Israel-Pakistan relations: How they are and how they should be.

The relations between these two countries since their independence have been mostly uneasy.
This has been mostly due to Pakistan's reckless pro-Arab/Iranian policy in Middle East affairs.

As I've mentioned in my other posts, I am no advocate of Israeli policies and have opposed the creation of a state like Israel especially in a sensitive area like the holy land which is sacred to Christians and Muslims alongside the Jews.

It is also in my belief that the ongoing Israeli-Arab hostility has only fueled anti-Jewish prejudice around the world, not decreased this feeling which was at it's peak in the Second World War.

Regardless of all that, Pakistan cannot afford an enemy like Israel. Thankfully unlike India, Israel has mostly kept a silent stance towards Pakistan instead of a war mongering blame game propaganda campaign.

There are instances of Jewish lobbies in North America publishing anti-Pakistan propaganda in books and articles, however it is nothing in comparison to the amount the Indian lobbies and media publish on a daily basis.

And even the minor bit of Israeli assistance towards India is all due to Pakistanis entering other peoples conflicts unnecessarily. If Pakistanis were not cursing the Jews and wishing them death the way Hitler did, I can almost guarantee today Israel would stay as far out of the Indo-Pakistani conflicts as much as possible.

Pakistan has literally cut off all trade and diplomatic relations with Israel and has tried not to miss any opportunity to please the Arab and Iranian regimes.
On the other hand we have not been given the same courtesy by them.

They maintain full relations with India both trade and diplomatic. Even during the Indo-Pakistan conflict, Arab pilots were only allowed to patrol Pakistani airspace to protect the country but were prohibited from engaging in direct conflict with India by their governments.

Pakistani pilots on the other hand voluntarily risked their lives to fight for the Arabs and were not restricted. Thankfully we did not loose any of them, however there was always the risk and had we lost them, we would not have had them in times of need.

This is putting the interests of Middle Eastern countries at the expense of our own. Pakistanis think they are doing a favor to the Palestinians and Arabs by engaging in conflicts with Israel when we are only hurting ourselves.

The best way to support the Palestinians is to vote in support of UN resolutions that pledges for a fair deal(s) for the Palestinian people. Other forms of condemnation will only hit back at us and encourage Israelis and Jews around the world to show more support for India in Kashmir.

To my knowledge Israel never took part in any Indo-Pakistani conflicts. But all that is changing with Israel selling India military technology and training Indian troops in Kashmir.

There have also been cases of Israel trying to sabotage Pakistan's nuclear program and probably still are, it is again most likely due to our pro-Arab/Iranian insanity.

I can almost guarantee Israel would never have tried to strike at Pakistan's nuclear facilities or sabotage our nuclear program had we been careful when dealing with Israeli-Arab issues.

Pakistan's nuclear program is only because of India's. Israel knew this and so does the rest of the world. Pakistan even proposed to India to sign a treaty several times to create a nuclear free zone in South Asia. This did not happen. But if it did, Pakistan probably would not have nuclear weapons because India would not have them.

I do not advocate opening diplomatic relations or trade relations with Israel due to threats of espionage and because I feel it is too late to build trust between the two countries after decades of conspiring against one another.
Pakistan should instead stay away from Middle East conflicts as we already have enough on our hands.

I discussed the pro-Arab/Iranian attitude of Pakistanis which is mostly due to General Zia Ul-Haq's Wahabbization of Pakistan.

According to a Baloch acquaintance of mine, General Zia wanted to counter the growing Shia Islamic influence of Iran. It is also well known that Zia wanted to counter the growing sphere of Soviet communist influence in Eurasia and the Americans supported this Wahabbization policy because it suited their agenda in the Soviet-Afghan conflict.

But this Wahabbization seems to have backfired for even Sunni Pakistanis live in worship of Iran.
Pakistanis who think of Iran as a brotherly ally are mistaken and don't realize the Shia regime there is actually anti-Pakistan. It's recent attempt to improve relations with Pakistan is to avoid further isolation by enriching it's nuclear program.

Like the Arab states, the Iranian Shia regime takes a neutral stand on Kashmir and has actually maintained better relations with India.

The Shia Iranian regime actually seeks to enhance it's influence in Pakistan through Pakistan's Shia population which is traditionally pro-Iranian.
A lot of the Shia-Sunni violence in Pakistan is due to Saudi and Iranian funding of both sides, creating more and more proxy wars.

Also it is very naive for the brainwashed, Islamitized, Middle Eastern worshiping Pakistanis to support Iran's nuclear program when even Israel's Arab enemies are against it.

Again, I do not advocate opening trade or diplomatic relations with Israel due to the threat of mistrust, conspiracy and espionage on both sides.

What Pakistan needs to do is minimize it's presence in Middle Eastern political affairs and only maintain trade relations with the Arab states.

Also what many readers might not know is that Israel and Pakistan were actually allies during the Cold War to keep out Soviet influence in Eurasia. The Israelis secretly supplied Pakistan with captured Soviet weapons in Lebanon to give to the Afghan Mujahideen in fighting off the Soviets.

It was not Israel that threatened to bomb Pakistan's cities with nuclear weapons, but the Soviet Union under Kruschev's regime. Studying political history will teach Pakistanis to change their attitude towards Israel.

Pakistan's problem is not Israel but the threat of the Indian Brahman elite, the Afghan Mellat, the Shia Iranian regime and to a lesser degree the Wahabbi Saudi government, all which are much closer to Pakistan's borders than Israel.

Instead of focusing on Israel, Pakistan and it's people need to get on top of key pressing issues faced domestically; especially overpopulation which has been behind most of it's other problems.

The politics of ethnicity and provincialism in Pakistan

I wrote a similar post on ethnic issues in Pakistan. In that post I covered things that advocates of provincial equality do not usually discuss especially in the area of smaller ethnic groups in the provinces of the dominant ethnic groups.

In this post I hope to draw out a clear structural image of how ethnic politics in Pakistan works.

As I grew up, I learned more and more about my country and people and began to fully notice the enmity between Sindhis and Muhajirs also due to the fact that I am of multiple ethnicities myself.

What I also noticed is that both sides also show a contempt for the Pakistani state as much as they show it for one another. In fact they often accuse each other of being the the Pakistani state.

This might sound puzzling to many readers and those unfamiliar with Pakistani ethnic politics. My experience with most upper class elite Muhajirs is usually their regret for immigrating to Pakistan and a passionate love for India and it's people.

They criticize Pakistan day by day accusing Pakistani people of everything from corruption to religious extremism. Many hate Karachi and say they are ashamed of their home city.

What these upper class Muhajirs and others don't realize is they are describing the negativity of their own fellow Muhajirs. As I mentioned in this post the Muhajirs of Pakistan are amongst the most extreme Muslims in the world.

When Muhajir elites complain about Karachi's terrible situation, they do so while ignoring the fact that Karachi has been under their governance over the last sixty years.
So when Muhajirs draw the negative aspects of Pakistan, they are actually describing their own people and the disasters they have brought upon themselves and the rest of the country.

A Nawab who is a close friend of one of my parents claims that he would be millionaire in India had he stayed back. This is despite the fact that the Nawabs were given so much free land in Pakistan at the expense of many Sindhi peasants whom he now accuses of trying to 'steal' it from him.
Also despite that his entire "salary," though incredibly low, comes from the Pakistani taxpayers which has enabled him to survive without having to work ever.

Another rich Muhajir I know via my other parent is also ashamed of Karachi and Pakistan. She hated the in-flight service on PIA and the inefficiency of other Muhajirs- which she like most other Muhajir elites describe as Pakistani people.

And like most Muhajir elites, she also has a respect for India and Indian people. Most of Pakistan's fifth columnists consist of Muhajirs.

This is where the main resentment of the Muhajir elite for Pakistan comes from. They claim they would be better off in India and often denounce the so-called "partition." Why all this when Muhajirs have been given a significant role in Pakistani politics?

They have been given a stronghold over Pakistan's largest port city and a dominant role in the country's politics. They have managed to terrorize Sindhis and other ethnic groups via the MQM (note that many or even most Muhajirs despise the MQM) and live in high wealth and luxury.

My answer lies in their desire for more power and wealth which is denied to them by another entity that stands at the top and that is Pakistan's powerful military which is dominated by Punjabis.

In India, the gap between rich and poor is much higher than in Pakistan. India has the world's largest poor and hungry population in a single country. At the same time India has several billionaires. Pakistan on the other hand has not a single billionaire to my knowledge. And having a smaller population with higher resources, statistically it has a much higher standard of living and a highest income per capita in the subcontinent only behind Sri Lanka.

Many upper class pro-Indian Muhajir fifth columnists often incite us to love and envy India for it's huge economy and billionaires. While trying to fill Pakistanis with envy of not having a high economy they surprisingly don't try to speak the same for advanced countries with small economies such as Iceland or Denmark.

While trying to fill Pakistanis with hatred and contempt for our corrupt military for stealing our country's resources and enhancing their own wealth, these same Muhajir fifth columnist pro-Indian elites try to fill us with admiration of India's billionaires who can hijack society by privatizing everything.

This is trying to make us love and admire another side of the same coin. The reason behind it is the same. While stuck perhaps forever in Pakistan under the Punjabi dominated military that denies them access to ultimate political and financial power, the Muhajirs are feeling missed out on their ethnic brotherin across the border who have more or less complete domination of their society.

Add to that India's much larger and poorer population compared to Pakistan, giving the rich elites even more and more control over their society.

The case of the Sindhis and their relation to the Muhajirs is actually quite similar. The governing structure of Pakistan places the Punjabis at the top through out the country. While Muhajirs despite being above Sindhis and Balochis, still stand below the Punjabi dominated military force.

Muhajir elites in particular strongly resent this structure because it does not put them at the top. Nationalistic Sindhis also despise the structure of the Pakistani state; hence they too feel rebellious against it, more so than Muhajirs.

Sindhis, Balochis and elite Muhajirs are typically the least patriotic citizens of Pakistan.
Middle and lower class Muhajirs are also an interesting case. They are typically religious radicals and often imitate the people of the Middle East. They often spread Arab and Iranian worship under the false guise of religion.

Middle and lower class Muhajirs also typically promote what they see as patriotism towards Pakistan. This patriotism calls for Islam as absolute state religion and Urdu enjoying a higher status over Pakistan's other languages.

The pro-Indianess amongst many Sindhis comes from many causes. One is of course is the enmity of Punjabi rule of the Pakistani state structure that puts them even below the Muhajirs. The other I most recently concluded is also like the Muhajirs the wealth and power that their ethnic brotherin in India enjoy.

Many readers might be unaware but the story of non-Muslim Sindhis particularly Brahmans was a successful one before independence in 1947 and still is in India. Sindhi Brahmans are said to have a leading role in Bollywood, India's film industry.

If I am also not mistaken, the balance of ethnic power in India is different from Pakistan. In India, Punjabis constitute around two percent of the population wheras in Pakistan they are the dominant ethnic group.

The distribution of wealth and power in India is more on the basis of caste than ethnic group. Though closely related and being almost entirely from Northern India, the North Indian elites- including many Muslims- are somewhat ethnically diverse.

Their commonality is being high caste Brahmins and common Indo-Iranic origins.

Because Punjab happens to be the home of Pakistan's military leaders it is the most developed province in most areas, especially infrastructure. This has given the ordinary Punjabi population many benefits that other Pakistani provinces do not enjoy despite Punjab being more overpopulated than the other provinces.

This is the key reason why Punjabis in general appear to me more patriotic to the Pakistani state and usually turn a blind eye to the injustices carried out on the other provinces.

The Punjabi dominated military's political structure is also interesting. Unlike Pakhtun dominated Afghanistan; Pakistan's Punjabi military accepts people of other ethnic groups in it's institution even at the top levels. If a Balochi or a Sindhi or a Muhajir is willing to work on the agenda of the corrupt military establishment, he shall be accepted by them and even be made a leader.

But it is when too many non-Punjabis gain high positions in the military leadership or even the lower levels, it becomes a cause of concern to the Punjabi military elites.

Even the lifestyle of the powerful Punjabi elites is also an interesting and confusing case itself. Upper class and educated Punjabis both from military and non-military families and their children normally don't identify themselves as Punjabis or with Punjabi language and culture.

Instead they regard themselves as simply Pakistanis and speak Urdu as their native language (though Urdu and Punjabi are almost mutually understandable).

The same is not true for Pakistani Punjabis living abroad. From the ones I've met especially born and raised outside of Pakistan have a closer affinity towards their language and culture. In fact some of them have a resentment towards Urdu because they see it as "the Muhajir's language."

There are even small movements amongst Pakistani Punjabi expatriates to replace Urdu as state language with another language(s) such as Farsi and/or Arabic.

Pakhtuns on the other hand are mostly segregationist save for upper class urbanized, educated Pakhtuns.
By segregationist I mean they do not marry outside their ethnic group or even tribe for that matter. When foreigners from other parts of Pakistan or abroad go into Pakhtun areas of Pakistan, they are welcomed as guests, but pressured to make their stay short.

Even in urban cities of Pakistan, the Pakhtun population, especially poor and middle class, keeps to itself.
Religiously speaking, in general Pakhtuns, Muhajirs, Punjabis and Kashmiris are amongst the more religious types, with Muhajirs at the top.

The Kashmiris are mostly religious and patriotic towards Pakistan due to more than half their land being under Indian control.
Besides them, most of Pakistan's Sindhi and Baloch populations do not follow strict practices of Islam.

The people of the Northern Areas such as the Hunza follow moderate Ismaili sects of Islam while the Sindhis and the Baloch also follow peaceful sects of Sufi Islam and are typically non-observant with the exception of holy occasions.

Urbanized Sindhis and Balochis are an exception and can have strict interpretations of Islam.

In the struggle for political power on ethnic lines, usually Sindhis and Balochis group together against Punjabi and Muhajir hegemony. Pakhtuns, Punjabis and Kashmiris usually stand for state ideology- be it Islamic or secular- while there are differences amongst them as well as all the other ethnic groups as well.

For example the increase in the Pakhtun population of Pakistan has led many nationalistic Balochis to worry despite how easy relations between the two ethnic groups has been especially in the face of the Muhajirs.

Sindhis in general also get on well with Balochis and Pakhtuns; however the influx of immigrants from other parts of Pakistan into Sindh also leads to tension between these various ethnicities and the local Sindhis.

The Muhajirs are in the middle of all this. While enjoying a higher status than most Sindhis in their own province and to a smaller degree in Balochistan and enjoying a degree of support form the Punjabi dominated military, their hunger for even more power leads to conflicts between the two with Muhajir elites showing support for India as well as provincial nationalists in toppling the Punjabi dominated military establishment.

Aside from the ethnic tensions the way of life for most upper class elite Pakistanis remains the same. Urdu and English the main languages of the household regardless of which ethnicity.

The religious way of life usually depends on the ethnic group and varies as mentioned above.
Moreover; the politics of ethnicity and provincialism in Pakistan is extremely confusing and often leads people to be confused (it kept me confused for ages) but when the attitudes and political ambitions of each side is drawn out more clearly, it creates a clearer picture and reduces the confusion.

This post does not intend to "explain" the political issues of ethnicity and provincialism in Pakistan but rather create this clearer picture. Ethnic politics in Pakistan is as described in this post but goes deeper and more detailed. This post helps readers more draw out the structure of ethnic politics in the country like putting together the pieces of a puzzle and see the picture more clearly. Hopefully, it has done just that.

Child labor in Pakistan and third world countries

Growing up in Karachi in the 1990s and attending a Western-style elitist school, we were put out of the realities of our country and made to look at many issues from a Western perspective. Child labor was one of them.

There were a lot of articles and documentaries distributed around my school by students and others along with pictures with messages against child labor. These people live in a dream world. They fail to rationalize on how these poor children's basic needs would be taken care of with them out of work.

Where will they get money to pay for food and drink if they are only at school?
How will they support their families especially if their parents are handicapped/disabled and unable to work themselves?

If adults are in the labor force and work full time in this field, what is the purpose of them wasting their early life at school, when it will not make a difference or be of much use in their career?

I am no advocate of giving children labor jobs where they are required to put too many hours or energy into labor knowing this can be a hazard to their health in the long term. Neither do I advocate unsafe jobs that can cause injuries or even death.

As long as the jobs done by children are simple and painless, I don't see any other solution that will keep them out of poverty.
I've seen children working as household servants or gardening and similar painless jobs.

I know for sure that if I were a poor child in Pakistan I would prefer to work instead of sitting at home wondering if my parent(s)/guardians made enough money to buy us food and drink.
I would prefer to work as a household servant knowing I can pay for my basic needs instead of begging on the streets hoping that someone with generosity will give me enough money.

Opponents of child labor in Pakistan are completely out of touch with the realities of their country and don't seem to offer any solutions on what they see as a key problem in their society.
As our country continues to suffer from an overpopulation crisis we cannot expect the conditions of our people to improve, only worsen.

In other third world countries there are other reasons for child labor such as political instability or poor infrastructure to maintain a decent society. But in the case of Pakistan it is overpopulation.

When there are too many children per household, people have no choice but to work to survive in order to feed all the hungry mouths. Instead of wasting their minds on child labor problems, our elite class needs to come up with solutions to our overpopulation crisis which will solve most of our other problems including child labor which they seem to be so against.

Pakistan's ungrateful and arrogant immigrants

Percentage wise Pakistan might not be a favorite target for immigrants since Pakistan is a third world country itself, but in terms of sheer numbers Pakistan might have more immigrants than all the Scandinavian countries put together.

According to various websites I read online, there are about three million Bangladeshi immigrants, three to four million Afghan refugees in Pakistan. A few million all together from other South Asian countries such as Nepal, Sri Lanka, Burma and others.

The numbers of these immigrants is one alarming thing to start with. For a country like Pakistan that is already overpopulated, the presence of every immigrant makes a difference weather in the consumption of resources or taking up jobs that could have gone to locals instead.

The crime and other illegal activities many of them engage in only adds more to our long list of problems.

Many of these immigrants have an imaginary superiority complex towards Pakistan and it's people which feeds false ideas into the minds of our youth.
These ideas are misleading and damaging for our youth and people. It is often aided by Pakistan's self-haters which have a strong presence in the media.

As an example I was talking on the phone to one of our housekeepers in Pakistan who is Bangladeshi and we discussed the overpopulation crisis faced by Pakistan and the third world and that Bangladesh has managed to slow down it's population explosion.

He proudly proclaimed how much "better" education is in Bangladesh than in Pakistan and occasionally I remember hearing from him how much more advanced Bangladesh is than Pakistan.
I asked him why then Bangladeshi students come to Pakistani universities to study if education in Bangladesh is much better?

Another question I had that I did not ask him was why was he in Pakistan in the first place if Bangladesh is much superior? I have no enmity towards the people of Bangladesh, but those of them think of their country is more advanced than Pakistan should answer why is it so many Bangladeshis smuggle themselves into Pakistan?

Even this housekeeper of mine has paid bribes to Pakistani immigration officials just to retain his Pakistani citizenship and to prevent himself from deportation.
But why? When according to him Bangladesh is a country with better education facilities; should he not be more than happy to live in Bangladesh?

Shouldn't Pakistanis be smuggling themselves into Bangladesh or going to Bangladeshi universities?
It doesn't just end there with Bangladeshis. Afghan immigrants have been another crisis in Pakistan.

Recently I also had a conversation with another Bangladeshi and he seemed terribly proud that his country is not developing nuclear weapons and kept hinting negativity towards Pakistan for enhancing it's nuclear program while emphasizing Bangladesh as a politically more stable country. He just kept trying to project his country as something "superior" to Pakistan.

Afghani hatred towards Pakistan cannot be questioned. Often on Internet blogs, news articles and other forms of media, Afghans don't hesitate to attack Pakistan and it's people.
Many speak of Afghanistan's "greatness" and Pakistan being the scum of the Earth and the cause for all their problems. All of this when there are millions of Afghanis in Pakistan, getting shelter, committing crimes, stealing and monopolizing jobs from locals.

Self-hatred is another disease many Pakistanis suffer from and is often incited by our confusing Muhajir upper class and spread onto everyone else. They teach the rest of Pakistanis to live in admiration for these countries who's citizens come running to Pakistan like beggars and abuse our hospitality.

Even when Bangladesh is the world's most densely populated country or when their people come to immigrate and/or study in Pakistan.
Even when Afghanistan is the world's largest producer and exporter of heroine while Pakistan is one of the world's largest manufacturer and exporter of surgical instruments for hospitals worldwide, including Europe.

Even when these countries don't export anything technologically sophisticated compared to Pakistan such as components for computers or airplanes.
Our self-hating fifth columnists also promote the countries of these immigrants as "shinning paradises" such as Nepal, Bangladesh or India (I am not sure that there are many Indian immigrants in Pakistan) when the condition of these country's citizens are far worse than the average Pakistani citizens.

Despite the negative side, there are also advantages that some immigrants bring with them for hiring over locals.
Amongst the most prosperous immigrants in Pakistan I find are the Sri Lankans and understandably many Pakistani families prefer to hire them as domestic workers over locals.

In my experience Sri Lankans are far better trained for their jobs as domestic workers than locals weather in caring for infants, elderly people or regular house chores.
They are also generally very professional in their jobs as the problem with locals is they take too many holidays when they are very much needed.

Most local domestic workers are from rural areas and usually have little or no experience in working as household servants.

The Sri Lankan immigrants also charge less for their services than local Pakistani domestic workers do.
So understandably immigrants do sometimes have a positive side to them. But despite Sri Lanka having a smaller population and better living standards than Pakistan, it does not change the fact that Pakistan still has better education and technology than Sri Lanka.

After all Sri Lanka and Bangladesh both purchase arms from Pakistan as well as send their students to our universities.

Why is it then our country is a dumping ground for immigrants from all over the region or their students come to study at our institutions or that while they export only agriculture and textile, we export both as well as sophisticated technology?

If these immigrants are so proud of their countries and pity ours, should they even be coming at all to our country?
Pakistanis need to ask if they would trade all what we have achieved since our independence, for what other South Asian countries have?

Should we trade Islamabad's greenery and well paved streets for India's slums and air polluted cities? Or for Afghanistan's rubble littered towns and cities?

Should we trade our successful technologies that we have achieved in computers, aviation, medicine and other sciences for Afghanistan's heroine production and Bacha Bazi?

Should not we Pakistanis be immigrating to the countries of these immigrants instead of them coming to ours?
Pakistan is by all means the most advanced country in South Asia and the fact that we don't appreciate how blessed we are over other countries in our region is one of our weaknesses.

If these immigrants think so highly of their countries and imaginary superiority, they should be moved back to enjoy this imaginary superiority their countries posses.

I too am in immigrant in a foreign country. My parent and I chose to move thinking it would be better, though we now realize our mistake but cannot move back to Pakistan due to difficulties in adjusting to life there.
Living in North America for almost ten years, I have the opinion there are certain things back in Pakistan which are better.

Youth violence in schools in Pakistan are nothing compared to North America in general. Teens don't carry knives and guns to schools in Pakistan.
Young people there are more obedient and respectful to an older authority figure.

People in Pakistan are also much kinder and friendlier. But despite all the positive things of Pakistan, I don't fail to recognize the better things of the country I live in.

I have been a good immigrant and now a good citizen. I have given more than two hundred hours of community service, including collecting donations for helping blind people. Despite that I was only required to serve forty hours to graduate from high school.
I have never broken the law and even helped the police in a crime that I was a witness to.

And I learned to develop more respect for the country I live in through no other than a fellow Pakistani nationalist who lives in the same city as me.
His values have also been to serve and respect the country you live in even if we feel for our beloved country Pakistan and try to help it in anyway we can.

The attitude of our immigrants has sadly been very different and it is time we took action against these immigrants who only add more to our overpopulation crisis and to our long list of problems.

Any step we take against those who despise our country and add to our problems is a step forward for Pakistan.

Pakistan cannot and should not accept a new wave of Afghan immigrants.

Over the past few days, I've been reading of reports of the rise in violence and instability in Afghanistan.
More recently are reports of a tearful Hamid Karzai in his worries of Afghan youth leaving the country.

This cannot only indicate an exodus of young people from Afghanistan, but a complete departure of people of all ages from the country. Why would such a mass exodus be simply consisted of young people? Adults are as prone to violence and kidnappings in Afghanistan, particularly elderly people and women.

That being mentioned, the suggestion of an exodus would only mean a new wave of Afghan refugees fleeing to neighboring countries, particularly Pakistan just like in the first Afghan war against the Soviet Union.
In the first war, Pakistan welcomed millions of Afghan refugees and provided shelter for many of them. This was one of it's biggest mistakes.

Pakistan is an extremely poor and overpopulated country to begin with. The massive flow of refugees only contributed to the overpopulation. Then there's the historical contempt many Afghans have had for Pakistan. Even before the outbreak of the first Afghan war, the country was determined to take Pakistan's western provinces away through various methods.

Even after giving shelter and aid to the refugees all Pakistan was given in return was more hatred and contempt. Many Afghan refugees who fled to Western countries and gained good education and descent standards of living, reembarked on their propaganda war against Pakistan.

From Internet forums to social networking websites to video sharing websites the best use they have found amongst many Afghans is promoting hatred towards Pakistan and Pakistani people, particularly Punjabis as they are the largest ethnic group in Pakistan's armed forces and political system.

Even after the fall of the Taliban and the occupation of NATO, Afghanistan had a chance to rebuild.
Instead of calling out for educated Afghan expatriates worldwide to contribute in the rebuilding of the country, the new Afghan government only installed tribal illiterates, religious extremists and others.

Today the ambitions of this new government seems to be nothing more than a repeat of it's previous predecessors: Destroying Pakistan and erasing the Durand Line.
Even instead of tackling key problems Afghanistan faces, many Afghans both in Afghanistan and worldwide are more interested in embarking on a propaganda war against Pakistan and always blaming Pakistan and the ISI for everything that goes wrong in their country.

This is despite the fact that many of them have lived and still live in Pakistan. On the Internet I've encountered many Afghans who bad mouth Pakistan and speak lies against our country.
Many of them weather Pakhtun or Tajik are able to converse in fluent Urdu, obviously due to the fact that they have lived or still live in Pakistan.

When Pakistan accepted the first wave of Afghan refugees, with it Pakistan accepted a rise in crime rates committed by the refugees. Illegal arms and drug trade was also imported with the refugees.
Many jobs and businesses the refugees obtained was only monopolized by them as they hired as many of their own kind as they could instead of giving any opportunity to locals.

Even today Afghans walk into Pakistan to visit relatives as if it's their second country.
Yet all the time Pakistan gets blame from these people for just about everything wrong in their country from corruption in their own government or drug trade.

Even in her book Empires of the Indus, author Alice Albania briefly mentions the bad mouthing Pakistan and it's ISI get from Afghans for just about any problem they face.
It seems clear in her book to even her that the Afghans have cried "wolf" too many times when there is no wolf in sight.

Even despite being the world's largest heroine producer and exporter, Afghanistan still seems to somehow hold Pakistan responsible for the drug trade.
Also despite the fact that under the then Pakistani backed Taliban most of the drug development in Afghanistan was close to extinction.

Today the descendants of many former Afghan refugees in Pakistan now living in Europe, North America and elsewhere spread the lies they learned from their parents on the Internet against Pakistan.

Accepting a new wave of Afghan immigrants would mean accepting an increase in our country's already uncontrolled population growth. It would mean having to face even more of an already increasing problem of illegal arms, drugs, crime and others that a new wave of refugees are likely to bring with them.

It could also mean planting the seeds of a new upcoming Afghan generation who will carry on the propaganda war against Pakistan just as their forefathers did.

Accepting a new wave of Afghan refugees is simply unthinkable. We made one deadly mistake in the past by accepting the first wave of ungrateful refugees who only gave us more problems in return. We should learn from our past mistake and not repeat the same mistake twice.

Instead, Pakistan should take immediate steps to remove all foreign refugees and seal the Pak-Afghan border in advanced preparation to prevent more refugees from coming.

A billboard inside Pakistan posted by Afghan immigrants calling for the integration Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan to become part of Afghanistan: (click on image to enlarge)

My thoughts on the Augest 2010 Sialkot killings

I learned about the incident in an email and a few days later searched out the incident. I was unable to get a full news report on what exactly happened or the reason(s) behind it. All I found was were articles and forum posts with commentaries and videos.

I had many reasons to be angry about this. I also believe this incident is an example of many key issues on Pakistan I have discussed. The first reason is of course at the barbaric killers doing what they did. I am in wonder what kind of conditions the killers grew up in that turned them into such monsters.
I also had a brief chat with my American blogger friend Robert Lindsay on the incident and he told me they were mistaken for thieves.

Viewing the latest news report on this, it confirmed his claim. A few months ago in another post endorsing the death penalty, I had raised the point that why is it thieves must face harsh penalties of having their hands chopped off while murderers and those who attempt or commit murder get only jail sentences?

I'm not implying that the victims were thieves or deserved to suffer so brutally, but the point is why the reaction for the accusation of a minor crime so harsh while murderers only get jail sentences?

Another thing that outraged me was that incidents like these are an almost daily occurrence worldwide except we are spared the pain of knowing about them.
The victims suffered in slightly different conditions. The crimes of the killers was witnessed by the public and caught on camera.

A few police officers were watching without intervening, only tainting the image of the entire police- including those who are honest and professional.
It outrages me that an entire institution in Pakistan always gets blamed because of a handful of bad apples.

The police have been the backbone of stability in Pakistan and paid heavy sacrifices for it and are not even given the slightest credit for their efforts.
There are many cases of police abuse around the world, yet it seems only the Pakistani police gets the criticism for the actions of some of their bad members.

But the thing that outraged me most is that incidents like these are used by Indophiles, most of whom are Muhajirs, to give countries like India or Western countries high quality names. I expected the Indophiles to pop up sooner or later writing things like oh what a terrible country in Pakistan is India is much better.
I was right. Reading a post about this incident with Pakistanis rattling about how terrible our country is in the comments section an Indophile turned up whining oh India is a much more civilized country.

So now are we supposed to copy the Hindutva mobs that go around India killing religious minorities and burning their temples of worship in order to "civilize" ourselves?
Our country is a terrible one, sadly and to deny it is to deny reality. But even worse is to use our weaknesses to polish India's image into a false great image.

Even living in North America, I once witnessed a stabbing murder at a high school. All the people witnessing the crime (including myself shamefully) stood and watched. Who is to say that incident that I saw was better or worse than the Sialkot incident?

Sure the police were present, but below are shocking videos of police abuse in other countries. Some cases are not so bad, some are worse, especially when people are physically beaten by the police.

The only good thing that can come from this incident is a lesson to be learned. We need to change our laws and give no mercy to people who commit such barbaric crimes. The police will also learn not to hire such useless officers who do nothing to prevent these brutal killings. Even if no action is taken, I hope at least our people will be enlightened that something is terribly wrong with our society and will feel the need to change.

Without a doubt this horrific act must be condemned and those behind it are brought to justice. But because it's common for the self-hating liberals of Pakistan to exploit incidents like these, one must be careful not to fall into their trap. That's why I think it's important for readers to read this article.

Damn on our people for their brutality and worsening our country's image. And damn those who use incidents like these to spread their lies and propaganda against Pakistan. This is a way of benefiting your lies from somebody else's death. Below are some shocking videos for those who bash the Pakistani police and Pakistan as a country, Indophiles included:

Indianization, Pan-Islamitization and the Pakistani identity crisis

Author's note: I was going to title this Indian and Arab cultural invasions of Pakistan, but reading on my post readers will hopefully see why I picked this title instead.

This is my second post on the subject of Indianization and  Arabization of Pakistan. My first post mostly covered the phenomenon on political levels while in this post I aim to cover both the cultural and political influence of Indianization and Arabization in Pakistan.

Pakistan's identity crisis stems from the lack of education on the genesis of our people. Very little is taught on the ways of our ancient ancestors and who they were. Unlike most other countries, the people of Pakistan appeal to religion as a substitute for racial and cultural identity.
Even our leadership has little or no knowledge on our country's ancient past and so they turn to religion or a certain political ideology as our unifying factor without realizing these things only create more division than unity.

Much of Pakistanis' ignorance to their roots is due to Middle Easternization (mostly Arabization) which works under the false guise of religion.
Our knowledge of our ancient ancestors and civilizations has been traded for knowledge on Islamic history and the history of the people of the Middle East which we hold a strong but false affinity towards.

We have traded our identity for an artificial Middle Eastern identity from the false belief that we Pakistanis are derived from Arabs, Turks, Persians and other Muslim armies that occupied the Subcontinent.
According to official government policy, Pakistani history begins in the 6th and 7th centuries AD when the Arab conqueror Muhammed Bin Qasim invaded Sindh in southeastern Pakistan. All this is done in the name of religion.

In the process of rejecting our pre-Islamic history and trying to fit in amongst the people of the Middle East, the Indians have claimed all our pre-historic heritage as "Indian" or "Hindu" on the simple principle that our ancient ancestors were not Muslim.

The idea of all pre-Islamic civilizations in the subcontinent being "Hindu" is a product of the Brahmanist Hindutva propaganda. The idea of the existence of a religion called "Hinduism" is the work of British misconceptions and later a political agenda. See the meaning and origins of Hinduism.

The so-called "partition" is also another idea created by the fascist Brahman Hindutva force and often promoted by many in Pakistan's Muhajir community who feel regret for leaving their home country for Pakistan.

The Hindutvas have a tendency to claim almost every ancient prehistoric civilization inside Asia as their own and use pseudoscience as a means of promoting their false propaganda.
Due to massive brainwashing of Wahhabism and embracing of Middle Eastern cultures in the name of religion, we have little or no idea of our ancient heritage and often prone to Hindutva propaganda that our pre-Islamic history was "Hindu" and thus don't want to associate with it.

Often when we are reminded of our ancient history, we deny any association with it and claim Arab, Persian, Turkish and/or Central Asian roots out of fear that associating with our ancient history will make us "Hindu."
Then there are those from the Muhajir community who also believe that we were "Hindu" and more than happy to associate all our history with India and identify themselves as simply "South Asians" or "desis."

During the time line between the age of the Internet and the discovery of the Indus Valley Civilization and other civilizations in Pakistan, it was a worldwide belief that all of this was "Indian history."
Even many scholars from around the world turned to the Hindutva Brahmans to learn more about these civilizations out of the assumption that Indian people would know the history of their region better than outsiders or out of sheer ignorance.

School textbooks and other books on history published throughout the world were simply a repeat of the Brahman false claims over these civilizations.
Naturally we are taught to think the writing of a scholar is the ultimate truth hence we accept it without question. Then there are also those in Pakistan's Muhajir community who often aid the Brahman Hindutva propaganda against Pakistan such as the notable fifth columnist Ayesha Jalal.

Even Wikipedia has been used as a propaganda tool by the Hindutvas who hold many high ranking positions in the Wikipedia administration. That seems to have changed with the growing number of contributors/editors on Wikipedia, both Pakistani and non-Pakistani are opposed to Hindutva hegemonic claims.

From all this comes our identity crisis. We don't want to associate with our ancient ancestors because they were allegedly "Indian" or "Hindu" and so we have adopted Pan-Islamism as a substitute for national identity when we could have adopted Pan-Indo-Iranism.

With the use of religious dogma as a substitute for national identity comes this false pretense of trying to be Middle Eastern, mainly Arab.
Because we don't want to be associated with our alleged "Indian" or "Hindu" history, we convince ourselves and try to convince the rest of the world that we descend from Arabs, Persians, Turks and others.

Also within the process of adopting religious dogma and pretending to be from the Middle East, we also try to sell out ourselves and our country in the name of Islamic Ummah.
We are taught not to feel any sort of nationalism or even any sense of patriotism towards our country and culture because according to our Wahhabi segments who influence our policies and politics, Islam forbids nationalism or any sense of patriotism. Wahhabi Islam teaches us that devotion to religion comes above anything- unless you're an Arab.

Because surprisingly, these very same Arab loving religious Pakistanis teach us to feel nationalistic on behalf of the Arabs. From Iraq to Palestine we Pakistanis rally for Arab self-determination and freedom. We are taught to stand up for our "Muslim brothers" and treat their fate as if it was our own.

Most of the time we give more importance to Middle Eastern problems than our own and pay them more attention than we do our own.

Even our traditionally pro-Western elites are influenced by such ideas. Most of them show more support and sympathy for the Palestinian cause than they do for the Kashmiri cause.
Our pro-Western elites even have an admiration for Iran and Iranian history alongside our pro-Iranian Shia minorities who are often self-proclaimed "descendants" from the Prophet Muhammad's family.

While living in imitation and worship of Middle Eastern people and rejecting our history, we are also taught to take pride in the history and cultures of the Middle East.
We often parrot the claims of our religious Wahhabi scholars on the glorious Islamic civilizations of the Middle East such as Baghdad when it was the seat of Islamic civilizations.

We take pride in various Arab empires, the Ottoman Turkish empire and many other Islamic empires from the Middle East and Central Asia. We Pakistanis boast to the world about these civilizations as if they were our own. This is again due to being brainwashed by our Islamist segments that we must take pride in the history of Islam.
I even recall two separate cases of friends in Pakistan being taken by their grandparents to Spain to see the Islamic sites in that country.

We Pakistanis take pride in Persian and Arab contributions to medicine and mathematics and often exaggerate these contributions by claiming "we Muslims 'invented' mathematics."
We repeat the ideas that we are taught about the world being a savage backward jungle before the Arabs spread Islam and supposedly "civilized" the world.

Even the conquest of our own lands by the Arabs, Persians and Turko-Mongols is glorified by the state under influence from the Islamists.
We are taught that before Islam we were mindless savages and depict the various Turkic and Arab armies that enslaved and slaughtered our people as "heroes."

What we Pakistanis are really made to believe when all our teachings are properly analyzed is that if you don't stand up and sacrifice for the people of the Middle East and Central Asia, you are not a true Muslim.

If you make any sort of attempt to preserve your culture or identity, you are not a true Muslim. If you show anymore care for your country over another Muslim's country, you are not a true Muslim.

Arab and Middle Eastern imperialism in Pakistan works as such under the false guise of religion. There are even those Pakistanis who are pushing for Arabic and/or Persian as state language because according to them Arabic is the holy language of Islam.
This is how thick their ignorance is as a result of religious dogma. What they don't realize is that it was only Muhammed, considered the last prophet of Islam, who was an ethnic Arab. The other people considered prophets by Islam such as Jesus/Isa or Moses/Musa were not Arabs, nor did they speak Arabic!

Jesus or Isa as he is known by Muslims spoke Aramaic. Though Aramaic is related to Arabic as a Semitic language, it is still a completely separate language from Arabic and even written in a different script. The similarity between Arabic and Aramaic is like that of English and Swedish, which are not really understandable to one another's speakers despite their common origin and grammar.

So by propagating Arabic as the language of Islam by our Wahhabi segments, they are indirectly suggesting that our older prophets cannot represent or be part of Islam because they did not speak Arabic.
This is quite a contradiction. But again this is how Arab imperialism (and to a lesser degree Iranian imperialism pushed by Pakistan's Shia minority) works. When religious dogma tries to project itself as the ultimate truth and labels anything to the contrary as "ignorance" or "propaganda," we are stuck with an ignorant and semi-literate population.

Our local names have almost entirely lost validity as "Muslim names" due to the fact that they are not Arab, Persian or Turkic names.
As examples Muhammad, Ali, Mushtaq, Javad, Javaid, Timur all Arab, Persian and Turkic names respectively and are accepted as "Muslim names" in Pakistan while local names have almost died out completely.

And even local names that are used are often branded as "Hindu" or "Kaffir" (infidel) names that we are afraid or ashamed to use them. I was reading that the name Aryan is still used in Afghanistan, Iran and India as a first name, while in Pakistan it is not used and regarded as a "Hindu" name.
This is just another of many examples on how we abandon our cultural traits and allow the Indians and others to steal them from us.

Non-Arab names in Iran, Turkey and Central Asia are commonly used and perfectly accepted as normal Muslim names and sometimes even more used than the Arabic names.

It is so strange that our idiotic beliefs of Islamic Ummah motivate us to rejecting our ancient history in favor of Islamic history since even the Arabs, Iranians and Turks take pride in their histories, both pre and post Islamic.
And even when they take pride in their Islamic histories, they still take pride in it as part of their ethnic or national histories.

Most Arabs from outside the Gulf region such as the Egyptians, the Lebanese and the Syrians are all proud of their ancient histories. Even the Arabs from the Gulf take more pride in being Arab than in being Muslim.

The people of Iran, though living under strict Islamic rule still preserve their culture. As examples they still celebrate Persian New Year which is also shared by other Iranic speaking peoples such as the Kurds. They even combine their cultural holidays with the Shia Islamic calendar.
Their national airline Iran Air depicts ancient Persian mythological creatures on it's logos. Egypt Air also depicts images of ancient Egyptian culture as it's logos despite it is today mainly an Arab speaking Muslim country.

Ever since independence has our national airline, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) or any other major Pakistani corporation depicted aspects of our Indo-Iranic cultures? When PIA did use cultural liveries from Pakistan's provinces, it generated an outcry from many in the public.

Our tanker trucks in Pakistan are painted by the drivers depicting Indo-Iranic mythological creatures spoken of in their village folklore, but never does any company used by the state weather in the tourism or transportation industry ever depict any aspects of our culture. And when they do depict anything at all, it is Quranic verses or anything from Islam. This just shows our government's reckless pro-Arab/Middle Eastern policy.

Our pro-Indian fifth column consists mainly of regretful Muslim immigrants from other parts of the subcontinent. They promote our ancient history as "Indian" or "South Asian."
They often promote Indian Brahman Hindutva propaganda and imperialism under the false guise of secularism and progress. This only helps Pakistanis in distancing themselves from their heritage and identity.

The pro-Indian fifth column also welcomes Indian cultural invasion of Pakistan through Bollywood or wearing of Indian clothes such as saris or eating Indian food or sometimes all of these. All this is promoted on the idea that Indians and Pakistanis are "the same people."
I have no problem with Indians wearing their own clothes, eating their own food, practicing their own traditions, but it is not our culture and I do have a problem when my people believe that it is theirs.

Just as I believe Arabs and other peoples of the Middle East have the right to practice their own customs and traditions as long as our people are not practicing customs and traditions that are not theirs.

This is the cultural and political tug of war Pakistanis face today. On the one side we are taught that our entire glorious pre-Islamic history is shared with the Indians or worse that it was all Indian history before the so-called "partition."

On the other side by resenting our history because we think it is "Indian" and "Hindu" and don't want to be known as "Indians," which we aren't, so we try to rewrite our history to try and make it Middle Eastern.

And either we have to be one or the other. Either we have to be "Indian" or Middle Eastern. We cannot seem to think of ourselves as just Pakistani.
We cannot seem to think of ourselves as heirs of the Indus Valley Civilization which later merged with the invading Indo-Iranic ("Aryan") armies leading to our birth as a hybrid race.

And when we do think of ourselves as simply Pakistani, our Islamist and pro-Indian elites insist there's no such thing because of provincial divisions. I believe I have refuted that rather self-contradictory idea in this post.

Even politically, the promotion of Indianization and Arab/Middle Easternization clouds our judgment.
Whenever I put forward my criticism of Arabs and Middle Eastern peoples for their racism towards Pakistanis, the typical Pakistani reply I get is "but not all Arabs are like that."

Strangely enough, when it comes to Israelis and Indians, our people are ready to lash out at "Hindus" and Jews with hateful slogans, cursing them all instead of saying "but not all of them are like that."

Our Pan-Islamists try to capitalize on the fact that Arabs give us aid when in times of need but when America or the West gives us even larger amounts of aid, we simply ignore it. We try to see all the positive things that the Middle Eastern people do for us and ignore the negative. But when it comes to non-Muslims we do just the opposite.

We only think about all the bad things the Americans have done to us and ignore any positive things they have given whether humanitarian aid or economic aid.
We even blame them for all the terrorist attacks in our country, yet remain silent on the presence of Arab Al-Queda terrorists hiding in our country and targeting our soldiers and people.

We also tend to side with Muslims in conflicts against non-Muslims simply as a result of the religious dogma that has been programmed into our minds.

Some Pakistanis have actually condemned China for it's mistreatment of the Uighurs simply because the Uighurs are Muslims and the Han Chinese are not.
This is despite that China has stood by Pakistan on the Kashmir crisis and other crises while all the other Muslim countries were silent. Also despite that the Uighurs have brought Pakistan nothing but trouble with many Uighurs, Uzbeks and Turks hiding in Northwestern Pakistan and involved in terrorist activities.

This is also despite the Arab Sudanese treating the non-Arab Sudanese with extreme brutality despite they are also Muslims, just not Arab.
This is also despite Turkey's atrocities in Kurdistan or even Pakistan's atrocities in Balochistan, we still go on criticizing other non-Muslim countries for attacking and occupying Muslim lands weather the Russian Federation in Chechnya or America in Iraq and Afghanistan or Israel in Palestine.

When it comes to false accusations from non-Muslim countries against us, we become defensive of ourselves and deny these accusations.
Yet when other Muslim countries such as the Iranian Islamic regime accuse us of harboring Baloch separatists and/or Sunni militants, our Pan-Islamist types get on their knees and blame our government for not doing enough to maintain good relations with our "Muslim brothers."

Even with venom being spewed against us and our country by the Afghan Mellat, our Pan-Islamist types again get down on their knees and claim we haven't done enough to earn the respect of the Afghans despite that we have taken millions of their refugees at our own expense.
Refugees who gave us only more trouble in return by stealing our jobs, committing crimes, selling drugs and spreading illegal firearms.

These are exactly the same apologetic, sellout sentiments promoted by our pro-Indian fifth columnists except the Pan-Islamists are like this towards other Muslims while the pro-Western/Indian fifth column is like this towards the Indians and the West and usually also to other Muslims.

On the subject of Afghanistan and the terrorist Afghan Mellat, whenever Afghan regimes throw accusations at Pakistan or send terrorists into Balochistan in order to further fuel the insurgency there, our Pan-Islamist types in turn always blame the Indians and the CIA, not knowing that Afghanistan has always claimed our Western provinces going back to our independence in 1947 as it sees the Durand Line as invalid.

The hatred for Pakistan amongst Afghans has nothing to do with India. Afghanistan joining hands with India against Pakistan is just another example of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."
It's just as how China and Pakistan's friendship started off. Though China and Pakistan have a strong friendship and partnerships in many areas which have absolutely nothing to do with India, the friendship first started mainly because both countries were at odds against a common enemy.

But because Afghanistan happens to be another Muslim country, instead of standing up to them, we become more and more apologetic.
These are the kinds of results Indianization and Pan-Islamitization has created in Pakistan and amongst many Pakistanis worldwide influenced by religious extremism.

Always it has been that any kind of opposition towards Pan-Islamism or the nonsensical idea of Islamic Ummah is raised, you are accused of being a "Hindu agent" or a pro-Indian self-defeatist. On the other hand any sort of opposition to Indianization or patriotism towards Pakistan is linked with religious extremism by the pro-Indian fifth column and their supporters.

Our reckless government instead of countering anti-Pakistan propaganda or encouraging action against our pro-Indian fifth column who spread lies against our country in the name of free speech and secularism, still turn to religion as a unifying factor and a motivation.

The solution to a problem lies in fully identifying the problem first. And the problem in our case is what I have mentioned above. Religion alongside Pan-South Asianism often promoted by rich and powerful elites from the Muhajir community has completely buried our knowledge on who we are.

Whenever we have tried going back to our roots, the Indian Hindutva Brahmans next door alongside their pro-Indian fifth columnist puppets have hijacked our identity. They (Indians and their upper class Muhajir allies) believe that almost a century of common British rule suddenly changed the thousands of years of history of the Indus Valley/Pakistan.

Once the realities of the problems is accepted and properly studied can only a proper solution be formed.

Two generations from independence to now have been wasted on various dogmas particularly religious influence and influence from the powerful pro-Indian lobbies. All dogmas favored over the idea of national identity and commonality of our population which is almost entirely Indo-Iranic belonging mainly to the Iranic, Indo-Aryan and Dardic subfamilies.

With the age of the Internet giving faster flow of knowledge and information, we can hope that the next generation of Pakistanis snap out of the ignorance their forefathers lived in.
The solution to the Pakistani identity crisis lies in acceptance of who we are as a nation composed almost entirely of Indo-Iranic peoples weather Baloch, Pakhtun (Iranic) or Sindhi, Punjabi (Indo-Aryan) or the Dardic populations of the north.

This time we must take a journey back thousands of years back to the genesis of our country. This time it has to be without the interference of Arab/Iranian/Turkish wannabe Pan-Islamists and pro-Indian fifth columnists like Pervez Hoobhoy or Ayesha Jalal.

When any research into history and anthropology is tampered with to satisfy political agendas, the outcome can be harmful.
Once unbiased, factual, scientific research is done on our ancient ancestors and on who we are, things may turn out differently. Even if we are divided politically or even ethnically, we can still find a common basis on the fact that we stem from the same ancient Indo-Iranic tribes (who in turn were derived from the Proto-Indo-European/"Kurgan" people) that roamed Central Asia and later on merged with the natives of the Indus Valley, giving birth to the hybrid race that we are today.

I can guarantee the day the state, the people and the scholars do a full scale research on our Indo-Iranic roots is the day we can have stronger unity. The day we appeal to a common Indo-Iranic identity with the backing of the state, we will feel more strongly towards our country and the day the Pakistani identity crisis will be fully solved.

Pakistan's dangerous pro-Indian lobbies and media

The pro-Indian lobbies in Pakistan have had a strong influence for a long time. They consist of regretful upper class Muhajirs who wish to blame their faults onto the people of Pakistan. Their presence in the media is noticeable just about everywhere.
As mentioned in an earlier post of mine, the pro-Indian front is quick to highlight every negative aspect of Pakistan and compare it with a 'positive' aspect of India.

The newspapers and magazines (ie Dawn Newspaper or Geo TV) are full of Indian achievements such as tourism hitting India, India making an economic gain in the world market or European patients attending Indian hospitals to save operating costs that would be much higher back home.

Pakistani achievements on the other hand are nowhere to be found in the mainstream media to my knowledge. All the Pakistani achievements I've found are either online and found randomly in videos. The recent opening of the metro system in New Delhi also struck our news media. But nowhere is the mention of the fact that despite it's metro system, New Delhi can hardly be compared as a capital city to Islamabad. In terms of environment, infrastructure New Delhi's slums, overcrowded streets and pollution can hardly be compared to Islamabad's greenery, fully paved streets and highways.

It's not that I wish to be negative towards India or Indian people, but what frustrates me is that the pro-Indian side somehow tries to 'prove' that India is a 'better' country by deliberately distorting facts and statistics when reality in fact shows the quite opposite.

When it comes to a comparison between the two countries, much of the pro-Indian elites of Pakistan usually go by their beliefs out of sheer denial, nothing more. For if they are confronted with the truth, they know their beliefs are nothing more than fiction.

Another reason why many in the media and elite class bash Pakistan without missing a chance is to feel more accepted amongst their peers. Because a whole gang of elites are bashing the country for the sake of it, another elite will join in to avoid feeling alienated.

The pro-Indian lobbies also try to make other Pakistanis believe that the refusal to see India as a "progressing" nation is blind patriotism for Pakistan. Though my feelings towards Pakistan are nothing but pride and nationalistic, it does not blind me to the fact that Pakistan is sadly one of the poorest and backward countries in the world.

An example of this was when a relative of mine and I were arguing over weather India and Pakistan is a more developed country. When I brought the fact of poverty, he told me of a group of European travelers he had met in the north of Pakistan. They planned on staying two weeks in Pakistan before moving on into India to spend two months.

However, these travelers returned in about a week. My relative asked the reason for their short stay and they replied they came across an unimaginable amount of poverty that they had never experienced before which shocked them. But even after telling me all this, my relative repeated that India is still doing better. This clearly gave me the same impression, that no matter what, the belief that India is a 'better' country is imprinted into their minds.

I also felt he was saying this because everybody else was saying this. A large percentage of the lower and middle class of Pakistan are already struck with strict interpretations of Islam and seem to be willing to believe them no matter what. And anyone in the lower or middle class with question marks of these strict interpretations will most likely shove them aside in order to feel fit amongst his/her peers.

From my experience those who blindly follow Indian fascist propaganda also don't debate their beliefs. Either they interrupt your arguments when you try to put the facts before them. Or they will twist around the facts to suit them. Such as the poverty factor their typical replies would be "oh India has problems such as poverty I'm not saying it doesn't but Pakistan does too."

This is a ridiculous argument. It's just like admitting that Haiti has poverty but so does Holland (Netherlands).

Even a friend of mine told me of similar experiences when he talking to a Muhajir who was in pity for Pakistan and believed India was "more developed."
When my friend tried to argue with this notion, the other person just got up and left the table.

So like much of the lower and middle class who blindly believe in strict forms of Islam without question and follow them like drones, this mentality of "India is best" has caught a huge number of Pakistanis, following this belief, also like drones.

It is one thing if the person believes the opposite of the truth and lives in denial of it. A person's personal belief is a human right. But when that person spreads his/her denial onto others, he/she is doing an immoral act by lying and spreading the wrong information.

This is the case with the pro-Indians of Pakistan. They have wrongly spread their denial of reality onto other Pakistanis through no other than lies and distortion of facts.

Only about ten years ago, I too blindly believed that India was a superior and technologically more advanced country. I believed it because everyone else believed it so it must be true. How wrong I was. The Internet was in it's first few years, so the availability of information was not as fast. Now things have changed and even though I feel alienated amongst my many close friends and relatives, I still prefer to accept reality rather than swallow outright lies for the sake of fitting amongst them.

If our pro-Indian media and elites don't like our achievements and choose to ignore them and constantly engage in the selective comparison that they always do, they should at least give a reason for speaking the way they do about our country.
These pro-Indian lobbies and their influence in the media need to be dismantled before they do further damage to the minds of our youth than they already have.

How else are our country and people to feel encouraged about contributing positively to Pakistan and the world if they always hear everything negative about themselves and their country.
We use constructive criticism to learn about our mistakes and improve ourselves, but how is it any helpful by saying we live in the dark ages without providing a way out? These are the ways of the pro-Indian lobbies.

"Pakistan is bad, India is best, Pakistan is bad, India is best..." instead of "Pakistan is bad, here's why and here's how we can improve..."

Even during a political crisis, these Indian lovers never miss an opportunity to attack their country and add fuel to the fire.
Many of them go as far as to condemn Pakistan for building nuclear weapons without condemning India for starting the arms race in the first place. Many of them also join in with the Indians on finger pointing every terrorist attack on Pakistan and the ISI.

They do all this in the name of 'peace' with India. I'm also a strong advocate of peace, but this is hardly the way.


Above: Asma Jahangir meeting Bal Thackery. According to many sources this Hindutva fundamentalist was behind the 2002 Gujarat massacres. I don't know how true that is but if it was, I would hardly be surprised.

The pro-Indian lobbies have always had double standards when it comes to Pakistan. On the one hand Asma Jahangir visits and befriends this Hindutva leader, yet these same people speak out regularly against the Taliban and Islamic fundamentalists and accuse the Pakistani government "supporting" them.

All this is in the name of peace, progress, secularism etc. The pro-Indian Pakistani lobbies pose a more serious danger to our youth and country than empty threats from Hindutva fanatics next door.

They aid the international propaganda war against Pakistan. Many naive people in the world including Pakistan, not to mention India believe that Pakistan is a source of terrorism simply because they heard this accusation repeated many times.

I too am willing to believe Pakistan is sponsoring terrorism- provided I'm given some solid evidence for it. So far the anti-Pakistan propaganda machine has been repeating the same lie without giving any evidence and it seems to have already gained a large audience.

Adolph Hitler had a saying that went on the lines of something like "speak a lie, keep repeating it and everyone will eventually believe it."

When you prosecute an individual on the basis of murder, you must hope to have him/her convicted by providing evidence for your accusation instead of only repeating your charges against him/her.

Dismantling these pro-Indian lobbies in Pakistan will be no easy task. Because they speak under the false guise of progress and secularism, they will accuse their opponents of "silencing" freedom of expression.

A good step towards resisting the pro-Indian front in Pakistan is to spread awareness of them and their dirty work. Weather newspaper articles or internet articles or anything that will bring public attention to these people. They need to be exposed to the fullest and counter propaganda to their lies needs to be strategical.

Their influence over the media needs to be countered by more nationalist Pakistanis gaining their own influence in the media. Pakistani achievements and accomplishments need to be more promoted in our media. Proper factual statistics need to dominate the media over pro-Indian slogans. Truthful insights to the politics of our country and region must be spread over anti-Pakistan lies.

Good examples to go by are Pak Positive and similar sites.

All this must be done carefully and not involve political Islamists who have their own agenda as I explained in this post.

The downfall of these Indian/Hindutva fascist lovers in Pakistan will be a victory for our country and everything our great leader Jinnah fought for.

Below is one of some videos that show some Pakistani achievements that our fascist Muhajir controlled media will never show, unless we nationalist Pakistanis gain our own influence:




Note that these achievements such as surgical instruments and soccer balls for Germany and the world are a few of countless achievements that can be found from searching and sadly don't get reported. It's achievements like these that need to be more promoted to encourage progress amongst our people.

There are also facebook groups such as this one working to expose Geo TV.

Readers are encouraged to become fans of such groups to help expose Pakistan's fascist pro-Indian media.

Western-style political correctness creeping into Pakistan?

This question came into my mind after observing the political strife between Pakistan's various powerful elites. They consist mainly of pro-Indian, pro-Western types and a few Islamists such as Zaid Hamid and his followers. While Western style political correctness has not been as strong in Pakistan, political correctness itself has been strong in the country in regards to religion.

Criticizing just about every aspect of Islam publicly can be dangerous. Doing anything considered "un-Islamic" can have similar consequences.
But what Pakistan never seemed to have before is Western-style political correctness. This kind of political correctness does not allow criticism of Western views on political history such as questioning the Holocaust. It seldom allows conspiracy theories especially behind incidents that Muslims are accused of being the perpetrators.

Resistance movements around the world are usually seen as "terrorist" in the West- unless they are movements that favor Western interests such as the separatist movement in Tibet.

Questioning racial diversity or immigration laws in the West are also seen as "politically incorrect."
Though Pakistan itself is not a favorite target of immigrants aside from a few million illegal refugees and even until now sending them away is not seen as "politically incorrect," I still find many other aspects of Western political correctness that seem to be creeping into Pakistan.

The most noticeable aspect is in regards to conspiracy theories against Indian and Western ambitions. Though I myself too find these heavily exaggerated and questionable, anyone who even brings these theories into being is called a conspiracy theorist and labeled an extremist.

At the same time Pakistan's hardcore leftists who are generally pro-Indian/Western blame the ISI for just about every terrorist attack in the world.
These same hardcore leftists have been calling these conspiracy theories "hate speech" against Hindus and Americans.

The Western media has also had it's set of double standards where conspiracy theories surrounding the ISI are often published, most likely to gain sales. On the other hand they criticize conspiracy theories in Pakistan that blame America and the CIA.

It seems obvious the hardcore leftists of Pakistan are trying to make conspiracy theories against India or the West- be them true or not -politically incorrect.

With a huge presence of Western forces in the Middle East and Central Asia and India's ongoing propaganda war against Pakistan, it seems these leftists have gained confidence in defaming any critic of Western and Indian imperialism.
As I mentioned in other posts, while the Islamists especially Zaid Hamid and his kind are a terrible influence on Pakistan, it's clear the leftists are attacking them for the wrong reasons.

The hardcore leftists are now trying to silence criticism of Indian and Western policies through political correctness by trying to brand it "hate speech" much like how questioning the Holocaust in the West is silenced by being branded as "hate speech." (Not that I don't believe it happened).

Thankfully, Pakistan's political conditions for the past sixty years have made it impenetrable for Western-style political correctness. Sadly though, Pakistan does suffer from strict Islamic political correctness which needs to change.

Any kind of political correctness is wrong for a country and free expression should be unlimited- provided it is not a freedom to spread lies and propaganda like the pro-Indian leftists and Islamists often do. When something is claimed, it should have evidence behind it, otherwise it should be perceived as plain lies.

I also could be wrong about Western-style political correctness creeping into our country with the help of the pro-Indian/Western elites (I hope I'm wrong) but this is what my observation leads me to believe so far.

Who's side are the Muhajirs on?

As explained in this article the so-called "Muhajirs" of Pakistan are not a single ethnic group as commonly perceived.
They come from all over the subcontinent. But as the linked article also mentions, they have a lot in common with one another when it comes to main language of communication, political and religious values.

This is not to say they all share the same views or values, but a significant amount of them or even perhaps majority of them seem to be stuck and obsessed in various ideologies.
Out of all the various peoples living in Pakistan, I find the Muhajirs from whatever ethnic background they may be to generally be the most religious extremists. Religion seems to be a strong obsession amongst them. I find them to be amongst the most intolerant Muslims in general.

They are amongst the strongest promoters of Pan-Islamism. Always calling for the Islamic Ummah and brotherhood with Muslims in the Middle East many of whom are too arrogant to ever get close to Pakistanis or Muslims outside of their region.
The Muhajirs make the problems of the Middle East look greater than the problems of Pakistan. They frequently promote Arab culture and tradition in the name of Islam.

Many Muhajirs feel a close Islamic brotherhood towards Turks, Arabs, Persians etc. But when it comes to Muslims like Bangladeshis or African Muslims, they suddenly change their attitude as they look down upon these peoples. Muhajirs I also find to be amongst the most racist people in Pakistan.

At the same time there's another set of them who promote Pan-'South Asianism' or the belief that the people of the subcontinent are "the same" and should live together as one large state. Many have a love for India and Indian people. They frequently promote anti-Pakistani propaganda manufactured by the Indian media.

They frequently promote the positive things of India while highlighting every negative thing on Pakistan they can find.
There's also a small minority of them who promote Western-style liberalism sending their off-springs to Western schools and countries for education, always promoting Westernization such as the overuse of Western languages. They love to learn English, French, Spanish, Latin and take huge pride in it but few are willing to master themselves in the languages of Pakistan, including Urdu/Undri.

It seems that the Muhajirs have a love for everything outside of Pakistan. This is not to say they are all like that. In fact many have been significant contributors to Pakistan. I believe Dr Quadeer Khan is a Muhajir, though I read somewhere is a Muhajir of Pakhtun descent.

Pervez Musharraf is also a Muhajir and he did more for Pakistan than Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif both whom were native to Pakistan but amongst the most corrupt leaders. Musharraf stood up to religious extremism, gave more seats in parliament to women and minorities.
Under Musharraf the Pakistani rupee and economy gained significant forward steps.

Other Muhajirs I've met are relatives I have who run large factories which provides many jobs for people in the middle class and contributes to Pakistan's economy.
Another relative I know of who is Muhajir but has learned Sindhi language and culture. His love for Pakistan cannot be questioned.

Indeed there are many, many Muhajirs who take upon the native cultures of their provinces and do their best to assimilate. But amongst the powerful elite and middle classes their confusion towards Pakistan is still unresolved.

There are those amongst them who consider themselves pro-Pakistan. But pro-Pakistan in a very different sense of their own. They favor Urdu being the only language to be used and taught in Pakistan in the name of "unity."
They favor Arabic cultural invasion of Pakistan in the name of Islam (Shia Muhajirs seem to be more favorable to Persians and Iran). They promote Islam as the absolute state religion.

This has only caused rebellion and resentment amongst the indigenous peoples as it did in East Pakistan before it became Bangladesh.

The Muhajirs also frequently talk of religious persecution and claim they were forced to move to Pakistan. They promote this story amongst their newer generation. At the same time they claim they came for opportunities, but never got any. Many of them despite claiming persecution denounce the so-called "partition."
Another popular claim is they came for the sake of Pakistan and Islam. These claims seem to contradict each other and regardless of which claim they stick to, many regret coming to Pakistan at all.

Even their political parties such as the MQM which was known as the Muhajir Quami Movement until recently when they changed it to Muhteda Quami Movement promote various agendas.
At one point they are against Sindhis. Then they join the Sindhis, adopt Sindhi clothing claiming to be the new Sindhis and fight for a better Sindh.

Now over sixty years on is it not time for these people ask themselves what they stand for and which country's side they are on? What exactly do some of them hope to achieve by terrorizing and battling Pakistan's local peoples? If Pakistan means nothing to them, shouldn't they at least make an effort to try and get back to the country they consider home?

For those Muhajirs who regret coming to Pakistan and constantly see all their problems in Pakistan, they certainly must immigrate back to India or wherever they came from for Pakistan would be a much better country without their racism, religious fundamentalism and love for the enemies of the country.

Do they really believe they will feel welcomed by Pakistan's local populations if they keep this up? If they feel sad that they had to leave their country for Pakistan it does not mean Pakistan is suddenly going to join India to satisfy their sorrow. Pakistan historically was never a part of India and it's time Indians and Muhajirs accept this fact.

Those Muhajirs who see themselves as Muslims only and came to Pakistan for the sole sake of Islam are clearly in the wrong country. With their love for Arabs and Persians and hatred for Sindhis, Balochis, Punjabis and Pakhtuns, they would be better off living in Iran, Saudi Arabia or another Arab majority country in hopes they'll be welcomed there.

As I mentioned in another post of mine, I too am partially of Muhajir descent, but I clearly know where my loyalties lie. My country means a lot to me. My ambitions are for a unified and strong Pakistan with a sustainable population number and later the same goal for the rest of the world, not one with injustice towards the various ethnicities under the guise of "unity."

Certainly it is time for the Muhajir community to now ask themselves what are their future goals and who's side are they on. Unless they do not ask and answer these important questions, their future seems unclear and so is Pakistan's if it is not determined weather the country is to keep some of these people or not.

Exaggerating ethnic diversity in Pakistan and hiding it in other countries of it's region

When I first moved to North America, I was brought some cultural profiles of different countries, including Pakistan's. Other countries included Kenya, Lebanon and Canada.

These cultural profiles were short booklets intended to educate hosts on immigrants and brief insights to their national backgrounds.
The profiles contained some fact sheets, different categories of the country from sports to health care to spirituality and history.

The profiles have been put online and can be viewed on this site.

Also included were some interesting "facts" that are shown the same way one can find in school textbooks displayed as "did you know."
The "did you know" can be found on the profiles of every country listed.

But as usual many did you know "facts" on Pakistan are twisted and exaggerated. Amongst the did you knows on Pakistan it mentions Pakistanis being an ethnically diverse people.
When looking through India, Iran and Afghanistan's cultural profiles it did mention the major ethnic groups of the countries, but none of them highlighted the fact that all these countries are ethnically diverse.

Even when the fact is that these countries are more ethnically diverse than Pakistan. When I write more ethnically diverse, I don't just mean the sheer number of various ethnic groups being higher, but also the relationships between these being much more distinct.

In Pakistan we have about two dozen ethnic groups. Usually in modern times, an ethnic group is defined as a set of people speaking a single language. Now it does not matter weather the current languages of these people is not the same as that of their ancestors or even the same family as their ancestors' language.

In the case of Iran, Iraq, India and Afghanistan you have various ethnic groups speaking languages of completely different origins and also being genetically distinct.
Up to about one third of Afghans are Mongoloid by race. These Mongoloid Afghans except for the Hazaras speak Altaic languages such as Uzbek and Turkmen which are unrelated to Afghanistan's Indo-European languages the main ones being Dari and Pashto.

In Iraq there are Arabs, Kurds and Turkomans, all speaking unrelated languages. Arabic is Afro-Asiatic, Kurdish is Indo-European and Turkoman is Altaic.
In Iran we have various languages belonging to the Afro-Asiatic family, the Indo-European family and the Altaic family.

In India the number of ethnic groups is several times larger than that of Pakistan as well as various language families from Indo-European to Dravidian to Sino-Tibetian, Austroasiatic and others.
Even racially speaking we have many different skull types in India from Mongoloid, Caucasoid, Australoid, Negroid and a few others.

But despite all this, these cultural profiles don't highlight these facts in their did you knows.
They do mention ethnic diversity in the countries discussed, but don't highlight it in their cultural profiles the way they did in the case of Pakistan.

In Pakistan the racial and ethnic demographics are in a very different position than that of the other countries mentioned and discussed in this post. Pakistan is home to about two dozen distinct, but closely related ethnicities.

Except for three ethnic groups which are the Brahuis, the Baltistanis and perhaps even the Hunza, the rest of Pakistan's ethnic groups are of the same origin.
The Afroids known as "Makranis" are also somewhat distinct due to their African ancestry but I believe they have mixed with the local population. I also believe they speak Balochi dialects.

But the rest of the population up to 99% are of the same origin speaking Indo-European languages which can be further broken down into Indo-Iranic languages. Sindhi, Balochi, Urdu, Punjabi, Kashmiri, Pashto are the major languages of Pakistan. All of these languages descend from a common Proto-Indo-Iranic language spoken at some time era in the second or third millennium BC.

Click on images to enlarge:


Even genetically, most of Pakistan's population belong to common Haplogroup R1A:


Other ignorant things that these cultural profiles promoted were that Pakistan is a young state yet it doesn't mention the fact that as modern states so are India, nor Afghanistan nor Iran or Iraq.
Pakistan's national cuisine is also supposedly a "mix" of Indian and Middle Eastern. As always everything about Pakistani culture and history always has outside influence mentioned and exaggerated.

Then it was always labeling anything of Pakistan's pre-1947 history as "shared history" with India.
Whoever wrote the cultural profile on Pakistan is obviously an ignorant person and just spread his/her ignorance further by publishing all this into a cultural profile.

But the issue is not really about history or a single cultural profile. This false projection of Pakistan being a multi-ethnic country while making Iran and Afghanistan look like some homogeneous Persian countries or Iraq a homogeneous Arab country or India a homogeneous country is very widespread. Sometimes it is out of ignorance and sometimes to promote some sort of political agenda.

In one example I remember one of my parents explaining to my cousin's fiance who was of Irish descent on the Kashmir issue. It was explained to him by my parent that the subcontinent was "one India" divided by a British conspiracy. Yet this same parent of mine has a history of claiming that Pakistan has no identity due to it's ethnic diversity.

Many can probably already see the huge contradiction here. A united ethnically, linguistically, racially diverse subcontinent is one "Indian nation" yet one Pakistan compromising of an almost entirely Caucasoid population of Indo-Iranic speaking people is somehow not a nation.

Though my parent now has different views after I educated this parent of mine. However this claim is widespread amongst many people; especially Indians. Many Indians claim Pakistanis to be part of the "brown" "desi" or sometimes "South Asian race" alongside themselves.
I've come into contact with Indians including a Muslim who claimed this. Yet these very same Indians tout that Pakistanis are not a race and that all the ethnic groups in Pakistan are completely different.

One of them said this with some emotion. This is obviously a way of trying to diminish Pakistan's separate identity and culture. On one hand by calling them all "Indians" on the other hand by saying they are distinct from one another. Sadly many naive Pakistanis and foreigners buy into this.

Even the Islamists in Pakistan who oppose secularism try to portray Pakistan as a multi-national state often claim Pakistan's ethnicities have nothing in common outside of religion and so that religion alone is the unifying factor of Pakistan.

India is home to several dozen unrelated ethnic groups. Iran doesn't have as high of a number as ethnicities as India, but still it's populations also speak languages that are unrelated. The same is true for Afghanistan.

Ethnic diversity is very little in Pakistan when compared to India, Iran, Iraq or Afghanistan. Many Indians also proudly parade the diversity of their country yet ironically claim a sense of national identity.
Many anti-Pakistan elements around the world like to propagate the ethnic diversity of Pakistan's predominantly Indo-Iranic populations.

This claim is also recently being promoted by the upper class Muhajir fifth columnists such as Pervez Hoodbhoy. I even saw an article written by an Indian on Pakistan's 2008 independence anniversary again claiming that Punjabis, Sindhis, Muhajirs and others were all put together "artificially."

But let's face it. The name Pakistan is new and has no ancient roots. Though the country today known as "India" is also new and it's name has roots derived from the Pakistan/Indus Valley region, the name itself still has ancient roots.
The name Afghanistan is from Afghan, a tribal name that's been around centuries. Iran is also a new name but derived from an ancient name referring to the Aryans or nobles.

Many Pakistanis have argued that Pakistan should have been called India while India Bharat since Pakistan is the land of the Indus Valley. Even in her book, Empires of the Indus, British author Alice Albina suggests that Pakistan would have been better off keeping the name India or called itself Industan meaning land of the Indus.

But why should it be that the name of a country be used to judge it's past? Names change, the land and history remained unchanged.
Hopefully with the age of the Internet and technological advancement, the flow and access of information will be much faster and easier. People ignorant to the reality and history of Pakistan- including many Pakistanis themselves- will see the flawed reasoning behind calling Pakistan "diverse" and pretending that other countries in it's region are "homogeneous."

Post update: A more factual but brief cultural profile on Pakistan can be viewed here.