Boy is born to Ameer Hamza

Boy is born to Ameer Hamza
Originally uploaded by Ameer Hamza

Date: 1st December, 2011 / 6th Moharram, 1433 Hijri.

Time: 7:25 PM (P.S.T / +5.00 GMT)
Hospital: OMI, Saddar, Karachi
Wt. at birth: 3.25 Kg.

Name: Un-decided as to the time of the this blog (6:33 AM P.S.T).

The foot series of my travels had to be interrupted to accommodate this photograph of my first son. His name is yet undecided at the time of the writing of this blog but Inshallah it is expected that we will have the name today afternoon. Part reason is that we want to name him on Friday (today), and we'v been lucky to have son on the night between Thursday and Friday (Islamic / Lunar calender: 6th Moharram-ul-Haram, 1433 Hizri).

More photographs are expected today. Let us see.

[p.s I know this is not a travel-related photograph. But it surely is a breaking news of sorts!]

School Children, Phander, Pakistan

School Children, Phander, Pakistan
Originally uploaded by Ameer Hamza

Date: 22nd Sep, 2011.


Via Flickr:
These school children were returning from their school in a triumphant mood. The reason: They had just won a football match at school. This boy is holding his little trophy, which I found very cute. And they were just making lot of noise around while walking and they walked with me till a great distance. They parted after hugging me and calling me a 'nice man'. It was the best compliment received on this trip.

Pakistan Army’s Repression of the Punjab Farmers’ Movement

I was reading HRW report on Pakistan Rangers abusive attitude and torture of farmers there. It is really sad to note that our so-called mohafiz are doing this to our men and women. Excerpts from the report are produced below. Detailed reading may be done here.

From the report:

'Torture, beatings, kidnappings, and arbitrary arrests of tenant farmers and their families became increasingly commonplace between May 11, 2003 and June 12, 2003, when the Rangers mounted its second siege on parts of Okara district. While the abuses are ongoing, most of the violations identified in this report are from the period of the siege. '

Further a case of Bashir Ahmed is presented:

Bashir Ahmed

'On January 7, 2002, Colonel Mohammad Ali, the commanding officer at Renala Estate Military Farm, personally led a contingent of some thirty to forty armed men on a mission to confiscate land cultivated by the elderly farmer Mohammad Ali Kumboh, resident of Village 21/1-RB. According to witnesses, fewer than ten of the armed men were serving army soldiers and the rest were private thugs. Two farm employees told Human Rights Watch that it was common knowledge that Colonel Mohammad Ali personally ordered the confiscation “at any cost” as he viewed the Kumboh land as a test case that would set the right precedent in the village: Kumboh had refused to sign the new contract.

'Initially, Kumboh’s family alone—Kumboh, his brother Aslam, Aslam’s wife Aziza Begum, and their twenty-one-year-old son Ejaz—offered resistance. Kumboh, Aslam, and Ejaz were beaten, overpowered, and tied up by Colonel Ali and his contingent. Colonel Ali and his armed group then apparently set the family dairy and the grain depot on fire. At this point, Aslam’s three teenage daughters, Zahida, Shahida, and Nazia, emerged from the house armed with sticks and tried to free their family. The women were severely beaten by Colonel Ali’s men, who also began firing in the air.

'It was the fires, the gunshots, and the screams of the women that finally attracted the attention of the rest of the village. Nadeem Ashraf described the scene to Human Rights Watch:

'We heard firing and went to see. Bashir, who lived in the neighboring village also came with us. The women from the village came armed with sticks as did the men. We went and untied Ejaz. In the rush, I heard Colonel Ali shout the order to start firing. Instead of firing in the air, the army officers then started firing at us. Ejaz, Bashir Sidiq, and Hameed sustained bullet wounds. The colonel’s men then retreated while firing in the air.²²

'Bashir Ahmed died on January 9, 2002, two days after the attack. He was twenty-one years old'.

More cases may be read here.

American Boy: Asif Ali Zardari

Zardari is a wonderful player. No one really imagined, not Mr. Nawaz Sharif, that Zardari would turn out to be such a deft player with so many trump cards. He is not only playing with Nawaz or other likewise politicians, he is certainly playing with the entire nation. And till now he is winning. And that's bad news for all of us.

Zardari is now touted as the most powerful president of the country. This may not be yet true. For me, Gen. Musharraf was a more powerful, but less revengeful, president. And he certainly held sway over Pak army. Zardari is being looked with increasing suspicion by the generals in uniform. Till now he has done nothing to merit their displeasure or his ouster.

Lot of people think that Zardari is Mr. 10% (my uncle comments that now that he is the President of a god-forsaken country, he is likely to be Mr. 110%). Being 10% is not good especially when businessmen are sure that Mr. Zardari has been responsible for spate of kidnap-for-ransom. That looks pretty bad for a president. He has also spent over 9 years in Pakistani prison(s) for which he must have suffered a lot of mental displeasure. Most of those cases remain cases only. None of them have ever been proved by any court in the country. And the cases in Swiss court were swiftly withdrawn by then President, Musharraf. (Musharraf, while playing golf, would rethink his stupidity).

Writing in Guardian newspaper, Mr. Peter Preston has this to say on the present situation of the country and about Zardari's outcome:

'Yet the Taliban, whom the generals must defeat to get America's billions, are much more than a gang of terrorist thugs. They are also a madcap reform movement of young men disgusted by corruption and the godless wheeler-dealers they think have drained the purity out of Jinnah's "pure state", and the success they're experiencing in the borderlands and beyond shows that many ordinary Pakistanis agree with them. It's a battle for hearts and minds and, on his record, Asif Ali Zardari is the predestined loser of last resort.'

This is one more problem with Zardari: he is often referred to as the husband of Benazir Bhutto. Zardari has already shown the door, by not appointing any good friends of BB, to the loyalists of BB. He has also clearly noted distinction b/w friends and friends of BB. Zardari has another more serious problem. He is clearly seen as an American boy back in the country and that most Pakistanis don't approve of him.

Tariq Ali, leading writer on politics of the region and history, has this to say on Zardari in his article, published in Guardian on 7th Sep, 2008:

'Zardari fitted the bill. He is perfectly suited to being a total creature of Washington. The Swiss government helpfully decided to release millions of dollars from Zardari's bank accounts that had, till now, been frozen due to the pending corruption cases. Like his late wife, Zardari, too, is now being laundered, just like the money he made when last in office as minister for investment. This weakness will make him a pliant president of Pakistan.'

If Zardari wishes to survive as the President of the country, he needs to take some really drastic steps. First, he should immediately get deposed CJ back to office. Secondly, he must get a negotiated settlement with the militants of Swat and FATA region. (We know for sure that most of these militants are trained in Afghanistan and funded ably by US CIA and India's RAW. Same is the case with BLA of Baluchistan). Zardari must also secure Pakistan's border and shoot down any militant crossing into Pakistan or from it. For this, he needs active support from Pakistan Army.

My prediction: Zardari will do US bidding with total dis-regard for the safety of the country. He wishes to throw the country in total chaos and will be instrumental in the future break-up of this country.

Vanishing heritage of Karachi

British left too many structures in our city. The main reason is that they loved Karachi for its wide sea and no-nonsense attitude towards life. Already, they’d converted it into a large shipping base for their goods to arrive. Unfortunately, we’ve not been able to preserve lot of those wonderful buildings. And to top it all, corrupt politicians and land mafia has been very busy these days chopping good old buildings.

It is very clear that a nation which needs to understand its past needs to preserve the artifacts and structures from that past. If those are not preserved, there is no way of educating young people about the shared heritage. As a result, today lot of Karachi wallas are simply unaware of their rich heritage. They, at best, know something about KMC head office or maybe Quaid’s house at Kharadar.

Discuss below the ways in which common citizens may help preserve these beautiful and enduring heritage.