Air Cdre Rizwanullah Khan Shaheed Memorial Trust

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.

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.

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

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!?

stuka #2,

nice gesture

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.

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.

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

)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

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.

Samina is no doubt doing something which most of us (including myself) would have not done in her position.

She deserves our utmost best wishes, heartfelt appreciation, sincere encouragement and honest admiration. Equally, it is important that all of us contribute, in different forms, as much as we can to make this project a success.

Having said that I completely disagree that people are criticizing Samina or questioning her intentions in any sense.

On the contrary, it is a positive development that more and more people are utilizing every available mode of communication to register their hatred, disapproval and dislike for the power holders of Pakistan. Instead of discouraging dissenting voices we should rather amplify their shrieks for conveying the message that Pakistanis are really fed up of parasites both in khakis and sherwanis. We must tell them that we are not as mentally retarded as they have assumed us to be.

It must be clear to them that we see, we understand what is going on. Let them understand that people are just waiting for their turn to spit in their faces and burn their palatial mansions down. And that time will come soon. Insha-Allah.

It usually takes a devastating moment for most of us to wake up from the stupor of life and take a good look at everything around us. Some people when faced with such dire circumstances tend to wallow in their sorrow, others lash out.
Some start looking inside themselves for answers and start helping others. This is what Samina is doing.
A person who is capable of doing that needs to be commended and encouraged.

I take this opportunity to introduce myself. I am Air Cdre Rizwan`s son, Taimur Khan. I am 17 and a final year A levels student at Froebels` International, Islamabad. I hope that all friends will take some time to read my comments.

Thank you for your honest views. My father always encouraged debate and took all sorts of opinions that we gave him. Mostly, he had an easy and accepting view of everyone`s opinions. I try to keep a similar open mind. I know that my mother has had no prejudices either. She is being less than honest by saying that she has had an elite life style. She has been privileged, yes, but she has been involved all her life in charitable projects, has helped set up some very important charity projects in PAFWA, and both my parents have been supporting several children`s study as far back as I can remember. Their work has made serious difference in many people`s lives. This Trust that we have started is just an extension of their private work. That is how I think about it. It has not been easy for her to publicize it since she is a private person. But, it is important for us to talk about it to everyone to gain support, so that it can grow the way she envisions it.

As for my father being Shaheed, who knows. Shahadat is for Allah to give, not you and I. Since his death, I have been reading a lot about it. I find that there are many ``darajaat`` of shaheeds. Both my grandfathers are war veterans. My Nanajan is a Sitara-e-Jurat holder and my Dadajan was a POW for 3 years. Despite being in wars, they did not attain shahadat. My father loved life and would have liked to live many years but, if he had to go, I think he would have liked to go in uniform. So he went. There was no war, thank God, but had there been, I am confident he would have done the country proud. I have read that a student on his way to school, if he dies on the way, is also a shaheed. If Allah has given us so many opportunities to endear ourselves to Him, why should we haggle over this matter. My father was a good man, an excellent husband and father, an excellent officer. No one was ever hurt by his words or his deeds, no one speaks ill of him. I think a person who leaves this earth with not a single person speaking badly of him has truly achieved something. I believe he is a shaheed, may Allah make him so as well.

I request all friends to please focus on the issue at hand - education of deserving kids in Pakistan. This is not about the glory of my father`s name. He was no Jinnah or Liaquat Ali Khan, or a general or an air marshal. No one knows him except his family and friends. But this is the thing, you see. Baba always said ``hum SPCs - Simple Pakistani Citizens - Pakistan kay kaam aingay``. This is all my mother and her friends are trying to do.

This is about education of children. If it can be done by us declaring him NOT a shaheed, fine, lets agree on that. If it can be done after crticizing the military (I know many many good people in the military but this is not the point), fine, we`ve done that. Now, are we ready to contribute to a cause that I know we ALL agree on - that Pakistani children need help in education at all levels and ages of their lives? Please keep this in mind and help us. Thank you.

Peace,
My pryers for all who lost their lives in the tragic accident, and for those who lost loved ones. On human level this was a tragedy. However calling them shaheed or trust fund to collect money is not fair for thousands of our poor sipahi level men who died in many wars.
Most recently hundereds were killed in an unauthorized, illegal war waged by Mr. Musharaf, in Kargil. Did somebody bothered to create a fund then. Not realy so lets take it easy this time. We appreciate the services of these men and those who died before them. Some one can argue that ok we didnt created a fund last time lets start this time, well my answer would be a suppotive one only if that fund is to benefit the families of the deserving middle and lower class of millitary, and should have a ban for these top level luttera leadership to benefit from it.
I as a Pakistani salute the poor sipahi of my millitary, but would like to spit on the faces of its luttera leadership, and dont give me the crap that they are sincere to Pakistan cause. The only thing they work for is the Green in the Banks, plots in every cantonment and the big army of servants and other benefits.
Thanks.
P.S.Prayers for the departed souls, may God bless, and forgive them.

tamkhan1 #13 You have written a very thoughtful and reasoned post for a 17 year old. This in itself speaks volumes about your late father as well as of your brave mother. The setting up of this trust for the education of children is also proof of the sound values that your family possesses, and you should be very proud of being from such a family. It is families like yours that give one the hope that Pakistan will one day rise above its current problems to become one of the most progressive nations on earth.
I too am from a military family like you, but a full generation earlier. Like you, even as I decry the interference of the military in politics, the fact remains that some of the finest people I have known - straightforward, well meaning, and dedicated people - have been from the Pakistan military. And your father was obviously one of them.

All the best for your future.

tamkhan1 #13:

Taimur, a very balanced and mature post indeed. A worthy cause should be supported in all forms.

Our people have been deceived so many times that they no longer trust anyone, and it should be our aim to grow that feeling of trust, confidence and approval in their hearts by our deeds and actions.

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams!

I wish you and your family all the very best for the future.

Regards,

Taimur Malik.