Scammer on the loose!

There has been a lot of hue and cry about a scam which should have originated from (Nigeria, the) country known to the people of Internet as the country of scammers but tough luck to Nigerians. Unfortunately this scam erupted out from place none other than our own beloved Kingdom. As we know that the scammer was promoted and introduced to the media by a Federal Minister (read seasoned scammer). For those who say that seeing is believing and demo was given in to a TV anchor, I have an analogy which is not something I can share/ write here due my conservative upbringing (but I hope you must have understood what I meant).

I find myself highly thankful to the scammer for proving that AQ Khan (Father of  Islamic Bomb, according to some) has gone gaga. The way he vouched for the scammer and saying that it is possible and the scammer has nailed it, makes me think; is there any nuke in the kingdom or its all rumours. We might have to wait and see about the nuke thing but the watershit fiasco is expected to settle as time takes its toll. Either the scammer will be proved scammer or this issue will die down (i.e. we will forget scammer's deceitful claim). Probability of him succeeding is like one in a million. Meanwhile we need to consider making law, as proposed by Prof. Pervez Hoodbhoy, regarding people who lie to masses on such a massive scale.

Speaking from the technical perspective, if there was juice in the idea of the scammer he could have taken the course followed by most in scientific community. Since the person in question is not an engineer even, so who could have expected him to know that there exists a norm in scientific community to publish ones finding in peer reviewed journals and conferences. After this whole fiasco, all I can pray and hope is that the scammer is proven fraud ASAP so that we can continue living our terror filled peaceful lives in loadshedding. AMEN!

Yet another attempt to lure audience: blasphemy law in Pakistan

Disclaimer: This article is written without any intent to boast about my fundamentalism or liberalism but to tell people about the existence of this blog :-P

Everyone (if not then majority of the readers by now) knows about the murder of Governor Punjab. He was murdered by one of his own guard provided by the government to protect him. As soon as murder was committed people of KoP as ever, were divided into the two (rather three, I must say) school of thoughts. One clan thought Governor asked for it and equated the person who opened fire on Governor with Ghazi Ilm Din Shaheed. Second clan which boasts about itself being secular/ liberal considered that Governor is "the real Martyr". However third gang which includes majority of the people of KoP remain impartial (as per my thought) from core of their hearts but show their inclination towards the killer so that they aren't considered as pro government (which I personally consider a symbol of government failure).

We are no one to amend and this Blasphemy Law by saying that Prophet (PBUH) himself was Rehmat ul Aalmeen but we can always push our so called elected representatives to ensure that the law is not misused against minorities. At present people who say that they will carry on the mission of the late governor to amend the law are living in fool's paradise (yet another humble opinion of mine). They would have been better off had they said that they will try to improve effective enforcement of law in such manner that no one will dare to misuse it. Law enforcement is a big issue in the KoP about which I need not to tell people of KoP. I would recommend the supporters of the killer to vote him as President if they want to save his skin otherwise he will be charged for his deed (noble or not, this is the decision which only Allah will make). From my primitive (naive) knowledge all I know is Allah Himself did not liked the way Abu Lahab and his wife used to behave with Holy Prophet (أبو لهب) and revealed a complete chapter (number 111) in Holy Quran which tells about what Abu Lahab has earned from his deeds. Many Kaafir poets during the preaching period of Holy Prophet created poetry with the sole intent of the Blasphemy of Rehamt ul Aalmeen were shown the passage towards death by pious Sahabas.

To sum it up I can say is that we are no one judge the acts of the killer and the victim (poor Governor said nothing Blasphemous about the Prophet and was against the law only) because power of judgment like ruling is the sole authority of Allah only (bestowed upon the dishonest rulers [this is the opinion of public on street] as [امانت] or at least something like it as I have studied in good old Pakistan Studies). In the end I would like to pray to Allah that HE may have mercy upon us and improve us so that we can have better rulers.

About Kingdom of Pakistan

Disclaimer: I solemnly declare that I have no (red, blue, brown or any colored) passport and consider myself true Pakistani despite all of its shortcomings. This is true patriotism, despite the fact I know shortcomings of my country. Maybe I can post my confessions sometimes later :-P

This post is an explanation from my end to explain why I have named this blog as Kingdom of Pakistan. As per the record the official name of the country is Islamic Republic of Pakistan (اسلامی جمہوریہ پاکستان). However the way things are going in country it is quite ridiculous to consider it either as republic country or Islamic.

When the country was established it was in the mind of the founding father that they are not just struggling for a piece of land but they are searching for a laboratory to practice the Islamic principles. No offence meant but their idea of "laboratory to practice Islam" has allowed some people to experiment with Islam that not only brought bad name to Islam but also to Pakistan. Here I will try to summarize few things as an attempt to justify why I chose Kingdom of Pakistan (KoP) as blog title.

• Pakistan happens to be a democratic which is not democratic at all because democracy is being practiced as revenge and everyone knows who is at receiving end.
• People (aka ministers) who sit in parliament all day to impose taxes upon us don't pay much themselves because they earn from their businesses abroad which makes it tax free.
• People of KoP choose spouse for their kid after thorough background checks but when it comes to cast their vote in election they vote for someone of who is of same caste or has better price for their vote.
• I personally think that it is good that Quaid-e-Azam passed away in 1948. Had he lived few more years he would not have been respected as he is today by everyone.
• Although people of KoP are patriarchal in nature but things have changed a lot since the death of Benazir Bhutto.
• People have not given up yet and are still struggling and praying for the glory of the country.
• Cricket used to be game of gentlemen and so is gambling on cricket.
• I am a proud Pakistani, not because Pakistan is a nuclear power or an Islamic country but due to fact that Pakistan is home to Mr. Abdul Sattar Edhi.

These are some of the political aspects of the KoP and one can write a lot about social aspect as well but better to keep thing terse for reader.

Why do I have little audience?

This is going to be my third post (but you may see only two posts in archive because I am thinking of deleting my first post) to the blog which I started in order render my time spend on web to be at least classified as wastage instead of "sheer wastage". I don't know about other fellow bloggers but I am definitely waiting for time when people will visit my blog frequently and provide me with valuable feedback. So before writing todays post I clicked on the stats tab of the blogger dashboard with a heavy heart.

Upon seeing the statistics which the "Blogger" provides to let you know that how many visitors visit your blog. To my surprise about 15% of the 40 visits (I stunned as I expected something like 5 or 15 visits at max because blogger is not counting mine) to my blog were from outside Pakistan which means I need not swear that these visits were not made by me. My blog has been visited by people (or maybe botnets) from two European countries and US. First of all I would like to thank (I could have said "thank you very much" if they had commented on my blog) the people for visiting the blog. I admit that these statistics have acted like a morale booster for me and are the only reason of new post on my blog. Like any newbie (blogger) I spend my time writing the blog and try to make it attractive so that it catches reader's attention.

To get even more information about visitors I have added a statistical tool from web to see how many visitors I am getting, how long they stay and etc. While typing of statistics a TED Talk blipped in my mind. This talk is quite interesting and is about statistics. The title of this talk was catchy so I had to watch it. For interested people the introduction of the speaker can be found here.

قصہ ایک پیرکا

People of subcontinent in general are quite superstitious. The superstitious nature of the people is quite old. We see in our daily life that lot of people are wearing تعویذ. Some are wearing due to profound belief in the fact that the تعویذ will bring luck to them while others are forced to wear it because someone who care for them (parents, spouse etc.) has arranged it for them. Lot of us hear at some time of our life hear that someone went to some پیرصاحب who happens to be صاحب کرامت and was able to solve a non-trivial problem of some distressed individual. Nature of the problem solved by the پیرصاحب can be either medical, social or spiritual. The پیر along with the aid of his مؤکل is able to help a ساس to divert the attention of her son from his wife(بہو). Some of the پیر go to the extent of claiming remedy to diabetes and other diseases which makes it seem that all the western institutes spending money on the research are nothing but goons. All they need is to sign a MoU with پیر and they are good to have a technology transfer. Some people visit the پیر solely to get the spouse/ love of their own choice and accomplishment of this feat is used as advertising stunt known as (محبوب آپکےقدموں میں). Some پیر claim to have prior knowledge about prize bond draw that which number will win prize.

The place from where پیرصاحب operates is known as آستانہ عالیہ where the distressed people known to پیرصاحب as مرید come for the resolution of their problems. The پیر is working in coordination with a team of assistants who are there to help him to tackle the مریدین which most of the time crowd the آستانہ عالیہ. They (assistants) are known to the مریدین as خلیفہ and are skillful enough to prescribe a تعویذ for مرید. At times مرید insist on meeting the پیرصاحب to get the تعویذ in from him personally. The image of the پیر in mind of his مریدین is something like an angel.

My personal experience of a visit (I solemnly declare, rather swear that I was there just to accompany someone without any intent of meeting پیر because I am not that type of person). As the person has traveled from outstation so he was burning with the desire to meet the پیر personally instead of getting getting prescription from خلیفہ. On his turn he moved near the پیر and told him the problem. As I was seeing from the distance so I could not hear the response of the پیر . Anyway after achieving for what he has come for I asked the gentleman about response/ solution he got from پیر . He told to me that "پیرصاحب نےدعاکردی ہے" and he doesn't speaks too much because he is busy with درودوسلام despite the fact پیرصاحب frequently issue بیان regarding the problems face by the امت مسلمہ in a daily newspaper (of good repute). I was looking at the gentleman and thinking in my mind about his mental health.

Few questions which came to my mind and I hope and pray that they arise in the mind of مریدین as well. Why is the پیر behaving entirely different in front of his مریدین who offer him نذرانہ and do his biddings? If he is "The Saint" then why is there a need to get his point of view published in the newspaper? Isn't it unfair on his part to act like a person with split personality disorder? Why do the people still seek his help despite the previous mentioned fact?