Champions Trophy 2017, Yet another fairytale in Pakistan’s Cricket

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                                      An account of a famous win and way forward…

Pakistanis were so jubilant and swamped with the occasion that none of us wanted end of victorious mood; just fancy this fervor continues for ever… Everyone had a story to tell about celebrations of this victory over India. The same night, we (here in Doha-Qatar) also went for Sehri Treat in a Pakistani restaurant named Punjab restaurant and witnessed an awesome atmosphere. Big screen was showing Pakistani channels presenting stats of final match and you could well hear commentary from each table. A large group of about 30-35 people were especially out there having party time. Giggles, itching here and there poking each other with some meaningful jokes enjoying Pakistan’s victory. Smiling for no reason! We could well see that people belonging to almost all provinces were present there united under the cause of cricket. This is a very special thing related with sport of cricket. It’s a rare sight seen after the Pakistan’s triumph of World T20 in 2009.

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Miraculous Phenomenon!

When our team started playing as a unit, you could easily see the unseen forces working in our favor. Rain rescued our weak batting lineup against South-Africa. Sarfaraz survived 2 dropped catches in a must win against Sri-Lanka where it was almost over for our team. Famous NO ball by Bumrah and Fakhar Zaman got a new life to post a maiden TON. Then Muhammad Hafeez’s stumps got in tact despite being hit by the ball. Allah (SWT) helped when team got united and put all their efforts for winning matches in holy month of Ramzan. And they were humble enough to recognize this unseen phenomenon thanking first Almighty Allah and then explaining all formal tactics and strategies behind their performances. What a sight it was for Pakistani fans and cricket lovers all over the world to see unpredictable team Pakistan, emerging from lowest ranking and shaking confidence of best teams of the world.

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Humble Boys!

A very unique aspect of this young Pakistani team is the simplicity and innocence displayed by players including the captain. No attitude, no arrogance! Short interesting videos started erupting from the very next day and still continuing. They respectfully entertained all the spectators greeting them at all places and were seen with their old friends. Captain came out of his home to gift his cricket shirt to a blind special child, we saw his simple wear and Ulti Topi. Sarfaraz kept on praising his boys wherever he went, that’s a sign of a true leader. Rumman Raees was spotted assisting common people on a street Iftari organized in some old area of Karachi. Hassan Ali celebrating with people of Gujranwala, land of Pehalwans now introduced as hometown of a hardworking fast bowler. Fakhar Zaman enjoying a causual full dressed Shalwar Qameez bath in a canal with his friends. Shadab Khan hugged by a random passionate fan at a petrol station and this boy respected elder person giving all due time to speak whatever he wanted to say. All of this is in itself a big delight to watch. Hoping that such attention and fame shall not get on to their minds and they do not get too much carried away. I wish they all remain the same even after gathering more success in future.

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Our Amir is Back!

A day before Final match, just randomly I was thinking who could be a match winner for Pakistan in this match. Muhammad Amir was the one name which came into my mind and I tweeted as:

And what an amazing day he had, picking up 3 big players of India. This effort and his excellent batting effort in the game against Sri-Lanka may well be regarded as his complete return to international cricket. He is one of lucky people who played crucial roles in Pakistan’s win in World T20, 2009 and Champions Trophy, 2017. Best wishes to Muhammad Amir from this point, may you have a long, clean and successful career for Pakistan.

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Amir, Junaid Khan, Hafeez, Babar Azam and others should also get attention of people and media for their efforts.

Merit, Merit & just Merit

After the first lost against India, it was an amazing turnaround for Pakistan team especially in the fielding department. The way all players were backing up each other and marshaled by Sarfaraz was just awesome. It was a rare sight for an ever suffering Pakistani supporter. Runs they stopped and amazing catches they took were exciting for spectators around the world. They played as a unit! You can not have this thing when there are issues within the team or when some villain is doing his own politics. Within 3 days gap to final, Amir Sohail’s viral statement shocked all of us. Whether we accept it or not, the useless Karachi-Lahore or Karachi-Punjab divide is often seen in Pakistan’s cricket.  But the good thing was that Ex-players like Wasim Akram & Basit Ali came to rescue our boys with their positive messages. The special thing in this Champions trophy is the overwhelming response from all corners. Whole Pakistan owned this team throughout series of events.

Good cricketing facilities should be provided all over the country and Deserving talented players to be given fair chance because if you do not give them chance, favoritism will doom everything because there is no replacement for merit. I would request that anything that happened in past should be buried and national team to be selected on merit and supported from all cricketers regardless of their belonging to any city or region. That’s the only way forward!

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Role of Pakistan Super League

To be honest, one should give due credit to all people who were involved in organizing Pakistan Super League (PSL) from which we got some exciting players. PSL franchise owners also seem to be passionate about the cause. Like Karachi Kings, other teams should also arrange Talent hunt camps within their regions and present talented players at PSL stage. I suggest few more teams like Hyderabad, Faisalabad & Sialkot etc should be added to PSL. A final topping to PSL; Cricket team named ‘Kashmir’ representing whole Kashmir valley must be added in PSL.

There is no doubt that India has played a big role in bringing our cricket down. We can also not forget how Pakistani players were humiliated during action in the initial versions of Indian Premier League (IPL). That later led to formation of PSL and now we got talented players who beat India in the Champions trophy final. I would strongly suggest, Pakistani cricketers should never be permitted from our side to play in IPL and we must strive to make PSL a world’s leading cricket league with innovations and Pakistani talent in action.

Future Steps

Winning the Champions trophy is not the end of achievements, it’s just a beginning. Lot of things needs to be fixed within our cricketing system. PCB should not be running under government ruling, it needs to be an autonomous body. Reforms should be made to Domestic structure, sponsors should be invited and attractive atmosphere to be created for public viewing. School and college cricket should be revived as a campaign enticing our young generation to spend more time on ground activities rather to be engaged to social media all the time. We always had a weak and vulnerable batting lineup. I am of a belief that it is due to lack of big play grounds, children play in streets and constrained environment with local rules of street cricket so batsmen cannot play their shots freely. Another reason is expansive kit for batsmen and majority of us are happy in bowling rather than exploring our batting skills. So, some serious measures need to be taken to produce quality batsmen with good techniques, power hitters in particular.

It was so romantic to see Pakistan team overcoming their fears and play like Tigers. I hope all of us are mature enough to capitalize on success from this point onwards. Thank you team Pakistan for giving us MOKA MOKA & providing unforgettable moments of joy…

Article No. 58

Please note that this Article has been published at following websites:

https://www.pakpositive.com/pakistanibloggers/celebrating-champions-trophy-2017-in-qatar-t2206.html

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“War of Perception: Cunning Neighbors and Ignorant friends”

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Reviewing India’s fake propaganda history and TO DO’s for Pakistan!

On 18th September, 2016; four gunmen attacked an Indian Army brigade headquarters in Uri, near the Line of Control. 17 Indian army personnel were killed in the attack. As expected, Indian media and security officials put the blame on Pakistan. Like each terrorist event in past, Indian media heated the beat and linked it to Pakistan minutes after the event occurred without any solid evidence. Nevertheless lately, the world yet again saw India’s baseless allegations against Pakistan proved to be wrong after Indian NIA cleared the alleged duo Faizal Hussain Awan and his friend Yasin Khurshid, inhabitants of Azad Kashmir as no evidence was found against them. But much damage was done as India took advantage of these attacks into the last year’s UNGA terming Pakistan as a terrorist state. The idea was to defame and ‘isolate’ Pakistan on a global scale and divert the world’s attention from the continuous human rights violation by Indian forces in occupied Kashmir.

This isn’t the first instance of manipulation of evidence by Indian security officials. Indian security agencies have also been blamed for staging terror attacks within the country which have also caused the casualties of Indian civilians. Almost all of Indian false flag have been accepted as inside jobs by their own officials time to time. (Quoted from external source)

India faced a global humiliation upon their claimed surgical strikes along the LOC last year after the Uri attacks. Again, Indian media created a supersonic hype against Pakistan followed by their celebrities tweeting with proud backing to so-called brave attempt. All of this perception was soon dissolved in thick air after detailed briefing from ISPR (Pakistan Army) to the media alongside L.O.C. But still no sign of any regret or acceptance from India!

Pathankot attacks were also of similar nature and metal in which Indian media started blaming Pakistan right from the word go but later findings pointed some doubtful proceedings leaving it as another inside job.

The arrest of notorious Ajmal Kasab claimed linkage with 2008 Mumbai attacks by Indian security officials is also doubtful and does not hold much credibility. The foremost evidence is the language pronunciation of Kassab during his aired interview; his words and delivery style does not even fall anywhere near to the type of Urdu spoken in Pakistan. Former Indian inspector-general S M Mushrif had claimed in his book ‘Who killed Karkare?’ that AjmalKasab was arrested before 2006 from Kathmandu by the Indian agency RAW with the help of Nepalese forces. The book summarizes that Ajmal was arrested for the purpose to be presented as a substantial ‘evidence’ for ‘terror attacks’ even before they took place. The former IGP went on to say that it is a common practice in India to apprehend innocent folks from Kathmandu and other parts and present them as terrorists after undue detention. (Quoted from external source)

The list of Indian lies and false flags is long and tedious which includes Malegaon attacks alleging Lashkar-e-taiba & Jaish-e-Muhammad or attacks on Samjhota express burning 70 odd Pakistanis to ashes; they first blamed Lashkar-e-taiba but later here were signs if involvement of Indian nationalist group. Notably the 2008 Mumbai attacks and 2001 Indian parliament attacked were orchestrated as revealed by RVS Mani a former secretary in Indian home ministry. Similarly aircraft Ganga was a plotted hijack aimed to cut of air ties between then East and West Pakistan.

India works on the ideology of Chankiya dreaming of making Akhand Bharat in which Pakistan remains the sole obstacle. They use their media as a weapon to spread lies in such a way that it seems a reality. By the grace of Allah, all these plots and games were exposed by their own people with the passage of time. There case is so weak that they cannot face us if we stand strong on our grounds but ironically we fall short due to lack of statesmanship. Unfortunately we do not have a strong foreign office to face such tricks of India and other enemies at large; even a foreign minister is not there for unknown reasons. The need is to built up our case against Indian narrative and tell the world about their history of deception. Strong proofs of Indian involvement in Baluchistan and Karachi need to be shown to the world; Kalboshan Yadev needs to be used a tool of exposing dirty politics of India in the region. It’s about time to engage Afghanistan and Iran which are being used by India to do crimes against our Pak-Sarzameen.

Government/establishment alone cannot cope up with the propaganda war laid by India. Despite of doing a good job in their capacity, our electronic media has to rise up to obey their national duty of defending motherland at all costs in the footsteps of patriotic social media sections. Such news Channels who even found out the house of Ajmal Kassab inside Pakistan should be made accountable for their acts. Pakistan’s condition and facts & figures are far better than India and many other countries but we fall short in showing the real face of Pakistan and creating a positive perspective which could wash our negative image for good.

Even after seeing everything that has happened to us in past years, still countries like China and Turkey are standing with us as brothers; Russia looking forward to a strong future relationship with Pakistan sensing some serious progress in the form of CPEC and beyond. Just imagine what the situation could have been if our foreign office was working properly presenting our case to the world with the support of electronic media and public. Allah has always supported us, let’s start supporting ourselves.

Article No. 57

Please note that this Article has been published at following websites:

http://www.pakistankakhudahafiz.com/articles/exclusive/war-perception-cunning-neighbors-ignorant-friends/

Destructive topics in Pakistani Dramas!

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“Reviewing current trend of unhealthy topics like Divorce and invitation for producing healthy dramas with strong topics!!!”
In my school days, there was a scenario in a drama named ‘Ye Zindagi’ featuring Nauman Aijaz and Mah Noor Baloch. After a brisk love marriage, the couple broke up soon after; however, after realizing this fatal mistake the husband suggested “Halalah” to his ex-wife. This was a new term for me and straight away I asked my father “Dad what is this Halalah?”. My father somehow handled my question and told that was just nothing…Remember, that time was almost ending period of golden Pakistani dramas. Indian dramas soon captured our market for quite a significant amount of time during early 2000’s. Pakistani drama then fought back its way lately and even influenced the Indian market due to some good dramas. This was indeed a good feeling for seasoned viewers of Pakistani dramas.
It has been noticed that our dramas are yet again falling behind of topics as most of the stories are circulating around the marriage issue of loving man and woman. These are filmed in very sophisticated locations/ homes but the inmates are displaying ultimate immoral attitude and filthy family politics. I have noticed that relationship of husband–wife in many current dramas is shown in complicated status which ends up in Divorce. The scene of fight and shooting 3 words of Talaq are shown often as if it’s a very normal thing and part of our society.

I can certainly recall that during my childhood days’, divorce was never too often discussed within sections of society but with the passage of time and influence of abundantly produced dramas; Divorce has become a very common topic. Remember this is most unlikeable Halal act in Islam. We can see the impacts of showing/discussing this topic as the lives of many media celebrities are very unstable and also the rate of divorce is rising within society. Young innocent minds are definitely catching up this and can practice it very well in their practical life without realizing the real consequences. The environment in which you live your life counts a lot for you and watching such topics certainly makes their place in sub-conscious of mind and can get you in such a situation where a minor conflict can result in fatal event of Divorce.Stop-Separation-and-Divorce-Problems

We have to be responsible in protecting this noble institution of marriage by influencing positive topics to flourish this relationship. Instead of complicated Husband-Wife relationships, why can’t we cover strong bond and examples of how they supported each other during times of financial crisis or in case of severe health problems? Every other day, we can see highlights of many brilliant stories of common Pakistanis on various social media platforms like “Humans of Pakistan”; we can make many dramas out of them. I cannot forget fantastic pictures/stories covered by Brandon Stenton of “Humans of New York” while he visited Pakistan back in 2015. Why not glorify our enthusiastic and most resilient people instead of showing cunning stories of disgrace and betrayal between them?

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Read More: HONY in Pakistan
https://msultanshah.com/2015/08/24/humans-of-new-york-restored-faith-in-humans-of-pakistan/

There are hundreds of genuine topics speared in the society including life cycle of overseas expatriate people and their families back home. Topics related with various ongoing army operations and their effects on related people.  Topics related to the success stories of un-known heroes may well be covered as pay back to them; this would certainly inspire others. We can cover lives of our forgotten heroes (and living heroes) from education, science, arts, armed forces and sports. Dramas can be made covering issues related with special children and their status in the society. Media can cover conditions of people related with various organizations such as Pakistan railways, PIA, Sui-Gas and private media itself to make people realize efforts and issues related to them and better understand their lives. Above all, on the education and training side; topics covering the ideology of Pakistan depicting true goals for which Pakistan was created must be shown as a national duty.
TV channels can invite and appreciate young authors for getting fresh out of the box stories. I am certain that different and genuine topics shall definitely grab more audience and shall certainly be equally or even more successful in the monetary terms as well. We can certainly work our way towards improving society by taking such steps.
Let’s realize the important of topics covered in our dramas and take a first step today!

Article No. 56:

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“TIP” that sinks the Ship! #55

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“Despite of doing justice with work &caring for quality of service,often certain workers solely work for fetching extra money from clients”… 

There is trend in Qatar for giving away amounts of money to people involved with low paid jobs like taxi drivers,waiters, cleaners and barbers etc at the end of receiving their service. Usually these people do not ask their clients; they provide adequate service and its up to the customer to either give something additional or just go away.I have bad experienceat Barber shops where there is visible pressure of giving some TIP amount. After hair cutting or shave, they start to give un-necessary elongated final touches and also starts massage without asking. The customer usually getscompelled with this and gives some TIP thereafter. After roaming around and seeing lot of disturbing people, I settled with one barber who had just one bad habit i.e rather than deducting amount as per charge rate; he used to return change for the money note given by the customer asking them to give amount oftheir own will. Anyhow, I managed togo along with him after taking promise that he will deduct exact price of service and giving TIP would solely be on my discretion and I just forbid them to carry out massage after hair cut…

In 2014, we found a very gentle and seemingly holy lift operator on the Lahore Airport who started giving a lot of prayers and well wishes to me and my family. His style & voice were so touching and it seemed that his prayers were something special of us; I peculiarly gave him Rs.100. “What a nice man, I feel personally connected with him” I told my wife. Interesting after having lunch, we were returning close to the same lift again when we saw that same man blessing another family in a similar tone and affection. “Ahh so this was a professional thing not anything personal” we thought!

A recent journey enticed me to write this article. I had a chance of extensive traveling from Qatar to Pakistan and then back within about 30 hours and observed many faces of this forced TIP thing. Airport taxi service was having a tight schedule the day I reached Karachi and I had to take a yellow cab who overcharged by taking Rs. 950 and I had to go in a very bad conditioned taxi; so there was no question of any TIP. On the same day I went to Lahore and took a taxi from airport to Daewoo Bus stop. Driver was a sleepy,fat,seemingly lazy but witty character who recounted types of services he could provide including private travel between the cities of Punjab. At the end of journey, further to telling Rs100 extra (which ultimately was rectified by me) with respect to mileage he refused to accept Rs.50 TIP, he insisted on Rs.100 as according to him was a usual and must thing. I somehow managed to get rid of him giving away Rs.100.I had around 1 hour of waiting time at Daewoo stop’s waiting area; whenI used washroom, cleaner there was doing the similar duty i.e. offering toprovide special care to customers enticing for as much TIP as possible. As I left washroom/ablution place, he presented Tissue Paper box like waiter style and honored me with a attentive army styled salute and obtained well deserved Rs.20. Daewoo travel from Lahore to Sargodha was a great one indeed commanded by a fine hostess who was in total control of proceedings and carried out a wonderful job; I specially thanked her for great effort. I again had to travel back within 2 hours but performance of  the hostess this time was nowhere near to the former one. “Doing justice with your duty is really scarce” I thought! Then I went to Lahore airport for finally traveling to Doha-Qatar; 2 converse examples were waiting for me there. After our baggage screening, while we went to the officer doing baggage inquiry. He asked about amount of money we had in our pockets to keep by Pakistani rule of maximum amount of money while on the move. “ I hardly have Rs. 1000-1200 and wife likewise”. “Alright open thatbag” he asked and while I was about to bring my bag he said “Why would you take so much headache,leave it Sir jee give us Rs.400-500 and go ahead”. This was something unexpected for me but I insisted to him to do his work and said” I am already short of cash and can not give you money”. “Alright then open your bag” he remarked and as I carried my bag down, he left us without checking. As we moved towards the Check-in counter, my wife saw him doing similar things with other customers as well. Authorities must check such black sheeps who do not obey their duties and leave the baggage without checking for Rs. 500 only or so. We can very well judge the opposite situation at foreign good airports where they treat families as preference and do not keep an eye on their pockets like this. Thereafter, when we went to the Polio Vaccination counter, we found a very nicely behaved gentleman who gave me a good advice as per his past experience to make vaccination certificate for myself despite of not staying for a month or more in Pakistan.

As per my experience/understanding, people would still continue giveaways to people involved with such jobs as we have majority of kind hearted customers understanding financial constraints involved with low-paid class. But having such behavior of fetching maximum out of the customer’s pocket and treating client as per expected amount of TIP wastes whole effort and ultimately loose goodwill of clients. Instead of pleasing the customer, such people become a headache for them and ultimately earning disrespect for their profession.

One of the main thing to curtail such behavior is that companies should take care of their employees maintaining rational wage standards and government must also take some measures to flourish balance in society. Various job related training programs can be arranged and moral training for on job behavior should be arranged for a pleasant dealing with customers. A well trained individual deserves to charge as per his/her standard and would certainly not be interested to pump extra payment. People complaining about bad reputation of particular professions should take a note of such teasing behavior which infiltrates earnings with dubiety.  

Article No. 55:

This article has been published at following:

http://www.pakistankakhudahafiz.com/blogs/tip-sinks-ship/

Pushups Controversy, please do not kill our Inner Child! #54

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In this troubled world, there are fewer moments of joy left for public. Sports are always considered a healthy activity and teams dominating sports become source of lifting their people. After decline of many sports in Pakistan, cricket now remains as sole source of entertainment which is followed from all segments of our society. Dipped with premium performance; when our cricketers smile, we all smile with them. We have often seen our cricketers doing Sajda after achieving centuries,5 wickets hauls and victories. We all got electrified when Waqar Younis used to celebrate clean bowleds in his own roaring way. We all got that bird’s feeling while Shoaib Akhter celebrated his wickets spreading both arms like a bird. Shahid Afridi’s own style of standing with raised open arms became very popular all over the world.

 

When Misbah-ul-haq celebrated his ton in a unique style by saluting and doing pushups thereafter; we felt a strange delight. “Hey you all out there; look I am still young at the age of 42, I am not exhausted at 100 runs and I want much more” this was a first impression that many got until he further explained it later in the day.

 

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‘Promised the army guys I’d do the push-ups’ – Misbah

 

Misbah said that his hundred was dedicated to the instructors at an army boot camp in Abbottabad where his team spent two weeks training before flying to England.“That was my promise to the army guys when we did our training camp,” he said. “We used to have an honor code where we were told to step into the ground and do ten pushups. I promised them whenever I got hundred I would do that to remind them (Army) we were there. That was for them and the salute was for the (Pakistan) flag. That was what they asked us to do so I did it for them.”

 

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After winning the first test at Lords, whole Pakistani team got lined up in the ground and celebrated their victory with 5 pushups which was cheered all over the world. Captain further explained this at the post match press conference “They(our team) sent this small tribute to all those army men who were working really hard with us at the boot camp so it’s a good message and one thing that we learned from them; those army people they are not getting much salaries but for this flag, for Pakistani nation, for Pakistan they want to sacrifice their lives so that’s a big motivation for all of us and I think everybody is now putting effort for that flag and nation and really try give their 100% and try to win all the games”.

 

Our effort is for the flag – Misbah

 

This further jubilated the nation who felt more proud and connected with armed forces who showed their metal turning over a losing squad into winning; very much evident from the social media posts/speech during that time. Lovely moments of team Pakistan doing celebratory pushups; everybody was so happy, emotions of nation just cannot be explained in words. I myself replayed those pushups many times to pump myself!

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Until last week when the National Assembly standing committee objected to press-ups performed by the Pakistan team players after victory and even asked ‘whom did the players were giving message with those push-ups.”
Rana Muhammad Afzal of the NA committee raised quite an unusual objection, saying players did push-ups after the triumph and remained silent after the defeat. “What’s actually the matter,” he asked.

Above statements raised anger among the public as these were such meaningless questions; Misbah had already explained the story behind all that. Social media trolled the government in their own style and we saw their mockery all over the place”
People reacted in many ways as:

 

Pakistani Democracy, So Insecure that 11 men doing #Pushups can “Lahaq Khatra” to it. What If They Start Doing This Again. #PakFaujZindabad

 

Nation is burning out because of terrorism, NAP is napping, NACTA is dead, corruption is legendary but #pushups banning is an urgent threat.

 

New danger to the Democracy #Pushups

 

Misbah bravely reacted and said players can still celebrate in whatever manner they want. “It was simple and there was no controversy in our minds,” he said. “It’s (up to) everyone’s discretion, but we know there is no negative thing in our minds.

 

Whether it was directly ordered from somewhere OR the minister tried to become ‘Shah se ziada Shah ka wafadar’ the whole episode just bring another chapter of disgrace to the government. Mr. Nawaz Sharif should keep a close check on such people. There are so lean chances of happiness left in our lives, why do you want to steal them too? Why are you so insecure? Doing #pushups does not mean anybody is trying to sack Jamhooriyat and bring dictatorship. We want to see them play and raise the flag, we want to dance with them; please do not kill our inner child, please!!!

I hope that team Pakistan will continue to win more, cheer up the grounds much more and such useless objections will do nothing but glorify the Green boys and their #pushups!

References: Quoted statements from various web links.

Article No.54
Please note this article has been published at following links:

A SWEET AND SOUR PAKISTAN VISIT #53

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From diaries of an expatriate

EID-UL-AZHA September,2016
I had to make a rather urgent program of visiting Pakistan this EID-UL-AZHA and packed my bags with the same conventional excitement to meet and mingle with my loved ones. After one day of rest, I visited Baqra mandi of Bhains Colony on Sunday the 11th September,2016 with my uncle and cousins. It was fine cloudy afternoon and people from all trades were out to shop for qurbani. After much struggle with high rates and seeing variety of behaviors we found our destined man who insisted on giving us Baqras and deal was settled shortly; what a fine gentleman from interior Sindh he was…Thereafter we carried our Bakras in an open Suzuki run by 3 persons one of which was an apparently educated young man.I felt a strange attraction in him specially his calmness and deep eyes; we talked in from of short question and answer all along the way and then both of us got lost in our own businesses after delivery…EID-UL-AZHA remained a busy day as all family members got together to do justice with 8-9 Baqras and distribution of meat was the next task. People were quite happy and relaxed as fear of snatching animal skin was no more; again #thankyouRaheelSharif

Dealing with Utility Providers
I ran from post to pillar for carrying out some documentation and formal procedures for my new under construction house. As a Semi-Outsider, it was real experience to see different flavors of people working in these authorities. I visited SSGC office 3 times for a meter shifting issue. People got more active when they came to know that I was a Qatar resident; one of them said “I am completing this task as you are living abroad or else you will go and spread negative word about us”. I am really thankful for this kindness. Pursuing my case aggressively, being calm with them and being an expat, I was able to finish my obligations and now wait for their action. Everybody seem to be happy and smiling in SSGC itching and pitching with each other; more focused on enjoyment and taunting less on work. I am pretty sure this work would have been buried for months if it was not followed up properly.

Then came K-Electric which was found competent and active of all. I asked a very old question burning in my heart to one vibrant gentleman out there “Why are you doing load-shedding in some areas and not in others; when will load-shedding finish in my area?”…”Actually in your area there are considerable losses and regularizing people is also very difficult” he replied…”But what is my fault, me and my forefathers have never theft a single rupee of electricity?” I said.Then he opened up in-front of me. He shared his views on condition of Pakistan and specially Karachi in particular. According to him situation in Karachi was deliberately spoiled and king makers were destroying the city step wise as there were stages of decaying bread, first its attacked by fungus and slowly it becomes completely rotten and uneatable. “Me and my daughter are unwell for the last 1 month due to unbearable overflow of gutters leading to unhygienic condition in our area; perhaps people are right in leaving this country” he sighed…”Gentleman you do justice in your capacity and I will handle my area of responsibility; that’s the best we can do today” I uttered and left K-electric office after shaking hands!

Karachi water and sewerage board was an all different world. “I will not beat about the bush, honestly there are 2 ways of getting customer name on Bill changed” the officer said: “1) You pay me Rs.1000 and we will get everything fast tracked for you and you will get name changed by next month, I am taking only Rs200 share out of it. 2) You go by the book and we will post your application to the head office, may be the postman forgets your application or its missed somewhere in the middle; the procedure will take around 1- 1.5 years but its not guaranteed that your work will be done.” And I was thinking why government does not raise their salary packages and legalize fee/commission procedures so as to save everyone of us from Hell-fire…

Losing a dear Cousin: Unfortunately I lost one of my cousin Ms.Shahida Sultana during this visit and it was again a reminder that this world and all associated stuff is temporary and everybody will have to taste death one day. May her soul rest in peace and Allah increases her place in Jannat…

Roaming in Karachi
Karachi was a different place this time. I saw people moving freely in huge numbers along-with expansive mobile phones contrary to us expats who carry one phone for outside and other for inside home. Sea view was alive and people were having great past time enjoying horse, camel and caught bike rides.Observed overwhelming display of love for General Raheel Sharif as I moved on the roads of Karachi and saw many vehicles with Raheel Sharif and Baba Qaid posters with Pakistan flag background; and you know what, most of them were pasted on auto riskshaws. This buries theories of racism and provincialism; people love and support anyone who strive for betterment of Pakistanis does not matter to which place he belongs or whatever domicile he carries. Public care for those who care for public. As I left my home; like always my mother filled us with all sorts of food and saw us off with half gate opened reciting various Suras and Duas. She always watches me till last until my car is gone off the street!

Train Journey to Punjab
A man learns a lot while he travels this world; same happened with us while we travelled from Karachi to Sargodha with a brief connection at Faisalabad. A/C class was not available directly to Sargodha from Karachi therefore I booked 3 A/C seats to Faisalabad on Millat Express on 28th September,2016. We enjoyed sole compartment upto Nawabshah where we were joined by a seasoned journalist Mr. Aslam Munir, another gentleman from Rohri and the last one from Sadiqabad. It was a pleasure to travel with Mr. Aslam Munir having an overall 57 years of experience currently serving for Nawai-Waqt who treated me and family like his own family. Our discussion spanned form family life in Pakistani society, to journalism to evolution of various news agencies and condition of employees within news business. He shared his experience from various spheres of life to make our journey a real treat. Facilities within A/C class were quite good and system was working satisfactory. We switched from A/C to economy class from Faisalabad towards Sargodha and it like moving from Heaven to Hell. Nothing was in place in economy class from people to luggage. Fans were not working and dust from outside was fading everything.Luckily we avoided need to use toilet. Government should make efforts to raise standard of economy class in trains and provide respectable environment to lower income class. In contrary to witty Qulis of Karachi and Faisalabad, the one in Sargodha was a cool guy who shifted our baggage in reasonable rates without much argument.

City of Sargodha and end of journey
This was my 5th brief visit to Sargodha and as always it was found to be a peaceful ,neat, clean place with easy going people. My brother in law Ali introduced me to Doodh Wala from Karachi who was selling milk for drinking sitting by a footpath. I was impressed with cleanliness of the place having crystal clear glasses and no flies at all, milk’s taste was awesome; will definitely try again next time. Ali also showed me various landmarks of the city including Army Cantt area. Daewoo travel was comfortable to Lahore from where I eventually got flight to Doha-Qatar. Sitting inside plane, my mind’s screen was flashing with fast events happened to me in Pakistan, quiet faces of loved ones saying so many things with their eyes and my very own people who played their role by giving something and taking something from my life. Allah Hafiz Pakistan, meet you soon again!

Article No.53
Please note this article has been published at following links:

PARTY… #PAKISTANZINDABAD #52

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“Lets support the best political party in the world”
“And hold firmly to the rope of Allah all together and do not become divided”. (Sura Al-Imran,3:103)
For the past many years during Independence day a very common SMS is shared between Pakistanis viz “In 1947, a nation was searching for a country and today our country is searching for its nation”… I just can not forget that moment from August,2014 during first ‘Dharna days’ near Imran Khan’s Lahore residence where there was a canal in between the supporters of Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif. All of them were carrying Pakistan flags and throwing stones at each other outrageously…  There is high need of finding whats went wrong in between creation of Pakistan and today’s mess!
All India Muslim league was formed in 1906 as a necessity to represent Muslims for united India against all odds and with sheer commitment, our forefathers were able to form beloved Pakistan for us. Until now, Pakistan remains a unique entity along-with Israel created on religious ideology. Unfortunately, we lost our founding father soon after independence while they were trying to set up a direction for a new born nation. Since then, we see lack of a comprehensive/visionary process to build nation.
At birth of Pakistan, there were not many political parties. Political parties started to emerge as constitution was put in place alongwith a democratic system of elections to run the country.As a result, today we see hundreds of parties having their own supporters against their rivals chanting variety of slogans all over the country. Political romances and breakups takes places as per situation and need of time.If today, 2 leaders are hugging each other; there is no guarantee of tomorrow.Similarly their supporters will either shake hands or deal with fists & kicks to the other side as per orders of their leader.
I have a firm belief that application of western democratic system in our society is a biggest mistake ever made and political parties are biggest obstacle to our national unity. I can openly challenge a happy family of 5 persons sitting on the same dinner table; if you start taking sides and supporting different parties and their leaders in your discussion; you surely will end up with outrage and argumentative fight. Such phenomenon is very much evident in daily talk shows. This is ‘jamhooriyat ka husn’ we are facing today.
Referring to a recent example when anti Pakistan speech was made by MQM chief, Pakistanis all over the world condemned it with a solid “Pakistan Zindabad” response. Pakistan Zindabad response is clearly evident whenever we win some world sport event or when faced by natural calamities like earthquake or floods. After the Peshawar APS tragedy the whole nation backed Pakistan army to achieve the incredible through operation Zab-e-Azb. Our best responses come when we act as Pakistanis.
Human beings live on earth in different groups; depending upon your intelligence/maturity level you can visualize as many sub divisions as possible. One party based on brotherhood was formed by our beloved prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.) by preaching Allah’s message to complete Islam. Religion surely was the biggest recognition and ideology at that time. Talking of today’s era, various nation states exits ,over 200 of them and there is a history attached to each nation state.
Nation states interact with each other at state diplomatic level , not on further sub division parties or tribes level. In united nations, heads of countries represent their nation as a whole not as fragments of their society. That’s how interests of a large group are being presented/defended in front of all other countries. I believe that nation states form realistic political parties representing their nations today.
Coming back to Pakistan, today we see dozens of political parties and hardly anyone of them carries a unanimous national respect. Parties in Pakistan mostly supported based on provincial, linguistic and ethnic basis. Notable individuals often form their own party to participate in so called Democratic process, forming a sub-group who feels they can bring Pakistan back on track and whose manifesto, flag and electoral sign is different from the other. Hence dividing a great nation into so many segments.
We can see intense debates on social media where supporters of one party just rips off other parties. Interestingly, when I pointed out few blunders of Imran khan on social media, one of my friend said “I have followed your posts since a long time, I know very well you are a supporter of PML(N); can’t you see what wonders Imran Khan is doing in KPK”. Believe me,it took some time after that friend was somewhat satisfied as I shared some critical posts regarding PML(N) and Nawaz Sharif. Overseas Pakistanis are considered all fans of Imran Khan and all living in Punjab are considered buddies of Nawaz Sharif. Interior Sindh’s population considered pro-PPP and generations of migrants from India are believed to be all supporters of MQM etc.
Lets take a deep breathe and imagine which party our army is working for; was it electoral democratic process that brought up GEM like General Raheel Sharif? Which party Pakistan cricket team is playing for? Which party are we representing on all International airports while carrying Green passports? Against which party our internal and external enemies working?  That single party is Pakistan. So why we further go down the hill. Is there any further need of any other flag after Green Flag? Why consider our own brothers and sisters our enemies based on Political/party affiliations?
So can’t we get rid of such things which makes us oppose each other?. Can not we stop opposing each other on party basis? Can we hold to that Party which binds us together? With a clear mind, one ideology, one identity; can we become die hard political workers of a much bigger and meaning full party that is our beloved PAKISAN!…After that its Allah’s will how he generate self cleansing process for our country…
Fellow Pakistanis must be mature enough to realize their binding forces, hold hands of each other so that we can have a different SMS during upcoming Independence days “Nation and Country stand together; NO POWER ON EARTH CAN UNDO PAKISTAN”…
“And hold firmly to the rope of Allah all together and do not become divided”. (Sura Al-Imran,3:103)
Article No.52
Please note thus article has been published on 26 August,2016 at following links: