With Friends Like These....

The CTG does not need Awami League ideologues to compare it to past dictatorships. Don't get me wrong. The BNP would compare it to a "dictatorship" if it could, except that Zia was an unelected ruler as well. Plus, their last five years wasn't anything to write home about when it came to democracy.

A former ambassador writing in the Daily Star today uses the Pakistani ruling of State vs. Dosso (1958) to argue - nay, more like nudge, nudge, wink, wink, hint, hint - that the current CTG is *gasp* legitimate. If the date hasn't given it away already, this was the same ruling that was used to legitimise Ayub Khan's long dictatorship. Detractors of the CTG are already comparing it to all sorts of Pakistani regimes. Now it seems, so are the supporters. I give up .... Deshi politics is simply absurd.

Don't get me wrong: I'm still pro-CTG, I think this government is legitimate under our CURRENT exceptional circumstances without any need for historical analogies. I'm willing to give it till the end of 2008 which is when they promised fresh, free and fair elections. It's just that such justifications of the CTG are not going to make me a fan. Neither will comparing domestic law and international law, which coming from a former ambassador smacks of bad faith. But the abuse of international analogies to justify domestic political tactics is best left for another day when I'm less worked up.