Prayers in KSA and Prayers in Pakistan

That’s one of things that I just cant stop thinking about. There are lot of positives and negatives on both sides. The best thing about KSA that can be said is here a large number of people offer Salah regularly or at least 4 times a day. Govt has played a major part in this since no shop or market can kept open at prayer times. There is heavy fine on any supermarket that’s not closed at the time of prayers. Although a large number of people offer Salahs regularly, they are not aware of the true meaning of Salat, at least in my opinion. Salat should be viewed by a Muslim as means of establishing direct connection with Allah SubhanWaTalah. Its very common here to run in mosque to somehow get into Rukuh before the Imam gets up. Even if its being done in the true spirit of Salah i.e. not to miss a Rakah rather than doing it because One will have to pray an Extra Rakah, still I believe its against the code of conduct of Mosque. Every Muslim should know how the companions of Holy Prophet (SAW) used to sit in the mosque. It is narrated that We (companions) used to sit in the gathering of Muhammad (SAW) as if we had falcons on our heads and even a slightest bit of movement would lead them fly away! We all should learn from this as to what sort of behavior is allowed in a religious gathering or mosque. In fact, in a Hadeeth, even Holy Quran should be recited in a low voice in the presence of someone offering Salat. That is the importance of Salat. Almost everyday I see a large number looking around during Salat, talking in the mosque, begging in the mosque, running in the mosque. The other thing that really frustrates me over here is that people just have an odd habit of spreading their legs while standing in prayers about twice their own length! And I mean it. Muslims are supposed to be standing in a disciplined queue where there feet and shoulders should be in-line and very close to each other. In fact one of the Hadeeth relates the distance between the feet of the adjacent Salat doers as the distance between their Hearts. No wonder why we Muslims arent united anymore. Not only will it look good but it will save space that is usu. scarce in mosques. And last but not least, it’s almost a custom to cross the praying person. It disturbs Salat doer’s concentration, not only this some people are so careless that they collide with you while passing. Many times have I been left off balance by this. Its not only the Saudis or Arabs, in fact I see more of Banladeshis, Indians do this. I cant recall from my 5 years that I spent in Pakistan a single incident where a person did this. This is Strictly Forbidden in Shariah.

However I do believe the major difference apart from all the carelessness described above, The Saudis and even the foreign inhabitants of KSA are keen to call themselves Muslims unlike in Pakistan where you are not a Muslim but a Barelvi, Ahl-e-Hadees, Deobandi and the list goes on and on… I pray May Allah guide us through these difficult times and lead us to the Right path to real glory and success in this life and hereafter. Ameen

Unfortunate Karachites - Part II

Was the killing of 42 and wounding of 160 others preplanned by one party? Was it a cross firing b/w two parties? We will never know. Courts in Pakistan are not independent and if we call Pakistan a lawless state I think it won’t be exaggeration.

I would like to skip some of the events in between. The CJ started leading rallies in different parts of Pakistan which were being held in his favor. However the major portion of the protests and rallies was occupied by political activists from all different political parties. CJ’s defense lawyer is Mr. Chaudry Aititaz Ahsan, a member of PPP. MMA, Tehreek-e-Insaaf and PML-N were also actively participating in these protests. There can be many questions from an ordinary person over here: Why was Mr. Iftikhar leading the protests like this? Wasn’t this a violation of rights and respectable position of CJ? However, the opposition political party leader Imran Khan was asked Why was this entire judicial crisis being made political? His reply was Had the political parties not interfered and showed their solidarity with CJ, the govt would have crushed the entire matter with force and would have also forced CJ to resign.

However we have to consider, none of these rallies were in the sense political rallies since the CJ addressed the different high courts and Bar Councils at the end of these rallies. From quite an impartial view, I will say after staging very successful protests and rallies in various cities of Pakistan, CJ decided to move to Karachi for his address at Sindh High court. The LC decided that CJ will visit Karachi on 12th May.

This is point where clash was being foreseen because MQM then declared they would also host a rally on 12th May! This was frightening for ordinary people because we all could smell blood in the air. When very high energetic rallies will cross each other at any point, there will be bullets and eventually blood on the street. This is not new for Karachites. They have seen it earlier part. in the 90s. So there were discussions everywhere in the media about the safety concerns. By the way, Saturday is a working day in most of the offices and universities, so there was even a further danger of loss of human life. None of the side changed their programs. The Lawyers were of the view that they had announced the program earlier, so MQM should postpone their rally. However one of the MQM leaders said whenever any party will stage a protest or rally in Khi, their party will counter it. MQM workers were saying that this is not a movement of Independence of Courts (btw, this movement was so-named by the LC and opposition parties) but was rather a political parties hijacked rally and had a political agenda. Many renowned political analysts and political talk-shows comparers that I saw on TV were of the view that its government’s responsibility to ensure peace and they should postpone their
rally. I was well shocked because my question to everyone is “Why does a govt, a
ruling party even need to stage a rally or a protest! Aren’t they in the govt!” Well this is Pakistan’s politics and is beyond a sensible person’s mental grasping abilities.

However what was feared did happen. EIGHT long hours of continuous firing!!! It was like hostile exchange of fire at the border of two hostile countries. If you are foreigner and are reading this, you might wonder where the Police was; But if you are native Pakistani, you might wonder why the Rangers didn’t step in? Well the answer appeared on Kamran Khan Show last night on GEO TV. The IG Sindh said to CJ who was trapped inside the airport that HIS HANDS ARE TIED and he cannot do anything. The local policeman when asked by the news reporters to act to stop firing, they replied “We had been asked to stay inside our offices; The Mgt. told us whatever happened outside will be kept under control by us; Further we were not allowed to bring guns today”; so that day when 42 people died and 160 others wounded, our policeman were seen snoring in few photographs. One of the news channel AAJ's office was under heavy fire by some young gunmen but a/c to them nobody came to their aid. One female reporter was seen crying and pleading for help and blood and corpses could be seen in the background!!!

Sindh High Court was surrounded by unknown terrorists! These Unknown terrorists are also being held responsible for the cross-fire. Actually a/c to news reports, if I can remember these cross-fires only happened when almost major part of opposition rally that was going towards the airport to receive CJ had passed at some point at Shahrah-e-Faisal. However MQM claims that about 11 of its workers were shot dead by these Unknown terrorists.

What happened with Mr. CJ at the airport was also shameful. The poor man had to wait at the airport for about 8 long hours and then had to go back to Isl. Why did he have to wait the airport? Because the opposition parties rally were caught or involved in cross-fire in the city and therefore could not come to greet him at the airport. However this wasn’t the only problem. All the street intersections and some of the places that the opposition parties had to go through had been blocked by buses and heavy-duty trucks that came from nowhere! Since govt says that they did not put them there, were the buses and trucks cursed in some sort of way? Moreover all the routes to airport were blocked!!! STILL a group of MQM workers managed to reach the airport and surround it. Therefore IG Sindh had to go to the airport and did not allow CJ to leave the airport for Security Concerns! However MQM had quite a successful rally and their leader Mr. Altaf Hussain addressed his workers through telephone from London where he resides.

I would like to share a two incidents which I found quite disturbing. Our Federal Govt was also staging another rally this time by PML-Q division in Isl. Nothing unpleasant happened in Isl during the function by Federal Govt. However when firing had been going on for hours and people were dying in Khi, Mr. General President Musharraf did not only address PML-Q’s function but also performed BHANGRA (a form of Punjabi Dance usu. performed as a sign of happiness and joy). Today Mr. Shaukat Aziz, PM of Pakistan, said the terrible events were due to Chief Justice of Pakistan!!! And that he applauds the services of Police and Army Rangers on 12th May!!!

I remember that Sen. George Bush usu. used to end his speech by saying “God bless America”. I think we as Pakistanis must say “May God save Pakistan”.

My 1st post: Unfortunate Karachites

Since this is my first post, so i should introduce myself, write abt some hi-tech stuff or anything that has amazed me over sometime But after what has happened in Karachi on 12th of May, i cannot stop thinking who's the culprit and even more important is the question that will the terrorists who are responsible for killing 41! and wounding 160! other people be ever brought to justice?

Karachi, the former capital of Pakistan, is the economic hub of Pakistan. It produces about 70% revenue of the entire country and is also one of the most largest cities in the World. People from all over the Pakistan reside in Khi, my father himself has been in touch with a lot of businessmen from Punjab and NWFP who do their businesses in Khi. However unfortunately major part of the city is underdeveloped and shabby. Majority of the Karachites are even without the basic necessities of life. Water is scarce in Sindh but specifically in Karachi, its a rare commodity. Karachi suffers from electricity shortage more than any other city in Pakistan. Inflation has made the lives of ordinary people a problem. But these are only some of the problems that Karachites face in their daily life, the biggest one if you ask any Karachite is Security Or lack of Security. There is no police in khi and even if its there, its not there to do its duty. Its there to harass the motorcyclists, the bus drivers and women.

Why did poor innocent 41 men lost their lives on the streets of Karachi? Who is responsible for their martyrdom? I would love to shed some light on the political background of what happened and why it happened. Obviously i am not a politician and in no way affiliated with any political party, so all these views and opinions are impartial and based on my limited knowledge of Pakistan's politics and its attitude over the last few years:

Until March, General Pervaiz Musharraf (GPM) was enjoying his life and his presidentship with all its joys. A typical Army-minded decision changed all this. A petition was filed against the then Chief Justice (CJ) of Pakistan Mr Ifitkhar Chaudry. March 9, 2007 in the morning he was asked by GPM to meet him. He was busy in the proceedings of the court and then after settling the issues in Supreme Court (SC), the CJ went to the Army Camp meet Musharraf. Photos of their meetings were shown on the media. One notorious one showed GPM sitting in Army Uniform with other high rank Generals, all of them as well in Army uniforms, but with CJ visibly in quite a distressed & disturbed mood. This footage set the
Lawyers Community (LC) on Fire. Well a lot of lawyers and previous CJs of Pakistan tried to gather outside the SC but SC's doors were closed by PK Army men! After about 7 hrs the CJ was allowed to leave Army camp and during that time, a new CJ namely Mr. Javaid Iqbal has taken oath!

According to a large number of the former CJs and LCs, there were one major problem with the entire scenario. The problem being this entire change a/c to them was Unconstitutional. They said until the Charges against him are proved true, he cannot be removed from his position. The example that they gave was that if some petition was filed against a serving president, is the president removed from his position even before the proof of charges? There were also a lot of other questions floating in media. A few noticeable ones are:

• What was going on inside the army camp during those seven hours?
• Why did the GPM show such haste in appointing a new CJ, although the next deserving CJ Mr Bhagwandas was on a foreign trip?
• Why were GPM in uniform while talking to CJ? Does he wear the same uniform when he meets Mr. Bush?
• Wasnt he the same justice who had stopped the illegal sale of Steel Mill of Pakistan?
• Wasnt he the same justice who was continuously pressing on the secret agencies of Pakistan part. the ISI to give detailed reports on the whereabouts of the hundreds of Pakistan citizens missing? Many political analysts believe this was the major reason for his disliking amongst govt sectors which finally resulted into his removal
• Btw these pakistani citizens that are about hundreds in number have been missing since a long time specifically after 9/11. Thier families have been crying for years; however Govt. has turned a deaf ear to the pleading poor families. Many people think they are abducted by ISI and then questioned by them or either handed to CIA which are then usu. taken to CIA Torture Prisons operated in Egypt or in Europe. This was confirmed by One AUSTRALIAN MUSLIM who was captured in PK and then handed to CIA, taken to Egypt and..... He told his entire story infront of the Australian parliament at which the Aussie govt strongly protested to the US govt.

Now the opposition parties jumped into the scene. The noticeable ones in the earlier phase were Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), PML-N and Tehreek-e-Insaaf. However still PPP and JUI seemed to be disinterested in what was happening and if we consider what was the political stage at that time, this entire scenario seems pretty clarified. There were rumours everyother day that a deal between PPP and govt was in final stages. The leader of JUI Mr. Fazal-ur-Rehman also was pursuing active interest to form an alliance with the govt. And most important of all both PPP and JUI like the local people of Pakistan considered this event of removal of CJ as just one of the ordinary dirty and unjust political events in Pakistan.

Everybody was taken by surprise. Just in a few days, every LC and every Bar Council of Pakistan had spoken out in favor of removed CJ and not only this they had started protesting. The numbers in their daily protest started to increase. Lawyers all over Pakistan boycotted the court proceedings and demanded that the petition should be taken back immediately. I think the early protests in Punjab and Sindh had only about a few hundred lawyers and then soon the number sprang to thousands which not only involved LCs but also the political party activists from the entire opposition. Now the opposition parties had realized that this is the time they had been waiting for! One of the interesting articles in a british newspaper i read had said the CJ of Pakistan had done what the opposition political parties had failed to do in past 7 yrs! There are claims that a large number of ordinary people also actively participated in these protests, however in my opinion, its just a political statement. At first the govt of Punjab tried to stop this by force but after seeing an alarming increase in the number of protestors, they wisely stayed away from usage of any power. The phone calls to the TV talk shows and articles in newspaper clearly showed that people were on the side of former CJ.

There is one very interesting story that i found out on a private news channel and would like to share it with you. There is one very highly respectable former CJ of PAK namely Mr. Fakharudin Ibrahim. He was hired on the same day by the govt to be their lawyer on the same day when the so-called petition was filed. He says when i went to Islamabad, i was shocked. There were no charges against the removed CJ. He was infuriarated and he immediately refused to act as the federal lawyer!

I would love to write more but its about 2:30 am in the morning, so to be continued...