How A Terrorist Is Made- A Comic

Not every revolutionary situation leads to a Revolution

Elections 2013 are coming closer, most probably in April, as the current Assembly will be dissolved after completing its five-year term in March 2013 (hopefully).  If it does, we might as well have the first democratically elected government to have survived its full five-year term. Strangely, it is a proud and yet an embarrassing feeling to have finally achieved the holy grail of surviving a full term without any army intervention (so to speak) in our 65 years of existence on the world map.

Politics is in the air and not a single day passes when my Twitter and Facebook timelines are not swamped by political debates. Though I do not purport to be an elections expert as there are already enough out there without me stepping into the fray, I will make an effort to present my thoughts about the elections from a layman voter’s perspective.

Lenin once said that a revolution is impossible without a revolutionary situation. So is there such a situation in Pakistan. These elections are being heralded as harbingers of change-positive change i.e. But are they really?

PTI, PMLN, PPP, MQM, ANP are all, promising to usher Pakistan into a new era of prosperity. To me, after the nightmare 2008-2013 period nothing that comes from PPP should be taken at face value, well at least I will not take it. But despite all its failings – and those are some pretty gigantic failings- PPP still has support in Southern Punjab and  Sind, even though its popularity in interior Sind is waning, courtesy bad governance. While PMLN, ANP and MQM are squabbling over their respective regions, what Pakistan truly wants right now is a national party. Supporters of PTI will disagree with me as they will cite successful rallies in the four provincial capitals of Pakistan as proof of support, but rallies do not automatically translate into votes and despite claims, PTI is focusing to get seats in Punjab as it does not have enough “electables” to be a serious contender in three other provinces.  We can call PPP, the ghost of a national party it once was but now it cannot form a government without coalition support in Baluchistan, KPK, Karachi and Southern Punjab.

Since no party right now can claim to be a truly national party, what they are doing is squabbling over and exploiting, biradri, sectarian and ethnic votes. Policies and plans have been left over to be argued on social media and Talk shows, none of which, in all sincerity, will affect the opinion of the general voter populace much. The main body of voters resides in rural areas and is too hard pressed in their daily struggle of lives to really give a thought to the various economic and educational plans put forth by the political parties.

Hence, hunting for electables in constituencies is the main strategy of parties right now, policies and issues be damned.  This is the sad reality of Pakistani politics. Every election in this country has been called as a change but has the change ever come? Every single government in this country’s 65-year existence is a case study in bad governance and indecisive character. And, expect this trend to continue unless one thing happens. Spread of Education.

In my opinion, it all comes down to education when we are choosing which political party will be leading our country for the next five years. Like I said before, we are still quagmired in ethnic, biradri, sectarian and favor asking politics and all this is because our general ‘awam’ is not educated enough to really question the manifestos and economic recovery plans of political parties nor are they really empowered to vote freely.

Talking about published plans by political parties, they really haven’t evolved from being simple idealistic statements to implementable objective plans with checks and balances because quite honestly they don’t need to.

When 70% of our prodigal parliamentarians don’t even pay taxes and at least 60% of whom we will be seeing in the next assembly, how can you expect major changes? The general Pakistani population is too busy in making their ends meet to really go out into the streets to protest or to go in courts to sue their respective MNAs and MPAs and thus this issue will soon fizzle out into nothingness and will not affect the outcome of elections in possible sense, which really tells us something about how the voters will be marking their ballot in the upcoming elections.

So if you ask me if the next elections would bring anything new to Pakistan, will any positive change be coming, all I can do is to re quote Lenin, “…..not every revolutionary situation leads to revolution”.

Nusrat Bhai's Problem with PTI

Nusrat Javed is a competent journalist; let’s give him that at least. He deserves it. On occasion, he might blunder and bluster just like somebody’s extremely old grandpa on family occasions, but still, his journalistic experience demands respect.

Nusrat’s saab’s  contention with PTI youth, or ‘trolls’ as he and other respectable liberals (present  almost exclusively on Twitter) , prefer to call them , is well known, well observed and has been the subject matter of much casual chit chats, face to face verbal jousting and war of comments on social networks. As a part of the generation that is gradually disappearing, his discomfiture with the social network active youth is understandable. He is slow to catch up on the trend, but social media is now gradually playing an important role in Pakistani politics with its ability to bring on the table, youth (though mostly from urban areas) and their newfound love for political activism. And with youth, well, you get occasional hot heads, cyber bullies, overzealous preachers and passionate expounders of conspiracy theories. It is a whole new world for the people of old electronic and print media and a one to which they now have to get used to. But one has to understand the undercurrents of the rising tide of participation by Pakistani youth in politics.

Youth have played a significant part in world politics. Throughout history, their participation is synonymous with dramatic changes or to be more fair, the various revolutionary leaders throughout history have utilized the services of young people to change the course of history. It has been seen that youth can get exploited and manipulated for both good and nefarious purposes. Muhammad Ali Jinnah used the Muslim youth of the sub continent to good success for the Pakistan Movement, but there have been instances where youth were used for more sinister purposes like the Nazification of Germany or the Cultural Revolution in China and yes it is shameful that the Taliban have proven more successful in attracting young people than our mainstream national parties, and that is the reality. But as you might observe these days, the reserves of undecided and politically inactive youth are being tapped by political parties throughout the world.  With the voluntary and involuntary inclusion of youth in political and social discussions, the rules of discussion and debate are changing and which many politicians and journalists -including Nusrat Javed- are finding hard to come to terms with.

In comparison to other parties, PTI seems to have had a reasonable success with youth and parallels with Obama’s 2008-election strategy can be justifiably drawn. Their crafty exploitation of the Messiah Syndrome in the masses and the use of youth in spreading their message are two similarities that glaringly stand out.

But aside from all this, both the Democrats in USA and PTI in Pakistan have realized the importance of youth in politics. It was the youth that toppled the Shah’s regime in Iran and the despotic governments of Ben Ali in Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. The power of youth thus cannot be under estimated.

But what happens in most cases is that the young people who have been in the fore forefront of movements and election campaigns get disillusioned by the policies of their leaders, like this year, Obama faces an uphill battle against the rising number of youth non-participants in elections, the same youth that so fervently voted for him the 2008 elections are now are little unsure about him. This is a case study from heaven for PTI and it should learn something from this.

But we must ask that what leads these ‘trolls’ to ridicule and viciously attack their opponents online, isn’t that a trait that is found in the Taliban?  I.e. you disagree with us we attack you. In my opinion it is the constant betrayal and continuous exploitation by politicians that drives these young people to brutally attack differing opinions because they seem to have pinned hopes to a cause or a personality in which they have fervently come to believe. Every religious, secular and violent movement in the past has been led by these same young zealots who blindly follow their leader and more often than not these are the same people who are the most disenchanted at the end of each revolution, because no revolution in this world has seen a happy ending for the youth and Nusrat saab as an avid reader of history might know this.

Creating a Knowledge Sharing Environment in Pakistan

George Bernard Shaw once said:

“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas”

Knowledge sharing is one of those concepts in action today that are changing the traditional structures of firms and organizations. Gone are the days when accumulating bundles of knowledge was enough to increase a person’s value in an organization. The world economy is now driven by increased communication and collaboration. The rapid rise of social media is an indicator of this global cultural shift. Knowledge Sharing and consequently the effective management of accumulated knowledge is now necessary in global companies.  The concept of a junior and a senior employee is now dependent on how much knowledge a person has and how “effectively” a person is communicating this knowledge. Also, the growth of this knowledge sharing culture has given rise to a new form of capital called Knowledge Capital. It is an intangible asset, which now carries more value than other commonly recognized tangible assets.

Pakistan is an interesting country with regards to knowledge management. Traditionally, we have not been a knowledge sharing culture. The teacher-disciple concept is still prevalent and new employees are generally discouraged from sharing knowledge and opinion. Although this does not imply that these traditional structures are not changing at all, but the need for change has to be highlighted. In a paper written by Peter Mikulecky and Mohammed Saeed Lodhi, the authors emphasized the need for our burgeoning private educational sector especially the universities to take a lead in promoting knowledge management in Pakistan since these universities are developing the managers and leaders of tomorrow therefore to instill knowledge management principles in them is vital to a productive and efficient Pakistani economy. Also the role of information technology in disseminating knowledge is an important one and Pakistan’s software industry is more than capable of meeting this challenge but unless knowledge sharing and its management  is not appreciated by our companies then we will consequently lag behind other developing nations.

Pakistan can take a leaf out of Japan’s economic concept which promotes the idea of strong corporate networks i.e. keiretsu. Companies can work together to achieve common goals. This concept apart from being applied in Japan also has been applied in west as well where AOL has been known to work very closely with SUN Micro. This effective concept can be applied in Pakistan too under the supervision of government; the industries can collaborate with each other and share knowledge through knowledge portals or other mechanisms but that requires the heads of our institutions to take the matter seriously. Nepotism, ineffective economic planning, an environment of distrust and resistance to change the traditional power structures has led to an inefficient Pakistani economy that is finding hard to catch up with the pace of other growing economies. This inefficient economy then leads to a brain drain in which its professionals leave the country for greener pastures.

The problem with Pakistan is that no one is serious in taking steps to improve our economy, an economy that is anything but built on collaboration and knowledge sharing. The problem lies not only with its institutional heads but it is intrinsic to our culture. Let us call spade a spade and accept the fact that there are aspects of our culture that are hampering our growth.  Educational institutions might have increased tenfold in number, the number of PhD’s might have mushroomed but has that resulted in an efficient economy?   In order to keep pace with the global changes we have to shed certain aspects of our culture. The repressive environment and colonial ethics must now be thrown out of the window. In that regards knowledge sharing can only thrive if the hanging swords of unemployment, demotion and ridicule are removed from an employee’s mind. Change has to happen and it should start from the top. 

To Mourn the Death of a Political Activist

On 27^th March, “unidentified persons”, shot dead an MQM activist, within hours of the incident numerous buses, hotels and shops were set ablaze and several casualties were reported in the aftermath of the killing. Then on 29^th March, some ANP activist was killed by some “unknown people”.

Those people who think that setting ablaze shops and buses would somehow quench their thirst for vengeance, are wrong, it is not right. It is never right, by any law, by any code or by any moral standard to injure and maim people in vengeful anger and the political parties are utterly and entirely to held in blame for this carnage.

These knights of vengeance forget that when they set about to avenge the death of their comrade, the people would only mourn for the loss of their own personal property or worse their loved ones. Just for the death of two political activists, 7 Karachiites were killed,

is there any justification for that?

I ask you, how many of us actually shed a tear for the death of a political party of any standing. Majority of us do not, because we have other important things to do in life, struggle to earn bread for the family, study for exams or look after kids. Well, if we don’t care as a nation then why does the ticker on the news channels reads like, “ aaj------kay karqun ki halaqat kay sog per Karachi main shutter down hartal”, so are these news channels telling me that the Karachiites are shutting down their businesses and educational institutions as a protest?

As a consequence of strikes and shutter downs Pakistan suffers a loss of 15 billion rupees and Karachi alone suffers a loss of almost 2.5 billion rupees.

Would a hard-pressed shopkeeper actually even think of closing down his shop for a day just because some activist died?

Would a day laborer actually sit at home as a protest against the target killing of some obscure political activist?

Would a CEO actually think of bearing a loss on revenue for a day just because a political activist died?

No, nobody ever does that, except of course the political parties. How can I think of mourning the death of a political activist of any party when my city burns, when my city loses billions of rupees, just because of political chaos? How can shed I tear for those dead activists when innocent patients cannot get treatment because nurses and doctors fail to turn up at the hospital as a result of the strike. How can I grieve the death of those activists, when a day laborer is unable to feed his family because he could not go out to earn money, just because “some political workers died”.

No, in all honesty and sincerity, I would not grieve, mourn, or protest against the death of the political activist if it means chaos and carnage in my city.

We are much intelligent beings then what we consider ourselves to be. As intelligent beings, God has given us brains to analyze and process complex thoughts, surely we can figure out better ways of protesting, but no, we have to kill, maim and torture our own people to avenge the death of our comrade in arms. All I can say is that the Quaid would be disgusted.

Spiritually, Morally and Politically Corrupt.

The people of Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) were funny people. Funny in a way that when in 1453, hundreds of thousands of Ottoman Muslim soldiers were standing at its gates, they still found time to search for divine signs of their victory and debate on who was a good Christian or a bad Christian, whether the pope in Rome was going to accept their Orthodox Christianity, whether this part of the Bible was right or wrong, and when would the angels descend on Earth to wipe off the Muslim armies that were standing outside the city gates and getting impatient to decapitate every single one of them. They took furious pride in their history. They remembered how in the distant past their ancestors had repelled each and every Muslim invasion on their city and how they had made their city a jewel of the known world. And just that. The Muslims on the other hand never gave up their hope of conquering that bastion of Christianity in the east. And their hopes came to fruition when Sultan Mehmet delivered Constantinople to them (credit to Mehmet for not allowing widespread bloodshed and giving express orders to protect the city's historical artifacts-compare that to Bush's invasion of Iraq). Sultan Mehmet was a sly and ruthless monarch. He used the latest and most advanced technology of his day to capture vast territories. He was ruthless. But ingenious and cunning. To add insult to Christianity he in fact recruited thousands of Christians from the Balkans to fight for his cause promising them land, wealth and women. Few of them ever converted to Islam-and no one compelled them. According to studies, 70 percent of advisors in Saladin’s (the hero of Islamic Armies in the Crusades) court were Jewish. But the Mullah doesn’t want you to know this. Does he?

So, do you notice eerie similarities between the Constantinople of 1453 and the Pakistan and Muslim World of today? Both of them being involved in stupid religious debates. Both having a corrupt bureaucracy and religious clergy (The Emperor of Constantinople was at least good- nonetheless a bit foolish).

The Mullah curse

Both refuse to adapt to the changing world and both are victims of a superpower state. Christian Constantinople collapsed and became pre dominantly Muslim, what about Pakistan....??? I heard that the Muslims in Iraq are rapidly converting to Christianity, so much so that entire churches are being built for accommodating the increasing numbers.

Iraqis and Afghanis are openly converting Christianity.

The killing of Salman Taseer on 4 Jan was a grim reminder of the fact that the nation (including the politicians) is now spiritually, morally, and politically corrupt. Killing a man because he said something contradictory to your beliefs? And what beliefs were they? Oh yeah, he chose to defend a Christian woman, having children, who “”allegedly”” said something about the Prophet (SAWS) that the villagers found blasphemous. And now she's being sentenced to death under the 'Black' Blasphemy law. Yes, that is exactly why he was killed; he termed the blasphemy law as a Black Law (I agree with him too). For all his political faults, he chose to act exactly how a good Muslim should. And who are we to judge that who is a good Muslim or a bad Muslim... Oh, sorry I forgot, the Mullah. This black law that was created by Zia has been effectively used by ‘pious’ men to take revenge from their 'non Muslim' enemies. If you are, a landlord and you happen to want a plot of land belonging to a poor non- Muslim, then worry not, the Tauheen e Risalat qanoon is there to save the day. All you have to do is to say, Hey this man defiled the name of the Prophet. Get some cronies to support you, go to the court and file a case, knowing that the game is certainly in the bag. If you happen to be annoyed by a certain 'non-Muslim' person, worry not, the Tauheen Risalat Qanoon is there to help you out!

Asia Bibi now faces hangman's noose, thanks to the Blasphemy Law

It’s disgusting that how the name of Prophet is now being used to take revenge, spill blood and grab acres of land. I believe that instead of imposing that black law on the non-Muslims, this law should be struck on those who are much more effectively defiling the name of the Prophet. It’s equally heart wrenching to view the different comments that are being posted on major news sites and forums ( one reader said, 'Islam, religion of Peace. And Love. Haha'). And honestly, who can fault these people. Obviously, the wrong version of Islam is being presented to them and they have every right to express their disgust. It’s funny that those Muslims who choose to spread Islam through the Jihad of Pen are now branded as Heretics. Shame.

But on the positive side, the religious parties have yet to gain majority in the National Assembly, which suggests that the people don’t support them much, but here lies the conundrum. Although the religious parties don’t get much votes from the people, but still the people are so conservative. For further explanation, do read this article on Dawn website http://www.dawn.com/2011/01/05/facebook-praise-for-taseers-assassination.html.

Where are we heading? What is our future? These are questions that wannabe news analysts love to ask. Well the answer is, annihilation, or at least becoming an American Colony or being merged back into India. I mean look at the situation, the Pashtuns are hinting towards creating a separate state for themselves merging both parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Then the Balochis are even more enthusiastic about their independence. And the Sindhi nationalists do hope for their own homeland ( although they say that very very quietly, but a stupid slur by Zulfiqar Mirza was a big hint). That leaves Punjab, which is hated by all three provinces. Coupled with that we have the religious fanatics attacking in every corner of the country and the Americans are persistently saying Do More Do More. If we don’t change our attitude and our beliefs then get ready for destruction because then the world community wont remove Pakistan because it’s a Nuclear Muslim State. No. It would wipe off Pakistan for the sake of humanity and no one will ever object to that. Don’t let 1453 happen to us.

Black Cats and Siri Paye

I was delightfully munching on some chapli kebabs (another dish that I have learnt after to coming to AUS), when my mom called me to ask whether I have received money that they have sent. After confirming that, we began talking about random things, just like two close friends who haven’t talked for a while, you know, the usual, the neighbors, the price of rice and sugar, whether my fiancée liked the new dress that mom had sent her, and this and that, finally I asked her about what was happening in the politics. By the way my Mom is a N League supporter, but that support is limited only to TV, not beyond that. And since there has to be somebody in the family who has to contradict her or oppose her (dad gave that up a long time ago) therefore I am an MQM supporter, though just like her my support is limited to TV viewing as well. So normally, we are arguing with each other about their respective policies. Now, on the phone she told me that there was an extremely tense war of words going on between N league and MQM. She said that the whole family was sitting enjoying the standoff (just as usual) when things got really (and I mean really) dirty. Although she didn't tell me what was said, but all she told me was that it was all very embarrassing. Naturally, it was a cue for me to do some investigation. I didn’t have to dig deep (smiles). I opened my darling YouTube, punched in MQM vs. PMLN 29 December and came across Talat Husain’s TV program clip, which showed both party's uncensored exchange of embarrassing but funny exchange of words. I swear if ever there was a depiction of ROFLMAO, then I was precisely that. Extremely entertaining and hilarious I could exactly see why muma called that embarrassing. Talk about finding sex objects in shahbaz Sharif’s cell and altaf Husain’s hidden disease (I wonder what it could be? but given the circumstances I can only assume an STD). Wow, if ever they have had a chance of embarrassing the nation, then they just made full use of that opportunity. But it’s a good thing I believe. Good, because the nation has a chance of seeing the side of their politicians that they only knew of but they hadn’t seen in real.

But, then here I want to say a BIG F^($ U, not to Altaf Bhai, not to Mian Jee, not to the fiery Haider Bhai, not to Nisar Bhai, not to Abid Sher Ali bhai and certainly not to wasim akhter bhai, no, I want to give a BIG FU to our blessed Pakistani nation. This is what you get when you vote only because somebody belongs to your biradri and somebody who happens to speak your particular language or dialect or belongs to the same sect. You know what their reality is. But still you keep on voting and voting and voting and voting for the same old crap until the army takes over, and then you start blaming the army for all the mess. I know that the army has done wrong things in the last 60 years but our politicians haven’t given them any choice. If our political base had been strong in the beginning then all this mess wouldn’t have been created. And please don’t say that since we hardly vote that's why these same old faces keep coming again and again. Tell me, when you don’t have any shred of confidence in the voting system, when you know that the political parties would even make your dead grandpa vote, when you know that your vote will be replaced by a fraud vote, when you know that one person can in actuality vote at least three hundred times on the same election day, then tell me, would you waste your time going through the tedious polling process, standing in the burning summer heat and then having to face the smelly political activists. I certainly wouldn’t. And then these political parties. MQM. Huh. 150 % of Karachi and Hyderabad knows that how they collect "chanda" from the shops and businesses. All the eidis that you have to give (my father was asked to pay 2000 but refused point blank and since he doesn’t know of any culture or decency or sophistication when it comes to taking a stand (and a close affiliation with police ;)) therefore the SIC (MQM sector in charge) had no option but to leave him alone. The show of power they demonstrated on live TV, on the fateful day of May 12 is no secret. But still, people are still afraid to fully expose their tyranny. True, they have done a good deal of work for Karachi ( hats off to Mustufa Kamal) but their overall performance plus their love for " bori band laash", bank robberies, Bhai Log culture and Kalashnikov makes them wholly inadequate to even run for even a street election. These are the people who were created by the army. The army imported a Pakistani taxi driver by the name of Altaf Hussain to set up agitation movement against the Sindhis in Sindh, and created his own party and played on the resentment held by the innocent Mohajjirs. Then, as an Asia Times article reviewing Wilson John’s book” Karachi: A terror Capital in the making" says

” Keen on dividing Sindh on ethnic lines, General Zia ul-Haq allowed the MQM to form a network of professional militant bands with a hand in the drug trade of Karachi. In 1988, the city was rocked by unprecedented violence orchestrated by the army using the MQM in order to oust Benazir Bhutto from power.

By 1992, the army wanted to contain the growing power of Altaf Hussain and engineered a split in the MQM, thereby inaugurating a bloody turf war in Karachi. Gradually, the MQM's militant wing, the Black Cats, composed of 5,000-6,000 hitmen and notorious criminals rose in stature. Carjacking, land grabbing, illegal construction etc earned them a massive annual revenue and the selfsame techniques of violence were copied by sectarian outfits to kill Shiites. The MQM's extortion coffers overflowed and abetted the party's remarkable gains in successive elections. "

How ever, much I want to quote General Aslam Beg on army's role in creating MQM I want to turn over to Muslim League N. Created by General Zia (personally) in the same way Musharaf created Muslim League Q, The Sharif brothers were Zia's obvious, choice, loyal, entrepreneurial, and having a long feud with the PPP and especially Bhutto ( their medium sized steel foundry was nationalized by ZA Bhutto, thus making ZA Bhutto a lifelong enemy to the Sharif family). The Sharif brothers played on the religious sympathies of the people and got themselves comfy seats in the national assembly. Although they now err...regret... it, but to their credit, they don’t deny their past. Corrupt to the core, the Sharif brothers have grown from small steel foundry owners to one of the richest men in Pakistan. In corruption they are only out done by the Almighty God of Corruption President Asif Ali Zardari (whose father used to be a Cinema Owner and He used to be a bookie in the Karachi racecourse). I wonder how come these people even have the guts to show their faces to the nation. I really do believe what Haider Abbas Rizvi said about Nawaz Sharif and his family and what Choudhry Nisar said about Altaf Hussain and his family. I also believe that just like the artists and TV stars are subjected to media trials and paparazzi ( since they are public property) therefore these politicians who are even more of public property then petty TV actors, should have their daily lives critically scrutinized. Believe me if there was ever a need of a leader, then this is the moment when we really need one. We really do. It is time for revolution not elections. But for the revolution you need to look for change inside yourself, not the outside. Difficult isnt it J

Alas, I was supposed to write on what I experienced in this year and write some funny things and then about the top 10 songs and movies of 2010, but ...oh well. I'll do that tomorrow.

Byee