News: Pakistan tests it long-range missile, Shaheen II aka Hatf VI. Following details are from Dawn:
"Sources said Shaheen-II "is described as two-stage, solid fuel 2000-2500 kilometre range missile" capable of carrying 1,000kg payload. Pakistan flight-tested solid-fuelled Abdali (Hatf-2) and Ghaznavi (Hatf-3) missiles, as well as liquid-fuelled Ghauri (Hatf-5) missile in May 2002. The Shaheen-I (Hatf-4) solid-fuelled missile was flown in October 2002 and the Abdali missile again in March 2003. In October 2003, Pakistan launched another series of tests in which it flight-tested the Ghaznavi and Shaheen-I missiles again."

The News mentioned it in the following manner:
"Pakistan on Tuesday successfully test-fired long-range surface-to-surface two-stage ballistic missile Hatf-VI (Shaheen-II), bringing entire India within its striking range....Indigenously-developed Shaheen-II missile can carry all types of warheads up to 2,500 kilometres. The range of the missile can be enhanced, and some more tests of this highly-sophisticated missile will be carried out in the future."



Sorry for the delay, but I am doing some research before publishing my next post. Please stay. Comments on the past posts will be appreciated.

So last week one person asked me why do I believe that Pakistan is on its path to self-destruction. I told him that either I have gone crazy or every person I talk to on this issue is blind. Blind by the so-called prospering economy, technological advancements, better relations with our neighbors (specially India and Afghanistan) and our developing friendship with the U.S. We will call this person Mr. P. So Mr. P told me that Pakistan's economy is going up and doing better than it was in the past. My answer: "Are we still mass-producing our own cars, I mean our own pure Pakistani car? NO. Are we mass-producing our own jet-fighters? NO. Are we even making a pure Pakistani TV? NO. Lets forget TVs, is the poor is doing better that he was doing in the past? May be he used to sleep on the foot-path in the past, but now he sleeps on a bench in a park. A park that was recently made so that rich people can go for jogging in them. And sometimes they even have gaurds watching out the park. So having a park is a sign of us prospering!"

Mr. P: "Okay, aren't we making our own tanks and long- and short-range missiles? Atleast we are technologically advance today than yesterday."

Me: "Yes. We are making these tanks because China helped us. We now produce our own missiles, but I should thank Korea for their help. We believe we made these because we want to believe. Was U.S. building jets and air-craft carriers with the help of France, England or any other nation in World War I or II? Have we ever come up with any of our own theorems. I don't see any theorems named after any Pakistani. We have not been be able to design any sort of new technology that will revolutionize the world, although Indian scientists are discovering new stuff almost everyday. No doubt, we did that in the past. There were great mathematicians, chemists (Dr. Salimumzaman), physicts (Dr. Abdul-Qadeer), biologists, etc. who did revolutionize the world in some way. But we are so proud of them that now we don't even bother to try to come up with something new."

Mr. P: "Why do you hate Pakistan?"

Me: "I hate Pakistan! No, I don't hate Pakistan, I actually love Pakistan. Yes I do hate majority of people who live in Pakistan. I don't hate the pakistani people. There is a difference. Pakistani people are proud of Pakistan but majority of people who live in Pakistan are Muhajjir, Sindhi, Punjabi, Pushtoon, Siraiki, Pathan, Balooch, Kashmiri, etc. I don't understand why they still have such affiliations. In 1947, we were suppose to forget all these affliations and become one nation. But in the past 55 years, instead of uniting, we have become more divided. Now we are divided because you are a shi'ia and I am a sunni. We need to wake up from our sweet dreams of our glorious past and face the present world. We are so divided amongst ourselves that when the government tried to shutdown Indian channels on cable networks in Pakistan, almost every cable network went on strike. Why? Because, we have become a dead nation now."

Mr. P: "Ohhh come one. Stop it already. You are telling me I am not a proud pakistani because I am Sindhi, and we are a dead nation. I don't believe you."

Me: "Aren't we a dead nation? We are not asked but ordered by the U.S. Why is that? Because we have stopped respecting ourselves. We went and begged president Clinton to stop in Pakistan for 3 hours because he spent a week in India. We wanted to him to balance his view of both India-Pakistan conflict, but by begging him to come to Pakistan we lost the self-respect ourselves. What was the point of having him in Pakistan for 3 hours or so when he wasn't even prepared for the trip. We are dead nation, because we prosecute our own scientists because the world power told us to do so. We do as we are told do so, without thinking of it ourselves. arent we dead?"

"Recently, president Musharaf said that we must fight religious extremism and fundamentalism in Pakistan because that is the goal of the International Coalition," I continued, " My question for president Musharaf is, has he ever stopped for 30 secs and think who defined the term Islamic extremism and fundamentalism. Do we have an active debate or research going on which actually draws a line between this so-called Islamic Fundamentalism/Extremism and just being religious.Again we are doing what we are told to do, because we are a dead nation."

Mr. P: "Well, then its the governments fault, not the nations. Why are you blaming the whole nation?"

Me: "Because has anyone tried to make the government do the research? Has the public or the private sector has started its own research on similar grounds. No. Even people in pakistan are afraid to call religious scholar to tutor their kids, because the same religous scholar might be a member of Taliban or worse Al-Qaida. We gained independence from the British empire and India in 1947, but now we still proudly wear jeans, speak in our amreekan accent, goto pizza hut, drink a coke and watch an Indian movie every night and listen to Indian songs in our cars and buses. God, we even speak hindi words, without even realizing what we are speaking, and you don't want me to call us a dead nation. Go for a drive through Karachi, or any major city in Pakistan, and look at the advertisments, shop signs, road signs, etc. Ninty-nine percent of shop signs contain atleast one word of english, e.g. 'AbdulHameed clath shap', 'Qadri Juice services', 'Muneer Kitab-ghar aand stationary shap', 'Junaid's Fride Chiken and snakes', ' Al-Ashrafiya Madrassah and Trust'. Please tell me I not telling the truth. I would like to know that I am dreaming and wrong. After your trip, go watch the Indian Channel 'Aaj Taak' on your cable network and tell me if you see anything in english? Its a pure Hindi channel and very popular amongst Indians, because they are proud of what they are, unlike us, who are ashmed to be pakistani and sometimes even more ashmed of being a muslim. Aren't we a dead nation, Mr. P?"

Mr. P: "What is your political affiliation?"

Me: "I do not affiliate myself with any political party. I hate Nawaz Sharif as much as I hate Benazir Bhutto. I hate Altaf Hussain as mush as I hate Musharaf. I hate all of them because they all believed in divide-and-rule policy. Mr. Musharaf has new plan though. I really liked him and his enthusiasm in the beginnning. But now I have learnt that instead of dividing us, he has a new policy. He believes that if we paint this false image of prosperity and make people feel happy by involving them into music and other worldly matters, then we can rule easily. But this comes at the expense of self-respect and loss of cultural, traditional and religious values."


... to be continued!

I will be posting my apoligies from time to time. I am not a good writer. I am not a good speaker either. But I am good at talking. I can talk and argue and try to make my point clear. I am more like a teacher who likes to argue with his students. I never was a good speaker or a leader. I am even worse at writing. But this is the only medium that is feasible and easier for me and widely read by people all over the world. Please feel free to ask any questions because I am sure my writings are very in-coherent, non-clear and confusing at times. Thats why I have a comment box also. Thanks for reading my blog.

So I turn the TV on and switch to Prime TV. It displays in big bold letters "Prime TV: Takes you home". Hmmm.... home, its been while I have been to HOME! This should be fun! Lets watch Prime TV. Next thing on is a song by Ali Zafar. Okay since I haven't been to HOME, lets listen to Ali Zafar and see what HOME 'sounds' like now. To my surprise, HOME sounds alot different and it even looks alot different! "Ahh, nothing has changed", I am thinking, "I have grown old now." After all, times change and people also change. Then there is another song. Then another song, another song, another song... it goes on until it is 8:00 pm CST. Then there was khabarnama. I said, "Wow, they still show khabarnama!" After 20 minutes of Khabarnama, there WERE MORE SONGS! Have I grown too old? I never knew that after I left HOME, things changed so rapidly that people back HOME are having the best times of their lives. They seem happy, singing, dancing, and jumping around. Asking stupid questions on the road and calling it "Road Trivia". Wow, things must be going really well back HOME. Economy must be doing great, people are getting wealthy, poor people are getting their basic needs fulfilled and orphans don't sleep on a foot-path after trying to beg some money! Wow, may be I should go back HOME. So much prosperity. But I must do mention, when my HOM-IES ( :o)) are celebrating, they don't forget the Adhan. They announce the Adhan times regularly on Prime TV, though they start the songs right after they are done announcing about Adhan. So my HOM-IES are still religious, I mean kinda religious, but I guess thats okay. As long as they are prosperous.
So now we have the latest technologies at HOME. Every person has cell-phone, a good TV, with a good cable connection. And they pay Rs. 500-800 a month for this cable connection which includes 48 Indian Channels, 1 CNN, and 1 BBC. On those 48 Indian Channels, all we hear and see is what happened to Sas when the bahoo was dieing. Then 2 indian movies a day on each Indian channel. Now thats a good deal. Two indian movies everyday! And the rate they make Indian movies in bollywood, I am sure if my HOM-IES watched two Indian Movies everyday for the rest of their lives, there would still be a whole lot left as unseen. Then every kid and teenager is glued to the TV, because "its a good family (indian) movie." Then this teenager goes to school next day to tell his friends, what happened in the movie last night and he is looking forward to the new movie of Jaa-rukh Khan. "Man, you should see Jaa-rukh in Angoor bana Langoor. He looks so amazing! I am thinking about getting the same shoes as Jaa-rukh is wearing in this movie." So this teenager is telling his friends about Angoor bana Langoor, when his cell-phone rings and He is delighted to find out that his girl-friend, Zalima, has called and she is ready to watch Angoor bana Langoor at his place this weekend. But then again its okay, because HOME is prospering.
This teenager tells Zalima:"Yaar, tum meri baat ka 'wishwas' karo, main Angoor bana Langoor do ghantay pehlay la kay rakh doon ga"
Zalima: "Okay my Jaa-rukh, main tumhari baat ka wishwas kerti hoon. Acha why don't we skip school tomorrow and go to Pizza Hut?"
Teenager: "Sure, sounds like a good plan!"
But again, its all good, as long as the HOME is prospering.


Ahhh, this is getting long now. But I guess you are getting the idea where I am going. The bottom line: we must sacrifice everything, including religious, cultural and traditional values, as long as the HOME is prospering! I will let you be the judge of whether this is right or wrong!

This is just a beginning. Yes, I am here to point fingers and raise the changing cultural values. I am a proud Pakistani and a more proud Muslim and I never doubted myself, but I must speak the truth to open the eyes of my own HOM-IES. Please comment.

So I am suppose to let my thought flow. My thoughts- which I believe will wake up Pakistan and its people. Will I be able to do so? May be I will be able to wake up a few people. But is that acceptable? I don't know. But I will atleast try. Then people will call me unpatriotic. Am I unpatriotic? Just because I say the ugly truth. But I believe it is my responsiblitiy to start the process. God please help me and give me the strength to speak the Truth!