Seven decades of political history of watan-e-aziz can be
summed up in one computer language command, “Control,
Alt + Repeat”! The ishara should be enough for every
akalmand. For others who have still not understood, they
never will. As my late boss and mentor Sheikh Sajjad Hassan
would often say to me, “Bacheyaa, jinoon° odaa abaa nai
samjha sakya, onoon° toun° te maen° nai samjha sakdey”.
The irony is that the majority of abaas themselves did not
understand what was going on otherwise we would not have
been in this mess in the first place.
Someone coined the expression “siyasat ibadat hoti hai.”
Whoever authored this cliché obviously did not meet very
many of our current God fearing siyasatdaans and engine
room fauji jurnaels. If it ever was ibabdat in the past, it is
an insult to call it so in present times. Far from it, politics is
now exclusively a karobaar and a hugely beneficial one at
that, run and managed by the ibadat guzaars. But to be
brutally honest, mazhub and ibaadat both themselves are
now very “soodmund karobaars”. They have come to be
used as a safe sanctuary by most crooks in the land,
somewhat like the previously called kabaeli ilakajaat. Once inside a holy
persona or cloak, the imposter makes himself almost totally
insulated from outside attacks on him. Any comment on him
becomes a comment on deen and mazhab. Reminds me of a
Lahori joke on this theme.
A proud Lahori boards a train. Notices there is only one
more passenger in that compartment. Always ready for a
conversation he decides to first fit his suitcase on the
allocated high shelf before conversation gets underway. As
he settles down in his seat, the other passenger breaks the
ice before him. “Janaab tussi kithay de rahn waley o?” A
dream start to any conversation with a Lahori. Blowing up
his chest he announces with pride “Phaijaan, mein Lahori
aan”. He then gets a shocking response from his copassenger;
“Maaf karnaan janaab, wasey Lahori hoondey
barey **** **** nein”! This wasn’t what his Lahori ego was
expecting in return. Dying to get level, he enquires, “Tussi
kithay de rehn waley o?” Very disdainfully and with an air
of assured arrogance like “kar lao jo karna ae” the man
responds “Mein Madinay shareef paida huya si”.
That for the respondent was a no-go area with its holy
impregnable defence. The Lahori on the other hand having
already taken one extremely painful blow to his ego could
never have lived with two in a row. Mulling over his
predicament and options for a while he then delivered his
response. “Mein hisaab laya ae. Yaar toun bara hi
bachyain° ain. Khuda di kasam, jay toun ik meel wi uray
paida ho janda te mein teri * si”!
To be able to deal with this kind, one has to get religion users in politics at
least one mile or “ik meel” outside their holy bunkers. Beards, taswee, surma,
white toopies are their etc ae popular and fashionable salesmanship tools or symbols!