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?