Dear Farrukh Sahab,

when I visited your blog recently, I found that you have written a piece of article on the sad demise of Mr Safwat. While writing the title of the article, you have clearly maintained that Mr Sifwat “accepted martyr doom”.

I respect your opinion if you wish to categorize him as a martyr, but at the same time, I would like to share with you another pieces of articles which may convince you to review your decision of calling him as a martyr. Dear Farrukh Sahab, I strongly recommend you to please read these two articles on following links.

Shaheed, an Exploited Word

A Cause Worth Dying for

I hope that after reading these articles, you will prefer reaching a rational decision instead of an emotional one.

God bless you.

Dear Sikandar Sahab,

I hope you are doing fine and are in best of your health.

I happened to gather your point of view about ‘use of word martyrdom’ for demise of anyone, in the light of two Articles (part of same series) you recommended written by worthy Amar Jaleel and published with Daily Dawn on September 17 and 24, 2006 respectively.

Here, I would like to put forward that Mr. Amar Jaleel has rightly pointed out that the word Martyrdom is misused by a lot of people specially in countries like Pakistan. Moreover, I feel like agreeing with Mr. Jaleel in his definition of Martyrdom who writes in one of his articles:

A person earns the status of a shaheed, a martyr, when he dies fighting against the evil forces either in the way of his God or for his country or for a noble cause.

And at some other point in the other article Mr. Jaleel further defines his concept of martyrdom:

Martyrdom is a great honour that a Muslim achieves if the cause for which he gives his life happens to be noble, it serves humanity and is overall praised….Shahadat is a distinction that never comes effortlessly to every person….In conventional Sufi doctrine, any person, irrespective of his faith, attains martyrdom when he dies while performing a noble act.

Having understood the concept of ‘Martyrdom’ and problems of usage of word ‘Martyr’, lets apply this concept in case of ‘sad demise’ of Mr. Sifwat Ghayur.

when I visited your blog recently, I found that you have written a piece of article on the sad demise of Mr Safwat. While writing the title of the article, you have clearly maintained that Mr Sifwat “accepted martyr doom”…I respect your opinion if you wish to categorize him as a martyr, but at the same time, I would like to share with you another pieces of articles which may convince you to review your decision of calling him as a martyr.

In my point of view, Martyrdom was the right word for Mr. Ghayur’s death since I am not able to find any better word to suit the description of his demise because:

1. He was a honest and humble man serving the nation selflessly (in light of Sufi Doctrine of Martyrdom).
2. His actions had a strong impact on the well being of the people of the area and humanity in broader context.
3. His cause was noble.
4. He was fighting the evil forces for his country.

And he died while performing the above mentioned acts selflessly. One might claim that he was doing his ordinary job for which he was getting paid, but those who knew Sifwat Ghayur, knew it as well that his work was more than ordinary policing job for which he was getting paid with a meager salary.

I hope that after reading these articles, you will prefer reaching a rational decision instead of an emotional one.

Dear, when I categorized Mr. Ghayur as Martyr, my such act was not emotional in anyway. Further, after reading both the articles you happened to recommend, I am more than convinced that he accepted Martyrdom in both religious and Sufi contexts.

Lastly, I would like to Thank you for your candid analysis and starting this healthy discussion. I don’t know if I was able to communicate my humble point of reference while calling Mr. Ghayur a martyr. I am not sure if you find it agreeable or not (and you have every right to disagree), but I would say that for those who knew Mr. Sifwat Ghayur, his ‘Martyrdom’ was a great loss to Pakistani nation.

The Discussion Continues

Dear Farrukh Sahab,

I regret to inform you that I disagree with your contention for calling an on-duty police man as a martyr.

I am surprised that why the words of Amar Jaleel did not catch your attention when he writes,

“In conventional Sufi doctrine, any person, irrespective of his faith, attains martyrdom when he dies while performing a noble act. If a person dies while rescuing trapped men, women and children from a blazing building, he invariably attains martyrdom. He was not a paid fireman. Rescuing people from flames was not his duty. He was a passer-by. He saw children surrounded by leaping flames. In the spur of a moment, he plunged into the burning building and saved a few lives before he himself was burnt to ashes. In his death he attains martyrdom.”

(This indicates that a person performing a duty, however honestly, can not be called as martyr because he was being paid for it no matter how meagerly)

Amar Jaleel clearly argues again, “Unfortunately, dying in the performance of paid duties, no doubt a gallant way of dying is mixed-up with shahadat.”

I was further disappointed that you had conveniently drawn para-meters of why Mr Sifwat should be called as a martyr. You did it without realizing what the worthy writer says about drawing parameters of martyrdom.

He writes, “It is not at all possible to draw parameters, inculcate conditions and device principles for attaining martyrdom. The hallmark of martyrdom is that it is achieved without eyeing for rewards either in this world and the world hereafter.”

(Even a lay man knows that a law enforcement personnel tries to perform well in order to get rewards from his or her seniors. Mr Sifwat had received a number of medals for his participation in going against the militants. This shows that he was looking for rewards and medals. But, a martyr on the contrary, does not have any greed for such rewards and medals.)

Finally, Mr Amar Jaleel says, “A pickup carrying law enforcing personnel turns turtle and falls in a ditch. A few of the personnel die in the accident. The news agencies bestow upon them the honour of martyrdom.”

(I think no other argument of Mr Jaleel is stronger than this when he calls news  agencies tempering the title of Martyr for the law enforcement personnel).

To me and Mr Jaleel, Mr Sifwat is not a martyr because:

1. He was being paid for his official duties.
2. The track record of his service conveys that he was fond of achieving medals, awards and promotions. What he did, he did not do it selflessly, but for a clear motive of attaining medals, awards and promotions.
3. Apart from official duties, Mr Sifwat is not reported to have done anything on his own against militants. What he did, he did it while using official perks and privileges. A martyr on the other hand does all his best on his own without the support from any other side.

Farrukh Sahab, you are still entitled for your right to disagree with me or with Mr Amar Jaleel. Moreover, you may be knowing more than me about “Policing” because you yourself are a police man, with such a background, you may be in a good position to reach a rational decision.

Thank you for your time.
Take care. And have a good day!

My Response

Dear Sikandar Sahab,

Hope you are doing fine.

I am glad that once again you did a candid analysis of my take. Well, I still disagree with your frame of reference (since your point of view is an out come of ‘frame of reference’).

Apart from this, I am still ‘on board’ with worthy Amar Jaleel and find him on my side (another beauty of a prolific writer that we both are referring to his writings and getting two different meanings ). I think, the difference of opinion between you and me, based on reading of same piece of writing, is an out come of our different sets of experiences and to me it is justifiable and fair.

Therefore, I feel like stopping here in exchange of this healthy argument.

Further, I would recommend you to please try finding some material on Sifwat Ghayyur and work done by him selflessly; you might consider interviewing some his junior and Senior colleagues or others related to him, only than you will be able to realize to what sort of person he remained throughout his life.

I wish you all the best and God bless you.

This Article was originally Published by Daily Dawn Karachi. The Writer of the Article is Ismail Khan and we are publishing it as guest post for our reader

The bugle was blown. A gun-salute rang in the air as the casket was lowered into the grave. At that moment the tears could no longer be held back as memories flashed through my head like the reel of a film: Safwat Ghayyur’s hearty laugh, his characteristic way of lighting up his cigarette, the way his eyes would crinkle up when he teased me about this or that.

Safwat had never hankered after a job or a particular post. An excellent police officer, the best postings dropped into his lap. But the Frontier Constabulary was one force that he wanted to command. “The force is in a bad shape. It is badly demoralised”, he told me.

So when the opportunity presented itself in December 2009 he took up the job without a second thought for his personal welfare.

Even though just a couple of months earlier in September he had sought to be relieved of his job as the Deputy Inspector General of Peshawar Range and the Capital City Police Chief of Peshawar for medical reasons –- under pressure from his family, friends and well wishers.

He was suffering from hepatitis -– a disease he had contracted because of a blood transfusion he was given after a bullet pierced his left shoulder following a shootout with an outlaw in Mardan in 1997.

At that time, he was the Assistant Inspector General, Traffic, NWFP, and had no business being part of a shoot out.

But Safwat being Safwat, he joined the force that had encircled a criminal in an encounter.It was a crippling wound for the left-handed Safwat.

The unaware doctor who operated on Safwat’s shoulder thought he was consoling his patient when he said “the good news is that it was your left shoulder that has been hit.” The quick-witted Safi retorted, “And the bad news is that I am left handed.”

But the real bad news was unbeknown to Safi then. Over a decade later, the old bullet wound came back to haunt him in the form of hepatitis C, when he was hunting down militants in the Peshawar region as the DIG/CCP, Peshawar Range.

He was a relentless man, who took his job very seriously. And therefore, when routine medical tests revealed the infectious disease, Safi called his doctor in Rawalpindi for the medicines over the phone.

A frustrated Dr Amir Bilal, a cardiothoracic surgeon and Safi’s brother-in-law said that Safi should have been in Rawalpindi for the medical check-up. “But he can’t even be bothered to take time off from his work to go as far as Hashtnagri,” Amir Bilal said, referring to a locality in the old part of Peshawar City.

Dr Amir was worried because Safi was not responding to his treatment. His platelets level had dropped and any wound from a bullet or flying shrapnel from a bomb explosion could have proved fatal for Safwat.

But then Safwat was not an armchair police officer; he never had been. And this worried his friends and relatives. He was a man who led from the front. He liked to be with his troops, rain or sunshine.

He would spend nights with his men in tents in far-away wilderness, swim through the cold river Kabul during the frosty winters drills and sweat it out in humid summers.

A real officer, who believed in action, he had no respect for colleagues who would avoid hot-zones. In his words, the “talcum-powdered, starched-uniform wearing officers.”

An MP-5 slinging from his shoulder and a wireless radio in his hand, he would always be in the forefront. No wonder then that those who cared and knew about his conditions realised that a bullet or shrapnel wound was a real possibility. It caused them nightmares.

Very few people knew in fact that six units of platelets were always kept for him in the blood bank which had to be replaced with fresh blood after every five days; the shelf life of platelets. But Safi was undeterred.

He even declined an offer from Chief Minister Akram Hoti to seek medical treatment abroad. He was too busy carrying out operations against the militants in Peshawar, the Frontier Regions and even as far as Kala Dhaka.

But while the undeterred police officer was winning the battle against militancy in the Peshawar region, the man was losing the battle against the disease. “Handsome!” (his way of addressing his friends), he would says, “One day, you will hear that your brother is no more.”

I never saw him snap under pressure. But he did feel the heat when, following an attack on the Pearl Continental Hotel, Peshawar in June last year, a whispering campaign of sorts was initiated against him.

This upset him in a way that the death threats from the Taliban against him and his family -– a wife and two kids -– did not. “I have put my life on the line and those of my family. I am not going to tolerate any talk,” a seemingly angry Safwat told me.

He was a no-nonsense, blunt man, who never shied away from calling a spade as spade, often to the embarrassment of his seniors, some of whom had no love lost for him either.

Safwat had always had a penchant for intelligence operations, something he developed a passion for while serving as the AIG, Criminal Investigation Department (CID). And he was not an ordinary criminal investigator. His work would at times take him across the border into Afghanistan.

He was probably the only police officer of his generation in Pakistan to have complete knowledge of the various militant groups and their training camps in Afghanistan including those run and operated by Osama bin Laden and his associates.

This even got him in trouble with security and intelligence apparatus and a series of inquiries were launched against him. But he was always cleared.

After interrogating a rabid anti-Shia militant he had captured in 1995, he sent a report to the government, asking for a “dispassionate review” of Pakistan’s policy of patronising the various militants groups. “These are nameless, faceless people”, he would say then. “One day, these chickens will come home to roost.”

But then Safwat’s encounters with militants started back in the 90s, with local ones as well as foreigners, when he was SSP, Peshawar.

Then he rounded up hundreds of foreign militants, after Islamabad ordered a crackdown following an attack on the World Trade Centre in New York which was traced to a Peshawar-based group led by Ramzi Yousaf.

Later, in April 1997, he planned and executed Operation Garbage Dump to flush out a group of foreign militants holed up inside a compound in Jalozai just outside of Peshawar.

That and his four years of stint at the Intelligence Bureau proved handy for him when he took over as the DIG/CCP Peshawar Range to confront the surging militancy. And he did it by first improving the sagging morale of his police force.

He was a good commander, who would take pains to look after his men; he knew most of them by name. He was a strict disciplinarian and tough task master, who took duty and professional matters very seriously.

But he was no less a human being in his personal life. The super cop, who was always on the trail of hardened criminals, kidnappers and terrorists, was also an elder brother and a dependable friend. Hardly a day would go by, when we would not meet or speak — this had been so for almost two decades.

I knew he was on the hit list of the militants but it never occurred to me that one day, I would be standing beside his grave, looking down at his coffin. That one day, I would bid him farewell forever.

He knew he was losing the fight against the disease. But I am certain that he too would have chosen to die with his boots on than to lose life’s battle against a disease.

The hero, who was killed in a suicide attack on Aug 4 in Peshawar, has now joined the galaxy of the many other illustrious stars of our proud police force -– Malik Mohammad Saad, Abid Ali, Khan Raziq and so many others.

Courtesy: Dawn

Siffat Ghayur was a brave man, honest officer and a great commander. He had a strong faith in leading from front and was one of the leading officers dealing terrorism in Khyber Pakhtunkwa.

He started his career as an ASP in Peshawar and remained CCPO of Peshawar as well. He served in National Police Academy too. His subordinates used to look up to him as an exemplary officer.

Police Service of Pakistan mourns the loss of a brave son. We offer our condolences to on his Shahadat to his family for this irreparable loss. Please extend Fateha for Esal-o-Sawab.

A Video Clip the News of Martyrdom

A Clip of one of his tasks he accomplished with Bravery

Few individuals significantly alter the course of history. Fewer still modify the map of the world. Hardly anyone can be credited with creating a nation-state. Mohammad Ali Jinnah did all three.

He truly was a person who created a nation state and today we are proud Pakistanis. At the moment, few things are not in order but still we are progressing and will not stop. We need to take inspiration from his sayings and speeches and here, I would like to quote one that is pretty relevant when it comes to Public Service:

Service is backbone of the state. Governments are formed, Government is defeated, Prime Ministers come and go, but you stay on, and, therefore, there is a very great responsibility placed on your shoulders.

He was a visionary and it will not be out of place to remark that his character was legendary. His place in history of our nation is unique and we must seek inspiration from him to make our beloved country ever stronger.

The today’s bomb blasts is something that belongs to a series of such blasts in major cities of Pakistan. The other day, Rawalpindi witnessed one such occasion. In this hour of worry and grief, we need to send a strong signal to those who are involved in such cowardly activities. We as a nation must make it clear to these elements that we are united and will not let anyone mar the name of our nation.

Lastly, I would like to pay homage to all the Shuhada Karam who have accepted martyrdom in these blasts and other such incidences. May Peace Prevail in Pakistan! May Peace Prevail on Earth!

Images Courtesy : Muhammad Ali Jinnah

This is with reference to your investigative report published in ‘The News’ on November 25, 2008, on jacked-up marks, from 640 t0 661 by re-assessing of answer sheets, of Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar’s daughter in FSc Pre-medical exams, which lead to her admission to a private medical college, controversially.

First, I would like to appreciate you, in special, and the whole team of ‘The News Investigation Cell’, in general, for unearthing this story to highlight academic corruption and dacoity by the high-ups of the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Islamabad. No doubt, this was an excellent piece of investigative work, which not only posed threat to all the corrupt high officials and influential lot of this country, but also set an example and paved way for investigative journalism in the native soil in one or the other way. Now from today, all such people would think one thousand times at least before committing this type of corrupt and ill practices whatsoever.

Secondly, I would like to ask you, Mr Ansar Abbasi, as to how re-assessing of answer books, raise in marks and admission of Farah Hameed Dogar, the daughter of the Chief Justice of Pakistan, to a private medical college on a seat reserved for judges ‘became a mass denial of rights of thousands of students throughout the country’. In fact this jacked-up result hasn’t denied the right of even a single student, or only one, if it has done so, as had Farah not been awarded this set of 21 marks, that seat would have been remained either vacant because this was the seat reserved for judges’ kin, or any other, but only one, daughter or son of any other retired or serving judge would have been given admission to that medical college. So, it will not be unfair to mention here that you exaggerated the facts to create sensationalism and hit your ‘target’ unethically and hence justified those allegations leveled against the media that journalists and anchorpersons create sensationalism in the country by exaggerating the things and distorting the facts altogether. True, the CJ Dogar’s daughter has been given marks illegally, but this was not ‘mass denial of rights of thousands of students’ as you mentioned in your report in anyway in fact.

Secondly, I would like to ask you, Mr Ansar Abbasi, that tens of reporters work under the ‘Editor Reporting’ and the ‘Chief Reporter’ in ‘The News’, but credit of every story does not go to ‘Editor Reporting’ or ‘Chief Reporter’, rather it goes to the reporter who goes out in the field to collect facts and data. But, it is surprising to see that credit of every investigative story by ‘The News Investigation’ goes lonely to you in the byline of the story, despite this fact that scores of journalists work in the ‘Investigation Cell’ of the newspaper and work to unearth stories published. Is not this mass denial of right of scores of journalists by you, the top journalist, in real sense? Yes, it is.

Thirdly, I would suggest you, the noted journalist, to give due coverage to stories demanding abolishment of reserved seats in medical colleges. Had you launched campaign against reserved seats and quota system in medical colleges well in time with such a full strength, as you did in this case, this would have been proved very helpful and advantageous to scores of students regarding admission to medical colleges.

Fourthly, but not finally, I would like to give a few tips to you, Mr Ansar Abbasi, to unearth other stories and facts, which would bring real face of media, the so-called ‘eyes and ears’ of this society before nation. You should investigate as to which group of newspapers purchased land and plazas for their offices for how much money and what was the actual land value at those places at that time. Moreover, you should also investigate which group of newspapers paid how much money as monthly utility bills of their offices in different cities and paid how much income tax yearly for last 30 years. Furthermore, probe into the matter as to which politicians and businessmen pay monthly utility bills of which journalists on ‘give and take’ basis.

Finally, the principled and praiseworthy journalist! You should also report as to how much money press clubs and lands for press clubs in each and every city in every nook and corner of this homeland was acquired right from the day of Independence.

All these stories will be real eye-openers for everyone of us, including journalists, as well.

But I’m sure; you, the honest and truthful reporter, will not touch these stories in the ‘larger interest of the nation’.

Samia,

Kharian Cantt.

Disclaimer: This Letter is neither the representative of Silence’s nor of Dr. Farrukh Malik’s stand on the matter under question.

India and Pakistan are at daggers drawn since beginning, three wars, other limit strikes and counter strikes are something routine by now. Every then and now both countries conflict around and things get back to normal. In many a cases when election are nearby, on either side, politician tend to gain mileage by creating some puppet show and resulting irreparable losses. When we will keep this thing in our mind, we will conclude that this paper is more a cheap propaganda stunt by writer and those behind him for some political motive.

Apart from this, if we will look at the recommendations, we will easily gather that in majority of cases, the author has based his argument on Utopian elements instead of concrete facts and sounds over ambitious. For my readers,  I am publishing the content here:

Economic destabilisation of the Terror Central is imperative for rooting out terror.

I did not anticipate the huge response my inbox received for the article last week (December 2) slamming Pakistan. Many of those who wrote in have sought concrete steps to tackle the Terror Central. The terror attack on world citizens at Mumbai has created revulsion and outrage all over the world. It is imperative that India seize the opportunity provided to destabilise Pakistan.

A stable Pakistan is not in the interest of world peace, leave alone India. Army controls the country and owns its economy. A significant portion of its GDP is due to army-controlled entities (See Military Inc Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy by Ayesha Siddiqa; OUP; 2007). One can easily say that Pakistan Economy and its Army/ISI are synonymous.

Unless this elementary fact is internalised, we are not going anywhere. This implies we should stop talking of a stable Pakistan since a stable Pakistan means multiple attacks on many more cities of India by that rogue organisation ISI, which is the core of the Pakistan Army and the heart of Pakistan’s economy.

Let us not even assume that Zardari is in control. Poor man – he did not trust his own investigators to probe his wife’s assassination – he wanted Scotland Yard to do the job. Now he blabbers that if his investigators are satisfied, then he will initiate action against terrorists sitting inside Pakistan. Periodically, the Pakistan Army likes to present some useful idiots (as Lenin would have called them) as elected representatives and we swoon over such events.

India should take the following steps to destabilise the economy of Pakistan:

Identify the major export items of Pakistan (like Basmati rice, carpets etc) and provide zero export tax or even subsidise them for export from India. Hurt Pakistan on the export front.

Identify the major countries providing arms to Pakistan and arm twist them. Tell Brazil and Germany (currently planning to supply massive defense items to Pakistan) that it will impact their ability to invest in India. Tell Germany that retail license to Metro will be off and other existing projects will be in jeopardy.

Incidentally, after the arrival of Coke and Pepsi in China, the human rights violations of China are not talked about much by US government organs. Think it is a coincidence? Unless we use our markets to arm-twist arms exporters to Pakistan, we will not achieve our objectives.

Tell American companies that for every 5% increase in FDI limit for them, their government needs to reduce equipping Pakistan by $5 billion. That is real politics, not whining. Let us remember that funds are in desperate search of emerging markets and not the other way about. Let us also remember that international economics is politics by another name.

Create assets to print/distribute their currency widely inside their country. To some extent, Telgi types can be used to outsource this activity. Or just drop their notes in remote areas.

Pressurise IMF to add additional conditionality to the loans given to them or at least do not vote for their loans.

Create assets within Pakistan to destabilise Karachi Stock market – it is already in shambles.

Cricket and Bollywood are the opium of the Indian middle classes. Both have been adequately manipulated/ controlled by the D-company since the eighties. Chase the D-company money in cricket/ Bollywood and punish by burning D-assets in India instead of trying to have them auctioned by the IT department when nobody comes to bid for it.

Provide for capital punishment to those who fund terror and help in that. We have the division in the finance ministry to monitor money laundering, etc. It is important that terror financing is taken seriously and fully integrated into money laundering monitoring systems and this division is provided with much larger budget and human resources. And it should coordinate with RAW.

Encourage and allow scientists/ academicians/ elites of Pakistan to opt for Indian passport and widely publicise that fact since it will hurt their self-respect and dignity. There will be a long queue to get Indian passports — many will jump to get our passport — since they will not be stopped at international airports. It is rumoured that Adnan Sami wants one. Do not give passports to all — make it a prized possession. Let it hurt the army and ISI controlled country. This one step will destroy their identity and self-confidence.

Discourage companies from India from investing in Pakistan, particularly IT companies, till Pakistan stops exporting its own IT (international terrorism).

In all these, it is important that we do not bring in the domestic religious issues. The target is the terror central, namely Pakistan, and if there are elements helping them here then they also should be punished-irrespective of religious labels. If Pakistan is dismantled and the idea of Pakistan is gone, many of our domestic issues will also be sorted out.

Will the Indian elite go for the jugular or just light more candles and scream at the formless/ nameless political class before TV cameras? It is going to be a long haul and may be in a decade or so, we can find a solution to our existential crisis of being attacked by barbarians from the West. We need to combine strategy and patience and completely throw to the dustbin the ‘Gujral Doctrine’ by that mumbling Prime Minister about treating younger brothers with equanimity.

The doctrine essentially suggests that if we are slapped on both the cheeks we should feel bad that we do not have a third cheek to show. He, according to security experts, seems to have dismantled our human intelligent assets inside Pakistan, which has resulted in the gory death of thousands of Indian citizens in the last few years. Such is our strategic thinking in this complex world since our political class is not adequately briefed and the elite don’t think through issues. Better to be simple in our talks and vicious in our actions rather than the other way.

Hopefully, this November attack will create a new vibrant India capable of taking care of its own interests.

The writer is professor of finance and control, Indian Institute of Management – Bangalore, and can be reached at vaidya@iimb.ernet.in. Views are personal.

Share This ]]> http://drfarrukhmalik.com/blog/2008/12/10/twelve-steps-to-shock-and-awe-pakistan%e2%80%99s-economy/feed/ 0 http://drfarrukhmalik.com/blog/2008/11/29/pakistani-youth-and-css-pakistan/ http://drfarrukhmalik.com/blog/2008/11/29/pakistani-youth-and-css-pakistan/#comments Fri, 28 Nov 2008 20:55:43 +0000 Dr Farrukh Malik http://drfarrukhmalik.com/blog/?p=628 Few moments back, when I happened to check comments by my readers, I came accross a very strong piece about Civil Services of Pakistan. This comment by a reader of mine named Sanna left me thinking.…