Winter rains

Finally, the heavens burst forth and down came a torrential rain which lasted quite a few days. And well….travelling down the university road to have a dinner under a pouring sky and water making tiny rivers on the very walk of the road, now that’s when I truly had a taste of Taxila’s winters. Needless to say my hands and feet were numb from the chill that seaped through. That was yesternight.

I must say this has been one really needed spell of rains throughout the nation. Not only the wheat crop desperately needed water for it’s growth but the water level in dams was also touching a real low which certainly wouldn’t have procured in something positive. What’s more, the rain would also most probably put an end to the dry fog which had been hovering over the lands like a ghastly fate.

Well…for now, am loving the weather!! And I hope it’s gonna last a few days before the sharp sun would break away the winter spell. For that’d give me yet few more days to stay indoors, have coffee and do nothing except using internet for long hours at end and reading novels. Now what could be a better vocation than that!! :D

The correct response to Aafia’s sentence

While to an average man, it may seem rather more appealing to go out in the streets and wreck havoc on roads and buildings, a more rational approach would be the one cited by Babar Sattar in his recent article:

“Statistics regarding the US justice system establish two things. One, that despite the civil rights movement and momentous anti-segregation decisions such as Brown vs. Board of Education, the conviction rate for blacks has remained much higher in comparison to whites during the later half of the 20th century. And, two, despite the emphasis on due process and all safeguards implicit within the justice system, there have been innumerable instances of grave injustice meted out to individuals affected by social and cultural biases.

In view of such injustices, the Innocence Project was set up in the Cardozo School of Law in 1991, which uses DNA evidence to help prisoners exonerate themselves. So far, almost 250 innocent convicts have benefited from such evidence and won their release. For example, James Bain was released in December at the age of 54, after spending 35 years behind bars for the crime of abduction and rape of a child that he had not been involved with. Similarly, James Lee Woodard was released in 2008 after serving a prison term of 27 years for a murder that he did not commit. Would Aafia Siddiqui have been convicted on the exact-same evidence if, instead of being a veiled Muslim denouncing Zionist conspiracies in the New York courtroom, she had been a composed blond white women wearing a Versace outfit? The challenge for any legal system is to prevent invidious societal prejudices from influencing dispensation of justice. In the first instance, the New York district court seems to have failed in rising to this challenge.

Our president, prime minister and the Foreign Office have expressed deep concern over the ruling and have announced their intent to provide legal support to Aafia Siddiqui. This is the correct response. It must be supplemented with initiating an inquiry into who in Pakistan’s Interior Division or intelligence agencies ordered that Aafia be “picked up,” in breach of her fundamental constitutional rights to liberty and freedom from arbitrary arrest, and to be handed over to the Americans without the mandated due process under our laws.

Further, as we go around denouncing the US as evil incarnate, let us also remember that the same folks who arrested Aafia Siddiqui also detained Masood Janjua around the same time and our justice system is yet to find a clue to his whereabouts.Instead of following the Jamaat-e-Islami’s lead and mimicking the monkey who lit up his own tail in fury, it is preferable to focus on the available legal remedies within the US justice system. Notwithstanding the ideal that moralists would wish to see implemented, in our imperfect world, the extent to which an individual’s fundamental human rights stand respected still depends on the incidence of his/her birth, as well as national identity. And in that regard, protesting the West’s duplicity will not help. Reforming ourselves to build a nation whose rights no one dare impinge will be a more constructive approach.”

http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=222711

Even when I am very disappointed with the Pakistani government at the way it handled the case and the docility it displayed in pushing it, I am hopeful that the sentence and the consequence backlash, both from the right-wingers and human-rights’ activists, would make the government make better moves this time to ensure Aafia is accorded justice and is not sacrificed to a blind, injust sentence.

On a side-note, I am quite appalled at few leftist fellow bloggers whom I have come across. Their stance over the issue is quite beyond me. While they do claim to be human rights’ activists, they are of the opinion that Pakistani nation need not give a damn to her since she’s not a direct national concern. I must say this utilitarian approach is highly dangerous and we’d then be left to deciding who deserves basic human rights and who don’t, based upon how much that person is concerned to us.

Finally, I’d also want to see ANY arguments from such friends that may substantiate in anyway Aafia’s conviction since thus far, I’m quite unable to discern any solid proof or rational justification to her implication in the said case.

We are ashamed, Aafia!

After months of speculation, outcries and protests over Aafia Siddiqui’s case, the US court finally passes the verdict against her, accusing her of attempting to kill US marines.

While the decision comes as quite a shock with obvious anomalies marring the very authenticity of the case itself, it is indeed a shame to note that the Pakistani government didn’t do ANYTHING at all, all along, except mere lip-service to ensure that justice is accorded to one of it’s own citizens who had been illegally abducted many years earlier and have, since then, faced the torment and inhumanity of American military and government, most of those years even without an admission of her custody by the US government.

It aches my heart to note that even when with such a poor case and her illegal abduction for many years on end, her physical health testifying to the circumstances she’d been kept in and the way she’s been treated, and having lost two of her children, the brazen jury still goes on to pass a verdict against her. While the verdict has been passed, that certainly doesn’t mean that the questions over the case have ended. They remain and need to be cited as a reminder: Why on earth was Aafia Siddiqui given on repeated remands despite her physical condition and was never given a bail even when the court admitted her to be of a very weak disposition, both mental and physical??! On August 16, the US envoy to Pakistan made a public statement saying that the US had no “definitive knowledge” of the whereabouts of Aafia’s children but only a few days later the Afghan authorities revealed that an 11-year-old boy had also been “arrested” with Aafia and this boy was then repatriated to be received by Aafia’s family as her eldest son. Why the lie? And does this lie not point to a cover-up at the part of US government, continuously switching it’s statement about the details of the case and does that not have direct bearing on the credibility of US government in the case?

I want to quote an excerpt from Kamran Shafi’s write-up over the issue regarding the alleged firing of shots by Aafia: “By the way Excellency, if you care to notice, Aafia Siddiqui is about your build and dimensions. May I suggest you get one of your Marines at the embassy to bring you a US army-issue M4 rifle. Now ask him to clear the chamber, affix the magazine, put the rifle on ’safe’, and place it on the ground which would be the exact position in which Aafia Siddiqui found hers and with which she is alleged to have fired upon the US officer. You may very well fail to even cock it in 10 seconds, let alone find the safety catch, lift the rifle to your shoulder and fire it”

What’s more, FBI agent himself testified to the fact that no finger-prints of Aafia Siddiqui were found on the rifle she’s accused to have shot with. The witnesses’ statement also kept changing – first Aafia was accused of having been on her knees while shooting. However, later he said that Aafia was standing and that’s when she fired the bullets. An important thing to note here is that the Afghan interpreter who was to testify in the case has been brought to US by the US officials, helped in settling, and being issued a green card, according to his own statements to the court.

It aches my heart greatly as I try to imagine what she would have felt after the verdict was announced. After being sold by her our ‘respected’ country’s president to another nation, after being abducted by several years and being tortured and raped by the abductors, after being tormented, after having had life made a hell and EVERTHING that she held dear being taken away from her, and after having the entire nation’s sympathies, Aafia Siddiqui was not able to get a just verdict from those according justice! And while the entire nation was boiling with anger over this verdict, the government kept it’s calm and never tried to remove those scars off it’s escutcheon of national pride and self-dignity.

It’s not a question of a person – I agree on having being sentimental on it but I wouldn’t have cared to waste my rhetoric on it had it been that insignificant. But this case is not insignificant. It’s HIGHLY significant. In this case is implicit the nature of the future exploits of the war against terror, for the final decision on this case clearly sends us all a message from the US government: that ‘we can arrest you anytime, anywhere, in anyway and at any charge, no matter how absurd. And then no matter what you do, no matter what measures your national government takes, we are going to teach you a lesson, both extra-judicially and then through the judicial system. So shut up and stop whining and comply.’

And for the first time throughout the entire saga, I feel ashamed. I feel drained of all national pride and all I know now is that I’m not sure of the slightest guarantee my country would let me in case some other nation takes an assault on me. In fact, I can’t even trust my own government officials since they may sell me for a few dimes! For that’s what they did to Aafia Siddiqui. And for that, I’m very ashamed, Aafia Siddiqui. For your nation, and your fellow nationals, couldn’t do anything to stop this inhumanity and injustice!!

Of hell, faith and miracles

“I saw the shade of a coachman, who scrubbed the shade of a coach with the shade of a brush.”

- Charles Perrault’s Eneide travesti.

“The genuine realist, if he is an unbeliever, will always find strength and ability to disbelieve in the miraculous, and if he is confronted with a miracle as an irrefutable fact, he would rather disbelieve his own senses than admit the act. Even if he admits it, he admits it as a fact of nature till then unrecognized by him. Faith does not, in the realist, spring from the miracle but the miracle from faith.”

- Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

Travelling

Two days ago, I traveled from Multan through Rawalpindi and then to my dear university at Taxila. It was tiring but I’ve grown used to the 9 hour boredom and tiredness. It takes just a little rest to shake it off.

Today, towards the end of the lecture, we were told that their won’t be any classes tomorrow. Having four vacations ahead, including the Kashmir Day’s, the weekend and an extra Monday again with no classes, I decided it was high time I’d get my laptop fixed from Hafeez Center, Lahore. So I rushed to my room, packed a nifty bag and here I am, at Lahore after a 4-hour journey and grumbles over Daewoo’s ticket charges. I’m pretty convinced never to travel by that service again! :@

Finally, I’m lost on a lot of things. And I desperately need a slice of rest to restore myself to my sanity. I guess I’m gonna retire off from the extra-curricular for some time for now and have a peaceful month or so, with my stack of books and novels. Wish me luck, amigos ;)

Keep the change!

Dedicated to few such people whom I once held in honor and respect.

That’s where it ends – two empty words and a cold stare. And a mantle of disgust to wrap around and go to any God damn place! ‘We simply don’t care.’

And it takes a mere split-second happening. A gesture, a stare or a mere schizophrenic illusion of sick, obsessed minds – stifled, chauvnistic minds. Who see what they want to see and think it all over and over again to spew more of their own versions of bullshit! And that’s never ending.

It’s all but a twisted set of views – relativity of held notions of belief in established, clashing, ideas. Nothing comes out to be false – or true, either. And they never let go of a chance to reassert this division. Two sides of a line, they and they again. And maybe it’s not even the two sides – it’s both on the same side and both on the wrong side. Ignorants!

And you leave the space, disgusted and disappointed. Every single time! Because they simply don’t give a damn. In the last of the moments, their realities become manifest and you never feel like turning back. It’s another scar of the past which singes with each new step and you simply weave your way out, not wanting a moment’s more stay, not even wanting to raise your eyes to their faces and look them in that different light.

You simply get your coat by the door, put on your hat and wave a careless goodbye without looking back. For what is life but a two-penny waste on a pathetic drink. And you tell those suckers to keep the change. ;)

Back on the blog

I’ve been blogging bit too less of late. That has been because of certain engagements that came up, one after the other, and I wasn’t able to attend to this space. However, with the commencement of the new semester and me back on the university’s wi-fi, I hope I’ll be blogging more regularly.

Here’s a verse I’ve been repeating over and over these days. I actually read Jamila Hashmi’s ‘Dashte Soos’ and the book reminded me of it…

tou hai muheet-e-baykaran, main hon zara si aabjoo

ya mujay hamkanar kar, ya mujay baykanar kar.

Learning life..

Through the pulsating life in it’s incessant pace and deafening roar, I sometimes find myself entirely disoriented as to what exactly I’m doing andwhy am I doing that…It’s like finding one’s self suddenly devoid of all ambitions, of all convictions of the necessity of doing what one is doing and thence, drained of all energy to be driven toward whatever ends one has or had in sight.

It’s like being brought to an abrupt halt through a full sprint, where everyone is running madly towards the end line – and while you see everyone continuing on with their spree, you stand still like being tranced into a state you didn’t chose and simply stand there – muted, frozen and numbed. And it’s in those moments, in those pauses that you understand life the most. You try to make sense out of things and suddenly, there’s a new meaning to it all. When in race, you interpret everything within the context of that race you’ve been so involved in. And when halted, you view things with the lens of that sudden halt that marks your journey. And everything changes it’s manifestation with this new context.

But before the understanding comes despair – before the new view comes the dawning of redundancy of the older version and the desperation to cling on to something which is not yet there. It’s hard and it’s painful – but it does pass and you improve. The race is no longer important. The meanings learned along the way become rather more important. And that, then, totally alters the course of our lives.

Winterheart

The winter keeps getting bitterer. And out of the lone moments is borne that bitter-sweet feeling that’s enrapturing.

Alone, in silence, I wait for the moments to wrap themselves around me and let myself be drenched of my being. And then the journey begins.

By the day, the mist floats in placid exaltation. And I lie silently in my bed, waiting for the lone moments to whisper to me – and talk to me of all that we’ve been companions in.

And then I finally write again.

The lumbers of life

An awesome excerpt from Jerome’s masterpiece. Here it goes:

“It is lumber, man – all lumber! Throw it overboard. It makes the boat so heavy to pull, you nearly faint at the oars. It makes it so cumbersome and dangerous to manage, you never know a moment’s freedom from anxiety and care, never gain a moment’s rest for dreamy laziness – no time to watch the windy shadows skimming lightly o’er the shallows, or the glittering sunbeams flitting in and out among the ripples, or the great trees by the margin looking down at their own image, or the woods all green and golden, or the lilies white and yellow, or the somber- waving rushes, or the sedges, or the orchids, or the blue forget-me-nots.

Throw the lumber over, man! Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need – a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends, worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing.

You will find the boat easier to pull then, and it will not be so liable to upset, and it will not matter so much if it does upset; good, plain merchandise will stand water. You will have time to think as well as to work. Time to drink in life’s sunshine – time to listen to the Aeolian music that the wind of God draws from the human heart-strings around us – time to -

I beg your pardon, really. I quite forgot.”

- Three men in a boat, by Jerome K. Jerome

Army and democracy in Pakistan

Lately there have been ripples through my social circle over a recent blog post I wrote, also RSS-fed at my facebook profile. The post in question was about Kerry-Lugar Bill and the reaction that ensued primarily consisted upon telling me how ‘unpatriotic‘ I was and more interestingly, how dispassionately I rejected army’s role as the savior of this nation for the past decades. I confess to the crime and hence, am guilty of charge.

However, allow me a quick traversal of the available facts and my contentions to the cited arguments about the army/democracy issue. The actual point that was made, not by a single or two but many of my friends, which is indeed unfortunate, was that democracy is a system quite unfit for a country like Pakistan and that army is the right choice for running the affairs of this state. Startling as it may seem upon the surface, even startling was the way this proposition was supported. It was said that over the years, democratic governments had totally failed the nation and every time, army was made to intervene. And that it had to, to save this country from falling into pieces. Random citations were quoted of the economic indexes during army take-overs to prove the point, though never with a verifiable source of course.

I must say all this did intrigue me. And hence this article. I’ve been reading through the lines about the way people treat the notion of democracy and how casually they can go on to denounce its validity for Pakistan without pausing for a moment and looking to the finer details of its implications here. To most, the failure of a term or two of the elected governments means the failure of democracy and an obvious switching of choice to army Generals. However, faulty as this perception may be, it’s all the more dangerous considering our youth is still ready to chance dictatorship against democracy, albeit, I admit, a partial and highly imperfect one.

To all such fellas, I’d first want to represent a vivid notion of what really democracy is. No nations are blessed with one hundred percent honest politicians and none have a system without corrupt ones. It’s an amalgam of the very two everywhere. And no country achieves the perfect model of democracy from day 1 either. It may take a term or two or many terms of elected governments after which a suitable democracy may procure. But how exactly this works? That’s quite simple. People elect a government and if it’s unable to satisfy the wants of the masses, they switch their choices and votes in the next polling. The government changes and people are able to test multiple candidates upon the honor of their words. It’s only after many continuous elections that the masses may be able to realize which party precisely may be ‘the party’ for them.

It may be termed the evolution of democracy in a country. Along the course of this system, people learn to make the right choices, the politicians learn to make the right decisions and government witnesses honest politicians dedicated to accomplish things.

However, when the very process is disrupted mid-way on the pretext of faulty apparatus installed as corrupt parliamentarians or an imperfect functioning of the elected government, all goes back to point zero. Usually, the new system installed as an alternative to democracy then attracts all the hatred of the lot and people tend to forgive the mid-way disrupted government’s mistakes. And that’s precisely what has been happening with Pakistan. Throughout the history of more than sixty years, democracy hasn’t been allowed to take its due course for even a consecutive ten years. Every time, army intervenes through one excuse or another, attempting every time to cash into the government’s wrong decisions by buying itself another term into politics. Letting aside the disastrous implications it has on the army itself, it comes as a major blow for the democratic system which then relapses to point zero.

And in our national history, we have witnessed many point zeros and many relapses. Times and again, army has pushed us back on the starting point claiming the inevitability of its intervention and the importance of its presence for the national security. All false and hogwash! Even the exalted stature accorded to army is based, mostly, upon the false tales of its victory. I won’t talk of the accounts of its valor but victory…seriously! There’s been none and we’ve been beaten up by our neighbor upon our nasty maneuvers along the borders in the past, so much for our ‘passions for jihad’, always a prologue for a wrong policy or a false decision. Deaths are easy to cover up when wrapped in the veil of valorous martyrdom, you know.

Talking of army’s rule, one is also instantly reminded of the brutalities deployed in 1971, the severe violations of human rights in East Pakistan at the hands of our ‘jawans’ and the extra-judicial killings and kidnappings in the very recent reign of our dear Mr. Musharraf. I left the mention of Zia intentionally for his ten years ask for an entire other article and of course, an article would it be soon enough, for that duly befits the dictator’s extraordinary moves during his time.

What’s more, our army has been the active incubator for breeding the many jihadi militant organizations of the yester-years, thanks to its own overt religious under-tones. In fact, it’s our army indeed that created the Taliban brathers to fight off the infidel kafirs in the neighborhood land of pure. Unfortunately, through certain twists of time and policy shifts, the ‘original Islam’ ruled Taliban out in the contemporary world and army too declared them gone-mad terrorists who ought to be gunned down. And hence the trouble we have been in of late.

A well-used tactic in creating a better image for the past military interventions has been the ‘we needed to take control of affairs at an emergency basis or Pakistan would’ve been in danger’ argument. A friend did cite that to me to justify her claim of army’s being the best choice for Pakistan. However, there haven’t been any such situations in our history where army became the inevitable force needed at the helm of affairs. Army is always the last and the least desired choice and when it does take over, all democratic institutions move into hibernation for all the years it remains in command. And when it finally makes it back to the barracks, they have to start anew. That’s precisely the reason we are still a long way from a fine model of democracy. Yet, I’d say there is hope of goal in this journey towards a better democracy and when people tell me they’re tired of it mid-way, it is very disappointing!

Finding myself

It had been ages. I had craved to find myself and have a chat but the noise was just too much. Today, though, I had the opportunity.

And on the way back, I realized I was just too tired. So I sat by the bridge and drew circles in the air.

Winter nostalgia *sigh*

Crossing the lines

As if the likes of Dr. Shahid Masood, hosting pseudo-politicians like Hamid Gul, spinning their endless tales of conspiracy theories was not enough, I was pretty surprised to read a column in Nawa-i-Waqt today. Seems like we live in strange days where power shifts from army to judiciary and media and parliament in nowhere in the scene.

The recent series of events makes it clear how certain media outlets have specifically targeted the ruling party and been exaggerating things against them, which also would perhaps explain the unneeded and rather immature statement along with the ruling on NRO given by the Supreme Court. One of the hawks of lawyers’ movement, Ali Ahmed Kurd, himself lashed on SC over such an unnecessary move and pointed out that SC judges were treading a very dangerous line, making rather political moves.

I must say it’s not that hard to connect the dots here. At one side, rightist media outlets along with the power of a major media group have taken their position against PPP generally and Zardari in particular. And no matter what, they don’t seem to be stopping at anything but their removal. While that’s the situation, their aggravation of the affairs pretty much led to all the noise over NRO and the post-NRO-ruling.

This creates a picture where media is bringing things, by sort of creating a hype, to SC’s consideration and SC, empowered by what I may call media support, is making rather reckless decision. The parliament is entirely out of the scene and in fact, the entire ruling party is like held accountable for cases that aren’t yet proved against them. I don’t have anything for PPP but I believe that such a situation means only one thing: media is striving it’s best at either derailing the democracy or else is playing at the whim of other political players who already are in the good books of SC judges. Either way, the pieces fit.

Coming back to the column I read today, the great writer suggested that army and judiciary should join hands in order to bring the corrupt politicians to justice. This is just too much! The guy, in other words, is simply telling army to help judiciary destroy the democratic structure since his ’suggestion’ entirely rules out the inclusion of parliament in the picture. It’s flabbergasting how openly these columnists are proposing such outrageous possibilities.

And let me show what the connotation is: the connotation is that SC is making such statements as this where it suggests the government to take the aid of eunuchs to pressurize corrupt personnel. I mean…what the hell! Where is it all going! How can a sane person even suggest that – and not to forget, SC’s suggestion was a ’serious’ one, not one made in humor. And to top that, Geo was pretty quick in launching an interview of Bobby Almas, citing her ’special strategy’ she’d launch to carry out SC’s suggestion.

So the point I am making is: with the unlimited support of a deeply biased and very immature media, SC is on the way of making controversial decisions, which may (let’s hope it doesn’t) at one hand, compromise SC’s own credibility, and at the other, damage the democratic structure irreparably, thus giving army another excuse to intervene. And considering the current security crises we are going through, I believe now would be the most unfeasible time for such a happening.

On Zaid Hamid

It’s quite easy to come on TV with a rather non-traditional appearance and considering the fact that Iqbal and Islam both are very popular in our society, construct an entire philosophy over it. To top things up, if the person is an excellent communicator, capturing a fine audience is not that difficult.

And for Zaid Hamid, sadly, the fact stands true that so far, his shows have been manifest of a one-sided view of history invested deeply in an unbalanced amalgam, in both dimensions, of religion and patriotism, the very two rather falsely inflated by an aberrated version of his accounts of past to the convenience of his regular viewer ship’s liking. His proposed philosophy resides in the same traditionalist approach albeit clouted with a modern outfit and of course, a more modern rock-star comrade.

From such a man, expecting any impetus for a positive change is rather naive – and to accord him any importance and credibility through such importance is same as extending support to the wordy, noisy politicians of Pakistan who, at the end of the day, have done nothing on solid ground and yet a lot in the empty air above.

And while I am on it, I would explicitly declare that I am not discussing a mere single individual, which certainly means getting judgmental on someone. And I have absolutely no intent of going hard on this man and winning some argument or offending his fans. What I wish to cite is this dangerous phenomenon where someone, with very good communication skills, can cash on the common masses in our society.

I admit that for so long have we been fed with aberrant versions of history and truth that we no longer wish to see a different view. But that doesn’t eradicate the immediate need to dismantle the lies and falsities we have so long lived on. Especially, considering the current circumstances, there’s all the more need to educate the masses on this. And people like Zaid Hamid only make it tougher.

Patriotism

Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it.

George Bernard Shaw