Army Or Civilians?

I am not going to try to be eloquent..because many others are and my purpose here is to genuinely figure out what is that we want as pakistanis, and how to get out of this perpetual morass as a nation. 

So instead i am going to raise some questions and then make some reccomendations. The confusion, facade and ambiguity is slowly pushing us over the brink towards disaster and we need to do something drastic. so here are my questions.

Who actually is in charge in this country?

Is Nawaz Shareef or anyone in his cabinet or any civilian really in charge of security policy?

Is Muslim League N or any civilian in charge of foreign policy?

Who is the best group to run Administrative, Municipal, Political, Financial affairs of Pakistan?

We need a new social contract. 

I propose that we organize one referendum in this country. The question should be extremely simple. 

What is your preference?

1)Army
2)Civilians

We should sincerely let Shahid Masood, Moeed Peerzada, Zaid Hamid, Mubasher Lucman, Faisal Raza Abidi, Zulfiqar Mirza, Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, Dr. Danish, Hafiz Saeed, Shahid Lateef, Fawad and assortment of passive aggressive retired generals campaign for their cause and once and for all provide nation the clarity it desperately needs to move forward. 

If Army wins the referendum fair and square then they should be provided a legal framework to rule over the country. Specially because Army has never ever been tried with running ALL the affairs of the country and its high time we give these extremely brave, God-fearing, pious, intelligent, eloquent, competent in everything under the sun and visually stunning gentlemen the importance and relevance they have earned and have always been denied.

If they loose god forbid , can we let civilians run affairs in totality? like what i mean is that if civilians want to give india the mfn, then we let them without any coercive repercussions.

If civilians want to bring general musharaf in the court to face the music then we don't hold the government hostage thru dharnas and assorted other shenanigans.

If civilians want to discuss nth level of details of defense budget because public has given them that mandate then we let them, like other civilized democracies. And if after that scrutiny , its discovered that a good portion of this budget is spent on things which has little to do with actually defense of the country and more to do to run PR for the Army, then we let civilians curb that illegality. 

If civilians have agreed on a constitution then we let them govern pakistan under that constitution ..letter and spirit.

the real problem in this country is that of confusion and lies. We all know who is in charge but then we have this facade..and i am saying what is the need for the facade? Its tiring and a waste of time and resources. The least this poor country deserves is brutal honesty. lets be real for God’ sake, give us a break and let us hear the sweet words ‘mayray aziz hamwatanoo’ already.

Why are Karachiites so Annoying

Why are Karachiites so annoying?

Waqar younis was extremely upset and walked off from the press conference. I think he was offended at the insinuations which were made by the karachi journalist there. How dare they?

One of the constant themes which i have experienced from our friends from central punjab is that I in particular and karachi walay in general, bring out the mohajir card at the drop of a hat. And that somehow makes us less of a pakistani. 

Not that i am looking for certificate of patriotism from anyone but its a bit perplexing when our friends from central punjab don't understand that what has happened here to sarfarz or fawad..is not a one off...just in last 30 yrs just in cricket there are examples of basit ali, asif mujtaba, rizwanuz zaman, qasim omer..just to name a few. These men would have illustrious careers if it weren't for their unfortunate domiciles. Do you know that Javed Miandad was not selected for the 92 world cup originally, at the behest of the epitome of everything which is holy and pure one Mr. Imran Khan? We let bygones be bygones.

Prejudice is not a figment of my imagination..its a reality in pakistan. We lost bengal because of it and on the verge of loosing balochistan and until we own it as a real sickness in the heads of these kurta dharta ..we will continue to see this absolute slaughter of merit, whether its cricket or education department of sind at the hands of peer mazharaul haq first and now nisar khoRRoo. But i digress.

A comment which made me giggle was by a friend this morning k 'yaar tum karachi waloon k saath masla kya hay bhai..tumharay saath koi alag burtao nahii horaha...vaysa hi hay unees bees jaysa baloch, siraiki, pakhtoon or sindhiyoon k saath hum kartay hein..you guys are probably still a bit better off than these other lesser mortals! Whats with the hue and cry?'. 

And that was the epiphany for the week....their point isn't that there isn't wholesale injustice based on caste and creed, gripe is why u complainin' son?....Walk it off!!

hum aah bhi kartay hein tau hojatay hein budnaam
voh qatl bhi kartay hein tau churcha nahi hotta

Open letter to PCB from punkhayz (fans)

Open letter to PCB from punkhayz (fans)

Dear (kehnay mein kya hurj hay?) PCB,

sirjee let bygones be bygones , we said things that we didn't mean, you did things only you and meera could fathom. BUT you are all we got and we cant stop loving OUR cricket (baqaul shair..ishq hojaey kissii say koi chaara tau nahi) just because its being run by einsteins like tota-farosh saythii sahab . 

besides in this mumlikat-e-khudad of ours, what else is being run by common sense so why to expect sanity from you..hein bhai…koi batlao k hum batlaein kya? i mean we are a people who have accepted luqman as an honest journalist, aamir liaquat as an islamic scholar, meera as a hottie, sheikh rasheed as a democrat, abdur rasheed ghazi as someone who doesn't wish harm to anyone, sarfaraz nawaz as someone who is not unhinged, tau bhai if najam sethi is defacto chairman PCB tau guzara karein!

anywho so i was saying k sir, forgive our sins and since now there is a whimper of an opportunity and this nation can again hope for a miracle, at least put the right playing eleven in the ground. Biggest gripe isn't that we are loosing and loosing like we are minnows, frustration is that we really don't have to be this bad..provided that karachi is also considered as part of pakistan and maybe a laRka or 2 out of eleven can be selected from this city.

In what kind of a twilight zone you select Nasir Jamshed over fawad Alam? bhai punjabi hi khilana hay then play nasir jamshed’ parody account on twitter, i am sure he is more in form. 

I am not suggesting that PCB has ignored players of AB de Villiers quality, but when other teams are so good then not playing sarfaraz and fawad is a cardinal sin. Besides why be so petty in 2015? Who cares if these 2 (fawad and sarfaraz) didn't know any better and insisted on being born in karachi, butchey hein maaf kardein yaar! 

PCB sweetie we urge you to be bigger than this and find it in your heart to make slightest of changes and we still might edge in to quarters. and then if we loose, we can hang moin joaari khan and Mr and Mrs Selfie instead. 

There is still an opportunity to do the right thing PCB mayri jaan ki tukRi. we beg you as fans to send Nasir Jamshed back on account of him being umeeed say and not only get fawad as part of squad but get him in the playing eleven , and shut the mouths of hidustoRaaz like me all over, once and for all.

nobody is expecting Pakistan to win the world cup, least of all me. I am however convinced that we are good enough to be in quarter finals…but it will only happen when we play the right XI. 

As a fan, there is no tax on dreaming and even if you do an analysis in an emotionally detached manner, you are telling me that on our day we are not good enough to beat even new zeawland ? people, people, people, we did it not once but twice merely couple of months ago and i don't doubt that we can still do it on our day. But at the sake of being repetitive, we must take care of ducks which we have absolute control over and line them up properly..selecting the right eleven is a bare minimum. Here is the right eleven in my opinion based on performances.

1. Sarfaraz Ahmed WK
2. Haris 
3. Misbah C
4. Umer Akmal
5. Sohaib
6. Fawad
7. Afridi
8. Wahab
9. Yasir Shah
10. Sohail Khan
11. Irfan

Tundi-e-baad-e-mukhalif say na ghabra aey uqqaab

yeah tau chalti hay tujhay ooncha uRanay k liyay

Pakistan Zindabad!!

Hang Altaf Hussein & MQM

Hang Altaf Hussein & MQM

For baldia town and many other crimes for which they haven’t been convicted by court of law but since this is in fashion now, lets play along.

But before you pull the lever, indulge me some innocent quandaries. Why should altaf Hussein and mqm be punished for crimes? Ahh its in constitution of Pakistan, you say ehh? All right. Lets begin!

Before you hang MQM and AH, how about declaring Ayub Khan a criminal because he was a dictator and killed people who supported Mother of Nation Fatima Jinnah?

How about officially thru court declare Gen. Yahya & Zulfikhar Ali Bhutto criminals who broke the country in half. Surely a bigger crime than anything MQM is accused of.

How about sentencing Gen Zia ul Haq “shaheed” for killing Zulfikhar Ali bhuttoo in cold blood. Its been on record that courts were coerced, so how about making it formal?

How about sentencing hundreds of leaders of PPP including shaheed bibi, asif zardari etc. for money laundering, loan write-offs, naked corruption, embezzlement, coercion, incompetence which have resulted in death and agony of thousands of citizens of Pakistan?

How about sentencing hundreds of leaders of Muslim league N including Nawaz Shareef, shehbaz shareef etc. for money laundering, loan write-offs, naked corruption, coercion, incompetence, embezzlement which have resulted in death and agony of thousands of citizens of Pakistan?

How about trying general musharaf, gen. zia, gen yahya, gen aslam beg, gen asad durrani, Gen. hamid gul for openly admitting in supreme court of all places that yes they have subverted the constitution? How about terrorists of al-badr and al-shams? How about convicting rangers for killing a citizen of Pakistan in plain sight, caught on camera? How about rapist of dr. shazia in balochistan? How about killers of thousands of baloch youth and thousands of citizens of Karachi in 90’? how about the architects of jihad policy, the geniuses in our security establishment because of whom, more than 50,000 citizens of Pakistan have been murdered?  Can we implement the same constitution on these scions of purity?

How about bringing killers of Benazir bhuttoo and Journalist saleem shehzad to justice? We all know who they are, just like we know who set baldia town factory ablze, don’t we?

And now my dear Imran Khan and PTI, you must realize that we can only hang MQM and altaf Hussein on these accusations because they are considered crimes under constitution of Pakistan, right? Do you know what else is considered a crime under penal code of constitution of Pakistan? Drinking, drug-use, fornication outside of marriage, betting, tax evasion, loan write-offs, money laundering, corruption, embezzlement, aiding and abetting a martial law dictator. Does any of this ring a bell dear sir? You see you pillar of everything which is decent and holy, the smallest of any of these crimes, if true, will bar you from politics, like yousuf raza gilani. Bye bye PM house!

See the issue I have is not that you want to take MQM to the gallows. My pet peeve is why ONLY MQM? Ohh I get it, because they are not from the halal side of pakistan, not the right kind of Pakistani right?

Well guess what folks, it aint happening because whats kosher in boonies of sind and balochistan, aint halal in metropolis of Karachi. We object to this selective morality from sons of soil. You have tried this before and failed. No implementation of rule of law on MQM alone. Either bring all of the above to justice together, or let the evolution take its course.

Itni na baRha paki-e-daman ki hikayaat,

Daman ko zara daykh, zara bund-e-quba daykh.

Children of Lesser God

Children of lesser God

I can provide stats and facts which are documented and write pages upon pages on what has been done to Karachi under the PPP regime in almost a decade. However it would be a waste of time because the same has been done by numerous other folks who are far more eloquent, succinct and credible than me. All of that has fallen on deaf ears.

Here is the bottom line, in less than a month hundreds upon hundreds of young men have been picked up law-enforcement agencies, out of them around 35 have so far been murdered in cold blood in just under a month. Around 500 in just last one year! At what point can we expect a statement from the champions of human rights? Asma Jehangir, Marvi sarmad, Hamid Mir are you guys listening? Lets suppose for arguments sake, even though there is no substantial evidence, ALL of them were target killers themselves! Still, don’t they deserve a day in court?

After PPO (Pakistan Protection ordinance), there is no need to satisfy bureaucracy, you can simply keep people on custody for months on. Why then the police of sind is hell-bent on this genocide of men of Karachi? The thing which is depressing for a karachiite like me is that, when there is state brutality in model town Lahore or Musharaf was being heavy handed with protestors in CJ restoration movement, we spoke up for our countrymen. Why is there such an eerie silence in the entire country at our massacre? We suffered the same this same nature of indifference from the rest of the country in last 80’ and 90’. Information, we were told, was not readily available back then! What’ your excuse now Pakistan?

During ppp’ 8 year tenure, out of which MQM has been junior partners with PPP for 4, how many karachiites have been appointed in positions of SHO and higher, not in thatta or Jacobabad or meer poor mathaylo because that would be ridiculous, but in Karachi itself? Forget about police, how many individuals who hold Karachi’ domicile have been appointed on 17 grade or higher in education department? In comparison, how many jobs have been doled out to residents of rural areas, not in rural areas or other cities like thatta and nawabshah but in Karachi? I realize that standard of education in Karachi is not as great as laRkana and khairpur and therefore karachiites obviously loose out on merit. But for bibi’ sake, we need to put food on our tables as well and you guys must stop pushing us against the wall.

This is what movements and cessation are made of folks. Establishment of Pakistan must realize that they wouldn't be able to do to karachi ..what they have done in balochistan. Karachi will react and react violently and if you want to understand why then read an article by ex muslim league n mna ayaz amir. In this country only punjabis matter...and it's high time punjabis stand up and make some noise in our favor. Not holding our breath though!

Mitti ki muhabat mein hum aashufta saroon nay

Voh qarz utaray hein, k wajib bhi nahi thay!

Case for MQM & an Urban Province

Case for MQM & an Urban Province

MQM champions itself as a progressive and pluralistic political force. In the sea of religious bigotry and sectarianism, MQM emerged in 80’ as a unifying force between shias and sunnis. They had the will and more importantly the muscle to ensure that troublemakers on both side of the divide were in check. Before MQM’ emergence to power, Karachi saw bloody sectarian clashes on routine basis. In muharam, chaos ran supreme, thanks primarily to petro dollars coming home to roost. MQM alone can be credited with a complete turn around in urban centres of sind. Animosity and tension amongst neighbors subsided because they were united under the umbrella of MQM.

PPP in general has been no friend of Karachiites in particular and urban sind in general. This is not my feeling or some reach by an MQM voter. This is a factual reality and if I cared enough I would share unopposed statistics routinely shared by independent newspapers and championed by men like faisal sabzwari and haider abbas rizvi, who are far more eloquent than me, so we first need to come to terms with facts.

PPP’ ‘love’ for urban sind should not be a surprise either for anyone. Urban population of sind has never ever voted for ppp, ever! MQM or no MQM, urdu speaking citizens of Hyderabad and Karachi always saw bhutto’ policies of quota system as murder or meritocracy. I am a fan of ZAB so I am not going to dwell a whole lot on ZAB’ policies. You can call it hypocritical but I think I am mostly fan of the idea of a man who stood up for masses against military junta.

Surely the likes of zardari, makhdoom amin fahim, peer mazharul huq and zlufiqar mirza cant be blamed for awam-dosti. They are as anti-awam as they come. This is not PPP of ZAB or even Bibi, it’s a trite cliché I know but seriously, its really not! All you have to do is look at how ppp governed sind in last 7 years that they have been in absolute power and it should become evident that this is not a progressive, left leaning party. I know I am digressing but my larger point IS that there has always been this tug of war for resources between rural and urban sind and by design there will always be this tension. Quota system was initially introduced by zab to bring the rural masses to baseline, kind of like affirmative action for African Americans. The question is that at what point would we go back and seriously analyze the fruits of quota system.

Should there not be an honest attempt to check whether the unprecedented and lopsided sanction of monies for rural areas have actually resulted in bringing the rural population closer to HDI levels of urban Sindh? You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that PPP has failed the rural population of sind when it comes to human development, quite miserably and rather convincingly.

Again no need for a complex exercise, all you have to do is take a stroll in rural areas of sind. The easiest smell test would be the condition of schools, healthcare and food security. Another interesting tidbit would be to compare the lifestyle and access to basic amenities mentioned above between the MPA/MNA and the average constituent of rural sind. You can then do the same exercise in constituencies held by MQM. Proof of pudding is in the eating folks!

I as an MQM supporter can be blamed for being biased and fair enough I reckon BUT I am sure there are universities in Pakistan which offer phd’ on social sciences and I am certain there are independent journalists, sindhi speaking ones who are not really fans of MQM for multitude of reasons, maybe they can take up this task and do an honest exercise to see if 40 years of quota system has delivered the desired results.

The citizens of urban sind are convinced that their rightful share is snatched from them so rural citizens can be accommodated. it would hurt a little less if these resources which are being denied to us are at least being invested to make the lives of common villagers better. However what we have seen in THAR and almost all of rural sind, the verdict is that PPP stole those resources from urban sind and instead of investing them for the welfare of rural sind, they deposited it in Swiss banks.

If rural sind cant stand up at this injustice and robbery, we are done with letting go of our fair share so the coffers of Wadeyras and Jageerdaarz of ppp can be fattened even further. Bring on the new administrative units so Qaim Ali Shah can spend more time in khairpur and faryal didi can be present in nawabshah and khusrsheed shah can focus on thatta, rather than lounging around in Karachi, disconnected from their constituencies all year long. I say It’s a win win.

Shehr-e-Aaseb Me Aankhen Hi Nahi Hen Kafi 
Ulta Latko Ge To Seedha Dikhai De Ga

Multan Stampede & Our Elite

Multan Stampede & our Elite

The more things change, the more they stay the same. In words of evergreen late dilawar figar ‘halaat-e-haazra ko kai saal hogaye’. Imran Khan’ emergence as a force to be reckoned with on the political landscape of Pakistan was lauded and appreciated by most Pakistanis. It encouraged a huge disillusioned middle class chunk of our society to come in the fore of political arena because khan was looked at as the fresh face, an untested commodity if you will. So far so good right? Wrong!

And I say that because the proof of the pudding would always have to be in the eating and unfortunately whenever the moment has come for khan to put his actions where his mouth has been in the political arena, he has failed miserably.

Fact is that He has surrounded himself with the same elite, he supposedly is on the mission to eradicate. In words of animated journalist sohail warraich ‘Kya yeahh khulla taayyzaad nahi hay?’.

This is why KHAN’ politics now have more contradictions than one has the patience for. Nowhere these dichotomies were screaming more than on the stage of PTI multan jalsa. I don’t blame Imran Khan or PTI exclusively for the accident but can Khan not see how absolutely callous (and I will venture to use the word barbaric,) it looks when dead bodies are being lifted like they are inane objects smack in front the eyes of the entire PTI leadership and they couldn’t care less. DJ butt to his credit begs them ‘please shut the hell up for a moment and give a damn about the severity of the situation’.

Qibla-0-Kaba LORD Hazrat MAKHDOOM Shah Mehmood Qureshi in all his pomp and glory brushes the lump bodies of kummi kameen aside and orders the concert to go on. I swear if these visuals were captured in an MQM or ANP event, the gheyrat brigade primarily comprising of aqle-kul anchors would have ranted and raved for days on at the catastrophe. Altaf Hussein and batcha khan would have been personally held responsible for the murders and call would be to hang them in public square, despite the fact that batcha khan is already resting in peace.

I know I sound a bit unhinged but the favoritism and double standards of mostly Punjabi intelligentsia is exhausting and then they innocently wonder why baloch’ are not so hot on the concept Pakistan anymore.

We as a people also deserve a lot of this blame for accidents of this nature. I don’t quite get what the rush is? You have spent 4 hours being part of an event, whats another 15 minutes?

You witness this same psychosis in air travel. Everyone is on best behavior until the vessel enters the boundaries of sarzameen-e-pak. All hell breaks loose and the same people who have been flying for 15 hrs, all of a sudden cant wait another 3 minutes so the damn thing can land and park itself. Where are we rushing to anyway? What is this anxiety and restlessness as a nation? I am not one of those people who blame the people of Pakistan for ills of the system.

I think its unfair to confuse illness with symptoms. The rulers and the elite hoarding 99% resources for the 1% and the 99% of goalaaz adding a bit of water in milk is not on par with each other. Former is the actual problem; latter is the logical manifestation of corruption and moral bankruptcy of elite, which stems from the top 1%.

But for your own sake people, play the odds. It’s not worth it to put your safety on stake to save 15-20 minutes. Believe me you guys have nothing better to do. Stay put!

Muslim league Nawaz, PPP and civil and military elite should also realize that this is not the Pakistan of 1990’. Because of media and to a certain degree the higher judiciary, the kummi kameen majority of the country will increasingly ask more and more uncomfortable questions. The more of the same cannot work for perpetuity and elite must share the golden eggs being laid by the golden goose that is Pakistan.

Don’t share all the eggs but for your own sake realize that you guys are the ones who have the most to loose, have-nots have nothing by definition..so please shape up!

Hold the local bodies elections already. Depoliticize the election commission. Bring parity between haves and not have-nots, not in an absolute manner but at least extend meaning full gestures by spending more on public welfare. When you hold the longest sessions of parliaments and not a single bill for public welfare and every single second is spent on hue and cry on how someone is after your cheese, then it looks royally bad..and I say that as a supporter of democracy and as someone who is against ouster of this government thru mob pressure.

I say this with pain that KHAN is another opportunity squandered. At least till now. He needs to go back to the basics. Surround himself with common folk and old party loyalist, not tareens and roedad khans of the world.

He has a canvas available in KPK. Draw a beautiful picture of Pakistan there. And as a karachiite, I want to say that don’t stand with those who are against fairness, just because you don’t like MQM. Smaller Administrative units are need of the hour for entire Pakistan and KHAN you agree, then why is Karachi special? We the karachiites are less interested in political gimmickry and more interested in who will raise voice for the rightful share of Karachi.

PPP and the rural elite of Sindh has lorded over sind and specifically Karachi now for more than 7 years. Don’t take my word for it, Take a stroll or talk to a genuine sindhi journalist and if they have shred of honesty in them, they will draw a fair parallel of Karachi under mqm in early to mid 2000 and Karachi in last 7 years.

Zaban-e-khalq ko naqar-e-khuda samjho.