Category: Pakistan

Pakistan consulate

So R. And I got done with the Pakistan consulate finally. I had to get a new passport and she had to get a visa.
My passport stuff was rather easy. I just had to get all the paperwork in place, which I already had. And then get a self-addressed envelope to get the stuff back in. So it was easy enough to make it a day in the city. Get all of the stuff ready and they send it back to me. Got it bak in 6 days.
Rhians was more interesting. She tried to got earlier in the week , but didn’t have all of the paperwork. So we decided to make it a day before thanksgiving. My only restriction was I don’t talk. Got there pretty early. The guy behind the counter asked for her to photocopy some more stuff, which we did. Then she went back , and the guy asked if very loudly “so why do you want to go to pakistan ” . I found it funny enough to laugh. She said it was her husbands family, to which the next question who is your husband? She gave my name and showed a copy of my passport. I find it very reassuring the Pakistan embassy will allow anyone to claim to be married to anyone else, wish I had known that earlier 😉 . After the last question he took the passport and asked us to pick it up at 4pm. When we got the passport it had a written notation that “husband is a Pakistani”. Though all of those are valid questions and statements and I do not detract from any of them but still the approach seemed very misogynistic.

The step to democracy

Pakistan has claimed to be an independent, sovereign and democratic country for the last 60 + years. In my lifetime I have seen 2 different military rulers. In 4 years I have seen 5 different governments.

But recently I think this young country which is built at the center of an ancient culture took its first step towards true democracy. After a long drawn out process the supreme court finally rejected the NRO. And now old corruption cases against the government ministers and the president can no longer be dismissed. They have to answer to the same laws that every other citizen has to answer to. The interior minister , to whom all law enforcement reports to has to defend himself against criminal cases.

Now if we can deal with this issue legally, politically, socially with out riots or another military coup then we take a step towards democracy.

The House of Saud

If I could say one thing to the House of Saud it would be “Leave Pakistan alone” . The following is an interesting article , which is just the tip of the iceberg, of how for the relatively short history of Pakistan, our dear friends of the Arabian peninsula have played such an influential role.

As a Pakistani, I feel I share no cultural , ideological, theological, political, religious ties to the Arabian peninsula. Then why should I allow the House of Saud to poison my countries religious, political, cultural enviornment.