Year 2008 in Review-Pakistan

The abstract would have better read as "It began with Bhutto's widower Asif Ali Zardari taking over the reigns of Pakistan Peoples Party, Pakistan's largest political party,and ended with surrendering the reins of state power to Kiyani who showed who the real master of Pakistan was following internal divisions in the aftermath of Mumbai terrorist attacks".

Hamid mian,

It is great to see you back, safe and sound, in the US of A, with your pov intact. As usual, I have been enjoying your posts.

#130 hamidm: secretaries, joint secretaries etc. are the same as patwaris - bureaucrats. i know they will be offended to hear this since, as this joint secretary sahib was once explaining to me, secretaries and joint secretaries have spent 6 months at Harvard on some Humphries Scholarship or the other and read books by Great Authors (like Mills, I suppose). But 6 months - or even 6 years - at harvard or oxford may give them a fake oxford accent - but no amount of "foren education" can take the patwari out of a bureaucrat.

so you will find your question already answered in my post below.

Re: # 129

tahmed mian,

.... like i said, you are fixated on generals .... what about secretaries, joint secretaries, ministers, mpa's, mna's, nazims, naib nazims and deputy comissioners ? ........ there are some things that these guys can do that even a serving general cannot accomplish ..... today you need a call from the presidency or the prime minister's house to keep you out of jail for 'attempted murder' ..... i don't think a corps commander can do that ......

#128 hamidm: where am i am argueing against greasing these cogs (wapda lineman, patwari, police, etc.) of the pakistan economy?

what i am saying is dont encourage generals to break airport rules and deface the pakistan constitution. while a wapda lineman or a patwari or a cop performs a necessary service, what necessary service did this general relation of yours performing? and please dont say defending Pakistan from India or conquering Kashmir since he can do neither - would you pay a cop who simply pockets your bribe and does nothing??

maybe it is time you got fixated on something that is in your own interest, as a potential retiree to Pakistan - namely a civilized country with a proper constitution and a properly functioning airport.

Re: # 127

tahmed,

.... you are a very foolish man who gets fixated on one idea and can't get past it !... ... forget about the general - it is more important to know a wapda lineman, patwari, sp police, medical superintendent, your thana sho, an fia inspector, a banker, an income tax officer and the local bootlegger ........ if you know these people and have a few bucks, you don't need to know a general ........ if you don't, then life will be a living hell for you ...........

hamidm: and how does breaking rules to go through the vip lounge contribute to your retirement in pakistan?

in two years your general would be retired himself - and treated like a khota by the same subordinates who said "Yes sir" to him when he ordered them to misuse their uniform to whisk you past immigration so you can sniff at the "unwashed masses" standing in the immigration line. if you dont believe me, ask musharraf how his deceipt first turned his nose long like pinnochio, and then turned him into a khota like the rest of us "unwashed masses" who survives only because mr. 10% is afraid that the NRO can become a double edged sword. why these airport rule-breaking and national constitution defacing general boys cant see beyond their pinnochio-noses and see what their three days under the sun is going to cost them and their children years from now is beyond me!!

if you are retiring to pakistan, at least you should set an example for your general and by refusing such offers.

tahmed mian,

.... you can preach from your high horse in hew jersey all you want, but that does not change the reality of pakistan ..... since i plan to retire there in a couple of years i want to make sure i do not get treated like the unwashed masses - like a khota ..... unlike my father i don't want to spend the last ten years of my life runing from one court to the other trying to get a tennant evicted and begging/bribing potwaris and tehsildars to issue legitimate fards; like my sister i don't want to pay the sho to enter a fir when my car is stolen; like my contractor, i don't want to be thrown in jail for three days by the station commander for refusing to knock down a terrace that was invading a general's privacy ......... and most importantly, i don't want to spend an afternoon arguing with a lowly inspector who wants to charge me with attempted murder for running into a police barrier, instead of enjoying my chicken tikka and a spectacular view .......


p.s. if you ever get sick in islamabad and have to go to the hospital, make sure you call your cousin who is the medical superintendent at pims before you go there, otherwise you will die ..... and make sure you take your own bandages, towels, sheets and water - they don't have any of that available there for the unwashed masses ....... i would go straight to shifa and deposit one lakh rupees and show the receipt to anyone who touches me (no, i would not go to cmh accompanied by a general in uniform - you will still die) .........

pandit jayp#124 writes "these fools were telling that kasam is not a paki. Where are they now, the ilks of Romair, tahmed etc

you are a filthy liar, of course. in addition to being a pakistan-obsessed pagal kutta. if you wish to contest this, cut and paste anywhere i said kasam was not a pakistani.

Who knows more about pakistan.???

It is time for pakistanis to recognise the better understanding of indians on paki situation. Today based on contradictiry lies, one poor general has been sacked, pakistans security advisor. The poor man told the truth, while the paki PM Gilani is rated as world class liar. The saga will continue...

My post of yesterday is below. The paki should frame it on their walls. There was the paki experts on chowk, based on the words used and based on teh accent, these fools were telling that kasam is not a paki. Where are they now, the ilks of Romair, tahmed etc.

/////////////////////////

No doubt, there are times when one feels sorry for the paki leaders, how they are made a fool of.

Afetr mumbai, indians accused pakistan, claimed that the killer is from pakistan.

President onwards denied it. Slowly india has started releasing details. Befor long, it will be established that the man is from pakistan, which the paki leaders have denied.

Now india is providing the data to all the world leaders. This will clearly brand the paki leaders as liars or those who have no idea about what they are doing.

One cannot forget that zardari made some sexist remarks about sara palin, then there was teh previous PM, the citi bank guy who tried to romance condi rice, then of course the great paki PM who requested George Bush to pat him so that he can feel confident.

The question how does the paki system ensure that only the incompetant rise to the top. I could be totally wrong here, thses are the best that pakistan could get, which is not surprising.

Look at the posts of tahmed for example, or masadi..

further to #122: and guess who was the other man who gave a competing estimate? a latino immigrant to the US. This is the real USA - where a retired general reverts back to being an ordinary citizen, using skills he learnt in the military to provide productive service and compete with immigrants for business rather than relying on connections of the kind you love to flaunt while sniffing on the "unwashed masses"! This is the real america. What makes it a great nation. Try and learn something from it. It is never too late.

#121 hamidm: it isnt an academic exercise for me either. as i told you, my kids were in pakistan the same time as you, but unlike you they thought having someone whisk them through VIP through abuse of rank was stupid.

today i had a contractor give me a free estimate for a job i needed done - and turned out the gentleman was a retired US general. i doubt if any two-bit pakistani general of the kind you whisked you through the VIP gate would ever deign to, or feel the need to, make money this old fashioned way in Pakistan. but guess which one of the two was a real warrior and which one spent his life pushing paper and/or creating the taliban.

Re: # 120

tahmed mian,

.... sorry, but this is not an academic exercise for me

#119 hamidm: why dont you just accept the fact that you had no need to go through the VIP other than some ego satisfaction - and the least you could do for Pakistan is to at least put some shame in these stupid generals?

i may be senile, but you never grew out of the captain sahib mentality.

as for checking in - there you have a slightly better case for your general misusing his "perks". but not enough. Try doing things in Islamabad without breaking rules as you would do in any airport outside Pakistan - and you will be pleasantly surprised to see how pointless these "perks" are.

Re: # 118

tahmed,

.... you really are getting senile ..... i was talking about getting checked in - any airline employee can do it (they don't even have to work for that particular airline either - they all do each other 'favors') ..... the general who sent his man to receive me was simply doing his family duty - what are subedars and staff cars for anyway ?

#117 hamidm: thanks for the praise and applause. i knew you would understand.

i am glad your time is so precious that you are willing to break the rules in pakistan in order to save precious time. This makes it all the more flattering the hundreds of hours you have found to spend on chowk over the ten years.

and dont change the story now - you said it was a general who used (abused is the right word) his "authority" to get you through VIP, not some peon.