A Friend of Feudalism

Saima shah writes "The common guy would be the saddest person to see the stability and freedom that came with Musharraf's government go"

Which freedom are you talking about? The freedom to go hungry while repatriation by TNCs go up by 900%? Or the freedom that comes from not being able to buy equal amount of rations you were the previous month? Or the freedom that comes from dying an early death (over 50K or more do) due to sky rocketing pollution? The common man has suffered under Musharraf immensely while the rich have become richer and due to his economic policies the country has been sold at pennies to the dollar with runaway inflation. That more than the bells and whistles of "free media",(how many can afford TV sets or cable for that matter) or the expensive skimpy and luxury goods that flood the market? Don't be taken in by this BS distraction, you are smarter than that. It was a sorry excuse for defending an anti-people pro-imperialist dictator...

Fatima Jinnah leads a popular broad based people's movement and almost brings the dictator down.... she unites East and West Pakistan on one platform. That is "monarchial" succession according to Masadi.

Then you have Zulfikar Ali Bhutto- a toady feudal from rural larkana... who bends over backwards to rig the elections of Ayub Khan... helps the dictator "win"... and later Mr. Bhutto refuses to accept the decision of Pakistan's majority in 1970... destroys the little popular base he has in the 1970s... develops a fascist force called FSF and rigs the 1977 elections and he is some sort of a democrat. Brilliant.

Nothing much new in this article, though I agree with his description of the cause of the Pakistani political scene, the lack of a muscular middle class, except for the so-called muhajir. A visitor to Pakistan cannot but wonder at the low ratio of scooter-motorcycles and even buses to cars or of the poor condition of railway/bus stations to airports.

SaimaShah #: "Pakistan is the most dangerous place on Earth right now. Is anybody listening? Alas, no. They are too busy defending their mediocrity.?"

...just out of curiousity, are you willing to walk the walk and put your money where your mouth is?.....that is a question i think every pakistani should be asked.....

all of us on chowk have taken the best out of pakistan......we have lifestyles equivalent to the upper middle class of first world countries......it has been good to us.......in a sense, collectively, we are the ones who have ripped off the poor in pakistan........

....what can you do to improve the place......or are you simply a critic......by, "you," i dont' mean just you, i mean everyone (including you).....

everytime i am in and out of pakistan, i get a strange feeling of a combination of hope and desparation.....i was with a client in islamabad/rawalpindi, when i heard about the blast....in such a situation, should one pack up one's bags and never visit the place again, and simply show one's loyalty through a website, ala urstruly, hamidm (and perhaps you also)......or should one do more to assist in economic progress to ensure that such blasts do not happen again.......

if one has divorced one's ugly wife, and moved on to a prettier one, then what is the point of trying to sympathesize with the ugly wife's problems?

..are you willing to move to pakistan and contribute your skills to solve the problem, and move it from being the most unsafe place in the world, to the second most unsafe place?.......if not, then do you still have the right to complain?

Re #34 Manto

Fact: Fatima Jinnah was pushed up to run because she was MAJ's sister (monarchial succession not people power)

Fact: ZAB had nothing to do with the "alleged" rigging of either the Fatima Jinnah or the 1977 elections. Those are unproven, BS allegations.

Fact: Fatima Jinnah didn't have popular public support. Even the MAJ connection couldn't make her win, and she didn't know how to run a campaign

Fact: Bhutto was the very first populist leader of West Pakistan, because of him people developed a sense of self-worth and speaking for their rights

Fact: The people love ZAB, the standard of living of the poor is on the rise, Pakistan is unaligned from the major powers under him, land reform after much power play by the thugs is finally under way in a very meaningful way. The Third world looks upto ZAB as leader. The West shudders when he speaks

Fact: ZAB is butchered by a military dictator who then completely makes Pakistan a whore of the West and brings his so called "Islamism" and drugs and terrorism to Pakistan by fighting a proxy cold war with the Soviets on America's behalf

Fact: ZAB made peace with neighbours, and started alliances with Iran, Turkey and the greater ME. This made the West pee in their pants.

Fact: If ZAB was not butchered, Pakistan would be well ahead of South Korea in development and its people would be happier and healthier, poverty would be lower

Of course Manto is High Priest (or Priestess) of the Church of MAJ and so will turn facts upside down to extract stupendous conclusions from his "you know where". Best to ignore his BS and claims of grand scholarship which would neatly fit in the "penny compartment" of any 28 inch waist jeans- you know the pocket on top of the pocket for your change? Yeah that penny compartment....

Fact : Masadi was kicked out of US.
Fact: Masadi begged for an extension but was denied on merit.
Fact: Masadi was rejected by all mainline publishers.
Fact: Lulu.com agreed to publish Masadi papers, for a fee.
Fact: All Pakistan colleges/schools refused to hire Masadi.
Fact: Chowk rejected six of Masadi articles.
Fact: Masadi believes the rest of the world consists of "dimwits" who are peons of the West.

Fact: Mad mullahs like Masadi shall soon be eliminated.

Fact: Okhla is lying
Fact: Masadi chose to leave the US to help the poor masses in Pakistan and look after family

Fact: Masadi never had a permanent university job in the US and so the "extension" issue never arose

Fact: Masadi was called by his ex-professor to teach at the university because he was top of his graduating class

Fact: Masadi was rejected by corporate publishers because they said they weren't sure these books would sell. They are similarly "not sure" if Noam Chomsky, Michael Parenti or similar authors would "sell" so they reject them as well

Fact: Masadi decided to publish with "on demand" publishers who have no such sales criteria. Masadi books, five years after publication now rank higher on amazon time and again than Ann Coulter's books just one year after publication...

Fact: Masadi received offers from ALL Pakistani colleges he applied to, never has Masadi been in so much demand both by business schools and public universities

Fact: Lulu.com doesn't charge a "fee" to publish "on demand".

Fact: Supporters of the US elite, their "peons" that have ensured that the vast majority of humanity's suffering is legitimized by bells and whistles and images of dance and drink are surely dimwits .

Fact: The world is fast coming to a realization of the shenanigans of the US elite, they themselves will take care of A-holes like Okhla and other peons of the West .

Masadi you fool,

Only you can believe the BS that you spew.

John Winters of the US INS (Immigration & Naturalization Service) has told everybody about how you wept and begged for a second chance to stay in the US.

Diane from the Graduate School has also told everybody about how all your attempts to get an extension failed miserably.

Now that you are back in Pakistan, please please try to contribute positively to the nation building process. Stop imagining. Stop bullshitting. Stop calling others "morons' & "dimwits". Do something creative for a change.

You stand thoroughly exposed Masadi..

Ha ha now he invents BS names, how low can people stoop. You can "expose" me all you want, my thoughts are open books, and they will only benefit the people. As for your lies that you invent, they only disgrace you and show the sorry state of your "intellect", if the stinking nerve that describes your insect brain can be described as such. As for John Winters , lol, he told me that he is fast on your tracks and your return to your homeland is a few weeks away.....

Re: # 36

"all of us on chowk have taken the best out of pakistan......we have lifestyles equivalent to the upper middle class of first world countries......it has been good to us.......in a sense, collectively, we are the ones who have ripped off the poor in pakistan........"

Speak for yourself, since you have spend some time in military. No expatriate Pakistani has every ripped off Pakistan, instead they have given back to Pakistan to the extent that could not even be dreamt living in Pakistan. It is 4 millions expats who genrate and send billions of dollars every month to Pakistan without benefitting from any services that state of Pakistan offers to its citizens.

Having said that, please keep in mind that, as Islamic republic of pakistan it was the responsibility of the people at leadership level to provide opprtunities to the citizens of Pakistan to earn Rizq-e-Halal in their own country. But the corrupt oppressive class has established a system of organized corruption instead where it is almost impossible to make a rizq-e-halal living.

Not a day goes by in the life of an expatriate when the thought of dusty roads of his home country doesn't cross his mind. Most of us will die here in these cold, bland and strange lands like perfect strangers. Most of us will not even burden our dharti maaN with our corpses after death. Please accuse us of anything but with the accusation of ripping Pakistan off.

Mitti ki muhabbat mein hum ashufta saron nain
Woh Qarz bhi utaray hain jo wajib nahin the

Urstruly writes "Most of us will die here in these cold, bland and strange lands like perfect strangers. Most of us will not even burden our dharti maaN with our corpses after death."

Urstruly mian please dont lie so shamelessly. If you were unable to make a living in Pakistan how did you manage to show the US authorities that you had enough funds to finance your education or travel. Only the quite privilaged compared to the rest of the population make it abroad and you all keep staying there because you have become used to it, it comforts you, and even when you don't have to work for a living and can live like kings here, you prefer not to return. You send pennies back and the US transnationals here make every penny of that back up by exploiting our cheap labor and then sending the profits abroad, not to mention that what you send is a tiny fraction of a tiny fraction , i.e. what the US gets to keep of your surplus, what the corporation you work for keeps and what you keep to take care of your mortgages and car loans and what not. Nostalgia about the homeland is ok but staying here is the real challenge which none of you have the balls to face, it is not easy, adjustment is not easy, the traffic on the streets, the poverty and the noise and the pollution is not easy. Compared to this, escape is quite easy. Compared to the expats who have the ba@@s to come back home, you all are cowards...Hamid predicts I will join your ranks soon

Tahir ul Qadri sahib to become Caliph of Pakistan!

Re: # 44

oops! He is not eligible under Shariah as he is not from Quraysh (as far as I know). Let me check...

:D

Well, can you think of anyone else? There IS Hazrat Qibla Pir Sayyid Naseeruddin Naseer Shah Sahib Golravi but Hazrat Sahib, although from the Ahlul Bayt, is not interested in politics prefering to teach, help his mureeds with spiritual progress and write poetry.

urstruly #42: "Not a day goes by in the life of an expatriate when ......burden our dharti maaN with our corpses after death. Please accuse us of anything but with the accusation of ripping Pakistan off."

.....i did not say expatriates, i said, "all of us on chowk" have ripped off pakistan......if any poor country has a small rich elite, it is a pretty good sign that this elite has ripped off the poor.....

however, i must comment on your commentary....i have seen you interacting on this site, for well over six years or so.....this would apply that in this time, you must have obtained either a usa green card or citizenship....one cannot stay longer than six years on a work visa.....this would mean you must have, deliberately, applied to the usa for this....they did not, themselves, offer it to you.....you must have taken an oath that you will be loyal to the usa and will support it.......

you are thus living off the usa's bread crumbs.....however, at the same time, you are its biggest critic.....in addition, you keep indulging in revolutionary rhetoric about pakistan, yet have yet to move to pakistan......you keep talking about rizq-e-halal......yet you live in dar-ul-kufr to use your methodology.....

during this time, i have moved out of the usa....in fact i have actually moved out of the west altogether.....i am now working in pakistan and countries around it.......

......how is it that i am able to earn rizq-e-halal outside the usa, and can work in pakistan etc......while you cannot?.......why is it that can criticize the usa without any moral contradictions, as i am not on its bread crumbs, yet you cannot........why is that i can say i am actually doing something for pakistan, and thus not have to rely on nonsensical patriotic rhetoric.......while you cannot....

i think you need to face the facts......you have divorced the ugly wife for a prettier one.....you are enjoying life with the prettier one.......why are you now, bent upon, speaking up for the woman you divorced......and that too, with so much rhetoric......

........i think hypocricy is the biggest problem of pakistan......and you would be on the top of this list in that category, on this site, in my opinion......i don't mean this in an abusive sense.......i am simply describing a fact......

just live in usa and enjoy it......nothing wrong with that.....no need to attempt to lahu lagay kae shaheedoon mein shamil hona......

there is nothing stopping you from returning to you dharti maan, other than your greed and hypocricy........once again, not trying to be abusive.......just describing a fact...

Re: # 43

Your basic assumption that "I was unable to make a living in Pakistan" is incorrect. First of all I had a previliged and affluent childhood. I wouldn't say that we were rich but my mother always taught us to look at the people who were below us and were less fortunate than us. So I can say that we were better than millions in pakistan. In Pakistan I never faced joblessness. I started suppoting myself right after matriculation by tutoring my juniors; a practice that continued many years afterward. I was able to find my first professional job without any sifaarish 6 months prior to my final results were out in university. And since grade 8 I have been a scholrship student throughout.

But as far as making a rizq-e-halal living is concerned, I would have been driving BMW right in Pakistan had I made a compromise. Sure there must be avenues open for rizq-e-halal still in Pakistan I got tired of the struggle of getting up every morning preparing for the little battles to stay on righteous path. I had professional ambitions and dreams and that corruption and malaise was only slowing me down.

Re: # 46

Your post proves the reason why Holy Prophet (pbuh) has explicitly forbidden Muslims to be "presumptuous" about their brethern.

For your information, I do not have US citizenship or even a green card and I never applied for either. I am not at liberty to discuss my expatriate status with you at a public forum, but your basic presumptions about me are wrong.