Today’s Balochi society closely resembles native Pakistanis societies through ages, when no distinction between tribal elders and feudals existed. Land belonged to the king during the Islamic Empires period and leased to tribes in exchange for providing soldiers, horses, grain, etc until after 10 years of Dullabhatti’s rebellion, when Mughal king Akbar accepted the right of tribal elders to own land. However, British Raj began the practice of awarding land titles for the first time in this region.

Not surprisingly, the acceptance of land-owning right brought an end to the first phase of conversion to Islam. The coercion and sweetened deals by Sufis working as front men for rulers in the absence of land owning right carried lot more weight earlier than later when land owned by tribal elders-feudals could not be at risk. From the time of Akbar onward, mostly lower castes were converted to Islam in the second phase while tribal based conversions were mostly to Sikhism. The conversion to Islam on tribal basis made it the majority religion in the region now comprising Pakistan as well as Bengal whereas conversion of lower castes as in the weak-tribal-strong-caste Ganges plains societies, Islam remains a minority religion. The tribal elders-feudals played the most crucial role in making it a Muslim majority region. People with strong tribal affiliations could not and would not have converted without tribal elders first converting. Most Pakistanis are Muslim because of tribal elders-feudals.

Feudals played very significant role in the creation of Pakistan since the early days of Muslim League. Bengali and Uttar Pardeshi feudals were prominent in ML since its inception and resisted the pressure from urban Muslims like Shibli Nomani to make ML an Islamic party instead of party of Muslims. A person with feudal background named Ch. Rehmat Ali coined the name Pakistan. Most of the Muslims in Muslim majority provinces were rural, who were won over to ML with the help of feudals. The road to the creation of Pakistan was finally cleared of hurdles once Punjabi and Sindhi feudals and feudals-cum-pirs joined ML during mid-1940s upon the advice of British, after failing to win British Raj’s support for separate ethnic based regional entities. Pakistanis are Pakistanis, thanks in parts to feudals’ support at that critical juncture in history.

Pakistan was truly a bureaucratic state during the early years until about 1955. Bureaucracy ran Pakistan efficiently despite political turmoil until military started interfering directly in the politics. Ayub Khan introduced large number of feudals directly into active national and provincial level politics in order to win popular rural support and later Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto followed same strategy. Rural Pakistanis (feudals territory) did not participate in two movements, to get rid of Ayub Khan in 1969 and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1977, while urban Pakistanis took part enthusiastically. Later feudals joined hands with Zia Ul Haque and more recently with Musharraf. It turns out that feudals made the right decisions by staying away from movements in 1969 and 1977. Within a short duration of less than 25 years, history has exonerated them from distancing popular urban political movements. The 1969 movement led to Yahya Khan’s rule, political divisions and the cessation of East Pakistan whereas the movement in 1977 gave Pakistanis 11 eleven years of Zia ul Haque rule whose repercussions are likely to be felt for a long time to come. In the case of supporting Zia and Musharraf, it looks bad but Zia did not and Musharraf does not need feudals’ support for the continuation of dictatorships.

Feudals are an essential ingredient of rural culture. They provide order – though imperfect one – in near absence of law enforcing and justice dispensing state apparatus. Yet rural society abides better by the common sense values better than their urban Pakistanis. Fruits are picked after ripening in rural areas whereas fruits from unprotected trees in urban areas are stolen before ever reaching ripened stage. An old bus polluting the atmosphere with smoke runs for years in rural areas whereas new buses are set on fire often in routine Friday demonstrations in urban areas. The presence of tribal chiefs and feudals at the top has definitely contributed to this order. Feudals are deep-rooted in local cultures; they are part of the folklore, traditional songs and festivals. Feudals as a class have contributed more than average in non-feudal fields such as producing poets, writers, professionals, educators, politicians, bureaucrats, military officers, etc. They have definitely contributed below average in producing religious figures, thus serving people instead of religion.

The total number of feudals in Pakistan runs into tens of thousands. About a 1000 of them are politically active at national and provincial levels. Outs of 1000 or so feudals, about 100 are in dominating positions. They are just as corrupt as non-feudals from urban areas, making money through corruption of all kinds with taking out bank loans and then getting them written off being the most common method. Agriculture output generally has not been a source of extensive wealth accumulation; it is more for power and pride.

Feudals are often charged with abusive crimes, cheating in agriculture related taxes, changing parties to side with the governing party and resistance to change traditions for modernity resulting in status quo or snail-paced changes. The frequency of abusive crimes is probably same, if not more, in rest of the society. Poor respect for law and less likelihood of retribution for abusive crimes are pervasive all over Pakistan. The powerful everywhere in Pakistan abuse poor masses. However, in the case of feudals with no sympathy in urban-based print and electronic media, the stories of abuse make headlines and acts of goodwill go unnoticed. Tax evasion is definitely worse in urban Pakistan than rural Pakistan. The tax collecting rural authorities like ‘patwaris’, ‘qanun-goh’ and ‘naib tehsildars’ have seldom become super-rich like income tax, excise and custom officers of major cities. Feudals are not the only ones who recently changed colors at the blink of an eye to side with the rulers but religious MMA and urban MQM did the same. The snail-paced progress to go with status quo is anytime better than urban-based obscurantism and retrogressive tendencies.

Feudalism has no place in a modern liberal, secular and democratic society and feudals know it. They are changing faster than rest of the Pakistani society to cope with the currents of modernity, which are beyond their control. Some have started to act modern without thinking modern but many are also thinking modern along with acting modern, which is highly commendable. Feudals should be judged against the overall conditions and alternates at hand. They stand no chance if judged against modern liberal, secular, humanistic and democratic society with rule of law, liberty, equality and justice for all in full practice. However, only a tiny minority of Pakistanis holds these ideals. Judging without the background of local conditions and probable alternates invariably leads to exaggerated sharpening and highlighting the good and bad extremes. Anyway, it is fair to award an overall “C” grade to feudals’ performance in Pakistan due to abuse of power, changing sides quickly and resistance to change with time due to larger than necessary component of traditions in the collective rural Pakistanis wisdom.

Rest of this write-up deal with establishing the credibility of the accusers or feudals’ substitutes in this case by presenting their credentials. They belong to one big confused mass known as urban Pakistanis. Their confusion knows no boundaries of irrational exuberance, self-righteousness, disorder, disapproval and detesting. Majority of urban Pakistanis is ummites, semi-ummites or quasi-ummites. Ummites (fundamentalists) are dedicated to serving Islam by imposing strict Islamic codes in both public and private arenas, semi-ummites (Islamists) support blending Islam carefully with modern so that Islam remains supreme and quasi-ummites (rightists, centrists, leftists, liberal and secular Pakistanis including Kamal Ataturk wannabe current dictator with his enlightened moderation) believe in bridging Islam with the modern. While they work for bringing, blending and bridging Islam, Pakistan bleeds. Since varying degrees of infatuation exists for broader Islamic brotherhood (ummah) in large majority of them, the collective urban Pakistanis wisdom is arrested more in the past than in the present because some crude forms of ummahs actually existed in the past. Therefore, asking for replacing traditions-heavy feudals with delusions-of-grandeur heavy non-feudals makes no sense.

The common denominator of ummah is depicted well in urban Pakistanis passionate support for the causes that involve Muslims. They have made Abu-Gharib and Deir Yasin more well-known names among well-informed Pakistanis than Toba Tek Singh, Khuzdar, Tharparkar or Parachinar by publicizing them excessively in print and electronic media. They have strange love-hate relationship with foreigners. Muslim foreigners are more admired than Pakistani Muslims even if they came on horsebacks through Khyber pass wielding swords, shouting takbeers and laying waste to everything in the path; in fact they are made heroes. Non-Muslim foreigners who came by ships or planes are detested. The overall impression of the west in urban Pakistanis mind is somewhere between disapproval and detesting yet they love to immigrate to the west.

Those who succeed in immigrating to the west quickly aggregate into groups headed by urban tribal elders called XYZ bhais (brothers) and congregate in mosques, dividing their time between praying, lamenting about the plight of Muslim world, whining against feudals and frothing against the west. Diaspora Pakistanis in the USA did not vote for Reagan, Clinton and Bush Sr. for being too pre-Israel, too many Jews in the cabinet and first gulf war against Saddam Hussain respectively. They will be voting against President George W. Bush to show sympathy with Iraqi people. The improved credit ratings, infusion of capital in the Pakistani economy, improved balance of payments, soft loans, loans written-off and rescheduled and stock market gains, all resulting directly from the decision of President Bush to bring Pakistan on board in his war on terror campaign, do not matter. If aggregation into urban tribal bhai groups and congregation in mosques are pillars of abroad Pakistanis nationalism then subscribing to Pakistani cable channels, listening to Urdu music by third-rate Pakistani bands and watching live cricket matches are the benchmarks of Pakistani identity abroad. Those who prefer to speak Punjabi with other Punjabis or prefer listening to Punjabi than Urdu music and those who don’t watch cricket are less than perfect Pakistanis. They are quick to assign bigot, racist, ethno-centric, regionalist, RAW-agent and anti-Pakistan labels to any person who deviates from their dubious narrow-minded definitions of nationalism and patriotism, particularly to those who advocate native cultures such as languages. The lifestyles of Pakistanis abroad do not provide any justification whatsoever for criticism of the traditional lifestyle of “paindoos” (rural Pakistanis) and their feudal representatives.

The credentials of urban Pakistanis in Pakistan are equally superficial and irrational. A quick glance through some of the recent landmark events reveals the hollowness and pathetic nature of collective urban Pakistanis wisdom. In 1970’s elections, rural Pakistanis voted for Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in hope of better future whereas most urban of the urban Pakistanis voted in Jamaat-e-Islami and Jamiat-Ulema-e-Pakistan (Noorani group) candidates in hope of bringing back the golden age of Islam. Urban Pakistans passionately participated in the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) movement, not for replacing Bhutto only but for Nizam-e-Mustafa, as the movement was named. To bring Nizam-e-Mustafa, they burned tires on the streets, burned bused on the roads, halted and bombed trains and causing extensive loss to the properties, businesses and economy. This was not the first victory for urban Pakistans. Few years earlier they were successful in getting Ahmedis declared non-Muslim using similar tactics. When finally Z. A Bhutto was overthrown in 1977, they cheered, celebrated and distributed sweets the same way as they did when another army chief committed similar treason on October 1999. Those who cheer, celebrate and distribute sweets upon the treacherous acts of army chiefs do not deserve to be heard or taken seriously in matters of democracy, respect for law, individuals human rights as well as feudals’ role in Pakistan society. Those who consider feudals a menace and biggest evil of Pakistani society have actually behaved worse than feudals.

During late 1970s and early 1980s when feudals were as usual lining up quickly behind Zia and getting the flak from all corners of urabn Pakistanis, the most urban of the urban Pakistanis were busy serving Pakistan by creating MQM. The outcome of this passionate creation over the past 20 years is there for all to see. As if 20 years’ track record was not enough, MQM along with JI candidates were again voted in by the majority of Karachiites during the first fraudulent election of 21st century. Lahore and Islamabad did not leave behind in contributing to this collective urban Pakistanis wisdom. Islamabad voted for a mullah from MMA and in Lahore, another mullah from a sunni group won in additions to voting in a son of a corrupt general who became filthy rich from the plunder during Afghan war against Russians. How can urban Pakistanis vote for MQM, JI, MMA mullahs, corrupts like Humayun Akhtar and obnoxious like Khursheed Mahmood Kasuri? Do they wish rural Pakistan to be like them also by getting rid of feudals. Why does every so-called victory by urban Pakistanis backfires within years?

The urban victories backfire within years due to irrationality-heavy collective urban wisdom. The rationality-heavy move linearly upward with time whereas irrationality-heavy move randomly and the outcome with time can be only good by chance. Based on urban Pakistanis cheering upon the downfalls of Ayub Khan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, Pakistanis must run for cover as soon as urban Pakistanis cheer, celebrate and distribute sweets upon political victories because within few years these victories would come back to haunt them.

One would think that crooked education curriculum, Pakistan ideology and indoctrinating education system contributes to creating this mindset of urban Pakistanis but this mindset dates back to pre-partition days. Even during early part of 20th century, urban Muslims of the area were mostly divided between Khilafat movement, Majlis-e-Ahrar and Khaksar movement with Khilafat movement mainly concerned with Ottoman Empire because Palestininian, Chechniyan or Iraqi problems did not exist then. The hold of these three groups on urban Muslims of the area was so complete that many Hindus and Sikhs started to migrate even before any talk of dividing Punjab. Gandhi had to cobble together and patronized debandi mullahs’ group named Jamiaat-e-Ulema-e-Hind to win indirect support for Congress among urban Muslims but did not succeed. How the Pakistani branch of Jamiaat-e-Ulema-e-Hind since partition, named Jamiaat-e-Ulema-e-Islam played the pivotal role in creating Taliban, sectarian terrorist groups, lashkars and Jihadis is another story. When a rural party of feudals called Unionists was trying to look after the interests of their constituency – rural Punjabis, urban Muslim Punjabis were hard at work trying to smear any trace of native cultures. In their infinite wisdom they came up with wild theories such as Punjabi language is a crude form of Urdu. It appears that access to education and education itself have built-in fatal attraction for Muslims. Some of the confidence gained by education is directed into confidence in the absolute truth of faith, which leads to all kind of wild interpretations of dogma followed by ambitions to see their version of dogma in practice.

The fact is that urban Pakistanis collective wisdom is rotten to the core. It welcomes or is approvingly receptive of obscurantism, retrogressive ideas, irrationality, cheap populism and other myopic visions when such ideas are wrapped in the shroud of Islam. It has not produced a single institution since 1947 that could be presented as pride of Pakistan or pride of collective urban Pakistanis wisdom. It is a straight “F” grades performance any way one looks at collective urban Pakistanis wisdom. They have to get at least few passing grades other than producing better cricket players than rural Pakistan, in order to be heard and taken seriously. Whining and criticizing feudals and advocating agrarian reforms to curtail the power of the feudals in Pakistani society by these people is nothing but straight “F” graders trying to save face by pointing fingers at “C” graders, when collective urban Pakistanis wisdom does not even have a face. Confident and equipped with solid “F” grade credentials, they challenge “C” grade performers, feudals and rural Pakistans, to better reform to degrading “F” level.

Urban Pakistan does not lack well-intentioned, modern thinking, reasonable and rational individuals who believe in true democracy, respect for law, justice, equality and true secularism with religion clearly separated from state as envisioned by the founder of Pakistan, Jinnah. Unfortunately they are a tiny minority and carry no weight in the collective urban Pakistanis wisdom. They are the only ones who should be heard on all important matters including reforming feudals and eliminating feudalism but they know well that replacing “C” graders at current state of urban Pakistanis wisdom would undoubtedly replace them with “F” graders. Replacing traditions-heavy with irrational exuberance-heavy makes no sense to them.