Happy new year?

On the way back from a tiring flight and being stuck in traffic for the past couple of hours as people are out on the roads celebrating New Year, got me wondering why these exuberant Muslims are celebrating so hard? What diffrence change of Gregorian Calendar date makes in anyone's life? It would be great to find a rational answer to this enigma of life that why we celebrate this date change? What change, change of date brings to anyone's life. Pretty much like celebrating birthdays notwithstanding the fact that clock ticks forward whereas individual life clock is set on a countdown. Quite ironic? Absence of logic may not be as painful as presence of absolute nonsense like being on the road the activities visible are:

1. Loud music mostly Indian.

2. Pindi biker boys cutting across from every side.

3. Fights & abuse due to 'influence'

4. Fireworks, really? We go out to beg for money & we so proudly burn money in firecrackers.

5. Traffic violations galore. Seems like a matter of social pride and moral obligation to break the rules.

And those much awaited new year parties planned well ahead of time to celebrate 'something' for unfathomable reasons.

If the indifferent and emotionless needle of time has ticked over one more second, minute, day, month and year, what have to really done to go berserk with rowdy celebrations? Or have sober party? Or have a decent party? Or get slushed for what? But if you still insist you deserve to express your celebrations through any of these ways, go ahead. Have a great night. Have another pointless celebrations for achieving nothing. Advance apologies to liberal extremists for a spoiler. However, for better understanding of everyone, next Christmas besides asking Santa from where does he bring all those gifts, do ask him about reasons of festivities at the turn of the year. 

India Today - Part 1

Hindu Extremism is on the rise. Hindu nationalists are xenophobic and love war-mongering. It serves Modi's 'successful' political model of Gujrat really well. But will it work? Is India resilient enough to withstand current tide of extremism? Before we probe into this, lets see how Pakistan fared through dire straits of extremism.
Now brace yourself. Pakistani nation is the most resilient nation on God's earth. It has been tossed around between worst dictatorships & even worse political regimes. There is serious competition between the both for being worst than the other. Politicians joined the bandwagon of dictotors and juiciary bowed to the laws of necessity. Particularly three darker decades (1985-2018) when politicians were born & bred in dictatorships,  on every given opportunity that had fiascos of corruption besides hitting each other where it hurt the most. Yet, this nation weathered the storms of darkest dictatorships and darker democratic reigns.
Pakistan is surrounded by Far Right Governments all around. Whereas, despite continuous hullabaloo of extremism for past three decades, Pakistani people resisted, fought & overcame the menace. Because this nation is not bonded by something as fragile as Secularism. Though we badly mismanaged ourselves, ransacked our own ideology but both people and ideology has the strength to resist and recover.
Starting from China, a one party communist government and a shade of extremism. Afghanistan is synonymous with Taliban extremism, whereas, Iran is epicenter of shia extremist form of government. And India's mask of secularism is giving way to its ugly hindu nationalist extremist face. In North, we have Himaliyas and in South Indian Ocean. So its extremist form of government, people and geography all around us. All these shades of extremism have attacked us from all sides but none lasted for long. Such is the strength of this nation.
Second term of BJP will change India forever.
Wait for part 2 on India's current wave of extremism, its impact on us and future.

Happy Birthday Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Happy Birthday sir, thank you for the miracle you pulled for us. Though most of us spent last 72 years undoing this miracle yet it stood the test of time. Because if it didn't, it would have defied the very spirit of a miracle. So its here to stay only to shame us that we failed to play our due role. But hope is the fuel of life. Good leadership besides other wonderful traits exudes hope for others. Today, should we not make an endeavor to take a leaf out of Quaid's life? 

It is terrifying to imagine, what would be it like without your leadership before partition. And after partition, we have seen what can become of a nation without credible leadership. Only if this leadership didn't have a small issue of 'integrity', we could have pulled more miracles. On the other hand, there is not a single lie anyone could associate with Muhammad Ali Jinnah. What most people miss out that he was a specimen modern Muslim. He had the knowledge of the world and times in which he lived in sync with organic knowledge of Islam. His attire was up to date and his spirit was Muslim to the core. Hence, difference of human evolution between MAJ & Mullah was that of 1400 years. Both in knowlege of deen & duniya, he outdid Mullah. 

Modern liberals have gone step ahead of religious orthodoxy. Modernity has been seriously misinterpreted by current lot. To them it is selective adaptation of current modern civilization. Not its principles but lifestyle, outlook & attitude in the wrong sense of the word seems to have become our definition of modernity. As if slavery of a century was not enough, this false sense of modernity has further confused the confused. Resultantly, kids don't have role models to follow, young don't have organic knowledge of Islam, middle age don't have clear mission statement and old age don't finally become those role models which kids needs to learn from and follow in every household. Let's take away one thing for every age from glorious life of MAJ. 

For kids his legacy is to gain knowledge of the world through education.

For young his legacy is to be the best in respective domains and rise above self. 

For middle age his legacy is to make difference in others' lives through ideology (of Islam). 

For old age his legacy is of being a leader of character and hope because every elder is a role model at least for his own family. 

May Allah keep his blessed soul in highest of places. Ameen

 

The Flip Side - Note 5

I wore uniform for the best part of my life. I swallowed saline water of Arabian Sea when dipped in for training purposes and ran like mad on its shore sands. I treaded mountains in North. I was your sentinel. Carried loads more than I could. Fought sleep, hunger & thirst. Built my spirit for a bigger cause. Walked with sores and blisters in my feet. I negotiated storms and blizzards. At eighteen thousand feet, I could barely breath but kept my spirit and spirit of my comrades alive. Walked under live fire through snow capped mountains, moving glaciers and devouring crevasse. In scorching heat of Choolistan and Thar, drenched in my own sweat, I walked with pride and honor. I dodged bullets of unknown and looked death in the eye. I knew, I was going through these rigors for a cause, for my homeland made in the name of Allah. My sacred duty is done. My days of strength are behind me. Have the guts to put the noose around my neck because I feel distraught that I gave my best years for people like you who kept so much spite for uniform. You hate uniform that is not a secret. Just because you didn't hate them as much and every terrorist, every marauder, every thug got away from your office and thence from the grip of law. I don't hate you. I didn't toil, sweat and bleed for you. I was doing my thing i.e. Soldiery. You wouldn't know a thing about soldiery. You don't even know your own trade. The disdain you have for soldiers reflects your limitations in grooming, education and knowledge. Your insecurities are not my problem. You are ungrateful. I don't expect anything from disloyal prophets of hate. You loath me, hence you don't qualify to call me a teaitor. So hang me. I would rather brace death with dignity. I'm Musharraf after death display my corpse for three days at D Chowk. I dare you little spiteful mouse with whig and pen. Hang me too.

Asad Jamal at 06:24

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The Flip Side -Note 4

 I hate Pervez Musharraf for what he did to stay in power. It was all lame but I am equally disgusted on death sentence handed over on high treason to him. He was anythig but a traitor. 

 Surely a judgment by Kangroo Courts and a moment to rejoice by affectees (Noon League and Indian Media). I would not call them bitches of riches as US paper dubbed them.

Nawaz Sharif kuddoos (Hussan & Hussain) were never dished punishment in absentia but PM was.

I'm struggling to explain to my kids that how could we manage to give death sentence to a decorated war veteran on death bed while convicts are being granted bails on health grounds for treatment who have been seen lunging like rabbits in downtown London. What a mess? 

Probably these judges were once 'advocates' and we saw their worth just last week.Keeping future of sitting COAS in limbo and Chief Justice mocking Pervez Musharraf by raising fists reflects his deep-rooted spite for army. Most of these advocates are rejected by every respectable institution and  profession before they end up selling notary seal for Rs 100 on Kachehry phatta (plank). Those rejected from ISSB then make it a lifelong mission to strike against army whenever and wherever they can. Towards the twilight of his tenure, it feels CJ's disdain for army just came to fore. Mala fide would be a perfect description for this kind of stunt.

It is so hard to keep compoure and choose right words for situations like this.

16 December - A day to mend our ways

16 December came and went again with usual rubbing of salt over two gross wounds of this nation. They say 'change or perish', we better change our ways or brace to perish because a nation created on lofty ideology must learn from its past or be an example for others to dread. 
Dismemberment was ugly and painful to this day. Ideology of Pakistan didn't perish but a part of it did. In the end, Bengalis chose to be Bengalis but it was never a happy marriage. No matter how much we blame India and no matter how much schizophrenic modi takes pride in 1971 debacle, let's admit it was our societal decay particularly self proclaimed high handedness of West over East born out of slave mindset, a dark legacy of gora sb. Secondly, political shortcomings which led to an embarrassing military defeat and dismemberment of the country. What kind of arguments would change that? Let's accept, we all failed. After Jinnah, we never had political leadership which could manage current crisis with an eye on future challenges.
Second rather fresh wound was APS Peshawar. Again we all failed. Terrorism was running riot in this country for over a decade and there was again dearth of leadership which could have envisaged such a calamity. At the turn of the century, it was Dictator Musharraf (under trial for high treason), Zardari (under investigation for corruption of billions) & Nawaz Sharif (convicted in corruption) which says a lot about the quality of leadership at the helm of affairs during build up years of terrorism in the country which led to heart wrenching cold-blooded genocide of our children. Again leadership failed, intelligence gathering failed, intelligence interception mechanism failed, QRFs failed, LEAs failed, interior ministry failed, entire political & military hierarchy failed. We all failed to protect those little angels. It was a calamity worse than what Bani Israel had to bear at the hands of Pharoah.
Little salt in old wounds on a day like this is a stark reminder for us to learn as a nation. But are we learning? Lately, like hoctchpotch of extremist nationalist hindu theocracy across borders, we are also becoming intolerant of everything. May it be ideas, individuals or groups, we are eager to settle the issue there and then whether its home, office or life in general. Politicians whether in power or in opposition ooze hatred for each other. Hitherto noble, revered and educated professionals like doctors & lawyers are at each others' throats.
Are we waiting for another disaster to hit and ravage us like above narrated two? This has to stop. First and foremost is Prime Minister who has to check his arrogant and disdainful language for opponents, then his team of bullies, then opposition, then media and then rest of us. In the end, when we fail, all of us fail then why not change our ways before another collective failure is added to our resume
Only Allah knows the whole Truth. 

On World Human Rights Day Today...

 On World Human Rights Day

Our cabinet discussed bail of a convict who needed to tend her convicted father on bail in London. Whereas, her absconder brothers and her sister who happens to be the daughter in law of another absconder in London are already there. Not only that, there are number of daughter in laws, son in law (an unmatched gem stone no where else to be found) and a brigade of grown up third generation brats but none of them matches the care little MissAdventurous could provide. Secondly, she is being exiled to London because she being architect of Dawn Leaks is deemed responsible for current situation of her father and family. And reason for this considerate view by our competent & compassionate cabinet is that all of them are just billionaires, if they were trillionaires they would have been dealt with severely. Literally, poor sharif people of pureland. 

We can proudly tell the world that as far as Human Rights are concerned, banner holders of State of Medina have today surpassed every other state in the world.

Thank God we lived to see this day.

May be just a little mention of over four months curfew & sevety two years of Indian subjugation of Kashmir, 57 thousand other patients in jails, women and their kids born in jails, 10 thousands Pakistanis locked up in jails abroad, women degradation in Thana and Kachehri for lack of money, pending cases in courts other than Mariyam Nawaz who forwarded bail application on Saturday & on Monday, court asked Govt to consider it and today on Tuesday cabinet  did what it could do best, clean water in Thar, Cholistan, Balochistan etc, jobs, health, education, susti roti (if at all someone thinks these are human rights), underage orphanage girls in Lahore being coerced for sex by influential, Model Town, Sahiwal victims, and so on might have made it look like an overarching view on human rights but fierce discussion on release of Mariyam Nawaz was still enough to reflect our seriousness towards human rights.

Sometimes the facts of this fiction called Govt in Pakistan are beyond my ken and no wonder if these are beyond comprehensible limits of any sane mind.

Distraught would be an understatement because all above sarcasm doesn't really change anything nor does it alleviate pain that comes with it.

Before you ask what next? I can only tell you to keep the faith, mayoosi gunah hai.

Only Allah knows the whole Truth.