Hopefully May’s mayhem is over

these protests, and there must be people working for outside forces who knew about the course of action, and they might have played the part which has been condemned by Pakistanis one and all

The other aspect which is fast coming up in debates, and arguments is where were our CIA, police and other other intelligence agencies, when this crowd was proceeding towards the Cantonment area? An area which is a sensitive one too, where vehicles are checked thoroughly before entering, the house of the Corps Commander, if it was to be the major target, why more police could not reach his house- after all the Saddar police station is five minutes away?

Was this a surprise element of the protest or negligence?

AFTER May 9 I visited the Lahore corps commander s house on the old Wellington road now renamed Tufail Road a house once liked enough by Mohammad Ali Jinnah to buy it in 1943 from Mohan Lal Bashin but which he could could not live in Although his representatives Sir Maratib Al father of Babar Ali of Packages fame were paid in full by in 1959 the desecration of the house known as Jinnah House and residence of the Corps commander, by miscreants, hooligans, and I dare say enemies of the State, violently destroyed the premises, so that it looked as though they had a personal score to settle with Army property, the same as they performed outside the GHQ in Rawalpindi, then the building of Radio Pakistan While all this was happening and Indian media was speculating about a civil war, the rest of the world was speaking on the violations of human rights

But let s examine why all this, as we have seen such scenes in 1977 and 1983, but this protest was extraordinary Naturally all fingers pointed towards the protesting party, it was indeed their party

We must salute our jawans who did not fire on the civilians despite serious provocation, and they never will, but that does not mean anyone has to put them to the ultimate test.

We must as citizens understand we have two simple choices, Convention or Anarchy The former is the order of the day, while the latter will not succeed

In such events there are usually adverse forces who play a major role, on a perfectly set up platform; needless to add it s the perfect recipe for saboteurs and fifth columnists to wake up their sleeper cells and join the mayhem, which was unacceptable and must not go unpunished It is unthinkable that a Pakistani would do what has been done, and that to pointing towards the defenders of the realm and faith, my suspicions are there was a master plan of all

This house represents the armed forces as well as Pakistan in an iconic way, but the irony is the political parties who have in the past with their checkered history, took to supporting the Army They should, but they made a hash of the whole affair, and the language they used overall was not democratic It seemed they wanted the support of the Army by coming out with such venomous hate speech There is an investigation going on, and the COAS has made it very clear to his officers and jawans as well the nation, no miscreant or anti- state elements will be spared Politicos also must understand they must not play with this sensitive time for their own gains It will not work in the bigger picture of the state, and they all must remember our motto will be Pakistan First Once a deep indepth investigation is completed, heads have to roll, so the parties should hold their horses and not create a wedge amongst the people These poisonous statements do not do any justice, and everyone has come down heavily on this episode, and for everyone’s sake hopefully it will not happen again

To continually repeat all these clichés undermines our ability, and gives food for thought to our adversaries Having come back from abroad there is enough bitterness outside amongst the expatriates, and they need to be reassured though our embassies’ spokespeople to calm them down, these words that our army installations have been under attack, that’s not correct, no one should even dream of such dreams, indeed our administrative which are otherwise anachronistic– not related to the age Pakistan is passing through In 2023, punishing civilians through military courts is a ridiculous idea Even the presence of military courts for trying civilians is absurd, not acceptable to human rights groups present locally or abroad For addressing the wrong done on May 9, the better idea is to establish special magistrate courts which would punish the culprits for the violation of Sec-

Retrospectively, in the events of May 25, 2022, a prelude to May 9 was present On May 25 2022 responding to the Azadi March call PTI workers set on fire trees in Islamabad’s Blue Area The “likeminded bench of the Supreme Court disregarded the torching event by saying that this might be a strategy of PTI workers to dampen down the smoke of tear gas fired by the police Pardon from state functionaries remained the prime nudge to bring the PTI workers to carry out May 9 Who can hold the like-minded bench answerable is yet to be seen

The writer can be reached at qaisarrashid@yahoo com

E d i t o r ’ s m a i l

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Is this development or destruction?

IT has now become a sort of trend for people belonging to metropolitan areas to move to the northern areas, or at least have a second home there, because the ‘mountains are calling’ While there is nothing particularly wrong with the trend, somehow the intention of moving to mountains transforms into a business opportunity for many

These enlightened souls with money and ‘exposure’ invest in land and establish only hotels Because, you know, that is the only way to help the local community Somehow, that dream of living the isolated life and giving back to the nature turns into an establishment with rooms and room services Last year, I had the privilege of speaking to a young metropolitan a Christopher McCandless-turned-Donald Trump who has established a huge hotel in Hunza, and is expanding it aggressively He did not want to leave out even an inch of space for making money out of the famous ‘Attabad View’ It seems that the lake itself is receding because of such exploitation, as if it has had enough buildings and official residences have been vandalized but as for military installations even India has not been able to pull this off let alone anyone else But I must salute our jawans who did not fire on the civilians despite serious provocation and they never will but that does not mean anyone has to put them to the ultimate test We must as citizens understand we have two simple choices Convention or Anarchy The former is the order of the day while the latter will not succeed

On another note the G20 conference has been held in Srinagar a disputed area which has seen loss of lives on both sides of the border due to India s lack of dialogue This will not speak highly of the United Nations for how can its members participate in a conference in Kashmir where pregnant women have been bayoneted and raped mass graves discovered where people live in inhuman and brutally forced conditions with complete violations of all human rights forced marriages subhuman treatment of political prisoners pellets being fired upon them and to top it all India does not even want the UN peacekeeping force do their job let alone even being there Pakistan s Foreign Office has maintained its long-standing stance on this longest surviving political dispute in the history of the contemporary world but the Muslim Ummah for what it stands for has been a great letdown on Kashmir and Palestine Indeed the Muslim countries have their own interests and so be it but can they not be more forceful where their fellow Muslim brothers and sisters or even forget that humans are going through the worst tyranny humanity has seen in this day and age?

I propose a giant rally of all parties in all cities of the country let s show the world our principled stand on the right of self-determination and respect for human rights It s all too easy to criticize Pakistan but do spare a moment out of the Indian propaganda and take a peek,try to speak to people in Srinagar, try going to other areas, they will give you the usual security Bull manure

The lake is only a decade old, but instead of understanding the event of its birth which was a calamity, if you remember the lake’s growth and its mood, the mountain-loving businessmen grabbed every opportunity to feast on its beauty without learning anything from its creation The person concerned ended up creating a social divide which is as sharp as is the environmental divide

The man-with-dreams said he planned to buy more land, build more infrastructure, and to develop a society of sorts Though on a small scale, a niche property for the privileged He was a real estate tycoon in the making I say ‘in the making’ because had he been an established hardcore tycoon, he would have established a lavish ‘town’ in Hunza already even if he had to take one of the Passu Cones down, and one in Skardu, with Upper Kachura Lake in the middle, and one in Chitral, which will of course have a polo ground of its own, and, indeed, one in Gwadar, right next to the serene blue beach This would have happened simply because natural landscape and features naturally belong to the nature-loving enthusiasts of the country the ones with lots of money

But, frankly, our little tycoon in not the only one for whom empathy is a word that exists in dictionaries only We are a society wherein decision makers would have the audacity to even plan to demolish Lahore’s famous historical monument of Chauburji that was apparently coming in the way of the Orange Line Metro Train, or to dig away the Ardi Mountains at Kirthar National Park to expand lavish housing colonies, or to build infrastructure on precious agricultural land

That being so, it is unfair to expect tycoons in the private sector to understand that growth and infrastructure that revolve around erecting buildings only displace local communities, while traditional neighbourhoods vanish and the true identity of a place is lost We lack empathy and planning, especially at Grade 20 and above, and the tourism sector is no exception I wonder why it is so difficult to compre- hend that ‘development’ and creating tourism opportunities do not necessarily mean ‘construction activity’ Azad Kashmir, Baltistan, Chitral, Gwadar, Thar and all such areas are losing the essence of native communities, folk wisdom and, indeed, cultural heritage Our business tycoons continue to usurp Pakistan’s valuable land, gradually gnawing away layers of local environment and lifestyles Occasionally on my travels when I tread on a terrain that is rough and unpaved, it is a moment of utter delight as that evidently suggests the lack of such opportunists reaching the remote regions Cities grow and infrastructure is needed, but is it necessary to do it at the cost of natural landscape and cultural heritage?

While the world is making efforts trying to go back to its roots, we are bent on completely eradicating ours We are getting obsessed with the idea of rapid construction; and in the process the essence of commu-nities, folk wisdom and cultural heritage is losing its importance This is another step back for a country like Pakistan which has rich cultural and traditional roots Considering the pace at which we are ‘developing’ Pakistan, we could perhaps change its name to the ‘Islamic Republic of Housing Societies of Pakistan’