Security lapse or Abusing privilege ?

We have been over the years, without any misgivings, a giant buyer of sensationalism. In the name of ‘sting operations’ people’s private affairs are being publicized, trespassing is common and using hidden cameras is considered to be a norm these days. This all is being carried out because the eonian theme of sensationalism is very remunerative. This directly prompts people like Iqrar-ul-Hassan to earn their share of this consumer market and make lofty sums of money.

Call it a severe lack of judgement or a blatant hatred for the civilian governments; we are once again supporting someone who has abused his privilege and quashed his trust by puckishly entering into sindh provincial assembly. In this very incident the anchor person has abused the trust he had been entitled to as a media person. He has used his privilege and his profession to wangle a poor security guard, who now stands jobless, in getting a ‘stranger’ enter into provincial assembly. The luridness reached its acme when the anchor person revealed a gun in the national assembly. It was not a security lapse instead it was a judgement lapse. To begin with, our judgment is corroded already but now it has become atrocious. Atrocious to the point that we failed to see how this anchor person has abused the mutual trust between legislative assemblies and media persons which was built over the years. While he was busy in making his TRP’s he has made the entrance of all the journalist community into these legislative assemblies more arduous. 

The same anchor person in numerous other tv shows has lamented over the inflated security of the civilian politicians which now he thinks is not enough and more needs to be done. He highlights the millions being spent for the security of these legislative assemblies but still the security remains ineffective. He should also carry out a ‘sting operation’ sometime in GHQ, perhaps? Because there not millions but billions are being spent and even then we had major security lapses in past.

We are living in a fragile democracy and such media persons leave no stone unturned to make people believe that civilians governments are nothing but corrupt and ineffective. In days time another smear campaign against civilian government will start. The powerful media house will then ask for the release of this anchor person and then they will continue to carry out more of these ‘sting operations’ transgressing the rights of people by using hidden cameras because unfortunately that is what sells in this consumer market.

The curious case of Axact Controversy

In Pakistan there are not so many home made corporates that one can fancy but there are some exceptions such as Axact; a growing IT company. When I was in Pakistan and more specifically in Karachi, I always wanted to work for Axact. Because of its robust organizational structure, fast growth and various educational and recreational opportunities for its employees; it can easily be regarded as one of the top employers of Pakistan.

But until recently, it has been involved in many controversies from hosting illegal porn websites to selling fake degrees, it became the notorious employer of Pakistan. It is no less than the curious case of Benjamin button who travels in time but in opposite direction. Everyone sees it but no one understands it. Same is the case of controversies with Axact, everyone see them but little do they understand. The corporate world always has its pits, from the financial giants like Lehman brothers to medium scale firms like Axact, the air is always contaminated with scandals. The inaction of the governments involved is linked with fears of losing employments, economic melt down and other related socio-political aspects.

Technological entrepreneurship is a lifeline to Pakistan, which many do not conceive. The pakistani entrepreneurship industry is linked with outside world, as it requires outsourcing of work from other western companies. In west the increasing standards of work ethics and transparency makes it almost difficult for any big firm to outsource its work to Pakistan. The latest Axact controversy and the article “Fake Diplomas, Real Cash: Pakistani Company Axact Reaps Millions” by Declan Walsh in New York times is a deep blow to pakistani technological entrepreneurship industry.

I was overwhelmed with curiosity after reading this article by Walsh. The controversy blew out of proportions specially because of its linkage with the upcoming media house BOL network. I was so much intrigued by this article that I asked my friends who worked in the past and are still working for Axact about the nature of business of Axact and its link with fake degrees. 

Following are some of the responses shared publicly on the condition of anonymity:

Question: What are the main businesses of Axact ?

Anonymous-1: Graphic Design, Business Consulting, CRM and Education

Question: What type of education they provide?

Anonymous-1: Online education, online courses accredited with foreign universities and some are independent courses by Axact.

Question: Is there any truth in Axact hosting illegal porn websites ?

Anonymous-1: No, not as of I know, I was in corporate communications.

Anonymous-2: Being a graphic designer, I knew there were some colleagues working on such things but I never worked on it, so I can’t say for sure if it had happened or not.

Question: Fake degrees ? what is the reality ?

Anonymous-1: Seems to me pretty much cooked up, the media channel BOL controversy has its strings attached with this controversy. I have never seen or heard about it.

Anonymous-2: From fake degrees to any other IT related shady business they always had their hands soaked in it, but I have no proof of it.

It is difficult to conclude anything from these mixed responses, but the official response of our government suggests that there has to be some powerful people behind this controversy. Our country and its law enforcement agencies which had been slower than a tortoise when it comes to implementing the law acted so swiftly on mere a publication that it makes it close to unprecedented. There are currently people in our senate, in our parliament and other respected governmental institutions with fake degrees and FIA knows of everyone but still they chose to do nothing against them, yet they raided and arrested the employees of Axact on mere allegations. Let us hope that this controversy is resolved successfully and results in more corporate transparency and cultivation of work ethics in Pakistani firms. 

So much for the beloved Country

This poem is in remembrance of 100+ Hazara people who were killed in Balochistan. The protestors refused to burry their loved ones for two days. They just sat in blistering cold out on the streets. With all this misery they still are expected to love their country, and sing the songs of its greatness,  

Withering hopes and shriveling smiles,
Crying mothers and lamentable wives,
So much for the beloved country,

Buried fates, unthinkable lies
deceased justice and pilfered autarkies,
So much for the beloved country,

Stolen away what was mine,
Woofing dogs steal the shine
So much for the beloved country,

Blood is luscious, Tears are joy
miraculous anguish, cheerful cry
So much for the beloved country,

Silence being shouted, Vocals are ceased
Verity being slaugterd, sentinments have no heed
So much for the beloved country,

Her son is in nirvanas, she had been told,
Later today she sang the song,
So much for the beloved country,

To cry not for he is fine, in God's hand he will dine,
Motionless she is standing, sick of hearing these two lines,
So much for the beloved country

Your little brother shall never come, pity it is, but it is true,
She looked at him with such a gaze, and later today she squalled again,
So much for the beloved country

For the grey hairs and wrinked skin, His son was the only kin,
His son is dead he conceives not, yet he stands and mourn again,
So much for the beloved country

In crusading words he gauged me today,
for I love you not, and went astray
So much for the beloved country

Today this land utterd an astonoushing riddle,
Peace and Equality are my only fears
So much for the beloved country

The WRIT of the state

We can very comfortably and quite sarcastically call ourselves the most privileged youth of the world. The youth which spends most of its time listening news reading news and watching news. Likewise, I spend most of my day following news and since the time we have endeavored ourselves with the peace talks, my enthusiasm for following the news has stirred new heights. Yes I am talking about the peace talks with Tehreek Taliban Pakistan. 

The recent air attacks on the tribal region prompted me to scribble my thoughts on the piece of paper. I am of the opinion that these present peace talks with TTP has become one of the most analyzed and spoken issue in the history of Pakistan. It is highly unlikely that one finds a person who’ll not have an opinion about these present ongoing peace talks. Everyone has an opinion so do I, and my opinion is the specie human must always contend against any offensive till the time it becomes inevitable. I have a steadfast, unwavering resolve towards peace talks. There had been certain times when I forced myself to think the otherwise but my brain was of no assistance. I was sharing the same opinion with one of my very good friend who studied with me in the college back in the days when I was in Pakistan. As time passed we both continued our journeys through life and at this point of time we both are in two different parts of the world in two different roles and suggesting two different solutions to the same problem. This my very dear friend at this very moment is serving in Waziristan as a captain in Pakistan armed forces.  

The last time when I talked to him after what happened to the FC personnel made me think that may be I am not even trying to understand him. In a very muscular way by unclogging my mind he made me understand that his only job is to protect the people and how terrible and incapacitated he feels when he is deprived of his very job. He further added that the notion that tribal people sympathize with Taliban is itself blemished because they don’t. His enthusiasm and ebullience to help the people and liberate them was itself mesmerizing. I happen to be an adamant critic of army but at that very moment without a single doubt I felt exclusive to be protected by such highly esteemed personnel. Another of his daunting challenge is to be able to gather all the patience available out there to hold himself upright despite hearing his success rate is 40%. In his words he is living to ensure the writ of the state stands firm and strong in every corner of this country and it matter little to him what the success rate is. 

Clearly he made me think, but the term writ of the state is a much misapprehended term. State is the mother of all the bad, the ugly and the right; for each and everyone state is responsible. State will not look weak but instead attentive by not taking any forceful action because of resulting thousands of IDPs, increased extremism and more social divide. How is it even sensible that state be ruthless to a majority of civilians for a handful of criminals. We had learnt from our history that using force internally always had made us weak. From the fall of Dhaka to Baluchistan the examples are so atrocious that we can’t just dwell on them. The solution is difficult and very much demanding but it will liberate us, it will be the peace process which will eventually kill all the extremism in our society.  This extremism is because of various reasons from military operations to almost no infrastructure development. 

There can be no reason good enough to bomb the civilian populated areas with air strikes. The people in tribal areas have a history, we did not build a single school for them in 50 years and yet we have a nerve to accuse them of being backward. In the end these are our people we can't bomb them for sake of some criminals. What about our ground forces are they so weak that they can't even handle bunch of criminals in their own country without air strikes ?. We must understand that pounding our civilian areas with air strikes will only create more extremism and more hatred. The following video edited by the Bechancing World Blog team is a glimpse of what these air strikes are actually doing to the people of Pakistan. 

Link 1 Youtube

Link 2 Dailymotion
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1d4x48_writ-of-the-goverment

We allowed 55 thousand times the bombers to fly off our airspace and attack our neighboring country Afghanistan. That is barbarism in its very accurate sense. In the end the best way out was, is and will be peace talks. 

" If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other " Mother Teresa

CHRISTMAS PRESENT – DHOOM 3 – Almost died.

Christmas is the time when the whole of EUROPE goes quiet. Everyone visits their families and for two days the whole EUROPE becomes solace to peace seeking lot.  This also prompted me to visit my set of cousins who live near the GERMAN border which somehow is the part of NETHERLANDS.  After two hours long drive when I reached my cousins place I was entertained with delicious food, which they kept serving me until I was stuffed to the point of no return. Soon I realized the highlight of their two days holiday was travelling to Brussels. I was chuffed to know about our upcoming trip to Brussels but soon when I realized this exercise of travelling all the way to Brussels was only to watch DHOOM 3, it left me cheerless.

The next day in evening, after hour and a half drive two SUVs stuffed with more than ten people reached the Kinepolis Cinema in Brussels. Not to my surprise the DESI crowd of Brussels flocked in big numbers to watch DHOOM 3. Because of which our seats which they reserved were all located in the front row of this big IMAX screen, which was pretty much depressing. One literally has to rotate his neck by 180 degrees both sides to be able to watch the movie. Now this movie DHOOM 3 which is a sequel of previous DHOOMs is everything but a good movie. But before I prove how badly and poorly this movie was directed I like to tell my readers here that I like all kinds of movies. I specially enjoy foreign language movies. I happen to be a huge fan of Korean movies. The amount of time an average Korean movie spends in developing and evolving the characters of the story is much more than any other movie industry of the world. But DHOOM 3 is a movie which is made for special set of people who would like to see drama, action, romance, thriller and musical and all other possible genres in just one movie. This is the main problem of INDIAN cinema and its viewers that they fail to distinguish between all these genres. And another basic flaw in INDIAN cinema which is evident in all their movies is the magnified entry of their main characters. DHOOM 3 actually utilizes 30 minutes of its script just on the mere entry of the four main characters.

DHOOM 3 is still a decade old concept a serious cop, a funny cop, a thief and a beauty flaunting actress. GOD knows better why such movies even need actresses, a sizzling still image of a female will do an equally good job. The cops in the movie look like anything but cops; and thanks to the generosity and celerity of the thief that he not only robs the bank but somehow manages to sprinkle all the money over the city as well, before the police can even see him. Watching DHOOM 3 was such a terrible experience that this stolen concept of twin magicians from the Christian bale and Hugh Jackman movie "The Prestige" couldn't even save the movie from being in my list of most horrible movies. The much lousy and crummy actions scenes make it more unbearable. The BMW did sponsor DHOOM 3 and the rumour is such they’ll now claim for the damages it bring to BMW. This transformation of a BMW bike into floating boat and that too all in the air, then the bike becoming an almost underwater submarine and then thrusting out of water like a rocket and again transforming back to a motor bike was a little too much to digest. It actually reminded me of 1962’s James Bond 007 of Sean Connery where he used to defy all physical laws of gravity.

The biggest of all evils was the ending scene of  DHOOM 3. The ending was so abrupt that it actually made me feel that the cinema authorities made it cut short. All the robberies the thieves the chasing of thieves, the great Indian circus in the movie was in Chicago, seconds before last scene, Amir Khan escaped Indian police in Chicago. But in the last scene somehow Amir Khan was found between two police vans in the middle of the great contra dam of Switzerland. This imprudent direction and script writing can’t be forgiven. DHOOM 3 is basically a collection of different short scenes put together haphazardly to make it look like one complete movie.

DHOOM 3 gets 2 out of 10 for its non-existent script, deceased direction and its unfounded action scenes.   

Wish we could live another day

I cut this slice of time to hold it in my hands,

I go on my knees but the sullen crowd doesn't understand,

The unsaid words and the repudiate belief,

All come together to celebrate our defeat,

Do you hear me my flawless pride?

 I shout out loud to commemorate our fallen love,

The sullen crowd is felicitous with its remarkable triumph,

A word to you has become an offence,

Let this crowd has its say, let us gift it another thousand days,

Let me be weary and old so I can bury these grievances,

Then allow this crowd to immortalize another victorious day,

My screams will come as whispers; my wishes for you will always be silent,

Rarely I speak to me and unfold the acerbic prevarications,

Better our world crumbled better the home was burnt,

Better the crowd lacked empathy, better we got fleeced,

For what it matters is not the beginning but the end,

Yet I wish we could live another day, just another day.

TUQracy or Democracy?

Democracy at best can be summed up in a simple yet old saying “Slow and steady wins the race”. The best socio-economic development is always through evolution which is a deliberate obtuse process. The societies are glob of people living together under a certain set of rules and regulations. These rules and regulations known as social justice system is prescribed by the people themselves. So any legislation made by the society is the outcome of how the people are being evolved inside that society. It must be understood very carefully here that it is not the legislation which is developing the people; it’s the people who are developing the new legislations as a result of their social evolution. It’s analogous to a phylogenetic process where the accumulation of different events helps the individual to transform systematically. The maturity of understanding certain legislation and how it will affect the society in the long run comes with time. It must be people changing the people rather than some law changing the people. One can implement the most ideal system which will guarantee the virtues such as social justice, zero corruption, religious tolerance etc, but the question remains are the people willing to accept it in the long run. Those who implement the law and those who abide by the law both are people. There is no point of having some ideal legislation when the people on both sides have not evolved enough to adapt it. This is why democracy is a slow self evaluating process. 

That was all about democracy, let’s now discourse to TUQracy. TUQracy is actually the name given to the narrative of Tahir-ul-Qadri who is a famous religious scholar turned politician. This article is definitely not about Tahir-ul-Qadri but it is about that robust and ideal change of system that many advocate in Pakistan. The post elections 2013 scenario in Pakistan was such that people were frustrated for change because of the corrupt regime and worsening economic conditions. Yet again the ‘change’ itself had changing definitions for different sects of societies. Hence there was never one absolute definition of ‘change’ and that was why the possibility of chaos remained always in the back garden. TUQracy was at its peak for three days in the month of January, 2013 when Tahir-ul-Qadri staged a protest in Islamabad for ‘change’ in the system. TUQracy predicted that the Elections 2013 will be rigged, and based on this forecast TUQracy wanted to bring the country to halt and postpone the Elections 2013. TUQracy was of the view that present electoral system will bring the same corrupt regime back into power. Based on the earlier predictions TUQracy further suggested the complete overhaul of the system. The phenomenon was such bring masses on the roads, challenge the writ of the government and occupy Islamabad secretariat. Hence TUQracy believed in fast and robust ‘change’ and rejected the slow self-healing democracy. TUQracy asked all the political forces including status-quo to join hands and to support this ideology. This was itself contradictory because one cannot simply fight the system by asking the system to fight against its own self. TUQracy enticed the emerging political force Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf which perhaps was the biggest stake holder in terms of corrupt electoral system. But thanks to almost 60 years of deprivation of democracy, people of Pakistan wanted democracy so bad that they couldn't care enough even if it ends up handing power to same old corrupt regime. This was evolution. So the luxurious idea of having our very own Tahrir Square passed away before even touching the reality. Perhaps Pakistan never needed a Tahrir Square and the ‘change’ it promised. 

What Pakistan actually needed was not the ‘change’ but the commitment to change. And following this commitment to change; all political forces and the people of Pakistan achieved a milestone, the first ever civilian transfer of power that is Elections 2013. Though Elections 2013 was a milestone still they are considered to be the most rigged elections ever conducted in Pakistan. But nevertheless Elections2013 has created a dividing line in the history of Pakistan. This means all those 60 years will now be remembered as pre-elections2013 history. 

It must be said here with clarity that TUQracy predictions were right. Elections2013 had been rigged but it does not mean that we as a nation repent over Elections 2013. A system can only be changed when the people have seen worst of it. People from all walks of life condemned any possible rigging in elections 2013. It can be said with full confidence that elections 2018 will be much better than 2013 and this cycle will go on. This is how nations evolve gradually. We must understand there are no short-cuts to happiness and prosperity. If TUQracy had been adapted instead of Elections 2013 the country would have ran into unthinkable and never ending chaos. Even the rigged elections are better than these cushy revolutions. 

It’s about time that we learn to be patient with the present on going system and let the system complete its tenure. Tahrir squares are fancy flabby revolutions which lose their essence very rapidly on a mere foreign interference. Whereas gradual change is more resolute and long lasting and unlikely to be diluted by the outsiders. One must never confuse the desperateness of the people for change with their acceptability to change. The Arab spring had been an eye opener for many who thought a single protest or a single event can change people forever. It’s a universal narrative change must come slow. There shouldn't be any illusions about absolute change; there is no such thing as absolute change. The fact of the matter is the moment you commit to change, you have changed actually. Pakistan has set out on a path of change; and Elections 2013 was the commitment to this change.