Punjab: Bullets in Bansri (Part 1)

The rural Punjab has gone through a subtle but certainly very conspicuous change during the last two decades. The ‘new’ Punjab doesn’t resonate with its traditional and historical composition, as it used to be known for its friendliness, easy going, open mindedness and secular attitudes of life. The emerging trends reflect the geo-political developments taking place around its periphery. These trends encompass the rigid attitudes, intolerance of dissention and cynicism. Though change is a compulsory human trait but the problem with this change is its unnatural progression and non-indiginousness. The new ways of life almost entirely are caused by the outside factors and alien forces whose thoughts remained foreign to the local mind set.

Another unfortunate factor is the complicity of the State to permit and encourage the new values which are placed under the banner of puritinzation of faith or indoctrination of the belief-set to the extent of dragging it towards orthodoxy. Though this change was primarily designed for urban areas of Pakistan in general and Punjab in particular. However, as time and events proved later, its pervasiveness remained limited in urban centers and city-dwellers couldn’t appreciate the new and vigorously disseminated ideals. But the case of rural Punjab against this onslaught turned out otherwise. It proved more fertile in this regard and subscribed to the new ideals more easily. This change wasn’t difficult to feel but as most of the intellectuals mainly stayed focused on the developments in the urban areas, they ignored this mini-revolution that turned the existing ways of life in Punjabi villages and the inhabitants of small towns.

To cater to nostalgia I must say that the Punjab we find in the pictures of Usataad Allah Bakhsh and the Punjabi movies of the 1970’s decade, is there no more. (Please don’t mix the films of 70s with the ‘gandasa’ style movies of 80s). The new culture and its values have completely replaced the old ones. It has overshadowed Punjab’s traditional softness, its folklore and the message of the great Sufi poets. Now, the imaginative visualization of the new Punjab doesn’t hold any more traditional sweet melodies of the pipe (bansri not fiddle), rather it has been replaced with the echoes of boom and sensation caused by the passing Klashinkov bullets. The sweet ‘mahia and tappa’ culture is switched with the loud sectarian and jihadi sermons blasting from the powerful loud speakers of the newly and rapidly constructed mosques and madrassas.

These new realities are pointing towards the similar dangerous and emerging trends as the ones already set in motion in the tribal and settled areas of NWFP, whereby life has been confined to my way or highway hypothesis. The state of Pakistan seems powerless to undo new and painful realities of tribal mindset blended with religious orthodoxy despite its change of heart towards its erstwhile so-called ’strategic assets’.

To understand this phenomenon, I have chosen a small village in Punjab and will try to narrate the changes that it has gone through. The village Ratuwall in district Sialkot was a similar kind of village where Punjabi traditions as described, prevailed. As per legend this village was started by two Hindu brothers Ratta and Paal almost three hundred years ago. After the partition this village become part of Pakistan by a narrow margin of 200 yards, where by the Line of Control passes through. Till 1990 there were 77 Muslim, 23 Hindu, eight Christians and one Ahmedi family lived there. Among the 77 Muslim families there were 60 Sunni Brelvi and 17 Shia families. This village had exemplary peace and religious tolerance. Among the Hindu families, one family were land holders while remaining 22 Hindu families would work for Muslim land owners. Some of the Hindu community men would go to the nearby Sialkot where they were employed by the sports goods manufacturers. For three hundred years of its history nobody has witnessed any event which can be counted as religious intolerance or hatred.

( Continued ….)

Published in Daily THE NEWS of Jully 22, 2009

Jihadis Strike Back

Suicide bombers struck at various places in Pakistan during the last week. They have destroyed PC Peshawar, killed a moderate cleric Sarfaraz Naeemi alongside their assassin squads hit areas of NWFP killing many police officials and locals.

This was inevitable. But this is also an indication that for the first time ever, in the post 9/11 world, Pakistan is taking serious note of the miscreants. The first serious surgery of its kind to uproot the cancer that is deeply entrenched in the body of Pakistani society. The chain of suicide attacks are an ample proof of the desperation in the head offices of the Terrorism Inc. It also indicates that the noose is tightening around the neck of its staff. However, the cancer is deep rooted, very deep rooted. It was cultured very well by the global and domestic spy agencies. The individuals were picked, fed and trained to the best of the trainers’ abilities. Hence, the fight back will be tough. The only silver lining out of this blood soaked episode is the unanimity of the view among the Pakistani nation regarding these so called Taliban, their motives and identification of the problem.

With the exception of few faggots, including dear Imran Khan and hostile ‘unaware’ Hassan of JI, every one across the political and religious spectrum is on board with this operation. Some liberal critics also point out that, this whole facade ( the military operation) is being done to save the forces of the status quo. Alright, personally I also don’t feel comfortable with the beneficiaries and the profiteers of the prevailing rusty system but the dawn of a new revolution, whose trailer we have just seen in the form of Taliban, is horrific. And for the time being, it would be wise to trace back to the status quo, in which at least we had the right to live, though very miserably. Once we deal with this menace, there would be ample time to fix/overhaul the system too.

Getting back to Jihadis, they were created, by the establishment and for the establishment. They were trained with all the possible rigor and were made as lethal as possible. They were designed to kill the Russians but somehow they forgot to turn on the chip which was imbibed the name “Russian” on it. These machine only knew two commands, if human, kill ‘it’.Somehow the architects and engineers of these machines forgot to replace the word ‘human’ with ‘Russians” when this chip was finally soldered into their tiny brains. Hence the result. The machine has started killing its creators. And now creators are obliged, not less than, to actually pull the plug. But at the same time this machine has become self-aware with some malicious scripts copied in their generic code. Now they have become deceptive and can also camouflage themselves. Also they have become so smart to actually generate their sympathizers among the masses and mass media, who would cover up their dirty crap each time they carry out their ‘mission’ sucessfully. But the time is numbered for them, no more.

Let there be no doubt that phoenix of Pakistan will emerge among the debris and ashes of the left over. This nation is learning new things and ideas at a geometric rate. The new swing will not hover around the fresh-ideas-quarantined society, it will get to the other side where stream of progress and prosperity flows, where clergy is restricted to its role . Enough of the dogmas that powered the forces of darkness to rule the sentiment of a semi literate public. This swing will also wipe out the notions that were cultivated by Zia-ul-Haq, when he was trying to make us Arab and actually wanted us to believe that as well. A new dawn of progress, prosperity and growth will emerge. Just its trajectory will be a bit bumpy and painful.

Also published in daily THE NEWS of June 13, 2009

Harnessing Talibans

Other day I had a chance to listen to another Maulana. This great man ( Ala Hazrat ) belonged to JUI ( Fazlur Rehman Group ). His sacred words were something like this, “Military should leave Malakand soon and dialogue must be started with Taliban”. Very well. Dialogue and discussion are the ways of the civilized world. However Maulana Fazlur Rehaman, his leader’s, statement a couple of weeks ago still echoes in my mind where he warned Pakistani nation that Taliban are marching towards Islamabad and are near the Tarbela Dam area. Essentially he meant ‘do something’. What a hypocrisy. First when you incite the security apparatus and later when they start operation you start shedding crocodile tears! As for as history goes, this whole saga is full of tales of betrayals and hypocrisy. But for us, lets keep some facts straight. JUI( Fazal-ur-Rehaman) and JUI ( Sami-ul-Haq ) along with ever green Jamat Islami are the incubators for all sorts of fanaticism in Pakistan. Well, not all sorts, only religious as we also have linguistic fanaticism too, but that is a different story.

It would be pertinent to have a look at the role these kind of parties played in bringing petty sectarian disputes to a scale where entire armies of Jihadis has been formed. Though in this whole scanario, the dinosaurs of the feudal structure of Pakistan are also responsible for this state of affairs to some extent. Their high handed approach for their working class created resentment against them, for centuries, and hatred against them transferred genetically to the subsequent generations. The religious scavengers and non-representative and oppressive regimes, in the name of salvation from these very feudals, targeted and lured the poor peasant class’s boys in various parts of Pakistan. Most conspicuously it started with Jhang where feudals were challenged with their rival sects recruits from peasant class. Those kids were then coerced to do heinous deeds from murder to dacoities and their ruthless patrons meanwhile created black mailing stuff against them. Left those religiously motivated kids with no choice but to place them at the point of no return. Of course it is not a one way show, those recruits also enjoyed their new found status. They found importance and the guys who saw their parents perpetually living from hand to mouth, actually got a lot more and even some of them became members of the parliament during turbulent 80s and 90s era. And during this whole time, security agencies served as the father figure for JUI(F), JUI (S) and JI and their splinter groups. The Pakistani establishment and ruling elite wanted to overcome the geographic limits and expand Pakistan horizontally so that we could keep our nukes and missile system at a farther distance from the Indians. This policy was called strategic depth finding mission. So everybody from religio-political parties to Pakistani ruling class rolled their dice over the head of these recruits for various reason. Sometime the interests of their masters converged but other time these were poles apart. However, none of the patrons had any issues with its respective share of force pie. Thanks to the prevailing poverty in Pakistan their was never a dearth of recruits for these ‘glorified’ causes.

In this whole episode, those rural poverty hit kids whom, now we know with different exotic names like Taliban, “Suicide bombers” and Jihadis became disposable commodity and were used as and when their masters pleased to use them. They were the fodder of the Afghan war, they were used to eliminate political rivals and all sorts of nasty business where security ‘high-ups’ didn’t want to leave their fingerprints on. This thesis can go long but I am of the opinion that these so-called Maulanas should be the one to be spanked and not the recruits. Though I have no sympathy for the recruited kids after what they have done in Pakistan but factually they are just zombies who know nothing about the beneficiaries behind their acts.

Now let us have a glimpse at the beneficieries. For instance just look at these so-called Maulans life style. Sufi Muhammad like ignorant who may not even win two times bread with his IQ and knowledge level, travels in a parade of Prado SUVs. Along with the top Taliban politburo members who used to be daily wages seekers are now affluent and resourceful people. Maulana Fazal, okay he may be an exception, as his dear departed papa, Maulana Mufti Mehmood might have left something for him, but even then he earned himself the title of Maulana Diesel, may be there is some truth behind this title. The point is that these guys have nothing to with religion, they are politicians who use the religion to win status, public office and comforts for theirselves and their kin. It is bitter thing to speak but this is the turth.

If we need to fix this whole messed up scenario, put the above mentioned Maulanas on trial in retrospect and the strategic depth finders on media, rest will follow in the due course of time. Everybody who does politics, religious, non-religious or secular should be asked to justify his/her means because there are people who spent their entire lives working on their craft ( studying science, medicine and technology etc. ) cannot still earn a decent livings then how come these parasites who not only survive but thrive even without nominal education? Accountability for everybody and only transparent accountability will guarantee that next time before joining politics one would be required to clean his backyard otherwise do something else. But who is going to do it? Nobody and this tamasha will go on forever.

As a parting note, these religious parties are not the only one who are responsible for this state of affairs, there are even more to it. Notably so-called liberals, drawing room intellectual and a whole generation of political class is involved. No body, really no body cared about Pakistan. The political midgets and their short sightedness has wrecked havoc on the Pakistani civil society fabric. But that is a material for more debate and better left for future analysis.

Published in the daily THE NEWS May 22, 2009

American War, Is it?

“Pakistani Army is fighting American’s War in Swat”, said Munawar Hassan, the newly knighted Amir of Jamat Islami. No sir, Mr Hassan, as of now, it is certainly not an American war, anymore. This is Pakistan’s own war with terrorsim against Pakistan written all over it. If somebody hurl a grenade at FC controlled check post, blow off Hotels, attack visiting foreign cricket team, attack police training centers or suicide attackers blast in the mosque where Army troops offer prayers, you still call it an American War? Imagine if all of the above was carried out by Indians, what would have been our response? It doesn’t really matter if attack comes from invader or insider, you need to match the response.

Let me tell you Mr Hassan the war that you guys fought with all the zeal and zest in Afghanistan in 80s was surely America’s war. And right now Pakistani nation is trying to clean the debris of that folly. Why Jumat Islami and other religious groups owned the first Afghan war, in the first place? We had nothing in common with Afghanis at that time. All the holy men of that time, without a tweak, embraced the dictator Zia and his self serving interests. At that time Jumat could not differentiate that actually it was a war of one super power to settle the score of Vietnam disaster agaist the other one.

Precisely this is the reason clergy is loathed in Pakistan and the religio-cum-political parties never, in the history of Pakistan, won the votes or confidence of the general public out there. Their double edged policies have wrecked the Pakistani nation manifold. It is time for us to set our priorities straight and political point scoring should be left for some other time. Army is facing the most cruel enemy. The enemy who uses ten year old children, pregnant women as human shield. Pakistani security forces needs moral boosting at this time and not the statements of Jumat kind with twisted standards. Perhaps time has come to ask such kind of parties, are you with us or against us? Everybody should be clear that chemistry of Pakistani nation is not like Afghani or Jihadi. Pakistan was nurtured as a modern state not a lump of orthodox Mullahs sanctuary. We can’t and shouldn’t allow any barbarian to destroy the academic institutions or flog poor and helpless girls in the middle of the road. Those who think that these are the ways of Islam, should better join their ranks and abandon all the modern facilities that they enjoy by virtue of the progress Pakistan achieved by its sheer merit and industrious people. We don’t need parasites who eventually sting us back.

There is one more interesting rhetoric of the Taliban apologists. They blame the Pakistani political leadership failure and post 9/11 US presence in Afghanistan as raison d’etre for Pakistani Taliban emergence. What I blame is the Afghan Jihad of 80s, responsible for all the current day evils that have plagued the Pakistan. And that was the real American war, for sure, and all of our so-called ‘ulema’ endorsed that one, for God knows what reasons and on what grounds. But the present military operation is certainly not America’s war, but it is a global war that Pakistan is fighting against those who want to turn the wheel of the time backward and cherish the medieval life style. We certainly cannot let them do that.

Tail piece: After writing this article I ran spell check and it suggested me to replace ‘Munawar’ with ‘unaware’ but I hit the ‘ignore’ button. How true!

Published in daily THE NEWS May 15, 2009

A Human Tragedy in Making!

In Malakand, the recent operation against Taliban by Pakistani Security forces is justified but I must say it was worst planned. The internally displaced people are now exceeding 1.5 Million. According to UN this is biggest mass human migration in last 15 years. They are living in the worst possible scenario where they are placed in the tents that convert into hot air balloons during the day time. And the summers of Pakistan means a temperature that exceeds 40 degrees Celsius. But apart from that we need to keep some statistics in mind. The total population of Malakand division is 5 million and still more than 3 million people are trapped in the war zone. There are no medical facilities, no food supply and if somebody wants to sneak out, the transporters are exploiting them by charging more than a $1000 per bus for travelling only 80 km to nearby Mardan or Swabi. The children, elderly and pregnant women are the worst hit of this whole scenario.

Government has proved totally inept while doing its preparations for this kind of operation. There is no reflection from civil society, wealthy individuals and NGOs during this whole tragedy. I appeal to everybody to support to the Red Cross, Edhi foundation and other genuine relief origination to take care of these poor people who have been displaced in their own country. I would analyze the political aspect of this whole episode later but right now these poor Swati people need our help. After all, we all want a peaceful, stable, moderate and vibrant Pakistan and now it needs help. If we don’t act now, it might kill more people from starvation and disease than actually from extremists whom we want to save them from!

Iqbal Bano Passed Away!

Daghe Dil Hum ko Yaad Aaanay Lage

The legendary singer of Pakistan or to put it correctly, of Sub-Continent Iqbal Bano has passed away. This closes the chapter of classical ghazal singing to an end. Bano was not a big fan of contemporary Ghazal singing and she was the old school who stressed on the raag itself more than the ghazal’s rhyming compulsions.

She was a big name in Ghazal singing. Her enchanting voice eulogized millions of ghazal fans for decades and will continue to do so as long as Urdu-Hindi language is there and there are people who like this slow rhythming form of performing arts known as ghazal singing. God may bless her.

As a tribute I am putting two of her melody beauties on my blog

Peace in Swat or Sweeping under the Carpet

At this most critical moment I should have been quiet or danced to the tunes of Nizam-e-Adle regulation passed by the National Assembly of Pakistan. For the sake of saying, it is a fancy way of putting the lives, honour, respect, future and destiny of more than two million population of Malakand Division under the ruthless clutches of Taliban, a modern form of Azab-e-Elahi.

Yes, it will bring peace, but the one like we have in graveyards. It is always so serene there. The minor stir in the air feels like a boom. People of Swat and adjoining areas would be happy that the way they used to live, is now history. Of course, that was a bad way, the infidel way, anyways. Now people endowed with the strength of Eeman and the authority to bring justice will prevail. They would bring justice without creating a just society and condition. Islam would see its renaissance and under the banner of this great movemnet the torch bearers of Islam would bring the sweet revolution everywhere. Why to keep the goodies confined to Swat?

I am dismayed by the ANP-PPP duo, especially ANP where opportunism dominated. Instead of keeping the long term interests of its people it succumbed to power of Klashinkov bearers. I have nothing against Shariat or Adl but against the way and circumstances it is adopted. I don’t think that an illiterate person, who is fed with charity, has no formal schooling can transform into a religous scholar, out of nothing and on top of it claims to have understood the Shariat-e-Muhammadi to its fundamentals! As once Winston Churchill said, war is too delicate a matter to be handed over to the generals. The same applies here. Shariat is too delicate a matter to be handed over to Mullas leave aside the ruthless Talibans.

This is all, I know. I may be wrong, please correct me, if you think so.

Published in Daily THE NEWS April 16, 2009

On ‘Fake’ Video and ‘Conspiracy’ Against Islam

“This is Drama”, “This Video, is fake”, “No it was not even made in Swat”, “This was shot to sabotage the peace process between Taliban and Govt”. “You see ,that girl was a prostitute and hence punished by Taliban”. “NGOs want to bring bad name to Islam”, “This video is a conspiracy against Islam”. “US is trying to justify its future attack on Pakistan”. “The video is fake because if the girl was beaten so much then how she could walk afterwards”.

This is the kind of crap I have been listening since the video of that poor Sawati girl released to the media. No one, except few and coward voices, talks plainly. It was brutality against humanity. It wasn’t about how hard the girl was beaten, it was about the desecration of women and humiliation in the middle of the road. Have we gone blind as a society? Where for heaven’s sake Islam permits this kind of treatment? What kind of society we want? Islamic, right! Does anybody among the vanguards of this savage movement understands an iota of Islam? Does Islam only means Islamic punishments or we also have Islamic social justice system? How many smugglers have been killed by Taliban so far? None. Because they are powerful and beating an orphan girl is easy. It is this simple.

For God sake, the champions of Islamic renaissance, Islam is not about getting you back to the stone age, it is about progress and growth and this kind of Islam is only going to tick the clock backwards. I am appalled by the support these groups draw from general public. So any Lawrence of Arabia who recite a few verses can still blackmail muslims even today. What do want to see in Pakistan, a cricket stadium where a cricket match or beheading after Friday prayers? We want teen age boys to be suicide bombers or school going-prize winning students?

The way media has been captured by the Taliban-sympathisers, I think the above mentioned question should not have been asked in the first place. Guys like Ansar Abbasi, Hamid Mir and Mushtaq Minhas are showing their worth and are ample proof of how good Jamaat Islami is at training and placing their aces in the pivotal positions in the system. The saplings planted by Zia-ul-Haq are now bearing fruits. It is harvesting season, reap it!

Now for those, like Ansaar Abbasi, who think it was Islamic. Why these guys only quote the ayaat that justifies their purpose. Let take the whole context:

Surah Al-Nore Verse 02:

The woman and the man guilty of adultery or fornication,- flog each of them with a hundred stripes: Let not compassion move you in their case, in a matter prescribed by Allah, if ye believe in Allah and the Last Day: and let a party of the Believers witness their punishment) (An-Nur 24: 2).

Alright, and this is the one quoted by almost every Taliban supporter on Pakistani media. But they were dishonest when they didn’t quote this verse in the same Surah.

Surah Al-Nore Verse 05:
Except those who repent after this and act aright, for surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful

This is just an example as how half truth is presented. This also essentially means we want to create a society where we are not ready to provide an mercy to anybody. Just imagine, if in the future some member of Taliban Politburo wants to defame anybody’s sister/mother/wife, how easy it would be for him. Remember what goes around, comes around.

We also need to see as what are the necessary conditions for establishing Zina? There should be four witnesses who must have seen the intercourse explicitly. Just for heaven’s sake how that could be established until somebody wasn’t doing that act in the middle of a road like that poor girl was beaten there. This penalty was awarded by circumstantial evidence. A Talib saw somebody in Chaand’s ( The victim girl ) home and he reported it to the top Taliban leadership. Circumstantial evidence can not be admitted in this case. Cannot we see, Allah wants us to hide the sins of people around us. Of course, there are categorizations and limitations.

During Rasul-e-Khuda’s times a woman came to him and confessed that she had committed Zina. Rasul ( PBUH) turned his face to the other side. She repeated it and again he turned his face away. This happened three ( some say seven ) times, then it was promulgated that Hudd should be implemented. Some companions asked Rasul ( PBUH ) as why you didn’t announced the punishment right after she confessed the first time. He ( PBUH ) said, I wanted to give her a chance that she might go back and repent. But she made enough witnesses for her and I was left with no choice but to announce Allah’s prescribed punishment for this act.

Now imagine, the creator and His Messenger ( PBUH ) are trying to show compassion and mercy but Taliban and their supporters are not ready to do this. Because purpose is different. Now a days purpose is to scare people, the typical fascist techniques.

If we let these thing go, tomorrow we might have to tolerate bombing of our own people, destroying hotels, airlines and everything. We should be clear headed as what we want. Do we want Taliban who can always blackmail you by any crime against humanity in the name of Islam or we want a peaceful society with moderate values, as we used to be. Do we think that among the 6 billion human beings in the world only Taliban and Pakistanis are the only one on the right track? Why cannot we think, may be we are wrong on some counts ( not all, of course ). The biggest religion is the humanity which also has written some golden principles and I am willing to sacrifice my even my life for those. Why I can’t think this cannot happen to my own sister/wife/mother…? Difficult to think..huh..it is very much possible. Also we need to understand that rest of the world is not as bad as we have been told.

Even in their wildest dreams Jinnah and Iqbal would never have imagined this kind of Pakistan. Unfortunately, I can see very troubled times lie ahead for Pakistan. But fair and sqaure blame goes to Pakistani Army, politicians and gentry, essentially the people who ruled Pakistan in the last 60 years. ( This is a lengthy subject that I will cover sometime later ).

Requiem for Pakistan Cricket

Apparently, the security reservations by Australian and Indian Cricket teams were not all unfound regarding playing cricket in Pakistan. After refusal by Indian and Australian Cricket teams to play at Pakistani soil, to save Pakistan cricket, Sri Lankans volunteered and agreed to play despite the known and hostile presence of all kind of Qasabs ( a derivative of Ajmal Qasab, the Mumbai fame ). And this is how they are rewarded. Their pace bowler and skipper sustained the bullet wounds along with six policemen who got shot and dead while trying to save the guest team in Lahore. I sympathize with the poor policemen and Sri Lankan cricketing heroes.

Cricket is like a second religion in South Asia. The people of South Asian nations get hypnotized when a cricket series is played there. Pakistani nation is though bitterly divided over a plethora of social, cultural and linguistic fault-lines but the only consensus this nation has, is for cricket. During the intense moments of a sensational cricket match, the student would close the book, the elderly initiate rigid gyration of the beaded string, ladies would initiate prayers for the victory of Pakistani side and even the money launderers hold their activities, though only to call cricket bookies for placing their wagers. In short, there is a passion for this sport. And this kind of incident is like hurting the emotions of an entire nation.

Over the last twenty odd years, Pakistan has become a country living in a constant state of denial. We have found scapegoats, and the most favorite of them is Indian RAW. The ruling class ( military ) has made us believe that all the heavens that has fallen over Pakistan has never been the doing of ourselves but almost always from RAW or the second favorite is American conspiracy triggered by Jewish lobbies. Now as the investigations would be launched about this incident the finger would be pointed at all directions and will end up in discovering a foreign ( Indian ) hand. And this will be taken well in public, of course, to settle the score for Mumbai terrorism episode. Of course Indians can be taken off the hook as it can be their alibi, but the pious investigation would argue about the Indian motive. That is it. And what will happen to the Pakistani cricket? Frozen, chapter closed at least for years to come.

If we could come out of our perpetual denial mode, cannot we see as why boys school were burnt in Swat along with the girls school? It is self explanatory, with the closure of schools you have more potential to get recruits for the ‘holy’ war against God knows whom and same is the case of cricket. Young men who sacrifice their conventional careers and burn theirselves in the cricket grounds of big cities to small villages in scorching heats of summer days for something. They do it because each of them tries to explore an Imran Khan, Javed Minadad and Wasim Akram from within. You discourage this sport and where do you think the youth will end up at? Two potential and lucrative venues, firstly drugs and secondly Jihadi ranks or both. Nothing is being done in random, every action has its very well chalked out purpose.

It also reminds me, the pre-Jihadi times in that country when evenings were meant for sports, everywhere. Pakistan used to be world champion of Cricket, field Hockey and Squash. It also has the distinction to be the world champs. of four major world sports at the same time, from 1992-1995. Healthy bodies produce healthy minds and I can see the kind of discouragement the cricket eager youth is going to face. Comparatively it is a minor terrorist activity as compare to the terrorism incidents we have seen in the past but infact it is tragedy of giant proportions and evil behind this would manifest itself in the years to come.

Unless public doesn’t find the enemy within its ranks and I have absolutely no doubt about it that by ignoring the people with militant tendencies is like burying our head in the sand. I always see, big rallies are taken out against the US drone attacks ( or I would say it mindless attacks ) by religious parties, is it not time to carry out the protest marches and rallies against this or similar incidents? The governments and security forces cannot do everything, this is like removing the cancer from the society where each individual needs to play its part.

In this epilogue, I am also dismayed over the leading political parties who are squabbling for the power crumbs. This mindless game could have been sorted out without raising the political temperatures. When the governments reduce theirselves to survival tactics, this is what happens to the public as we have seen in Lahore today. This is a separate topic sometime later I’ll write on it.

Published in Daily THE NEWS March 05, 2009

Bud Naseeb (Unfortunate) Pakistan

Mian Nawaz Sharif and Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif have been disqualified from holding public office by Supreme Court of Pakistan. As a result Shahbaz Sharif has been stopped as functioning Chief Minister and Governor Rule has been imposed in Punjab. Highly unfortunate!

Since we as a nation started killing top politicians and people of international stature amongst us, Pakistan is drifting towards darkness inch by inch. Political midgets have become national level politicians. This was the last thing Pakistan needed now. At this juncture Pakistan required utmost unity. The dirty political games could have been postponed for some other time. A country which is at the verge of financial collapse, where extremism is expanding and poverty is sucking down more and more people every day, it was time for reconciliation and bury the feuds for some other day.

Pakistani politics is in the hands of rascals and free booters since 1977. The educated middle class has no interest in the politics and each of us who gets the opportunity leaves that country for his/her personal good, this was bound to happen. Family based political parties and goon culture has decayed Pakistan to such lows, never seen in the history ever before.

We can only pray now

Published in daily THE NEWS Feb 28, 2009