and these are just the fruits of the holy war in afghanistan...much more to come from kashmir.
do we give a damn about our own country? or is it just the fate of us pakistanis to help get other people liberated while working our own way to self-destruction.
A Glimpse Of The Future
By:Ayaz Amir
No need to go to the Malakand Agency or Maulana Samiul Haq's famed redoubt in Akora Khattak to look at the future. The future is all around us, with poisoned fangs pressing its claims on the decaying present. Parts of Chakwal are turning slowly but surely into Afghan localities. The outskirts of the town are pockmarked by Afghan tents. The richer Afghans dominate sections of the main bazaar. The poorer sort push streetcarts or work as day laborers. It is a common sight seeing their children pick rags. Whence (from which of Afghanistan's provinces) have these people come? How many are they? No one knows, least of all the administration which has not the measure of this insidious diaspora.
Nor is Chakwal an exception. A vast Afghan influx is changing the color of the entire north Punjab plain. These Kabuliwallahs are not seasonal migrants or Powindahs driving their flocks south for the winter and then returning to their upland homes when the weather turns warm. They are here to stay, their urge to do so strengthened by the memory of the misery they have fled and the relative plenty they have found here. Is Pakistan a poor country? Few Afghans, or Bangladeshis for that matter, would agree. Beginning with the great Mahmud, Afghans have come to these parts as conquering dynasts. For the first time in history they have entered as termites, infiltrating the woodwork and spreading not by open conquest but relentless encroachment. And just as tired wood is helpless before an onslaught of termites, the weak structure of the Pakistani state is helpless before this unheralded invasion. The Durand Line is a thing of the past. As before the Sikh empire of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Afghanistan has entered the heartland of Punjab.
Is this a call to xenophobia? It could be read like one although it is more a despairing cry over the debilitating cancer that has laid Pakistan low. Today we are in no position to count our own people much less make an accurate count of the Afghans who have pitched tent in our towns and villages. There is a Pakistani diaspora in the Gulf and much further afield. But it is not running loose because the countries wherein it is to be found are better at keeping count of foreigners and of enforcing their own laws. Pakistan by contrast has become an open sieve which anyone can enter and leave at will.
Worse, it's also become open territory for anyone to settle in. Iran kept its Afghan refugees under control. General Zia, the source of so many of our sorrows, let them have the freedom of the country. The consequences are now upon us in the form of an Afghan invasion more permanent than any before it. It is also an on-going invasion with Afghanistan's on-going troubles sweeping fresh waves of refugees into Pakistan.
do we give a damn about our own country? or is it just the fate of us pakistanis to help get other people liberated while working our own way to self-destruction.
A Glimpse Of The Future
By:Ayaz Amir
No need to go to the Malakand Agency or Maulana Samiul Haq's famed redoubt in Akora Khattak to look at the future. The future is all around us, with poisoned fangs pressing its claims on the decaying present. Parts of Chakwal are turning slowly but surely into Afghan localities. The outskirts of the town are pockmarked by Afghan tents. The richer Afghans dominate sections of the main bazaar. The poorer sort push streetcarts or work as day laborers. It is a common sight seeing their children pick rags. Whence (from which of Afghanistan's provinces) have these people come? How many are they? No one knows, least of all the administration which has not the measure of this insidious diaspora.
Nor is Chakwal an exception. A vast Afghan influx is changing the color of the entire north Punjab plain. These Kabuliwallahs are not seasonal migrants or Powindahs driving their flocks south for the winter and then returning to their upland homes when the weather turns warm. They are here to stay, their urge to do so strengthened by the memory of the misery they have fled and the relative plenty they have found here. Is Pakistan a poor country? Few Afghans, or Bangladeshis for that matter, would agree. Beginning with the great Mahmud, Afghans have come to these parts as conquering dynasts. For the first time in history they have entered as termites, infiltrating the woodwork and spreading not by open conquest but relentless encroachment. And just as tired wood is helpless before an onslaught of termites, the weak structure of the Pakistani state is helpless before this unheralded invasion. The Durand Line is a thing of the past. As before the Sikh empire of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Afghanistan has entered the heartland of Punjab.
Is this a call to xenophobia? It could be read like one although it is more a despairing cry over the debilitating cancer that has laid Pakistan low. Today we are in no position to count our own people much less make an accurate count of the Afghans who have pitched tent in our towns and villages. There is a Pakistani diaspora in the Gulf and much further afield. But it is not running loose because the countries wherein it is to be found are better at keeping count of foreigners and of enforcing their own laws. Pakistan by contrast has become an open sieve which anyone can enter and leave at will.
Worse, it's also become open territory for anyone to settle in. Iran kept its Afghan refugees under control. General Zia, the source of so many of our sorrows, let them have the freedom of the country. The consequences are now upon us in the form of an Afghan invasion more permanent than any before it. It is also an on-going invasion with Afghanistan's on-going troubles sweeping fresh waves of refugees into Pakistan.
whats up with you guys? some people are saying i get emotional and some offened.......why? lol...........come on now.....this is just a forum........lol.....
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