Imran Khan's wife Bushra whom some people call Baysharam (shameless) Bushra, has been acting strangely in recent days. Confined to her husband's palace in Bani Gala to serve a jail sentence, she claims that she's being slowly poisoned by her government appointed guards. It was she who persuaded the government into keeping her at the house, as she didn't want to go to jail, but after her jailed party workers protested, she wants to serve her sentence in Adiala jail (where her husband is living in luxurious surroundings). 

The government got her examined by doctors who found nothing physically wrong with her. The day before yesterday, after all her medical reports were found to be normal, she complained of pain in her stomach, so the government again sent three lady physicians who examined her and advised her to change her eating habits. 

I, however, believe that she's trying to fool the government to send her to where her friend Fara Gogi has gone after taking the looted jewelry and cash accumulated by Bushra. Either that, or Bushra is suffering from severe depression, caused by anxiety and worrying that Fara will refuse to hand the looted money back to her. 

I hope the courts don't fall into the trap to let her go. But considering that Imran Khan has so far managed to "convince" senior judges, anything is possible.

 

Going cashless

Monday, Apr 22, 2024

The high crime rate in Karachi and many other parts of the country makes me wonder why people are forced to carry so much cash, even when they know that they can be robbed any minute. It is time for the government to make some rules that help turn the country into a cashless society. One way to do it is to ban the use of cash to make purchases over a certain amount (say Rs5000). Another would be to reward those who pay their bills via cheques or online payments. Unfortunately, some banks charge a fee from those who make online payments. I recently started paying my credit card bill online via my bank account (in a separate bank from the one that issued me the credit card) and I was shocked to find that the receiving bank charges a rupee for every thousand rupees if the payment is made electronically. Needless to say, this encourages one to make payments by cash, and indirectly increases the incidence of street crimes while also helping facilitate white collar crimes such as tax evasion, embezzlement, bribery, and smuggling.

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi

https://e.thenews.com.pk/detail?id=300185

Two recent events have shattered the illusion that the UAE is a modern, efficient state. The first was the Iranian drone and missile attack on Israel, the other was the recent flooding of streets after heavy rains.

After the Iranian strike, flights to and from the UAE were affected. The residents were panic-stricken and spent sleepless nights. In an all-out war between Israel and Iran, the UAE would be the most affected nation, being Iran's close neighbor and having a large population of Iranians. 

The recent heavy rains also proved that the UAE is unprepared for emergencies. Every road and almost every building in the emirates was flooded, with more than knee-deep water everywhere. The country had to close down for three or four days, and Dubai airport is still not fully functional. The Emirates and FlyDubai airlines dumped their passengers in nearby airports and did not give them water or food for many hours. Dubai police also beat up many passengers who protested.

The question arises: will the UAE successfully cope when a war breaks out in the region? I doubt it. At the first landing of a missile in the country, people will rush to airports and the nearest borders, desperately trying to leave the country. 

In 2005 I went to Saudi Arabia for performing Haj with my wife and daughter. We wanted to see the huge cemetery outside Madina where some Muslims had been killed in the early days of Islam, But the Pakistani bus driver prevented my wife and daughter from going there, as Islam didn't allow it. At the gate of the cemetery was a huge signboard with a saying from the Prophet (pbuh) according to which women are allowed to visit graveyards. I went back to the Pakistani bus driver and told him about it. His response was that it was not true and that Arabs don't know the real Islam.

An imam of a mosque in DHA said the other day that women are not allowed to pray in mosques as it is against the teachings of Islam. Apparently he's never been to Saudi Arabia, where women pray in practically every mosque.

I have heard from other deeply religious men that women are responsible for all the world's problems, like floods, earthquakes and other natural disasters. But I can't understand how they have reached such conclusions. Such people are convinced that women should not be allowed to go out of their houses (unless it's absolutely necessary, like rushing to a hospital for delivery of their babies). Until recently, Saudi scholars were propagating that those women driving cars would suffer from all kinds of diseases, including cancer. Which is why women were not allowed to drive cars until recently.

The question remains: why do they hate women so much? 

Finally, Iran retaliated after Israel's killing of its general and others in its embassy in Damascus. It sent three hundred drones and missiles from its own territory to Israel. Bu most of the projectiles were shot down before landing in Israel (the Jordanian Air Force played a major role in this).

But new details emerging after the attack suggest that it was more of a face-saving exercise by Iran (abetted by the US). The fact that Iran informed the US before launching the missiles proves this. As the US (and therefore Israel) knew about the attack just before it happened, they were ready with their anti-missile system and neutralized most of the drones and missiles before any damage could be done. Ironically, the only casualty was a Muslim girl, who was seriously injured. There was some damage to a military base, but it was insignificant.

Did Iran get any benefit from its so-called attack? None, as far as I can discern. But Israel is the real beneficiary. Now the attention of the world has been diverted from Gaza, where Israel can go on killing Palestinian children. As expected, the West criticized Iran severely, even though they said nothing when Israel killed the Iranians in Damascus.

The US and Israel also now know that their anti-missile defense system is near-perfect. It increasingly appears that Iran was trapped by the US into attacking Israel.

 Even though I'm only partially retired (I spend three hours daily at work), most of my time now is spent at home. Fortunately I've always been physically and mentally active, so for me retirement is not the hell it is for most men of my age.

I grew up in a house where everyone spent a lot of time reading. My father was an avid reader who spent a fortune on books, magazines and newspapers. Even after TV came to Pakistan, he never gave up reading. We used to have four morning English newspapers, two Gujarati morning papers, three English and one Gujarati evening papers. Besides all this, he used to subscribe to Readers Digest, Saturday Evening Post, Time and Newsweek, plus two weekly Indian English newspapers. He would also buy novels (Edgar Wallace, Erle Stanley Gardner, Leslie Charteris, Rex Stout and others). Reading all that stuff resulted in my being the most knowledgeable boy in school. 

Now that I am almost retired, my reading habit has proved very useful. I read at least one book every week (some are books written a hundred years ago, others are recent), and I watch movies and dramas on Netflix. I also spend a lot of time walking.

Yesterday at the annual family Eid dinner, I saw how incredibly ignorant my nephews and nieces are. I wanted to tell them to read as much as possible, but they are addicted to video clips sent by their friends through Whattsapp, so their general knowledge is virtually nil. I don't see how they can survive into their old age without succumbing to dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

 

In Zia-ul-Haq's days, it was common for criminals to be sentenced to many lashes, even though it was repugnant. I remember a Memon being sentenced to many lashes (he was a diamond and narcotics smuggler). A relative told me a man is rendered impotent after receiving so many lashes. Another Memon told me that the convict paid a huge amount to be lashed lightly. I saw him many times after he was released, and he seemed in normal health.

After a long time, a man has been sentenced by a woman judge in Karachi to eighty lashes for falsely accusing his wife of committing adultery. This is welcome news, although I doubt if the sentence will be carried out. The man had refused to provide for his wife and baby daughter, claiming that the child was not his, as his wife had bad character and was having extra-marital relations. His wife had got him prosecuted, and he was given the sentence. I think it would have been better if he'd been sentenced to at least five years in jail.  

In another piece of news, a woman was shot dead for marrying against the wishes of her family. This is very common in the country. Even in the twenty first century, Pakistani women are regarded as the properties of their fathers and brothers, who simply can't tolerate their sisters refusing to marry their cousins. 

 

Beyond the tradition

IT is an established Pakistani tradition by now for all losers to cry foul right after general elections. The refusal to accept the election results, of course, is part of the tradition. The tradition stops right here, or at least it used to stop right here. Never before had a losing party appealed to foreigners to interfere in our internal affairs. Even in the massively rigged elections of 2018, the losing parties had not damaged Pakistan’s image by seeking intervention from countries and entities abroad for their own vested interests.

But today, the party that got the largest number of seats in the recent elections is doing its best to hurt the country by seeking help from anyone who in its wisdom can help its cause. First, the party officially wrote to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to demand a forensic investigation into the election results before finalising its programme with the government. Then some of its supporters staged a demonstration outside the IMF headquarters in the United States, demanding that Pakistan should not get a loan.

So, then, what next? Why not ask the IMF or the World Bank to come here, and conduct fresh elections in the country?

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi

April 7, 2024

https://www.dawn.com/news/1826234/beyond-the-tradition

After the letter to the Supreme Court by the six Islamabad High Court judges alleging threats by the intelligence agencies, the plot has thickened. Now judges of the Supreme Court and the Lahore High Court have received threatening letters in envelopes purportedly containing toxic anthrax powder (I won't be surprised if it turns out to be baby powder).

There are many ways to look at this. I think it's obvious that the anthrax-laced letters were sent by Imran Khan's activists to goad the Supreme Court to take suo moto action. The retired judge named to head the Commission to investigate (Tasaddaq Hussain Jilani) was also threatened, so he chose to recuse himself and the Supreme Court was forced to take suo moto action. These are typical antics by supporters of Imran Khan, and I won't be surprised if fingerprints of PTI activists are found on the envelopes (assuming they didn't wipe off the fingerprints before sending the letters).

I may be wrong, and it is possible that someone in the Establishment chose this method to distract public attention and to prolong the case. But I doubt if anyone in the government would do it, particularly when it is on the defensive.

It should be interesting to wait and see how the apex court deals with this sensitive issue. 

When I was not so old (around 65), I thought I would never be pre-occupied by thoughts of death (as some of my older contemporaries were). I would regard them as crackpots, especially those who were worried that they hadn't been as religious as they should have been. They were the ones who suddenly grew long beards and spent most of their time in mosques with other men who also thought they hadn't been religious and should make up for it in their old age.

Now that I'm nearing 80, I too find myself thinking about when I will die and whether it'll be painful. I'm not worried that I didn't pray as much as I should have, but about why I haven't accomplished as much as others who've led useful lives. I regret not having helped people so much and not having made many friends. I'm glad that I didn't start smoking or drinking and led a morally good life (I know some billionaire Memons regard me as very stupid for not collecting more wealth whenever I had the opportunity to steal).

And whenever I hear about some relative or acquaintance dying, I wonder when my turn will come. This month a distant female relative of mine has been found to have cancer, and not a week goes by without the club informing me of the death of another senior member. Every time this happens, I think about when I'll kick the bucket.

So what should I do? If I had enough wealth, I'd help those in need. But I can't do more than donate the obligatory two and a half percent zakat every year. I had plenty of opportunity to take bribes and commissions when I was in charge of construction projects, but I refrained. One of my students (himself a very corrupt man) was amazed that I didn't want to accumulate illicit wealth even though it was within my grasp. My priorities were different, and I was right, as an uncle of mine told me a few months before his death. He had lost most of his illicitly earned money and regretted that he didn't have the wisdom to be content with what he had. He was one of those who had thought I was a fool for being honest.