Anarchy on the roads of Karachi

The roads in Karachi are on the verge of converting into parking lots for food outlets, shopping malls, coaching centers and of course elite schools (etc.). Busy roads are also becoming a favorite spot for all kinds of protests, political activities and religious processions.

The broken patches, a common sight on every road, only adds to the problem. Despite the increasing severity of the situation, the slumber of authorities on the mess on our roads is alarming. The public also seems to be losing the little road sense they earlier had.

The parked vehicles casually obstruct the traffic, breaking signals is almost a norm, while going on the wrong side of the road with high beams during late hours is in vogue now.

Change, but How?

People often believe that to change a system you have to be a part of it. There definition of change even includes replacing the entire system with its foundations with a new one as well. Well the fact of the matter is, you can improve or correct a system likewise, however if its replacement with a new one is the objective then it isn't possible if you are a part of it yourself. Why not? Because it’s like demolishing a building and erecting a new one, how can you do it if you are inside it? You can for sure reconstruct a part of it if you want to, but of course replacing it with another structure requires a person to exit and start new.

The Malaysian Experience, Lessons for Pakistan

This wasn't my first trip abroad, however first one to another Muslim country and when I landed at Kuala Lumpur I felt I haven’t just arrived to a different place but also have travelled centuries ahead in time…

The trip to Kuala Lumpur was loaded with shock and awe. I couldn't help but comparing the difference between Pakistan, the country to which I belong, and Malaysia on uncountable dimensions. The public calm and civilized behavior, the sense of profound security (almost everyone carrying a tablet, a laptop or a high end smart phone and using comfortably in public places with no fear at all), the economic development already done & underway, the high end cars on the road (Lamborghini Aventador to top the list), the driving etiquettes of the drivers on the road, the political stability of 3 decades, various ethnic groups with a violent past but peacefully living today etc... In Malaysia you are given a death penalty for bearing a gun and dealing in narcotics in Malaysia specially if you are a foreigner and perhaps this is the reason there is peace and tranquility prevalent everywhere... theft is almost nonexistent in most parts of the city of Kuala Lumpur.

Pakistanis are most Heavily Taxed People in South Asia

I have been thinking about this since a while but never could have explained it as done by Bukhari and Haq in their article in Jang newspaper. The point is every Pakistani, whether he is a sweaper, a daily wage worker, a thele wala pays a tax in this country and as per the respected authors, their tax paying average is highest in the entire South Asia!!!

"Contrary to the FBR claim that most Pakistanis do not pay taxes, Pakistanis are the most heavily taxed people in the entire South Asia"

How? its simple, imagine how many people in this country purchases cell phone minutes through prepaid cards, or petrol to put in their bikes, or any item on which a sales tax is applied. It is a common observation that many whose taxable income is a lot less then the limit set by FBR, they still pay tax in the form of sales tax and never file a return. Legally they have the right to file a tax return, but how many knows about it, are there any official efforts to train them? Even I don't know the procedure of how its done as yet. Once we work out the numbers and it is easy to learn how twisted or misdirecting the claims of FBR are... for detials read below:

Baffling questions about Swiss letter

Contents of the letter likely to be written by Pakistan as per the instructions of Supreme Court of Pakistan to Swiss authorities in connection with loot money deposited there in different banks by our President Asif Ali Zardari are not known to me at least but nevertheless it has given birth to many baffling questions which need answers.

Has President of Pakistan lost the privilege of immunity professing that he cannot be charged against any accusation which has always been boasted of earlier by all those who have say in our power corridor? How can president be accused now when as per our Aristotle & Plato he has been bestowed with immunity in our constitution? Has our constitution been amended and presidential immunity is lifted there from? Who lied before or who is telling the truth now? What is the prudence on the part of the government to agree to SC instructions to write the letter now when so many years have already been lost in between? What was the prudence not to write the letter before even when SC has very categorically asked to do so? Will Pakistan government write the letter to Swiss authorities against its own President who is very much occupying the throne at this point of time? Will PM Raja Ashraf Raja be charged with contempt of court and removed from his office as head of the government if the letter is not written the way as SC wants? Will 3rd PM write the letter strictly as SC wants? Will SC charge 3rd PM also alike and send him back to his home for not writing the letter exactly as SC wants?\

Who answers my questions?

Prayers
Sincere Iqbal Hadi Zaidi / Kuwait

Pakistan’s System is at the heart of its Political Corruption

By Atif Salahuddin

Despite fierce anti-American sentiment throughout the country, especially after the US Salala attack in November 2011 which killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, Pakistan's civil and military rulers have once again decided to ignore public opinion and move ahead to safeguard US interests by re-opening NATO's indispensible supply lines. Such has the abysmal capitulation of Pakistan's rulers been that they even ignored their own parliament's resolution which called for a number of conditions including an end to the drone strikes inside Pakistan. The naked brazenness of the US was demonstrated with triple drone strikes that killed over 20 people within days of resumption and reaffirmed the lop sided master to slave relationship.

All of this follows on from the latest political high drama to unfold in Islamabad that has been the judicial decision of Pakistan's Supreme Court to disqualify Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani from holding office. That followed just days after the Chief Justice's son Dr. Arsalan Iftikhar was implicated along with Bahria Town property magnate Malik Riaz in allegations of bribery. Whether the dismissal of Gillani and the indictment of the Chief Justice's son are related is open to question; did the military quietly back the judiciary in its 'coup' is also debatable. However what is not beyond a shadow of a doubt is that the dismissal of Gillani has no meaningful impact given that just months remained in his five year term and that the ruling PPP has just elected the notorious Raja Pervez Ashraf as his replacement better known as 'Raja rental'.

Are we about to repeat History?

by Omar Javaid

Our survival as a nation is miraculous, sometime I think, just like survival of a person who suffering from a dozen terminal illnesses, whose limbs have been amputated, whose sores have become infectious beyond curable limits, with vultures hovering over his head - sometime biting chunks of meat out of his body and yet he is breathing ...

A nation where all are doing their bit to dig their own mass graves, nailing their own coffins, chopping off their own limbs, poising their own wells, burning their own property, killing their own sons, raping their own daughters, looting their own property, as a revenge because someone in their home has done something the same with them under a racial, ethnic and sectarian pretext.

When the same group morph themselves into judiciary, executive bodies, public educational institutions, revenue collection department, local and intercity transport, railway, water/gas/electricity distribution departments, etc their blood-lust, for their own blood, only gets institutionalized ...

The Confused Pakistanis

GDP Growth Comparision among Democratic and Military Rules in Pakistan

I am not an advocate of Military dictatorship in Pakistan. The following comparison, however makes one think that lesser of the two evils is definitely Military Rule for this country ... the data speaks for it self. 

Source: http://www.statpak.gov.pk/depts/fbs/statistics/national_accounts/table1.pdf and                 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan#History

Is Pakistan among the Luckiest Nation in the world

By Omar Javaid ...

I often think that Pakistan is among the luckiest nation in the world! … Surprised? Or thinking that the author must have gone nuts? Lost his senses perhaps? … Please hold your judgments for a minute and go through a couple of lines before jumping on to conclusions. Have you ever thought why we often jump on to conclusions despite realizing that the information we have isn’t sufficient enough … impatience perhaps? And Pakistanis are impatient indeed … haven’t you driven across the busy streets in Karachi or any other metropolis?

I was thinking, why so? We drive frantically and yet we are mostly late on our commitments! How many the people you know qualify as punctual ones? … Are we too busy or overburdened? … Too busy to not let the ambulance pass by on a busy street … too busy to block the traffic by parking our car at the wrong place … or to stop on the read light (in Karachi at least) … or to make judgments without sufficient knowledge … or to get any where on time … but hey I was to explain how we are among the luckiest nation on this planet, when I am gona do that? … hold on dear, are you too busy as well to wait a couple of minutes before I make my point …?

Dear readers if you need an answer then you must allow me to solve this riddle i.e. why we seem too busy and yet we miss out many important things … but hey it can also be our carelessness … we lack the civic sense that is needed … it not necessarily because we consider ourselves busy … or perhaps it is our arrogance, Nawab mentality i.e. considering ourselves above the law, even moral law … hmmm may be that’s the reason, we only act as if we are too busy … perhaps this also explain why we consider it as our right to park our car in the center of the road and blocking the flow for hundreds of car behind … or consider it our right to import and drink tea of Rs. 2.2 billion per year, i.e. caffeine despite realizing that it has more detriments then benefits … or consider it our right to sleep as late as possible and waking up as late as possible despite realizing that our this behavior alone burns out hundreds of megawatts of electricity … or consider it our right to elect the same politicians who have venomously bitten us many times already … or consider it our right to increase prices of products when public needs it most, like during the month of Ramadan, like the fares of taxi and rickshaws when its raining, like price of mineral water bottles at railway station particularly when the train gets late … or consider it our right to watch Indian channels without realizing the influence it’s creating on our morality, traditional and cultural values … or consider it our right or even take pride in speaking English despite and consider those who doesn’t as inferior … or consider it our right to loot, plunder and destroy property of public in protest of a bomb blast or murder of a politician … or consider it our right to immobilize the whole city in the love of our Prophet (SAW) again on his presumed day of birth or destroy public property on his (SAW) insult … the list can go on and on and I am sure that the readers can add to the list, only to provide more proofs in favor of hypothesis that ‘we as a nation are slowly on a course of collective suicide’ … the citizen of this nation are like termites gone crazy, eating the foundation of their own abode in order to survive … and I haven’t yet counted the external threats being faced by Pakistan today … hasn’t been this our national character since many decades?

If so then why shouldn’t I call this country among the luckiest nation despite it being on the course of suicide since a very long time, is still alive and holds strategic significance on international fronts …?

Or perhaps I am too naïve … or perhaps I don’t know that nations take more time to collapse … it’s the last year or perhaps the last decade we are living in … or may be not …

I don’t claim to know everything, that’s why I can’t give a definite answer, but who can? …  what I do know is that something is keeping us alive till date … why we haven’t experienced something as yet like what Bosnians did during 1990s, or like Chechens, or like people of Darfur, or like Iraqis, or like Afghanis, or like Tajiks, or like Palestinians experiencing today etc … may be the endogenous or exogenous circumstances they faced were unique … wait, wait, wait …  Kashmir is a part of Pakistan and the people there are suffering no different then Palestinians or like Bosnians did some years back …

Hmmm … can we assume that Kashmiris are paying off for our national sins? Is it due to their sacrifices that rest of Pakistanis are still at peace though relatively! …

Imagine if Kashmir wouldn’t have been a bone of contention among India and Pakistan, then what kind of relations India might have with Pakistan? I know, some of you would never dare to think that in absence of Kashmir issue Indian attitude toward Pakistan would be much more aggressive because Indian would have a huge battery of resources available for a greater cross-national mischief! … a recent survey by an international research agency has revealed that majority of Pakistan consider Indians as the greatest threat to the country … but perhaps the same majority elects all corrupt politicians! ... then how can we trust the majorities opinion … or perhaps the politicians don’t get elected by majorities opinion!!! Which of these two points are correct?

We were trying to find out what’s keeping Pakistan safe … I must rather ask, should we really need to find it out? This ‘Something’ which is keeping Pakistan away from a fatal catastrophe is perhaps serving its purpose only because it’s hidden either within our souls or within the boundaries of our nation … no it’s the not the Nukes stupid … that ‘Something’ is perhaps even guarding those nukes … no it’s not the army or ISI or any other agency or institution, stupid! … that ‘Something’ is even keeping some of these critical institutions or agencies to perform duties, or perhaps they are also not aware of it … don’t try to guess it … that ‘Something’ is serving its purpose only because its hidden away from majority of the population … and that ‘Something’ must be very precious because it has the power to keep this nation away from a fatal catastrophe … and that ‘Something’ can only serve its purpose only if remains hidden unless majority among us develops the ability to protect it; rather we as a nation have a tendency to plunder and squander every good thing we get our hands upon … or sell it off against pennies to our international masters ... so it must remain hidden! ... Only those who have the ability to protect it know what it really is, and that’s only few of us … and at least I am not among them!

It is this ‘Something’ which is making this nation among the luckiest nations of this planet, and I only intends to point your attention toward this ghostly thing only to remind you that Al-Mighty hasn’t already become hopeless from us … if you are intelligent then you must have guessed it … the time for us to confess and repent is not over yet … and as a nation we still have a chance … but if we don’t chose to wakeup and fix our attitude and character then what really our Creator (SWT) would do to save us from becoming the next Bosnia? ... The choice has always been ours.