Democracy

Few days back, I came across the website “Right To Information”.  It’s an Indian organization whose vision and objective is to create awareness in the people about their basic rights. Their concept made me flabbergasted about the question rose in my mind that is our nation really unaware about its own rights? My mind said no but my conscience bowed down in front of their idea.

This is very unfortunate with the two biggest countries of the largest continent that they are being deceived with the name of being democratic. The word democracy, sometimes, put me in bittersweet state. Is this a democracy that I cannot go to my school in the days of boycott or when strike is called? Do I live in democratic country where my urdu speaking fellow is being persecuted in the hands of sindhi fellow or vice versa? Do we really call it democracy where people are being killed brutally and then left in the baggage at trash? Is this the value of democracy that extortionists have spread terror all over the city?  What is the use of that democracy that even after having one of the largest army in the world, we cannot control the law and order situation in the city and deweaponize the country? Is this a democratic country where inflation is created on wheat, rice and sugar to make more profit by exporting them? If swearing upon Quran, blaming an individual or one political party for the created fuss and expressing truths while using slangs and abusive language shows democracy and if the person in the drunken state, sings burkay mein rehnay do while dancing and calls himself the leader of peace and democracy then it is better to live in autocracy than being the citizen of democratic third world country. You might not agree with my conclusion but I, like many of the Pakistanis, am in the dilemma about where are we going and where is our country heading us towards? 

This blog is not about democracy v/s autocracy but what actually forced me to type these words here is the thought, prevailing in my mind since last few days that the above mentioned acts of these so called leaders do not represent democracy but some Mohalla type politics and we are trapped in it. Their politics in the guise of democracy, is ailing rather snatching our rights of living. I cannot blame Pakistan specifically for that because it is also accompanied by its neighbor in this race but the acceptance of Lokpal Bill and the promotion of many organizations like Right to Information have showed that it is running to counteract the adverse effect of so called democracy. It’s the time to modify our vision about politics. We have to realize that democracy is far beyond of what actually showed to us on press conferences and addresses. Thus, it cannot be achieved by singing a song of calling your country democratic.

Reflection

This blog is all about the inspirations we take in our daily lives. Reflection and inspiration play the vital role in setting up our moral, social and religious values. Reflection is the image and the Perception is to take inspiration from that image. However, sometimes, these are our inspirations which take us towards the downfall.

We all have grown up while answering this question very often, Who do you fancy? Most common replies are: my parents, some religious scholar or any of our national heroes. We take inspirations from their lives to set our lives according to them but at that time we actually neglect the authenticity of those reflections.

The world we see now and the world they lived in past, prevailed in very different circumstances. They had fresh food to eat and we rely on tin packed frozen items. They were brought up in the era where politicians were the leaders. They saw the film stage as the world of fantasy but we are seeing bitter truths being performed as dramas. Moreover, they just heard about the natural calamities but we are in the time where those calamities are being revealed. Thus, taking inspiration from their lives is nothing but insanity. On the other hand, the authenticity of their righteousness is always in doubt.

Till the 16^th century, the Muslim world was progressing well and Islam was the fastest embracing religion. However, the advent of 17^th century, besides modernizing our lives, took us away from our inspirations. Being muslims, those inspirations were nothing but Quran and Hadiths. These are the two most important and authentic sources of Islamic laws. From the birth till the day of judgment, they comprised all the problems which a person could come across. Ijma, Qiyas and Ijtihad were the supportive sources for the exceptional cases. But industrialization, weaponization and modernization also modified our point of views and today we have arrived at the stage where these sources are sitting at the back seats and considering some renowned scholar leads the religious sources.

Thus, we all have to realize that our sources are not authentic, our reflections are wrong and if our reflections are wrong, how our perceptions can be right? And if our perceptions are not right, our lives have no meaning in this world and even in the world hereafter.

Standing for the cause.

The other day I was going through some foreigner’s analysis report on the current anarchy in the country. Usually I don’t like any non-Pakistani commenting or giving his opinions about Pakistan but his conclusion was apposite. According to him, the problem with Pakistani nation was not religious or social but psychic.

It’s not easy to call a complete nation psycho but if we start analyzing our attitude from the very first day, we would agree with his statement. We have always supported the leader of our own race no matter how asinine he is. It is flabbergasted to realize that we gave votes to the party who had already lost its leadership. We thought we are paying back the prize of its leader’s life but we were actually selling our country in the hands of culprits. We were happy on the coalition of different political parties and on the formation of mutual government but in real we actually love dramas and our ruling party was making most of it. We were contented on the restoration of judiciary without realizing that they have set the biggest example of protest, riots and looting in the history of Pakistan and at present the same judiciary is lost somewhere. They have not come at the front at the present deteriorated law and order situation. But why would anynody do that? Why would anybody unite the racially divided nation?

We, as Pakistani nation, occur in different clusters. We believe in blind love and promises which shatter us. We, at the end of the day, shoot off our own mouth for the same person who once deceived us.  And, yes we don’t have the courage to stand for the right cause. We don’t have the power to save our neighbor from being killed brutally or to protest for him. We don’t have strength to name the real mischief-mockers even when we are persecuted at their hands. We deny the truth that we actually act as puppets and our strings are not even in the hands of our beloved leaders but controlled by the ones for whom we are actually terrorists. They are the real puppeteers as they exactly know how to dramatize our lives.

This is the stage at which we have to realize that the act of revolution cannot be performed, it has to be created and this would not be done by any leader or the political party but should be accomplished by us. We all have to play our own role individually. We have to create guts in ourselves to call right in front of the right and wrong in front of the wrong. Yes, this is the time when we all have to stand up collectively and united for the cause and that cause should not be other than PAKISTAN.

Its just about your BELIEF.

This article doesn’t mean to renounce anybody’s belief nor does it point towards any particular race, cast, creed or religion. It is apropos to my teacher’s article “Be a Universal person”. I think we all should be a universal person especially when we all believe in a God who is Universal.

The group of monks in Bangkok collectively prayed in their temple for the eradication of water which was rising from the sea and which could have taken the city with itself. Their prayers were answered and finally the sea level stopped rising. Now the question is who was the God that answered the prayers of those monks? If He would have been the God of other religion, I am sure the payers of the monks, would have not been answered but they were. He is the God of entire mankind. I call him Allah, he calls him Jesus, she calls him Bhagwan and so on.

Similarly, all the pandits of India were gathered together to pray for Indian team in semi-final of the cricket world cup 2011. On the contrary, all the Muslim’s molvis jointly prayed for Pakistani team. The special prayers also took place in several mosques but at the end of the day, India won. It doesn’t mean that God was in their favor and it also doesn’t mean that their religion is only right. It just means that their prayers were stronger than our prayers, the fate supported them and they finally made most of it.

Thus, the matter of fact is, it’s just about one’s beliefs. It’s about the strength of the faith one has on the God. The God is same for everyone. He answers everyone but at the same time He sees one’s devotion and intention towards him and all these things come from firm belief. He is my God and at the same time he is the God of my neighbor. He answers me and at the same time he will also answer the one who will call Him with all his beliefs, no matter what name he gives Him after all he is the universal GOD.

Engineers at my School.

Being a final year student I am no more curious to know why students do not come up with some innovation in final year project. Now I am just anxiously in search of the answer of question who is responsible for it, whether its teachers or students?

I was sitting with one of my teachers whom I have friendly terms with. One of my class fellows came and discussed his idea of final project. His idea was new and different but when teacher asked him how is he going to make this project, his reply was surprising “Don’t worry, I will buy it”. It’s good to know that projects are also available for sale. It is also good to know that when students are asked to show their approach towards their study and when they can come up with their own ideas, they actually buy ideas. These are our future ENGINEERS.

My own final year project’s idea was to combine working principle of two different machines into one. The idea was wholly solely conceived by me and I actually wanted to work on it. I visited my head of department to approve the project. His reply was “your idea is good but its better if you work on any equipment which is available here in school so that our teachers would be able to guide you as well. You are at the early stage of engineering, research cannot be done at this stage. Your hypothesis will not be accepted. It’s good to know that teachers at my school are still not ready to face challenges. They cannot go for the study which is new for them. It’s also good to know that those teachers are actually ENGINEERS. 

City is set on fire.

The current situation of Pakistan is not hidden from anyone. Punjab and Sindh are under the burden of scarcity. On the other hand Khyber pakhtunkhuan is still facing the outcomes of drone attacks. They don’t even have enough time to get settled from last attack that they are being attacked again. Balochistan is no more the part of us. Our Balochi brothers, especially the current generation of Balochistan, do not even recognize us as their neighbors.
let’s talk about Karachi now. The city of light is being transformed accurately into the city of Blood. The current anarchy in the city makes us ambiguous about the meaning of peace which used to be the part of Karachi in past. Karachi has seen someone, saying goodbye to his family in the morning as if he would not see them again. Karachi has seen a guy being killed brutally by rangers. It has also seen him bagging at the name of God for the life but not even the footage maker did anything. Karachi has seen the mothers of many crying for their sons when its just their dead bodies which come back home.  Not even the holy month of peace, the reconciliation between political parties and imposition of comissionary system have made a big difference. Karachi’s current situation is not different from Kashmir or gaza where people are being burnt alive and nobody is there to answer them. It is being proved from last night's incident when mini bus full of passengers was set on fire and which took the lives of many. It is difficult to conclude now whether mischief monkers are in the hands of Karachi or Karachi is in their hands. It is also difficult to say that whether fire is in the city or city is set on the fire. However; the karachities are struggling and would be struggling till their last breathe.