Fake degree: Jamshed Dasti handed 3-year jail term – The Express Tribune

Fake degree: Jamshed Dasti handed 3-year jail term – The Express Tribune
Mr Dasti this country does not deserve honest and hard working politician like yourself. You made your politics to serve and help people when everyone around you were busy making billions. I praise you for your work and dedication and leave you with this quote from Martin Luther King Jr, “One who breaks an unjust law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law”. You broke an unjust law that disenfranchised hundreds of millions poor pakistanis and I salute for this. Today in Muzaffergarh poor and landless people are left in tears and feudal lords like Heena Khar are laughing.

Economic Revival is Survival

In the world of business and investment perception plays a vital role in the feasibility of an investment or a business initiative. It is so important a phenomenon that it can transform any given event or change in business environment into a threat or an opportunity. On micro level venture capitalists along with other key indicators also study over all perception of prospective investment market before making their final decision. On macro level multinational companies and governments rely heavily on perception index before making any investment venture in or partnership with another country. If overall perception indicators are good investment or partnership will be made and if indicators are negative project will be abandoned. And they cannot be blamed for abandoning the project because every investment project has to achieve either financial gains in case of private investment or political gains in case of governmental partnership.

This phenomenon has taken a more serious dimension because now we live in a uni-polar world where one country with immense political and economic clout dictates its agenda. Furthermore we happen to be living in the age of globalisation where multi-national companies have more financial muscles than individual governments to force their way into any national boundaries. An interesting aspect of current financial crisis that is sweeping through western economies across both sides of Atlantic is that governments here are feeling the brunt of recession while organisations are still making huge profits. Of course apart from those few related to finance who are responsible for bringing spectacular collapse of property and financial markets in Europe and North America. So in future countries like Pakistan have to curry favour these big multi-nations as well as big players in international politics.

Human history has told us that Capital has always been an undisputed king. Or to put is more simple way Economy is everything. Huge stock pile of arsenals and advanced delivery mechanism with weak economy cannot and will not save a country or a nation or an empire. For those people who say they will shut down their factories for the sake of nuclear bomb I can only ask them who they would protect with their ‘Dear Bomb’ when there would no one to be protected. Histories are full of examples from Sparta to USSR where their advanced and sophisticated weaponry was unable to stop their disintrigation because their economies collapsed. Therefore focus should be on economy because it is only thing that keeps us alive. When you are hungry you cannot eat bullets no matter you have hundreds of them. You have to eat bread and only good economy guarantees bread on the table.

Problem with a country like Pakistan is that for last six decades people have been taught twisted notions of false pride and distorted histories. Result of this kind of teaching is that your whole population becomes an ever ready army you only have to tinker with their emotions. Whatever they do they do under the influence of their emotions. In such a society there exists no place for sanity or rationality. No one spare a minute to think about the consequences of their actions. If it feels good then do it no matter what. In such an environment no one for the fear of his/her life and dignity, can suggests of having good cordial relationships with the USA for its economic and military assistance and we should be very careful about Mr Davis case.

Because of this knee jerk attitude of our society no one takes us seriously even when we have genuine concerns. For us everything becomes a battle between good and bad or anything can put Islam in danger and we start protesting on our streets and close down our own businesses. In order to show our rage against Danish government we destroy properties bearing the brand of Telenor. Because of our irrational behaviour as a society outside world have a very negative perception of Pakistan. That is one of the reasons big multinationals companies are reluctant invest their capital in Pakistan.

In nation building patience is of prime importance. It took country like China with huge resources, more than hundred years to displace Japan as second biggest economy in the world. They did not achieve this by spending their time protesting against Japan or the USA or the UK on their streets. Instead they spent all their time and energies in their factories to become ‘Factory of the world’. They learnt their history lesson that foreigners ruled them because they had no money. Now every economy around the world makes decision after getting a nod of approval from Beijing only because they are sitting on largest foreign reserves in the history of mankind.

Faiz Ki Yaad Mein

Its Economy Stupid

I once heard someone quoting someone from the past to explain revolution as a society pregnant with new one. It is pretty impressive quotation and I must admit its damn right. According to Cambridge Dictionary revolution is” a change in the way a country is governed, usually to a different political system and often using violence or war.” Before we move any further as far as Tunisia is concerned it could be a kind of revolution as we are in for a new wave of political freedom and political participation with association that were missing since Ben Ali imposed himself upon Tunisia. It is ‘a kind of revolution’ as no one questioned the legitimacy of capitalist economy in Tunisia. In Egypt it is a change in which Army is going to control the government, moving from direct control to indirect control through an elected parliament. So in Egypt Army will continue to play central role by granting some unprecedented changes in electoral process.
Now as far as Pakistan is concerned it is a society of impatient souls. Pregnancy needs time to get mature and then deliver. In Pakistan people do not have a habit to allow time to allow situation to fully develop into full fledge change. Every now and then they become impatient and start crying for change. In other words we normally have abortions in every ten years or so. And as we know abortion is both hurtful and undesirable in every case.
And for those hinging on events in Middle East to become a catalyst of change in Pakistan, they have to keep on waiting, especially those with right wing religious agendas. Watching their poor acting skills on various TV channels one can only feel sorry for them. They try their upmost to relate these events with situation in Pakistan with their twisted logics devoid of facts on ground in Tunisia and Egypt. They struggle to convince themselves, let alone their audience about how these events have any truck with their right wing religious agenda. No matter what they say or imply they were unable to deny two basic facts about upraising in Tunisia and Egypt. First is the composition of participants in protests. It is mixed gather with women chanting slogans with their men folks and more importantly not wearing hijab from head to toe but wearing jeans and holding smart phones in their hands. Men we see are mostly clean shaven and whenever asked to comment they do not invoke any divine text to back their actions. So these set of people do not fit into their profile of agents of change.
Secondly no matter how hard they tried our right wing pseudo scholars could not find a single instance where protestors were using anti-USA or anti-Isreal slogans or banners during their marches. I have seen their faces hanging in shame for unable to find anti America feelings. For their tiny twisted mind it is ‘un-natural’, hence sooner or later they would term this genuine uprising for political and economic change as artificially manufactured by CIA.
This is of course not a revolution but people desperately agitating against corrupt regimes for their political and economic needs. In Pakistan though there are large scale problems but still people have various channels to vent their anger. The moment Pakistan will be able to over-come its debt to GDP ratio imbalance it has resources and potential to become an economic power house of South Asia. We in Pakistan have to turn our attention towards our economy as it is the key element where future of Pakistan hinges on. Analysing events unfolding around us is not a bad thing, but objectivity should be our guiding principle in every scenario. Wishing something to happen the way we want it to happen is not going to achieve anything but despair and confusion. That is what we are suffering from thanks to our arm-chair right wing scholars.
Coming out every now and then, shutting down businesses and scaring foreign investors away are not going to help Pakistan. It would further damage our heavily haemorrhaging economy. It is time to channel all our efforts in the direction of economic recovery. Both in Tunisia and Egypt people are up against growing chasm between have and have-nots. They are furious about joblessness and rising cost of living. Let us try to stem the flow of economic down-turn by doing our part responsibly. Let us try to avoid revolution because it demands blood and destruction. Let us create economic opportunities for our people as we all know that people can live without ideologies and faiths but people cannot survive without bread.

From Failed State to Failed Society

Which comes before which? I mean to say whether our state failed us first and then society as a whole degenerated or vice versa. But then I think we are at such brink where this distinction does not make any difference. People say that Pakistani society has split in the middle into two mutually exclusive groups after the cold blooded murder of Mr Taseer, but I refute this argument no sirs there is no division an over whelming majority of ‘ordinary’ Pakistanis are supporting Mr Qadri’s violent act and they either consider Mr Taseer as ‘Wajbul qatl’ or blame Mr Taseer for his own murder. So allow me to say there is no split in the society only few ‘miss fits’ are trying to raise their genuine concerns and by and large everyone has endorse this violent act. What I see in tomorrow’s Pakistan, Mr Taseer’s murderer will become a hero and most likely he will walk free with his ‘head held high’.

Honestly speaking I never thought there would such a day in my life where I would see people would refuse to condemn a cold blooded criminal. If a society refuses to honour sanctity of human life, fair play and helping the weak amongst itself for the sake whatever, it does not deserve to exist. Those who are showering flowers on Mr Qadri will soon be at the receiving end of another Qadri’s bullets.

Today I feel ashamed to be associated with such a society and lost all hopes that there could be improvement. With such heavy heart I salute the courage shown by Mr Taseer Shaheed as he was a ray of hope in total and pitch darkness. I also advice all other ‘miss fits’ to be very careful if you have to live in this land of extremism because forces you are voicing against are cannibals. When they will have no one else to kill they will start killing one another. They kill their own children and siblings and call it ‘honour’. So they would stop at nothing because they do not believe in dialogue or mutual co-existence on the basis of self respect and freedom. This is a hypocritical gathering that hates and hurls abuses on the USA and early in the every morning form queues at the US Embassy Islamabad to leave Pakistan for good.

A word of extreme care for ‘miss fits’, you should refrain from pinning any hopes on glitz and glitter of media that feed only few urban centres of right wing middle class in Pakistan. This mushrooming growth of irresponsible TV anchorpersons provide majority of their air time to right wing hate mongers with highly retrogressive and crude views. That is why when you ‘miss fit’ lot came out of your homes disregarding all threats to your lives and livings in solidarity with Mr Taseer in Karachi they completely blacked you out.

Today with exception of very minute few ‘miss fits’, Pakistan is a failed society because there is no sanctity of human life. People have been taught on distorted histories and false pride with absolutely no sense of fair play. A society that has failed criminally to protect its weaks in fact it allows them to be cleansed ‘legally’. A hypocritical society where Mr Taseer’s murder is termed as an act of God and his murderer has a right of fair trial.

I am hoping against hope that this time around Mr Taseer Shaheed’s murder might start a social evolution in Pakistan and left this society from sub-human level to human society.

No Country for Sane Men

One by one, extremists are silencing every sane voice in Pakistani society. The cold blooded murder of Salman Taseer is another warning for people who are harbingers of sanity and tolerance and crude reminders for them that they are not welcome in this land of fundamentalists and extremists. I was astonished at the hypocrisy of people when after witnessing harrowing violence at the hands extremists to their fellow countrymen, women and children they still have galls to say that it is not Islam. When a lady anchor person on Geo TV asked a religious leader whether he would condemn Mr Taseer’s murder he blatantly said “No”. And this religious leader happens to be the leader of movement for the protection of current blasphemy laws in Pakistan. He further commented that murder of Mr Taseer was an act of God but fate of his murderer should be decided by courts. I am sure he was a true representative of Islam yet lady anchor person finished her programme by saying Islam is religion of peace nothing else. I do not know who she was trying to fool herself or people listening to her hypocritical remarks. Anything that discourages sense of fair play and helping the weak should be vigorously discouraged.

Watching various Pakistan TV channels one cannot help feeling that everyone was trying to be apologetic for Mr Taseer’s murderer by giving qualifying statements about what Mr Taseer said on blasphemy laws and motives behind such a violent act. As if Mr Taseer was himself to blame for his murder. When extremists killed innocent people of Pakistan in mosques, in market places or even in hospitals everyone proclaimed they were not Muslims and foreign hands were involved because a Muslim could not kill a fellow Muslim. I am still waiting for what would they say about Malik Mumtaz Qadiri. He is surely an ordinary Muslim. I am sure now everyone in unison would proclaim that Malik Mumtaz Qadiri is not true representative of ordinary Muslims. Ordinary Muslim is tolerant and peace loving.

This is a murder most foul. It brought forward the nakedness and emptiness of Pakistani society. A society bent on killing every sane element amongst itself. A totally deranged and dysfunctional society where only those people holding guns in their hands have monopoly over everything from political discourse to basic human rights. I hope Mr Taseer’s murder would not go in vain and the debate he started should be brought into its rightful conclusion. But I have a very little hope and I am also concerned about the safety of all those people who are trying their best to break the status quo in whichever field they work because it seems Pakistan is a country where there is no place for sane people.