Message to My Countrymen

My Message to Countrymen

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

In the name of Allah in whose hands is dominion and he over all things has power, and he may try which of you is the best indeed

Dear Countrymen

Today we are celebrating an imperative day in the history of our nation, 14th of August, the day when our dreams came true, the day of our independence.

A milestone, a lustring, a shinning and a sparkling day in our lives. Today we remain proud of our leaders who valiantly waged the constitutional and a democratic struggle for achieving the Muslim homeland. We remain proud of our leaders who thought over it and who carried it on in all the circumstances. We pay tribute to those who sacrificed their lives and passed away in the making of this nation. We salute our forces, who guarded the Pak land. We remain praiseful to Almighty Allah who gave us this piece of heaven to live in where we can pursue our sociopolitical, economic and cultural development as per our own will.

Where ever we live, whatever we do, we are and shall always remain a Pakistani by heart and by soul. We love Pakistan. We love Pakistan because Allah wants it exist despite of our faults and it will انشاءالله exist as long as any other country does. We love Pakistan for the sake of all the saints who lie buried in it. We love Pakistan for the sake of all the شهداء who fought for it. We love Pakistan because it will sooner or later win for itself a place of great honour and importance among the other nations of the world

Today is the day of credibility
Today is the day of success
Today is the day of our new generation
Today is the day when dreams came true
Today is the day of Quaid4 and Iqbal5
Today is the day to revive our pledge to work hard, hard and harder

This nation was not born out of no conscience or without an eye on the foreseeable future.
The Muslims of sub-continent got Pakistan for the preservation of the Islamic principles keeping in view an ideology, the Islamic ideology. One can safely say that Muslims got Pakistan in the name of Islam. And presently it’s unfortunate to see that our younger generation does not know how much sacrifices the Muslims had to give in order to achieve Pakistan. Millions of Muslim families were rendered homeless and millions were coloured with their own blood and millions of children were orphaned. It must be kept in mind that all the services and sacrifices were offered not only to get a piece of land but the main purpose was to preserve our essence and that lies in our ideology “The Islamic ideology”.

My message to my fellow countrymen is

We need to stand boldly
We need to allign our goals
We need to mend our ways
We need to walk gracefully
We need to research carefully
We need to look into the matters vigilantly

Let me remind you Nations that produce philanthropists like Abdul Sattar Edhi, scientists like Abdul Qadeer Khan, Sports man like Jan Sher Khan and brave men like Col. Sher Khan can never be defeated. Till we stand by our nation firmly and leave no stone unturned in aiding our mother land. No one can dare look with an evil eye towards us. And I will close with these beautiful urdu verses

وہ لوگ جو منزل کی خاطر
گھر بھار لٹا کر چلتے ہیں

وہ شعلہ شعلہ جیتے ہیں
وہ انگارون مین پلتے ہیں

پھر ان کے خون کے پرچم سے
سب موسم رخ بدلتے ہیں

جو لوگ کفن بردوش رہیں
جو لوگ رداء عظم لیے


اک جذب دروں کی جدت سے
خورشید بکف جب چلتے ہیں

سب ظلم کے آہن پوش خدا
پھر موم صفت پگھلتے ہیں


Pakistan Zindabad

A chit chat with a policeman

It was the sunny morning around June of 2002. Whenever I am in Karachi I like to use public transport as it is more convenient. I hopped on to a bus which they call as coach in the City of Karachi. I boarded from submarine roundabout and my destination was defense. It takes hardly around 5 to 10 minutes to cover the distance, as the roads are wide and the traffic moves fast. It was a very usual trip. But this time this small distance will change my thinking to such a big extant I never had thought.

Let me give you a little background about public transport in Karachi. There are beautifully decorated buses, they use chassis of Japanese busses and they then install custom built bodies as per their own taste. There is a driver and a cleaner. The driver drives the bus in fact flies it and the cleaner directs him when to push the gasoline and when not to. The cleaner taps the door once, it means to slow down and when he hits the door twice that means to ‘taxi’ again, and they never apply brakes fully. If you see a bus slowing down just hop into it and the cleaner taps it again, keep you balance else Edhi guys are always there to do the finals.

Now let’s get back to where I already had hopped into the bus after a while the cleaner tapped the door once it slowed down, a young policeman hopped in. The cleaner slapped the door twice and the bus speed. While the policeman was jumping in I gave him a hand. He thanked me very politely and sat beside me. We starting chit chatting, I was really impressed by his outfit. No loose trousers and un ironed shirt. He was young of my age then, looked educated though just a foot soldier. His name was Ijaz, I told him I was coming from giving an exam, and he replied he too had an exam next day. He was doing Masters. I was really impressed, I started asking him questions. He replied to each question politely. He was married. He was going to somewhere in Corangi to pick his wife where she worked as a school teacher in a private school for mere Rs.3000/- a month. I asked him you are a policeman why does your wife need to work. (Keeping in mind I had a concept since he is a policeman must have a quarter in police lines, and then above all they have extra income). He said, “bahiya hamara beeta bhi haay” Brother we have a son too. I said mashAllah, so you and your wife have to work for your child. He said yes we have only one child and the child has a heart condition. What they call it a hole in the heart. I was not softened yet. I said maybe it’s a repercussion for what our police do. Then he told me they had admitted him in an English medium private, the fee also costs besides the medication and continuous treatment and care for their son. I then looked again at the man, he looked pale like a person who eats less. Another question arose, why a private English medium school, why not the same school where his wife taught. He replied in a very confirm voice. I do not want my son to be a policeman, I studied at govt. funded school my wife was the most brilliant student of our town. What have we got, “this police job”, my wife is a gold medalist in literature and she is teaching in there. Every day I leave my wife there and remain worried until I pick her up. And now they have transferred me to the admin block which is far from my home, my kid’s school and my wife’s school just because I do not want to feed my son with haram. He has finished this sentence and my stop came. My heart was heavy, I was apologizing to that person with in my heart had no courage to speak. I just greeted him, expressed my pleasure and wished him good luck and hopped out. He waved in gratitude.

While walking towards my uncle’s home, I started noticing all the beautiful villas and the happy jolly faces, but I was no more happy. I was thinking about this Ijaz He was fighting so hard against the daily hardships. He was a policeman and still keeping himself clean. Why on earth his son had such a condition. Why on earth his wife being a gold medalist at the Karachi University would end up teaching at a private school and not at some good college. How long will he keep himself and till when the society will not engulf him in its evils.

I still wonder how many Ijaz are there in our society. How many gems are being wasted like this? And what did I do, I never meet Ijaz again, I never heard his story again. But I believe if all of us became like Ijaz, we will be able to remove so many evils in our society. If only we cared to provide halal rizk to our children, our children will no more be disobedient. If only we cared to provide the best possible education to our children their future will be brighter. We need to find Ijaz in ourselves and we need to correct ourselves the foremost and then look inside some ones collar. And lastly let’s stop this generalizing game that is taking our society by an epidemic, Not all policeman are bad and neither does the entire citizen a victim. We need to respect them; they protect us and sacrifice their lives so that we can sleep. Yes there are rotten eggs, but how clean are we ourselves? I leave you all with this question. You may answer to yourself and no one should judge anyone.

The Weakest Link

It’s a famous English TV show weekly showcased worldwide in different formats, which took its start from BBC 2 is quite an interesting game show that will end somewhere is December next year. To sum up the format of the game show, there is a group of players/ participants, who work together, and bank money. If a wrong answer is given, a certain precaution if not applied earlier, they lose money. But to winning money there is one more interesting element in the game. The players get to decide, who they no more want to play along them. Participants vote him out. And it can be any one. It can be the one who was the strongest was statistically the strongest link but others show him the way out and the disciplinarian host tell that person “The team has found you guilty and I hereby sentence you to the walk of shame”. The only thing important here is that the participant’s main goal is to bank in maximum money and to keep eliminating the ones who might be a hindrance in achieving the main goal. With each elimination the time period of each round gets little and little and only one person wins at the end.



Every nation every society has its own game show, people play and participant in reality shows that go around and about everything from daily lives to the most personal affairs. While watching this game show, I saw a reality game show around ourselves where we are all a participant and are in a constant struggle to excel. As famously said by William Shakespeare, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players”



In our society there are only two players in the running game show. Its men and women. But the rules are a little different. In case there is a winner both are winners, there is no sudden death, and if there is a looser both are losers and both are destined to die and eventually the society will die. What we see in our society are diminishing moral values, escape from responsibilities and cut shorts to presumed glories. The recent Supreme court verdict on Mukhatara Mai case not only has opened wounds which were still not fully healed but also has reminded us of the grin reality that we are moving towards downfall, as one part of our society is turning into our weakest link. With our non - caring and non approving attitude it is turning rebellious, more ignorant of its duties and is turning away and more speedily opting to values other than our own.



We are turning our women into “The Weakest Link” of our age and pushing them towards shame and disgrace. We no longer give them the place they deserve as Mother, Sister, Wife or Daughter. One section of our society wants them to be behind veils and curtains of darkness, and even denies their basic right of education and on the other hand there is another section that would treat them as an object of mere beauty and would not leave a single chance in fulfilling their humanly desires. Here arises the main question will we ever reach the final round of the game in such a situation whre both participants are to play their role, or we both shall get eliminated in the making.



We need to educate our women. Because only educated women can give the society better children. Here education is not merely college or university degree. It is education in all sense, which shall encompass all the spheres of life. We have to give them room so that their abilities and their skills can be polished. Humans are born with equal mind. We have to realize it’s time that we do not keep the better half of our society paralyzed with our customary thinking which has developed over the ages, and has nothing to do with our religion. We have to go forward hand in hand win it all together. We have to take up our responsibility. We should always remember these words from the last sermon of Holy Prophet Muhammad (Salalahu Aliye Wasalam) in which he said,

“O People! it is true that you have certain rights with regard to your women but they also have rights over you. Remember that you have taken them as your wives only under Allah's trust and with His permission. If they abide by your right then to them belongs the right to be fed and clothed in kindness. Do treat your women well and be kind to them for they are your partners and committed helpers. And it is your right that they do not make friends with anyone of whom you do not approve, as well as never to be unchaste.”



And what beautifully Allama Iqbal says,

اک زندہ حقیقت مرے سینے میں ھے مستور

کیا سمجھے گا وہ جس کی رگوں میں ھے لھو سرد

نا پردا نا تعلیم نئ ہو کہ پرانی

نسوانيت زن كا نگہباں ھے فقط مرد

جس قوم نے اس ژندہ حقیقت کو نہ پایا

اس قوم کا خورشید بہت جلد ہوا زرد



“We need to turn The Weakest Link of our society into our Strongest Link”

You were right

Its early morning, on Oct. 12, 1999 and I am standing at the Multan airport, waiting for a passenger on a flight from Saudi enroute from Lahore to receive some of important documents. My driver has left me as he had important jobs to finish whereby the flights kept getting delayed and my frustrations started to grew. I was visiting the PIA information desk again and again for information on any flight heading towards Multan. Meanwhile a flight landed but the information desk would not give any names of the passengers. While I was waiting for the signs of any passenger I knew, the Tahsildar who was in charge of my hospitality came running in the airport and said, “Baita meray sath chaloo, abhi aik siphaya aa gayee ga aur ham sab yaheen pashay raheengay”. We sat in his Pajero and left the airport hurriedly. The tahseldar belonged to a well to do family and was supposedly doing a govt. job to keep up the family name (which was otherwise false – A tasheldar with a Pajero? It is Pakistan). We reached his home it was previously a PPP hub, now turned into Leghari group.

I saw people distributing sweets and cheering on bus tops and motorbikes. I was confused and getting nervous at this sudden jubilation and asked what is going on. There was no reply. On reaching home we had a splendid lunch. I had just returned from NCC and was dying for a home cooked food as it was months I was away from home. I went to my room and called my Khallu a Major at that time in army, he was in Karachi during operation and was now posted at Khariyan, I loved to talk to him, because he was brave, well built and an ideal baloch soldier. While we were having chit chat he abruptly said, “aur phir Malik sahib kay pass fougi aaa gayee hain”. Unfortunately there was no TV in my room and I did not carry a cell phone with me during those times. I was shocked, I asked what, and why? Because I was never expecting something like this. Malik sahib was my uncle at that time Assistant Commissioner at Jallal Pur Perwala. The major was happy the army is now in control of the DMG after a hefty bhal safayee.

Nawas Sharif was one of the politicians I admired, Musharraf was one of the COAs I liked, as up till then Kargil episode had been over, and to my the then knowledge Pakistani Army had given a hard beating to the Indians. In fact I adhored Musharraf so much that I started learning shooting with a pistol and even tried a Benson & Hedges and got heavy scolding from my cousin. I was in dismay, non approving, but when I got the glimpse of BBC I realized it’s all over we are back to ground zero. I saw army men jumping into the PTV headquarters. Nawaz Sharif had been put behind bars and Musharraf was the new Chief Executive seizing all powers.

Afterwards I called my uncle in Karachi, and said you were right and hung up. My uncle (chacha) was Assistant Director with the AG Pakistan at that time and was at that time was supervising the audit of PNSC (there is a sad story of PNSC which I will narrate some other time). While once going with him in his chauffer driven car, it was around February or January the same year, and Kargil incident had not taken place, he read aloud a news clipping it was around , “Americe hakoomat nay Pakistani foug ku inteba kia haay kaay vu mulk kay andar kissi bhi kisim ki mohem johi say baz rahay”. I had exclaimed it is impossible, people from Karachi to Khyber like Nawas Sharif he has been the sole tool of getting us realized as a declared nuclear state. He laughed back, and said, I have never seen such a fool in my life as this man. I did not want to hear him, as I remembered 1997 when in our school in Riyadh we had huge jubilations, we held celebrations and had put Nawaz Sharif’s speech on a gigantic screen whereby he had addressed the nation after carrying out nuclear tests. Chachagi continued, dear the world fears him and fears Islam as a code of conduct for daily life. The poor fellow has already misused his delegated authority. I said how, first these nuclear tests and secondly the National assembly has passed the 15^th amendment which will Islamize the country’s constitution. I said chahchagi, per bill tu already pass hu chukka haay. He explained still they do not have majority in the Senate and in coming June there are going to be Senate elections and once it gets approved the whole 15^th amendment will be part of our constitution. I still replied he will keep up, he has the 2/3^rd majority the people have voted for him, we are democratic country and it is no more 70s. He would say nothing and would just smile back.

I realized we are not a free nation. We got the independence but we never became independent. We went slaves to our desires and our pride. As a nation and as individuals we are egoistic, stubborn and unthankful. We make the same mistakes over and over again. We make promises and then brake them. We stand up and then fall. We became a nation then we fell into individuality. Nations which flourish and succeed do not carry egos, do not back out on their promises, do not repeat their mistakes. Still by the end of each day, we pray to God and say O Allah bless us, with your blessing. but we forget what he has said in Quran. In Surrat Ar-Ra`d "For each one are successive [angels] before and behind him who protect him by the decree of Allah . Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves. And when Allah intends for a people ill, there is no repelling it. And there is not for them besides Him any patron"

and beautifully summed up by Allama Muhammad Iqbal for a common man to understand easliy.

خدا نے آج تک ا س قوم حالت نھین بدلی

نا ہو خیال جس کو خود آپ اپنی حالت کے بدلنے کا