چلی ہے رسم..... Zameer Awakenings

Listening to the cricketer Shoaib's allegations on everybody except him, I realized that such "zameer's voice" ( ضمیر کی آواز  ) is becoming a regular phenomenon in our country. In recent past we have witnessed the [in]famous zameer of Zulfiqar Mirza, then counter-zameer of MQM; going a little back the zameer of ex-foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi; moreso zameer of some ex-spy masters who manipulated elections. And don't forget the zameer awakening of a foreign minister after the Shimla accord with Indra Gandhi (with thousand apologies)... where we are going?
The common things in these zameer awakenings are:

• These zameers were sleeping like a dead frog unless some personal interest was directly affected.
• These awakening caused (or made to cause) attraction of masses, and a massive response in terms of people in the streets was expected.
• These zameers were ready to play dead again, on call of 'his beloved leader', or some mufahimat مفاہمت .
• Awakenings are staged in a way that our media frenzy population forgets every other issue; Timing is always very critical.
• Some of the awakenings are money triggered (our cricketer would not have got the same money from Pakistani media).
• Zameer awakening of media anchors make them hop between news channels.

These awakenings have played an outstanding role to divert the attention of mass media and awam from the current and core issues directly affecting them (this was done with danda ڈنڈا and censorship previously)

The results of these zameer awakenings are:

• Political parties and their splinter group who are ready to 'cross the floor' on their zameer's call - origin of lotacracy لوٹا کریسی
• Culture of hatred and extremism among people; and worst type of depression ( ناامیدی  ) for my young Pakistani.
• Lot of money in the hands of exploiters and lastly the 'ever confused awam ( عوام  )'.

Are all these awakenings are bad? Not at all. صبح کا بھولا شام کو گھر آ جا ے تو اسے بھولا نہیں کہتے .
And Tauba ( توبہ  )  is granted by Allah to the sinners. Condition of tauba is nee'at نیت   . It is not possible to see nee'at outrightly but time would definitely tell. However, as a nation we have a very small memory span. One should always remember the awakening of our  قائد اعظم  who left All India Congress and very high paying job to lead Muslims of this area.
I hope this make us curious to differentiate کہ یہ  ضمیر کی آواز ہے ، یا ضمیر کا سودا ہو رہا ہے ؟

Jhang - Let's make it an IT City

Pre-Partition Punjab; Jhang is marked green; red is present day Punjab

Last week I found a map of pre-partition Punjab and saw my city Jhang standing as very big and important one. You may also notice Shahpur, an other big city whereas Sargodha, Faisalabad (even Lylepur) and many other cities along the GT road are nowhere to be seen. What all factors changed the map to present day's Punjab province? Politics, governance, economy or military?
There's a very good paper describing changes in the segments of agriculture, industry, information and service in last 150 years.
How our region, specially my city was affected?
I would not start from hunter's age as it is very rare to be seen. Very small population in snowcapped mountains may still be living in this age, but it has no bearing on rest of the world.
The areas that purely stayed agri-based are still living in 19th century, hardly any change is visible in their culture and priorities. Jhang (and Shahpur) were unfortunate ones to stuck in 19th century. The cities that embraced the industry are far ahead (take example of Faisalabad).
An other contributory factor was distance from GT road; I remember that in my childhood, every new brand, promotion or offer appearing on TV was to reach Jhang with lapse of years. Going to Lahore used to fulfill our fantasy of enjoying Polka Ice-cream, as it was nowhere available in Jhang. Things used to reach Ghotki first and then Jhang.


Present age is info-technology age. If Jhang has missed the opportunity to develope in the industrial age, it must grab its rightful share in the age of IT. Number of computer institutes giving useless skills will not help. There is a large number of IT professionals (including myself) who are ready to work on IT development projects. No, it would not be based on funding; but based on consultancy and technical support. To establish a software house, the only investment needed is a PC; to sell product one has to make a cyber-mall on Internet. Genuine product and Idea from Jhang would have same opprtunity to be sold in USA/ Europe as the product of 'IT cities' around the world.
Be mindful, your DSL connection is directly connected to Info-Highway.

Wikileaks Extra !

Wikileaks are claiming to expose Govenments, but there is one more group who is getting more exposed. Interestingly that group thinks they are the ones who have the very right of exposing everybody else.

I have examined some of the Dawn.com extra-extra whistles on wikileaks.At the end cablegate ref id# are also given:
http://www.dawn.com/2011/05/20/army-chief-wanted-more-drone-support.html

I read all and marked the actual word of cables as under: please compare the actual words and amplified and malafied whistles.

Actual Cable:
#140777. (S) In response to Fallon’s questions regarding military assistance, Kayani first focused on the need for surveillance assets.  Emphasizing the urgent need for tactical SIGINT capability for Pakistan’s military aircraft, Kayani said he understood the U.S. was working on this issue and would have an assessment team in Pakistan shortly.  Kayani said he was not interested in acquiring Predators, but was interested in tactical level Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs).  He noted these were expensive and asked if the U.S. could grant or loan them to Pakistan.  ISLAMABAD 00000609  002 OF 003  CHALLENGES IN CLOSE AIR SUPPORT

News item:
KARACHI: Secret internal American government cables, accessed by Dawn through WikiLeaks, provide confirmation that the US military’s drone strikes programme within Pakistan had more than just tacit acceptance of the country’s top military brass, despite public posturing to the contrary. In fact, as long ago as January 2008, the country’s military was requesting the US for greater drone back-up for its own military operations.

Actual Cable:
#147015.    (C) Admiral Mullen began by telling Kayani that a U.S. SIGINT team had completed its initial assessment of Pakistan’s requirements and that they intended to propose options to assist them in developing a solution.  Admiral Mullen then asked Kayani for his help in approving a third Restricted Operating Zone for U.S. aircraft over the FATA.

News item:
In another meeting with US Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen over March 3-4, 2008, Kayani was asked for his help “in approving a third Restricted Operating Zone for US aircraft over the FATA.” The request – detailed in a cable sent from the US Embassy Islamabad on March 24 – clearly indicates that two ‘corridors’ for US drones had already been approved earlier.
Similar thing reffered here too:
http://www.dawn.com/2011/09/07/pakistans-airspace-being-used-by-nato-flights-cable.html

The para marked in red is the one on which the author is commenting about the airspace. Asking Kayani's help means that army has to give an NOC to Government before final decision is made. Term "restricted operational zone" pertains to flight path over Pakistan for the US flights moving in and out of Pakistan to Afghanistan. Same flight paths are used by international air traffic. A country gives a restricted zone for international flights (even domestic) to operate and they are not allowed to divert from that. It is pertinent to note that "third restricted zone" means that only two flight paths had been allowed and they wanted to open a third path for their ease in move. For surveillance and operation, you do not ask for "restricted zone" whose use is pre-coordinated as per international flight rules.

So beware my brothers just dont follow the 'cooked analysis' before making your opinion

کیا یہ وہی پاکستان ہے ...

No this is not my Pakistan....
where all Muslims were to be brothers,
where we had to experiment and practice all Islamic concept of Government and economy,
which had to emerge as Fort of Islam,
where we all were to be Pakistanis, no Sindhi, Balochi or Punjabi,
where, even the left out families in India were also Pakistani, how come we have Muhajir in Pakistan?


I want my country back, I want my Pakistan back. My Pakistan which has been hijacked by corruption and incompetency. Which has been de-railed further in any attempt to put it right through stopgap marshal laws.


The generation who had given us Pakistan did their job extremely well in but they were too much occupied in building the country that they could not do the nation building. They could not transfer those character traits which made them stand up-rightly infront of Hindu and English. It is just like a self made person who starts from tatters and eventually emerge as business tycoon, but in the process fails to give time to his own kids.


That generation deserves all the praises, whereas loss to this generation is part of the process. One may also call it 'collateral damage'. Now things are in the hand of young generation, who have all the energies to get the real Pakistan back. 


Leadership crisis is also counted towards a big problem, but who stops us from putting only those things right which are directly under our control. We may start even with cleaning the part of street on our door instead of waiting 'committee wala' to do the job. We may show our will just by stopping at the red light even if there's no one to check. Let's start it right now.