State of the Nation - II & Final

The whole conundrum of democracy in Pakistan brings a few good thoughts to mind. Foremost, I’ve started to believe that democracy is better in countries where rulers continually fail to deliver, because if things are run democratically, at least an election is held every five years and the nation has some hope of things getting better under the next government. This hope for the common man is good to live his life and work in hardship that the next government brings.

Many Pakistanis do not bite all this and they’ve resigned to the fact that politics is a taboo and for any country like Pakistan, there is no solution to our problems or they believe that the solution only lies in the implementation of Shariah and unless that happens, there is no solution and the story or cycle goes on and on - in the end, any solution comes with time, not anger. With a lot of sacrifice.

The state of affairs of our country are bad and so bad that after Benazir Bhutto’s assassination (may her soul rest in peace) I feel no use looking ahead for a better Pakistan, the shock of the tragedy is such, be it anyone who died that day, this doesn’t look like a civilized state any more, nor does anyone have the courage to stand up to the challenge and rid us of our problems.

Even if by someone’s yardstick there lies a solution, I’m sure there isn’t a plan in place to achieve anything, just patchwork. We have returned to the era of ignorance and all parties involved are bad Muslims, in-sincere to the nation of Islam and cowards. The reason we’re facing this anger and hatred is because the people see no hope, no hope of any change and they are tolerating a lot of mockery.

I don’t seek any justification if I am right or wrong, but I call everyone to search their souls and ask a tough question, ‘What would have our Prophet Muhammad Peace and Blessings be Upon Him, have had done?’ The answer is simple and realistic, it’s in his teachings where we can find it, and I think this is a time when it’s best to reflect on our religious beliefs and practices.

In this spirit, I regret to say that I’ve chosen not to write anymore about the state of Pakistan and instead I’ll put my time to better things,… unless people keep aside their bias, give respect to their friends, family and enemies, it’s worthless to think about what better could happen. This nation is playing a mockery at itself.

I end with some wisdom from Allama Iqbal and some good hope…

State of the Nation

Enjoying life in Dubai, sipping my evening coffee and almost tired of working on this particular database that has been on my head for the past week, I’m not sure why these words came to my mind, ‘State of the Nation’. What’s worth writing about the state of Pakistan, and whatever is left of this state (the state not the country) is something to enjoy and not groan about. We’re dealing with a state that’s entirely stateless.

My friends, family and people I know all of them hate politics, they just hate it. On the mere mention of the possibility of finding a solution, they push the prerogative through and run towards another goal post. What prerogative? That’s not a prerogative, it’s a quick shying away from something that most learned Pakistanis consider a social taboo, ‘politics’ and the mere answer to any proposition is either a discussion of what’s already been revealed on the news or the utter statement of disbelief, our prerogative, ‘I hate politics’.

Give me five minutes and I’ll give you five solutions. Give me a choice to exercise those solutions and I’ll shy away. I don’t have the time, I’ve got to run this house, I’ve got work, and the list goes on… I am nothing but a vending machine of solutions, the typical Pakistani household analyst that clanks out solution after solution on subject after subject not even realizing that the least a vending machine waits for is a coin to drop down its throat. There are no coins here, but we’re throwing out solutions, talking left right and center about what may be a great solution to our problems, and no more.

Everyone is a national leader and given that we read our history with blank minds, we think we equate to the great heroes of our independence, the likes of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, Illama Iqbal, Quaid-e-Azam, a few household names that every Pakistan ought to know - I hope. We’re taught about their great works, their achievement and their aptitude,… and often we’re asked to work our ways down their path, idealize them and try to reproduce what they achieved, though seldom do we try to see the truth behind their accomplishments and never do we try to go down that path, the path of education (in the simplest of words) or Ilm, as we know it better in Urdu.

“Pakistan’s solution lies…” and here we go again, another proposition, another solution,… “But, I might be saying the right thing…” correct, but who shall confront the many impossibilities to set things straight and implement my solution? “Really, I would, if I had the time,… can I continue sharing it?”… possibly, but then again, why bother my readers and burden their brains. I’m trying to entertain my audience, not eat their brains, am I?

“Our solution lies,…” and the solutions go on… to no end. What journey have we embarked on?

Pakistan: Does a King put down his Crown?

Another October approaches… (one being October 1999 when he was crowned…)

Nothing much has changed in the equation of the balance of power back in Pakistan. I must say, it has been seesawing quite a bit but with someone as innovative in design as our General President, he’s managed to carve a way to stay on top (for some more time) come what may. I do see that one thing commandos are taught is not to let go even in the worst conditions. I think he’s still a commando inside, old though.

The problem I have is with Benazir Bhutto coming back and the ‘deal’. Not sure what this deal means, I think whoever comes back will be in a position to siphon billions of dollars worth of monies out and drain Pakistan to another close death. Didn’t it happen early on? Were we doing any better when Benazir Bhutto was in office? I think we saw a very grim era when she was in power and the way Karachi was handled I think people just forget - it was a miserable and deathly situation. I recall that time and question, ‘We’re running on random access memory that reboots everyday or what?’

Pakistani politics is full of people who in any other civilized country would be behind bars and serving their sentences for their mischiefs. Not so in this country that was created in the name of Islam and in many ways we aren’t a nation of good Muslims. We are an angry lot who have no interest in putting things right and making a difference. The ones who do have some passion are stumped on where to begin and what to do.

I think the political end of General Pervaiz Musharraf is close to an end. We knew him as a tough General, someone who was brought to light by an act of stupidity on part of now twice deported well mandated Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who only God knows, thinks what, when he makes his move. I haven’t seen anyone so deprived of common sense and bright ideas.

He’s another story altogether and given that his ideas were to be Ameer-ul-Momineen of Pakistan, he’s in the right place right now - the number of Momineen visiting Saudi Arabia are tremendous - day in and day out. Why doesn’t Nawaz Sharif live a life of solitude, solace and thankfulness? He’s got an opportunity right at his doorstep. He could lead the Momineen of Pakistan if he becomes the best Momin of all - let’s give him that challenge.

President General Musharraf of today looks weak - I don’t like weak and neither do people who once supported him. He could have delivered a lot more than Benazir Bhutto - what hell goes on when you lose control? Do you go back on your entire strategy and do something that’s bottomless and close to political murder? Without being army chief, the General is no one. They would devour him, be he President of Pakistan or the head of PML-Q. Q standing for ‘Quaid’ - what a gimmick.

Pakistan will have a tough day when General Musharraf retires from the armed forces and stands down (a new army chief could mean change in our War on Terror (WOT) strategy and weak knees back in United States. He could be happy being President of Pakistan, but the reins of the game would lie elsewhere. We’ve seen so many a President being sent off, as and when required, one after the other. In politics and that of Pakistan, there are no guarantees!

(Unless, he’s playing a fool proof game and the next successor is going to play watch over the elected parliament and guard the predecessor and his interests.)

May be common sense would be to resign as President, announce elections under an interim government and boldly retire from the Army. I don’t see why this looks so bad? If the idea is to benefit Pakistan, let people choose freely, for at least once! Can’t the General make sure this is done cleanly? He can and he must.

I am happy to see the judges judging and some quality rulings, however, judgments need enforcement and when that doesn’t happen, there is no rule of law. With time, it all comes back to how it was - fear, anarchy, death, and disloyalty, change minds and sound judgment waits for a time when it could come forth, a time when people feel they wouldn’t be harmed. This is that time. People can speak and they can talk openly.

More than 60 years and we’re still struggling to grasp the idea of how to run a country. If everything we’ve tried has failed, I’d say, scrap this system and build a new one. Gulp, there I go again,… a good thought, but who’d bell the cat? Hush, hush.

Great leaders lead. I think our national agenda for the next 25 years should be education. Nothing else would set things right. It is possible, but someone must take initiative. Imran Khan said something I didn’t believe him saying, that only a Government could go into massive schooling, however, if he would think of it as a franchise, he could have achieved it.

Build profitable schools (with a new enriched curricula) in urban areas, and you’ll be able to fund everything you want done country-wide (offer the same education and quality to all citizens). Pakistan is a rich nation when it comes down to paying top dollar for our luxuries, education being one.
Nothing is impossible in life. You need passion.

An ex-Prime Minister and a General President - The Future of Pakistan

This is almost a given, now that all the hype and clutter has been swept aside and it dawns slowly upon us that the next five years might be those of ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and General President Pervez Musharraf, minus Asif Ali Zardari (no AAZ looks a very clear case, he’s been sent packing for now). For many of us, the reality of the tide turning towards Benazir Bhutto is a suggestion you’d laugh at an year ago, it was very much impossible, given the strict way our PM, i.e. Pervez Musharraf had abhorred the idea of the return of the two ex-es. Still, today, it might be a life saver for him.

Pakistani politics is tough to understand and give it a mix of all that happens on the International scene, most of what we see and experience as citizens are well crafted non-issues that keep us busy, sweating in the heat of all things so dear to our lives, the simple needs of home and office, or say butter and bread.

It’s not even a ping-pong game, is it? Why bother really? I don’t want everyone to get bored and start pelting stones at me, or for that very matter at your invaluable screens! We really don’t want to see any change, and if President Musharraf’s job is to play watch over the new ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, in another five year stint, I would rather caution him of the consequences of dealing with a veteran politician and the top woman of Pakistani Power Politics.

In any contest, President Musharraf is a no-match for the charisma and political prowess of Benazir Bhutto, who for one, is highly crafty in what she does, when she does it and how well she does it. Look how she talks about being the representative of the people of Pakistan! Does anyone else hold that confidence? Can Nawaz Shareef, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Imran Khan or for that matter President Musharraf claim this so boldly and then almost wait calmly for the tides to turn in their favor? BB has done that and waited the long wait.

It’s her time to emerge and probably if our PM is ready for BB to take office, there are some losses our PM has faced. Pervez Musharraf I mean! Think you need genius to beat about the bush, and beat about the bush, so very articulately? You really do, and so does Benazir Bhutto, she plays her cards very well. No other Pakistani leader at the present time mesmerizes their audience, as does Benazir Bhutto - her recent interview with Dr. Shahid Masood on Geo TV was one good example of her political strength and defiance of the first order, if you were to challenge her with a few ideas.

On the other hand, if there’s any great spokesman of Pakistan, it’s General President Pervez Musharraf and I’ve not seen anyone else talk to the International community with such vigor and specificity of detail. He’s excellent when it comes to handling undue pressure and silly suggestions from outsiders who really don’t know anything about Pakistan or what mess has already been created by our badly planned political and military expeditions in the past. Our PM is strong to defy any suggestions that Pakistan is a failed state and he does reason well with them!

Will this all work? I’m not sure at all. When it comes to Pakistani politics, the General President will have a tough time dealing with someone like ex-Prime Minister, who for sure, once back in the country will proclaim all victory on restoration of democracy and probably do some good in dealing with the internal political menaces, plus take root into what’s left of the political structure of the country, probably aiding further rise in corruption and the loss of national wealth, in the long run.

Is she going to do anything for the people? I leave you with this question, and a tiny wink!

How can we stop the crime in Pakistan?

I won’t take credit for this question, it comes directly from one of my site visitors who must have typed this into some search engine (this site is growing real fast) and I saw the question in my search queries list and thought about it for a moment.

In or around 1998/97 when I went with Rs. 6,500 to one of the spare part car markets in Karachi, I never knew I’d be robbed in broad day light - consider this - not by some newbie robber at gun point, but by some of the slickest car market conmen, shop owners and others, who were simply doing their daily routine on how to rob anyone who could be fooled, if they were foolish enough. Hmm… I was an idiot to have gone alone.

I had spare cash and had to get my car repaired. I asked one of my cousins where I could head for some better pricing and he suggested going to the car market. All saddled up, I made the move.

Having reached one of the busiest areas in Karachi, I parked my car and within minutes I was circled by almost ten different kinds of people - one wanted to repair the scratches on my car’s doors, the other wanted to fix another thing and yet, some just stood by wanting to see if they could offer some advice. I was young and inexperienced at all this, so I solemnly took everyone for being an angel and agreed to do what they said.

One guy who really robbed me, offered to repair a dent on the side door for Rs. 1,000 and mentioned that he didn’t have enough cash to buy the material needed to start his work. Not knowing what I was heading into, I agreed to giving him Rs. 500/- after which I was in bigger trouble; they all had spotted their prey for the day! He took off, the others almost hawked me from all corners. It was a miserable situation.
That man never returned and where could I find him in that area? He could be anywhere and I thought it was best to wrap up things and head home, so disheartened and sad. I lost considerable money that day and being the young kid I was at the time, felt there was very less we could do about the state of affairs. Like this man, others promised work, some did it honestly, at least I got my wing mirror repaired - that being the main reason why I headed to the car market.

How can we stop the crime in Pakistan? This is a very amusing question and one you can laugh at, if you really want to imagine how things are at the moment.

If you ask me, the solution lies with the people of Pakistan. The good ones of course. The thought to propose a solution to this really defeats me - it’s just not possible without a mass movement for justice and better policing.

Anyone watched our police shatter Pakistan’s image worldwide when they attacked Geo Television Network? So much so for stopping crime, there are endless stories of injustice in this country.

The Arab Summit, Pakistani Team’s Arrival in Pakistan and Srilanka Strikes Back

This is going to be brief, but definitely there have been some strong words coming out of the Arab Summit that puts some hope in the minds of many - President Pervez Musharraf and King Abdullah are two world leaders who have said everything right, but hope does lie in getting our act together as a Muslim nation and bridging gaps amongst all Muslim nations. It’s a tough job, but if there’s talk of our ills, it’s a good sign. The leaders seem disturbed.

I don’t think the Pakistani cricket team should be insulted in any way. Listen to the Pakistani folks talk on television (the bystanders out side our airports) or hear the slogans they’re chanting, it all gives a glimpse into the nonsensical mindset our nation is in, at the moment - there’s less respect for accomplished individuals and so much sorrow, failure and desire for a so called, well imagined, and yearned Cricket World Cup victory. I’m happy we lost, because we made mistakes. Let’s get some sense into ourselves. It’s just a cricket game, and if you can do better, go out there and make a difference.

The Srilankan cricket team is playing great cricket. Glimpses of Waqar Younis and Waseem Akram wrecking all tail enders, in gripping game finales was somewhat evident it todays match when Malinga bowled. Would it have been another centimeter or so, Srilanka had won the game. I think the Srilankans shook South Africa - they seemed very tense in the dressing room. They have a chance of going all the way, but they need to get more runs on the board. Some foolish and unwanted shots were played by the Srilankans, it’s always better to play on ground, than try and aim for the skies.

Systems, dreams, writing and a bit of Pakistan

In the bitter arrangement of things, talking about the system or the Pakistani system is like talking about a set of dreams spread around our minds in vague format bearing no relevance to reality or the objectivity of reality. Do I make sense?

That’s the truth about writing. We write with our mind spurring with ideas, trying to plot a better picture of reality or a better would be picture of reality. Even if you’re not a writer, the mind works this way, portraying what we ought to be doing rather than what we are doing to amend our doings and likewise bringing to us endless thoughts about how things could be better if things were better.

My reason to talk about this system or the system to come (on day) lies in my eagerness to try to slice up this monster (’system’ the noun) and get to the point where each element of the system - the living people in our country - try to bring about a change in the system’s most vital unit - the human self.

The human self is me, you or any other person round the block, its us! We as tiny units constitute the system and we are vital elements. If I were to use an example, that would be of a bee hive or an ant nest. One of Earth’s most amazing wonders, these little creatures are system bound. The most astonishing thing of course is how they are programmed by God and hence make the most of their work-laden day. They seem to know what they’re doing, acting on command from their God and their natural brotherly superiors.

The human may be more complicated and above all full of hollow pride of being at the top of the animal kingdom but there is absence when it comes to following a way of life or implementing a well known way of life to abide safely and freely in our land or lands abroad. Bees and ants were programmed by God to work day in and day out on a defined pattern of well-being but doesn’t the human realize that we are devoid of this benefit? Almost all others in the animal kingdom enjoy instructions built into them of how to run or maintain their system of life.

What is our system of life? Birth, death and a few years in between. Less time to sort out many confusions of this world on a global scale, yet enough time to spend on the tiniest unit, the human ’self’ to train it according to the truth of submission to the Will of God. Enough time to produce winners in every field of life and build on the system of God Almighty!

The system of God? Who mentioned that or what is that? Where does it spring from? Whose idea? What system?

Well, not that I’m going to go at lengths to talk about God’s system, I’ll leave it for you to guess, come-up with, or discover, but I’d like to draw a line between the bees, ants and humans - the latter who lack a ’system of life’ hard-wired into their minds and for whom the system of life is a discovery and not a set of instructions available hard-coded or laid down to follow in a strict manner of instruction.

A bee knows how to navigate to and from flowers, instruct its fellow worker bees on the location and distance of new found flora and direct them to collect nectar. An ant knows how to tackle a small piece of biscuit twice its size and battle it to its nest for storage - how wise. A human on the contrary, quite in capable to live its own life if not brought-up under proper guidance, given good quality education of some ’standard’ and if not placed well in our society to make the most of its little opportunities, in other words, helpless and weak.

Humans are amazing! Their source of knowledge is their environment, much of it stemming from the beliefs and norms of their society or other societies closer to them, through new media. A human is like a sponge that absorbs practices and norms from its surroundings and with time becomes a practitioner of those norms and a hard defender of the same, if challenged.

This is our system of life. A reflection of our understanding and learning from our circle of life or as far as our five senses reach,… a little imagination added. The same system of life produces the good and the bad and we all know our system of life is imperfect,… but what is perfection?

Perfection is auditing the norms of the system using God’s revealed system of life. The ‘what you need to do’, ‘when the need arises’ to ‘check the current system of life’ and ‘balance it with what’s most perfect for the human to live by’ and ’succeed in our life on Earth and life after Death.’

The system of systems, a metsys of nonsense!

In reality what’s going on in the Pakistan for the past few years (or the past few decades) has nothing to do with respect to improving the livelihood of the ‘Pakistani’ community - local or abroad - be it education, security, judiciary, amenities, entertainment or religion - the people of this country were never given the chance to progress and never to realize their ‘own’ dream - let alone the dream of the nation or the dream of the nation’s first leaders.

Having been in the field of information technology for the past fifteen years, I wish I was in command of this virus ridden machine - how I would easily get a bunch of repair tools, wipe/format a hard drive or so, clean boot the system and re-install the operating system - at least after that I’d be sure the system would run fine for a few good months to come, sometimes an year or so (operating systems tend to decay on performance with time).

Talk of Pakistan and this analogy would never fit! No repair tools or mechanism of recovery, an unknown operating system, heavy down to the bone system corruption, promises of writing new code (software) for a system to be, promises of new hardware and peripherals, promises of a better operating system… and only (hollow) promises.

Sometimes the best solution is to eliminate the problem. Who is the problem? The people, the rulers, the society, the culture, the faith, the effort, the food, the weather… something? Or nothing?? Or a thing or two? Or three?? Einstein once said, “It’s not that I’m so smart , it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”

I believe good leadership is the result of a good social system where practice is based on long rooted, tested and established morals, not ‘this is what I think should be done’ mentality - you may be an expert in one thing, not everything - in marketing we say, try being everything to everyone and you are bound to fail.

Our leadership may know our problems, after all someone said they were elected democratically, or let’s assume they were aware of our problems, they just knew - some nice guy one day told them, or by revelation in a dream - but do they themselves face the same issues? Bad security, corruption, lack of proper amenities (ahem, ahem) or lack of quality education and the list goes on,… and on… yet their grievances, be they political or not, are comparable to a young child angry at another snatching a candy bar or yet another crying for milk or their share of milk, hmm,… power?

Back again to where we were the endless list of problems, the only possible solution (ooppss, did we talk about this at all?) and the huge gap between these two. The solution being, “Elect me and I’ll work for your betterment, or at least I’ll promise you this for now and then see how things go from there…” Of course a wayward gap, the problems increasing whilst the solution being the same, again and again, puppet after puppet. Gone are generations wishing for simple livelihood or at least a modern, secure and well deserved livelihood in this country, yet the solution has never worked, the solution being a product of the so called system. What system?

The best way to understand the system, to fix the system, to get rid of the system or to change the system is to first stop using the word ’system’ itself. There is no system, it was never developed and it could never be called what we do call it. The system is not there, it doesn’t exist - what we have is ‘metsys’! METSYS is what we don’t know, but we do live it, we live by it and we continuously think of reversing it, putting it right and exchanging it for something we believe is better and that’s the SYSTEM. If we keep calling our problems a by-product of the system, we give a lot of chance to something that was never built to function in harmony, let alone function at all. There is no SYSTEM, there may not be any for a long time to come. Let the people of Pakistan STOP dreaming about the SYSTEM!

Where to start? Start at home with yourself. I am part of a rain cloud that has to go a long way to drizzle down upon earth and make sure my life reaps benefit - if i’m pure, I’ll reach unseen lands and shower them with blessings, and I’ll do it right - yet if I am not a drop of that beautiful rain laden cloud, or that I am, yet I cling too hard to it, I bear no chance to shower my beauty to this world. I don’t make any difference.

There was once a man sent to all humanity as guidance, as a mercy and as light to generations to come. Our problems rest with us but our solution was revealed to this great personality - the last to come Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). It is wise to tread on land that is fertile and that gives us sustainenace, while it is dangerous to tread bare footed and alone in the desert. The wise take heed, the rest bear the system.

President General Pervez Musharraf apologizes Live on Capital Talk

Afterall, we’ve been a bit critical of him today and when we try to match what he said, of taking action tonight against the perpetrators (apologized live on Geo TV almost an hour ago while talking to Hamid Mir) to what actually happened under his so very well consolidated command all these past few days, there seems to be a wide and chilling difference.

This was the worst that could happen infront of the public and whatever the so called people’s Government of Pakistan says today, tomorrow or hereafter will not go well with any Pakistani citizen of sound sense. When you see proceedings live on air, see your favourite reporters hassled and thrown out of studio, you are shocked to see the so called writ of a government that’s not in sync with most of its citizens.

Add to this total mayham that was caused due to a bomb alert (a hoax so far, since nothing’s been discovered yet) in Geo TV’s Karachi studio (that was evacuated entirely). Who does keep this hidden hand of mischief that at this moment in time aims to bring down the much powerful hand of open television programming that was so well given a right to operate by none other than the President himself (or is one of his major achievements)?

How further shame shall fall?