http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?190941
Thank you Bangladesh for having the moral courage to resolve a
humanitarian crisis by granting citizenship to those unfortunate
soles who are famously known as "stranded Pakistanis". But wait a
minute; they were stranded from a Pakistani perspective, from a
Bangladeshi perspective they were foreigners, traitors, enemy
combatants..take your pick. How come Bangladeshis had the fortitude
and decency to look beyond political slogans and dealt with this
issue purely on human grounds. They are not only about to give them
citizenship but voting rights as well. Shame on the establishment
and racist politicians of Pakistan for squandering an opportunity
for the past 36 years to do the right thing because of political
expediency and pettiness.
The saddest part of this whole fiasco is that the drunkard and
incompetent high-brass of the Army that laid down the weapons and
made a laughing stock out of the entire nation, the generals who
were solely responsible for loosing the war were given real-estates
and pension funds and when they died they were laid to rest with
decorum. However the citizens of Pakistan that were always loyal to
Pakistan in now Bangladesh and in some instances fought along side
Pakistani Army were left to rot in camps for the past 36 years.
There generations grew up in abject poverty and were forced to the
life of despair because we weren't capable of humanity or merely
fairness. The thing that surprised me the most that even after being
back-stabbed by the Pakistani establishment - and why stop at
establishment lets blame the entire nation of Pakistan because I
don't remember any huge protests by civil society to bring them back
in my consciousness – time and again, the stranded Pakistanis always
maintained there loyalty with Pakistan, even though we gave them no
reason that we give a rats ass about them they kept the hope that
one of these days we the Pakistanis would do the right thing, oh how
wrong they were – for we are cut from a very cheap cloth.
I am asked to be proud of being a Pakistani, its moment like these
that I really wonder, are we really at a juncture as a nation where
there is any reason to have this hollow-pride? We have successfully
created a class system which wasn't there for the most part when the
country was created. We have a society of have's and have not's.
Have's are above the law and the entire country is there ancestral
estate where they roam about as conquerors. Constitutions can be
amended and interpreted according to there whims. They do what there
heart desires without bothering about whether it's right or wrong.
Have-not's are just trying to get access to breathing. Clean water
is a luxury that most of them can not afford. There generations have
labored on fields and they work tirelessly from dawn till dusk
harvesting and still the dogs of chaudhry sahab are treated more
humanely and have access to more nutrition than these poor soles who
grow everything that we eat in iftar parties at the presidency and
PM house. But who cares about there sorry existence….first thing
first, lets get Musharaf `elected' for next 5 years…..abb to lagta
hay ghareeb kii aahh bhii nahi lagti in dheetton(thick skinned) koo.
Please do tell which part of this equation should be the reason for
our gloat? Musharaf coined the phrase `sab say pehlay pakistan'
(Pakistan First). I tell you we must give credit to these spin
doctors for uttering these nuances with a straight face. It would be
quite funny if it wasn't brutal.
Every single political party who has participated in an election
from the area of Orangi Town in Karachi at one point or another
promised the return of stranded citizens of Pakistan, but it has
been just that – a promise with nothing to show for it. MQM had it
as part of its original manifesto. They have been in govt. 3 times
now; this last stint has been 5 years long. How come no one asks
them a simple question in hundreds of talk-shows that they appear on
numerous channels, "Hazrat what have you guys done about those poor
soles that you gladly own as your own because it get you votes?".
But MQM is not the only political party that has cunningly cashed
this sentiment. PPP, Jamat, Muslim League etc. all have displayed
the same nature of hypocrisy. The height of the irony is that the
only politician who truly and sincerely tried and almost got these
stranded Pakistanis back was a Punjabi Chief Minister Ghulam Haider
Wayeen. He could have gained nothing politically from this stance;
in fact I reckon there would have been a backlash from his
constituents to some degree because the sad reality is that we are
still highly communal people.
The thing that I find quite intriguing is that Bengalis were
maligned as traitors by a vast majority of Pakistanis when I was a
teenager in Pakistan during late 90's, not so anymore. And that
prejudice and hate really cut-across provincial boundaries in those
days. Bengalis were blamed for what happened in '71 and they were
traitors as far as we were concerned. Sense however has prevailed in
our society since than and even those individuals that you hardly
expect any kind of sense from (read sherafgan niazi) would tell you
that West Pakistan and its military/civil establishment drove
Bengalis on the course which ended in Bangladesh (albeit the same
people will support the killing of Bugti..go figure). It was the
prejudice and unfair treatment from West Pakistan from the word-go
that disenfranchised our brethren in East Pakistan; it was our fault
all along, not theirs at all. Bengalis were the majority in 1947,
they could have forced there language as the national language, but
for the sake of unity they went with Urdu. East Pakistan had 56%
population in 1947 and therefore should have been awarded the
resources accordingly but Hussein Shaheed Suharwardi - one of the
few decent & competent Prime Ministers that our country has seen –
helped reach consensus in East Pakistan to divide resources right in
the middle, sadly all this was just the tip of the ice-berg. We have
to understand that it wasn't Bhutto or Yahya Khan or Ayub alone in a
vacuum that brought about the catastrophe of Bangladesh, although
they were the bigger piece of the puzzle. It was the systematic
alienation that took place from the very beginning that brought down
the house. I mean how stupid do you have to be to insinuate that
since Bengalis are shorter therefore they must not rule and it is
the right of tall, broad shouldered `men' of frontier and Punjab
that should be the generals in the Army. It was a good thing that
blue-eyed General Niazi was the commander otherwise Pakistanis would
have to suffer a humiliating defeat in east Pakistan…oh wait a
minute my bad… WE DID SUFFER A HUMILIATING DEFEAT DESPITE OF NIAZI'S
CHARMING PRESENCE. Because you see, whether you look good in uniform
or not is quite immaterial, the nugget which is of tantamount
importance is that you must not be a complete incompetent idiot.
Bengalis by nature were a democratic people, we on the other hand
are always in awe of `Maula Baksh'. I mean ours would probably be
the only country where street thugs, bandits and murderers are
admired as icons and we make one movie after another to commemorate
them. A part of the society is suffering with this Robin-Hood
syndrome and that is why Rule of Law is a foreign concept. Times
however are changing. Civil society has finally come to realization
that it is there right to govern. People with guns (read Army) might
have had an edge in Old West, but this is 2007. And if I am wrong
than rest assured that we are still living in dark-ages and no
matter how many atom-bombs we have, we will never amount to anything
meaningful in this world as a nation. People need to shut-up about
how every country's democracy is different. Could you be any
stupider? Its not rocket science. Let the people decide there fate
thru a free and fair electoral process.
I am a little disappointed that Pakistani media, both electronic and
print, missed this story for the most part. These were our citizens
who suffered because of our incompetence and now that they are free
from the shackles of conscience, the least we could have done is an
acknowledgment of our failure! Pakistan has become a test-case where
the corruption - whether its financial or moral - serves as an
advantage rather than a handicap, and that alone really for lack of
a better word is just SAD.
Nayrangiyay Sisyastay Dorran to daykhyayy
Manzil unhay milli jo shareek-e-safar na thay. --- In
chottala@yahoogroups.com, Abdul Mannan <mannan@...> wrote:
>
> I tried to open the site but only the banner of the paper is
available.
> Could you please download the article and share with us.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Abdul Mannan
>
> At 08:08 AM 10/3/2007, you wrote:
>
>
> >Interesting article in Pak Tribune......seems like the newer
generation in
> >Pakistan is finally realizing the truth behind 1971. See link
below
> >
> ><http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?
190941>http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?190941
> >
> >
> >
> >Take the Internet to Go: Yahoo!Go puts the
> ><http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=48253/*http://mobile.yahoo.com/go?
refer=1GNXIC>Internet
> >in your pocket: mail, news, photos more.
> >
>
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