DHONI183
A departed friend who will live in our memories fo
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2007
- Runs
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- Post of the Week
- 8
It was a mountain-moving speech! An excellent, excellent speech it was. I don´t remember in my lifetime, before this, myself ever feeling confident in saying to non-Pakistanis that "Look, this is the Prime Minister of my home country talking." You feel a sense of pride at the way Imran Khan expresses and articulates himself, the way he makes his point and the way he touches hearts with his words. I´ve always said that no political leader in the world right now can match Mr. Khan on two aspect: one is the good intentions to do good for the country and also a bit of world in general, and two is the talks. Yes, no political leader can match the excellent use of words that he employs. He makes the crowd whistle, clap, get emotional and dream of big things within a space of 10 minutes. I would´ve clapped for him after his speech if I was present there on Friday. Whether he´s capable of converting words into deeds and action will always be a matter of debate.
On the speech itself, there was hardly a point which he failed to raise. The climate change of course had to be addressed foremost - I´m not the most knowledgeable person on this topic, so I´d skip commenting on that too much. Moving on, he addressed the point of Islamophobia in the west, the blasphemous content published in the west against the Holy Prophet Muhammad (صل الله عليه وسلم), the impact it has on the sentiment of the common Muslim, the restrictions and also the negative perception of hijab in these countries, and also the perception about the association of terrorism with Islam as a religion. It takes an immensely brave man to point out all the controversial topics, such as there having been suicide bombers in the past amongst the people of religions other than Islam. What I must mention in particular is how again and again he faced up to the USA in their country and reminded them again and again that these militants perceived as terrorists now by the USA were backed, trained and supported by the USA itself during the Afghan-Soviet Union war and were held as mujahideen back then, and as terrorists by the Soviet Union back then. He made sure that he made this point again and again, and it´s a good effort in making these facts reach the common citizen of America. He also admitted the role Pakistan´s own establishment and the ISI played in preparing these terrorists. Very brave of him. He absolutely minced no words, did he?
I´ve only heard about the UN assembly speeches delivered by Sir Zafarullah Khan and Mr. Bhutto and how great they were, it was an absolute honour to witness something similar in my own times as well. It´s a shame really that not only from Pakistan, but also no one from the Muslim world in general over the past decades raised points which Mr. Khan did, points which every Muslim was crying for to be made on a stage and a platform like this. I remember Nawaz Sharif´s speech from 2016 or ´17 I think. Although I don´t hold him as the villain of the century, as many PTI supporters do, but he looked like beggar or something - no offence intended, although it is offensive, I know. Nawaz even failed to mention in his speech the capture of the Indian spy Kalbushan Yadav when it was a most hot topic in the country. Mr. Khan did. Also, very thoughtful of him to have raised the issue of "Money parking" in the countries abroad by the rich people of the poor countries. It´s speculated that that point was a last minute addition to his speech, but kudos to him for mentioning this. However, what doesn´t help is the fact that the people now standing on his right and left have had or still have hands in the same gloves.
He made a very strong case for the people of Kashmir. The mention of locked down Jews etc. or even animals, was right on point. I smiled at the mention of film 'Death Wish' 1974 (which I hadn´t known about before this) and the comparison he drew between the protagonist of the film and the Muslim youth etc. from war-torn and bombarded areas and countries. He literally said everything what every Pakistan is wishing since ages that it is said on a stage like this. Kudos to him! Although it must mentioned though that Mr. Khan´s compassion for minorities is very selective, and you expect a good leader to raise himself above the level of bias and selectivity. As the head of the state, he must answer for the treatment of minorities in our country itself, the treatment of Hindus, Christians and also of us Ahmadis. Every other guy walking on the street picks up a fight with one of these and takes refuge in turning this into a religious matter by gathering the blasphemy crowd - and the innocent person belonging to whatever minority is jailed for ages without there being any truth to the allegation. Mr. Khan will have to be held accountable for the way he and his party used the Khatm-e-Nabboowat card in the election campaign, which resulted in one of the very tough phases for Ahmadis in Pakistan - a few were even martyred (one of was Qazi Shaban Ahmad sahib, who´s now survived by his wife, and three daughters suffering from polio!) as a result of the hatred spewed by his party members. The blasphemy crowd is very vigilant you know! With such state of affairs in the country itself, no one is going to take Mr. Khan seriously as far as the rights of minorities are concerned, for as long Pakistan continues to run like this.
The people of Pakistan, myself included, are bitterly disappointed with the role that Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries have played in the whole Kashmir issue. The UAE even handed over an award to Narendra Modi for something hardly days into the usurping of the rights of Kashmiris. The international community has so far, for the most part of it at least, has given this issue a very cold response. However, when you dig deeper into the cause of this, you realise the financial and economical interest that for example the Arab countries have in India. As frustrating as it is, you look at Mr. Khan and his utter silence, his complete lack of interest in the treatment of Muslims in China. When you dig deeper here too, the reason that emerges is the same: Pakistan has financial and economical interest in China and that country is one of the very few cash kine that Pakistan has. So if Pakistan is compelled to stay silent on the treatment of Muslims in China due to these reasons, then where does that leave Pakistan with regards to criticising other Muslim countries? As they say in Urdu, "Iss hamaam mey´n sabhi nanngey hai´n!"
Also, all the talk of the concept of Pakistan being kind of a leader of the Muslim Ummah suffers bit of a blow if you look at the way the country treated Bangladeshi Muslims, who were till then a part of Pakistan mind you. However, no one from amongst our current political was involved in it back then and neither can Mr. Khan be blamed for that. One must look forward, and the state of current affairs stands so that all the talk by India of Kashmir being a part of their country or that Kashmiris are a part of their country is all rendered useless given the way their armed forces are treating the people of Kashmir. If what they´re saying is true, then India has strange standards for treating their own countrymen, or let´s say, Muslim countrymen.
I must clarify though that almost all of my criticism above isn´t solely directed at Mr. Khan, but instead even the leaders from the past - Pakistan in general you could say. However, the praise that I´ve lavished is only and only meant for one man, for he has done what no leader from my memory has done. So it´s like taking the good with the bad in Mr. Khan´s case, whereas in the case of Nawaz Sharif, Zardari etc., it was about, well, taking bad with the bad! The case of them and that of Imran Khan is similar to a man who´s presented two plates on his table: in one is honey and in the other is dirt. Mr. Khan eats both, whereas the leaders mentioned above solely chose, or would choose, the plate with dirt. Here, I must again come back to the point of there being no political leader in the world who can beat Mr. Khan in talks, words, class and the ability to express. However, once the dust settles from all this, we´ll slowly come to remember that all this doesn´t give the poor man his bread, and I suppose something along these lines should be the utmost priority. Lastly, it´ll be very unfair of me if I were to say that Mr. Khan is being lucky here. If I were in his place, I would´ve had many sleepless nights due to the Kashmir issue and also the possibility of an Indo-Pak war breaking out, or at least due the ongoing tension between these countries, as being the Prime Minister of a country like Pakistan you already have enough headache and things to address. Still though, if I may still say this, he´s being somewhat lucky in the sense that all the attention has been diverted from some of the very serious issues that the country is facing even under his government: poverty, sinking economy, the rape and killing cases of minors, the hooliganism of police, or the way Punjab is being run under Chief Minister Usman Buzdar. A lot of the media attention and coverage is given to the Kashmir issue right now, and it is one issue where the whole country´s media stands behind him uncompromisingly. It is a competition running anyway right now between the media of Pakistan and India, as to which of the two licks the feet of its country´s Prime Minister more than the other. The Indian media is clearly winning this though as they´re even licking the boots!
On the speech itself, there was hardly a point which he failed to raise. The climate change of course had to be addressed foremost - I´m not the most knowledgeable person on this topic, so I´d skip commenting on that too much. Moving on, he addressed the point of Islamophobia in the west, the blasphemous content published in the west against the Holy Prophet Muhammad (صل الله عليه وسلم), the impact it has on the sentiment of the common Muslim, the restrictions and also the negative perception of hijab in these countries, and also the perception about the association of terrorism with Islam as a religion. It takes an immensely brave man to point out all the controversial topics, such as there having been suicide bombers in the past amongst the people of religions other than Islam. What I must mention in particular is how again and again he faced up to the USA in their country and reminded them again and again that these militants perceived as terrorists now by the USA were backed, trained and supported by the USA itself during the Afghan-Soviet Union war and were held as mujahideen back then, and as terrorists by the Soviet Union back then. He made sure that he made this point again and again, and it´s a good effort in making these facts reach the common citizen of America. He also admitted the role Pakistan´s own establishment and the ISI played in preparing these terrorists. Very brave of him. He absolutely minced no words, did he?
I´ve only heard about the UN assembly speeches delivered by Sir Zafarullah Khan and Mr. Bhutto and how great they were, it was an absolute honour to witness something similar in my own times as well. It´s a shame really that not only from Pakistan, but also no one from the Muslim world in general over the past decades raised points which Mr. Khan did, points which every Muslim was crying for to be made on a stage and a platform like this. I remember Nawaz Sharif´s speech from 2016 or ´17 I think. Although I don´t hold him as the villain of the century, as many PTI supporters do, but he looked like beggar or something - no offence intended, although it is offensive, I know. Nawaz even failed to mention in his speech the capture of the Indian spy Kalbushan Yadav when it was a most hot topic in the country. Mr. Khan did. Also, very thoughtful of him to have raised the issue of "Money parking" in the countries abroad by the rich people of the poor countries. It´s speculated that that point was a last minute addition to his speech, but kudos to him for mentioning this. However, what doesn´t help is the fact that the people now standing on his right and left have had or still have hands in the same gloves.
He made a very strong case for the people of Kashmir. The mention of locked down Jews etc. or even animals, was right on point. I smiled at the mention of film 'Death Wish' 1974 (which I hadn´t known about before this) and the comparison he drew between the protagonist of the film and the Muslim youth etc. from war-torn and bombarded areas and countries. He literally said everything what every Pakistan is wishing since ages that it is said on a stage like this. Kudos to him! Although it must mentioned though that Mr. Khan´s compassion for minorities is very selective, and you expect a good leader to raise himself above the level of bias and selectivity. As the head of the state, he must answer for the treatment of minorities in our country itself, the treatment of Hindus, Christians and also of us Ahmadis. Every other guy walking on the street picks up a fight with one of these and takes refuge in turning this into a religious matter by gathering the blasphemy crowd - and the innocent person belonging to whatever minority is jailed for ages without there being any truth to the allegation. Mr. Khan will have to be held accountable for the way he and his party used the Khatm-e-Nabboowat card in the election campaign, which resulted in one of the very tough phases for Ahmadis in Pakistan - a few were even martyred (one of was Qazi Shaban Ahmad sahib, who´s now survived by his wife, and three daughters suffering from polio!) as a result of the hatred spewed by his party members. The blasphemy crowd is very vigilant you know! With such state of affairs in the country itself, no one is going to take Mr. Khan seriously as far as the rights of minorities are concerned, for as long Pakistan continues to run like this.
The people of Pakistan, myself included, are bitterly disappointed with the role that Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries have played in the whole Kashmir issue. The UAE even handed over an award to Narendra Modi for something hardly days into the usurping of the rights of Kashmiris. The international community has so far, for the most part of it at least, has given this issue a very cold response. However, when you dig deeper into the cause of this, you realise the financial and economical interest that for example the Arab countries have in India. As frustrating as it is, you look at Mr. Khan and his utter silence, his complete lack of interest in the treatment of Muslims in China. When you dig deeper here too, the reason that emerges is the same: Pakistan has financial and economical interest in China and that country is one of the very few cash kine that Pakistan has. So if Pakistan is compelled to stay silent on the treatment of Muslims in China due to these reasons, then where does that leave Pakistan with regards to criticising other Muslim countries? As they say in Urdu, "Iss hamaam mey´n sabhi nanngey hai´n!"
Also, all the talk of the concept of Pakistan being kind of a leader of the Muslim Ummah suffers bit of a blow if you look at the way the country treated Bangladeshi Muslims, who were till then a part of Pakistan mind you. However, no one from amongst our current political was involved in it back then and neither can Mr. Khan be blamed for that. One must look forward, and the state of current affairs stands so that all the talk by India of Kashmir being a part of their country or that Kashmiris are a part of their country is all rendered useless given the way their armed forces are treating the people of Kashmir. If what they´re saying is true, then India has strange standards for treating their own countrymen, or let´s say, Muslim countrymen.
I must clarify though that almost all of my criticism above isn´t solely directed at Mr. Khan, but instead even the leaders from the past - Pakistan in general you could say. However, the praise that I´ve lavished is only and only meant for one man, for he has done what no leader from my memory has done. So it´s like taking the good with the bad in Mr. Khan´s case, whereas in the case of Nawaz Sharif, Zardari etc., it was about, well, taking bad with the bad! The case of them and that of Imran Khan is similar to a man who´s presented two plates on his table: in one is honey and in the other is dirt. Mr. Khan eats both, whereas the leaders mentioned above solely chose, or would choose, the plate with dirt. Here, I must again come back to the point of there being no political leader in the world who can beat Mr. Khan in talks, words, class and the ability to express. However, once the dust settles from all this, we´ll slowly come to remember that all this doesn´t give the poor man his bread, and I suppose something along these lines should be the utmost priority. Lastly, it´ll be very unfair of me if I were to say that Mr. Khan is being lucky here. If I were in his place, I would´ve had many sleepless nights due to the Kashmir issue and also the possibility of an Indo-Pak war breaking out, or at least due the ongoing tension between these countries, as being the Prime Minister of a country like Pakistan you already have enough headache and things to address. Still though, if I may still say this, he´s being somewhat lucky in the sense that all the attention has been diverted from some of the very serious issues that the country is facing even under his government: poverty, sinking economy, the rape and killing cases of minors, the hooliganism of police, or the way Punjab is being run under Chief Minister Usman Buzdar. A lot of the media attention and coverage is given to the Kashmir issue right now, and it is one issue where the whole country´s media stands behind him uncompromisingly. It is a competition running anyway right now between the media of Pakistan and India, as to which of the two licks the feet of its country´s Prime Minister more than the other. The Indian media is clearly winning this though as they´re even licking the boots!
