I've always hated extremists, so why do I support Iran?

Ever since I was a boy of ten, I've been suspicious of those who are, or pretend to be, deeply religious. A relative of mine one day stopped shaving and turned into a fanatic. He would take money from people, then pretend to be violently sick, or disappear. Once he was recovered after more than two years from a town five hundred miles away. People thought he was mad, but sometimes it was evident that he was acting. He's dead now, so I'll never know the truth.

When the clerics took over Iran, I hated them. I believed that they would kill their opponents, suppress their women and turn the country into a living hell. Of course some of all this did happen. But it's also a fact that they turned Iran into a welfare state (petrol was so cheap that some of it was smuggled into Pakistan). Women were forced to wear the all-enveloping burqa, but surprisingly Iran has more educated women than in most Islamic countries. 

But the main reason I support the regime in Iran is that it has successfully resisted the US and Israel for more than forty years. Despite decades of sanctions, it's managed to fight a war with the two evil countries and in ten days it has survived the bombs and missiles rained upon it. Trump seems to have concluded that the war is unwinnable, so he's talking about a cease-fire. Even though Iran has lost much, it has the potential to become the region's super power. The Zionists will never be able to strike Iran again.

 

Iran says it will no longer attack its neighbors

It's only a week since its leadership was killed and Iran caused havoc in the region. Even today it attacked Dubai airport. But suddenly, it announced that attacks on its neighbors will stop. What is the reason for this change? The only reason I can think of is that the neighbors must have begged for a chance to return to normal, maybe they even promised to ask the US not to launch attacks on Iran from their territories.

Whatever the reason, for the next six months at least, Dubai and other cities in the region will no longer be the same as they were before the war. Dubai, particularly, is an artificial entity, being a major financial centre. The foreigners who had bought property and were doing business there due to zero income tax will no longer want to continue. Most of them have probably left, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to get out of the war-torn region. Hong Kong and Singapore will probably regain their earlier reputations as major financial hubs. 

The population of the GCC countries are bound to demand explanations from their governments for putting them at risk. Why did the UAE get too friendly with Israel is something its leaders will have to explain. It's going to be a tough six months for the sheikhs and princes. 

Israel fools the US into another war

Israel finally got what it wanted: a war between the US and Iran. But it will have to pay dearly. Even though negotiations between the US and Iran were practically concluded, with Iran agreeing to most demands, Israel forced Trump to attack Iran, killing its top leadership (including the Supreme Leader Khamenei). 

What Israel and Trump hadn't taken into account was the fact that its allies would be directly in the line of fire. It's been three days since the war started, and there is panic in Dubai and other states in the region. Foreigners in the UAE are reportedly paying 300,000 dollars to escape to Saudi Arabia by car. If the war lasts another two weeks, food shortage in Dubai may cause riots (as most of its food is imported).It will take many months for things to return to normal, but one thing is certain now: Westerners will never regard the region as a safe haven. Cities like Dubai, Doha and Bahrain will no longer be the favored destinations for Europeans.

With oil prices predicted to soar to 200 dollars a barrel, the future looks bleak. Inflation could hit the US, and Trump's party will be soundly beaten in the mid-term elections in November. I hope Trump is booted out and impeached for his crimes.

Difference between Pakistani & Indian tax collectors

Issues of tax and trust

Published in Dawn, February 26, 2026

 

THIS is with reference to the editorial ‘Lavish lifestyles’ (Jan 30), which reminded me of what happened to a Pakistani who had gone to India and set up a business there. In a couple of months, he had saved enough to buy a motorcycle. The subsequent week, he got a notice from the tax department, asking him to explain the means with which he had managed to buy the motorcycle. Of course, the man returned to Pakistan. I remember his remark. “In Pakistan, no one is bothered if you buy 10 luxury vehicles, but over there, you spend Rs25,000 on a motorcycle and the government pounces upon you.”

Perhaps this is the difference between our tax collectors and those across the border. Recently, a dumper truck driver returned illegally earned Rs4 billion to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). Why the tax authorities were not able to detect this huge amount looted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP)?

There used to be a time when we had an efficient anti-corruption department to whom the common man could confidently report. Unfortunately, people seem to have lost trust in it, perhaps due to fears of their names being divulged to the tax thieves.

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi

https://www.dawn.com/news/1975842/issues-of-tax-and-trust

Stock Exchange massacre

It happens every couple of years. The Stock Exchange Index gradually increases for a few months, then there is a minor crash, then shares rebound and the cycle is repeated. This time, however, the crash is huge (from 190,000 to 160,000) and no one can explain why this is happening.

One reason could be (and probably is), the daily suicide attacks in KP and the bombing of Afghanistan. This war has been going on for a long time, as about 40,000 terrorists were allowed to enter Pakistan by Imran Khan, and they are wreaking havoc.

Another reason could be the impending attack on Iran by the US. If this happens, and Iran retaliates with attacks on neighboring countries, it will be the Third World War (which, by the way, has already begun, according to Ukraine President Zelensky).

There is another explanation that I heard on Twitter. It seems that whenever there are signs that Imran Khan is about to be released from jail, the market goes down. The man said that even though some businessmen voted for Imran in elections, they are scared that once he is let loose, he will again destabilize the country. 

Whatever the reason, I'm glad I got out of the share market about sixteen years ago, as I needed money to buy my present apartment.

Trump's war on iran

It's evident that Trump wants to bomb Iran so that a major threat to Israel is eliminated. In fact, there are conspiracy theorists who say that Israel got the Epstein files released so that Trump would need something to distract public attention from his pedophile activities. What is ignored, however, is that the US will be able to weaken China by bombing Iran to its knees.

China buys eighty percent of Iran's oil. After the US capture of Venezuelan oil, which was also China's major source, loss of Iranian oil will be a major problem for China. If Iran falls, China will have a hard time finding new sources of oil. This is Trump's real intention: remove China as the other superpower. 

But will Iran surrender? The US demands on the Iranian leadership are unrealistic. Even if Iran gives up developing its peaceful nuclear program, sanctions will still remain in place. So Iran gets nothing, and if it does comply, its leadership will be forced to resign and flee. Iran, therefore, has no choice but to fight until death. 

Am I taking too many pills?

A couple of days back, my oldest cousin suddenly kicked the bucket. He was five years older than me and lived a good life. What was surprising was that he never took any medication (not even vitamins), despite having run into a couple of vehicles last year (he said that it happened because for a moment he lost consciousness when driving). He should have gone to a doctor but didn't do so. Maybe he would have lived longer if he had. He even continued driving, even though he could well afford to employ two drivers.

His death made me wonder if I'm taking too much medication. I consume four vitamin pills, two pills for hypertension, four for curbing cholesterol and blood sugar, another two of collagen, an anti-allergic pill for sinusitis, and nowadays a pain-killing tablet twice a day for the (sometimes) excruciating pain in my back and left leg (due to sciatica). The question arises, despite being on such heavy medication, why am I not as healthy as my late cousin was?

Come to think of it, I have another close male relative (a couple of years younger than me) who never takes any medication either, despite being a smoker. I suppose some people are healthy because they inherited the required genes. 

Imran Khan's sudden eye trouble: another drama?

Imran Khan's sudden loss of vision in one eye is probably another drama to gain public sympathy. We saw how he claimed that he had been hit by seven bullets and needed a wheel chair to get around. But when arrested, he stood up and started walking.

I believe that the next step would be for his doctors to say that he needs treatment in London or New York and should be flown there. That way, everyone will be happy. Imran will claim there was no deal for him to be released. He will be able to spent the next two or three years out of the country and will be able to return when the next general elections are held. 

Of course, this kind of thing has happened before, when Nawaz Sharif was allowed by the apex court to go abroad for medical treatment. At that time, when Nawaz was seen walking without assistance, Imran had questioned the chief justice on why he was let go, seeing that he wasn't as sick as portrayed. But then, Nawaz made no secret of the fact that he was going out of the country as part of an agreement. Imran will never admit he made a deal with the powers that be to get out of jail.

 

Epstein saga and the evil white men do

 I'd once thought that white men were inherently good and incapable of doing anything wrong. It's because I'd been educated in a missionary school where the teachers always praised the British (even though most of them were not white). Slowly, as the years went by, I began to see that most white people were racist and thought themselves much superior to black and brown people.

My father, of course, knew that the colonizers were corrupt to the core. Once I remarked that a British judge could never be bribed. He replied, "Oh yes, in his own country, he would never take a bribe, but here he could be bought with a few hundred rupees".

Another time I read an article about Palestinian "terrorists" in the Readers Digest. The name of a prominent Palestinian, George Habash, was shortened to G. Habash, to prevent Americans from finding out that there were Palestinian Christians as well.

Then there was the BBC declaring jubilantly that Lahore had been captured by the Indians in 1965. When Pakistan's cricket coach (Bob Wilmoor) was found dead, the BBC openly hinted that heavily bearded Pakistani cricketers had killed him.

Now that the Epstein files have been released (despite every effort by Trump to block it), we know the depths of evil that the white race can stoop to. I'm almost convinced that Epstein did not commit suicide, he was murdered in jail. 

India's attempts to isolate Pakistan have failed

India has never fully accepted the existence of Pakistan. Just a few days after independence, India illegally occupied Kashmir, and even though Nehru promised to hold a plebiscite to determine the will of the people of Kashmir, India backed out on one pretext or the other. Before the Indus Waters Treaty was signed, India would periodically shut the water flow into Pakistan. 

In 1971, after the secession of East Pakistan, Indian analysts confidently predicted the break-up of what remained of Pakistan, but that didn't happen. 

For many years now, India has tried to isolate Pakistan from cricket, sometimes even preventing foreign players from playing in Pakistan. The tables have turned now, and the world of international cricket is in turmoil, because of Pakistan's refusal to play one match against India on 15 February in support of Bangladesh (as the ICC refused to accept the latter country's plea to play matches in Sri Lanka because it felt that its players were not safe in India).

Indians are bewildered how Pakistan can forego many millions just to support Bangladesh, which had also declined to play in Pakistan when it was ruled by an Indian-dominated woman. 

It should be interesting to see how the Indian-dominated ICC will deal with this situation.