Letter to General Musharraf

I wrote a letter to General Musharraf today. I have intentionally kept it brief since I wrote it at work. I will write a detailed article (may be 100 since the issue is very big) at later stages.

Mr. President,

Today I want to write to you about an issue that has been bothering me for a while. I had sent you an e-mail regarding this subject before but I am sure you never got to read it and this e-mail will eventually fall on deaf ears too but I feel obligated to say something about it even if no one hears my cries.

Last week when you were on a trip to Saudi Arabia trying to find solutions for the problems of “Ummah” a menace was rearing its ugly head less than 5 kilometers from the presidency. The observers found it quite ironic that you were actively participating in the summit for long term peace in the Middle East while the lawlessness ruled the streets of Islamabad clad in burkas and wielding batons. In one afternoon the whole “soft image” you have been trying to promote throughout the world disappeared.

The nation has heard you numerous times promising the writ of the law being imposed. We have in fact seen the writ of the law doing wonders when it comes to manhandling the Chief Justice of the nation and torturing the innocent protestors who demand to know where their loved ones are but in this case no law enforcement agency had the courage to stop the blatant violation of the law. The whole nation was held hostage by a few fanatics living so close to the parliament.

Today in Dawn, the interview with the principal of the institution is a clear picture of what these extremist elements plan to do to our country. The principal openly admitted that his students have in the past gone to Afghanistan to take active part in Jihad and will go in the future as well since that is what they are taught there. My question to you sir is that what can possibly a two bit mullah have over the government that he can train jihadis practically a stone’s throw away from the Presidency and your government is unable to stop him? How can he wield so much power that his students can take over land and buildings in the name of protests and your minister has to go and assure that all the illegally built mosques will be built again? How can he mock and threaten the government on T.V and not a soul of law enforcement moves a muscle?

You need to take difficult decisions and eliminate this extremism now before it destroys Pakistan completely. Our children deserve a country free of religious zealotry and bigotry. If this trend continues like this then mark my words Pakistan will be at the receiving end of Tomahawk Missiles very soon and history will blame you for bringing Pakistan to this point of no return when you had the power to slay the dragon of Islamic extremism.

You are standing at the fork of history that every leader before you reached at one point or another during his/her political career. There is a hard way to your destiny and there is an easy way. The ones who took the hard way left their legacies for all humanity to cherish. People like Julius Cesar, Jinnah, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Ata-Turk to name a few while the easy way is littered with graves of leaders no one remembers. You need to decide if you have what it takes to carry a nation on your shoulders to the bright future our people deserve or if you want to be a casualty of changing times never to be heard from again."

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Yeh watan tumhara hai

Our first forray in the world of youtubing. Here is a popular milli nagma in the voice of the great Mehdi Hasan to convey the pearls of wisdom in the form of advice from our elders and our humble effort to potray our failure as a nation to live up to the message using images of Pakistan.

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Cell Phone (mobile) snatching in Pakistan

A while ago, while probing the matter of our hidden mehdi - the Justice Rana Bhagwandas, I and many others were perplexed by the seeming inability of all to get in touch with him much less find the man. We wondered aloud if the judge had a cell phone. If yes, could someone please give him a call and apprise him of the situation at home. Some said, he was an old fashioned person and did not carry a cellular phone. Others said he had a phone but wasn't answering it. I asked if his phone was snatched on the street. The one good news, or lack thereof of any news, out of that suspense was that the judge hadn't become a victim of street crime after all.

He wouldn't have been the first person in Pakistan or India to have had their cellular (mobile) phone snatched. Mobile snatching is in vogue among the small time street criminals of the sub-continent. Surprisingly, friends and family who have been victims feel more inconvenienced than victimised. The majority comment considers the snatched mobile phone a Sadqa.

Now we have a cell phone snatching to top all cell phone snatchings. Turns out the entire political drama being played out in Pakistan started with a cell phone snatching. The paklaw blog allerted me to Friday Times quoting a fly on the wall of the infamous camp office where and when the CJ was asked to resign. Instead of blinking he whipped out his cell phone. Maybe he was about to play his cards. The prime minister and his goons at that point realized that Justice Iftikhar was still the CJ and could turn the tables on them from the offices of the apex court. Lacking a plan B following the failure of their forced resignation plan they went into panic mode and we know the rest of the story. They snatched the cell phone thus effectively cutting him off from his office, detained him illegally against his will, and perpetuated this whole shambolic affair. The half-assed petition, the raggeddy supreme judicial council, the multiple acting chief justices, what a farce.

What is surprising is this discovery that mobile phone snatching is a gateway crime. You can start with a phone snatching and end up breaking not just one law but the whole constitution. Good job! king of thieves, lord of dacoits, prime minister of Pakistanis. If the snatched mobile phone of the chief justice is a sadqa, it better have averted our nation a biblical catastrophy.

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