So,’ Raymond Davis’ – or, whatever his name was – flew to safety on 16 March 2010! [for the full background, see the last blog post, The Fall of the American Empire]
This CIA spy – claimed by the twin liars, Obama and Clinton, to be a USA diplomat in Pakistan - had broken several Pakistani laws: carrying firearms illegally, engaging in activities harmful to Pakistan and killing two Pakistanis. On 16 March he was indicted in court just for the crime of murder. Events then proceeded with the speed of lightning.
The lawyer who had previously represented the families of the murdered men was nowhere to be seen. A new face spoke on behalf of the families and he claimed that, under Pakistani law, the families had accepted “blood money” from Davis. Documents showing how much was paid to each relative, duly signed by the relative concerned, were presented in court. All relatives showed up in court and acknowledged that the monies were safely in their bank accounts. In total, the amount paid out came to some $2.3 million, a huge amount by Pakistani standards. Davis was not charged for any other offences and was declared a free man, having paid the blood-money and served his sentence of “imprisonment” lasting all of 48 days. He was driven to an airport, where the Americans had conveniently flown in an aircraft the day before, and was flown to the USA base in Bagram, Afghanistan.
The Brown Sahibs of Pakistan
Thus ended the saga of “Raymond Davis”, which had gripped the Pakistani nation for the previous one-and-a-half months! This shameful ending shows what is truly wrong with Pakistan: its corrupt and spineless “westernised” Establishment - comprising the federal government, the provincial government, the army, the judiciary and the bureaucracy – is so used to aping the Americans in all sorts of ways that it has lost the moral courage to stand up for justice and for the honour of Pakistan. For the Brown Sahibs and Memsahibs of Pakistan this state of unending servitude to the Americans co-exists with the perpetuation of the colonial system left behind by the departing British in 1947.
The Brown Sahibs speak English Pakistani-style, secure in the knowledge that the "Berlin Wall" of English they have erected around themselves cannot easily be breached. Standing high up on that wall, they look down on the “natives”, who speak the national language Urdu or one of the regional languages. Notwithstanding Urdu’s status as the national language, the official language remains English, which is at best poorly understood by some 97% of the population of Pakistan.
The suffocating hold of English on national life is a primary reason for the widespread illiteracy of our nation. We simply do not have the resources to teach the whole population a foreign language which the corrupt and grasping Brown Sahibs use as a status symbol and as a tool to keep the natives subdued. The consequences have been terrible: the illiterate or badly educated Pakistanis have taken a liberating religion like Islam and turned it into a monstrosity which is unrecognisable from the Qur’an that I read. The Brown Sahibs, on the other hand, are too busy aping the ways of their American masters to have the time to read and understand the Qur’an. Since they get their education through English-speaking foreigners, they are mostly ignorant of Islamic history and they do not know, for example, that the greatest centres of learning in medieval times, and the most tolerant societies on earth, were to be found in the Islamic world.
Thus it is that we, as a nation, are unable to have a sense of pride in our history (the Sindh civilisation stretches back thousands of years, though our Muslim identity was acquired much later), our Deen, our languages and our culture. We have sacrificed too much at the altar of gaudy westernisation. If only we could learn from the West instead of copying its worst aspects thoughtlessly!
I have written at length about Pakistan’s language problem, which you can read here. You might also be interested to read Mushfiq Ahmad's article published in The News recently: The bill to 'kill' Urdu
Closing the stable door after the horse has bolted
Following the shameful capitulation of Pakistan’s Establishment to the Americans, the usual chest beating and protests and demonstrations have begun. If nothing else, these actions will allow the dispossessed Pakistanis to vent their anger at the Brown Sahibs’ betrayal, who had focused on the personal aspect of this case and ignored the issues of national importance. The British newspapers, and several Pakistani newspapers, have revealed the sort of activities that Davis was engaged in.
Right now a petition has been presented in a Pakistani court which says that the judgment relating to Davis must be considered null and void because it was based on partial justice at best, and did not take into account the issues of vital importance to the Pakistani nation, for example, Davis’s espionage activities and his links with established terrorist organisations. Ironically, the largest terrorist organisation, the CIA, is never referred to as one!
There is also a debate going on about the dirty tricks used by Pakistan’s Brown Sahibs to get the relatives of murdered men to co-operate and accept the blood-money. In a comment on my last blog post I had given a link to a report about the forcible poisoning of a relative of Fahim, one of the men murdered by Davis, to serve as a warning to all the other relatives to toe the line and not to press charges against Davis – which you can read here. Subsequently, relentless pressure was applied and astronomical sums of money were offered to win the relatives’ co-operation. The icing on the cake was the offer of USA visas! All the relatives have disappeared from view and may have been flown out to their new abodes in Obamaland. The judge who had hurriedly allowed Davis to go free has disappeared, too, perhaps fearing a violent backlash from the public. Wonder if he, too, has a one-way ticket to Obamaland?
The desperate lengths to which the Americans have gone simply highlights the immense importance that the Americans attach to the knowledge possessed by Davis, who appears to have been one of their key men in Pakistan. In these circumstances, the Brown Sahibs’ collusion in Davis’s escape amounts to treachery - but it will go unpunished because they are the ones who control Pakistan. I am reminded of the dying words of Fahim's young widow Shumaila, who committed suicide. As she lay dying, she said wistfully that she wanted a life for a life and wished to see Davis hanged. But she also knew that in today's Pakistan it was impossible to have a fair trial against an American, who would be protected by the Pakistani rulers. Subsequent events have proved her right.
Lastly, there is a good deal of uncertainty about the treatment meted out to the relatives of the young man who had been crushed to death when a vehicle from the USA’s Lahore consulate drove the wrong way up a one-way street in a failed attempt to rescue Davis after he had committed the murders. I expect details will emerge in the coming days.
Tailpiece
The following day the Americans celebrated winning their man's freedom by launching a drone attack on a meeting of tribal elders in North Waziristan. Over 40 innocent Pakistanis died in the tragedy. The Brown Sahibs have issued the usual condemnations. However, as we know from WikiLeaks revelations, what goes on behind the scenes is something else altogether. Is the latest condemnation simply a ruse to deceive the Pakistanis into giving up their protests and demonstrations? The weasel words these people utter never go as far as saying the Pakistan Air Force will be ordered to shoot down the drone if the Americans attack again.
20 March 2011 : I am glad that Pakistan's press, especially the Urdu press, is echoing similar views to those I have expressed in relation to the role played by Pakistan's elite in the Raymond Davis drama. Those who feel at home with Urdu will particularly like reading the following articles:
غیرت کی ڈولی "Ghairat ki doli" by Ali Mas'ood Sayed:
http://www.jang.com.pk/jang/mar2011-daily/20-03-2011/col10.htm
آج دل بہت اداس ہے "Aaj dil bohat udaas hai" by Hina Khwaja Bayat:
http://www.jang.com.pk/jang/mar2011-daily/20-03-2011/col9.htm
الله اس ملک کی حفاظت کرے "Allah Ta'aala is mulk ki hifaazat karay" by Javed Chaudhry: http://express.com.pk/epaper/PoPupwindow.aspx?newsID=1101196304&Issue=NP_LHE&Date=20110320
Some sections of the English press, on the other hand, are making fun of such deeply held convictions by the Pakistani nation. The small minority of Brown Sahibs and Memsahibs laughingly refer to the rest of the nation as "ghairat brigade"! Are these dishonourable people totally bereft of any notions of honour as Pakistanis?
20 March 2011 : I am glad that Pakistan's press, especially the Urdu press, is echoing similar views to those I have expressed in relation to the role played by Pakistan's elite in the Raymond Davis drama. Those who feel at home with Urdu will particularly like reading the following articles:
غیرت کی ڈولی "Ghairat ki doli" by Ali Mas'ood Sayed:
http://www.jang.com.pk/jang/mar2011-daily/20-03-2011/col10.htm
آج دل بہت اداس ہے "Aaj dil bohat udaas hai" by Hina Khwaja Bayat:
http://www.jang.com.pk/jang/mar2011-daily/20-03-2011/col9.htm
الله اس ملک کی حفاظت کرے "Allah Ta'aala is mulk ki hifaazat karay" by Javed Chaudhry: http://express.com.pk/epaper/PoPupwindow.aspx?newsID=1101196304&Issue=NP_LHE&Date=20110320
Some sections of the English press, on the other hand, are making fun of such deeply held convictions by the Pakistani nation. The small minority of Brown Sahibs and Memsahibs laughingly refer to the rest of the nation as "ghairat brigade"! Are these dishonourable people totally bereft of any notions of honour as Pakistanis?
5 comments:
Thanks for the links at the end of the Tailpiece. Here is a link to an English article which makes similar points: http://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Opinions/Columns/20-Mar-2011/Sleeping-with-the-enemy/
Pakistan press's "Trojan horse", The Express Tribune, has come up with a couple of editorials heavily biased in favour of the USA, and it is providing a platform for crazed Pakistanis to shout taunts at an imaginary "ghairat brigade"!
Some people in the Punjab government were probably involved in the conspiracy to let Davis escape. However, in his Jang column today Dr Safdar Mahmood says that the Chief Minister, Shahbaz Sharif, was very likely not part of that conspiracy. Here is the link:
http://www.jang.com.pk/jang/mar2011-daily/21-03-2011/col3.htm
Lost-in-Cyberspace said:
"Pakistan press's "Trojan horse", The Express Tribune, has come up with a couple of editorials heavily biased in favour of the USA, and it is providing a platform for crazed Pakistanis to shout taunts at an imaginary "ghairat brigade"!"
Heaven forbid one media outlet, in a country drowning in media outlets, has the temerity to voice a viewpoint that does not conform to the ‘ghairat brigade’. Yes, the ghairat brigade exists, as much as liberal extremists (or liberal fascists) exist.
Anonymous,
Your "ghairat brigade" seems to span the whole country! Mercifully, the "bay-ghairat brigade" is, in my opinion, relatively small and it swears allegiance to the ultimate rulers of Pakistan, the Americans. There is a heavy concentration of bay-ghairat people at The Express Tribune - I wrote about it at some length in the preceding blog.
These people's bay-ghairati hit new highs when the Americans murdered 44 people in North Waziristan on the day that Davis went free. I was reminded of Iqbal's satirical couplet:
میرا یہ حال، بوٹ کی ٹو چاٹتا ہوں میں
ان کا یہ حکم، دیکھ مرے فرش پر نہ رینگ
Dr Safdar Mahmood's account of Shahbaz Sharif's innocence has received support from Javed Chaudhry today:
http://express.com.pk/epaper/PoPupwindow.aspx?newsID=1101198102&Issue=NP_LHE&Date=20110322
Does this mean the real "boot lickers" (re. Iqbal's sha'r above) are the Central Govt, the ISI and the judiciary?
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