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.

Flying via Etihad Air : a horrible experience

I didn't know that the UAE had been so badly affected by the Iran war until I traveled by the Abu Dhabi-owned Etihad Airways last week. At every airport, the flight was late. At Manchester it was due to late arrival from Abu Dhabi. The plane departed two hours later than the original scheduled time. At Abu Dhabi itself, the flight to Karachi was first delayed by two hours, then another two and a half hours. The first excuse of course was the late arrival of the plane from Karachi, then it had to wait for about fifty deportees, and finally they said there was so much congestion at the airport that it wasn't getting permission to take off for another two hours.

All this time, the plane kept crawling with the air-conditioning switched off (to save fuel), which led to most male passengers taking off their shirts and children crying. The staff was incredibly rude, making one wonder why anyone would want to travel by Etihad Air. But then, at Karachi Airport I was told that even Emirates airplanes were arriving and departing much later than their scheduled times. I'm sure the other UAE airlines have been affected as badly.

In Pakistan, women are always the victims

Every day, Pakistani newspapers are full of atrocities against women. Hina Javed, a working woman employed in the National assembly, was killed, allegedly by her husband and father-in-law for reasons unknown. Probably they suspected her of having an affair with one of her colleagues. Or perhaps she refused to cover her head when speaking to her father-in-law. 

Today's newspapers report that a man killed his own daughter and injured her father-in-law while they were traveling in a rickshaw. If a man and woman decide to marry without the consent of her family members, they are killed. I remember a worker of mine saying, "We are not cowards like you city folks, if our wives ask us to divorce them, we shoot them immediately". The reason of course is the belief that only a woman having an extra-marital affair would ask to be divorced. 

If there is a dispute among two parties, the loser has to give the winner one or even two of his daughters in marriage. A maid in our apartment block had hired a female lawyer to help her getting divorced. One day her husband appeared with ten supporters, demanding that she hand over to him their three daughters. He didn't care that his wife didn't want to live with him any more, he wanted the three girls so he could sell them.

It seems that most Pakistani men regard women as inferior beings who should be treated like animals.

Remembering Zia ul Haq

It's been 38 years since Zia died in an air crash, and it's difficult to say whether his rule was good or bad for the country. For the past few years the media has ignored him on his death anniversary, which is understandable, as Zia dealt with the press with an iron hand, even flogging some journalists. 

I remember the relief which people felt when he overthrew Bhutto, who almost destroyed the country with his nationalization of industry and education. The closing months of Bhutto'r reign were chaotic, no one felt safe on the streets and people prayed for the army to remove him from power. Yet it was Zia who should be condemned for his so-called Islamization of the laws, which made women second-class citizens. 

I remember the days when Bhutto was sentenced to death and hanged later. His supporters were astonished that there were no demonstrations by the public to release him. But Zia had no choice: if he had spared Bhutto, the latter would have hanged him for treason. In a way, it was Bhutto's fault for threatening Zia. He could have quietly accepted his removal from power and gone abroad.   

Supserstitions about eclipses

The recent solar eclipse on August 12 reminded me of what superstitious people used to say about eclipses. A servant told me in 1950 that the moon and sun were being punished by God during eclipses for their sins, although he couldn't say what exactly were the sins the moon and sun could commit. 

Then there were people who locked their pregnant women folk up under the impression that their pregnancies could be aborted or that they would be burnt or scarred beyond recognition. In fact, all girls and women were forbidden to go out of their houses during solar eclipses specially. Muslim preachers would advise their followers to recite certain verses to ward off any evil that could affect them.

In India, women were even told not to go into their kitchens during a solar eclipse, perhaps due to the fear of being injured while cutting onions or other vegetables. A relative of mine got the shock of his life when a Hindu trader in India refused to do business the whole day despite my relative having paid him a huge amount in advance. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that everyone in India stayed at home on the day of the recent solar eclipse.

Pakistan Saudia Turkiye defence pact: what's it about?

All our ministers have been crowing about the recently announced defence agreement between the three countries as if it's a great achievement by the government. But no one really understands what it's about. What difference will it make?  Turkey is already a member of NATO and has diplomatic ties with Israel, so it doesn't have any enemies in the region. Saudi Arabia may have needed protection from Iran and Israel, but it already had a defence agreement with Pakistan, which (by the way) didn't help Pakistan in last year's attack by India, as the Saudis didn't openly support Pakistan but offered to mediate. Pakistan is repeatedly being attacked by Afghanistan and Indian backed militants, yet not a word has been said by the Saudis or the Turks. They could at least condemn India for trying to destabilize Pakistan. 

Is the pact meant to protect the three countries if Iran attacks one of them? Iran has already bulldozed American bases in Saudi Arabia, so perhaps the Saudis needed the pact if Iran suddenly attacked its civilian infrastructure. Pakistan is always under threat from India, but in the recent conflict all it got from Turkey were drones (of which it had plenty and didn't really need). So the question remains unanswered: will the defence pact really help?