What Have We Given To Pakistan

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
1

WHAT HAVE WE GIVEN TO PAKISTAN?
WE THE UNGRATEFUL PEOPLE.
16 September 2004

A very beautiful letter appeared from a reader Honey. She has said a very beautiful thing. She says few days ago we celebrated 6th September with great zeal in memory of those gallant soldiers who sacrificed their lives protecting us and the country. She questions “Dear readers have you ever thought what we are doing for out country; in return we are doing simply shameful example is our cleanliness, garbage wastes lying around and we do not even bother to put into dust bins”.

We are doing in fact shameful for the country at all levels; may it be common man, leader, journalism or what else. In order to show ourselves modernised, liberal and open we all have opened out big mouths to criticize our traditions, founders of nation, customs of our forefathers, our history and even our religion. And in this regard our extreme is shameful.

A Pakistani who got his education on expense of this nation, got green Passport of this country and went to Canada. He probably got foreign nationality there. Some of his relative sent him a parcel which reached Canada in about 7 days but could not be delivered to him due to change in his address. Canadian authorities returned this back undelivered and in about two months it did not reach back to his relative in Pakistan. He had used most shameful language for Pakistan Post Office praising the Canadian Post Office. He did not feel a minute shame that it was in the first instance efficiency of Pakistan Post Office which forwarded the parcel immediately to Canada. He ended his writing using the words “dishonesty of Pakistani nation and thieves present in Pakistan Post Office”.

In return being an ex Overseas Pakistani having lived abroad for 20 years I compared the services of Pakistan Post Office with that of foreign post offices. I submitted concrete arguments that how good despite gray areas Pakistan Post Office was and how in foreign countries one man do one job whereas a complete two man staff manages a whole Sub Post Office dealing with insurance, arms licence, utility bills, Zakat coupons, collection of tax and so on which no foreign post office can think of doing.

The newspaper which is published form all four provinces of our beloved country including from London too and has a claim of being largest in Pakistan had ample space and keeping for long the letter abusing Pakistani nation from this shameful Pakistani-origin but it had no space at all for my counter arguments praising our own postal department on very sound arguments. No writer can demand as a right of his letter published as it is sole discretion of an Editor. But it is also a recognized journalistic principle that an honest editor allows at least another view on the same subject. In fact no Pakistani newspaper like The News, DAWN, Frontier Post, Statesman, The Nation. The only paper which printed my letter exactly as it was, was the weekly Tribune International Australia.

I had been living in a Middle East country. One government Department there was the biggest employer of Pakistanis. There were then at that time about 3,000 Pakistanis majority from Balochistan, then second from Punjab and third from NWFP. Preparing their personal files invariably people from Balochistan entered their nationality as “Balouchi”. The Arab supervisors earlier wondered that a person is holding Pakistani Passport but his nationality is Balouchi. The fact is it is only we the Pakistanis like that Pakistani-turned Canadian who feel no shame criticizing our own country which brought us up.

2

Re: What Have We Given To Pakistan

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by shahnazpk: *

A Pakistani who got his education on expense of this nation, got green Passport of this country and went to Canada. He probably got foreign nationality there. Some of his relative sent him a parcel which reached Canada in about 7 days but could not be delivered to him due to change in his address. Canadian authorities returned this back undelivered and in about two months it did not reach back to his relative in Pakistan. He had used most shameful language for Pakistan Post Office praising the Canadian Post Office. He did not feel a minute shame that it was in the first instance efficiency of Pakistan Post Office which forwarded the parcel immediately to Canada. He ended his writing using the words “dishonesty of Pakistani nation and thieves present in Pakistan Post Office”.

Maybe he has had several other problems with Pakistani postal service which made him think that the problem was with the pakistani postal service.

having bad experiences with pakistan post is not uncommon.

during my student days when i sent letters to my cousins and relatives in Pakistan, versus those in UK, the letters from US to UK got there within a week, the letters to Pakistan took over a month, and many times did not get there at all. same goes for letters from pakistan.

There were some documents sent by the american embassy to my dad, which he never received, when we called to inquire about the documents, we were told that the embassy needed a response from him and since they did not get it they are sending another letter to him which he needs to respond to. Guess what, we never got that letter. That happened this year.

I was in pakistan for 11tha nd 12th grade, when i started applying to universities, all kinds of interesting things happened. My dad was overseas and had sent application fees separately to the universities, some universities got the fee but not my application forms. I was accepted into a number of univrsities, some acceptance letters came to us 3 monhs after they were sent, one was never received, and it was only when i inquired with that uni after getting here that I was informed that I had been accepted and that the letter was sent months ago.

later, working in the admissions office of my university, i had to respond to several faxes and telegrams from Pakistan where the applicants were checking to see status of application, while the letters had been sent out months ago.

I submitted concrete arguments that how good despite gray areas Pakistan Post Office was and how in foreign countries one man do one job whereas a complete two man staff manages a whole Sub Post Office dealing with insurance, arms licence, utility bills, Zakat coupons, collection of tax and so on which no foreign post office can think of doing.

I would rather have a fewer people doing a good job on fewer things than doing a poor job for a lot of things, its the quality of tasks that matters first, not the quantity. If they can do their core work well, then they should start thinking about doing other work.

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Now, as far as the question to what we have given to Pakistan, it varies by person, but criticizing does not make someone unpatriotic or ungrateful. Its people who dont care enough to even bother that have turned their backs on the country, whether they are in pakistan or overseas, those who criticize do it because they are troubled by what they see. One may make an argument as to they are only paying lip service and not doing anything..but in my view oif more people spoke up about problems in services like phone or post, and this is active speaking up, not living room discussions, that may prompt the powers that be in these institutions to fix their mess.
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3

What Have We Given To Pakistan

boht acha sawaal hae :k:

4

everyone asks this question, there are those who dont ask the question but actually go do something at some scale.

question poochnaymein kissi ka kya jata hai.. lo hum bhi pooch laitay hain..

what have we done for establishing contact with intelligent alien life forms...

see the question is asked, but is there any impact because I asked the question, nope, zero, zilch...just static.

now I can be all holier than thou and oh so galactically inclined than you "lesser" being because I asked the question, but that is BS...

actions speak louder than words, whether the words are a whine, or a question.

5

I know Canada Post isn't all that great either (speaking from personal experience) but that example of the guy blaming the pakistani postal sevice because he hates or dislikes pakistan is pretty stupid. and delivering a parcel on time for a change is hardly called efficient.

6

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by I'm Kool: *
I know Canada Post isn't all that great either (speaking from personal experience) but that example of the guy blaming the pakistani postal sevice because he hates or dislikes pakistan is pretty stupid. and delivering a parcel on time for a change is hardly called efficient.
[/QUOTE]

Postal service is not a benchmark for progress.. how stupid this post is.. Pakistan is the fastest growing nation in the region and one day will better lazy canada.. Inshallah.

7

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by mulz: *

Postal service is not a benchmark for progress.. how stupid this post is.. Pakistan is the fastest growing nation in the region and one day will better lazy canada.. Inshallah.
[/QUOTE]

Wrong thread ?

8

FROM SHAFIQ KHAN TO MS. SHAHNAZ

Mohtarma Shahnaz,

Through these pages, I want to thank the moderators and administration of the GUP SHUP, who provided me an opportunity to directly address to your comments which you sent to various newspapers about my complaint against Pakistan Post Office for the missing mails from abroad. There is another gentleman, Mr. Muhammad Yousaf from the United Kingdom to whom I want to thank too, who happened to be the mediator of all this communication, when he diverted my attention by letting me know that I have some interesting comments waiting to read on the GUP SHUP and if I want to respond.

Before I say further, I want to briefly introduce myself which would definitely help you to form an independent and unbiased opinion about me instead of accusing me being an ‘ungrateful’ Pakistani.

I am around 50 and living in Canada for last 12 years. At the age of 36, I was a Grade-20 Officer in the Government of Pakistan. I am a highly educated individual with seven university degrees and programs from Pakistan and Canada including, M.A (Honors) in English Major, M.A (International Relations) and Human Resources Management. Currently, I am working as Vice President Marketing in Toronto. My wife is Phd in Chemistry and works for the United Nations. I have a daughter in her final year of MBA and a son in his third year of Engineering. I have not given this detail to brag or impress you or anybody but, just to answer your question that even if I was living in Pakistan, me and my wife would be well off and well placed. My children studied in St. Michael School in Clifton from their grade-1.

Having said that, it should be clear to you that journalism is not my cup of tea and I write freelance as my passion.

It has been 4-5 weeks when by chance through search engine, I found a Pakistani-Australian site of the online paper, The Tribune International. I was amazed to see your very long but similar letter on their ‘letters’ page addressed to me with almost the same contents but more stretched than on the GUP SHUP pages. I guess, you wrote that letter to Tribune sometimes in July or in the early August. I sent a detail reply to the Editor of the tribune and repeated the e-mail 3-4 times in next 7-10 days but, the editor of the Tribune did not print my reply to you (which was highly unprofessional and dishonest of him). In the meantime, I noticed that The paper Tribune went through some renovations too. But, I guess, the operator Syed Atiq-ul Hassan is not a serious journalist and his site is not updated for weeks and he is just keeping the site to impress the Australian government that he is in the journalism business (yes business, not profession).

I did read your letter in the Tribune with attention and found that you do have some serious complaints by frontline Pakistani newspapers papers, who do not publish your
write-ups in their papers. May I suggest that, the newspapers have their own printing criteria and policy. There are one million reasons why they cannot print every letter or article from the readers. One of the reasons is that newspapers cannot carry some material which could mischaracterize a third party. This is just because, the papers are independent and impartial media and they cannot become a ‘party’ to anyone. That is the reason, I write two types of articles and letters, [a] which cannot be printed as they are somewhat obnoxious and carry abusive language against corrupt society and the second ** type which, come up to the printing criteria and are carried by the papers. The first category of letters, I mail to some 2-3000 individuals, groups, organizations, leaders, bureaucrats and newspapers in Pakistan and around the world through my mailing address book. So the basic idea would be to come across my point of view and thus I have no passion of seeing my name in the papers if they don’t print, who cares?

Though you are a housewife but you apparently appear to be an educated lady and I am sure, you must be aware of all evils and vicious side of our society in Pakistan. I can give you one thousand reasons of my complaint against Pakistan Post Office but in fact, it’s not only one institution, our entire system in Pakistan is in a bad shape. Patriotism is not something your hide even the bad parts of some one or try to deny the fact. It is the same when you catch your 10 year child puffing a cigarette and you try to hide it from your husband and let it go under the maternal love. But that would not be correct course of action as he would need to be punished not do again.

I am sure, if you are reading my articles and letters in papers, you would understand that despite being living in Canada, I have great love for my country. Earlier, I thought, only our political leaders are of this habit that they easily label their opponents calling them traitors, conspirators, enemies of the state, unpatriotic etcetera but, after in freelance journalism, I have found that common folks spare no time to label the same remarks as politicians do (as in your case) .

You are fully aware that Pakistan is bogged in foreign debts up to neck and even we import wheat and sugar from outside to survive. Is that not shame for us? The point I am trying to make here is that, in this situation, the government of Pakistan has nothing much to export and earn foreign exchange and at that point expatriates like me and hundreds of thousands living all over the world every years send billions of green money (U.S Dollar) to Pakistan and invest in businesses, industries and real estates etcetera. I was just complaining for a missing parcel and was not really talking about the parcel but the approach and character of our people in the department.

Before I close, I have a very serious and genuine complaint with you that besides a long lecture and repeated preaching on the same topic, you did not demonstrate an honest and truthful behavior in my case. You cannot show my one letter or article printed in any paper without my e-mails address at the end. First of all, I am a very busy man and secondly, I don’t have time to read all the newspapers of the world to find out who has written what about me specially, I do not read crappy papers like, Tribune International. In that case, how would I know that a lady name Shahnaz has written something about me? You could have easily sent me a copy of your e-mail. But you were really not interested in fixing the problem and simply wanted to gratify your inner to criticize me and see your comments printed in paper? This is not a good gesture, specially for a woman.

I want to close my letter with the note to ask apologies if unknowingly or in ignorance I hurt your or any body else’s feelings by lodging complaint against Pakistan Post Office.

May God bless you and stay away from all troubles.

SHAFIQ KHAN
CANADA
[email protected]
October 01, 2004

9

now i dono much about over all pakistan post service. i also hav had sum bad experince. bt also sum good ones also..

bt da point ive picked up from shahnaz baji is.. dat she is commited makin her post office work efficient. as i beleive she is workin. and maybe her post office is doing a very good job

and secoundly.. sayin that each person shud perfect in dere own jobs???.. well whose gona pay for those extra ppl??.. its easy to say we need more ppl. bt its hard to say who gona pay.. so again.. bak to sqare one.

from wat i beleive.. tax dpt is the most to blame.. since dats da dpt wea we get money to actually pay all those ohters..

neway i ma self hav a dream and inshallah wil try to act upon it to return to pak, and actually try to do sumfin about it.. dono if i wil suceed.. bt stil gona try.. nd dats da only reason y im doin CA in New Zealand..

anyway be more productive guys.. try to find ways to actually better coutry.. maybe a person who is actually doin sumfin to better da country cums to dis site. to actullay get ideas.. so be more open minded.. rather den complain.. its not a simple issue. its pretty complex...
Allah hafiz

10

SLOGANS VS ACTIONS

If Pakistan is my home than Canada is my second country. Those who live in Canada would definitely agree with me that Canada is a God-gifted country.

Though I have precisely explained my point of view over the postal issue but, I still want to make a point in response to a brief statement by a brother on the same pages.
I am not comparing Pakistan and Canada in science and technology and development, which would be injustice. But at least being honest, hard working, loving, modest, humble and caring do not require any technology and being a rocket scientist. These qualities pertain to human behavior and character! Cannot we demonstrate and practice this, which does not cost us anything?

Some one has briefly said on the same pages that we are still under progress and one day will beat Canada. Well, we got freedom some 57 years back and countries like Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia, South Korea who got independence after us are Asian Tigers and most advanced countries of the world. Even our neighbors India, Bangladesh, Sri-Lanka, Nepal, Iran and Turkey are ahead of us in every field of human life so, why not us even after 57 years? How mush time do we need to be developed? Being true Muslims, humans, patriotic Pakistani should not require any time frame. It should have been in our blood, gene and soul from the day we were born and took the first breath?

Please stop making empty slogans, day-dreaming, false hopes and emotional playing with the words. This has nothing to do with the reality of life. By doing that, we are just fooling ourselves.

May God bless you all and stay away from all troubles.

SHAFIQ KHAN
CANADA
[email protected]
October 02, 2004

11

Matters will be dealt with an 'Iron Fist' . Heard so many times but yet to see this Yeti. In the mean while slogan bazi he sahi.

Presently Pakistan is shrouded with a cosmatic veil of progress and Moderan look,,,errr well some what. Internally the generation after generations are being wasted into poverty, useless education without purpose, being taught about street politics and undivided devotion to either poliotical parties, Mazhabi Party or sacts...I don't see any progressive vision or a cure to this tana bana. It has become very complex society, and its getting worse by each passing day.

E.g The Chieftains & Warlords of Wana Waziristan have a Life long Immortal right to stay the way they are.
Well in that case ; Pakistan Army 'Iron Fist' should simply invade / capture and rule the land that originally belongs to Pakistan, we will face the civil unrest ,,, Regret little off topic remarks here,,

12

Re: SLOGANS VS ACTIONS

The reason why we are still behind a lot of other nations is that while the educated class of our society is sitting outside claiming and chanting the slogans for so called "Love" for thier country, theier beloved country is gettin plagued with crisis of maulvis (well there are two types of em..one of them certainly dont want any economic or social development , infact they just want you to do nara bazee and attend majlis which spread hatred between different sects and second one is just content on eating halwas), socio-economic breakup, political instability and numerous others. But of the all problem the one which fairly and clearly stands out is the lack of education in our society. Ironically I also fall into the category of those indviduals who yearn for better education and then eventually get into the common syndrome of deciding whether to return back or stay . I am sorry if I sound harsh but the main reason we decide to stay in countries like USA or Canada is for a better qaulity of life for our family and of course better income and there is nothing wrong with that . We claim we have love for our country and we are sending money back and investing in government and blah blah but mostly its just plain hyprocrisy and maybe we do so just to hide the complexes we suffere from.

Prove me wrong , but Pakistan still has a pretty good postal system for a third-world country and it is getting modernized. The last thing I want to hear from some one is to criticize it just to show the hatred for the country. Well if you are educated as you claim and have multitude of degrees why dont u do somehting about it ? The country is is in dire need of talented and educated people and I mean "DIRE" need. What good is an education if you use it to put butter and bread on the table but not doing something for ur own society and people. Mr Shafiq I respect you have a very well educated family, I have my share of edcuated people too but there is a lil difference . My grandfather was a gold medalist from Wharton School of Business . How many people u know have this honor?. He returned and helped the then goverment of Ayub Khan and was awarded for his dedications and commitment My mother is MA gold Medalist and she got numerous offers for teaching abroad but she decided to teach in a local girls college in lahore . My Dad is a Ph.D phsycis and worked for Atomic Energy of Pakistan. He got offers for working abroad but he decided otherwise. My brothers is dual Masters from Univ of Western Onartio and is tryng to setup a telecom franchise with other people and investors in Pakistan. I myslef is Masters and an engineerng honors student and is planning to go back and work for IT industry. You must havce come across people in Canada with Enginering and Doctoral degrees who drive Cabs. "Heck I make more money here than a CEO over there..Why do I need to turn back" . We seriously need to get over this mentality. Canada is no doubt a nice place to live, better education , better healthcare and so on but right now it has become a haven for immigrants and people seeking assylums.

13

Re: FROM SHAFIQ KHAN TO MS. SHAHNAZ

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by SHAFIQ KHAN: *
Mohtarma Shahnaz,

Through these pages, I want to thank the moderators and administration of the GUP SHUP, who provided me an opportunity to directly address to your comments which you sent to various newspapers about my complaint against Pakistan Post Office for the missing mails from abroad. There is another gentleman, Mr. Muhammad Yousaf from the United Kingdom to whom I want to thank too, who happened to be the mediator of all this communication, when he diverted my attention by letting me know that I have some interesting comments waiting to read on the GUP SHUP and if I want to respond.

Before I say further, I want to briefly introduce myself which would definitely help you to form an independent and unbiased opinion about me instead of accusing me being an ‘ungrateful’ Pakistani.

I am around 50 and living in Canada for last 12 years. At the age of 36, I was a Grade-20 Officer in the Government of Pakistan. I am a highly educated individual with seven university degrees and programs from Pakistan and Canada including, M.A (Honors) in English Major, M.A (International Relations) and Human Resources Management. Currently, I am working as Vice President Marketing in Toronto. My wife is Phd in Chemistry and works for the United Nations. I have a daughter in her final year of MBA and a son in his third year of Engineering. I have not given this detail to brag or impress you or anybody but, just to answer your question that even if I was living in Pakistan, me and my wife would be well off and well placed. My children studied in St. Michael School in Clifton from their grade-1.

Having said that, it should be clear to you that journalism is not my cup of tea and I write freelance as my passion.

It has been 4-5 weeks when by chance through search engine, I found a Pakistani-Australian site of the online paper, The Tribune International. I was amazed to see your very long but similar letter on their ‘letters’ page addressed to me with almost the same contents but more stretched than on the GUP SHUP pages. I guess, you wrote that letter to Tribune sometimes in July or in the early August. I sent a detail reply to the Editor of the tribune and repeated the e-mail 3-4 times in next 7-10 days but, the editor of the Tribune did not print my reply to you (which was highly unprofessional and dishonest of him). In the meantime, I noticed that The paper Tribune went through some renovations too. But, I guess, the operator Syed Atiq-ul Hassan is not a serious journalist and his site is not updated for weeks and he is just keeping the site to impress the Australian government that he is in the journalism business (yes business, not profession).

I did read your letter in the Tribune with attention and found that you do have some serious complaints by frontline Pakistani newspapers papers, who do not publish your
write-ups in their papers. May I suggest that, the newspapers have their own printing criteria and policy. There are one million reasons why they cannot print every letter or article from the readers. One of the reasons is that newspapers cannot carry some material which could mischaracterize a third party. This is just because, the papers are independent and impartial media and they cannot become a ‘party’ to anyone. That is the reason, I write two types of articles and letters, [a] which cannot be printed as they are somewhat obnoxious and carry abusive language against corrupt society and the second ** type which, come up to the printing criteria and are carried by the papers. The first category of letters, I mail to some 2-3000 individuals, groups, organizations, leaders, bureaucrats and newspapers in Pakistan and around the world through my mailing address book. So the basic idea would be to come across my point of view and thus I have no passion of seeing my name in the papers if they don’t print, who cares?

Though you are a housewife but you apparently appear to be an educated lady and I am sure, you must be aware of all evils and vicious side of our society in Pakistan. I can give you one thousand reasons of my complaint against Pakistan Post Office but in fact, it’s not only one institution, our entire system in Pakistan is in a bad shape. Patriotism is not something your hide even the bad parts of some one or try to deny the fact. It is the same when you catch your 10 year child puffing a cigarette and you try to hide it from your husband and let it go under the maternal love. But that would not be correct course of action as he would need to be punished not do again.

I am sure, if you are reading my articles and letters in papers, you would understand that despite being living in Canada, I have great love for my country. Earlier, I thought, only our political leaders are of this habit that they easily label their opponents calling them traitors, conspirators, enemies of the state, unpatriotic etcetera but, after in freelance journalism, I have found that common folks spare no time to label the same remarks as politicians do (as in your case) .

You are fully aware that Pakistan is bogged in foreign debts up to neck and even we import wheat and sugar from outside to survive. Is that not shame for us? The point I am trying to make here is that, in this situation, the government of Pakistan has nothing much to export and earn foreign exchange and at that point expatriates like me and hundreds of thousands living all over the world every years send billions of green money (U.S Dollar) to Pakistan and invest in businesses, industries and real estates etcetera. I was just complaining for a missing parcel and was not really talking about the parcel but the approach and character of our people in the department.

Before I close, I have a very serious and genuine complaint with you that besides a long lecture and repeated preaching on the same topic, you did not demonstrate an honest and truthful behavior in my case. You cannot show my one letter or article printed in any paper without my e-mails address at the end. First of all, I am a very busy man and secondly, I don’t have time to read all the newspapers of the world to find out who has written what about me specially, I do not read crappy papers like, Tribune International. In that case, how would I know that a lady name Shahnaz has written something about me? You could have easily sent me a copy of your e-mail. But you were really not interested in fixing the problem and simply wanted to gratify your inner to criticize me and see your comments printed in paper? This is not a good gesture, specially for a woman.

I want to close my letter with the note to ask apologies if unknowingly or in ignorance I hurt your or any body else’s feelings by lodging complaint against Pakistan Post Office.

May God bless you and stay away from all troubles.

SHAFIQ KHAN
CANADA
[email protected]
October 01, 2004
[/QUOTE]

Dear Mr. khan, despite of your long response to Ms Shenaz's letter, you are still not able to come up with one logical reason of why you accused whole PAKISTANI NATION to be DISHONEST? Nowhere in your response at GUPSHUP, did you deny using such harsh words against the whole Pakistani nation. Therefore, it is safe to assume that you did use such language in your letter.

Given the headache you had to face because of the mishandling of your mail by Pakistan Postal Department, your frustration is understandable. But the way you chose to express your frustration is not decent, to say the least. It becomes more objectionable to accuse the whole nation of dishonesty especially when you served the very same nation with distinction.

You and for that matter every one has a right to criticize the country’s wrong policies and countrymen’s wrong attitudes. No one should question your patriotism in this regard. But what makes criticism productive is its quality and the solutions prescribed by the critic to get out of the mess. You yourself admitted using “somewhat obnoxious and abusive language” against corrupt society in some of your letters. Producing letters or articles with “obnoxious and abusive language” will not have any positive effects no matter how sincere your efforts may be. Given you educational background, it is hard to understand why you would choose such language anyways. Remember, even healthy criticism is fruitful only when expressed in a civilized manner.

And in end, there is a limit to every thing. Probably, America is one of the freest societies in the world. You will find articles here in which the writers may have torn down the American institutions, American political system, and American organizations; yet, you will not find even the most liberal writer accusing the whole American nation of a certain ill. Why, because it reflects negatively on the whole nation.

I hope I am not being rude. And if I do, I sincerely apologize. My only intention is to make sure that the criticism of our country is in positive direction.

14

Re: Re: SLOGANS VS ACTIONS

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by TommyKnocker: *
The reason why we are still behind a lot of other nations is that while the educated class of our society is sitting outside claiming and chanting the slogans for so called "Love" for thier country, theier beloved country is gettin plagued with crisis of maulvis (well there are two types of em..one of them certainly dont want any economic or social development , infact they just want you to do nara bazee and attend majlis which spread hatred between different sects and second one is just content on eating halwas), socio-economic breakup, political instability and numerous others. But of the all problem the one which fairly and clearly stands out is the lack of education in our society. Ironically I also fall into the category of those indviduals who yearn for better education and then eventually get into the common syndrome of deciding whether to return back or stay . I am sorry if I sound harsh but the main reason we decide to stay in countries like USA or Canada is for a better qaulity of life for our family and of course better income and there is nothing wrong with that . We claim we have love for our country and we are sending money back and investing in government and blah blah but mostly its just plain hyprocrisy and maybe we do so just to hide the complexes we suffere from.

Prove me wrong , but Pakistan still has a pretty good postal system for a third-world country and it is getting modernized. The last thing I want to hear from some one is to criticize it just to show the hatred for the country. Well if you are educated as you claim and have multitude of degrees why dont u do somehting about it ? The country is is in dire need of talented and educated people and I mean "DIRE" need. What good is an education if you use it to put butter and bread on the table but not doing something for ur own society and people. Mr Shafiq I respect you have a very well educated family, I have my share of edcuated people too but there is a lil difference . My grandfather was a gold medalist from Wharton School of Business . How many people u know have this honor?. He returned and helped the then goverment of Ayub Khan and was awarded for his dedications and commitment My mother is MA gold Medalist and she got numerous offers for teaching abroad but she decided to teach in a local girls college in lahore . My Dad is a Ph.D phsycis and worked for Atomic Energy of Pakistan. He got offers for working abroad but he decided otherwise. My brothers is dual Masters from Univ of Western Onartio and is tryng to setup a telecom franchise with other people and investors in Pakistan. I myslef is Masters and an engineerng honors student and is planning to go back and work for IT industry. You must havce come across people in Canada with Enginering and Doctoral degrees who drive Cabs. "Heck I make more money here than a CEO over there..Why do I need to turn back" . We seriously need to get over this mentality. Canada is no doubt a nice place to live, better education , better healthcare and so on but right now it has become a haven for immigrants and people seeking assylums.
[/QUOTE]

Thanks for sharing the information. It was indeed impressive and provides encouragement to many who are thinking to go back and serve the country.

15

Loss of mail, later delivery, theft of mail is an international problem not limited only to Pakistan as brother Shafiq Khan generally believe. A press cutting is before me using the wordings that Chinese authorities are fed up from sealing from the mail. This steal and theft is internationally. When I was abroad I many a times used to read in local newspapers letters to editor from Indians working there complaining that their relatives sent them this and that from India but it did not reach them or so much was missing. Last week there was a news item Malaysian authorities have recovered mail from home of a postman which he was keep piling there for the last 4 years. A similar news was from another European country but unfortunately I did not know one day I might need to produce it hence I did not preserve.

Yes, I would honestly admit theft of currency notes from the mail Overseas Pakistanis sent to their relatives in Pakistan mostly occasion of Eid etc. The fault which is real I will admit. But here I will also need to be honest and put for information of general readers. It is not the Pakistan Post Office staff which steals this currency from postal articles coming from abroad. It is some other Department name of which cannot be written here which do all this. It takes at random the mail coming from abroad in the name of censorship. In today’s world mail censorship is non sense thing but it is only done “perhaps” for this purpose. This matter was in the past in a proper manner taken up at a very appropriate level (that level I cannot indicate here) but nothing happened.

I did not say Pakistan Post Office is the best in the world nor did I mean that Pakistan’s progress should be measured from Pakistan Post Office. What I said was that we Pakistanis can present services of our post office department without any hesitation and with little proud. As the purpose is not to keep lingering on this discussion hence I limit only saying that I have seen performance of posts offices of UK, USA and some others, they also do the same negligence what Pakistan Post Office but if are honest then Pakistan Post Office can be excused keeping in view it is still doing manual work while foreign post office do those negligence despite computerization etc.

Brother Shafiq Khan got his parcel back after 4 months about which just after first 1 and half month he termed as having been stolen by Pakistan post office staff. Since he has a sort of complex about Pakistan if not hate against his former country he is now complaining due to not proper warehousing the medicines in the parcel have expired. As I stated earlier under international rule all returned parcels are carried forward by sea mail it takes months in coming back. He says today there is computerized system and each step journey of his return parcel can be verified. I wonder why he wants that Pakistan post office should verify this why not Canadian post office which he believes is error free. In this space I cannot mention in detail but I can tell brother Shafiq that under the system prescribed by International Postal Union his parcel remain for about 1 to 2 months in Canada under same exposed conditions and rest of the period in Pakistan – but most part in Canada. Under the system returned parcels have lowest priority for onward transmission and delivery.

One gentleman on my remarks that a sub post office in Pakistan comprising only 2 man staff do at least 18 functions whereas abroad one man do one single job, has commented it is not the quantity which matter rather quality. In reply I would like to say is it a quality sending Bahmas addressed to Bangladesh, Kuwait addressed letter to Saudi Arabia etc. No, Sir, it is not quality rather it is quantity which should matter. If you have kind heart and you have Rs. 200 to spare for feeding poor, then it is much better that you fee 10 people with “Dal chappati” @ Rs. 20/- per person rather than feeding one at Rs. 200/- with McDonald’s Burger. Of course at some places quality is needed than quantity eg operations in hospitals. But postal service is not where it should be quality rather quantity; better if it is both.

In order to make a comparison for the purpose of criticizing one or one system, one should first be honest to himself. Making comparison of Pakistan with others we should always keep in view the resources, population, traditions, habits all in view and then criticize. Brother Shafiq Khan I am confident had been resident of Karachi. Government made a very beautiful Civic Centre in Gulshan. Today without vomiting you can not walk on its stairs. Of course relevant authorities are responsible for not keeping cleanliness but who is spitting Paan on each inch of the floor and stairs? We the people? So if Departments in Pakistan are not working, if there are lapses in our postal system or any other system then do not forget we the people are sitting there as staff. Me and Brother Shafiq when come from Canada to Pakistan, as soon as plane touches the run way despite warning from crew to keep sitting we get up and start taking our baggage while plane is still taxing. But when me and brother Shafiq go to Canada, we do not get up from the seat unless the plane had fully stood still and bridge connected.

Brother Shafiq Khan has turned his gun towards (i) a 5 year Pakistani child felling as a camel in Dubai (ii) a case of killing in the name of honour killing (iii) recent shia suni killing. 5 year child case is due to poverty. But worst from that is the case last month reported by press a mother selling her 6 month child in India just for Rs. 2000 due to poverty – Brother Shafiq has not given that example. I did not know last month otherwise I would had kept a news item form UK about an honour killing there. Only yesterday UAE press carried a report about Hindu Muslim killings in India and Brother Shafiq did not mention that.

Of course there are many shorting coming in Pakistan. But all these or somewhat different short comings are in each country. We say abroad there is respect and rule of law, it is all non sense. I have myself seen abroad people without any documentation being carried out to police station cells unofficially to keep them for 4-5 days unless they meet the demands. What is happening from the world’s most law abiding country USA; Pakistanis being deported in the plane handcuffed? Deportation is of course agreed but handcuffed?

Brother Shafiq remember what ever are shortcoming in Pakistan are due to the reason of Me and You. When WE will be happy over our leader getting British Nationality, till you and me will feel honour our leader holding British Passport and you and me will keep him as our leader our parcels will keep delaying and missing. The British in order to rule the sub contient came to this land but today our British leaders (adopted British on getting British nationality) sitting in their luxury heavens homeland want to rule the soil of Pakistan on telephones.

In each society and country there are good and bad people. My firm belief is still in the world good people are in majority. However even if 2% are bad people in Shafiq Khan’s new motherland Canada and there are 95% bad people in mine home land Pakistan, Shafiq Khan or I have no right to term Pakistan or Canadian “society and nation” as dishonest or nation of thieves.

Pakistan one day INSHALAH is going to be a very nice country at par with Europe but in my or brother Shafiq' life but in some time in our future generation.

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Dear Brothers & Sister,

This refers to various letters posted on these pages by respected writers Mohtarma Shahnaz, Mr. Farudia (Pir Sahib), Irem, I am cool, Mulz, cheebu, Raindance, Tommy Knocker, Phoenixdesi in response to my clarification over the matter of a post complaint by me in March this years.

I guess, in my both letters, I precisely expressed my point of view regarding the Pakistan Post Office matter. But let me redress some other issues and questions which warranted by writers responses specially, by Mohtarma Shahnaz in her rebuttal.

First of all, I want to clarify that I am not a 'former' citizen of Pakistan just because of my second nationality of Canada (as Mst. Shahnaz has mentioned). By the rule of law of both countries, Pakistan and Canada, I can keep both nationalities. And by the law of mother nature, an expatriate's situation is exactly the same as a child is born to a woman and no matter he is educated, grown, lived or bought properties anywhere on the planet, his mother remains one and the same. Pakistan is my motherland and naoozbillah even God cannot change that status. The same way as God cannot change my mother to whom I was born. If you read Qura'n there is no mention of Pakistan, India, America, England, Nepal, Malta and Italy. God created one earth and that is you and me who marked borders and named frontiers. Besides that, I have very strong and never ending bonds with Pakistan as I come from an extended family where we are TEN brothers and sisters. Only my wife and children, my one married sister are in Canada and one brother is a national of England otherwise, my all brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles and kins are in Pakistan. By the grace of almighty God, my all 10 brothers and sisters are very well settled in Pakistan. My one brother is MNA and 3 are grade 20 & 19 officers in the Government of Pakistan. Plus, we have huge properties, agricultural lands in Pakistan. Canada is a beautiful country though but it cannot replace my motherland, my soil where I was born. Till the world will exist, my Canadian status and Pakistan status won't change because I am citizen of both countries.

Those who think, they are more patriotic than me because I am out of country or because I criticize Post office, our corrupt society of Pakistanis, I don't need a certificate from any one of my patriotism. Those who think they are sending food at my home three times everyday, they are welcomed to stop immediately?

So far comparison of Pakistan and Canada is concerned, I never did that and people who are writing, just making their own. I am not stupid to do a comparison of both countries as there is ABSOLUTELY no match at all. I can compare Canada with the United States, England or France but not with Pakistan............so just forget Pakistan post office. Pakistan is 500 years behind than Canada in technology and rule of law, character, humanity, morality and perception we in Pakistan are one million years behind.

I don't want to offend anybody as Pakistan is not a country or an estate of one person and is equally meant for 150 million people of Pakistan.

When sun rises, the entire universe sees it and the sun does not need to go door to door to herald it's rising. When Pakistan will become champion of peace, progress, prosperity, character, humanity and perception, the entire universe of 7 billion people would see it and Shafiq and Shahnaz would not need to write in it's favor or against to persuade people to accept us.

FOOTNOTE:

57 years of existence is not a small period of time where countries like Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan, South Korea who got independence after Pakistan are Asian Tigers and living in prosperity where as our country is even behind than our neighbors, India, Iran, Turkey, Bangladesh, Sri-Lanka, Nepal etcetera.
People will be shocked to know that university degrees of Tehran and Kabul have greater recognition and more points than degrees of Karachi and Lahore if evaluated by the University of Toronto or Government of Canada........what a shame?
Those who are living in the paradise of fools and are suggesting wait and see one day Pakistan will be the shining star on the sky......but when? Everything has it's own value and time. A child is born and as his age goes by, he continues to travel in the world with a sequence.........KG, nursery, primary school, middle school, high school, college and university and by the age of 24-25, he finishes his education to start his practical life and by 60-65 he is retired. You cannot skip your eyes from your child by sending him to KG or Nursery when he is 20 years or think to start working at 60 or start looking a match for him at 55.
As a country and nation we have to go by the ongoing world. The same way we train our doctors, engineers and other expertise according to the diseases and requirement of various fields of the present time. We cannot just keep our eyes shut and take part in cars' race with bicycle in our hands. Do you think 57 years is a smaller amount of time for a nation? You are just fooling yourselves and making peaple laugh at you!

SHAFIQ KHAN
CANADA
[email protected]
October 07, 2004

17

My parents and grand parents have given us Pakistan, my grand parents were friends of quaide azam and had worked in freedom movement and uptill now we did not get anything from pakistan except a Passport, that also we hardly use, as we all are poor. Others have taken our right in pakistan; since we had not learnt to speak lies or we had not learnt to snatch our right, or we were not in politics.

But i have firm believe:

If we, all Pakistani develop two things in us, we can give a lot to pakistan in a very short time,which many countries could not do in 100 years.

I do not believe in crying on spilled milk.We did not do any thing in 57 years. do not forget we became atomic power. Good, be satisfied.

Now what to do?

First to learn to speak the truth in every axpect of life

Secondly we learn to believe GOD is watching us all the time

Stop crtisizing others intentions and APNE GAREBAN MEIN JAANK KAR DEIKHEIN.

Forget receiving KHERAT from Arabs and others because when we take kherat we do what they want us to do in our country.Because they do not give money for nothing they want something to be accomplished in our country for their inteest to fullfil. BIK JATE HEIN ZAMEEIR; BEICHNA PERTA HEI MONEY YAY SUB KARATEY HAI --- it is for our MATOO people; I am sorry to mention. But I know many such people and you all know.It is an open truth. What terrorism is there in our countries is due to this BUNDISH on MATOOS from other money doners.

Then peacefully work for your country and every individual should work for his aaqebat all alone and for his family.

It should be personal, not IGTEMAEI WORK,or effort to go to jannat; as very individual is answerable to GOD, no one would be answerable for others; so leave general public alone YA MATOO.

AKELAY ALLAH ALLAH KARO AKELAY HE JANA HAI

NO ONE WOULD ASK YOU AKELAY NA JANA MOUJE CHOUR KAR TOUM MATOO on the day of judgement.

when people would speak the truth, no problem of tax or what ever would be left----etc etc