The Entrepreneur

They may not be geniuses. They may not win the Nobel prize. They may not score the most number of runs, nor top the rich and famous. They may not drip with poetics or create the next scientific breakthroughs. They are not philosophers or historians who wish to piece together the external with the internal and make sense of it all in the mind.

But entrepreneurs are the pulse, the heartbeat and spirit of a people. Never resting, always attempting new visions, embarking on new un-ventured journeys, struggling and grappling, connecting ideas with reality and generating new social patterns and forcing better, refined systems, these are just some traits of entrepreneurs that deserve our salutations.

Minorities attacked

Minorities don't seem to have it any better under the new government dispensation despite the commonly held view that the current government lead by the PPP courts most of their votes.

The attacks on Christian communities in the outlying areas of the Punjab reveals the breakdown in the government's ability to grapple with criminals using religious motivations to secure land and/or money. The police show their incompetence in the face of religious bigotry espoused by some Muslims and no one really seems to want to take these cases through the courts of law.

I hope at some point the PPP or other parties who have sincere concerns about the minority groups in Pakistan gain the courage to eradicate the source of the problem - that being the laws that favor the majority at the expense of the minority.

The blessings of Taliban

A group that once was admired by so many Pakistanis, heaped praise, given justification, and even looked up to as a model, finds itself on a slippery slope whose descent is bound to make the appeal muddier and muddier.

But the cancer of Taliban and their ideology has unleashed several positive movements that were both expected and surprisingly unexpected. Two of being:

1) The emergence of the Taliban cancer forced Pakistanis to think long and hard about what was in store for them if they didn't work to reform their judicial system. While the judicial movement had other catalysts and the movement turned into a tide for other reasons, the cancer of the Taliban ideology has cemented the awareness that without reforming the judicial system, the people will be left having to contend with fascist and archaic systems.

and surprisingly,

2) At a sitting with a friend from Quetta who has several businesses in the city, we began to discuss the anti-Punjabi feelings of Baluchistan. Apparently, he claimed, although the "anti-Punjabi" slogans had begun by the Pushtuuns, after emergence of the Taliban in FATA, the slogan no longer holds much value among the Pushtuuns. The slogan has plenty of resonance among the Baloch tribes of course, but due to the Pakistan Army aggressively taking an anti-Taliban stance, the Pushtuuns in Quetta and Balochistan have become pro-Pakistan. The feeling and thinking is, that only the Pakistan Army can deal the necessary blow to the Taliban.

It's surprising in that it took a cancer like the Taliban to bridge at least one ethnic divide.

Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan (Northern Areas)

The acquisition and retention of power has for time immemorial cut all those claiming to uphold majestic principles and morality down to size. It is a natural reaction to fight for justice when standing among the victims and wronged. It become a difficult choice when giving justice means losing privileges, prestige and power.

Pakistanis in general were unanimous in supporting the movement to restore the judiciary so that the fundamental rights of the people can be protected and the state held accountable. But those same supporters would refuse to see justice given to the minorities or Ahmedies of the country.

It is thus not surprising that the Kashimiri leaders, whose 'principled' stance for a right to self-determination was carried around like a torch, turn around and refuse the people of the Northern Areas to be governed separately under the Pakistan government's initiative of giving the area a new name - Gilgit-Baltistan - and unique powers separate from the rest of Kashmir.

The people of Gilgit-Baltistan are non-Kashmiris speaking a variety of languages. They claim they rose and fought the Dogra rule in 1948. Historically, the region was separate from Kashmir but 'gifted' to the princely Kashmiri state by the British in the mid-19th century. The people are predominantly Shia and have for a long time desired to become the fifth province of Pakistan and do not like to be linked to the Kashmiris.

Pakistan could have given them that recognition but for the UN Resolution of 1949 under which the status of Kashmir is disputed and treated as a whole. Thus any alteration that would push the region into the sphere of Pakistani legal codes, would mean a negation of the resolution on Kashmir - a resolution that is the basis for Pakistan's stance on Kashmir.

Thus Pakistan has only gone half-way in tweaking the status of Gilgit-Baltistan - much to the displeasure of the locals. However, the Kashmiri leaders are angry for even this tweak and refuse to accept the region being declared something outside the Kashmiri property.

While Kashimiri leaders are happy to call for the right of self-determination for Kashmiris, they are unwilling to give the same right of self-determination to the people of Gilgit-Baltistan.