The Karachi Airport Ayatollah

Karachi is indeed a great city. It is home of many Pakistanis from all corners. You can find people from every village city of Pakistan in Karachi. You can also find large communities of people from Bangladesh Burma India and Sri-Lanka here needless to mention there are a huge number of Afghans who have mingled with the locals.

Karachi has a lot to offer for a traveller. Some of the tours are listed at http://www.travel-culture.com/pakistan/karachi.shtml If you have a short transit in Karachi Please take a look at this page and do one of these tours thru them or just take a cab to do the same tour on your own at a much better bargain http://www.travel-culture.com/karachi_airport_tours.shtml

I wish well for all who live in this city.

Jamal

For a moment I thought ``adding m`` meant adding it at the tail end. A delightful Pakistanam! Complete with vada and sambar and Idli and I forget the third item- Uppma!!
But I was wrong.
PRK.

agree with the content...essay is really bad and incoherent...LSD perhaps...One can only guess nowadays with such an abundant supply of intoxicants...and surprising as well...coming from a moghal in defence of punjabi and against urdu...Daanish Masood lover of Urdu and Analytic Philosophy, who has kindly promised to buy Haroon`s first novel must take the duty to tell Haroon the origins of Urdu,its development in Moghal Era and the fact that Moghuls are not Punjabis.

Ahmad Hayat
P.S
The transliteration is really annoying as well

SR: Urdu and Hindi (except for the few native speakers) could be a third language for those who so choose.

That is what has happened in India.

Romair #22

Thanks for a clearly reasoned and well argued post.

[“… powers of the world… have their own language… as their medium of education… French… Russians… Chinese… Japan… Germans… Dutch… Spaniards… Swedes/Swiss/Norwiegians… Italian… Koreans… None of them… jumped towards… [a] foreign language…

Is the relationship between their success and… stick[ing] to… local langauge… a coincidence? …”]

Notice, in the list of countries you provide above all (almost) are natural nations. I do not see any mention of Yougoslavia or Soviet Union. Perhaps you didn’t mention them because they no longer exist, but even if they still did, I have a feeling that they would not have fit your argument. As far as natural nations are concerned, you are 100% right. But Pakistan and Bharat are no more natural nations than were Yougoslavia or USSR.

I fully agree with the facts you refer to the only difference we have here is based on a very fundamental divergence in our basic paradigms. Namely, you believe in the nationalistic concept of Pakistan, whereas I don’t. Your unit of reference is the political state entity, Pakistan. My unit of reference is the more natural concept of a nation (i.e., a group of people who share a language, traditions, cuisine and culture), such as Punjab or Bengal etc. To my way of thinking unnatural political state entities, such as today’s Pakistan and Bharat, are not desirable for peace and prosperity of the billion plus inhabitants of the area and therefore not only do I feel no need to recognize and honor the political status quo, quite to the contrary, I consider it immoral.

You and others who argue nationalistically and support Urdu are basically invoking A. K. Borohi and Badmash-ud-din Pirzada’s “doctorine of necessity.” It sounds like this: given the reality that after 56 years of ram rodding Urdu down the unwilling throats of subjugated Punjabi, Pathan, Sindhi and Baluchi, it has become the “lingua franca” and now therefore must be recognized and honored. True, the argument has weight of logic but not the sanction of ethics. Just as the native American should learn English and the Mexican Maya should learn Spanish, you would have all Punjabi, Pathans, Sihdhis and Baluchis speak Urdu. Well, they tried this with the Bengalis also (and gace the exact same arguments then), but we won’t even go there. Moreover, the native American and Mayan analogy does not hold because the triumph of Urdu is nowhere near as complete as is the triumph of English in America or of Spanish in Mexico. So the ‘doctrine of necessity’ does not quite hold.

Being a bit more idealistic than practical I will go along with Sameer’s argument:

# 23 successive governments have treated local cultures (language being most important part of it) as conquered cultures on August 14, 1947. It almost feels like that Pakistan conquered Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashtun and Balochi cultures as a result of political success of TNT.

And

#28 Had printing press come to subcontinent soon after its invention in Germany, most of the cultures would have accumulated abundant amount of written literature and with it all the dreams of ONT and TNT would have flushed down the gutter.

Now, in the age of democracy, ease of printing and communication, the influences of bad history and historical mistakes must be neutralized.

I lament the fact that me and my cohorts from West Punjab were systematically kept illiterate in our mother tongue because of selfish and narrow minded decisions made by bureaucrats in Islamabad and New Delhi. Urdu was the native tongue of hardly 7% of the population when it was declared to be the national language.

All the argument you advance in favor of Urdu can be advanced to favor our native first languages. And all you write against English can also be said against Urdu. I am sure the same debate could also rage in Bharat regarding Hindi and English.

I favor English, not as a national language, no that honor should go to the native languages of each nation of South Asia, i.e., Punjabi, Bengali, Tamil etc. etc. English should simply be the preferred the ‘second language’ for science, commerce and international communication. Urdu and Hindi (except for the few native speakers) could be a third language for those who so choose.

Best wishes,

…SR

Romair # 22

You are confused as always. Read your own post again. On one hand you are praising countries who have the language, spoken by their people as their national lanugage and on the other hand you are propagating Urdu as a national language, which is a imported language for most of the Pakistanis. Why shouldn`t Punjabis, Sindhi, Pashtun learn their mother tongue for communicating locally and English which is equiped much better for business and scientific communication.

stop talking and start doing it pal. otherwise you will be just like the mughals i.e. history.

Same old lame emotional excuses fortified with patriotism, TNT and religion. I guess Indian crickert team communicates in Sanskrit or hell will break lose with a total collapse of communication all over Pakistan, from Habib Bank Plaza to Pakistani cricket team, if 5 languages are granted national languages status.

I guess Mooda Ghaznavi and Shabu Ghauri killed people because of communication problems. The native cultures have been around for at least 1000 years. They remained mostly oral traditions mainly because of overlordship of Persian and later Urdu and English. But the worst blow to them came from AHs Mughal rulers who were reluctant to allow printing presses in India for the fear of free expression. Had printing press come to subcontinent soon after its invention in Germany, most of the cultures would have accumulated abundant amount of written literature and with it all the dreams of ONT and TNT would have flushed down the gutter.

Now, in the age of democracy, ease of printing and communication, the influences of bad history and historical mistakes must be neutralized.

adnan_rafiq:

I do not blame mohajirs for anything. Blaming them despite Panjabis having all the power, resources and dominantion would be akin to blaming every bad thing on colonialism, USA and CIA and I refer you to Urstruly to discuss such matters. Panjabis are too be blamed for the plight of their mother tongue - Panjabi language, period. Many of the grieviances of smaller provinces against Panjabi domination are genuine and some are not. Since every government in Pakistan is inept, corrupt, nepotistic, and Panjabis can not avoid sharing major share of blame for being the majority in the government. The Panjabi ruling class and elite is mostly detached from Panjabi culture and some like former Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar (under Musharraf), himself a panjabi, openly detested Panjabis speaking in panjabi language.

# 25

`why on Earth will this machinery pursue an anti-Punjabi agenda? Just does not add up`

Because in any kind of Punjabi movement or renaissance reminds people of Punjab on the other side of the Ravi too, esp since many Punjabis in Pak actually come from the other side as Punjabi Mohajirs... this wish to want to intereact with all Punjabis to learn and share and just keep in touch with the whole cultural thing leads to a removal of steroetypes and prejudices against the `enemy` nation, if theres no enemy, we wont need as many generals... so Punjabi or not, their looking out for themselves and their future, at the cost of others rights... the last thing they would want is friendly relations between Indian and Pakistani Punjabi ppl... why has no govt ever let Punjabi be the medium of education for at least primary level, while Sindhi, Baluchi, and Pushto are in their provinces? Why do they go on to crush in the bud any concerted effort made by Punjabi ppl to have their language used as a medium of education?

its almost as if the military establishment feels threatened by Punjabi when they have no reason to be, Pakistani Punjabi will not stop being Pakistani and nor will Indian Punjabi ppl stop being Indian, or demand for a united Punjab or anything like that, ppl are happy being Pakistani or Indian, just a little freedom to be able to have cultural exchange and respect for our language would be nice.

adnan_rafiq (who was the inspiration behind your nick):

that scenario that you describe in that very funny post of yours, that exact scenario is going to take place in the dressing room of multan cricket stadium today. pakistan cricket team`s ethnic and probably religious composition has never been more diverse. and the harmony never stronger. i cant think of a time when so many pathans represented our cricket team. and interesting that management of this team is completely dominated by urdu speakers. (miandad, haroon rashid, rashid latif). and how many punjabi and pathan players do you think resent this? and do you really want miandad communicating in english? and what language do you think the lowly lahori christian will use to communicate with the lowly karachi hindu? and when these people from very, very ordinary backgrounds go out to do battle, how many of them are going to resent the fact captain is shouting instructions in urdu and that they are representing pakistan rather than punjab or sindh or afghanistan? and 12 year olds in any corner of pak from any economic group, what do they want to do when they grows up?

and this scenario, it gets repeated everyday in the great banking hall of habib bank plaza on the floor of karachi stock exchange. and the people who want to destroy this, they are only swimming against the tide. and they know this as well. otherwise they would stand outside badshahi mosque after friday prayers and say these things.

sameerJB:

Perhaps you misunderstood me. My comments regarding Urdu were reserved for its status as the lingua franca of Pakistan, not as a national language. I agree that it should never try to supersede the regional languages or assert itself as a superior alternative. I don`t care if it loses its status as the national language of Pakistan.

Also, correct me if I am wrong, but you have probably never lived outside of Punjab within Pakistan. Most non-Punjabis have grievances against Punjab. Whether they are rooted in reality or perception is another issue, and I won`t even touch it with a ten foot pole. But, suffice to say that any attempt to make Punjabi a national language will encounter much more resistance than Urdu.

And, to those who think English should be the second language of Pakistan (after the regional languages), you guys need to get a dose of reality. In a country where the official literacy rate is around 26% (these stats are old, but I am sure they haven`t changed much), you have better chances of beating Australia in cricket than make Allah Baksh and Raheem chat in perfect English.

Lastly, you talk about pride and restoration or something like that. I think pride is a useless concept. Punjab plays a dominant role in every sphere of life in Pakistan. Whether its the bureacracy, military, population or media, Punjab`s shadow looms larger than ever. The Mohajir element that we all love to blame for everything had long ago lost its powerbase, except for a few middle-class neighborhoods in Karachi. Your references to government machinery smacks of a classic conspiracy theory. Its no secret that Pakistan is ruled by the military (as you have observed numerous times as well). It is also no secret that the ethnic makeup of our military is overwhelmingly Punjabi (barring one Gen. Pervez Musharraf.) So, why on Earth will this machinery pursue an anti-Punjabi agenda? Just does not add up.

SR #21 ``Why should I prefer my vanquished former enslavers’ tongue over my victorious former enslavers’?``

Good question. particularly when the victorious former enslaver`s (or simply ``wadha sahab`` in panjabi) tongue is no longer the victorious former enslaver`s tongue. It is the language of the world today. Big difference.

If anyone still talks about ``national language`` it is proof that he has been fast asleep over the past three decades.

adnan_rafiq:

For the sake of communication ease between two individuals from Bilawal and Gujranwala, you are ignoring the rights of the millions who do not travel across cultural boundries for most of their lives. One can extend this exceptions/ rare events to all areas of society and erect laws for the sake of every two indivuals` discourse.

If you look around the world, the national languages represent majority populations of that state. Name one country where [single] national language is the cultural/ mother tongue of a minority. Actually Panjabi has much more right to be the national language of Pakistan than any other, if one language has to be chosen as national language. Fortunately Panjabis, despite majority, do not ask for it in politically multicultural Pakistan.

The official sponsorship of one of the languages actually plays out in win-lose fashion where other languages become losers. They do not get official advertisements and, therefore, newspapers do not compete with Urdu press. Panjabi is not used as language for increasing literacy level and Panjabi illiterate villagers found Urdu useless in their lives. Therefore, interest in becoming literate remains low especially among women in rural areas except for the ability to read quran.

I strongly support equal treatment of at least 5 languages at national level and strong support for majority`s language at provincial level. While we debate the difference between gaining independence and transfer of power in political terms, the successive governments have treated local cultures (language being most important part of it) as conquered cultures on August 14, 1947. It almost feels like that Pakistan conquered Panjabi, Sindhi, Pashtun and Balochi cultures as a result of political success of TNT. Is this the price to be paid for refusing to accept one nation theory and coerced / manipulated into accepting two nation theory?

Every time there is any movement for restoration of some pride to Panjabi language, all machinery of the governments (in India too) come into action against it. Lately, in Pakistan, in order to neutralize the awareness of Panjabi heritage, official efforts are in full swing to limit it to some 6-8 good classical Sufi poets only. Tame the urban with Urdu, deobandi, wahab; tame the rural with feudals and pirs and tame the awareness with Sufi poetry. Not a bad strategy to deal with conquered folks, not much different from the time of subjugation by invaders. The saga of conquest, conquered and sunjugation continues...

SR #21: Interesting comments. Though a double-edged sword, if you ask me, with benefits and losses.

I think all the major (and minor) powers of the world, not only have their own language as their national language, they also use it as their medium of education. To the best of my knowledge, all five of the Security Council members fall into this category. Americans learn and study and communicate in English. French in French. Russians in Russians. Chinese in Chinese (Mandarin/Cantonese). And Brits in English. In addition, to this the remaining major economic powers of the world, do the same. Americans/Brits/French/Chinese as explained above. Next comes Japan, in Japanese. Germans in German. Dutch in Dutch. Spaniards in Spanish. Swedes/Swiss/Norwiegians etc. in whatever combination of their own or surrounding languages. Italian in Italian. Koreans in Korean. Etc. etc.

None of them seem to have jumped towards English, or any other foreign language, other than as a second or third language, i.e. learning it to communicate with the outside world. They seem to have given internal communication more importance, when choosing a national language. Is the relationship between their success and their desire to stick to the most common local langauge – one that everyone in their own country can understand - a coincidence?

Urdu is the only language in Pakistan that is understood by nearly every Pakistani, and spoken, at least in broken form, by nearly every Pakistani. It is also the only language that can be read and written by every literate Pakistani. It is, now, in fact, no longer the language of the choori-dar pajama wearing folks. I can make a bet that most of the literate Punjabis speak Urdu more than they speak Punjabi. This would probably be true for literate Sindhis (many of whom live in Karachi) and maybe even literate Pathans (many of who live in Karachi, also).

I don’t have exact statistics, but English, I would say, can be spoken and understood by maybe 5-10% of Pakistanis. If it became the national language, what would happen to the remaining 90% of Pakistanis. They are already out of the loop, since their education medium and system is inferior to those of the wealthier English-medium schools. Putting them in a situation where they cannot even understand their own national language would completely alienate them.

It would however benefit those of us who can speak and understand English. It would make the elite even more elite. That is never good, since the strength of a country does not come from its well-off elites. It comes from its Joe sixpack (or Abdul lassi-walla) on the street.

Interestingly, the more wealthier the countries become, the more desire there seems to be to go to their root language, and away from, “foreign” national languages. I have heard that Irish, after their recent IT boom, and studying Gaelic more and more. Even though Ireland is an example of a country where the official language (Gaelic) wasn’t widely spoken amongst the people, who mostly speak English. Israel declared Hebrew to be their official language in 82, even though that is not a world language.

Are there any examples of countries whose national language is one that most of its own citizens cannot speak? My guess is probably not more than a handful of countries. I am not sure whether the average Pakistani will benefit from being a part of this list.

The lines are sharply drawn and individual positions very clear. “Urdu only,” say half the Paki-chowkies, “No, never,” responds the other half. What to do?

As a native born in Punjab who learnt Urdu and English at school my feelings are ambiguous. Why can I just not be left alone when I speak Punjabi sitting on the munji in my dhoti ? Why am I supposed to prefer the alien tongue of the utchkan and choori-daar pajama wearing Bhaiya over the alien tongue of the patloon tey tie wearing chita saab? As far as I am concerned, they are both languages of people who came from somewhere else and bossed around the Punjabi speakers.

Unfortunately, my Punjabi ancestors, great farmers and artisans that they doubtless were, didn’t make much of a mark on this planet to popularize their language past the fertile lands of the five rivers. In order to get ahead in today’s world I need to have the ability to communicate with others. That is simply a practical matter of common sense. Much in the same manner as walking is not as efficient as a horse buggy ride or a car ride when the object is to travel distance, similarly speaking only Punjabi is also not as efficient a mode of communication outside Punjab.

If walking cannot get me there, I’ll get a horse buggy. But walking is what I do naturally. Both horse buggy and motor car are alien modes of transportation. But isn’t a car better yet then a horse buggy? Of course it is. Likewise, isn’t English more versatile and universal than Urdu? Of course it is. It is practical common sense. There is no question of sentimental loyalty.

There is a confusion though. The victims of government bureaucracy propaganda (a.k.a. national educational system) have been the sold a bill of goods that national pride is a virtue and those not actively practicing some overt form of it (like saying “huwai ada” instead of “airport”) are actually suffering from ehsaas-e-kumtri… Mr. Naqshbandi goes so far as to employ the term “enforced” when he speaks of how Urdu should be promoted. The ‘lingua franca’ of the Land of the Pure he and his hum kHiyal friends call it. How about ‘lingua inglezia’ I ask? Didn’t ‘inglezia’ beat the daylights out of the ‘franca’? – Crecy, Agincourt, Waterloo?? And how about the patloon tey tie wallas smashing the crap out of the utchkan and choori-daar pajama wearing Bhaiya of Delhi, Agra and Ouhad ? – 1857-1947??

I never object to the Rizvi’s, Naqvi’s, Jafarey’s, Zaidi’s and Bokhari’s muttering away “amma yaar, hum ki, tum ki… etc.”? Why don’t they leave my friends MaajHa, SajHa, Lal, Haroo and MuNHou alone to decide how they communicate with one another and with the outside world.

Why should I prefer my vanquished former enslavers’ tongue over my victorious former enslavers’?

…SR

interesting article Haroon bhai...:-)

Urdu is the lingua franca of Pakistan and I personally think it should be enforced more--for example, the political debates in the National Assembly and Senate should be held in Urdu and not in English; learning English and using it as a national language are two totally different things. The latter smacks of an inferiority complex...

I think this transliteration of English words into Urdu like ``international`` as inTarnational (alif noon Tay ray noon yay sheen noon lam) etc. is silly and not very easy on the ears either. What is wrong with ``bayn al aqwaami`` (or we could say ``bayn al millali`` as they do in Iran; and believe you me if anyone is proud of their language it is the Persians)?

airport is havaii-aDa in Urdu or we could use the ``hava-payma`` as they do in Farsi...

Urdu is a beautiful language and we should be proud of it not ashamed of it.
We should also learn English and Arabic. In fact i think these 2 languages (in addition to Urdu) should be made compulsory in schools from an early age. plus the regional language depending on your region.