Imran Khan and his supporters must be disillusioned

One must admire Imran Khan's supporters for believing that he is the most popular man in the country. An elderly woman I know was so concerned that he was suffering in jail that she kept asking everyone to pray for him to be released, even though her own husband was in critical condition and near death at the time (he died a couple of months later).

Now that the so-called long march by his supporters to get him out of jail has fizzled out and most of the party's leaders have either been arrested or gone into hiding, he and his supporters must be wondering why people didn't come out protesting against the imposition of emergency and governor's rule in his home province (KP). One answer is that he's not as popular as they believe. In the last general elections his party got thirty percent of the total votes cast. But since only half the electorate turned out to vote, the net result was that only fifteen percent of the people voted for him. That's not something that should make anyone believe he's the most popular leader in the country. Add to that the thirteen years of bad governance by his party (even today, residents of that province go to Karachi or Lahore for medical treatment), so why should the common man support him?

Yet, despite all this, I get messages and fake videos from his supporters purporting to show that he is massively popular. 

Trump is fuming because he didn't get the Nobel Peace prize

I can't understand why some Americans still support a madman like Trump. The man is a deranged narcissist who should be locked up. He is incensed that this year too the award was not given to him, but to a women lawyer (Navi Pillay, the well-known human rights activist). He keeps saying that if for nothing else, he should get the prize because Obama also got it. 

Can't those who still support him or work with him realize that he poses the greatest danger to mankind since Hitler? He's doing everything he can to damage the environment by increasing global warming. Not only that, they actually believe him when he says that he stopped many wars, when the truth is that he started another war that has now expanded and resulted in the death of hundreds of people. 

I only hope Trump is removed before he destroys the planet. There are signs that some Republicans are disillusioned with him and will not support his party in next month's midterm elections. I hope his party loses badly and he is impeached successfully. The danger, of course, is that he might do something drastic like using nuclear bombs to force Iran to surrender if he sees that he's going to be impeached or forced to resign.

Flydubai drama: was it staged to benefit Netanyahu?

Almost everyone on social media believes that the attempt to crash a Flydubai passenger plane was staged by the Israelis to boost Netanyahu's chances of winning the forthcoming elections so he can be elected for another term and save himself from spending the rest of his life in jail (he's been convicted for corruption). Whatever happened, it will definitely scare the Israelis for many years. They will wonder if they can ever trust the airlines of the UAE or any other Muslim country. Of course, they have only themselves to blame. Killing thousands of Muslims just to retain their illegal occupation of Palestine is not going to gain them the sympathies of Muslims worldwide.

I doubt if there will ever be peace in the Middle East. The US will always support Israel, despite polls showing that more than half of Americans no longer sympathize with the pariah state. 

As for the failed so-called hijacking, it's not clear why the crew were sympathetic to the hijacker, why there were two pilots among the passengers who landed the plane, in fact, why they chose to land at distant Tobuk in Saudi Arabia, even though there were nearby airports in Jordan and Israel. Until all these facts are known, people will continue to believe that the hijacking was planned and executed by Israel. 

 

 

 

Every day a crisis

As the days go by, I can't help wondering why our leaders can't see that the country is fast moving towards another break-up. Every day there is either a suicide bombing or an attack on the police or the army. It's just like what was happening in East Pakistan before the Indians invaded and forced it to secede. The problem then, as today, was the intransigence of one leader. It was Mujibur Rehman in 1971, it's Imran Khan today. At least Mujib was open to negotiating with the authorities, but Imran and his minions are adamant that they will not accept anything less than their leader's release from prison. No wonder that even India has raised this issue in the United Nations. They know fully well that if Imran gets to lead the country again, it will disintegrate.  

Meanwhile, Trump is doing everything he can to destroy the planet. He has banned projects to promote solar and wind energy, as well as  electric cars. He just wants to go on drilling for oil. One can be forgiven for thinking that the forces of evil have brainwashed him. What surprises me is that a third of Americans still support him, despite it being evident that he is a psychopath. 

Might is right

The US-Iran war proves something we've always known: "might is right and "big fish eat the little fish". Right now, even though Iran has so far successfully defended itself, the way Trump barks and threatens to annihilate it (and knowing him, he's perfectly capable of using nuclear weapons to force Iran to surrender), Iran has very little choice but to agree to most of his demands.

Now that the Houthis (aided by Iran) are on the warpath against the Saudis, poor Mohammed bin Salman must be having a hard time getting to sleep. He must be regretting his lavish lifestyle, buying fifty million dollar paintings and spending his wealth on other useless stuff.. He must also be worrying that one of his own kinsmen might carry out a coup and remove him from power. He should have spent his country's wealth on building up a strong army. The ruler of Qatar squandered his country's wealth, gifting a 400 million dollar air plane to Trump. I won't be surprised if all the Gulf kings (who are illegitimate rulers, owing their fortunes to the British and the US) must be making plans to flee from their countries if the war lasts much longer. 

Houthis' attack on Saudi Arabia

Muslims have been fighting and killing each other since the early days of Islam. It was a convert from Judaism who caused a split by proclaiming that Ali is God (much as Christians said the same thing about Jesus). Then Islam spread both towards the East and the West, with Iran's Muslims following the Shia version. I remember the Shah of Iran saying, "We can't stay idle while hundreds of Shias are being killed in Yemen". The two sects are now different religions, each calling their version Islam. 

So it's no surprise that the Houthis of Yemen (who are Shias) have entered the war and attacked Saudi Arabia. There is a widespread belief that the US and Israel have told them to do so. In just a couple of days, the poor Saudis have been reduced to begging the US and Israel for help. Perhaps Pakistan may also be trapped into taking sides and sending troops to the war torn region. It is, of course, the Saudi's fault. They should have spent more on increasing the size of their army instead of buying paintings costing fifty million dollars.

It looks like the beginning of a world war. 

Shocking: Women removed from Eiffel Tower by Hindu holy man

Just when you think you've heard and seen everything, along comes something that shocks you. This time, it's a 93-year old Hindu spiritual leader who got all women removed from the Eiffel Tower during his visit there with a hundred followers. The man belongs to the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) and wants to build a temple in Paris. There are such temples in many countries, in fact there's one in Karachi, constructed on prime land in the heart of the city on Bunder Road. A friend of mine has a shop in the temple's land, worth probably half a billion rupees today.

This is the kind of thing one would've expected from orthodox Jews and even Muslims. This also proves that the ancient prejudice against women exists in other religions as well. This Hindu group has been in the news before. They strongly resisted entry of Dalits in 1966 going so far as to claim they're not Hindus. In 2021, they were sued by 200 Indian workers in the US who were forced to work more than 12 hours a day (with only 5 off days a year) and paid only US $ 1.20 per hour ( in New Jersey, where the minimum hourly wage is US $ 12.00). The female workers at Eiffel Tower went on strike for a day, while French authorities protested strongly, but considering that India is set to buy 36 Rafaels costing more than a hundred million dollars each, I doubt if France will do anything.

The 'rights'

Published in August 1993

As the nation has just celebrated its 46th independence anniversary, let us all reflect upon the rights enjoyed by the average Pakistani.

The "right" to be arrested and tortured by police; to disappear after being picked up by a law enforcement agency; to pay a princely amount to get a F .I .R. registered.

The "right" to be killed if one is a witness in a murder trial. 

The "right" to be arrested and held without trial for years; to end up in a mental hospital after being held without trial for years. 

The "right" to be caught in a traffic jam for hours because some VVIP (Prime Minister, President, Chief Minister) is passing that way.

The "right" to be charged for long-distance calls made by the friend of a linesman; to have telephone disconnected if one is unable to pay the huge bill for calls he never made; to undergo hours of agony to get a telephone restored after paying the highly inflated bill which he should never have received in the first place; to pay a ten per cent penalty for not paying a bill which he never received because the postman was on leave. 

The "right" to be electrocuted because of a live wire falling on him. 

The "right" to be kidnapped for ransom, particularly if he happens to live in Sindh; unspeakable things being done to females by police. 

The "right" to pay exorbitant water tax without receiving water. 

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi

BJP Leader

 Published in 2004

The BJP Leader L. K. Advani was born in Karachi and spent the first 20 years of his life in this city. However, your correspondents have often said that Mr. Advani was born in Hyderabad and even in your issue of April 19, the news item "Advani sees progress" (page 3), your correspondence has stated, "... he was likely to go to Pakistan in coming June and also visit his birthplace in Hyderabad."

A report in The Times of India on March 9, 2002, had quoted Mr. Advani as saying: "My birthplace is Karachi. I had spent the first 20 years of my life there. It is natural for me to feel happy when I get an invitation, I had visited it only once in 1978 in the last 50 years."

SHAKIR LAKHANI

Karachi.

I'm 82 today

Another year completed and I'm still alive, although on many days I wondered why. It's been a painful time, with two near relatives dying and me falling down the stairs at Manchester Airport last week. Besides this, I've been suffering from severe constipation for the last four months or so.

I mentioned two near relatives dying, both of them suddenly. One was a male cousin, five years older than me, apparently in very good health, dying of a heart attack after his morning bath. That was really shocking, but even more was finding out that my wife's brother was on the verge of death when we landed in Karachi last week. He died the next day. He too had always been healthy although he'd been a heavy smoker. He'd been physically active until a day before dying of liver cancer.

So many things happened before I left for the UK in mid-July that at times I thought we'd not be able to go. There was the Iran war, with the UAE being a target (we had to transit in Abu Dhabi), besides the geyser pipeline leaking and a bedroom window needing to be fixed to stop it from falling and injuring someone on the ground. Thankfully, the war stopped before we left, and on the return trip it was on hold, although it re-started a couple of days after we returned.