Re: First beard, then schools and now this..
Moin
1) while there are many variables that affect the growth, one has to see whether or not the underlying policies were right, i.e.e did we do our homework. and sorry to say Zia's regime did nto do their homework. You are free to read World bank and other group's assessments of that time period. The interesting thing here is that for a certain group of people in Pakistan...Zia did all that he could and he did not succeed because it was not all in his control, yet musharraf regime..they did nothing and everything good that happened was due to external stuff, but everyting bad that happened, that was in his control. Lets have a balanced view here. external factors will not go away, but a good govt is one that can be proactive and having the right policies, and be agile enough to react appropriately to external stuff. I have nothing againt Zia personally, you will not see my badmouthing him personally, as I see people badmouth musharraf.. but as a leader he was mediocre at best. The one accomplishment that he did have, was to manage the soviet threat, which was a biggie
2) plight of refugees-
you need to review history again. while the trains were coming in to punjab, not everyone on the train was punjabi...my own family came in through that side, but that hardly makes them punjabi.
and secondly, we have to stop believing the crap of, oh hindus and sikhs killed muslims who were trying to come into Pakistan, yet muslims in pakistan did no such thing to hindus who were going into India. all kinds of crap happened. Talk to Indians, on the other side of the border they were taught the exact opposite. the reality is somewhere in between. one can arge about the levels, but cant deny that one side was just murderous and the other side was a bunch of good guys.
3) There is no excuse for anyone putting their ethnic identity above the national identity. especially if that would mean exclusionary practices against others who do not belong to that ethnic group. It was very common in Pakistan, dunno aout now, but when someone's ethnicity is written in job requirements, that is kinda lame, unless there is a real need for some language capabilities.
4) why could he have not done something to give the 'entertainers' in shahi mohalla a different opportunity. He could have if he wanted. This nefarious business would have coontinued underground there is no doubt about it. It happens even in countres like Saudi Arabia, but calling yourself a muslim country, and saying pakistan ka matab kya, la ilaha il Alah, closing restaurants down during ramadan daytime etc... yet not closing down this cesspool? that was plain simple wrong. Zia failed in doing anything about it.
5) Proper urdu- lukhnawis would say lukhnow is the correct style, dehelvis would say that is the correct style etc etc. But how do you expect people to lose the accent in the language that their parents speak and their teachers speak? why is it wrong? I mean its like saying the people who immigrated from hyderabad should give u their accents and all in the name of pakistaniat, yet sindhis, pathans and punjabis will keep their accents cuz thats just the way things are is yet again a double standard.
6) Plans are good, but Zia did nt have plans, he had ideas, and visions. and plans are goof to show intention, but efforts show a will to implement the plans. Now dont get me wrong, this is not Zia bashing, I would say the exact same thing for any leader, and have openly questioned MMA and Imran Khans plans and all n this very site. Now as far as why people are criticizing Zia, it is not nafrat..not hate, you have to understand that we need to get beyond whether or not we personally like a person to dictate how we react to that person's successes and failures.
I have also explained that th press freedom we have in teh country now, and methods of communication e.g. internet were simply not around earlier, and were not common especially in Pakistan. The results of Zia's mismanagement were seen by every regime after him, While I blast Benazir for her ineffectiveness, she inherited a bunch of crap from Zia in terms of the ethnic and sectarian crap that really gained momentum in his era.
lastly, in your next post to someone you posted that I am angry. Not at all, I am not among the people who would want to raise their BP by some argument on a website :)
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