US and Pakistan; A never ending romance.

It’s been a while since I last wrote on current affairs or perhaps a damn long time, the last time I wrote as an analyst was, well I don’t remember. Word on the street these days; ‘US sabotaged peace process underway in Pakistan. Soon Pakistan was all set to enter an era of peace but our very own close western ally turned out not to be in favor of it.’ That is what I have been hearing for past couple of weeks and I was very much anticipated to write on it and have my say on it, after all I am a law abiding citizen of this country, not mentioning bunking my classes (wink), and according to constitution I have the right to speak. But due to exams I was unable to have my say over it. Any ways, I am back on the grid now.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Boundaries shift, new players step in but power always finds a way to rest its head. Yesterday’s recruits are today’s enemies, true story my friends. We are a strategic, long term, and a non-NATO ally of Uncle Sam. Since the 80’s this relation has been climbing climax and still it is, not mentioning small bumps. After 9/11 we got closer than ever, this has never been before, Uncle Sam came to our doorstep and laid its camp in our neighborhood to play a little game of hide and seek. Both of us enjoyed this narrowing of distance, and the game, and by us I specifically mean our govts. And now after spending almost 12 years in our neighborhood its time we say good bye. It’s time to settle everything down and conclude the game, that’s what we decided. But Uncle Sam had other plans.

Just when a new era of peace was about to begin in our home, everything seemed to be going in right direction and there was a positive feedback from most of the Pakistani faction of Talibans (Students-turned-militants), just then strikes something out of nowhere and sends everything back to where it was, no peace for Pakistan, no safety for its citizens, no stability for Pakistani economy. And nobody cares, not even our rulers, as long as Uncle Sam doesn’t care, no one will. Now apart from blaming Uncle Sam fully for sabotaging the peace talks with TTP, what I see is another player in the picture; Maulana Fazl Ullah. Yes, you now know him successor to late Hakim Ullah Mehsud, but previously as second in command of Tanzeem-e-Nifaaz-e-Shariyat-e-Muhammadi, Organization for Implementation of the Law of Muhammad (PBUH), (TNSM). Now before you draw a conclusion against me and accuse me ‘Ameriki agent’ or ‘kafir’, folks! I am highly against the ‘going-ons’ (wink).

Maulana Fazl Ullah is the first Afghan based/trained leader of TTP; he is ‘blessed’ with the backing of Mullah Muhammad Umar, the supreme commander of Taliban. The events of 2007 in Swat, led to his exile in Afghanistan that got him some firsthand Afghan experience. On 29 November 2007, Pakistani security forces captured Fazlullah's headquarters and arrested his brother. Fazlullah himself had already fled to another village. Security Forces have now retaken most of the Swat region. In 2007, Fazullah was allegedly hiding in the Konar province in Afghanistan. On 26 January 2008, it was reported that Maulvi Abdul Raziq, a close aide of Fazlullah, was arrested in the Kot area of Charbagh. In November 2009, Fazlullah told the BBC's Urdu Service that he had escaped from Pakistan to Afghanistan and warned that he would continue to attack Pakistani forces in Swat. Fazl Ullah clearly perceived Pakistan government and Pakistani army as his enemy number 1.

History of peace talks between Pakistani government and TTP dates back to 2006, if I am not wrong. Efforts were made in past to bring everything on the table and resolve matters through talks, listen to them, after all they too are ‘Pakistani’ … are they?? Well, that’s a debate on its own. But unfortunately every time efforts were fruitless, perhaps then nobody really meant ‘talks’ just personal and territorial gains. But now it seemed both the sides really meant business, even in many circles of civil society it was thought that now there will be drawn a clear line between the Taliban, who claimed to be nothing more than soldiers fighting for the cause of Islam, and those hiding to use the name and bring bad name to country and Islam. But not everyone was happy with it, and we all know who. Diplomatically, Uncle Sam backed those talks, but had they really meant this backing, they’d never have struck right at the time when a ‘Shura’ was underway to discuss the talks. On the other hand, Maulana Fazl Ullah was the only one in Taliban circle to oppose talks with Pakistani government, and that was why he claimed responsibility for high profile army assassination, in an attempt to sabotage the peace talks, which apparently he failed to do so and in fact received a warning from Hakim Ullah Mehsud to watch his acts in his area.

Seriously if I were Fazl Ullah I’d rather wish to overthrow Hakim Ullah for this, and this is exactly what he did. Next thing we see is our respected Prime Minister is being called to United States to discuss some important issues on the region, honestly I smelled rat. Something was bound to happen, if Hakim Ullah was to be killed in this hour it will arise mistrust and relations with Uncle Sam will strike another low and this time perhaps they may take years to patch up. They simply can’t afford to lose us, and someone had to be taken into confidence someone like the PM on this ‘Black Op’. And to get the inside info, who’d be a more better person than Fazl Ullah, both he and Uncle Sam shared common interest i.e. to sabotage the peace process. Nobody likes a peaceful Pakistan.

After the drone attack on November 1st, 2013, news surfaced about serious leadership crisis in TTP circles. I knew well that was lie, news like these surfaced before when Bait Ullah was hit in a drone strike but nothing happened, Hakim Ullah was chosen unanimously. But this time it mattered as to whom the command will be given, Hakim Ullah definitely had a soft corner perhaps that is why he took talks seriously and held Fazl Ullah back from sabotaging it. Fazl Ullah knew he won’t be able to do it on his own, help should come from outside that fulfill both of his goals; 1. Dethrone Hakim Ullah, 2. Sabotage peace process. And then there breaks the news, Fazl Ullah appointed TTP chief, ‘Oh ALLAH’ I grasped, ‘what have they done.’ I was like, ‘AB TOU ALLAH HE HAFIZ HY IS MULK KA.’ Fazl Ullah got what he wanted; Hakim Ullah’s efforts were in vain and he was no more there to stop him, hence marking a brand new era in our romance with Uncle Sam.

It shows that there are certain elements within TTP that are self centered, and have some other gains. The appointment of Fazl Ullah as TTP chief shows that they are now in a strong position and are in a driving seat to control the organization.

The illusion.

She was sitting in the far corner of cafeteria, all alone. The hot fries she had ordered were now cold as dead. Sara was lost deeply in her thoughts, she didn't even realize that she missed her 3 hours long lecture sitting there thinking about what to do, what would happen next.??

It’s been six months since she got engaged to the love of her life, student life was about to end, in a couple of weeks they would be having their final papers and after that a Masters degree in hand and then she was all set to tie the knot. She always adored Mike of his exceptional capabilities of solving her problems; to her he was her solution to every problem. But this time it was far more complex perhaps even Mike may fail to solve it for her and she didn't want to see him fail but she saw no other way of getting rid of the problem she was facing…… engrossed in these thoughts she was totally unaware of the what was going on in the surroundings.

Lecture was over, she was startled by his voice; “Hey Blackie! What is up with your mood? Didn't take any class today, you fine??”

Blackie, he used to call her because of her jet black hair and deep black eyes that gave her a stunning look due to her near white complexion which was not too white, not too tan. She looked straight into his eyes, not sure whether to tell him or not but then again his come-to-bed sort of voice used to unchain her heart, her defenses used to fail and she showed no resistance while he walked straight through the gates of her high walled, fortressed heart via her eyes, perhaps that was why, Sara Anderson, a girl with as-a-matter-of-fact tone fell for Mike.

“Where on the earth were you?” she asked in a bossy tone, “you should have stayed with me,” she went on, “you know there is always something wrong with me.”

She saw his killing smile and that infuriated her even more, “I am not cracking jokes here, and neither am I in a mood” she said in a chilled voice with anger hidden beneath. Mike switched to serious mode, the smile was gone.

“You know that very well, it’s only and only you who solves my problems and only you I share with, you knew there was something wrong with me and yet you walked away, left me here, class was not important than me.”

Although she talked for a while but she felt breathless in an effort to suppress her anger, she did not want the person she loved most to be hurt by her anger, although she knew that he won’t be. Mike on the other hand loved to be scolded by her, to him, this made him feel that she considered him, her very own and perhaps that was the reason he smiled earlier. Now he switched back to serious mode, he sensed the intensity of the problem, looked deeply into her eyes searching her heart and mind for what was bothering them. She felt his gaze penetrating through her eyes going deep down her heart, she let it happen for a while but then something struck her and she looked away at the window breaking the contact, it was raining outside and rain was splashing at the window pane, sky seemed gloomy. She saw a couple of boys and girls dancing and enjoying the rain, laughing while the sky drained down its tears. “Hey, look here” he said in an affectionate tone, “what is the matter with you? Tell me, I need to know.” She continued to look outside, now she was looking at some boys playing football, it’s been raining after quite a long time in the midst of this blazing summer and everyone seemed to be enjoying it to the full, everyone but Sara.

“I can’t …..” there was a pause and she about to burst into tears, “….tell you.”

This was odd, she has never been like that towards him, and he now realized that something was definitely not in place with her.

“Sara! You know I love you, I know what you are, I've seen your best and your worst, I've seen you trying hard, seen your kindness and strength, I don’t love you just because I want you or you are something worth achieving, it has nothing to do with me…. Sara? Are you listening?”

She was still looking outside the window, rain splashing on the window blurred out the vision through the glass, but she could still see blurry traces. One of the boys seemed to have committed a foul, the captain of opposite team was convinced that he did commit the foul but the boy refused, the argument was heating up, and when it was confirmed that he had done so, the boy kicked the ball in anguish. Sara saw it flew straight towards her like a cannon ball. In split second the ball smashed through the window, the sound of glass smashing into pieces echoed in the whole place, she saw the pale face of the boy who stood there frozen realizing the consequences, rest of them ran away and then after a while he also followed.

Sara turned she saw Mike standing right next to her, “you look pretty much awesome in that doctors’ overcoat, Mike” she chuckled. But when she looked at the face she felt as if she looked into Medusa’s eye and turned stone. She looked around, this was no cafeteria, this was no university, she was lying on her bed in hospital, and the man standing was no Mike. Her heart missed several beats, she looked again at the face, it was an elderly looking face with lines of weariness, looking down upon her with affection and fear mixed in the eyes….. “Who are you? Where is Mike? Where am I? Can somebody call Mikey? Mike,” she shouted, “Mike, where are you?”

Calm down Sara, please” said the doctor.

“No, I don’t want to, until I see Mike, I need to tell him what is wrong with me, he needs to know, please call him I need to tell him something…. Who are you? Where is he? Please for GOD’s sake call him” she begged the doctor.

“Mike is dead, do you hear me, HE IS DEAD AND I AM YOUR FATHER, HE IS NO LONGER WITH US, AND HE IS NO LONGER WITH YOU” the man shouted.

“No” she gasped, “No, this cannot be, he cannot do this…”

“Yes, he can, that was bound to happen.” Again, but this time in soft tone, said the man, “Remember that accident 3 months ago, you fell off the bridge into the river, Mike died saving you.”

“NO, NO, NO, NO…. I killed him, I…..” everything went dark.

She could only hear voices that meant nothing to her.

“Doctor, doctor, over here, hurry up give her the shot, we’re losing her again. 3, 2, 1… charge.”

“Don’t worry Mr. Anderson, she’ll be all fine in a couple of months, just keep reminding her the incident so that she may not lose her memory permanently, I know it’s painful but you’re a doctor, you should understand how important it is for you to keep you daughter alive. Good luck.”

Democratic system demands democratic values

Wikipedia defines democracy as, “a form of government in which all eligible citizens participate equally—either directly or through elected representatives—in the proposal, development, and creation of laws. It encompasses social, economic and cultural conditions that enable the free and equal practice of political self –determination.” While one of my favourite Presidents, Abraham Lincoln, defines it in his own words and defines it very right that it is “a govt of the people, by the people, for the people.”
Living in a democratic system means living in a country with a system that has its origin in ancient Greek i.e. about 2500 years old. Feeling old, out dated, eh? I’d rather feel proud. Athenian democracy took the form of a direct democracy, and it had two distinguishing features: the random selection of ordinary citizens to fill the few existing government administrative and judicial offices, and a legislative assembly consisting of all Athenian citizens. All eligible citizens were all to speak and vote in the assembly, which set the laws of the city state. However, Athenian citizenship excluded women, slaves, foreigners, non-landowners, and males under 20 years old. But before we talk of democracy or democratic system, we do need to ask ourselves; do we really deserve this system? Are our values ‘democratic enough’ to deserve this system? Every country and nation has its own cultural and moral values but when it comes to democratic values, they are all the very same. These values are, basically, fundamental beliefs and constitutional principles of society which unite that very society. These values lay the very foundations and act as a soul for a democratic system in a country, without them democracy is a dead man. A democratic system without democratic value does not exist at all. Throughout the twentieth century, American scholars and political pundits have argued that the survival of democratic and political institutions and an ethic of concern for the welfare of other in the political community depended on ensuring all citizens received high quality civic education. Despite repeated efforts to act on this concern, empirical evidence suggests that a substantial number of Americans continue to be ignorant of how best to express their political demands, lack essential factual knowledge about political institutions and policies, and fail to acquire more information about politics and policy. A survey done on Chinese democratic system by Zweig and David of United States Institute of Peace (USIP) argues that high levels of popular democratic consciousness and strong demands for participation, in the absence of legitimate democratic institutions, lead citizens to resort to non-formal political strategies, including civil disobedience, to meet their needs. This show no matter how democratically conscious we are if there exist no democratic values then the democratic system is always under fire. In a society where justice is scarce, in a society where integrity is so cheap that money can buy it, a society where liberty is limited to a class of elites and the poor is bound in shackles, where the saviors of law rapes it away with no regret at all can never be democratically stable. We have the likes of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Syria in our current era, where the democratic values of both the ruling and lower class touched the lowest ebb and we saw the downfall of the ruling class and adding further misery to lower and middle class. The bloody events in Egypt have
placed American policymakers precisely where they least like to be—torn between American strategic interests and ideals. Reconciling the exigencies of realpolitik with support for democracy and human rights has always proven difficult. Both the rulers and ruled preferred interests over moral and democratic values. Morsi was elected in his country's first free elections, but Egypt, under the thrall of the Muslim Brotherhood, was undergoing democratization only in the sense that Germany was after free elections gave rise to the Nazis in 1932, the mullahs in Iran in 1979, or Hamas in Gaza in 2006. It is not by chance that the liberal camp in Egypt strongly supported the military's ouster of Morsi and the harsh measures adopted since then to suppress the Muslim Brotherhood, a fundamentally anti-democratic organization. Let’s hold ourselves accountable to our self, let’s ask our self; do we want to be treated like animals? Do we want our government to lie to us? Would any of us support an unjust society? Do we want a live a life where we are not sure of it?-of course nobody wants that, equal educational rights and access to high quality education to every citizen, rule of law and justice accessible to common man, will eventually lead up to a society that upholds it democratic values and is at democratically at peace inside out.

The sun rise

Nothing is in order. Winds are moving in opposite direction, though they are not, but they seem to be. My sails are broken; I’m on my own to raise them back and fight the tide. It seems like the sea is at war on me but I move on, on this wretched ship. The vultures; hovering above waiting for me to breathe my last and feed on my dead but I won’t give up. My soul is restless, it won’t sleep, won’t rest in peace, at least, for now. The fire in me is enough to keep the torch of my life and spirits burning. It is strong enough not to die out with the winds trying to put it off.

I raise my sails with a half torn mast; stitched in between. The winds cruel enough to tear it down and break the sails away….. Furious, I become, curse the nature just when I see land. I think of a tricking it, I take a life boat and row to land, showing middle finger to all those I just left behind; welcome to a whole new world, my world, my order.  

Sinusoid

Why you did this to me? Why?? Why you don’t answer me? Why you brought me this far and now left me dangling in the middle of nowhere? Why? Please answer me.

I remember when I was in darkness, I was shattered, and I was lost in darkness. My life was in shadows, I had no options, and I saw nothing. I was numb, shattered, pessimism brewed inside of me. You know that how difficult it was for me even to breath. The will of living my life was nowhere to be found, I searched for excuses to live it; I found none, ending it wasn’t that simple yet I found a thousand reasons to do so.

I still remember how thirsty I was, like a lost traveler in a deserted desert with no oasis, no sign of life but mine. Walking bare foot with sun right above my head volleying its fury upon me, thorns at my feet and walking upon them, I walked on and on until there came a point where I couldn’t took it any more. Head sweating, feet bleeding, I walked on.

Where am I? What am I? No idea, what to do, where to go. You watched, you were there, you saw me fall beyond the depth of the deepest canyons ever existed on the face of earth, perhaps even more than the canyons that exists in hell.

Then came a moment, a feeling beyond all this, emptiness they call it, and that was the time when you showed up, brought me out of this dark alley of my life, showed me the light. You quenched my thirst, thirst of a stray traveler, gave me a thousand reasons to live my life. You threw the weed of pessimism off my heart and sowed the seed of optimism there instead, guided me out of the desert and led me straight to oasis. You gave me wings, and I soared high in to heavens beyond those deep canyons.

                Life seemed pretty easy then, simple, sweet and colorful. Yes, exactly very colorful indeed so much that I forgot it contained dark colors as well. I thought that after every twilight there breaks a dawn, no doubt it does, and I thought it to last forever long; I was wrong. I was so much lost in all those colors, so much engrossed in the music, I was enjoying flying so high that I never realized how far I came, and how far I’ve left you behind. I never thought I’d be this far from you, I thought I’d be with you till I breathe my last, till my bones turn into ashes and are lost in the depths of this earth. How wrong I was, you didn’t bother to warn me let alone stopping. You know I am nothing without you, I am blind, I am deaf, I am limbless creature, you know that I need you and without you I don’t have the will to crawl my way to you. I need you to pave my way to you; I can’t even do that without you. Grab my hand before it gets too dark, I am afraid of darkness, I don’t know whether I’d live through all this time around, I know you are listening and watching, don’t do this with me again, don’t leave right in the middle of nowhere.

The Lost

      Sitting on a bench in a lawn under light blue sky, patches of grey clouds with sunlight piercing through and heavy at heart. I am mad at myself for letting myself down. I was never like this and I don’t know what has gone wrong with me. I was always like sun, no one dared to look directly at me, now it’s more like a moon, everyone can see the spot and now I have a dark side everyone can see. Lucky them, who can hide in their shadows, have space to run away. I have none, I am a shadow I've nowhere to hide, I have no space to run but darkness where I am bound to perish.

      Peace is all you want, but you don’t know where to get it from and how to acquire it. A total chaos inside, a restless soul, a conflicting mind is what you have, totally demolished, highly miserable is how you feel inside. And then…….. Regret, strikes right at the moment of max damage, regret of your past you wish you hadn't done what brought you this. You, your decisions and none else brought you this, the fault is all yours. Next follows agony, like this regret wasn't enough, the agonizing fact that you can’t blame anyone, it was you and then you realize how helpless you are that you can’t do anything with person responsible…. You draw battle lines between you and yourself, peace become alien to you, your heart and soul, every time you try to kill yourself but you don’t, you break the inside of you, completely demolish yourself inside out because you leave yourself no other choice. No victory, no defeat, no war trophies, only devastation, frustration, an endless destruction of such degree that it want to rip yourself apart and engulf everything around you just to wipe everything off. I know how hard it is to keep it to yourself.

      At the end, tired of all this, you wait for the light to come to your life and put an end to all this. You don’t have the courage and strength to find it out yourself. You sit and watch your world burn, and plunge in to dark. You can’t do anything but cry and curse yourself, your light is long gone; your world is long burnt to ashes.

GOD do wonders

You! I wonder what you are. You’re so beautiful, like the rainbow in the sky after the sun breaks through the dark grey clouds; you’ve even more colors to show. Like the Virgins of Eden, you are so beautiful. You fill the dark with the colors and with that light of yours. When I am down you revive me, like the rain that revive the dead earth after a long dry spell of drought, and fill me with flowers. You’re so beautiful, I still wonder what you are.

On a valentine's day

Clouds hovering over sky, it’s like you are hovering right here on this peaceful grass arising conflicts in my heart and rising tides in my mind. I am in conflict with myself, surfing over those sky high tides. You are nowhere to be seen, but your shadows are everywhere.

They haunt me in my dreams, they don’t let me sleep, and they fight with me. The clouds have blocked the sun but your shadows have blocked the darkness of my life. And in those shadows I see your traces, blurry visions I see, it’s like a mirage; I can feel it but I can’t touch it.