The Verdict!

‘If he dies before getting hanged, drag his body to ‘D’ chowk and hang him there for three days!’

The ‘note’ after the verdict said that. So yes, everyone starting going bonkers. Everyone kind of started questioning the words the judge used for the verdict. Moeed Pirzada started wailing like a baby, all others started saying that this should not have been the end of such a ‘patriotic’ leader. He is a hero and what not.

Just a few questions to those who deem him the epitome of patriotism:

1. If he was such a patriot, how could he sell his land, his military bases to US military?

2. If he was such a patriot, how could he sell people of Pakistan for US dollars?

3. If he was such a patriot how could he let American drones target tribal areas of KPK and Baluchistan?

4. If he was such a patriot, how could he let Blackwater Army roam freely around the country?

5. If he was such a patriot, how could he let US open up a fortress in Karachi in the name of US Embassy?

6. If he was such a patriot, how could he humiliated the hero of the nation, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan?

The questions are numerous. The General did not only commit crimes against his own people, his own country, the neighbouring country, he committed crimes against humanity.

He shouldn’t be charged only with treason but with murder of thousands of people, of torturing thousands of people and of human trafficking.

In my honest opinion, there is no punishment in this world that can do justice to what he did when power was entrusted to him.

Death Sentence

I think he should be hanged publicly and should remain there for several days for people to see.

‘Why do you become so cruel when it comes to him?’

I don’t know..

I put myself in Dr. Aafia’s shoes… And I can not imagine what she has had been through.

I put myself in Amna Janjua’s shoes, and I don’t know what I would feel.

I put myself in the shoes of that person, whose everything was wiped away with one drone.

I put myself in the shoes of a person who was put to shame on national tv.

I put myself in the shoes of those who died on the streets because he gave them the permission to kill.

I put myself in the shoes of those who got the blunt of ‘namaloom afraad’.

The list of crimes go on…

The New World

The new government has been formed and the new setup has begun. A lot has been said and there is soo much going on and so many perspectives and soo many analysis being done everyday that one seems as if a lot will be done soon enough. Though the new government has just talked about the audit of the former government’s development projects, and still a lot of focus on the last government rather than things that will be spectacular like fireworks and wow us all. But maybe, we are expecting too much.

Anyway, what we are looking at right now is a financial crisis and I am not an expert at this; I am a lay man when it comes to financial strategies, audits, budgets and all but whatever I know doesn’t paint a good picture of the near future. I remember when Musharraf came to power and 9/11 happened, the industrialists were adamant into going with the Bush and the US because the other way round would ruin their businesses. The economic policies of Pakistan were marked by this main event too as they threatened to put sanctions if Pakistan didn’t chose a side (everyone knows how Bush said it was either ‘with us or against us’ situation). The reason I am going back to Musharraf is because since then, we have seen a very sharp decline in the industrial sector, specially the textile sector. For example, the dye industry has been eradicated from Pakistan, it has been shifted to either India or China. The garments we see in the international markets are either Indian, Bangladeshi or Chinese. Pakistani products are rarely seen in the big brands’ shop where Pakistan was a leading exporter with quality products. What Musharraf came around with has stuck to Pakistan and is still clinging on to Pakistan.  My point here is; does the new government of Pakistan know what we have lost, where are we standing, what policies the International companies have sworn us into since Mushy and how will we get out of it, where should we invest, which industry will be on the hit list(as in what will be the top priority?) and how will they go about it? These questions were not answered by the newly formed government as I was expecting so I still feel it is just talk and no work. But since the cabinet is similar to that of Mushy, we might see a facade of things being better… just my thoughts.. I might be wrong.

A lot happened during Musharraf’s era. One can not forget the Oct 8th earthquake that brought in havoc in the northern part of Pakistan. A lot of aid started pouring as soon as the rescue aid operations started. USAID and a lot of other International NGOs started working in Pakistan in the name of help to be provided to the vast mountain area that was devastated by the earthquake. A lot of aid went missing, a lot of things went unexplained. Till date we do not know on what conditions were those aid given, what sanctions were put on the economic and political front in the name of those aids. To think that the International community only gave all that money on humanitarian basis will be too naive. These questions have not been answered and have not been dealt with either by the military government nor have they been answered by the civilian governments that followed. Since the new government is plundering itself into auditing the development programs of the previous government, it is necessary to bring forward the issues, the policies, the loopholes, the man holes of the governments preceding it in order to fully know the position this country in the international scenario since US wants to quit Afghanistan as well.

The issue of the missing persons also started in the Musharraf era. Musharraf, himself has shamelessly recorded in his book, that he SOLD Pakistani men,women and children for dollars. Dr. Afia is still in US detention center and has gone through immense mental, physical and sexual abuse. This is just one case. We know Amna Janjua is still fighting to get her husband back and loads and loads of people, who have been standing there in the capital and are waiting for their loved one’s return. The matter of Dr. Afia is under Foreign Ministry but rest are unknown. Since the newly elected Prime Minister has announced that he will keep the Ministry of Internal Affairs under himself, this must be the most important issue since new cases of missing persons have come up in the last couple of months namely of Romana Hussain and Roshan bibi just on the pretext of being affiliated with Hizb-ut-tehreer. These are the cases that have come upfront,but I wonder how many cases are still under the carpet. These raise a question on the power of the government, the military and the intelligence agencies. The question here is; Why not open trials, why not open court sessions?? Why such secrecy if they are criminals??What are these Intelligence agencies so afraid of? The new government should be able to at least give one statement on this issue.

Unfortunately, the list of issues goes on and on and on. The question is, will the new government be able to answer all these questions, these core issues? Will they work on the facades or will they go deeper to tackle the core issues of this country?

Only time will tell…

 

Justice Denied

And when the songs were made by the ISPR and their thinktank invoked the emotional nerve of the people, we were shocked to hear that the Baldia Town Factory incident was not an accident but was a crime conducted by the political party, MQM; to whom the owner couldn’t pay the ransom money. The media did try to cover the report but it didn’t get as much air time as the previous incident of the APS! And this kills me from the inside that why one fraction of a society is treated with so much royalty while other rots in the dark corners of a dungeon.

The Military, Intelligence Agencies and the government made sudden arrangements for the formation of the military courts in the wake of the Peshawar attack and the culprits awaiting capital punishment were soon sent to the gallows but… BUT the only people who were given punshments were those who were involved in the attack against the former dictator, Musharraf or the likes! This again would lead to a lot of debate as to why the others did not get as much attention? Why was there a need to create a divide between those who tried to kill Musharraf and those who, for a long time, have done targetted killings of the civillians of Pakistan? Why did it take two years for just the report to come out in the open that people were burnt inside the factory by the armed wing of the political party. Now Dawn Newspaper reports that the suspect has gone missing! Why is it that the law enforcing agencies have tried to bring such peace to Karachi?!

The incident of Baldiya Town is not something that we can ignore so lightly but why is it that they have said that they will write a report again? Have they made a deal with the culprits or the poltical party? But THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION WOULD BE: WHY DID NOT THEY SENT THIS CASE TO A MILITARY COURT?? When APS got them all charged up and they wanted a full throttle impact on Waziristan, why did not those 300 innocent lives, lost to the inhumane terrorist act of the armed wing of MQM, enraged those who wear uniforms? WHY Oh! WHY? Weren’t those people Pakistani???

I am at loss to describe how I feel for those who die everyday because they are present there where the incident would take place. They are killed for no reason that is comprehensible to the humannlogic. And the class divide makes it worse, where one man, responsible for the deaths of many can be a political leader and is not bound by the law whereas people like Dr. Afia are being sent to torture cells for dollars!

Sab Se Pehle Pakistan?!

I started writing this before the party was launched. And recent interviews have proven the former chief of army a traitor. And yet he expects respect from the people of Pakistan! And still claims to be the upholder of “sab se pehle Pakistan” while exposing country’s secrets! He should be hanged till death but no.. that would be too short a punishment. I remember once praying that may he be in such pain that he’d pray for death and death wont come to him, but now I know Allah must have saved a great punishment for him as he still walks the earth with dyed hair!

The former President of Pakistan, who’s been living in UK for the past eight years, is planning to come back and wants to help the Pakistanis in dire need. Let’s just see what he did during his rule and see why would we want him back.

1. He sold Pakistani land to the Americans and till today they have been working on this land as if it’s their own. NATO gets its supplies through our land. Shame on us.

2. Drone attacks! He welcomed them taking no action.

3. Genocide! Killing of innocent students at Jamia Hafsa and claiming to have defeated the enemy!

4. He sold Pakistanis for dollars! (and this he himself acknowledged in his biography!) beghairti ki bhi inteha hai! I’m sorry for there is no other word for it!

5. To top it all, he made Abdul Qadeer Khan a viallian!

The list goes on and on…

Oh Allah! save us from people like him and Zardari and Sharif borthers and others who are here to sell off PAkistan!

Identity Crisis

When Musharraf came to power and the whole 9/11 thing happened, major changes were seen in the political, social and economic scene in Pakistan. When the US said that, ” either you are with us, or against us”, it divided the people of Pakistan. Most of them supported Afghanistan and believed that the US operation was unjust. There were statistics that said that they supported Musharraf… whatever! Anyway, during this whole crisis, his think tanks derived a formula of “sab se pehle Pakistan”, there were songs, concerts, and what not to make sure that this message was embedded in the minds of people so that they would think “Pakistan First”! It was pretty effective as people have this nationalistic mentality in Pakistan where everyone’s either a Punjabi or a Pathan or a Sindhi, or a Balochi or a Muhajir or a Pakhtoon! Proof of it is that NWFP’s name has been changed to Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, the Siraikis want another province for themselves! And it is soo sad! So, back to where I was, Musharraf was pretty much successful in making people think with his media campaigns to think about being  a Pakistani first. And because it was the period when the US coalition attacked Afghanistan, this nationalistic thought overcame all the other provincial identities.

And why am I mentioning all this?! Because we fail to prioritize our identities! There’s been a video that a friend of mine posted on her wall on FB, and the title is, “yea kin logon ki basti hai aey Khuda” by some group called Jagoo Pakistan. The group though criticizes the media responsibilities towards Dr. Afia and too much publicity to Shoaib and Sania wedding and the attitude of the government towards Dr. Afia as compared to that towards Sania Mirza.  I’d agree to the part that yes, the media hasn’t done justice to Dr. Afia but we have to see where we can draw lines. Sania  Mirza maybe Indian but she is a Muslim first. So, when you call her  the “other” or dosre ki beti, you show and you prove that the Musharraf’s “sab se pehle Pakistan” was a success! I’m not saying that I’m not a Patriot or that I don’t love Pakistan, it’s just that if it wasn’t for Islam, there wouldn’t have been a Pakistan.

Pakistan was not made to divide Muslims, but it was made to protect them, to safeguard their rights but somehow the purpose seem to have lost! We fail to realize that we are first and foremost Muslims. When people starting converting to Islam more than 1430 years ago, the Kuffar of Makkah used to say that what kind of religion is this which has put enmity between blood ties and the reply to that is in Quran that Allah has developed love between them (the Muslims) which is far greater and far stronger than that of the blood ties! The Muslim brotherhood didn’t rely on the blood ties or worldly advantages, the brotherhood and the love between them was based on their love for Allah.  They were tied together because they loved Allah and they were Muslims. When we embrace Islam, or when one comes under the fold of Islam, he/she automatically becomes a part of the Muslim community in all parts of the world. That is the beauty of it!

So when we are Muslims first, the Sania Mirza issue shouldn’t be shown like this. The media is responsible for creating such a hype about it and that maybe because the agenda on which the media conglomerates wants the real issues to subside in front of such mundane ones. Always remember, “Nothing is what it seems” specially on television. This so-called free media (I’m calling it a so-called free media because the strings are held somewhere and I know it’s not as free as they project it to be) has undermined the value of Dr. Afia’s case soo much so that the people of Pakistan don’t even know what is happening except for a few! And if this is “awareness” that they are spreading, I wonder what’s the opposite of it!

Anyway, the only thing that I want to highlight here is think of being Muslims first! These national identities were gievn to us by Allah Ta’ala so that we could recognize one another. Not because we can divide and fight. Learn from Ansars from the occasion when they gave half of EVERYTHING to their brothers from Makkah! This is our tradition. Sania Mirza married Shoaib Malik, fine, it’s a marriage! Let it go! There are far more important issues at hand that should be looked into. There are far more difficult times ahead of us, which should be thought about! How to get out of the crises that we are facing as Muslims, as Pakistanis, inside our country and outside in the international community! Look beyond the mere walls of your houses. We are Muslims, and all Muslims all over the world are tied together. Look Muslims everywhere are suffering, and we as their brothers, what can we do??? Think outside the box! Think!

We are Muslims first! Can’t we make a small contribution to the Muslim world even if it is by praying for our Muslim brothers who are in pain! We are Muslims, we are tied together for our love for Allah and His Messenger(pbuh), so stop prioritizing your national identity! We are Muslims First!

Accountability

There is a race in Pakistani media scene. Everyone wants to break the news first and channels go to the extent of claiming that it was them who broke the news first! Isn’t it strange that the media warfare has left the people of this country handicapped and mentally ill. Rather than making them more aware, they are more unaware of the situation even then consider themselves to be well informed! I’m talking about the “fake” Swat flogging video! I remember the day when the video was aired, it was Friday and since it was Friday and I had to pray after coming from university and then I went to sleep after lunch only to be awaken by an sms that said a lot of bad stuff about the flogging and the Swat administration and the people being inhumane who were doing that! Fortunately or unfortunately, I didn’t see the video till after sometime. Back at university, when N.A. and Salwa and I were sitting together, we were thinking the same thing, how can it be that no investigation had been done before the video was aired by all the TV channels. The video was repeated shown again and again and again! Anyhow, I remember posting something here regarding the video being fake! Now there are reports that it was actually fake!

Now have the tv channels, who aired the video soo much as to make the world believe that whatever that they are showing is true, repeatedly apologized to the people of this country again, and again and again for not verifying the video before airing it! “sach ki lagan”, “har khabar per nazar”, “geo aur geene do”, don’t they feel any accountability or responsibility of airing the video with so much rush as to avoid one of the most basic principles of media where one has to investigate and verify the authenticity of a news item before airing it! The leaders, political administrators and the military, everyone just jumped to conclusions without thinking for once if this is duly investigated! If there was such an incident or not?! This is what you call spreading AWARENESS or is this what you call brainwashing the people and running propaganda factories?

Propaganda factories are working yet effectively to dismantle the thinking abilities of the nation once again! Since the stupid Sania Mirza and Shoaib Malik thing has been going on, all the news channels just show that, the ministers are talking about it, the youth is taking about it. Not having a TV, my husband watches news on internet and for two weeks all we heard was about Sania and Shoaib as if there has been no other news out there. Millions of people are suffering in Pakistan, operation Raah-e-Raast, drone attacks, suicide bombs and Dr. Afia’s upcoming hearing and the final verdict, and all this so-called awareness-spreading-media could highlight was two people getting married?

This is what we have come to! No one’s going to say anything to anyone, do whatever you do and you’d go free until or unless it is in the best interest of “some” agencies or “some” people and “some” countries.  This is just like Orwell’s 1984, the masses are fed so much of this propaganda that they seem to have lost their own insight into things and they believe whatever that media wants them to believe! hadd hai!

Are You Crazy?

Sitting with my husband and watching what he was doing on the computer, which is most of the time watching news and reading newspapers and of course fb, he came across a person whose status was that the Government of Pakistan has lost it’s marbles for spending millions of dollars on the lawyers of Dr. Afia when the majority of population is living under the poverty line!

…

Shocked?! Flabbergasted?! Want to hit your head on the wall?!!

I’d rather kill him for saying that!

He’s crazy! How can one even imagine that?! Selling these people off to the US state, disappearance of her children and the other two who are believed to be dead, doesn’t he feel anything? She had been harassed, raped, mentally tortured and we as Muslims and Pakistanis can just let it go because we don’t think the government should spend that much money on her?! Doesn’t he have a mother? Doesn’t he have a sister? Wont he have a wife or a daughter? What if something like that happens to them, God forbid, would he continue eating and drinking and wont feel anything for them, wont do anything for them?  Are you going to blame her for the starvation of the Pakistani people or are you going to blame the corrupt Pakistani Government for that? Is this what we have stooped to?? THIS?!!! Is it soo easy to sell your mother and daughters?!

So we should join the Musharraf and the Government of Pakistan and continue doing all the wrongs that we have been doing for soo many years and not raise our voices against the cruelty and the wrong done by these people and then maybe we will prosper??! The people of Pakistan won’t live below the poverty line? Have we stopped fearing Allah that He might send down punishments from Heaven on this very earth for siding with the wrong?! The very reason Pakistan is going through whatever that it’s been going through since a very long time is because we have stopped supporting what’s right, we have stopped raising our voices against the wrong, we have stopped caring about right and wrong as we don’t let ourselves be touched by the tragedies of our own people as our lives have been going on a smooth keel! We have stopped giving a damn about anything and everything. Will our actions go unnoticed?!

On the authority of Hudhaifah Ibn Al-Yamân (may Allah be pleased with him and his father) who reported that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “By Allah in whose Hand my soul is, you’d better enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong or Allah will descend upon you His severe punishment and then you supplicate Him but He will not answer your supplication” [Narrated by At-Tirmidhi, Hadith no.2169]

Exposed!

Forget everything…

I have one question to ask.

Where are all those NGOs and Aasma Jahangir, the women’s rights activists now? Isn’t the abusive and tormenting treatment of Dr. Afia by the American authorities anything? Maybe that would cut off their resources that come from abroad… but I wonder what do they do with those resources. They don’t have the guts to stand for the daughter of the nation.

Even they are exposed!

Prisoner 650

The long awaited judgment was passed and the daughter of the nation was put behind bars, yet again! There’s a limit to everything and there’s a limit to Zulm as well. There’s a limit to double standards and there’s limit to torture and abuse! HUH! The New world knows no limits when it comes to abducting people, abusing them and torturing them and then blaming them for something they haven’t done and then coming up with a “fine” jury and putting them in prison for life harassing them throughout!

Dr. Afia Siddiqui. Nation’s daughter. Abducted with her three children! One of them returned but the other two… there’s no sign of them. The Americans fail to provide justice to her because it would mean that her abduction altogether was unjust! Their ego would have been terribly wounded. The system would have been called flawed of which the Americans are so proud!

The facade of their so called honest and just judicial system has just been shattered to pieces. Dr. Afia was physically, mentally and sexually abused inside the American prison, Bagram in Afghanistan and then later was taken to America when much hue and cry was created about her whereabouts and her screams that were heard during her stay there. Prisoners used to say that even after when they were released her screams used to disturb them at night. The torture by American or Ishould say the coalition forces has been out there when the whole Abu Ghraib prison situation came out. The treatment with men was soo shameful, I wonder how these so called human right activists and these so called humane American policies would have worked their hands over when their animal instincts were unleashed on a frail women leaving her almost unrecognizable!

The question still remains… she went missing in Pakistan… who took her to Bagram? And please don’t give me the answers the stupid American lawyers keep blabbing about. Forget that… the most important question… where are her children? Are they even alive? The Americans, who are so proud of their history, their just treatment with women and children, where have they put her kids? The kind of torture she was subjected to, ain’t she human? or just because she is a Muslim, she can never be subjected to respectful treatment?! I remember how Yvonne Ridley accepted Islam, because the Taliban treated her with utmost respect and the Americans, though might have come to Afghanistan to liberate it from Taliban, could never even give a woman the respect she deserves! The American Judiciary has the motto that a person is innocent until proven guilty but the double standards that are kept for us Muslims, treated Afia Siddiqui as guilty until proven innocent!

The worst part is the government didn’t give a damn what happens to the Afia Siddqui case because it has been the puppy dog of America and can’t talk to them one on one! Musharraf, the person who handed her over to the authorities. Do we forget that there’s a reward for every deed we do? Handing her over, her torture, not doing anything for her, what will we answer when we’ll stand before Allah and what if He asks us that what have you done? Reminds me of Hazrat Ibrahim A.S. when he was thrown in fire, a bird brought water in her beak to put it out. Angels or God ( I don’t remember) asked her that why is she doing it when she knows that it wont be able to put out the fire. She replied, “I’m doing whatever that I can.”

We, as Muslims, as Pakistanis, as students, teachers, writers, and in whatever field we are in, we can put in a little contribution. Even if it is just a drop of water in our beaks, just one speck. The Government, the people in power are too much worried about their own power games that they wont budge. It’s time we take initiatives of our own accord because it’s not going to come from somewhere else.

As I said in the beginning, there’s a limit to everything.But there isn’t a limit to the American torture and Jewish hatred for Muslims. The Muslims seem to have crossed their limits when it comes to dishonor and slavishness! But the situation we all are heading forward to… seems to be more going towards the end that we have always read about. There will be either fundamentalists or liberals. And the middle that we have seen for so many years is vanishing quickly. MAy Allah make us one of those who follow Haqq and are supporters of haqq . Ameen.