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MR. PRESIDENT!
WERE 160 MILLION PAKISTANIS WRONG TO ELECT YOU?
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by Nayyar Hashmey
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As I write these lines, words echo in my mind, words she uttered in her last speech. So said Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, “My dear brothers and my dear sisters, this is the time when our country is in turmoil. My country, your country” said B. Bhutto “is in serious travails and turpitudes; I have come to you to help me save this land. Help me my brothers, my sisters, to save our motherland”. Shortly after she had uttered these words, she was shot at by an unknown assailant. She could not even leave the public park she had chosen to address.
After she was out of scene, situation moved at an electric speed. Erstwhile dictator, who had orchestrated all machinations, fair or foul and turned this country into a marionette, had to resign. In the aftermath, Mohtarma‘s hubby got catapulted to the seat of presidency.
But the irony continues to haunt this nation. The inheritor of Mohtarma’s legacy, her vision and her struggle occupies the place where an erstwhile dictator, with the sheer use of force got himself seated for 8 years.
Now when I ponder over BB’s last words, the whole scene seems like an action replay. The words she uttered were as true then as they are now. This country, this most beloved land of ours is still in turmoil, even though the man who was the life partner of that graceful lady, who ruled and still rules over the hearts of millions of have-nots in Pakistan, is sitting on the throne of Pakistan. Yet this country is back to square one. Things have gone from bad to worse. Terrorists whosoever, are bombing the nerve centre of the country. Just day before yesterday at some minutes walk from the National Assembly; they bombed the Marriot Hotel in Islamabad, 60 people, almost all civilians died in the blast.
In last 8 years the ex dictator was telling us, like a worn out recorded tape that he saved Pakistan from wrath of the US when the later threatened to send Pakistan into stone age. [it later transpired that this threat did not come from the US President, as our the then President Gen.(R) Pervaiz Musharraf maintained but from an Assistant Secretary of State and the language too was not the same that the ex General told this nation].
Although many Pakistanis did not believe then and I myself had strong reservations on this so called Stone Age statement and the way it was played by ex dictator to dread his own people, yet we believed then and we believe it today that had there been a democratic polity, a truly democratic culture in Pakistan, the matter would never have been settled or decided the way, it was [when this country was unconditionally thrown to the mercy of the United States of America and mind it, it was not the US of Thomas Jefferson or of George Washington, it was the US of Neocons like George Walker Bush, Dick Cheney, Donny Rumsfield and Condy Rice who think they have a divine right, destined to annihilate the governments, the people, the armies in the name of democracy, free world and liberty, so on and so forth].
Whether it were the threats, the persuasions or fear of these Pentagon and White House guys, is immaterial. Fact remains that ex dictator succumbed to those threats and accepted whatever the Bushues ordered him. What the then President did on their askance, he said, was to save Pakistan, a position which he later cleverly tried to camouflage under the slogan “Sab Se Pehle Pakistan (SSPP), but the price this country paid for this SSPP policy was the sale of innocent Pakistanis to unknown agents within and outside Pakistan and till today one does not know what was their sin, their doing and where they are now.
In Punjabi there is a story where under similar circumstances this country has been brought to by the ex dictator and the incumbent President, in which a man belonging to the rural singing clan in our villages (who are usually the butts of humour in our countryside) was asked by the village head to opt out of the two options only… Either eat 100 onions at a time, or get 100 shoe beatings (littars). The poor man using all his wits opts to take 100 onions. Thinks he, ‘100 shoe beatings are too hard to bear’, hence take onions. But after having eaten some dozens of onions, he cries “No Sir am going to accept 100 shoe beatings instead”. In this dilemma he eats 100 onions and gets 100 shoe beatings too. So dear readers, this is how the ex General made this country to suffer…either way.
The ex General President allied this country to the US and Pakistan became a frontline state, however, with that status we, Pakistanis, the most allied ally of the US, are being bombed by US forces in Fata where poor, innocent civilians are dying after every chopper attack or through drone raids in our territory. So both ways, we are facing the punishment as it happened with the mirasi boy in a Punjabi village. Perhaps this is the first and the only instance in the history where a major power is attacking its own ally.
Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be any change from the stance taken by the ex-General. We are still America’s ally and our poor innocent civilians are being bombed by the US and its coalition partners.
Gen de Gaulle, one time President of France once said, 70 million French can’t be wrong, so on an analogy 160 millions Pakistanis can’t be wrong either-to push Mr. Zardari to the coveted seat of the country’s presidency. It’s very much for Mr. Zardari to prove whether 160 million Pakistanis were indeed not wrong to elect him?
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Wonders of Pakistan 
I enjoyed reading the story about the Maraasi and the leetray. 😀
Somehow, every politician in our part of the world claims to be able to save us from something or the other. These troubles often are of the politicians own creation, however. It is the common people who get killed, whereas the politicians generally remain well-protected.
I found a rather scathing analysis of the present situation in Pakistan, along with some suggestions and recommendations, at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7620767.stm . The comments section that follows the article is a mixed bag of reactions from Pakistanis and those from the rest of the world.
Thanks Gursharan, for providing the link. Will definitely visit this site.
We need to understand that the present set of politicians and those at the helm are not sincere to our homeland. This system and people both are non-functional which we need to replace. 99% of the weak population is being exploited by 1% rich and powerful. Lets break the shackles, we need to bring a revolution as soon as possible.
http://ihaveadream-pakistan.blogspot.com/p/manifesto.html
Since I have been deliberatly denied to access the blog called Opinion maker ,that is why i use this blog to comment on an article by Mr Mahmood . He writes…
It is possible that
growing resentment
and people ’s hatred
against the corrupt
politicians could reignite
burning lava of ashes to
engulf the Zardari
regime leaving no room
to escape the wrath of
the ordinary folks who
have sacrificed their
lives and efforts to make
Pakistan a living reality.
Leaders create leaders.
They were thieves who
came to rob the nation
of its precious asset –
the ideology of Islamic
Pakistan and hope for a
promising future for the
new generations of
young and educated
people. It is awful to be
hopeful with a stolen
future. Yet, these
gangsters somehow
manage to escape the
accountability
mechanism and leave
the nation in far more
worst conditions than
when they assumed the
political power.)
There is a saying Yath prja tatha Raja .Blood money can be recieved by any one in Islamic Pakistan .So don’t worry .Have a Islamic country for your future generations as well and enjoy?
Interesting that most Indian writers pain themselves to write about ISI and Pakistan army and deliver their judgments on these Pakistani institution, but fail look at their own RAW and its role as a state within a state. I will quote one incidence of the RAW behaving as rough organization to sabotage the Indian prime minister Late Rajive Gandhi’s efforts to bring peace in Sri Lanka by informing the LTTE that Indian black cat crack units are headed to be airdropped in JAFNA,the whole unit was shot in the air by LTTE while parachuting in JAFNA.I leave to my Indian fellows to make up their minds. there are number of events where RAW or Indian establishment dictated rather bulldozed the political leaderships opinion and decisions, another is the killing of Late Rajiv Gandhi’s murder as he was heading towards a clean sweep in upcoming elections and had made clear that he will go all out to implement his peace plan in Sri Lanka.
@ Hamid Ali,
DR AKT is habitual of always writing against Pakistan, Muslims & the Islamic world in general. Like women who start a quarrel for nothing & when they can’t win out the opposite side, start using ‘taunts” in order to satisfy their inner mind thinking that like this they won the other party. Its another matter that such hollow “taunts” do not carry any meaning or weight for the opposite side.
His ranting once again on blood money is an indication of his womanlike taunts to satisfy his inner self that by doing this he has won over Pakistanis. But the fact remains that India inspite of its being an economic giant has thinking of a mice, for to be big one has to be big hearted but unfortunately for India to be big on this count is like asking sun to rise in the west instead of east.
In India woman is regarded as a symbol of power , Nav Rose is being observed by offering prayer to a woman called Durga .Mr. Ali , you might be hnowing your mother, she is also a woman .Power and Pakistan is not in the male ,be sure it lies among the women .If you are not married then you will not commit mistake again .Let me chant for blood money like a woman and see the result .
a piece written w/out rhyme,reason, reference &context?????????????????
Go thiough your previouous comment and find the context .Denouncing women on www is a moral crime .its repercussions are far reaching due to which the entire ummah is now suffering a lot . Self denyal can not continue any more in this information age .Mr. Wasi .try to understand the refrence and context .?
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