by OMAR
Pakistani media mogul Shakil ur Rahman’s daughter got married in Dubai. Bollywood stars were in attendance, as was Perv Musharraf.
Its reported that SRK charges 750,000 dollars per wedding appearance. The other stars were probably a bit cheaper. The singers who sang at the Mehndi must have cost a pretty penny as well.
Indian lavish weddings sometimes happen in India, but really lavish Pakistani wedding happen in Dubai; Pakistani capitalists can make their money in Pakistan and spend it in Dubai without having to worry about the “externalities” in Pakistan. Does it tell us something that the wedding was NOT held in Pakistan?
btw, Mir Shakil ur Rahman and his Jang Group are leading the charge against Zardari these days, with generous use of barbs about lavish lifestyle and ill-gotten wealth (which is why the wedding was not heavily advertised in Pakistan..mir sahib is not THAT dumb).
It is my guess (based on little more than news items and gossip from friends) that most of the big new capitalists in Pakistan are unhappy with the current regime and want “controlled democracy”, maybe one led by Imran Khan and supervised by the all-knowing army. Its a tempting vision (China is supposed to be the ultimate model) but I dont think its going to work as advertised. Our capitalist overlords might have done better to accept a western parliamentary system and then buy influence in the political parties in the usual manner. Much of the hard work was already done by the British empire and the example of India right next door. Instead of using some fantasies of caliphate and Delhi sultanate to organize people, they could have had the usual right wing and left wing heaps and everyday corruption and compromises..it was (maybe still is) a workable idea….Modern China is the product of thousands of years of organized Chineseness, massive civil wars, a very drastic revolution, etc etc….trying to emulate China while being Pakistan is unlikely to work. I think our elite is being shortsighted here…They would probably say Zardari is too extortionate, but I think the desire to have their capitalist cake and eat their Paknationalist-Pakarmy-Islamist fantasy also plays a role in their antipathy to “corrupt” parliamentary democracy.
Brown Pundits for more
(Thanks to Robin Khundkar)