Pakistan – Page 5 – My Bit for Change

With Friends Like These

Is safeguarding the life and rights of religious minorities a responsibility of the government? In the context of Pakistan, present or past, it appears not to be the case.

So is the targeted killing and persecution of religious minorities actually a credit to the government?

If you follow a certain Mr. Faisal Raza Abidi, it would seem so. For wherever Faisal Raza goes these days, he wears the badge of minority rights with great pride and greater pompousness. It’s quite mesmerizing actually.

For instance, I was dumbfounded when I saw him invoking the names of Shia leaders, at the top of his voice, to batter an anchor into submission. The fact that these leaders had been killed on the watch of a PPP government that seemed not in the least bit interested, or bothered, about their life or death, was lost on Abidi.

We have seen a lot in the last four years or so, granted. But vying for political mileage over dead bodies? That too of people you were sworn to and failed to, or didn’t want to, protect. I really cannot come up with an analogy.

You may ask what allows Abidi and company to get away this. How can they stand by and watch as their citizens are butchered and then shout about it on TV? Well, it’s the media, or a certain section of the media.

This is the section that lays claim to be the champions of free speech, of tolerance and are great friends of the minorities in Pakistan. They are also great friends of the PPP, but don’t say that out loud. Irony, isn’t it?

It’s peculiar how these mild mannered folk, who believe in tolerance and abhor abusive trolls, love the slightly less mild mannered Mr. Abidi. It’s also peculiar how they oversee, every day, what the PPP has done to minorities in Pakistan.

How? The “Deep State” (Establishment)! It remains the refuge of the PPP apologist. They hide behind it, pleading that their liberal party is helpless. They say the party’s hands are tied.

Yet there is much they don’t say.

They don’t say how there is more sectarian strife in the country today than when the military was directly in power, under Musharraf. They don’t say how the siege of Shia-Hazaras in Balochistan intensified under the current regime or how the PPP Chief Minister can’t even feign pity for them. Let alone the President.

They don’t say how this government has failed to control growth of sectarian outfits throughout the country, from Sindh to Gilgit to Balochistan. They don’t say that the PPP has failed to introduce stricter anti-terrorism legislation either. Apparently, the ‘Deep State’ wanted to do away with the third time prime minister clause instead? It also demanded public office holders be granted immunity from contempt proceedings.

It’s not that these people don’t have a voice. They speak ferociously enough, just not when the “secular” parties are involved. Just imagine, if “Sheeda Tully” was involved in forceful conversion of Hindu girls. But it was a PPP MNA, so he’s safe. Similarly, imagine if a ‘Right-Wing’ government were to incarcerate an eleven year old Christian girl on blasphemy charges. Now imagine the state of the self-proclaimed liberal anchors, writers, bloggers and activists! Exactly!

The fact is, an ulema council has actually come out to support the girl. In the meantime, former Prime Minister, upholder of the constitution and champion of the masses, Yousaf Raza Gillani has claimed credit for Bhutto’s Ahmadi achievement.

None of these champions of minority rights will ask the PPP why they have been this inhuman, this unmoved and this complicit in the atrocities committed. They will instead write one harrowing tale after the other, each ending before the victims can lodge a complaint against their government. A government that not only abandoned them, it persecuted them as well.

It is, however, a PPP government, so that must not make it to the papers. It doesn’t need to, man. You wrote a vague story from a distant land, such bravery would put a lion to shame. You outdid yourself sire. Your best article ever, for the third time this week! And it goes on..

Young “jiyalas” don’t grow up to be unbiased commentators. A Radio only broadcasts its feed. Institutes don’t fund themselves.

There is so much this county has given to minorities, isn’t there. And prominent among our many gifts – are friends like these.

Is an Average Pakistani a Super Human?

Scorching heat of summers in Pakistan, along comes Ramadan. The heat makes me crave cold water. I sit right in front of the fan and don’t bother moving an inch. Just when I start to relax.. BOOM! The power goes off. Leaving me appalled wondering whatever happened to all the promises that were made to the naïve nation about very little load shedding in Ramadan? Profanity, frustration, anger comes naturally in these sorts of situations. What happens after the power goes off can’t really be described in words. I’m sure 90% of Pakistanis would agree with me on that. Cursing the Government, WAPDA, KESC, etc. While the world progresses we’re going back, back to the Stone Age. While the world discovers new ways to generate electricity, we on the other hand are still struggling to get the oldest form of it.

I’m a Non-residential Pakistani and spending a few days in Pakistan makes me wonder how do Pakistani citizens cope with these kinds of situations? Usually Electricity doesn’t seem so important and vital, but in Pakistan, It could be used as a synonym of blessing. The day when there’s very little or no load shedding is considered lucky. People joke about how good the day was because there was no load shedding. Such is the situation in my land of pure where certain people are bent on turning it onto the complete opposite of pure, where people are deprived of their basic rights. The rich here keeps on getting richer and the poor, poorer by day.

According to Pakistan’s Planning Commission, poverty rate has jumped from 23.9 to 37.5 percent in the last three years. Thanks to leaders chanting slogans like “Roti Kapra aur Makan” the same old slogan has now become ‘zaher, kaffan aur Qabar’, literally, the suicide rate due to the poverty has risen tremendously. “Two-thirds of the country’s population is reportedly suffering from depression, and a trend of suicide among the people has seen a sharp increase in the first quarter of this year.
Lack of financial resources, insecurity and identity problems have pushed the suicide rate up by 24 percent as compared to last year” – Daily times

A recent incident in which a 12 year old burnt himself to death because he could not afford books shook me as I thought to myself how awfully unfortunate we are to have people who want to educate themselves, something which is everyone’s basic birthright regardless of his social status, but is forced it give it up.

It doesn’t end here. While he struggles to make the ends meet, he’s being bombarded with enormous issues like unemployment, terrorism, corruption. Unemployed due to illiteracy, if literate, yes you guessed it right, he need a “Sifaarish” because just a degree, doesn’t work. Hence, most of the competent and talented people leave the country as they are offered much better job opportunities abroad and the incompetent corrupt leeches are left sucking our blood and cycle goes on. It hurts me to say this, but if you are poor, life in Pakistan is terrible. While our leaders are busy in their usual dirty politics and mudslinging, each claiming he’s “Ghareeb awam ki awaaz” the poor die every day sometimes of hunger, sometimes of target killing, drones, suicide bombs and the list goes on. USA has attacked its targets in the northwest of Pakistan since 2004 in the name of “War on terror” in which scores of innocent bystanders have lost their lives along with some suspected militants. Most of them were commoners like you and me. Makes me wonder, what exactly is our definition of “war on terror”? War against terror has become terror itself. It’s hard for me to distinguish between “friend” and the enemy. And if a drone or a target killer hasn’t killed you, worry not, we have suicide attacks and other forms of terrorist attacks, where again it’s a poor Pakistani who suffers. From the summer of 2007 until late 2009, more than 1,500 people were killed in suicide and other attacks on civilians.

Why is he being punished for something he has not done? Be it drones, target killings or suicide attacks.. It’s the common Pakistani who suffer not the elite, not the politicians, not the bureaucrats. A poor man’s fault is his poverty and death is his punishment. This simple innocuous man does not know who his President is. He’s unaware of his Prime Minister. He’s unaware of the ghastly politics. He’s unaware of his Chief justice. Moreover, he’s unaware of his own rights. His main concern is shelter and bread for his children then why is he being punished for something he knows nothing about? Why is life so terrible for him and every day the same?

“When the rich become a slave to their desires, the poor are exposed to all kinds of exploitations”

It’s he who deserves awards like tamgha-e-imtiaz for bearing so much yet remaining hopeful, not someone who lives in mansions, owns Ferraris and Lamborghinis, flats and villas abroad and will be the first one to flee if, God forbid, something goes wrong.

Let’s put ourselves in his shoes. We whine like kids for the slightest displeasures in life yet he still manages to smile. Despite all the hardships and torture he goes through, he’s still hopeful for Pakistan and prays that someday he will live in a country Jinnah dreamt of where everyone will be treated equally and no one will sleep hungry. Let’s hope and pray to the Almighty that He bestows upon us a responsible and God fearing leader who feels the pain of the poor, who knows there are millions of people out there who would sleep hungry and millions who don’t have a roof on their heads and who is aware that he is answerable to Someone, Some Day, for the people’s plight living under his rule.

Pakistan Ka Matlab Kia

I am not really sure if I can be blindly patriotic. My love for Pakistan is not unconditional. I have always believed that Pakistan came into being for one purpose, narrated by

“Pakistan ka Matlab kya?, La illaha Il Lal Lallah”

And I love Pakistan only because of its ideological foundations.

Lately a lot of speculation have been generated on the media about the ideology of Pakistan. The reasons for demanding a separate homeland are questioned and it is asked that whether Pakistan’s ideology is essentially Islamic or secular. The point to ponder is that whether all those people who gave their lives for Pakistan were idiots who sacrificed everything without a significant goal in mind.

Another very common fact used as evidence against the logic of Pakistan is the lack of support of Ulema and scholars of that time for the cause of Pakistan, which in fact is not completely true. A lot of scholars were in favour of the Pakistan movement. Those who opposed, had some logical questions to ask which were not entirely baseless, but we should see that people who supported the Idea of Pakistan, did so because it was promised to be an Islamic state.

Yes, the reality is that the Muslim back then wasn’t much better than the average Pakistani Muslim now. Practical Islam was as scarce as it is now. The common Muslim was as heedless of the basics of Islam as he is now. Exceptions are always there but exceptions do not make up the majority. For a people who were fighting for a homeland to practice Islam freely and not fulfilling the most basic obligations like performing the five times Salah at the same time is an indication of the trouble to come. What happened was inevitable and logical but not at all useless as what most of these media pundits are portraying. We were longing for something very right but without the basic groundwork.

Quaid-e-Azam was chosen by God for a reason. He was the best choice at that time as a leader and NO! He was not secular and neither was he a religious extremist. He was a Muslim whose realization and understanding of Islam increased after his involvement in the mission undertaken by him. He was unfortunately surrounded by the very element that denies the logic of Pakistan movement now. He himself knew it. On one hand were the aristocratic elite and on the other were the religious elite. Between these two, Quaid-e-Azam was the best available balance.

Allah (SWT)’s will was to create Pakistan, so it was came into being. A lot may disagree with my understanding of our identity crisis and present day confusions but the fact is that the very aristocratic elite (a lot of whom are portrayed as heroes in our national syllabus) involved in the Pakistan movement due to their own interests became the reason for this present day confusion about Pakistan’s ideology. Everything about the struggle may not have been all so excellently religious or pure but it was not secular either! It’s hard to state everything as black and white because a lot goes on above in the heavens when men struggle , a lot is forgiven and a lot is tested before freedom is achieved. One thing is for sure though. Even if La illaha il lal Lallah wasn’t established in our land as our ancestors wanted. We still have time to learn from their sacrifices, efforts as well as shortcomings. Pakistan will be what we are. If we belief and practice La Illaha Il Lal Lallah with all its implications only then can we achieve what they all strove for. Pakistan is whatever we make of it. We can do better and so can Pakistan.

A Profane Spirituality

Pakistani private television channels glamorously sport sensational televangelists to satiate the public appetite for spirituality amidst tawdry entertainment galore. The trend rockets in Ramadan when popular media faces don sobriety in cotton shalwar kameezes of subdued hues, skull caps and most alluring beaded scarves and chiffon dupattas. It sells!

This year once again we have on screen with all his guns blazing one of these popular televangelists known for his versatile talents in speaking, singing, making dramatic invocations and tear-stained supplications as well as skills one cannot mention at the family dinner table. The latter came to light in a leaked video that had recorded this ‘aalim’s behind-the-camera antics and escapades. There was great shock and horror at this most dramatic volte face from a simple-minded populace that loves hero-worship. The wiser ones chuckled, saying, ‘I told you so.’ The ‘aalim’ carried on with classic composure, invoking divine retribution for the liars behind the scandal in his usual flowery and flamboyant language. The dexterous televangelist carries on with his repulsively seductive religious rhetoric aimed at the simplistic mass mind-set.

Notwithstanding the public humiliation he underwent and the aggravated sentiment of his massive fan-following (largely female), the aalim stuck to his guns and emerged unscathed. There you have it- the aalim (dis)graces the screen of Pakistan’s most popular private television channel this Ramadan with an unbelievable audacity. In your face. What adds a flabbergasting twist to the tale is the fact that the earlier video had been allegedly publicized on youtube and elsewhere by this very channel which now advertises his program as its Ramadan highlight. The channel also must be credited with putting up this ignoramus of abysmal moral standing and dubious background as an ‘aalim’ before the Pakistani public in the first place. After his metamorphosis into an ‘Aalim Online’ thanks to this channel, the so-called aalim reappeared on a similar evangelical show on another channel having quit his mentors in the previous one. That is when appalling off-camera clips from his programs recorded for the first channel went viral. In a mind-boggling move, the aalim returns to this channel he had quit, reaffirming his loyalties and once again using his odious eloquence to seduce gullible minds.

The entire episode reeks of a most worrying and dangerous trend in Pakistani society. The commercialization of the mass media has taken a heavy toll on our most sacred values, marketing spirituality. Religion too is to be sold, like soap or whitening creams or cheap powder. It is embellished with a deliberate spirituality calculated to keep the viewer glued to the screen, packaged under brand names, presented by alluring faces in lighter shades of lipstick framed by an oceanic-blue-green or pristine white sequined scarf. For a more dramatic touch, the camera captures a little tear droplet streaming down the lightly painted face at the precise time when the camera zooms in. It is a winning advert- sure to guarantee a sizeable viewership of semi-literate housewives from all over the country.

The ethos of Islamic culture is simplicity. Spiritual practice is an intensely private matter, and when it is brazenly flaunted by exhibitionists it loses all sanctity. The individual’s faith is a matter between him and his Creator, and humility is the defining trait of the believer. Religiosity dripping from phony appearances, hairy faces appropriate for the occasion, titles, and headgear exposes the emptiness, superficiality and hypocrisy of the trade. According to a hadith,

‘Allah does not look at your appearances, but He looks into your hearts.’

The Pakistani media has reached the lowest point of depravity with this commercialisation of spirituality. It steers directionless, blinded by the commercialist and competitive imperative, leading a nation wired into the matrix, frozen into a hypnotic trance like sleepwalking starry-eyed zombies.

The artifice, pretentiousness and even shameless hypocrisy of it all is a damning verdict on our collective morality as a society. I fear for the generation that grows up in and is socialized into this morass of values. When the persona of the ‘religious scholar’ is tarnished with debauchery, hypocrisy and showmanship; when spirituality is worn and flaunted for appropriacy according to the occasion; when our most sacred values are presented in such blatantly superficial and distasteful ways, I shudder to think of what we are dwindling into as a society and a nation, what papier mache ‘role models’ and inspiration we are leaving behind for our children.

The Moral Demise

Daughter killed her father …..

Shocked when I heard the news that a teenage girl killed her father; reason, he was stopping her from having an illegitimate affair. It was a breaking news on electronic media and reported widely, shocking for the entire country that how she confessed her crime and was actually not feeling any guilt about it.

One thought that continuously struck my mind was what made a daughter so angry that she went to the extent of shooting her father. What was the real cause? Was her ‘teenage love’ for a boy so strong that she didn’t care about her blood relations? Perhaps she was thinking that something magical would happen as often witnessed in famous Indian movies and she would succeed in getting rid of all obstacles that hindered her path & she & her lover would live happily ever after.

Similarly, a shocking news came about an elite school managing a debate on gay rights in Islamabad and I was thinking that where are we heading towards? Do these elite schools give a damn about religious and ethical values or they just believe in blindly following the ultra-liberal ideologies. They are having fun with fundamental religious and ethical values while we are sitting as mere spectators.

Few years ago, during my college days, once a friend was sitting on the stairs, deep in thought. I asked what happened and he said, ‘ Looking at the current trends, I am thinking that If after 20 years my daughter is having an affair, how will I stop her’. It sent shockwaves down my spine at that time, but now we are seeing things actually we never thought about. Lifestyle has entirely changed in our country in past ten years. Just look at the language of our kids these days and it will shock you.

Lets play the blame game. Lets blame media for polluting the mind of the girl who killed her father. Lets blame our educational system for these shallow moral values. Lets blame parents for not teaching the kids properly. Lets blame society for promoting unethical values. Lets blame the government … Lets simply blame!!

This blame game won’t result in anything positive. We certainly need to identify the ‘root-cause’ of the problem and take corrective measures. In my opinion, the root cause is that we have not defined our own role models. We need to define the real role models. And for that purpose, we need to put a lot of question marks on our real ideology. Who are our heroes? Who are we aspiring to become?

Kids idealize the heroes, and whoever heroes they think, they would try to follow them. We need our own real life heroes. Or should I say, we need to project our own real life heroes, because we already have them, but our kids don’t know as many of us have also forgotten. Is our hero Hazrat Khalid Bin Walid, Hazrat Mus’ab Bin Umair or any Bollywood/Hollywood hero. Everyone in Pakistan would certainly respond that Companions of Prophet (SAWW) are our heroes. But then how much we and our kids know about them. How much do we talk about them. How much do we try to follow them?

Our problem is much deeper. We live in a hypocritical society. We have double or triple standards in everything. We have different standards for ourselves and our future generation. We have confused concepts of right and wrong. We want our kids to be modest, polite, religious, and yet they should be westernized, liberal, and exclusively English-speaking. We are exactly as Ghalib said

رند کے رند رھے ، ھاتھ سے جنت نہ گئ

To sum it up in a sentence, we are confused on our ideology of ‘successes’. We need to define what does success means for us. Is having a successful love affair a success? In movies it might be true, but in real life what is the end result. A girl killed her father to succeed in her love affair. Did she get what she wanted? Can she be called successful?

Let’s turn to Quran to get the meaning of success and Quran says

And whoever is removed away from the Fire and admitted to Paradise, he indeed is successful. (Ch 2 :v 185)

Unless we redefine the success in our minds and reteach our kids the problems will only increase. Bollywood style affairs would be more important in the lives of our teenagers and issues like LGBT will be talk of the town in ultramodern Pakistan with no values to uphold and be proud of.

Of Regrets and Apologies

“We are sorry for the losses suffered by the Pakistani military. We are committed to working closely with Pakistan and Afghanistan to prevent this from ever happening again”, said Hillary Rodham Clinton to Hina Rabbani Khar on a telephone call, and Pakistan reopens its border to NATO supply convoys into Afghanistan after a seven-month blockade since November, when an American aircraft killed 24 Pakistan soldiers.

The nation went into shock and twitter was bombarded with questions like ‘Was this really an apology’, ‘they said sorry which they say even when they sneeze and did not apologize’ and ‘Is Clinton Camera-shy for a formal apology?’

I sat down and thought for a moment, ‘Would we be happy and satisfied if the word regret and sorry is replaced by an apology, a formal one, with a US official appearing on media? The civilian and military leadership was so inclined to open the land routes that even a slightest blink of the eye was enough for them? How was it different from Cameron Munter’s condolences given immediately after the incident and those too in Urdu for which he must have done an extra effort to sound more convincing to the sheeple he was addressing. And, hand over heart, would you be satisfied if your wishes or demands of a ‘formal apology’ are met. Would you believe these statements coming from a super power that has a history of war crimes and blatant lies, very well acknowledged by internationally accredited activists and impartial commentators. Let us go through just a few of these.

-Just a few months ago, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta apologised to the Afghan people for an incident in which copies of the Quran were burned and said that it wasn’t intentional.

‘These actions do not represent the views of the United States military. We honour and respect the religious practices of the Afghan people, without exception.”

NATO commander John Allen also addressed to the ‘noble Afghans’ and that too with an extra effort of learning to say ‘Assalam Alaikum’ and ‘Manan, Tashakkur’ to ‘calamin-ise’ the blistered sentiments with his amazing Pushto and Persian.

-Shortly after that, international media breaks the news, that a course for US military officers has been teaching that America’s enemy is Islam in general and suggesting that the country might ultimately have to obliterate the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina without regard for civilian deaths, following second world war precedents of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima.

“This would leave open the option once again of taking war to a civilian population wherever necessary (the historical precedents of Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki being applicable to the Mecca and Medina destruction decision point).”

The Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Martic Dempsey responded to it as “the material in the course was counter to American appreciation for religious freedom and cultural awareness. It was just totally objectionable, against our values, and it wasn’t academically sound,”

-A few weeks after burning of the Holy Quran incident, comes the horrible news of a US sergeant killing 16 innocent civilians, out of whom 9 were children and later all the bodies were set alight. As always, the authorities tried to explain, they do not represent anybody. They were just mad (disagrees Robert Fisk).

Remember, US senator John Kerry was “deeply sorry” over the killing of two Pakistanis by a US official, and promised justice if he was handed over to the US? Similarly, there are numerous incidents which have torn apart United States claims of freedom and equality, belief in humanity and justice for all. Illegitimate drone attacks on Pakistani soil and civilian casualties are very frequent. Detainees in the Guantanamo held without charge, Abu Ghraib’s disturbing pictures where the soldier refuses to apologize for her ‘prisoner on the leash’ and other disturbing treatment, US military officials using Quran as target practice and urinating on corpses, Aafia Siddiqui’s physical and sexual abuses in the world’s most horrifying jail, sentenced for allegedly shooting (missing the target) a US soldier while a Marine gets three months in jail for massacring two dozen civilians in Iraq, are just a few. With a war that began with a lie of ‘Weapons of mass destruction’ in Iraq, US remains the first and the only country to have used Nuclear weapons and is the biggest manufacturer and supplier of chemical weapons. Let’s also recall heavy usage of white phosphorus on the city of Fallujah.

A former American soldier who fought at Fallujah says:

“I heard the order to pay attention because they were going to use white phosphorus on Fallujah. In military jargon it’s known as Willy Pete. Phosphorus burns bodies, in fact it melts the flesh all the way down to the bone, I saw the burned bodies of women and children. Phosphorus explodes and forms a cloud. Anyone within a radius of 150 metres is done for.”

What has the US or the NATO apologised for in the past? And if they have apologised, have the injustices and war crimes stopped? Have they ever apologised for Hiroshima ‘formally’ or for the usage of napalm bombs and chemical weapons on Vietnam civilians? I must mention, they felt ‘sorry’ for deliberate syphilis infections in Guatemala as a part of medical tests without prior consent.

So my dear countrymen, what is it that we really want? With this history of regrets and condolences of the masters, even a formal apology means nothing. I remember from my childhood what my mum used to say every now and then to my little brother, ‘My son, you say sorry and then repeat the same thing? What kind of an apology is this? Saying ‘sorry’, means you admit your mistake and you would never do that again’. Unfortunately this does not mean anything in the real world and our mums had kept us in a world of fantasy and text bookish philosophy which we only come to find out as almost non-existent as we grow up to the ugliness of the mighty in this world.

A dog is no doubt man’s best friend. But, either our spineless leadership should come out of this ‘ideal friendship’ and let us live like a sovereign nation, who is capable enough to deal with its own issues (including terrorism that started after US invasion) or keep wagging the tail and make us all a mere joke . The precious 24 soldiers would never come back and nor would the thousands of other soldiers and civilians who didn’t get a name. The solution is: this war MUST end!

I leave with you the words of an American activist, a daughter of a Jewish mother and an Iraqi father demanding the same as I do today. No justice, No peace!

Where are all these gates leading to

Our nation is obsessed with ‘gates’, be it Watergate or Bill Gates; (though the latter is considered a plural by many). Thus, it has become customary to associate the word gate with every scandal, whether it is Memo-gate, Mehran-gate, Veena-gate or the latest Bahria-gate; the word ‘gate’ is there as a symbolic representation.

Do these gates open a gateway to somewhere? What is the impact of all these scandals on a commoner’s life in the country? Take Memogate, for instance. A lot of hype was created about it but with the passage of time, the dust settled down. In the end, it was considered as a political gimmick to divert the attention from critical issues. Many talk shows were conducted and costly airtime was used for discussions on every aspect of the memo. Even if memogate was critical and a matter of life and death for the country, what was the outcome of the whole hue n cry? Similar questions can be raised about other scandals in which nothing tangible is infront of the nation which can be called a ‘result’.

Now, consider the recent hype about Bahria Gate. Malik Riaz did a press conference while holding Quran in his hand. He raised some serious questions regarding judiciary and the Chief Justice. It became a breaking news immediately and all channels started running marathon transmissions discussing the pros n cons of every uttered word and gesture of Malik Riaz’s presser. Social Media didn’t stay behind. #BahriaGate started trending on twitter. Everyone with or without an opinion participated. In fact, even I personally tweeted a lot. It was immediately the talk of the town. Malik Riaz tried to prove that he had interaction with the Chief Justice. It turned out that during lawyers movement the interaction was there and Malik Riaz tried to bargain on behalf of the rulers and CJ never agreed on NRO and meeting Zardari and hence no deal was reached.

Apparently, this scandal is perfectly timed to divert the attention of people from the corruption of current government and issues like poverty, inflation, energy crisis, lawlessness and target killings. Media has created a hype and serious issues of daily life have gone on the back burner.

But in hindsight, when I reflect now I feel that this issue is indeed important. This single scandal shows the reality of our society and unveils the nature of our social fabric. Virtually everything and everyone was bought and confessed about. For me, ‘confessing a crime with pride’ is a bigger issue. Malik Riaz openly admitted that he bribed and offered favours. His intentions cannot be judged, but his actions surely tell that he wanted to influence the judicial system.

Bahria Gate should not be looked upon as ‘just another corruption scandal’. It shows that how a person earned fortunes and on his way up the ladder, he tried to purchase everything that came along. He had contacts with major political personalities, military junta, media tycoons and famous anchors. He had a say in crucial political affairs. He utilized all these deliberately established contacts for his purposes. In some cases, he gave a lot of charity to the poor and deprived people. Thus he used all means to establish his significance. This mentality is not rare. When I joined my first job, a senior told me to ‘oblige’ everyone by giving favours. He told me that’s how I could make my roots stronger in the organization. This culture of influencing others and then taking undue favours is ruining the very essence of our society. So very few were able to resist the fortunes offered by Malik Riaz and in the process Bahria town developed into an empire estate which had its own rules of the game.

Another important aspect of this scandal is the role of journalists. They are fighting each other and exposing themselves on this issue. Their fight has revealed a lot about the unscrupulous internal affairs of media. It also shows how people from media are manipulated. Malik Riaz is investing a lot in mainstream media by ads which clearly influences the opinion of media.

One significant thing is the deplorable trend of holding Quran during press conferences. Altaf Hussain and Zulfiqar Mirza did the same before and now Malik Riaz repeated it once again. Seriously, it shows ill mentality of our so called ‘leaders’. The sanctity of the Quran should be maintained and it should not be used in ‘political mimicry’.

This scandal should be taken to the logical and fair conclusion. All the holy cows should be unveiled and slaughtered once and for all. Only then it can bring long lasting peace in the lives of ordinary citizens. It can decide our future if we punish all the culprits and prove that our nation is not for sale. However, if the history of previous ‘gates’ repeats itself then our society will loose its belief on justice. It will bring more downfall for the morality in our society which is already touching its lows. This scam is a test for our nation and I believe that if we successfully cross this bridge, we will come out as a better nation inshaALLAH.

Budget Simplified

Budget 2012 was being presented in National Assembly and it reminded me about my lab attendant. His newly born daughter died last month during labour at home in a far flung village of KPK . He was not able to afford the delivery expenses in hospital and therefore he opted for labour at home. I came to know about it when he had already left home after hearing the sad news of demise. When he came back, he told me that he is earning about 10K and the charges of a hospital delivery were not bearable for him as the medical tests and medicines were quite expensive. I was thinking that whats in the budget for him.

Finance minister tried to convince people that they are living in a heaven while when we look around, its totally a different picture. There is indeed a darker side which does not match with the claims of present regime. Are you confused in the budetary figures? That is why the budget does contain all this fuss. It is an attempt to show the brighter picture when there is dark all around. To cover up the bad governance and corruption of the government, people are trapped in heavy figures to show that the country is in best condition.

So what are these calculations all about? Lets make it simple, consider the following example. If there are only two persons in a place, one has earned Rs 100 and other has not earned anything. Now calculate their GDP, its Rs 100. Their per capita income is Rs 50. GDP includes the earnings /spending of all, in which the rich elite becomes a significant factor, but poor people contribute little to it. Growth rate of GDP depends more upon how much ‘richer the rich have gotten’. So even if growth figures are high, they are significant only for the rich elite. The facilities are available, but not affordable for the common people.

What is the real purpose of a budget then? Ideally speaking, the budget is an estimate of how much we are going to earn and how much we should spend. It allocates money for different projects. Its a document which reveals that how much of the previous targets were achieved and what are the new targets; that’s it. But the government tries to cover its ugly face by using heavy terminologies. A lot of time these figures are falsified, their impact is blown out of proportion, just to cover the mess the government has created.

Current budget is again a same budget with false promises. A huge part is being spent on defense, government expenditures etc. 70 billion rupees being spent on Benazir Income support program is a wastage of money. This huge amount could have been used for the better projects related to education, health, infrastructure and energy sector.These figures didn’t mean anything to the poor labourer who is trying hard to make both ends meet. It doesn’t mean anything for the person who is sick and spending all he could to get a proper treatment. Joblessness is becoming a huge problem in the country. Industry is closing down and millions are loosing jobs. Current Budget is in heavy deficit. It simply means that earnings are less and expenditures are more, government will not reduce its expenditures but will borrow more money. Rich industrialists are not paying taxes and common people have to pay tax on everything.

Now lets talk about increase in salaries. When salaries are increased by same percentage for all, it means peanuts for poor (low grade employees) and huge increments for high grade officers. It widens the already huge gap of rich and poor in the country. A grade 22 officer earning in six figures, with all the benefits and previliages cannot think about the problems faced by a poor. While price hike and inflation is same for all, increase in income is not similar. It makes the poor ‘poorer’ & the rich ‘richer’

So this budget is a budget for elite class. They will get benefited. Poor will not get any benefits unless we change the system. Only one budget so far has ever been termed as a budget for poor people, and that was presented by Liaqat Ali Khan in 1946. Other than that, whichever party was in govt, circumstances were same for ordinary class. The capitalistic economy needs to be uprooted and Islamic system of finance needs to implemented, which ensures flow of wealth from rich to poor; only that is the way out.

Revamping education in Pakistan

I don’t think anyone would deny the fact that we live in a cut throat world where time is money and skill is paramount. The practical life knows just one thing and that is how to live the ‘dog-eat-dog-way’, all the while trying to make one-self indispensable. We all know that it comes down to selling yourself, your personality, your traits and of course your skill. The dilemma is that schools, colleges and universities are not equipping students to face the competitive arena where the dynamics of the job market is constantly evolving and raising the bar for new entrants. Truth of the matter is bookish knowledge and emphasis on grades is not only useless but also pointless considering the current time.

What we should be focusing now is on changing the way we perceive education. The typical classroom environment is no longer viable if a meaningful education is what we are aiming for, primarily because it has become obsolete. This is the age of information technology where individuals are being bombarded with varying perspectives from a myriad of media and communication outlets. Come to think of it, the privileged lot in our country holds the entire world in their smart phone. They don’t need to cram information from books and lectures that can easily be found over the internet. Instead they need practical hands on knowledge that will prepare them for work life. I am not suggesting that theoretical knowledge should be neglected altogether, but practical education should be given precedence. One way of doing that is by getting students to attend seminars, arranging field visits, incorporating internships as part of the course and encouraging group activities.

Most educational institutes in Pakistan focus on theoretical rather than practical knowledge and in my opinion this just kills creativity. Memorizing mundane books which have little relevance to the real world are an integral part of the curriculum. Schools function like factories that produce batches and batches of the same product that just do not sell. There is not an inkling of zeal in the Pakistani schooling system. However before we can even talk about changing the curriculum nationwide, we need to realize that no good is going to come if the government continues to spend less than 2% on such a fundamental sector. Perhaps the only good that can come from this dismal situation is that when our dear government does decide to prioritize education they can revamp the entire system and implement it across the country. Simply put, starting from scratch and adopting a model that has worked for other developing countries, Malaysia being a case in point. Truth be told, we don’t need private schools that offer Ordinary and Advanced (O and A ) levels if our own standard of education is up to mark like that of our nemesis India. Another point I would like to emphasize is the relevance and significance of grades, standardized testing systems and overall academic performance. I believe that a piece of paper depicting class performance proves nothing about an individual’s true potential. Instead having hands on experience, an ability to envision novel ideas and a noteworthy intellect is what education should be honing.

Now more than ever Pakistan must focus on vocational training institutes and help people polish their indigenous skills. We have a huge workforce that has the potential to uplift the country’s economy if it is TRAINED. Our abundant population can become a blessing if every able body is trained and given basic level education.

Not every person is cut out to be a doctor or an engineer some are not even bright enough to finish school but that does not mean that they are worthless and can contribute absolutely nothing to society. Every profession from plumbing to engineering is important and we can’t expect people to acquire these skills on their own. Hence, I believe specialized schools or training centers are a must. Getting women on this bandwagon is also fundamental because believe it or not they can offer so much more than child bearing. Hence the important question to ask is this: we have a workforce so why don’t we make it work?

PM conviction – the battle will go on!

Though the much awaited detailed verdict handed down by the seven-member bench in the contempt of court case against PM Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani fell short of the expectations of many, but the verdict has at least cleared the mist of confusion on the political horizon, putting the Prime Minister in the irreversible process of disqualification.

However, the PPP would be getting their planned design of lingering the legal course till final conclusion of the on-going legal battle is successfully executed, courtesy the lengthy and tedious legal process. But the detailed judgment in the contempt of court case had sealed the fate of the Prime Minister who would hardly avoid disqualification as member Parliament.But the Prime Minister’s “sacrifice” surely would buy some more breathing space for the ruling coalition to sail through the troubled waters by successfully presenting the fifth and final budget, which would be the only constitutional obligation to be met by the ruling coalition.

The decision of going in appeal against the judgment was already made by the PPP leadership, even much before the handing down of the short order of the court on April 26. Some senior party leader, who did not want to disclose their identity, said that the conviction of Prime Minister in the case was obvious and that was the reason they had already decided that they would exhaust all legal and constitutional remedies in the on-going battle with the superior judiciary.

Some insiders in the party said that the legal brains of the party would file appeal against the verdict in the case for which right now the court has not requisite strength to constitute a larger bench to take up the appeal. At present out of the nine available judges apart from the seven members who had convicted the Prime Minister in contempt of court case, three had expressed their inability to sit in the larger bench leaving the court with just six judges. So in given circumstances the court would be requiring at least two more ad hoc or additional judges to constitute a larger bench to take up the appeal of the Prime Minister.

The determination of the Prime Minister to go into appeal could be judged well from the fact that he did not even wait for landing of his plane in London and gave statement on-board his special plane that he would file appeal against the court judgment for which instructions had already been given to his counsel Barrister Ch. Aitzaz Ahsan.

Under the law, the Prime Minister could file an appeal against his conviction, which could ultimately lead to his disqualification as member of the Parliament, till May 26 as the 30-days time would be counted from the day of handing down of the short order by the court. In the meanwhile, the Supreme Court would initiate the legal process of getting the court order implemented by sending the copy of detailed judgment simultaneously to Speaker National Assembly and Chief Election Commissioner.

Speaker National Assembly, under the rules of business and procedure, is bound to forward the reference against Prime Minister to Chief Election Commissioner within 30 days period for action while the Chief Election Commissioner would have 90 days at maximum to de-notify him as member of the Parliament which would automatically remove him for the slot of Prime Minister.Pakistan People’s Party wants to have breathing space for another couple of months to successfully present the fifth and final budget and then the Prime Minister could even resign portraying that the PPP has great respect for the judiciary and try to mould the public opinion in their favour.

Anyone from the party would step in his shoes as Prime Minister to again defy the court’s direction in the NRO implementation case and could drag the matter till the holding of next elections and establishment of the caretaker set up. By the time they would successfully exhaust the premature campaigns being launched by some of the political parties with Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) as the forerunners. Political and legal analysts watching the situation were of the view that Mian Nawaz Sharif had made some hasty decision after the handing down of the short order of the apex court convicting the PM and should have waited till the detailed judgement. Similarly Pakistan Tehreek-I-Insaf and Jamaat-I-Islami have to follow PML-N and as they were not prepared for it their shows in support of the superior judiciary were off-colour or they could not leave some marked impact, which would definitely have some sort of impact on the judiciary as well.

These analysts were of the view that contrary to the political players the judiciary was playing safe and were not in haste in getting their orders implemented and that was the reason the judges of the superior courts were adopting judicial restraint in their decision and handling of various cases. Even in the detailed judgment in the contempt of court case against Prime Minister the seven-member bench could have given some clear-cut direction to Chief Election Commissioner for disqualification of the Premier but the court had once again showed judicial restraint, leaving the matter of Prime Minister’s disqualification to be executed through the laid down legal and constitutional process.

The legal and constitutional experts are of the view that despite the provocative statements and sarcastic remarks coming from PPP leadership the Supreme Court of Pakistan has not taken any hostile posture against the rulers while dealing with cases of sensitive nature and adopted judicial restraint to avoid clash-like situation to save the institutions as well as the on-going political process.

With all this battle and political tug of war going on the masses remain an irrelevant entity, busy in sorting out load shedding, protesting in the streets, committing suicides, selling their children while the convicted Prime Minister is on a lavish and luxurious ‘official’ trip to UK with a big team on Tax Payers’ money representing a poor and war stricken nation.