Chowrangi

Many of us are still in a state of shock over the guilty verdict returned on Dr Aafia Siddiqui.

The response from the people of Pakistan was predictable and overwhelming and I salute their spontaneous actions.

From Peshawar to Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore and beyond they marched in their thousands demanding the return of Aafia.

Even some of the US media expressed discomfort over the verdict returned by the jurors … there was a general feeling that something was not right.

Everyone had something to say, everyone that is except the usually verbose US Ambassador Anne Patterson who has spent the last two years briefing against Dr Aafia and her supporters.

The twin blasts that rocked Karachi yesterday, claiming 25 lives, destroying Jinnah Hospital’s emergency section, shattering self confidence and sense of security of hundreds, were another installment of the compensation that Pakistan is receiving for playing its part in American War on Terror.

People of Karachi have not yet recovered from the wave of destruction that passed 40 days back. We are still unaware of who did the Ashura Blast and the arson that followed it. Who are real culprits, the master-minds, who gave instructions to the youth who professionally torched and looted buildings, as captured on the CCTV footage.

It was around 1am in Pakistan while may be 2pm down in New York, but for one woman, her family and her children it was all over. The jury based on no fact handed down “guilty” verdict to Dr Aafia Siddiqui, linking her to all the 7 charges filed against her. Shock, ashamed and broken it took me nearly 10 hours to sit down and write something, because all along the way through Chowrangi and other forums, we all in vain begged the US public to open their eyes and save themselves from a disgrace like this but like many other facts, its evident that they have chosen for themselves the inheritance of “wild Viking or Mongols”.

Aafia Siddiqui, called ‘Laday Al-Qaeda’ by American media, has finally been convicted for attempted murder of Americans and may be sentenced for up to 60 years. Ironically, she was not charged for terrorism.

In 2003, Dr. Aafia, along with her 3 children, went missing in Karachi. In 2008, British journalist Yvonne Ridley hinted about presence of Aafia Siddiqui at United States run Bagram Airbase detention facility in Afghanistan.

The Foreign Office of Pakistan, as usual, denied knowledge of the alleged detention of a Pakistani woman at Bagram Airbase and said that the allegation would be looked into.

Almost all the cellular companies in Pakistan are offering attractive late night call packages that are quite popular perhaps for the reason that they are easy on the pocket. One of the reasons of fame for such packages is that they help people in making nationwide calls and talk with relatives or friends for hours and hours easily. On the other hand cell phones nowadays have become fashion statement and symbol of independence for our youth that mobile phone helps them to develop their own language and social groups away from the snooping eyes of their parents. It is privacy and not mobility that matters.

In “secular” India, 1,747 tribal Christians were recently re-converted to Hinduism. As reported in the Times of India, “The camp to reconvert tribals, who had embraced Christianity was held in the city for the first time and nearly 5,000 people from Maharashtra and Gujarat participated in the ceremony.”

Events like these are unique to modern India where many in the vast Hindu majority (80 percent of the population) cannot digest the fact that people want to convert to other religions (despite the professed secularism of the country’s constitution).

Love it or hate it, the magical hand which seemed to be backing the Sharif duo has some how disappeared. No one else is to be blamed than Mr Sharif himself and it is rightly said that “time and tide wait for none”. His shyness from taking active role and playing like a sissy infront of the President in the name of democracy has already served us nothing.

Just last month, James Anderson and Stuart Broad were caught ball tampering in a test match in Cape Town. Let alone any action taken against them, even an inquiry wasn’t held. The ICC, which is very quick to hand out bans to Pakistani cricketers actually said, “With play on day four of the match having resumed, the deadline for submission of such notification has now passed.” Talk about double standards! However, former Captain Michael Vaughan was spot on, having said, “England have been caught and we have to hold our hands up. They were thinking they were smart but they’ve been very silly… What would we say if it was Pakistan?” Sunday Times’ Simon Wilde was equally honest, having said, “There was enough in the footage to suggest that an inquiry was worth making and if the bowlers in question had been Pakistani you could bet that most opponents would have been asking directions to the referee’s room.”

What on earth will be more embarrassing for the cricket loving nation than this? Shahid Afridi has been caught by TV camera suspect as tampering the ball by biting it with his teeth in the dramatic fifth and final ODI at the WACA Ground in Perth. Television cameras caught the captain taking two vigorous bites along the seam of the ball at the end of the 40th over. The ball was immediately examined by the umpires and replaced. One of the more bizarre incidents to have been witnessed in international cricket which no one wants to watch again.

When I ran a salt factory, I would always wonder why my illiterate workers would advise me to sacrifice a goat whenever business was bad. And it was no use trying to convince them that there was no connection between the killing of an animal and market forces. And even after we had killed the goat and distributed its meat, nothing would come out of it. The business would recover only after stocks in the market ran out.

But why does the President of Pakistan have to regularly sacrifice black goats to strengthen his position? He at least is not illiterate. And why should it be a black goat?