Why have so many from Azad Kashmir settled in the UK?

Among the many misconceptions Pakistanis have is the belief that the British constructed the Mangla dam and gave citizenship to those who were displaced when their land was taken over for the dam's construction. Apparently such people do not know that the dam was constructed twenty years after the British left the subcontinent.

The Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) was signed in Karachi in 1960 under the aegis of the World Bank. This agreement gave three rivers to Pakistan and the other three to India. I remember waving to Nehru and Ayub Khan as they were going to the President's House in an open car. Nehru waved back to me, while Ayub was staring at a pretty girl standing a couple of feet away on my right. Karachi was the capital of the country at the time, another fact that most Pakistanis have forgotten. 

It's been 65 years since the treaty was signed, and it has survived despite so many wars between the two countries. But the Hindutva activist prime minister (Modi) of India has revoked it recently, which will mean a death blow for Pakistan if it is not restored. 

So the British could not have given citizenship to so many people from Azad Kashmir, as the UK had nothing to do with Mangla dam. What happened is that every family in the area was compensated heavily for their lands by the Pakistani government, as a result of which almost all of them migrated and settled in the UK, which was the favored destination at the time.

 

Mamdani creates history

Most people had lost faith in democracy after seeing people like Trump and Modi getting elected. But there is some hope after all. With Zohran Mamdani getting elected as New York's first Muslim mayor (besides being the youngest so far), the people of that city have proved that they cannot be fooled by the Zionists and billionaires who did their utmost to defeat Mamdani.

I didn't know there was so much hatred against Muslims in the US until I saw a video posted on Facebook. In the video a young man is seen calling Mamdani a communist and die-hard Muslim, who would impose Sharia law in New York if he was elected. He also warned New Yorkers that their women would be forced to wear the all-enveloping burkha. 

But the most threatening tone was that of Trump himself. He warned that he would cut federal funding to the city if Mamdani was elected. Now that it has happened, he said that the US has lost its sovereignty and a communist has taken control of New York City. I don't know if it was Trump, but one US politician has claimed that Hamas has taken over NYC. The richest man in the world (Elon Musk) alleged  that the election process was a scam.

Mamdani's victory and those of other Democrats proves that Americans are not satisfied with Trump's performance. Trump and his Republican supporters should change their policies or they'll be routed in next year's mid-term elections. 

Banning political parties is not the answerr

Many political parties were banned in the past, but that has never worked. Bhutto banned the National Awami Party (NAP), but it resurfaced as Awami National Party (ANP). For some time, even the Peoples Party was banned, it once contested elections as PPPP (Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians). After the recent failed march to Islamabad by the extremist TLP, the government is considering banning the party, but this will make the party even more popular.

In fact, the TLP (Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan) is already very popular among Pakistan's largely illiterate population of those who follow the Barelvi version of Islam. The Punjab government is planning to take against those who have financed the party in the past (there are about 4,000 of them). The party head (Saad Rizvi) has gone underground, but in a raid on his house, the cops found gold and currency (including Indian rupees) reportedly amounting to more than a hundred million. The TLP chief also has 95 bank accounts, and the party "owns" three hundred and thirty mosques as well as 223 madressas. 

All this proves that extremism in Pakistan is rampant and will be difficult to eliminate merely by banning politico-religious parties. One wonders why the government did not take any action when the party was building mosques and seminaries on government land. But perhaps it was because the TLP was encouraged in the past to destabilize Nawaz Sharif's government by those in the Establishment who wanted to remove him from power and install their puppet Imran Khan in his place.

 

Ungrateful Afghans: will they ever change?

Afghanistan has always opposed the existence of Pakistan, right from day one. It opposed the creation of Pakistan, claiming most of the territory of the new country (despite their former rulers having accepted the Durand Line as the border). India helped them claim that the two provinces of Pakistan (KP and Baluchistan) belonged to Afghanistan. Pakistan helped Afghans in expelling the Soviets from their country. They seem to have forgotten that India did not oppose the Soviet invasion and did not boycott the 1980 Olympic games in Moscow (most countries including Pakistan boycotted). 

The Taliban government currently in power has allied itself with India to destabilize Pakistan, their foreign minister even supporting India's illegal occupation of Kashmir. He was unable to justify his government's treatment of its women. He forgot that Pakistan gave refuge to three million Afghans (half of them are still in Pakistan).

After years of bomb blasts carried out by Indian-supported Afghans, Pakistan decided that it could no longer stay silent. After Pakistan's bombing of the terrorists' sanctuaries in Afghanistan, the Taliban begged for a cease fire.  The cease fire agreed in yesterday's talks in Doha and more talks in Istanbul to be held next week, perhaps the Taliban may agree to stop terrorist activities, but I doubt if they will ever change. They want Pakistan to hand over its two western provinces to them, where they want to impose their version of Islam. Pakistan should retaliate whenever a terrorist attack takes place in the country. That's the only way to defeat them.  

Israel's so-called "victory" is anything but that

Both Trump and Netanyahu have proclaimed that the Gaza cease fire agreement is a victory for Israel, but they're both mistaken. Israel has actually lost the war and has lost the support of most Americans and Europeans. In years to come, Israel will do everything it can to sabotage the agreement, but it won't have the backing of those who were its allies until now.

Even a significant number of Israelis have turned against Netanyahu's government. During Trump's speech in the Israeli parliament, some members openly called for recognition of Palestine. In the US, opinion polls show that a majority (including Jews) believe that Israel has committed genocide. It seems that every American under the age of 30 is against Israel, and there will be immense pressure on the US government to curtail military aid to the apartheid state.

The best thing would be for Netanyahu and his hawkish ministers to be tried by the International Court of Justice and sentenced to prison terms, but of course that is not likely to happen soon.

A different approach (dealing with India)

Published in Dawn on October 12, 2025

WITH the Bihar elections in India due soon, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his henchmen are likely to do their best to blame Pakistan for all their failures. They want their people to believe that Pakistan is responsible for all their problems, including the fact that 40 per cent Indians are living below the poverty line, and many children have died after consuming contaminated cough syrups.

I suggest that instead of responding to any threats hurled by Indians, we should stay calm and not respond in kind. The best thing to do, of course, is to pretend that India does not exist, but since that is not possible, we should find an alternative way.

We could, for instance, point out that India could solve most of its problems by reducing its defence budget by half, and spend the money saved to feed its hungry masses. We could suggest that India would be better off buying fighter jets and missiles manufactured in Pakistan instead of France. Of course, the Indian government would not respond, but at least our offer would go some way towards convincing ordinary Indians not to fall for Pakistan-bashing.

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi

https://www.dawn.com/news/1948353/a-different-approach

More non-Muslims supporting Palestinians

For some reason, we see more and more non-Muslim states openly opposing Israel. On the other hand, leaders of Muslim countries are lukewarm in their statements. Until recently, Pakistan's position was that there should be no Israel, the country should be known as Palestine. Now it supports a two-state solution. Israel, of course, will never agree to it. As far as Arab countries are concerned, the UAE actually has recognized the apartheid state, while even Saudi Arabia appears to be neutral. Why is this so?

The only reason is that Arab states are more scared of Palesinians than of Israel. Too much oil wealth has made them soft and scared to fight. In fact, there is only one Arab country which is prepared to take on Israel, and that is Yemen. The only Muslim country which is directly fighting Israel is Iran (a non-Arab country). Pakistan is another country which has fought wars, but it is not in Israel's neighborhood, so a direct confrontation with Israel is not possible.

Whatever the reason, leaders of Muslim countries will have to unite and prevent Israel and India from invading neighboring countries. 

Trump's new blows on india: H-1B visa fees and sanction on comstructing Iranian port

Suddenly, Trump has dealt two new devastating blows on India (in addition to the 50 percent duty on Indian goods). First, he removed the exemption India enjoyed for constructing Chahbahar Port in Iran. Now, he has increased the H-1B visa fees from about 2000 dollars to 100,000 dollars (which went into effect yesterday, 21 September 2025). About 75 percent of these visas are given to Indians who are mostly employed in the US IT industry. 

Even though the government made it clear that this fee would be imposed only on new applicants, and those who already had the visa need not worry, there was panic in India. Thousands of Indians working in the US were visiting India due to the marriage season and a religious festival (Durga Puja). They desperately tried to get back to the US before the deadline, as a result of which air fares to the US surged to five times the normal cost. Those already seated with boarding cards in San Francisco and other US airports begged to be off-loaded, fearing that they would be deported on returning to the US from India. One Indian IT executive even said that his annual salary is not US $ 100,000, so how could he pay that much to renew his visa.

What Indians can't explain is why they need to work in other countries, since (as they claim) India has the fourth largest economy. Already Indian exports have declined so much that a 100 million Indians have been rendered jobless (due to the 50 percent tariff on Indian goods imposed by Trump).

India has warned the US that imposing this high amount is detrimental to humanity, but Trump will not budge. People are wondering why he has suddenly turned against India. Perhaps it's because the US has now realized that India can no longer be depended upon to fight a war with China, which became evident after Pakistan inflicted a crushing defeat upon it in May this year.

Asia Cup cricket handshake controversy

I've often wondered why Hindutva BJP Indian leaders are such cry babies. In every election, they've used anti-Pakistan and anti-Muslim slogans to win elections. After their humiliating defeat in the 4-day war in May this year, they've gone paranoid, since no country in the world accepted their stance that Pakistan was to blame for terrorism in their country. Now their hatred for Pakistan has spilled over into cricket, which is a gentleman's game. 

It's mandatory for captains of both the teams to shake hands before starting the game, and members of both teams also shake hands with each other after the match has ended. In last Sunday's match, the Indian team refused to do so. It turned out that instructions to refuse the handshake came from the top leadership. In their media, even some Indians are questioning why this happened. But the Indian fundamentalist government wants to show their benighted followers that they are on morally high ground where Muslims are concerned. I doubt that the voters will be fooled in the next elections, but of course there is the possibility that Modi will arrange rigging of elections again to win.

After Israel's attack, will Qatar give another plane to Trump?

When Trump began his second term eight months ago, Qatar surprised everyone by gifting him a 400 million dollar plane, while Saudi Arabia pledged to invest 600 billion dollars in the US, thinking that Trump would protect them against Israel and persuade it to agree to the formation of a Palestine state. But now, after Israel has killed thousands of innocent Palestinians (the majority of them women and children), attacking Iran and finally bombing Qatar, they must be wondering if they should remain allies of the US. Of course, with American troops guarding all the royal families in the region, it will be difficult, if not impossible, for them to switch sides.

The day before yesterday, when Hamas leaders in Qatar were discussing the latest US peace proposal, Israeli planes bombed the building where they were meeting. Of course, all Arab states were shocked, and I doubt if any of them believed Trump when he said he didn't even know about the raid until his military told him about it. As usual, Arab and Muslim leaders will make a lot of noise protesting against the raid, and Israel will continue to act with impunity, as it has full US backing. So, the question arises, will Qatar give another 400 million dollar air plane to Trump?

Imran Khan's followers will never change!

Embed from Getty Images

I've never understood how Imran Khan has so many followers who believe that only he can solve Pakistan's problems. They can't understand why the country hasn't collapsed in the two years that he's spent in jail so far, or how the Stock Exchange is performing so well. By now it should be clear to them that the djinns and other ethereal beings over whom his wife has control have failed and they should stop expecting them to get him released.

One of Imran's followers is the very able and learned lawyer Salman Akram Raja, who seemed a very sensible person until now. The other day he shocked every intelligent person in the country by saying that the heavy rains and floods afflicting the country nowadays is due to lack of what he termed "genuine" democracy. Of course, this was a refreshing change from what our clerics usually say about earthquakes and other natural disasters being cause by girls and women wearing jeans and sleeveless  dresses. But seriously, one wonders how he could have forgotten that in the only province his party has been governing for the past twelve years (KP), which is where "genuine" democracy exists, the floods have taken more lives and caused much more damage. He also forgot that during the disastrous four year rule of Imran Khan in the country, the rains and floods were even worse.

It seems that these people will never change.   

As expected, Trump makea a U-turn on India

Like all narcissists, US president Donald Trump frequently backs out when he finds out he was wrong. He slapped a fifty percent tariff on almost all goods India exports to the US, not knowing that India had the option of rushing into the arms of China (with whom it has had a very bitter relationship due to its alliance with Pakistan). In fact, all BRIC countries regarded India as a Trojan horse due to its special relationship with the US. So, when Trump saw that his policy had backfired, he started calling the repulsive Modi his friend, and now it seems that India will soon start sleeping with the US.

This doesn't mean that India will get everything it wants from the US, like for instance the stoppage of military assistance to Pakistan. India's recent misadventure against Pakistan proved that it is not the superpower it pretends to be. The only thing favoring India is that it's a huge market, which is why US companies have already invested heavily in India. But unless India agrees to Trump's demands, like access to its agriculture, Trump will never agree to restore the special relationship it had before with the US.

Suddenly, Indians have grown fond of China!

Until a few days ago, Indians hated China. They would explain India's humiliating defeat in the 4-day war with Pakistan by saying that India couldn't have won against 3 countries (Pakistan, China and Turkey), ignoring the fact that India had Israeli weapons and French and Russian warplanes as well as American weapons. There was much vitriol spewed against Turkey and Azerbaijan as well, Indians cancelled their vacations to both countries.

Suddenly, everything changed after Trump imposed the huge tariff of 50 percent on all Indian goods. Now, Indians even say that Pakistan had been supported by the US in the war, forgetting that it was China which did so.

But is the new fondness for China going to last? I doubt it. India has hired a US lobbying firm to persuade Trump to change his mind, which will happen anyway if Trump wins the Nobel peace prize. Then everything will be as before, India becoming a strategic ally and all that BS. China will of course never give up its claim to Indian-occupied Arunachal Pradesh. Indians will suddenly remember that their much-touted Rafaels were shot down by Pakistani jets manufactured jointly by China and Pakistan. 

Imran Khan gets bail and the Stock Market crashes!

Pakistani businessmen and industrialists have always been scared that one day Imran Khan will get out of jail and the country will again see a repeat of his previous stint in power, which brought the country to the brink of default. So yesterday, when the apex court gave him bail in some of the cases against him, his supporters thought he had been acquitted. The stock market immediately lost 1,346 points and recovered only after the government announced that he has been convicted in other cases and will not be released soon.

I was also surprised when the army spokesman said that the army chief had not said anything about Imran Khan being pardoned if he apologized for the attacks on its institutions three years back. That corpulent analyst Sohail Warraich had reported a few days back about an interview he had with the chief, who was reported to have said that an apology would be necessary for the jailed politician's release. It turns out that the interview didn't happen. After he published the "interview", the analyst was roundly abused by Imran Khan's brainwashed followers, which was only to be expected. Unfortunately for them, they will have to wait (for ten years, I hope), before the cult leader gets out of jail.

Heavy rains cause havoc in Karachi again

Even when I was 7 or 8, Karachi  would be flooded every time it rained heavily (which was after every three or four years). I remember Mr. Jinnah saying "Clouds in Karachi have no water". The climate of Karachi, like its people, is very different from the climate in the rest of the country. This year, for instance, except for Karachi, the country has seen rains and floods since June. So we thought this would be one of those years in which Karachi would be dry (like the past two years). But yesterday the rains were the heaviest in years (up to 180 mm in some parts of the city).

In 1977, perhaps the heaviest rains (10 inches) had struck the city. I was then doing construction jobs in the SITE area, one of the many industrial districts in the city. It took me more than four hours to reach my house in Clifton (normally it was a journey of half an hour). Yesterday, I was stuck on the flooded roads for two hours instead of the 15 minutes it usually takes. Many people I know were also stranded for hours, one of them even went back to his office after three hours in the slow-moving traffic. He spent the night in his office and went home at seven in the morning today.

Many people ask why Karachi doesn't have a working drainage system, despite them paying heavy taxes. One reason is that the present drains can sustain rains of two inches maximum. Another reason of course is the pervasive corruption that is threatening to destroy the country. 

Why did Dr. Mubina Agboatwala indulge in child trafficking?

 I've never understood why filthily rich people want to acquire more wealth. Our politicians have so much money that the grandchildren of their grandchildren can live comfortably on their wealth. Yet, like Zardari, they loot the people every day without considering that their victims (the people of Pakistan) are struggling to stay alive.

The other day, the police arrested a lady child specialist (Dr Mubina Agboatwala) for child trafficking. Her grandfather was one of the richest men in India. he was called "Agboatwalla" because he owned many ships ("Agboat" translates literally as "fire boat"). His empire collapsed after the sinking of his hundredth ship called "bijli" or 

"Electric". It was the first ship in the region to be powered by electricity.

I've never met the lady doctor herself although I have walked past her clinic many times whenever I've gone to get my eyes examined in the DHA Medical Center near my house. But I have known her brother Mushtaq since I was six. He, like me, was also a student of St. Patrick's High School. For a couple of years he was also in my class at NED Engineering. 

He, poor chap, was always being teased and mocked for being very effeminate (he still hates me for teasing him in those days, even though now he's a strict heavily bearded fundamentalist). In fact, he would have become my relative if his engagement to the sister of my recently deceased brother-in-law had not been broken (this happened more than fifty years ago).

The strange thing is that the lady doctor was already very rich. She had a good income from her profession as a child specialist, so why did she do something so blatantly illegal? 

Suspicious death of Humaira Asghar Ali

If there is one thing most Pakistanis are concerned about, it's a woman who lives alone, particularly if she's a working woman. Thirty two year old Humaira Asghar Ali from Lahore had been living in Karachi since 2018. It's not known why she chose to work in Karachi. Perhaps she offended her family members by refusing to marry the man they had selected for her, or maybe she didn't want to marry at all. She wasn't as well-known as other TV actresses or models, and it seems she wasn't earning enough to live the kind of life she wanted. 

She was found dead in her apartment in a posh locality (DHA) earlier this week. The shocking thing is that she had been dead for over eight months, yet her neighbors didn't know it. This is something I can't understand. In every building there are boys who keep track of all young, single females in their neighborhood. The grocery store owner, the milk suppliers, and others, all of them did not wonder where she had gone. She must've been close to at least a couple of people, yet even they did not know that she had disappeared without a trace. As for the chemical examination of the body, the authorities say they cannot determine how she died. Don't they know that it's possible to find the cause of death in cases where death occurred many years ago?

My personal opinion is that she either killed herself or was murdered by someone she knew well. But as I said, if she did have visitors, her neighbors and security guards would have known. Another question: a dead body is supposed to stink badly after a couple of days, so why didn't her immediate neighbors notice the smell? 

Iran Israel war ends with a whimper

Embed from Getty Images

Just when it was getting interesting, the 12-day war ended with a whimper after Iran fired six missiles at the US base in Qatar. All flights to the Gulf states were cancelled, and I'm sure most people in Qatar and UAE spent a sleepless night wondering if they would be killed. But then, Trump realized that if the war lasted longer, it could get out of hand and spread throughout the Middle East.

So at first sight it looks like Iran was the victor. Israel lost because it wasn't able to kill Khamenei, Iran is still capable of making the bomb (although a "dirty" one at present), and the Iranian people didn't overthrow their government. Besides all this, Israel also suffered immense damage, as its Iron Dome was not able to protect it from Iranian missiles. Israelis must be wondering why they have to pay such heavy taxes if they are not safe from Iranian missiles.

What I don't understand is why Iran had to inform the US and Qatar that it was going to send missiles towards the latter. All six missiles were intercepted and shot down. This proves that Iran was also eager to stop the war, perhaps because it would soon have run out of missiles. 

The only winner appears to be the US. Rulers of Arab states must be thanking their stars that they have US soldiers to protect them. If the bases hadn't been there, it wouldn't have taken Iran simply walk in and overthrow their corrupt regimes. And Trump is now closer to getting the Nobel peace prize.

Trump's attack on Iran: start of the Third World War?

It's now evident that Trump cannot be trusted. Israel attacked Iran while talks were still ongoing with the US. Trump, despite saying that he would wait two weeks before deciding whether to attack Iran or not, bombed Iran within two days (while Iran was negotiating with EU countries and only a day after Pakistan recommended that he should be awarded the Nobel peace prize!). Trump evidently thinks that the Iranian public will thank him!

I'm amazed that Trump can be so stupid. Suppose it had been Iran attacking the US: would he have quietly surrendered? So why does he expect Iranian leaders to do so? 

Arab leaders are making a big mistake. They should break off diplomatic relations with Israel and support Iran. If they don't, Israel will not stop until it's occupied all Arab countries. 

One thing we now know: Pakistan should increase spending on its defence. Iran is weak because it subsidized prices of essential items so its people would support its authoritarian government. It should have acquired latest weapons to defend itself.

Indians amazed at Pakistan's influence on Trump

Finally, Indians have realized that they can't fool Americans all the time. They planned and executed the failed attack on Pakistan, but found that the world did not accept their reasons for doing so. Now, with the Israel Iran war entering its second week, US President Trump did not ask for their advice, but invited Pakistan's army chief for consultations on how to proceed in the war. Immediately after the two hour lunch with Pakistan's army chief Asim Munir ended, Trump announced a delay of two weeks before he would decide whether to enter the war against Iran. Indians are flabbergasted, and their political analysts are accusing Muslim-killer Modi for his failed foreign policy (as well as the debacle of its failed attack on Pakistan). Modi must be wondering what went wrong.

Of course, Modi is not the only one spending sleepless nights. The traitors in our midst, Imran Khan and his cronies, are wondering why the millions they spend every month lobbying against our army have not worked. Even when the Field Marshal was there, they staged demonstrations against him and the army. I hope he rots in his prison cell until he dies.