WAR ON TERROR

By: Zahoor 

This Note may be read as an afterwards to the below given article that appeared in Dawn in June, 2009. Let me confess that initially I felt somewhat guilty after suggesting that the Durand Line may be fenced and converted into a permanent border. My guilt flowed from the fact that my family had always sided with the nationalist party of Bacha Khan. But being a staunch believer in Realism, I easily stopped chiding myself, long before witnessing the Taliban takeover of Kabul in August, 2021 and the subsequent events including the self-righteous mullahs' cavorting with a rabid believer in Hindutva. I atoned for my feeling of guilt by making the subject matter as the cover story of my collection of articles titled 'Fateful Line.' Zahoor, my favourite cartoonist and the most intelligent artist in Pakistan, favoured me once again by drawing the cover as seen above.

Luckily, I say luckily for I do not rate my foresight highly, the below given article contained every foreboding that I had warned against including how our zealous TV anchors, rollicking in a life of incredible riches and comfort, would call the Afghan mullahs as our last line of defense against India. These same people have now been joined by newcomers inspired by the idiosyncrasies of Imran Niazi that Pakistan should hold talks with the militants. Our army generals of yester years who created, nurtured and patronised the Taliban could also be seen siding with what Imran unflinchingly believes in. These people are trying to distract the common people from the real issue i.e. fanaticism, by claiming that the ongoing conflict is for the control of minerals forced on us by America and China. A recent notification by the University of Peshawar that it was closing down nine departments including geology and geography due to very low admissions ought to silence these bigmouths. This notification, as if by a stroke of Divine intervention, has arrived at the precise time to tell us of our poor comprehension of the intricate skill of extraction of minerals and their conversion into valuable goods.

I do not say that the fence saw the light of the day soon after the publication of my suggestion, but seeing it being installed I couldn't help stop drawing a sigh of relief. I strongly believe that Pakistan should now double down on the fence by making it into an unbreakable and unscalable wall even if it required diverting resources from other pending strategic projects. Pakistan may also consider granting the option of migration with ex gratia to Afghanistan to all those self-styled politicians and TV anchors who are calling for a dialogue with the terrorist outfits. Let these guys and girls play chummy in their bespoke dresses with the Taliban in Afghanistan. These people have not learnt that even refugees in Pakistan and Iran were loathe to going back to their country while the yoke of militancy hung over their heads.

Before I finish, I would like to make a correction that Mortimer Durand is not buried in Dera Ismail Khan. I had misreported this in the below given article after picking it from the social media. When I visited Dera Ismail Khan in 2016, I made it a point to visit the cemetery where he was said to be buried. It wasn't in fact a cemetery, as I found it to my surprise, but a vast compund of an old church covered with wild grass and furze. There was just one grave in the centre of the compound with a headstone identifying a Durand who had also served in the Indian part of Punjab. It was neither Mortimer Durand nor his brother Algernon. I offer my apologies to the readers.)

TIME FOR HOLBROOKE TO PLAY DURAND

By: Nasser Yousaf

THAT Sir Mortimer Durand was the statesman consummate, he has left irrefutable proof thereof. In the early autumn of 1893, Durand left Peshawar for Kabul and stayed there as a special guest of Amir Abdur Rehman.

He returned to Peshawar two months later with the priceless trophy of the 'Durand Line' drawn between the British and Afghan areas of influence in the heretofore no-man's Frontier region.

Those were not easy times either. British India had taken the railways into the heart of Afghan lands through the mythical Khojak Tunnel in the rugged Balochistan terrain. Amir Abdur Rehman was incensed and it appeared that the formidable Afghan emotions would be hard to cool down. Employing all the craft that he possessed, the Afghan amir had made stealthy arrangements to pen every single word that Durand, who spoke fluent Persian, uttered during their fateful meetings. But all such moves on the part of the Afghan ruler came to naught as an astute Durand carried the day through sifting and demarcating the respective spheres over which the two would have the right to exercise suzerainty.

More than a century later, Durand lies buried in obscurity in the Christian cemetery in Dera Ismail Khan. The area all around is up in spiralling flames and the world knows little about how to put out the raging fire. Although the sanctity of the Line is scarcely known to have been observed owing to the fact that the same people have for eons lived on either side of it, it had a symbolically sobering effect on relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan. But new actors or non-state actors — the Taliban — have since emerged on the scene. Britain has since been replaced by the US as the reigning power and Mr Richard Holbrooke has unwittingly been chosen to act as Mortimer Durand.

That the approximately 2,200 km-long Line still lacks the stamp of a border shows the level of social, cultural, political, commercial and of late religious sensibilities and motives attached to its extremely volatile state of being. Pashtun nationalist parties in Pakistan have for long loathed the idea of converting the Line into a permanent border on the grounds that it would deal a fatal blow to the dream of a greater Pakhtunistan. The most common nationalistic refrain until the 1980s and well into the mid-1990s, Lar o bar yaw Afghan' ('the Afghans of the highlands of Afghanistan and the lowlands of the Frontier are one and the same people') is still fresh in our memories although not really in fashion these days.

The sentiments on the other side of the Line have also been hard to understand and reconcile with as Afghan leaders have laid claim to lands far beyond where Pashtun demography has extended. Afghan President Hamid Karzai might not be of much credible use to his people but when it comes to unrestrained jingoism and outlandish chauvinism, there is no stopping him.

Mr Karzai would do well to step into the real world. The Durand Line is no more that same threshold through which Pashtun wedding and funeral processions would pass and neither does it merely serve as a conduit for the movement of Afghan transit trade. The passage is now a licit thoroughfare for Arab, Chechen, Uzbek and Tajik mercenaries and for the fulfilment of their macabre designs. In order to prove himself as a true heir to Durand, it is these concerns that Holbrooke would be required to convey to Karzai.

In a sense the US envoy would now be required to complete the job left unfinished by his predecessor by turning the Line into a permanent border and erecting an invincible fence along its length.

No doubt, fencing the Line, from its highest pinnacles in the extremities of north-western Chitral to Balochistan's south, would be a colossal job to undertake in these troubled political and economic times. But there is no alternative to it. It is a wall that the world needs in order to make life difficult for the militants prancing around its perimeters at will. It should, therefore, be built by the civilised world as a bulwark against the forces of terror.

The financial part thus settled, the racial, social, cultural and linguist costs of the project should not impede its urgent undertaking. A solid example exists in our neighbourhood. India has built an over 4,000 km-long fence on its border with Bangladesh that literally encircles the latter and to good effect. The fence divides the western Bengalis from the eastern and few seem to mind it.

Pakistan has learned the lesson the hard way. The kind of resistance being put up by the militants in Swat and Waziristan and the infrastructure that they built while we looked away should now serve as an eye-opener. It is indeed shocking to see and hear some defeatist ideologues on our television screens still referring to the Taliban as our last line of defence against our neighbour on the eastern border. These armchair ideologues wouldn't like to hear that Afghans as a nation — Pashtun, Tajik or Uzbek — consider Pakistan as their bete noire and responsible for their endless afflictions and trauma.

Here is a chance to put an end to these sinister misgivings. Mr Holbrooke must take a leaf out of Durand's book and redirect the course of his efforts. It shouldn't be a hard task putting Karzai on the right track. As far as the stakeholders on this line of the divide are concerned, their fickleness has already brought the nationalists to the verge of extinction while the tribal jirga and its simplicities do not offer solutions to the emerging complexities as has been repeatedly tested and proved. The Taliban threat, as for now, seems permanently settled and hence it needs permanent solutions.

PEOPLE

Image by chatGPT 

MY CARDINAL SIN

By: Nasser Yousaf

'The proper study of mankind, is man.'

Alexander Pope

Mohsin Dawar is in his younger years. He is from the North Waziristan area to the south of Peshawar. Dawar and Wazir clans inhabit the erstwhile Waziristan tribal area which is in the eye of the storm for pretty too long now.

Mohsin is clean-shaven and fair in complexion. He has big dark eyes under very prominent eyebrows which he pulls up in a way as if to touch his hairline while trying to make a statement with emphasis. His demeanour is authentically urbane. But at public places in his hometown, he has to adorn his head with the broad silky traditional turban to keep up with the Joneses.

Until some years ago, Dawar was one of the leading figures of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) of which Manzoor Pashteen is the head. Several factors must have led to the parting of ways which saw Mohsin founding his own political party. The new party, as its name suggests, flaunts a progressive agenda. Not quite surprisingly, the elderly leftist of yester years, Afrasiab Khattak figures prominently in the new party.

Before long, it would be interesting to state that Afrasiab has fiddled with progressive politics for as long as one remembers. Now he joins this party and now that, and apparently being a restless soul, at times forms his own little party consisting of a motley crowd of fun-loving Pashtun leftists. Of him it could be safely said that his armchair is his handloom on which he could be seen weaving a quixotic communist fabric that his clansmen have stubbornly refused to wear.

There's absolutely little doubt that Afrasiab must have contributed in no small measure to the parting of ways between Pashteen and Dawar. The kind of ideological zealotry that Afrasiab has exhibited, and his trust in his Pashtun clansmen, compels one into believing that had it not been for the powerful establishment, every Pashtun would have been a sporting comrade.

PTM was quite the fad until recently. This scribe too empathized with it for some time by donning its symbolic colourful Kandahari cap. Fashionable women from the upscale localities of Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad would attend the public meetings of PTM because this platform looked to be enticingly liberal. Young Pashtuns presenting themselves as the liberal face of their conservative-looking clansmen attracted disillusioned socialites and dandies in considerable numbers.

One recently, came across a video interview of Mohsin in which he could be heard railing against Pakistan's powerful establishment. There's little new about that as the same is a popular mantra with the self-styled Pashtun nationalists of all hues. 

For instance, Mohsin says that militant Islamists both in Pakistan and Afghanistan were created so as to create a new identity in place of the 'Afghan.' One cannot take issues with Dawar on this count; Taliban indeed were the brainchild of the powers that be. But Mohsin doesn't elucidate and would not admit that Pashtuns did so of their own volition. As we say in Pashto, people do not throw pebbles in a house that doesn't have a berry-tree. 

Why didn't Sindhis, Baluchis and Punjabis follow the Pied Piper? The schemers must have read the Pashtuns' history and capitalized on their vulnerabilities. Pashtuns have proved themselves malleable to religious influences as often as possible, and have also as conveniently ignored religious injunctions as a toddler's little pranks.

Pashtuns of the elite and somewhat liberal class love to hide behind an absurd argument that 'mullah' is not a Pashtun. These people have certainly picked up this point from the British chronicles where the British civil and military officers posted in the erstwhile British India Frontier would broach this topic with the local khans in light humour. Considering mullahs to be of an inferior breed, Pashtun landlords and literati are given to ingratiating themselves with loftier claims in terms of race and class.

If the mullah is not a Pashtun, then who are those over a million students studying in the hundreds of religious seminaries spread all across the length of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa? Are these students Rohingyas, Biharis, Red Indians, Aboriginals or the Maoris? All these students are dyed in the wool Pashtuns born of Pashtun parents in our native land. 

Circumlocution doesn't help; the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. When cornered, Pashtuns take to expressing their ordeals in lyrics and songs. A common lyrical refrain could these days be heard as a background song to the all round killings and devastations in the Pashtuns' inhabited areas. It says: zama lweya gunah da da che Pakhtun yam (It is my cardinal sin that I am a Pashtun).

Saad Ullah Jan Burk is the putative king of Pashto drama. He is very knowledgeable and can express himself very eloquently even in these late years of his life. Sprawled on a reclining settee, he sounds like a pontiff. One recently saw a clip of one of his interviews in which he could be seen berating 'The Pathans' by Olaf Caroe as a very bad book. His main charge against the book is its title. 'Who are the Pathans, why does he call us Pathans,' Mr. Burk asks angrily.

The Pathan is indeed a very good book. One has read it end to end and loves referring to it again and again. Ostensibly, it was written to introduce us to the outside world and the title 'Pathan' was used as a generic name for the varying dialects of  'Pakhthuns' and 'Pashtuns.' An adjective or two more about the people that one is writing about doesn't take away from the worthiness of that work.

We tend to lose all sense of objectivity when we give in to emotions. Saad Ullah Jan tells the interviewer that we were the descendants of neither Jews nor Aryans. There's little reason not to agree with him; he might be in possession of genealogical evidence though he doesn't produce it. He believes that our origin is much older than that. Perhaps, we, the Pashtuns, were among those who had boarded Noah's Ark to safety, one may surmise lightly. Further hyperbole will take us to the age of apes. 

Both Mohsin Dawar and Manzoor Pashteen may be very earnest. And so must be all others of their ilk. But selected reading has hardly ever helped. Existential matters need thoughtful introspection. Harping on the same theme without substantial scientific scholarship has only helped exacerbate the ordeal of the Pashtuns.

True, Pashtuns have been very successful raiders and conquerors, but they haven't proved themselves as good rulers. We, Pashtuns, cannot hold on to what we acquire. 

Two very pertinent examples about the present era would suffice in defence of this argument: Afghanistan and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in Pakistan. 

Taliban were announced to have broken the shackles of slavery when NATO left in 2021. But the Irony is staring us in the face as none of the nearly four million Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran is willing to return home while the educated among those in Afghanistan are eagerly awaiting to board a flight out of Afghanistan to the west.

Back here, a political party made three straight electoral victories in the name of 'change' but all that we have seen and experienced is a total and complete chaos and indeed breakdown of governance in the province.

The last two hundred years' history of the Pashtuns should provide us some food for thought, provided we need any. Sikhs and British in turn ruled us in what is now the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. On the other side, Afghan Pashtuns had to wrestle and contend with the Russian and German factors in addition to the typical machinations of the British. 

We learn from our history that Durranis, Yousafzais, Khattaks, Bangash, Afridis, Mohmands, Khalils, Arbabs etc always busied themselves with selling their loyalties now to the Sikhs and now to the British. In return, some of them got unimaginable stretches of lands or 'jagirs' as gifts both from the Sikhs and British. This indeed was the state of affairs even during the time of our 17th century warrior-poet Khushal Khan Khattak.

Khushal's voluminous poetry should serve as a veritable treasure trove for those who doubt the accounts rendered by non Pashtuns. Khushal had to contend with the Mughals under Emperor Aurangzeb, but he found his own people hobnobbing with his enemies.

Ghani Khan, our most popular poet of the 20th century, had his own reasons to take on the mullah. His rich and vastly popular poetry is replete with taunts directed at the mullah, both in humour and seriously. He made fun of the mullah's gastronomical pleasures while calling his bluff to unsheath his sword.

This is exactly what the Pashtun mullah appears to have done. It's a convuluted situation, one that is not going to correct itself. The least we can do is not to be denialists. Facts are facts, as Wali Khan said. Pashtuns are the second most influential class in civil, military and judicial bureaucracy in Pakistan. 

LETTERS

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MY UNPUBLISHED LETTERS

By: Nasser Yousaf 

Here are my fifteen letters that I sent to the mainstream Pakistani English-language newspaers during the last about three years. All these letters concerned matters of public interest but were binned. Ironically, Pakistani newspapers are the main organs of censorship although you would find them bickering all the time about the state's censorship. Desk-writers (editors and sub editors) and stereotyped armchair intellectuals have spoiled the taste of reading in Pakistan resulting in the readers turning away from the national newspapers and looking elsewhere for quality reading material. Editors of the Pakistani newspapers are in fact closeted dictators. 

Dear Editor,

July 24, 2025

Ever since the merger of the erstwhile tribal areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Maulana Fazlur Rehman could be heard opposing it at every available forum. In his most recent statement at a clerics' huddle, he called the merger a conspiracy aimed at bringing about geographic changes in the region and implementing the agenda of the US.

Unfortunately, nobody in Pakistan appears to know what the Maulana means to say. Our hundreds of TV anchors, editors,  reporters, former diplomats and bureaucrats, people claiming expertise in the tribal affairs and even philosophers appear to be unable to tell the people how the region was likely to change geographically and what were the US designs?

To our simple minds, the merger was meant to wash the stigma attached to 'tribalism' and mainstream the tribal people formally. We must know that informally tribal people were already in the mainstream as they held posts like the chief secretaries, inspector generals of police, generals, commissioners and in fact every post in Pakistan's system of civil, military and political administration.

How many people in Pakistan know that the country's present Chief Justice was a bona fide tribesman? If everyone knows it then why don't we inform Fazlur Rehman?

Will someone please clear the air surrounding this issue?

Yours faithfully,

Dear Editor,

July 16, 2025

The petroleum prices have once again been raised, one may agree that the same must have been necessitated by fluctuations in the international market.

But I have noted that the government does not give the benefit of reduced prices to the consumers. In one particular instance in which a huge decrease should have been allowed, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif came on the TV screens like a heretofore unheard of philanthropist. He announced that the government had decided to transfer the benefit of reduced prices to Baluchistan. 

One may ask how much was that amount and will the sage in the Planning commission, Ahsan Iqbal, tell us how many feasibilities and PC1s have accordingly been made for Baluchistan on the basis of that amount which must be in billions of rupees.

Pakistan is the playground of intellectual poverty (I am avoiding to say depravity) where the gullible masses continue to be dodged and deprived.

Yours sincerely,

Dear Editor,

April 10, 2025

In the recent months, the National Highway Authority NHA has raised the toll rates with such unexplained rapidity that people have literally been left in a state of shock. This despite the fact that the government keeps crowing that the cost of living or inflation had come down to a single digit. 

One should have reason to believe that NHA is taking the people for a ride. Our media is focused only on one man and his party and that has allowed NHA like authorities to exploit the situation to its own advantage.

At the speed at which NHA is spiking the toll rates, one is afraid people might soon find it unaffordable to travel on the motorways.

Yours faithfully,

Dear Editor,

September 25, 2024

I draw your attention to a recent statement of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in which he said that some judges ordered the demolition of buildings in Karachi because the said judges wanted to see Karachi as it was in its older days.

We all are aware that civil suits in the case of immovable properties take decades in the courts. In many cases the decisions come about during the time of fourth or fifth generation.

But I remember one particular case of Nasla Tower Karachi which was demolished on the orders of a Supreme Court judge within a matter of weeks.

Since the building had residential apartments, I vividly remember the residents standing in shock and tears rolling down their cheeks as they looked helplessly at their homes being brought down.

I wonder if the State of Pakistan will recover the losses sustained by those people from the pension and other emoluments of those judges who ordered the demolition?

Yours sincerely,

Dear Editor,

Khaleej Times.

Subject:  UAE's Day of Grief on the killing of Jewish Rabbi

November 28, 2024

I wasn't surprised to know from your paper how distraught and saddened the UAE authorities were at the murder of a Jewish Rabbi on their land. UAE's state of grief is easy to understand because everything that UAE has built over the years is owing to the Jewish support. UAE would not have built even a staircase leave alone a hundred or so storeyed buildings if Israel had not wished so.

Last night, I watched women and children clearing rainwater from their plastic-covered tents through the few utensils that they have. They appeared to be unable to protect themselves from the bitter cold in the midst of the debris of the buildings that were once their homes.

I then tried to look for some comfort as watching the children of Gaza in such relentless distress was unbearable. I found a potion: I thought what if I had all the riches that I could accumulate through whatever means but had no self-respect. The children of Gaza, unlike the unfortunate countries of the Arab countries rollicking in riches, have self-respect to soothe them like nothing else. 

Yours faithfully,

Dear Editor,

October 30, 2024

The just concluded Pakistan-England test series was just how cricket should not be played, and won. If you have to start your bowling attack with spinners then why have your fast bowlers strain themselves at the nets. Many young fast bowlers have had their careers cut short due to fitness issues only to see the job being performed by spinners on turning wickets. 

In a nutshell, we showed to the cricketing world that we have a defeatist mindset and we can't help get it right. Just wait and see how these spinners perform on pitches in Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa etc. Our fawning commentators will then have little to crow about.

Yours faithfully,

Dear Editor,

September 9, 2024

One is simply at a loss to understand what is Dawn's motive behind carrying Mian Atif's frequent statements on Pakistan's economy as headline stories. My reference is to Atif's latest statement carried only by Dawn in its issue of September 8, 2024.

One has no objection to reading objective analysis of anyone on any issue. But Main Atif is just another economist like tens of others and has never held any official position in the government of Pakistan. 

One has reasons to be suspicious of this special treatment to Mr. Atif at a time when Dawn itself appears to have thrown its objectivity to the wind. 

One would suggest Dawn accommodate Main Atif's point of view on its op ed pages. Splashing his statements on your front pages as lead stories do not go well with Dawn's old reputation as a balanced newspaper.

I hope you will accommodate my point of view.

Yours faithfully,

Dear Editor,

August 3, 2024

The Israeli PM recently addressed the US Parliament despite the fact that the International Court of Justice ICJ had issued his warrants of arrest. This incident alone shows the US's scant regard for the rule of law.

Literally, every morning we wake up to a news bulletin telling us how deeply the US was concerned about the violation of such and such rights in such and such a country. In the backdrop of Netanyahu addressing the US Congress, one could easily understand that the US was taking the world for a ride in its largely assumed role as a policeman.

We all know that the US makes no secret of its intentions to ensure the security of Israel at all costs. Such a cost most definitely include the mass killing of helpless Palestinians. The US, Germany and UK have also supplied most lethal weapons to Israel which the latter uses against the Palestinians with absolute impunity.

If this world is to be called a civilized place, then along with Netanyahu, the ICJ must also charge the US president Biden, ex UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for the unforgivable crime of killing thousands of innocent children.

Anything less than that would undoubtedly mean that the whole world was complicit in the crime against the Palestinian children. Israel had turned the entire Gaza into an open sky prison before the present conflict started and the world was silently watching that gruesome drama.

I hope like South Africa, which is the custodian of a great Nelson Mandela's legacy, Pakistan will assert its role on the world stage and file for proceedings against Biden, Rishi and Olaf in the ICJ.

Yours faithfully,

Dear Editor,

May 23, 2024

I appreciate Dawn's contribution towards efforts aimed at eradication of Polio from Pakistan. A few days ago, Dawn carried another report about detection of some new polio-related cases.

I believe it would be very helpful and interesting to know how much vaccination a child needs and till what age. The continuous dosage of vaccine for 5-years and even beyond on the presumption that some drains in some areas of Pakistan still have the virus looks to be a very irrational, if not altogether vacuous, approach.

It would also be interesting to know if the same polio vaccination dosage was applied to children throughout the world or is it only Pakistan and a couple of other countries. 

I am not sure the stock answer that Pakistan is still prone to the virus will help because there are tens of countries in the world with more unhygienic conditions than Pakistan. I don't say that rats create the polio virus but a recent study reported there were two rats for every French citizen in France.

I am requesting for this information because I believe Pakistan is a research-shy country where case studies are hardly, if ever, conducted.

It would also be interesting to know what criteria WHO has applied in selecting Bill Gates as its ambassador or representative for vaccination. Is Bill Gates, a medical expert or a practitioner or is it his mere riches and close association with the drugs companies that serve as his qualifications for the assigned job.

I hope you will kindly publish this in your letters column because I have found out that Dawn shows my letters to the bin. If there is any malice in what I seek to know then Dawn may kindly point it out. I love being corrected, and I have always considered Dawn to be the forum that promotes freedom of expression. 

Thank you 

Yours faithfully,

Dear Editor,

October 2, 2024

I once used to write for Dawn. When I thought I have precious little to say anymore, I stopped writing for your newspaper. 

But I have to say this now after having found out that Dawn had compromised its objectivity in the wake of its tiff with the Establishment arising out of what then came to be known as the Dawn Leaks issue. I have observed this particularly after the fall of the Imran-led PTI government.

Dawn appears to be grasping at the shadows to outwit the Establishment by giving prominent coverage to people who are little more than nonentities. My reference is to the recent-days' headline coverage to unknown US congressmen in a manner as if these representatives were some acclaimed policemen who would beat Pakistan black and blue for not doing their bidding.

Dawn, please try not to damage your credibility more by pandering to the statements of these small people.

Yours sincerely,

Dear Editor,

December 30, 2023

This refers to Pervez Hoodbhoy's latest take on the militant groups operating in Pakistan. Pervez is one of the many writers who has written extensively on this topic in Dawn. 

If all that has so far been contributed to Dawn's Op Ed pages on Pakistan's existential issues in dealing with extremism, one might get the equal of War and Peace by Tolsty in length. In fact such an effort could yield ten or twenty times the size of War and Peace.

But of what good is telling the public all this story day in and day out?  Why don't all these nice writers draft a long petition to the Ministries of Defence and Interior telling them of the possible way out. These are the proper forums to contact and not the ordinary readers who deserve a break from this hackneyed discussion. 

Poor newspaper readers have no say in this strategic or whatever ballgame. One hopes Dawn will at least cut down on too many people saying too much on this issue, if not treating this topic altogether as a taboo. 

Yours sincerely,

Dear Editor,

August 28, 2023

There was a time when Road Usage Tax in the shape of Motor Vehicles Token Tax was an exclusively provincial subject. It was then considered to be too nominal to be evaded, and motor owners would, more often than not, pay it willingly.

But then Pakistan's federal tax department lost its way and started looking here and there in search of resources to justify its existence. FBR's eye caught the motor vehicle as the most visible thing that could not escape the prowler's sight, and thus all types of taxes were imposed on motor vehicles right from the time of their inception on papers to its eventual disappearance in a junkyard.

Unfortunately for FBR, this Draconian tax measure too didn't help matters to enhance the image of FBR as an efficient and productive tax agency. FBR's fruitless meddling in what was previously a provincial domain little more than a 'dog in the manger,' approach. 

Likewise, NHA didn't leave any opportunity to make a mess of the road usage tax. By raising the toll fee at its sweet will, NHA is testing the patience of the motorists and transporters. 

NHA has once again raised the toll tax by a huge margin which might deal a serious blow to the transport sector. What is most intriguing is the fact that NHA doesn't even consider it needful to get the parliament's nod for the frequent upward changes in the rates thus making a mockery of the dictum 'no taxation without legislation.'

The performance of NHA, with all those billions of rupees that it is collecting through arbitrary tactics, could be gauged from the substandard state of the roads in the country. One such road is the one that runs through the Abbottabad cantonment area and onward to China.

Parliament must come to the rescue of the motorists, transporters and indeed the common people and stop the FBR and NHA from their high-handedness.

Yours faithfully,

Dear Editor,

May 19, 2023

Who is Zalmay Khalilzad, and why is he relevant to Pakistan? He keeps advising Pakistan what to do and what not, and gets prominent coverage in Dawn.

Lest we forget, Zalmay Khalilzad literally handed over Afghanistan to Taliban on a platter. He is a failed diplomat, but Dawn is not a failed newspaper. Please take care of your paper's sanctity by avoiding giving space to irrelevant people. 

Yours faithfully,

Dear Editor,

May 10, 2023

Your subject mentioned editorial dated May 10, 2023, contains a full sermon on what the state and the government have done wrong by arresting Imran Ahmad Niazi. Unfortunately, it does not contain even one reference to the charges that led to his arrest. 

Do you (Dawn) mean that only the ordinary people and the politicians you do not like should present themselves for accountability, and not Mr. Imran? It would appear that Dawn cares little for any semblance of objectivity ever since it faced the wrath of someone in the state in the infamous case called 'Dawn Leaks.'

Will you please publish this, or show it to the bin as you have been doing ever since Imranism has crept into your esteemed offices?

Yours faithfully,

Dear Editor, 

May 24, 2022

I am sure this letter will not find space in your column, but I have to write it anyway as I refer to your editorial comments of May 25, 2022 in defence of the journalists facing charges on various counts. I have to ask why didn't you write a word in defence of the PTM leaders and scores of other innocent people against whom these so called journalists were spewing venom day in and day out. This selected use of Dawn's esteemed columns for the defence of your comrades who have defied the laws of the state is indeed very very sad. But you can do as you wish since you are in power.

Yours faithfully, 

DRAMA

Images courtesy chatGPT 

By: Nasser Yousaf 

SOCRATIC IRONY

A man, quite plain in all respects, sat comfortably in his simple traditional dress on the stage. He held an important position in the government, and was being interviewed on how his ministry was handling various matters.

You are the minister in charge of environment. It was originally the department or ministry of forest. Given the fact that environment was in focus throughout the world, do you find yourself prepared to undertake what appears to be a daunting task?

Yes, of course! I have decided to promote beekeeping in the forests. That will provide jobs to the people and people will also get good honey 🍯. 

But my question and concern was about the more important matters of afforestation and the preservation of the existing forests?

Yes, this is a good question. I will talk to the officials in my department to start paying proper attention to these matters. When we next meet, I will give you a great news.

Ok, Mr. Minister, I am sure you know that everyone is talking about the climate change. What is your understanding of the issue and what steps are you going to take towards arresting the decline in the climate?

This is a very good question. I have talked to my people about this and we have decided to send warnings to all the hospitals and industries in the province to take proper care of the wastes flowing out of their premises. You know that 'chusni' (dummy or pacifier) that we give to our babies to calm them down is made from the hospitals' wastes. So you can see how harmful it happened to be. Once we succeed here, we will divert the wastes from the hospitals and industries towards the production of electricity. 

The minister was not at all self-conscious, and that was the most bewildering aspect of his character. In fact, his confidence was such that it would have sent jitters down the spines of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.

A few months elapsed between the foregoing conversation and what followed subsequently. The gentleman concerned was relieved of the charge of environment. He was made the minister in charge of the affairs of livestock. He was expected to have fairly adequate knowledge of the new responsibilities because before entering politics he used to deal in meat-selling in his hometown.

Mr. Minister, I wanted to congratulate you on assuming the charge of your new department.

Thank you. You are very kind.

Sir, could you please inform the public about your plans and priorities to promote dairy farming in the province because there appeared to be a shortage of good quality dairy products like milk, butter 🧈 etcetera in the province?

Yes, indeed. We have decided to import injections from Argentina. We will administer those injections to buffalos 🐃 🐃 🐃, after that buffalos in ninety per cent cases will give birth only to male offsprings. You know female offsprings consume more milk which creates a deficiency in the milk market. Each injection will cost us 12, ,000/ Rupees.

Ah! I see. This is quite interesting but do you not think it will lead to the extinction of the buffalos from the cattle market?

Well, that is not at all possible but we will certainly look into this aspect.

It was a gruelling drama. The script retained its intensity relentlessly. There appeared to be no respite for the audience. But what was really encouraging was that the audience found themselves in tune with or at the same wavelength as the lead characters. The stoicism of the audience received wide nods of appreciation from around the world.

The scene now changed to where the chief minister appeared in his complete regalia. He was sporting long hair hanging from his shoulders which seemed to have more colours or shades than one could find in the rainbow. He could always be heard speaking very loudly in his rough and shrilly voice. This had endowed him with the uncanny ability of sending the audience into fits of paroxysm.

Mr. Chief Minister, there appears to be insurmountable challenges that needed to be tackled adroitly. Law and order situation seem to be going haywire. How do you see your government grappling with it?

Everything is as good as it could be. We have produced a surplus budget. No other province in the country can match our performance. We are effectively countering the propaganda.

But, Sir, there appears to be grave problems. The infrastructure is either non existent or helplessly broken down. Unemployment among the educated is soaring by the day. Your universities do not have funds to expend on salaries and pensions. How could the province afford to have a surplus budget?

We know this better than anyone else in the world. As I have said it many times, do not believe in a word what you see and hear. Let me tell you in simple words. Our people do not want food, medicine, education, roads, they just want the release of our imprisoned leader. Once he comes out of the prison, he will say 'be' and you will see a turn around in the people's lives.

When he thus spoke, he appeared to be drooling and seized with a peculiar kind of excitement.

The scenes kept changing rapidly. The audience looked fully enthralled. A portly bespectacled man with a thick crop of closely trimmed dark black beard appeared on the stage. He looked much older for his relatively younger years, and was introduced as the leader of one of the opposition parties. 

Sir, where do you see the province heading, especially from the point of view of the security situation in the province?

Oh, it's terrible! Actually, it is our party's people who are being targeted, and we know this better than anyone else. They want to snatch our resources from us, and they consider us as obstructionists.

That is really sad and indeed alarming, isn't that? But how do you see it happening and who are 'they', do you mean the military?

I mean the Pakhthuns' territory will once again be used as a battlefield between the US and China.

But, Sir, America and China have never had an active war so what could be the trigger with this special reference to the phrases 'once again'  and 'the Pakhthuns' territory' as you have used them?

Well, all indications point to it. If you do not agree then what can I do. 

But why of all the God's created places would the US and China choose your province as the battlefield, is there some kind of mythology attached to this piece of land?

Hmm!

His plumpish face betrayed visible signs of exasperation.

Just then two ladies, their faces hidden beneath layers of atrocious makeup, appeared unannounced on the stage. In fact, it was their demeanour that announced them. Only a few from amongst the audience could discern opportunism in their eyes which felt heavy under the stupendous weight of mascara. One of them challenged the cop in chief of her area to a duel. She threatened to block the major arteries of the province and also sue the cop if he didn't accept her challenge.

The other lady was immediately summoned for a meeting with the country's prime minister. She was a nonentity but her hair had suddenly turned golden from grief after the death of her husband as Oscar Wilde had so wittingly said of such widows. 

The elderly prime minister, with the angel of death 💀 lurking around his visibly trembling lips, ordered for the induction of the lady in the country's parliament. He also requested her to produce urgent solutions to the country's myriad problems from out of her magical makeup box.

The tragicomedy continued. The audience was glued to their seats. Their jubilance was awe-inspiring. There was rapture all around except when they betrayed their anger by shouting slogans against the soldiers. The entire world watched them and called them the bravest people in the world who had also defeated Alexander although the Macedonian King had not fought any battle here when he passed through this godforsaken piece of land.

A well known cleric now occupied the stage in his signature white robes. He had a massive physiognomy or so it appeared in a double-extra large size turban and an enormous crop of beard. He was known for getting what he aspired. The talk in the town was that had there been a position like that of the Pope in the creed that the Maulana professed he would have gotten it without much ado. Unequalled smugness was his chief characteristic. And his facial expressions would exhibit a kind of play between a smirk and a sardonic smile by turns as if some strings were at work.

Your holiness, which direction was the country heading to?

People in the power corridors have absolutely no knowledge, insight or foresight. They are playing with fire. They do not take our counsel and keep on doing what pleases them the most.

But how come you vote for whatever legislation the powers that be lay down before the legislature?

We consult among ourselves in the party on such matters. You know our party has a consultative council where decisions were made in the larger interest of the country.

So what does the consultative council make of the reforms the government wants to introduce in the religious seminaries?

What reforms? Over our dead bodies! Our students can beat the students of the best universities of the world on any turf.

The audience took a sigh of contentment. They thanked their stars for their deadened faculties of intellect, for their sightless sights, voiceless voices, wordless words, spineless spines, tasteless tastes, mirthless mirth, joyless joys, funless fun, charmless charms, loveless loves, cureless cures,  craftless crafts, humourless humours, witless wits and friendless friends!

Curtains!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LANGUAGE

By: Nasser Yousaf 

THE LANGUAGE DILEMMA 

Zubeida Mustafa is the leading author of 'Reforming School Education in Pakistan and The Language Issue.' The book includes contributions by many other authors, scholars and essayists. It is no less than an honour having the trust of an editor of her class.

Zubeida could have authored the book alone but as I know her she loves working in the inclusive spirit of a democratic environment. She literally loathes imposing her opinions. 

The subject of education in the mother-tongue is very academic and hence may not be very tempting to elicit long time reading interest. I remember the first thing she said when she called me and broached the subject. 'We would focus on stories of personal success and achievements in the area,' she stressed in her soft, calm and persuasive voice.

The book came out in 2021. My circumstances at that time didn't allow me reading it beyond my own little contribution. This was known to Zubeida Mustafa as she remained in touch and would offer help.

Zubeida Mustafa has written extensively, untiringly and indeed ceaselessly on the subject touched in the book in great detail. For years, I have found her beseeching and pleading with the authorities, parents and teachers. But with little success, I may add. No wonder then that whatever little attention this subject is drawing in Pakistan is solely due to Zubeida Mustafa. 

People in Pakistan, except in matters of how to make big money, have to contend with an attention-span syndrome. This sickness has been exacerbated by the numerous social media platforms. People immediately delete and dismiss anything that may beg attention longer than a minute.

Like my essay in the book, any further comments by me on the subject of education in the mother's tongue and the related issues would also be that of an ordinary person. I consider it a wonderful feeling standing along all those other contributors to the book who possess very high qualifications including degrees from the renowned foreign universities. I, on the other hand, have a simple master's degree in Economics from the University of Peshawar.

Before submitting my viewpoint on some other issues discussed at length in the book, I must say I found no acceptable definition or description of the word 'language' itself in the long discourse. It was like not being able to see the forest for the trees. 

Many years ago, I read a book titled 'The Discovery of India' by Jawaharlal Nehru. I had grabbed the book from the fast vanishing library of my late uncle. It was perhaps the first edition of the book and was in hardcover as books in old days mostly used to be. I loved holding the book in my hands and reading it. I don't know for whatever reason but I tick- marked some passages. I never knew one day it may help me explain some point. Below is one of the highlighted passages:

'The modern Indian languages descended from the Sanskrit, and therefore called Indo-Aryan languages, are: Hindi-Urdu, Bengali, Marathi, Gujrati, Oriya, Assamese, Rajasthani (a variation of Hindi), Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto and Kashmiri. The Dravidian languages are:Tamil, Telugu, Kanarese and Malayalam. These fifteen languages cover the whole of India and of these Hindi, with its variation Urdu, is by far the most widespread and understood even where it is not spoken. Apart from these, there are some dialects and some undeveloped languages spoken, in very limited areas, by some backward hill and forest tribes. The oft-repeated story of India having five hundred or more languages is a fiction of the philologist's and the census commissioner's mind, who note down every variation in dialect and every petty hill-tongue on the Assam- Bengal frontier with Burma as a separate language, although sometimes it is spoken by a few hundred or a few thousand persons. 

There were some more explanations:

'The real language question in India has nothing to do with this variety. It is practically confined to Hindi-Urdu, one language with two literary forms and two scripts. As spoken there is hardly any difference; as written, especially in literary style, the gap widens. Attempts have been, and are being, made to lessen this gap and develop a common form, which is usually styled Hindustani.'

There is little more on this subject in Nehru's book except a couple of lines about Pashto and Sinhalese. Pashto, Nehru said, was spoken in the North-West Frontier Province and Afghanistan and had been influenced by Persian. Sinhalese, he said, was the language of Ceylon.

In the essays about Pakistan's dilemma, China, Japan and South Korea are quoted as the quintessential countries that have prospered because of teaching in the mother's-tongue. Both China and India have almost the same population. But while India, if Nehru is to be believed, has some two dozen languages, China, on the other hand has just about four of which Mandarin is the language of more than a billion people. China, therefore, is not a good example to quote because China has no other option other than teaching in Mandarin. Same must be true of Japan and South Korea.

I am not sure that the language issue has got much to do with our very poor quality of education -be it in the public or private sector or in the elite schools and colleges. Would our doctors or engineers and judges or teachers be any better if they had received their education in their mothers' languages? There may be some exceptions but not in the general sense. There is an all-pervasive sickness in our society that, I am afraid, cannot be attributed to just one reason.

Somehow, I tend to agree with Nehru about the number of languages. If the present-day India is any guide, especially the Indian media which is accessible throughout the world, then Hindi-Urdu combination has worked wonders for the said country. Next, I believe comes English, which too is spoken and understood by a big number of Indians. Imagine, the kind of mess that India would have been if all the varying dialects of the major languages spoken by the hill and tribal people had to lay claim to be treated at par. I believe both India and China have experienced a deux ex machina type dramatic resolution to their linguistic worries.

I have really enjoyed some of the essays in Zubeida Mustafa's book. But I must say I didn't find any input about the perceived strength of the dozens of languages that we claim are spoken in Pakistan. For instance, what kind of rare knowledge and literature is there that would be lost if children are not educated in these languages? Do these languages even have alphabets, grammar, phonetic sounds, vocabulary etc? How do mothers in the hills and smaller communities straddling our peripheries talk to their children about the solar and lunar systems?

Zubair Torwali from Bahrain valley in the district of Swat is an exceptionally talented individual. As his surname indicates, he belongs to the small hilly Torwali community. There is a considerable presence of shepherds among the Torwali. A young illiterate Torwali shepherd recently became very famous when his evocative folk song found its way to the Coke studio. In his essay 'Attempting Inclusive Education,' Zubair cautions against ignoring languages like the one spoken by his community. But Zubair tells us little about the latent power and scope of his language that may be essential for considering it fit to be used as a tool for imparting education.

I must concede even my mother's-tongue Pashto does not possess the wherewithal of fulfilling the requirements of modern scientific education. Pashto is the language of more than 50 million people in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and it has got voluminous literature. I got my schooling from a public sector English medium school where I studied Pashto language from class 6th to 8th as an optional subject. The other option was Persian and we used to have two classes in a week which sufficiently enabled us to learn reading and writing in Pashto. It was on the basis of that meager education in Pashto that I opted for it as an optional subject in my competitive examinations besides acquiring the ability to translate the grand poetry of Ghani Khan from Pashto into English and publish the same. With somewhat temerity, I have to say that no other language in my province can equal Pashto in its capacity and yet I consider my mother's-tongue wanting in its scientific vocabulary.

Since I had already read it said it many times, I wasn't surprised to relearn from Dr. Farooq Bajwa's brilliant essay 'Whither Education in Punjabi' that fashionable Punjabis felt shy talking in Punjabi language. I must say I have always found the Punjabi officers from the elite services groups conversing among themselves in chaste Punjabi. I believe it may not be due to any inferiority complex but owing to their spiritedness and competitiveness to excel in their respective fields that Punjabis do not attach too much emotional patriotism to the issue.

I also believe that all major regional languages spoken in Pakistan are deficient in scientific vocabulary. Urdu is an exception but learning Urdu and speaking it flawlessly is as difficult for at least the Pashtuns as English language. 

But on a positive note, our old poetry in all our regional languages can be a source of great intellectual input as far as building up our scientific vocabulary is concerned. Whether it's Khushal Khan Khattak, Baba Bulleh Shah, Shah Lateef or Mast Tawakali from amongst the Baloch, all these poets have sung praises of the universal and astronomical phenomenons. Such poetry is a veritable treasure trove of vocabulary. But it will take years, and more than that a supernatural will, to do that job. Can we afford to await the outcome of such a herculean task?

I have been reading Dr. Anjum Altaf for years. I keep receiving his essays on a variety of subjects including poetry and more often than not share my views with him. I, however, doubt the outcome of his conclusion in his essay 'Urdu's Role in Education and Language Learning.' His advice for transition from education in mother's-tongue in the primary classes to regional languages in elementary school and finally English at the professional level may not deliver the desired results. Human beings learn rapidly in early years which is what our biological growth tells us. As we age, our capacity to commit new knowledge to our memory slows down. Children learning the Qur'an by wrote in Arabic is a good example.

Honestly, I was looking forward to learning a great deal from the essay titled 'Mother Language Education' by Dr. Tariq Rehman. This essay is full of citations which makes for cumbersome reading. At the end, I couldn't really find out what we ought to do.

I believe we can learn something from the Sri Lankan experience. How come almost everyone in Sri Lanka speak English so fluently? They have a very high literacy rate. But we have to keep in mind the small size of their population in addition to the fact that Sri Lanka has the advantage of having only two major communities of Sinhalese and Tamils. Sri Lanka must be having an efficient teachers training methodology.

The idea propounded and implemented in the shape of Harsukh School by Jawad S. Khwaja does not appear to be a viable solution to solving the myriad problems surrounding our system of education. Harsukh is rife with contradictions and runs contrary to what the learned former judge appears to be espousing. Who in our conservative cultural milieus would like to send their children to schools where they are taught 'kathak?' It could be done in one odd case but literally impossible to find favour on any wider scale. 

On the one hand, we want to shun English language being a foreign language and on the other hand we wish to be teaching 'kathak' to children. The retired judge's picture in the book showing him wearing western shorts while taking a class with the students does not inspire in any sense of the word. One wouldn't know which language - Urdu or Punjabi would Jawad S. Khwaja recommend because he himself is a Punjabi speaker. If he wants both languages, then wouldn't that be burdensome for the children? A loaded school bag is what we are advising against, ain't we?

It would help if I elucidate what I said in the middle of this critique that we have to look for reasons beyond just the language issue to arrive at the truth 

Zubeida Mustafa's essay 'What our rulers want' is very exhaustive as it says nearly all that ails our system of education. There could be another essay titled a little differently as 'What our rulers are doing?' 

We have textbook boards in all four provinces in addition to the one in Islamabad for the educational institutions run by the federal government. Unfortunately, these boards are to blame for nearly everything that is wrong not only with our education but also with our mindset. These boards, quite shamelessly, have not yet enabled us to agree on how the moon appears and disappears, waxes and wanes, what is a lunar calendar etc. It is mostly the people from Pakistan who carry this blighted mindset to their offshore destinations and acting as the agent provocateurs in the moon sighting related controversies. Pakistan's print and electronic media is equally to blame for this illiterate mindset. The same ignorant mindset extends to other natural, biological, geological and astronomical phenomenons. 

We need not go far to find out why is this so. Our textbook boards are by and large headed by people of very poor intellect from the various services groups. Several very petty considerations motivate the choice of officers in the textbook boards. These considerations range from either simply filling up the vacant slot through favouritism or most ridiculously to post a sluggish officer as the chairman as a punishment. But since the top position in these boards carry enormous perks and privileges, the officers concerned bide their time in great comfort.

Our public service commissions present the most ominous challenge to the country. But while the textbook boards are filled up with one type of serving officers, the public service commissions are treated like game reserves for the retired officials. No effort goes into finding out about the past performances of the ladies and gentlemen appointed as members. The appointees just have to be very close to the powers that be. One would hardly ever find reputed academics and intellectuals on the panel. There are many examples where the rulers ensured the entry of the children of politically influential families in the elite services through foul means. 

I hold rote-learning as the single most determinant factor that has ruined all professions in Pakistan. Rote-learning or cramming has devasted our physical, economic and moral health. This cardinal sin is not mentioned even in passing. Our doctors, engineers, teachers, judges are all the products of this malaise. In February 2025, Peshawar High Court conducted tests to fill up some posts of additional session judges from amongst the lawyers. A staggering 139 lawyers out of 598 could not pass their exam in English. One may ask who gave these lawyers their degrees because all LLB subjects are in English. These lawyers may send their clients to the gallows!

But it is the medical professional that has been ravaged by rote-learning on a massive scale. Having reached the medical colleges through cramming and then passing their MBBS through the same method, our doctors are simply dispossessed of the great values of inquiry and research. They are playing with our lives with impunity, and indeed with the full knowledge of the government. Our health and education regulators literally sell licences to hospitals and schools, and one would never hesitate to say this.

All these matters have little to do with which medium of instruction could be be the best for Pakistan.

Only intellectual integrity and plain-speaking can better our lot, and that is that.

Show quoted text

PEOPLE

lmage by chatGPT

IS BACHA KHAN OUR COMMON HERITAGE?

By: Nasser Yousaf

I will try my best to ensure that what I say and write here is not considered as a diatribe.

A few months ago, I came to know that an Eid fair at the site of the Takht Bhai monastery was attracting huge crowds. I considered that as a disturbing information and asked my journalist friend to find out if that indeed was true.

My friend contacted the director museum who informed him that the news was not only correct but that it was something that the museum and archaeology department treated as an achievement. The director's point was that such occasions provided an opportunity to the people to know about their past and their heritage.

I have not been to the said monastery after it was taken over by UNESCO. I just couldn't see the site lose its past grandeur to the newly carried out brick and mortar work. Before that, I used to visit the site frequently to bask in its primitive solitude and contemplate its past including how the Buddhist monks would meditate and carry out their daily chores on this serene hillock. 

The director's logic clean bowled me, as they say in cricket, and I thought it best not to pursue the matter further with him. One always flinches back where logic or reason may attract the least respect.

Many centuries later, not far from the Takht Bhai monastery, a man lived in the village called Uthmanzai in Charsadda. One has to single out that man because he came to be known worldwide. But quite strangely, that tall, tannish man with prominent facial features, notably his aquiline nose, had a soul like the Buddhist monks. It was strange because the area where he was born, bred and lived would give in easily to violence on trivial issues. 

But Bacha Khan, as Abdul Ghaffar Khan came to be known universally as such, was made in a very tranquil, composed and peaceful mould. It was as if he was made from a softer clay as his poet, sculptor and engineer son Abdul Ghani Khan would have loved to describe him. Perhaps, he had the Buddhist spell cast over his persona because despite being a landowner of considerable proportions, he lived stoically like the monks. Unfailingly dressed in the traditional handwoven cotton, he adapted to doing all his chores without a whimper or protest. 

This last aspect of his life was witnessed during his long periods of imprisonment in the remotest faraway corners, first of the British India and then in Pakistan. Since a man of such incredible self-discipline and resolute calm could not be expected to indulge in felony, it was always Bacha Khan's unbending conscience that landed him in jails. His incarceration extended over a period of several decades with such apathy on the part of his tormentors that Bacha Khan would not even know of the passing away of his family members.

Bacha Khan struggled for the independence of India from the British yoke. Undoubtedly, he drew his inspiration from the Indian freedom fighter Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. It even earned Bacha Khan the epithet of 'Frontier's Gandhi. An epithet because his detractors wanted to disparage him by so aligning him with Gandhi who was seen in the narrower profile of a Hindu. But one is quite sure Bacha Khan considered that to be an honorific.

Nobel prize, even in the otherwise literary field, is too political and ideological or else Bacha Khan would have won it hands down for peace. His nonviolent movement in one of the most formidable lands of the world is such that it could be the subject matter of epics. But unfortunately, it is not so. 

Bacha Khan could be posthumously confronted on several accounts. Bacha Khan, like Gandhi in India, could not foresee religious zealotry overwhelming India, in particular, with such frenzy that a vast majority of Indians would keep reposing trust in rulers with a fanatical bent of mind. We now have the advantage of witnessing all that. Fanaticism has demolished the secular and tolerant fabric of India with a vengeance. 

Although India witnessed this transformation nearly six decades after it gained independence, yet great statesmanship would be expected to foresee it in its incipient stages. Gandhi himself fell victim to the fanatic streak sooner than feared. The same applies to Mohammad Ali Jinnah who too could not foresee unrestrained religiosity spoiling the fruits of his vision.

Bacha Khan had an exaggerated view of his clansmen's sense of loyalty and nationalism. He quite innocently, if not mistakenly, believed that Pashtuns would rally around a kind of nationhood. He appeared to conveniently ignore the fact that Pashtuns were by instincts bigoted, prejudiced and loved to live in a state of servility despite their overtly formidable inclinations to assert their point of view through brute force. 

His movement gave rise to rhetoric such as calling on Pashtuns to flock together or disappear and Pashtuns of the upper lands in Afghanistan and the the lower lands in the present-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were one people. All this of no avail as time has proved it so ruthlessly.

Perhaps Bacha Khan had the perspicacity but his long imprisonment didn't allow him to see enough evidence of it on ground. He was up against the full might of the wily British who were using the hinterlands of their empire as a buffer zone against the feared intrusion of the Russians.

While Bacha Khan languished in jails, his illustrious child and the generous bard, Ghani Khan was surveying the scene and penning it down in his poetry. He made fun of how the clergy, the pirs and the elite Pashtuns had all been bought over by the British and pitted against an unarmed Pashtun struggler. Ghani Khan would mostly call such poetry as 'mumbo jumbo' in lighter vein but not without his signature satire:

O Pashtun, you cheat! you hoodwinked the mullah

He settled on lentil soup, staying aloof of flora

And the helpless Pir is at a loss whether to bark or crow

He couldn't grasp while his saintliness flew away 

I loved Uncle Jinnah arriving when the meal was laid

Neither beating nor the stick nor the bullets he heard of

Look at the lunatic he got old with a full stomach 

The system from the mouth through the intestines didn't bother him at all

Bacha Khan chose Afghanistan for his final resting place. Afghanistan was at that time under the Soviet Union's occupation but such was the state of his disillusionment that he preferred that occupied land because he considered it to be less torturous. He and his family were widely castigated for this decision.

If Bacha Khan was a politician, a more unambitious politician could not be found out in the annals of history. If he unflinchingly believed in nonviolence as a means to attaining his goal, a better example could not be found out anywhere in the world. If he believed that Pashtuns needed education, a better reformer than this indefatigable spirit could not be traced in the books. It can rightly be said that he worked for people who still refuse to understand him despite such monumental evidence on record. 

The monastery at Takht Bhai is indeed our heritage but we cannot relate to it in the present times. It is ludicrous to expect the Pashtuns with such philistine mindsets to call the ancient monks as their forefathers and preposterous to call the merrymaking at the site as appreciation of their past. The joke falls on its face.

Our heritage is Bacha Khan, but only if we try to understand it. Bacha Khan had such a towering character that even those calling themselves as his successors have absolutely no idea of. Bacha Khan had cultivated pockets of support throughout the erstwhile Frontier province but one has to say that his detractors far outnumbered his admirers. 

The space around Bacha Khan's teaching is shrinking fast. Bacha Khan didn't belong to a particular family or any one political party; he is our common heritage. Bacha Khan is the nonviolent face of the violent Pashtuns. The minnows claiming to be his successors have absolutely no capacity to understand this, leave alone the rest of his clansmen. 

PEOPLE

SURRENDER IN DOHA

Zalmay Khalilzad: A ROOTLESS WORSHIPPER OF MATERIALISM

By: Nasser Yousaf 

There is not a creature that moves on earth whose provision is not His concern. He knows where it lives and its (final) resting place: it is all (there) in a clear record.

Chapter 11 (Hud) Verse 6

After a very warm spell stretching for over a week, weather in Abbottabad has suddenly turned very pleasant. It's like it used to be when this place was a beautiful hill station. Light thunder and winds preceded rain which keeps pattering for the last about three hours.

While the rain played its music on our tin roof, I took my lunch on very tender chickpeas in thick liquidy juice with home-made tamarind sauce and plenty of finely chopped green salads. I had cherry-flavoured yogurt and very sweet melon cubes for my dessert.

Just minutes after I was through with these bounties, there was a knock at our door. It was Bilal, an Afghan lad of about 17, carrying a watermelon 🍉 which I had ordered a little while ago at the shop where he works with an elderly Afghan.I compelled Bilal into sitting on the wooden bench in our little foyer only to bring him a platter of the same food that I had had and some mint-flavoured juice.

We had never thought that the food we were preparing will be shared with us by Bilal. But God in His infinite wisdom had ordained that to be so.

Man will continue to err and strut around on earth as if he himself had made or created it.

One really feels sad for a great country like India to be ruled by a jingoistic philistine. Indians claim to have made tremendous gains in every field of life. But India has lost everything in the shape of Modi who keeps threatening Pakistan with stopping Pakistan's share of its water.

Honestly, these threats have never bothered me even a wee bit. Pakistan has great reserves of water in the form of glaciers in the North that God had ensured to provide for our needs as He so promisingly and unequivocally says in Sura Hud.

Pakistan has the best succulent fruits, and vegetables and food grains that people in countries like the US and Europe can relish only in dreams. I find fruits in America and Europe uneatable.

Quite unnecessarily, Pakistanis give too much weight to what ephemeral beings say about us. Our English-language press gives prominent coverage to people who are not known even to the Americans. And our  privileged clerks in the Foreign Office consider it their foremost duty to issue a statement or rebuttal each time Zalmay Khalilzad or any other American cadaver blurts out something or the other about the state of affairs in our country. 

America cannot stop us eat and drink what God has ordained to be our share. Americans can only deny visas to our rulers and their minions which alone appears to worry them when they react to what hocus pocus the gaunt, haggard and conceited American officials have to say about us.

Zalmay Khalilzad was born in Mazar-i-Sharif in the Balkh province of Afghanistan.His parents are, or were, from Laghman. He got his education in Kabul where he appears to have learned English-language in the charmless American accent. This dubious qualification got him his US citizenship and his European-origin wife. These credentials have gone to his crazy head and he keeps commenting on Pakistan as if the latter was his fiefdom.

Zalmay's fame (sic) is owing to his having served to protect the US interests in Afghanistan, not the interests of what could have been his motherland called Afghanistan. What the Afghans had gained during the twenty years absence of Taliban, Zalmay Khalilzad squadered all that away in Doha as the representative of the self-proclaimed powerful country of the world. The blood of that 18-years-old soccer player who fell from the plane while trying to flee Afghanistan is to be found on the hands of Zalmay Khalilzad.

If the the Taliban were Afghans and Pashtuns and hence unbeatable on their surface, so is Zalmay Khalilzad. Why did he surrender to the militants rather than fight them like a true Afghan as our warrior-poet Khushal Khan Khattak had versified more than 350 years ago:

Da Afghan pa nang me wutharala thura

Nangyaley da zamane Khushal Khattak yam

( I have drawn my sword to vindicate the honour of the Afghan, a spirited soul of the era am I Khushal Khattak)

Abbottabad is a very small place. During our growing up years, we could never have imagined that one day this place will have such a substantial presence of the Afghans among us. And before I am misunderstood, I want to make it clear that I do not at all mind the Afghans living among us. Unlike the glib-tongued Khalilzad, these Afghans are all very hardworking and cheerful folks. They have served us unreservedly for years at the bare minimum wages.

But then there are hundreds of Afghan kids who loiter all day long in the garbage dumps to fend for their piece of bread 🥪. A large number of these kids are from Laghman to which the parents of the dishonourable Zalmay Khalilzad belong. He is dishonourable because he has never cared to find about these kids but he keeps himself worrying to death about whether Pakistan was behaving itself or not.

Pakistan should have known Khalilzad long ago, and declared him a persona non grata. But since our rulers trust more in America than in the Divine power to provide us our bread and butter, Zalmay Khalilzad is having a field day playing with our self-esteem.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the devil's hireling, has played the same role for the imperialist powers that Bacha Saqqa played in that luckless country in the 1920s on the instigation of the infamous Lawrence of Arabia.

Zalmay is neither an Afghan, nor an American; he is a non Afghan Afghan and a non American American. He has sold his soul to the devil to quench his materialistic thirst. He has an ungentlemanly demeanour as he keeps talking of Pakistan in disparaging terms. Pakistan cannot be blamed for whatever has happened to Afghanistan. America, western Europe and the Arab countries together with the likes of Zalmay Khalilzad must be held accountable for all that is wrong with Afghanistan. Afghans must know who their real foe is!