1. You get a healthy amount of money for doing exercise, which otherwise might cost you a month’s allowance if you try doing it in a gym.
2. You are paid for getting education, something only a student from Shehzad Roy’s NGO – I am paid to learn – can boast of from the civilian lot.
3. You can shop till you drop at discounted rates at Canteen Stores Department aka CSD, and still our forwarded text messages state the Parliament’s Cafeteria rates.
4. You have the authority to brand anyone who raises a voice against your earnings as an Indian agent.
5. No one ever counts the number of cars you own, the acres of plots you get and the amount of money you make throughout your career; we’ve got the punch-bag politicians to practice our bashing skills on instead.
6. Whenever you like, you can stand up and announce a coup, dissolve the elected assemblies, abrogate the constitution and you actually gather a huge public support for that. All you say is “Those bloody civilians”.
7. You get free media coverage not only on September 6, but also on any day that is feebly ‘national’, even if you weren’t born before 1965.
8. You are glorified as if you’ve come from the heavens for just being in the forces, for just doing your job (even if you aren’t doing it)!
9. Patriotism is synonymous to eulogizing you.
10. Whenever you fail, you are showered with petals and streets are decorated with “Pak fauj k jo khilaaf, wo qaum ka ghaddar!” banners in no time.
11. You can simply escape your failures by putting the blame on others. No one will dare ask you twice.
12. The truckers love you across Pakistan  with a portrait of “Ayub Khan” and slogan “Pak Fauj ko surkh salaam”

The aftermath of this dramatic episode culminates into singular practical conclusion. Pakistan is an extremely unsafe country where even Osama Bin Laden is not safe anymore! But at the same time if you looked the other side of the coin, a suggestion can be made to the newly wed British royal couple, for their secret honeymoon they should choose Pakistan, as they can hide there forever and nobody would find them.

The above couple of paragraph might qualify for some sort of satire but the objective was to highlight the real issue. In the absence of any concrete explanations at the official level, the media spin-doctors are drifting the opinion away from the core issue. How and why Osama Bin Laden was hiding in Abbotabad for six years and why nobody knew about him? On what basis our heads of states keep on making claims that Osama was not in Pakistan? This only qualifies to be the height of irresponsibility. Of course when I talk about leadership, I don’t necessarily take the civilian leadership into account as they have long time ago franchised the defense, finance and foreign affairs portfolios to the military. Thus the only leadership that is accountable is the military leadership and its affiliates.

In the latest round of Corps Commanders conference, the GHQ has admitted its mistake for the lapse in intelligence. Fair enough but an error of gigantic proportions is made, that requires accountability. Are we going to see some heads roll at the top brass of the armed forces? Is General Pasha going to resign? Highly unlikely! At the same time we shouldn’t be distracted by the media-games and let us keep our eyes on the ball. And that is the core issue, why and how OBL( Osama Bin Laden) kept on enjoying the serenity of Abbotabad with his wives and servants without getting any attention from the mighty ISI? At the same time we should rule out the rumors of collusion between elements within ISI and OBL, that doesn’t hold any ground. ISI and military would have earned a desperately needed lost credibility by netting OBL and it wouldn’t have been difficult for them to transport the detainee to Waziristan and then announce its arrest.

The clamor of sovereignty and violation of air space is bizarre. Like it happened for the first time! The sovereignty of Pakistan ceased to exist when GHQ knotted its ties with Pentagon in 1954 and Pakistani accepted to be the foot-soldier of US in latter’s adventures around the globe. We shouldn’t forget that Americans used to fly their spy planes from Badaber ( Peshawar ) to carry out their espionage of the erstwhile USSR back in 60s. Pakistan became  part of the SEATO and CENTO in 1950s and assumed the role of policeman of Middle East since then on the behest of US. Talk of sovereignty and seeking money to protect its nuclear assets from US, don’t go hand-in-hand. The bottom line is not when and how US choppers entered Pakistan airspace and carried out the Hollywood style adventure to kill their foe, rather it is why OBL was there in Abbotabad for so long, undetected, in the first place?

– To be continued —

The course of the day leading to the match start time in the afternoon virtually brought Pakistan to a halt. Though officially government granted half-day off but practically it was observed as a full day off. Finally on their TV screens they saw Umar Gul picked up the ball and raced towards Tedndulkar along with millions of racing hearts, especially on the Pakistani side of the sub-continental divide. It is important to reckon this subtle difference that why Pakistani hearts were beating faster then their counterparts. Indians were no less thrilled but lately their country has achieved much successes in a lot of other fields while the Pakistani side is certainly success-thirsty. For the given moment, they were content to quench it with at least a cricketing success.

Ball after ball and Over after Over, as the day progressed so did the Indian score card, notwithstanding some forgiven follies committed by maestro Tendulkar, but in the end the Indian walked out with a decent though chase able total on the scoreboard. The charged crowds on the Pakistani streets regarded that Total as their half success. They ignored the fact that Pakistani bowling was better than Indians but that was not true in the case of batting. Naturally, with brief and distributed intervals of tractions, the Pakistani batting line kept on sliding South, resulting in producing a heart-breaker for 180 million people.

They say, the higher one flies, the harder one falls. Our cricket team’s flight in this match was not higher enough, but the flight of imagination of crowds was not matching the match. It was too high, to say the least. They wanted to settle a number of scores with India by the score on the scoreboard. But as it turned out, though a little late in the minds of emotion savvy nation, it was just another game of Cricket. The one who will play better, carries the day. In this case it happened to be India.

Never mind, we can have match with India in many other fields and believe me those matches don’t have any knock-out stage. History tells us that downfalls of the nations are not caused by singular events rather these are pluralistic in nature. Every string is broken and every bead is spilled. Out of a homogenous downfall we cannot keep some segments floated. All sinks or all rises. So my request is to treat this event just as a beautiful game of cricket and it would distasteful to see if we pick some scapegoats among the Pakistani cricket squad. They did their best. Better luck next time.

The Internet forums have already flared up and heated discussions dominating the entire subcontinental cyber-space. ‘Team India’ and “Boom Boom Afridi eleven’ has charged followership. Both teams must be under going immense pressure because of the huge expectation of their respective people. But what to do, unfortunately, their will be a result and one has to win and other has to lose. But-the fans- they are not willing to accept the defeat. This is tough!

Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh has invited the Pakistani head of states to watch the match. Diplomatic circles are suggesting it as a cricket-diplomacy venture. This must be an auspicious event to expect a thaw in the frozen relationships of both countries after the events of 26/11, the Mumbai attacks of 2008. Thanks to cricket, at least we would see a summit meeting, which is a good omen to the 1.2 billion people of India and Pakistan who have become hostage to the activities of the non-state actors and also the knee-jerk nature of relationship. Thanks cricket!

On the event of attack on Sri Lankan team in Lahore, I submitted that it was a time for requiem over Pakistan cricket for long time to come. No foreign team visited Pakistan since then on Pakistani land because of well found security concerns. I was intentionally trying to avoid the usage of political sausage but hard to put it aside. There has lot happened recently in Pakistan and our media sang in chorus the choir of pride, ego and sovereignty repeatedly. Fair enough, the nations have their prides, but pride without substance is tantamount to humiliation and embarrassment. Don’t we see that around our borders the whole world has converged to pay homage to the game of cricket and even some smaller countries like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are also the proud sponsors of this majestic cricket gala but our ‘proud’ nation has failed even to bring some of its matches on its own soil, what a shame!

sharam magar tum ko naheen aati Ghalib

Sorry, politics just induces itself always, despite the restraint. On a more brighter note, the PM of Pakistan has agreed to visit India to see the match. Congress president Ms Sonia Gandhi would also be there to cheer her team. At the same time the chief minister of Punjab has announced that government is going to allot one murabba of fertile agricultural land ( around 12.5 acres ) to each player of the Pakistan team, if they beat India in the Semi Final. Well this may be a better pre-emptive move to ward off the booky phenomenon which has already consumed some wonderful talented Pakistani cricketer in the last year.

Back to the game, despite my love for Pakistan cricket team, Indian seem more favorite for this game because of their deep batting line up and the kind of game they displayed against Australia. However, the momentum Pakistan team has achieved in the last two games cannot be simply over-looked. Pakistan batting is key to this match. Historically Indians are not good chaser of the target, but Pakistan has to do extremely well and target of 290+ can guarantee them a spot in the finals but only if they show the same game as they have shown against West Indians then I am sure they can take on the East Indians too. Yuvrah Singh displayed some fine batting performance against Australia but there was no hurry for him as plenty of over were yet there and he just had to save his wicket and play the loose ball, which he did perfectly well. But the problem lies with the squeezed-in scenario where if one has to manage an average of 6+ per over and save wicket too. No matter what is the out come of this game might be, but at the end it would be a win of game of cricket which has brought close the publics of both countries.

As I was browsing the net, I came across an interesting menu made by a charged Indian cricket fan. Please see for yourself what kind of taste he is offering to his team. Personally I don’t agree with him.
Indian Tigers Menu for 30th March

Afridi Kabab
Shoaib Soup
Kamran Salad
Umar Makhini
Younis Biryani
Gul Raita
Misbah Nan
Ajmal Fry
Razzaq Papad
Hafeez Ka Halwa….

The Great Pakistani thali specially for The Indian Tigers… (Pakistani ko pakaa ke kha jayenge)
Note: This example was picked to depict the deep level of emotions running among the fans. There were a lot more which couldn’t be quoted ( from both sides ) but this one was interesting. Finally I wish well to both the teams and like anybody else eagerly waiting for the match.

Please read on if you can read Urdu.

نثار میں تری گلیوں کے اے وطن کہ جہاں
چلی ہے رسم کہ کوئی نہ سر اُٹھا کے چلے

  جو کوئی چاہنے والا طواف کو نکلے
نظر چرا کے چلے، جسم و جاں بچا کے چلے

  ہے اہل دل کے لیے اب یہ نظمِ بست و کشاد
کہ سنگ و خشت مقید ہیں اور سگ آزاد

 بہت ہے ظلم کہ دستِ بہانہ جو کے لیے
جو چند اہل جنوں تیرے نام لیوا ہیں

 بنے ہیں اہلِ ہوس، مدعی بھی منصف بھی
کسیے وکیل کریں، کس سے منصفی چاہیں

A Pakistani state which already failed on many accounts, has now transformed into a smoking inferno which can erupt any moment and that will wipe and burn away everything. The bigotry, mindlessness and intolerance has tore about everything of which a social fabric of a society is woven with. I was appalled to see the scenes of hero-like welcome to the suspected murderer of the constitutional head of the largest province of Pakistan. And this was accorded to him by none other than the lawyer fraternity, who are the very custodians of law and justice. No matter what was the motivation, it was a murder and in any society of humans it is incomprehensible to glorify the murderer.

In my previous writings I have been consistently mentioning the emerging dangerous trends and pampering of zealots by the state organs, so I am not going to repeat myself over it. But it is necessary to reiterate that after the painful procedures carried out over Pakistan in the last thirty odd years, we don’t need to be genius to guess the ditch we are going to fall in.

I always question myself, when we’ll stop celebration of the arrival of Muhammd Bin Qasim and look into the future? Infact Pakistan was created twice, once when it was carved out of the Indian Union by a brilliant lawyer and statesman Muhammad Ali Jinnah, but that Pakistan didn’t last long. The mischievous elements who were left behind rather opposed the making of new nation state, soon re-organized theirself to get credit for what that was none of theirs. However they remained on the sidelines and no one paid any attention to them, until they found one of their type, General Zia-ul-Haq as late as in 1977. And this was the second of birth of the Pakistan. Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s Pakistan was dead and a new Pakistan came into being. Currently we are living in this new dictator framed Pakistan.

During the past three decades, the religious facade was given to cover up any lie, dishonesty and consequently hypocrisy became the hallmark of this ‘holy’ society. The clandestine and visible efforts were made to spread hate and intolerance, as it was necessary to sustain the illegal rule of Zia. Religious forces were given free hand coupled by the public capital punishments and lashing, which gradually transformed the society into the one which sought its entertainment from inflicting pain and suffering on its fellow members, basically a sadistic one. School text books were amended to include heroic Arab conquests of the world. National media glorified the same characters of Arab monarchies of Umayyad and Abbasis. The world view of the new minds was twisted with fabricated stories of gallantries and myths of crowdedness of their enemies. A nation was cheated to achieve the longevity of an individual’s ruling tenure. Basically during this process Pakistan lost a whole generation!

To compound the pain, Russian adventure in Afghanistan, implicitly plagued the entire nation to an extent that Pakistani society started reflecting the medieval outlook. Essentially if we fast it forward to present day, Pakistan has been transformed into a nation where nobody from outside world want to visit, invest and live. This is unfortunate but I must say the present scenarios is like the one we see in apocalyptic theme movies where a segment of the people are infected with a deadly virus and the rest of them quarantine them so that infection couldn’t spread. Please forgive my forbearance but I see the same scenario in the world where Pakistan is increasingly getting quarantined as no antidote has till this day been discovered to cure it.

Most of us are raised in traditional Muslim families where along with religious rituals, we are also imparted with vital lessons of ethics, morality, respect, tolerance and love. But lately the rituals have dominated the entire religious space and basic norms of living in a human society have practically evaporated. True, the whole scenario is not only the doing of clergy or power savvy generals but it has too many other moving parts as well. During the peak of Afghan Jihad days there was a special emphasis on one of the tradition ( Hadith ) that says “In the matter of faith, kids are not obliged to listen to the contrary views of their  parents”. Agreed, but this was not quoted in love of religion but was used as a weapon to get the conscripts against the wishes of their parents for a multi-faceted Jihad in various regions of the world with focus on Afghanistan and Kashmir by the Pakistani establishment and greedy clergy.

The subject of blasphemy may be beyond me to indulge in but we are always taught to pray for treading the ‘Uswa-e-Hasna’ ( the best trail, meaning by to attempt the emulate the life of Holy Prophet ) but when I study the life and times of Holy Prophet, I find him with a patience as high as mountains, compassion more than a mother who showers the love on her infant, forgiveness of the highest level to the extent to forego who insulted him, to clemency for those who killed his nearest relatives and a message of love for everybody. Allah says in His Book “Ponder over ( think and learn)”, do we? And if we don’t what this whole fuss is about, let us celebrate the death of a murdered man and garland his murderer, after all Mumtaz Qadri has opened many closed vistas on us and if we follow them soon we’ll earn our respect in the community of nations!

Tailpiece: I wish Mumtaz Qadri knew that Qadri Sufi’s originate from Hazrat Mian Mir who was such a tolerant and peace loving man who even  helped Sikhs in setting the foundations of Darbar Sahib Amratsar. Baba Bullhay Shah was also one from the same ‘silsala-e-Qadria’. Alas, someone could educate us!

Overall in Pakistan this is the biggest calamity to have hit this country ever in its history. Unlike  the 2005 earthquake, the scale of destruction is huge and comprises the entire Pakistan. Crops worth  billions of dollars have been destroyed, estimated 350 thousand houses are there no more. 14 million  people are living under the open skies. They are fasting there without food, medicine and are victims  to potential disease outbreaks and insects. The scale of the disaster is unimaginable, hospitals,  schools and other infrastructure  cease to exist. There is widespread understanding that Pakistan has  been pushed back for at least 15 years. UN is calling it even the worst disaster than 2004 Tsunami.

But the problem is nobody is donating the money! Our media is focusing  on the shoe hurled at Zardari.  Government is defending that there was no shoe attack. Heated debates are being conducted over national media with appropriate time for commercial breaks. The fun and chatter of bickering politicians on the  TV is continued. Political point scoring is at its peak. Zardari is planning for another trip. This  time to Russia, though he has shortened it now. Though it could safely have been cancelled. This is the state of affairs in Pakistan!

Donors are not contributing enough this time. So far Prime Minister’s fund has received just Rs. Four  million! Once the flood waters recede the ominous task of of rehabilitation  of the homeless would  commence. To put it mildly, it would be like re-building half of the country. Crops, cattle and other  valuable of ordinary Pakitsani he owned, are there no more. A huge funding is required. No single state can do it. All of us need to realize that the magnitude of the destruction is huge and has  unfortunately could not be projected as it was supposed to be. Because of our deepest interest in the  dynamics and heat of politics we took it light and on Facebook and other social networks a vast 
majority of Paksitanis were busy in unfolding the ‘Joota’ mystry while town after town was getting  inundated. Very unfortunate!

Through this post I appeal you to please open your heart and contribute as much as you can. If you feel a credibility issue with the government or any NGO please figure out the people whom you think are  honest and hand it over to them. The donor fatigue is visible and understandable but please imagine one quainter of Pakistan has been rendered homeless. We have homes and comforts, please imagine if that is  taken away or water destroyed our property, what would be our feeling? This has actually happened in  Pakistan and fairly well-to-do people have also been forced to request for two meals a day in a relief  camp ( Even relief camps are not many and most of the people are wandering and have no where to go  after water took over their homes and properties) .

This is time to act, this is Ramadhan and the best place for your early Fitrana are the needy, helpless and flood-ravaged people out there. Lets keep the political point scoring for some other time. I am  purposefully not mentioning any of the charity here. However personally I’ve chosen International  Development and Relief Foundation ( www.idrf.ca ) a Canada based charity with a proven track record of  helping Pakistan in the past.

The British past glory is an obsolete history now. The fact of the matter is that it is just another tiny island floating in Atlantics and rest of the mainland Europe is trying to keep it as far on the other side of English Channel as possible. UK mired by its complex demographic factors, which also highlights the British adventurism in the past, is not in a position anymore to dictate sovereign nations as per the cravings of its past nostalgia. However, this is certainly not to belittle UK in its entirety but it is also important to put the things in their right perspective.

We are certainly critical of Pakistan’s role in the past, but that is not a fact anymore. With the elected government in place which has achieved consensus against the the extremist elements and waged a war that is practically shaking the whole edifice of extremism. Pakistan also understands that it is no longer obliged by the adventurism of the UK’s home grown terrorists to serve as catalyst for its action against the terrorists at home. Extremism is rust which is eroding the foundations of Pakistan and certainly a vast majority of the public understands that. So pushing Pakistan by giving pious sermons by a foreign dignitary in a hostile territory can serve no purpose but to create a bad taste.

Any such statement is counter productive owing to the fact that it rejuvenates the feelings of nationalism. Nationalism in the times of peace is a good thing however a country at war within itself, the nationalism doesn’t help. The whole attention of general public goes out of borders and the feelings of hostility find a new punching bag, which eventually gives another life-line to the terrorists who also join the chorus. And the extremist apologists get more potency in their rhetoric against the West and they make general Pakistani to believe that their government is the friend of ‘real’ enemy.

The move to win hearts and minds cannot be carried on this way. David Cameron’s political expediency is understandable and also his rightist approach but by issuing such statements he is simply undoing all the efforts so far his predecessors have done to create soft corner in the heart of general Pakistani about the UK and the West. In this respect Mr. Cameron must learn some diplomacy lessons from its ally across the Atlantic, the US, whose foreign minister is setting an example guide of a successful foreign policy with Pakistan, whom Western press regards as a difficult ally. She engages herself with the common man during her trips to Pakistan and is open to admitting the past wrong-doings of US in case of Pakistan. Of course detractors are still open to the criticism however inertly Pakistani’s feel more comfortable with a mix of her frank and formal remarks. These are the ways of passing on the right message and also not offending an already difficult audience.

Wiki-leaks, its timing and consequences requires a more detailed analysis which I would do sometime later as more facts unfold. But again Mr. Cameron had no right to formulate his warnings to Pakistan on the un-authentic and seemingly a multi-faceted intelligence reports.