FL Strikes Again

MM will be the end of FL. Just when you thought that FL would have learnt to keep his mouth shut, he comes out with the best of them all. In an interview with the Washington Post, he says and I quote

"..you must understand the environment in Pakistan, this has become a money-making concern. A lot of people say if you want to go abroad and get a visa for Canada or citizenship and be a millionaire, get yourself raped" unquote.

Bravo!!!

Both FL and his flunkeys have been trying to undo the damage by doing the following

1. Denial. He never said this.
2. Misquoted. It was quoted out of context, FL said he heard this remark somewhere, he was just quoting.
blah blah

My dear FL, you should know the fundamental rule of combating "foot in the mouth disease" which is "When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging."

In the meanwhile, Washington Post says it stands by its story, they even have it taped and say they quoted his comments verbatim.

Another major blunder dear FL! My advice to you is to keep quiet, this too shall pass. Its not as if you have to get elected by the NGOs. You can always have "fair and transparent" elections when they happen again and become the supreme commander of everything, the president, prime minister, even a nazim, if you so desire. And according to you, Bush and the Canadian PM don't really care if you are in or out of uniform, etc. etc. Everyone can see that it is our holy father who sits in the Oval Office, who is the relevant authority on whether the President of our country is a general in uniform, so why even bother with the lesser mortals like the citizens of this country?

Read an interesting article today which drew parallels between the feudal society that FL is trying to rid us of by his Enlightened Moderation, and the response of his government and himself. Lets say there is a patriarchal society where a crime like rape is committed. The feudal lord will punish or not punish the perpetrator and make sure that the news doesn't leak out, because it means loss of honour if the outside world knows about the crime that happens within. Maybe FL wants to convert our society into a feudal society where he is the only lord and master. To be honest, I have no idea what he wants to do. But the contradictions in everything he does and says, is glaring, to say the least.

On a different note, but very relevant to the state of affairs, there was a list of names in the newspapers of our enlightened leaders who were given licenses to bear arms of prohibited bores. The best one was an empowered female minister of state for education of all the things (I am not sure what her current status is), who was issued a license to keep an assault rifle. I say this is a sure sign of the emancipation of women in our country, we have come a long way baby!!

I wonder why the religious parties have not uttered a single word about this whole mess. Maybe they have, like the lady senator who told MM to keep her mouth shut. They are more concerned these days about the registration and audit of the seminaries in the country, which is their personal domain, who cares about such trivial matters like rapes, since it can't be proved unless witnessed by four adult Muslim males. In the absence of which, the woman is tried for adultery and that is the end of that.

I am seeing a lot of incidents being reported which are about minor girls aged between 4 and 10 who are being criminally and sexually assaulted. I don't know the numbers, so I have no idea whether this has suddenly gone up or that it is being reported more. Makes me sick. I wouldn't dream of asking FL to step in, since I am sure he will only make a bigger mess. Maybe I should stop reading the newspapers.

I was attending a week long workshop at one of our best business schools. Everything is good, but I wonder what has happened to our students. Elsewhere in the world, students are the conscience of society, they speak out loud against all the wrongs and injustices that they see around them. Our students have participated in the political arena, by joining either ethnic or religion based parties, but they have never spoken out about issues like the environment or social injustices. Why? I don't have an answer.

One positive thing last week, the Supreme Court has taken a suo-moto notice of the New Murree project and has asked them to provide details of the environmental impact. I hope something good comes out of it, but I am not very optimistic, although just the mere fact is encouraging. But someone tell me this, the SC heard MM's petition, did something happen? I read somewhere that there are 30,000 pending petitions. Good luck with that.

So there you have it.