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26. Honesty is the best policy :oh really.
(The true spirit of
Islam somehow escapes us) .
At school , this was
a sentence which we had to learn . I had dream childhood being the only child
of my parents . We were not rich .
But most of my genuine wishes were fulfilled . Never in my farthest imagination
did I come across the wide chasm between honesty and the prevailing reality in
our beloved Pakistan .
Last month my house was slightly renovated
and painted . We engaged
two teams for the work . The two teams belonged to different Provinces . One
team , belonging to Khyber Puthankhwa Province did their work quietly and I was
satisfied with their work . The
work of the other one was very poor indeed till we called the owner of the
hardware shop and the contractor . The painters had to do the work again with
the owner’s material . After finishing the task , the contractor repeated the
words of apology which he must have used many times before . I asked him as to
what was benefit when he and his team had to do the work again . He listened to
my piece of advice silently . But I am sure he will not reform himself .
When we engage someone to do some work , he
or she assures us that they would the work much better than the others . But
often the results are horrid . Resultantly they will have to do the work again
or we have to engage someone else . For eg . when we shifted to our new house
after its completion , I hired someone to fill in the lawn with mud . The work involved supplying it by tractor driven trolleys
and was completed in one afternoon . But I came back to the house in the
evening , the mud was mixed up with big stones and rocks . I had to pay twice
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; one was payment for the mud and the other was to remove for the rubbish .
When I was young , my dear mother gave my cousin , Zabih, and I some
corn and money to go to the woman to get popcorn . We paid her first . But when
the popcorn was ready , the
woman demanded money . Not only did she
pick a fight but she called her husband to help her fight her crusade with two
little boys aged eight . It was a small matter but it left a permanent imprint
about our people psyche .
After Partition , large numbers of
population were displaced . I do not know what happened in India “ how
immigrants were settled there . However , in Pakistan , there was a chance to
grow rich overnight . Even locals benefited from the largesse .
Whenever I challenged milk sellers for selling us
impure milk their replies left me astounded . Their replies are that they sell
pure milk only to me . I ask if they supply unhygienic milk to others . They
have no reply to that .
I sold two plots in Islamabad and on both occasions , I was
short changed ,albeit notionally for
eg on one occasion by Rs
1000/ and on the other occasion by Rs 500/ only, by property dealers . On the second occasion the dealer
talked profusely about
Islam and his piety .Earlier I sold my parental home . Afterwards the property
agent told me that buyer , who had come to Pakistan from London for the purpose ,
had lost his parents when he was young and
was brought by a friend of his father . But that was not enough to save him from the latter son’s greed
who took his ounce of flesh up
to 40% of the proceeds .
Barring diehard PPP ministers and other
office bearers , most people
of this unfortunate land blame Asif Ali Zardari for corruption and for their
woes . Be it as it may , I consider Zardari a symbol . From the apex to the
base of this pyramid , most of
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us are corrupt . For eg selling rotten things is treated as trade
tricks . Or stealing electricity by means hanging a kunda to link the house to the main
power lines is not
considered act of thievery . After
a three day sub committee meeting held in Pearl Continental , Karachi to vet a
report on Islamic Modes of Financing , the hotel sent a food bill to the department for payment.
The items consumed by the Ulema in
these three days were albeit permissible , odious .
A noted TV host told his audience that Asif
Ali Zardari was a ‘street
smart and a crooked man ‘. But what about the others . There are many
wheelers-dealers in Pakistan . I had
a chance meeting in Karachi with a gentleman whom I slightly knew . He was talking about
millions and billions .
With the advent of Ramazan , prices of
edibles go up . The same happens with the two Eids . I cannot reconcile the
good things taught in Islam with such prices increases when throughout the Christian world
the season of sales is celebrated to make it easier for the meanest person to
participate to the full the joys of Christmas and Easter . I have a feeling that Uncle Scrooge ( ‘The Christmas Carol’ by
Charles Dickens ) is now found in Pakistan .
I reproduce extracts from an interview
given by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad to Chattaan , an Urdu magazine, in April 1946 .
“Muslims
must realise that they are bearers of a universal message. They are not a
racial or regional grouping in whose territory others cannot enter. Strictly
speaking, Muslims in India are not one community; they are divided among many
well-entrenched sects. You can unite them by arousing their anti-Hindu
sentiment but you cannot unite them in the name of Islam. To them Islam means
undiluted loyalty to their own sect. are
innumerable groups who owe allegiance to different saints and divines. Small
issues like raising hands during the prayer and saying Amen loudly have created
disputes that defy solution. “
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I accompanied a friend to the Cadet College
, Hasan Abdal , my alma mater , once to see the Principal . I was dressed in a
shalwar qameez suit in keeping with the dress code of Zia ul Haq’s times
whereas my friend wore a three piece suit . The Principal did not say a word to
me although we were equal in status . Since he was glib tongued , he
monopolized the discourse . Besides
, he was a director in marketing , he impressed the Principal with his cock and
bull story that the poor man only stared in awe when my friend was reeling his stories . But the Principal
went to Karachi to meet the latter
, he escaped to the north of Pakistan .
Talking about the menu in official meetings
, I accompanied my Additional Secretary to the Finance Minister when he met Mr . Callisto E. Modavo ,the
Chief , Pakistan Desk , in the World Bank during his visit to Islamabad .
A side table in the
Minister’s chambers was covered with eatables as if a party was going on . Mr .
Yasin Wattoo , the Finance Minister , came to the meeting an hour late .
Once I held a meeting in my office . Two
participants came late , I was told when the two came that they had been
delayed at the bakers when they went there to purchase eatables for the meeting although I gave no such orders.
And I was reported to
the boss by the duo . I responded by telling the boss that my children enjoy
ice cream from my pocket worth more than that in
one sitting .
I was
told by a very pious man named Ibrahim Toor to avoid eating or drinking at a
house whose income was suspect . A week after I avoided eating and
drinking whose incomes were
suspect , I returned to him saying not to put me in that delicate position .
There was a time when I was young , one of
a hundred was considered an
evil man . Now the inverse is true : one of a thousand is innocent . However ,
perceptions what is considered
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evil differ . What is considered a
norm eg
drinking in other
societies , may be forbidden in Islam? However , some Muslims strictly do not abide the
Islamic teachings .
When I was a
young man , I was tempted by
the words of an holy man to visit a pious man
in Rawalpindi . My son was very sick and
was being treated by an excellent paediatrician. He
had broncho -asthma and high fever . However I had some meetings with
that pious man . He was
reputed to be a doctor ,
hakim and an homoepath , all rolled into one . When he saw that he had me firmly in his grip , he
told me bring him some fruit and vegetables : one kilo of each item . While I was
buying them , something
inside was telling me that I was fool and
that if bought these for my son , he would be healthy .
Winston Churchill’s arguments against the
grant freedom to India and Pakistan was that power will go to the hands of
thieves , rogues and freebooters : all leaders will be of low calibre. They
will have sweet tongues and silly hearts .They will fight amongst themselves
for power and India and
Pakistan will be lost in political squabbles . A day would when even air and
water would be taxed . He wrote that 64 years ago and incredibly we have worked
hard to prove him right.
Mahfooz ur Rahman
Islamabad
July 20 , 2012
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