Air Cdre Rizwanullah Khan Shaheed Memorial Trust

First of all, my heart-felt grief for the families who have lost their loved ones. In particular, widows of the younger members of the entourage, I pray from the bottom of my heart for them.

Then, my salute and sincere appreciations for Samina for undertaking this noble work.

It was a nice experience to see friends paying proper homage to the deceased CAS and other senior officers. Of course, we should never hesitate to commend and praise, when and where it is due. At the same time, we must never falter to stand up, whenever we find reasons, whenever there is justification, for that.

In fact, on macro-level it is far more important to criticize than to praise. Because, as we all know star officers never run short of admirers, devotees or supporters. The real job is to point out their deficiencies and to create an atmosphere where no one can take blind obedience as granted.

Regarding “shahadat”, dear friend, we in Pakistan have weird standards on one hand and acute shortage of appropriate terms on the other. As a rule, our (martial) VIPs are shaheeds, even if they meet the inevitable in the WC. Imagine, disgusting Zia is shaheed. For some, Bhutto is shaheed. On the other hand, a professor who dies enroute to his university class, is neither shaheed nor mujahid.

Anyone who doesn’t accept the official version is Indian agent and traitor. Every unorthodox opinion is Jewish conspiracy. RAW or CIA is behind every failure not to say road accident. Getting rid of these absurdities is only possible through openness and progressive forums like this one.

Take care.

)Sorry about the Typo. Let me try again...)

Good luck Mrs. Samina Rizwan.

Before the internet, there was another crash in Pakistan.

People mainly remember the General who died in it.

But There was a young man not unlike your husband on board.

You writing brought back his memory.

Ras

In the airlines business when an accident takes place, they quickly label that as PILOT ERROR, and the victims as DEAD. In Air Force flying the victims are quickly given the coveted blanket-label of SHAHEEDS. The mourners collect residential plots, cash, and medals too!

SHAHEED means `a Muslim who dies defending the FAITH` (not while flying into a mountain as part of an official inspection entourage). The Kohat Crash, sad though, was casued by pilot error.

Zia was a Shaheed (ask Ejazul Haq), Bhutto was a Shaheed (ask Benazir), and millions more were Shaheeds? May Allah help us all.

Tahir

i feel alot has already been discussed. lets give samina and her friends a hand and try and make this trust workable by donating our time, money and effort for a good cause. atleast someone is doing something positive, why do we have a habit of critisizing everything. some people can be honest and sincere to the country and themselves.

Dear Samina, thanks a lot for yet another straightforward, honest and moving write-up. I am unable to visualize a better tribute from a wife to her departed husband than this great project.

Please, allow me to add a little bit:

(a) The sad demise of your dear Rizwan helped you break the abhorring social/protocol barriers. Don’t slink into that blinding shell our upper-class dwell into, ever again – at least spiritually and emotionally.

(b) Make sure that Bilal would never suffer of the superiority complex, total lack of empathy, most of Rizwan’s colleagues and seniors acutely suffer in Pakistan. In particular, in our stinking army.

The apartheid type social structure our top brass has weaved around itself must be condemned, in all its forms and manifestations.

stuka #2,

nice gesture

Best of luck, Samina.

Hamzan, a bitter reality is: some people are more equal than other.

Of course, a general’s wife with aching back or a “star” drunk “chote sahib” should have higher priority at military hospitals. A wounded soldier can be easily replaced by hundreds of other willing mujahids. Does this poor nation have any substitutes for Mrs Anwar Shamim, Mr Homayoon Akhtar Abdur Rahman, Mr X Mansour ulHaq, Mrs Khatak, Mr Ejaz ul Haq, Mrs Waqar Azim, Tipu Sultan, Mrs Tiger Niazi ….. ??

Another important question needs to be deliberated upon: “No doubt the loss of the individuals must be a great loss for the families. However, what I fail to understand is the whole paraphernalia of propaganda machinery brought into action to portray everyone who died as Shaheed. Is the concept of Shaheed as misused by the armed forces in consonance with the true spirit of Islam? For example is that filthy munafiq Zia ul Haq really a Shaheed? Was he fighting in the way of Allah or was he doing his job like any other person and getting paid for it? Will, people please enlighten me?”

No bias against khakis? I would willingly enlarge the scope of this question? Is Bhutto a Shaheed?

Carrying the argument a little further for its own sake, will a mess jawan who is no less a soldier than Mushaf Ali Mir be remembered as a shaheed if run over by a car on route to bazaar to get much needed supplies (military’s term for sabzi, meat etc.)? Since there isn’t any laid down criterion to differentiate one kind of official duty from another, will the jawan earn sahaadut and be designated as shaheed the moment he meets the inevitable!?

Good luck Mr. Samina Rizwan.

Before the internet, there was another crash in Pakistan.

People mainly remember the General who died in it.

But There was a young man not unlike your husband on board.

You writing brought back his memory.

Ras

Dear Samina:

Welcome back. I hope and pray that you are doing well.

Last time, I was the first among chowk readers to open your piece; there was 0 hits when I clicked on it. This time only 4 persons have been faster than me.

May Allah Almighty give you strength and audacity to cope up with your personal responsibilities on one hand and to carry on Rizwan’s mission on the other. Amen.

Dear Samina, without intending to be mean or judgemental, I have very respectfully and sadly observed that [as you yourself have admitted] alas it took a sad and untimely demise of your husband for you to have social/religious/moral courage to tread beyond officers bungalows.

Imagine, this is the state of affairs in air force where despite everything NCOs and JCOs are treated rather politely and properly. I shudder to think about the plight of jawans and non-commissioned strength in the army.

I am disgusted to assume that the interactor was not wrong who claimed that in CMHs of Pakistan a general’s wife with aching back have far higher priority than that of bleeding sepoy rushed in from the LOC with Indian bullet in his chest.

Faith, deen, religion, all this stuff is applicable in the land of pure only and only as long as it serves spiritual and worldly needs of our elite, not an inch more than that.
See, one can find hundreds of Quranic verses and Hadiths splashed all over our military installations -- for declaring ourselves shaheeds and ghazis as per requirements, to fool gullible countrymen, to gobble the lion’s share of scarce national resources, to (re)name bases as a tribute to on duty deaths of chiefs, BUT NEVER EVER to lead a modest life, no to steal through official, quasi-official and unofficial modes, not to behave as immortal despots and so on.

If you [and other readers as well] have time (and/or lust/interest) to check my humble reply to your last article, please do it.

I would request any Indian not to have the bad taste to put any negative comments on this board.

This article is about officers and men of the Pakistan Air Force who died in an air crash leaving behind widows and orphans.

Similar tragedies occur in the Indian Air Force as well as any other Air Force in the world. Yet, the officers and men carry on, with the moral support of their families.

I offer my condolonces to the families of the victims and request other Indians to do the same. But if that be too much for some, at least refrain from negative comments.