How the history is biased

Recently i read a very interesting statement from Hitler

“Had Charles Martel not been victorious at Tours …Then we should in all probability have been converted to Mohammedanism. Then the Germanic races would have conquered the world.”

and then i read couple of articles on it, one from wall street journal and one from a historian(here and here) and i was surprised that how shallow was their research. The main point of the articles were that Hitler was barbarian and Muslims are also uncivilized that is why he wished for that. That is a opinion you can have if you have either not read the history or you are just too biased to write something against your bias.

Point is that Muslims knocked on the doors of Germany twice, Once in the 1st Century Hijri (7th Century AD) when the battle of tours happened and second during the Ottoman empire in 11th Centry Hijri (17th Century AD), when battle of Vienna took place. Now if anyone has seen that map of the world, he would have known that Tours is considerably farther from Germany then Vienna. Map below

Rather Vienna was the gateway to Germany before World War 1 (Map Below). What was so special that Hitler wished that Muslims in First Century had captured Germany rather than Muslims of 17th Century?

The point is that, first of all Muslim conquest of 1st century hijri (7th Century AD)  were for the spreading of Islam. An Islam which was without any sect. The true form of Islam.

Secondly the conquest of Muslims of 1st century hijri (7th Century AD) left a lasting changes. The areas which Muslim conquered in 1st century hijri (7th Century AD) remained as Islamic countries till today. Although there have changes of dynasties and ruling classes but over all they remain Islamic.

This bring me to the third point that the inhabitants of the areas that were conquered during the 1st century hijri (7th Century AD) converted to Islam because of its simple, elegant and civilized teaching. So the impact of Islam on their culture, advancement and heritage has been far reaching.

The Muslim conquest in the later eras was pre-dominantly for the expansion of the empire and conquering of the land. That is why even though Ottoman Empire ruled over a significant part of Europe during different times but Islam never gained strength in those areas and many of these areas are no more Muslim dominated.

So even though Hitler is not a very likable person in history, rather one of the most hated person but even he understood the difference between the Islam of the 1st century and the Islam of the later centuries. The important question is do we understand this difference?

 

Pak China Economic Corridor: A Myth and a Reality

These days Pakistan’s media and social media are abuzz with Pak China Economic Corridor. People from the government side and favoring government side are portraying it as the biggest thing ever happened to Pakistan and the people who are against government or don’t like the PML-N are saying that this project is also to benefit Punjab and it will create more differences and sense of deprivation and discrimination in other provinces.

I like to read the good arguments from both sides and I personally believe that roads infrastructure is the most important infrastructure for the development of any country and it only reduces distances but also give rise to unity. Roads are definitely required to improve the economic prosperity of any region. But the reality is that for the last 25 years since i m following news one thing which has not changed is that each government says that they got the economy in tatters and now their policies is going to bring the change and after that government goes next government comes and it says that same thing. So i try not to believe much on the hype rather i try to make my own fair judgment.

I know people don’t have a very good memory and they tend to forget and forgive quickly. Plus propaganda always make people believes in things which are not real. So in this blog i will try to remind people of something similar and will let the user to make their own conclusion. As i mentioned earlier i am not against development especially road and transportation development, but i like to keep my feet in the reality too.

19 September 2001, a brave commando and Chief of Army Staff and the President of Pakistan, General Pervaiz Musharraf addressed the nation. Whole transcript is available here. But i will just highlight crux of that address.

1. Pakistan is in a very critical situation and this is a great opportunity for us to capitalize it and it will solve many of our problems. If we dont join forces with USA, India will take advantage of this situation
2. Kashmir issue will be highlighted and will be resolved according to the wishes of Pakistan
3. Our economy will benefit a lot from it.
4. Pakistan will get a much strong voice in international community and will become a front state in lot of matter and everybody will consult us.

Now we are more than 13 years from that day and that decision, lets take a deep breadth and evaluate each of the point.

Myths	Reality
1. Kashmir Issue will be resolved	Kashmir issue further buried down. First time in history India manage to fence the occupied Kashmir, giving a signal that occupied Kashmir is part of India Even PTV don’t show any news of Kashmir any more. Before that, every day on 9 PM news bulletin there was a news for Kashmir.
2. The economy will benefit a lot	Our economy got a small boast initially in property and stock exchange sector. But after from that, it is in worse shape by all measure and it is accepted by everyone. The value of our rupee which use to be equal to Indian rupee is now worse than Bangladeshi tikka. and twice less than Indian rupee
3. Pakistan will have a strong voice in the international community	Pakistan definitely arranged many different groups like friends of Pakistan to get some help but in the international community, I don’t think it has got any more value than before Our own security situation has turned so bad that even cricket teams don’t visit us for the last 5 years so you can imagine the voice we have in the international community
4. Will get a lot of benefits and if we don’t join India will benefit	Every person knows that in 1999 Pakistan didn’t have any load shedding. Now we are facing acute power shortages, gas shortages and our infrastructure got terribly deteriorated India without joining got benefit. It got a nuclear deal with the USA It got many contracts in the afghan government.

So just to keep this blog short, i will like the people to think about it themselves. Recently i read somewhere that Pakistan got $39 Billion through coalition support fund. Which is almost equal to what Chinese have pledged us in Pak-China Economic Corridor. So what we had to for these $39 Billion was to betray Afghanistan (Link).

And the price for this $46 Billion dollar is to betray our most loyals friends Saudi Arabia and Turkey (Link). Saudi Arabia and Turkey are two friends who have helped us when none other have helped us. People are praising Chinese a lot but they forget that China have even bigger investments in other countries also and also have sizable investment and much much bigger trade cooperation with India.

Although on the front we say that we are keeping Pakistan interest first but the reality is that we are keeping others interests first. Friendships are not made overnight, successive governments with lot of patience and dedication created these time tested friendships and now PML-N government within 2 days destroyed these friendship.

• When Pakistan was facing credit crunch it was not China but Saudi Arabia who gave us $1.5 Billion.
• When countries put sanctions on us on nuclear test, it was not China but Saudi Arabia who gave us free oil for a long long time.

On the other hand

• We also have to remember that its Chinese companies who gave us faulty railway engines.
• We also have to remember that all these projects will be completed by Chinese companies
• These are just recent examples, i am not blaming them but every country put its interest in the front

If i look back and see what we gained from joining the coalition forces then i will say that it was a very bad decision.

As Allah says in Quran (Surah Rahman, Verse 60)

هَلْ جَزَاءُ الْإِحْسَانِ إِلَّا الْإِحْسَانُ

Translation: Should the reward of goodness be aught else but goodness?

I will just hope that our policy makers are smart enough to realize what they are doing and makes a decision which is truly beneficial for Pakistan.

The title A myth and reality is just to remind you the reality of $39 Billion Coalition Fund and so that you can better understand the myth of $46 Billion Economic Corridor.

Footnote:

China to invest $100 billion in India over 5 years

China tops the India source of imports

 

 

Blunders of Nawaz Sharif in his THIRD tenure so far (2013 – 2015)

This is Nawaz Shareef’s third tenure as a Prime Minister of Pakistan and look like he has gained very little in respect to the political maturity, international affairs awareness and leadership vision. In this short blogs i will try to highlight few of his biggest blunders according to my opinion and will try to explain what he did wrong.

Change of Route of Pak-China Economic Corridor

Pak-China Economic Corridor is one of the most forward looking economic project of Nawaz Shareef’s current tenure. In a sense i feel its the need of the hour not only for economy of Pakistan but its security stability and unity. Road not only bring traffic but also economic activity, prosperity to the land and also reduce hatred and terrorism. According to the original plan the economic corridor was suppose to go through Balochistan and KPK into the china. Currently all Pakistan’s infrastructure is present on the eastern side and this economic corridor will provide much needed infrastructure development on the western side. Western side is also the side troubled with terrorism and sense of depravity and this development will increase the harmony and reduce the terrorism.

But recently PML-N decided to change the route and take it through Lahore. Lahore already is over populous and full of infrastructure and this would have created more chaos and congestion to the over crowded city.

Then the mistake over the mistake was the statement they give for the change of route that the security was lacking. There are two problems with this statement. Is PML-N not in government? do they not plan to improve the security? and secondly are the not giving the message that only Punjab is safe.? so are they acknowledging that their government has failed in improving security and have no plan to improve the security.

Thirdly this project is multi billion rather trillion ruppee project once the road is finalized you cant just pick it up and take it somewhere else so one excuse should not over shadow other important gains like giving the strategic depth, development of the western side, improvement of the harmony among people by improving travelling. opening new routes. enabling the development of the under developed areas and so many more benefits.

Cyber Security Bill

Cyber Security Bill is also one of the high level blunder. This is one of the most ill concived bill in which freedom of speech is restricted and this will give rise to more anti-government sentiments. Social Media was one of the few places where government managed to get some support against the dharna politics of Imran Khan Now they are trying to block it and it will hurt them more in the future then gaining them anything in the present. Most form of the criticism is blocked according to this bill.

I am not against having some restrictions but according to the bill even making political cartoons is a crime. The other issue is the government has not given his view. If they have all these points in the bill for some specific reason then they should commnicate to the masses. But unfortunately tnawaz shareef lack of democratic views and keeping quiet s hurting more than serving him

Enactment of Military Courts 

This is one of the biggest blunder of internal politics. The PML-N enactment of military courts is a message that government is incapable and cannot fix the judicial system of the country. If we go by this logic then the government should not criticize dictatorship or dictators because they also believe that democratic system has not produced results for Pakistan and therefore dictators should be allowed to the govern Pakistan. There government says that democracy should be given time to strengthen then why not give time and direction and make effort to fix the judicial system of Pakistan also to make it more effective.?

Failure to understand Sindh

Although federal government is considered to be representative of all Pakistan and PML-N also waste no time in saying that it got votes and seats in all provinces o the Pakistan but its hidden thing that PML-N is highly disliked by people of Karachi in unanimity. Looking at various steps of the ruling party PML-N it come as no surprise.

Firstly they have highly incapable president of Sindh PML-N. A president of sindh PML-N can not win his own seat even a provincial seat. He has no backing plus he is notorious. Secondly the the mentality of Karachi voter is highly different then the thinking of Punjabi voter.

Secondly just before the election PML-N included candidates or made alliances with the parties who were notorious and with little support on the ground. After these parties lost they again split  from PML-N. So instead of giving exposure to some of their own capable candidate they relied on external unreliable support. Then PML-N Sindh has no voice and even when rarely they make a statement they make a stupid one.

Lack of Foreign Minister

May be in its effort to keep the government size manageable PML-N federal government tried to restrict the number of ministers. But not appointing a dedicated Foreign Minister PML-N just shows that either they are incapable of understanding foreign affairs. ? or they lack a good personality to handle foreign affairs or foreign affairs matters are not in their control. All three meanings shows a blunder and nothing else on PML-N part

They also have some of the worst ministers in IT. Even water and power minister have failed to end load shedding or give a clear vision.

Large delays in Appointing on Key Posts

Nawaz Shareef seems to be incapable of making a decision. Number of key bureaucratic and head of departments post which required agreement with opposition leader like chairman NAB takes a long long time in getting appointment. They get appointed in the end because of strict warnings from the Supreme Court Judges. When a person is incapable of simply appointing key positions with honest and well reputed people in timely fashion then it leaves a big question mark on his decision making skills.

Development of Lahore Karachi Motorway

I am always pro infrastructure projects. but there has to be limit to the amount of such projects especially if its destroying your most fertile land and giving no benefit at all. There are now number of links from Lahore to Multan so developing yet another road from Lahore to Multan for Lahore Karachi motorway is simply like cutting your limb. Pakistan already is facing heaving reduction in agricultural land. We just need to develop the missing roads between Lahore Karachi and should use the existing infrastructure as much as possible.

Yemen Affair:

Without having a dedicated foreign minister its no surprise that PML-N made number of blunders on Yemen Affair. Yemen affair has number of significance. Our trusted friend Saudi Arabia first time asked for help. Nawaz Shareef agreed to provide this help. Suddenly media started maligning campaign against this issue, openly accusing Nawaz Shareef under personal gains helping Saudi Arabia without realizing that our existence is largely thanks to Saudi Arabia help which have never shied from helping us in our time of trouble.

Blunder 1: Government gives no directives to media not malign our trusted friend. (When Musharraf sent NS to Saudi Arabia under the deal he directed media not malign Saudi Arabia in this affair)

Blunder 2: Under pressure from Media and probably Army, Nawaz shareef tried to back track from its commitment and for this calls a joint session. This joint session started talking foul about Saudi Arabia. It is Saudi that helped us when we were put under economic sanctions and its Saudia that has helped monetarily whenever we asked. The joint session speakers started speaking in favor of Iran who deliberately tried to roll back our nuclear program by informing about our help to Iran. Dr. Abdul Qadeer father of Pakistan nuclear capability is penalized because of Iran’s effort.

Nawaz Shareef should have called a meeting with the parliamentary leaders and should have given them directives not to use any foul languages against our trusted Saudi friends

Nawaz Shareef should atleast have told his own party members that they should not take a position against Saudi Arabia.

Blunder 3: Iran FM visited Pakistan and Saudi Arabia also announced to send its representative to Pakistan.. PM after meeting the Iranian FM passes resolution in the join session regarding Yemen conflict which sound n favor or Iranian point of view before even the meeting with the Saudi delegation is held. So a message is sent to our friend that dont come we have already accepted Iran point of view. A country which has number of times violated our sovereignty and killed our soldiers. What a stupid message to give our friend Saudi Arabia.

Blunder 4: When our friends gave a well deserved harsh response to our parliamentary resolution then our Interior Minister who is mostly missing and never found giving a statement on matters related to interior minister gave an even more damaging response. Come on cant the Prime Minister tell his minister to shut up instead of burning to ashes our friendship with the most loyal friends.

Blunder 5: When some section of media highlighted the contribution of Saudi Arabia after our nuclear blast, PML-N finance minister gave a statement in denial of those gifts and concessions and contribution. So now we showed to our friend that we are one undeserving and inconsiderate friend.

Just to wrap up. I feel that Nawaz Shareef is far from the leader the Pakistan needs at this time. His decision making leaves a lot to be desired. He lack total understanding of foreign affairs. His political skills and political sense is very weak and incapable of developing further. This may turn out to be the bigger threat for PML-N then any other party including PTI

 

Its not the system, Its the people that defines it

With the slogan of Change we are hearing daily and statements like we will change the system. This system of corruption and discrimination will be eliminated by us. These beautiful statements sound wonderful to us, But seriously do they have any meanings.?

Let me say that Hazrat Umer (RA) use to have governors. We also have the governors. In a way system is same. Governor based system. So where is the problem.?

Problem is in people, the people who are on these posts & positions dont have the character which we need. The people get corrupted by power. In the end the problem is with the parents. They have failed to raise children of high ethical, moral values and truthful, just & honest character. 

I personally believe we dont need a new system, we need People of honor, dignity and character to lead us. Democracy, Dictatorship, Kingship is not what matters in the end. Its like that a patient dies because he dont want to take allopathy medicine because he believed homeopathy is the right medical field. I have seen when someone is sick he will take or go to any length or any alternate medicine if someone gives a hope to him. Because what matters in the end is person want to be healthy again. Similarly we need to prosper and progress and be top of the world again and system means nothing. 

People of Pakistan and public need to realize that we need people of character, dignity, honesty, justice and high standards to lead us not and that should be the only criteria. I believe Pakistan has a very strong system in place, our students, our players, our scientist with all the discrimination have worked outstandingly  What we need is just to end this discrimination and let excel together. 

 

Big Slogans, Small People, Little Character, Zero Intention — Welcome Election 2013 (PAK)

As the time for next general Election in Pakistan is drawing near, the battle for premiership is getting harsher and bitter. Every day there are louder allegations, dirtier words, hateful language not only between the leaders and possible candidates of election but also between the supporters of different political parties in the public.

Although i m a regular news follower but lately i have stopped watching talk shows and cut down on my news reading time too. Because it was only giving causing my blood pressure to rise and nothing else. In all this i recently by chance heard a clip of Maulana Tariq Jameel on Hazrat Umer-e-Farooq (RA) and it really made me shed some tears. WHERE ARE WE STANDING?

Today we have leader starting from Imran Khan, whose answer to every question starts with an allegation on Nawaz Sharif as if he is sitting on his tail. Next we have Nawaz Sharif, whose every answer starts with cursing Musharraf. Come Next we have PPP who have got nothing better than to bad mouth judiciary for highlighting their corruption. Then we have these second level of Parties including MQM, ANP, JUI and many more who are blaming everyone else while being some what in power.

I will just share two small incidents of Hazrat Umer (RA) and wrap this up. He is going to take the keys of the one of the greatest city on Jerusalem. And how is he going, he on the foot with shoes in his hand and dirt on his clothes cuz he slipped in some mud puddle. The generals of Islamic army comes to him and asked him that kindly change the clothes, the servant or PA who is on the camel’s back ask him to kindly sit on the camel and he will pull the camel. But what he said. “The Dignity we have got is not because of clothes but because of Islam” Meaning that because of the islamic principles of honesty, justice and truthfulness and nothing else.

Once some perfume came in during the capturing of Iran in Madinah. which needed to be distributed among the people. He asked who will divide and distribute and his wife said to him that she will divide it and distribute it. He ignored her. He asked again till he found some one else willing to take up the job. Later in the home he said to his wife that it was not mine and it was spoils of war and while dividing it you would have smelled it and i was afraid that it could have been considered as unjust.

The point i m trying to take home in this post is that.. Those leader, who are truly leaders in every meaning of the word were so worried about their deeds and actions and today our leaders are busy finding faults and throwing allegation on others. As i said in some other post that once Hazrat Umer (RA) said to people that i want to say something so listen to me and a bedouin stood up and said we will not listen to you till you tell us how you have got this dress on yourself because it could not have been created by the piece of cloth every one got from spoils of war. Instead of saying or arguing or accusing him of anything. Hazrat Umer (RA) stopped talking and pushed his son and he stood up and said yes my father dress could not have been made from the piece of cloth everyone got, therefore i gifted him my piece of cloth too.

So simple, so amazing and so unthinkable in this world. Can we hope to see such a leader. I am hopeless seeing our current options of leader. I wish and i pray hard for this.

 

Are you, me & us impartial or biased?

While listening to a talk show, i realised that all of us are biased.. even if we say otherwise. But how can we become impartial?

The simple test of checking whether you are impartial or bias is that, while listening to an argument by the person you dont like or is not fan of, just check yourself that whether you are preparing a counter argument for him or are you really listening trying to understand his point.

I see lot of time when i listening to someone i dont like i am not trying to understand what he/she is saying rather i m trying to prepare a counter argument.

I now can safely say that almost all of our tv anchors and politicians are biased and they show their biases. I wish that for a change we can give a moment of our thinking to the actual argument and try to understand what he/she is saying instead of trying to counter him before his/her talk is over.

Okay i think i have talked a little abstractly.

 

Are Problems in Pakistan really hard to tackle? [Solutions]

There use to be a short story that a painter once put his painting in a chowk and ask others what is wrong? so everybody circled or marked or highlighted what he/she thought was wrong on the painting so much so that in the end his painting was no longer visible behind those marks. Next time when he put the painting he wrote correct what you think is wrong. and he found no mark on the painting.

It is easy to criticize which i have been doing lately.. so today i will try to put some solutions… although this is not the forum to discuss them in details so they will be very brief solutions.
Let start with education.

EDUCATION:
Question is what is wrong with our education. To be honest i dont see much wrong, because i have known failures from our education system going abroad and topping. So in short i feel that there is nothing majorly wrong with the system. Yup there are few things which we should add or remove to make it even better.

Firstly We need bigger and proper universities, not the universities on 2 Kanal Bunglaw. All such universities should be closed. We need many more universities, so that every person who wants to study should be able to get admission in some university.
Secondly which i feel is most important is that we need to integrate our industry with education. Every multinational or large local industry MUST collaborate with students on research projects.
Thirdly we need to harmonize the madrassa through ulemas. Ulemas of all the major islamic sect should sit together and draw a basic course which does not emphasize on hatred or negativity of other sect, rather it should focus on positivity of their own sect. This is a very minute difference but nontheless very critical difference. and i am sure it will create harmony and will change the society towards tolerance.

Next, i think we do need to update our syllabus and make it more uptodate.

Lastly we need to make our human capital as much educated as possible, this means that we should have enough training schools/colleges even for maisons, plumbers, builders, constructors, cleaner, i mean even for every labor job we should have a trained labor. and our labors should be renowned for their excellence.

HEALTH:
To be continued….