Sabeen Mehmud's Murder

Sabeen Mehmud’s Murder

Sitting at dinner I heard T2F’s owner Sabeen Mehmud has been gunned down in Karachi after hosting a discussion on #UnsilencingBaluchistan; Sabeen had offered to host the Talk which had been recently banned at LUMS. A talk. A discussion. & She was killed.

Shocked and unsurprised many of us carried on. Naturally the remainder of the evening went by uncomfortably but carried on we did.

Several missed calls from my sister, Sabeen’s fellow mate at Kinnaird, this skin crawling feeling grew. I couldn’t sleep that night, thinking this could be me, this could so many one knows, where am I living? I cannot recognize this land I live in. This is my home. What is going on? & I do not think only so called ‘liberals’ or ‘secular’ or ‘progressives’ were the only ones thinking this that night.

Reading Moeed Pirzada’s tweet sometime that same evening, just increased the skin crawling feeling further, blame anyone but ourselves, it’s the Fucking Indians again! How could it be anyone else?   Doesn’t end, Ahmed Qureshi apparently on a vilification campaign against anything rational is also on a rampage against DR. Taimur Rehman blaming him for Sabeen’s death. How does one blame a human rights activist for a crime a gunman committed on behalf of those who do not want open discussion on ‘sensitive issues’ publicly? I would love to understand that point of view. Actually, I lie; I do not want to understand this point of view. I want to scream.

At the Islamabad literature festival another half whit tried to raise the issue of what is the State doing about the vilification campaign against our security forces? Imagine. Sabeen hasn’t been buried, it isn’t even 12 hours since her brutal murder and you have citizens in this country asking, what is being done to protect an intelligence agency. Normal? Or Sick? The Instinct to protect an institution but not a human being; a dead human being now; but not dead enough clearly?

Today, Mosharraf Zaidi’s piece also tries to shift the blame from the obvious perpetrators of this heinous crime against humanity. So many defend the indefensible. Ethics. What does that mean now? I’m sure someone will come up with a theory.

What does it take to sell your soul?

 I don’t know what makes relatively educated folks turn away from the belief that  unequivocally  it is the unalienable right of every human being equally  To believe in anything To say anything without harm. People always over a ‘nation’ or an ‘institution’. People 1st Breathing beating hearts people. Always. It bothers me. It does. Always has. And I hope always will. 

Pre Modern Situation

  

I look forward to Saturday; Kuch Khaas’s Farmer’s market is always a wonderful way to spend the day have brunch and buy your weekly farmers goods.

Coming out the farmers market today, a young man rammed his car into my stationary car. I was so not in the mood to deal with this, but then that’s when one usually has to deal with these situations. In any other place in the world, such incidents are sorted out in a few minutes by exchanging contact details/ID and damages are sorted/ insurance etc. BUT in Pakistan this is what happened/happens:

The driver came out, and his companion suggests it was both parties fault, when I argued that a stationary car couldn’t possibly be at fault the sheepish driver meekly acknowledged his fault and offers to pay for damages. One imagined here the matter would end. Inhale and carry on sorted no? Noooooooo when I asked for his ID card to have some security and requested his cell number that’s when the Paki stepped in. I need these two items so my (absent) driver could call him to sort the damage later.

The two morons, that’s what I am going to call them, must have sensed weakness? Since everything in this country is evaluated by weakness or strength clearly rather than right or wrong.

Why do you want my ID Moron 1 asks? I cant move around Islamabad without my ID (true if you are not moving around in a land cruiser but he did have a green plate); I explained that it is not matter or ‘trust’ I do not know him and need some assurance he would pay once my driver returned and sorted the damages and would then contact him for payment.

Sensing I have no one with me, he attempted to take advantage of the situation and suggests lets instead call the police who can then decide who is at fault! Now wait a minute, how will a policeman who wasn’t present decide who was at fault? Further didn’t he acknowledge it was his fault already? Here comes the belligerence and taking advantage of a situation, a girl alone so why not harass her by entangling her in a long useless unproductive time wasting process with a policeman.  

A simple accident should have been dealt with exchange of numbers & some sort of assurance to get in touch when damages needed to be paid for.

 But no, a friend was pulled in, aggressive behavior to wiggle out of a simple case of an idiotic young man not watching while reversing his car.

Anyway it gets even more annoying when, a few minutes later the two morons see me with a friend inside the farmers market (went back to calm down).  The two morons recognized my friend, they came over to engage him to get involved in the ‘dispute’, I nearly blew my top; thankfully our common friend realized this was becoming more ridiculous & reiterated, if you have acknowledged your fault just pay the damages what’s the issue? Why do you want to wiggle out of it? The two morons continued to try and say why don’t you ‘decide’?

Witnessing this pre modern idea of dispute resolution I realize these traditional ways are nothing more than silly men trying to equalize scores between men; this process has little to do with using reason or finding simple straightforward solutions for quick resolution for logical restitution.

Passport Office

Good Morning Pakistan! While applying for my Indian visa, I realized my passport had a few months on it, which meant one had to apply for a new passport before getting the visa. I wasn’t looking forward to going to a government office; they irritate me, I must be honest, and I just cannot fathom the need for the unnecessary stamping, cues and processes which serve no information purpose or security checks; clearly they are designed for employing thousands of bureaucrats who need to do something rather than serve the public quickly and efficiently.

The Government of Pakistan's passport website states it is a easy 5 step procedure; Well 5 steps in bureaucrat language means 10 as I visually recorded and shared on my Facebook and twitter accounts.

One begins the process my going the National Bank of Pakistan’s office in G/9 where a gentlemen insists on filling in the form for you Outside for Rs100, I am not sure what purpose this serves since I can do this myself and certainly would recommend duplicate foil to cut short the repetition of filling in 4 duplicate forms.  After this silliness, then one begins the battle of the cue a dedicated line for women, which is constantly invaded by pushy men trying to bully themselves to the front of the cue. Sadly for them I was in the cue, which pretty much meant no male bothered this lineup while I was in the building. I felt bad for the lone police man who did try to bring some order to these obnoxious not so gentlemen, but then our class war begins, 'who do you think you are' 'don’t teach me what to do, I will tell the manager you were bothering me' routine.  This is a tiresome constant in all things Pakistani public.

Everyone’s a VIP in Pakistan. I wish we actually were.

The passport office looks quite organized and probably is compared to the thousands which are not, but my clostrophobia always sets in, when I see hundred of people, it doesn’t help that Pakistanis in general have no concept of personal space. Why is ok to touch and practically maul a complete stranger? Isn’t this supposed to be a prude infested conservative country? Clearly not when it comes to invading people’s personal space. 

A very bored and exasperated young lady took my details and asked me to get a token, which would lead me through the 5 steps. All this has taken about 45 minutes thus far.

Some of the Observations in this milieu: there was no ’lady’ (no tramps J) who was unaccompied, barring yours truly. It wasn’t that the ladies looked helpless but they or their families deemed it inappropriate for them to be there alone or submit documents to government directly? From instructing women how to cover their headscarves during the picture taking or giving the documents to the government officials and listening to the instructions these men were everywhere. It is disconcerting. Yes I am aware we live in a conservative pre modern society but it bothers me nonetheless.  

On of the counters, which brought a smile, was step 4 ECLBL desk; I asked the officer what was this? He wasn’t too amused, not too many ask any questions I suppose. Exit control list. Kind of funny since I cant see our powers that be who are on the list traipsing through these corridors or office. Nevertheless another stamp and signature was added to my papers and I finally after 90 minutes was sent to the 5th step ipso 10th step desk where I was to be 'interviewed' before my application for renewing my passport was accepted. Naturally I was a little miffed when number/token 115,117 skipped my token number 112! When I asked how did this happen, I was told sheepishly sometimes it does, my rye comment of ‘only in the land of the pure’ wasn’t challenged.

Finally when I did get my turn I asked, what is this interview step all about? I was informed they are trained to weed out non-nationals. I asked them after so many steps having preceded this one, how would they have escaped the detection of the army of bureaucrats before? Well they seem to have some special skills that I wasn’t made aware of. I must admit I must have had a Pakistani stamp on my forehead since I wasn’t asked any questions and was signed off as a patriot and qualified to get a passport immediately. Relief :)