Pakistan is a safe place

There was a misconception or it might be a reality that Pakistan was a dangerous place for foreigners who want to visit here for sake of tourism, educations, jobs etc. Very small number of people were visiting Pakistan from other places of world since War against terrorism stated. There was a perception of people around the world that it is the worlds most dangerous place because every second day we could hear news of killings, terrorist attacks, suicide bombs being exploded. 

              Not more than a decade before we can see foreigners in Pakistan and they used to be happy visiting our country. Specially on the roads of Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi and places like northern areas where people from all around the world could be seen for tourism purpose. It was an attractive place for them. But since this problem of terrorism all the tourists vanished and we can see hardly a foreigner roaming openly in our streets. We can see them but very few with hard security measures. They were never walking in streets.

             Court street is a street near lower Mall Lahore. It is completely a common place where you can see lawyer in the morning who are going to attend court from their chambers. In evening when office timing is closed you can students of New Hostel, Government College Lahore and from civil lines college walking through the streets and having chit chat with each other. It is not a place where you can say very special security measures are being implemented. It is surrounded by a lower middle class society including Dev Samaj and Islampura.

              This eve I was walking around in court street I entered a juice corner, I saw a group of students who were sitting at that place. I was shocked by seeing them as I was not in any five star hotel. It was an ordinary juice corner. They were students from a University in Lahore. As i was not expecting them here I went to them and asked about Pakistan. They were very glad and were very impressed by people and their hospitality. On my question relating security issues they said that never found any security issue neither in their hostels nor in university. This made me proud because I was witnessing the our comes of a long struggle which my nation had during this last decade against terrorism. The credit goes to this nation who remained united on this issue.

             The credit also goes to our Armed forces and the Political Parties. Armed forces who fought with their best abilities, political paties who remained united at this national issue no matter what was their ideology.

Eat or pay utilities

People of our country are in a state of confusion because they don't have that much resources on the other hand they have many things to do with in their resources, things to make them survive in this world. There are few necessities which a family need in this age. One of the necessity is electricity because it is the basic power source these days and it is necessity of every house. But the increasing  rates of electricity have created a choas among people whether they should pay the bills or cook food for their children.
We have a maid who work in our house. She earns four thousand a month. She supports her husband financially who is working in a textile mill at twelve thousands a month. The couple earns fifteen to sixteen thousand a month for their children. They live in a house of two rooms with their children.
Today when she came to our house her face was a bit depressed. My mother inquired her that is there any problem on which she replied we had received an electricity bill of five thousand and it is impossible for us to pay five thousand a month for electricity because the total income of the house is not more than fifteen thousand. Their family consists of the couple and their two children. A boy who left school in ninth class because his parents could not support him for his studies further and a girl of seventeen years whom marriage is alarming them as the days are passing. Before when they face a difficult financial condition they reduced their expenses by removing their child from school but now they have no option to reduce their expense. I mean they cant stop their children from eating. A family of four people can hardly carry their food within fifteen thousand income rather than paying those luxurious utility bills which actually are not as a result of their luxury.
Unluckily our people had been entangled into such problems so that they have no time for them selves. They cant sit and think about their amusement. All the time they had to think about their survival. In such conditions we can never have a healthy atmosphere in our society. As result we could never produce thinkers.
There are many necessities of a family including food, education of children, health etc which necessary for a healthy life but this family has now even difficulty to fulfill their food which is the first necessity. The children of the family could never have standard education. If they would ever face a health emergency they would have no money to cope with the situation. How would our people survive until this barbarity of price-hiking of utilities continued by the government.  

68th Independence day but still we are mentally not independent

The 7th nuclear power of world. A country having diversity in its beauty, having mountains of Himalia, the plans of Indus, the deserts of Cholistsan, plateau of Potohar, coastal line of Mehran. This is Pakistan, a blessing of God which we got 68 year before having high hopes in our eyes. We sacrificed our everything because we wanted a place worth living. The place where human beings rather than Muslims can live independently. However, it was ideologically the foundation of an Islamic state but every body was free to get refuge here, which is a true concept of an Islamic welfare state.

India was ruled by Britishers around a century. Muslims were the people who resisted their wrong deeds. Their every social injustice was resisted by Muslims through their protests and presenting themselves for sacrifice for their brother. These were people who were physically ruled by  others, but mentally in light of teachings of their ideals and leader that they resisted for their rites and got their independent state.

Today we are living in an Independent country. We got independence 68 years ago but mentally we are not independent. We are indulged into few thoughts of our mind which stops us from thinking independently. Today we don't care if in something bad is happening in some other part of our country. We don't care if Peshawer attack happens. We just have a feeling of sadness then we move our face on other side. Today if Kasoor incident happens there is no one among us who could stand against people doing it. Living in Punjab and interior parts of country we don't care what is happening in Karachi. We just sit in front of our television screens watching everything in News and then forgetting everything. Today if Govt increases prices of something we feel bad but after sometime we pay for the same thing without protesting against that increase. 

We as a nation have stopped owing the country. We think that the system of our country is being run by someone of other world who is not approachable to us. We don't know that these people are elected by  us through our vote. They come to us every five year. They are answerable to us. We just keep on focusing our daily routine and are forgetting our social duties. As a result we had not remained independent in our thinking.          

Kasoor Insident

Pakistan being a country where every next day you can expect a news which can ruin your feelings as a human being. We as a nation are now use to these things on daily basis and had developed a habit of remaining silent on these tragedies. Here rape cases, child abuse cases are only source of point scoring of different media houses. They highlight these scandals for few days in a race of highlighting the news at first and after few days the case is buried.
This time it is Kasoor, a city not more than 100 miles from Lahore the capital headquarter of Punjab. Around three hundred children are physically abused in the city by a gang of few influential people and were blackmailed in this 21st century. No body can believe that this can happen in an atomic power country in 2015, such a greater number of people are victim, The big news was that nobody from that locality rose against this brutality because an MPA of ruling party was backing the gang. It is ridiculous, what is status of a MPA in our society. What image we are showing to the world that local MPA, DSP and SHO can do anything in our society because in this case these three people seem to be symbol of danger like they are not answerable to any one.
No body rose against them and certainly a media house highlighted the issue ant following them every channel started following it. Now this is a burning issue, It might remain for few more days. Then a committee or a commission would be formed, the issue would be buried and after not more than a month no body would remember the story. This is Pakistan.    

From achiever of crusades to the comrades of Independence

Palestine, witness of many important events of Islamic history. The remained under different empires has always been important target of invaders throughout the history. It remained under different empires starting from Egyptians, the land which is  Romans, Assyrians, Persian. Palestine came under Muslims after the Arab invaders. After that it had witness glorious era of Muslim history when Sultan Sallahudin released the Qibla e Awal of Muslims and it came under Muslims again. It also came under Ottomans Empire in 16th century.

From 1917 to 1948 the region was part of Great Britain. the 1948 Arab-Israeli war led to an influx of Palestinian Arab refugees that tripled the region's population. And then in 1967 it was captured by Israel.

After that the city has been a center of political unrest in the world. Israel being a major reason for that unrest has always being testing its weapons among the innocent Palestinians. The basic reason behind all this activity of Israel is carrying the ideas of the biggest democracies of the world who are the custodians of Justice in this world. According to them killing Muslim and eliminating Islam is the best service to establish justice in the world. Israel has always played a role of tout for non Islamic forces. In other words its status is no more than Gullu Butt.

These forces always used Israel to complete their illegal deeds. The organisation of world which are responsible for maintaining law and order of world has also taken no step in this regard.

Well whatever being a non Muslim and enemies of Islam they had to do and will keep on doing all this. The question arises here that where is whole Islamic Ummah. Muslims are not week having an atomic power. The members of Islamic countries include powerful Arabs who are exporters of oil in the world, Turkey a spoiled child of Europe, Iran another country showing eyes to America since a decade. The Islamic countries comprising 56 countries could never be week because they are the decedents of mujahidins of Badr. They are the followers of those who had raised name of Haq and truth in karbala. What are these Islamic countries doing in response of cruelty of non Islamic forces(not blaming only Israel for all this).

What all these Muslim countries are doing just releasing statements from their foreign offices. Their masses just changing their profile picture on Facebook and Twitter in favor of people of Gaza. These decedents of Khaleed Bin Waleed, Sultan Sallahudin, Muhammad bin Qasim had reached today at this stage where their brothers and sister are being used as a sample for weapons tests by the non Muslims.

All this is because we muslims are totally dependent upon non Muslim superpowers of world from food to weapons we import everything from those countries. When we would use cold drinks, tomatto chips prepared by them how can these muslim became independent and speak for their rights. The AK 47s and rifles used by the armies of there muslim countries are also not prepared by them.

  

INFLUENCE OF ELECTRONIC MEDIA ON CHANGING PUBLIC OPENION

Media has always been influential on public opinion. It basically provides information to the people. It informs people about things happening in their surroundings. People usually follow different sources to get in touch with their current affairs. Electronic media has made a revolution in media industry because it is at very easy access to the masses. Electronic media mostly consists of radio and television. Both of them consist of channels on which different programs are telecasted.

It has been quoted that

“Media is more powerful than nuclear devices”

 I believe that above quote is worth taking. The electronic media has touched every aspect of human life. In present era Information and Technology are interwoven with each other. The evolution of electronic media has had an overwhelming impact on the society. These days it also influence even the economic condition of the society. The Opportunities of communication have broken all barriers across national boundaries and have led to the germination of new ideas through the cross pollination of cultures.

In subcontinent radio was working even before creation of Pakistan but television got its first exposure in early sixties. It was the time when only one channel was working; it was Pakistan Television (PTV); the only national channel of Pakistan. PTV was owned by Government of Pakistan. The content which was to be telecasted on it was very much calculated. The television authorities were not intended to go beyond instructions of Government of Pakistan.

But after this in just 3 to 4 decades electronic media industry in Pakistan had made a great revolution. This revolution was the beginning of private channels in Pakistan. The role of media especially the electronic media in Pakistani society is tri- dimensional; that is informing the public, educating the unknowledgeable and providing entertainment. It can be termed as Fourth pillar of the state. It has recorded tremendous growth in a limited time period.  Only three or four decades ago, radio and state owned TV was considered to be the main sources of information. Today, we have more than 77 Satellite TV Channels, 2346 cable operators, 28 landing TV Channels from abroad like BBC, CNN, Sky, Star etc. and more than 129 FM Stations (on air and in some cases licenses issued) including 46 Radio Channels.

The role of media especially the electronic media in Pakistani society is tri- dimensional; that is informing the public, educating the unknowledgeable and providing entertainment. It can be termed as Fourth pillar of the state. It has recorded tremendous growth in a limited time period in Pakistan.

If we have glance over these three roles of media in our society we can very much analyze the impact of electronic media on a society.

The first role which is providing information. If we look the awareness of people of Pakistan 10 years ago and take a look on the present condition we would definitely of the opinion that electronic media has very much influenced the people

Similarly the role of educating the people has also been very much impressive today the mentality of people has been very much changed.

  The role of media is not only influenced news and current affairs but it also provide great change in entertainment industry. Today the fashion trends have been changed. People are now following modern trends irrespective of their culture, area, country etc. These things make it clear that media has defiantly influence over the public opinion.

 The media can give direction to social change, and positively guide the society towards the desired goals. The electronic media may be successful in stimulating the change in the tightly held ideas and rigid attitudes to bring desired change. It is also used by the state / society /organizations to promote educational activity. Mobilization of public opinion in support of a cause is the prominently known feature of the electronic media in Pakistan as we saw in Chief Justice Iftikhar Ahmed Chaudhry's termination by the former President Musharraf, created a storm in media scene as well, the media supported the movement and played a vital role in creating a favorable public opinion for the movement, they mark this struggle for the sake of democracy and reinstatement of Cheif Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.

The objectivity of media is becoming increasingly questionable, the coverage of issues of national interest demand care and restraint. The media in Pakistan is devoid of objectivity, and just telecast such incidents that sometime are not factual. In order to improve their ratings and enhance viewership, the tool of sensationalism is used.  What is important is to think as to what is being done to own sensibilities and social and moral values. Electronic media has made the masses over sensitive to the affairs happenings in their surroundings. In this highly polarized society where we have divisions like ethnic, sectarian, ideological and gender we can’t afford an immature media.

Today in this time when we are assuming that we are living in the era of independent media it is sorry to say that our media is not working independently.  Today our electronic media industry is not working independently. Different channels are working on different agendas.  They are following different ideologies and are influencing people according to their interests. They are setting different agendas and are setting minds of people. Because of this role of electronic media is presenting an image of state within a state. They are now strong enough that they are influencing state affairs. Their strength is all because of their power of influencing minds of people. There is a concept of sensor ship around the world for keeping a check and balance on the content being displayed on channels. In Pakistan there are authorities who are working for this purpose but their role is very much questionable. Different channels are telecasting such content which is having a deep impact on people. Our entertainment industry is following such trends that it is destroying our culture. Foreign content is being telecasted which is developing boldness in our society.

Now whole of electronic media should get together and set a code and conduct about the content which should be telecasted. The media industry should have to develop a professional maturity in their work otherwise they would be responsible for destruction of this culture and mentality of this nation. 

Are we tolerant nation?

Recently was Holi, the festival of colors. Today, Hindus bedeck themselves in the colors of life and love and many other communities join in to mark the start of spring. Alas, the only color adorning Pakistan is black and red. Our Hindu brethren in the streets of Larkana should be celebrating this auspicious festival. Instead, they hide in their houses, afraid for their safety and worried about reprisals from a community that should be their protectors.

Once again, the specter of bigotry and hatred has raised its head in what is becoming a far too frequent pattern. Once again, we are left wondering about the empty symbols of equality, the white strip in our flag and the all but the forgotten speech of our founder which he made on August 11, 1947 and promised freedom of worship and equality for all citizens of Pakistan.

What is the issue here? The desecration of the holy book or the inherent intolerance for those of another religion that has permeated society? If the pages of the holy book are damaged by one person, is that a license to burn down temples and places of worship? Is pillage and gross retribution a tenet taught by Islam? It is not; however, there are those who have strayed too far from the ideas of equality and tolerance that Islam preaches.

The 2012 killing in Florida of Trayvon Martin, a black youth, highlighted the ignorance of a few but it was the strong response of the government which showcased the rights given to all members of a society. President Barack Obama himself paid his respects, even as the news caused a national outrage in the United States and dominated the presidential race taking place at that time.

That is the litmus test of minority rights, the reaction of the state and the public at large to an ugly incident.

Has there been a similar response to the forced conversions of Hindus and Christian girls, the desecration of non-Muslim places of worship, and the everyday cases of persecution that occur in Pakistan? Sadly, the answer has always been a few innocuous statements by the elected officials, empty promises and then ignominious silence by state institutions.

Pakistan’s case is tragic, considering the important role the Hindu community has played in the creation and, later, development of the country. The nation’s first law minister, Jogendra Nath Mandal, was a Hindu who was also nominated by Muhammad Ali Jinnah as one of the four Muslim league nominees in the interim government of joint India in 1946.

Mandal was one of the founding fathers of Pakistan and supported the creation of Pakistan, him being the principle reason the idea of Pakistan got the support of the Scheduled Castes. After partition, he became the chairman of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan and joined the first cabinet in Pakistan as the Minister of Law and Labour. He was dismayed at the passing of the Objectives Resolution and when the lower-caste Hindus were killed in East Bengal, he saw his vision of a secular Pakistan die with them.

He left for India and resigned from his position, never to see the country he had laboured endlessly to help create.

Other non-Muslims too played critical roles.

SP Singha, speaker of the Punjab Assembly when the resolution for Pakistan was moved, proved instrumental in rallying Christian members to vote for Pakistan, which eventually was passed with the majority of just three votes. History would have been different had he not been there.

Samuel Martin Burke was the magistrate of the Election Petition Commission of Punjab in 1945 and he moved 16 petitions in favour of the Muslim League, in the face of much opposition from the Indian National Congress, Maulana Maudoodi of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Sir Sikander Hayat, who had wanted a United India.

Also, standing for Pakistan included BL Rulia Ram, Bhim Sen Sachar and others who fought and won this country for us. These people are amongst the many who shared Jinnah’s dreams, lived and died for Pakistan and left their homes in India, only in the belief of a new and tolerant country.

There are war heroes who have accepted death as readily as any of their Muslim brethren. Christian, Hindu and Parsi soldiers have fought and died as recently as 2008, in the military operation in Swat. These are also Pakistanis, people who have worked for this country and call it their home. These are our friends and neighbours, school teachers and nurses. We laugh with them, partake in their joys and mourn their tragedies.

They form part of the tapestry of Pakistan; a tapestry which is in danger of being shorn of the diversity, passion and patriotism that they add so readily to it. We stand with them to remind them and more importantly that the true measure of a nation is how it treats those whom it is meant to safeguard.

If we don’t protect their rights, their places of worship, their homes and livelihoods, then we have lost the soul of our country.

That is an eternal loss which I refuse to accept.