Respected Sir,

It is agreed upon by many that Pakistan is passing through very difficult times. In the wake of the complex situation in the country, the role of uniformed services can not be neglected. Many of sons of soil are busy day and night to make sure that we stand respected among the nations of the world. In these endeavors to preserve our freedom and sovereignty, many have laid their lives. Among them, one of our Ex-Cadets from Cadet College Larkana (CCL), Maj. Mujahid Ali Mirani Shaheed is worthy of mention.

Maj. Mujahid Ali Mirani Shaheed joined CCL in 1994 as part of the third batch of College. Latter, after passing his Higher School Certificate Examination, joined Pakistan Army with 105 long Course. Having passed out from Pakistan Military Academy, he got commissioned and joined 07 AK as his unit. Allah Almighty had a great honor for him in his stock and he was destined to achieve the immortality.

Reportedly, it was the fateful night of 26-27 November, 2011, when a chopper of NATO tried to enter the premises of our motherland in Mahmand Agency near Silala check post. Maj. Mujahid Ali Mirani Shaheed was posted at Silala check post, who having seen this breach of territorial integrity of Pakistan, retaliated but there was no balance of power and around 25 soldiers including Maj. Mujahid Ali Mirani accepted martyrdom.

Maj. Mujahid Ali Mirani Shaheed was the one such brave son of soil who lost his life in the line of duty. He is an ideal for all those who love their country. Allah blessed him with martyrdom and he can be identified with the soldier who is referred in literature as true patriot.

Here, I will not consider it an exaggeration, if I say that he is the hero, we used to fantasize about after hearing motivational speeches and lectures back there at CCL. He is the first Shaheed of our alma mater who tried to prove his love for the country by presenting his life and fought till last drop of blood. He is the real pride of our country, province, area, his family and alma mater. No doubt, his life and death has potential to serve as a role model for the young blood of this nation generally and CCL specifically because he lived and learnt the ideals of scarifying his life at CCL.

Revered Sir, with this letter, I would like to request your attention and submit that it is the time when we ought to do something in order to pay tribute to this son of CCL. It will not be out of place if you name the Auditorium or a building or build a monument or at least name a road at CCL in the memory of Maj. Mujahid Ali Mirani Shaheed. This small gesture will go a long way in generating the spirit of sacrifice for the country among all those who are studying at CCL. Not doubt, Maj. Mujahid Ali Mirani Shaheed can serve as a real life example for those who are studying at CCL since he studied there and proved himself extra-ordinary by his great deed of laying his life for our beloved Country.

Sir, in last, I hope that you will ponder over my humble submission and wish that steps will be taken at CCL which will make the name of Maj. Mujahid Ali Mirani immortal among all those who are and will be studying at CCL.

I Thank you for your time.

Yours truly,

Having read all this, I can’t stop thinking about this important industry where we can make some progress. Pakistan is known as an Islamic country and we can step ahead in this sector to gain some benefits. It is not about the religious prejudice of any kind, it is about thinking innovative to identify markets that we can explore and exploit to our advantage. Mr. Mohammad further adds, “Islam teaches us that life is important but when in an emergency – or darurat (need) – and faced with a choice of life or death, the issue of whether a medicine is halal or haram is not of prime importance. What is important is your life, halal products need to be consumed if it is available.”

Here, our policy markers must come forward and give a serious thought to this important industry. I think, if we are jumping into this arena, our country can gain a good deal.

Image Credit: lil’ Sad Clown

True you are but what can I do? I am being told to behave that way since my childhood and I am giving it all in the name of safer prosperous life and I know it is not going to be the bed of roses.

I am glad that you accept it all by calling yourself a coward so what do you want now? Do you want to stay a coward or you want to move ahead in your life?

I dare not to break the shackles that are holding me from flying!

So, that it, go to hell…..!!!!!

Yes, the independent Pakistan and all the sacrifices our ancestors gave and went through all the brutalities by British Raj. How can we stop thinking of those mortal immortal of 1857 who suffered on our behalf. Don’t you think we have spoiled it all and in no time? Look back at our 60 years, martial law, martial law, martial law and again martial law? I don’t know when this cascade will stop. Can anybody tell me; are we there to see martial law only? What worse can happen to us after dismemberment of Pakistan, for God sake we already suffered the loss of our east wing, please stop acting stupid, don’t you have some respect for your country? We are no more interested in losing some other vital part of our country. You might be thinking that it’s easy to say and write all this by staying on an arm chair with a computer in front. True, we are a generation of couch potatoes, right???

It was former East Pakistan in first place; Sindh later, then came the turn of Balochistan with Bugtis and Marris and now in Swat with Islamic radicals. Gush….Enough is enough!!! Will you please tell me, why it is happening? I think it has deeper roots with far reaching consequences.

Do you really think that we are on the winning course? What America achieved out of Iraq and Afghanistan with all her might, nothing but dead bodies of her soldiers. What we are gaining out of Balochistan and NWFP, again the dead bodies, it is moving no where and this war is not a conventional war, it is war of ideologies where strategy is hit and run. Moral of our defense personnel is at all time low, why? The answer is simple, they feel like fighting against their own brethren, how can they find enemy with a Muslim and holding an ID of a Pakistani? Here you might ask that what makes the other side fight with such courage, it is simple, they feel like having a stronger cause, they are thinking that their fight is a fight to uphold the right and negate the wrong. Did you see the essential difference??? It is there and it will stay there. We need to think out of box to tackle these issues but it is not that easy to achieve. The solution lies with shifting paradigm of our rulers.

Now you might ask, to what are those shifts I am talking about? Many changes are required to deal this menace. Our policy makers and masterminds must consider the situation with ground realities in their minds. We can not simply do with out seeing things in Pakistani perspective; we need to prioritize our interests over the interest of international community, that’s the magic formula.

Being a student of International Relations, I know the slogan of inter-dependence and impossibility of isolationism but inter-dependence on cost of our own national interest is not legible. Don’t you think our rulers always stay ready to run an extra mile in want of a pet from global war mongers? It is high time now for them to think that they are not pets and they don’t need pets, if they need any pet, it should come from the nation in form of support for their popular policies.

Tail piece

I am feeling tired of thinking all this at the moment and I know you are bored too. I want to dream now to relieve myself of this agony. Do you enjoy dreaming??? If so, let’s dream together. I want to dream of a bright tomorrow when everything will just be fine. I want to see Quaid’s Pakistan, a Pakistan with peace, tranquility and harmony. I want to dream of a Pakistan that Faiz wanted to see while writing the anthem of democracy and freedom (Hum Dekhain Ga). I want to get lost in the words of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah who said in his historical speech to first constituent assembly of Pakistan and I quote,

“You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the State…Now I think we should keep that in front of us as our ideal and you will find that in course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State…I do not wish to take up any more of your time and thank you again for the honour you have done to me. I shall always be guided by the principles of justice and fairplay without any, as is put in the political language, prejudice or ill-will, in other words, partiality or favouritism. My guiding principle will be justice and complete impartiality, and I am sure that with your support and co-operation, I can look forward to Pakistan becoming one of the greatest nations of the world.”

If you like reading my posts, you must consider subscribing to my feed via email or reader.

The blogshpere is full of tips and strategies to ensure the SEO of your content but when I searched for posts related to SEO in Pakistani blogshpere, I was disappointed. It may be possible that certain bloggers are following some techniques but they are not sharing their experiences on their blogs publicly. I don’t know why???

The other day, I read this post by SAJ Shirazi about monetizing blogs and was quite impressed with it. SAJ appears sharing a lot of his valuable experiences and this post is a testimony to his this habit. Let’s get back to SEO thing.

My attention to SEO was drawn by a fellow blogger Qurratulain when I commented on her this post and she replied. Her reply was the tip that I followed and found this monster of SEO that is devouring if not all, then a lot of my time. Qurratulain appears a seasoned blogger too and I am learning few good things from her (though in stealth mode till this post).

Here, Teeth Maestro is also worthy of mention since this post on his blog about blog traffic provided me a great deal of insight about the delicacies of blogging and I made this wise decision of purchasing my web hosting plan and registering a domain.

Going through all this makes me think that how things are inter-linked. Qurratulain’s reply clicked my mind, I started searching for related stuff, learnt couple of things about SEO, Teeth Maestro provided me the insight, SAJ Shirazi impressed me with his helping attitude and I learnt a great deal. While writing all this, I am sure they are not aware of what I am thinking or feeling about them and I am sure they would have remained as such but I felt obliged to say it loud since I can’t wait too long to say all the good things about them till they die (fellows don’t mind, I sincerely pray for your long life). See, how this life is!

The word life use to trigger strong emotions in me. As soon as I typed the last words in above paragraph, I felt myself sighing. I think I am in a mood of getting carried away so it’s better to end my post here. At the moment, I am trying few things out and will write about them soon for that matter you need to come back again. How about subscribing to my feed via email or your feed reader to get all my future post (though I am not as good as so many of my other fellow bloggers but I guarantee that I will not bore you atleast)?

And yes the most important thing, thank you SAJ Shirazi, Qurratulain, Teeth Maestro for helping me and so many others around!!!

Those of you, who are familiar with this site of an urban pre-historic Asian city, must know that it’s located at a distance of approximately 24 kilometers from Larkana, Sindh, Pakistan. Larkana is a town in upper Sindh. Apart from Mohenjo Daro, Larkana is famous in Pakistan and abroad for being home to two seasoned Pakistani politicians; former Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and his daughter Benazir Bhutto. She too is a former Pakistani Prime Minister . I will talk about this aspect of Larkana in some other post; at the moment, let’s get back to Mohenjo Daro.

When I was a student back there in Larkana, we use to pay visits to Mohenjo Daro almost every then and now. In fact at times, we use to jog to Mohenjo Daro and back every morning for weeks. I stayed in Cadet College for 5 years feeling the presence of such a great place nearby. It offered me a deep sense of association with our ancient past. This post is an attempt to re-visit Mohenjo Daro in my sweet memories.

Mohenjo Daro came to limelight after 1922 when R.D. Banerji, an officer of the Archeological Survey of India discovered it. Latter, John Marshall, K.N. Dilkshit, Ernest Mackay and numerous other officers of Archeological Survey carried out excavations through 1930s. At the moment, further excavations are banned due to problems related to conservation of the exposed site. The last project of excavation was carried out in 1964-65 by Dr. G. F. Dales.

History

Mohenjo Daro was built around 2600 and abandoned around 1700 BC. This city belongs to Indus Valley Civilization (IVC); the other name of this Civilization is the “Harappan Civilization”. The Indus Valley Civilization is considered as one of the very well developed ancient Civilizations that existed on the face of earth. This civilization was located on the banks of river Indus in Pakistan and north-west of India. Two most developed and urban cities of this Civilization were Mohenjo Daro and Harappa.

The City

The ancient city of Mohenjo Daro sometimes called Moenjo Daro (Mound of Death) was very well planned and urban in it’s out look. The ruins of the buildings are suggestive of a very well organized social system with castes dealing with different trades and crafts. Important building structures include the great bath the remains of a university, the market place and granary. The people of then Mohenjo Daro were experts and the construction of great bath is a testimony to their expertise. It has very well built pool with stair leading downwards, in fact it is reported that the pool was lined with natural tar to avoid leaks. Apart from this, the world’s first urban sanitation plan can be witnessed operating in Mohenjo Daro even in pre-historic era.

My Visits to Mohenjo Daro

As I told you earlier, I lived in Larkana for almost 13 years, initially, as a student at Cadet College Larkana and latter, as a medical student at Chandka Medical College Larkana. My stay in Larkana offered me numerous chances to visit Mohenjo Daro. We use to go there and enjoy being near to our ancient pre-historic past. Many a times I use to stay in the rest house for night or two since my best friend’s father was project director of Mohenjo Daro and he used to help us in getting place to stay. I do have many vivid memories as if, it is just yesterday that I am back from Mohenjo Daro and writing all this. To me among all, my last visit to site is worthy of mention.

It was New Year night that we planned to spend it at Mohenjo Daro. All arrangements were made and our group left. We wanted to bid the last sun of 2004 good bye there at Mohenjo Daro. We went to bank of river Indus and happened to see the beautiful scene of sun, setting slowly and it felt as if I am seeing a dream. Everything appeared gold plated. I can still feel the cold of a December evening blended with soothing warmth of setting sun. It was one of those moments that I will never forget. Latter we came back and started the party, dancing and singing. At around 11:00 pm we went out. It was dead silent, pitch black and chilling cold outside. We were having plans to enjoy Bar B.Q. and the plan got executed. We were like shivering out of cold but we enjoyed every bit of it. In this way the time passed, we stepped in New Year. Latter, we came back to our rooms and kept chatting for rest of the time.

Though known as a cliché at the moment but very well said that thing of beauty is a joy for ever. Having all those beautiful memories residing in my mind, I never feel unhappy and they keep me cheerful. So, I will suggest you to have few for your well being too.

Kazim is son of Haji Munawar Ali Abbasi the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MPA from Larkana Sindh and nephew of Senator Safdar Abbasi. He is one of my closest friends and our frienship has roots in Cadet College Larkana. After completing his Higher Secondary School level (HSC) he joined the legal fraternity and it came to my knowledge today that he got arrested few days back while protesting against the proclamation of Emergency in Pakistan. Being very close to him, I know it for sure that it was not about anything else but his principles that he is facing all this. Moreover, the list of arrested workers of PPP is not showing his name so its quite evident that he is on jail journey in his individual capacity asserting his support to the suffering of us all.

(You can find other updates regarding situation in Pakistan on Awab’s blog by clicking here.)

What else I could say? Few days back I had imposed a bar on myself not to post about anything related to state of emergency in Pakistan but having heard this news I was not able to stop myself from writing all this. I want to ask a question, How long they will keep our mouths shut? I will not write more but will dedicate a poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz to Kazim and all the others who are suffering by watering their commitments:

Hum Dekhain Gay
We shall see
Lazim Hai ke hum Bhi Dekhain Gay
It is necessary that we shall also see
Woh Din ke Jis ka Wadah Hai
That day which has been promised
Jo Loh-e-Azl pe Likha hai
Which is written with God’s ink
Hum Dekhain Gay
We shall see

Jab Zulm-o-Sitam ke Koh-e-garaan
When the mountains of cruelty and torture
Ruii ki Tarah Urd Jain Gay
Will fly like pieces of cotton
Hum Mehkumoon ke Paun Talay
Under the feet of the governed
Yeh Dharti Dhard Dhard Dhardkay gi
This earth will quake
Aur Ehl-e-Hukum ke Sar Uper
And over the head of the ruler
Jab Bijli kard Kard Kardke gi
When lightening will thunder
Hum Dekhain Gay
We shall see

Jab Arz-e-Khuda ke kabay se
When from God’s Mecca
Sab but Uthwaaiy Jain gay
All the idols will be shattered
Hum Ehl-e-Safa Mardood-e-Haram
Us people standing in the mosque
Masnad pe Bithaaiy jain gay
Will be elevated to a higher platform
Sab Taaj Uchalay jain gay
All the crowns will be tossed
Sab Takht Giraaiy Jain gay
All the thrones will be toppled

Bas Naam rahay Ga Allah ka
Then only God’s name will remain
Jo Ghayab Bhi hai Hazir Bhi
Who is both absent and present
Jo nazir bhi hai manzar bhi
Who is both the observer and the view itself
Uthay ga Analhaq ka Naara
When the anthem of truth will be raised
Jo Main bhi Hun aur Tumbhi ho
Who I am and you are as well
Aur Raaj karay gi khalq-e-Khuda
And the people of God will reign
Jo main bhi hun aur tum bhi ho
Who I am and you are as well

Hum Dekhain Gay
We shall see
Lazim Hai ke hum Bhi Dekhain Gay
It is necessary that we shall also see
Hum Dekhain Gay
We shall see

Translated by Ayesha Kaljuvee

Update 1: One of my friends visited Kazim in central jail Karachi. He told me that authorities agreed on his conditional release provided, he signs the undertaking to not to participate in any such activity and beg the pardon. Kazim, being a conscientious fellow, didn’t accept any such offer.

Update 2: Found the link to HRCP blog. It is carrying the list of Lawyers kept in Karachi Central Jail. This list has mentioned the name of Kazim. For complete list click here

Update 3: At last Kazim is out of Karachi central jail. I will try to get hold of him and will write his story if possible.