The True Perspective

Pakistan election 2013 result

noreply@blogger.com (Hamza Malik) — Wed, 15 May 2013 01:40:33 PDT

The Pakistan general elections 2013 were held on May 11, 2013. The voter turnout was 60%, - an unprecedented number that had never been seen before for any elections that had been held previously. This huge turnout can largely be attributed to the massive passion that was found in the youth who voted for the very first time. It is no coincidence that the Imran Khan phenomenon played a huge role in getting the youth excited enough to go out and engage in this political process.

Despite a high party following in the educated, urbanized middle class, Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf was not able to perform as well as people had hoped. It was able to take 34 seats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where it emerged as the single largest party. In the federal showing however it was only able to take 28 seats, which are less even than PPP. The PML - N however was the overall winner with an overwhelming majority at 126 national assembly seats.

There has been documented poll rigging in 49 polling stations across the country. The biggest poll rigging took place in Karachi (for national assembly seat 250) where MQM supporters tore up opposing parties ballots and held the polling station staff hostage while they stamped and filled up ballot boxes. The Election Commission of Pakistan recognizing gross misconduct has announced that reelection for Karachi will be held within 10 days. Below is a summary chart showing the positions of all national parties in the National Assembly so far.

Dear God, please don't let this be a Muslim

noreply@blogger.com (Hamza Malik) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 11:06:04 PDT

Security officers on site leapt to the aid of those injured

Dear America,

You're smarting from a great tragedy. A terrible, terrible event happened in Boston. A joyous occasion was brutally crucified to make way for pain, blood and agony. Innocents were hurt. Innocents perished. The cowards who did this did not have the guts to own up to it. They deserve to rot in an open square with people ogling at them, taking cognizance of the abomination that these barbarians are.

As news reeled in off those who were killed, and those who were injured one prayer leapt to my lips:

Please dear God, don't let this be a Muslim. Don't let this be a Pakistani. Please dear God. Don't let this be.

But I see I was late in my prayer. You see a Fox News employee had already sent out a tweet condemning me to death. He also condemned the 1.6 billion other followers of Islam to death by saying "let's kill them all".

When I read that tweet I realized something. I realized how broken we all were. How disoriented, how unattached from one another. We're all humans yet we've demonized each other beyond reproach. To some all brown people appear as worthy of death. To some all white appear as worthy of death. We can't stop ripping each other a new one all the time. In all this madness people like me, those trying to keep sane amidst the insanity are crushed brutally.

Today I thought back to Pakistan. I thought about the 20 or so people who die there everyday. Then i came across this Facebook status from a friend:

Watching all the media about the Boston bombings, can't help but wonder if this is how the people of Pakistan feel all the time

So I wondered do we feel this way all the time? When a drone fires a Hellfire and kills innocent school children. When the terrorists bomb a market. When sectarian groups engage in systematically wiping out those who are opposed to them. Doesn't our heart weep when we hear about how another bystander was lost? About how a kid lost his parents? About how that poor woman lost her legs? What do we feel if not but pain? What do we do if not cry tears of blood day in and day out, over and over again?

My thoughts went out to the 50,000 innocent Pakistani lives lost in this craze. And then I realized how emotionally detached I was from my own people's suffering. The Boston Marathon explosions had left me shaking, but the 20 people who die in Pakistan everyday simply does not affect me at all. I was ashamed of myself. I was so very ashamed of my insensitivity. Did I think an American life was worth more than the life of my fallen Pakistani fellow? Did the Pakistani life just equal a nameless statistic forever confined to the annals of history to be used in pie charts, or bar charts to explain the year on year increase in casualties?

And then I realized, my desensitization was a defense mechanism.

If we Pakistanis started to give a shit about all those we lose every single day, we would go insane

I feel the same pain, but I refuse to acknowledge its existence. Because acknowledging its existence would mean I have to deal with it, and I can't. None of us can. It's easier to ignore and carry on than to deal with the great tragedy that takes place day in and day out.

Dear America the pain you feel today, I have felt for 11 years now. Every single day like a searing white hot pin piercing my heart. Dear America, when you accuse us of being responsible for all the ills plaguing the world we look at each other, we look at the 50,000 graves we have dug and we weep for the men, women and children we buried who can find no peace even in death. Dear America we die everyday only to find a thankless world tell us we're rogue terrorists who deserve to be locked up and wiped off the face of the earth. Our children's cries do not equal the cries of your children; the weight of our dead bodies does not equal the weight of your dead bodies. Our sacrifices do not exist, because you never see them. Our efforts go in vain because we've been demonized so much.

Dear America we've been so traumatized that now we are scared of saying we're Muslims, we're ashamed of our brownness and we feel deeply uncomfortable and guilty for belonging to the countries which you largely equate with the devil's personal backyard.

Dear America what you feel today is what millions of people living in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan have felt for many years now. I do not even for an instant suggest that you forgive those who have threatened you. I just request that when you send out a prayer for the victims of the Boston Marathon explosions that you remember the 37 Iraqis who were killed yesterday. I request you send out a quiet prayer for the 30 guests at a wedding which was "accidentally" bombed by a US bomber in Afghanistan. I request that you send out a quiet prayer for the 50,000 innocent men, women and children who have paid the ultimate price for a war that they were thrust in for no fault of their own except for having been born in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Dear America you see what it has come to now? You see how terrorized, demonized and scared we feel?

Dear God, please, don't let this be a Muslim.

Endorsing Imran Khan

noreply@blogger.com (Hamza Malik) — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 00:03:29 PDT

The True Perspective endorses Imran Khan for the 2013 elections

Over the course of this blog, I've raised several objections to Imran Khan's methods, his philosophy and his convictions. Despite my criticisms however, a part of me has always wanted to see him succeed. You see it's either him or them. Them includes morons, inept, uneducated, selfish, arrogant slime ball pricks who think they inherited Pakistan as dowry. Yes I'm talking about you PPP, PML-N, JI, MQM (who actually does not think Pakistan is its fiefdom, but Karachi definitely is), PML-Q, JUI-F and ANP.

Recently I read this great article in the newspaper that stated that newspapers need to endorse parties who align with their ideologies. Well today The True Perspective is taking that step by endorsing Imran Khan.

The recent intra-party elections within PTI and the emphasis on education are something that I believe need to be accepted and replicated by all parties aiming for the Parliament of Pakistan. With certain parties (ahem*PPP and PML-N*ahem) operating more like family heirlooms than national political organizations, PTI's election mandate comes as a breath of fresh air.

Even though PTI's manifesto has set some enormously ambitious goals (ending corruption, holding local government elections, all within 90 days, and imposition of a range of new taxes -- agriculture included), it is worth noting that for now we really have no reason to not believe that they cannot be achieved. If the PPP and PML-N make similar claims then you know they're lying because we've seen them in power 3 times each in the last 25 years and each time has been worse than before.

It is indeed a sad state of affairs that our decisions today are being decided not on merit of solidity of what these political entities can offer (or can't offer for that matter), but on the basis of how much we hate those who have taken this country right to the edge. Here's to hoping that the next five years will ensure we are put back on the right tracks.

Musharraf's wealth explained

noreply@blogger.com (Hamza Malik) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 13:46:35 PDT

Pervez Musharraf

65 crores. That's the value of assets declared by Pervez Musharraf in his nomination papers submitted to the election commission of Pakistan. He also has not paid any tax in the last 3 years to the government of Pakistan. Several questions have been raised about the source of Musharraf's funds (which he did not mention) and why he did not pay any taxes.

Let's discuss those questions.

How did Musharraf end up making so much money when he was in fact a government subordinate and retired with not much (relatively) money? The answer to that would be that since his self imposed exile, Musharraf has gone on various international lecture series and tours. The average compensation for one lecture is $100,000 (that's almost 1 crore rupees, give or take). Now in the past 4 years if Musharraf has even done 25 lectures, that means he's earned 25 crores. Assuming he is an educated man and is not overly stupid, he must have (and he did indeed) made a lot of investments which have returned handsome profits to him. So where he got his money should be clear for all to see.

Now the second question, why didn't he pay any taxes? Well according to the Pakistan tax rules, residents of Pakistan earning income abroad are not liable to pay taxes on that income within Pakistan. The Pakistani tax rules assume that because Pakistanis send valuable foreign exchange to Pakistan, it is more than enough to not double charge them (unlike the United States of America, where foreign income is tax deductible). Hence, Musharraf did not pay any income taxes for the last three years he was not in Pakistan. The pension he gets already is tax deducted (income tax is deducted at source) and while we do not know why he did not pay any property taxes (maybe the properties are not in his name? Maybe he did pay the taxes through a proxy that don't appear in his name? Maybe he is indeed, a tax defaulter?) we can be reasonably sure that the money he did make is indeed legitimate.

And finally there's the biggest question of them all, one that doesn't even concern Musharraf. What about the other so called "sadiq" and "ameen" (pious and pure) politicians of Pakistan? The one's who are known to be inherently corrupt? For example Nawaz Sharif says he owns only 1.5 crore rupees in assets (maybe he forgot the 600 crore Raiwind estate he lives in is not his own?) while Zardari says he only owns 1.8 crore rupees (of course he also forgot he owns palaces in France, Dubai and God knows where else). And then there's the cherry on top of the cake, Hamza Shahbaz Sharif who says that he doesn't even own a Suzuki Mehran.

Let's take a moment to reflect on this. These gentlemen who claim that they have next to nothing travel in cars that cost around 6 - 7 crore each. They live in palaces that cost hundreds of crores. And they live a lifestyle that is simply not possible on the meager "incomes" that they declare. So my question is this, do you finger pointers not think before you open your mouths to make allegations?

Once upon a time in Larkana

noreply@blogger.com (Hamza Malik) — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 20:25:56 PDT

Zordari

Once upon a time in a land far far away in Larkana, there lived a thug. The thug belonged to the Chaprasi community native to Larkana and so he was called Chaprasi. Chaprasi was a handsome thug. He had left many girls swooning over his naughty boy antics and naughty boy looks. Once he was caught by the village elders for making the kissy kissy faces at smitten dames of Larkana, but what do you know, as soon as they yelled Chaprasi, Chaprasi was gone leaving in his wake sparkly clean houses and streets. Bedazzled by the sudden cleanliness of their city, the city elders sat down in awe and proclaimed that from now on Chaprasi would no longer be a slur. It would be an honor of the highest merit. Unbeknown to the poor innocent Larkana-ians, Chaprasi had taken all their belongings. But that was all fine because the villagers were busy aww-ing over their Chaprasi. And so begins the story of Chaprasi.

Legend has it that Chaprasi disappeared of the radar forever and was never heard of again after looting his village. However, the occasional odd rumor of some handsome thug smiting a dame continued to reach the Larakana-ians for many years. After a few years a new man claiming to be a native of Larkana emerged; he called himself Zordari and he proclaimed that Chaprasi was his ancestor. Zordari thought that because people considered Chaprasi to be a hero, he would be welcomed back with open arms and would be declared King of all Larkana. But the village elders were smart. They asked Zordari to prove that Chaprasi was his ancestor. And so Zordari told them:

I am an only child of my mother. When my mother was young, she fell in love with a thug. He also claimed to love my mother, but then she found out that he had gone and married someone else. He had 19 kids from that marriage. In the meanwhile, my mother gave birth to me. But she was banished from the village because she wasn't married when she gave birth. So as you can imagine, it is quite easy to comprehend where I came from.

When the people heard this, they also used their genius minds to conclude that Zordari might indeed be the ill-begotten child of Chaprasi, and so they named his Chaprasi Junior because it rhymed with Zordari. Now since Zordari had the genes of Chaprasi, it only took him a short while to become the King of Larkana. However, he had none of Chaprasi's acumen, nor his good lucks. Despite that, because Chaprasi blood ran in his veins, he never stopped hitting on women left, right and center. And his lucky stars did indeed prove to be lucky because one day, out of nowhere, a girl from the Bhutto family fell for him. That day, Zordari started believing in Cupid, while Larkana stopped believing in it.

Now Zordari was a Khandani boy with Khandani values, despite the fact that he was a bastard and his morals weren't exactly, you know, impeccable. And so he asked his mother to go to the Bhutto House and ask for their daughter's hand in marriage. His mother tried reasoning with him but Zordari, with Chaprasi blood coursing in his veins, was adamant that he will marry the girl who has the largest land in the whole of Sindh province in her name. And so he did marry her and boy, what a marriage it was. While Zordari busied himself with making large amounts of cash, all people who could possibly inherit even a sliver of the Bhutto fortune kept dying in mysterious circumstances. People kept whispering the Chaprasi is at work but no one ever dared say it to Zordari's face. Alas, just like the rest, the handsome girl from the Bhutto family also died in mysterious circumstances, handing everything that she had on a silver platter to the increasingly greedy Chaprasi, I mean Zordari.

But the little kids in Zordari's class threw a tantrum and proclaimed it was unfair that he should get the whole cake. They demanded a piece of the booty too. But Zordari was too busy swooning over Sarah Palin to really care for what was happening around him. Soon Cupid had struck a second arrow into Zordari's heart but before a new baby could be born out of wedlock, Zordari's pet doggies intervened and stopped him from committing the same sins that his alleged father had committed. Zordari was furious for not getting his way and vowed vengeance from the people of Pakistan.

And so he acts like a sly fox whenever the people of Pakistan are struck with calamities, and he points and laughs at them all the while sending graces to the heavens for giving him an alleged ancestor known as the Chaprasi.

(All characters depicted in this fictional story are fictional and any resemblance to any character living or dead, is only co-incidental.)

Pakistan polio endemic's end nowhere in sight

noreply@blogger.com (Hamza Malik) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 17:42:43 PDT

Pakistan is one of 3 countries in the world dealing with polio

Pakistan is one of only 3 countries in the world where the polio virus is still endemic. The other two countries being Nigeria and Afghanistan. The mass murders of polio health workers and terrible law and order situation in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan means that this year there were 240,000 children who were not vaccinated. The government's inability to properly educate the masses and provide security cover to social health workers means that the end to this epidemic is nigh in sight.

Pakistan elections 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Hamza Malik) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 19:18:45 PDT

Pakistan elections 2013

Follow The True Perspective on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to keep updated about the different aspects of Pakistan's 2013 elections. Keep up to date with the latest news and analysis and join the community on Google+ to engage in meaningful dialog with others.http://www.facebook.com/thetrueperspective

Christian houses set on fire. What next?

noreply@blogger.com (Hamza Malik) — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 10:18:21 PST

People throw bricks on a Christian home after setting it on fire

An angry mob set 40 Christian homes on fire today for an alleged incident of blasphemy. Through our past experiences, we already know how farcical these allegations are. But that did not stop the so-called angry mob to spare the homes of Christians who didn't even have anything to do with the whole incident. Who just happened to be living in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Ironically I can bet that this same mob, which thinks it acted as a defender of God's word, has never gone to the mosque to pray, commits sins and adultery, and cheats and blasphemes against God's word everyday. Setting innocent people's houses on fire is the worst form of blasphemy that could ever have been committed. And who is going to prosecute them? What befuddles be is the kind of naivety our security agencies display. The SSP of Lahore for example, said that no houses had been torched. Pictorial and video evidence suggests otherwise.

It's time for the minorities to leave. It's time for the white (which stood for minorities) in Pakistan's flag to be decommissioned. They came for the Ahmadis. Then they came for the Shiites. Now they've come for the Christians. It's only a matter of time before all our necks are hanging out.

And the only reason this has happened is because our douchebag leaders, incapable, insurmountable selfish pricks, have no idea how a country is run. CM Shahbaz Sharif announced a compensation of 0.2 million rupees for the affected. Are you trying to slap an already brow beaten minority? 0.2 million for people who've lost everything? Who have nowhere to run and nowhere to hide? Who don't have their own homes anymore?

I'm a Pakistani and today I'm ashamed to be one. At the very least I wish someone would make an example out of the people who did this today. But that's expecting too much from the likes of Rana Sanaullah who actually hangs out with people who are responsible for such brutal antics.

We are a nation that looks to God all day

noreply@blogger.com (Hamza Malik) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 14:39:26 PDT

In our quest to leave everything for God to fix, we have ruined everything.

They say God helps those, who help themselves. But we Pakistanis have a different take on this ancient saying. We think God helps those who invoke His divine name, cross their arms and sit back pretending nothing is wrong. We fail to see what is front of our eyes. Sometimes what is in front of our eyes is so brutal we are forced to see it. In those instances we pretend like we did not witness it. Instead we attribute that brutality to God by saying “God must have willed it”. Take the brutal murder of Mughees and Muneeb Butt for instance. They were murdered in Ramzan by a mob. No mercy was shown to them. I ask you, does God tell man to murder another man? Does God tell man to be brutal to other men? Does God tell man to show no mercy to other men? No. God does not do that. Man does that, because it is convenient to look at God and say, I am wrong because I was made wrong. And God must have willed it.

It is said that God gave man free will; free will to do as he would please. By that logic we Pakistanis have no business looking at God, or awaiting His help. He has given us the tools to make informed decisions. He has given us kindness and compassion. He has given us a brain and hands and feet and legs. Even with all of these things, if we continue to look to God for help, is that not blasphemous of us? Is that not satanic of us? Even with all these tools we await God’s divine intervention. We supplicate to Him asking for peace and tranquility; asking for better rulers and better conditions; asking for electricity and water and good doctors. All the while we forget the power to change our destiny is in our own hands because God gave us free will. God told us to be good. Instead we choose to be bad. We cheat, we lie, we steal, we hate, we destroy. God told us to use ijma and qiyas. Instead we are happy to listen to uneducated leaders who are master cheaters in their own rights. And then we sit back, cross our arms and look at God to solve our problems.

God helps those, who help themselves...

We Pakistanis are a confused nation. Maybe its because up till the 70s we had a very liberal atmosphere in the country. Then the 80s happened. Zia’s Islamization policies were completely opposite to what Pakistanis were used to. The result was the birth of rampant hypocrisy. An identity clash. We pretended to be something we were not. In our homes we forgot what so called Islamic principles we were following in the public. We preached one thing, did quite another. We were told God will fix all of our problems. We were told God had made us superior because we were Muslims. We were told we have no faults, no problems because we are Muslims. How wrong we were. The problem with this ideology was that we stopped seeing our mistakes. We stopped acknowledging our mistakes. We stopped caring about the wrongs we were doing that we were passing off as right.

When you stop seeing your mistakes, you cannot acknowledge them. When you don’t acknowledge your mistakes you cannot fix them. And when you don’t fix your mistakes, you just keep going deeper and deeper into the grave you are digging for yourself.

This is why we Pakistanis love to look to God all day long. Because we think we’ve made no mistakes. Because we think God’s punishing us because of some corrupt people amongst us. What we fail to realize is that we are those corrupt people and the only reason we are being punished is because we fail to acknowledge our mistakes and correct them. Instead we rely on God to be our saviour and deliver us from our miseries.

God only helps those, who help themselves...

Until we keep looking at God all day to fix all our problems without moving a muscle, we will never get out of the abyss we find ourselves in. We must use the tools that God has given us to make amends, make smart decisions. We must use our kindness and compassion to spread love and wipe evil. Only then will God help us. Only then will God deliver us from our misery.

Blackout in Pakistan

noreply@blogger.com (Hamza Malik) — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 12:56:07 PST

Approximately two hours ago, Pakistan suffered from a major power failure. More than 80% of the country was without power. The cause of the power failure according to WAPDA (Water and Power Development Authority) was HUBCO (a power plant located near Karachi). HUBCO contributes 1200MW of electricity to the national power grid. Due to a technical fault, the power plant failed causing all of the load to be shifted to Mangla and Tarbela power houses. Mangla contributes 600MW to the national power grid while Tarbela contributes 1800MW. When they were overloaded with this new power burden, they also tripped causing a nationwide blackout. As of right now (2:00 am PST), WAPDA is gradually restoring the power supply to all affected areas. Embedded below are tweets providing information about the power failure in Pakistan.

Gradual power restoration in progress #Pakistan #BlackoutInPakistan
— Hamza Malik (@hmz_89) February 24, 2013

2 grid stations in #Islamabad now receiving full electricity #Pakistan #BlackoutInPakistan
— Hamza Malik (@hmz_89) February 24, 2013

#Tarbela power house has been restored
— Hamza Malik (@hmz_89) February 24, 2013

Power restored to some areas of #Islamabad #Pakistan #BlackoutInPakistan
— Hamza Malik (@hmz_89) February 24, 2013

Pervez Ashraf personally monitoring #BlackoutInPakistan #Pakistan
— Hamza Malik (@hmz_89) February 24, 2013

#WAPDA officials say #HUBCO's tripping caused #BlackoutInPakistan #Pakistan
— Hamza Malik (@hmz_89) February 24, 2013

700MW - 800MW left in the power system of #Pakistan right now.
— Hamza Malik (@hmz_89) February 24, 2013

1200MW from #HUBCO, 1800MW from #Tarbela and 600MW from #Mangla has been cutoff from national grid.
— Hamza Malik (@hmz_89) February 24, 2013

Inquiry into establishing responsibility for the National Grid tripping in #Pakistan!
— Hamza Malik (@hmz_89) February 24, 2013

Power outage in #Pakistan. More than 80% of the country without electricity!
— Hamza Malik (@hmz_89) February 24, 2013

Average electricity production in #Pakistan is 9000MW. Which is 50% of capacity. 1/3rd of that is down. #BlackOut #PakistanBlackout
— Hamza Malik (@hmz_89) February 24, 2013

Prime Minister #Pakistan has taken notice of the breakdown
— Hamza Malik (@hmz_89) February 24, 2013

Emergency teams dispatched to #Mangla #Tarbela and #HUBCO
— Hamza Malik (@hmz_89) February 24, 2013

#Hyderabad #Pakistan without electricity. All industrial zones shut down in #Sindh. #Pakistan #Blackout #PakistanBlackout
— Hamza Malik (@hmz_89) February 24, 2013

All major hospitals in #Sindh without electricity. Patients in extreme discomfort! #Pakistan #PakistanBlackout #Blackout
— Hamza Malik (@hmz_89) February 24, 2013

#WAPDA saying it will take 2 - 2.5 hours to restore electricity to the National Grid. #Pakistan #BlackOut #PakistanBlackout
— Hamza Malik (@hmz_89) February 24, 2013

#KESC trying to restore its system itself. It receives 650MW from #WAPDA #Pakistan #PakistanBlackout #BlackOut
— Hamza Malik (@hmz_89) February 24, 2013

#HUBCO, #Mangla and #Tarbela have all tripped. 80% of #Pakistan without electricity!
— Hamza Malik (@hmz_89) February 24, 2013

Entire Punjab suffering from power outage! #Pakistan #Blackout
— Hamza Malik (@hmz_89) February 24, 2013

#Pakistan powe supply disrupted. 80% of the country without electricity!
— Hamza Malik (@hmz_89) February 24, 2013

Total #BLACKOUT in #PAKISTAN!!!
— Hamza Malik (@hmz_89) February 24, 2013

Major power breakdown. 80% of #Pakistan in darkness
— Hamza Malik (@hmz_89) February 24, 2013

This high handedness disgusts me

noreply@blogger.com (Hamza Malik) — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 18:27:40 PST

A child made a metro bus out of milk cartons& wanted to present it to #NawazSharif. Was happy when I got him thru2him twitter.com/MaryamNSharif/…
— Maryam Nawaz Sharif (@MaryamNSharif) February 10, 2013

Earlier today Maryam N. Sharif, daughter of Nawaz Sharif tweeted this pic. Find anything wrong with it? Abhorrent? Disgusting? Sickening? Maybe you see that the "common" person is not "equal" to Maryam N. Sharif and that's why he's sitting on the ground? Maybe you see that Maryam N. Sharif is so high and mighty that she would never actually talk to such a man if it weren't for the many cameras? Maybe you realize the sickening irony of how these leeches have sucked us dry while they role around in moolah? Maybe you find that while this was happening, 200 doctors were arrested who have been on a hunger strike for seven days now? Maybe you found how fake this whole scenario actually is?

I did. So I tweeted this back to her.

@maryamnsharif can you not see the things wrong with this picture? A poor man can never be equal to you, right? Shame on you. All of you.
— Hamza Malik (@hmz_89) February 10, 2013

She hasn't bothered replying yet.

The kid appears to be crying. He's sitting on the ground because of course, the mighty madame would consider it her insult to consider him her equal. Of course the common people of Punjab do not deserve to be treated as equals. When have they ever been? But such displays of bullshit make my blood boil. Why are they special and the rest common? Were they conceived by a gold statue? Lest we forget, this lady who pretends to be so humble, and angelic (getting a "common person" through to Nawaz Sharif is akin to a feat of heroic proportions) belongs to the same family who's other female member (daughter of Shahbaz Sharif) had the employee of a bakery beaten up because he told her the bakery was closed and the owner was not in. She sent her "official" thugs (policemen), had the poor sod thrashed and then had a case registered against him. When the media jumped on the bandwagon, Shahbaz Sharif instead of having his daughter arrested (which would have been the noble thing to do) ordered his son in law to appear before the police. Why he was ordered to do that, we shall never know.

The Metro Bus System will fail. And I will tell you why it will fail. It cost Rs 30 billion. It was supposed to be completed in 3 years, instead it was completed in less than 1. The problem with that is quality. They completed the ring road early as well, only to have a bridge fall on top of a truck. This is 8.3 km of elevated track. Quality assurances anyone?

It will also fail because people who use their cars will continue using them. They will not get up and get on the bus out of the blue. They tried this before. They launched the Lahore Transport Company (LTC) once. It failed. They tried to launch it again, this time with green buses which run on CNG. It failed again. In fact there were many instances of vandalism where students refused to pay the fare and thrashed conductors. Now they've launched this, a third time. You know what they say, third time's a charm.

But the biggest reason it will fail is this: The people were not educated enough to be able to use this properly. The people who use this service will be the "common" people. Who will break this like they broke all the other transit systems before. The rich will never use this because it is "beneath" them to travel with the "common" people. And since no one was educated about the benefits, this too shall be relegated to the annals of history.

Instead of launching this first, the Sharif government should have used that money to educate the population of Punjab. Inculcate in the children why Rapid Transit Systems are beneficial and why they need to be used. They could've used the money to set up power plants because now the provinces can do that on their own. But then they wouldn't have been able to show that off as readily as they can show off the red colored bendy buses now could they?

And here's the real irony (if the picture up there wasn't enough), Shahbaz Sharif, Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz Sharif or any of their family members will never use these buses to get from point A to point B. This was just for show. Show's now over. And they can just go back to living like kings and queens in their palaces, cut off from the rest of the world; the common world.

Naya Pakistan

noreply@blogger.com (Hamza Malik) — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 13:39:26 PST

Vital Signs. Junoon. Naya Pakistan. This had to be shared. This just HAD to be shared. This is a 40 second clip of their upcoming song. Will be released on Pakistan Day (23rd March).

When people cross all limits

noreply@blogger.com (Hamza Malik) — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 19:16:35 PST

Tahir ul Qadri

It has come to my attention that bloggers posted the return ticket information of Tahir ul Qadri's family. Now with all my issues with Tahir ul Qadri, this is indeed unacceptable. There are certain boundaries that need to be respected. You cannot just get up and violate the personal space of an individual. Because that would mean there is no difference between you or them.

Pakistan women's cricket team confined to a stadium in Cuttack

noreply@blogger.com (Hamza Malik) — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 20:43:31 PST

So much for the Indian "hospitality"

With the women's cricket World Cup scheduled to take place in India this year, a rather unfortunate and sad story has unfolded. Recent border clashes on the Line of Control have sparked a feverish Indian response that extends beyond their regular media mouthpieces. So much so that the Pakistani women's cricket team has been confined to the stadium at Cuttack in India because all 5 star hotels refused to host them due to racist pressure on them from extremist Indian elements.

Dawn.com in it's reports asked four questions regarding the whole situation. Find the questions and my answers to all four of them below.

Q: Keeping in mind the situation the Pakistani team is faced with in India, should the ICC play a more decisive role?

The ICC should take an Indian banana and shove it up its you know what. The ICC is like the UN. Gutless, spineless, loser of a referee who realizes he really has no power and the only real source of its income is the Indian cricket board. So it dare not offend it. As far as its concerned, the world is round and there is nothing wrong with it.

Q: Are the ICC and the BCCI setting a precedent for all future matches that Pakistan may be involved in in India?

The BCCI set the precedent when it refused to allow Pakistani cricket players play in the Indian Premier League. So as far as its concerned, its just following its long set tradition. The ICC on the other hand has no real authority. So even if it wanted to do anything, it really can't. As far as precedents go, Pakistan is already shunned. Just going with the flow never hurt anyone.

Q: Being bound to the hotel (stadium in this case) has been cited by FICA and most international teams as a major concern when talk of touring Pakistan comes up. Will it affect the performance of Sana Mir’s team in any way?

Of course it will. You're bound to a stadium in a country that does not want you to be there. Why are you hell bent on staying there? Where's your self respect? If somebody had threatened any cricket team visiting Pakistan, all hell would've broken lose. They would've flown back to their homeland in a heartbeat. Meanwhile our brave gals are calling on their "supporters" to show up for their matches. How can they be so naive?

Q: If travelling around in India is not a safe option for the Pakistan women’s team, is it right for the World Cup to go ahead over there?

I don't know. All I know if the PCB wasn't even more spineless than the ICC they would've called our gals back home and told the ICC and the BCCI to fuck off.

This is Pakistan, dummy

noreply@blogger.com (Hamza Malik) — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 22:07:47 PST

When I first came to the USA, I expected certain stereotypes to be associated to me. I wasn't wrong. The only problem however was all the stereotypes being associated to me were factually incorrect! This then is an introductory lesson to Pakistan. Pakistan 101, if you will.

The biggest anomaly that a lot of Americans know as fact about Pakistan is that we're Arabs and Pakistan is located in the Middle East. Below is a map of the Middle East. See if you can spot Pakistan.

The Middle East

What's that? You couldn't find Pakistan in the Middle East? Oh no! But wait, oh yes. Pakistan is NOT in the Middle East. It never was, it never will be.

Once upon a time Pakistan and India were the same country. Then one fine morning in August 1947, the people of subcontinent decided we should have TWO countries in the same place where one existed. Guess what? Pakistan was born.

Map of Pakistan when it was part of India (left); map of Pakistan when it
was part of... well Pakistan. (Source: BBC)

But that's not all. You see not only are we NOT Arabs, we're also not from the Middle Ages. As one friend of mine so casually pointed out the fact that we shit in holes, and 9/10ths of our country is rural and overrun by the Taliban. If it wasn't for his ginger hair (being a rarity as it is), I might have actually taken affront to this blatant stereotyping of 200 million people.

As it turns out though, we do not shit in holes in the ground. Animals do that. Even in the USA. Now how about that? Also, please. We're much more dignified when it comes to wiping our bottoms. While the western world TP their asses raw (uncivilized. You're from the Middle Ages!), we have the luxury of using a Muslim shower which squirts soothing cold water onto our bottom.

Illustration of a Muslim shower

Then there's the problem of 90% of Pakistan being overrun by the Taliban. Uhh, no. You never believe what the TV tells you. Because the TV lies. This is Pakistan. The real Pakistan. See if you can spot a Taliban in the pictures below.

Islamabad

Old Lahore. That's the Badshahi Mosque in the background. Built in the 16th century.
In French, it is magnifique!

Port Grand Karachi

That's the highest elevation bridge in Asia located on the motorway
in the Pakistani salt range

Karachi again

The Harbor front building in Karachi

National University of Science and Technology - by the way, Pakistan's education system is in
English. Don't act all surprised when you find out we can converse in English.

Sher Shah Suri's tomb

Katas Raj temple near Chakwal. And right next to my village

Head Marala, Sialkot

Bridge connecting Rohri with Quetta in Balochistan

Sand dunes meet ocean on the Balochistan coast

Reko Diq. The land of gold and copper and hungry international vultures.

Basharat, Pakistan

Looks Photoshopped doesn't it? It's not. The Hindu Kush mountain
range in Pakistan

Lansdowne bridge, Rohri Pakistan

The Biafo glacier

The snow desert of Skardu

The Dudipatsar Lake

Pakistan

This is Pakistan. A beautiful land with kind hospitable people. We're not overrun by Taliban. That's something you're fed so that pressure can be enforced on our government. We're not without faults. We're not without sins. But the faults of those in power should not associated with the people who live in that land. We're not what you make us out to be. We're awesome. You're surprised by us because you judge us too soon. You don't give us a chance. You stereotype us and for that shame on you.

Introducing HighLight

noreply@blogger.com (Hamza Malik) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 14:30:44 PDT

Welcome to HighLight. It's a new blog we're launching. And we've got a new blogger on board to keep it running! What is HighLight? I'm glad you asked. Its a showcase of a star studded history of Pakistan. Interesting profiles, facts and delightful pictures you won't find anywhere else. It's a peep in to the Pakistan no one's seen before.

So where can you visit it? Well you can visit it at the following link: highlight.thetrueperspective.com. Alternatively, just click HighLight in the tabs bar.

Feel free to comment and spread the love around. You can subscribe to HighLight posts via RSS feeds or via email.

Cheers!

TimeScapes

noreply@blogger.com (Hamza Malik) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:13:36 PDT

Sometimes when you feel you have the world's weight on your shoulders, its good to simply let go and realize how small your problems really are. The universe is vast. And it is stunningly beautiful. This is one video that tries to express that beauty. It's called TimeScapes by Tom Lowe. It's been shot in 4K UHD (Ultra Hi-Definition) format using Red Epic and Cannon RAW still cameras. And it is amazing.

Failure is for losers

noreply@blogger.com (Hamza Malik) — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 15:26:33 PST

They lie. They lie when they say failures make you stronger. No. Instead, failures are really good at knocking out the wind from you lungs, crushing your larynx and making you fall back into your non existent couch from the wafty level of the clouds you thought you were hovering at.

They lie to you when they say they are what they are because of the failures they had to endure. False. They are what they are because they were successful. They did not fail. They succeeded. And hence, now they can go cry in a BMW if they're angry or sad or miserable, but you still have to crouch under the toilet sink to moan over your misery.

They lie to you when they say they thrive on failures. No. Everybody thrives on successes. Failure does not motivate people. You know what motivates people? Success. Failing at every stage of your life and then succeeding is not happiness. It is RELIEF. Succeeding the first time, that's happiness.

Sometimes failure becomes too much. Sometimes it would be nice to be successful. Sometimes doing something right the first time would be helpful. Somebody congratulating you on being phenomenal will be the catalyst in producing the adrenaline that's needed to be even more successful. Just getting back up on your two feet after having been knocked out takes so much energy that any adrenaline you were producing would already have been used by the time you're ready for another try.

Life is hard. It takes a miracle to achieve success. Failure does not make you stronger. Failure just makes you used to the fact that you fail a lot. That's not being strong by any definition. Being successful is hard. It takes its toll.

Sometimes just letting it all out is good. Sometimes that's the only way. Being all macho about failure is stupid and dumb. You're allowed to feel sorry for yourself. And if you're not, then you should be allowed to feel sorry for yourself. Sometimes that's the only way to get out of the dark hole you're spiraling down into.

Tahir ul Qadri is not Pakistan's promised messiah

noreply@blogger.com (Hamza Malik) — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 20:12:15 PST

In Pakistan messiahs are promised every few minutes. It is said they will come and change the face of the country. But the messiahs we usually get are illiterate, or if they're not illiterate they're still incompetent, useless, backwards thinking, corrupt, compulsive liars, supporters of military rule, anarchists or they have vested interests.

The PPP were the promised messiahs in 2008 when they won the elections. They said they would fix the country, they would catch Benazir Bhutto's killers, they would rid the country of corruption, they would fix the rule of law, they would fix the power situation and so on and so forth. But they failed just like everybody else. Pakistan today has slid to a point where it is bleeding from a thousand cuts. Either it will survive to live another day, or it will go south the way it did in 1971.

Sometimes I actually feel pity for Pakistan. Not the people, not the politicians but for the land itself. Sometimes I wonder to myself that if we could hear the land it would be crying and asking its dwellers what have you done to it. Why have you done what you did?

Now we have another promised messiah from the shining land of Canada. A man who came out of nowhere and stole the thunder. A demagogue if you will as predicted by Cyril Almeida in this amazing article he published in 2011. But Tahir ul Qadri is not Pakistan's promised. He is not the man to lead Pakistan out of trouble. His character is flawed, his logic skewed and his demands unreasonable and unconstitutional. On top of that he is a compulsive liar.

Please watch the video. It's not YouTube, its Dailymotion. The new preferred video sharing site of the Pakistanis so you'll be able to watch it. Now you tell me how can you support this man? This lying two faced man?

Last I heard the supreme court has ordered the arrest of Raja Pervaiz Ashraf in the rental power plants corruption case. He is accused of having received kickbacks. Now that another Prime Minister has been removed from his position, it does indeed look like the forces of Qadri and the people funding and supporting him have won. Maybe the government will fail and the nation will rejoice. But that rejoice will be ironical, short lived and catastrophic.

People often ask me what's Pakistan like; is it chaotic, dangerous, serene or picturesque? That's the point where I scratch my head, look down at my feet and tell them I'll get back to them on that one.

I am sorry Shiites. I am sorry for everything.

noreply@blogger.com (Hamza Malik) — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 20:04:44 PST

Shiite Hazara community sits with 86 coffins in the freezing cold of Quetta

I am sorry Shiites.
I am sorry for not listening.
I am sorry for not caring.
I am sorry for staying quiet.
I am sorry for not standing up.
I am sorry for not raising my voice.
I am sorry for letting you die.
I am sorry for cornering you in your own country.
I am sorry for burning down your homes.
I am sorry for being more concerned with madmen's crazy antics.
I am sorry for spilling your blood.
I am sorry for listening to trivial excuses to justify your death.
I am sorry for scaring you.
I am sorry for not letting you be a part of this country.
I am sorry for inflicting incompetent, drunk and incapable leaders on you.
I am sorry for being too engrossed in my own life to care for your plight.
I am sorry for not protesting.
I am sorry for not thinking.
I am sorry for being soulless.
I am sorry for being so heartless.
I am sorry for not expressing my remorse.
I am sorry for being weak when I should have been strong.
I am sorry for not letting you be a part of Pakistan.
I am sorry for symbolizing death and destruction in your life.

First they came for the women, and I did not speak out because I was not a woman. Then they came for children and I did not speak out because I was not a child. Then they came for the Ahmadis and I did not speak out because I was not an Ahmadi. Then they came for the Shiites and I did not speak out because I was not Shiite. Then they came for me... And there was no one left to speak for me.

I am sorry Shiites, for everything.

This is Pakistan. The real Pakistan.

noreply@blogger.com (Hamza Malik) — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 00:02:21 PST

This is Pakistan. The real Pakistan. Live it, breathe it, dream it. Be proud of it.

2 years later we still don't deserve you Salman Taseer

noreply@blogger.com (Hamza Malik) — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 22:39:24 PST

Salman Taseer

On the day Salman Taseer was murdered, I was invited to a BBC World radio show called World Have Your Say. What I witnessed in the one hour I was part of it has shamed and scarred me forever. The guests on the show, learned Pakistanis belonging to the well-to-do diaspora spent the entire show regaling the baffled listeners with how Salman Taseer deserved to die. They announced to the world they were happy he had been killed. They announced to the world this is what Islam tells us to do. They announced to the world that given the choice, they would love for this to happen again.

I scratched my head and tried to understand what had hit me. Really? Forget Islam, forget Pakistan. Forget Quaid-e-Azam and forget Iqbal. As human beings, is this really what we've sunk to? Pumping 27 bullets into a man just because we disagree with him? But I should have known better. I should have known that this is Pakistan. Logic, debate and argument do not work here. Justice comes to die here. Corruption is rampant and the law of the land is 'might is right'.

I should have known better because in August 2010 two brothers, Mughees and Muneeb were butchered at the hands of a mob in Sialkot. For 7 hours they were beaten while hundreds looked and egged the perpetrators on. Sticks, stones, batons. Nothing was left behind. Their limbs broke. With no respite they passed on. Then their bodies were hung upside down in the town square until someone from their family came and begged the mob to let them be. To let them be. I should have know then that Pakistan had died.

I should have realized that even the self proclaimed saviors of my country are nothing more than a bunch of sorry losers who are incompetent and complicit in perpetrating heinous crimes. Less than two months after the Sialkot incident I was witness to a murder being perpetrated in the middle of a bazaar in Lahore with an army check point less than 700m away. I should have known then that it was hopeless. All this was so hopeless.

And then in January of 2011, we saw how Salman Taseer was gunned downed. The shooter shot him like a coward but he was garlanded and proclaimed a hero. Social scientists will most probably bang their heads together and proclaim what is the matter with these people? But I know what's the matter with them. I know that as a human race we Pakistanis have failed to evolve. Instead we're actually sliding back towards the Dark Age and if left unchecked we'll reach there pretty soon. Vestiges of that era have already begun to show up in our society.

I meant to write this blog as a tribute to the man known to the world as Salman Taseer. But as you've probably realized I simply could not stop thinking about the madness that has engulfed us all. I feel so frustrated and so helpless at my plight. I want to change everything but I know I cannot. Even if I could I wouldn't be allowed to do so. Might is right in Pakistan. Confusion, paranoia and an affinity to chop of any semblance of sanity are the characteristics of my country and my people. And then we ask the world what is wrong with it?

Pakistan did not deserve Salman Taseer because he tried to argue with common sense. He thought he would get away with it but he was wrong. Lack of common sense combined with madness and misguided zealotry caught up with him. I hope he's resting peacefully wherever he is now.

I wish I could wish the same for Pakistan; that it rest in peace too. But it continues to burn brighter and stronger everyday with no let up. I wish it'll stop. I wish a newer and stronger Pakistan will emerge. But that's what it all is. A wish. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Departing Space Station Commander Provides Tour of Orbital Laboratory

noreply@blogger.com (Hamza Malik) — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 19:30:06 PST

Of late space and sciency stuff has been intriguing me quite a lot. So I took to YouTube and came across this video from NASA's official YouTube channel. It's a real life tour of the International Space Station (ISS). A couple of weeks ago I signed up for the NASA Spot the Station program which notifies you whenever the ISS is supposed to fly over your location and this video is interesting in that it shows that the ISS is quite a huge vehicle instead of the tiny speck you can see in the sky.

Besotted with violence: Who will change mens' attitudes?

noreply@blogger.com (Hamza Malik) — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 12:41:38 PST

Mount Elizabeth Hospital Singapore where the victim
passed away

By now most of you know that the victim of the New Delhi bus gang rape in India has died. Along with the Indians a lot of people across the world are still reeling from the shock of the cruelty and utter barbarianism that was meted out to her. A lot of people are still pondering why?

Let's just remind ourselves what happened to her exactly. On December 16, she along with her fiance was coming back after watching a movie. They wanted to go to Dwarka, a place in southwest Delhi when they were tricked into boarding a bus by some men. What happened then is a tale of truly horrendous proportions.

6 men raped her for almost an hour. As if that wasn't enough, they then beat her with an iron rod tearing her intestines. They then threw her, and her fiance from the moving bus onto the road. She was then flown to Singapore where she faced multi organ failure resulting in her death. A 23 year old life, snuffed.

Terrible as it is the pertinent question here is indeed why? Sexual violence against women has long been a characteristic of the subcontinent (both India and Pakistan). Men have traditionally tried to dominate the society and when they have been unable to establish their writ they have tried to do so by harming innocent women. On the other hand people who are supposed to prevent such incidents from taking place (police, state agencies etc.) are usually directed and run by men and that's where the second conundrum starts. Because the society as a whole has failed to educate and evolve, their mindsets are hard coded into laying the blame squarely on the victim.

In this case however, the backlash has been strong and unusually robust. The epic proportions of cruelty notwithstanding, the government of India has still failed to pacify the large number of protestors. Any remedial measures will only serve as a band aid, a temporary fix. Even if the 6 accused are found guilty and hanged, the failed policies will continue to chew away at the social fabric of society.

So how can change be emancipated here?

The dead honest answer is: Through education. You see these heinous crimes take place because as children these men were never taught to respect women, or told that by defiling women's bodies they do not somehow establish their superiority. If the concepts of right and wrong, of equality, of respect, kindness and forgiveness are instilled in children from the get go, society will gradually begin to change. Chemically castrating sex offenders for example, is not going to stop the rape of women. Hanging culprits might silence the large number of protestors but that will not end the stressful lives women have to endure in our part of the world.

Of course there is the fact that while there is talk of some change taking place in India in response to this abhorrent incident, the same cannot be said for Pakistan where women are buried alive and senators stand in the galleys of Parliament and say that it is our customs and no one has the right to talk about it.

It saddens me immensely that people only raise their voices in the subcontinent when innocent lives have been taken. In India it had to be that nameless 23 year old medical student who was going back home after watching a movie. In Pakistan it was the 20 year old Shahzeb Khan who was going to visit his friend. In both cases the voices for change came to late. How long before they die out and we're back to square one?

A version of this blog post appeared on The Express Tribune Blogs: Click here to view it.

The way Americans see Asia

noreply@blogger.com (Hamza Malik) — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 00:17:49 PST

The way Americans see Asia. Hilarious! (Click on picture to expand)

Just had to share this with you all!