11th August, Balouchistan’s Independence Day

Try this one day, pick a few random Pakistani friends from your social circle and ask them when did Balouchistan become part of Pakistan. The first response you’ll get is a strange look on their face as if you’ve asked quite a childish question and then the answer will be “of course on the same day when Pakistan became independent, 14th August 1947″.

Problem with propaganda taught at schools is that it becomes so engraved in our minds that when the opposing facts are presented we immediately see those facts as threats and reject it fearing it must be part of some sort of conspiracy. The propagandists try to stimulate others to accept without challenge their own assertions and nothing works best than starting with young minds, at schools of course. Textbooks in Pakistan have repeatedly gone through severe changes from generation to generation with a simple objective to strengthen state’s narrative. Same was done with the history of Balouchistan, hence the uneducated response you get from your friends is anything but surprising.

To begin with, Balouchistan did not become part of Pakistan until 27th March 1948, roughly around seven and half months after the creation of Pakistan. What was the status of Balouchistan in those seven months ? It was an independent country recognized by British, India and Pakistan. It all started when kalat (now a division of Balouchistan province) declared itself as an independent sovereign nation on 11th August 1947, three days before Pakistan’s independence. Makran, Las Bela, and Kharan were the feudatories of Kalat since 1870’s treaty between Kalat, Afghanistan and British Raj. Since the status of Kalat and its feudatories was different than the 500 plus princely states of India, hence the Khan of Kalat was given a choice to make his own decision about which way the state of Kalat will go to. Jinnah on behalf of Dominion of Pakistan signed a memorandum of understanding with the newly established state of Kalat and agreed to following points

• The Government of Pakistan recognizes Kalat as an independent sovereign state in treaty relations with the British Government with a status different from that of Indian States.
• Legal opinion will be sought as to whether or not agreements of leases will be inherited by the Pakistan Government.
• Meanwhile, a Standstill Agreement has been made between Pakistan and Kalat.
• Discussions will take place between Pakistan and Kalat at Karachi at an early date with a view to reaching decisions on Defence, External Affairs and Communications.

 
There are multiple theories as to what happened after that but one thing is common in all accounts that Jinnah had a change of heart for some reason. One of the theories is that the change was actually encouraged by British due to the realisation that an independent Kalat with its feudatories giving it access to the warm waters can be used by Soviets. Afghanistan was already under Russian influence and allowing Kalat to share a border with Russia friendly Afghanistan was going to be a political disaster for the British interests in region. British then started encouraging Jinnah to convince Khan of Kalat to join the newly created state of Pakistan.

Jinnah made several attempts to convince Kalat and use his personal influence and the relationship he had with Khan. The demands were however rejected by Khan and the upper house of Kalat.

 

On 12th December 1947, while rejecting the accession proposal, the National Party leader in the assembly, Mir Ghaus Bakhsh Bizenjo argued, “We have a distinct civilization, we have a separate culture like that of Iran and Afghanistan. We are muslims but it is not necessary that by virtue of our being Muslims we should loose our freedom and merge with others. If the mere fact that we are Muslims requires us to join Pakistan then Afghanistan and Iran both Muslim countries should also amalgamate with Pakistan”.

Reading through the history, we realise that Jinnah quickly lost his patience with the rejection from Kalat and his own relationship suffered heavily during back to back meetings and negotiations with Balouch nationalists. We can only assume it could have been influenced by the British pressure as well as the ongoing developments in Jammu and Kashmir; another failed adventure Jinnah’s legacy left for the future generations of Pakistan.

In February 1948, Pakistan Army entered into Kalat’s feudatories. Its hard to suggest whether these feudatories signed the accession papers due to force or was the promised incentives were enough for them to cross the line and agree to Jinnah’s demands. But the feudatories joining Pakistan left Kalat in a very difficult position as it became virtually a landlocked state. There are also references that Khan of Kalat asked Afghanistan and the Russian embassy in Kabul to help against the possible aggression from Pakistan but he failed to secure any favorable response as Afghanistan was not in a position to help and Russia may have tried to stay out of the conflict.

Finally on 27th March 1948, Pakistan’s paramilitary forces entered Kalat and forced Khan to sign the accession papers. Accession papers suggest that Khan signed it at 9pm however these were signed by Jinnah on 31st March 1948. Some people have made exaggerated claims suggesting Khan of Kalat was taken to Karachi and was made to sign the papers on gunpoint however no authentic references are available to back this claim.

Irony is that ordinary citizens of Pakistan are kept in dark about these historical events which helps creating an atmosphere of distrust with Balouch nationalists. The fact remains that Pakistan’s claims on Balouchistan are anything but legitimate, anything but ethical, anything but sustainable …

Last Christmas for George Michael

Well, unfortunately this was your last Christmas George but all the wonderful years of non-stop quality music you provided to us will stay with us forever.

While,  the death took you away the very next day as you famously sang, it will never take away the memories 😒

Last Christmas by Wham
rest in peace mate …

Time In A Bottle

‎اگر وقت کو بوتل میں قید کیا جا سکتا 

‎میں قیامت تک کا وقت بچا کے رکھ لیتا

‎اور صرف تمہارے ساتھ بتاتا 
‎اگر میں وقت کو گزرنے سے روک پاتا

‎اگر خواب حقیقت بن پاتے 

‎میں ہر اک دن خزانے کی مانند بچا لیتا

‎اور وہ سب تمہارے ساتھ بتاتا
Time In A Bottle

By Jim Croce

Hello Western World – are you listening ?

I have no intention to be insensitive towards the Nice Attack in which dozens of people have died but then the question is if not now then when do you want to talk to us ? Us means the ExMuslims here who have a tremendous courage to stop apologising for their people and not buy into the typical political rhetoric of George Bush and his likes when they issue a zombie statement saying “Islam is the religion of peace”. We are the ones who were born into these Muslim societies, went through the childhood indoctrination and then had courage to sit down and apply our own critical thinking about the whole faith thing and say “enough is enough, we can’t remain defensive about this madness forever and if there is anything to blame its Islam and its teachings instead of blaming Muslims for not following the so-called religion of peace”.

May sound bitter but Islam is anything but peace

While you in the western world have remained quiet and ignorant about what Islam can do to the societies, we the ExMuslims have been busy on social media to raise awareness on how Islam is anything but Peace. We are a small minority and live in extremely dangerous places when we criticise Islam in front of Muslims and we are literally on our own without any support from outside.

The solution to this whole problem is right here, denouncing the faith, the scripture that actually entice people to hate anyone who is different to them. It has nothing to do with Muslims bringing the shame to the name of Islam, it is not an image problem, it is not stereotyping. Its rather the harsh reality, the bitter truth that sooner or rather you’ll all have to face, so the question is if not now when ???

Who wants this music tonight?

The Man from U.N.C.L.E was impressive, I was really impressed the way the created effects for 60s and the special cinematic theme they used, in terms of the plot and execution I would rate it 3.3 out of 5. But the highlight of the movie for me was the classical Italian song they used from Peppino Gagliardi. 

Below is the YouTube link for the song and English translation …

http://youtu.be/7T4Qxv4SBNQ

Who wants this music tonight?

It’ll remind me a bit of the past,

I’d have the moon to keep me company,

It’d make me think of you,

as only mine,

as only mine.

I would keep you here, next to me,

even though now, between us, there isn’t anything anymore.

I would hear your soft, sweet words again,

even though I don’t feel anything when you say them now.

All around the world, it doesn’t exist,

the happiness you gave me,

and that, I know now.

All of the time,

all of my days,

you’re not you anymore.

Who wants this music tonight?

It’ll remind me a bit of the past,

It’ll remind me a bit of your love,

It’ll remind me a bit of you.

And that, I know now.

All of the time,

all of my days,

you’re not you anymore.

Who wants this music tonight?

As it’ll remind me,

a bit of the past.

As it’ll remind me,

a bit of your love.

As it’ll remind me,

a bit of you,

a bit of you.

 …

سوچو تو سہی

سوچو گر کوئی جنت نا ہو
سوچو تو سوچ بھی سکتے ہو
نہ کوئی دوزخ پاؤں تلے
بس ایک کھلا آسمان ہمارے اوپر
سوچو گر سارے انسان بس آج کے لئے جیئیں تو

سوچو نا کوئی سرحدیں ہوں نا کوئی ریاست
کوئی ایسا مشکل تو نہیں
نا کوئی وجہ مارنے کی نا لڑنے کی
اور نا ہی کوئی مذہب
سوچو گر سارے انسان بس امن سے رہیں تو
 
شاید میری بات ایک خواب معلوم ہو
پر ناممکن تو نہیں
کاش اک دن تم بھی ایسا سوچ سکو
اور یہ دنیا کے لوگ سب ایک ہوکے رہ سکیں

….
جان لینن کے گانے “امیجن” سے ماخوذ

14th August Resolutions

Dear Pakistanis,

While its easier to get carried away with all the emotional stuff we see during our independence day celebrations, it takes courage to sit back and list down the things that we need to do in order to create a better place for our future generations to come.

I’m sure you’ll be able to add a lot to the following but trust me small baby steps will go a long way provided we do things with good intentions, here is the list:

1. Stop making excuses and lets start taking responsibility for where we are today
2. Put an end to Religious Extremism, no ifs and no buts, just a big No No
3. Its we who do corruption, let stop blaming everyone else for it and begin the self realization process from ourselves first
4. Women are half of our population, they are the back-bone of our future growth. Put a permanent end to the misogyny. When women grow in their career the whole nation grow two folds
5. Lets stop discriminating our minorities, it should be none of our business to ask them who they are and what their beliefs are
6. Lets put an end to the culture of showing off with the bigger houses and expensive cars, its time to rebuild the country not our personal ego
7. Lets come up with a road map of where we are and where want to be
8. Lets start building more hospitals and schools, there is nothing more important than to have a healthy and educated future generation
9. Lets stop worrying about others and start focusing on our own house, let them sort out their matters themselves while we are sorting ours
10. Lets start thinking form today, if not now … When ?

Israel, Gaza and Libertarians

There are a few topics that attract as much heated response as the Israeli Palestinian conflict and no matter how much you try keeping it civil or rational the discussion usually ends into sharing pictures of Palestinian kids being killed by the Israeli Armed Forces.

Problem is that this particular topic has become a sort of Political Cancer for almost everyone, the conservative Muslims, the moderate Muslims, the confused Muslims, Westerners who hate Israel, westerners who support Israel, and above all the true and genuine Libertarians. Perhaps the Libertarians find themselves in the most awkward position on this conflict because they see both sides doing equally wrong things and they would rather like to be upfront about the fact that this conflict is driven by crazy religious sentiments more than anything else but given the sensitivity and the kind of hype this matter creates it becomes extremely difficult to keep yourself in a balanced position.

There are some burning issues related to this conflict, such as:

1. Israeli Occupation: Yes, In a sense it can be called an Israeli occupation but there are multiple problems with this. Fact is that Palestine did not exist as a country itself, it was simply a British Colony just like any other colony. In terms of helping Israelis to settle there, that isn’t any different to helping British people settling down in Australia, New Zealand or other colonies. We hardly (ever) sit down and cry over how Britain created settlements in New Zealand and the poor Mauri people. We never consider Australia an illegally occupied country. Why is it so ? Is it just because Mauri or Aboriginals were not Arabs or they never accepted Islam as their religion ? Or is it because they didn’t have the population as big as Palestinians have.

2. Invasion: Muslims consider Jewish Migration to Israel and setting up their Government an Invasion. While it certainly can be defined as an Invasion, question is that do we oppose all invasions or is it just one exception that we feel we should call it an Invasion. How come we never jump up and down for Russian Invasion into Ukraine, how come we never have a problem with all those Islamic Invasions throughout the history from India to Spain ? Were those Invasions alright just because they were trying to spread Islam ?

3. Land Issue: When we say it’s a war of two religions, we get a counter argument that no its a Land Issue. The question arises that whose land is it really ? History tells us that it was Muslim Forces who captured Jerusalem back in 8th century and no Muslim ever lived there before that time. So when we say its Palestine and its Muslim Palestine why are we so desperate to ignore the historical background of this land. Some Muslim friends even go the length of denying that Jews ever lived there, conveniently forgetting what Quran say about Bani Israel.

4. Self Defense: On the other hand, Israel considers its right to retaliate in self-defense whenever Terror organizations such as Hamas fire a missile or carry out an explosion in Israeli city. However, we can deny the fact that innocent civilians do die on both sides. How on earth genuine libertarians can justify the killings of innocent civilians whether Arabs or Jews ?

5. Holocaust: The WWII Holocaust undoubtedly left a long-term psychological effect on Jews all over the world. So much so that it may have made them accept anything in the name of Self Defense. They just forget that the way Innocent Palestinians are dying today, the same way Nazis were killing Jews during the early 20th century. How can you sit down and enjoy watching rockets being fired on civilians (even if there are Terrorists hiding in those areas) and not compared it to the Holocaust.

Pakistanis on the other hand have some special interest in this conflict. The same Pakistanis who fail to show any sympathy to the Minorities (Hazara, Shia, Ahmadi, Hindu etc) being brutally killed in Pakistan will ask you to change your Profile Picture on Facebook to show solidarity with Palestinians, as if the blood of Pakistani Minorities is not red enough.

I also fail to understand how we can’t compare the situation of Gaza with North Waziristan in Pakistan’s tribal areas. According to Pakistani Government there are some terrorists hiding in Waziristan region and its important to attack them without having to worry about Civilian casualties. The same thing happens in Gaza, Israeli Government says that there are terrorists hiding behind Civilians and its important to attack them and not having to worry about the civilian casualties as well the large number of locals who had to flee from their homes in order to save their lives. Perhaps the only difference is that Pakistani Government has blocked access for Reporters and Journalists which means we don’t get the correct figures on casualties.

I know its very hard to keep the emotions on side and look into this matter objectively and blame both sides for their actions but until we don’t do this, I don’t see anything improving in that region …

Islam, problem or solution ?

Is being ‘Moderate’ always the best thing ? Does it really hold the key to our problems and does maintaining the balance is always the right way to go ? The voice of Moderate Islam or Moderate Muslims as they like to call themselves is on the rise as more and more people who find them unable reconcile their sense of belonging to the faith they are born into with the Ground Realities around them. But how much their voice makes sense and how much it is actually helping to reduce Extremism in Muslim Societies ?

Moderate Islam

I just came across an article by Sana A Siddiqui “Islam: Problem or solution?” and it immediately reminded me some of the friends on Facebook that I’ve had regular conversations with. There are some common arguments that most of the Moderate Muslims are raising, I’ll try to answer each argument in detail and then we’ll look at the question asked by Sana in her Nation’s article.

1. Moderate Islam is caught between Extremist Islam and Liberal: This is their main complaint, they feel that their voice is not heard properly because the Extremist Islam gets much more attention than these Moderate Muslims are able to attract. These people also complain about the growing criticism of Liberals (and increasing Atheist community) on Islam where Islam is seen as the actually root problem rather than solution.

Liberal critiques of Islam are often labelled as “Liberal Fascists”, as if you’re raising voice against the Extremism and Hatred with the same intensity as the Extremism itself then you’re seen one of them. Its like if you hate the hatred you are hater yourself or you refuse to tolerate the intolerance you’re an intolerant person yourself. It doesn’t even matter how much rational or articulated you have tried to be while raising your voice, you’re still classified as a Left-wing Extremist as soon as you disagree with Islam being a remote possibility as a Solution

If you always have to reinterpret the scripture according to the new observations of modern times, isn’t it a failure of the scripture itself which came from a divine source as a Guide for you.

2. Lets focus on Good side of Islam: Moderate Muslims insist that we need to ignore or brush off the side of Islam that is anything but Peaceful, we should rather look at the good sides only. This is an argument full of Logical Fallacy, if you’ve to pick and choose Moral Lessons from the ideology that should have responsible to teach you Morality then you are already much more Moral than the Ideology itself. Question that these Moderate Muslims never ask themselves is that why these not-so-peaceful messages have been part of Islam for so long ?

3. Mullahs have distorted Islam: Playing a victim card is usually the fist form of Denial which is part of the Defense Mechanism. Believing that the ideology itself is fine but the Mullahs have been involved in the corruption clearly contradicts with the actual teaching of this particular ideology in the first instance. Islam claims to be the Final Religion by God that provides solution for each and every problem you may have had in life. Islam also claims that the previous messages / religions sent by God were manipulated by People and then God decided to send one last final message. Now, if Mullahs have managed to manipulate God’s one last final message to human-kind where do we go from here ? Secondly what guarantee we have that lets say 50 or 100 years from now, our next generations wouldn’t be debating on the same lines and blaming today’s Moderate Followers and / or Quranists screwed the whole message of Islam during early 21st century and the real Islam was in fact something else.

Islam claims that previous messages by God were manipulated by people. Now, if Mullahs have managed to manipulate God’s one last final message to human-kind where do we go from here ?

4. Reformation, not Rejection: For how many times really ? Since the 8th century or so we have had calls for Reformation in Islam. It was Mutazilla who called for Reformation, their voices were finally crushed in 12 century by a movement lead by Imam Ghazali and then in every age we have had calls for the Reformation in form or another. Ahmadiyya Sect is itself a product of this so-called Reformation call and today those same Ahmedis are considered Heretic by not only Conservative Muslims but also by these same Moderate Followers as well.

Point is that if are have to keep reconciling our faith with the challenges of current times and if you always have to reinterpret the scripture according to the new observations of modern times, isn’t it a failure of the scripture itself which came from a divine source as a Guide for you.

5. No more Hadith please: The growing dislike and frustration of Moderate Muslims with Ahadith is quite understandable and fits in quite well with the “The Great Muslim Apostasy” view I described in my previous post. Ahadith and Seerah books clearly depicts Islam and Prophet Muhammad as a person which was anything but Peaceful and anything but a wise man to look forward to as a role model (unless you go cherry picking the selective ahadith). With Quran however, its much easier to play around because of its language and style we can literally translate any verse as we like it.

Are you denying the Ahadith because they contradict with the view or model you have developed for Islam and Prophet Muhammad ?

Some Quranists believe that Islam Critics love to bring in the Ahadith because it makes Islam look really bad. I really doubt that is the case, problem is that Quranists simply fail to convince through their argument that why Ahadith cant be true or why it couldn’t have happened ? Are you denying the Ahadith because they contradict with the view or model you have developed for Islam and Prophet Muhammad in your mind or do you reject it because of the fact that these were orally transmitted years of Prophet Muhammad’s death ? If oral transmission if your problem then what makes Quran so divine in your view, wasn’t it orally transmitted, don’t you think there couldn’t have been a chance of mistake in that transmission ?

Where is the powerful movement that we should see coming from the Moderate Voices that should challenge, fight and then finally over-take the Extremist Elements in Muslim World ?

Besides the points I mentioned above, I would like to ask my Moderate Muslim friends as what exactly they are doing to help reduce the current wave of Extremism ? Where is the powerful movement that we should see coming from the Moderate Voices that should challenge, fight and then finally over-take the Extremist Elements in Muslim World ? Why do we see more and more youngsters drifting towards the Extremist Islam in Western countries than going towards the Moderate version of same ideology ? Why do you find it offensive when you see Islam Critics using Islamic History in order to make a point that Islam is a violent ideology but you are never seen as jumping up and down when the Islamist are using same history to make their point ?

In terms of the answer to Sana’s question regarding whether Islam is a problem or solution, I’ll let my readers decide what they think about it …

Solution for Taliban Issue

This post is going to make a lot of my left wing liberal friends unhappy, but does that mean its going to make the right wing conservative Muslims happy ? Probably not. So, who is this post going to make happy ? Very few in my opinion who have the patience to look at the bigger picture and focus on longer term solutions.

For years, I kept hearing various theories on Taliban. Some said they are CIA agents, some called them a conspiracy against Pakistan and some (in fact vast majority) denied their existence. After recent attacks on Karachi airport, the latest trend is to link Taliban with India. Every single gathering with Pakistani friends will give you new insights into what Taliban really could be.

But something that no one will be willing to recognise is the fact that it was none other than our own agencies who were behind the creation of Taliban ideology. I know that some of you will immediately think that it was actually US who used these Mujahideen against Soviet Union but again thats just one side of it. Every single war is fought by using allies in your favour and crushing those who appear to be on the other side of fence.

Truth is, Pakistan needed Taliban to maintain its strategical appearance in Afghanistan but with the change in geo-political situation after 9/11 and an Afghan Government that is not as friendly tonPakistan as it is to India the frustration of not only Pakistan grew too far but also of Taliban. For years, we made Taliban Taliban think that one day they will be able to implement Shariah style Islamic Government in not only Afghanistan but also Pakistan. And now suddenly, when you tell them that their version of Islam is not the correct version, I believe they have a right to ask that then which version of Islam is the right one and why ?

Problem isn’t with Taliban, they believe in what they believe in, the actual problem lies around the fact that the majority of Pakistani population lives with a confused ideology where they do like to assert that Islam is the religion of Peace and Islam is the perfect way of life but that same Islam when they are asked to implement in their own life they just wouldn’t like that idea. No moderate Muslim has ever been able to decide which version of Islam is really the perfect one for them and how come a perfect way of life comes in so many flavours that it literally makes it impossible to agree on one particular interpretation.

Look around and you will find that the most vocal opposition of Taliban ideology comes from none other than our Shia minority of Pakistan which is yet another hypocrisy. While there is no denying that Shia (along with other minorities) have suffered a lot at the hands of Taliban, the truth is that these same Shia will support the Shariah Implementation in Iran and will have no problem with Mullah ruling there but the similar Mullah ruling in Pakistan will not be acceptable to them.

So, let go back to the actual topic of what is the solution to this problem really ? More and more Liberals are now leaning towards a full blown Army operation in Taliban areas. But the question, we don’t want to ask ourselves is that if that is the longer term solution ? Will killing one generation of Taliban ideology make sure we wouldn’t see next generation of Taliban with even more aggression and the desire to fulfil the ultimate dream of implementing an ideal Islamic State.

Does that mean that Imran Khan’s solution of negotiating with Taliban has any worth consideration ? By bringing them to the negotiating table, you’re actually admitting that they are a significant political force in not only in Pakistan but also on the regional level ? Isn’t negotiation all about Win/Win scenario ? Do you expect the Taliban to come to the negotiating table without getting any favours in return ? So why is it that PTI’s die-hard supporters feel so offended when Pervez Rasheed calls Imran a strategical partner of Taliban ?

Personally, I don’t believe any of these two solutions are going to work on longer term basis. I agree with the premise that Imran wants Taliban to appear as a major political force and negotiations is just an Entry point to the larger political setup in which Taliban are part of the picture. But I also dont agree that by wiping out certain sections of these people will make the problem go away. The Taliban ideology thrives on the back of hypocrisy of moderate Islam, nothing is going to act as a longer term solution until you address the double standards …