The Trust is of course headed by the MD himself, Mr Majid Nizami, who not only fashions himself as, but actually believes he is, the defender of the 'true' ideology of the country. He has been a close confidante and supporter of Mardood-e-Momin General Ziaul Haq as well as Zia's one-time protege, former premier Nawaz Sharif (who calls Nizami 'uncle'). But keep in mind that this is also the head of one of the most politically influential media houses speaking (I say 'politically influential' as a qualifier of course, since the readership of the group's publications is fast on the downslide).
I am thankful to the meticulous Shahid Saeed for digging up and providing us the link.
I can't be bothered to translate the entire lumbering speech but here are some of its salient points, translated verbatim:
- "As far as Pakistan is concerned, we should be thankful to Allah that, after ruling Hindustan for one thousand years, when Partition of the Subcontinent happened in '47, we were successful in achieving freedom."
- "I give the phrase 'Two Nation Doctrine' more importance [than 'Ideology of Pakistan'] because it bothers our enemy India more. And I want to tell you that you [the teachers] should please explain to your students, the new generation, that the Hindu cannot be our friend. The Hindu was, is and will remain our enemy."
- "Until this conflict [over Kashmir] exists, the existence of Pakistan is in danger. The floods that recently came, were all because of India. All of our rivers come from Indian Kashmir, where they are building dams. Whenever they want, they can drown us in floods, whenever they want they can, how should I say it, starve us to death, destroy all our crops."
- "[Indians] cannot think beyond the Gao Mata [the motherland, literally: Mother Cow] and say we split Gao Mata into two parts, that's why they also cut us into two and made East Pakistan into Bangladesh. But it [still] did not become a part of India. God willing, it will once again become a part of Pakistan [clapping] and East and West Pakistan will be one. But the condition for that is that there should be patriotic rulers in Pakistan, who are deep thinkers, who know their history, who know the history of Islam and the history of India, and are not just adept at making money or taking commissions."
- "We have kept these lectures here because we had requested [Chief Minister Punjab] Mr Shahbaz Sharif to introduce the Two Nation Doctrine at every level in the syllabus."- "My request to you is to please convey the Two Nation Doctrine, the Ideology of Pakistan, to your students and expose the real face of India to them. And tell them that we should always be ready to fight India. Thanks to Allah, we are an atomic power. Our nuclear bombs and atomic missiles are, in the words of God, our horses. India too is a nuclear power but, believe me, compared to our horses, their nuclear bombs and missiles are mules or donkeys. [Clapping]. Some people ask me, do you want a nuclear war with India? I say yes, I do. They ask what about the destruction it would cause. I say, without destruction you cannot deal with the enemy. The United States was the first country to use an atomic bomb, against Japan. It caused a lot of destruction. But if you go to the US today, where the Professor sahiba lives [reference to someone sitting next to Nizami], their markets are all full of Japanese goods and Japan is far more prosperous today than it was before. Okay, so some people sacrificed their lives, some people's facial features changed. But if we want to live life as a dignified nation, and protect our lifeline Kashmir and get it back, if for that we need to wage a nuclear war, we should be ready for it."
I don't think I need to deconstruct the senility and unadulterated venom on display here. Neither do I think I need to say much about the massively questionable assumptions, prejudices, extrapolations and falsification / ignorance of historical facts and reality. I am not even going to question the titling of this balderdash as the 'Allama Muhammad Iqbal Memorial Lectures', which must, at a minimum, be making the scholarly and humanistic Iqbal turn in his grave.
All I am interested to know is why the Chief Minister of Punjab, Shahbaz Sharif, thinks it is a good idea to further inject such bile and poisonous hogwash into the educational system. Isn't the state of the curriculum pathetic enough as it is? Is this really his idea of a 'Teacher Training Workshop'?
If it is, God help the Punjab and Pakistan.
Agar Hamein Atemi Jang Karney Parhay, Hamein Tiyaar Rehna Chahiye Hai
ReplyDeleteSmall miracle that at the end he only asked for preparation for nuclear war, rather than nuclear war.
*Shudder*
Anyway, 55% to 65% garbage.
There's a lot to abuse about it, but this guy looks older than Pakistan so it might be the pain of an older generation talking. The teachers looked kinda bored, they were wrong to clap on the "reunification" of East and West Pakistan BS, (maybe Arif Nizami sahab should take a tour of the Liberation Museum in Dhaka) but beyond that it's wrong to teach ideology.
To his point about "what was your condition before Pakistan was made and after it", I want to say that while 6 million Muslims were forced out of India, 4 million non-Muslims were forced out of what became Pakistan and Bangladesh during 1947. In Punjab (andI guess in settled parts of NWFP) the Hindu and Sikh population was nearly all wiped out, and the Muslims took over the Hindu and Sikh abandoned properties and businesses. That's part (but not entirely) how "proseperity" came to Punjab, by letting people guesstimate how much property they lost in India. Some people say it was this unaccounted Evacuee Property "bonanza" that began the wilder culture of corruption in Pakistan. In Sindh, there is an unaccounted way that Partition actually harmed the province, and Amar Jaleel was the one who bought it to my mind. The Hindu Middle Class was eliminated from urban Sindh, from the cities they had built. When they were forced out in 1947, they left a vacuum in the cities that was filled by the feudal landlords. Thus you had the decline of all of Sindh's cities, which may be being arrested only now, after 60 years with the rise of some sort of Sindhi middle class. Karachi initially was able to resist the onslaught of the feudals, due to it's size and the presence of many other minorities in it as well as it's sheer importance. Of course Karachi had it's own decline begin in the 1970's but that is another story.
I wonder how the Baloch would respond to the question of what were they before Pakistan, and what are they now.
As for MR Nizami, he should be quietly banished from syllabus making. History is more grey than black and white.
Mr. Arif Nizami (known as The Man Who Could Not Smile) is, pound or pound, the most irresponsible journalist/human being in Pakistan. He's one record, for example, talking about how he was willing, if push came to shove, to don a bomb-jacket and take a stroll up one of the Western Rivers to any one of the dams India is constructing.
ReplyDeleteVitriol like this is like polythene bags: it will never decompose to become inert, organic material. It will remain a pollutant in our atmosphere for all times to come.
@Rafay Alam
ReplyDelete@ TLW
Guys, please, its called reading. To explain the act: you read one alphabet and move on to the next and then the next and string it together to make up what is called a "word".
It MAJID Nizami not ARIF Nizami. Douchebags.
This guy is seriously bent! It makes me cringe to hear self-aggrandizing, ignorant and hate-filled speeches like these. He may be carrying the trauma of an older generation, but he's carrying a lot of wind too.
ReplyDeleteExcellent post, Cafe. Bizzare stuff.
ReplyDeleteJust went through a satire piece by NFP (in Dawn) that actually parody's and taunts exactly such a twisted mindset.
http://blog.dawn.com/2010/11/05/dr-q-t-khans-concise-history-of-pakistan-pt-1/
@ Anon 1:29
ReplyDeleteAnd which Nizami are you, dear sir/madamn?
Is there a constitutional provision or a law to address such kind of hate-mongering and racist talk? I confess I ask this knowing fully well that Pakistan has a series of laws that actually sanction the persecution of Ahmedis, but just in case…
ReplyDelete@Magnum: Neither. NOW what are you going to say? That WAS the extent of your cleverness, wasn't it?
ReplyDeleteNizami had a one night stand with Dr shireen Mizari and came out Zaid Hamid..
ReplyDeleteI have serious evidence to back my accusation. The other day i found physical similarities between ZH and nizami and which immediately led me to form my latest CONSPIRATORS BANG THEORY..
There's a book by some half-baked Urdu writer titled 'Atomy dhamaakon mein Nawa-i-Waqt kaa kirdar' (The role of Nawa-i-Waqt in the atomic bomb explosions).
ReplyDeletewait, so is he suggesting that we get buked by india, suffer some ugly faces, and then re-emerge as an economic superpower, flood indian markets with our superior goods, and make kick ass anime?
ReplyDeletemake him the president NOW!
Uff, thank you @Anonymous for pointing out that glaring, unforgivable error.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'll have you know that I'm taking back the word "douche bag". It doesn't mean what you think it means (check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tqEBQjWRws).
(Many apologies for any feelings my oversight may have caused.)
Rafay Alam
"If it is, God help the Punjab and Pakistan."
ReplyDeleteDon't worry. We have the horses from abuv.
Man he makes Adolph look like an amateur. He has some old time grudge and it is hurting him like an ingrown toenail. I wonder if he has much of a following. Oh er let me phone Hamid Gul and ask.
ReplyDelete