Doctors Strike: The Aftermath

Doctors’ Strike: The Aftermath



It has been two months since one of the largest strike by doctors shook the province of Punjab. It all started with the closure of Outdoor Patient Departments (OPDs) in all major hospitals across the province as a gesture to protest against the attitude of the Government of Punjab in provision of a better service structure for Doctors. It was a move designed to be of minimal impact because only ‘stable’ patients visit OPDs and there was no threat to patients’ lives. Last year similar protests by doctors led to a commitment by the Chief Minister to provide a new service structure and committees were formed to pave the way for formulating an acceptable formula. The closure of OPDs happened after one year of useless meetings with the representatives of Punjab government.

Last year, government was unable to control doctors and the chaos led to loss of many precious lives and ended with a truce. This time around, Khwaja Salman Rafiq (brother of Saad Rafiq and Special Assistant to Chief Minister on matters of Health) was designated the responsibility to ‘deal’ with the situation. Punjab Government started giving half-page advertisements in all major newspapers stating it had already done too much for the doctors and that doctors were essentially getting too big for their own boots. An estimated Rs. 1.6 million per day was given to newspapers and Rs. 450 million of public money was spent on advertising by ‘Khadim e Aala’s government. In addition, Essential Services Act was enforced by the govt, making it mandatory for doctors to do their OPD duties or else receive legal proceedings.

On 1^st July, 2012(after 21 days of OPD closure), a police raid was conducted at Doctors’ Hostel, Services hospital Lahore, resulting in arrest of numerous doctors. The same night, hundreds of other doctors were arrested from their homes. There was another raid at Doctors’ Hostel, King Edward Medical College on the night of 2^nd July. A total of 360 doctors were kept in Jails including Kot Lakhpat, Attock and Mianwali for four days. As a result of all this, emergency services were withdrawn from all major hospitals and any negotiations were made subject to release of all the doctors.

I want to recount some of the ‘stunts’ pulled out by the government during all this, apart from ‘Advertisement’ money from the public exchequer.  

1. ‘Medical Martial Law’:

As a ‘contingency’ plan during the closure of OPDs, Punjab government requested help of Army Medical Corps (AMC) to decrease patient overload. This was an unprecedented act of desperateness and expediency shown by the big-wigs of Punjab Government. This ‘experiment’ did not work out though. It failed miserably. Senior Doctors said it on record that the Army doctors were not trained to deal with such situations. Additionally, those doctors were paid Rs 2000 per hour of duty and special police contingents were employed outside hospitals where the Army doctors worked. For comparison, government of Punjab was paying Rs 800 per day to junior doctors and Rs 1400 per day to seniors whose places the Army doctors took for few days.
There were reports of those Army doctors misbehaving with the senior doctors and the ‘flexible’ duty hours practiced by our 'Jarri Jawans'. At the start of the Strike, Zaid Hamid's Baloongra's alleged that YDA punjab is actually “NGO funded Young Animal Association” and they work for money, not for saving lives. The 'Brave' Army Doctors that came 'to the rescue' didn't work for free though. This is the characteristic selective Amnesia practiced by Qibla Zaid Hamid and his followers.  For the Record, only 200 Army Doctors were deployed.!!!

2. The PCO Doctors

During the strike by Junior Doctors, Government hired around 500 new doctors (in place of around 5000 doctors) on ad-hoc basis. Those individuals are known these days as ‘PCO doctors’. They mostly include foreign graduates (who can’t normally get jobs at Government Hospitals as per orders of Chief Minister) and people who could not get job in ordinary circumstances. Some people, who had not practiced medicine for more than 10 years, joined the service just to get a paid Job. Chief Minister Punjab is fond of parroting the mantra of ‘Merit’ but these blatantly out-of-merit inductions did not gain his attention. All these people were hired against the rules and on ‘paid seats’ while more than 50% doctors work in government sector without getting any pay.

3. The legal Front

Apart from hundreds of doctors arrested without any justification, four doctors from Mayo Hospital were charged with Murder of a child that died in the Pediatrics Ward on the night of 1^st July, 2012. The Strike was also challenged in court and it resulted in involvement of Lahore High Court in the matter. The court ordered to release all doctors who were arrested without any legal reason and granted bail to the four doctors alleged to be involved in the Murder. It was further ordered that matters pertaining to Service Structure should be solved amicably by the Punjab Government.

4. Lies and Damn Lies
Throughout the strikes, there was a continuous propaganda mongering done against the ‘Cream of Nation’. Government Officials lied on Television programs and press-conferences about doctors being greedy, selfish, hooligans etc. The entire Advertisements campaign consisted of Jacked up figures that were used to fool people.

The Aftermath

On 2^nd August, one month after the strike, a follow-up meeting was called up by Young Doctors Association in Services Hospital Lahore. Dr. Amir Bandesha, member of the committee delibrating the future service structure, explained at length about the proposed changes to the existing structure and the points on which a consensus had been reached between Punjab Govt and YDAP. ‘PCO Doctors’ are still working in the hospitals despite resumption of services by young doctors and it is the demand of YDAP to transfer them to DHQs and RHCs.  After the meeting of general council of Young Doctors Association on 29^th August, 2012, province-wide protests were held on 5^th of September to exert further pressure on the Govt to solve our problems. Committees have failed to provide us any relief and even the Lahore High Court has been unable to enforce the writ of law. Another Protest/Dharna is planned for 19^th September and a March to the CM Punjab House after that. Is another showdown between doctors and State on the way?

On Prophecies and their veracity

(an abridged version was published in Pakistan Today on 23rd May,2012)

Prophecies and their veracity

A lecture titled “A Longer view on dreams and prophecy” was organized by Lahore University of Management Sciences at the start of April, 2012. In that lecture, Professor of South Asian History, Manan Ahmed spoke at length about various aspects of prophecies.

Professor Manan explained the significance and methodology of prophecies. Prophecy is always in the past, but it is applied in the present. Another aspect of prophecies is that they appear at times of crisis, to 'rationalize' those crises and to point towards a better future.

Professor Manan gave example of Qudratullah Shahab's book 'Shahab Nama', the last 2 chapters of which, contained prophecies. Similar rhetoric was used by Shahab's contemporaries, Wasif Ali Wasif,Ashfaq Ahmad and Bano Qudsia.

Prophecies of Shah Naimatullah Wali, which have been used by Zaid Hamid recently, were published first after 1857(end of Mughal Empire),then 1948(Serious problems faced by the new nation), then 1974,1975((Loss of East Pakistan), 1988 and then 2008.

Interestingly, such prophecies are not only propagated by Zaid hamid but also spread via columnists such as Javed Chohdary, Haroon Rasheed and Amir Hashim khakwani.

Other examples of famous prophecies at the times of crisis include the time when Tatars invaded the Muslim territories. The “sages” of those time started saying that the Tatars were actually “Yajooj Majooj” and that the day of judgment was approaching soon.

The prophecy I want to discuss in this post is the one allegedly made by Molana Abul Kalam Azad, the famous Congress Leader and Ideologue. That prophecy was recently highlighted in the show Khabar Naak and in Kamran Khan show.

The long prophecy is based on an alleged interview of Abul Kalam Azad when he visited Lahore in March 1946, conducted by Shorash Kashmiri. In that interview, Abul Kalam Azad said,

“I feel that right from its inception, Pakistan will face some very serious problems:

1. The incompetent political leadership will pave the way for military dictatorship as it has happened in many Muslim countries.

2. The heavy burden of foreign debt.

3. Absence of friendly relationship with neighbors and the possibility of armed conflict.

4. Internal unrest and regional conflicts.

5. The loot of national wealth by the neo-rich and industrialists of Pakistan.

6. The dissatisfaction and alienation of the youth from religion and the collapse of the theory of Pakistan.” (The complete interview can be read here).

Previously, this interview was published in an Indian magazine named “Covert” with the headline, “Maulana Abul Kalam Azad: The Man Who Knew The Future Of Pakistan Before Its Creation” catapulting Mr. Azad’s status from a senior politician to that of a modern day Nostradamus.  Based on some analytical evidence, I shall try to prove that the interview never actually happened and the whole “prophecy” is a work of fiction created by Mr. Shorish himself.

1. The interview is supposed to have taken place in March 1946 when Abul Kalam Azad was visiting Lahore for negotiations about a possible Congress-Unionist Party coalition which ultimately led to All India Muslim League being left out of power despite being the majority party.

2. Shorash Kashmiri was a committed member of Majlis e Ahrar, founded by Ataullah Shah Bokhari, a firebrand speaker and religious scholar. Majlis e Ahrar was famously against the formation of Pakistan. It should be kept in mind that Shorash was a famous for his oratory skills and as a political worker, not as a serious journalist. This interview was not published by Shorash Kashmiri until 1969, when he joined Awami League, which was at that time quite anti-Pakistan in its outlook.

3. On the topic of  Pakistan and creation of Pakistan/division of India, Abul Kalam Azad wrote a whole book, titled “India wins Freedom” which was published in 1958 while Azad was alive. This particular “prophecy” is not mentioned or even hinted about in the book devoted to this topic. Some people assume that the re-print of the book which occurred in 1989 and included additional pages, contain anything related to this, which is completely wrong.

4. The publication of this interview in the Indian magazine “Covert” was a blatant attempt at glorification of Azad and historical revisionism. The aim was to degrade Mr. Jinnah by painting him as short-sighted while simultaneously increasing the stature of Abdul Kalam Azad at his expense.

( Please Note that this post is about the prophecy of Azad that I have mentioned above and not his views about partition of India and formation of Pakistan.)

On Keyboard Jihadis

(originally published by Pakistan Today)

The recent wave of popularity of Imran Khan and his likes among teenagers and younger generation is an interesting phenomenon. It is heartening to see the so-called ‘de-politicized’ youth taking active part in political discussions. Before the meteoric rise of Imran Khan’s party, younger people also formed the support of Musharraf on social media and organizations like Hizb ut Tehrir and Brass Tacks of Zaid Hamid also find most of their recruits among the same youth. What has led this generation to turn around, unlike their elders, and gotten them active in the political sense? This should be an important question for sociologists interested in Pakistani Society. Following are a few observations by the author about the “New Youth” based on interactions with many youth groups and people on social media.

Who are they?


Urban kids brought up on heavy doses of state propaganda through textbooks, jingoistic dramas about Kashmir on PTV, dramas like Alpha Bravo Charlie portraying a softer, jolly side of the Armed forces, incessant references to the Afghan war in 1980s as Jihad, endless political intrigues throughout the 90s and the relative calm of the early Musharaf years, the conspiracy mongering and everyone-is-against-us proclamations after 9/11, load shedding and suicide bombs. Their political evolution did not start from student politics or local area politics but from IRC channels to Facebook and Twitter via MSN Messenger.
They have compartmentalized the role of institutions in the country. Army good, politicians bad.


What do they think?


They strongly believe that democracy is un-Islamic and democratic institutions cannot provide solutions to their problems. They extol the military and everything it does and anyone who dares criticize the military on human rights issues is a traitor. Their self righteousness is raised to delusional levels.
They read all kinds of articles on the internet but their minds process everything using a simplistic algorithm: Us versus them (they can mean U.S, Zionists, Israel, India or the West). They do not think there is any difference between Islam and Political Islam. They rationalize the suicide bombings and Taliban rule in Waziristan as being funded by “foreign forces”. They completely believe in the myth that Allama Iqbal was the spiritual father of the country(for further explanation, read pages 9 to 12  of Hasan Jafar Zaidi’s thesis “Emergence of Pakistan”) and Mr. Jinnah’s vision of Pakistan was closer to that of Modern Day Saudi Arabia or Iran rather than that of Modern day Turkey or Bangladesh. They consider secular minded people as the “scum of the earth” and enemies of Pakistan.For them, the concept of ‘Peaceful co-habitation’ is not kosher and is libelous because it negates the “Us versus Them” paradigm.  Internet has offered them the cloak of anonymity and thus they go on abusing their own freedom of speech, inconveniencing anyone who does not agree with their positions. They seek a return to the Islamic model of government implemented by Taliban in Afghanistan or the one favored by our very own, General Zia. They do not know how Zia’s period in power pushed this country back almost 20 years.


Why has this happened?


Nabiha Meher Shaikh in her blog post, “Children of Zia” opined,
“Very few across Pakistan, elite or not, teach critical thinking which is absolutely essential and should be compulsory from an early age. Without the ability to think, education starts to resemble indoctrination. And in a country like ours, where schools have no option but to teach state-sanctioned propaganda under the guise of Pakistan Studies and Islamiyat, which aims to indoctrinate with a linear vision, this becomes even more necessary. One is not allowed to challenge the syllabus and is expected to regurgitate a single perspective – the chosen perspective. If you don’t, you fail and that is not an option most are willing to take. This sends a clear message: difference and diversity will not be tolerated.

By putting profit above quality and by not teaching critical thinking from an early age, we are a part of the problem. What we are breeding is an even more dangerous form of terrorist than the ignorant, brainwashed madrassa students who do not know any better. They were never taught to think unlike those who choose not to and continue to believe in conspiracies, which are trendy and perpetuated by celebrities like Ali Azmat. It is shocking when it comes from a well-dressed, articulate student in a suit attending the top business school in the country; one whose aim in life is to then move abroad, work for a multi-national that he is currently dismissing as an evil Zionist company. I wonder how many future Faisal Shahzads and Dr Aafias are out there.”


Is this a new Phenomenon?

According to cultural critic, Nadeem F Paracha, the slogans and rhetoric of this new urban middle class keyboard-warrior are rehashed version of the same anti-Imperialist rhetoric used by Leftist groups in the 1960s and 70s. The only difference being that after Zia-era indoctrination, Che Guevara and Fidel Castro have been replaced by Osama bin Laden and Anwar al Awlaki.

Conclusion


To sum it up, I would like to quote journalist Xiao Lixin from   her recent  article “False impression of post-80s kids”


“If we claim that a whole generation is at fault, then there must be problems with the society in which they have been brought up and in which they live, in which case we need to pinpoint the problems and find solutions.

Young people live in a society that is completely different from the one their parents knew at their age and they have developed a different outlook on life.”

Knowing Thy Enemy(PCF special)

Knowing Thy Enemy

I just finished watching the video 

'SAFMA-Sexpress-Geo Scoundrel Gang EXPOSED & ANNIHILATED!'(present above)

Being the nit-picker that I am, I noticed dozens of mistakes apart from the trashy music (the one before this had a better soundtrack).

Let’s start.

1. The First image in the video 'desecrates' the Pakistani Flag, making it looks similar to the Saudi flag, which by the way is a punishable offence according to the Constitution of Pakistan.

2. The First video is of a US news anchor telling us that President Obama has 'pledged' 50 million dollars to the Pakistani Media. There is no evidence provided about Where those Dollars went. (If anyone of you know how to get our hands in the Cookie Jar, please DM me, I need some of those $s) 

3. The next slide is of the word 'SAFMA'(without NO proof.!! Guilty by default.??).

They are labeled 'defeatist' minded secularists, which is a mockery of the English Language. They are also labeled 'mouthpieces of RAW/CIA/Mossad'(oh shit, they missed MI5 and Shiv Sena).

4. The First person to face the guillotine is Mr.Imtiaz Alam(who at least I personally am not a fan of, because his dogs were looking at me with menace while I was walking near them in shadman,lahore few months ago. #TrueStory) is presented as someone 'who ridiculed Prophet (SAW)in a program'

while actually in the clip that follows, Mr. Imtiaz Alam(in presence of hundreds of audience members on the set of that program) 'ridiculed the concept of 'Qaumi Ghairat'(which we all know, is not something to be taken lightly). These PCF hawks are, by default, inciting people for murder of a person by presenting him as Gustakh e Rasool. THIS is treason.

5. Next up is Marvi Sirmed, the favorite punching bag of Baloongra followers after she showed the mirror to Baloongra in Shahid Nama last year. They have presented some of her re-tweets, i.e. NOT HER TWEETS BUT THE ONES SHE RE TWEETED. The First one paints her as an 'atheist'.

The second is her statement that 'equal rights not possible in Islamic Welfare State',(which, if PCF Fmembers ever went out of their homes or watched Television, will know is what Tsunami Khan promises). But who cares anyways, brand her a Gustakh e Rasul as well.

Next up is her retweet about separation of Balochistan to which she added the sad face smiley faces ( L ) WHICH MEANS SHE DOES NOT LIKE WHAT IS HAPPENING IN BALOCHISTAN, you morons.

Cue the statement that SAFMA wants 'balkanization of Pakistan'.

6. Asma Shirazi is their next target. Her only crime is to applaud Ali Dayan Hasan on Twitter, who according to the dimwits of PCF 'supported' the CIA-backed terrorists of BLA in US Congress. As usual, no evidence or proof provided.

7. Hamid Mir is the next line, because, oh wait for it, JUST wait for it,

he accuses the #DeepState

of throwing dead bodies from helicopters and surprise, surprise, they(PCF) ask for PROOFS in the very next slide. Some nerve.

They also accuse Hamid meer of being part of Khalid Khwaja’s murder(he was no angel, mind u), citing a call that supposedly took place between Hamid mir and a TTP terrorist.

Their next plea is 'why is Pak Army subjected to baseless blames??', How Cute.

8. Their next target is Beena Sarwar who re-tweeted NFP's tweet about his neighborhood mullah delivering an aural attack on the senses. While the statement can be interpreted in many ways, it cannot be used as evidence against Beena. The fact that she is the third female to be targeted is a clear evidence of the sexist, patriarchal values that the PCF members so aspire of. 

‎9. Next up is (S)express tribune, which according to PCF is 'a platform for these blockheads to express themselves'. For the record, NONE of the above mentioned people work or even WRITE for ET. 

Jahanzaib Haque gets special attention, due to his Jay Toons. They cite examples where he has addressed the issue of the ST assassination by Qadri. Jahanzaib's crime, was to use to words, 'your fundo khala'. Next example is where J has raised the issue of child molestation. Oh,HOW DARE HE RAISE HIS VOICE against such fabricated lies, no one in Pakistan EVER molested a child, or threw acid on someone’s face, or killed people based on false allegations of blasphemy. No Sir, that has not happened in the 'Land of Pure' since Mahmud Ghaznavi threatened the caliph of Baghdad to attack his state, oh sorry, that never happened either..

10. The next slide made me laugh and cry out loud, in equal measure. Read for yourself.

'Do they know something called 'Media Ethics''

nuff said.

11. Next up is some pictures of logos of TV channels and the same video from a U.S channel that was played earlier.(According to my dear Amir Saeed, the same clip has been played by Kashif Abbasi in his show and this is NOT a U.S channel but a Russian Channel.!!)

12. The best, though, was left for the last.

Yuri Bezmenov's video about spreading misinformation through media is played.

A brief background of this gentleman.

*He was a journalist and former KGB informant from Soviet Union who defected to Canada. 

*He was an expert in oriental languages and spent many years in India.

*He escaped to Canada in 1970.

*He was an anti-communist and very pro American. He even wrote a book LOVE LETTER TO AMERICA.!!!

* In an interview in 1984, he told Edward Griffin, that, 

“They will be very unhappy [and] frustrated people, and Marxist-Leninist regime does not tolerate these people. Obviously they will join the [ranks] of dissenters; dissidents. Unlike the present United States there will be no place for dissent in future Marxist-Leninist America. [Now] you can get popular like Daniel Elsburg and filthy rich like Jane Fonda for being a dissident [and] for criticizing your Pentagon. In [the] future these people will simply be [he makes a squishy noise] squashed like cockroaches for criticizing the government. Nobody is going to pay them nothing for their beautiful [and] noble ideas of EQUALITY. This they don't understand and it will be the greatest shock for them, of course.” 

This sounds so much like a tirade by any of the Republican Presidential nominees(a mixture of paranoia and lack of real time knowledge of politics) and much less like a balanced approach. 

PCF,in hatred of SAFMA, used info from a totally biased person, no surprises there. They would even take the side of the Devil if he said something mildly against SAFMA.

In “Exposing” and “Annihilating” SAFMA, PCF has, fortunately, exposed themselves.
 

(P.S If someone wants to know more about the leader of this PCF, here is a phone conversation between him and Zaid Hamid, provided courtesy Amir Saeed). 

Decontructing Zaid Hamid part 5

Deconstructing Zaid hamid

Philosophers have only interpreted the world, the point however is to change it.

Karl Marx

 Dr Eqbal Ahmed, in his article, Religion in Politics 
[Published Dawn, 31 January 1999] wrote, “All religious systems are made up of discourses which are, more often than not, dialectically linked to each other as in light and darkness, peace and war, evil and goodness. Hence, it is possible to detach and expropriate a part from the whole, divest it of its original context and purpose, and put it to political uses. Such an instrumentalist approach is nearly always absolutist, that is, it entails an absolute assertion of one, generally de-contextualized, aspect of religion and a total disregard of another. The phenomenon distorts religion, debases tradition, and twists the political process wherever it unfolds. The idea of Jihad is a case in point.

It is an Islamic precept with multiple meanings which include engagement in warfare, social service, humanitarian work, intellectual effort, or spiritual striving. The word is formed from an Arabic root jehd which denotes an intense effort to achieve a positive goal. Jihad entails then a striving to promote the good and overcome the bad, to bring light where there is darkness, prosperity where there is poverty, remedy where there is sickness, knowledge where there is ignorance, clarity where there is confusion. Thus mujahada (as also jihad) in early Islamic usage was an engagement with oneself for the achievement of moral and spiritual perfection. A mujtahid is a religious scholar who does ijtihad, i.e. strives to interpret religious texts in the light of new challenges and circumstances.

Without a hint of doubt, contemporary Muslim ideologues and militants have reduced the rich associations of jihad to the single meaning of engagement in warfare, entirely divested of its conditions and rules. Thus the war against a Marxist government in Afghanistan and its Soviet ally became the most famous jihad of the 20th century even though it was armed and financed by the United States, a non-Muslim superpower. Today, such activities as terrorism, sectarian strife, and the killings of innocent people are claimed as holy warfare. This reductionism is by no means unique to the Muslim world.”

Zaid Hamid is a media phenomenon popularized by his programs “Brass Tacks” and later “Iqbal ka Pakistan”. He has been frequently criticised in the mainstream media due to his espousal of conspiracy theories about global domination of Jews and their economic policies. Eight episodes of Iqbal ka Pakistan have been analysed in last four episodes. Given below is the analysis of episodes 9 and 10 of Iqbal ka Pakistan.

Episode 9

Ali Azmat started the show by mentioning that people are accusing him of being an agent of new world order and a CIA Agent. He went on to state the agenda of the program.i.e to make  Pakistani(especially Muslim Pakistanis) realize that we are not living according to Iqbal's ideas and that we have been conditioned. He also said that Iqbal is a way of life. He later expressed his pleasure at getting commercials from Multinational Corporations.

Zaid hamid:I am fascinated that ALL of Pakistani youth is understanding Iqbal's ideology which can convert a man to a superman.

Comment:-  There is no standardized system in Pakistan which could indicate how much viewers watched a certain program(like Nielsen Ratings in the US). How can Zaid Hamid claim that All of Pakistan’s youth is not only watching but also understanding his program. Regarding this issue of Super-man, we have already discussed that this concept was presented by Nietzsche.

ZH:- According to Iqbal's philosophy of Khudi, politicians should stop begging (votes) to become parliamentarians, senators, governors.

Comment:- If politicians should stop begging people for votes, how will the system work.? This argument by Zaid Hamid is an indirect attack at Democratic system. Regarding Iqbal’s views on Democracy, I would like to quote Iqbal himself. He wrote, “For Islam the acceptance of social democracy in some suitable form and consistent with the legal principles of Islam, is not a revolution but a return to the original purity of Islam”.

ZH:- Britishers built roads in Punjab and ordered people to crawl and not walk.

Comment:- This is a blatant lie. No such incident can be found in recorded history that people were made to crawl across streets of Punjab. Incidentally, the majority of population in Punjab, when the British arrived, was of Sikh people. Even in the 1941 Census, Muslims made up around half of population of Punjab.

ZH:- We need to create and channelize Ghairat.

Comment:-  I would like to present the definition and explanation of Ghairat by a much better writer than myself. Nadeem F Paracha wrote, “‘Ghairat’ (pride or honour), is a term that is often heard and used in the Pakistani media these days. This is a term usually associated with TV news anchors, talk-show hosts, analysts and members of political parties who are verbose and smug, who get more space on TV news channels than votes.It is a term that reflects images and sounds related to the muscle-flexing, big-talking and huff-puffing ways of ultra-patriots, or in case of Pakistan’s electronic media – free-wheeling loud-mouthed charlatans playing the role of fiery dyed-in-wool patriots.”  For more explanation, visit here.

ZH:- The biggest problem of Pakistanis is that they are blaming themselves because of hype of western media.

Comment:-  Zaid Hamid thinks Introspection is our biggest problem. We should just stop pointing out the mistakes and deal with “external” threats. From the NFP article quoted in last point,  “This lets-be-positive-through-ghairat outlook is largely delusional. It leaves most of us navel-gazing or passionately contemplating about manufactured issues but conveniently ignoring what we as a society really ought to be doing – making sure that Pakistan is able to compete with the rest of the world on all the vital economic, political and cultural levels. Honourable sloganeering and going around pin-pointing ‘enemies’ and traitors, blasphemers and ‘agents’ will not achieve much”.

ZH:- Because we let Aimal Kaansi get arrested by Americans, we sold our ghairat.

Comment:-  Again the ghairat issue is being raised by Mr. Zaid Hamid. He is implying that we should let terrorists get away with murder, just to protect our National Pride.

ZH:- If we get united, they can’t do anything if we stop NATO supplies.

Comment:- Thankfully matters of the state are not run by people suffering from Delusional Grandeur like Zaid Hamid. In his opinion, we should stop NATO supplies so that there is no harm to Taliban alongside whom he has fought. He should read the newspapers sometimes. He probably does not know that 35 thousand innocent people of Pakistan have been killed by the SAME Taliban in last 7-8 years.  

ZH:- The system doesn’t let anybody enter itself unless they sell their dignity.

Comment:-  He is referring to the banking system here. As far as I know, no body puts a gun to your head to take a loan from a bank anywhere in the world. If you think it is against your grace, do not interact with them.

Episode 10

Ali azmat expressed his view that teachings of Iqbal should be made a part of our national Curriculum. I don’t think he has ever read a textbook of Urdu from Class 5 right up to Class 12. Even O and A levels students get to study Iqbal if they opt for Urdu as a subject. Which planet are you living on Ali.???

Zaid Hamid said that we want a national revival, to educate people that Iqbal is a powerful Force, without which Pakistan can't become a spiritual super power. He did not explain what a SPIRITUAL super power is. Who, by the way, is the incumbent spiritual super power.?

ZH:- Imam Khomeini was  exiled to France and he returned after 20 yr.s.

Comment:- Khomeini spent about 14 yr.s in Exile(1964-79). Initially, he went from Iran to Turkey, then Iraq and then France. Also, he was not the most popular leader of the opposition until 1977 when Dr Ali Shariati died. To answer If the Iranian model can b recreated in pakistan,read here.

ZH:- Western Civilization is dying and we have started Self Discovery.

Comment:-  We have discussed previously about Western Civilization. It can be argued that Western civilization is dying or not but where is the evidence that WE have started self discovery.? 

ZH:- We are being brought up in an absolutely controlled environment. Mass Media is doing Mind control.

Comment:-  These lines come straight out of the George Orwell novel, 1984, in which there is a Big Brother which controls every aspect of peoples’ lives. This is also an oft-repeated mantra of modern conspiracy theorists and is a classical symptom of Paranoid Schizophrenia.   

ZH: - Patriotism that confronts Islamic Ideology is a farce. In the next sentence, he denies that.

Comment: - In a rational discourse, you have to chose either one argument or its opposite argument. You can't have both as it leads to confusion. Zaid Hamid has ignored this principle time and again. He did it with the above mentioned point as well. According to the leading Islamic scholars of 20th century, Abu-al-Maududi and Syed Qutab, nationalism (basis of Patriotism) is contrary to teachings of Islam. Maududi wrote, 'Islam can't be contained by ideas of nationalism which is based on racial and historical traditions'. He also wrote 'If you want to remain Muslim, you should understand that unlike Judaism or Hinduism, Islam is not based on racial nationalism'. (Maududi, musalman aur maujuda siasi kashmakash; published in 1941; volume 3; pages 46 and 47)

ZH: - People respect Pakistan because we are a nuclear power. We should be proud that now Islamic civilization has nuclear capability. The whole Muslim world is looking at us now.

Comment: - Zaid Hamid should have used the word 'fear' instead of 'respect' because that is closer to reality. 'Western Powers' are fearful of our nukes getting in the 'wrong' hands. Indeed the whole Muslim world rather the whole world is looking towards us, but with suspicion. We are top exporter of terrorism to the world. The assertion that other 'civilizations' have got nuclear bombs and we have not was the brainchild of Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. He wrote in his book, 'we know that Israel and South Africa have full nuclear capability. The Christian, Jewish and Hindu civilizations have this capability. The Communist powers also possess it. Only the Islamic civilization was without it, but that position was about to change. (Bhutto, If I am Assassinated, Classic, Lahore, 1979, pages 137 and 138)

ZH: - Balochis are aligned with Israel to disintegrate Pakistan because they claim that Balochistan as it is now was never part of areas in Pakistan. Baloch Insurgency is due to 1% people in Balochistan.

Comment: - Zaid Hamid does not know the first thing about Balochistan. He probably does not know that Army operations have been going on in Balochistan since April 1948(1^st operation started on 1^st April 1948, 2^nd was conducted in 1958, 3^rd in 1963, 4^th in 1972-3, 5^th in Musharraf era). With this kind of history, which sane person would remain safely ensconced in his house and not defend his territory. He also does not seem to know that the claims of Baloch people are right. Due to this ignorance, he laid all the blame on his favorite enemies, Zionists.

ZH: - Islamic terms like Taqwa cannot be translated in English because it is a weak language.

Comment: - Linguists all across the world agree that NO language is made for translation. Every single word in a given language has its distinct sociological background and that word loses its flavor when it is translated to another language. Islamic (Arabic) terms are no exception. Also, you just can’t label a language as weak because you seem to loathe the people who speak it and the language which you yourself speak with relish.!! Also, we can’t translate “BALUNGRA” in english..

(an abridged version of this article was published today at Viewpointonline.net)

De-constructing Zaid Hamid part 4

(an abridged version was published on viewpointonline.net)


Deconstructing Zaid Hamid


“In order to reach the truth, it is necessary, once in one’s life, to put everything in doubt.” Descartes


Professor Khawaja Masood, in his article, Marx and Iqbal, wrote,
Before Marx, human genius had accomplished much by giving a scientific interpretation of many natural phenomena. But in the study of social development the past thinkers only groped in the dark. Marx pioneered the scientific study of society. In the words of Engels spoken at the graveside of Marx, he discovered the law of development of human history just as Darwin discovered the law of development of organic nature: “the simple fact hitherto concealed by an over-growth of ideology that mankind must first of all eat, drink, have shelter and clothing, before it can pursue politics, science, art, religion, etc.: that, therefore, the production of the immediate material means of subsistence and consequently the degree of economic development attained by a given people during a given epoch form the formulation upon which the state institutions, the legal conceptions, art and even the ideas on religion of the people concerned have been evolved, and in the light of which they must, therefore, be explained instead of vice versa as had hitherto been the case.”
These profound ideas are repeated almost verbatim by Iqbal in his first book Ilm-ul-Iqtisad: “There is no doubt that religious principles have played an extremely influential role in the course of human history, but it is also clearly established by daily observation and experience that earning a livelihood is the constant concern of man and it is this concern which quite imperceptibly and unconsciously shapes his external and internal instincts. Reflect how poverty or insufficient provision of the necessities of life effect the conduct of man. Often poverty and deprivation so encrust the clean state of human soul that morality and culture are completely corroded.”
According to Engels, Marx “discovered the special law of motion governing the present-day capitalist mode of production and the bourgeois society that this mode of production has created. The discovery of surplus value suddenly threw light on the problem, in trying to solve which, all previous investigations of both right-wing economists and socialist critics, had been groping in the dark.”
Iqbal’s view on surplus labor closely follows that of Marx. He says in Ilm-al-Iqtisad: “If the wealth of the landlord is not the result of personal effort, then his property is unjust. In view of this fact some scholars maintain that this injustice is produced by the private ownership which is harmful to the national interest. Accordingly, land is not the property of a particular individual and should be nationalized.” Similarly, “the profit which in the present conditions goes into the pocket of the capitalist should accrue to labor. And, increased productivity which is the fruit of labor should entirely benefit labor, and capitalists have no claim over it.”
 
Episode 7 


Ali Azmat opened the show by saying that this is a soft revolution.
They start discussing Asrar e Khudi which according to Zaid Hamid, in last 64 yr.s this book has never been discussed.
The primary reason for Asrar e Khudi not being popular enough is its langauge. Its written in Persian which is not understood by majority of people in Pakistan. The assertion that it has never been “discussed” is also controversial. The book is easily available in Pakistan, also on the internet. Its english and persian versions can be viewed and bought from Iqbal Academy.  


ZH:-Asrar e Khudi was Iqbal’s first book.
Comment:- Wrong. Asrar e Khudi was the first poetry collection written by Iqbal. His first book(as ZH himself acknowledged) was Ilm-ul-Iqtisad.   


ZH:-It has been doctrine of muslim mystics that they should move to far flung places and become hermits.
Comment:- Mysticism across religions has has the same tradition i.e. Moving away from the populated areas and immersing in religion. This concept was shunned by Islam and Prophet P.B.U.H prohibited muslims from becoming hermits. In history of Subcontinent, we can see that Ali Hajveri, Nizam-ud-din Aulia etc took to cities and preached. Thus, this claim by ZH is absurd and he should read some history. 


ZH:-These days it is believd that power corupts and absolute power is kind of cool.
Comment:- This kind of sweeping statement reflects on the ideology of Zaid Hamid. The original quote as written by Lord Acton i.e. “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” is as true for today as it was in 1887 when it was written.  


ZH:-Pakistan ban'ne k baad iqbal ko,khasusan Asrar e khudi ko gum kar dia gya(Translation:- After creation of Pakistan, Asrar e Kudi was forgotten). And he lays the blame on freemasons.
Comment:- I have explained at the start of this piece the reasons for relative obscurity of Asrar-e-Khudi. The belief that it was a delibrate attempt and that too by FREEMASONS is not documented in any historical or contemporary text. If any such thing happened, where is the proof.? According to law,the burden of providing proof  lies with the accuser.


ZH:-Har chez k pechay aik poshida hath hota hai.(There is a hidden hand behind everything).
Including Rothschilds, Rockerfellers and Bildrberg group.
Comment:- If there was a gospel for conspiracy-mongers, this line would have been its first verse.Taking the cue from Zaid Hamid, who is behind this Program.? Regarding the Bilderberg group, In a 1994 report Right Woos Left, published by the Political Research Associates, investigative journalist Chip Berlet argued that right-wing populist conspiracy theories about the Bilderberg group date back as early as 1964 and can be found in Schlafly's self-published book A Choice, Not an Echo.Regarding the Rothschilds’ I have explained in part 1 of this series. 


ZH:-Allama Iqbal ne 1930 main Pakistan ko daikha tha
Comment:- I have explained this earlier in my article, 10 historical facts our textbooks forgot to mention. Allama Iqbal didn't present the concept of of Pakistan in his Allah-Abad Address (Reference:-Muslim league papers) rather he strongly dissociated himself from the idea in his letter to The Times.
His exact words were 'I do not put forward a "demand" for a moslem state outside the British empire' and that 'No Indian Moslem with any pretence to sanity contemplates a Moslem state or series of states in North-Western India outside the British Commonwealth of nation as a plan of practical politics' 
 
ZH:-It was decided that “aik mulk bana lo, phir develop kar len gay, expand kar len gay” (Translation:- Lets establish a country and later we will develop and expand it)
Comment:- Nobody said any such thing during the Pakistan Movement. The odds were heavily stacked against formation of a separate country and Mr Zaid Hamid thinks everything was under our control at that time. The part which irked me the most was the “expansion” part. It is the height of spreading a specific propoganda. Again, no proof or reference was presented by erstwhile Zaid Hamid. 
 
ZH:-Because Mussolinni had consulted with Iqbal once, “Maghrib ne Iqbal ko samaj lia tha”.
Comment:- The term “west” has been used as a demon by fear-mongerers and peddlers of conspiracy theories for quite some time. A detailed discussion can be read here. On top of that, Mussolini was a fascist dictator, citing his example repeatedly can imply that Zaid Hamid also shares some of his ideals. Another thing that Zaid Hamid probably doesn’t know is that Iqbal washimself influenced by “Wetsern” Philosophers and that is why his message was well-received by the “West”. 


ZH:-Iqbal says that get your swords out and capture the world.
Comment:- This is a clear message of jingoism and cultural narcissim. Iqbal wrote his poetry at a time when muslims were in a desparate position. To inspire and instill hope in his fellow believers, Iqbal often used exaggerations and many of his ideas can bedeciphered as being jingoistic. To highlight such ideas selectively is a sign of  moral bankruptcy on Zaid Hamid’s part.  


ZH:-Subah Uthnay wale log, yani Muslaman.(Implying that all early risers are muslims)
Comment:- Stereotyping is a much derided sociological phenomenon. Statements such as “XYZ people are misers/stupid/ignorants etc” are commonplace. There is rarely a convincing proof presented while giving such statements.Some famous contemporary stereotypes include “All Muslims are terrorists” “All Jews are conspiring against others”. Rising early in the morning is a cultural thing mostly, not a religious one per se. More people in the US wake up early to go to work than in Pakistan. One should be careful when saying such things on national media.  


ZH: Dunya se separation k baad insaan main spiritual purity paida hoti hai. (Translation:- Separation from the world creats spirtual purity in humans. )
Comment:- This is a classical example of a thought-somersault. Hardly 30 minutes ago, in the same program he claimed that Iqbal didn’t advocate hermitism and here he is saying just that.!!! This is not coherent thinking, its like a complete U-turn on his previous musings. Pathetic.
 
ZH: Iqbal was on a prophetic mission.
Comment:- IF this statement had been given on national media by a secular-liberal person, there would’ve been a huge outcry, calls for his/her head, charges of blasphemy, hate-mail and so on. But the fact that this was claimed by a person who wears his religion on his sleeve, who claims to be a descendent of Prophet(PBUH), no one dare speak a word.  


Episode 8




Zaid Hamid started the program by criticizing politicians and accuses them of being “Ghatya log”(Morally Inferior People) and that such “ghatya” people can never bring a revolution. That’s a bit mean and indirectly means that these “civvies” are no good at it. I wonder which particular institution is fond of thinking like this.?

ZH: You should jump into a conflict, not shy away from it.
Comment:- This idea has been used by oppressed people througout history. It is often said that there is a fine line between being brave and being foolhardy. Someone should tell Zaid Hamid about it. Risking your life, being foolhardy, looking forward to conflict are all symptoms of mental instability. Becoming Don Quixote is what Zaid Hamid is preaching and doing himself.
ZH: Insani zindagi ki har cheez kufr k nizam k control main hain(Translation:- All aspects of human life are under control of Capitalist system) e.g. your location can be tracked anywhere in the world courtesy credit cards etc.
Comment:- I mentioned symptoms of mental instability in the last comment. This gem by Zaid Hamid suggests that he is suffering from paranoia. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself. Historically, this characterization was used to describe any delusional state.
The rest of time in this episode was taken up by calls and simple reading of Asrar by Zaid Hamid, so there were no more blunders.


Corrigendum:- I stated in part 2 of this series that Jamal-ud-Din Afghani was not a proponent of Pan-Islamism. I was fortunate enough to discuss this issue with some historians and I learnt that there were 3 distinct phases in Afghani’s life.

1. When he was in India, his tone was clearly anti-british and Anti-Sir Syed and he hated both of them.
2. When he was in Egypt, his stance was that of Nationalism.
3. When he went to Tukey, under the influence and instruction of the Caliph, he started propogating the message of Pan-Islamism.

For Further Reference, a book based on life and works of Jamal-ud-Din Afghani has been written by Mr Zahid Chohdary which will be available in the market soon.

Deconstructing Zaid Hamid part 3

(An Abridged version was published here)

Deconstructing Zaid hamid

The past has to be bared to settle all accounts, so that one could proceed further.

Barthold Brecht.

Before the start of 3^rd part, I want to share some words of Dr. Eqbal Ahmad, regarding the concept of separation of Church and State. Writing in his essay “Islam and Politics”, he wrote, “It is commonly asserted that in Islam, unlike in Christianity and other religions, there is no separation of religion and politics. In strict textual and formal legal terms, this may be true. But this standard generalization is not helpful in comprehending Muslim political praxis either historically or contemporaneously. In its most fundamental sense, politics involves a set of active links, both positive and negative, between civil society and institutions of power. In this sense, there has been little separation, certainly none in our time, between religion and politics anywhere” and  “ In this sense, separation between state and religion has existed in the Muslim world for at least eleven of Islam's fourteen centuries. The organic links between religion and state power ended in A.D. 945 when a Buwayhid Prince, Muiz al-Dawla Ahmad, marched into the capita[ city of Baghdad and terminated the Abbasid Caliph's dual role as the temporal and spiritual leader of the Islamic nation. For a time, the Caliph served in various parts of the Muslim world as a legitimizing symbol through the investiture of temporal rulers-Sultans, Amirs, and Khans-among them, successful rebels and usurpers. The Buwayhids, who ruled over Iraq and Fars as Amirs, kept the Caliphate in subjection for 110 years until they were displaced in A.D. 1055 by Tughril, the SeIjuk Warrior. In 1258, the Mongols sacked Baghdad, killed the Caliph and his kin, and terminated the Abbasid Caliphate, which had been for two centuries a Merovingian cipher. Although the Caliphate was revived and claimed-at different times in various places, by a variety of rulers-it never quite mustered the allegiance of a majority of Muslims. Power, in effect, remained secularized in Muslim practice.'”.

Episode 5

Ali Azmat kick-started the show by telling us that Iqbal studied at Oxford, when in fact, Iqbal was a student at Cambridge University, located 84 miles away from Oxford.

ZH: Un main Indian nationalism k germs thay, and he ‘radicalized’ into a pan Islamist. (Translation:-He had germs of Nationalism)

Comment: Yeah, Indian nationalism is a disease in your twisted logical framework. The use of the phrase radicalized (and those were his exact words) is a window to the mind-set of Mr Zaid Hamid.

ZH: Sicily kai so sal tak musalmano ka garh raha hai.(Sicily was a Muslim stronghold for centuries.)

Comment: - Muslim rule in Sicily was from 965 A.D till 1072 A.D. That makes a total of 100 and 2 years. Like I said before, you do the math.

ZH: Topkapi museum main 1400 sal ki khlafat k nawadir pare huay hain.

Comment: - There was no “centralized” Khilafat for 14 long centuries. After the first 4 Khulafa-e-Rashideen and initial period of Umayyad Rule, there were splits and factions and so on. (Reference:- Hamari tarikh fehmi, paper by Hasan Jaafar Zaidi)

ZH: Allama lqbal was 'elected' as one of the founding members of London Muslim league.

Comment: - Iqbal was a member of the London Muslim League which was founded by Syed Amir Ali (a Bengali philosopher and writer who was a contemporary of Sir Syed and who very few students of Pakistan history know because his efforts have been criminally neglected by our textbook writers.) How can a person be ELECTED as a founding member is beyond logic.

ZH:-Federal Reserve was created in 1913 and it financed the global turmoil.

Comment: - Federal Reserve was in fact created in 1913 A.D but US didn't take part in the world war until 1917 A.D.

Also, there wasn’t any wire transfer or PayPal through which an America-based bank could finance events unfolding across the Atlantic.

ZH:-Iqbal had predicted that after a world war, ideologies like democracy, liberalism, feminism, modern education will be implemented.

Comment:-This is another demonstration of the lack of knowledge by Zaid Hamid. Democracy was working in US, France and UK even before Iqbal was born.

Similarly, the first wave of Feminist movement started in late 19th century.

Regarding Iqbal’s views on Democracy, lets see for ourselves what he said on record. In his letter to the Civil and Military Gazette published on May 28, 1937 he says: “For Islam the acceptance of social democracy in some suitable form and consistent with the legal principles of Islam, is not a revolution but a return to the original purity of Islam.”

In another letter in the Civil and Military Gazette published on July 30, 1930, he said: “If anybody thinks that approach to democracy means sailing into a kind of lotus-land, he cannot have read a word of history. The truth is exactly the opposite. Democracy lets loose all hues of aspirations and grievances which are suppressed or unrealized under autocracy. It arouses hopes and ambitions, often quite unpractical, and it relies not on authority but on argument, on controversy from the platform, in the press, in the parliament, gradually to educate people to the acceptance of a solution which may not be ideal but which is the only practical one under the circumstances of the time. Democratic governments have attendant difficulties but these are difficulties which human experience elsewhere shows to be surmountable.

Reference: Iqbal, the Destruction of False gods and Islamic Revolution by Prof. Khawaja Masud, from his soon-to-be-published book Lessons of My Life.

Episode 6

ZH:-Un ko talash kia, build kia aur ultimately tayar kar k deliver karwya dia,qaum bhe un ko bna k di.(Translation:- He(Iqbal) found him(Quaid-i-Azam), built him and later delivered, manufactured a nation for him as well).

Comment:-  This is absurd. Allama Iqbal did have an influence on Quaid-i-Azam but it didn’t happen the way Zaid hamid thinks it did. They met in London in 1931-2 when Allama Iqbal was there for one of the Roundtable Conferences. Later, there was correspondence between the two via letters which can be read here. It can be seen from these letters that Zaid Hamid is concocting stories just for the sake of his convenience. Plus, no-one can singlehandedly MANUFACTURE a nation.!!! Another important point to note is that Quaid-i-Azam himself was a famous politician and barrister. He didn’t need to be “found”. 

ZH:-Un k munh se jo baten niklin,unko itefaq se kahi jane wali baten nhe kaha ja skta.(Translation: Whatever he(Iqbal) said could not have been a co-incident)

Comment:- Giving divine notions to otherwise not-divine matters is a specialty of Conspiracy merchants like Mister Zaid Zaman Hamid. He is trying to elevate Iqbal to the level of at least a Prophet. Iqbal never made such grandiose claims as he was a much wiser person than ZH.

ZH:-Our youth can’t speak Urdu.

Comment: - This is an exact quote from Mr. Zaid Hamid. At the very least, he should have used the medium of Urdu to say this, which he didn’t. Most of the conversation that took place during the course of the programs was a mixture of English and Urdu. As Nadeem Farooq Paracha wrote in his article for Dawn, “The GMG (Groovy Media Guys) has a lighter and a tad more liberal side to it as well. It has a cultural wing consisting of sirens in the shape of trendy looking androids that are fed burgers and French fries to further fatten their complete ignorance of reality. They talk in strange tongues also called “Minglish” and “Hinglish”.
One of the biggest successes in this respect has been conversion of Zion Hamid who was once an uncaring, burger-hopping DJ at a Tora Bora Disco. Today he is the hero of GMG”.

ZH:-He explains(ilm,tadabbur,hakumat) as democracy, equality, liberty, women's rights and that Iqbal warned against them.

Comment: - Literally, it should be translated as knowledge, equanimity and government. Zaid Hamid gave his own description and a different twist to what Iqbal was saying. This is not only unethical, it is also deplorable. Iqbal was a wise man and he would not have warned people against enlightenment.

ZH:-The root cause of all injustices in this world is Riba, Usury, and Sood.

Comment:- FYI, Usury is simply a translation of the urdu word “Sood”. Another grand claim made by Zaid Hamid here. The issue of Riba and its role in the modern economy is discussed in detail by Bilal Ahmad, an Economics Professor in his book “Pakistan main Iqtisadi Pasmandagi”. His complete essay can be read here. There are many deficiencies and pitfalls in the current economic systems and criticizing them is not a new phenomen. What Zaid Hamid and people who blame ALL ills on Usury and Riba don’t actually know how the system works. Also, the system that they propose is not viable. Details can be found in Bilal Ahmad’s essay.

ZH:-They started the 1st world war so that they can destroy the world and then give Marshal Plan to get them on their roll.

Comment: - This is another juxtaposition of historical facts. Marshall Plan or European Recovery Program started in 1948.!!! First World War ended in 1918. Second World War ended in 1945. According to Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy, volume 2; page 95; published in 2002, Marshall Plan was the large-scale American program to aid Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to combat the spread of Soviet Communism. It was actually named after US Secretary of State, George Marshall.

ZH:-Muslims were spreading in Eastern Europe with the Ottoman Empire and were already present in the east, courtesy Spain.

Comment: - Zaid Hamid got his history wrong again. The Turkey-based Ottoman Empire expanded in Europe in the 16^th and 17^th centuries (After conquest of Constantinople in 1453, there was no further expansion of the Empire for many years). Meanwhile in Spain, the last Muslim ruler left for Morocco in 1492 and thereafter the infamous Spanish inquisition happened which eradicated all traces of Islam from Spain.