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Wednesday, September 11, 2013

گیارہ ستمبر

آج اخبارات، رسائل اور سائبر خانے، بشمول ٹوئیٹر کی دنیا، قائد اعظم کی وفات اور امریکہ کی بارہ سال قبل کی بددیانتی کے ذکر سے بھرے ہوۓ ہیں- بانئی پاکستان کے متعلق اتنا کچھ لکھا جا چکا ہے کہ میرے لئے کچھ کہنا چھوٹا منہ بڑی بات ہو گی- میرا ارادہ ہے مستقبل قریب میں قائد کی تقاریر سے اقتباسات پیش کرنے کا- فی الحال میں آپ کی توجہ گذشتہ بلاگ کی طرف مبذول کرنے پہ اکتفا کرتا ہوں، جس میں پاکستان اور محمّد علی جناح کے درمیان ایک روحانی تعلق کا ذکر ہے: Jinnah and Pakistan                                            


                             
اب رہی نیو یارک کے تین میناروں کی تباہی، تو ان کے متعلق امریکی حکومت کی غلط بیانی تو سمجھ میں آتی ہے لیکن پاکستانی جس طرح اس جھوٹ کو سچ سمجھ کر دوہرا رہے ہیں اس سے طبیعت سخت مکدر ہوئی- مغرب پرست پاکستانی تو سب کچھ جاننے کے باوجود امریکہ کی ہاں میں ہاں ملانا اپنا فرض سمجھتے ہیں، شائد ان کا اس میں مالی فائدہ بھی ہے- افسوس محب وطن پاکستانیوں کے بیانات پہ ہے جنہوں نے امریکہ کے باطل ڈھنڈورے کو سچ سمجھ لیا ہے- ایک صاحب مضمون ١١ ستمبر ٢٠٠١ کو نیو یارک میں موجود تھے- جواباً میں نے ان کے مضمون پہ ایک مختصر تبصرہ درج کر دیا: 


"آپ نے جو کچھ دیکھا آپ کی نگاہوں کا دھوکہ تھا- جہازوں کے میناروں سے ٹکرانے سے پہلے ہی ٹی وی کمپنیوں کو خبر ہو گئی تھی اور انہوں نے کیمرے ایستادہ کر لئے تھے تا کہ تباہی کے مناظر فلماۓ جا سکیں! یہ ایک سازش تھی، افسوس کی بات ہے کہ ہم پاکستانی امریکہ کے خوف سے منہ سی کر بیٹھے ہوۓ ہیں-" 

امریکہ کے فاشسٹوں کو جو عروج ٩/١١ کے بعد حاصل ہوا تھا وہ ہنوز برقرار ہے- اس سے کچھ فرق نہیں پڑتا حکومت ریپبلکن پارٹی کے ہاتھ میں ہے یا ڈیموکریٹ پارٹی کے پاس- اصل طاقت ان ارب پتیوں کے ہاتھ میں ہے جو امریکی معیشت پر چھاۓ ہوۓ ہیں اور دونوں پارٹیوں کو دل کھول کر چندہ دیتے ہیں- ریپبلکن جارج بش کے بعد ڈیموکریٹ اوباما صدارت کی گدی پر بیٹھا ہوا ہے لیکن اس کے کرتوت دیکھ کر بش مقابلتاً اچھا لگنے لگتا ہے- ٩/١١ کی شعبدہ بازی کے ساۓ میں اسلامی ملکوں کی تباہی اور تیل، گیس اور معدنیات کے ذخایر پہ قبضہ کرنے کی شدید خواہش نے امریکہ کی تمام اخلاقی اقدار کو تار تار کر دیا ہے- انسانی خون کی جو ندیاں "مہذب" امریکیوں نے بہائی ہیں انہوں نے خونخوار چنگیز خان کی یاد تازہ کر دی ہے-

حقیقتاً ایسے لوگ انسانیت کی سطح سے گر چکے ہیں جو اپنے ہی ملک پہ حملہ کر کے ہزاروں لوگوں کو محض اس لئےموت کے گھاٹ اتار دیں کہ انہیں غیر ممالک (افغانستان اور عراق) پہ حملے کا جواز مل جاۓ- پچھلے دنوں سیریا (شام) میں کیمیائی ہتھیاروں کے استعمال کو بشار الاسد کی حکومت سے منسوب کیا گیا تھا تا کہ امریکہ کے فاشسٹوں کو شام پہ حملے کا بہانہ مل سکے- اب خبریں آ رہی ہیں کہ کیمیائی ہتھیاروں کا حملہ اسد کے خلاف لڑنے والے باغیوں نے کیا تھا جن کو ہتھیار امریکہ کے ہمنوا سعودی عرب کی وساطت سے ملے تھے! افسوس کہ امریکہ کے فاشسٹوں کی شیطنیت میں  سعودی عرب کی بادشاہت بھی شامل ہے-  

رگوں میں وہ لہو باقی نہیں ہے    وہ دل، وہ آرزو باقی نہیں ہے 
نماز و روزہ و قربانی و حج   یہ سب باقی ہے تو باقی نہیں ہے 
[اقبال]

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

JINNAH & PAKISTAN : some amazing facts


INTRODUCTION.  Dr Safdar Mehmood is a retired Pakistani civil servant who writes a regular column in the Urdu newspaper ‘Jang’.  In his column published on 16 August 2013, Dr Safdar Mehmood presented some remarkable dates linking the creation of Pakistan to events in the life of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, leader of Pakistan Movement and the country’s first Governor General (he was bestowed the title Quaid-e-Azam, the Great Leader). Dr Safdar Mehmood says some people might treat these facts as no more than mere historical coincidence but for many others these contain a profound reality. Judge for yourself.


             Two photographs of young Jinnah





 1.     Pakistan was created when division of India took place at midnight between the 14th and 15th August, 1947 in the Islamic month of Ramadan. The night of 14th August was the 27th night of Ramadan, which is a key date in the Islamic calendar. It is the night when God’s abundant Mercy descends on earth for those who have fasted during the month and observed the specified moral restraints: Lailatul-Qadr, the Night of Grace and Power, when Muslims try to stay awake during the night in prayer and reflection.


2.     When a new day dawned, Pakistanis celebrated their first Independence Day on 15 August 1947, which happened to be the last Friday of the month of Ramadan, known as Jumatul-vida’.


3.     In 1948, and subsequently, the Day of Independence could have been celebrated either on 14th August or on 15th August. Across the border in India, the Hindu seers recommended to their government to declare 15th August as the Indian Independence Day, which they considered an auspicious day. Quaid-e-Azam, however, opted for 14th August as Pakistan’s Day of Independence, which gave rise to some astonishing coincidences relating to a number of dates.

Muhammad Ali & Ruttie Jinnah

4.     Quaid-e-Azam’s two loves were Pakistan and Ruttie Dinshaw, a young Parsi lady who converted to Islam and married Jinnah in 1918 when she was just 18. Exactly 28 years before the creation of Pakistan, the Jinnahs’ daughter, Dina, was born in the night falling between 14 August and 15th August, 1919. When the first day dawned for the infant Dina it, too, was a Friday.





5.     Quaid-e-Azam’s date of birth falls on 25 December. He died on 11 September 1948. His right hand man in the freedom struggle, and Pakistan’s first Prime Minister, Liaquat Ali Khan (LAQ), died on 16 October some years later.


6.     Each year Pakistan’s Independence Day, Quaid-e-Azam’s dates of birth and death, and the date of death of Liaquat Ali Khan consistently fall on the same day of the week. Dr Safdar Mehmood has produced a table to draw attention to this coincidence:

Year
Pakistan’s Independence Day, 14 Aug
Jinnah’s date of death, 11 September
Jinnah’s date of birth, 25 December
LAQ’s date of death, 16 October
2004
Saturday
Saturday
Saturday
Saturday
2005
Sunday
Sunday
Sunday
Sunday
2006
Monday
Monday
Monday
Monday
2007
Tuesday
Tuesday
Tuesday
Tuesday
2008
Thursday
Thursday
Thursday
Thursday
2009
Friday
Friday
Friday
Friday
2010
Saturday
Saturday
Saturday
Saturday
2011
Sunday
Sunday
Sunday
Sunday
2012
Tuesday
Tuesday
Tuesday
Tuesday
2013
Wednesday
Wednesday
Wednesday
Wednesday


Dr Safdar Mehmood says one might take the aforementioned facts as mere coincidence if one wished. However, he himself and countless other Pakistanis, see these as Nature’s way of indicating the latent potential of Pakistan and the greatness of Jinnah, who succeeded in winning a homeland for the Muslims of India against stiff resistance from the British and the Hindus of India. Those who only go by outward appearances tend to see the current combination of internal unrest and foreign interference in the affairs of Pakistan - conspiracies, intrigue, espionage and direct invasion by way of drone strikes or border incursions - as lethal to the very existence of Pakistan.  However, to those who see a deeper reality at work these troubles provide a necessary training ground for Pakistan to achieve its true potential as an Islamic state: a haven for suffering humanity, free of oppression and bigotry, where social justice and welfare prevail within an Islamic economic system which restrains greed and excess.

The link to Dr Safdar Mehmood's article is:  http://jang.com.pk/jang/aug2013-daily/16-08-2013/col3.htm 











Monday, February 4, 2013

Democracy Today - in Pakistan, the USA and the UK


PAKISTAN
The latest news from Pakistan is that Pakistan’s National Assembly and the four Provincial Assemblies will be dissolved on 10 February and a caretaker government will be installed for a brief period while the Election Commission of Pakistan will vet candidates contesting the forthcoming  elections (probably to be held in May). On the face of it this sounds very good news until you scratch the surface to see what lies underneath.

Fakhruddin G Ibrahim
The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), is an eighty four years old retired judge, who is respected for his honesty and integrity. Great. But will he have the energy to look into all the scandals and wheeling and dealing which, by all accounts, have been going on for years and will grow worse during the election campaign? It seems to me that an alert and energetic Chief Election Commissioner is an important  

requirement because the other four election commissioners do not enjoy quite as good a reputation as the CEC Mr Fakhruddin Ibrahim. Judging from his images on the internet, however, he does look in robust health.

Pakistan’s National Assembly and the Provincial Assemblies are bursting with dishonest people who are experts at manufacturing fake academic degrees, paying no tax and submitting no tax returns, engaging in criminal activities ranging from raiding the national treasury and washing it clean through money laundering, siphoning off funds from state enterprises, dealing in illegal drugs and, believe it or not, ripping off people performing the Haj to Makkah. If anyone stands in their way they will stop at nothing, including murder. Many of these law breakers – the term “legislators” ceased to apply to them long ago – hold dual nationality, mostly American or British. They owe their rise to power to the governments of the USA and the UK, which were instrumental in getting the discredited dictator Musharraf to sign a presidential decree, the so-called National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), which pardoned all the criminals and the murderers (Bhutto, Zardari, the Sharifs, and hundreds of others) and allowed them to keep their illegally acquired wealth. These people are nothing but traitors to Pakistan, their first allegiance is to the governments of the USA and the UK.

A popular and outspoken Pakistani journalist, Hassan Nisar, has been exposing the financial crimes of Pakistan’s rulers in his regular columns for the Urdu newspaper Dunya. He has quoted extensively from Raymond Baker’s book “Capitalism’s Achilles Heel : Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free-Market System” which gives, among other things, the details of the wealth amassed by Bhutto, Zardari and the Sharif family. The book can be read/downloaded here:


Imran Khan
The all-important question today is: will Pakistanis be able to have a free and fair election or will it again be manipulated by the governments of the USA and the UK? The criminals that were put in power in Pakistan as a result of foreign manipulation show neither shame nor remorse for their crimes. Currently they are distributing millions of rupees to buy off voters and supporters. The one consolation for Pakistanis is that the most popular politician today is Imran Khan, an honest and upright politician, who holds just the Pakistani nationality and whose loyalty to his country is beyond suspicion. For obvious reasons, these qualities do not endear him to the king makers sitting in remote Washington and London.

The foreign powers may try to manipulate elections by offering covert support to discredited political figures of the past. Among them could be Musharraf and, possibly, Tahirul Qadri, a sort of religious priest-cum-politician who acquired Canadian citizenship some years ago. Last month he suddenly descended on Pakistan and held a "long march" from Lahore to Islamabad, which shook the coalition of crooks that rules Pakistan. He has now announced holding a series of rallies all over Pakistan, starting from 15 February. On the face of it the things he says are quite sensible - what is not clear is where he is getting the funding to cover his very high costs. Are there sinister motives behind his sudden emergence close to the elections?

USA
Business and politics have become interwoven in the United States.  To run a political campaign the presidential candidate needs to be stupendously rich or he/she requires rich backers. The campaign itself is little more that a mud slinging contest in which the truth is the chief casualty. So far as the electorate is concerned the primary issue is economic – the people want to be well off and they don’t care what their government does to make their material lives tolerable.

Over the years the US administrations have progressively adopted foreign policies where the legitimate interests and aspirations of non-Americans are ignored. An American government has no qualms giving support to the most heinous dictators, and suppressing people's struggle for freedom and true democracy (in Pakistan’s case, when the USA’s support for a dictator became untenable the US administration managed to give the country a false democracy). This can be more clearly seen if we look at recent history.

Without going as far back as Vietnam, let’s use a reference point of 9/11. The most powerful weapon in the hands of US administration today is that of propaganda and veiled threats. It was these that persuaded people to accept that a fugitive living in backward Afghanistan could launch a sophisticated operation such as the four-pronged attack on mainland USA. No open trial of murderers behind that atrocity ever took place. The remains of the destroyed aircraft were quickly removed and they simply vanished. Many lies were repeated ad infinitum until the world came to accept those lies as truth. The sheer volume of propaganda hid from the world the offer of the government of Afghanistan to hand over Osama bin Laden to a neutral country for a fair trial.

The presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan is both immoral and illegal. The intense propaganda about 'Taliban' hides the fact that the Pashtun Afghanis are also fighting against foreign occupiers of their land. The USA has now as good as lost the war and is preparing for negotiation with the despised Taliban before it withdraws its troops next year.

Then there was Iraq and the Great Lie of WMD (weapons of mass destruction). Saddam Hussein, who was a dear friend while he was dropping napalm on his own people, had become a foe because he had grown too big for his boots and needed to be put in his place. Both in Afghanistan and Iraq the underlying reasons for the savage destruction of human lives was the greed and madness of power-crazed Americans in high places, and their collusion with corrupt politicians. The “democracy” we have today is incapable of producing honest and fearless leaders. The best it can do is serve up second and third rate politicians such as Obama and Bush in USA, and Cameron and Blair in the UK. These unprincipled politicians cling to power, living in constant fear of the electorate. 

The blood-thirsty western governments have not learnt from their experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq. In Pakistan the illegal attacks by USA’s pilot-less drones have killed thousands of innocent people and the western governments appear hell-bent on teaching Pakistan and Iran lessons for not being entirely submissive. Apparently, the civilian Pakistani government accepts instructions from Washington but the military is less submissive – see   Wkileaks revelations 

UK
As in the USA the democracy here has given us a string of greasy politicians. The signs are that the current Prime Minister, David Cameron, is just as adept at fraudulent political manoeuvrings as Tony Blair was. This is very well covered in an excellent article that appeared in The Guardian last week. Glenn Greenwald lays bare the loathsome support that the western governments extend to various evil regimes in the world. Here is the link to the article - there is little need for me to add anything further:



Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Killing human beings is a game of PlayStation and Xbox!

The maverick Prince Harry, third in line to the British throne, has been dispensing gems of wisdom on his return to Britain after a four-month spell of duty in Afghanistan. Here are some examples:

"I'm one of those people who loves playing PlayStation and Xbox so, with my thumbs, I like to think that I'm probably quite useful".

"Take a life to save a life that's what we revolve around, I suppose. If there's people trying to do bad stuff to our guys, then we'll take them out of the game, I suppose".

In Afghanistan Harry was referred to as Captain Wales, to protect him from harm from Afghans fighting against foreign occupation. To the valiant prince, working in Afghanistan was "as normal as it's going to get". As a game of PlayStation or Xbox, maybe? He might have thought differently if he had to meet an Afghan Pashtun fighter on the battlefield face-to-face. Bless his magical thumbs and fingers which sufficed to kill many Afghans. In one British newspaper, the main news item on the front page had this heading: I've killed Taliban fighters, says Harry.

Just before his departure for Afghanistan the maverick Prince was in the news for his naked antics in a  Las Vegas hotel. Ensconced in a £5,000 a night suite, he invited friends to his room for a game of "strip pool". Photographs of the naked prince with a girl similarly attired were circulated around the world, in newspapers and on the internet.

This dim witted member of the British Royal family has done immense harm to the image of the Royal family and to the security of British forces in Afghanistan. The lesson of history is that the hardy Pashtun Afghans have always fought foreign occupiers and defeated them, the Russians in recent history and the British before them. Harry's irresponsible statements will simply inflame tempers. Since the Pashtun fighters do not possess sophisticated weapons which enable the killer to sit in safety and blithely destroy the "target" in a computer game, they may come to see foreign forces as no better than cattle to be slaughtered. 



Harry finds another use for his magical thumbs and fingers


Captain Wales, co-pilot gunner




  

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