With or Without Musharraf – A Mohajir’s Perspective

abu_safwan #102 {``102 by abu_safwaan on April 11, 2007 5:30pm PT
{``
• Yarr Salim Bhai yeah aapnayy kyaa pandora aapa ka baksa kholl diya bhai.
• What is that we are trying to do here? Do we only care about the well-being of Urdu Speaking?
• Whats done is done however. Where do we go from here? My humble submission is that the answer is not in exclusivity but in inclusiveness. Let’s support the forces that want to rid us with the status quo...``}


Safwan Sahib,
I did not open any box. I merely presented some thoughts about Mohajir survival against the blatant racism, bigotry, and desire for hegemony expressed by Punjabis openly on Chowk and very subtly in real life. No, I do not care ONLY for Urdu-speakers. I care for the poor, toiling serfs in other provinces who are under the yoke of the same ruling Punjaibi elite that is tormenting our people. Changing the status quo from Mushy to Bezamir or to Besharif may be worse than going from the frying pan to the fire.

I do respect your dissenting perspective. You have every right to disagree and present your own thoughts, most of which make a lot of sense to me. That is the main difference between THEM and US. If you noticed, the Mohajir viewpoints range from full support of my perspective, to partial support and partial criticism, to even total rejection of the points raised by this article. Unlike the variety of views presented by Mohajirs, the Pakistani Paindoos come across as jingoistic, selfish, one-sided, unbalanced, and totally uniform in their common hatred of Mohajirs and determined right to justify their own hegemony. With the forced departure of the majority Bengalis, our Pakistani Punjaibis have, all of a sudden, discovered ``majority rule.`` Where was this civic recognition of ``one man, one vote`` from 1947 to 1971?

People who (ab)use the power of their writing...

You put aside factual errors, exaggerations, and Salim`s propensity to speak from all of his openings, and this is a well written article. Salim is a gifted writer and has the capability to make an issue out of non-issue and then watch his readers squirm. And so what surprises me is not Salim`s writings - they are written in the spirit of fun. What surprises me is to see apparently serious minded people like ferozk doing their own one-upmanship with their own rhetoric. When you hear ferozk opine in #117:

``the patterns of monetary inflows into Karachi, from the Gulf, have created a trend whereby Karachi, political, socially and economically, has become an alien city in Pakistan``

you cant help but shout out ``what a load of intellectual bullcrap!``. I mean, ferozk has made a very ordinary observation, but he put it in such a way that you cant help but wonder if this is really the most exciting discovery since ribbed condoms. Every city in the world has certain traits that make it ``alien`` from its respective mother country. In Pakistan itself, Islamabad is more of an alien city than any other. Lahore has its own traits that make it alien to the rest of Punjab, not to say rest of Pakistan. So what’s the big deal if Karachi has its own ``alien`` characteristics?

So what does this prove? This proves that there is much power in the rightly crafted words - regardless of the significance or the accuracy of the content. Ferozk almost got away with sounding like an expert on Karchi`s socio-economic upheavals. Salim to his credit almost convinced me once that homosexuality was genetic, rather than adopted.

Such is the power of words...

Drawing parallels.

Looks like a section of karachi, the urdu speakers are very unhappy with panjabi domination, no matter that they were welome in the initial years, provided great opportunity in the nation builiding beutocracy (with initiative of their own offcourse), their language flourished. But they are unhappy anyways, like some sections of indian Kashmiris. Romair in the past has always maintained that no matter how much the indian govt spends per-capita on kashmir, allows kashmiriat to flourish under article 370 (by which other indians cannot own property in J&K), SOME SECTIONS of kahmiris are unhappy, (not all, not the buddhist, shia, ladakhis or hindua, but those with ummaite ideals fed on paki payroll). The argument is, if they are genuinely unhappy, their special needs must be attended to by the larger state.

I think SOME SECTION of mohajirs too seem to have similar griveance, and must be attended to by pakistani state. At the least, its ridiculous, heartless, and un-islamic to pooh-pah genuine plight of the mohajirs.

#162 atif2 {``You put aside factual errors, exaggerations, and Salim`s propensity to speak from all of his openings, and this is a well written article. Salim is a gifted writer and has the capability to make an issue out of non-issue ... Salim to his credit almost convinced me once that homosexuality was genetic, rather than adopted.``}

Atif,
True to your Pakistani Punjaibi Paindoo credentials, you have generalized your complaint against this article without offering any specific points or alternatives. I can`t help you in your own myopia and lack of objectivity - you are the victim of an ethnic disease.

But I can help you with your abject homophobia. You can start by taking small steps - gets married, have children, and support a family. It`s really not that bad - women are great to live with and children are a lot of fun too. :) Try walking on the tame side once in a while.

Re # 122
First of all Sobia, please stop talking like a first-grader. Nobody is trying to spread hatred. Why is it that when Mohajir`s talk about their fundamental rights they are spreading hatred but when Punjabis do it then they are just Pakistanis telling the truth. What about Punjabis spreading hatred by killing Mohajirs in 80s in Karachi or not giving them rightful jobs just because they were Mohajirs.
Thanks you Salim and no matter what people say, all the Mohajirs on this website know that what you have written is correct.
Punjabis are going to do what they have done best since 1947. Try to spin it into calling Mohajirs hate-spewing-kill-punjabi-mentality-walas, but they know the truth. They know that if Punjab is split, they no longer will have the hegemony on Pakistan and the people who will come into power will be the mohajirs because of their intellect and education. Just like `71 they are scared of anyone else having the majority in assemblies. If they can be happy by throwing Bangladesh away for their personal gains, what is stopping them from doing the same thing to Mohajirs. Like I said we have suffered enough during Asif Zardari`s, Benazir`s, Nawaz Sharif`s, and Zia`s tenure. We have suffered enough humiliation by punjabis. Finally it is time for Punjabis to taste their own medicine. The mess they created for us has come back to bite them in their asses in the shape of Hafza and Lal Masjid.
Like I said I am enjoying these times because the only reason Punjabis are so much against MQM is because there is no more money flowing from Karachi to
Lahore. There are no more Sharif`s to help them out. Finally Karachi is rebuilding. We will once again be one of the best cities of the world and of course Punjabi`s don`t like it. Who will call Lahore the ``City of Gardens`` once Karachi has parks like Bagh-e-Ibn-e-Qasim. They dont want people to remember that Lahore was nothing but a culmination of Horse shit, Limka, and Red stone. Where will they get the money to build other cities of Punjab if Karachi actually starts giving back to its own people. Of course they cannot take money from Sialkoti Bahis or the other two provinces(who don`t have money themselves). After all, Karachi is the one generating the most money. So I am happy that these Punjabis are scared because they are finally realizing that they cannot survive without Mohajirs when the Mohajirs can easily survive without Punjabis - and they hate this fact.

re: Salim


{{We need to restore and strengthen our relationships with ethnic Sindhis, Pathans, Baluchis, and Punjabis who have lived in Karachi for generations}}


An honest admission indeed. You are the first ``self-described`` Mohajir who had admitted that Mohajir politics is responsible for damaging the relationship between Mohajirs and other ethnic groups in Karachi. Now here are a few steps you need to do to mend this relationship....

a) Stop referring to Mohajirs as ``We`` and start referring to all Karachiites as ``We``. This will hurt your Mohajir nationalism, but will strengthen Karachi. A small price to pay for your lofty ideals.

b) Stop demanding repatriation of Biharis without consulting Sindhis. They too have a right to determine when and how many Biharis should they share their economic resources with.

c) Stop taking credit for the creation of Pakistan. While it`s true that Pak movement was launched from U.P. in the 1930s, this movement remained weak and urbanized until Pathans, Sindhis, Bengalis and Punjabis joined it in early 1940s. If Punjab had not thrown its weight behind Jinnah in 1940, Pakistan would not have been created. Mohajirs would be working as barbers and tailors in Delhi, instead of professional managers and govt ministers in Karachi.

d) Stop blaming Punjabis for the suffering of so-called Mohajirs in 1960s and 70s. The Urdu-speaking community practically ran the bureaucracy from 1947 till 1960s. They were over-represented in govt ministries only because they were better educated than other ethnic groups in Pakistan. But with the growth of literacy and return of democracy in the 1970s, it was inevitable that Punjabis, Pathans and Sindhis would begin to dominate in civil & military bureaucracy. If Mohajirs came to Pakistan for the sake of economic independence, they did the right thing. If they came to Pakistan to perpetually dominate the other ethnic groups, they were only deluding themselves.

e) Ethnic politics has no role in a Federation formed on Islamic ideology. Even moderate schools of Islam (e.g. Sufism, Barelvi school, Ahmediyya sect) look down upon caste, biradiri or ethnic affiliations.

Why u presume that stranded Pakistanis in BD be relocated in Karchi only? Why cant they be relocated in Rawapindi? Wud it hurt the race-conscious pride of Punjabis?

Secondly why the Muslims be only tailors and barbers? If u know ur history it`s not barbers or tailors who moved to Pakistan.

HE HE.....u made constructive criticism overall but the above points are handicapped.

Mohajirs are mohajirs when they relocated not after 60 years of relocation.

Re: # 167

LOL


......the Gunjamen brothers did bring 30,000 of them , and settled them in MIAN CHANOON.


25,000 of them can now be found in Orangi Town Karachi, the Rest 5000 or so, are working without any discrimination and hardship, at various places in Punjab, especailly employed in the Vast industrial stretches on the Sheikhupura Road, and on the Lahore-Faisalabad road, others can be found in Shah Alami, and on various Markets selling Karachi Samosas, which is a very Hot item among the Lahoris.

Aqua,

Good point.

Post-47, the east Punjab was sweeped clear of Muslims (except in Qadian & Malerkotla). If u see now the east Punjab has thriving (not in 2 OR 3 000s) Muslim population. Whereas Indian Muslims find east Punjab as a better place for life & employment/business how come mohajirs are running out from west Punjab???????

Pl do some introspection or enlighten us.

Whereas Indian Muslims find east Punjab as a better place for life & employment/business how come mohajirs are running away from west Punjab???????

Oh Bhai log Allah ka naamm loo yeahh aapp loggg kin qurafat mein par gayeyy hoo.

If I hated punjabis for the mere fact that they were punjabi than my excuse was that i was 14, hopefully most of us have graduated HS by now. The oppressor is Chaudhry Allah-ditta BUTT as well as Nawab Anees Ahmed Lucknawi. The oppressor is the system which is headed by the Army establishment in conjunction with there cohorts who amongnst others are Landlord mafia & civil bureacracy. This evil-cabal has individuals of all pursuasions and the only ideology they are loyal to is the ideology of makin sure that status-quo remains. Where no matter what happens, they are some how recepients of the same outlandish favours that they have been accustomed to for the past 60 years.

To this day our ``educated & enlightened`` claim that our defense budget is justified because otherwise India will walk all over us. SPARE ME THE BULL-SHIT. Indians are having biatch of a time dealing with 7 indigineous speratist movements they can do without us. 40% of our country-folk doesnt have clean drinking water and our nameless, meaningless, toothless generals (who never fight their own wars even and instead send poor disillusioned villagers by cashing on their religious sentiments when it suits them) need BMW`s and millions of dollars worth of personal property, not to mention an etxtravagant GHQ the likes of which pentagon cant even dream of? How does that figure in to national security, maybe i am just too dense.

Ohh Khuda ka naam loo Allah kayy bandoon..this fight should be between have`s and have not`s between fair-minded individuals and the opportunistic looters that have been raping our masses for the past 60 years. IF we believe that we have a interview pending with the creater than it should be obvious that Allah swt wouldnt care how tight our pajama was or whether we prefered lassi over abe-zam-zam. We must be the supporters of oppressed regardless of sex, creed, religion, nationality etc. We do what we must to put out fires but at least in principle lets stick to the basic principle of fairness without any prejudice.

Re: # 170

Basically because of Herd Mentality.

... in earlier stages, ... Karachi being a port city, and the SEAT of Govt, till Ayub shifted the capital, provided more economic oportunities.

and now most of them have herded themsellves in just these two cities, Karachi and Hyderabad.

.. the situation has changed now, and Punjab now provide better economic oportunites.

about the 30,000....!! of which 25,000 are found in Orangi town....??

because again, they already have their relatives living there, ......and this 5000 or so number which stays back in Lahore , does so on rotation basis.

..... Uncle works for four months, then goes to Orangi, giving his place to his nephew, who then works for the next three months, giving his place to his brother, who then works for say five months, in the meanwhile Uncle returns , takes his place back from the nephew, who then go on the visit his family in Orangi.

...They do not leave Punjab, because it now provided them with better economic oportunties, and they do not want to leave Orangi either, because their families have been there since 71-72.

...... unfortunatley the OTHER urdu speakings are so self engrossed , in their own cocoon like existence, which has alienated themselves, they cannot preceive a good life , North of Karachi........ hence have kept themselves confined to Karachi, hyerabad only.

Re: # 160

GT Sain,

What you have written

``The above, which you write with such ease could not have been written by the usual hindutva freak. Here in chowk, people like gujju, abcd, uncle hari would have no clue about what you are talking about.

Now, I am almost sure about your other nick``

Samajh nahin aaya.

Please explain

Regards

Sanatani

P.S. 1 thing is true as yo have said the Idiot brothers of Organiser do not understand Islam or Muslims. The anti intellectualism of Guruji will cost us dear

Salim,

Great article. Couldn`t have agreed more. A three piece suiter, cigar smoking millionaire should not decide the fate of millions. Give him a credit though, he used other`s ``evil religion`` to hypnotize millions.

Re: # 174
abay chutiay - pakistan`s problems - economic, social, cultural, ethnic, govt - are all because of the bastards who are in positions in that country to make decisions for the country, not because of jinnah - and those bastards run cross-ethnic lines - it was Gaandee who played the religious card

abbayy yeah mooli or bhindiyan kyoon shah sayy barh kay shah ka wafadarr ban nayy koshsih kar rahii hein? Bloody Vulchers. Wake Up beef eaters and smell the stinch of cow-piss