A Tale of Two Marches

The double-barrel sit-in at Islamabad’s D-square which had started as Freedom and Revolution marches from Lahore has completed six eventful weeks, but little progress has been seen in the realization of its objectives.

Imran Khan whose party Tehreek-e-Insaaf had received the second highest number of votes but relatively fewer seats in the last general election has a clear-cut agenda based on his grievance of election rigging by the ruling party PMLN of Nawaz Sharif in May, 2013 general elections. He had to come out on the streets after all his attempts to get justice from the election Commission and the Superior judiciary were thwarted.

One of the most serious allegations also witnessed by the whole nation is that while the votes were still being counted and election results being compiled, Mr. Nawaz Sharif appeared on Geo TV and claimed that the channel had convinced him that his party was winning the largest number of seats in the National assembly and was going to be the next prime minister. Surprisingly, he also expressed his desire to have an absolute majority and appealed to some undefined audience to give him the required number of seats. Since his party had been ruling the Punjab for the last 5 years as well as for decades earlier, most provincial employees involved in the electoral process were handpicked by the Nawaz family, so the hint was obvious and was likely to have influenced the results. As it happened, results in many constituencies defied the trends they were following before the ‘victory speech’.  Mr. Sharif’s action was highly objectionable and if the Election Commission had gall enough it should have disqualified him then and there. Unofficial reports indicate that if a genuine and proper audit of votes is carried out a number of sitting ministers in Mr. Sharif’s cabinet will be disqualified.

Prior to the march on 14^th August, 2014, Mr. Sharif had met Mr. Khan at the latter’s residence and offered him deputy-prime-minister’s unconventional position in return for abandoning the vote audit demand. It seems to have infuriated the Khan who now would not agree to anything less than Mr. Sharif’s resignation and more and more Pakistanis are agreeing with him as time passes.

The Revolution march of Allama Tahirul Qadri’s objectives seem rather vague except that he advocated a puritanical though modern Islamic system of government and wants the whole political system to be wrapped up and reorganized. Mr. Sharif and many other PMLN leaders were fervent followers of Mr. Qadri and his Barelvi sect prior to Mr. Sharif’s deportation to Saudi Arabia who now seem to have changed their allegiance to the Saudi supported Deobandi sect.

The recent movement started after a police invasion of his headquarters in Lahore in which some 14 people were shot dead and over 80 injured by gunshots at chest level. The government tried to cover up the issue as the incident report of the police did not mention any fatalities and the families of the dead were offered Rs. 3 million each in blood money and also handsome compensation to the injured. The victims’ families spurned the offers and demand due legal process including the registration of complaints as they saw it.

The unprecedented police brutality seems to have two possible motivations. It is possible that the Punjab administration had thought that the recently enacted Protection of Pakistan Ordinance which gives permission to police to shoot to kill without prior authorization when faced with armed terrorists could be twisted to justify any oppressive activity. The second is the possibility that the government of Punjab has made peace with the Punjabi Taliban by recruiting a few thousand of their unemployed youth in the police and the incident may have had a sectarian aspect. However the sectarian possibility has been sensibly ignored by everyone and although it should be kept at the back of the mind it should not be highlighted or exploited for political purposes. In any case, the incident reflects the utter failure of the Punjab provincial administration and the chief-minister should have resigned before being asked to do so. 

Recent FB Posts

 

It seems that Peoples party and some other politicians are working behind the scenes to force The PMLN into a confrontation that will bring military intervention. The reason is simple. Some parties such as Peoples party and JUIF have a record of doing very well in elections following military intervention.

 

After listening to many speeches and arguments I have come to the conclusion that the demands of the marchers in Islamabad are purely qualitative. Imran Khan is asking the government to be sincere to democracy and Allama Qadri is asking the government to be honest with the people of Pakistan. The government of Nawaz Sharif is vehemently refusing to accept any of the demands as it considers it a negation of its unbridled power and betrayal of its traditions.

 

The US state department has done a great disservice to PM Nawaz Sharif by speaking in his favor. They have proven Imran Khan's point. If NS can influence the US state department to give a statement in his favor, where do Pakistan's institutions stand in an enquiry against him?

 

The secret of China's progress and prosperity is that Chairman Mao never went on a foreign trip. Just stuck close to his people and inspired them to work honestly.

Rivers of Paradise

 

The Bible, Douay-Rheims

Book of Genesis 

“2:10. And a river went out of the place of pleasure to water paradise,

which from thence is divided into four heads.

 

2:11. The name of the one is Phison: that is it which compasseth all the

land of Hevilath, where gold groweth.

 

2:12. And the gold of that land is very good: there is found bdellium,

and the onyx stone.

Comment: The region in Genesis is usually associated with either the Arabian Peninsula or north-west Yemen, but in the work associated with the Garden of Eden by Juris Zarins, the Hijaz mountains appear to satisfactorily meet the description. The Hejaz includes both the Cradle of Gold at Mahd adh Dhahab (Atlas23°30′12.96″N 40°51′34.92″E / 23.5036000°N 40.8597000°E / 23.5036000; 40.8597000) and a possible source of the "Pishon River" — a biblical name that has been speculated to refer to a now dried-out river formerly flowing 600 miles (970 km) northeast to the Persian Gulf via the Wadi Al-Batin system. Archaeological research led by Farouk El-Baz of Boston University indicates that the river system, now prospectively known as the Kuwait River, was active 2500–3000 BC.^[4] Bdellium plants are also abundant in the Hijaz.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havilah

 

2:13. And the name of the second river is Gehon: the same is it that

compasseth all the land of Ethiopia.

 

Perhaps it refers to river Nile as can be seen in picture below:

 

2:14. And the name of the third river is Tigris: the same passeth along

by the Assyrians. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

 

 

2:15. And the Lord God took man, and put him into the paradise of

pleasure, to dress it, and to keep it.”

 

Unfortunately, man has made a complete mess of it.

It seems that the European authors of this particular version of the Bible believed that The valleys of the rivers Nile, Euphrates, Tigris and the area of Hijaz now commonly known as the Middle East was actually paradise and Adam and Eve were banished from it for their indiscretion into Europe where the human race grew and developed. Their concept of the patriarchs seems to be of gods similar to those of the Greek mythology. Later when other parts of the world and other civilizations were developed, the text in later versions was amended.