Punjab / 2 = ?

We have a good track record of creating issues from non-issues. Be it Lal-Masjid massacre, TTP, or anything else, we toss an idea, nourish it, and take extreme care to nourish it well, till the time it emerges as a monster, which we, who created it in the first place, are incapable of handling it anymore. Then we let it get to streets, and mourn the fruits it brings & work, dedicatedly, to find & toss another such idea. And the circle continues ….

Its creation of new provinces this time. And the pinnacle of this idea is to bi-sect Punjab, while the bi part is open to debate, as it can easily tranlslate into tri or multi for that matter. Its a different discussion whether its a good idea to go for smaller adminstration units or not, myself being a supporter of the notion, the problem we currently have at hands is “Do we need it?”.

I was commenting on the same issue at another thread, and I qoute here:

While I agree to the idea of smaller administration units; the logics behind and the fruits it may bring, this may not be, the right time to begin the debate.

We are already surrounded by a plethora of problems that our government has proven to be incapable of handling:

- We have more than 2 million IDPs at our hands, and we have no plan for them.
- Our army is at war at more than one fronts, and yet to conclude any single of them. Ironically, all the fronts are internal.
- We have people deciding our matters, who seem to have no clue whatsoever, of what they are talking about.
- We are yet to settle the issues in Balochistan.

and the list continues ….

Amid all this mess, I don’t see any rationale for starting an altogether new issue, which has no urgency of the nature. And I don’t know why, but to me, the way this issue has arisen, or has been made to rise, to national horizon, raises suspicions. I mean from nowhere, it just touched the national headlines.

And thanks to Eidee Man, for pointing out, its not just Saraiki Sooba then. While PPP may be sincere in bisecting Punjab, but then it has stuff to follow, that neither our government, nor us, the public, are prepared, mentally and technically, to absorb. What will immediately follow is Bahawalpur. Then its Karachi. And it will amplify Balochistan’s voice for no reason.

While in essence of the idea of having smaller administration units, Bahawalpur and Karachi should be welcomed, but the prevailing political mindset in the country, and the trend majority of my countrymen follow in their thought process, suggests to the contrary. It will give rise to political instability, as political stakeholders in different areas have conflicting personal/party-level interests, and if they found it ungoing with what they want, they will resist the situation in a manner, quite damaging to the integrity of the country.

As somebody has already said, we already have smaller administration units, districts, and divisions. We should give them more power, if we *have* to handle this stuff on an urgent basis, for which I don’t see any need in current situation.

IMHO, we should stay content with what we have, try (read struggle) to solve the current problems, and once we reach a state where we can find some breathing space, we can think about these administration improvements.

We should learn to prioritize problems as compared to enhancements, and concentrate on top priority issues.

While the legislative thrives with comments from the MPs hailing from different parts of the homeland, I look up to my Lord and pray, “Please save my homeland.” Aameen!

Dharna ho ga, dharna ho ga

I was reading BBC Urdu a while ago, when I came across this on a news post:

تاہم شور مچنے پر اردگرد موجود سینکڑوں کارکن وہاں جمع ہو گئے اور انہوں نے حکومت کے خلاف نعرے بازی کی۔ ان میں بعض ایسی خواتین کارکن بھی موجود تھیں جنہوں نے اپنے بچوں کے ہمراہ رات اسی ٹینٹ میں گزاری تھی۔

Mr. President should be warned. If people have taken it to this level; mothers took their children along, to stay in the camp & participate in the protest in morning, this is not an ordinary gesture, its well beyond extra-ordinary rather. People would no longer tolerate him, and quite understandbly.

I wonder if he had any remote idea of what was to follow his move to tople the Punjab goverment. He is in the same row as was Mr. Pervez Musharraf when he took it against the Cheif Justice. And it would cost him the same, even more, may be.

He even managed to cause termoil in his own party. There clearly are two opinions there, more than two may be. As if that was not enough, he got his senior ministers to resign. And thats not only at the top level, workers at base level, feel ashamed of being affiliated with the party. He has got himself into a mess that he doesn’t seem capable of, to handle. He trusts the people around him, who are no better material to handle the situation than himself. God bless you Mr. President.

On the other hand, Mr. Nawaz Sharif seems to know what he has to do, knows it well rather. And he has got the courage to do that, which he never showed before this. The way he broke the police barriers, has not only shown good on himself, but has injected the courage into his workers and people in general as well. If there is police, no worries, just break them. When people get to this level of confrontation, that they dont take armed personnel into serious account, Mr. President, things are not good for you.

This move will also force other political leaders like Imran Khan & Qazi Hussain Ahmed to do something of the same level. Ripple effect will go to Lawyers as well. End result; Jeena ho ga Marna ho ga, Dharna ho ga Dharna ho ga. Kudos for Nawaz Sharif.

I have heard there is some acivity planned here in London as well, but I do not have details. They are planning for some march, but they didnt advertise it. Nobody seems to know about it.

Lets wait & see what turn things take from here. And lets pray things dont go voilent, thats the worst that can happen, waist of innocent lives. May Allah bless the homeland.

Protest to stop Israeli aggression – Bristol

Yesterday, there was a protest , organized by Muslim community, here in Bristol against Israeli aggression in Palestine.

I was in office when I heard the shouts outside, around 3 pm, but my office being on a road joining the main road on which protesters were marching on, couldn’t hear clearly, neither could I see the placards they were holding. It was just that some protest is going on.

Protesters in Bristol City Center

Image Source

In evening, when we, me n MUF, went to a food takeaway near to my house, we saw a flyer, mentioning about the protest. And then we recalled that it was the same protest, as MUF also saw them in city center. We were like, could have joined had we known about it. The guy on counter told us the details. There was quite a good number of people and people came even from outside Bristol, to join it.

The shoes have been traced …

I received this today on my class’ mailing list, and couldn’t help posting it here

The pair of shoes which was thrown at Mr. Bush in Iraq has links to
Pakistan, said a statement from Pentagon. They have the following
proofs:

i) The journalist had visited Pakistan earlier this year. There he was
inspired by the shoe throwing at former CM Arbab Ghulam Rahim and Sher
Afghan Niazi.

ii) He received his training of throwing shoes by a Pakistan based
Jihadi organization.

iii) The DNA sample of leather has revealed that the animal whose skin
was used for manufacturing the shoe had traces of grass which is grown
in North of Pakistan and this skin was collected by a Jihadi
organization on Eid-ul-Adha this month.

Hearing this, President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf
Raza Gilani have decided to ban the Jihadi organization and launched a
country wide crackdown against all the cobblers in Pakistan

Yeah, its funny, but contains some food for thought …

Ilzamaat

Saw a qita’a by Anwar Shaoor in today’s Jang and found it to be quite interesting

Loot Sale

We were discussing the results of Presidential Election in Pakistan last evening, when a friend suggested, “Start saving money guys”. We were like, for what? To which he quite whisperingly replied, “Pakistan is going to be on SALE soon. We must have some bucks ready. May be we can buy some shares, some pieces of land may be, or anything that comes up.”

And we were like amazed. Why this didnt happened to us, such a great idea. It can be profitable. 

So, keep some bucks ready.

Ohh one more thing, he immediately demanded 2.5% of all the profit that we will earn from this purchase. After all he coined the idea. So I hope in case you make some profit, you’ll send in his 2.5%.

Happy Shopping !!!

Dr Mahathir Mohammad’s blog

Yup, you guessed it right.

Its ex-Prime Minister of Malaysia ba-qalam-khud. As he puts it:

This site is dedicated to publishing my writings as and when I am able to pen my thoughts and opinion.

Interested parties, including the Press, are welcomed to reproduce or quote materials published here with the condition that they are credited to chedet.com.

Comments and feedbacks accompanied by names or pseudonyms are welcomed. Anonymous postings and those containing profanities and obscenities will be rejected.

Mr PM (ex) is using Che Det as his pen name, which is probably a nick name of his.

I am an all-time fan of Dr. Mahathir. I appreciate his policies & reforms that helped Malaysia reach this point in economic growth. He has some interesting points to make when he talks about Islam. And economy & Islam are just not the last things he is good at.

I had attended one of his lectures physically that he delivered while addressing the convocation at my university. He was a guest, and I actually felt honored on having such a guest at my convocation. He is such a reformer & policy maker.

I hope for some healthy debates on his blog. Two thumbs up for you Che Det.

Crossed Swords

I haven’t read it as yet, and neither is it available in the local market as yet, but I look forward to reading it, as Ali Eteraz suggests it to be an insider’s view. Shuja Nawaz, the author, who is real brother of a top Army General Asif Nawaz Janjua, is known for his learned opinion on military and politico-economic issues.

As Ali puts it:

Crossed Swords is not just history. There are important lessons and warnings to be found in the text. For example, the immense number of generals appointed by former Islamist dictator Zia ul Haq — who seized the presidency from Benazir Bhutto’s father in a coup — have not yet taken hold of power. When they do, after the current group of leading generals resign in perhaps five to ten years, Pakistan’s famously secular military may be disposed to take an Islamist turn.

which to me is quite a learned observation.

As compared to Military Inc. , by Ayesha Siddiqa, which was more of a research paper and full of technical terms, the review suggests the linguistic style of the book to be “probably appropriate for the kind of formal English that Pakistani and British academics speak”.

Will update this blog with my own experience of the book once I get hold of a copy.

Go Musharraf Go

You all would be knowing about President Pervez Musharraf’s visit to UK. I was least interested in the details of what he is upto and how his visit is going on until today when I saw these videos.

The videos show the footage of the protest organized by Pakistan Thereek-e-Insaaf @ 10 downing. Flags of Pakistan Peoples Party & Pakistan Muslim League (N) are also visible. I was a little amused on hearing the language used by these youngsters out there. You know the typical local style. And BTW some of you may actually find these a bit offensive, so be warned

The way the guys at the lead were shouting slogans against Musharraf reminded me of my college-days protests. You see the typical student style naaras. And some of the lyrics, amazing I would say

A few excerpts (in Punjabi):

Hun muk gya tera show Musharraf

Go Musharraf Go Musharraf

Ghar ja ke bhande dho Musharraf

Go Musharraf Go Musharraf

Ja kalle beh ke ro Musharraf

Go Musharraf Go Musharraf

You are very slow Musharraf

Go Musharraf Go Musharraf

Interesting, isn’t it?

And the guys actually extended the slogan shouted by Muhammad Ali Kurd “Go Musharraf Go”, by adding one more “Musharraf” to the tail, making it “Go Musharraf Go Musharraf” and changing the tone a bit too.

A few more:

“no-comments”

Imran Khan has been reported as saying that it was just a coincidence that Jammaima was also present and standing just two feet from him. A cool coincidence khaan sb

Bilawal Bhutto goes off-book

Now this is hilarious.

Somebody set up  an account on Facebook with the credentials of BB’s son Bilawal. He pretended to be Bilawal. And put up some stuff, including his love for Buffy stuff, related to him up there. Put some quotes from BB and boom. The profile is ready.

A snap of Bilawal’s profile.

The profile has been quite a buzzword on Facebook, and as Mr. “Somebody” says: received condolences, interview calls, friendship request etc etc.

“Facebook on Thursday said two purported profiles of slain Pakistan politician Benazir Bhutto’s son Bilawal were not authentic, and that the company had taken them down”, Yahoo reports.

Radar Online has stories both before and after the news broke.

And I was about to believe all being said, when I came across this. I am confused whom to believe.

[ Image Source ]