LUMS Professor and an Imran Khan (IK) apologist. By Mansoor Hamid,Professor at LUMS

Posted by admin in Shining Pakistanis on September 7th, 2014

LUMS Professor and an Imran Khan (IK) apologist.

Mansoor Hamid

LUMS

– No matter what happens from here on in, I would always believe that IK is arguably one of the greatest living Pakistanis for what he has done in sports, social work and then politics. His talent charisma, perseverance, integrity and accomplishments outshine all of his peers and he can rightfully claim to have left a lasting impression on a couple of generations.
Supporting IK is not easy. He is definitely obstinate, perhaps not politically shrewd, does not articulate his vision well enough and is most likely not a democrat at heart. Is he the best politician around, most definitely not. Is he the best leader that we have had in a long time, hell yea. And he has proved time again in his career(s) that he will not be the leader you want him to be. Like it or not, he will be the leader than he thinks he should be.

We (IK Supporters) realize fully well his shortcomings and we are not crazy or delusional to support him. We support IK not because of him, we support him because of us. There is not a thought as ghastly as the thought that my son will be ruled by the sons of shareefs, zardaris and maulanas. It absolutely rips my heart out.

And that is why many people like me who had never voted before in our lives, made the effort to support IK by actively going out and voting for him. All of my friends who have their allegiances with other parties, how many of you have gone out to vote? That’s right – Not many. But that is not a problem because these parties are so popular that they are going to win anyways (see something wrong here?). I know thousands of people traveled from Manchester, New York and Dubai to vote for IK because they knew he will need each and every one of those votes. This vote is different because it matters…to us and to IK.

So next time you unleash the keyboard warrior, please also have the moral courage to go out and vote for your party and attend their processions. Sitting on the sidelines will not help anybody and in anycase we need good people in every party if we need to change our fortunes. For all others, get your immigration papers sorted because the future is anything but bright.

The elections do not belong to IK, NS, PTI or PML. I do not care if IK loses more seats in a re-count. Elections belong to the people of Pakistan and specially the tax-payers who funded these elections. And they are demanding justice and reform. So what if they are in a minority, so are the tax-payers.

Can the government, as a beneficiary, provide electoral justice and accountability? With the plethora of political (60+ family members) appointments in ministries, judiciary, police and civil services the chances are bleak. There is still no FIR for the 14 shot dead by the law enforcement agencies.

We need electoral reform and we need expat votes. We also need desperately for 100% of urban population to vote and attend processions of the parties they support. We all know what you oppose? I would like to know what you stand for? And perhaps this would make us realize that the leadership choices are very limited to match our lofty aspirations.
As someone said already: “we keep private guards, drink bottled water, avail private medi-care, send our kids to private schools, buy generators and UPSs to have electricity at homes and offices, the list goes on ”. We do not need IK to tell us that we are not getting good value for our tax money.
Wrong tactics by IK. What guarantee do we have that this march would work out for the better? Well, our future is not pay-per-view and there is no money back guarantee. We can be sure that his agenda will not endear him to the beneficiaries of the status-quo. So yes, he will lack support from the power brokers.
Here is hoping that next time a candidate will think twice before barging into a ladies polling station to dictate how votes should be cast. Here is also hoping that next time when we face an injustice, we will come out on the streets in numbers and demand our right.
They (NS, Z, MFR) will always stand with each other. Will we ever stand for each other? It is clearly more important for us to defend our leaders than defend ourselves.

‘Youngsters dancing to national tunes’ is not zina. And memes showing our leadership as dogs, transsexuals, beggars, etc are not classy.

Mob: a large crowd of people, especially one that is disorderly and intent on causing trouble or violence.

Anarchy: absence of government and absolute freedom of the individual, regarded as a political ideal.

Red Zone: what red zone? There is no red zone around White House, 10 Downing Street or Lok Sabha. What use is democracy if common people cannot have access to the Parliament of ‘People’ of Pakistan and the Supreme Court of ‘People’ of Pakistan?

Protests: We might disagree in principle, but must RESPECT the people who have decided to leave their comforts to stand up for their rights. If anything, we do not protest hard enough to demand our rights. Scrap the military parades on Independence Day; we should bring the system to a halt once every year to demonstrate that the people of this country are the source of all power. That would put some fear of God and fear of People in the hearts of our leadership.

I have not seen anyone win an argument or a war on facebook. Yes we are stubborn and yes facebook is not real life.

Mansoor Hamid
LUMS

Hero of Pakistan, Imran Khan, Naya Pakistan

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OUR SALUTE TO BRAVE SON OF PAKISTAN: Sepoy Bashir, Who?

Posted by admin in HEROES OF PAKISTAN on May 2nd, 2014

Sepoy Bashir, Who?

Posted date: May 01, 2014

By Sohail Parwaz

Today is ‘Youm-e-Shuohda’ (Martyrs’ Day). It should have been a day to be treasured, honoured and feted by the whole nation but regrettably it has generally been restricted to the cantonments, military graveyards and to those hundreds of sacred houses to whom these daring sons of the soil belonged. I often say that one forgets everyday talk but decent and austere words spoken can never be forgotten. A long time back, a renowned ecclesiastic from a religious party released a statement to the press that since the army failed to deliver the goods, it obligated him to refer to the army as a force of horses and goats. That worthy politician might have forgotten that what he said back in September 1998 because he and others from his political clique only issue statements just to cash in on the prevailing state of affairs and their severity.

Since the last many days, I am watching clips and chunks of military and ISI bashing by solely one channel who started a well-planned vicious campaign against the defenders of the nation soon after the ‘attack’ on one of his anchorperson. The channel acted as the complainant, investigator and judge at the same time and within one hour of that mysterious attack, declared ISI as the culprit.

I was seriously thinking that if all those elements that would do army bashing, have links with alien intelligence agencies, promote foreign culture, get on-record funding from their masters would be considered as patriots, then sepoy Bashir’s patriotism and devotion was likely to be questioned! Some of us don’t even know who sepoy Bashir was. Sepoy Bashir, airman Abbas, sailor Saleem and a large number of others like them would silently lay down their lives for their beloved country. Sepoy Bashir was posted at one of the Siachen posts under adverse climatic conditions and minus 40 degrees temperature. Let it be very clear that neither was he manning the post merely for a few bucks of an uncertain economy, nor did anyone force him to go to the lonely haunted heights. After all, he also had a heaven-like small dwelling back in his village, where his aged parents, loving wife and darling kids would wait for him to come back. He would also love to slip into a cozy bed; however, he left all these basic charms of a peaceful life and preferred to defend the geographical boundaries of his country. During the freezing winter nights he would remain awake just to ensure that we could enjoy sweet dreams, nevertheless, we never bothered to know who sepoy Bashir was since it wasn’t required. After all he was our ‘paid servant’, a ‘watchman’ whom we hired to remain awake and guard the border posts.

Sepoy Bashir would often come to his ancestral place on leave. Usually, he would come to the village on a tonga and the respect and importance he would earn by the villagers on his arrival was far more precious for him than that petty pay he would get on every first day of the month, but last time he came back on a military truck with his coffin wrapped in the national flag. Bashir was laid to rest amidst our ignorance. Not for a second he thought that who would look after his aging parents? How his beloved wife Nooran would survive without him and would tolerate the torturing loneliness? Who would play with little Manzoor and innocent Bushra? The fact is that Bashir napped and he kipped for good.

No one of us ever bothered to know who he was; instead, our political pals are showing lost sleep for a channel that is openly maligning the sacred national institutions and the added salt to the injury is the word of support by our enemies in that specific channel’s favour. I am failed to understand that why our political elite is afraid to display support for sepoy Bashir and others, who despite having arms in their hands would never kill any innocent person? Why are these politicians reluctant to vouch for the sacrifices of our national heroes? Unfortunately, they lack courage and yet claim to be our leaders. If they really consider these sons of the soil as horses, sheep and goats, then let me assure them that these horses are far better than the disgraceful mules of the political showground.

These so called Pakistanis who utter venomous remarks for the motherland and spread hatred for Pakistan around, have got nothing to lose because tomorrow when the custodians of the land will not remain then these snakes will go and settle themselves into the lap of our adversaries, leaving behind you and me to face the wrath of antagonists. I would not ask them a question; instead, I would like to pose it to you, that if those who are challenging the state’s writ, threaten to bully the nation and harm the sovereignty of the country are acknowledged as heroes, then what is the status of sepoy Bashir, Sepoy Maqbool, Havildar Aslam and hundreds of other martyrs and ghazis of the 1948, 1965, 1971 wars and the Kargil conflict?

Will somebody please tell me?

Brave Son of Pakistan, Hero of Pakistan, Sepoy Bashir