PM's General Assembly Speech and beyond

General Assembly speeches make headlines and Imran Khan's made some real good headlines today (the following day). Despite making headlines, these UNGA annual heads of state speeches fizzle out before creating any effect in tangible terms but does IK's speech break that barrier, remains to be seen. However, whatever has transpired so far, is unprecedented. A speech well articulated in diction, manner & message having all ingredients for considerable impact in short and long term. PM set the tone of Kashmir issue by taking the bull by the horns. 
Was he posturing well? Hell yes and why not, he is a leader who likes to stay a move ahead of his enemy. Muhammad Ali Jinnah was the greatest exponent of it. He would unfold Hindu's next move before execution. He saw through them. He was at the top of his game. Its no comparison, just a leaf out of Jinnah Sahab's repertoire.
Back to the speech.
Was it brankmanship? Big fat yes and why not, if there is remote possibility of being pushed against the wall, preempt. There are no other rational alternarives in the face of an enemy who is going berserk with newly found Hindu fanaticism. Hindu Extremism is on the rise. Hindu nationalists are xenophobic and love war-mongering. It serves Modi's political model really well. Is India resilient enough to withstand current tide of extremism? Doesn't look like that and time shall tell. 
People in general don't seem to understand or don't want to understand that that current Kashmir situation may have serious consequences. There are two possible scenarios:
One that 370 is revoked by Indian Supreme Court but under RSS mentorship, extremist Hindus have developed a taste for mob lynching. As if this nation needed more extremist traits. Was it not enough that they carve stones & wood and worship them. In this time and age athiest have a better line of argument then Hindus admitting that they can't disprove God's existence either.  Under the circumstances, no judge would risk being lynched. In fact, no one in India can withstand current typhoon of Hindu hooliganism.
Why are they so insecure? Hindus experienced freedom after a very long time. Barely 72 years of freedom after over thousand years of slavery, mostly ruled over by Muslims before British. It seems there are deep, deforming scars on Hindu soul, hence the monster of extremism is running wild.
Two that sooner or later, Kashmir explodes. May sound like a doomsday scenario but nothing short of it meets the situational criteria. If state of India doesn't budge from its stance which it won't in any case, then what choice is left with Kashmiris? We can't control their reactions. Things will escalate, even if Kashmiris don't escalate, India can repeat Pulwama type episode. In every scenario things are more likely to escalate than not. And if that be the case, we need to go all out to prepare for it. Wherein, speech was just one little step in the right direction. I would have liked PM to have directly addressed Indian nation for once not to play with fire. This might just have been an attempt to segregate fanatic RSS ideology from few normal people in India.
Way forward is obvious, remain one step ahead of the enemy, expose his plan before he executes it. However, unlike, situation before partition when all stakeholders had political solution in sight, current scenario may go beyond political domain. We should brace ourselves for that.
Only Allah knows the whole Truth.

Time - Thinkers interactive session Saturday, 21 September

After my best Ramadan ever, it was not possible to detach from Al Shajr House & all the good activities that take place there:
https://asadjamal32.blogspot.com/2019/05/my-best-ramadan-ever.html?m=1

Lately, a wonderful program primarily designed for teenage boys (though there is no restriction on attendance by boys/ men of older ages) is underway for past three weeks. Brother Abid Ishaq is conducting some amazing interactive sessions with the teenagers every Saturday from 5:30 - 7:00 pm. Remaining details are covered on the poster attached. My teenage son is totally excited & upbeat about each session.
The idea is to get teenagers thinking right from this age. Every successful person, I came across in life, attributed his success to the time, person, incident or institution that got him thinking. May be down the years, few successful youngmen point towards these sessions for agitating their gray matter & it would be worth every bit to be part of this effort.
This Saturday, on request of Al Shajr administration, I shall be conducting the interactive session on 'Time' to include everything about time i.e. its beginning, its never stopping tiktak, its relative nature, value of time & its management and prioritization & its end (if any).
Please encourage teenage boys (13 & above) of your family to benefit from this opportunity. May Allah make this session beneficial for everyone in attendance.

PTI's poor performance in power

Signs of PTI's performance shall be visible by fourth year in office, we should give it time. So did we because many friends and others did not approve of any critique on toddler govt for their newly found passion for politics and PTI. They saw PTI as a fresh breath of air and their hopes were kindled. But staying quiet anymore seems unfair to Pakistan. Hope must stay alive but a sweet false hope is much more dangerous than a bitter reality check. Before we have a reality check on PTI's output, another unfortunate stark reality of our politics is that there is no political opposition nor the presence of an alternative political force to challenge PTI. Being on 'one page' is also doing us no real good. Establishment-PTI romance is like overprotective grandparents spoiling their third generation who eventually turn into insolent brats.
Now the reality check. PTI govt or should we say Imran Khan because PTI is one man party like other political forces. Hence, every good & bad thing reflects on his leadership. For his army of nincompoop ministers & brigades of advisors, again he gets the blame because at some slots he intentionally didn't choose strong men like Punjab & KPK CMs and on other ministerial portfolios he didn't have much choice. Collectively, they are like an obedient herd of sheep, no leadership traits whatsoever. Because first leadership trait has to be difference of opinion particularly when things are this bad. Unfortunately, if anyone had a thinking mind or difference of opinion was shown the door e.g Hafeez Sheikh for Asad Umer whereas economy is still doing bad, was a poor decision whatever the political compulsions were at that time. Its like economy is not doing well, ok then throw Asad Umer under the bus. 

PTI has only done well on foreign front for two men: an active foreign minister and an amatuer PM across the wall. Had Chai-wala not committed blunders of 27 February and 5 August, there virtually would have been nothing to show on PTI's report card.
One would have thought that 'nabbing' political opponents through limited top down approach would have worked its magic for two reasons: one that corruption would be checked & two that it would bring back looted money. Selective 'justice' limited to opposition's top leadership is principally a flawed strategy which is unlikely to recover amounts that may alter the economic fate of this country.
Is there any need to elaborate economic blunders like unreal inflation, spike in exchange rates, plummeting stocks, skyrocketing tariffs, growing unemployment, faltering businesses, snail paced CPEC, increasing interest rates etc. Not a single positive economic indicator to show for niether in sight.
PTI came to power at the back of KPK govt's experience of complete term. It got votes on reforms' slogan. No reforms are in the offing through legislation because there is no majority in both houses, hence the option of presidential ordinances seems to be choice of the hour. But that too has backfired on withdrawal of cess gas ordinance. In the hindsight, the only thought process that seemed to have gone in was how Razzaq Daud and his accomplices could safeguard their business interests through this ordinance.
Bad governance of past & Medina brand governance of PTI used to be the top electioneering slogan. It turned out to be a slogan only. Is there any need to elaborate shambolic state of governance, particularly in Punjab. On political issue of Brexit, two PMs of Britain have been changed and fate of the third still hangs in balance but Usman Buzdar (Waseem Akram plus (Made in China)) cannot be changed. We often hear PM raving about UK's system of governance but political rhetoric is one thing and action is another. Probably, reverting this decision seems like fulfilling Imran Khan's definition of U-turn. Rest all U-turns including cess gas seemed to fall short of that criteria or were those U-turns at all? 
Every minister including PM has opposition's corruption to blame for every question pertaining to their inability to deliver. Pretty much a patwari mindset. PM has one speech to deliver whether its his inauguration, Capital One Arena or face-off with India in same tenor & tone; a clear sign of intellectual incapacity to tailor things to occasion.
The biggest disadvantage to nation is absence of political opposition. Surely, PML (N) & PPP have failed the test of time. Political vacuum is so bad that even Maulana is sweating to gain few points by asuming lead role of the pack of wolves. Imran Khan seems to have accepted the role of boy of the 'boys' as Cyril Almeida of Dawn Leaks would put it. Situation is so ludicrous that twats like Cyril began to sound prophetic. Probably because honey-moon of being on 'one-page' has served both sides well. Govt is not delivering & army chief despite 41 years of exhaustive service to nation, willy-nilly crowned to be the unofficial king of the country for another three years (no pun intended). Establishment could still do much better by pointing out the problem areas since jitters of extensiin are out of the way. 
Mulling corrupt leadership of other political parties & bad mouthing their past inadequacies was ok in first year of PTI's govt. In second year, there should have been some signs of promised 'change'. The nation is in quandary. On one side fantasy of change & on the other side the deep sea. But we must have some way out of it. We need an alternative political force better than PTI, only then politics in this country can flourish through which the country may progress in the right direction. The alternative political force must also refuse to sit in the lap of establishment. A political force that defies status quo and does not hide behind Armored protected sheilds.
Those who believe that change has come to pass must know that its a continuous process because everything is permanent except change.
Only Allah knows the whole Truth.