Venceremos! We shall overcome

Son, get you priorities right. The disgraceful debate on whether the speaker's party was originally scheduled in the Marriott or not is a case in point. Who cares? Would real people's leaders throw lavish parties in the face of such hunger and poverty? Rs 500,000 will feed 250 overfed 'VIPs' at Rs 2,000 each. Rs 500,000 will feed 16,666 people at Rs 30 each. Does it behoove 'VIPs' to talk of poverty alleviation?

The real problem is not Pakistan that supposedly doesn't "do more." The real problem is Afghanistan with a government of National Alliance headed by Mr Hamid Karzai. This family doesn't need American gas stations in any more. How much "more" can we do? More Pakistani soldiers have been martyred than any other. More innocent Pakistanis have been killed and butchered than in 9/11. More terrorists and their leaders have been eliminated by us than anyone else. They want us to catch Osama. Do they really? I wonder. Karzai and his Afghanistan have become a real problem for Pakistan. But God has put them next to us so we have to learn to live with them and teach them how to live with us.

India is another huge problem, a large country with a small country mentality. But God has put them next to us too. On bad terms with all seven of its neighbours, are we expected to continuously believe that India alone is sane and the rest mad? When India's embassy in Kabul was bombed, it took Krazy Karzai one minute to blame Pakistan. If he is such a magician, why doesn't he also tell us where Osama is? India had the decency to take a few minutes more. Real Friend America joined the chorus a few days later. America's crazy thinking that has spread Indian intelligence agents all over Afghanistan to foment trouble in FATA and Balochistan? On whose side is America really? Does it truly want to win this war? We, on the other hand, are such stupid goody goodies that we still haven't said that the Marriott bombing was India's tit-for-tat for Kabul. Maybe you can buy 1,000 KGS of such lethal stuff in Delhi's Chandni Chowk, you certainly can't get it in Raja Bazaar. Where did it come from? In which lab was the bomb assembled? We stay quiet even after we find more sophisticated equipment with so-called Pakistani Taliban than our army has. Many are not even circumcised! Have you ever heard of an uncircumcised Muslim Pathan? People who are out to circumcise the world not being circumcised themselves, unless they are non-Muslim agents of some non-Muslim country? Perhaps this is our 'civilised' way of pointing to India when we say that Muslims couldn't have committed this heinous crime!

Khudi means self-esteem. Self-esteem means self-reliance, breaking the begging bowl. Always tell the truth, but nicely. Truth means Haq. Haq means God. It is one of His 99 names. Iqbal our poet philosopher explained Khudi beautifully in this verse: Khudi's hidden secret is, La Illaha Il Allah. Khudi is the sword; its shield, "There is no god but Allah." The last verse of this great poem has become my inspiration. Even in the midst of hypocrisy, I don't follow the hypocritical mob. For I have been commanded to proclaim, La Illaha Il Allah - "There is no god but Allah." It means tell the truth, son, do the right thing, no matter what. God will look after you.

The writer is a senior political analyst

E-mail: humayun.gauhar@gmail.com