Afghan Taliban ban pictures and videos of living things in print and electronic media

The human mind is perhaps the most unique thing in the world. It can imagine how the world will look like a hundred years from now. It can work out how to travel to Mars. Unfortunately the same human mind can be terribly stupid when it belongs to some people in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

When it was in a coalition government in Pakistan's KP (2013-2018), the Jamat-e-Islami party got pictures of women and animals removed from school text books. This is one party that has many highly educated individuals who donate a lot in charity. Yet it too has people whose minds are like those who lived in the Stone Age.

Afghanistan's Taliban have gone much further. Their morality police have banned pictures and videos of all living things which have souls (meaning humans and animals) in the electronic and print media. I looked at Pakistani newspapers today and found pictures of humans on almost all pages. As for TV, I wonder what Afghan electronic media will show when the ban takes effect. 

These guys are so stupid that they don't realize they are doing their best to make themselves the laughing stock of the whole world. It also makes others wonder if Muslims don't need psychiatric treatment.

Afghan diplomats' insult of national anthem

Unacceptable

Published in The News Saturday, Sep 28, 2024

Last week, two Afghan diplomats in Peshawar remained seated while our national anthem was being played. They said they did so because of the music.

They should be told that the national anthems of most (if not all) countries have music in them. Will they insult those countries as well?

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi

https://e.thenews.com.pk/detail?id=345441

Smuggling of dollars to Afghanistan

There was a time when there were no money changers where you could buy all the dollars you wanted. It was a crime to buy and sell dollars. If you wanted to go abroad, it was the State Bank that gave you the dollars (usually five hundred). I remember an actor being arrested at the airport because he was carrying more dollars. He said, "How can one pay for hotel bills and food for fifteen days if one has five hundred dollars only?" One man, an Ismaili originally from Sri Lanka, used to indulge in the dollar trade. He didn't need to do so, as he already had a factory making animal and bird feed from dead fish. He was arrested and served a few months in jail when Martial Law was imposed in 1969.

It was Nawaz Sharif who made it legal for foreign currency to be purchased and sold in the open market. In 1991 or thereabouts I met an Indian at Dubai Airport who wished the same was done in India (sometime later Manmohan Singh allowed it in India).

Pakistan today faces the problem of five million dollars being smuggled to Afghanistan daily. This is because of money changers. They offer more than ten rupees per dollar to overseas Pakistanis than the State Bank does. They sell these dollars to Afghans at a premium. The loss to the country is tremendous. One of the first things the government should do is to arrest those forex dealers who indulge in havala and then sell the dollars to Afghans and others. Only then will the government have enough foreign exchange to import essential goods like medicines and eatables.

 

Stocks tumble due to threat of sanctions

It doesn't take much to drive businessmen into panic. Yesterday the stock market fell almost a thousand points, today it'll probably fall another 300 or so. The reason is the threat of sanctions by the U.S. in case Pakistan insists on helping the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. It's indeed ironic, considering that Pakistan itself is near bankruptcy but is asking the West to recognize the illegitimate government and help it survive. 

The bearded ones have insisted on imposing its stringent version of Sharia on the hapless people of Afghanistan. They've resumed executions and have said they will cut the hands of thieves, something that's sure to antagonize the people of Europe and the U.S. So the only superpower willing to help them may be China, which is itself atheistic and anti-Muslim. I don't see how China can trust the Taliban, especially after being stabbed in the back by our own Taliban Khan. 

We are in for more inflation. The selected government is going all out to increase fuel and energy prices, so only the honest people will suffer. Supporters of Imran Khan, who are either very rich, or who are gas and electricity thieves, will not bat an eyelid. For them, everything is hunky dory, as long as they can go on stealing and looting. Sometimes I wonder what Mr. Jinnah would say if he came back and saw that his Pakistan has been hijacked by smugglers, looters and of course the real rulers of the country (who are given free electricity and gas even after they retire).

In the meantime, the middle class investors in the stock market will become poorer and poorer, while those who buy their shares at very low prices will reap a huge bonanza. But that's the way capitalism works, right?

Another war in Afghanistan

Of course it was too good to last. It's been just a week since the Taliban took over Kabul, the airport is still in American hands, and due to the number of people wanting to leave the country, there is complete chaos. The Taliban have adopted a hostile attitude towards the U.S. and have warned it to get its remaining troops out of the country before the end of this month.

I often wonder why Pakhtuns are so stupid. Now is the time to earn the goodwill of the west, but they simply can't change. Before conquering the country, they presented a softer image of themselves, but immediately after coming to power, they said they would impose their strict version of sharia in the country. They had spoken of an inclusive government but have yet to form one. One of those they should have taken as partners was the son of the man they killed a day before 9/11 in a suicide bombing attack (Ahmed Shah Masood). Now he has gone and taken over Panjshir, where he has vowed to fight the Taliban to death. There are more pockets of resistance throughout the country, so one hopes the attention of the Taliban will not turn towards destabilizing Pakistan.

Pakistan, on the other hand, stands to gain from the increasing cross-border trade. Supplies from India will almost certainly stop, so we could benefit from the events unfolding in Afghanistan. But for how long? One day, the world might impose sanctions on Pakistan for being friendly with the Taliban. I only hope that the morons who run our country have the sense to realize that the Taliban are a dangerous lot and Pakistan should not appear to be their main supporters.

Afghanistan: interesting times ahead

Like Imran Khan, the Taliban promised a lot before seizing power, but like Imran Khan, they are already making U-turns. They said they would not seek revenge and will not punish those who worked for the Americans and other allied forces, but they have already started doing so. One of the first things they did was to release from jail those terrorists who bombed Pakistan, and who now say they will  impose Islamic rule here. In fact, Pakistan, Iran, Russia and China had all agreed that they would not accept any government in Afghanistan which forcibly imposed Sharia. But the Taliban said on the first day that this is exactly what they will do. 

Of course it was evident that the Taliban haven't changed in the past twenty years. So it shouldn't have surprised anyone when they announced yesterday that their system of government will be Islamic, not democratic. What they're saying is that democracy is incompatible with Islam. The real reason for not preferring democracy is that they know they will never get power in a fair election, as the people don't want to live under their strict version of Sharia. 

It should be interesting to see what happens next. It's been six days since they entered Kabul, but they haven't been able to form a government yet. They're going to find it very difficult to run the country, as they don't have the money to do so. No country would like to help them, not even Saudi Arabia and the UAE (who, along with Pakistan, were the only ones that recognized them in 1996, but who are now firmly in the U.S. camp). Iran and Pakistan are almost bankrupt. China and Russia may wonder how the Afghans will pay them for oil and other essentials, seeing that they have no way to earn dollars (unless they do so by exporting narcotics and guns). Besides this, no Russian or Chinese would like to work in a country where liquor is banned and women are second-class citizens treated like animals. 

The Taliban also know they are not popular. If there was any doubt about this, the demonstrations by women in many cities should convince them that they are in for a tough time. If the Taliban don't accept the changes demanded by the US and Western powers, they cannot last for more than six months.

Taliban take over Kabul again

Of course no one expected the Ashraf Ghani government to last long after the withdrawal of American and NATO forces from Afghanistan. Most people thought it would take a few months before Kabul fell, but no one expected it to happen within ten days or so. The Taleban have entered Kabul today, and the puppet president Ashraf Ghani is reported to have fled to Tajikistan despite his defiant attitude just two days back. 

Ironically, this has happened on India's independence day. Surely there is a lesson for India in all this. It spent many billions to prop up the many corrupt Afghan governments in the past twenty years, mainly with the aim of destabilizing Pakistan. India does not share a border with Afghanistan, yet it has thirteen consulates in that country. With the withdrawal of Indians from Afghanistan, it should be interesting to see if terrorist attacks to Pakistan cease or continue from that country. 

Will the Taleban do what they did in their earlier spell? Will they force people to adopt their version of Islam or will they be tolerant of human rights now that they are again in power? I have a strong suspicion that the Americans have secretly promised them financial help to prevent China from spreading its influence in their country. But if no aid is forthcoming, and their government is not recognized by any of the western powers, then the Taleban might turn towards Pakistan and attempt to colonize it. I wonder if those who sit in Islamabad are ready to face that kind of situation, knowing that the Taleban have a strong support base among Pakistanis. 

Pakistan should not allow U.S. bases for attacks on Taliban

After twenty years of conflict in which the U.S. spent trillions of dollars, it is getting ready to withdraw from Afghanistan. It's a foregone conclusion that the Taliban will move in and occupy Kabul, as they did before. Afghanistan will descend into another civil war.

But the Americans have indicated that they will maintain a presence in the region. How they will do this is not clear, but there are rumors that Pakistan is one of the countries where they will try to control Afghanistan from outside. The puppet government of Imran Khan has immediately denied that Pakistan will ever allow U.S. bases on its soil, but unfortunately no one trusts this government. One hopes it will not repeat the mistakes of Zia and Musharraf who bent over backwards and dragged the country into an unnecessary war. 

The Taliban themselves have warned neighboring countries not to assist the U.S. “As we have repeatedly assured others that our soil will not be used against security of others, we are similarly urging others not to use their soil and airspace against our country”. But as in the past, can the Taliban be trusted? They have not stopped their attacks in Afghanistan even after the peace talks in Doha. The non-representative government of Ashraf Ghani, an Indian puppet, will not be able to hold out for more than a few months before being overthrown by the rebels. One feels sorry for Afghan women, who will again be treated like chattels, losing the twenty years of freedom they enjoyed during occupation of the country by foreign forces. I doubt if the Taliban have changed at all, they will continue to believe that allowing girls and women to work and study is a grave sin in Islam.

Smuggling & Afghan Transit Trade: 2 major threats

Published in Daily Times on July 31, 2019

One can’t help admiring the creativity and ingenuity of some of our people. I’m referring to those worthy citizens who are strictly opposed to following the law, particularly the law which obliges them to pay taxes. They will do anything to avoid doing so. In fact, they go to great lengths to make easy money. Just a few days back, the Customs caught a container which was supposed to contain scrap auto spare parts on which the amount of duty was very low. Something made them suspicious, perhaps it was the fact that the importer was eager to get the container out of the port in a hurry, so they opened the container and found it packed with cosmetics and dismantled small pickup trucks (the importer would have cheated the government of at least ten million rupees if he had succeeded in taking out the container).

Not long ago another container supposed to contain paper was found instead to be carrying children’s toys. Sometimes the toys are imported under the description “parts of toys” on which the duty is only five percent. It’s easy for the Customs to unearth such misdeclared and underinvoiced items being sold in local markets. Usually, such things, along with smuggled goods are sold at much lower prices than goods which have been imported legally. But of course this will require our civil servants to think out of the box and actually get up from their chairs and conduct such investigations. And only a fool would assume that they are eager to improve their performance, knowing that they cannot be sacked for inefficiency.

Those who have been badly affected by smuggling (besides the government) are factory owners who have had to close their industries as they can’t compete with smuggled goods. Thousands of Pakistanis have been rendered jobless as a result.

It has been estimated that around a billion dollars worth of goods are smuggled into the country every month. The government therefore loses six billion dollars every year in duties and taxes which it would have earned if smuggling were eliminated. And it’s very easy to crack down on smugglers. Thousands of shops in Karkhano Bazaar outside Peshawar and the various “bara” markets in all the major cities can be raided and the smuggled goods confiscated and auctioned off to the general public. Unfortunately one strongly suspects that smugglers have relatives in high places in the country, which is why they are virtually untouchable.

A major threat to the country is the Pakistan Afghan Transit Trade agreement. Goods imported by Afghan businessmen are taken to Afghanistan in containers from Karachi. Such goods are either removed from the containers before reaching Afghanistan, or they are smuggled back into Pakistan through the more than three thousand kilometres long porous border. One way of stopping this illegal activity is to levy Customs duty and taxes at the Pakistani port and then refund the same to the Afghan government at the end of the fiscal year (if Afghanistan provides proof that all such goods were received and consumed in Afghanistan). This is done by India for all goods meant for the landlocked country of Nepal. Unfortunately the Pakistan government does not have the will to enforce this kind of agreement. As a result, massive quantities of tea, tyres and other items are smuggled into the country from Afghanistan and sold in the local market, leading to loss of jobs and closure of industries. According to details provided by Customs, Afghanistan imports tea and tyres in huge quantities, more than thrice the amount needed by it. The excess quantities of tea and tyres are then smuggled back into Pakistan.

Even though the import of betel nuts has been curbed (due to requirement of quality certificates), rampant smuggling of this item continues and it is freely available in the country. Millions of our children and young boys are at risk from consuming ghutka, which is made from betel nuts.

So what will it be? Will our Great Khan make good on his promise to eliminate smuggling, or will he make another U-turn to avoid losing the support of some of his ministers? Only time will tell.

https://dailytimes.com.pk/439922/smuggling-and-afghan-transit-trade-two-major-threats-to-the-country/

Premature celebration over US withdrawal from Afghanistan

If there's one thing we should learn from history, it's that the Taliban will wreak havoc again if they're allowed to take over Afghanistan after the US withdrawal. Yet our leaders claim to have won a major victory after US and Taliban delegations met in Qatar and the US agreed to withdraw its troops in eighteen months. Shah Mahmood Qureishi chortled like a kid who's just been given a ton of chocolates, crowing at the "success" of his foreign policy. The truth is, as the Taliban said after the talks, nothing has been decided yet. 

But if, God forbid, the Taliban are allowed to rule over Afghanistan again, it will be bad for the whole world, particularly Pakistan. We'll see a flood of refugees pouring into the country, unveiled Afghan women will be killed for appearing in public, and all those who were part of the current government or supported it will be executed. Drugs and weapons will flood Pakistani markets, wreaking havoc with our economy.

If there's one thing that should cheer our hearts, it's that India has lost much face. It has invested billions to help Afghanistan, but if the rebels win, they will boot all Indians out of the country.

The only solution is that troops from Muslim countries should be allowed to keep the peace in Afghanistan after the US withdrawal. But that will not be acceptable to the rebels.

Whatever happens, we're headed towards many more years of turmoil.

Humiliation of Sartaj Aziz

Published in Daily Times on December 29, 2016

The humiliating treatment meted out to Mr. Sartaj Aziz by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Narendra Modi is shocking, to say the least. While the attitude of Mr. Modi is due to his intense hatred of Muslims and Pakistan, Mr. Ghani conveniently forgot how much Afghanistan owes to Pakistan, which was in the forefront to oust the Soviet Union from his country (while India supported the Soviet occupation). Pakistan has hosted three million Afghan refugees for the past over thirty years. Mr. Ghani displayed his servitude to Mr. Modi by refusing to accept Pakistan’s generous offer of 500 million dollars to help in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, saying that Pakistan should use the money to curb terrorism. So what about Indian aid of a billion dollars to his country? Shouldn’t he have advised the Indian premier to use that money to provide toilets to poor Indians?

The time has come to get tough with Afghanistan. We have a trade transit agreement with that country which is being used to flood Pakistan with goods meant for Afghanistan, causing many of our industries to collapse and threatening many others with closure. Hosting the refugees has resulted in arms and drug smuggling, along with terrorism which has cost the lives of over fifty thousand Pakistanis.

We should start by revising the Afghan Transit Trade Agreement and impose the same conditions on Afghanistan as India has imposed on Nepal, recovering full custom duty at Indian sea ports on all Nepalese imports and refunding the duty amount to Nepal at the end of the financial year. Naturally, Nepalese importers are forced to buy most of their requirements from India, and to import only those goods which are not manufactured in India. We should also arrange for the immediate repatriation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan. Only then will Mr. Ashraf Ghani realize how much his country owes to Pakistan.

SHAKIR LAKHANI

KARACHI 

https://dailytimes.com.pk/e-paper/2016-12-29/lahore/8696

Heart of Asia Conference

Published in The Express Tribune Blogs on December 8th, 2016

The humiliating treatment meted out to Mr Sartaj Aziz by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Narendra Modi is shocking, to say the least. Mr Ghani conveniently forgot how much Afghanistan owes to Pakistan, which was at the forefront in the fight to oust the Soviet Union from his country — while India supported the Soviet occupation. Pakistan has hosted three million Afghan refugees for over 30 years. Mr Ghani displayed his servitude to Mr Modi by refusing to accept Pakistan’s generous offer of $500 million to help in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, saying that Pakistan should use the money to curb terrorism. What about the Indian aid of one billion dollars to his country? Shouldn’t he have advised the Indian premier to use that money to provide toilets to poor Indians?

The time has come to get tough with Afghanistan. We have a trade transit agreement with that country which is being used to flood Pakistan with goods meant for Afghanistan, causing many of our industries to collapse and threatening many others with closure. Hosting refugees has resulted in arms and drug smuggling, along with terrorism which has cost the lives of over 50,000 Pakistanis. We should start by revising the Afghan Transit Trade Agreement and impose the same conditions on Afghanistan as India has imposed on Nepal, recovering full custom duty at Indian seaports on all Nepalese imports and refunding the duty amount to Nepal at the end of the financial year. Naturally, Nepalese importers are forced to buy most of their requirements from India, and to import only those goods which are not manufactured in India. We should also arrange for the immediate repatriation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan. Only then will Mr Ashraf Ghani realise how much his country owes to Pakistan.

Shakir Lakhani 

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1256777/heart-asia-conference/

Jamaat-e-Islami & obscenity

Published in Daily Times on April 1, 2014

Sir: This is with reference to the news item ‘JI brands “Pakistan Idol” an “obscene” programme’ (Daily Times, March 31, 2014). I would like to ask members of the Jamaat-e-Islami (which has only four seats out of 342 in the National Assembly) why they are so concerned about boys and girls dancing together when there are more urgent problems being faced by the country. Do they not see the havoc created by rampant smuggling from Afghanistan which has caused the collapse of most industry in the country? Are they not aware of narcotics that are brought into the country through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), a province that they govern along with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI)? Why are they ignoring the increasing number of AIDS cases in the country (the reasons for which are well known)? Yet they go into a frenzy when they see even married couples walking together. How can Imran Khan tolerate such people?

SHAKIR LAKHANI

Karachi

The leopard can't change his spots

Leopard’s spots

Published in DAWN on October 31, 2011

WITH reference to the news item ‘Karzai backtracks on remarks’ (Oct 25), we should not be surprised. One day, Pakistan is Afghanistan’s ‘twin brother’, the next day ‘Afghanistan would side with Pakistan in case it is attacked by the US or India’, and then it is said that ‘remarks were misinterpreted’.

As they say, the leopard cannot change its spots.

SHAKIR LAKHANI

Karachi

360,000 missing containers

Afghan transit trade

Published in The Express Tribune on February 27, 2011

KARACHI: This is with reference to the news item “360,000 containers never reached: Suddle” in your issue of February 24. It is well-known that the rampant smuggling of goods into the country of Afghan transit goods has wrecked Pakistan’s manufacturing sector. The Afghan Transit Trade Agreement, which was due to come into force last month, is being delayed on one pretext or the other, the latest being the Afghan government’s objection to deposit bank guarantees with Pakistan Customs.

This is despite the fact that Afghanistan itself keeps 110 per cent value of the goods exported by Pakistanis to Central Asian countries which transit through Afghanistan. So until the agreement is implemented, Pakistan should ask Afghan importers to deposit 110 per cent of the value of their goods with our Customs. And each container should be scanned and inspected thoroughly before it is allowed to proceed to Afghanistan.

Shakir Lakhani

Functioning government?

Published in Khaleej Times on September 22, 2009

This is with reference to the Opinion article, ‘Democracy at Gunpoint’(KT, September 17). While the US led invasion of Iraq was immoral and unjustified, the war on Afghanistan was sanctioned by the UN, because the Taleban government had refused to hand over the Al Qaeda leaders which it had been sheltering.

How can the writer call the Taleban government ‘an existing, functioning government’? The Taleban ruled by terrorising the population and were universally hated. Again, it is a fallacy to think that the Afghan war is not winnable.

I would like to remind the writer that the areas now comprising western and northern Pakistan were once inaccessible and equally unconquerable in the beginning, but were conquered and civilized by the British in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The Western powers should make sure that these men who have made life hell for Afghans and Pakistanis are destroyed before they begin to spread out and impose their perverted ideology on other nations.

Shakir Lakhani

Zardari & Manmohan

He said, he said

Published in The News on June 21, 2009

During their recent meeting in Russia, the Indian prime minister bluntly told President Asif Zardari that Pakistan needed to do more to stop terrorism and to bring to book the alleged perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks. Our president should have responded by telling Dr Singh that New Delhi needed to stop helping terrorists in Pakistan and that it needed to close its consulates in Afghanistan. He should have also told him that terrorism in Indian-held Kashmir can be contained only if Indian troops stop their atrocities and the people of Kashmir are allowed to determine their own future in accordance with UN resolutions.

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi

It'll be our fault if the Taliban capture Pakistan

When I see so much corruption and lack of accountability in Pakistan, I can’t help thinking that handing over the country to the Taliban is the only solution to the problem. Unfortunately, the Taliban made a mess of Afghanistan, and ended up in Pakistan. So either we surrender to them, or fight them to the bitter end. It’s going to be a long, drawn-out war, but we’ll have to sacrifice many lives if we want to win. I know that what I suggest is very unpalatable, but it will have to be done. We’ll have to ask the government where our tax money goes. Why is it that in the U.A.E. (population five and a half million, or one third that of Karachi), there is no law and order problem? Obviously, it’s because there is no corruption there. If we find that the taxes we pay are going into Swiss bank accounts, we have every right to refuse to pay taxes. The question is, who will carry out the accountability? In a country were judges are appointed on the basis of their political ties, it is not possible to expect justice. And if the Taliban do succeed in capturing power, it will be our fault. Before that happens, we have to speak out and be counted.

Beyond Mumbai

Published in The News on December 05, 2008

After all that Indian propaganda about the ISI's meticulous and efficient planning of the recent Mumbai attacks, wouldn't it be appropriate for the Indian government to hand over India's security to the ISI? If the ISI is as efficient as the Indians think, it would do a much better job than their own people.

But seriously, since India doesn't seem to have enough money to improve its intelligence and security, why doesn't it curtail superfluous expenses like sending probes to the moon or maintaining 13 consulates in Afghanistan? I'm sure the money saved could be used to make their country much safer.

Shakir Lakhani

Hand over India’s security to ISI!

Posted on Chowrangi.com on November 30, 2008 

After all that Indian propaganda about ISI’s meticulous and efficient planning of the recent Mumbai attacks, the Indian government should seriously consider handing over India’s security to the ISI. If the ISI is as efficient as the Indians think, it would do a much better job than their own people. But seriously, since India doesn’t seem to have enough money to improve its intelligence and security, why doesn’t it curtail superfluous expenses like sending probes to the moon or maintaining thirteen consulates in Afghanistan? I’m sure the money saved could be used to make their country much safer.

Come to think of it, why does India need to send someone to the moon or have thirteen consulates in Afghanistan? The moon program alone will cost billions, while running thirteen consulates in Afghanistan means spending a few million more, all of which could feed the half billion poor in India who don’t earn enough to feed themselves. But then, why should the Indian elite care about hungry and naked Indians as long as they can enjoy themselves eating, drinking and copulating?

Shakir Lakhani