by Shoaib Bakhtyar

Once in a village there was a thief who used to steal shroud from every newly buried dead person. The people of that village could not succeed in capturing that thief neither do they knew who he was? But whenever the thief committed an act of stealing the shroud, the people used to curse him the very next day. One day that thief saw his death near and so he called upon his son and advised him that "my son, I have lived a disgraceful life and now I think I am going to die but before death takes me away I would like you to do me a favour. My son, please try to improve my image after my death and earn me some respect"¦" after saying these words that thief passed away. Immediately after his father death, the thief's son started the very same business that his father used to do but with a little change. The change was that after taking the shroud away he would humiliate the dead body too. When the people of that village came to knew that their beloved's bodies are being humiliated they cursed the thief in such words "The earlier thief was good he only used to take away the shrouds but this thief is very inhuman as he not only takes away the shrouds but also humiliates the dead bodies."

If the same story is applied to Pakistan, we saw the day when Nawaz sharif's government was overthrown and our people celebrated that act. Later however the people did not agreed with the policies of Mr. Musharraf. On the other occasion when PPPP won the elections and came into power rather than PML-Q the very same citizens of Pakistan celebrated this act too. And now the same people of Pakistan are cursing Mr. Zardari. Mr. Zardari on one hand is decreasing the popularity of his party PPPP while on the other hand he is improving the image of the former dictator by committing acts which are more severe than those committed by Mr. Musharraf. In my opinion the Pakistan army is supporting Mr. Zardari because he is unaware of the fact that he is washing dirt from their image and that day is not far when the innocent people of Pakistan will forget the acts committed by an Ex-
army chief.

I am a Pashtun here in Sweden and live within a community that is a Pashtun majority and we belong to the very same NWFP province where the so called militancy by the Zardari team is an immense threat to the local residents. In our opinion Mr. Musharraf bargained on South Waziristan and Bajaur while the Zardari team is busy in selling other parts of our beloved NWFP to Americans. But that does not come to an end here, if the government of
Pakistan is dissolved and another major political party comes into power, we expect the same from them too. May Allah does not show us that day when either the fire of NWFP has effects on Punjab or Sindh or the province of NWFP is an independent state itself. Worst politicians are of two types, one who are absolutely corrupt and, secondly one who are short sighted. The worst of them is the one who are both corrupt and short sighted because
of the fact that they take bribes but do not have any idea what they are going to pay in the future for the incentives they are getting? We don't know exactly in which category the current government should be placed but one thing is for sure and that is of short sightlessness. It is their short sightlessness by not realizing the fact that a Pashtun fears dishonour more than his death. In a Pashtun society it is considered really disgraceful if any
of the female family members is seen without a veil yet the present government is forcing these proud people to flee their decades old houses and live in camps where the life for them is not only disgraceful as well as miserable due to shortage of resources. The life in these camps may be possible to live for a month or two but if the duration gets longer then most probably the young blood from these camps will fight against the government not for
Taliban but for their family honour.

I was delighted to hear that our respected Prime minister has announced Rs. 1 billion for the displaced persons of NWFP. The same day I saw in the news that according to U.N there are some 1 million displaced persons. When I calculated the amount of money each displaced person will get I got the result equals to Rs. 1000 only and suddenly my delighted mood changed into a sad one. Is this a joke?? You are requesting a proud Pashtun to leave his ancestral house and live in a disgraceful manner in a camp where the resources are too short to meet his needs and in return you are offering him Rs. 1000.

Our atomic bomb was made so that we can live in peace, but unfortunately due to the inefficiency of our politicians, the atom bomb is at peace while we are not. It is a moment of shame for the civilian government as well as the Pakistan army that they are killing and dishonouring their own people just to get economic incentives and protect or nukes from the Americans. I am not saying that we should surrender to Taliban or we should surrender
our nukes to any other country but for a country to exist in honour it must be sovereign enough which in the case of Pakistan is not.

Best regards,

Shoaib Bakhtyar
M.S in Computer Science
Blekinge Institute of Technology
Ronneby, Sweden.