The Malaysian model: A possible solution to the sectarian menace?

An article by Zaib Liaqat.

Army personnel guard the Murree Road in Rawalpindi after sectarian clashes erupted

Recently, authorities imposed a curfew in parts of Rawalpindi after sectarian clashes erupted on Ashura day near Fawara Chowk, which left at least nine people dead and over 45 injured. The outbreak was just another example of religious intolerance in the country; the intolerance which has not been affecting a specific sect but everyone.

With this incident, Pakistan has experienced another renaissance in the sectarian violence. The violence mostly involves conflicts between members of two main sects of Islam i.e. the Sunnis and Shias - but not to forget the sub-sects of Sunnis - Barelvi and Deoband. Also, not to forget, Pakistan is the second-largest Shia population and it has good bilateral relations with Iran, the first-largest Shia population in the world. It’s regional power dynamic also vis-à-vis Saudi Arabian influences. 

These emerging sectarian tensions in Pakistan were exacerbated by geopolitical trends. The Iranian Revolution in 1979 empowered Shia Muslims in Iran, which also promoted the actualization of the sect in Pakistan. At the same time, Pakistan-based Sunni Muslim - especially Deoband organizations and madrassas - began to receive funding from Saudi Arabia and the U.S. in order to provide support and training to the Afghan fighters in the context of the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan.

One can always blame regional and international powers in fueling the fire of this menace, but the question is why our nation has been so vulnerable to such schemes? We never seriously felt the dire need of comprehensive national unity in the country. Our efforts ended by banning either hate speech or the group which ignites the sectarian propaganda.

We are in desperate need to drive a strategy and government policy to create, and to promote national unity. The motive of the strategy should be to sow the seeds of goodwill and understanding in every corner of this land, only by this, will we be able to harvest the fruits of progress and prosperity. Recently I attended an International Youth Leadership Conference (IYLC) in Malaysia and got to know about an insightful work of their department for this specific purpose. The made a department to overcome this issue. Below are the five basic objectives of this department.

• Promoting a culture of peace and prosperity
• Instilling goodwill and understanding
• Building upon our shared realities
• Engaging one another to address disputes
• Resolving conflict in constructive ways

In order to achieve these objectives they promote interactions at each stage of individual life cycle by establishing a team for neighborhood watch, voluntary patrolling scheme, community mediator, creation of national unity clubs at schools and universities. It is mandatory for every Malaysian student to study subjects of ethnic relations and Asian civilizations. These steps help to promote cross cultural understanding in the country. The department also conducts community wellness programs which include youth at certain levels.

At the community level this department also encourages young and older citizens to arrange activities to empower women and to hold volunteer economic programs in order to improve the societal relationship. They are working on religious harmony programs, which involve religious leaders and community for intra and inter religious cooperation and the partnership of public religious bodies. Malaysia is culturally and ethnically a diverse country with a population of 28.6 million and this department of national unity and integration has strengthened her with each passing day, not just socially but also economically. Malaysians believe that prosperity comes with harmony and because of these efforts, Malaysia ranks 20th in the world according to the Global Peace Index whereas Pakistan ranks149th.

Agreed that challenges faced by Pakistan are not only grave but also numerous and are of a different nature than Malaysia. But, as you have heard, “united we stand divided we fall,” I believe most of our problems will be solved, when, we as nation, would act as single body. I find no harm in investing our energies and attention towards this very grave issue for the greater good.

In lieu of the above, the Islamic Ideology Council should also focus on legislating and formulating policies for cross cultural understanding. Instead of just being a nominal body, they should find common grounds, so that ethnic, sectarian, and cultural diversity should be viewed as a unique asset with significant competitive value, otherwise we are destined to fall into an abyss.

The current resurgence of sectarian violence can be traced to the rise of the Pakistani Taliban in the mid-2000s and this organization’s growing ties with militant sectarian organizations such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. As such, sectarian violence is arguably the most dangerous fallout for Pakistan in the US led war against terror in neighboring Afghanistan. Pakistan till date has experienced more than 1839 incidences of sectarian violence and has lost thousands of lives in these attacks.

Zaib is the minister for IT and Telecommunication at Youth Parliament Pakistan (PILDAT) who works with PAK-US Advance Youth Council and Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Malala Yusufzai, you will not die

There is a movie called V for Vendetta. I watched it maybe 5 or 6 years ago. I still remember it. I remember it for one sentence.

Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mark there is an idea, Mr Creedy; and ideas are bulletproof.

Today the Taliban tried to murder a 14 year old unarmed girl, riding on a bus going home from school. Talk about being ballsy, Taliban. Yeah, I couldn't figure out what to call them either. Every expletive out there seems inadequate. And then there was the cherry on top of the cake. They didn't seem ashamed or abashed. They proudly claimed responsibility. And then they said they would try to kill her again if she survived this attack.

Malala Yusufzai

Malala Yusufzai is a 14 year old girl who got a peace prize from Prime Minister Yusuf Gilani in 2011. I had the good fortune of meeting her in 2009. She was probably 12 years old at that time. She was famous back then because she had maintained a diary for the BBC chronicling the horrors of Taliban rule in Swat Valley. She was also famous because New York Times reporter Adam Ellick had shot a video about her dad and her called Class Dismissed. She had been on TV as a defender of girls' right to education. Today she had to pay for that right with an attempt on her life.

The Taliban mindset has time and again proven that it is so corrupt and so outdated, that it has no right to even exist.They can't find like men. They fight like cowards. Today they attacked a 14 year old. Tomorrow they'll come after babies.

Malala Yusufzai is not pro-western or a western agent. She is a Pakistani who stood up for her right to education. She took two bullets for that cause. So far every report says she's out of danger. But for the cowards who fight like scared vile dogs, Malala Yusufzai is not a person. She is an idea. And ideas you coward dogs, are bulletproof.

Pakistan, why you be so sad?

Do you remember the nursery rhymes you learned when you were in kindergarten? Well if you don't, the person in this video (he goes by the name of Edward Reid, and he's awesome. True story!) will not only remind you of them, but positively make you wish that he had sung all those rhymes. But, and this is a big but, what has this got to do with Pakistan you might wonder? The honest answer is nothing. This has nothing to do with Pakistan. And that is exactly why it is so terrible. You see developed countries where education has helped salvage some common sense, creativity such as the one in the video, flourishes. In Pakistan on the other hand, well let's just say Edward Reid would have been beaten to death and his art form would have been decried and pissed upon. We are not a happy people. And because we're not happy, we can never get to enjoy such surreal feats of creativity such as people in the UK or the US or any other developed country for that matter can and do enjoy. All we in Pakistan can do at best is be envious and curse our liege lords for ruining our lives and depriving the masses of education, who if they could understand it, would never sacrifice their tomorrow for today and anoint mad, selfish, hooligans to rule over us. Sad indeed.

You've got it all wrong!

Zero Dark Thirty released in Dec 2012

Over the past couple of months I've watched several western TV shows. Three of them stuck to mind. The first is Sherlock, a British thriller TV series that reincarnates Sherlock in the 21st century. Modern, elegant, crisp and beautifully shot, this TV show has been a particular hit in the UK. The second show that stuck to my mind is Homeland, a US TV series based around the premise (spoiler alert) that two US marines taken captive in northern Iraq have turned on their country, become Muslim and are now sleeper assassins ready to bring down the mighty USA. And finally the third TV show is another US based series called Shameless which is about a dysfunctional family and their various problems. But why am I talking about western television shows you might be wondering? Well I'll tell you why. They've got something very wrong. And that something is the image of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.

Now we as citizens of Pakistan know how cool and exciting Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad are. Unfortunately these westerners have absolutely no iota of an idea about their awesomeness and they have depicted them as terror havens with burqa clad women, turbaned mullahs, and terrorists roaming around as if they are on vacation. In Sherlock for example, Sherlock Holmes actually saves someone from getting beheaded in Karachi. In Homeland, Lahore is depicted as being a breeding ground for terrorists, and Islamabad is depicted as having safe houses of terrorists. And in Shameless, well they pretty much bulldoze the entire country in to the ground.

The problem is because the majority of the western population has no idea about Pakistan and its cities, they will more likely than not form negative, unjust and cruel opinions about these Pakistanis cities. They will never get to know about the calmness, serendipity and relaxing charm of Islamabad. They will never get to know about the unique Lahori hospitality, the colorful life, the amazing food (some say its the best food in the world and I agree wholeheartedly) that Lahore offers. And these same people will never get to know that Karachi never sleeps, has malls, parks and recreational places that rival Madrid's, has a diversified and multi ethnic community that happens to be the most educated amongst all of Pakistan's cities.

Homeland is instrumental in depicting Muslims in
bad light

And this is what alarms me most. An average Westerner who watches TV, goes to work, comes back, goes to his regular hang out place with his regular friends will grow old thinking Pakistan is the country where terrorists are born and bred. The whole image of Pakistan stands broken and shattered. It doesn't help our cause that the law and order situation in our cities isn't top notch, but Pakistan simply isn't the country that its made out to be. For example Karachi's problems are no different than Mumbai's so to speak, but while the Indians show the world how fun and classy Mumbai is, we are left with defending Karachi as not being the place where terrorists go to shop.

And this leads me on to my second point. It's all about the image perception. Even though India has some dramatic domestic problems, the world does not get to hear about them. What they do get to see and hear instead are the "Incredible India" ads that show what a classy, true to its roots eastern, modern, vibrant, happy and colorful country it is. Which makes me want to ask this question: Why can't we do the same? Where are our image managers? Oh that's right, we don't have any because nobody cares. What we do have however is a President who is tainted with corruption charges and who refuses to acknowledge those blemishes, we have a Prime Minister who goes to the Supreme Court for disobeying its orders, we have an army that is constantly berated for harboring ties with the militants, we have an administration that is repeatedly told to do more because inadvertently the majority of terrorists are found to have visited Pakistan and most importantly we are the country where Osama bin Laden was found.

We really need to pull our act together and fix our faults. Because even though all of the aforementioned things are true, we know what a great culture and a beautiful country we have. We can't let the world's idea of us ruin our heritage and our pride like this. This propaganda needs to be countered because these festering notions about Pakistan will lead to a greater scrutinization of Pakistan which considering how many problems we already have with the world, will hurt us even more. It's time to show the world what Pakistan really is. It's time to take this cause into our own hands because our elected leaders are incapable of projecting our image the right way.

Stay in your limits, general

Can't say anything to the military, that's treason; can't say anything to the judiciary, that's contempt of court; can't say anything to the Mullahs, that's blasphemy; but the Prime Minister, President and Parliament, let's lynch them because it is our democratic right.

Or so read the Facebook statuses of thousands of Pakistanis. And apparently also on Twitter. So why is everybody being so queasy about treason and contempt of court and blasphemy? Well that's because the lot of Pakistanis with some common sense and rationality are increasingly being cornered with no way.

PM Gilani in an interview to a Chinese daily hinted that the replies filed by the Chief of Army Staff General Kayani and the Director General ISI General Pasha were unconstitutional and held no legal merit. He of course forgot that they were both respondents who were served notices by the court directly and then had to reply to the court with or without Gilani's approval.

Now we know that Gilani is not a very clever man and doesn't think things through properly. But we have been led to believe like the little black sheep who only bleat and follow whatever comes in their way, that Kayani is super perfect and that he has Kim Jong Il type powers of awesomeness. In addition we have also been told rather repeatedly that because Kayani is so perfect, he can never do any wrong. Oh how sorry were we.

You see in response to Gilani's rather stupid hinting capabilities, Kayani hit back at the "civilian democracy" in the place where it hurts the most. Kayani via an army statement said that Gilani's statement could have "serious ramifications" for Pakistan. But hold your horses! He further goes onto threaten the civilian baddies with "potential grievous consequences for the country."

As a citizen of this poor, shunned, brow beaten shell of a country that this once was, I stand hurt and well mighty damn angry. How dare Kayani who is nothing more than a grade 22 officer threaten the democratic institutions of Pakistan? Who does he think he is? Does he think he is God (naaoozubillah)? Does he have a magic wand that he will wave and make the problems of Pakistan go away? Oh wait. That can't be it because he was asleep in his king size bed at home when Pakistan's sovereignty was raped for 2 whole goddamn hours on May the 2nd!

It pains me, disgusts me and shames me that even now there are people in this country who support a martial law imposition; who think Kayani coming to the helm of affairs will fix everything. Well let me just bust your bubble: It will not. The favourite argument of these self professed cleansers of Pakistan is that because Zardari is corrupt, he has done corruption. Because he has done corruption, his whole party has done corruption. Because PPP has done corruption, the army needs to come to fix everything. Wrong!

So Zardari is corrupt and Gilani is stupid and Firdaus Ashiq Awan is an affront to the intelligence of women, the fact of the matter is they are only criticised because there are no "ramifications". Because criticizing them will not land you in jail, or your deathbed. Let's talk about another type of corruption today shall we?

Rs 800 billion was allotted to the army last year. Rs 800 billion. Now let's recount what took place last year. First there were the drone attacks. But it turns out Kayani was hand in glove with the Americans on that one. Let's all laugh about how stupid we all were for thinking the army was defending the frontier while in fact they were the ones providing spot locations for drone attacks. And lest you forget I'm all for drone strikes to wipe out militants. I'm just amazed at the sheer hypocrisy of those (read: army) who proclaim that the Americans will not be allowed to toy with our sovereignty. What sovereignty do they talk about? But I digress. Then came May the 2nd. A day that will forever go down in history as being the day when Pakistan lost all morality in the comity of nations. Why didn't our army defend us? Why didn't our Air force defend us? Why didn't the army shoot down the raiding American helicopters while they fluttered about in Pakistani airspace for two hours? Why didn't the army take action when all the action could in fact have been live from the Pakistan Military Academy? Why? And when the civilian baddies tried to fix that (via the Memogate, wrong method but correct intentions) the army just got pissed. What about the navy base attack? When 4 "Star Trek" characters set a whole base on fire and laid siege to it for 16 hours. How incompetent is our army? Even with Rs 800 billion a year in its pockets. And they talk about defeating India in war when can't even defend their own shoddy selves. Why does no one talk about this corruption?

And lest we forget, yes Kayani is the rat bastard who is responsible for putting this country under the water and making it sink. Now he trespasses the halls of morality but let me jog your memory. In 2007 Musharraf wanted an NRO with Benazir Bhutto. He sent his DG ISI to draft an agreement and get it signed. That agreement was called NRO. And who was that DG ISI, the architect of that agreement? Why yes it was Kayani. Who rules this country behind the facade of Gilani and Zardari? Why it's Kayani. And who has burnt this country down and sold it to the dogs? Why yes, it is indeed Kayani.

I don't have a problem with the army, or the soldiers who stand day and night watching these insolent generals who have nothing better to do than to fart all over the destiny of Pakistan. I have a problem with the generals. Making Kayani the chief executive will be the final nail in the Pakistan's coffin. Let's make that clear.

So how do we go about sorting through this mess? By letting the PPP complete its 5 years in power. You see we have now seen how inept the PPP has been in power. In the next elections people like me who have never voted before, are going to vote it out of power and vote somebody better in its place and so on and so forth. But instead if Kayani comes to the helm, well then bye bye Pakistan. You were truly loved and you will sorely be missed.

By linking the performance of the governments to the voting process and by empowering the common people, in only 20 years' time this country will be a much, much better place than it is today. People themselves will see how democracy is a million times better than the army mounting coups. Kayani should not sully the good name of all those nameless soldiers who have died, who stand upright during the night to protect his highness, and who when the time comes become brothers to those Pakistanis who need them. Kayani would be well advised to keep his fantasies to his self. Kayani should stay within his limits.

The Pakistan Memo

By Shahida Mazhar

Leadership is indispensable to Pakistan’s future progress and survival.

In the current Pakistani scenario, we must always have a third option to survive the dirty politics of the two major political parties.

Anyone who can redirect Pakistan to its destined path, as envisioned by, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Allama Iqbal and Quaid--e-Azam -- is the third option today.

If Pakistan has to survive as a rational nation, then it must really become Jinnah’s Pakistan and not a Pakistan for ignorant mullahs of Jamaat-e-Islami, who follow the Maududi Doctrine for a theocratic Pakistan. Jinnah fought against the organized mullahs, who preached/practiced 'Theocracy' as the Islamic doctrine.

Jinnah did not want Pakistan to become a theocracy and vociferously debated with the Muslim clerics in United India against it. 

 As citizens of Pakistan our mission today should be to evolve social justice, for deliverance of good governance.

Every Pakistani must speak up, against inequality, corruption, insufficient security, deficient education system, social malaise and healthcare, in order to usher in reforms needed desperately by Pakistan.

The time is over for 'fence sitting' and remaining silent for silence today will mean concurring with the status-quo, which is not an option any longer.

The world is going through epic history making events in the peoples' movements' like the 'Arab Spring' and now the 'Occupy Wall Street' as global citizens. We must get involved, and must play our part in it.

The American people have stood up against its tyrannical establishment, via the 'Occupy Wall Street' movement. Similarly Pakistan must play its correct role, and define its direction today also. As citizens of Pakistan, we have a responsibility to the world, and we need to indentify our mistakes, and then resolve to change our direction. We need to put our mark on history. We may or may not have the same demands yet we have a common front composed of many diversified interests.

Unified we have to confront and solve the most pressing problem of our time. It will not be an exaggeration to say that our survival as individuals, as a society, even as a species depends on it.

I request all Pakistanis, to cross party lines and support the correct person in the next Elections in 2013.

Let us remember that: "Allah will never change the condition of a people unless they first change what is wrong in their hearts" – Al - Quran

About the author: Shahida is an overseas Pakistani deeply devastated by Pakistan's state of affairs. Creating awareness and differentiating between fact and fiction is her passion. She is apolitical and freelances for different blogs from Facebook.

Dhaka's fall 1971 - The forgotten stranded Pakistanis

By Sahar Farrukh

They say nations which do not learn from their history are condemned to repeat their mistakes. The 40th anniversary of separation of Pakistan just passed away, the Quaid’s Pakistan divided into two on 16th December 1971. The heart of a true Pakistani still breaks at the thought of it.  Regardless of what the reasons were, behind the unfortunate event, it is now an indispensable reality. After four decades we do accept our mistakes verbally but the need of time is to learn from these mistakes. As the result of this war the Bengalis got a separate country; West Pakistan changed into the Islamic republic of Pakistan, and among all these frenzied developments we ignored the third group, the most affected one. Those identity less, homeless people who were looking around on the hopes to be accepted — talking about more than 250,000 Biharis or stranded Pakistanis trapped in camps in Bangladesh, which are still hanging in the balance.

These people are paying the price for the love they had for their country. They supported the Pakistani army but were not given enough importance to think about their evacuation. They were deprived of their properties and are third grade people because they were the supporters of their enemies. Very little attention has been paid up till now over such people. In 1972 when Bangladesh announced nationality for the Biharis more than 60,000 voted in favour of Pakistan. General Zia ul Haq deprived all such people of their nationality and identity in an ordinance in 1978. Later on a few pacts were signed and were tried for implementation too by other governments, but following the tradition it also fell prey to our politics. The fear of racial, cultural, linguistic, ethnic issues and problems that would have risen from accepting the Biharis as Pakistanis was the major propaganda by political parties. In 1993 even these efforts stopped and in 1998 the commission dissolved in mid air too. UNHCR and other organizations refused to consider them as displaced people and from then on these identity-less people had very little attention paid towards them.

After more than four decades and three generations later these camps give a surreal sight of humans living in conditions worse than animal shelters. The later generations though bestowed with the generosity of being called Bangladesh nationals in 2008 are confused, on a crossroad having no past and a dead end to their future. Without any education (illiteracy rate for this group of people is 94%) and healthy environment they are considered a burden on the earth. 70 to 80 percent of Urdu speaking have registered themselves as Bangladeshis but it DOES NOT include those who still want to come back to Pakistan. These true patriots who deserve a high status are living in unexplainable miserable conditions trapped between the conflicting histories and selfishness of governments. These stranded Pakistanis will remain Pakistani till death whether anybody acknowledges them or not. The land mafia vultures are eyeing these camps after the 2008 Supreme Court decision of Bangladesh, stripping them off with their only so called shelters. Will the time ever come that government will realize its responsibility towards them? The life moved on for us and for the Bengalis too but not for them who are living a stagnant life for four decades.

Since that time, no efforts have been made and neither the people nor the media tried to catch up on facts or the presumed efforts form the government which were only directed towards further lies, including the inquiry report --- the Hamood ur Rehman commission report. Further facts were hidden and an altered history was presented to the new generation. The distorted facts were included in Pakistan studies syllabus.

Every year this day comes and passes away, and documentaries about this day are played by a few television channels (always ignoring the plight of Biharis); columns by writers seldom throw light on this issue, and the government at the height of its tepidness, is always silent as if it has simply given up. Sadly the new generation knows nothing about it. If they did or tried to, they would have never forgiven their elders. We have to bear what they sowed for us. We have to pay for their mistakes. They made our past but now we are responsible for the future. As the future of Pakistan, lets join hands and spread it towards our less fortunate, stranded brothers who are hoping against hope that they will be rescued by their dear homeland for which they have rendered relentless sacrifices.

About the author: Sahar is a graduate of MBA from Islamabad.

Cracking the code to Karachi's misery

Ladies and gentlemen, I have returned from my hiatus. If you missed me, then please be assured I missed you too. If on the other hand you did not miss me, well then you know what you can do.

I have been away from my blog for so long for two primary reasons.

1. Because I was far far away in Karachi and did not have quite the access to internet that I would've liked and,
2. Because even after having watched Zulfiqar Mirza blow up like a helium filled balloon set on fire, I really didn't feel like I had anything to say.

That all changes now because as it turns out I do have something to say about the whole affair.

To start of there are rumours that Altaf Hussain has been arrested by the British police in connection with the murder of Imran Farooq. Self professed analysts on the media also proclaim that since Altaf "bhai" has been arrested, hence he has not really communicated to his party (MQM) about what to do with Zulfiqar Mirza and his amazing diatribe against them.

In humdrum, no one really cares where Altaf Hussain goes. Just like no one cares where Zulfiqar Mirza goes. The MQM and Zulfiqar Mirza depict deeply embedded ethnic taboos that have come blasting to the fore. Zulfiqar Mirza's deliberate attempt to string up discord between the Urdu speaking and the Pashtuns in Karachi was visible for all to see. But he went a tad bit further and proclaimed that he will only work for Sindhis now. I wonder, what became of the Pakistan that stood for equanimity and equality without ethnicity and religious affiliations affecting one's relationship with others?

While I was in Karachi I had a realization. All my life I had seen Karachi on TV as being the most horrid place in Pakistan. The people, the location, the smell, the size of the metropolis, the pollution. But that's not true. What Karachi really is, is the most amazing city I have ever visited. There is a diversity in Karachi. The people are friendly. And there's so many food places, you have to wonder why they don't just call it food city. And it has the sea. Nobody ogles at you for dressing weirdly. Nobody hoots at you for wearing jeans (yes girls, I did not see anyone hoot at any girl the entire time I was there). And best of all, the people have a  lot patience and respect for each other.

Which made me wonder, why is there such a big mess broiling in Karachi then?

The answer is simple. The message of Pakistaniat has disappeared from the hearts of Pakistanis. Karachi is no longer a city that belongs to Pakistanis or even Karachiites. It is being fought over by idiots who think that they own Karachi. But the truth is they don't and that's why the city doesn't yield.

Who cares if you're Urdu speaking? Who cares if you're a Sindhi, Balochi, Pashtun or Punjabi? The fact of the matter is that we're all Pakistanis. We all own Pakistan and all the cities in Pakistan. I'm as much an owner of Karachi as the little boy who sells pakoras on the streets of Mardan. Just like the people of Karachi are as much owners of Islamabad like the Baloch elder who sits outside his sajji shop in Quetta.

I love Pakistan. And so should you. 

O hypocrisy, thou art a heartless bitch

Now if you are a regular reader or follower of this blog, you would know how much I abhor hypocrisy and hate hypocrites. I do not claim that I am not one myself (and I loathe myself for being hypocritical at times) but I do claim and know that I at least try not be a hypocrite or follow the hypocritical line.

As it so happens, not many in this country are capable of making amends. They preach one thing, do and follow quite another. So for instance, a debate with two fellow Facebookers really got my blood roiling. Firstly because what they were saying without substantiating their claims was absurd (at least that's the way it sounded to me); secondly they claimed to know much more about Islam than me (but that would've been OK because I'm not a theologist or an Islamic scholar, had they been one which they were not) and thirdly because they were sullying the name of my religion by attaching atrocious stuff to its commands.

To start of they claimed that the Taliban are the real Muslims and I quote, "Mullah Omar is the Ameer-ul-Momineen of all Muslims". You would imagine that would be it but then they claimed the killing of innocents is quite acceptable in Islam because there is always collateral damage in war. They also claimed that mere mortals like myself are the "dogs of the US" and we only know what the Jewish media feeds us; apparently to them it is quite OK to use Jewish media (Facebook et al.) to spread their own message.

I tried reasoning with them, repeatedly asking them questions that stated that is it OK for Muslims to kill innocent Muslims? They did not answer at first but rather rambled on and on about the US and how it has killed millions of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan. But that's not what I asked I pointed out, and finally they said the Taliban don't blow up barber shops, girl schools, behead people, shoot people, or kill civilians. They only kill military personnel who are the "dogs of the US".

After debating with them for almost an hour one of them finally conceded that he was a hypocrite. How did he concede that? Well I told him since he believes in the cause of the Taliban (blowing people up), why doesn't he go to the army house and blow himself up in the face of the army chief. Obviously it emerged that it far easier to preach what you do behind a screen and keyboard in the safe confines of your home. Hypocrisy then was the winner in this case.

I do not care that some people are crazy enough to say we must fight the Americans. As it turns out there are far crazier stuff people come out with. People have twisted Islam so much that they find it next to impossible to see that what they say and preach is extremely illogical and Islam is anything but illogical. To give you an example from this very debate, I stated that I cannot believe that a religion who's name's literal meaning is submission to peace can preach violence. Ironically, the counter argument I got was that the meaning of Islam is the submission to Allah, not to peace. To clarify this folks, the word Islam comes from two root words: Istalama and Salam. Istalama means submission while Salam means peace, hence the literal meaning of Islam is submission to peace. Not submission to Allah which as you will find out is the ideology of Islam.

The irony is that these people have hijacked Islam and claim to know everything about it. They quote out of context Quranic verses and proclaim that Islam ordains violence against the infidels. Maybe so but Islam only ordains that in defensive terms; like when you are attacked by a foreign force; like when you are repeatedly provoked through aggressive means such as the Israeli indiscriminate killing of Palestinians. The only trouble is, I'm not a Palestinian and I can't help them because I have to put my own house (country) in order first!

The other problem with people like these is that they think all those who do not preach violence against the "dogs of the US" aka all the military personnel, political leaders and the civilians of Pakistan are the lovers of the US. They conveniently forget to mention that their siblings reside in the infidel countries, study their education and live a luxurious life in the infidel lands. They also forget that disagreement does not mean that one has taken a stance that supports the other side.

To make this point clear I would give my point of view vis-a-vis the USA: The USA is no angel, saint or pope. It has committed atrocities. It has committed unspeakable and unpardonable sins. I cannot and will not deny that. 9/11 was a US intelligence failure was it not? The Americans knew terrorists wanted to attack their homeland and still let it happen. In 2003 George Bush authorised and launched a genocide in Iraq and yet he walks scot free. But the only reason the US can do whatever it wants is because it is the world's most powerful country. It will serve its own interests. That is common sense. That is only logical. We also need to keep our interests supreme and intact. And one of the ways we can do that is by not launching a war against the US. Lets be honest. This country is full of hypocrites. Not the Muslims about whom we read in our history books and Allah does not love or help hypocrites. Hence if we fight the US, we will lose. Our country will be torn apart. But I suppose that's OK because these extremists believe that nationalism is a sin anyway. The only way to fight the influence of the US is to stand on your own two feet. When the Muslims were powerful in the pre-1000s, they were expanding. Now the US is powerful, hence it is expanding. Common sense, common logic.

We rely on the West's education, the West's language (English), the West's mode of communication (Facebook, Skype, Twitter, internet) and we pretend like we are the masters of all eternity. Actually I don't pretend that. They also quote newspapers and magazines to support their points but when people having a debate with them quote from the same literature they are termed "fasiqeen" because we have "unreliable and unverifiable" literature.

How does one argue with such people? How? Please feel free to enlighten me using the comments section below.

Zaid Hamid and Ahmad Quraishi: Propaganda at its best

Zaid Hamid. 

The problem with Zaid Hamid and Ahmad Quraishi is simple. They’re stupid. They talk and advocate nonsense. They fabricate lies and pass them off as facts. The really sad bit to their hypocritical performance is this though: They use Islam as a tool for their propaganda.

For those of you who don’t know who Zaid Hamid or Ahmad Quraishi is, please Google the gents. And then laugh your heads off. Yes Zaid Hamid is the man who claims everything in Pakistan is India’s fault, while Ahmad Quraishi claims America has formed an unholy alliance with Israel and India to torment Pakistan. These two men also pretend that Pakistan is the centre of the universe and that the world instead of revolving around the sun revolves around Pakistan.

But the problem with Zaid Hamid and Ahmad Quraishi is not limited to their stupidity. You see they make us look bad. How? Well they claim to be Pakistani and therefore (since the majority of us are not as notoriously famous as them) the world assumes all of Pakistan’s population is as mad and lost in the head as these two. They also make the Pakistan army look bad because they claim to safeguard the army’s interests and everybody points at the army and laughs at it about how it has these two stalwarts of complete idiocy trying to defend its honour. They also make Pakistan look bad because a) Pakistan is not the centre of the universe and b) they have “fans” who believe the bullshit these two minions of hypocrisy, lies and fake stories come up with.

Now I know I’m wasting my time talking about these two self declared gods of Pakistan’s destiny but bear with me. You see I came across something very astonishing today, something that has the potential of ruining Ahmad Quraishi’s very existence. Click here to see screen shots of Ahmad Quraishi’s official Facebook page where during a discussion with his “fans” he blurted out the truth about David Ben Gurion; something that I’ve been saying forever but of course vindication coming from the source itself is something else. Ahmad Quraishi claims that spreading lies and propagating falsehood to promote one’s ideology is correct because the other side (India, USA, Israel etc) also does it. And then as an example he says how the lie about David Ben Gurion’s speech that was fabricated to unite the Pakistani nation against the Jews worked so flawlessly.

Now what does one say to this sheer blatant exploitation of the masses? Of course the “righteous” Mr Ahmad Quraishi has no shame and therefore he did not go jump of a bridge into the Nullah Leh but oh well. How do Ahmad Quraishi and Zaid Hamid expect the people to believe them when they’re propagating, promoting and preaching lies and falsehood? I wonder if Ahmad Quraishi knows that there are many people like me who only visit his website when they’re bored and they feel like laughing.

Only recently two articles appeared in the Express Tribune by George Fulton, a naturalized Pakistani who has left Pakistan to seek greener (read safer) pastures for his family. The articles focus on the inherent hypocrisy of the Pakistani state, of the dishonest people and the corrupt infrastructure. Of course that is all true and no one can deny that. But what Ahmad Quraishi and his ilk had to say was that George Fulton was a racist who called Pakistanis degenerates. If Mr Ahmad Quraishi would have used his pea sized brain, he would’ve realized that Geroge Fulton was one of us; he was a Pakistani. He had every right to criticize this system of which he was a part, and this country which was his home. Sadly, it is people like Mr Quraishi who are racists and who could not accept a “Gora” becoming a Pakistani; they also could not accept a Pakistani who pointed out his own country’s shortcomings instead of India’s or Israel’s or the USA’s.

Since Zaid Hamid and Ahmad Quraishi are so fascinated by India, let me bust another of their bubbles. Zaid Hamid keeps threatening India with war and how we will destroy it till the “paleed” Hindus rot in hell. Well let me put this question to him and his ilk: Have you ever wondered why the Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah spent all of his entire adult life fighting for an independent state for the Muslims of the subcontinent? Yes, that is right. So that we could be free and safe. He did not spend his years vying for the leadership of the Indian subcontinent where the Hindus are a distinct majority and who would then paralyse the system till the Muslim rulers abdicated, or were burnt to the ground.

And what do these messiahs of Pakistan’s destiny want us to do? Conquer India? And then what? What are we going to do with a billion plus “paleed” Hindus? Slaughter them? The logic is simple. Even if we conquer India (dream on Zaid Hamid and Ahmad Quraishi), the majority of the Hindus is so overwhelming, the whole system will be paralysed. The Muslim “rulers” of the Indian subcontinent will not be able to do jack if that happens. That is why we have a separate country. So that we can do what we want in a place where we ARE the majority.

To cut to the chase, Khalifa King Zaid Hamid and Khalifa Prince Ahmad Quraishi can go on living in a Utopia. The writing on the wall is this: You couldn’t fix your own country, and you talk about fixing a country that is 7 times our size. Yeah right. 

Nobody cares

I love blogging. As a matter of fact, I love blogging so much I spend almost half the time of my total online time on my blog. But of late, I haven't blogged so much. This has led to falling numbers of people visiting this blog. In fact, if you were to click the drop down menu of archives (on your right), you will see that the number of blog posts that I have been posting to The True Perspective have steadily been dropping per month.

Right now, I was looking at the stats figures for this blog and once again, the overall trend of number of pageviews has been on the decline. So what's the solution to all of this? Well naturally it is to update this blog more frequently, with better quality posts. But that right there is the problem.

Now I know there is so much to write about - even if I were to leave the world alone - but somehow I don't want to write about the depressing, regressive stuff anymore. The Raymond Davis issue stirred the pot, the politicians cringed and cribbed and talked about ministries and power slots as if they were flavours of ice creams, but the world moved on. Accidents happened, the Pakistan Railways ran out of diesel supplies, PIA crashed (the organisation, not any plane that they operate) but nobody cared.

Instigative and inflammatory articles by "respected" columnists appeared in national Urdu newspapers, Nawa-i-Waqt tried to cash in on the blasphemy fever too by proclaiming that the Imam of Masjid Muhabbat Khan in Peshawer was justified in placing a bounty of Rs. 500,000 on the head Aasia Bibi (the blasphemy accused who has been sentenced to death) but more importantly, nobody cared.

In Lahore the booze parties continued unabated, in Islamabad the rage of the town was the Facebook group called "Scandalous Islamabad" with their corny tagline "You know you love us - XOXO", in Karachi guys rocked with the gals in underground parties but still the world moved on, because as you know, nobody cared.

Marvi Memon went mad tweeting about how she experienced a day in jail where she was made to feel like a queen, Zardari pretended to be sad about the split with the PML-N, the PPP ministers in the Punjab pretended that they were important too, but you know they were snubbed by their own governor. Some party they've got going on, but once again, nobody cared.

Express Tribune's new banner for op-ed blogs.

The conspiracy theorists made a comeback with Zaid Hamid featuring prominently and loudly on Dunya TV, the Express Tribune tried to piss them off some more by designing this single eye banner, the fashion designer who wants to inspire the Muslim youth of this country (Maria B.) launched a new clothes line but once again, nobody cared.

And that is the problem. No one cares. No one wants to care. Everyone has given up on caring. But they all want a revolution; but fellas, here's the thing, nobody cares. Some of them want a return of the Caliphate, others want the army to mount a coup. And there are those that want the army to mount a coup so that the Caliphate can be established. All of you don't care because you're only as good and near to mounting a coup as Facebook or Twitter will allow you fakesters.

As the world (Middle East) breaks from the shackles of bondage, depravity, lack of equality, opportunities and education, we, the glorious Muslims of the world, the mandated ones to rid the world of evil sit in our slumber because, yeah you guessed it absolutely correctly, nobody cares.

The kind of Pakistan I want

Recently a venture by Sana Saleem (a die hard blogger and tweeter) and Naveen Naqvi (blogger, former newscaster for Dawn News and producer) called Gawaahi.com went on the air. One of their videos entitled "What kind of Pakistan do you want?" really had me grappling with the question. What kind of Pakistan do I want?

So then I thought, I better start listing down the things I want to see in my version of the perfect Pakistan. I want a Pakistan where there is no pollution. I want a Pakistan where there are trees on every avenue and the chirping of birds is so loud, it wakes the whole country up at sunrise. I want a Pakistan where universities allow democracy and freedom of speech to prevail instead of curtailing it down. I want a Pakistan where when you mention the word corruption, people give you blank stares. I want a Pakistan where honesty is the defining trait. I want a Pakistan where there are rehabilitation centres for hypocrites. I want a Pakistan where there is no disease. I want a safe Pakistan.

I want a Pakistan where there are no poor people. I want a Pakistan where when I go out on the roads, no man, woman or child walks up to my window and asks for alms. I want a Pakistan where I can venture out of my home at 2 O' clock in the night and not feel scared. I want a Pakistan where Sindhis stop being Sindhis, and Punjabis stop being Punjabis; I want a Pakistan where Balochis have houses in cities of Punjab and Sindhis have houses in Khyber-Pakhtukhwa. I want a Pakistan where I want to be able to go and visit FATA and sit on a roadside truck driver hotel sipping hot simmering tea and talk about the beautiful serenity of the place.

I want a Pakistan where my rights are respected. I want a Pakistan where everyone is equal. I want a Pakistan where people learn to make queues and stand in lines. I want a Pakistan where there is no "VIP culture", where people in black shiny Mercedes Benz's with tinted windows and armed hooligan escorts are stared at with disdain, vulgarity and pity until they feel so ashamed they go visit a rehab centre to feel better. I want a Pakistan where people have patience. I want a Pakistan where people's morality is so high, they willingly give up their shares so that others may have them. I want a Pakistan where ethics are the deciding principles in a business deal.

I want a Pakistan where the army stays in barracks and defends the country's borders like its supposed to. I want a Pakistan where the Chief Justice is the epitome of justness and fairness, not someone who drives to work in a flag bearing official car with an armed escort. I want a Pakistan where there is no selfishness. I want a Pakistan where people on the roads give right of way. I want a Pakistan where the police are the most friendly people in the world. I want a Pakistan where I can get on a bike and travel the length of the country just for sightseeing. I want a Pakistan where everyone embraces each other as one of their own.

I want a Pakistan where people actually pass proper driving tests before getting their licenses. I want a Pakistan where people are thin enough to understand HID's on a car do NOT look cool. I want a Pakistan where people know driving on full beam's can only be the work of a dumb idiot. I want a Pakistan where the rulers who loot billion of rupees (please click here to see how much money this MNA has looted) are tried in a court and then hung to death because that's what they deserve. I want an equal Pakistan, not the some Pakistanis are more equal than others version of it.

That's the Pakistan I want. Of course there's a zillion more things I want in Pakistan. But this is it for now. Use the comments section to tell what kind of Pakistan you want.

Cheers!

Who is responsible?

Much has been made of the killings in Lahore by Raymond Davis. People protested, others cringed, some didn’t care, and yet others did not even know an American had murdered two Pakistanis. Sounds strange doesn’t it? An American killed two Pakistanis in Pakistan. Usually, we’re more inclined towards hearing the reverse of this like a Pakistani tries to blow himself up in New York, or a Pakistani runs over an Irish dog in Little Minnesota. You get the idea. The tragic irony of this whole affair is that even though Raymond Davis shot and killed two Pakistanis, two lives which were not shot at have also been claimed by this incident. The first life of course was the man who was on a bike and happened to come in front of the Land Cruiser which was being driven by members of the American Consulate in Lahore, and which the Americans insist does not exist. The other life is the wife of Faheem (one of the murdered boys), who committed suicide after declaring she does not believe in this justice system, nor this government to get her justice.

But you know what’s more shocking? The total aloofness that the Punjab government has shown towards this incident. Kudos to them for at least showing to the world that they know Faheem’s wife has committed suicide. The federal government in its infinite wisdom has decided to keep its twat shut. Probably because it fears reprisals of some sort? No one knows for sure. But getting back to the Punjab government. Rana Sanaullah stated that if Faheem’s wife had such an issue with the justice system, she should’ve come to the Punjab government for help. Well excuse me, but why should SHE have come to YOU, when it is YOUR goddamn RESPONSIBILITY to ensure justice is provided to her in the first place? That all her concerns are addressed by you? What sort of a barbarian are you Rana Sanaullah that you absolve yourself of blame?

People often talk about how this death could spark a revolution in Pakistan, much like the self immolation of the fruit vendor in Tunisia. But it won’t. You see the Tunisians were genuinely concerned about their plight. We on the other hand have accepted ours. We aren’t ready to change the status quo because that would mean moving our lazy butts and that’s just too tiring and too difficult.

We demand justice, but we aren’t willing to fight for it. Tomorrow if Raymond Davis is handed back to the United States, none of us will really give a damn. Sure there will be a couple of protests, a lot of tweets, and lots of blogs over the injustice but at the end of the day when the dust will settle, we will be back at where we started. Truth be told, we wouldn’t even have moved from our place. The only solace is knowing the fact that Pakistan seems to be united in wanting justice this time around. What the Vienna Convention demands might be immunity, but the US has social and moral responsibility to see that justice is provided to the victims. And if it doesn’t do that, then the Government of Pakistan ought to realize that it has 180 million people on its back. The US might have cut of bilateral relations, but it does realize it will never be able to survive without Pakistan’s support in FATA and that has to be bargaining chip in this whole mess.

Justice needs to be served. Raymond Davis killed two Pakistanis who have thus far been proven innocent. Raymond Davis also indirectly murdered two other totally innocent lives. He needs to pay for his crimes and his sins. He needs to be told that Pakistan is an independent country with independent people and people like him are not welcome in the Motherland. He needs to be told that he will spend a very long time in the Pakistani prison system or alternatively, will be hung to death. If however he is proven innocent by the courts, then he is free to go wherever he wants. But if the government tries to extradite him “under diplomatic immunity” (read American pressure), it would be nothing more than a sack full of garbage heap. Which it already is.

We want change, but we won't vote!

The morally legitimate election process is the only right
way to proceed. (Photo: Dawn.com)

I asked a friend at university today if she'll vote in the next general elections. Hers was a standard reply: No, votes don't make any difference in this country. I then proceeded to ask her if there was any politician she supported and she said she supported Imran Khan. I then asked her whether she cribs about how pathetic the government is, how corrupt Zardari is, and how wretched our whole system and she said yes; she does all of that. I then asked her who gave her the right to criticize the system when she couldn't be bothered to go and vote?  Who gave her the right to bash Zardari when she did not vote against him? Who gave her the right to crib and cringe when she couldn't be bothered to go out and vote for the change? That left her open-mouthed but she did manage to rebound by stating that Imran Khan did not take part in the 2008 elections or else she would've voted. Well kudos to Imran Khan for being the most emotional man on the planet for refusing to be a part of the electoral process.

This mentality that my friend exhibited permeates the mindset of every Pakistani. We expect everything to happen on its own, without even moving a muscle. The fact however is nothing happens that way. Flies come and rest on stuff that refuses to move or is unable to. Why do we blame the Pakistani nation which goes to vote for the feudal landlords, their tribal heads, or their caste members and elects them to the Parliament? They are the poor, naked, eager and sad people of this country. You offer them a morsel of food in exchange for a vote, and they take the deal without thinking about what the next day will bring. But we are the educated people of this country aren't we? Or so we claim. Why don't we go out and vote for the politicians we know will bring about a good change? Why is it that Imran Khan is so popular, yet he is the only ONE man who is elected to the Parliament from his entire political party?

Some days ago, a news appeared in the daily Dawn which stated that a nationwide survey by the students of LUMS had been conducted from approximately 1000 students (youth) of Pakistan. The astonishing point of interlocution however was that the study concluded that the youth of Pakistan wanted change in the form of midterm elections. Now I don't know how many of the students of Pakistan want a midterm election, but I am totally against the notion of midterm government change. Besides, if the results are true then this is a hypocritical notion from the outset. Change should only come through a proper political process, one that involves all the actors; not through the whims of the people who only sit on their asses all day long and crib.

Despite absolutely hating the present PPP government from the bottom of my heart, with its narcissistic leaders, and utterly stupid front men/women (Babar Awan, Firdaus Ashiq Awan, Fauzia Wahab), I still want it to complete its mandated term which is set to expire in 2013. Why do I want that? Well because I have a theory, and that theory says that in order for the infantile democracy of Pakistan to flourish, for accountability, answerability and responsibility on the part of the rulers to spread, and for the people of Pakistan to become aware of the power of their vote, it is necessary to let the wheel of democracy roll. If we don't do that, or if we allow a midterm governmental change, all the effort spent trying to oust a dictator will have been for nought. People will go on believing might is right; the policies that define the fate of Pakistan will continue to be moulded inside the hallowed walls of GHQ instead of the Parliament, and the national character of Pakistan will continue to be a living testament of utter revulsion.

Letting the government's ship sail adrift is the only way if we want a change for the better. Now I know there are people in this country who believe democracy is a farce, and the government in place is a Western agenda. These are also the people who believe in conspiracy theories, and who proclaim Pakistan is the most powerful country in the world. While these maybe noble sentiments, they are hardly cognizant of the realistic situation on the ground. The cogent area of defining the fates of the 170 million Pakistanis is to let the status quo prevail, no matter how fractured it may appear because that is the only way that will allow us to heal our wounds. You see once the people start realizing that the influence the stick wielders have over us is solely based on the basis of our votes, we will naturally gain the upper hand in this historical conundrum that Pakistan is faced with.

We've spent three years under this government, and only two are left. It needs to be given credit for holding out so long amidst a barrage of insinuations, mudslinging, allegations of corruption, nepotism and a general sense of abandonment of the country. With the WikiLeaks recent disclosures about how much the politicians of Pakistan bend over backwards and lust after power, let's add that to the list as well. But the important question is: How many of us are actually going to cast the votes that will eventually rid us of these baboons?

I’ve had enough

It was a conspiracy alright. (Photo: Bbc.co.uk)

The whole world is in turmoil. Apparently Wikileaks has caused every douche bag’s pants to go up in flames. But you see I don’t care. I’m sick of Wikileaks and its bean spilling capabilities. The fact of the matter is despite all these revelations, not a single thing is going to change in the political structure of and composition of this country. The Butts will vote for the Butts, the Gilanis for Gilanis, the Chaudhries for Chaudhries and so on and so forth. That’s a fact. Not only that, but despite showing how dependent they are on American life support, the politicians of this country will still rule the roost with impunity in this God forsaken land where common sense was the first casualty in the aftermath of the Objectives Resolution.

Why am I ranting you may wonder? Well because I’m sick and tired of all the political wrangling and the never ending charades that we have to put up with. Where the sons of the demigods roam the streets as if their daddies own the whole goddamn country, how does anyone expect the leaks to create even a mild difference? It is not the self declared demigods’ fault. It is the nation’s fault because we’re too lazy, and too busy being lazy to actually move our asses and do the much needed job of correcting ourselves. But that’s a tall order for us to fulfil isn’t it? Just thinking about it is making my head burst with pain and the really sad part is that no one seems to care how pathetic we as a nation have become.

The US does not define our destiny; we do. So get your head out of your ass and start using your brain. The US did not want the Chief Justice to be reinstated, but we did. And we did get him reinstated. There, right there is your myth of conspiratorial theories busted and burnt down to the ground. Get a life. People make fun of you when you say “conspiracy”. Blaming everything on the West and then to sit back and crib and cringe about it like a little girl won’t get us anywhere, as has been amply proven. You want to break the American hold? Move your ASS! We aspire and then claim to be a self serving sovereign nation. Well I’m surprised why none of us has had the gall to ring up the Saudis and tell them to mind their own goddamn business yet. Is it because they are our oh-so-best-Muslim-friends? Or is it because they are the second most influential force in this country after the American embassy?

But you know what? I don’t want to know the answer because it wouldn’t make any difference. We will go on lying around like useless pieces of scrap, while external forces in cahoots with the utterly shameless imbeciles who lord over us like black rain from the sky, write our destinies for us. Because that is what is convenient for us. There will be no revolution because revolution requires sacrifice. How many of us can even survive a paper cut to be able to say we want a revolution? It makes me sick. Double standards, hypocrisy, two-facedness are the striking highlights of our nation. You go to any parking stand and the toll collector will ask you for twenty rupees when the ticket says ten actually. You stop at any signal and policeman in commando fatigues will threaten you with his black cat moves and his shiny automatic weapon to get the hell out of the way of some douche’s horny son who needs to immediately get laid. You shoot him a dirty look and he shouts a stream of explicit expletives that will involve anyone from your mother, sister to uncle, aunt, father, grandfather etc. Basically, he will have abused your whole family tree.

And then there’s the contrast. The outhouses, the farmhouses, the multimillion rupees apartments in posh areas. And they all scream the same thing over and over and over again; no one cares. No one gives a rat’s freaking ass as to how the world ruins our country. No one cares how we ruin our country. No one cares how we deface and sully the name of Pakistan and in the process, muddy our own identity. It’s just gut wrenchingly sad. It’s pathetic. May God have just a tiny bit of mercy on us. Please God. You owe some of us that much because some of us actually care about Pakistan.  

Transparency International says it all

The Transparency International Corruption Perceptions
Index 2010 rates Pakistan as the 34th most corrupt
nation in the world. (Photo: Dawn.com)

The recent report by Transparency International has gotten the heads of the majority of us spinning. While the government vehemently denies its findings, the people wallow in self pity in amazing style. It is particularly disheartening to see that the government instead of making amends calls Transparency International as neither “being transparent, nor being international.”

At the heart of this new corruption debate lays our conscience which is so fractured, we’re actually surprised at the thought that we’re not yet the most corrupt nation on earth. There is of course a fine line between satire, and reasoned debate and for some odd reason, the majority of us overlooked that distinction. No doubt, scoring 143 out of the 176 positions up for grabs is disheartening, but it affords us the time to introspect and make amends. Lest we forget, the people of Pakistan are equal party in perpetuating this menace.

Most people will disagree with me and say that corruption is the "oil" that keeps our country from catching rust. My answer to them is simple: If you have refused to even believe that you can make amends, then there is no need for you all to clamor up and down, throwing tantrums and suggesting that Transparency International has lost its balls. Neither is the notion that Transparency International is a one man operation in Pakistan correct. A highly competent team of professionals selected from across the most prestigious universities of Pakistan are assigned the task of monitoring the corruption levels of the various departments of the government and public sectors. I know this because my Pakistan Economy teacher was involved in last year’s assessment of the Transparency International data collection in Pakistan.

We have a habit of hiding behind a façade of conspiracy theories which culminate in the idea of the whole world ganging up on us to bring us down. I doubt the veracity of these claims because as far as I’m concerned, we possibly cannot fall any further. And what mileage could Transparency International gain by naming Pakistan as the 34^th most corrupt nation on earth? Before you answer this question, do indulge yourself in the thought that rampant corruption has increased massively with the advent of the PPP. Before the PPP supporters start giving me flak, let me just say that I do not believe that had Nawaz Sharif been in power we would’ve fared better, or differently.

The idea now is to implement broad range changes across the board, and make accountability an integral part of our justice system. The only problem with this idea is that we expect the very same corrupt people to implement these changes, who are known forerunners in dispensing corruption left right and center. So is there no hope left for us? There is. That hope stems from the ideology that the fragmented Pakistani nation can rise up on its feet and challenge the status quo.

The other big problem of course is that corruption is now so deeply ingrained into our mentality that getting rid of it is next to impossible. It is a shortcut; an addiction that has granted the majority of us our whims. Take the examples out of the life of a commoner. Getting a traffic license will take only 5 minutes if you can spare 3000 – 5000 rupees depending on the place. And if you know the right person, you’ll get it for free. The long queues at the passport offices can easily be avoided and the passport renewal process can take as little as an hour if you are willing to part with Rs 4000. Corruption affords us comfort and luxury which in an otherwise clean society is unheard of.

So how do we battle this menace? Well the first instant would be to take matters into our own hands. This is particularly true of the upcoming generation which will have to make amends if it wants to put Pakistan on the right track. When the client refuses to cooperate with the corrupt, naturally the seller will disintegrate. That’s a start. Of course this will require a collective effort and not merely the energies of a few people. Start by educating yourselves and someday, we will reverse the trend of Pakistan’s constant decline in the Transparency International annual reports.

Muslim Hypocrisy

Hypocrisy seems to be the new hallmark of our society. We're excellent hypocrites. In fact if all the conspiracy theories doing the rounds in our society and culture today are to be believed, it's actually surprising that we're not the perpetrators of such ingenious plans of bringing down the world.

Lately, the youth of this country has been misguided by whomever and whatever that conquering India and enforcing Sharia will solve our problems.

Fact is, it won't; it won't do anything of the sort at all. The majority of these so called 'modern-thinking-contemporary-revolutionary-Muslims' don't even know what Shariat is and what it entails. All they know is they they attended some superficial Islamic lectures where the lecturer told them how glorious the future of Pakistan and Islam is.

But it's not. Where in Islam is it said that a country by the name of Pakistan will rise from the ashes and lead the charge against the infidels? And even if I agree with this notion, how do we know that the 56 other Muslim countries besides us will not reject us as their leader? Please note that our Muslim brethren the Saudis, closer to us than our own flesh and blood is, ridicule Pakistanis and treat them as if they were petty criminals who have somehow desecrated their holy land (personal incident while on Umra in 2006).

Our way of thinking is flawed. We want Islam to permeate every particle of our existence and that is a very noble sentiment. But the pretentious demagogues amongst us will elicit the fact that they have trouble keeping two consecutive fasts, and here we are living in a Utopian dream that we're the chosen ones. Lest we forget, we're the ones who murdered a Hindu boy for drinking water from a cooler outside a mosque. We're sick, not Allah's warriors.

There is an utter and immediate need to stop this vehement poisoning of vulnerable minds. Calling for Islamic law and war on India is nothing more than shoddy hypocrisy. We're incapable of tolerating Islamic laws; we all are. And that's where our hypocrisy settles in. I read a comment on the Express Tribune where a man had said that he wasn't very religions but he still supported Zaid Hamid and wanted Shariat. To you sir, why don't you initiate a dry run of Shariat in your own house and see how long you last? Throw out your TV, stereo, CDs, DVDs, delete your female friends' numbers from your phone, go out on preaching assignments, start going to the mosques to pray and not your bedrooms, and the whole nine yards. Yes, the word you're looking for right now is hypocrite.

This is the bitter truth. There is no moderate or extreme Islam. There is no enlightened version of it. Islam is Islam whether we like it or not. So before calling for an Islamic revolution which is a feat only impeccable Muslims can achieve, think whether you've got the stomach to live in a truly Islamic society, and I don't mean the farcical one where Ali Azmat sings songs, and Maria B designs mini-skirts. And if you can't, then snap out of your unrealistic bubble know that just because you have a Muslim name, and you were born to Muslim parents, does not mean you are destined for glory.

Nations make their own destiny. You have choices of taking the right or the wrong. It is your decisions which will bring you God's peace and glory. So before clamoring for Shariat, please find out if you can even stomach it; lest you want to be known as a hypocrite.

Reality Check, Anyone?

Al-Quds day rally carnage in Quetta. (Photo: Dawn.com)

Incidents keep transpiring in our country that push one to the brink of dementia. Bomb blasts, suicide blasts, suicide rates, rapes, public lynching, gross miscarriages of justice, cheating, fraud, prejudices, biases, corruption, immorality and not in the normal visually indecent way, but the bigger dilemma that has slowly made itself the hallmark of our society, dishonesty, depravity all of them, we see every day and every day we turn our backs on them.

A friend asked me on the day of the Lahore bomb blasts if I actually felt sad about the ordeal that the Lahoris will once again have to undergo, and I was quite surprised by the answer I gave her. I said no, I don’t feel sad. I don’t feel anything. The thing is, I have been numbed and desensitized so much so that I cannot connect on an emotional level with my fellow countrymen. I am unmoved by their plight. I have become resistive to the forces that are trying to penetrate this cocoon that I have invariably created around myself to hide in when the world outside is so cruel.

It isn’t only me though. Nearly all of us have undergone this transformation. Every day I come across people who in earnest, I would probably call pseudo Pakistanis (defined by their gesticulation and their unrealistic lifestyles), but then I stop to think if I am any different than them? There are people for instance, who would willingly spend Rs. 50,000 to buy a new iPhone or a Blackberry, but they don’t even know how many people died in the floods. Or how many were displaced. They wouldn’t be able to tell you how many people died in the Yom-ul-Quds day rally in Quetta, nor would they know about the number of dead in the Lahore triple blasts from the day before. There are people who don’t even know if blasts occurred in the last 48 hours in this country, and there are those who don’t even know where Quetta is.

This is not a measure of judging your patriotism, or your love for your country; this is just a rhetorical post asking you to find out whether you’re in touch with reality. Day in and day out I keep blitzing on with my life not caring about what goes on in the life of the 180 million people of this country. I just care about my neck, my life, my peace. But then, what defines my peace does not even see the light of the day in millions of people’s lives. They probably never even dream about it.

I wake up every day with the thought that I face an uncertain future, but if all else fails, I might salvage some pride by ending up somewhere. But then I realize there are people who wake up every day with one goal in their minds: surviving today. There is a massive disconnect that has burned itself into our social fabric. We, the privileged class with our Facebooks, and Twitters, and MSNs have never really delved beyond the surface. You will probably read this and scrap it. You will feel sorry for the country and you might feel helpless. If you really feel like doing something, the most you will do is send out a tweet deploring your countrymen, yourself, the society and what not, and you will probably set a sad, disheartened Facebook status deploring our plight. But that is the end of it. You will move on with your life because you do not understand the horrors of being one of the common people. It is our dilemma. The privileged class’s dilemma.

It has been one month since the floods ravaged our country. In the last three days, we have lost a total of at least 85 Pakistanis to mind boggling terrorist attacks. How many of us are interested in either of the stories? The Sialkot lynching provided a much needed moment of introspection for us but we squandered it by blaming ourselves, our society, the environment that we have grown up in, our social fabric, our judicial system. And then, we moved on. That incident was a wakeup call. It told us to shelve our cocoons and step into the real world and take cognizance of our plight. But we did not like that notion, so we continued with the status quo. We wrote a few articles, said a few words, lambasted the police and all was well.

Our traditional values espousing despondency need to be challenged. Because I’m sick of being sad, and I believe those who care are also tired and bogged down by our ineptitude. We need a reality check; we need to shelve our safety bubbles and step out into the real world. Because that’s the only way we’ll ever reconnect with the reality called life in Pakistan.

Pakistani Definition of Patriotism

The definition of being a patriotic Pakistani is varied across the entire Pakistani diaspora. Some conclude that there is no greater level of patriotism than India-bashing. Others conclude that the core Pakistani values, values that were meant to be supreme in Pakistan at the time of independence, are what define a patriotic Pakistani. So really, there is no one definition that will identify a patriotic Pakistani.

Our policies have always reflected our India-centric stances. We have always been known to be aggressive towards India and for good reason. But taking the stick to India in all matters under the sun is truculently idiotic to say the least. But how do you reverse this ideology that has been ingrained in our mindsets under a 'strategic' plan? Our army, foreign policy, interior policy, law and order situation, and everything else under the vast, open blue sky is always attributed to India. Recently though, this radicalized idea was challenged and the results included a focus shift from India, to Israel and America and the Freemasons.

I am not a conspiracy theorist, and I don't believe in conspiracy theories (although I did believe in them, not so long ago). Admittedly, there are many intriguing facets to these conspiracy theories, and perhaps if we were slightly more educated that a giant Pansie, maybe we could have committed a bit more research into these theories. What irks me most though, is the fact that our mindset has been tuned to blame every single being from the heavens to hell, other than ourselves, for our grievances.

If for the sake of argument, I agree that India, Israel and the American nexus is after us to slit our throats, what have we done to counter them except sit and moan? Can you begin to see the bigger picture now? There was a time when Muslims were all powerful, and consequently had the world by it's throat. Now, the West is powerful and it does what it pleases. The sad thing is we have never really come up with a solution to their nefarious designs. We have only sat back, and cried and made noises, and burned effigies.

For once, it would be prudent to define our patriotism in the real sense of the world. Loving your country, ensuring that it stands right at the top in the comity of nations, loving people around us, not caring about the colour, cast, creed, social stature, class etc that they come from, working towards building and attaining unity, ensuring a just society for our children to grow in, is the essence of patriotism. How many of us even barely touch upon that criterion?

Bashing India, America, Israel, Russia etc is all well and good. But what are we doing to counter their influence other than filing petitions to ban Indian channels and movies, and then banning them, and then un-banning them?

Singing praise songs on 6th September every year, watching the parade on 23rd March, singing national songs on 14th August. Is this all that is left of our patriotism?

How many of you think that what goes on on the eve of 14th August, for example, is an act of being patriotic? When vulgar and obscene men clog the roads vying to woo the prettiest girl they can spot. Following her home, making stupid noises, harassing her. Is that a celebration of our patriotism?

We celebrate these days and acts because we have lost the iota of identity that defined us. We are Pakistanis because we live in Pakistan. A geographical identity. We are not Pakistanis by morality, ethics, etiquette, mannerisms, or honesty.

Our patriotism is so skewed that we forget the real issues and indulge in totally narcissistic idiosyncrasies. You might be identified by the majority as a true patriotic, Pakistani, because you boycott Shezan Bakers which is run by an Ahmedi family. But have you ever stopped consuming Pepsi, Coke, Nestle and Unilever products because they are run by Jews? Have you stopped driving your Suzukis, Hondas and Toyotas because they are made with atheistic hands? Have you stopped wanting to own a Lamborghini or a Ferrari because they are designed and made by staunch Catholics?

Think about it. Think about what it means to be patriotic. Think about whether you've lost yourself in the sea of confusion that permeates every aspect of Pakistani life. Think about what Allah ordained humans to do.

And that's the moral. THINK. Because only when you start to think for yourself, and use your brain, use the logic that God bestowed you with, will you be able to differentiate between milk and water, right and wrong, and what it means to be patriotic.

Gunning for Doom

I've grown up hearing that there is always good and bad in men. They exist side by side. There is always a potential of doing good when someone is doing evil, and there is always a potential of doing evil if someone is doing good. But you know what scares me? If those two brothers were actually robbers and murderers, I wouldn't have really cared much about what the mob did to them.

The seemingly frightening prospect of my humanity having gone south is a reality, true for most of us. Some of us deny it, others accept it. Maybe it is because of all the harshness and coldness, and all the beastliness and terrorism and injustice and what not, that has numbed our senses into accepting anything and everything. Our ability to distinguish right from wrong, good from evil, and our ability to care is slowly but surely disappearing. Our humanity is dying. I know mine is.

I have never been able to assimilate the brutality that I have seen in my life. I have never really stomached the unfairness. I still remember that little boy of 10 years, standing at Daewoo Station in Sahiwal with a huge box slung over his weak tiny shoulders asking anyone who would care:

صاحب مین آپ کے جوتے پولش کر دوں؟ (May I polish your shoes sir?)

Seeing him there made me weak-kneed. But how many of those little boys are there in this country? What are we giving to them, what are we teaching them?

We have never taught our children to love this country. We have taught them to love themselves, their mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters. We have taught them there are different social classes in this country and only the right class gets to have fun in this country. We have taken away everything from the people and left them with God to count on for sustenance.

The thing called national character is negligible amongst us. We are a bunch of shoddy hypocrites, liars, traitors and betrayers. Our sense of right and wrong is skewed to the hilt.

Just today for instance, I went to get my fee deposited in my university. You would imagine, children of a university that is considered elitist in the echelons of society would have some sense of making a line; but no, you would be wrong. It was a fish market. People were coming out of nowhere, and breaking the line and joining it randomly, and had no regard or respect for who was standing in the line before them. It just got me thinking: if this youth which is the future of Pakistan cannot respect the right of a person standing for hours in a queue before them, how can we expect them to care for anyone other than themselves in this country?

And that aptly describes our predicament. We are selfish. We might not have been, but we most certainly are now. Everything has to be about us, and us only. We tend to forget that there are other human beings who deserve the same rights that we do.

Some of you might think that what I'm saying is all cliched, but think about it. If you think the talk of demanding that the person sitting next to you be given his or her rights, the same that you demand for yourself, is a cliche, then something is seriously wrong with you and you need to sort it out.

On the national front, DG Rescue 1122 has come out on all cylinders blazing and has said that none of his men were involved in beating Mughees and Muneeb, and that instead, his men kept them in safe custody for 3-4 hours. He further went on to state that both the boys told the Rescue workers that they belonged to different localities. What he couldn't tell was why the video showed one Rescue 1122 worker tying up the elder brother with rope, and then beating his life out of him. Shame on you Dr. Rizwan Naseer for having stooped to the level of horse shit that is plenty in this country. Eight days after their deaths, when the heat turned up on the role of Rescue 1122 in the whole saga, you suddenly decided to have a report made to be presented to the media and the masses.

Only God will deliver justice in this country. No one else. Altaf Hussain meanwhile has indirectly called for Martial Law to be implemented. As much as I despise and loathe the current bunch of hooligans and loafers who rule over us, I certainly would not want the army to take charge because that will torpedo all progress that has been made in this country; which is negligible but still. If the masses that is YOU, still cannot fathom why this country has never progressed and might never after such political statements from "democratic" heads of "democratic" parties, then may God help you.

There is so much more to say but as always I have run out of words to say and write. May God have His mercy on all of us. Amen.