By Waqar Akbar Cheema 1. Introduction Every nation has a natural tendency to polish its history. All nations do it and they do it even at cost of distorting facts. Not that distortion of facts is anyway justified, but the thing is natural anyhow. However, in our society we come across people who are going against all these natural trends and end up distorting the facts attacking the people from their own history recognized and respected as heroes. Just reminds me of Iqbal; کہ غلامی میں بدل جاتا ہے قوموں کا ضمیر In state of bondage, as is known, The shift of conscience is quite sure. A certain columnist, Salman Rashid, seems to have something special to do with Sultan Jalaluddin Monkabirti / Mang-barni (d. 1231 C.E.), the man known to have resisted the Mongols for a long period. At least two of Mr. Rashid’s articles on the subject are available online. One of these, published in The Express Tribune , is relatively recent unlike his “love” for the Sultan ...
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By: Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai ‘The Christian Science Monitor’ in its column on April 25, 2012 said it all by emphasizing that “Ritual Aggression: India and Pakistan's missile tests, following peace talks.” We know that both India and Pakistan are nuclear powers. Both have now tested intercontinental ballistic missiles. Both are adamant against inking the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty or the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Both feature domestic constituencies that universally celebrate their muscular nuclear postures; no political party or serious private association champions nuclear controls or disarmament. India and Pakistan have warred three times since their respective births in 1947, and two occasioned on the disputed territory of Kashmir. In the best of times, India and Pakistan are no more friendlier than the Montagues and Capulets on the streets of Verona. Two not mutually exclusive approaches are available to the United States to turn back the nuclear clock in South Asia;...
April 13 th The twenty-eighth anniversary of a stubborn, unnecessary and futile dispute over Siachen was celebrated with the loss of 138 Pakistani soldiers buried under an avalanche. With an area of approximately 700 square kilometers and a height of over 20000 feet, Siachen is the world’s highest and most brutal battleground. Temperatures average -40 degree Celsius and with blizzards of 160 km/hr make this region impossible to support any human life. Some vegetation and wild roses grow there, from which Siachen gets its name. The glacier was uninhabited except for the rare mountaineering expeditions which would acquire consent from Islamabad. Fearful of Pakistan’s ulterior motives, India launched Operation Meghdoot in 1984 and illegally besieged the glacier. It currently occupies two-thirds of it and proclaims it to be the rightful territory of India. Pakistan strongly responded to this occupation but India had had a head start. The situation became most violent at ...
A big majority in Pakistan would not remember Zohra Fona, not even Pir Sipahi [Saint Soldier]. It is because these legends appeared and disappeared without leaving sajjada nashins (guardians of shrines) behind. Zohra Fona, a blessed Indonesian woman, arrived in Pakistan just ahead its first general elections. She was said to be expecting a child who would be Imam Mehdi. She had visited several Islamic countries where, and it was propagated, that rulers had offered prayers in her imamat. Many ulema began to claim that the time for Imam Mehdi’s coming had arrived. Zohra Fona claimed that the child recited Azaan. Reputed ulema like Maulana Okarvi and Ehteshamul Haque met Zohra Fona and listened to the Azaan with ears close to the lady’s stomach. She began to draw huge crowds to mosques and parks where she led prayers. Our reputed ulema would join the prayers. Woe betide this country! Some leftist and agnostics at Karachi’s Jinnah Hospital decided to put the legend to s...
Catherine Scott-Clark declare India- A State Sponsoring Terrorism The journalists Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark an award-winning investigative journalist in their book comprising 500 pages put on sale from 1st May 2012 " The Meadow: Kashmir 1995 — Where the Terror Began " claim theWesterners were murdered by a group of Kashmiri militants who worked for the Indian Army. The book was released on March 29 in England . The adventurers and nature lovers across the globe, envy to see Kashmir a paradise on earth. But for one group of travellers in 1995, a trip to the Meadow became a nightmare that none of them could possibly have imagined. These men - two Americans, two Britons, a German and a Norwegian - journeyed to Kashmir in search of nature and humanity – but became entangled in a hostage drama that lasted for six months before they vanished from the face of the earth leaving their loved ones and family in agony for rest of their life. The c...
The plight of the Muslims in India today is worse than even the low caste Dalits and other minorities, a fact verified by the 2005 Justice Sachar Committee’s report to ascertain the latest social, economic and educational condition of the Muslim community of India. By S. M. Hali Professor Stanley Wolpert, an American Indologist, author, and academic, who is considered one of the world's foremost authorities on the political and intellectual history of modern India and Pakistan and author of the epic biography Jinnah of Pakistan states that “Few individuals significantly alter the course of history, Fewer still modify the map of the world. Hardly anyone can be credited with creating a nation-state. Mohammed Ali Jinnah did all three.” Wolpert has also penned the biographies of Gandhi and Nehru but his eulogy for the Quaid surpasses any other leader of the freedom movement. It is a fact of history that the creation of Pa...