The show must go on

The shahadat of renowned qawwal Amjad Sabri marks another feather in the cap of law and order enforcement agencies' failure. Being a tragic incident and one which has been unanimously condemned by people from all sorts and walks of life, one can only reflect on who/what kind being could fathom the plot to silence the maestro. TV personalities and politicians have all condemned his assassination with many of them visibly mourning him on live TV.

I hope and pray that Allah blesses his soul. His last words "Imdad meri karne, ajana RasoolAllah (SAWW)" were spoken too soon and he leaves behind a grieving populace.
In retrospect,I believe TV channels should adjust some of their programming to reflect on the incident. Instead of just going about as if nothing had happened, programs like Jeeto Pakistan should have had toned down at least the music and hum bum in the show to consider the grief that the family of Amjad Sabri. There should be a lesser jokes at least to mark the sombre mood. Surely, of course, it doesn't have to be forever because eventually, the show must go on. RIP Amjad Sabri.
 
"Surely we belong to Allah and to Him shall we return".

The Spirit of Qurbani

''Why do Pakistani's throw up blood from their mouth?'' I was astonished as you are after hearing this question from a cousin of mine who had visited Pakistan for a vacation. He had returned after thirteen years and given that he was only six on his last visit, I decided to give his question a logical thought. It turned out that my cousin had been observing the market from his balcony and had seen several people spitting paan. Yes, he was not acquainted with that stuff and thus was confused when he saw people routinely spitting red liquids in a corner right underneath his observational view.

  

He went to ask a string of other questions like that making all efforts to register as a retard in my opinion. However, it turned out that his questions were not out of place or against common sense. After all, where in this entire world would he have had seen people slaying animals right in the middle of the road? To clarify, I would like to add that my cousin had lived in Canada throughout his life and so the very practices that Pakistani people cite as their culture and heritage turned out to be in conflict with his common sense. He failed to understand why people entered into a price race when they bought animals for Eid ul Azha? He is not one of the best Muslims I have met but growing up in a Muslim family he has learnt and practices well the basic tenets of Islam and hence I felt that some of his questions pointed to the stark truths that Pakistanis had grown accustomed to. His belief that qurbani is a sacrifice and that going by the Islamic way, there has to be equal proportions for distribution between self, relatives and the poor is scarcely observed in practice in Pakistan. Not that there aren't people who do it that way: there are however, these have been far outnumbered by the ones who buy animals costing a million rupees (and sometimes even more) and then freeze the meat in their deep freezers. My cousin’s invented a new slogan for them in place of “Eid Mubarak!”…it’s “Meat Mubarak!”

I decided to investigate by asking the same question in my neighbourhood. Very soon I felt too like a retard because the replies I got clearly indicated that qurbani for some people meant that they had to 'show' their wealth to their relatives in order to stay in the 'elite' circle and for that the higher the price of the animal, the better the bargain (albeit not the qurbani). A series of homogenous answers led me to the sad conclusion that Muslims or better said Pakistanis have lost the meaning of the word 'qurbani' in its true sense. Attending sermons and Eid prayers has not helped them change their ideology about qurbani, how it is to be done and the merits of distributing meat rather than bbqing it in bulk. I consider myself included in the list of people who need to rethink their stance and interpretation of qurbani and eesaar. I believe that if qurbani, as what is done in Pakistan, is what has been enjoined in Islam, then I would prefer to be labelled a retard and make peace with my cousin with whom I was at loggerheads because he could not understand why I drove past a red signal three times while dropping him home. I told him that it was Eid and traffic was low volume but he simply did not get it. Retard, me.

Much ado about nothing

Whilst reading the article (http://tribune.com.pk/story/374665/post-op-estimates-police-rack-up-rs16m-bill-but-barely-make-a-dent-in-lyari/), I could not help but think that for the police, it was all an affair of getting funds. At least the handsome figures of biryani supply costs insist so. The operation in Lyari has told the international media that we have terrorists within the backyard of our own commercial hub and that our police is incapable of thwarting them out even after ten days of "operations". It's high time for some kind of military operation because if the police cannot match the artillery in possession of the gangsters in Lyari, then there is no logic in continuing to keep the police operation on.

These things aside, a couple of weeks back, in a show on some local news channel, a reporter had surveyed the Lyari public on their issues, problems and concerns regarding the current security situation in the town viz-a-viz their political affiliations. It was surprising to see that the public's attitude was "This PPP minister (Gabol) is bad, but we will still vote for PP in future." The people had blind faith in PPP as a result of their generational loyalty and were not willing to look beyond it. I could not pity those people then because when the time would come to choose their fate, they would willingly select the thieves to rule over them. For them Steve Jobs summed it all well, albeit in a totally different context: "Stay hungry, stay foolish."

"Qanoon naqis karne waale idaare...

...kahin maujood na the. (Law enforcement agencies were not present anywhere)." Well why would they be? If a number of hooligans decide to involve a city of 15 17 18 million people in their war games, how could a force of already corrupt officials be expected to tame them? The favorite past time of policemen is err ... let's not be judgmental. But truth is that a number of corrupt policemen have tainted the image and the power of what is generally a disciplined force in developed nations. The opening statement is something you will regularly hear in local television news reports. We, Pakistanis, are so good at blame games that there is rarely a reporter or news caster who fails to mention that policemen were not present on a day when they could have had made a difference to the local situation. Me thinks the policemen are getting their inspiration from Afridi...hit hard when not needed and vice-versa.

1 upon Karachi

Karachi.

2 brothers were killed and the wife of one was injured when gunfire attacked their abode in the early hours of March 27, 2011. It turned out they belonged to the emotionally unscrupulous party named MQM whose strings are controlled via phone calls from London. What happened next is a child's guess for Karachiites: more than three dozen buses (and cars) were set alight, shop owners refused to risk their lives for one day of business and schools panicked and started sending children home. Sad but true.

You may ask "Where was the police?" so I will answer "At Bilawal House, protecting the empty kothi (mansion) of the current rulers". "Who were the killers?" The people who lost their vehicles and their lives :( were not the killers. The killers in fact have a high chance of themselves being eaten away by insects in their graves now or on a flight to Sri Lanka. They will never be caught, prosecuted or punished. Sad reality.

For the taxpayer, such a situation is like a market crash. Everything and anything that was unfortunate enough to come in the way of hooligans who make the most of such situations perishes. People died without having any cause or relationship with the deceased or their killers. "How long will this continue?" God knows better.