PTI Leader Imran Khan

Imran Khan, my teenage crush, idol and our all time favourite captain, has a massive responsibility of handling the expectations of a nation who is let down by all the leaders in the past. Can he do it? Its a near impossible task which cannot be done alone. He should have a strong and honest team to deliver the results. I am a huge fan of Imran Khan but a reluctant supporter of the politician Imran Khan.

I wish to agree with Dr Arif Alvi when he writes about the public support enjoyed by Imran Khan “Let me sound the bugle that the tides have turned and for those who have seen or read about the Bhutto ‘sailab’, this is an emerging ‘tsunami’, as the people have found a leader they can trust and who will deliver.”

From zulfikar Ali Bhutto to my Kaptaan

By Arif Alvi was published in The Express Tribune, August 3^rd, 2011.

The crowd was pulsating as Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) continued to talk about Afro-Asian solidarity. Some of us raised anti-Ayub slogans. ZAB stopped us and said ‘abhi naheen’. He was into the third hour of his first public speech after ditching his mentor and the venue was Government College Lahore. The 60s were an era of healthy debate between the left and the right. My mother insisted that I stop reading comics and novels and she thrust upon a young mind The dialogues of Plato. I graduated to Maududi, Marx and Engels to understand socialism, religion and the exploitation of man by laissez faire capitalism. Iqbal fired up a passion and pride, and Bhutto’s book The Myth of Independence gave me a nationalist perspective, though I disagreed with his political philosophy. People dislodged Ayub Khan and yours truly still carries a couple of bullets in his right arm as a memento of a people’s struggle gone awry, somewhat like Egypt of today with no real change. Our lot since then has gotten from worse to worst and beyond.

Forty years later I am travelling with Imran Khan from Lahore to Faisalabad for a PTI jalsa. His recent upsurge started from the Peshawar dharna. Karachi was the watershed where people of all ethnicities joined in to make a statement that there is a breath of fresh air in this miserable political arena. Multan was a notch higher and we reached there in time from Lahore despite many receptions on the way.

We started at 2:30 pm, planning to reach the Dhobi Ghat ground in Faisalabad at 6 pm. But it was not to be despite Imran Khans urgings, as the crowd in every village on the way had come on the roads to welcome him. There was a sea of passionate people every mile of the road we travelled.

An old man almost got trampled making it to his side of the car and with tears in his eyes exhorted Imran Khan to “save Pakistan”. Women pushed through the crowd of men, shouted greetings, and those who could not reach the car would give the traditional blessing from a distance. Huge crowds would not allow us to move despite our portable speaker announcements that tens of thousands were waiting for us in Faisalabad.

Khan blamed me for the lack of organisation and discipline in the welcoming crowds. But it was evident that the paradigm shift and tsunami which he had been predicting had arrived. It was incredible to see the rising passion of the people which gives a leader strength, but also puts on his shoulders a great burden of responsibility.

For me, this was déjà vu’ plus, from the Bhutto era. I welcomed Asghar Khan in Karachi in ’67. Then I followed Bhutto, though I disagreed with his pseudo leftist philosophy. I never forgave him his role in the breakaway of East Pakistan, but I imbibed the hope of his ‘we-will-make-a-new-Pakistan’ speech after the debacle. I admired him for his brilliant link to the people and the dignity which he gave to the common man. What has been done to his legacy is nothing short of political rape.

Mubashir Hasan and others like Rafi Raza have dissected Bhutto’s contradictions in their books and have concluded that he had two personalities which struggled within him, that of a wadera and that of an awami leader. He loved the latter but frequently succumbed to the compromises of the former. Khan has no schism. What you see is what you get. Let me sound the bugle that the tides have turned and for those who have seen or read about the Bhutto ‘sailab’, this is an emerging ‘tsunami’, as the people have found a leader they can trust and who will deliver.

Is Imran Khan the only hope left for the people of Pakistan?

Imran Khan at the Faisalabad rally

Technorati Tags: imran khan, my kaptaan, politics pakistan, pti, tehreek-e-insaaf

Zardari aur Shareef

Technorati Tags: humour in urdu, mazahiya urdu shairi, poetry urdu, siyasi shairi, urdu shairi

Inflation in Pakistan

The major portion of our salaries is used in paying the electricity, gas and phone bills. The electricity charges per unit are revised upwards multiple times in a year. In summers this bill becomes unpayable even if use our airconditioners for decoration only! And have alook at the lavish living of  our members of Parliment. We, the poor people of pakistan do not afford a democratic government. When million are wasted on electing MPAs and trillions to keep them and all that for doing nothing! (87 of these elected member did not say a words in the assembly for past 3 years!!! How can help the people of their constituencies)

Govt. Concessions for a Member of NATIONAL ASSEMBLY (MNA)

Monthly Salary : Rs. 120,000  to 200,000
Expense for Constitution  per month : Rs.100,000
Office expenditure per  month : Rs.140,000
Traveling concession (Rs.  8 per km) : Rs.48,000 (For a visit to ISLAMABAD & return): 6000 km
Daily BETA during  Assembly  meets : Rs.500
Charge for 1st class (A/C)  in train : Free (For any number of        times all over   PAKISTAN )
Charge for Business Class in flights: Free for 40 trips / year (With wife or P.A.)
Rent for Govt.. hostel any  where: Free
Electricity costs at home  : Free up to 50,000 units
Local phone call charge :   Free up to 1,70,000 calls
TOTAL expense for a MNA  per year : Rs. 32,000,000

TOTAL expense for 5 years  : Rs. 1,60,000,000

For 534 MNA, the expense  for 5 years :  
Rs. 85 , 440,000,000 (more than 800 Crores)

And they are elected by THE PEOPLE OF PAKISTAN, through a democratic process of this world, not intruded into the assembly on their own or by any qualification.

How rich are Pakistani MNAs Read More…

Rich MPAs of Pakistan

Technorati Tags: concessions for the MNA of Pakistan, cost of mps, democracy, electricity bills, pakistani mpas, pakistani politics, political satire

president's house Islamabad

By Ansar Abbasi

ISLAMABAD: Contrary to the sinking financial health of the country, the budget for the year 2011-2012 treats the president and prime minister like Mughal emperors.

In a country where almost half of the population lives below the poverty line or is deprived of basic facilities, billions are being spent on just the top two rulers — the president and prime minister. Besides what is spent on the officials of the Presidency, the Prime Minister’s Secretariat and the PM’s House, an enormous amount has been allocated to look after the luxury of these two top rulers.

Unlike the cabinet ministers, advisers, special assistants and members of the Senate and National Assembly, who will get a 15% raise, the president and prime minister have not been given any raise but the spending on their foreign tours alone is more than the total budgetary allocation for the MPs.

The salaries of President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani remain unchanged and meager — Rs one million for the president and Rs1.08 million for prime minister. However, the taxpayers have to cough up almost Rs2 billion merely for the foreign tours of these emperors of Pakistan.

The budget allocates Rs1.57 billion for the foreign tours of the prime minister whereas this particular allocation in the case of president is Rs310 million. But in practice, the president is always away from the country at official expense.

For the state conveyance and motorcars of the prime minister, this poor nation would have to pay Rs24.6 million in the next fiscal year. Such is the lavish lifestyle of our rulers at the cost of national exchequer that Rs45 million is being allocated alone for the wages of the household servants of prime minister.

We have heard a lot about the extravagance lifestyle of the Mughal kings and queens, but the present emperors of Pakistan are no less, with the prime minister getting Rs14.3 million for the maintenance of his gardens. For the dispensary of the Prime Minister’s House, the budget allocates Rs10.2 million while Rs546 million is allocated for the salaries of the government servants working with Gilani.

President Zardari’s rhetoric for the poor and needy of this country apart, he is leading such a lavish life in the Presidency that the budget makers have allocated Rs110 million merely for the staff and household of the president. Apart from this amount, another Rs39 million will be spent on wages of the president’s household servants.

For the maintenance of the Presidency’s gardens, Rs15 million is being allocated, besides another Rs27.7 million that is meant for the state conveyance and motorcars of the Presidency.

Despite being a figurehead with no constitutional role in the day-to-day running of the government, the president is allowed to have such a huge number of government officials, who (only in term of their salaries) would cost the exchequer at least Rs482 million in the next fiscal year.

David Cameron in Faisal Mosque

A news in Daily mail gave me a pleasant surprise. David Cameron! you won our hearts!!!

David Cameron today declared Britain responsible for the creation of ‘many’ of the world’s problems as he sought to extend a hand of friendship to Pakistan.

After unveiling plans to pour £650m into the country’s education system in a move seen to be an attempt to quell an earlier spat over terrorism, Mr Cameron appeared to accept that the legacy of the British Empire was responsible for the bitter struggle for Kashmir.

In a press conference with Pakistani leader Yusuf Raza Gilani, Mr Cameron took pains to ease feathers ruffled by his earlier attack as he faced tough questioning from Pakistani journalists over his ‘obnoxious’ comments.

Technorati Tags: british Pm, cameron in Faisal mosque, cameron in pakistan, david cameron on pakistan, kashmir problem, legacy of british empire, pakistan and Uk

salman taseer killed

Salman Taseer, the Governer of Punjab was assassinated in Kohsar Market of Islamabad today. This time it is not a suicide attack and we have a living suspect who handed over himself to the police.

Mr Taseer was murdered by his own security guard, named Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri. Qadri who belonged to the elite force claims that he could have run away if he wanted to but says he killed Salman Taseer because of his remarks about the blasphemy law of Pakistan.

Salman Taseer came out of the restaurant, “Table Talk” in Kohsar Market and was about to sit in his car when his guard opened fire on him. He received bullets on his chest and neck and was rushed to Poly Clinic but succumbed to the injuries.

Mr Rehman Malik has confirmed the incidence and says that ” he has lost a dear friend.” He further said “He (Qadri) confessed that the killed the governor because he had called the Blesphemy Law a “black law”.

Our media as usual is trying to use the word “shaheed” in a wrong way by calling Mr Taseer “shaheed” ….. please use the words killed or murdred instead.

Our ruling elite should think twice when they hire huge force of armed men for their protection because bullets only kill they do not see whom they are killing.

Mumtaz Qadri

Technorati Tags: blasphemy law, elite force, governer punjab killed, kohsar matker, malik mohammed hussain qardi, salman tasser killed, table talk

imran khan

I don’t have to do this,” Imran Khan tells me earnestly. “I could have a very easy existence. I could go on TV and make so much money, live like a king.” Instead the retired international cricketer, and former husband of Jemima Khan, has dedicated his life to politics back home in Pakistan. Jemima, the daughter of the late financier, Sir James Goldsmith, may just have bought a £15 million stately pile in Oxfordshire, but Imran lives hand-to-mouth on a farm outside Islamabad. He grows his own vegetables and tends cows on his land in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Since he founded his party, Tehreek-e-Insaf (the Movement for Justice), in 1996 on an anti-corruption platform, he has campaigned against the elite hogging all the resources. He personally sold all his cricketing memorabilia to fund a cancer hospital in memory of his mother, who died of the disease, and he has opened a vocational college in a poverty-stricken area of Pakistan.

Imran, 57, took nothing from Jemima’s fortune when they divorced, so when he runs out of money he does a brief stint as a TV pundit. But he is completely unmaterialistic. “You achieve inner peace when you give away what you have,” he says.

This week he is in London to talk about the crisis in Pakistan, but he has never liked city life. His parents used to take him up in the hills each summer as a boy, and now he takes his sons Sulaiman, 13, and Kasim, 10, hiking and shooting partridge when they visit his farm. He has built them a mini-cricket ground. “They are quite good,” he laughs.

Gone is the handsome playboy who spent his nights in Annabel’s and squired gorgeous women, including Susannah Constantine and painter Emma Sergeant, around town. He still has those patrician looks but these days Imran would rather stay up all night talking politics than nightclubbing.

Last week I watched him give a talk to students in London. Mostly bright, politicised young Pakistani-Muslims, they treated him like a rock star. His sense of urgency was palpable, as is his fear that Pakistan might implode at any minute.

Already, it is routinely described as a “failed state”. From day one he opposed the War on Terror and “the American puppet politicians in Pakistan”. The decision to send the army into the tribal areas of the North West Frontier, to flush out al Qaeda terrorists, simply fuelled extremism. “It’s civil war in the making,” he says shaking his head. “They were like a bull in a china shop, fighting one or two guerrillas with aerial bombing of villages. That turned people against the army and a new phenomenon was created: the Pakistan Taliban.” It’s made him believe even more passionately in socio-economic justice. “You will have no problem with extremists in Pakistan if you have democracy with a welfare state,” he tells the audience.

By the end of the evening he looked shattered. Half his life is spent in transit and his close friend tells me he is wearing jeans instead of the usual suit because he forgot to pack a belt. When I meet him two days later at Ormeley Lodge, near Richmond Park, he is still fielding calls about a wave of bombings in Pakistan, and trying to have high tea with his sons. The Georgian childhood home of his former wife is where Imran stays whenever he is in London, as a guest of her mother, Lady Annabel Goldsmith. The wing where we meet is modest: with a pool table and well-worn sofas.

He speaks cordially — if carefully —about his ex-wife. “It’s a very tricky thing, divorce, and toughest on the children. But as divorces go, ours has been the most amicable. The anger and bitterness comes when there is infidelity. But there was no infidelity,” he says firmly. “I realised her unhappiness in Pakistan and she, after trying her best, found she just couldn’t live there. So that’s why it ended, it was just a geographical problem, and we couldn’t sustain a marriage like that. If you care for someone you don’t want to see them unhappy. My connection with the Goldsmith household is just as it’s always been. They [Jemima's siblings, Zac and Ben] are like my younger brothers. And Annabel is as close to me.”

His marriage suffered because of his political zeal — he didn’t stand in the 2007 election, arguing that there could be no democracy while the judges were still controlled by the ruling party. But now politics is a mission for him, not a career. “If someone offered me a political career, I would shoot myself. Having to get votes through making compromises, no thank you. “The classic example in Englandis Tony Blair.

How did the people go wrong with him lying all the way? He sold the idea that there were weapons of mass destruction. If there had been conscientious politicians in your assembly who weren’t worried about their political careers, he would never have got away with it.” Many people think his involvement in politics is a way to keep alight the adulation he craved as a cricketer, but after leavingAitchison College in Lahore (the equivalent of Eton), he studied politics at Keble College, Oxford. Former cricketing colleagues — Imran played for Worcestershire and Sussex — recall an intense young man who hated pubs (as a Muslim he doesn’t drink) and public speaking. He returned to cricket once more at the World Cupin 1992, aged 39 when he captained Pakistan to victory.

But his spiritual awakening had come in his early thirties after witnessing his mother’s agonising death from cancer, without access to proper treatment and painkilling drugs. “She was in such agony that after she passed away I had to consciously discipline myself to shut out the memory of her pain.”

He consulted a mystic who “made me realise I had a responsibility to society because I was given so much. It created selflessness”. Imran approached Pakistan’s richest men — many had been schoolfriends — for help in raising £25 million to build a cancer hospital, but quickly learned that wealth and generosity don’t always go hand in hand. Instead, he took to an open jeep and toured 29 cities in six weeks, asking ordinary people for help. “In those six weeks I changed. I realised the generosity of tea boys, taxi drivers, the poorest people bringing 10 rupee notes — and also their faith. I collected £14 million in those six weeks.” Today the hospital treats 70 per cent of patients for free.

Although the dictatorial president, Pervez Musharraf, resigned in 2008, Imran has no faith in the current “democratic” government, now headed by Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of Benazir Bhutto. Imran talks passionately about how the rich in Pakistan travel by jet and have tax-evading bank accounts in Switzerland.

He may insist that support for his Movement for Justice party is growing, but the truth is he is still perceived as a maverick outsider. And his romantic past hasn’t helped. Conservative voters bring up the love child with Sita White (Imran has never publicly acknowledged Tyrian, now 17, as his daughter; but since her mother died in 2004, he has been involved in her upbringing). And of course there’s his marriage to Jemima, a half-Jewish, half Catholic heiress.

Despite converting to Islam and learning Urdu, Jemima — 20 years Imran’s junior and still at university when they met — was accused (falsely) of trying to smuggle antique tiles out of Pakistan. The final straw, says Imran, was in 2002 when she was accused of studying under “the blasphemer Salman Rushdie” because his book, The Satanic Verses, had appeared on her university reading list. Protesters torched posters of Jemima. “She was really shaken up by that and moved to England, so that was a big crisis for me.”

Two years later the marriage ended. Jemima has continued to impress as Unicef special representative — and a passionate advocate for democracy in Pakistan. “Frankly I never understood the media image of her as a socialite,” Imran tells me. “I never thought she would fit into that role because she’s very bright, she’s very political.”

But then Imran is a mass of contradictions himself. In the past, he has argued that the pressure on women to work has contributed to the breakdown of society in the West: “My mother was the biggest influence on my life, a proper mother.” Yet he believes that “a woman should be able to reach her full potential”, and he set up his university in a remote, conservative part of Pakistan precisely so local women could get an education for the first time in the region’s history. And he reminds me his three sisters are high-powered career women with children.

Pakistan is Imran’s passion and he feels little nostalgia for London — except as the place where his sons live: “Fatherhood has given me the greatest pleasure in my life. And hence it was very painful, the divorce, because that [being separated from them] was the main aspect. But I am basically a goal-orientated person, it’s never been about making money or a job. My passion is there so I only come to England to see my children.”

Imran has a core group of friends he has known for 40 years here. Setting up this interview, I came across a devoted group of Londoners — from lecturers to hairdressers — who give up time and money to support his party. “They know I do not have to do this, that it’s a big personal sacrifice,” he says.

He finds it desperately sad that he has to defend being a Muslim. “The most important thing to understand is what’s happening in Pakistan, and this war on terror is not a religious issue, it’s a political issue.” No religion allows terrorism, Imran insists, but “people pushed into desperate situations will do desperate acts”.

It doesn’t make him popular. He’s been dubbed a Taliban supporter by the same enemies who once called him a Zionist sympathiser. Critics say his politics are idealistic and unworkable in a country bailed out of chaos periodically by military regimes, but Imran insists democracy can be a street movement: “Yes there’s a fear, will Pakistan survive? But in a way it’s very encouraging because you can see the politicisation of the youth. That’s how it starts, in the campuses. Sixty-five per cent of Pakistanis are below the age of 25.”

This probably explains why four days ago, with the help of Jemima, Imran set up his own Twitter page. Back home, he says current affairs programmes get higher ratings than Big Brother.

“Our Paxmans are the most watched in Pakistan today.” Is he handing over the baton? He smiles wearily. “Basically I want the young to come in and upset the whole equation.”

Technorati Tags: himalayas, imran khan, islamabad, jemima khan, london, london evening standard, oxfordshire, sir james goldsmith, tehreek-e-insaaf

poor pelican

On watching this picture my son exclaimed “Poor pelican! They can’t fly, can’t breate or eat! Its my favorite bird.”

The oil well under water is still leaking 20,000 to 40,000 barrels per day since the April 20 rig explosion that killed 11 workers and set the disaster in motion. This is a threatening situation for fish,  sea birds and other wildlife. I wish humans are more careful and thoughtful. These birds faced an attack from an unseen enemy. My heart goes out to them. Most birds arrive at rescue centers hungry, dehydrated and exhausted, having neglected eating in the frantic struggle to clean themselves.

What are the chances of survival for a pelican (like the one in the picture)?

Scientists with the Marine Wildlife Veterinary Care and Research Center in California said it costs them $600 to $750 to clean a bird. Cleaning a single pelican can require 300 gallons of water. How many birds can these rescue missions save? Not many. I still appreciate their effort as they are trying to make a difference in the lives of our generations to come.

On the other hand more important role is to be played by the developed countries who claim to be the masters and have acquired the role of cleaning the world from all the elements endangering life on planet earth.

Their role somehow is amusing and confusing at the same time. The developed world does not want their citizens to be killed by weapons and yet they are the major producers and ‘users’ of these destructive weapons. The developed world wants the enviroment to be preserved and safe but they are the major destroyers as they produce maximum chemicals that leave the water, air and earth polluted. Only from 2000 to 2009, 72 spills dumped 18,000 barrels of oil into U.S. federal waters only.

Please save wildlife, save earth.

Crying for help

Related Links:

http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f7ded15e4d4846268a17b79c1c4b7cb8/Article_2010-06-10-US-Gulf-Oil-Spill-Animal-Rescue/id-9b12eeb39fb74ca685dcd02c9d98d8e9

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/3802244/US-doubles-Gulf-spill-estimate

Technorati Tags: BP oil spill, gulf of mexico, oil pelican, pelicans and oil spill, sea birds, wildlife

Nuclear club

Bombs kill !! Should we celebrate making a bomb?

Lets have a look at the other nations who have this ability. This elite group does not include any poor, weak, underdeveloped and uneducated country. They are all “powerful” and developed countries. But Pakistan entered this club after their nuclear tests in 1998 in reply to Indian explosions . That made Pakistan the seventh nuclear nation of the world and first Muslim state equipped with deadly arsenal.

People argue why should we possess them in the first place. Having them  does not mean we will use them too. If I have a gun at home for self defence this doesn’t mean I will go out and shoot someone. It is only for the neighborhood to know your ability to fight back if attacked. In this world with so many divisions and strict beliefs such powers are only meant to retain the balance. Either everyone should give up these deadly weapons and lets make our world nuclear free or lets celebrate having them.

Pakistan exploded its nuclear devices at Chaghi on 28th May twelve years ago and we are celebrating this day today. Happy Youm-e-Takbeer to all Pakistanis. Allah o Akbar!

Technorati Tags: chaghi, india pakistan, may 28, nuclear club, pakistan nuclear weapons, Pakistani Housewife, youm-e-takbeer

Faisal Shahzad & wife

Faisal Shahzad Succeeded in Destroying the Image of Every Pakistani

I sat down with my breakfast and laid my eyes on the newspaper a few days ago. There was a picture of a young model like man on the front page. Such pictures appear when a huge advertisement campaign uses the front page too but on a closer look I realised it was a serious news. This was Faisal Shahzad who became a known face overnight but all for wrong reasons. He tried to bomb the Times square NY.

If  any sane Pakistani who is educated, employed, married and “was” living a normal life acts in the way Faisal did ….its hard to believe. Who would like to put his life, family, career and country on stake for attempting to kill innocent people? This is not Islam. Smells like consiracy.

His insanity has  stamped a question mark on the face of every normal Pakistani living in the world who is trying to earn and live a peace life like everybody else. All of us are sad on becoming a culprit without doing anything. Such Pakistanis are damaging this country.Why did he do this? is this an adventure? was he out of his mind?

His family profile doesn’t depict him to be someone desirous of bombing New York. Having a father who was an officer of the Pakistan Air Force (Air Vice Marshal Baharul Haq), a brother well-settled in Canada, a paternal uncle, Major General Tajul Haq, former Inspector General of the Frontier Corps (IGFC), a father-in-law Iftikhar Mian who runs a successful business in Karachi and a well-educated wife, Huma Mian, who is an American national, Faisal Shehzad simply doesn’t fit the conventional profile of a Jihadi terrorist.

He failed in his attempt to bomb the “times square” but succeeded in destroying the image of every Pakistani. He is also responsible for a dark future of his kids who will always be termed as children of a terrorist. He gave this pain to his parents in this age…. I wish to find out the true reason behind his insanity.

Faisal Shahzad's house Pakistan

Related Links:

http://tribune.com.pk/story/11739/pakistani-americans-and-faisal-shahzad/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1273618/Faisal-Shahzad-From-tourist-terrorist-mystery-Times-Square-bombers-motives-deepen.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Technorati Tags: Air Vice Marshal Baharul Haq, american suspect, faisal shahzad, Iftikhar Mian, pakistanihousewife, times square