improvements in the delivery of primary care services across cities and rural America. Rural health providers would get incentives to bring them at a relatively comparable level with rest of the United States.

The health care reform in its present form is a rolling start. Many things will happen now, and then there are provisions that go into effect over almost the next decade.

While we believe in positive change and acknowledge the dangers of inaction, we also think that a truly new social contract cannot and should not be written with focus on one sector of the economy only. Indeed, one has to start somewhere and as long as we build and refine based on this start, we shall move America forward.


The physician community and consumers both remain concerned about certain known issues in the bill, many unknowns and the areas not touched by the legislation.

The revenue provisions of the reform claim to reduce the average American’s tax bill but would also levy higher Medicare taxes and investment taxation on families earning above a certain with increased tax penalties in the form of Medicare tax increase and taxation on investment.

Also, as the legislation proclaims to come down hard on waste and abuse in the health care sector, we find conspicuously absent from it any safeguards against the multibillion dollar litigation industry which has been the prime mover behind the wasteful defensive medicine that many providers practice in this country.

Health care related hardware and pharmaceutical industries are an integral part of America’s market economy and cities like Kalamazoo, Michigan have survived due to contributions from this section of the American entrepreneurs. Very little has been made public about impact of the reform on this sector of the economy.

Health care providers rendering specialized care are another group which perceives the legislation to be unfriendly, to say the least, towards them. It is imperative that all sections of the physician community are brought onboard without further delay. The primary care and specialty care are not mutually alien but rather compliment the delivery of quality healthcare. One cannot be ignored one at the expense of the other.

Many other issues like the Medicare payment formula, tort reform, rising malpractice premiums and reducing administrative burden on doctors remain outstanding.

As physicians and citizens, we remain committed to following the reform through to fruition. In this, we will partner with physician organizations, consumer groups and political parties - on both sides of the divide - to monitor, critique, improve and implement the programs that have been guaranteed and help add the components missing from this legislation.


We believe that this is a reform in making and many more adjustments would be needed along the way to reach the goal of healthcare for all Americans.


- Dr.Taqi teaches and practices Medicine at the University of Florida and is the president of Khyber Medical College Alumni Association of North America. Dr. Rehan is the organization’s president-elect and a practicing cardiologist. Contact: mazdaki@me.com -