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. 

Indians promoting fake news about Trump calling Modi four times!

As the deadline approached for Trump to impose 50 percent duty on Indian goods, Indians desperately tried to tell the world that they are not beggars, and Trump had called Modi four times. Why would the most powerful person in the world try to persuade the leader of a desperately poor country like India to agree to his demands? If it had been China, he'd have called ten times, but India? Indians most probably think that the rest of the world are very stupid and would believe any good fake news about their prime minister. The world knows that seventy percent of Indians are hungry and desperately trying to survive on a dollar a day. In fact, Modi should stop spending so much (90 billion dollars a year) on defense, he can buy fighter jets and other equipment from Pakistan and easily save 70 billion dollars every year to feed hungry Indians (besides providing them with toilets).

Of course, Trump didn't back out, he imposed the highest duty on India, and Indian exporters are spending sleepless nights.

But I know that the well-being of Indians is far from Modi's mind. He just wants his friends Ambani and Adani to earn billions in kickbacks so he will continue to buy Rafales from France and MIGS from Russia.

Controversy over Modi's degree

A couple of days back, the Times of India suddenly started accepting my comments, although I still can't reply to any commentator who contacts me on its app. One guy recently asked me whether I'm the same man who used to write on Chowrangi.com, but my reply to him bounced back. 

One of the topics bothering many Indians is whether Modi really has a university degree. It's obvious that the man is practically illiterate, if he really has been able to graduate, then there is something seriously wrong with the education system in India. The fact that he got the high court to prevent disclosure of the list of graduates on 1977-78 proves that he lied when he claimed to have a degree. Another thing, pointed out by many Indians, is that if he really had a degree, he should have no hesitation in showing it to the public.

It's really amusing that some Indians can't see that the man is a fraudster. How can someone who arranged the massacre of over 2000 Muslims be educated? Plus, why did he choose to become a simple tea vendor  (chai walla) at a railway station if he is educated?

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. 

Failure to get Imran Khan freed

A key difference

Published in DAWN on August 17, 2025

THIS is with reference to the editorial ‘Another attempt’ (Aug 6). The fact that there has been no popular movement to get the jailed opposition party leader freed despite two years of incarceration proves that the party and its leader are not as popular as they believe, or they want others to believe.

They fully expected that United States President Donald Trump would secure his release from prison. That did not happen. They spent millions on lobbying in order to persuade US Congressmen to do the bidding, but to no avail.

Recently, his two sons flew to the US for the same purpose, and returned without any result. They even spent a huge amount placing an advertisement in the New York Times, calling attention to the man’s ‘plight’ and appealing for his release. Where is all this money coming from?

Other Pakistani leaders, past and present, have been jailed for periods much longer than the former prime minister, but they did not go to any such length to secure their release.

And, this is despite the fact that the man has been jailed for corruption after an extended legal process on the basis of tangible evidence that was available against him. Perhaps the other political leaders who were jailed in the past did not have as much wealth as he surely has.

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi

https://www.dawn.com/news/1931427/a-key-difference

 

The mystique of the number 40

Today is "Chehlum", the fortieth day after the event of the killing of Imam Hussein and his family members. I've always wondered why the fortieth day should be considered holy. There was a time when even my community (Memons) used to observe the Chehlum of dead relatives, but not many do so now. Because of the processions that will take place today, no commercial activity is possible. Servants will say they couldn't come to work due to roads being clogged, while many sick people will die while being taken to hospitals. Years ago, the stock exchange also used to be closed on this day, but that is no longer the case.

There is something about the number forty that fascinated the ancients. Jesus is supposed to have spent forty days without food or water, Moses is said to have wandered for 40 years in the desert, and it is widely believed among the Jews and others that a man becomes wise when he turns forty.

I remember my mother telling me that if a person's nails fell on the floor while being cut, it would mean a loss of forty days' income    for that person. Even at the age of 5 or 6, I couldn't help wondering why it should be exactly forty days and not forty one or thirty nine.

Indian Air Force Chief's desperate attempt to save Modi!

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I've always believed that most Indians and Pakistanis are so similar that they might be first cousins. The people of our Punjab are remarkably like those who live in Indian Punjab. They are both good technicians, they are good fighters, they look alike, they speak the same language and they have the same customs. They even have the same primitive beliefs about women (but that is true of most Pakistanis as well).

So I wasn't very surprised when the Indian Air Force chief (Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh) suddenly declared that his air force had shot down six Pakistani planes in the four day war in May this year. In fact, I wonder why he didn't make this fantastic statement earlier, why did he do it three months after the conflict? Better late than never, I suppose.

The timing is very significant. It came after Trump repeatedly said that five or six jets had been shot down, as Pakistan has proved. So even Indian analysts are amazed. One of them even says that it's a lie, and it will have a demoralizing effect on Indian air force officers, who know the truth. Obviously, it's a desperate attempt to save Modi from humiliation. But I doubt if it will succeed.

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? 

Trump should realize he's making Modi very popular

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The more Trump says things that make him look stupid, the more convinced I become that there's something terribly wrong with the American education system. Trump has antagonized Indians with his threats to further penalize India for buying oil from Russia. He hasn't stopped after imposing a high duty rate (25%) on Indian goods that are being exported to the US. On the contrary, he's threatened to increase the duty rate even more. He tried the same thing with China, but it didn't work. The same has happened in India.

India has pointed out that both the US and the EU are importing from Russia (including oil and gas), so why shouldn't they be allowed to do it? India's resistance to the threats and refusal to bow down to Trump are increasingly making Muslim-killer Modi even more popular. I doubt if India will ever agree to stop importing arms and oil from Russia. In fact, being a member of BRICS, it will have the support of Brazil as well as China in its defiance of Trump. I believe it would be appropriate for Trump to stop issuing threats to India immediately, otherwise the situation will no longer be in his control.