CITY NOTES: Fighting for survival

There are many impressions created by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, not least the posturing by so many. Perhaps the main posturing has come from the ending of the conflict, with Palestinians taking to the streets in joy at its end by the IDF-Hamas truce. The Palestinians were flashing victory signs. Over here, it’s not so much a symbol of victory as of defiance, being flashed by politicians and political workers after arrest, and most typically flashed when they are being loaded onto a police van, on the way to prison.
In a way, perhaps the Palestinians were right to flash it. After all, it meant that they were being made to face the prison that are the occupied territories. Pakistan’s Parliament came up with a brilliant solution. They would send a medical mission.
The most famous medical mission I can think of is the one led by Dr Ansari to Turkey in 1913, during the Third Balkan War, which was organised by the students of Aligarh. That was one of the central moments in the Pakistan Movement, and incidentally is one of the reasons Turkey looks with such friendship on Pakistan. But I can’t help thinking that while a medical mission might be a bold step for a people under colonial rule (and while the colonial power looked askance at the country being helped), I’m not sure a state which pledges to aspire to be Riasat-e-Medina will win much praise with merely a medical mission.
You might remember, during World War I, when the colonial power and the caliphate appeared on different sides, there was not even a medical mission. Indeed, when the Ali Brothers tried to stir trouble among the troops being sent to the Middle East to point out that they should not fight the caliph, they were put on trial. However, when Pakistan was created, there were a number of medical missions. Staffed, but of course, by the only institution to retain its integrity, the army. All those earthquakes in Turkey and Iran had Pakistani field hospitals going pretty quick.
But a medical mission was not entirely on the government’s mind, after PM’s Adviser on Overseas Pakistanis Zulfi Bokhari resigned because his name cropped up in the Rawalpindi Ring Road scandal. Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan’s name appeared, but he didn’t resign. Nor did the Commissioner Rawalpindi at the time, but that can be understood. I mean, Bokhari will merely be reappointed, but you resign from a civil service job, and that’s it. No reappointment, even if your name is cleared. Even if you go on leave, there’s no restoration of your leave period if you’re cleared.
Bokhari will be cleared. Before him, Dr Babar Awan, Aleem Khan and yes, Bokhari himself, were cleared, in various scandals. Bokhari is also supposed to have been instrumental in getting a returning pilgrim from Iran out of quarantine last year, and thus letting covid-19 into the country.
I wonder whether he too intends to set up a group like Jahangir Tareen. One that demands he get a fair shake. That group awaits a signal before making a move. Faisal Vawda says it’s an SHO. True, Tareen should only count on support after some supporter has been accused of buffalo theft, yet remained loyal. But still, Vawda must be feeling threatened, after his monopoly over sounding ridiculous sorry, extreme was challenged by Murad Raas, who wondered why the Palestinians were still fighting with stones, and what they did with all the money they got in aid. That means that they couldn’t be helped, not unless they proved they weren’t corrupt elements.
Footnote to these notes: The two richest men in the world, Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Bill Gates of Microsoft got divorced. My turn will be a long time coming, if they work their way down the list by wealth. I’ll leave the worrying to other people.