Dubious Ghazi (Zaid Hamid's Profile)

Biography

According to Wikipedia (which is almost as reliable a source as Zaid Hamid himself), Zaid Hamid was born in Karachi on March 14, 1964. His father, Col. Zaman Hamid (Retd), served in the Pakistan Army at that time. Zaid spent his early life in Karachi. He did his Matriculation from Habib Public School in 1980. He got admission in NED University in 1983.  He received a Bachelor of Engineering (BE) degree in Computer Systems Engineering. During his student days, he was affiliated with Islami Jamiat Talba(IJT) and was a popular member. Due to these affiliations, he got close to the Afghan Leaders that were operating in Pakistan. He allegedly spent 6 years in “Afghan Jihad”. After that, he shifted to Rawalpindi and got a job at Bronx Security Company. After some time, he left the job at Bronx and opened his own company named BrassTacks.


According to the brochure published by BrassTacks, available on the website www.zaidhamid.pk. Zaid Hamid became famous when he started a program named Brass Tacks on a TV channel(TV-One), discussing “Economic Terrorism, CIA Threats to Pakistan, Zionist Wars against Islam and Role of Spiritual Forces in War”.
The brochure also proudly states that, “The International think tanks and media, especially the Americans and Iranians have distinctively noticed him as well. A New York Times article and documentary specially featured the impact his so falsely termed "conspiracy theories" have on the Pakistani youth”. He first appeared on PTV as a security expert in the program hosted by Ahmad Qureshi. After the show on TV One, he also did a show named “Iqbal ka Pakistan” on Aag TV (that program has been reviewed thoroughly by myself which can be seen here). He also toured many universities of Pakistan to spread his message until he faced stiff resistance in Peshawar. Later, 2 medical students started the website http://zaidhamidexposition.org  which was instrumental in bringing his drama to a premature end in 2008-09. A problem was that this website based all its hatred and opposition of Zaid Hamid on some previous blasphemy charges of his. Like a chameleon, he revamped his profile and started posing as a very patriotic Pakistan and Devout Muslim. Since then, he has been invited sparingly on TV shows.

Anas Abbas, a blogger, wrote “Syed Zaid Zaman Hamid, a darling of Pakistani elite, a motivator for Pakistan army officers, an absurdity for Pakistani liberals and an idol for Pakistani conspiracy theorists, has been in the headlines of Pakistani media for almost three years now. During this time, he has been popular because of his motivational and turbulent rants against the Jews and Hindus and his extraordinary defence of Pakistan army and its oppressive policies. Even prominent journalist Seymour Hersh recently reported that Pakistani army officers were increasingly influenced by his philosophy”.

Zaid Hamid has been exposed and ridiculed in the media by columnists Fasi Zaka(whom ZH had accused of being a Jewish agent because he was a Fulbright Scholar), Nadeem Farooq Paracha and Mohammad Haneef. Last year, he appeared in a program with Marvi Sirmed in which he tried to defend his delusions and myths propagated in history by the establishment.

Recently, in a program on Express News, Zaid Hamid was dealt expertly by Hasan Nisar and Ali Chishti. They ruthlessly exposed his baseless claims and so-called ideology by using facts.

Why is Zaid Hamid Dangerous?

Zaid Hamid advocates the establishment of Khilafah and an Iranian style revolution. He is staunchly anti-democracy. He wants the Gold Standard back. He wants to “conquer” India. He has a different definition for “Zionists” and labels everyone whom he dislikes as a Zionist. He was one of the proponents of the “Good Taliban/Bad Taliban” theory.
 He thinks Allama Iqbal was not a human being but a “spiritual” super-human. He is openly pro-establishment and wants Army to take over the political system until the Khalifa arrives. He thinks Muslims can form a political bloc to fight against the “immoral, corrupt and conspiring West”. He believes that the cause of floods in Pakistan was some secret Indian/American mission. He thinks Baloch Insurgents and TTP are foreign-funded.
Following are some excerpts from Zaid Hamid’s memoirs, named “From Indus to Oxus”.

Page 12:- It was also deliberately orchestrated on massive media campaigns to inspire and attract these people. With the direct approval of the US and western countries, using ideological political Islam to counter Communist ideology, it was fairly easy in those days to reach Peshawar and young men reached in thousands from every corner of the globe.
(Comment:- Zaid Hamid has himself identified the role of US and western interests in the Afghan War and he still insists on calling the largest CIA mission in history as “Jihad”.)

Page 15:- During my entire six years association with Afghan Jihad, I never heard the term “Al-Qaeda” either in Peshawar or in Afghanistan.
(Incidentally, he has mentioned Dr. Abdullah Azzam in his book who was the founder of Al Qaeda. Maybe Zaid Hamid did not have the “clearance level” to know such details).

Page 103:- Even in those days when almost 4 million refugees lived in various regions of Pakistan, there was hardly a case of Afghans causing any serious law and order problem or participating in riots or violence. However, the fact remains that the political parties as well as the media targeted them as easy scapegoats to blame for all the crime, violence and drugs in the society.
(This is just another conspiracy theory, the facts tell us an opposite story.)

Page 104:- The true importance and incredible strength of information and psychological war dawned on me and propelled me into launching my own counter propaganda war to change the perception of the society about the historic and gigantic struggle taking place on the western borders. It appalled me to see the apathy of the people towards the regional and historical geo-politics unfolding in the region as well as the lack of concern for the great role Pakistan and the Afghan Jihad was playing in the physical and ideological renaissance and reshaping of the Muslim world.
(Perhaps he himself has been waging a “mis-information” war over the years, like the one he has mentioned here).

Page 117:- In the absence of General Zia, there was no solid binding force which could keep them together. General Hameed Gul was another respected man within the ISI and he did his best to keep the Mujahideen united. But unfortunately, now there was no Afghan policy in Islamabad. Abandoned by the US, the PPP regime had no strategic vision for the future. Thus, a series of catastrophic events was triggered.
(Zia, his patron saint, was not just a Jihadi. He was a brutal dictator as well and he emancipated human rights of Pakistanis for well over a decade. Hameed Gul is still going strong, patronizing the Difa-e-Pakistan council).

Page 135:- My heart sank into the deepest pit and I instantly realized that the cause of Pakistani nation and Afghan Mujahideen had also crashed along with that unfortunate C-130. Within months, sham elections were held in Pakistan and Benazir Bhutto was brought into power in a democracy which was fully backed by the US and CIA. The PPP regime then played havoc with the Afghan cause. Pakistan’s Afghan policy was now officially doomed and Pakistan hasn’t been able to recover from this historic disaster till today. The Afghan Mujahideen also knew that with the death of Gen. Zia they had lost their most sincere and loyal patron. General Zia was loved like a father figure by the Afghan resistance and people alike. He was also loved all over the Muslim world for his courage to speak for the Muslim causes and his efforts to bring about unity within a confused and divided Ummah.
(Zaid Hamid is telling half-truth here. It was the 2nd PPP government that formed Taliban, favored by Zaid Hamid himself. Zia was not “loved all over Muslim World” as under his supervision, Black September had taken place).

Page 168:- In 1975, ISI also launched its own war against the Soviet camp in Afghanistan. Kabul University had a strong presence of Islamists and young students influenced by the modern Muslim political thinkers like Syed Qutub, Hasan al Banna and Maududi. The ISI recruited these Islamists and started to strengthen them against the rising power of the communists in Afghanistan.
(Zaid Hamid has mentioned his handlers and their efforts in these lines).

I have written that he “allegedly” took part in Afghan War because even in his book there is no picture of him in Afghanistan. Most of the pictures are those that can be found easily on the internet or archives. He did have links with the Commanders and he acted as Laision officer but that was all.
Summing up the argument, I am not worried that Zaid Hamid will get a chance to rule this country, I am worried because main stream politicians like Imran Khan have espoused the same ideologies as Zaid Hamid and this trend needs to be checked(If you do not believe this, please do watch the show Iqbal ka Pakistan, in which Imran Khan was invited to the show in episode 4 as a guest and apart from other similarities, Zaid Hamid used the word “tsunami” as a political force in episode 21). Fringe players like Zaid Hamid are present in almost every country, they shouldn’t be allowed though to enter the mainstream and affect National Discourse.

(also published at Viewpointonline)

Profile: Zaid Hamid

Biography

Zaid Hamid was born in Karachi on March 14, 1964. His father, Col. Zaman Hamid (Retd), served in the Pakistan Army. Zaid spent his early life in Karachi. He received a Bachelor of Engineering (BE) degree in Computer Systems Engineering from NED University, Karachi in 1980's.

According to the brochure published by BrassTacks, available on the website www.zaidhamid.pk. Zaid Hamid rose to the fore when he started a program named Brass Tacks on a TV channel, discussing “Economic Terrorism, CIA Threats to Pakistan, Zionist Wars against Islam and Role of Spiritual Forces in War”.
The brochure also proudly states that, “The International think tanks and media, especially the Americans and Iranians have distinctively noticed him as well. A New York Times article and documentary specially featured the impact his so falsely termed "conspiracy theories" have on the Pakistani youth”

Claim to Fame

Zaid Hamid proudly confesses taking part in the Afghan “Jihad” (which was funded by American Money and Israeli weaponry. Khulla Tazad?). Since then he has been working at Brass Tacks, a security analysis company. After the show on ARY news, he also did a show named “Iqbal ka Pakistan” on Aag TV (that program has been reviewed thoroughly by myself which can be seen here).  We will see a sample of one of the reports of BrassTacks and my comments on that afterwards.

The “Confidential Weekly Edition: Pakistan Security and Political Situation Report & Threat Analysis© 2011 BrassTacks. All Rights Reserve Issued on April 24th, 2011” available here(despite being termed confidential) states that

“What is most unfortunate is that it is the Pakistani PM who is acting as Indian Information minister and doing the bidding for the enemy state. Now it is clear that Pakistan and India would go to war on water in not so far future! With summers approaching and water shortage hitting the vital food crops, the temperature on diplomatic and military axis would also rise rapidly. Proxy war between Pakistan and India is now heating up in the entire region with regional countries also becoming the battle ground for Indian total war on Pakistani state. It is incredible that how Indian foreign office, information ministry and their leadership maintain a friendly face towards Pakistan while attacking Pakistan on all economic, diplomatic and military axis in the entire region.”

It further informs us that,
“Pakistan is not a monolithic state like Iran or Saudi Arabia rather its sectarian demography contains a sizeable Shia population among the majority Sunni. This Shia populace is well integrated with Pakistani society and is playing a vital role in
progress and development.”

Yes, Shia populace is SOO well-integrated in Pakistani Society that thousands of Shias have been killed in the last 20 years and there has not been any sectarian violence in this “Land of Peace”.
The Broucher also provides the details of Zaid Hamid’s appearances in media, and that he has appeared in multiple episodes of Thori si Siyasat with his lackey, Ahmad Qureshi.
The website zaidhamid.pk also informs us
 “Welcome to our battle station in a war to defend Pakistan's Islamic ideology and national identity! This is our platform and weapon system to launch the counter attack against ideological subversion by the hostile forces through the axis of disinformation and propaganda warfare.” The website www.brasstacks.pk has only one working page, the rest is “Under Construction”.

Antagonists

Another very useful website is http://zaidhamidexposition.org/who-is-zaid-hamid/ which was instrumental in bringing his drama to a premature end in 2008-09. The problem was that this website based all its hatred and opposition of Zaid Hamid on some previous blasphemy charges of his. He successfully reinvented himself a few months after that because you just cannot fight illogical people with illogical claims. Very few serious attempts were done to understand and destroy the utopian fallacies being propagated by Zaid Hamid.

Zaid Hamid has been exposed and ridiculed in the media by columnists Fasi Zaka(whom ZH had accused of being a Jewish agent because he was a Fulbright Scholar), Nadeem Farooq Paracha and Mohammad Haneef. He has also been parodied multiple times on the Four Man Show. Despite all these efforts, he still was invited on TV channels as a “Political Analyst” while he has advocated an Anti-politician bias throughout his programs and speeches. Last year, he appeared in a program with Marvi Sirmed in which he tried to defend his delusions and myths propagated in history by the establishment.

Recently, in a program on Express News, Zaid Hamid was dealt expertly by Hasan Nisar and Ali Chishti. They ruthlessly exposed his baseless claims and so-called ideology by using facts. Not surprisingly, the very next day, Hasan Nisar was labeled as a “RAW agent” and “Anti-Pakistani, depression-creator Traitor” on the Syed Zaid Zaman Hamid[Official] page. (Interestingly, Zaid Hamid re-branded himself as “Syed” after his prosecution based on alleged links with Yousaf Kazzab, to show the world that he in-fact is a big Aashiq-e-Rasool.)
In Zaid Hamid’s universe, anyone that does not agree with him is either a traitor or Anti-Pakistan/Anti-Islam/RAW agent/Zionist.

Zaid Hamid’s Views/Ideology:

Zaid Hamid advocates the establishment of Khilafah and an Iranian style revolution. He is staunchly anti-democracy. He wants the Gold Standard back. He wants to “conquer” India. He has a different definition for “Zionists” and labels everyone whom he dislikes as a Zionist. He was one of the proponents of the “Good Taliban/Bad Taliban” theory.
 He thinks Allama Iqbal was not a human being but a “spiritual” super-human. He is openly pro-establishment and wants Army to take over the political system until the Khalifa arrives. He thinks Muslims can form a political bloc to fight against the “immoral, corrupt and conspiring West”. He believes that the cause of floods in Pakistan was some secret Indian/American mission. He thinks Baloch Insurgents and TTP are foreign-funded. Zaid Hamid has changed his positions many times as well. There was no mention of Khilafah in his earlier programs, but after the “Kazzab” allegations, he took up a new name, changed his identity to a hyper-national, Spiritual, Dynamic person. In short, he is the Glenn Beck of Pakistan, without the black-board that is. Our worry is not that Zaid Hamid will get a chance to rule this country, our worry is that main stream politicians like Imran Khan have espoused the same ideologies as Zaid Hamid and this trend needs to be checked(If you do not believe this, please do watch the show Iqbal ka Pakistan, in which Imran Khan was invited to the show in episode 4 as a guest and apart from other similarities, Zaid Hamid used the word “tsunami” as a political force in episode 21). Fringe players like Zaid Hamid are present in almost every country, they shouldn’t be allowed though to enter the mainstream and affect National Discourse.

(also published at Pak Tea House)

Deconstructing Zaid Hamid Part 10

Deconstructing Zaid Hamid

Zaid Hamid is a TV-phenomenon popularized by his programmers like Brass Tacks and Iqbal ka Pakistan. Eighteen episodes of Iqbal ka Pakistan have been examined by this author in last nine issues. Episodes 19 and 20 of Iqbal ka Pakistan are reviewed below.

Recently, Zaid Hamid was invited as guest on a show on Express News and was made to run for his money by the use of logic from Hasan Nisar and Ali Chishti. They debunked the vague theories of Zaid Hamid by showing him the mirror of reality.

Spoiler Alert: Zaid Hamid mentioned his favorite document i.e. “Protocols of the elders of Zion” in Episode 19.
Zaid Hamid also posted a message on his face book fan page, urging people to close down their Facebook accounts because CIA is collecting their data. Last time I checked his own Facebook page is still up and running. Double Standards, anyone?

Episode 19

Zaid Hamid: - Iqbal’s poetry and ideology is being suppressed, but these are sacred documents and cannot be hidden for long.
Comment: - I really do not know which universe does Zaid Hamid live in because there is NO such effort to “suppress” Iqbal’s message. Iqbal’s poetry is present in the Urdu Textbooks throughout the country and there has been no change is that regard. We can also hear Iqbal’s poetry from the people he never liked in his own life i.e. Mullahs and Terrorists like the Difa-e-Pakistan Council guys. As far as being “sacred” is concerned, this is just an example of a typical Zaid Hamid hyperbole. 

Zaid Hamid: - There is a whole spiritual system/dimension governing this world, apart from the physical dimension.

Comment: - This is no different than the conspiracy theories perpetrated about Illuminati, Free Masons and similar secret societies. Science has established four dimensions till now, while in Quantum mechanics, dozens of other “dimensions” have also been discovered, but this home-made dimension is so secret that no-one beside Zaid Hamid has discovered it yet.


Zaid Hamid: - Zionists worship deities and use black magic.

Comment: - According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Zionism is defined as “an international movement originally for the establishment of a Jewish national or religious community in Palestine and later for the support of modern Israel”. According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s dictionary, Zionism is defined as “a movement for (originally) the re-establishment and (now) the development and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel. It was established as a political organization in 1897 under Theodor Herzl, and was later led by Chaim Weizmann.” The definitions establish that Zionists are Jewish people while the attributes Zaid Hamid is telling are of people belonging to a cult. Does he think Jewish people are followers of a cult? Or does he not even know the meaning of Zionism? I leave it to the reader to decide.

Zaid Hamid: - During the swat operation, spiritual forces helped our army.

Comment:- The Swat operation, named Operation Black Thunderstorm, was conducted by Pakistan Army between April-June 2009 against Tehrik e Taliban Pakistan(TTP) in the Swat Valley.
During this operation, Pakistan Army not only fought the TTP insurgents but also committed gross human rights violations as reported by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch and BBC. If spiritual forces helped our army, where were those spiritual forces when Army was committing the same atrocities that TTP(the bad guys) were committing before them?


Zaid Hamid:- People with spiritual dimensions have brighter faces.

Comment:- This statement by Zaid Hamid is simply an example of Racial Profiling and nothing else. It is similar to identifying "potential terrorists" at the Police Check posts throughout the country or at the Airports.!!!

Zaid Hamid:- Doubt in your mind is not a good thing.

Comment: Zaid Hamid doesn’t want us to have doubts in our mind because If we started doubting and thinking for ourselves, we will easily understand the gibberish that he is espousing and promoting. 

Zaid Hamid: The establishment is working on the agenda of Pharaohs(Fir’aun).

Comment: This one is outlandish, even by the lofty standards of Zaid Hamid. He doesn’t specify which Pharaoh is he referring to, as in Egyptian history, more than 60 pharaohs are mentioned.

Episode 20

Zaid Hamid:- The capitalist economic system is a sham and they have been fooling the world for the last 200 years.

Comment:- In fact, Zaid Hamid is right in assuming this, although Rosa Luxemburg said this more than a 100 years ago when she said, “If people only knew how capitalist system works, it would collapse overnight”. The difference between these two statements is that Rosa Luxemburg was proposing an alternative system which since then has been tested in different countries while Zaid Hamid’s alternative is a Utopia that may have worked in agrarian societies but is not implement-able in the modern world. Cultural Critic, Nadeem Farooq Paracha has repeatedly written that the new “messiahs” like Zaid Hamid are using the exact same rhetoric used by the Left-wing during 1960s and 70s.

Zaid Hamid:- The leader should constantly worry about his nation and should spend all his time thinking about his nation.

Comment:- As I mentioned in the last edition of this series, Zaid Hamid is promoting the idea of a messiah, a visionary leader who will make all our problems go away with his magic wand. I also mentioned that this particular attitude gives rise to Dictatorships.

(also published on Viewpointonline.net)

The Curious Case of Difa e Pakistan Council

Difa-e-Pakistan is an Urdu word meaning Defense of Pakistan. Difa-e-Pakistan Council means a council willing to/responsible for defending Pakistan. The semantics dictate that the said council should comprise of representatives of the armed forces, the para-military forces, domestic law enforcement agencies, defense ministry and foreign ministry. In fact, the esteemed council that has come to the fore recently consists of none of the above. In the words of reputed journalist Ejaz Haider, it’s a circus. 

Much has been written about this mysterious group over the last few weeks by people much more well-read and experienced than myself, thus I would restrict myself to a basic understanding of this group and the online presence of DPC.

The website of DPC lists 36 parties as part of the council. It includes Single-digit member parties like Muslim League Zia, Mohsinan e Pakistan, suspicious-named organizations like Pakistan Water Movement, Tehreek e Ittehad, Christian Community(of where?), Sikh Community,  Hindu Community Lahore and notorious people like a certain General® Hameed Gul, Hafiz Saeed, Malik Ishaq, Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman Khalil, Ahmad Ludhyanwi and last but not the least, representative of Imran Khan, Chaudary Ijaz.  

General Hameed Gul, a former spymaster of Pakistan, was responsible for forming IJI a similar group of religious organizations in 1988 to compete against Pakistan Peoples Party, turned against U.S when the funding for ISI was stopped, was an architect of starting insurgency in Occupied Kashmir, was removed from his position by Benazir Bhutto in 1989. Hafiz Saeed was a teacher of Islamic Studies at University of Engineering and Technology in the 1980s when he and a fellow Professor Zaffar Iqbal formed a new organization which came to be known as Lashkar-e-Taiba (Army of the pious). It was directly funded by Saudi money and collected donations across Pakistan. It was mainly involved in sending fighters trained by them to Kashmir for targeting Indian Military personnel and cantonments. It was declared a Terrorist Organization by both the United States and United Nations. Most Recently it was involved in the November 2008 Attacks on Mumbai.

Malik Ishaq is the leader and founder of Al Qaeda-linked Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. He remained in jail for 14 years facing a number of cases at the antiterrorism court in Lahore charging him with hundreds of murders. He was released from Jail on July 15 because “evidence against him gradually decayed and disappeared”. Molana Fazl ur Rehman Khaleel is a founder of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen(HuM) and current leader of Ansar-ul-Umma, which is accused of being a front organization of the banned HuM. Khalil was a signatory of Osama bin Laden's 1998 fatwa called the International Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Regarding the sudden arrival of this bunch, investigative journalist Mujahid Hussain wrote, “In November 2011, the ISI Chief asked the Lashkar e Taiba and Jaish e Mohammad to speed up their campaign against India and to mobilize Islamists across the country on the platform of Difa e Pakistan, so that a clear signal could be sent to the international community. Fellow travelers such as Shaikh Rasheed and Hamid Gull were reactivated. A real estate tycoon in Islamabad and some rich businessmen of Karachi were asked to offer inducements. Also, The Sunni Tehreek is being propped up by the ISI as a fully fledged political party and has been tasked to garner the Barelvi vote.”

Traditionally, the parties that make up this pot-pourri are not known to be very modern or having an Internet presence. The interesting thing is that the council as a whole is more efficient in its online presence than the sum of all its constituents combined. This paradigm shift can be witnessed as DPC has its own website where all the speeches from their rallies are available and latest news related to their concerning issues are updated continuously, they have their own facebook page with 1459 Likes(till now) and a twitter account with 306 followers.
All of this fanfare is despite the fact that they are a “banned” organization(If you believe Interior Minister Rehman Malik).  

The Facebook page of Difa e Pakistan Council tells us that
“Difa-e-Pakistan Council is an Umbrella Organization of more than 40 Religious and Political Organizations destined for the Defense of Pakistan and envisions the great nation as the Fortress of Islam.” It also informs us that “DPC Does not endorse the understandings and manifestos of organizations and entities that come under the umbrella of DPC. "Difa-e-Pakistan" is a single point cause to defend Pakistan by all threats it faces internally and externally.”

Upon a little digging, it is visible that the bigwigs of the council are not much involved in the Internet crusade rather it is a new batch of “Jihadis” or Internet warriors that are controlling the accounts of the council online. One particular ally is the hyper-nationalist website “Pakistan ka Khuda Hafiz”(May God Protect Pakistan”. The people behind PKKH website are Ahmad Qureshi, Shireen Mazari, Gen Hameed Gul and Maria Butt(fashion designer and recent convert to this ideology courtesy a Mr. Zaid Hamid). Ahmad Qureshi, Shireen Mazari and Zaid Hamid share a particular vision about Pakistan. They are fiercely Anti-American, Anti-India, Pro-Khilafat(Caliphate), Pro-Taliban and use the jargon of Islam to lure people towards their own agendas. They do not like democracy or politicians as a whole, and harbor sympathy towards Pakistan Army. They are known to be stooges of Military establishment and have always advocated a military solution to all problems.  Just to keep things in perspective, the following words were posted by “Syed Zaid Zaman Hamid [Official]” page very recently, explaining their philosophy in full,
“If the politicians are for sale and hostile powers are ready to buy them, to hell with this democracy. Let the country be ruled by a Benevolent dictator on the model of Khilafat e Rashida! Till that time, army and ISI must make sure that these treacherous politicians do not sell the country to hostile powers”.
Thus, while the Jalsas(meetings/processions) of  DPC are being filled by banned militant organizations, the Internet front is being held by Neo-Jihadis who are followers of Zaid Hamid, completing an “unholy alliance”. They oppose the MFN-status being awarded to India(without an iota of understanding about the WTO) and have a jingoistic attitude towards the rest of the world.

For the record, this is not the first time that establishment-backed forces have been joined together at a platform. It has happened previously in the 1970 elections, in the aforementioned 1990 elections when IJI was formed and in the wake of 9/11 when a similar-sounding “Afghan Defense Council” was formed which paved the way to formation of MMA in 2002.

The irony of this “internet war” is that most of the constituent parties have strong views about “Pictures” being Un-Islamic and they have, in the past, opposed Television and Radio, even Loudspeakers. The hypocrisy of it all cannot be ignored when the same people use loudspeakers all the time, to deliver hate-filled sermons, use Television for their own propaganda and now they have resorted to the internet, to attract the younger generation. These people are against the tenet of “Freedom of Speech” but they themselves are abusing their freedom of speech to spew hatred and bigotry. The focus of their efforts is to reach out to the Urban Middle class population of Pakistan which has got no clue about their own identity courtesy a paradox that is our “Religious Nation State”. Textbooks of Pakistan are filled with lies that cause narrowing of young minds from an early age, hatred against other religions is evident and ideologies are thrust upon immature minds resulting in a paranoid mental state. The textbooks re-enforce the image of this country not as envisioned by Jinnah but the one envisioned by General Zia(who can be considered Godfather of all the parties that today constitute DPC).


All hope, though, is not last regarding the situation in Pakistan. The fact that almost 6 million Pakistanis using Facebook and only about 1400 like the DPC page and only about 1 lac people like the Official Zaid Hamid Page(where he has tried to re-invent himself as Syed) offers hope to the moderate factions of the society.  It is the responsibility of the moderate elements of civil society to coalesce and try to control these elements from going out of control by raising awareness and educating people. People should be educated about their role in a democracy. Efforts such as being done by Centre for Civic Education, PILDAT and Youth Parliaments should be highlighted. Media has to play a very important role in this regard as well. They have to give equal representation to progressive forces and avoid excessive coverage of the trouble-makers.  Government of Pakistan should also play its role by introducing necessary changes in the curricula (as has been proposed by SDPI) and taking effective measures against the “banned” organizations. This is a war and it is not going to be easy.

(Originally published by Pak Tea House)

Deconstructing Zaid Hamid part 9

Ladies and Gentlemen, the process of debunking Zaid Hamid is back.!! Enjoy reading.

Deconstructing Zaid Hamid

Zaid Hamid is a TV-phenomenon popularized by his programmes like Brass Tacks and Iqbal ka Pakistan. Sixteen episodes of Iqbal ka Pakistan have been examined by this author in last eight issues. Episodes 17 and 18 of Iqbal ka Pakistan are reviewed below.

Recently Ali Azmat, in a show on Dunya TV, presented the theory that after 1945 the musical instruments have been tuned to a specific frequency that is destructive for cellular structure, leading to Mass Hypnotism and Crowd Control. He also indicted “News Corp” as one of the factors behind that. He should have known that News Corp. was founded in 1979.!!
He claimed that the Libyan upsurge recently was due to Oil. He probably does not know that Italy was already getting majority of Oil from Libya. He also opined that Occupy movement is being supported by Capitalists.

Episode 17

At the start of the show, Ali Azmat exclaimed that Pakistan recently became world t20 champions but we actually are the eternal champions, we don't need any trophies to prove that.

Zaid Hamid:- Ham jis khel main jate hain, champion ban jate hain.(Translation:- Whichever sport we play, we end up becoming World Champion in that sport).

Comment:- This is a typical exaggeration by Mr. Zaid. We just need to look at our Olympic Gold Medals Tally to know the truth. For the record, from 1948 till date, Pakistan has won only THREE gold medals in Olympics that too in Field Hockey. 

Zaid Hamid:- We built nuclear centrifuges totally on our own.

Comment:- This is a bold and unsubstantiated claim by Zaid Hamid. Shahid-ur-Rehman, author of the books Long Road to Chagai, wrote on page 51, ‘During 1975, A. Q. Khan plundered the Almelo[where he was working at that time] facility to provide Pakistan with ‘blueprints of the enrichment plant, design and literature relating to centrifuge technology and lists of suppliers, equipment and materials’. In 1983 a Dutch court sentenced him, in absentia, to four years’ imprisonment for attempting to obtain classified information.

Zaid Hamid:- We need role models for progress.

Comment:- This is a prevalent idea among the youth of Pakistan. While this remains partially true, students of Political Sciences know that the search for role models leads to dictatorships. Every dictator of today was a hero(a role model) of yesterday. Saddam Hussain, Qaddafi, Ben Ali, Stalin, Marcos, Ayub Khan and dozens of South American dictators came to power with a promise of change and we all know what happened. We certainly need role models but more than role models, we need our “systems”(political systems) to work. When systems start working irrespective of who is the President or Prime Minister, that is the true change we should aspire towards.

Zaid Hamid:- The man on the street in Pakistan is very honest and a good human being.

Comment: - This statement is an over-simplification of the actual state of affairs. This is a view espoused by people visiting from abroad, people who are not ingrained in the realpoitik of Pakistan. Emma Duncan, in her book about Pakistan “Breaking the Curfew” wrote, ‘Pakistan is a land of contradictions, confusions and hypocrisies. After staying here for some time, the visitor feels duped: Why do they pretend to be in 20^th century Europe when they are in 7^th century Asia? How can educated people justify benefitting from superstition and ignorance? Why do they complain about the state of their government and their laws when they’re profiting from the anarchy? Why do they criticize the Army’s power when they’re working with the soldiers?’  Indeed the “man on the street” is by nature a good person but that is true for almost every other country in the world, or is it not?

Zaid Hamid: - Change in country cannot be brought about by long marches and democracy.

Comment:- This comment is an indirect insult of the process of democracy and peaceful protests. In the last 50 or so years, “change” has been brought about either by Military takeovers or protests. When Mr. Zaid Hamid refutes the power of one of them, he is suggesting that perhaps the other option is the best option.

Zaid Hamid: - He blamed separation of East Pakistan and fall of Dhaka exclusively to will of God.

Comment: - This is another blunder by so-called Intellectual Mr. Zaid Hamid. By transferring the blame for Separation of East Pakistan to the will of the Almighty, Zaid Hamid wants us to ignore how we usurped the rights of our Bengali Brothers. To be brutally honest, If it was not for the Bengalis, Pakistan Movement would never have been started. Muslim League was formed in Bengal, the division of Bengal in 1906 was the moment that changed everything in the realm of Indian Muslim Politics, most of middle class leadership of Muslim League was from Bengal, the Lahore Resolution was presented by a Bengali Leader and still Bengalis were kept away from key political decisions in the Muslim League Hierarchy before and after the Partition. All of this had to end badly, because of our own mistakes. For further Reading on this issue, I suggest reading Murder of History by Mr. K.K Aziz.

Zaid Hamid: - We have produced leaders in every field except political one.
Comment: - Zaid Hamid is quite right in saying this. Although he did not suggest any reasons for this. Maybe the lack of political leadership is due to frequent incursions by a certain Army into the political arena for the last 65 years? But that’s just a guess.

Episode 18

Zaid Hamid:-‘Ramooz e bekhudi’ is a template for revolution for all nations in the world.

Comment: - If this claim is true, why has anyone not given any credit to “Ramooz-e-Bekhudi” in the revolutions since the publication of the book?

Zaid Hamid: - We are doing this program because we do not want our nation to indulge in terrorist activities.

Comment: - By appearing on a youth channel playing non-stop music and promoting jingoism, hyper-nationalism and false sense of gusto, no-one is stopping anyone from anything. It is simply absurd.

The rest of the show was spent unduly praising Iqbal and Zaid Hamid reading from his notes. According to Nadeem Farooq Paracha, writer and blogger, “ I sometimes feel, a non-critical stance towards Iqbal’s work in this country has actually damaged his standing. He was a product of his time and well suited to compliment what was going in the minds of Indian Muslim men in the first half of the 20^th century. But was he a visionary? I don’t think so. I don’t think his work is as relevant today as it is made out to be. Certainly not in a post-modern world where the notions of universalism based on certain singular concepts of faith and progress have long crumbled and given way to a healthy respect and need for democracy, pluralism and diversity.”  

(also published at Viewpointonline.net)