World Hijab Day: Strangely authentic, deeply disturbing?

While demanding that the Hijab be made compulsory in the constitution, JI activists in Multan felt no qualms carrying a banner that read, “Hijab is my choice not my compulsion’. PHOTO: FILE/EXPRESS

Scrounge for your scarf; dig out that dupatta – its World Hijab Day!
You may have heard of ‘World Health Day’, and certainly of ‘World Population Day’ and perhaps even of ‘World Literacy Day’. But before today you may not have heard of ‘World Hijab Day’.
Unlike ‘Earth Day’ or ‘World Cancer Day’, though, ‘World Hijab Day’, has not, as you might initially think, been decreed by the UN, the organisation which earmarks certain days for international observances, designed to further its goals of world peace and social progress.
No, World Hijab Day has in fact been declared by Pakistan’s biggest religious political party Jamaat-i-Islami to “counter the infidels’ conspiracies against the Islamic tenets”. The way to do that is by urging women (presumably) to wear a hijab and cover themselves up real good at all times.
That’s right, that ‘counters’ the conspiracies of infidels, and doesn’t validate them.
How does one begin to express the pleasure one derives from this?
The Ameer (head) of the Jamaat-i-Islami pooh-poohing the double standards of ‘the west’ and hijacking the discourse of modernism and human rights to further a concept that would be anathema to most liberals. This is a most delicious situation.
Is this sly, deliberate subversion on the part of the Jamaat-i-Islami?
Is the religious right appropriating the concept of ‘choice’, ‘rights’ and ‘human dignity’ to mock modernism itself?
I would be tempted to believe that, but I’ve met these guys.
This is not a critique of modernism – the sloganeering is earnest (if conviction-less) and these guys are just as modern as your next secular-liberal-feminist-freethinker.

“Dress to please God, not men,” tweets the JI South Karachi, adding,
“Hijabi by choice.”

Another hijabi tweets,

“Hijab is my choice”, adding, a little while later,
“Hijab is my protector.”
“Perfect opportunity to educate my non-Muslim mates on Hijab,” says another tweeter.

But it is not just the feelings of earnest adherents that World Hijab Day has stirred. Sure enough, the liberal socialist brigade has jumped in the fray, starting a hashtag – ReasonsToPutMenInBurqas.
While JI has hijacked the concepts of modernism, it has not had to turn to it to supply contradictions and inconsistencies. So while demanding that the Hijab be made compulsory in the constitution, JI activists in Multan felt no qualms carrying  a banner that read,

“Hijab is my choice not my compulsion.”

Despite all this, World Hijab Day feels strangely authentic, and that might be the most disturbing thing. Free thinking is not what it used to be …
Read more by Batool here, or follow her on Twitter @batool1767 

The views expressed by the writer and the reader comments do not

WorldHijabDay4Sep

Pakistan organizes a World Hijab Day

A Pakistani political party decides to confront the issue of the veil by celebrating it around the world.

Pakistan's Jamaat-i-Islami party has announced that they will be organizing a World Hijab Day on September 4.According to the Express Tribune, the party's leader, Munawar Hasan, explained that the foreign ideas and practices had permeated Pakistan and that the Muslim youth must rise to defend their culture.

Earlier today, Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf was heavily criticized for using a Hindi word while speaking to the supreme court. As there were Urdu synonyms for the word, Ashraf's use of the Hindi word, vishvas, which means faith, was taken as symbolic of India and Bollywood's cultural penetration in Pakistan.

Violence and the Spirit in Murky Pakistan

Mira Nair’s film “The Reluctant Fundamentalist,” which opened the 69th Venice International Film Festival, is a refreshing contrast to the movies so far engendered by the war on terror in that the central protagonist is a Pakistani Muslim.

The director drops viewers right into the action in a gripping opening sequence that cuts between the kidnapping of a middle-aged American on the streets of Lahore at the end of an evening out and a sophisticated party of music elsewhere in the city, at which virtuoso performers delight an audience with ecstatic renderings of poetry in Urdu. How these events are linked becomes clear as a misty dawn rises over the domes and minarets of the Punjabi city.
The reluctant fundamentalist of the title — the film, which is showing out of competition, is based on Mohsin Hamid’s best-selling 2007 novel — is Changez Khan, a young Pakistani, played by the British actor Riz Ahmed, who is working as a university professor in Lahore, where his outspoken criticism of U.S. influence in Pakistan has won him a vociferous student following. The C.I.A. suspects he is involved with terrorists and they have him under surveillance.
Something more than a thriller, the film also is the personal story of one young man, Changez, whose ambitions and certainties have been radically undermined by global political events and whose character we see developing and shifting in the face of them.
Mr. Ahmed gives a powerful and nuanced performance as Changez. The supporting cast, including Kiefer Sutherland as Jim Cross, Changez’s monomaniacal boss in New York, and Om Puri, that craggy-featured master of damaged dignity, as Abu, his poet father in Lahore, are also commendable.Michael Andrews’s score, embracing traditional Pakistani songs, pop, funk and rap, is also a key element of the film. Sufi verses and music of the kind deplored and persecuted by fundamentalist fanatics provide a universal and humane spiritual leitmotif running through the story.

10 Reasons why GOD HATES INDIA!

India is a huge country with 1.18 billion people who never ever accomplished anything of significance. Spending most of their days having sex with cows, their productivity is the lowest on the planet. India gets a lot of warnings from God, like the recent 7.5-magnitude quake, but they continue to live in total ignorance. They will almost all go to Hell where they will be boring Satan for all eternity.

Leviticus 18:23 "Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith ..."

1. The average IQ of people in India is around 81. Weirdly enough they do not realize this and they think they are much smarter than the rest of the world. This causes countless incidents in which Indians embarrass themselves to the rest of the world without even realizing this. Romans 1:21 "... their foolish heart was darkened ..."
2. The Indian education system is the very worst on the planet. If you enroll, you get your diploma. Most Indian "engineers" are not even able to read, write or speak proper English. Even the French speak better English than "educated" Indians. Matthew 5:22 "... Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire."
3. People from India will always agree with you, no matter what. If you ask them if they will finish a job on time, they will always say yes, not to insult you with something silly like the truth. The end result of this is that nothing gets finished, ever. Proverbs 6:16-19 "... the LORD hate ... a lying tongue ..."
4. Somehow Indians convinced themselves that wearing gay clothing and shaking your behind a lot is entertaining. They call this Bollywood. This Hollywood wannabe silly excuse for entertainment is only entertaining in India, the rest of the world completely ignores it. 1 Timothy 2:9 "... not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array"
5. Indians are the only people in the world who consider Ghandi to be a peaceful person. The rest of the world knows he was a weak little sadists who liked nothing more than beating his fragile wife silly with his walking stick. Ephesians 5:28-29 "... ought men to love their wives ..."
6. Indians consider a hole in the ground to be proper sanitary facilities. Unsurprisingly, there is not a single person in India who does not have dysentery! Malachi 2:3 "... spread dung upon your faces ..."
7. Another sanitary disaster is that Indians just throw their dead into the Ganges river. The bodies then get eaten by a very large turtle population. Just never eat turtle soup when you are in India! Genesis 23:19 "... Abraham buried Sarah ..."
8. The Indians invented honor killings! Just looking at some girls behind, which is impossible to prevent in Bollywood India anyway, is enough to get yourself killed. Don't forget to wear sunglasses when in India and never take photographs! Exodus 20:13 "Thou shalt not kill."
9. It is well known fact that Indians love animals more than they love people. Only in India can drunken (!) elephants rampage and kill. Leviticus 18:23 "... with any beast ..."
10. Since corrupt Indian cops are very cheap to bribe, India effectively has no traffic violations. You can kill as many people as you like with your car without ever getting into serious trouble! Not that the Indian babus bureaucrats would ever notice someone died anyway. 2nd Corinthians 10:3-5 "... we do not war after the flesh ..."

All people of India need to repent and accept Jesus Christ as their savior! Until then, they will suffer and will burn in Hell along with other God-mocking countries like Iceland, Sweden, Holland, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, Denmark, The Faroe Islands, The Netherlands, England, Scotland, Germany, France, Italy, Hungary, Russia, China, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Ukraine, Romania, Croatia, Serbia, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, South Africa, Vietnam, Cambodia, Guatemala, Algeria, Egypt, Saudia Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Qatar, etc.
http://www.landoverbaptist.net/showthread.php?t=44677

Impact Of Indian TV Channels Star Plus On Our Children

Posted on Mar 17, 2010 under Culture, General | 7 Comments

I want to highlight a very important issue in my post, and I know there are people who realize this but still many don’t realize it yet. The problem that we need to discuss here is The Impact of Indian TV channels, specially Star Plus on our children. There is a large percentage of women and children viewers in Pakistan watching Indian TV channels and dramas at home. These channels and dramas are proving a slow poison for our children. They are destroying their moral character, their faith and innocence. This is the time to realize, revise  and remember the reasons that despite living together over thousand year why Muslims and Hindus didn’t merge as one nation. This is the time to remember that we are two separate Nations with different faith, culture, religion and festivals etc. This is the to tell all this to our children before it too late.  We don’t have to wait for Government to take an action, we have to start it from our home. Prevent our children and women from watching these unrealistic Indian TV channels.

A Tune to Die For – Pakistan’s National Anthem

Ever Green National Anthem of Pakistan. It was written by Abu-Al-Asar Hafeez Jullanhuri (1900-1982) and music was by Ahmed Ghulam Ali Chagla (1902-1953) .
The whole anthem is in Persian language except a single world “KA” in sentence (Pak Sir Zameen KA Nizam).

National Anthem of Pakistan

English Translation:

Blessed be the sacred land,

Happy be the bounteous realm,

Symbol of high resolve, Land of Pakistan.

Blessed be thou citadel of faith.

The Order of this Sacred Land,

is the might of the brotherhood of the people.

May the nation, the country, and the state

Shine in glory everlasting

Blessed be the goal of our ambition.

This flag of the Crescent and the Star

Leads the way to progress and perfection,

Interpreter of our past, glory of our present,

Inspiration of our future,

Symbol of Almighty’s protection.

Related Posts

• World’s Top Young Innovators From Pakistan (Sep 16, 2011)
• Ever Green Pakistani Milli Nagmay (Aug 13, 2009)
• Aik Shama-e-Ilm – Parhay Ga Pakistan – Bharay Ga Pakistan (Apr 25, 2009)
• Pakistan – Nation Standing Against Enemies Rock Hard (Apr 06, 2009)
• The Pakistan Day – 23rd March (Mar 23, 2009)

2 Responses to “A Tune to Die For – Pakistan’s National Anthem”

1. capri Says:
   November 11th, 2011 at 6:23 pm it is marvellous,i request for the national anthem without video for m0bile tune.plzzz.
2. A S Khan Says:
   January 22nd, 2012 at 6:51 am How is it fully in Persian if there are many Arabic loan words?
   Otherwise it is a beautiful national anthem. One of the best in the world.

THE audience erupted as Aamir Liaquat Hussain, Pakistan’s premier televangelist, darted around the television studio, firing off questions about Islam. “How many gates are there to heaven?” he challenged. Children leapt from their seats, their mothers yelled answers, fathers strained forward, all hoping to catch the eye of Mr. Hussain, who worked the crowd like a circus ringmaster — cajoling, teasing, rewarding.“Show me the tongue of a snake!” he commanded a bearded man, as part of a question about symbolic serpents. The man obediently stuck out his tongue, prompting hoots of laughter.

To the victors, Mr. Hussain tossed prizes: mobile phones, tubs of cooking oil, chits for plots of land, shirts from his own clothing line. Then he vanished, briefly, only to return on a purring motorbike — also up for grabs. When a shy-looking man answered Mr. Hussain’s theological teaser correctly, the preacher grabbed the man’s hand and thrust it high, in the manner of a prizefighter. The audience applauded. “It’s the Islamic version of the ‘The Price is Right,’ ” said the studio manager, standing behind a camera.

Mr. Hussain, 41, is a broadcasting sensation in Pakistan. His marathon transmissions during the recent holy month of Ramadan — 11 hours a day, for 30 days straight — offered viewers a kaleidoscopic mix of prayer, preaching, game shows and cookery, and won record ratings for his channel, Geo Entertainment. “This is not just a religious show; we want to entertain people through Islam,” Mr. Hussain said during a backstage interview, serving up a chicken dish he had prepared on the show. “And the people love it.”

Yet Mr. Hussain is also a deeply contentious figure, accused of using his television pulpit to promote hate speech and crackpot conspiracy theories. He once derided a video showing Taliban fighters flogging a young woman as an “international conspiracy.” He supported calls to kill the author Salman Rushdie. Most controversially, in 2008 he hosted a show in which Muslim clerics declared that members of the Ahmadi community, a vulnerable religious minority, were “deserving of death.” Forty-eight hours later, two Ahmadi leaders, one of them an American citizen, had been shot dead in Punjab and Sindh Provinces.

Many media critics held Mr. Hussain partly responsible, and the show so appalled American diplomats that they urged the State Department to sever a lucrative contract with Geo, which they accused of “specifically targeting” Ahmadis, according to a November 2008 cable published by WikiLeaks. Now, Mr. Hussain casts himself as a repentant sinner. In his first Ramadan broadcast, he declared that Ahmadis had an “equal right to freedom” and issued a broad apology for “anything I had said or done.” In interviews, prompted by his own management, he portrays himself as a torchbearer for progressive values.

“Islam is a religion of harmony, love and peace,” he said, as he waited to have his makeup refreshed. “But tolerance is the main thing.”

IN some ways, Mr. Hussain is emblematic of the cable television revolution that has shaped public discourse in Pakistan over the past decade. He was the face of Geo when the upstart, Urdu-language station began broadcasting from a five-star hotel in Karachi in 2002. Then he went political, winning a parliamentary seat in elections late that year. The station gave him a religious chat show, Aalim Online, which brought together Sunni and Shiite clerics. The show received a broad welcome in a society troubled by sectarian tensions; it also brought Mr. Hussain to the attention of the military leader Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who was reportedly touched by its content. In 2005, General Musharraf appointed him junior minister for religious affairs, a post he held for two years. Mr. Hussain’s success, with his manic energy and quick-fire smile, is rooted in his folksy broadcasting style, described as charming by fans and oily by critics. By his own admission, he has little formal religious training, apart from a mail-order doctorate in Islamic studies he obtained from an online Spanish university in order to qualify for election in 2002.“I have the experience of thousands of clerics; in my mind there are thousands of answers,” he said. That pious image was dented in 2011 when embarrassing outtakes from his show, leaked on YouTube, showed him swearing like a sailor during the breaks and making crude jokes with chuckling clerics. “It was my lighter side,” Mr. Hussain said. (Previously, he had claimed the tapes were doctored.) But that episode did little to hurt his appeal to the middle-class Pakistanis who form his core audience. “Aamir Liaquat is a warm, honest and soft-natured person,” said Shahida Rao, a veiled Karachi resident, as she entered a recent broadcast, accompanied by her 6-year-old grandson. “We like him a lot.”

Senior colleagues at Geo are less enthusiastic. After an accumulation of controversies, including the Ahmadi show and on-air criticism of sex education material in school textbooks, he left the station in 2010. But Geo struggled to find a replacement and last June brought him back, causing consternation among senior anchors and managers, several of whom threatened to resign, senior executives said.

“It created a lot of noise,” said one, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “Many of us wanted to know what he was coming back as.”The answers were provided by the network’s chief executive, Mir Ibrahim Rahman, a 34-year-old Harvard graduate who argues that Pakistan needs people like Mr. Hussain, who hold water with Islamic conservatives, to incrementally change society.

“We are still recovering from the Zia years; we can’t move too fast,” Mr. Rahman said, referring to the excesses of the Islamist dictator Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq in the 1980s. “We need people like him to ease us down the mountain.” To placate internal critics, Geo has just published a code of conduct for its journalists. “We’ve taken stock of the excesses that have been committed,” said the channel’s president, Imran Aslam, referring to a variety of controversies involving the station. “It’s an important start.”

But commercial imperatives also loom large, and in that arena, Mr. Hussain’s value is unquestioned.

COMPETITION for ratings at Ramadan is fierce among Pakistan’s television stations, and this year the race had a feverish feel. One station hired Veena Malik, a racy actress better known for posing seminude for an Indian magazine, to present its religious programs. One of her shows featured a live exorcism of a supernatural spirit that, conveniently enough, had called the station by telephone. Another station broadcast the conversion of a Hindu boy to Islam, drawing wide criticism. By contrast, Mr. Hussain’s show seemed a model of restraint, though the set’s extravagance may have suggested otherwise.The centerpiece was a giant boat that represented Noah’s Ark, but closely resembled a craft from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie franchise. Live animals wandered the set, including flamingos, peacocks and deer. Studio guests included Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan’s nuclear weapon program, and Imran Khan, the cricketer-turned-conservative politician. Ratings peaked on Aug. 12 when the studio moved to a cavernous exhibition hall that held 30,000 people — the largest studio audience in Pakistan’s history, executives said.

Mr. Hussain, unsurprisingly, has become rich.

Although his salary is a closely guarded secret, Geo sources said top names can earn $30,000 a month — income that, in Mr. Hussain’s case, is increased by lucrative product sponsorship deals, his clothing line and by leading religious pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia.He keeps tight security, including bodyguards and an armored vehicle, since his acrimonious departure from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, a political party at the center of Karachi’s often violent power struggles, in 2008. A senior party official said Mr. Hussain had “nothing to fear” from the party.Mr. Hussain hopes to shrug controversy off in his latest incarnation. “Even the liberals will love me,” he said, a touch optimistically. He has even developed a soft spot for the United States, the bête noir of Pakistani conservatives. After a family vacation in New York last year, he returned with a honey sauce that he uses during his cooking broadcasts. “I call it my Manhattan sauce,” he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/01/world/asia/a-star-televangelist-in-pakistan-divides-then-repents.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

TV shows: It’s not just sex that sells, religion does too

August 1, 2012

By bringing in Pakistan’s most notorious and/or well-known celebrities, networks have tapped into a purification algorithm. PHOTO: FILE

A main feature of Ramazan in Pakistan is the surge of sehr and iftar talk shows and television programmes. Audiences, hungry for food, and thirsty for Da’wah (preaching of Islam), willingly welcome the gimmicky stratagems of the media-walays (media-people) looking to hook and reel us in.
To name just a few, this year’s list of programmes features some of Pakistan’s most jaanay-maanay celebrities (well-known celebrities); a sportsman, an TV host slash regional park morality police, and an actress, model and an item girl, all in one personality (yes I know you know exactly who I speak of).
By bringing in Pakistan’s most notorious and/or well-known celebrities, networks have tapped into a purification algorithm.
By taking one-part Pakistani audience (with a very short-term memory which conveniently forgets all ills committed by many of our media-walays), combining it with the fact that everyone along with their mothers are glued to Ramazan programmes, television networks have stumbled on the holy grail of mass media profitability.
It’s not just sex that sells, folks. Religion, too, at least in Pakistan, sells just as hot and fast.
So, we have our very first award; the ‘best gutting and reeling in of the junta award’, which goes to all the hosts collectively featured in this article, for so cleverly winning the public’s trust by easing into our hearts and minds when we were most vulnerable – fraught with hunger and the desire to forgive.
Next is the Award for the ‘most sensational’, which easily goes to ARY’s ”Sheher-e-Ramazan“ host Maya Khan (alongside Dr Shahid Masood) for their sensational live broadcasting of a Pakistani Hindu’s conversion to Islam. Televised conversions are arguably tasteless, denigrating and possibly forceful; especially when the subject of conversion is already a marginalised, second-class citizen.

But kudos to Maya Khan, for following up so succinctly and splendidly to her role, where she played morality police infamously chasing down young couples in public parks.
The next award (long in title, so bear with us) is the Award for the ‘most well intentioned Ramazan show gone awry’.
And the recipient this year is none other than our cricket hero, Boom Boom Afridi.
Afridi, responding much like Batman to Gotham’s bat call, appears in the homes of those who have invited him (via SMS) to simultaneously have iftari with them and woo the nation in his starched kurta and manicured beard. But Afridi’s good intentions tend to go awry because, usually, his presence tends to turn iftar conversations into a question-and-answer-session on the nation’s favourite past time, cricket!

Despite Afridi’s “Mehman ka Ramazan” and its honourable agenda, the show fails to bring forth any profound human change. The problem that posits itself with Afridi’s presence on the show is not that he is increasing his popularity, by weaving the service of his happy influence through the tissue of these peoples’ lives, but that there are far more reputable scholars capable of educating and enlightening us during this Holy month.
Of course, whilst on the topic of scholars, we reach the Award for the ‘most on point Ramazan programme’ this 2012, for which the top contender is Geo’s “Pehchan Ramzan” host Aamir Liaquat.

Liaquat, always loud on the theme, as per usual, suits up in his signature sherwani, all the while bringing his strained counterfeit of perfect ease – reminding us that he knows the art of selling a show all too well.

As his viewers sit rapt with attention (willingly unconscious of any possible backstage savagery), Liaquat relentlessly speaks of many things; the sins that darken our times, the stories of the first Muslims who spread Islam with much persistence and inveteracy, and the singular need of acquiring Islamic knowledge.

Say what you want of Liaquat’s prior discrepancies, when it comes to putting on a remarkable religious talk show, he, with his firmness of purpose and vigour of action, remains the nation’s favourite poster-boy of all things deen (religious).

Vigour of action also, incidentally, brings us to our last award, an honorary mention for the little show that once could’ve been but is no more.  Hero TV, not one to play on small, passive beliefs decided to jump into the market of Ramazan talk shows with quite an active weapon.

A highly-circulated preview of “Astaghfaar” with the oft-celebrity, and always scandalous Veena Malik, led to heated debate and social media petitioning. The consequence of this angry backlash? A premature cancelling of the show before it aired (cue the tears of many adolescent males).

But all was not in vain because the 45 second, teary soliloquy laced with thought provoking innuendo continues to steadily climb in YouTube hits world over.

“Main karoon gee…aap ke saath…pooray Ramazan …”

Lets love Pakistan: a new resolution (VI)

18 minutes ago

Whatever we are, we’re mighty proud of it—just like we should be! PHOTO: AFP

Finally, after months of struggle and heaps of derision and negativity, I complete the challenge I laid out for myself last year: to compile a list of 65 things that make Pakistan so special.
I don’t know if I’m taking much away from this seemingly futile exercise, but one thing is certain: in a small, feel-good way, I think it has served its purpose by rekindling that flickering flame of patriotism and respect for the one certain thing in my life that is my country, my home, my Pakistan.
My dear Pakistan, may you live long and prosper.
51. The new wave of local English literati:
Pakistan had always been blessed with some great Urdu writers, but the country has recently started churning out a rather impressive squad of young English authors that have accrued much local and international interest. They have won rave reviews the world over, and in one much celebrated case, evening scoring a larger-than-life Hollywood movie deal. Bring on the local literature festivals!

52. Pakistan Armed Forces:
The seventh largest military force in the world in terms of active troops, Pakistan Armed Forces—which includes Pakistan Army, Pakistan Navy and Pakistan Air Force—have kept us safe and out of harm’s way through four full-fledged wars. It has also countered countless other polarised conflicts since our independence in 1947, and it’s time we get off our high horse and pay due respect to the thousands of jawans who’ve laid down their lives for us and this country.

53. Our charitable nature:
Someone once said that one of the measures of the goodness of a nation is its level of civil engagement. By that logic, I’m proud of the fact that we’re perhaps the most benevolent country in this part of the world! According to South Asian Investor Review, we lead the South Asian pack when it comes to charitable giving. We contribute around Rs150 billion—nearly 1% of the nation’s GDP—every year to some of 162 PCP certified NGOs that operate inside this poor, neglected country we call home.

54. Cheap herbal remedies and grandma’s infallible totkas:
Granted Zubaida Apa has somewhat ruined their charm for most people, but it’s really amazing how Pakistani grannies have a totka up their sleeve for literally everything. From runny noses and hair fall to revamping a week-old saalan to make it look fresh for tonight’s soiree; or manipulating the maasi into becoming a submissive robot; they know it all! Really, if you want help with it, granny’s got a totka for it!

55. Pakistani handicrafts:
From the iconic embroidered Kashmiri dresses, khussas (shoes), hand-painted earthenware of Multan to the famous bangles and rullis (block-printed shawls) of Hyderabad, Pakistani handicrafts are unique and breathtaking. They are very popular, both locally and among visiting foreigners. Incidentally, our textile and leather industries are second to none, too, despite the fact that they generate far more pride for Pakistanis than they do income!

56. Our hospitality:
We might dislike our next door neighbours and Amreekans with all our might for reasons that aren’t entirely unjustifiable. But let’s face it: we sure know how to put up an exemplary show of warmth, hospitality and cordiality if someone from either place—or any other country for that matter, especially if they’re fair-skinned and blonde!—should ever decide to visit.

57. Dr Abdus Salam:
He was the first and only Pakistani to win the esteemed Nobel Prize in physics for his contribution to the unification of electromagnetic and weak forces in 1979. It’s a pity Dr Abdus Salam didn’t live to see Pakistan become a nuclear state in 1998, but his legacy lives on. He is widely, and rightfully, remembered as an amazing human being and the undisputable father of Pakistan’s school of Mathematical and Theoretical Physics.

58. Badshahi Mosque:
Pakistan may not have inherited a lot of the historic monuments and buildings that made pre-partition India so special, but we’ve been extremely fortunate in the ones we did. This 15^th century marvel is one of them. Many other magnificent samples of Islamic-Persian-Hindustani infusions that were inherent to Mughal architecture that are sprinkled across the country. These are a testament to just that! Not only is Badshahi Mosque the second largest mosque in Pakistan and South Asia, it also holds the title of the fifth largest and one of the most visually attractive mosque in the world!

59. The Kalash valley and its beautiful people:
Claiming to be progenies of Alexander the Great, these indigenous people of Chitral are certainly as unique and marvellous as they look. With their rich cultural rituals, festivals, religious practices and those stunning long black iconic robes embroidered heavily with colourful beads and cowrie shells, the people of Kalash are one of a kind. And even though we, as a nation, might not have done much to preserve and revere this extraordinary community like it deserves, it’s still nice to know they’re there, and that they’re a part of Pakistan.

60. Our pride in our identity:
One of my readers pointed this out and I couldn’t agree more: We say we’re Middle Eastern but the Arabs say we’re Persian; Persians say we’re Afghan but the Afghans say we’re Indian… when all we really want—wish, rather—is to be some sort of gora!
The debate is never ending and usually ends in a heap of doubt and confusion… but one thing is clear: Whatever we are, we’re mighty proud of it—just like we should be!

61. The famous Anarkali in Lahore:
I’m sure Pakistan’s love for Anarkali bazaar’s food, clothes and traditional handicrafts has little to do with the fact that it happens to be the oldest surviving market of South Asia and one of the biggest business centers of the country. However, these facts do make this hub of our rich Lahori culture a very special Pakistani landmark indeed!

62. Minar-e-Pakistan:
This monumental minaret in Iqbal Park Lahore is a 200ft reminder of the official declaration to establish a separate homeland for the dejected Muslims of the Indian subcontinent. Today, when it’s not serving as a suicide hotspot for Lahoris, its purlieu seconds as a meeting ground for political revolutionaries and, well, sneaky couples out on daytime dates.

63. Our language:
The beautiful, special, accommodating language that is Urdu.

64. Our August 14 jazba:
It’s funny how we Pakistanis spend the 364 days up till August 14 every year. We are in a perpetual state of spite for the way things run in this country, and then miraculously develop a softer than soft spot for our beloved watan on the eve of the independence day. We virtually forget and forgive all the things we so despise and all ready to start afresh by singing and dancing and watching cheery TV shows like we’re either newborns with hope and patriotism in great abundance, or oldies with a severe case of dementia.

65. Finally, the man of the hour:
Yes, he was the man whose confidence gave a nation of crestfallen minions the best gift they could have wished for: hope. His multidimensional personality and astute political prowess earned us a home and identity. His good looks and unrivaled taste for fine things made him an absolute standout among his counterparts as well as in the league of legendary founding fathers (think George Washington and Mohandas Gandhi, both of whom pale in comparison!). This man left us three simple words and a gamut of lessons to live by… the man who left us all too soon: Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah, thank you, for everything!

PHOTO CREDIT: FILE/AFP/ISRARUL HAQ/MUHAMMAD JAVED/REUTERS/SUNARA NIZAMI/ABID NAWAZ/EXPRESS

We should try to achieve economic growth within the international economic and political system instead of trying to overturn it by taking on a superpower unnecessarily. PHOTO: REUTERS

US ties are not dispensable

Supporters of the Difa-e-Pakistan Council are bent on blocking Nato supplies. Rubbishing the possibility of any backlash from Western governments in the form of hostile trade policies and international isolation for Pakistan, they say the US is already a sunset superpower and that Pakistan should foster stronger trade ties with China and other emerging powers.

According to critics, two fully-fledged wars in the last decade have shaken the economic foundations of the US. However, when the US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were at their peak, its war-related expenses amounted to $125 billion a year, which is not even one per cent of the total size of the US GDP.

Also, while referring to its heavy defence spending, many people feel that America will soon crumble under its own military weight. What they fail to notice, however, is that US defence spending forms only 4.9 per cent of its GDP, which is hardly 0.6 per cent higher than that of China, according to CIA’s The World Factbook.

The reason for US’ unrivalled military power is that it rests on a solid economic base, which is reflected in the enormous size of its economy. It has been the world’s largest economy for the past 130 years and has been producing around one-quarter of the global GDP for the last six decades.

But what should we make of the claim that the United States is on the wane?

Businesses and technologies of the future, like nanotechnology and biotechnology, are all being developed in the US. While many Pakistanis never tire of pointing out the outsourcing of manufacturing operations from the US to Asia, they should take a closer look at profit margins. According to iSuppli Corporation — a market research firm — the bill of materials of an iPhone 4 (manufactured in China) in 2010 was $187.51 as opposed to its unsubsidised price of $600 in the US market. The stark difference between the manufacturing cost and the retail price makes clear that real money lies in branding and retail, which can prosper only in countries with higher per capita income.

America is Pakistan’s largest trading partner.

Our exports to the US were 128 per cent higher than those to China in 2011. The US is indeed indispensable for us. We should try to achieve economic growth within the international economic and political system instead of trying to overturn it by taking on a superpower unnecessarily.