PEOPLE

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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,