Nawaz Sharif... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
and his minions almost seems cruel. The Pakistain Moslem League-Nawaz (PML-N) government is having such a tough time that even its detractors must be hoping that it can pull itself and the country out of the quagmire they are both in at this time. Frankly, it is much more fun to make fun of preening self-important popinjays full of braggadocio than it is of the 'sad sacks' that are running Pakistain these days. I particularly feel sorry for our 'Minint' of the 'never changing hair'. If he gets any angrier he just might suffer the fate of Rumpelstiltskin. And our poor minister of scheduled power outages who is disappearing so rapidly that like the Cheshire cat, we might just be left with his 'perpetual' frown to look at.
But a word about Imran Khan
... aka
Taliban Khan, who isn't your heaviest-duty thinker, maybe not even among the top five...
is definitely in order. He is starting to look more than a bit stressed out. Any recent picture of his shows flaring nostrils, hands waving wildly, artificially darkened hair aflutter as if he were in the middle of his run up to the wicket to throw a fast ball. It seems that Khan still thinks he is playing cricket and if he could only throw a few swingers, zingers, yorkers and bangers, he could win another 'world cup'. Sadly, as the old country western song says, "his honking days are done".
Much of our media, as well our politicians, are droning on and on about drones, especially since the head of the Pak Taliban, a self-proclaimed killer of many Paks, was transported to meet his Maker by a wandering drone. Of course, one must not confuse a wandering drone with a wandering dervish.
But as far the late Hakeemullah Mehsud is concerned, if the head of the Jamaat-e-Islami
...
The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka
The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an
independentbranch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
and the head of Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam
...Assembly of Islamic Clergy, or JUI, is a Pak Deobandi (Hanafi) political party. There are two main branches, one led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and one led by Maulana Samiul Haq. Fazl is active in Pak politix and Sami spends more time running his madrassah. Both branches sponsor branches of the Taliban, though with plausible deniability...
-Fazl both be believed, and of course, as well-known devout Moslems they must be believed, then the late killer with a price on his head is now a 'shaheed' (martyr). As such one must assume that having been transformed from killer to martyr, Mehsud is now frolicking in 'jannat' (Moslem heaven). As every Pak child knows, the very purpose of existence for all 'good' Moslems is to reach jannat. So if Mehsud is already there, did not the 'drones' do him a favour?
Unfortunately, so many of our devout Moslems in Pakistain do not realise that as a matter of fact, the drones are doing God's work by helping our 'brave' Taliban fighters to arrive in jannat most expeditiously. Here I need to make an important point. By transporting our brave Taliban to jannat earlier than even the 'beneficiaries' expected, the drones are doing them a great favour. For instance, if Mehsud had lived longer and made peace with Pakistain, and shudder, shudder, even with the perfidious Americans, he might have lost his place in jannat. So it is obvious that the drone masters did not want to deny Mehsud the possibility of fulfilling his 'destiny' as a holy warrior.
Interestingly, there is another point worth considering. For centuries, virtually all interpretations of the Moslem Sharia law forbade Moslems from killing non-combatants, especially women and kiddies. But this longstanding tradition was turned upside down with the start of the present epidemic of terrorism targeting civilians. Evidently some 'worthy' from the 'Home of the Holy Places' issued a 'fatwa' that if during an act of terrorism any 'good' Moslems and children were killed, they automatically became shaheeds and as such immediately found a place in jannat. Therefore, the jacket wallahs and forces of Evil were doing them all a favour. So I suppose now the 'drone warriors' are returning the favour.
Stop the drones, and shoot down the drones say the ones running the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
province and the Centre. But I don't quite understand why they are all so upset with the drones since the drones are indeed doing God's work. In my most humble opinion, our brave Taliban warriors should, as a matter of fact, stand out in front of the drones inviting martyrdom. But instead they seem to hide from such a glorious fate like the 'Old Man of the Mountain of Alamut' and his hashish-driven assassins. This clearly makes me wonder whether these Taliban are true fighters for Islam or just a bunch of assassins, and their leaders a bunch of cowering cowards. There evidently seems to be some disconnect between the beliefs of those that label these Taliban as 'ghazis and shaheeds' and the actual Taliban and their behaviour.
Now it seems that the famous 'Mullah Radio', who once terrorised Swat, has been 'elected' as the new head of the Pak Taliban. He is the one that allegedly ordered the attack on Malala Yousafzai. Malala may not have got the Nobel Prize, but at least her fame forced the Taliban to elect as their leader the man who tried to get her killed. If true, a strange symmetry, I must admit.
More importantly, our brave men in khaki, who were so unable to kill Mullah Radio when he was defiling Swat, are not going to take kindly to have to sit across a negotiating table and talk to him or his representatives. Perhaps they might even hope and pray that another drone strike dispatches him to jannat most expeditiously. And that, of course, makes we wonder that the man who ordered the liquidation of a serving major general of the army did not also meet that fate due to the hopes and prayers of our men in khaki. One always does wonder when different 'devout' Moslems are praying for opposite things, whom the Almighty listens to.
And yes, I am indeed feeling sorry for Mian Sahib these days. I am sure he would prefer to be elsewhere and not in Pakistain. But then somebody pointed out recently that out of his first five months in office he has spent a month outside Pakistain. I wonder why?