Why I’m proud to be a Pakistani

RE: satish

Well you will be surprised there are bunch of institutions and minority recognition in Pakistan .. Now you seem like got irritated by my question… and institutions that you mentioned are mostly minority based any way.. I was talking about nationally established mainstream institutions, drawing comparison between Pakistani minority and Indian minority is apple and oranges (they both have vitamins!) … Indian minority is huge , Pakistani minority is a minority in itself.. that does not imply that they should have less recognition or rights… Indian science has lot of Muslim contribution in recent history( who is the daddy of Indian nuclear bomb?), yet we don’t here as much recognition…

Off hand I can remember ( I personally don’t remember many, the reason being that I have spent only about 3 years of my life in Pakistan ).. perhaps some one else like to contribute?

Dial Singh Collage in Lahore

There is a Blvd. In Queta named for Major Chritie (I think that was his rank) who was awarded highest military honor

Karachi, Lahore and other Pakistani cities have bunch of roads named after Hindus ( pre-partition)

Nankana (birth city of Sikh Guru)

And I bet a lot of Pakistanis would not know this either – There is synagogue in Karachi!

RE:
ASIM# 114
Satish# 113

Just to get the ball start rolling a few names that are non Muslim:

1. Gulab Devi Hospital
2. Sir Ganga Ram Hospital
3. King Edwards` Medical College
4. Nadir Shaw-Edulji-Dinshaw University, aka NED Engineering University.
5. Mayo Hospital Lahore

If anyone care to remeber that West Pakistan had only one University (Punjab University) at partition, So I hope we are immune from the blame of not having universities named after Hindus , however, there are several colleges that are named after hindus and other non-Muslims, one of them I can recall at this time is Dayal Singh College Lahore and several colleges in Sindh that I came across but cant remeber their names- probably Miliani can help us here.

Rooster Blues

It is difficult to offhand remember the names of Universities on minority people, but let me tell you a few. I cant tell about warships because I dont care for them. Though our chief of navy a few years back was Admiral Idris Hasan Latif.

Universities -

Aligarh Muslim University (A university having special status so that Muslims and Islamic organisations run it)

Jamia Milia Islamia (ditto)

Maulana Mazhar-ul-Haq University of Arabic and Persian, Patna

Osmania University, Hyderabad

Maulana Azad University

Zakir Husain University

Al Ameen Medical College

Al Falah School of Engineering and Technology

Barkatullah University

Jamia Hamdard

These are a few names I can recall of universities with Muslim names or named on muslim personalities. There are many more. Thers are literally thousands of colleges named on muslim personalities and hundreds of thousands of schools.

The main stadium in the city I grew up in, Patna, is called Moinul Haq stadium. The cricket stadium in Delhi is called Feroze Shah Kotla stadium. Another of our big stadia, I forget where, is called Maulana Azad stadium. Again, this list is very far from being exhaustive.

Now, lets hear from you. How many universities/ schools/ stadia in Pakistan are named on Hindus? Come on! even one?

RE: veeresh

I totally agree subcontinent-human does not get much respect in Middle-East or any where for that matter, being born in KSA and spending most of my adult on going life here in US I do find that we (that is Pakistani and Indians) are treated better in the western world. But we are not treated equally anywhere after-all ! As a Muslim ( and a proud one) I do not find anything common with Arabs (besides praying next to one), and although I don’t find a lot of common stuff with Hindu culture either, but it is a lot easier to communicate and draw mutual respect. I have been to Arabic to Urdu to English school systems, it was hard to communicate or befriend an Arab; they always treated Hindi and Pakistani as ‘Sawa Sawa’ (meaning Indians and Pakistanis are the same). I use to take offense in it until American Janam helped me to interact with more Indians (basically more Hindus , since there are a huge immigrant population in KSA). I did find a lot of things that we share yet disagree on more… cricket, marriages, relationships and movies ( although I personally dislike Indian movies .. not for being it ‘Indian’ but content.. but it’s a source of entertainment for lot of Pakistanis). Speaking of Arabs, Pakistanis do (mostly institutional rather than common masses) give more than due respect to Arab’ heritage’ .. why can’t we name Faisalabad Pours-Abad ( he was the brave son of Indus land) and Quadifi stadium after Dulla-Bhati ( stadium should have been named after a hero not a lunatic!) .. speaking of naming.. I don’t find India taking pride in its Muslims or other minorities … how many missiles war ships, universities, schools and stadiums are named after Indian Muslim/minorities notables? (please do point out if you have one .. I mean this in a constructive manner)

Shandana,

This was one good article! Thank you for outlining the main accomplishments of the people with courage....There are many more who are in the shadow of some village or in a goverment offfice and live a life or utmost truth and sincerity...a little prayer for them too...

Wassalam,

Aisha

Vereesh #108: I agree wholeheartedly. Everytime I travel internationally, I make it a point to avoid Saudia Arabia. My one hajj experience there was enough to understand their views about Pakistanis.

veeresh #108.

hear hear!!

Been watching this article and the inter-action . . . what I don`t understand is why so many Pakistanis who come and discuss stuff at chowk and elsewhere want be proud of an Arab heritage? The Arabs have never considered any of us, from India or Pakistan or anywhere else, as one of them. When we go to the UAE or Saudia, Indians and Pakistanis (amongst others) are lumped together as D-grade humans, let us not be under any illusions about it, and religion has nothing to do with it, either. Go to a place like Dammam or Jeddah on a ship, and you could be Indian/Pakistani Hindu/Muslim, you will still not be allowed ashore.

Point I am making is that this article is GREAT! We in India are proud and very glad that you as a Pakistani are proud to be Pakistanis. Similarly, Pakistanis need to understands that we in India are proud to be Indians. Religion has nothing to do with it, ancestry even less.

There is a simple truth in this.

RE: Slink,

FerozK # 106, Observer# 104

Dont you love those critics/supporters who somehow find hidden meanings, in a piece of writing, that never occured in the wildest imagination of a writer?

Re: All Interacters

I think that Shandana`s intent of being a proud Pakistani was not and should not be interpretated in a political sense, but rather within a humanist context. I think, and please correct me if I am wrong, Slink, she was saying and trying to prove a positive aspect of being a Pakistani, which had nothing to do with the currency of war and death and highlight Pakistani accomplishments, which could stand on their own.

In my first post, I had mentioned my reaction to the article and having followed Slink`s articles over some time, I was under the impression that this article was a knee-jerk reaction to the ``When Mountains Move`` article. In all honesty, I found the other article, to which Slink responded, to be nothing more than a narrative chronology of events which lead to Pakistan irradiating a large tract of its native soil!

There was nothing wrong in Slink`s article, because in a larger sense, she was via her article celebrating the human spirit; the bon vivant to live instead of celebrating the tools of mass dstruction and mutually agreed upon pacts of national suicides. The article should be seen in that light. It is the human spirit, which is keeping the dream, called Pakistan, alive.

Unfortunately, as is the habit on Chowk, the article was viewed through the narrow prisms of nationalistic fervor and painted, as usual, into an excuse to brandish a sense of patriotism. There is nothing wrong with patriotism, though I think it is has been responsible for more deaths after religion in history, but sadly all the interacters on Chowk, either Pakistanis or Indians, wear their patriotism on their sleeves and their continued pledges to it sound shrill most of the time like the empty slogans, which echo across the lenght of South Asia, ``...full of sound and fury signifying nothing...``.

The article was about the human spirit and not about scoring nationalistic points.

Ciao!

Re: Abu-Bakr Usman

Jamaati thaaa
Tufail-e thaa
Ghafoor-e thaa
Mudoodi thaa thaa thaa!!

Yes, bibi, it is mushy, shamelessly contemporary, unthinkingly an attempt at being philosophical, with an aawurd injection of unsuccessful wish to sound literary.

The statement, as it stands as a whole, is so old and musty, so meaningless, so incosequential in its stated or deduced and assumed objective -- and, the misfortune of having been understood so by your readers -- that one cannot but help question, even in a neutral sense, the reason, the motive, the t`ook for writing such an essay. Or, such an essay with such a title.

You know, and I do, that this essay has nothing to do with Pakistan, nor with your reasons to love it or with its claim, however weakly and impotently, to be loved or being lovable.

You are addressing fetid questions, already asked from times immemorial, in terms no better than the so-oft-used malodorous cliches, that it becomes a test of the qari`s patience and the degree of the ability to keep sense of shame in abeyance long enough to read it in its entirety.

At the level of a general statement or an analytical commentary the essay would have had a low claim to respect, yes, even effectiveness, in terms of the ``variables`` I allude to above. At an abstract level, perhaps the claim would have been stronger, though still weak.

Most unhappily, it seem to have been offered as a substantive statement and the readrs [of only a few of whose ``Replies`` I was able to read] seem to have taken it to be a ``realistic``, physical question of description; in its literal sense, that is.

I am no teacher. I say what I feel, as a reaction to the reality I encounter and experience. I call something a spade if I feel I see a spade. You are more experienced and very well educated, it appears. {Not every body gets to be tutored by a Khalid Sahib Ph.D., you see!)

By looking at your list of previously written essays and columns, it also appears that you are a prolific writer.

If you haven`t already, then you are bound to keep giving sustenance to Pakistani journalism and literature. In the final analysis, if you are doing work which makes you feel proud of yourself, and you have helped develop conditions in your society that allow you to do that job unfettered and in conditions of freedom and feelings of independence, then, that alone is enough to make you feel proud of and in love with such a Pakistan. Best wishes.

Sheesh Naag (aka Dildo … ) Man or what ever your existence is … where did I say that I am more learned than Mr. Kamal .. now I did not know that you are his TATAA .. all it was a simple observation .. you made all that conclusion of it .. I did not criticize the desi accent it was again an observation I have no problem with it al all .. And to what ever radio station I listen to is my business.. your business is to find out where was your mama when the lights went out in NY .. your DNA might help!

Abu-Bakr Usman!

Although, Maulana Mowdudi as a scolar, writer is great, and his contribution in the form of Jamat-e-Islami is great in the sense, that he was probably the first Muslim scholar who realized the importance of democratic institutions.

I don`t know how many books you have read. But his approach is to say in one sentence.

Since Islam is natural and good, so it needs to be implemented. I have seen many conversions, who became very militant Islamic.

In our student days, during Zia era. Jamiat launched a movement for their Karachi Nazim Saif-ud-din. Not for the justice to be served according to Islamic principles. But to take back cases of murder against him.

One of our great Mujahid used to spend their night on telephone with their girl friend and in daytime would beat the hell out of NON-MUSLIMS like us.

One of our Mujahid, who used to have good times with nurses, would threaten us, out of Islamic piety.

So, I have seen all the piety and Purdah.

Piety and Purdah is for others to adopt.

For you everything is Halaal.

As far as Khurram Jah Murad. I think he is now some something in Jamat-e-Islami research wing, and research on the search of Maulana Mowdudi.

And Khurshid Ahmed is respected because there is no such thing, as Islamic Economics and he is a big scholar on that.

(Any way in current debate on non Interest based economy, I have seen many prominent names. I don`t remember his name).

Will you forget to mention your honorable Mian Tufail, who is also one of your SCHOLAR, and said about westernized women that THEY SHOULD BE DRAGGED ON STREETS WITH THEIR HAIRS.``

And Maulana Mowdudi used to consider only teaching and doctors profession as honorable. And used to consider nurses and other professions as belonging to whores.

I think you need to read more. Not just a course of ``Rafiq`` (after reading of which you can put only what you have done)

Gymnosophist # 86

Although, it might sound wierd, that Abdus-Salam is highly respected in intelligentia.

But, his being belonging to a certain sect, put him at a disadvantage.

Who wants to associate themselves with Taleban, even though they might be doing some good job.

I think there is a saying in Urdu and I am pretty sure in Hindi also.

Bad Accha Budnaam Buraa.

Bad is good, but notorious is bad.

Who can fight the Pakistani establishment.

Arshy #70

Madame NoorJehan, no doubt a very good voice and a good singer, but she has too many thorns in her feather to be considered anything apart from her voice.