My Beautiful Rizwan

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All of you people should be ashamed of yourself who are talking rubbish about the Military. I am a son of an AIR FORCE Officer a Retired Air Commodre. Do you even know how it is going to work every day. Every day when these brave officers go into the skies- thier families do not know if thier husbands/sons/fathers/brothers would come back and joing them for lunch.
bein an Airforce pilot is the hardest job in the world when you have to fly and with even 0.000001 percent margin of error your life can finish.
What the hell are you civilians talking about. all you do is sit behind a desk all day ``working`` while these brave military officers risk thier lives everyday to save your rear ends.
Shame on YOU!

Samina,
My father tells be great things about your husband. I am sure he was just as you described him. Apart from your husband I have met all of these officers in various social gatherings. All of them were ``Chief Material`` and very ambitious.

Truly a tragic, heart tearing story. May allah give her strength to overcome such loss, and give him place in jannah. ameen.

Some of the remards on this article are outright rude. Please show respect to Samina and late Rizwan. Refrain from discussing politics, PAF or other subjects which can be cast a shadow on this beautifully woven artcle.

I think she and her family has, will, and suffer the loss of a marvellous man for years to come. Lets not disrespect them in any way shape or form.

Thanks

Well, it would be hard to disagree that it is not a very appropriate place to trade arguments on the overall role of the military in Pakistan, I am nevertheless greatly disturbed to observe the growing distrust towards the garrison at least among those who have access to the Internet and possess ability to express themselves.

Not a nice omen for Pakistan, its armed forces and consequently for the defence of the country. As M A Jinnah put it, “A country without a strong air force is at the mercy of any aggressor…” No one can deny that a county where army lacks wholehearted support of the populace is an easy prey for internal and external threats.

Therefore, it is extremely important that the concerned authorities must take cognisance of the emerging trends at the earliest and do their best to contain them. If that happens, AC Rizwan & AVM Razzaq will definitely become even happier in the Heavens.

Best wishes for the families of the shaheeds. From NCOs to CAS.
Baba Jee.

It is heartening to know that even people of ordinary background can rise to senior ranks in PAF. It is a matter of immense pleasure and comfort for all of us that competence and hard work still count.

At the same time, the other side of the story is equally disturbing. With little generalization, one can say that the same very individuals who joined armed forces empty-handed leave as multi-millionaires. In some cases, as billionaires.

How do we explain it? Doesn’t it indicate that there is something fundamentally wrong, somewhere?

PS. One more clarification is due. Are we not using some twisted definition of ordinariness/ simplicity? Dear readers, here comes some examples of simple and ordinary Pakistanis. Airmen. Jawans. Masis who come to clean houses of officers. Malis. Drivers.

Perhaps Samina, or someone else in the know, could shed some light on what actually may have happened. It appears obvious Rizwan was an outstanding aviator, thus `Pilot Error` does not seem likely, although reports of the same would have done nothing to assuage Samina`s wounds.

Rgds

Romair, please:

At the time of submitting this rejoinder, there were 56 replies to this moving write-up of Mrs Rizwan. To be sure, I have gone through all of the replies once again, quite attentively. I failed to find a SINGLE impolite, let alone disparaging word, used for AC Rizwan or AVM Razzaq.
Yes, in one post, someone did comment about ACM Mushaf – backed up with solid reasons. We don’t need to repeat them here. Otherwise,
1. Proper respect has been paid to Mr Rizwan and all other departed without compromising their sanctity or undertaking personal attacks.
2. I have already confessed in most explicit manner that YES it is sick to wish death for others and I am ashamed for that.
3. Yet another story, people like me wish death to bloodsucking leeches out of sheer powerlessness not out of malice. Moreover, it must be kept in mind that the individuals, to whom we curse, are themselves traders of death, literally NOT metaphorically. They are the ones who bear the ultimate responsibility of deaths of 136 Pakistani kids out of 1000 born (to quote Ms Nighat Yasmeen).
4. I am borrowing an interesting point put forward by some Raja Ibrahim on the discussion forum of the SAT. “By the way how can one respect/like or not hate those who can ignite an ammunition depot in the middle of a city of 1 million to cover up their own loot. Yeah, I am talking about Ojhri Camp. See, India (and Pakistan too) avoided civilian targets during 1965 and 1971. But our own generals didn`t mind putting a big city on fire themselves.
And you still talk about everything else but not the real crooks and have the courage/guts to defend/condone them.
I am sad, extremely sad to observe this inexplicable callousness.”
5. waqartalib has already answered some of your questions. Please, see reply #49.
6. At a certain level, you don’t need to know individuals, personally, to criticise them or register your anger. Millions of millions those who are vehemently opposed to Bush or for that matter Saddam – do they know them in person?
7. For convenience sake, I am pasting the part of my last reply addressing you. Please, confirm or refute.
Have you ever heard/read a SINGLE defaming word for battlefield martyrs from ANY Pakistani? Our opposition, condemnations, dislike and hatred is for armchair “ghazis”.
What you tend to forget is the tragic fact that those who lay down their lives on the borders are not who get awards and plots. In some cases we don’t even accept their dead bodies (remember NLI and Kargil). Many true Shaheeds normally don’t even get proper burial.
As someone wrote on South Asia Tribune, begum of a general with aching back has higher property at a CMH than that of a hawaldar from the LOC with Indian bullet in his chest.
See, that hawaldar will be put in a stinking jawans’ ward, while civilian drunk teenager son of a general will get the best possible treatment in VIP awards. Can you deny?

Please, rest assured, I have absolutely nothing personal against anyone, least of all these gentlemen. But I am really sick of half-baked truths to blatant lies. And I am bitterly opposed to this institutional rape of the country and its very poor citizens by the high command of the armed forces.
Take care.

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Beautiful words of love and tribute for a great spouse. May Allah bless brother Rizwan with Jannat, Ameen...!!!

To certain repliers, I think it would be most appropriate to refrain from non related comments and to focus on the love, regards and respect of Br Rizwan and his family.

Many of the writers have forgotten a senior Air Force official from the Zia era, whose name appeared amongst the list of the most corrupt armed forces officials in the world. This list was either in Time or Newsweek, I am not sure which.

Samina

Thank you for sharing these deep sentiments with us. Personal loss is hard to talk about but you`ve taken us all through the emotions you have experienced and provided a glimpse of the life that you shared with Rizwan.

May his memory bring you solace and may your children grow up to reflect both you and him and the love that you shared.

hnasir #51: Which part of my reply did you find an emotional blackmail?Could you please highlight? To the best of my knowledge, I was providing facts, about certain individuals. Something cannot be factual and a blackmail simultaneously

What you need to do is pick out each person in each organization and situation and highlight their faults and virtues with facts. Otherwise I am afraid you are just putting yourself on a pedestal assuming you are perfect and generalizing everyone to be at fault, everyone who is good and everyone who is bad.

If one wants to generalize then Pakistan being one the most corrupt and backwards countries in the world should be an indication that none of us deserve to criticize anybody and all of us deserve to be criticized.

I personally cannot accept people like sac criticizing people like AVM Razzaq in one big generalization. The later has done far more for his country than sac has and was from a far more of a common background. In a situation like that a person should step up and highlight the holier-than-thou attitudes of such critics. Specially if the people being criticized aren`t their to defend themselves.

If people have issues with Zia-ul-Haq, Musharraf, and Bangladesh, I fail to see why they would use this forum to let out their frustrations. To the best of my knowledge, none of the individuals on this flight was related to any of the above-mentioned. If they didn`t know the people who died in this crash personally I don`t understand how they can comment on anyone`s goodness or badness.

I had come across a one or two of them and found them to be quite decent people. Maybe a few of them were not decent people, but I cannot pass judgement without knowing them. As I said earlier those who disagree with me should present any information indicating otherwise rather then wishing death to policemen or crashes to 747s. Anyone who gains happiness from other`s death, or uses it to justify his/her own political convictions, is a sick person.

About 14 –15 years back, a police van carrying 7 policemen, was stoned by an angry mob in the small town of Chiniot, located on the banks of River Chenab along Sargodha-Faisalabad road. All seven died on the spot*.

I am ashamed to confess that my spontaneous reaction on reading that news story was, “Oh, great, finally, they got what they deserved -- seven swine less.” Disgustingly, I felt a sort of macabre satisfaction and a chilling pleasure. Perhaps, the scariest part of the episode is that I was NOT at all alone in feeling that way. Almost everyone, I heard talking about the occurrence, had more or less similar opinion.

Many years later, when I read about the Kohat incident, thankfully, I didn’t feel like that – exactly. Probably, because, I still have some respect for PAF. This time, my impulsive thoughts were,
Allah Mian Jee, you should have better done this to the aircraft carrying Musharraf and his henchmen.
Or why not the bloody federal cabinet, in particular turncoats and patriots, but excluding Jamali (I feel pity about this hapless guy).
Or why not filthy superior judiciary, along with that khabees-e-azam CEC ex-CJ Irshad and that ghastly Pirzada.
Aur koch nehin tau, a bunch of maulvis, especially, fitna-e-azam Tariq Azam, Maulana Diesel and Maulvi Sandwich.
Or some mardood secretaries = senior bureaucrats.
And if not even that, a collection of callous doctors fleecing patients.

Ref: Romair. Please, enough of this emotional blackmailing.
Have you ever heard/read a SINGLE defaming word for battlefield martyrs from ANY Pakistani? Our opposition, condemnations, dislike and hatred is for armchair “ghazis”.
What you tend to forget is the tragic fact that those who lay down their lives on the borders are not who get awards and plots. In some cases we don’t even accept their dead bodies (remember NLI and Kargil). Many true Shaheeds normally don’t even get proper burial.
As someone wrote on South Asia Tribune, begum of a general with aching back has higher property at a CMH than that of a hawaldar from the LOC with Indian bullet in his chest.
See, that hawaldar will be put in a stinking jawans’ ward, while civilian drunk teenager son of a general will get the best possible treatment in VIP awards. Can you deny?
We will talk more about these things, some other time, on some other occasion.
Take care.

*The police party was in the area from Faisalabad to nab someone. At the same time there was an armed robbery. On their refusal to tail dacoits on the plea that it was not their ‘thana’, people got infuriated and started pelting them with stones.

Urstruly at # 39:

It pays to listen to the elders of the family, especially in a tribal set-up ha ha ha ;)

But don`t worry, I will be around. Just needed time to travel back in the remotest of corner of Pakistan to meet my tribal folks and that takes some planning, especially if the life partner does not quite agree ;).

Take care of yourself.

Since August 14, 1947, the day Pakistan came into being, more than 200000 Americans military personnel have embraced ‘martyrdom’ in the line of duty.
Compared to Pakistan the US has lost many times more of her sons in war, in proportion to the population.
Have that sacrifices translated into blanket “kabza” of the khakis in the US?? No. Absolutely not. Despite all that, defence secretary can sack the army chief on standing feet?
One more tragic fact. For last 15 years at least 5 times more Pakistani civilians have laid down their lives fighting real/perceived enemy than that of regular forces of Pakistan. Lead: Kashmir and Afghanistan.

By the way, what does a soldier get paid/recruited for? To knit sweaters? Yeah, to fight, when and if the time comes. And ALL armed forces of the world do it, often valiantly. Without raping their own respective countries?
What the hell or special armed forces do in Pakistan? If I may ask?

This piece is a lovely note, beautifully written by a wife in-deep love with her deceased husband, who happened to be an extraordinary officer. My best wishes for both, my sincere prayers for the family. It is a huge loss for Samina, her children, Imran and all of his family. Yes.

But at the same time, it is an undeniable fact that the military in general and army in particular has eaten up the very roots of this poor nation.
Dear Romair, there are some good exceptions. I agree. In PAF more, much more than army. But almost entire (over 90%) high command of the army, and 70 – 80% of the air force and navy are modern day looters in ceremonial dresses – squarely responsible for the destruction of the institutions.

All of them, together, have converted Pakistan into a giant brothel, where army pimps runs the show. Was it not here on chowk, a lady Nighat Yasmeen raised some very serious questions about the sordid state of affairs. And none could refute her assertions.

---------------------------------
405,399 Americans that lost their lives during World War II. 78,976 of them are Missing in Action.
The Department of Defense reports that 54,246 Americans service men and women lost their lives during the Korean War. This includes all losses world wide.
In Vietnam War, American casualties were: 109000. Out of which Battle deaths were 47410.

Sources:
Directorate For Information Operations and Reports
Department of Defence
http://www.dior.whs.mil/mmid/casualty/castop.htm
American Battle Monuments Commission
http://www.usabmc.com

I have been reading with some interest the comments from Rumair (#42) and Sac (#43). They are both right in their own way. Would you guys like to have a separate article sent to Chowk than to interact under the title, “My Beautiful Rizwan”.
By the way, I like the way Sac puts in his words for the generals as an institution. I would like Rumair to visit Bangladesh if he hasn’t had time to go through report of HRC (Hamudur Rehman Commission Report). As Faiz put it:
Kab nazar mein aai gee be dagh sabze ki bahar
Khoon ke dhabbe dhulein ge kitnee barsaton ke baad.
Also please find out what has been the sources of income of Humayyun Akhtar, Zia’s sons, and Anwar Shamim Khan’s son to name a few.
Hope to see you write a separate article on the Role of Army in BUILDING Pakistan.