پاکستان میں اہلِ دانش، عقلِ سلیم (کامن سینس) کو خیرباد کہتے جا رہے ہیں۔ یا خیرباد کہہ چکے ہیں۔ اسی لیے ان میں سے بیشتر کا کام دور کی کوڑی لانا رہ گیا ہے۔ بلکہ دانشوری اسی چیز کا نام بن گئی ہے۔
(دور کی کوڑی شاعر کو لانے دیجیے!)
اور غالباً یہی سبب ہے کہ اگر یہاں سو افراد سرگرم ہیں، تو ان میں سے (غالباً) ننانوے افراد معاشرے کو صحیح کرنا چاہتے ہیں۔
اختلافِ رائے اپنی جگہ، مگر یہ چیز، یعنی معاشرے کو درست کرنے کا معاملہ، خود اپنے منہہ سے بہت کچھ کہہ رہا ہے۔
یعنی یہ کہ پاکستان میں جو بھی اور جیسا بھی مکالمہ جاری ہے، اس پر کس قدر پریشان خیالی چھائی ہوئی ہے۔ بلکہ اس قدر حاوی ہے کہ لوگ سامنے کی چیز بھی دیکھ نہیں پاتے۔
عقلِ سلیم سے دوری اس پریشان خیالی کی ایک بڑی وجہ ہے۔ وگرنہ سامنے کی بات …
نوٹ: یہ تحریر 13 دسمبر 2019 کو ’’نیا دور‘‘ پر شائع ہوئی۔
https://urdu.nayadaur.tv/26108/
لاہور میں دل کے ہسپتال پر وکلا کا دھاوا کوئی پہلا واقعہ نہیں۔ یہ آخری واقعہ بھی نہیں ہو گا۔
تو پھر خرابی کہاں ہے؟
سوال تو یہ ہے کہ خرابی کہاں نہیں؟
بس ایک آئین ہے، جس سے امید باندھی جا سکتی ہے۔ مگر آئین تو محض ایک اخلاقی دستاویز ہے۔ اس پر عمل تو ہوتا نہیں۔
طاقت ور گروہ اس پر عمل نہیں ہونے دیتے۔ ریاستی اشرافیہ، اور اس کے مختلف طبقات، جیسے کہ سیاسی اشرافیہ، فوجی اشرافیہ، کاروباری اشرافیہ، وغیرہ، اس پر عمل نہیں ہونے دیتے۔ اشرافیہ کے طبقات نے ریاست اور اس کے وسائل پر قبضہ کیا ہوا ہے۔ یہ آئین اور قانون کو اپنی ضرورت اور فائدے کے مطابق ڈھالتے اور توڑمروڑ لیتے ہیں۔
یعنی جیسا کہ عیاں ہے کہ ریاست لوگوں کے لیے ہوتی ہے، لوگ ریاست کے لیے نہیں۔ مگر …
Note: The day Benazir Bhutto was murdered, December 27, 2007, it was the day when all the semblance of government evaporated in Pakistan; there was widespread anarchy and uncertainty; there was arson, loot, and destruction. Fear prevailed. As if the life and property of ordinary citizens of this country were forsaken by the State! Here is the Story:
Where there is no property there is no injustice.
John Locke
Regardless of the controversy whether we human beings are by nature good or bad, what is crucially required to keep our society intact is that we must be treated as free agents. This washes away all those excuses the science of psychology and its Freuds and no-Freuds have heaped on and which provide an eternal alibi for the criminals to prove their innocence under the guise of this or that mental state or illness, or this or that instinctual impulse which,
…
Note: This article was completed on December 31st, 2014, and was originally posted on this Blog in January 2015.
Presently there is happening quite a serious debate on the 20 points envisaged in the National Action Plan. Its thrust is on two points:
i) All these measures should have been in their place since long as a matter of routine, probably from the day first when Pakistan came to exist; and,
ii) Due to the past negligence of the governments, doubts and questions are being raised about the efficacy of these measures.
The argument the present writer aims to make is a bit different; he wants to propose a 21st point to be added to the NAP, which focuses on overhauling the state. Let’s be precise in judging: It’s the state that played havoc with the society of Pakistan, and now
Patron Islamabad Chamber of Small Traders Shahid Rasheed Button says State Aristocracy is being promoted in Pakistan.
Here is the story published in Pakistan Observer of September 21, 2015.
Bank tax dubbed as irrational
Monday, September 21, 2015 – Islamabad—Patron Islamabad Chamber of Small Traders Shahid Rasheed Button Sunday said withholding tax (WHT) on bank transactions will never be acceptable to majority of the businessmen which are dubbing it as illogical and fiscal terrorism.
WHT is inconsistent with the ground realities therefore it must be reviewed and made acceptable as it is not being practiced anywhere in the world in the current rough form, he said.
Traders would be left with no option but to accept bank tax if it is slightly modified and influential tax evaders as well as major defaulters are taken to task before squeezing commoners and middle-class
…
It seems the present dispensation of PML-N believes in no principles of taxation. It’s just there to extort whatever amount of taxes the Federal Board of Revenue may extort from the citizens in the form of bribes and in the name of taxes: of course, for itself as well as for the government.
However, the principles of taxation, the PML-N may be supposed to believe in, manifest themselves in the measures it announces in the budget and then obtains their approval from the parliament. That much is least controversial; what is controversial is the way the new taxes are conceived and implemented. As a rule, it’s the income or the consumption which is universally taxed. Also, the just taxation is not spending-driven, which certainly is the case as far as the PML-N government’s economic policies are concerned.
No doubt, there are countless
Note: This article was completed on August 4, 2014. Since then little has changed; this piece is still relevant on this 68th Independence Day.
Stray reflections on the 67th Independence Day
For the sane in Pakistan the fight is about protecting the values, the humanity has developed in the course of thousands of years, from the political and religio-political witchcraft, which it is intent upon destroying thoughtlessly. How the time-tested values were trashed (and are being trampled even this moment) when Pakistan came into being is a saga of ruthless fights between the politicians continuing to this very day, the August 14.
The greatest deceptive lessons the politicians taught the citizens derive their justification from the misconception that a state may be based on this or that faith, or ideology. That also hints at the infatuation that a theocratic state is a
Better to start with two clarifications: First, this piece does not raise the question of Pakistani state’s viability in the sense Pakistan’s Leftists and liberals are wont to discuss it. They say something like that: It’s unviable because it was created by the British in line with their policy of Divide and Rule; It’s unviable because it was created by the narrow-mindedness of Hindus or the Congress, or the stubbornness of Muslims or the League. They also hold that: It’s unviable because religion is never the basis of any state. The writer prospectively believes that states are not rational entities; they may come into existence, and disintegrate and disperse into more entities with or without any rational justifications. It’s like individuals or groups of human beings who want to live separately for any concrete or imagined grievances or none at all that
…
Years back, when the very well-know Pak Tea House was closed down, a small portion of the Hall III, Al-Hamra, The Mall, Lahore, was made into a place exclusively for the littérateur to sit, chat, and take a cup of tea. It was known as Adabi Baithak (
ادبی بیٹھک).
It’s important to note here that there is a “canteen” also inside the premise of Al-Hamra, outside of which in the open space visitors and especially students of music, and artists used to sit and enjoy a cup of tea. One could see and listen to the sound of a Sitar, or someone rehearsing his / her singing there. It was a very enjoyable place.
We a group of friends now and then visited the Adabi Baithak. Sometimes we preferred to sit in the open and have our discourse there.
Everything has an aesthetic aspect. Politics is one of them. The political aesthetics appears, among other things, in two forms: Mannerism; and, Language. The others may be: the beauty of political ideas; the way a politician connects his/her ideas; the reality of political ideas in contrast to wishful political slogans; the beauty of a political vision; the beauty of words and terms chosen by a politician; consistency in the ideas of a politician, etc. The second list is controversial; it’s useless to discuss it here. The first one is sort of methodical, and I would dwell on it. One may raise objections on this or that type of Mannerism or Language; however in Pakistan too there exists a consensus in this regard.
Let it be stated here that certain political leaders did not spare the methodical things also. To them in politics
It is essential to seek out enemy agents who have come to conduct espionage against you and to bribe them to serve you. Give them instructions and care for them. Thus doubled agents are recruited and used. [Sun Tzu]
Before March 9, 2007, it was all dark on the horizon of Pakistan. A military dictator was ruling while dressed in khaki uniform; he was intent upon continuing his rule for the next 5 years; and the criminal politicians were all ready to help him rule for more than a hundred years. Such was the hopelessness that no rational being could dream of a silver lining. One could only fear what happened to Iraq after it grabbed Kuwait, may not happen to Pakistan.
All of a sudden, and it was just like a bolt from the blue, a hope started taking shape. First time in Pakistan, the point was made that
Mr. Prime Minister! You are better placed than any other Pakistani citizen, since you are sitting in the center of the state. The office you occupy by virtue of your electoral mandate is where the state authority converges, and it is from where authority flows to other institutions of the state in accordance with the dictates of the constitution of the country.
Mr. Prime Minister! You are the Chief Executive of the state of Pakistan, and as far as flow of information regarding the affairs of the state is concerned, in comparison to you this writer is merely an ignoramus. In case the present government of your party is toppled, the first casualty will be you, the prime minister; that means whatever future plans are being hatched anywhere, or whatever conspiracies are being woven in any quarters of the corridors of the powers against your government, you must be in
In Pakistan, the state is the problem!
See these pictures:
Women protest Muridke police torture of Razia Bibi, who was on full-term, that caused a still-birth
People of Manga Mandi demonstrate against police
[The News, April 9, 2014]
Note: This was originally posted in April 2014.
Here is the media release:
New book – “Pakistan’s Democratic Impasse” published
The book indicts politicians as the main culprit for failing the state of Pakistan
The book falsifies the myth of blaming the Pakistan Army for the ills Pakistanis facing
Author argues constitution authorizes politicians to rule, not the Army
Lahore April 8, 2014: Alternate Solutions Institute released today Dr. Khalil Ahmad’s new book, Pakistan’s Democratic Impasse – Analysis and the Way Forward. Already this in 2012 and this February, he has published three books, “Pakistan Mein Riyasti Ashrafiya Ka Urooj” (The Rise of State Aristocracy in Pakistan, February 2012), “Siyasi Partian Ya Siyasi Bandobast: Pakistani Siyasat Ke Pech-o-Khum Ka Falsafiyani Muhakma” (Political Parties Or Political Arrangements: A Philosophical Critique of the Intricacies of Pakistani Politics, July 2012), and, Pakistani Kashakash: Tehleel-O-Tadeel aur Aagay Barhany ka Rasta (Pakistani Armageddon: Analysis,
…
