benazir assasinated

It is horrible. It is unbelievable. It is shocking beyond words. She didn't deserve to die like this. Despite all her faults, she was a popular leader. She was worshipped by many. She was followed like a guru. She was intelligent; she was shrewd, she was fearless. She was a LEADER.

Once again, the people of Pakistan have been wronged. Their wisdom has been challenged; they happen to be the worst losers yet again. The country is simmering with discontent and the police, found very active when it comes to peaceful protests is actually asking people to stay indoors while the cities are left at the mercy of angry protestors who have gone on a rampage, especially in Karachi. It was bad enough for the UN to convene a special meeting on the 12th May incident calling for all the countries of the world to come together to handle the situation in Pakistan, worse for Pope Benedict to call Pakistan a "tortured" region amongst others such as Afghanistan, Somalia to name a few and today UN once again has convened a special meeting to discuss the situation in Pakistan. Recently while talking to an American friend preparing to go to Africa with the Peace Corps, I wished that he would come here too "obviously and hopefully, not with the peace corps...". This addition to my statement expressed a dread of such a possiblity, particularly in these circumstances. Now, i am even more shattered, that dread nagging my mind even harder than before.

It's very heartening to hear that Nawaz has announced a boycott. Better late than never. Probaably sad tragedies like these can run home some points. But in the disconcerted circumstances of today, it's even more clear that whoever maybe behind this incident, dictatorships cause unrest eventually. I used to hear about colleges shutting down for weeks on ened because of unstable political situations. I grew up in the 90s era; such a scenario in comparison to these times felt so distant. Despite one period of lawlessness that was rife in one point in time in the 90s, there was no particular major issue in the country. Despite the economy and the political rivalries, the country wasn't divided. Political heavy weights didnt fear for their lives as much as they do today, the bullet proof podiums and indoors 14th August and 23rd March ceremonies being introduced in Musharraf's time. I remmebr how Nawaz Sharif used to mingle with the crowd after his 14th August address in Islamabad and how we mocked the Indian primeminister's high stage and shielded dais. Today, we suffer from the same turmoil; infact a more pronounced state of affairs because of the small size of our country.

Elections are not the issue. One man rule has to end. We cab't afford another Bangladesh kind tragedy. For this country to survive, some issues have to be settled once and for all. Elections are just a cosmetic step.

We can wait to vote till elections become a symbol of empowerment; when all of us start owning pakistan; when leaders do not feel threatened, when this country is not talked about in hushed tones behind closed doors by the powers-that-be.

Let us all march to the same tune today.

Aur raj karegi khalq-e khuda
--------------------------......

hum ahle safa mardud-e haram
masnad pai bithaiay jaian gai

...contd

My response went like this. It hasn't been published so far, I dont think it will be. I am forcing myself to believe that it's because the newspaper editor wanted to close the debate but I also have a hunch that probabaly the last laugh was already booked. Anyways here goes,

"This is with referance to the letter by Ms Huma in reply to a few letters, including mine that appeared in your magazine against the article “ Covered up Fashions”. Before commenting on the arguments presented, I’d like to say that Ms Huma’s letter would have been taken in as just another academic argument to a constructive debate had it not been for the accusations of “orchestrated attacks” and “brash dogmatism” that she has hurled on those who beg to differ from her viewpoint. “Dogmatism” would rather be described by the attitude of “not (being) obliged to read the article after a few lines”, having found the article offensive, an attitude that she so graciously suggests. Though she doesn’t offer any counter arguments to my letter, I’d still like to comment on some of the points deliberated upon so extensively by her.

Firstly, no one supports or defends the treatment meted out to “those who do not subscribe to the view point of Ms Sana Baloch…” or in the most extreme of cases the beheading of women to satisfy the chauvinist tendencies of a society, in the garb of Islam . All that most of the letters advocated was tolerance of each others’ views and practices as long as they don’t hurt the society. There will be numerous cases of social boycott that can be cited by the “other” divide in peculiar environments and circumstances. And screwing someone’s views that differ from one’s own, to stereotype society into small cliques such as the “moral brigade” is another expression of the intolerance that pervades our society from left to right. And though there may not be one Islam, as interpretations of the faith may vary and which itself is provided for in the religion to accommodate human individuality and unique expressions that ensue from that, there isn’t any brand either. The identity issue as explained by the writer through the words of Dr Manzoor Ahmed is an apt representation of the insecurities that are so evident in writings such as this letter and the article in question. Why and how on earth does a “10 inch piece of cloth” cause such a reflex action in great intellectuals and insightful people to go all out on a rampage against the hijab? And then to talk about the “dread” whatever it may be, in muslim societies, is such a contradiction. As Ms Huma would probably know, many nations have turned back on symbolic representations of their national character especially in times of crises, African Americans being one case in point where “blacks” and “nigger” was proudly replaced by African. Nevertheless for me, identity issue is not that strongly linked to the hijab, as wrongly construed by the writer as much as it is about religious conviction. Lastly, without going into the merits and demerits of the Indian and “Islamic” culture just a short comment that Pakistan wasn’t just a matter of chance; we chose to break away from that Indian identity for reasons I’d rather accept, as were of the majority of those who opted for Pakistan, the “secular” versus “ideological” debate being a very recent one. Also, there’s nothing wrong in being ashamed of one’s culture if one disagrees with the value system it advocates. How would the modern world respond if the Germans started taking pride in their Nazi history, which by the way wasn’t as unrepresentative of the German sentiment at that time, or comment about the advent of religions over history that were meant to do away with immoral, despicable cultural practices, or the heinous crimes such as satti, karo kari, swara or even the jirga system which in most cases acts as a parallel judicial system which are an integral part of the culture of those peculiar areas. The image problem that the writer mentions at the end of her letter is not because of the bearded and the hgijab donned muslim population; it’s because of the desperate attempts by the “modernized” elite to disparage the hijab and the beard with greater ridicule than done even by the detractors of Islam."

All in all, just a reminder that "At the end of the day, a woman who wears hijab is veiling her beauty, she's not veiling her brain..." as noted by Dr Faeghehs Shirazi, an Iranian American scholar in her lecture at Forman Christain College in Lahore on the 13th of December.

*smirks*

P.S. I still had the last laugh!

An interesting debate

An article titled "covered up fashions" apppeared in a weekly magazine run by an English daily. Its link is given below,

http://dawn.com/weekly/review/archive/071115/review2.htm

Having fpund the article greatly disturbing and offensive, i wrote this letter to the newspaper which was published and the link is given,

http://dawn.com/weekly/review/archive/071129/review9.htm

Reading all these letters I got a little excited thinking that there were probably lots who prescribed to the viewpoint I so strongly hold. All didnt present the same arguments but atleast the crux of most of the letters was similar in nature; tolerance and acceptance of each others' ideals and values. However, the very next week this appeared in the magazine,

http://dawn.com/weekly/review/archive/071206/review13.htm

This letter elicited a response...

CONTD

Never has the plight of that nation been changed which doesn't want its lot to be changed...

that's the best translation i could come up with of the Quranic verse which has also been put into poetic word by Iqbal, but for all those who know it in urdu and th way it goes, take my word..i mean every word of what i just wrote.

This sunday our street was abuzz with VIP activity. It was learent that Shaukat azia and prolly musharraf was going to pay a visit to this extremely sycophantic of all journalists around, rather a newspaper owner who happens to live just two houses from ours. Five sweepers instead of the regular one were busy scrubbing off the road, truckload of gravel was standing nearby to fill in any of the small ditches in the street; fortunately for them, not a lot of work was needed since our street is pretty well maintained already. Wonder of all wonders, they piled back this truckload of concrete that my father had ordered for the repair work going on on our roof since that pile full of concrete would have scraed the president to death. Work was put on a halt cuz security demanded no movement on the roof tops.

Everything mentioned above is a routine affair in pakistan. That day it was, earlier it used to be someone else and tomorrow some other tax paying citizen of this country would be disgusted into cursing the system, the country, its leadership for sucking the blood out of us, for destroying the lot of the decent hard working people of this country and may seriously contemplate running off, abandoning everything, adopting some identity which would atleast afford him/her the pride of association, the satisfaction of recognition, the confidence in the leadership, the responsibility and stakes of ownership of the state. The rest, that unfortunate who couldn't make it out for some reason or the other can sit back, suffer and get used to the dynamics of a social order gone berserk.

But no one would take the responsibility, realise the stakes involved. My idea of hanging a black flag on our house as a sign of protest at the arrival of a usurper of OUR rights, a dictator, someone who gets scorned at in every drawing room of this sector where I live, was brushed aside. Who, When and How will then we register our protest? When will we assumne responsibility and own this country? For how long will we look to providence for miracles. Wasn't the Bandladesh debacle enough for us. As someone noted, Pakistan ceased to exist as the Quaid's Pakistan, the day we broke up and the meagre existance that we pledge our loyalty to on every 14th of August since then was wiped off legally by the suspension of the constitution on the 3rd of November. Are we still going to keep waiting???

caught in the bud or success atlast???

I thought people were just ignorant towards everything that's happenig in Pakistan, the mockery of law that's being made so vehemently and blatantly but after our black band move being subjected to taunts and jeers and reduced to a mere fashion statement and shugal by a vast majority of students, I have come to the sad conclusion that most of us have become sooo immune to being treated like animals who are content with merely the presence of basic necessities that we don't consider the absence of that chance to question, to doubt, to think as an anomaly at all and those few who do raise their voices are the lowly outcasts, the "ahl-e safa, mardood-e haram" waiitng in vain for their turn to be seated on the "masnad".

The loud cheers when one bus crosses the other on the Islamabad Highway or the mock "inqilab zindabad" and the "Go musharraf Go" placards that they held just for that one photograph and to make fun of our silent protest are a few of the sorry spectacles that they made of themselves out of sheer ignorance and apathy. But probably calling that ignorance is just an excuse;it's almost a justification for their behavior. It wasn't ignorance, ignorance is an innocous tool of the innocent. It wasn't innocense; the depolitisisation of educational institutions in the Zia era have turned a whole generation into a bunch of expedient, disoriented crowd which demands that right to breath, that right to education, to food, to shelter, to profits and material benefits but leaves its intellectual berth docked.

Anyways, it came to a temporary end with the VC calling us in. We talked and chatted and aughed at any random spill out of emotions but all in all it was a triumph. We talked in the VC'S office on politics. We tried to challenge the depoliticeised environment of the uni and we managed to break through that stiff, military air that hangs around the campus and guess what he booked us in on a discussion on politics. And though many tried to bog us down with their stares directed towards our arms bared off their black bands, we came out happy and jubilant.

We didnt win, the thinking, inspired human being in us did, the silent concience, the wailing intellect won.

reflections under emergency...

I'll live a sad life and die a tragic death; death of wasted passions, of quelled spirits. Hah! someone may say, did the world lose anything??? the wasted passions and the quelled spirits had to rot eventually.

But I'll say what I always say when I screw up my Structures quizzes, "Atleast I knew the concept...". Wonder if I can say that with such assurity about life. But c'mon, I wouldn't have spent my time milling into trash books or watching trash movies for life. And fine, even if I didnt (could not) march out on the streets to face emrgency and martial law and military coups, and mush-Bush and every other blemish on the face of human genius that is perpetrated in OUR name, (for heavens' sake...watever!) or even if I didnt always justify the rebel in me, there atleast was a conviction strong enough to get me labelled one.

And a correction needs to be made. I am not living like the rest of us. I SULK!

that's my REBELLION!!!

kaisay karayen tum ko sair tootay pakistan ki???

I just saw this amazing song that GEO has come up with. It's sad, it's heart wrenching, but it's true...we have been reduced to asking...

"bolo shaheedo kaho shaheedo kyun banaya pakistan???"

nnn forced to say

"Din, aqeeday aur mazhab kai naam pai lashain girti hain
Mayain apnay putron kai tukron ko lai kar phirti hain
Umeedon ki kaliyan iss gulshan mai ab kab khilti hain....

kis ki khatir tum nai di qurbani lakhon jaan ki???"

but even then

"phir bi GEO pakistan..."

do we have any other choice???
we lost the dream in 1971 and we glossed the whole episode over. we continue to make the same mistakes. we continue to divide our people and then mourn the consequences. many will express their anger over this song, it's bold introspection; they will slam the tv channel for it's "doubts" but let's be honest for once, so that we are able to clear our vision of the cobwebs of expediency, of ignorance, of all-is-well mantra. that's a sign of those who have stopped living...and we can't do with dead morons, there are very few humans around nyways..

"insanon ki iss basti main hai kami insaan ki..."

ammi tells how nanabbu came running into the house as he heard about the surrender of pakistani troops in dhaka and took out his prayer mat, knelt over it and started weeping and praying. He left kashmir to make sure that his children grew up pakistani, gave up on relatives back home and headed for the land of the pure, the Promised Land. he married his daughters off to pakistanis to maintain that identity, striving for that "glamor" of which, he risked breaking off ties with his family. He managed to go back just once or twice, not being able to attend his parents' funeral, attend the family gatherings, all for the HOME that he made here.

"Bolo shaheedo, kaho shaheedo kyun banaya Pakistan??"

and now when i write these words, i feel guilty for asking this question of those martyrs but probably this may wake us up.

and i culdnt keep back my tears as i heard this song...
umeedon ki kaliyan khili gi kabi yahan pai????

There's no use thinking wen u can't act, expressing wen u arent being heard, screaming it out in your heart when u can't in others', no use being wen you are invisible.

Frustration rots the brain.

Random ramblings

-It's eid in america today. The arabs celebrated it yesterday and we'll have it tomorrow. Three eids in the world means three eids in Pakistan. One section going with the Saudis and they manage to see that elusive moon on the 29th night too to validate their claim, another going with the more common tradition of celebrating eid one day after the Saudis and the third more law abiding citizens going with the actual sighting of the moon in the country instead of basing their calendars on any Arab agenda. That's the issue with being too emotional about religion. Fine, I am not against pan islamaism bbut it shouldnt defy logic. Pakistan is a reality and an entity in its own right. Why shouldnt the people of Pakistan be celebrating eid on the same day. The saudis are not our mentors PLEEAZE.
anyways, Happy eid to aapa and bhaijan. Fine eid after just getting off from 24 hours duty and well good luck that there are so many pakistanis in such a small town such as saginaw.

-These days I am battling it out between engineering and politics. I so want to write something but I am not, just to give the impression that the enginner is winning when I know sooner or later it will lose, atleast for the time being. But it has to win eventually. No excuses, otherwise because I chose this field myself thinking that the social scientist could do without the technical knowledge but the engineer couldn't. I didnt foresee the constant beckoning of the politician. hmmmph. Gotta force myself like abeera put it.

- The big man goes out of the field with just 3 runs to his credit. Don Bradman went out on naught when he needed just 1 run to make his test average 100. big players miss out on big ones. No worries INZI.

-A friend just wrote me a testimonial, right out of nowehere. We made up after a cold war of about 2 months but im glad it's over.Besides all the nice things such as saying that I never hesitate to apologise (seee see what friends say abt me!) and many others, he compared me to Imran Nazir. OK, I thought it was more of an affront to Imran nazir than to me, for several reasons. His fans were obviously heart broken and now they won't admit they were ever his fans. Look at the tragedy of it all and infact they are changing poles and mind u some real beauties for that matter. POOR, pOor Imran Nazir.

And well also because I m not a batsman atall and that is majorly due to Aisha's ummmm..welll pathetic bowling. Like c'mon how am i supposed to learn any batting if all the balls i get bounce three times before they reach me and at snail pace. The relatively little straight batting that I do are either back-foot stuff that I go to when facing a fast ball and for obvious reasons too. That's the only way I know how to play a fast ball because my reaction time isn't fast enough (aisha's bowling again) or the instinstive front-foot cover and straight drives on full pitched balls or well yeah the front-foot plunge at those siilllloow silllow balls that aisha entertains me with. I am a bowler and i dont like it when people forget that. C'mon someone said I had genuine pace which was just accidently discovered when in A-LEVELS a natural spinner for starters, decided to go for the straighter faster delivery in the practice nets because she was unsure about the spin her ball may undergo. And so died the SPINNER, the leg spinner for that matter.

Anyways, watever the comment bhai can be proud of those big ground matches and the basement sessions and the constant yelling at the two baby sisters because they were hard to teach. He made something out of us...oooh i forgot to mention aisha bats extremely well, YAH because she gets to practise on my bowling...:)

-nO POLITICS...no no no. Just one comment; Im glad Imran khan's right there with all the big names in those polls and MQM, huh!!! absent from two provinces and a mere 4% in Sindh and 1% in Balochistan. There you have it Altaf BHAIII.

A comment on yesterday's drama. A talk show host narrated a dialogue between Zia and Stephen Cohen while standing on the balcony of the presidency which overlooks thye city of Islamabad. It went like,

Zia: You know why I am in power today?
Stephen Cohen: No.
Zia: Because nothing in Islamabad escapes my notice.
Stephen Cohen: and what abt ur back?
Zia: The mountains are on my back.

3 months later, Zia wasn't in power killed in an airplane crash.
Reminder to all of us as individuals and for those in the broader sense who seek lifetime presidencies. May God give all of us the time to repent, to fall back.

Bass naam rahay ga Allah ka,
jo hazir bi hai, ghaib bhi,
jo manzar bi hai nazir bi.

Lazim hai kai hum bi daikhain gai

Jab takht girayain jayain gai, jab taj uchalai jain gai
Hum ahle safa mardood-e haram masnad pai bithaiain jayen gai.

(faiz)

Why we dont come out on the streets?

Yesterday we all saw the brutal machinery of the state at display. A hundred or so lawyers whose only sin was that they were chanting slogans against the government and trying to march out to the Election Commisiion. They weren't going to burn the place down or throw bombs at the building or the election commissioner. They were only protesting and then to make matters worse, journalists were rounded up in the baton charge too and we saw them carrying their injured colleagues with arms limping down, foam coming out of the mouths-and we kept watching.

Alas! Our apathy is not even worth any pity. I don't believe that this listlessness on the part of the nation is because they are not concerned about the political process. They very well are. The people of Pakistan have never been unconcerned with politics. In "Breaking the Curfew", Emma Duncan makes this point very clear, about Pakistanis' obsession with politics and she made this comment around the beginning of Benazir's term; a time when access to information was nil compared to the times today. I also don't think that people have reconciled themselves with army rule and are weary of the traditional leadership. Benazir and Nawaz Sharif, whether we like it or not still have a vote bank. Democracy whatever little we had, always worked this way in Pakistan, through fixed vote banks that were and still are passionate about their leadership. And even those few not burdened by the compulsion of any vote bank either conciously or unconciously,have strong reservations about Musharraf. The reasons range from increasing inflation and the ensuing poverty levels, health facilities, corruption and the kind of reasons that have always irked people whatever ruler it may be. For an even smaller portion of the public, it's a question of constitutionalism. These are the ones who opposed military dictatorship right from 12th October 1999 and weigh Ayub, Zia, Yahya and Musharraf in the same balance. So despite all the varied outlooks, the popularity of the Musharraf regime is fast declining.

Considering all the above, no justifiable reason can be cited for this general apathy. The absence of popular political leadership may serve as an excuse for the "fixed vore bank" types, for people came out in support of the lawyers when it was about the Chief Justice. They had a leader figure to present to the masses, then. A few years ago, an article appeared in an english daily which beautifully caught the essence of this lethargy. The article was about how a historian would comment on the world of today, 100 years from now. After having discussed Bush and Blair and all those parts of the world which are in the limelight today, he described Pakistan as a faint memory of the past, a country where people preferred to sleep on their comfortable couches, hidden away in their own comforts shielded from the hot sun outside while tyrrany swept its arms over the environs and finally knocked on their doors to pull them out.

We as a nation expect a lot from people around us; the government, the NGOs, the lawyers (as of now), the political workers. We all moaned when Nawaz Sharif was sent back, expressed our horror at the blatant violation of the Supreme Court ruling but did anyone of us come out, braved the heat and the barricades and the baton wielding security forces to welcome a popular leader back home, wothout regard to political affiliations? How many of us came out to protest even the price hike, the electricity shortages which affect us directly? How many of the islooites dared to venture near the Lal Masjid and protest when the Lal Masjid Brigade was out on a rampage or even while we condemned the brutal operation on it, come out to let the gpvernment know that the reddening of this city wasn't settling down well. We all sympathise with the family of the missing persons but how many of us joined Mrs Janjua and her kinds and their likes outside the Supreme Court? We dont' come out when they published sacriligeous cartoons of the Prophet (P.B.U.H) in the WEst and leave that to turbaned, bearded kids of madressahs whose pictures can then be splashed all over the western media to stereotype muslims, when millions come out in peaceful protests in Turkey, a country which even the moderately religious from amongst us don't count anywhere up that mark of "religiosity". We keep shifting responsibilites until the time tyranny knocks on our very door.

And then we dare to demand a better deal from Providence!

Also posted on http://www.chowrangi.com/

Two long weeks and stumped?

Despite the fact that speculations were making the rounds in Islamabad of late about the predicted judgment of the Supreme Court, it will be an understatement to say that the general society has been shocked by the ruling. All of us, the civil society was sailing high and content in the assumption that the battle of the judiciary had been won by the lawyers. The street battles, the revolution, the turning point required just the black coats and ties and their charged sloganeering. I wrote somewhere earlier that great storms await the judiciary. The reinstatement of the CJ was a case decided by the “brothers” in office, of the aggrieved party. Nawaz Sharif case, despite ending on a note that wouldn’t have been expected before 9th March, was not anything of a whopper compared to the dual offices case in question. None of the cases mentioned above barring the latter, challenged the very foundations of the state. Rana Bhagwandas noted in one of his comments in the recent proceedings that the judgment would chalk out the political future of Pakistan.

Keeping the respect of the higher judiciary in mind but also realizing that a Supreme Court verdict is public property, I would like to say that the actual Doctrine of Necessity may very well have been buried, but another Doctrine defining the compulsions of a judiciary dreading the prospects of serious confrontation with the executive and the ensuing consequences of an emergency or a worse situation, has been borne today. Going by the speculations and from what is almost apparent, the judiciary chose expediency over constitutionalism to keep back from an open declaration of war, at least fro the time being. It may be a strategy to read the tides before jumping into a hot fray and with Justice (retd) Wajihuddin’s and possibly PPPP’s cases lined up against an expected approval of General Musharraf’s nomination papers for the presidential elections, the Supreme Court can afford to defer a substantial ruling on the issue till the time some lions have been tamed.

For the government which is rejoicing, it may be a little too early. Musharraf has not been given a green signal by the ruling and if one analysis the court proceedings in their entirety and not just the ruling, some of the observations made by the court are noteworthy. It observed in a 17th September press release that the exclusion of Article 63 was not Musharraf specific and applied to all government servants. In that case, with Dr Anwar-ul Haq being barred from contesting the presidential elections, a simplistic conclusion would render General Musharraf ineligible as well. This observation further validates the argument elaborated above, that inspite of being clear about the dual office question, the court has tactically or overburdened by compulsion, postponed a clear verdict on this issue. The two weeks long deliberation as many jurists put it was unnecessary if the petitions were to be declared not maintainable, may provide some key points and observations to strengthen the case against dual office, once it appears again in the courts.

All is still not lost. The lawyers played it very well to field a candidate who could appeal to the courts as an aggrieved party. As Justice (retd) Wajihuddin Ahmad put it, skirmishes and battles are part of war. The people of Pakistan should brace themselves for another front; let this be a mere tactical retreat.

Also posted on http://www.chowrangi.com

we lost!

This comes after about 3 days because it's now that I ve strted feeling a lil composed about the final match. And despite the fact that I dont find this form of the game up to the quality standard that can be associated with a professional cricket game, it nevertheless manages to attract people because of the fast entertainment. So even if Cricket itself is on the losing side at the end of the day, the fans always win.

Anyways, after all the jumping and the yelling and the clapping and the punches in the air, it came down to naught. Analysts may keep on saying that it was a "victory for cricket" which I dont agree with for several reasons, history will only remember the victor. You are the champion or you aren't; there are no position no.2s. And so Pakistan features nowhere in this inaugural twenty20 world cup. Only India goes down the history books.

About the victory of cricket part, c'mon who actually played except for misbah, barring the bowlers ofcourse who did a very good job of restricting the Indian onslaught to 150. If I were an Indian, I would be offended by that comment. Their bowlers bowled really well and put that pressure on pakistan which forced them to play reckless shots. Only one man eluded them and bad for Pakistan, one man can fail as much as he can succeed (the one man woes...alas!). No blame on Misbah though, He did a great job to save pakistan from an embarrassing end but ith hindsight, no one supported him.

Too late for him now, though. 33 already, he may never get a chance to relive that moment and make something out of it and those who are getting excited about Pakistan having found another batsman, ummmmm twenty20 is another ballgame altogether. Whether this chap is good enough for the one-dayers too is completely another story.

But watever the outcome, trophy or no trophy, Pakistani team jelled together and played like a unit. The attitude of lawson and malik was especially commendable, laughing, smiling, passing that odd remark all the time; they were a treat to watch.

Points to ponder

Silence should not always be construed as an inability to talk/answer, and not even surrender.

Silence can be aforce stronger than any reactionary attitude and its strength grows as well as its reliability.

I'm learning.

Just when I finished writing this loong piece on our society, a friend sends me something very interesting. Looks like this friend and I are very obsessed with our people and then I wonder why people call me a nationalist..hmmmmppphhh.

Gear in the left...One foot on the accelerator, other on brakes. And eyes on girls.

Welcome to Pakistan-a busy nation!

good one Muntazir.

(Now how do I tell you i dont have credit and can't give a prompt reply to your keen observation)

Symbolism galore

Our society so reeks of symbolism. What I wrote in the last post about the apparent being enough to make one feel enthusiastic, is a little off track; apparent is all that we as a society often settle for, not because that's all that we are offered but because we never yearn for the deeper, the more substantial for our own good sake. For developing that concious awareness of issues on an intellectual level is more difficult than forcing it on someone.

We force restaurants to keep their shutters down and the non-fasting minority to hold their bellies tight instead of waiting for that real feeling of respect that would naturally keep them from exercising their jaws in public. We keep stressing on the beard instead of nurturing that faith to a level where a muslim man would unconciously go for the beard to emulate the Prophet (P.B.U.H), in a manner that would confirm both his action and spirit in the faith. We reprimand our children for saying "Allah Hafiz" instead of salam when bidding farewell when both mean the same thing; it's just Arabic versus Urdu/Persian. Similar is the conflict between Khuda and Allah or reading the Quran in Arabic even if we don't understand a word to actually implement the faith in our lives. We keep stressing on purdah when we don't waste any occassion to harass any woman we set our eyes on, from the burqa clad to the hip teen [honor and respect and the morally upright society should be for the mothers and the sisters and the daughters-all women aren't all that *smirks*]. We go searching for halal meat in the market with haram money in our pockets (taking from "Khuda kay liyay").

We flash our degrees to contribute to the literacy figure but break the traffic rules with the impunity afforded to an ignorant fool. We keep blabbing on about social justice in the developed societies and get our extra baggage checked in without any charge through a Pakistani acquaintance behind the counter even before we set out for the Land of the Pure. We talk about empowerment of women and then go on air accusing them of faking up rape cases to get asylum in the developed world. We seek enlightened moderation in marathons and women football and fashion pageants and strip clubs and deny our people the right to a government by the people, of the people and for the people.

We give our children human names and deny them the right to think, to doubt and to question; the right to excavate the substantial, the spirit from the ornate facade, from the web of hypocricy and symbolism and rituals.

Ramzan

Ramzan is here and though most of us are fasting, some aren't. It's hard enough for those who are and it's worse for those who aren't. No matter how much they may want to eat, and expect to be fed, they can't afford to for their own sake. Avoiding confrontation especially in Ramzan is worth starving to death from morning till whatever time u have to be in public.

The environment in Ramzan is very much like the way you feel when saying congregational prayers except that ofcourse it lasts a whole month. It's about a common sense of purpose and the closed restaurants and a general understanding of sorts that no eateries will be purchased except for kids during the morn, unites everyone in that Ramzan air. Ofcourse, there are the short tempers and the bad traffic and despite the fact that one can't say anything for sure about the concience cleansing part, just the apparent is strong enough to get one enthusiastic about a certain identity.

Ramzan is special!

of weird complexes and social standings

I can never boast of havin a high class heirarchy. Both my parents come from very humble backgrounds. My nana put all his money, whatever little he had on his childrens' education, paying Rs. 5 for a private school when it cost a mere ana a month for a government school. My father started from a "tat" school to make his way through college in Lahore and on to Karachi and then America. I envy my parents for the experiences that they have been through, without being ungrateful. I envy the sense of satisfaction that they must wake up with every morning, at having come all the way to having been able to provide their kids a pretty decent education with a pretty comfortable living standard an probably that's exactly the reason why I find "self-made" people so impressive. And more than that, status with education makes that humility all the more appealing.

Last week, at the college annual dinner and convocation, I particularly noticed this dhoti clad babaji, walking with all the confidence in the world at having just attended the commencemnet ceremony of his son. It was such a cute and at the same time ponderous spectre. No father in a proper three piece suit walking out of a civic, with a nokia cellphone in his hand could fathom the pride of that dad, or could match the spring in his stride, or the smile on his face. And when I mentioned that to afriend, she responded with a mocking smile on her face. My insides still reek of thta feeling of disgust and it just reminded me of those numerous occassions when she, in particular has reacted this way whenever I talk of issues like these. I remember the time we were watching this song "meray log" and I commented on how and why I liked that song with particular referance to its video and her instant reaction was , "yeh kya ganday log...". MAN , I could have slapped her right there. Or when, that too last week when my sister and I were going all gaga over this cute little kid blabbing on to his father about the "decoration" pices IST has put on display in the acdemic block, she had a constant sneer on her face. C'mon kids are kids. They are cute, be they in rags or silks or nothing at all for that matter. Just because that kid wasn't "dressed up", probably understood punjabi better than urdu, one can't be affectionate towards him. I mean, have our complexes reached such proportions that a baby's innocence finds it hard to melt our hearts? And it's not just about her, it's the general attitude that a particular segment of society within us has. That's why "education" is so impotant with the status thing.

Our society has always been very status concious but without seeming very haughty about the A levels part, I can say with all honesty that hardly did I come across such attitudes in school and as much as I want not to attribute this to OPF and BeaconHouse schools in particular, which always get a bad mention with regards to social issues as in the "out" mahol, I can't help drawing the conclusion that this so-called "high society" of ours is breeding youngsters sensitive to the real issues and not to the superficial boundaries of social standing. And that is probably why I felt so much more at ease at the covocation when there were these two friends od mine with me, coincidentally or otherwise Beaconites. At least, we all exclaimed in unison at seeing the dhoti walay babji again or talked in amazement about this PhD teacher of ours, my friend heard a mention of in her village somewhere near Islamabad. And yeah, not to mention this senior of ours who was my senior in Beaconhouse too, who once said that travcelling in public transport is a very "humbling" experience. In the complexes mired society of ours, dont be surprised if I say I adore her for this remark of hers.

I hope I end up saying the same thing if I ever get to go through the experience of travelling in those "toyotas". It's the security issue, fortunately and not status conciousness that makes my parents forbid me from riding in any. I'd love the experience, though.

see see see...

and so it was. Pakistan lost out on an almost decided match only because their batsmen didnt take the chances that twenty20 cricket demands from them. 140 isn't a big score for twenty20s. The Pakistani batsmen particularly Shoaib malik and Misbah-ul Haq were mistaken that they were playing the conventional one-dayer where a run a ball is good enough, where if you keep nudging the ball to the four corners of the ground for singles, u get a pretty good score. Twenty20 os about taking those chances, making room on the crease, swinging the bat either way and going for the boundaries. Shaun Pollock said that a dot ball is like a chunk of gold; from what we witnessed yesterday, giving 6 runs off an over is equally good. Someone may argue that the Indians bowled well but regardless of that, did we see salman butt or shoaib malik making room for themselves,swinging the odd ball for a reverse sweep or a gentle edge through the gaps. They just didnt take the chances and when shoaib malik went for it, he got out. There were some good quality strokes from salman butt but then you can't rely on those in a twenty20 match. It's brains that count in such a game.

About the bowl out, what was that??? Cricket, for crying out loud is not football or hockey where a tied match is decided with penalty strokes or penalties for football. In those games, getting the ball in the goal is the ultimate aim; in cricket hitting the wickets is not. Line and length both count in bowling. You dont just have to be accurate, you gotta be tidy too. Also, accuracy itself is not always the aim. It depends on your field placing. You may very well want the ball to swing away or into the batsman and you may be looking for height to surprise the batsman into playing a hook shot which may provide an easy catch somewhere near the boundary. And then is it really fair to include just one department of the game in the final decider? Aren't batting and fielding as important in the gme of cricket as is bowling. Deciders should reflect the essence of the game and here it doesn't. If the outcome of a match, if tied is dependant only on bowling when the actual match is as much about batting and fielding then it isn't a fair decider.

twenty20 and lots more!

Sharif has been sent back and surprisingly no post on my blog, partly because I have talked out all my breath and energy with anyone who was ready to take on the duet with me and despite the fact that I did write somewhere, where i have turned to writing these days, I still call it a mum from my side. The other "partly" is probably the disillusionment that's gradualy coming over me which is because there are some desicions that are beyond my person-desicions about myself. I personally believe that dictatorships dont fall unless people come out on the streets. These lawyers had been condemning Musharraf since 1999, passing resolutions at every bar meeting and making a strong statement over the referendum, the presidential oath taking and any major event that took place in this country, concerning politics and the military. But it was only when they came out on the streets for the Chief Justice that they became a power to be reckoned with. People come out in India; well fine, they have a democracy there but then what about nepal? Ordinary, downtrodden, poor people came out to trample a monarchy that was harsher and more tyrranical than what it had been before to demand a republic. They came out in Bangladesh to welcome their exiled leaders and that was when Hasina Wajid said that this isn't Pakistan where you can force popular leaders into exile. And if anyone thought that she was pointing to the military establishment in Pakistan, they are mistaken. It is as much of a pointer to the PEOPLE of Pakistan. It may be disillusionment with politics, probably something else but whatever it is, there;s no use complaining and not gettin up to make our voices be heard. and that's where my part comes in, some desicions as i said are beyond my control. As much as I wanted to go out to the zero point, I couldnt. and well, writing it down makes the feeling even worse.

Lighter things.Yess, the much hyped about twenty20 worldcup is finally underway. From all the years thar I have watched and played cricket, I think twenty20 is a mockery of the game itself. I mean, fine entertaining it must be but the high cost of quality should not be accepted by cricket fans. I understand that this form of the game is a great challenge to the bowlers and the fielders but batting will gradually be reduced to slogging. Slogging may not work all the time though the way quality Australian batsmen got out on rash shots, but u cant blame them for deviating from the quality standards of batting. That's the way u win twenty20s. And a few years down the road, no one would be regretting getting out on such rash shots. Every edge, every improvised sweep and leg bye would count if it runs to the boundary because teams would have very little time to retrieve that lost advantage. And therefore, at the end of the day, the real quality of a team may just not count. 50 overs is a long enough time to prove ur worth but twenty20 gives no room to the bowlers and the fielders. Every fumble and odd elivery counts. Cricket can just not be reduced to an hour and a half. This isn;t football or hockey and it cant be turned into one. Surely, the popularity of the game will increase for ofcourse if teams like Zimbabwe whose revamped team has not been able to win any one-dayer for a long time now, or Bangladesh which doesn't have even 10 test matches to its credit after about 9 or a little less years test country status, win against Australia and West Indies, it will surely bring some pride to the cricketfans in those crickets. But this isn't cricket-that's the whole point. It's a neighborhood, floodlight match which could be taking place anywhere in Karachi with young boys hanging onto every ball. But even that has quality because of its own rules and because of the low expectations. Here, it's not fun to watch Adam Gilchrist or Hayden getting into weird postures just to get the ball to the boundary.

PK-786...

superstition or tactic???

P.S. mmmmyyyyyyyyyy moment of glory-I travelled on the same flight....yai yai yai...


That's not me up there-my momnts are not defined by these looters. That is just a representation of the general attitude of "follies and forgiveness" as expressed at http://www.chowrangi.com

Man O man! Get a life, Musharraf and party. Such massive deployment of rangers and the police for a few unarmed civilians...C'mon he's not bringing atom bombs or heavy arms with him that a crowd of avid supporters couldn't handle him. Why subject him to a reception of army and guns all around? and then they say they have nothing to fear from the person of Nawaz Sharif. Then why not let the world see what he actually got...Why are we bent on making heroes out of mere mortals through the kind of treatment that we mete out to them? "Event based heroes, as Talat Hussain put it. Zardari became one because he languished in jail without court proceedings and all for such a long time, Javed Hashmi because he was charged with treason and now the popularity chart of Sharif brothers doesn't seem to be plummeting in the near future despite the Saudi Intelligence Chief's and Saad Hariri's visit, despite it being obvious that Nawaz Sharif left the country willingly, despite there clearly having been a deal-only because he has monopolised the situation and seems to be the only one after the Chief Justice who is standing up to Musharraf. Nawaz Sharif's willingness to go to jails and to face all charges is such a hollow statement in these times...just because now he doesn't foresee a long incarceration, he's telling us that he will do anything for the "national interest" and for the 160 million people of Pakistan- all cliched rhetoric. Why didn't he stay back when he was sentenced to life imprisonment but that was probably too much for the Lahori tiger (the "bheegi billi" type).

But probably, that's the only criteria that we have for heroes. Our poor nation is forced to forgive these politicians evvverytime.

Nawaz Sharif wiill certainly not have his 10 lakh crowd reception. The way his workers are being hounded, we'll be lucky if we get away without another May 12. Call me a harbinger or whatever but we have history to judge the turn of the tides, since we never learn from it we repeat it.

annnd after I had spent the weekend thinking of how to get access to the TV at IST, with all the parents around on mOnday, the annual dinner gets delayed. Relief to my parents and somewhat to me too. It's completely another thing having to share the TV with maximum 4 or 5 people in ur own TV Lounge and a neck straining exercise to watch it in IST...that is if there's the same enthusiasm as there used to be for cricket matches.

Encroachments

I come back to encroachments earlier than I thought I would. That's because I happened to visit F-10 markaz and found somethings very irritating. Here goes,

You can't walk 20 feet without having to criss cross your way through these tables laid out on the pavements in any major shopping centre in islamabad. Public grounds have been turned into private gardens with massive concrete structures meant to beautify and lay permanent claim to a land which is essentially public property. Even the beautiful winding pathways through forests and streams that make Islamabad such a pleasant place to live in, have been blocked by these ambitious white collared land grabbers, with guards sitting at the entrance to these "private properties". It is heart wrenching to watch this path leading from the dead end street where I live, which wound through a stream to a football ground at the back of my house and which was a witness to many childhood adventures, blocked by a private parking lot and a scenic concretised garden, all on Public land. Similarly, another track that led to a hockey ground and served as a shortcut for many pedestrians wanting to cross onto the main road from the residential area is blocked by this iron rail stretched in front of it.

Green belts are being turned into parking lots without any formal authroization by the CDA; turning-a-blind-eye being the "informal" authorization. The notorious Banigala estates is blatant encroachment on farm land besides the Chak Shezad farms, a notice of which was taken just a few weeks back. For that matter, the ISI building right in the middle of a residential area and because of which a road right in front of the building is often either out of service or blocked with these iron rails, is itself a big question mark on the CDA'S tall claims of making islamabad a model city.

And all this becomes more important for Islamabad in particular because it was essentially a question of "encroachments" that eventually led to this blood bath in the heart of the capital. The Lal masjid fiasco that "reddened" this peaceful, laid back city in the figurative sense, started in respose the razing of mosques allegedly constructed on illegal land. The illegal mosques were somehow flouting the law more seriuously than all the cases mentioned above, only because big hands and the elite of Islamabad is involved in the latter.

This is not to justify the construction of mosques on encroached property and in my view, the Ghazi brothers would have done a great service to the citizens of Islamabad if instead of resorting to violent tactics, they had taken a case to the courts and exposed the double starndards of the CDA. That would have brought genuine relief to the people of islamabad who are forced to watch the mess that their city is being turned into at the hands of a few select people.

But probably all bigwigs act the same way; Kamran Lashari flies high in his dream city, the Ghazi brothers were content with their drama. We, the people are left to complain.

Also posted on http://www.chowrangi.com

Collective wisdom

Ab raj karay gi khalq-i Khuda...

yahhhaiiii, sure it will.
Taj bi uchalain jaian gai aur takht bi girain jayain gai.

:)

Izzloooiitteee

These days i am having this isslooite awareness inside me. I called islamabad my adopted city in a post a few days back but is it really my adopted city or for all those teens and 20somes who if not born, grew up here. Adopted, yess probably because none of us "belongs" to Islamabad in the verry figurative sense of the word. Our parents come from different parts of the country, boast of different cultures and languages, leave islamabad all isolated on Eid days or any long weekend but its' different for us, i guess. I for one, dont know any other city and come to think of it, was a very cosmopolitan baby for that matter. Born in karachi, moved to Lahore at the age of a few months and then to islooo when not even 3. 3 cities in less than 3 yrs...phew!

Our parents may find it hard to call islamabad their city (exceptions-my father, who has had his life spent equally in about 6 or 7 cities and takes pride in calling himself a citizen of the world) but the generation growing of age now has seen just Islamabad. The diverse milieue of cultures IS itself the culture of Islamabad. Our parents can relate to the Punjabi, the southern punjabi, sindhi, pathan, balochi or kashmiri but we realte to all that. I can go back to my village and feel at home there but i feel more at home in this cultural diversity. The lazy, quiet, gREEN islamabad is my city. annnd besides all that, I recently realised that people relate a lot more to islamabd; the citizens of islamabd are now being charectarised as islooites, a seperate genre in itself. The weasly, sleezy lot who keep to themselves and (for no fault of theirs) are misinterpreted.

P.S. I dont like the Centauras and the widened roads and the double roads and the felling of trees and Mc Donalds in F-9 Park and the GHQ development parallel to the Margalla road and recently this clearing off of a huuuugggge plot of land for some parade ground. And worse, no local bodies in islamabad; Lashari person can go on changing the face of Islmabad and no resentative of the people is there to stop him. Why take it on with the trees...trees are less harmful than humans at least

Will talk about encroachments later. gotta go.

MAN (/WOMAN) that is; human in its truest meaning

"...the All-Knowing, the All Wise Who created Adam in his own image, Who gave him the ability to reason so that he may uncover the secrets of this world, recognise the bounties of his Lord, unravel the mysteries that shroud his soul and all faculties; so that he may balance instinct with rationale and not let any overwhelm the other, to pay heed to instinct when justice demands truth unhindered by the complexities of rationale, to follow rationale when order is near to being hijacked by anarchy due to spirits fuelled by instinct;

Elevated him to the pinnacle of creation, privileged him with the title of Ashraf-ul-Makhluqat and trusted him to establish civilisations sustained by the sagacity that he alone had been bestrowed with, illuminated with a blend of logic and emotions-that which he secured in the brain and the heart, so that he may doubt the tradition, question the stated, challenge the expressed, reflect on the obvious, voice the concluded and yet not offend nor transgress the emotive humane limits by knowing when to stay put and when to burst forth;

Uphold the right to doubt, to question, to challenge, to reflect and to voice, the right to celebrate the faculties that made him human, to justify his stature, his very existence."

Asma Qadir

Keep thinking and keep doubting. Keep making those mistakes. Keep learning for human evolution demands all that.

It's difficult to be human.

The mayhem

As if the Karachi bridge fiasco wasn't shock enough, here come the bomb packed zealots on a killing spree. And then the governement shows this helpless face, still unwilling to admit an intelligence failure. Ofcourse the intelligence is busy with Nawaz sharif's return, how could it possibly spare time to investigate the plots being hatched in the far corners of this small country Pakistan.

Time Musharraf gave us a respite and left his job. Haven't we had enough??? Poverty, inflation, extremism, insecurity, corruption...u name it and we have it. And then he has the nerve to say, "the country needs me"; ahhhh. Self worship signals doom and time is near for him.

The construction site that Islamabd had become is gradually turning up a new face with flyovers and underpasses and the bald "green" belts. the environmentalist concerns aside, the recent bridge collapse in karachi raises quite a few questions about the durability of these hasty construction projects. Fortunately, no experience so far of the grannnddd 7th avenue, partly because my father finds it somewhat confusing..Dont blame him though, from the just one Blue Area road that linked the F-10 (now F-11) end to the Parliament, G-6 sector that is, lots of double roads and highways have stemmed up. Dont understand why Lashari is forcing this development onto a city which had now started taking pride in its lazy environs that went so well with the serene backdrop of the Margalla hills. Sooner or later though, that "bridge will have to be crossed".

My adopted, naah 17 yrs give me the right to call it MINE- city is changing and I dont like it.

The tides are turning but in what direction?

The Supreme Court may go on delivering judgments but the unfortunate fact is that General Musharraf is in no mood to let Nawaz Sharif in the country, especially now that his deal with Benazir has moved out of the deadlock it was reported to be in a couple of weeks ago. Just today, Benazir has claimed that 80% of the modalities have already been settled. If all goes in musharraf’s favor, everything that happened in these last few months seems to have been in vain.

A military dictator is about to be given a new breath of life. What else does this augur except good tidings for future ambitious Pakistani generals? Someone who deserves to be tried for treason is being bailed out by a supposedly “democratic” party. And the sad fact is that no one’s coming out clear about the deal. Ex-senator Farhatullah Babar who appeared in a TV show as a PPPP spokesperson, conveniently appeared ignorant about the specifics of the Constitutional amendments package that the ruling party and PPPP are going to jointly present in the Parliament. All he kept on stressing on was the abolishment of 58-2b; no mention whatsoever of the cancellation of the two terms limit on the prime minister or (another surprise revealed by Khakwani-a PML-Q dissenter) the relaxation in the two years period condition for government servants to qualify for presidential or general elections. They probably think that the masses are politically naïve enough to not realize that deals are two way. And the list of favors on both sides goes on. No one talks about the indemnity being offered to the governments that were in place from 1988-1999 or about the proposals considering cancellation of the law that bars individuals convicted in absentia to take part in general elections. These conditions automatically imply acceptance from the PPPP side that there was some truth to all those corruption cases. After all, why would then they require such a guarantee especially with the kind of turn that the judiciary has taken this year.

On Musharraf’s side, he gets to be the president for another term if all goes well according to the deal and more importantly he lives peacefully, as is the norm, after having committed high level treason. Musharraf’s tone today when he said that the Sharif brothers are not coming back, gives an insight into his confidence level at this time. After having struck a deal with BB, he needs not be worried about the small fish. It has been running like this for eight years. It will do for some more.

It seems improbable that there could ever be some sort of “workable” working relation between Benazir and Musharraf but with the high level guarantors involved, as in the United States and some European countries as has been reported in the press, it may just work out. But at what cost?

Cost democracy, cost constitutionalism, cost civil rights, cost even Pakistan. As for Nawaz Sharif, it is clear that there WAS a deal and with the guarantors, it becomes obvious that he wanted to be out of this country too. Its being in paper or otherwise does not make any difference. If he was the peoples’ leader, he should have been truthful about it. How can one trust his sincerity to a democratic process once he returns to power? If he can buckle under pressure once, he can always run to the establishment or the military whenever he sees his political stature to be under threat. This happened in the 90s decade and if breaking away from that past is desired, then Sharif is certainly not a safe bet. Fazlur Rehman is easily the B team of the government. Barring all of these, just Imran Khan and Qazi Sahib are left. Where will they bring their candidates from?

Last bet; Supreme Court. In my view, it still has to go a long way to establish itself as a credible institution. The recent judgments being commendable are probably just that icing on the cake below which awaits a brewing storm. The tides are turning but they need to be given orientation. Who decides what direction they will take?

Also posted on http://chowrangi.com/

FM 89 graffitti

Nothing is real till it's gone...

I'm not crazy; Im a little impaired,u know!

tera ishq nachaya, kar thayyan thayyan thayyan

The way it's going, looks like I should keep an FM89 diary from now on...
happy crooning.

The tides are turning

And we all thought it would be the politicians who'll take the case forward. The lawyers notwithstanding, now the doctors have something to cheer about.. They have joined in, The silent majority is no longer silent. Pakistan, once known as a land of doctors and engineers has finally burst forth with its brightest sons challenging the social (dis)order on fronts they were hitherto reluctant to test their intellectual prowess on. The civil society is mobilised like never before. For the last few decades we had been used to seeing just political workers who had nothing to lose, as the most vocal section of society when it came to politics. Politics and governance were issues best left to the "specialists". The others could simply sit back and watch as the orchestarators of Pakistan's political scene played their acts with these dissenters being struck down whenever they raised their heads.

Now Pakistanis can feel the stakes in question. Now, they ahve something to lose. The control that they have just regained over their lives (in a collective sense) is too precious too be lost in the traditional apathy that has become a norm for the general society in Pakistan. Today, probably more than ever before, barring the wartimes, pakistanis from all sections of society are owning Pakistan. It is a feeling of patriotism that does not hinge on the self-appointed leaders and their proclaimed notions of self interest. This has to do with the individual in every Pakistani and his relation to a collective society and that is why everyone is so serious about democracy this time. people are relating to the political figures and see in military governance, a perversion, an utter distortion of civil norms.

So kudos to Dr. Anwar-ul Haq. He has taken the lead. Democracy waits for the rest of us to demand it. Today very difficult it will be to turn down the bellicose order.

Good Luck Pakistan. These doctors, lawyers, rairiwallahs, drivers, traders, political workers, journalists (writers :) ); nah we make you today. We turn the tides.

Just discovered some people are getting too paranoid or probably "someone" just doesn't like not being in the limelight anymore...or probably the dark was too frighteneing and it turned out to be the actual light.

aaaarrrgh..why cant we talk about "they"?
the blog business is taking away the social skills. and in this case the prospects are frightening.

Sher Afgan's blabber

It was disconcerting to watch a federal minister pour scorn on the judiciary with a zeal that could not be quelled even by reminders that his qualification for candidacy in the next general elections could be put under serious scrutiny, besides his almost certain sacking from the ministry. His words have hurt the sentiments of this rejuvenated Pakistan which idolizes the judiciary. The constitutional matters aside, the judiciary has struck a fine chord with the people through its verdict over the missing persons case. The release of two abducted men has proved the sensitivity of an institution towards the plight of the helpless and the downtrodden, and we have many of them in this country today.

It was reported that Sher Afgan had just attended a high level meeting when he was called on the TV show. Taking it from there, one can smell something fishy behind his statement. Why would such a senior politician (wouldn't call him seasoned, though) risk his political career in a bout of "sincere" and "honest" commentary on the Supreme court verdict? In my personal opinion, the government is probably preparing ground for some showdown with the judiciary. It can't afford to just reject the verdict in the charged atmosphere of Pakistan, as it is today and so it is relying on these sparks to let the people know that the government is not too happy with the judicial activism, as they like to call it mockingly. So as not to drop a bombshell on the masses, the government has resorted to this tactic to amke any disastrous step acceptable if not desirable. The government ministers are going to continue referring back to Sher Afgan's blabber about the judiciary being pressurised by the public and stuff like that and very conveniently disown it too, but nevertheless keep the issue alive. No wonder, Wasi Zafar also talked at length about Sher Afgan's remarks in the same tv show a few days later.

A retired justice of the Supreme court puts it a little differently. He opines that the Supreme Court's notice of Sher Afgan's contempt might be used as an excuse by the executive to take some serious action, emergency or worse, by terming it a tussle between the executive and the judiciary. Hope the conspiracy theories are just a farce and things continue to run in the favor of constitutionalism.

Anyways, the blabber was just sour grapes. As an advocate of the Supreme Court put it, the governement's case wasn't even worth a five minute hearing. Didn't we hear all eminent lawyers and former judges give their learned opinion on the matter before the case had been filed. Afterall, it's time collective wisdom says something too.

Also posted on http://chowrangi.com/

Nawaz Sharif’s return and Pakistani politics

With the Supreme Court verdict going in Nawaz Sharif’s favor, the nation awaits his arrival. There doesn’t seem to be anything that should delay his coming back to Pakistan. As Talat Hussein noted, his arrival after the presidential elections, particularly would cast serious doubts on his sincerity to the revival of democracy in this country, a movement that by now has managed to gather all sections of the Pakistani society through a common aspiration and goal. The very judgment that can help him consolidate his rising popularity in the country could very well signal an unceremonious exit from the political landscape emerging in Pakistan as the nation expectantly gears up for the triumph of constitutionalism and civil governance. The great expectations that have now been pinned on him, the only guard left standing after BB’s deal and Fazlur Rehman’s past record haunting him, could turn the tides either way.

Actually for a very keen observer, things have started changing. Nawaz Sharif’s tone has become more conciliatory. The usually flamboyant and unrestrained persona has taken a turn for the cautious and wary politician. He talks about national reconciliation now when earlier he would find it difficult to find his breath lambasting the Musharraf regime. His replies are filled with ifs and buts when asked about the destiny of the turncoats who abandoned the party. He is hesitant to mark out a timeline for his return to Pakistan.

Is there more to it than meets the eye? Does the government’s concern for the “third party” really carry some weight? Is the Saudi Government actually as seriously involved as the Musharraf regime had us believe? And how do they ascertain that there guarantee stands strong? Where do these guarantors stand now that the Supreme Court has allowed the Sharif brothers to return. If really there was such a deal or even just a verbal undertaking, then Musharraf would certainly find himself terribly wronged, and he would make sure to remind the Saudis of their promise.

The coming times will unravel the mysteries surrounding the deal and Sharif’s own credibility will be put under test. Many who were perturbed over the corruption charges against Nawaz Sharif had realized that democracy being the foremost issue in Pakistani politics today, he was the best bet in the coming elections with the Imrans and Qazis forming a formidable alliance. If now he turns out to be just a small fish in the gloated façade that we had been watching on our tv screens, that overwhelming increase in his stature will shoot down as rapidly as it climbed. And more than anything it will hurt democracy’s cause or probably the Pakistani people will find new heroes. The search is already on.

Also posted on http://chowrangi.com/

The maverick is the STREET POWER

"Most people believe they can rid themselves of social evils by common action...I do not subscribe to this view. The way to reform lies through discord and not through unity. Reformist ideals call for courage and perseverance of a high order. It is for the reformer to boldly violate the customs of his group...In this he will incur a lot of odium and popular disapprobation. But ultimately he will succed and win converts. Though he provokes opposition in the beginning, he is acknowledged a benefactor in the end.

I wish to point out to my countrymen the futility of condemning and cursing our social heritage in the privacy of our conclaves. It is vain to look for friends and supporters in the task of regeneration. On who wishes well of his people should come out in the open, break his own chains and put heart into others to do the same."

Words of an iconoclast yet a reformer, true to the wisdom spewing out of this sagacious statement. This is an observation of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, obviously coming from his own experiences.

Pointers to all the drawingroom intellectuals (*read* politicians for today's Pakistan)-who watch while others experience, who sleep while others guard, who relish what others salvage, who talk when others act. The "privacy of our conclaves" are never the battlefields.

The war will come to us too so why not preempt it and be counted in the STREET POWER.

P.S. Out there is my field too...Let it not be another "wasted passion" tragedy.

dilemma??? :O

glamor???
the buzz word today ain't it?

We have a habit of calling it glamor when it's the dearth of ideas that we are plagued with...hah!

GET ORIGINAL.

stumped!!

Shocks and surprises come my way this summer.

Just braved another one...ahhhh.

I am not liking it.

:( :( :(

National Character

Watching a talk show jointly produced by Indian and Pakistani TV channels in connection with 60 years of independence of both countries, I couldn’t help noticing the stark contrast between the orientation of both countries per view the national character. For one, a mature awareness, rather a proud assertion of national identity has developed over these 60 years while the other is still squirming over questions of ideology, ideals stretched between theocracy and secularism, between democracy and military hegemony; that is India and Pakistan, heirs to the destiny of one sixth of humanity, with over a billion having chalked out their course and 160 million still lurking in uncertainty.

One could easily notice the confidence of all the Indian speakers as they defended their case over Kashmir, their internal politics, and even the complex issue that the English language has become in our country at least. The Indian host so conveniently quipped that English was also an Indian language, and why not? Probably this is the sense of ownership that comes when national identity becomes the foremost feature of identity. Of course one can seriously argue over the limits of nationalism as required by human norms and morals, especially in context of the World Wars which were primarily conflicts of national interests between the powers of that time, and then it is the same “nationalism” that binds the Indian nation over the issue of Kashmir. But just the spectacle of cohesion that the Indian nation has become over a general consensus on the fundamentals of secularism and democracy is indeed impressive. One can argue over the nature of these two foundations of their country but very few will deny the existence of that sense of pride over their nationhood that all Indians share. They have long decided their national character.

We are still bickering over Pakistan’s foundation despite the fact that we were the ideological nation, not them. We are still confused over what that ideology meant. No one is ready to take on the challenge of amalgamating the diversity of this nation into a definable national character. Americans, from the rightist evangelicals to the extreme atheists, all cite the dreams of their founding fathers, the aspirations of the pioneers who fled religious persecution in Europe to find a new haven in the Americas; the Indians their secular democracy, and we look bewildered when confronted with the military-politics equation, the extremist and moderate label.
It’s not like these questions are unanswerable, or this issue insolvable in context of our peculiar circumstances. The problem is that we have been polarized deeply over fundamental ideological lines with the two sides unwilling even to sit down together and afford each other the basic courtesy of country-mates. We are polarized to a point where the religious right presents the seculars as anti-islam and the seculars on their part denigrate the other side of the divide by considering them outside the fold of general society, and therefore not worthy of any consolidations that would otherwise be commonplace for any fellow citizen. How can national cohesion even be a distant dream in such circumstances???

Despite all other irritants, military dictatorships constitute the biggest tragedy of Pakistan, which have bred these extremist tendencies and divided society to a point where both sides are at logger heads with each other. Military dictatorships, having little grass roots support rely on exacerbating ideological divides in societies to generate bigoted blocs of either extreme whose only concern is the stability of the ruling regime for the perpetuation of its “threatened” values. Islamisation was the war cry in Zia’s time, “enlightened moderation” a bait prepared by Musharraf. Also, besides being a planned goal, ideological rifts are inadvertantly created in societies when force is used by military dictators to enforce their personal inclinations on the society which causes alienation within ideologically divergent segments of the society. More than anything, it is these mantras that we are forced to believe have been revealed onto the chosen ones, that far from initiating a constructive debate deepen rifts by building on animosities. Democratically elected governments cannot afford to rely on brutal force and end up engaging the masses, whatever their inclinations, and engagement has always proved to be an emollient for extremist and violent tendencies. After all, how many Women Protection Bills could Benazir pass in her tenure, despite all the rhetoric only because the Pakistani sentiment, fortunately or unfortunately (requires another debate) could not and still cannot bring itself to terms with such reforms. Media, however can prove to be one of the debating grounds where probably some sort of consensus could be developed.

Besides the obvious need to rethink the military approach to solving all political problems that Pakistan faces, democracy itself besides being a convenient alternative also involves the populace, literally enfranchising them. No doubt even the Indian cart puller shouts Jai Hind, even though the same hindustan forces him to sleep on footpaths; the footpath holds glamor because he shaped it. The realisation of the Rising India dream may not reach him but he’s nevertheless a part of it. The impoverished in Pakistan would definitely not share this enthusiasm with their Indian counterpart. India is in the hands of Indians; Pakistan isn’t. It is and has always been in the clutches of some grade 21 servant of the state, gripped by the task of “redeeming” the nation. Democracy empowers individuals and just the awareness of common goal and aspirations builds on the feeling of nationhood. How wonderful it was to see the same zeal and zest in any city of the country the Chief Justice went to. Today the Paksitanis can actually boast of that struggle, take pride in it. The best thing about the APDM is that all those political parties that were being described as seperatists (another hyperbole to nationalists) are a part of it. But probably, within time we’ll want to move beyond this and involve the common man of this country in a more concrete process; of free and fair elections, of accountability, a time when it will be an accepted norm. If just this struggle can give some common ground to the unharbored diversity of ideology, race and ethnicity, imagine what part democracy could play in building the confidence of this nation.

Maybe some years down the road, our intellectuals, anchor persons and members of civil society in general won’t have to face the predicament of balancing loyalty with conscience. The Shahid Masoods and the Aslam Baigs will be able to denounce military dictatorships with all the moral authority behind their back.

Then will Pakistan really come alive with the potential of the rest of the 160 million people of South Asia.

Also posted on http://chowrangi.com/

Umeed-e-Subh

Pakistan celebrates its 60 years; 60years of broken dreams, of unfulfilled promises, of wasted passions; of quelled voices, of shackled minds; of pretentious religiosity, of “liberated” secularism, of national security, of boots and sherwanis, of the three As (Allah, America and Army), of anything BUT Pakistani (ofcourse considering what it was SUPPOSED to be).

Despite all that, (with JEEWAY PAKISTAN ringing in my background from the master of lies-PTV) I cant help myself swinging with patriotism. Despite PTV forcing me to believe that Musharraf was the best thing that happened to Pakistan, despite being reminded today by Chaudary Nisar that we are still stuck in deciding the role of the army in our country on a TV show today, despite the farcical economic boom being flaunted about, despite my father telling me how he had to pay Rs.10 instead of the regular Rs.5 for a trivial court routine just this very day, despite Mr. Durrani/aka ghalat bayani pretending to be some Paulo Coehlo or the Neitchze of Pakistani politics on a talk show today, despite PTV airing Sadr-e-Pakistan Zindabad as if that’s the most common slogan there is left today in Pakistan, despite the blatant disregard for environmental concerns that I witness everyday and am made to swallow the sight of the eyesore that Islamabad has become at the hands of a bureaucrat, unanswerable to the citizens of Islamabad, despite being reminded of the Lal masjid massacre today as I passed by it, the sorry sight of the debris of Madressah Hafsa with a few policemen enjoying lunch on the back veranda of the mosque, and now despite Musharraf bantering on about the Quaid’s dream and making an utter mockery of his vision of a democratic state, on PTV, I still have hopes.

Wasn’t that us who danced waiting for the caravan of the Chief Justice to catch just one glimpse of him? Why do we forget that some event just a few weeks back caused us all to jump around, distribute sweets as we heard the judgement of the Supreme Court? Afterall, didn’t the judiciary just secure its freedom? Aren’t we, for the first time in the history of Pakistan, hopeful that a military leader will be ousted through legal means? Don’t we believe it now when someone says that emergency and martial law have become orphans in this country?

Today the Pakistani is confident that his voice will finaly be heard; dictatorships will be quashed forever. I am excited because the very first time that I vote, I’ll be voting in a different Pakistan. My very first vote will count. I become legally adult in a rejuvenated Pakistan, in a Pakistan awake with the possibilities that it had set out to achieve. Despite the myriads of problems facing Pakistan, the hope of a democratic future which belongs to all Pakistanis, belies the harbinger in me. Our day is just around the corner. We’ll mend Pakistan. We’ll make it Pakistani.

Happy Independence Day.

(Forgive me for my optimism-probably it has to do with Jeeway Pakistan or the elections or maybe with just the apparent.
Or probably it is proving to be the refuge for the naive in me, desperate for the optimistic note...I like it anyways.)

aur uthay ga anal Haq ka naara,
jo main bi hoon aur tum bi ho.
aur raj karay gi khalq-e-khuda,
jo main bi hoon aur tum bi ho.

Also posted on http://chowrangi.com/

Secular vs Religious TO secular and religious

These days, some very intersting articles are appearing in newspapers in the backdrop of Musharraf-Benazir deal. Most of the seculars and more importantly self proclaimed "liberals", are pro-deal, citing it as the only solution for Pakistan's woes which seem to revolve around the threat posed by extremism. They opine that the current volatile situation of Pakistan demands that moderate, "liberal" forces join hands to sideline the extremists and forge a united stand against them.

So strong is the threat to secularism and liberalism in the country, they say, that democracy can be ignored, its ideals and principles just a banter that should not be allowed to hinder the formation of a "liberal", secular front. Well, then wasn't the religious right justified in its suppport for Zia? For them he was Marde momin, Marde Haq, the saviour of Islam in this vice ridden society of ours. The seculars will be as guilty of denying the common man of Pakistan his right to a democratic setup as were those maulvis in the 80s. They, just like the maulvis of yonder fail to realise that it’s military dictatorships that constitute the biggest tragedy of Pakistan, which have bred these extremist tendencies and polarized the society to a point where the religious right presents the seculars as anti-islam and the seculars on their part denigrate the other side of the divide by considering them outside the fold of general society, and therefore not worthy of any consolidations that would otherwise be commonplace for any fellow citizen. Recently, Abdul Aziz's lawyer went into a heated tirade on a tv show, zealously trying to shout down another analyst who had "sinned" enough to call his client a terrorist. This analyst, on the other hand though showing remarkable restraint, was commenting about these madressah students and their teacher in the same tone as do the American officials about the Guantanamo prisoners-irreconcilable, lunatic brutes who are better kept in protective custody away from general society.

Military dictatorships, having little grass roots support rely on exacerbating ideological divides in societies to generate bigoted blocs of either extreme whose only concern is the stability of the ruling regime for the perpetuation of its "threatened" values. Islamisation was the war cry in Zia's time, "enlightened moderation" a bait prepared by Musharraf. Also, besides being a planned goal, ideological rifts are inadvertantly created in societies when force is used by military dictators to enforce their personal inclinations on the society which causes alienation within ideologically divergent segments of the society. Democratically elected governments cannot afford to rely on brutal force and end up engaging the masses, whatever their inclinations, and engagement has always proved to be an emollient for extremist and violent tendencies. I would further state that even Benazir with all her rhetoric, once in power will be unable to tackle the "extremism" issue, the miliatry way. Afterall, how many Women Protection Bills did she pass in her tenure, only because the Pakistani sentiment, fortunately or unfortunately (requires another debate) could not and still cannot bring itself to terms with such reforms.

It would be better if all the political parties sincerely stepped into the movement ignited by the lawyers and strive for real democracy in Pakistan, which cannot afford any parleys with military heads whose constant intervention in governance created Bangladesh, the Balochistan insurgency, the Waziristan saga and the "red" Islamabad. For all the "liberals" out there, it needs to be understood that democracy is one of the most enlightened discoveries of the human intellect, in social behavior. It is high time Pakistanis had their share too, to amalgmate the secular and the religious, the moderate and the extremist, the right and the left.

and yeah-One has to be free of contradictions to be able to teach children the rules of life, to have anny influence on them. Since that is almost impossible for the fallible beings that we are, one should be able to conceal all those contradictions.

So for all the straight forward OAFS, learn to live with children-learn the art of guile, Doctrine of Necessity (too many, too notorious these days) as you may call it.

:{ I am already feeling sick.

and I am learning.

Learning isn't such a pleasant process afterall.

The identity issue

Yesterday I taught my 4 year old nephew how to write his name. Watching his excitement as he went over the A H M E D mantra over and over again, especially considering his initial unwillingness to sit still for even a few minutes and do something worthwhile with the pencil he had picked up from somewhere, I felt elated at being a part of his first sense of identity. Ofcourse he knew his name, he could recognise it and all, but there must be a special something with being able to put it down on paper where it remains or is atleast more permanent then the "uttered". I dont remember the first time I learnt those four letters that spell ME but wonder if my teacher (whoever it was) had nostalgia creeping over him/her as I jumped around with the excitement of having MYSELF in my grasp, literally at the tip of my fingertips.

I thought I was over-individualistic. God put it in all of us. That 4 yr old's world still revolves around his mother. He is scared of the Jinn-baba. Even his ambitions for tomorrow are filled with his mother and sister-Lolz ("mama and maryam will sit with me in my aeroplane and we'll fly off"). But, despite all that he has a very assertive choice in clothes , in food and ofcourse the future. He has plans ("I am going to buy nana abbu's car (here's the funny part)-when he asks me to"). He has his own personality-he's an individual in his own right and the name probably signifies that liberty from mama and maryam, from nanaabbu, from the domineering khalas (hehe-that's me). He is the son of a man (/woman-sexist ideals of an almost gone by age don't wear off that easily) and all sons (and daughters) of Man are INDIVIDUALS.

These days, I am having a go at disciplining young, impressionable minds. Do I see some faces going up in knots, sarcasm spilling out of some mouths-*GRINS* Lolz...I know it's funny, disciplining and me-I am not that bad though ;)

Rebirth

"Yeh pakistan ka janam din hai..." (this is Pakistan's birthday...) so went a comment from a wayfarer the day the CJ was reinstated. He was the street sentiment, the ordinary Pakistani, who looked up to the CJ these past four months, the more conventional leaders having wearied him.

That indeed was how most Pakistanis saw it. The dawn of a new Pakistan. For once, in our bruised history, the military had been conclusively challenged, made to bow down to the forces of justice. Conclusively is important because on random occassions, in the past, there had been desicions against the military but those were overturned by the higher courts or by the same court on review petitions. This time, so far that the clock has ticked, there are to be no review petitions; the verdict is final-Pakistan, the land of the pure, has finally become the land of the FREE, the land of the PAKISTANI, the land of justice.

Just one decision seems to have changed so much. No wonder, the joy and the ecstacy was infectious. Everyone was calling up relatives, in case anyone missed the news, congratulating each other. Suddenly, everything became so personal. Many of us who hadn't cared enough to step out of our homes to cover a few kilometers to the supreme court to hear the last-live transmitted speech of the CJ, felt like it was ours all along. It was we who were dancing on his stage hours before he gave his speech, it was us who waited along the road sides to shower roses on him and it was we who suffered that day in Islamabad, at his last addrerss to the bar. But, not withstanding the lack of enthusiasm, the cause was always OURS. We all waited anxiously in front of the TV screens until the verdict was declared and we jumped with joy, the same feeling that I used to have when Pakistan hocket team scored a decisive goal in its days of glory or when the Cricket team playing against a formidable opponent took a crucial wicket. I remember the sobriety as we prayed for our team's lucky stars and then the ecstatic jumping-around -the-whole-place as soon as lucky stars responded. It was the same jumping, the same emotionally charged atmosphere, the victorious fists in the air but probably the child-like euphoria wasnt there. ThIS had come to stay, it wasn't one match afterall, it was the verdict of 60 loong dark years. Finally the day had come.

There are long journeys to travel to transform the essence of that day into a reality. the next step ofcourse is the ouster of Musharraf, through legal means to put an end to further military intervention in matters of governance, to confirm Pakistan as a parliamentary democracy. If we still wait for that day, then the 20th of July was just the preamble; the actual account to come later. But a very imprtant decision awaits the civil society-are we to remain forever indebted to the lawyer community or contribute our way through it too. I guess it's time we chose the latter.

Down in the pits

After I am done with writing this post, I will delete some of the earlier posts because this blog isnt a personal diary. If it had been, I wouldn't have put it up for public display. But, I will still go on recording my experiences as life goes to keep that little hope of self-development alive.

The last few weeks have been tumultous, both for my inner self and for the collectivity that I am a part of. I have been overcome by an utter sense of helplessness so often, for many different reasons. I had the same feeling when in our quest for justice for a friend who had been wronged by this scoundrel, a rogue of a guy, we faced a dead-end, where every finger was pointing at us, blaming us for everything that had happened, mocking us for the inconclusiveness of our efforts. She had had to bear with cheesy, vile comments on public forums by this person and finally, when she lost it and complained, everyone blamed us for having shown much haste. Someone had the nerve to say that it was she, herself whose reputation suffered the most.

How, in the world was her reputation marred, and why wasn't the same said for the guy, how was she more responsible for the final showdown, than that guy, if atall she was responsible--- Because it's not considered shameful for a guy to be going around defiling someone's name and honor; because we should ACCEPT it if guys write cheap love-notes on the net, as it is somehow an expression of their "manliness" (watever!). We dont feel like blaming the guy, so it is never HIS reputation that suffers; we dont feel like chastising the guy, so HE is able to walk away from the whole incident; we feel irked if a girl decides to react and get back to challenge the ACCEPTED, so we play her down to make a lesson out of her. and all this while, we continue to make the girl feel that things need to be altered on her side to avoid such incidents in the future. I thought it was very insensitive of a friend of mine to say that my friend needed to be a little more careful in the way she carried herself about, and then it wasnt just him, a very respected teacher came up with the same solution. Afterall, it runs deep in the society; from the president who gives statements to the international media implying that Pakistani women can cook up rape cases to get a free pass to greener pastures abroad, to the enthusiastic net-surfer (aka COWARD) who marvels in his new found anonymity that the computer screens affords him to play around with girls and the ordinary man walking on the street who considers it his right to gawk at every passing woman-from the burqa-clad to the hip teen, as long as it is a woman, it's worth it.

Just recently, an incident of a much greater personal nature brought the memories back. There couldn't be an open discussion of the issue because at the end of the day, it would have been the reputation of someone very close to me that would have been hurt. We couldn't talk about this to parents (there's a certain sense of calm when u deposit all ur worries and fears in their laps-even at the age of 19-luv u), because parents being parents, they know they cant change the world so it better be us, who should change to try from our side to avoid such incidents...(that meant losing orkut and the blog-eeks). We couldn't take this up to the higher-ups because of the lack of substantive proof, due to fake IDs and anonymous profiles, for an issue of such a serious nature. In all, we could only sulk and beat our heads off ranting about the injustice of it all as it happened and manage a relieved smile when it was decided on the other side that it should end-i.e. no control over its beginnings and its end. The same damn story repeating itself over and over again. He got away this time, he'll get away again and the harrassment will continue.

The maulvis may keep sermonizing about gender relations, the "liberals" may ramble on about sexual harrassment-it will always be Adam who decides if Eve forced him into eating the forbidden fruit, to set the course of history.

Islamabad tragedy (as they call it and as i choose to name it)

I am happy but Islamabad is sad. It is still reeling from the "redness" of the Lal masjid, it is still numb from the shrieks of the innocent children buried quietly in the gloom of its environs, it is still aching from the blow to its heart, its residents still hanging their heads in shame at watever they allowed their city to be turned into. Islamabad the beautiful, reddened by government high handedness, by civilian callousness, by religious pretentions.

The other day, a resident of faisalabad , while participating in a live discussion, broke into tears commenting over the Lal masjid operation and said "...yeh taj kab uchalay jaian gai (when will those crowned be decrowned-the figurative translation)". No one can probably say for sure but certainly not until we are content with just these lamentations. Around 2000, if my memory doesnt fail me, i read an article in the newspaper, a comic appraisal of world affairs as seen 100 years from now. After having discussed the powers-that-be in our world today, Bush and (then) his poodle, Blair, he came to Pakistan, which for all those patriots out there, he chose to discuss as the creation of a by-gone phase, buried in the throes of history. But for the sake of discussion, this historian from 100 years from now would say that it was a country whose residents preferred their airconditioned drawing rooms to the sweltering heat outside even if tyrants clutched at their throats. They would laze out in their comfortable cocoons, lamenting over this and that but would always evade action.

That then was true and still is. Many people hesittate to fully support the chief justice saying that he is as much responsible for the musharraf saga because he took oath under the PCO when some of his compatriots resigned in protest. Agreed, but c'mon this struggle is not about this person and let no one make it into one. The course of this movement will be determined by those involved in it. If the people of Pakistan get involved in it with a resolve to strengthen institutions, it will no longer be about him, if at all it is even now. there is always a break in every dictatorship, which is availed to bring a change. Let us not, for a change, squander this opportunity. Let the people of Pakistan not ask for the ouster of Musharraf alone, but for free and fair elections, let them not ask for the reinstatement of iftikhar chaudry, but for the independance of judiciary, let them not ask for a "national interest" state but for a "national welfare" state (to qoute aitzaz ahsan). 1965 war was the break in ayub khan's time but then it was just Bhutto that the movement was about; 1977 elections were the break for the increasingly despotic Bhutto government, but then people demanded the military to jump in. Junejo was one of the best things that happened to pakistan, we finally got some semblance of democracy going, but then the establishment always jumped in.

This opportunity shouldnt be alowed to go to waste. The other day, abbu was like this chief justice movement has become very political with all these crowds coming out to welcome him, it seems all fake now. I said, everyone doesnt have big drawing rooms to hold discussions in and then be content that great service to the country has been done. These people who come out to greet him choose to step out in the sweltering heat to put in their share of contribution to this country's cause. Dont doubt their intentions.

well, looks like the 100-yrs-from-now historian isnt that right afterall. We are moving out. We are pitching our positions.

GOOD LUCK PAKISTAN.