Once again TTP claimed responsibility in retaliation to Pakistan’s alliance with the West in War on Terror and the killing of Osama by U.S. Navy Seal. According to TTP’s ideology, attacks against Pakistan Army are justified since it is ostensibly assisting America against Al – Qaeda.

Despite TTP’s open confessions and alliance with Al- Qaeda and Mullah Omer, a conspiracy theory exist in Pakistan that TTP has been funded by U.S., Israel and India and its agenda is to weaken Pakistani state. This theory is now a popular belief in the country and is being heavily promoted in both electronic and print media by best rated anchors and journalists.

Agenda of the Theory (Part 1): To defend the image of pro Pakistan Militants or Jihadists and Pakistan Army.

Pakistan formed the Afghan Taliban after U.S. conveniently left Afghanistan in dilapidated condition. In order to protect its regional rivalry with India (that was supporting Northern Alliance), Pakistan has supported the Taliban since the beginning to influence Afghanistan’s domestic and foreign policies. While the Taliban continued to pummel Afghani women and children as well as men, the women elite of Pakistan continued to party away late into the nights with their partners… life was lavish. Most of the masses in Pakistan had no idea about the existence of Taliban and their brutal tactics which was to spill onto their lives a few years later.

However, things dramatically changed after 9/11 with U.S.’s War on Terror. Pakistan was forced to rethink its policy towards the Taliban due to American pressure and strategic reasons, and a general consensus against them was formed the world over. The Taliban were brought to the forefront and their dirty deeds were exposed through the internet and the media.

At the same time, under Musharraf, Pakistani media became relatively free which led to the scrutiny of Pakistan’s relations with the Taliban. Images of public beatings of women, killings and executions in soccer grounds were all over TV channels. This contributed towards forming a negative image of the Taliban among the Pakistani people. (Except the conservatives, extremists and political parties such as Jamait e Islami)

Specifically after the TV Boom in Pakistan which also happened simultaneously, the new free media and the newly hosted Talk Shows exposed the role of the Military in the formation of the Taliban or militants through prominent politicians who came up and spoke out. Military rule came under fire as Pakistan’s history of exploitative politics and ISI’s role in it came to light through critics in talk shows and electronic media.

Thus a negative perception of the military was also created.

By 2007 Pakistan came under the strain of excessive bombings by a newly formed TTP. This group was formed on the same ideological lines as the Afghan Taliban i.e. to enforce puritanical Sharia in Pakistan and to fight against any occupying forces. However, it differs operationally from Afghan Taliban as the latter is fighting in Afghanistan against U.S. and NATO forces and the former is in war against Pakistan who is supporting the occupying forces. They are both controlled by Al-Qaida and are mostly collaborate together.

Soon after the suicide bombings in 2007, TTP (Pakistani Taliban) openly started to claim responsibility for the attacks and got significant coverage by the electronic media. In these circumstances it became increasingly difficult for the extremists and the conspiracy theorists to openly defend the Islamist militant organizations and to simultaneously have the Afghan Taliban and Kashmiri militants as a regional lever for control. Since the Pakistani Taliban were openly claiming on television to have carried out suicide bombings in Pakistan in the name of Jihad, ISI and its Islamist allies became increasingly worried as this was tainting the image of “mujahids” (Islamic Fighters), Jihad (a motivational weapon of Army) and spreading the perception that the militants were retaliating against Pakistan because of the indiscriminate bombings by the Pakistani army in tribal areas.

In addition to this, the Lawyers Movement added fuel to the fire and acted as a catalyst in forming a negative image of the military. The Military however had to come up with a plan which was politically safe in the short run and which also served their interests in the long run.

To counter all this, Pakistan establishment, Islamists, and allied conspiracy theorists devised a plan to launch a conspiracy theory that would easily blame all the attacks in Pakistan on India, Israel and the U.S. Hence TTP and any other affiliated militant group that was attacking Pakistan was then tagged by these conspiracy theorists as Indian or American agents working in disguise as Taliban to malign the reputation of  the “Taliban” and jihad in particular.

The Establishment did not stop here however. They launched a proponent agent in the public: someone who would act as a defender as well as a promoter. Right about that time, and apparently without any associations to the army, Zaid Hamid appeared on the horizon and took two stances that the army was in dire need of. In order to rally support for his perspective, he gave his ideas a religious aspect insofar as glorification of the army was concerned. Briefly mentioned, his views are firstly that the army is sacred and can do no wrong, secondly, that our army is destined to overpower the whole world, and lastly, Ghazwa-e-hind i.e. we have to defeat India and we are religiously destined to do so one day.

Agenda of the Theory (Part 2): To boost the morale of the armed forces and the general population when the army sees a need for any military operation or intervention.

Before any Military operation, it is a tendency of the army to label its adversaries as Indians or Zionist agents. This is because the army is predominantly trained and indoctrinated to fight against the Hindus (“infidels Indians”).

A common exploitative tactic is to give a conflict a religious context e.g. by presenting the ‘enemy’ as enemies of Islam. Before the 1971 operation for East Pakistan (operation searchlight) Bangalese were targeted by issuances of fatwas for their ‘infidel activities’, thus painting the Bangalese as unfaithful and conspirators against Islam. This ideological manipulation influences the public sentiment by projecting a unislamic and imperialist image of foreign country/peoples. Prejudiced and censored history also makes the public vulnerable, making it easy to get their support for a military operation. The 1992 operation against MQM is a textbook case. Members of the MQM were portrayed as traitors who were secretly plotting to create a separate state with the help of the Indians. Similar strategy is employed in Swat and Waziristan operations where with the help of conspiracy theorists such as Zaid Hamid, the army is successful in gaining public support and motivation for troops.

By Anas Abbas

Dearest George Washington:

I am writing this letter to personally congratulate you on your heroic efforts for working towards the independence of the country that has vastly benefited us over the past 60 years.

By the way, your country deserves praise for its exceptional half wittedness which we will continue to exploit for eternity.Soon after independence our demands of military equipment and economic aid were fulfilled by our participation in CENTO and SEATO. In the quest for dollars & Johnnie Walker, Ayub Khan had even extended a welcoming offer to your military officials, encapsulated in his words “Our Army can be your Army if you want”. 

For the next thirty years, we played a significant role towards helping your nation in toppling the Red Army.  Later we decided to continue with our nuclear program (Thanks to Abdul Xerox Khan) in order to counter the “Hindu Baniaa”. Soon we were slapped with economic and military sanctions and as a result it was difficult to sustain the Kashmiri Jihad against the “Hindu Baniaa” on the east and the popular “Pedophilia Network” (Afghan Taliban) on the west. But Alhamdulillah 9/11 happened and we became indispensible for the world again. A total of $12.5 BN of our debt was rescheduled and we were blessed with $10 BN, we got export incentives in the form of greater market access to the EU, debt rescheduling and others in the form of grants and Saudi investments. These were given to us to buy our support for the War on Terror, we were supposed to cooperate in hunting down Al Qaeda, Taliban and all other affiliated groups but Voila!!!!!!!!!! Kudos to your government for its gullibility; while it was engaged in ruining Iraq, it blindly trusted us but we continued to support these groups and didn’t even take the minor step of  declaring Al Qaeda a terrorist organization (Pakistan is the only country among War on terror participants not to have declared Al Qaeda a terrorist outfit).

After Mumbai attacks and the subsequent pressure of “Hindu Baniaa”, Langley realised that we were no longer to be trusted and hence it covertly activated a cell in Punjab to eliminate the leaders of LeT. Raymond Davis was assigned to provide security and surveillance for the case managers of that cell. No hard feelings George, but this was never acceptable to us as LeT has always been instrumental in countering the “Hindu Baniaa” and your nation has failed to figure out that our highest priority has always been “Ghazwa-e-Hind”.

As soon as we received information of Davis’s operation in Lahore, we sent two local thugs to terminate him but bad luck George as Davis ended up killing them and was later arrested by the inept humpty dumpty Punjab police.

Raymond was later released after Langley accepted our demands (in relation to greater role in Afghanistan) through tough negotiations and the case was settled by exploiting the second best selling product in our country after sex known as Islam.

But you know George! One thing we are proud of is that despite our major complicity in drone attacks, releasing Raymond Davis, “missing persons case”, ruining our economy, nurturing terrorist organizations, promoting extremism etc. we are still the highest ranking and the most favourable institution in the country (Nelson Research Report http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/world/asia/22pstan.html?_r=3).  This is mainly due to the stupidity of our people, who believe that earthquakes and Tsunamis are brought about by a research facility called HARRP, who love to see the cantankerous Shireen Mazari and the obnoxious Fareed Paracha on Talk shows, where the media, public and intellectuals value the analysis of megalomaniac freaks like Zaid Hamid and Ahmed Qureshi.

Ha ha ha ha ha George, please refer to this link for information on Zaid Hamid

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjWPAwgJwYU).

Please also show this to the other founding fathers of your nation especially to Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. I am sure this will cause them to roll in their graves.

Another important factor that helps us maintain the highest rating in the country is due to the role played by our hyperbolic media where the popular talk shows never question our alliance in drone attacks with the Americans and never wonder why we never formally protested against these attacks just like we did against Kerry – Lugar bill by holding a conference of 122 Corps Commanders at GHQ. This idiocy of the media helps us in directing public opprobrium towards the civilian government so that they end up blaming the government and thus we are always rated higher than all other institutions.

Sorry George but Anti-Americanism has been the key towards our success in terms of negotiations and propaganda campaigns. We fund Anti-Americanism to achieve valuable objectives in order to keep your government on its toes. Pakistan cannot make decisions favoured by Americans such as withdrawing the support from terrorist groups (JUD/LeT, Haqqani/Taliban). Through our successful propaganda campaigns, it is widely believed in Pakistan that the organization TTP, which is responsible for killing thousands of Pakistanis, is funded by Langley. This helps us create the difference between the Good Taliban (killing Afghans & Americans) and the Bad Taliban (Killing Pakistanis). Even during the Raymond Davis episode, we planted conspiracy theories connecting Davis to the TTP; we also fabricated evidence of their connection through the Punjab Police. This was enough to convince the public, who is foolish enough to not even have questioned as to why the Pakistani army never take any action even if there was solid proof of Davis working with the Bad Taliban.

We are also very proud of our judicial system which has never questioned any of the ISI’s activities. There are innumerable people languishing in Pakistani jails for years waiting for their cases to be heard but it only took a few days for our judges to come to a decision in Raymond Davis’s case. Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, was recently assassinated by a virgin fanatic but to this day no final verdict has been reached by our judges even though the assassin confessed to the killing whereas Raymond Davis only confessed to killing in self defence.

George, we want you to understand that we are not Islamists, we are looking out for our own interests, supporting Islamist extremists is one of the ways to achieve those interests. In fact, we are similar to your government. We exploit Islam the same way your government did 30 years ago against the Soviets. It serves our military and political objectives just as well as it did for your government.  We also have similar interests, we too like a drink or two and we enjoy Megan Fox and Angelina Julie just as much.

Thank you again for leading the independence movement.

Long live the U.S.A

Yours Truly, Sincerely & Faithfully

General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani.

Source: Daily Times

The figures cited by a leading newspaper were so erroneous that their account of the total militants killed was less than the number of militants killed in a single drone strike that they themselves had reported. Such unethical exaggerations and fabrications should be unacceptable in journalism and they construct the wider narrative about drone strikes in the public opinion

Drone strikes have evolved to become a national political issue with the media and public opinion constantly pressing the government to take up the issue with the US. Opposition to drone strikes is mostly based on ill-conceived notions of sovereignty, ghairat (honour) and figures that seem to suggest that drone strikes are inaccurate and lead to a high number of civilian casualties (not to suggest that there cannot be any informed opposition to drone strikes). From Imran Khan to Munawar Hasan, right-wing political parties and religious groups have used drone strikes to forward their agenda by misguiding people through erroneous, fabricated and fictional data. As a result, thousands of people have been mobilised across the country to oppose these strikes.

Papers published such as ‘The CIA’s Covert Drone War in Pakistan, 2004-2010: The History of an Assassination Campaign’, ‘New Light on the Accuracy of the CIA’s Predator Drone Campaign in Pakistan’ and ‘Sudden Justice? Evaluating the U.S. Predator Campaign in Pakistan’ have already challenged the exaggerations and fabrications of these parties and media groups. The figures they provide contradict the ones thrown at us. The casualty rates are 13.56 militants: 1 civilian: 3.35 unknowns according to one paper. The New America Foundation put civilian deaths at 24 percent and the Long War Journal at 9 percent. The figures cited by a leading newspaper were so erroneous that their account of the total militants killed was less than the number of militants killed in a single drone strike that they themselves had reported. Such unethical exaggerations and fabrications should be unacceptable in journalism and they construct the wider narrative about drone strikes in public opinion.

An online database of suicide bombings and drone strikes in Pakistan is maintained at a website called Pakistan Body Count (hereinafter referred to as PBC) by Dr Zeeshan Usmani, a former Fulbright Scholar and currently Assistant Professor at GIKI. Fulfilling the tradition of the lack of intellectual integrity and dishonesty, his data has been used by various media outlets without giving him credit. The data reports that as of late September 2010, only 32 al Qaeda militants have been killed by US drone strikes in comparison to 1,778 civilians giving a paltry 1.76 percent strike rate accuracy. As we shall show categorically, much of this data is erroneous, flawed and plagued by numerous transgressions. Academic credentials alone cannot guarantee lack of bias and the use of technology cannot assure authenticity of data.

The first problem is that Dr Usmani has only two entities in his data, i.e. al Qaeda and civilians. Where do the Taliban fit in, precisely the Afghan Taliban, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Lashkar-e-Islam (LI)? Where does targeting monsters like Baitullah Mehsud and Qari Hussain Mehsud fit in this scenario? There is no justification for including the TTP, LI or any other militant groups in the same category as civilians. Such gimmicks are only being used to mislead the whole world and any such defence of the flawed data is misleading and unacceptable. We cannot claim whether the data is manipulated and purposely flawed for ideological reasons. What we can assert is that this alone leaves a serious flaw in his data collection and since the government of Pakistan officially declares the TTP, LI and associated groups as terrorists and has been pursuing an active military campaign against them, including their deaths amongst civilians is a serious distortion of the truth, erroneous and contrary to acceptable logic. Their deaths are and should be included as a part of the accuracy of drone strikes.

Here is a list of the major errors in his data. Dates and location of strikes are mentioned for reference.

October 30, 2006: Bajaur. Gunship helicopter attack by Pakistan Army (officially claimed) that killed 80 suspected militants is included as a US drone strike by PBC.

August 13, 2008: Two strikes in Bhagar/Angor Adda, SWA. Reuters reports death of 9-25 militants including Commander Abdul Rehman and Islam Wazir. Geo reports death of three Turk and several Arab militants as well. PBC lists 22 civilian casualties.

September 8, 2008: Danday Darpakhel. PBC reports 23 civilian casualties. CNN reports death of al Qaeda’s Pakistan chief Abu Haris and another three Arab fighters amongst 25.

October 9, 2008: Reuters reports deaths of six militants including three Arabs. PBC lists nine civilians.

November 19, 2008: Bannu. Al Qaeda leader Abdullah Azzam al Saudi is killed. CNN reports local confirming three foreigners killed. PBC does not list strike.

May 16, 2009: Khesoor, NWA. Target assumed to be a seminary may have killed up to 23 al Qaeda militants according to NYT. Al-Jazeera reports 10 militants including two Arabs. This paper reported 25-28 local militants leaving for fighting in Afghanistan. PBC lists two al Qaeda and 23 civilian casualties.

June 23, 2009: Makeen, SWA. Two drone strikes in one day including one on the funeral of Niaz Wali kill 51 Taliban according to this newspaper. Other reports suggest anywhere between 45 and 83 militant casualties. Dr Usmani’s data shows a total of 91 civilians and only six al Qaeda deaths.

December 8, 2009: Aspala, NWA. 2-3 militants including al Qaeda leader Saleh al-Somali are killed. PBC does not list this strike.

December 17, 2009: Datta Khel. 10-15 militants including al Qaeda leader Zuhaib al-Zahibi. PBC reports 17 civilians.

January 3, 2010: Mosaki, NWA. Dawn reports five killed, three of them Arabs. A security official told AFP, “Five militants have been killed, two are local and three are foreigners.” PBC reports five civilian deaths.

January 15, 2010: Zanini, NWA and Shaktoi. 7-12 militants killed, including militant commander Azmatuallah Muawiya as per reports from Dawn, AP and Reuters. PBC lists 22 civilian casualties.

February 14, 2010: Mir Ali, NWA. Dawn reports four foreigners (reportedly Uzbek) and three militants killed. Compound was used for training insurgents. Reuters claims five deaths. CNN reports six dead. PBC does not mention the attack.

September 3, 2010: Two drone strikes kill 12-15 militants. Dawn reports six local militants being killed in first strike. Samaa reports death of Taliban commander Inayatullah in second strike. PBC reports 13 civilian deaths.

(Note: Complete data analysis can be seen at http://dronedata.wordpress.com)

As can be seen from these errors, which are just a small number amongst the database maintained by PBC, casualties of Taliban and many other militant groups are included amongst civilians.

(To be continued)

The writers are interested in history and public policy. Shahid Saeed can be reached at shahid@live.com.pk and Awais Masood can be reached at awais.masood@gmail.com

The following is an excerpt from the book Miliraty Inc. (By Ayesha Siddiqa) that comprehensively describes the invasion of Okara by Pakistan Army and the oppression that the local farmers have faced over the years.

It should also be noted that Pakistan Army has recently diverted flood waters to nearby villages in order to save Okara Farms.

“The army’s direct involvement in agriculture and its possession of rural land did not become evident until the eruption of the conflict in Okara in Central Punjab between the landless peasant and the service. A situation resembling a civil war erupted in 2001 on military farms at Okara when the army and para-military forces besieged the local village community to fight the warring peasants that protested the Army’s decision to arbitrarily change the system of contract under which the tenants tilled the land. The army’s decision to change the term of contract from share-cropping to rent-in-cash caused great resentment amongst the tenants and their families who have resided in Okara and Renala for quite some time. The tenants feared the new system of contract would empower the Army, which is not the original owner of the land, to throw the poor tenants out from their abodes. The land belongs to the Government of Punjab that had leased the land to the military before partition. These tenants had traditionally lived on the land and cultivated it for those who exercised control over the land.
The Okara farms are part of the military farms group, Okara and Renala, which comprise 16,627 acres of land consisting of two dairy farms, seven military (oat-hey) farms and 22 villages. Out of the total acreage, 16,627 acres are cultivated by 1,323 farmers residing in Okara and Renala. At one point, some of these villages and land was under the control of the Catholic Church in Pakistan and the village residents were tenants of the Church. The prime proprietor, as mentioned earlier, is evidently the Punjab Government, who leases the land to other people or institutions. The ownership barely bothered the tenants that cultivated the land on a share cropping basis. According to the previous arrangement, the tenants cultivated the land and shared both the input and the output with the owner or who ever controlled the land. The additional benefit to the tenant was recognition by law of his/her claim over the land as much as that of the owner. In case the land was to be sold, tenants held primary claim over the land. This arrangement put a tenant in a better legal position than a simple cash-in-rent arrangement where land is cultivated in exchange for money or a specified rent. The military tried to enforce its arbitrary decision on the tenants by force. After 2000, the para-military forces deployed around the villages in well documented accounts reportedly brutalized the poor tenants, ensuing severe agitation and violence that claimed eight innocent lives. The troops of para-military force, otherwise known as Rangers, besieged the villages twice, imposed curfew, restrained mobility of people, stopped supply of medicine, food and vegetables, and used numerous pressure tactics. The Human Rights Watch Report has detailed testimonials of village people victimized by the military authorities that were generally dismissive of the protest. Army personnel claimed that, rather than being a human rights issue, this was a local law and order issue incited by some NGOs. Army personnel also believe that the ‘muzarain’ or tenants are raising the slogan of ‘mulki ya maut’ (ownership or death) out of greed and malice. According to a Pakistani researcher, Ayesha Salma Kariappar, the Army is not inclined to negotiate ownership rights due to its appreciation of the value of this A-1 land. The conflict, as Kariappar indicates, denotes the military’s power and thrust as a capitalist force. The aforementioned brutalization, however, clearly represents a feudalistic style. Kariappar’s definition of the military as a capitalist force basically describes the rampant profit-making activities of Pakistan’s armed forces. However, it can be argued that, had the Pakistani Army been capitalist, it may not have been obsessed with the idea of controlling Okara farms at all costs. The civil-military conflict at the farms increases the cost of controlling the land, a proposition that a capitalist force might not entertain. The Army’s high-handedness is indicative of the authoritarianism which is reinforced as the norm. The stories of the pressure exerted on Okara peasants is a reminder of the traditional Sindhi ‘wadera’ (feudal lord) or serfdom system in which the poor tenants are treated brutally and even put in private prisons by the feudal lords.”
“From a socio-political standpoint, the conflict is a significant expression of the military’s power and its determination to maintain it. The army’s top leadership remained fearful that any concession to the tenants would have a ‘knock-on’ effect. The apprehension that yielding to these farmers would weaken the military against other social and political forces and diminished the overall power of the armed forces was prevalent within the army. Therefore, the issue was not just about the ownership of the land but rather, the larger matter of maintaining political power and authority. Such behavior is reminiscent of the feudal armies in Europe for whom occupation and control of territory was a symbol of strength.”
“Interestingly, in the Okara case the military was trying to change the terms of contract for a land that did not belong to it. Hence, the Army itself came into violation of the contract it had signed with the Punjab Government, who had originally leased out these villages as part of a total of 35, 508 acres of land to the British Army in 1913. The 20 years lease agreement signed in 1913 and renewed in 1933 for another five years stipulated the land to be used as ‘Oat-Hey’ farm for raising army’s horses. According to senior officials of the revenue department, the Army, which inherited the lease from the British, did not bother to renew the lease which had expired 15 years ago and, hence, stood in violation of the lease agreement by changing the use of land from oat-hey farm to dairy farm. The lease agreement does not allow the service to use the land for any other purpose than growing fodder. The only detailed study on the Okara farm issue highlights interesting facts about the management of the farms. First, contrary to claims made by army authorities that income generated from the farms is given to the government; the military farm authorities retain all earnings. Second, the farm produce was being mismanaged as a large quantity of farm products such as milk and animal were used to bribe senior officers. In her study on the Okara farms, Kariapar claims that the Auditor-General’s Department had accused the military farm authorities of mismanagement rather than holding the tenants responsible for the loss of revenue.”
“The military spokesman Director-General Inter-Services Relations (ISPR), Maj. General Shaukat Sultan, in defense of the conversion of use of military farms in Okara said:
“The needs of the Army will be decided by the Army itself, and/or the government will decide this. Nobody has the right to say what the Army can do with 5,000 acres or 17,000 acres. The needs of the Army will be determined by the Army itself.”

“This arbitrary conversion of the usage of land violates the principle of ‘eminent domain’, a concept defined by Hugo Grotius as the law governing the acquisition of the property of the subjects of the state.

According to Grotius:
“the property of subjects under the law of eminent domain belongs to the state, so that the state or the person who represents the state, can make use of that property, can even destroy or alienate it whenever it is to the public advantage.”

“The application of this law varies according to the political nature of the state. In the US, the law of eminent domain has been interpreted according to the liberal philosophy of John Locke. So, the 5th Amendment to the US Constitution advocates the preservation of the right of private property. Locke had enunciated the right of a government to draw its costs to rule but without excessively threatening an individual’s right to private property or all such rights that generate happiness. This right is upheld in the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789 as well. The declaration stipulates that: “Property being an inviolable and sacred right, no one can be deprived of it unless the public necessity plainly demands it, and upon condition of a just and previous indemnity.” These approaches, it is noteworthy, evolved as a result of years of struggle by the people in France and the US to establish the primacy of private property or rights of people. Although the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 used in Pakistan puts down specific conditions such as ‘public purpose’ for acquisition of private land by the government, the rules are implemented in letter and not in spirit due to the authoritarian nature of politics.”
As opposed to Locke’s philosophy, the Hobbesian or a ‘brutish’ approach was reflected in the handling of the Okara farms case based on a more authoritarian control of the society by the state in which the main authority could be an individual or a group of people, has the power to determine the good of the rest of the population. This Hobbesian notion is truly reflected in the feudal character of the Pakistani state where ‘public good’ is determined by the ruling oligarchy. Being part of the dominant elite, the military has aped feudal behavior according to which the authoritarianism of the institution determines the flow of capital and the monopolization of resources. Pakistan military’s land appropriation and subsequent possession and profit-making is unrivaled by the US, France, Israel, India and all such societies that have consciously moved towards capitalism.”

Infamous and notorious Dr. Zakir Naik’s media vehicle of spreading hate speech has stepped into further expansion with the establishment of a Urdu channel named Peace TV – Urdu under the network of Peace TV, now targeting additional audience of at least 90 million, though the Peace TV has around 60 million audience in twenty countries in the world at this moment.

Peace TV was launched on Arabsat on satellite BADR-3 in October 2006. In November, it was available on BADR-3 and BADR-C. In 2007, Peace TV returned to BADR-4, and became available on PanAmSat PAS-10. It became the first and only Islamic channel of the world. As of September 2007, Peace TV is available in the United States and Canada on World TV channel 65, and in the UK Broadcaster Kamran Khan and Europe on Sky platform, channel 820. It is also freely available from the LiveStation satellite television computer application which can be downloaded from the internet, free of charge.

This television channel, promoting Jihad and converting non-Muslims into Islam either through alluring promises made secretly by Dr. Zakir Naik and his gang, receives monthly donation of US$ 20-25 million from various individuals and institutions in the world. Major segment of such donations come from Zakaat [Islamic Charity] fund. In addition, Dr. Zakir Naik receives roughly US$ 3-4 million every month from various wealthy Muslim individuals and rulers in the world, for holding seminars in promoting Islam in various Muslim and non-Muslim countries. Each of the seminars, organized by Dr. Zakir Naik’s organization named Islamic Research Foundation [IRF] costs approximately US$ 2-3 hundred thousand. IRF is registered as a non-profit organization in Mumbai, India.

Dr. Zakir Naik has also established another organization named United Islamic Aid, with the goal of collecting at least US$ 25 million per year from Muslims with ‘revolutionary vision’. To become a member of this group, any individual is asked to contribute US$ 250 per year, which Dr. Zakir Naik wishes to use as per Sharia concept of ‘Baitul Maal’ [Islamic Treasury].

Following the tremendous growth of Islamic Research Foundation, United Islamic Aid and Peace TV network, Dr. Zakir Naik now has launched his next program named ‘Islamic International School‘ with its first outlet in Mumbai, India. This is a modern-form project of kindergarten madrassa in reality, which targets students from affluent classes, with the goal of poisoning the minds of kids with extreme Jihadist indoctrination and motivation. This Islamic school will soon be affiliated to ICGSE Board, Cambridge University, United Kingdom. Female students of this school will have to wear Islamic Hijab according to the website of this institution. Careful visit to the website of this institution will give very clear idea as to how Dr. Zakir Naik is now playing important role in breeding Jihadists in India as well in other countries in the world, through his newest venture named Islamic International School.

Let me once again mention the identity of this Dr. Zakir Naik. In a lecture delivered on 31 July 2008 on Peace TV, Naik argued that 9/11 “it is a blatant, open secret that this attack on the Twin Towers was done by George Bush himself“, to give Bush reason to attack and control oil-rich countries.

In a YouTube video recorded in Singapore in 1996 Naik said: “If Osama Bin Laden is fighting the enemies of Islam, I am for him. If he is terrorizing the terrorists, the biggest terrorist, I am with him. Every Muslim should be a terrorist.”

Dr. Zakir Naik considers United States a terrorist, because he holds America responsible for the deaths of thousands of people living in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon.

Zakir Naik continues to make anti-Semitic statements in his ‘lectures’ on Peace TV and other platforms; on record, he says, “Jews are our staunchest enemy.”

Naik has been denied entry into United Kingdom and Canada since June 2010. In June 2010 Zakir Naik was banned from entering the United Kingdom by the Home Secretary Theresa May. He had arranged to give talks in London and Sheffield. May said of the exclusion order regarding Naik, “Numerous comments made by Dr Naik are evidence to me of his unacceptable behavior, she noted statements from Naik such as, “every Muslim should be a terrorist”.

In the lecture at Melbourne University, Naik argued that only Islam gave women true equality. He stressed the importance of the headscarf by arguing that the more “revealing Western dress” makes women more susceptible to rape.

Naik and his teachings have been associated with terrorists including Najibullah Zazi, Rahil Sheikh and Kafeel Ahmed.

Dr. Zakir has stated that any Muslim is free to convert out of Islam if the person so chooses, but added that if a Muslim converts then speaks against Islam then that is considered as treason. Naik stated that under Islamic law this is punishable by death.

During a question-and-answer session at one of Zakir’s lectures May 29 on the Maldives, a 37-year old Maldivian citizen named Mohamed Nazim stood up and announced that he was struggling to believe in any religion and did not consider himself to be a Muslim; Nazim further asked what his verdict would be under Islam and in the Maldives. Zaik responded that he considers the punishment for apostasy not necessarily to mean death since Muhammed was reported in the Hadith scriptures to on some occasion to have shown clemency towards apostates, but added that if a Muslim apostate speaks and propagates against Islam under Islamic Sharia rule then the apostate should be put to death. Mohamed Nazim was reported to have been arrested and put in ‘protective custody’ by the Maldivian Police. He later publicly reverted back to Islam in custody after series of threats by the administration.

In 2004, Naik visited New Zealand and then the Australian capital at the invitation of Islamic Information and Services Network of Australasia. At his conference in Melbourne, senior writer and columnist Sushi Das commented that “Naik extolled the moral and spiritual superiority of Islam and lampooned other faiths and the West in general”, further criticizing that Naik’s words “fostered a spirit of separateness and reinforced prejudice”.

Khushwant Singh, a prominent Indian journalist, politician and author argues that Naik’s pronouncements are “juvenile” and said that “they seldom rise above the level of undergraduate college debates, where contestants vie with each other to score brownie points”.

Singh replied to Zakir Naik’s statement that “Western society claims to have uplifted women. On the contrary, it has actually degraded them to the status of concubines, mistresses, and society butterflies who are mere tools in the hands of pleasure seekers and sex marketers….” by saying “Dr. Naik, you know next to nothing about the Western society and are talking through your skull cap. People like you are making the Muslims lag behind other communities.” Singh also noted that Naik’s audiences “… listen to him with rapt attention and often explode in enthusiastic applause when he rubbishes other religious texts …”

Lucknow based cleric Kalbe Jawad argued that “Naik is bringing a bad name to Muslims. Such people should be condemned and socially boycotted” and claimed that Naik was being financed by the Wahabi sect that supposedly perpetrates violence in the name of Islam and expressed the need for an inquiry into, how Naik was running a TV channel on his own and where he received the funds from. Another Lucknow cleric Naib Imam Maulana Khalid Rasheed Firangi Mahali claimed that Naik has “mugged up some verses from the Koran and pretends to be an Islamic scholar“.

Despite all such controversies Dr. Zakir Naik’s mission of spreading hate speech is continuing in full swing. He not only runs a huge Jihadist television network, but also is gradually penetrating into non-Muslim societies through his charitable organizations, Islamic schools etc. No one is daring to investigate the sources of hundreds of millions of dollars of funds; he is receiving from various unknown people and institutions. And, it is giving him the opportunity of further expanding his Jihadist conquest in the world.

The article was first posted here

The dollar figures above needs some real verfication. AA@counterterror confirms that the rest of the article is based on true facts verified from other independent sources.

YAYAH KHAN

16 December 1971 marked the end of a nine month long saga of chaos; genocide, arson and rape, when Pakistan army surrendered East Pakistan to the Indian army. This day is etched as the day of ultimate betrayal in the hearts and minds of many Pakistanis who were promised by their President and Commander in chief that the fight would continue indefinitely, just a few hours before their 96,000 soldiers surrendered in Dhaka.

“Kill three million of them,” said President Yahya Khan, “and the rest will eat out of our hands.” Robert Payne writes in his book titled ‘Massacre’, referring to a meeting of Pakistan army’s top brass held
on February 22, 1971.

“For month after month in all the regions of East Pakistan the massacres went on,” writes Robert Payne. “They were not the small casual killings of young officers who wanted to demonstrate their
efficiency, but organized massacres conducted by sophisticated staff officers, who knew exactly what they were doing. Muslim soldiers, sent out to kill Muslim peasants, went about their work mechanically and efficiently, until killing defenseless people became a habit like smoking cigarettes or drinking wine. … Not since Hitler invaded Russia had there been so vast a massacre.” Robert Payne goes on to assert through his analysis that military dictatorship is the most corrupt form of government.

R.J. Rummel, in his book ‘Death by government’ describes: These “willing executioners” were fuelled by an abiding anti-Bengali racism, especially against the Hindu minority. “Bengalis were often
compared with monkeys and chickens” said Pakistani General Niazi, ‘It was a low lying land of low lying people.’ The Hindus among the Bengalis were as Jews to the Nazis: scum and vermin that [should] best
be exterminated. As to the Moslem Bengalis, they were to live only on the sufferance of the soldiers: any infraction, any suspicion cast on them, any need for reprisal, could mean their death. And the  soldiers were free to kill at will. The journalist Dan Coggin quoted one Punjabi captain as telling him, ‘We can kill anyone for anything. We are accountable to no one.’ This is the arrogance of Power.

Susan Brownmiller, in her book “Against our will: Men, women and rape” puts the number of women raped from 200,000 to 400,000. She wrote, “Eighty percent of the raped women were Moslems, reflecting the population of Bangladesh, but Hindu and Christian women were not exempt. … Hit-and-run rape of large numbers of Bengali women was brutally simple in terms of logistics as the Pakistani regulars swept through and occupied the tiny, populous land …”  Brownmiller quotes  a description of one such assault which targeted a recently-married woman, as reported by Aubrey Menen: “Two [Pakistani soldiers] went into the room that had been built for the bridal couple. The others
stayed behind with the family, one of them covering them with his gun. They heard a barked order, and the bridegroom’s voice protesting. Then there was silence until the bride screamed. Then there was silence again, except for some muffled cries that soon subsided. In a few minutes one of the soldiers came out, his uniform in disarray. He grinned to his companions. Another soldier took his place in the extra room. And so on, until all the six had raped the belle of the village. Then all six left, hurriedly. The father found his daughter lying on the string cot unconscious and bleeding. Her husband was crouched on the floor, kneeling over his vomit.”

The human death toll reported during this nine month long genocide varies from 300,000 to 3 million. Mukti Bahini, the armed volunteers waging guerilla war against Pakistan army with the help of India,
avenged by murdering Biharis, the urdu-speaking migrants. Tens of thousands of Bihari men, women and children were murdered, their property looted and women raped. Biharis saw another round of murder after December 16, as Bengalis celebrated their independence by killing the friends of Pakistan army.

With signing of the surrender document, 96,000 Pakistani soldiers and civilians were interned into Indian jails and camps. Indian government that gloated on the success of their war against traditional rivals and gleefully announced themselves as liberators of Bengalis, did not mind sending the perpetrators of genocide back to Pakistan, after a deal was struck on border disputes. Those who committed murder and rape of their fellow countrymen in East Pakistan returned home to
receive pension from the national ex-chequer and they were awarded lands. A commission was set to investigate the war but its findings were never made public in Pakistan.

Two and a half million Biharis languished in refugee camps and their demand to be repatriated to Pakistan was struck down by various Pakistani governments. Families in those refugee camps lived under inhuman conditions for almost four decades and saw another generation grow-up.  A few months ago the Supreme Court of Bangladesh decreed that Biharis be considered citizens of the country and allowed them to vote.

The army took over the rein of power again in Pakistan in 1977 and executed the elected Prime minister. They partnered with America in their war against Soviet Union in Afghanistan and the world forgot their crimes of 1971. There was military operation in Baluchistan. Sindhis were brutalized during Zia’s regime and Pakhtuns have been thrown in a war for 3 decades. The army/ISI, with its choke-hold on President Zardari’s government seems poised to push Sindhis into a clash again.

Pakistan army continues with its murderous ways and receives praise and aid for its efforts. With the International tribunal conducting trials and issuing warrants against culprits of crimes against
humanity, one wonders whether Pakistan army did commit any crime or the victims of their crimes were not humans.

Courtesy: Ibrahim Sajid Malik’s blog

Cross – Posted from Foreign Policy

Editors note: below and reproduced in full with the author’s permission is an open letter written by Noman Benotman, a former commander in the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) and a former associate of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. In al Qaeda strategy meetings in Kandahar in 2000, Benotman warned the al-Qaeda leadership of ‘total failure’ to realise their aims and called on bin Laden and al-Zawahiri to abandon violence. Soon after the 9/11 attacks, he distanced himself from al-Qaeda and later resigned from his own jihadist organisation. He has more recently been instrumental in negotiations with Libya’s government to free former LIFG leaders, and in persuading these leaders to formally renounce terrorism. He also recently joined the London-based Quilliam Foundation as a Senior Analyst.

Is it not time for believers to humble their hearts to the remembrance of
God and the Truth that has been revealed. Quran, 57:16

10 September 2010
1 Shawwal 1431 AH

By Anas Abbas

This Essay is in response to an article “The liberal lynch mob” written by Mahreen Aziz Khan published recently in The Express Tribune. It will not only focus on this article itself but will mostly critically analyze the mindset behind such viewpoints and briefly look at the message in other such related articles for example “Get another passport” written by the famous “Flotilla Hulk”.

Recently a horrifying video of a crowd watching a mob brutally killing two brothers in Sialkot has sparked mass demonstrations in Pakistan. The video, widely broadcasted on Pakistani TV channels, shows a lynch mob taking turns to savagely beat the two boys with sticks, metal rods drawing blood from them before dragging and hanging their dead bodies from a nearby pole. But perhaps just as shocking was that none of the dozens of people including police officials watching tried to stop the ferocious attack. The government has responded to the attack by promising to launch an investigation and bringing the culprits to justice. Civil/Religious groups and Media condemned the killings and youth held demonstrations. The scenes have outraged Pakistanis all over the country challenging how their society could submissively watch the shocking killings without intervening.

Amid this crisis, a new debate has sparked in Pakistan as to how should one perceive it. Columnist Fasi Zaka not only condemned the incident but referred to Pakistanis (metaphorically) as ‘human cockroaches’ and concluded that we cannot and will not change unless we rise above all the defenses, excuses and accusations that we give to others and ourselves and take responsibility for our actions. In other words, we need to understand the nature and magnitude of our crimes and make a pledge with ourselves to change our ways. To change the world around us, we need to change ourselves first. In another hard hitting piece, a Pakistani journalist George Fulton focused on the gruesome nature of the society and highlighted the culture of vigilantism that has been ingrained in the very roots of the country and ever since actively promoted and widely accepted on mass scale within the country.

However there is another interesting point of view which was endorsed by Mahreen Aziz Khan in her article “The liberal lynch mob”. In this article, she lambasted both George and Fasi Zaka’s opinions labelling them as ‘western liberals’ and concluded that the norms of our society are not very different from those of the western more developed nations and that what happened in Sialkot was not as out of the ordinary as portrayed by the media.

Critical Analysis

Mahreen Khan’s article does not come as a surprise as I have been reading these viewpoints since a long time now. Basically this has always been the reaction of such analysts who either live in a mode of denial or deliberately choose not to scrutinize the loopholes in their society for the sake of their misperceived patriotism and false pride and nationalism. They guard the political-military elite of Pakistan and have been one of the biggest impediments in the democratic process by always possessing a soft corner towards the Pakistan army and its political supporters. They are the ones who choose only to criticize Pakistan’s current President Asif Ali Zardari (Popularly known as the source of all problems in the country) by demanding him to donate his entire wealth to compensate the flood victims and maintain their silence on the £10bn empire operating within the country that runs several industrial and manufacturing conglomerates (From Cement to Cornflakes), owns 12m acres of public land and controls one-third of all heavy manufacturing and approximately 7% of private assets. Welcome to Pakistan Army ladies and gentlemen.

The usage of the term “western, liberal”:

In her article, Miss Mahreen at least twice used the term known as ‘western liberal’. In Pakistan, this is a common term used to label any critic who points out either the caustic realities of the society or who invokes self introspection instead of blaming the West, Israel or India. This term takes a different form depending on the user. Some refer to it as Liberal Fascists, Liberal fanatics or Atheists and sometimes it takes a more blatant form such as Kafir, Hindu Agent, Jew or Qadiani, at all times the core meaning of the term remaining the same. These terms are used to describe those people who often:

• Challenge the popular opinion among the masses and take a stand for their views and have the guts to reach a rational conclusion on their own.
• Challenges the distorted version of history widely accepted in the country and demands a truthful reformation of the history books taught in the Pakistani classrooms.
• Highlights the importance of science and research and demand the country’s authorities to allocate a substantial part of budget towards this sector.
• Promote religious harmony and tolerance by demanding equal rights for Ahmadis and other minorities.
• Call for abandoning nuclear weapons and transparency towards nuclear wastes and challenge the “first use” nuclear doctrine of the Pakistan Army.
• Challenge religious orthodoxy and extremism, Taliban, and promote freedom of speech, race, religion, gender and Ideology.
• Promote the democratic political process instead of taking patronage under the military oligarchy.
• Point out other regions of the world as well (such as Baluchistan, Darfur, and Xinanjiang)  where Muslims are fighting for freedom instead of just playing the usual Palestinian, Iraqi and Kashmiri card

Here I am not going to defend or further analyse this term but instead I will certainly examine why this specific term was used by Mahreen Khan when the criticism or self-loathing by Fasi Zaka & George Fulton involved Pakistan only?

Where does ‘West’ come from?

The term ‘West’ used by Mahreen Khan was basically to offset the impact of the dilapidated condition of Pakistan highlighted by both Fasi and George by diverting the whole attention through highlighting similar incidents in other regions mainly West, Israel and India. Basically according to this mindset, we should not introspect and work towards seeking constructive feedback of our deeds and instead find similar faults of other nations and indirectly justify ourselves.

The basic strategy is to mention the names of these three regions in order to fuel the revulsion that already exists in Pakistan against them and to discredit the other argument not by presenting valid arguments but by presenting excuses. For example, whenever there is a bomb blast in a mosque or shrine in Pakistan where the Taliban accept responsibility for it, firstly it is not accepted by this mindset and secondly even if it is grudgingly accepted, it is incorrectly and indirectly justified by presenting a case where America is bombing Iraq and parts of Pakistan, killing innocent civilians.

In simple words, this Mahreen Khan Mindset looks at every problem in Pakistani society in this context:

As a point of illustration, on the issue of dealings with the minorities in the country, this mindset believes:

“So what if Pakistani institutions have been highly unsuccessful in protecting its minorities? Look at India (The typical Gujrat 2002 story), Palestine issue, and American invasion in Iraq etc’. ‘See the magnitude of violence they have been promoting!”

By presenting this “comparative-analysis”- excuse which is often out of context, this mindset justifies the weaknesses of its own society and dismisses any criticism directed against their country’s institutions. Eventually the critics are labelled as traitors, Liberal fascists or Western Liberals – as can also be seen in Mahreen Khan’s article.

Mahreen then says:

“These columnists (Fasi Zaka & George Fulton) would not dare to write in such sadistic terms about western cultures. No, they only prey on the weak – pure lynch mob mentality – developing nations like Pakistan, battered by natural catastrophe, war and poverty.”

My first basic questions to Mehreen Khan are:

Why on earth do these columnists need to criticize the “West” and its culture when the discussion is about Pakistan in the first place?

I would have understood had these articles “Pakistani Human Cockroaches” and “Don’t Act Surprised” were written by western analysts such as Bernard Lewis, Noam Chomskey, Christine Fair or Sumit Ganguly. But these articles were written by Pakistani nationals- so why wouldn’t they talk about their own country alone and present their opinion? They live here, they work here, their children go to school here- so why don’t they have the right to point out the shortfalls of their society (which they want to progress) and freely present their criticism?

What is the need to criticize the West or its culture- dragged out of context in Pakistani affairs? Why aren’t the Chinese, Japanese, Korean or Arabs so criticised?

The answer is simple: because “West” is despised by the masses in Pakistan so it has always been the requirement of Mahreen Khan type mindset to mention them in order to overshadow the Pakistani domestic problems.

The use of this strategy is not limited to the likes of Mahreen or Naseem Zehra but has also been employed as a frequent tool of digression by the bigoted mullahs who rule the illiterate Pakistani masses.

According to Mahreen khan, one should never criticize a third world country like Pakistan – battered by natural catastrophes, war and poverty.

Why I can’t criticize my country when I know that it is us who are responsible (due to our collective acts) for the natural catastrophes, war and the poverty?

Admittedly, it is a norm of our society to blame God, Global Warming, India or America, but in reality it is the Pakistanis themselves who are mostly responsible for these floods because of their mismanagement of the Indus river, the role of the timber mafia in denudation of the vast forests, and the appalling situation of National Disaster Management Authority  etc.

Should we not highlight these grave loopholes and debate this issue as to why efficient disaster management and building dams has never been a priority for the Pakistani state in the past decades? Why are we all possessed by the need for national security (Indian threat) and the weapons race?

For example:

Cities like London and Paris have floods too but they also have a set of appropriate measures to implement in such crises. Why cannot Pakistan take proactive steps to better manage its potential disasters as well?

Or, if we go by Mahreen Khan’s logic, should we first blame the ‘West’? Or find examples of similar natural disasters there and reach a dismissive conclusion that we should not do anything about this because it is also coming in other countries?

In the same article, Mahreen Khan has promptly responded to the Maula Jatt example given in “Don’t act surprised” by giving an American alternate of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre example promoting once again a comparative analysis as highlighted by George Fulton in “Don’t act surprised Part 2” . This “Harvard” intelligentsia is clearly missing the point as to why the Maula Jatt example was mentioned in the first place. Yet again, instead of acknowledging the culture of vigilante justice bred in our state, the Mahreen mindset spends hours Googling similar examples in only those regions which are despised by the masses in Pakistan example India, Israel and America. (Remember No China).

These Pakistanis live in a mode of denial completely ignoring the murderous vigilante culture which has been promoted in their society. The people prefer to make their own law rather than following any set rules of law. This utter disregard for law gives way to even more mayhem thus resulting in today’s daily acts of terrorism, looting, raping and murders.

Take the incident of Sialkot killings for instance. How many times a mob or an individual in Pakistan has taken justice in his hands? This latest Sialkot tragedy is one of the countless incidents that has erupted like a hyper active volcano. How many Christians and Ahmadis have been victimised at the hands of these people? Other such instances include the Gojra incident and the Sangla incident. Read any report of Pakistan Human Rights Commission and notice how many Ahmadis, Christians and other minorities have been brutally victimised through such people. Does anyone even remember the famous incident which took place in 1995 in which Dr. Sajjad Farooq was beaten to death (Stoned) on false apostasy charges (rumour circulated by someone out of personal enmity) by people outside a police station in Gujranwala? Even the mosques and the ruling Islamic ulemas have always been supportive of such incidents.

How can one forget the pseudo scholar by the name of Dr Amir Liaquat (followed by masses) publically endorse the murder of an Ahmadi? (Notice the increase in the killings of Ahmadis immediately after this public legitimisation) How can one forget the late dogmatic Dr Israr Ahmed (followed by the masses) who endorsed the killings of both Ahmadis and apostates? How can we ignore the fatwa of a powerful radical cleric known as Mufti Rafi Usmani on Geo News for mobilizing a mob to kill Salman Rushdie?

As I am writing, a gun battle between the Chang and Khan groups over a 30-rupee loan left four brothers dead in Gulshan-e-Khair Muhammad Hyderabad. Recently, a teenage girl was gang raped by a feudal tribal council as it was recommended by the Jirga (the increasingly popular Imran Khan’s Insaaf Mechanism) purporting that justice can only be served by the rule of “an eye for an eye”.

This barbarous, merciless, homicidal and bloodthirsty approach is not only limited to rural or tribal areas in Pakistan but it is somewhat pervasive in urban areas among the educated families as well.

For example, quite recently a mass hysteria has been created in Pakistan after 3 Pakistani cricketers were exposed for spot fixing in a sting operation by a British tabloid.

Look at our reactions as shown on Pakistani TV channels:

One of the major consensus among the public as shown on various channels is that the cricketers deserve the same fate as that met by the brothers who were brutally murdered in Sialkot. The icing on the cake is that even educated sportsman such as Amir Sohail came on ‘Super eye show’ (August 29th 2010) on Geo Super channel and recommended the “Sialkot type” punishment for the Pakistani cricketers.

A top Pakistani banker and a friend of popular television anchor Mubashir Luqmaan again recommended the same punishment.

Let’s look at the Facebook status of a third rate propagandist and megalomaniac freak, Ahmed Qureshi, who recently  blames George Fulton & Fasi Zaka of being British agents working against Pakistan – just like he usually blames the Jews and Indians whenever he struggles to get an orgasm.

Facebook Status:

“Pakistani cricket players chose to be a part of corruption. Where is the supervisory mechanism over the players? My take is: Hang the bastards. This country’s politicians and managers can’t give justice and can’t stop corruption. Burn the corrupt, I say. Make them an example, and start with all the corrupt all the way to the top” (Source Facebook Ahmed Qureshi’s Official Page)

Notice the terms “Hang the bastards” and “Burn the corrupt”; it reminds me of similar terms used by the lynching mob in Sialkot during their revenge against those ill-fated boys.

Let’s look at our “National Hero”, the merchant of menace Abdul Qadeer Khan’s article, “Acts of Ghairat”, in which he not only legitimised the full philosophy of vigilante justice but also instigated the public to take justice in their own hands by giving certain relevant examples.

How can we forget the cricket match against India in SAHARA CUP (1996), when the best batsman and national hero of Pakistan (Inzamamul Haq) assaulted a member of the crowd after he was compared with several kinds of potatoes on megaphone? I still remember… Mushtaq Ahmed was asked by Inzamam to bring a bat as he was about to beat up that person.

On Inzamam’s return to Pakistan, he was hailed and praised as being courageous and valiant.

Above all what about the glorified vigilantism, savagery and barbarity in relation to imperialist invaders (Bin Qasim, Ghaznavi, Ghauri and Babar) that the masses in Pakistan study in their crooked history?

Just when you are thinking that you have seen the deepest depths of Pakistani depraved thought- there’s more- People angry at the reported betting scam named donkeys after the players and accused and pelted them with rotten tomatoes to vent their anger. The poor donkeys which live sad existences anyway could not understand why they were being ridiculed and beaten in this manner. Animals though without speech can nevertheless understand affection when shown and are equally capable of understanding hatred. Someone once said, the way a country’s people treats its animals reflects the way it treats its fellow citizens. (Refer to the recent incident in Lahore where poor Donkeys were paraded and persecuted)

This is the real Pakistan where national heroes encourage vigilante justice and have themselves been live examples of it. Then why are we surprised when such an incident as the one in Sialkot happens?

To add to the knowledge of readers with the Mahreen Khan mindset, what Pakistan is, let’s look some of the facts below:

Pakistan is a country:

• With four provinces but the majority of the budget is usually allocated to Punjab and Sind with meagre left over amounts given to Baluchistan and Pakhtunkhwa, leaving them envious of the former two provinces. Thus all four states think for themselves only on a provincial level ignoring the benefits of the country as a whole, thirsty for each other’s blood. Even smallest issues quickly exacerbate into ethnic violence. Our country thus faces acts of terrorism and violence such as target killings on a routine basis. This is how the state of affairs of the country is run whose population is multiplying manifold whereas the resources are going down at higher rates. The country which proudly hosts a population of 170 million but doesn’t realize that this issue will become a national security threat in the upcoming years when the population is expected to reach 226 million.
• That proudly hosts some of the most dreaded terrorists ever, such as Dawood Ibrahim (Karachi Block 4 Clifton), Tiger Memon (Karachi Defence, PH 6 Khayaban Hilal), Masood Azhar (Garrison town, Rawalpindi), Hafiz Saeed (Muridke, Lahore), Illyas Kashmiri, the Afghan Taliban to name a few and the most prominent.
• Where terrorists such as Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar openly market their literature and audio tapes legitimizing hijacking, the use of RDX, suicide bus attacks etc. (Refer to Jamait Dawaa Urdu magazine GHAZWA to learn about the planning and legitimization of Mumbai attacks and Masood Azhar lectures on TAQI Usmani Website.)
• Where it is prohibited for an Ahmadi to write BISMILLAH on a marriage invitation card.
• Where it is banned for an Ahmadi to travel to Saudi Arabia in order to perform Hajj.
• Where religious abuse is evident even in the application of a National ID card and Passport (Notice this statement in application forms for Pakistani passport “I consider Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Quadiani to be an impostor nabi and also consider his followers whether belonging to the Lahori or Qadiani group to be Non-Muslim.”)
• Where a rogue and disgraced “scientist” illegally sells centrifuge designs and technology to totalitarian regimes like North Korea whose 25% of the population is imprisoned by the state.
• That persecuted the first Muslim Nobel Laureate Dr Abdus Salam and refused to endorse his candidacy when he ran for the post of Director General of UNESCO. (Just because he was an Ahmadhi)
  
• Where out of more than 170 million citizens, fewer than 2 percent pay income tax and sectors such as stock markets remain untaxed.
• Where despite enormous American hatred, people usually seen standing in long queues outside the embassy for study or vacation visas.
• Where Bollywood songs are a regular feature in most weddings despite Pakistan’s enmity and hatred for the said Indians and thus the Pakistanis thrive on Indian forms of entertainment, i.e. its dramas (STAR PLUS), movies and music.
• That depends every year on the ‘West’ to avoid bankruptcy and for the approval of financial bailouts.
• Where the provincial government (KP) pays Rs20 million to the military authorities/elites, as charges for the helicopters used in the rescue operations during the flooding within the province.
• Where Hindu religion is officially abused in the text books of all public schools in which 70% of Pakistanis study.
• Where an Army General by the name of Musharraf openly violated the Constitution (even accepted on television) and was nevertheless given a safe passage to Edgware road London.
• Whose politicians/army/elite persecuted the Bengalis and launched Operation Searchlight during 1971, killing hundreds and thousands of people and raping women. Despite all this, this country never even apologised for their brutal acts. A country which at the same time accuses America of nuking Japan but doesn’t mention alongside that the same America later played a crucial role in developing Japan and apologised for its destruction caused.
• Where a popular national hero and philanthropist (Imran Khan) worshipped by millions has been an insult to science by calling Charles Darwin a “half baked” theorist.
• Where mafias operates openly on the nook and corner of every street and are involved in hoarding stocks of goods such as Flour and Sugar thus manipulating the price of the products in the market and causing unnecessary sufferings to the poor at their benefit.
• Where the crime rate is so high in urban areas that people are routinely killed for a meagre Rs 500 mobile phone.
• Where a ruthless army dictator, Ayub Khan, accused Fatima Jinnah (Women rights activist and sister of Jinnah) of being an Indian and American agent.
• Where national heroes are regularly accused of taking banned substances such as nandrolene, cannabis and such.
• Where a court demands a blind girl (Safia Bibi) to present four male adult Muslim witnesses in order to prove that she was gang raped or else she would be charged with having committed adultery and sentenced accordingly (Famous Asma Jehangir Hudood Ordinance Case).
• Where a philanthropist (Abdul Sattar Edhi) who easily qualifies as one of the world’s greatest humanitarian activists, is threatened by the army to such an extent that he needs to temporarily leave the country.
• Where the powerful military makes its own people suffer by blocking the relief aid from other countries just for the sake of its egotism and vanity (Recently Pakistan blocks UK offer of military aid for flood victims in protest against David Cameron’s comments on a selling trip to India)
• Where the combined yearly education and health budget is peanuts as compared to the gigantic military budget.
• That suffered a $35 billion economic loss and lost thousands of lives in the War on Terror and still hasn’t declared Al Qaeda a terrorist organization. (Read here how a famous terrorist escaped punishment from High Court just because Al Qaeda is officially not a terrorist organization in the country).
• That spends $2 million of the people’s money for the legal process of a terrorist, Aafia Siddiqui, whereas no such financial assistance is allocated to the countless cases of women undergoing corporal punishments, domestic violence, arson, torture or kidnapping.

This is the real Pakistan that has been dominated mainly throughout its history by illiteracy, conspiracy theories, corruption, political instability, military interferences, terrorism and poverty. A country where leaders openly justify on national TV that their involvement in corruption is acceptable, by employing the same tactics as those employed by the likes of Mahreen Khan. According to them, it is justified to delve in some corruption because another person belonging to X party is also involved in corruption. Hence, there was nothing wrong with this equation. But the truth of the matter simply put is that two wrongs do not make one right.

Yes Pakistan has positive qualities too as does every other country to more or less some extent. In fact every individual has some positive qualities alongside the negative ones. But what defines you as a good person/ country are the overriding qualities—the good ones or the bad. In other words, the important thing is what prevails over you. For instance, an active child molester also donates some money to a school as charity on a monthly basis. The money he donates will be overpowered by the indecent acts towards children. The same goes for Pakistan whose negative qualities have tipped its scales towards being not only a failed state but a rogue state.

This is not the Pakistan which was envisioned by its founders. It has now instead become ‘Denialistan’ whose citizens do not accept their shortcomings and- if they are faced with no other choice but to accept their faults- are quick to justify them by pointing out similar failings of other states. Who similar to lambs, follow mindlessly what is fed into their brains through the variety of mediums present in the society (such as the military elite, the Ulema and other influential personalities who are idolised by the masses). Just like lambs do not use their minds before following its leader, the vast majority of us blindly follow these figures of influence without applying our brains to what is being said/ asked of us. Moreover those who dare to introspect are condemned as “western liberals” who ought to ‘Get another passport’.

According to this ‘Get another passport’ directive recently reiterated by “Flotilla Hulk”, a person should either blindly love Pakistan or, if he or she can’t do that, they should go get themselves another passport. (Reminiscent of George Bush’s “With us or against us Rhetoric”)

In reply to this, I would like to give the following example:

If a mother chides her child who is consistently failing exams due to an irresponsible attitude and who refuses to take studies seriously, she has every right to criticise her child and doing so does not make her less of a mother to her child. She only chides because she cares. If the same child brought in a good result, she would be equally quick to applaud him.

If we suppose that the mother in the above example was in fact ‘Flotilla Hulk’, what response to the child’s failings do we expect of him? Wouldn’t he criticise his son and take whatever steps are necessary to push his child towards success by pointing out what he was doing wrong? Or will he simply “Get another son”?

Similarly, if the critical analysts of our country have some vitriolic truths to convey to their readers, it is not to pull the country down, neither does it make them any less of a citizen. In fact it is for the betterment of the country at heart that they take a stand in the first place.

Above all, Pakistan is not the property of these Guevaras, Khans, Qureshis, Peerzadas, Guls etc, it’s the country of 170 million people and everyone has the constitutional right to form their opinion.

I would like to end this by dedicating the following quote to this Denial Brigade of Denialistan:

“Sometimes reality has a way of sneaking up and biting us in the ass. And when the dam bursts, all you can do is swim. The world of pretend is a cage, not a cocoon. We can only lie to ourselves for so long. We are tired, we are scared. Denying it doesn’t change the truth. Sooner or later we have to put aside our denial and face the world. Head on, guns blazing. De Nile. It’s not just a river in Egypt, it’s a freakin’ ocean. So how do you keep from drowning in it?” (By Meredith Grey)

If we keep denying ourselves the right to critically self-analyse, willingly turning a blind eye to the blatant causes of the problem, the potential within us to improve and tackle these deeply ingrained issues will be utterly wasted.

References:

http://teeth.com.pk/blog/2008/09/11/aalim-online-inciting-murder-against-ahmedis

http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,AMNESTY,,PAK,,3ae6aa124f,0.html

http://www.missio-aachen.de/menschen-kulturen/nachrichten/Sangla_Hill_attack_continues_to_draw_condemnation.asp

http://www.awaztoday.com/playvideo.asp?pageId=10392

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/Poll-Majority-of-Pakistanis-View-US-as-Enemy-99620719.html

http://www.hrcp-web.org/showdocument.asp

http://www.hrcp-web.org/currentstat.html

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2014405,00.html#ixzz0y5jM62Hv

Analysis on Pakistan Army enterprize were taken from the book Military Inc.