We have seen the results of political action through “party politics” since last thirty seven years. The present situation in Hunza, apart from International designs, is the result of inter-party wars raging in the country. Hunza has not been spared by individuals having priority for personal interests over the collective interest of the society. Decisions for Hunza have been made outside Hunza by others rather than the sons and daughters of the soil.
Luckily, we have a way out from this imbroglio through understanding and adopting the “civil society” as the platform for political action rather than party based political action. This platform is available to us since 1980s yet we have understood it in the context of improvement in the “quality of life” only. The program has since been enhanced to include political action yet it has not been communicated in this term as yet. The basic concept of this platform stems from the teaching given to us fourteen centuries back and explained through eight training manuals in the present century by non other than the one who’s hand was held by the prophet as the interpreter of our holy book in each age. Please give it a try for 10-years to see the results on the society as compared to thirty seven for party based political action towards achieving the same.
Yes “Leaders are born and not made”, but this proposal will help groom indigenous leadership in a ‘meritocratic and democratic’ environment.
Following immediate actions are recommended:
1- All those selfless individuals who have registered as a member of this or that political party/movement should resign and give an announcement through a paper as well as electronic media, such as “face book”.
2- Each village must group all V/WOs, and clusters to a CSO by any name and register it immediately.
3- In future all CSOs in a joint session in Hunza should prepare a panel from the electable office bearers of successful CSOs to represent them in GBLA as well as district and union councils.
4- In future the voters should vote only those individuals (preferably the Executive body of the CSO) who have caused their respective CSO to succeed through selfless and dedicated actions.
5- All those interested in discussing this idea as well as a ‘strategy’ for bringing Hunza out of the present situation should participate either physically or through “voice/video conferencing” in a Hunza level conference to be held in Baltit beginning on 06 September for as many days as it takes to consolidate the opinions of the participants and adopt a common strategy through a majority vote process – almost on the lines of a “referendum”.
6- BRSO will coordinate the events. Those interested to share the ideas must communicate on the following contacts by Sep04, 2011.Main contact person:
Mr Noor Khan Chairman BRSO: 034-48908625; E-Mail: noorhunzai@yahoo.com <mailto:noorhunzai@yahoo.com>
Other contacts:
Cell#. 034-55326255 (CSO-1) Cell#. 034-48908625 (CSO-1)
Cell#. 035-55270744 (CSO-2) Cell#. 034-68488851 (CSO-3)
Cell#. 035-55130886 (CSO-4) Cell#. 034-45579263 (CSO-5)
Cell#. 000-00000000 (CSO-6) Cell#. 000-00000000 (CSO-7)
Cell#. 000-00000000 (CSO-8) Cell#. 000-00000000 (CSO-9)
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Some fresh comments on the topic received by Pamir Times through email;
The CSO’s of all villages should get together and do their necessary home work and devise the basic themes for the conference and get the necessary input from the people before the conference. Otherwise, it would be simply a brainstorming session!!
Prof Salman Ali
My comments are restricted to one aspect that the worthy writer of this article fears: that of ‘depoliticizing’ the society in Hunza.In my view these fears are misplaced; let us see this example:
Mr. ‘X’ is a member of a ‘Civil Society’ entity, say a village organization in ‘Shanokushal’ Hunza; he has also been nominated by Mr ‘Y’ the party head in our country ( could be Mr Nawaz Sharif or Mr Zardari, or Mr Altaf Hussain or Ch Shujaat) as the political leader for Hunza as the head of his autocratic party faction in Hunza. Incidentally he happens to be an honest and capable individual who has made the VO succeed in its mission. Other members of VO choose him through a democratic process as a candidate for election in the coming union council (it could be GBLA) to represent them.
Yes it looks like fiction or even ‘Utopia’, but using ‘Civil Society’ as the platform for political action is a very potent prospect.
Hunza after all should be a trend setter rather than a follower. Entire GB or even the whole country may follow if this experiment in choosing a meritocratic person to represent through a democratic process succeeds as compared to buying votes as a sound investment and deceitful promises to be repeated in future elections also.
So let us unanimously say yes to ‘Civil Society’ as our platform for grooming leadership and political action and show “HUNZA MUTTAHID HEY” -‘Pakistan Zinda Bad’.
Brigadier (r) Hissamullah Baig
I would very strongly agree with the notion that we should discuss ideas rather than personalities and try to find fresh avenues for our thought processes rather than being prisoners of our fixed perceptions. In fact when some one expresses his/her opinion on any matter, it basically represents the way he/she sees or perceives the situation. You will see or read the situation according to the type or colour of the glasses you wear!!
Prof. Salman Ali
PAMIR TIMES 
The civil and military establishment in this country are very much part of the suppressive regimes of a military dictator or a so called democratic kingdoms.They have never raised voice against the system and very much part of the of exploitation of people of this country.As a common trend after retirement they all became champions of democracy and civil rights activists.The establishment of this country were always supportive of controlled democracy at union council based on ethnic ,tribal and religious ideology.tThe de-nationalization of political system resulted in fragmentation of society and disintegration of the country. A system proposed by the intellectual of the region seems to be in isolation based on ethnic and religious ideology and I have serious doubt that one or two members from the region will make any difference in the development of the valley in a 40 members GB assembly.The 56000 population of Hunza will be living in a cocoon and a trend setter to develop political system based on ethnicity / religious ideology and may result further disintegration of the diverse society of GB.
sorry to say, It seems like you always oppose any initiative here taken by the people, your posts in different blogs show that you have all the solutions and no body else have any alternative way for all the problems GB is having recently. I would disagree with all your points you have mentioned above, if you could kindly see the statistics in Musharrafs rule, and now in PPP’s rule or any other democratically elected party,you will see a humongous difference in development done in all sectors of life, then how come you can blame all the military retirees.
why do you want hunza to be the slaughtering sheep, where the rest of GB seats in all regions except hunza are chosen on basis of religion sect and ethnicity, this is a bitter truth, i will give you an example , have you ever heard of any part of GB which is concentrated with a certain sect of people, they always choose a person of their own sect, regardless of how competent and honest he is, this is the dilemma of our age. there is no democracy here in pakistan, you have to accept this truth. only thing that has made Hunza different , peaceful, developing than any other part of GB, even the whole country is our belief in our religious teachings, and our Immamati organizations, your so called democratic system has no role in making hunza the way it is now, we should come back and face the system as a community, this sounds harsh but this is how the whole country is running on, and the rest of GB too. if we follow your dirty political system , Hunza will also end up like karachi or peshawar with violance. We reject your political system, we have our own system here based on our beliefs which has protected us for decades now. i strongly admire the Brigd’s initiative here that he has step forward to raise voice against this corrupt system. long live Hunza
I think, moving forward with this discussion, two points are important:
1. In modern democracies and societies, as i repeatedly say, civil society is the building block for political parties. For example before the communist party was established, the communist international served as platform, recently in the 80s, before the Green Parties were formed in Europe, green movements, environmental groups became active and formed alliances and coalitions. Even before Muslim League came into being in 1906, the Muslim educational movement and societies were active platforms. So, it should not be a surprise that if any local and indigenous party emerges out of the local village and women organizations or the local civil society working for environmental conservation, women development, human rights and promoting social or grassroots democracy;
2. Even if no political party emerges out of this process as an entity, the sheer need for building local civil society is important that addresses the societal needs as well as serves as watchdogs and platforms to make political parties and governments accountable, promotes peace and dialogue and protects the interests and rights of consumers in the market place.
This way we would be able to move beyond current petty ethnic, village and tribal politics and promote ‘ aristocrats of knowledge and merit’ rather then promoting politics of patronage and ‘aristocracies lineage, wealth and power’.
Its need of the time to change this dysfunctional political system. If we are the trend setter then we must decide who should be our leader and who is best fits to our requirements.So far we have failed to produce such leaders who support the ideas of the people.
How can we term the elected members of the GBLA as our leaders who turn 180 degree from pre election to post election. Before election they are our brothers true sons of the soil of GB but what happens once they are elected to the GB seat. They turn to robots controlled by the thugs in islamabad. If they are truely our leaders why don’t they differ in their opnion from the islo thugs. if they truely deserve the right to be called the sons of the soil why don’t they resign after the brutal killing at Hunza.
No matter how gruesome things go in GB,GBLA is dumb and deaf ….
This is noting but an attempt to further alienate the people of Hunza from the regional political landscape and stem their political education and awareness. What difference will it make if we select our representative through this forum? He will be lone voice in the legislative assembly or at any other forum. These people have to understand that democracy is a process and people get better with it each time they elect a representative. The people of hunza and less enthusiastic about politics and hence show less awareness due to the continuous efforts to depoliticise it over the last 30 years through one forum or another. A better service to the people will be to educate them in various political ideologies capitalism, socialism, or different forms of government, or political spectrum.
Csos leading political process. Simply non sense. Look a org of baltit is calling and ngos people and retired army favouring this. This is the lowest point of decaying hunzA. I am just disappointed hunukuch. Shame on all.
Mr.Karim Hunzai has very rightly said the present bleak political scenario of Pakistan is very much due to de- politicization of the national political system.The military dictators were very much comfortable with the political division based on ethnicity, religious ideology and tribal identity.Do you think we should support the system which is responsible for the disintegration of our national ideology or to support the system to consolidate the system of unity and respect the diversity.GB consisting of diverse ethnicity, linguistic and sectarian groups and this is the reality of the region.We should continue to contribute for the unity and progress of the region and will resist the proponent of divide and isolation. otherwise GB will not be very different from the rest of the country and we don’t want the worst political scerenrio of Karachi, Quetta or Khuram agency to replicate in the land of peace and tranquillity.