Posts in Pakistan

An inspiring story of a Memon that led to the creation of NICVD Karachi

Historical Karachi Pakistan
nicvd karachi

We might have known Memons famous for their business ethics and philanthropy. Yet, we hear a little about Memons being able to establish some renowned institutions that exist to date. This story is dated back to the days of pre-partition.

The first All-India Memon Conference was held at Rajkot in 1931, where the establishment of the Memon Education and Welfare Society (MEWS) was announced. Society was barely a year old when it comes to its test of existence.

A fifteen-year-old boy, in pursuit of education, decided to run away from his house in Bombay. The father of this boy had forbidden him to go to school and instead put him to work in his timber business, where the boy managed to save some earnings.

From his meager earnings, the boy purchased a ticket to Calcutta (where the society was situated) in the hope that he could approach the society that facilitates Memon students.

Halfway to his destination and with less than one rupee in his pocket, the prospect of shelter in a strange city was daunting. There there were the doubts – what if the society refused to help? Can society educate a student against the wishes of his family? In this case, what would he do?

But as they say, what you seek is seeking you and that fortune always favours the brave. Fate led the young boy to meet Karim Panhwaro at Nagpur Railway Station, who at that time was a dedicated worker of the society. Panhwaro took the boy into his home and sent a letter to his father letting about his whereabouts and his hunger to acquire an education.

In response, the father, a superstitious person, who thinks western education is a root cause of evil (which was a general norm after the British takeover of India), threatened Panwaro with eternal perdition in case he helped his son.

Karim Panhwaro, being threatened and confused turned to society for help and advice. Eventually, the society decided that a formal letter would be sent to the father on behalf of the society informing him about the society’s willingness to pay for the young man’s education.

Yet again, a letter. as scathing as the one sent Panhware previously, came in response this time addressed to the society that if [his] father’s wishes were ignored, the members of the committee would be answerable to God on the day of judgment.

This young boy’s case generated a lot of debate at the meeting. Some members of the committee felt that by taking this young boy’s case, they would be encouraging young people to rebel against their parents’ wishes; ultimately endangering the reputation that the society had built for itself. There were others who believed that the primary aim of the establishment of society (MEWS) was to educate the young people of the society and to wage a crusade against the misconceptions about modern education. While others remained aversed to take this case because the boy belonged to a mean family so he couldn’t be called ‘needy’ and hence society’s ultimate aim was to facilitate only needy persons.

The broad-mindedness of Sir Adamjee comes into play

This discussion went on until Sir Adamjee decided to speak out in favour of helping the boy. First of all, he classified the boy as ‘needy’ because his father refused to support him. Furthermore, he rightly pointed out that society was conceived as an agent of change that would push the community out of its backward thinking. He then appealed to the board by asking, “if the young people of the community cannot turn to the society for an education then what good is it to have an educational society?”

Finally, at last, the members of the society unanimously decided to award a scholarship to the young boy which would enable him to begin his education and meet his living expenses in Calcutta.

After, the young boy went on to earn several scholarships and achieved his lifelong dream of becoming a doctor, doing his post-graduation in cardiovascular surgery from England. He openly acknowledged the role of Memon Educational and Welfare Society (MEWS) in his career, that had it not been for MEWS and for Sir Adamjee’s bold stance to help a homeless boy with a passion for learning, his circumstances would’ve been very different.

The boy’s name was Dr. Ali Muhammad Kasim, who further went on to become the founder of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) at the Jinnah-Post Graduate Medical Centre (JPMC). He was awarded the Pride of Performance (A prize given by the Government of Pakistan to recognize people with notable achievements) by President Ayub Khan – becoming the first-ever Memon to be honoured thus. Tragically, he died at the young age of forty-six.

NICVD Karachi
Dr. Ali Muhammad Kasim honoured as the founder of NICVD on their official website.

 

Pakistan v/s India

Pakistan Politics
pakistan and india

Pakistan’s neighboring country India sent its space mission ‘Chandrayan 2’ for the second time on the moon. The probable landing on the moon last week was 9 pm. In a country with more than a billion people, the eyes and the curiosity of every man was on this mission, and why not? India was finally on the list of a few countries that have successfully flagged their country on the moon.

When no ray of hope could be seen, the head of the ISRO said, removing the uncertainty of the nation, that the satellite of the Chandrayan mission lost the signal just two kilometers away from the moon, causing it to lose contact with the center. They had said this and with it the hopes of billions of people have been stretched. But where the hopes of so many people have come to fruition, the celebration has begun as it has in the neighboring country of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

Let us make fun of!

Well! The Pakistani people are right to make fun of India’s failed Chandrayan mission. Leading was the Federal Minister of Pakistan is Science and Technology Fawad chaudhary. And to those who are talking about competition in space field with India, let me tell you that the competition is only fair when both the opponents are of same level.

The truth is that Pakistan has no competition with India. India has twice tried to send its mission to the moon, but it seems that our space agency SUPARCO (Pakistan Space and Upper Aerial Research Mission) has yet to send a Pakistani mission to the moon. And not too old when Pakistan’s ruling party PTI gave a 114-day stay in Islamabad while staying in the opposition, during which our neighbor country India successfully launched its space mission ‘Mangalyan‘ to the planet Mars.

Even with the failed experience of the last days with Chandrayan, India has since joined itself with the United States, China, and Russia in the race of space. Because the total cost of Chandrayaan on the moon sent by India was only 900 Crores, which in other sense is less than the budget of the Hollywood movie “Interstellar“. India has also shocked the world, including NASA, in a failed attempt at a South Pole.

When talk about the total space comparison between Pakistan and India, the difference is clear. The chairman of the Indian Space Agency, ISRO, is named “Dr Kailasavadivoo Sivan“, who has a PhD and 35 years of experience in aerospace engineering. On the contrary, Pakistan’s spacecraft, SUPARCO, which was founded by Pakistan’s only Scientific Nobel Laureate, Dr. Abdul Salam, have its current chairman, “Major General Amir Nadeem“. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering.

Now the question that arises is whether the performance of SUPARCO, a space organization with 6,477 million in the annual budget in the form of public tax money, is not satisfactory? And if not, why are we wasting millions of rupees like water on the people of this poor country!

Now leave the scientific field and come to comparison with India in the field of general public facilities. It would not be wrong to say that if Pakistan is reviewing the whole series, Pakistan needs to launch its mission from the ground up instead of sending missions to the moon.

India certainly sent missions to the moon, but before that it crossed all public facilities missions on Earth. It can be inferred that the railway metro has been set up in ten major cities including Delhi, Bombay and Kolkata in the public sector, benefiting millions of people every day. While no city in Pakistan enjoys this facility (Lahore’s Orange Line Railway Metro project is also incomplete and delayed due to insensitivity of Punjab government).

And when the talk of public transport has begun, not only the railway metro but also the modern urban transit buses are being running in eighteen cities in India. While the misfortune of Pakistan is that the Metro Bus project is working in five cities of Punjab, but its main hub, the financial hub of Karachi, is lacking in any kind of public transport.

Now let’s talk about comparing the universities of India and Pakistan with regard to the education system. So in the field of education, it is also the case that India has its university ranked in highest number of 150 universities in the world, while the University from Pakistan ranks among in the top 400 universities.

In the technology battleground, India, being called the technology hub, is showing expertise in the IT sector in a country with a population of more than a billion, including modern e-money transfer systems like PayPal, the world’s largest Amazon store, and mobile payment systems. The native mobile app is powered by “Paytm“, etc.

And when it comes to our country, Pakistan, the second largest freelancer in the world, is not even equipped with facilities like PayPal, Money System and Amazon.

So instead we dream of reaching the moon ourselves in an attempt to send a mission to the moon of India with a trillion dollar economy, more importantly to fight India while on Earth. Because otherwise India has just shocked the world by sending its failed missions to the moon, but in the upcoming years it willbe in the few countries in the world that operate on the speed of aircraft, inaugurated the “Hyper Loop” train and filled us with this.

Now all we have remain is a slogan in which we are number one, but according to the Foreign Minister, war is not an option!

READ MORE:

Times When Judiciary in Pakistan Could Set an Example but It Laid us Down

 

Osama Bin Laden, Pakistan and the Pakistani’s!

Pakistan
osama bin laden

Osama Bin Laden, Pakistan and the Pakistani’s! These three major words comprise in itself a huge tale of intrigues, mysteries, history, controversies, and more than that, a bubble of truth and lies.

I am damn sure that every one of you knows who Osama Bin Laden was, and everyone has their perception about him. Osama Bin Laden, unlike any other place in the World, has got special connection with Pakistan. This is not limited to the country’s National and International affairs but even attached to the sentiments of the public at the grass-root level.

The Notorius Osama Bin Laden!

Born in the wealthy Bin Laden family and an ethnic Yemeni Kindite, Osama Bin Laden studied from King Abdul Aziz University. It was then when he decided to quit his varsity education and joined the mujaheddin forces in Pakistan that were fighting against the soviet union in Afghanistan.

It was then when OBL entered his foot on the soil of Pakistan for the first time. Later on, he formed his own group consisting of mujahideens’ of that time called “Al-Qaida”. Since then, the name of Al-Qaida and Osama Bin Laden started spreading in the World.

And within the span of the next few years, the student of King Abdul Aziz University became the most wanted person of the world after claiming the deadliest attack at World Trade Center on 11th September 2001.

World trade center attack
The deadliest attack on the twin buildings of World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, claimed to be held by OBL led Al-Qaida

Osama Bin Laden and Pakistan!

From an undergrad student to the facilitator of the mujahideen groups in Pakistan. The founder of Al-Qaida to being ended up getting caught in Pakistan and killed. OBL may be recognized as the greatest terrorist ever in other countries, but especially here in Pakistan, the opinion seems to be massively divided.

When it comes to the perception about Osama Bin Laden, we [the Pakistani’s] found perplexed and a victim of mass confusion. Here are some different myths, Pakistani people hold in their minds about OBL :

The Dead Man OBL

Those who have lived through the 90’s, they’ve been aware of the fabricated stories about OBL’s death. It is due to this, a large number of people in Pakistan still believes that OBL is still alive when even the authorities of Pak and USA have confirmed his death.

Sheikh Osama Bin Laden

The word Sheikh in Pakistan is usually used for someone who is noble and piety. There is no doubt about the fact that many of Pakistani’s remember OBL as Sheikh of the Muslim World generally calls as Sheikh Osama Bin Laden even after his departure from this world.

It is because, they found the services of OBL, notably fighting against the Americans and the making of Al-Qaeda immense for the World.

A Hero? Or a terrorist?

What could be the bigger example of unpolarized society than Pakistan, where the people still can’t manage to decide that either Osama was a terrorist or a hero?

Mostly, the people that belong to a certain religious background usually termed OBL as a hero. On the contrary, people belonging from the other walks of life declare OBL as a terrorist and a liability to Pakistan.

No matter what, its a dilemma for Pakistan and the Pakistani’s so that they couldn’t reach a consensus on the national level.

Hypocrite State

Let’s jump to May 2011, when Osama was captured by American Forces down on the Pakistani soil. A sign of shame, and disaster for Pakistan, or could be for any other country. As the entrance of American Helicopters in the soil of any country raises major questions on the country’s sovereignty. Unfortunately, it was Pakistan now.

The Pakistani state adopted the narrative that had nothing to do with the action of America. Neither the Pakistani state knew anything about the Osama’s hideout in Pakistan. Even DG-ISI of that time informed the National Assembly through his speech in the house, that Pakistan never knew of Osama’s presence in Pakistan.

Moreover, the Pakistani forces managed to arrest Dr. Shakil Afridi who spied for America — helping in finding out the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden. For this, he is now facing strict punishment for his actions; in order to let down Pakistan and for being a spy for another country.

[Read More : Has Karachi Became a Peaceful City? ]

Hell! There is something more surprising!

In a recent visit to US, PM Khan while giving the interview to the FOX Channel of America, claimed that the Pakistani agencies knew about Osama, and helped America in getting Osama Bin Laden. For real???

If yes, then I’m failed to understand then why the hell Shakil Afridi arrested for? If he had arrested on the charges for spying to get Osama Bin Laden to America; then what did he did differently from the Pakistani state? Wouldn’t both motivated to arrest Osama Bin Laden?

If Pakistani forces so, didn’t they compromise over the sovereignty of Pakistan? Why is Shakil Afridi still arrested and others are no-answerable. Pretty sure it is not the case of bloody civilians v/s the noble ones.

What is Osama Bin Laden near you? Well, it’s totally up to you. The fact of the matter is, the personality of Osama is still the most confusing one in Pakistan to this date. He’s not the first one, and probably not the last one, we [the Pakistani’s] holds a huge history of confusing narrative, be it the debacle of 1971, the imposing of Marshall Law, or else; our short term memory never enables us to see the thing from bird-eye perspective.

 

 

Cries Over The Change of Name of the Benazir Income Support Program

Pakistan

Since the PTI government has announced to replace the name of the nation’s largest poverty eradication program commonly known as Benazir Income Support Program (BISP), a wave of protest has been emerged largely from the Pakistan People’s Party whom in their govt formally initiated this program.

While the Co-Chairman of Pakistan People’s Party Bilawal Bhutto has termed this move of govt as the conspiracy against the PPP, and predicted that PTI will curtail its funds and then eventually shut down the program, the former opposition leader Khursheed Shah warned PTI of a severe public reaction.

About all of which the fuss is creating, the Benazir income Support Program is a federal unconditional poverty reduction program, launched in 2008 by then PPP Government.

Since then, no matter who ran the country, the BISP remained still and continue till today.

In a past few days, PTI govt raised concerned over the name of this program aiming it to replace with any other name. And I personally feel why don’t they?

The BISP program is solely funded by the Federal Govt and Department Of International Development Of United Kingdom (back-bone of this program). Not a single penny had been allocated for it by PPP or bhutto family, so the PPP leaders don’t need to yield over it.

This BISP program is fully dependent on the allocation of the federal budget, so it is the authority of federal govt to make any amendments with this program. The PPP leaders are making a mountain out of molehill only!