Asghar Khan.doc
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‘by Air Marshall Asghar Khan
I am going to show Zulfikar Ali Bhutto through the eyes of three of his contemporaries i.e. Air Marshall Asghar Khan, Sherbaz Khan Mazari and Dr Mobashar Hasan. Today let us see what the Air Marshal has to say on how responsible Bhutto was for the break up of the country. If we stubbornly refuse to pay any attention to what these people have to say, then we are confirming what the Air Marshal has said about ‘our not wanting to learn from history’.
Page 22 – Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was the only political leader to publicly welcome the imposition of Yahya Khan’s martial law. For Bhutto, the end justified the means. The end being the capture of power. He had maintained good relations with Ayub Khan’s number two man Yahya khan and other important generals during his tenure as a minister. Throughout the almost three years rule of Yahya khan he maintained the closest links with him.
Page 35 – After the elections, and after having visited Dhaka to meet Mujib, Bhutto invited Yahya khan and his close advisors, Generals Hamid and Peerzada to Larkana as his guests. They stayed there for a few days and were entertained lavishly. If a holiday and relaxation had been the only purpose, perhaps the results would not have been as disastrous for Pakistan as they turned out to be. Unfortunately, fateful decisions were taken and it was agreed in principle that force would be used in East Pakistan.
Asghar Khan says Mujib saw this visit as a conspiracy against him and hardened his position.
It is well known that Bhutto had stopped his MNAs from attending the National Assembly session in Dhaka, “Better buy one way tickets, because I will break you legs if you come back”. Ahmed Raza Kasuri and Hakim Zaradari were the only two who attended. Some years later Hakim Zardari gave an interview to the press strongly condemning Bhutto for his high handedness, he even said Bhutto got the 1973 Constitution signed on gun point.
Bhutto had also asked Yahya Khan to swear him in as prime minister in West Pakistan and Mujib in East pakistan, “The principle of majority rule does not apply in the special circumstances prevailing in Pakistan”.
Page 35/36 – In one of my conversations with Yahya khan in the middle of 1970, he told me that in a meeting a few days earlier, Bhutto had suggested to him that he should forget about the elections. Yahya khan said that Bhutto had told him that Yahya khan, the soldier, and Bhutto, the politician, would make a very good team, and this team could run the country together. Yahya khan further told me that he had replied to Bhutto that this made some sense and asked him as to what was it he proposed to do about East Pakistan. Bhutto had replied, “East Pakistan is no problem. We will have to kill some 20,000 people there and all will be well.
Page 41 – Yahya khan, after attending to the details of what was to follow, left for karachi late in the evening of 25 March. Bhutto was still in Dhaka’s Intercontinental hotel.
Page 42 – Bhutto heard the rattle of gun fire from machine guns in his hotel apartment on the sixth floor, shortly after midnight on 25/26 March. On his arrival in West Pakistan a few days later, he was to Say, “Thank God Pakistan has, at last, been saved”.
Page 43 – The tenuous air link between East and West Pakistan, which could be operated only as long as India allowed it to be used, was severed in February 1971, when an Indian aircraft, ‘Ganga’, was hijacked from Jammu and landed in Lahore. As if the difficulties we faced were not enough, Bhutto visited Lahore airfield and whispered something in the hijacker’s ear, following which the aircraft was blown up. This gave India an excuse to forbid flights of our aircraft over its territory.
Page 52 – Poland, with Soviet support, had introduced a resolution in the Security Council on 10 December, which would have prevented the surrender of the Pakistan army six days later. However, whilst the Security Council awaited the appearance of Pakistan’s foreign minister, the world was told that Bhutto was indisposed with a cold in a New York hotel, and it was only when the Indian army had entered Dhaka and capitulation appeared imminent, that he was well enough to attend the meeting of the Security Council on 15 December. By then, valuable time had been lost, but even at that late hour an outright capitulation might have been prevented. Bhutto, however made an oration more befitting an election speech in Mochi Gate than a speech in the Security Council for the survival of his country. He rejected the idea of a ceasefire declaring that Pakistan would fight for ‘a thousand years’, and strode out of the Security Council. It is a commentary on our poor political sense that this performance was applauded by a large section of our people. So completely had the nation been misled over the years and so poor was our sense of understanding that the behavior of Pakistan’s foreign minister was thought to be the need of the hour.
Page 60 – Bhutto told me that he was sure that if I joined him, and we both set off from Karachi, he to Dadu and Larkana, and I to Hyderabad and Nawabshah, meeting at Sukkur, and then again forking out in different directions and meeting in Multan, then to Lahore and so on, by the time we reached Rawalpindi Yahya khan would be at the railway station to receive us. We can then rule together, he had said. I had asked what his program would be after he had been installed in power. He had laughed at this enquiry and replied,”The program is to rule. The people are stupid and I know how to fool them. I will have the ‘danda’ in my hand and no one will be able to remove us for twenty years”.
Bhutto was so sure no one could remove him for twenty years that he became careless in dealing with his political opponents. He wrote ‘fix him’ on Ahmed Raza Kasuri’s file put up to him by DG FSF. The latter had committed the unpardonable sin of accusing Bhutto to his face of breaking up the country, on the floor of the National Assembly (and now the Supreme Court is being asked to apologise!). He Carelessly sent an emissary to say sorry to actor Mohammad Ali after having his car fired upon for criticizing him to his face for having ‘Waderas’ in his cabinet etc.
Asghar Khan exposes Bhutto’s feudal vengeful nature. Page 220 – Justice Feroze Nana, a highly respected judge of the Sindh high court, was known to me and, on his sudden resignation in 1971, he told me the reason that led to his resignation. A few days after Bhutto had become president of Pakistan, he had sent for Nana. Bhutto said to him , I have sent for you to remind you that your father was my father’s enemy. Nana was taken aback and replied, they may not been on very good terms but they were not enemies. Oh no, Bhutto said, “they were enemies and if I do not take revenge from you, my children will take revenge from your children. Do you understand, that is all. You can go”.
(Those who may not want to believe every thing Air Marshal Asghar Khan has written, should wait to read what Dr Mobashar Hasan has written about his leader. He was at lunch at my house the other day and when some friends asked him about the Bhutto period when he was the finance minister, said “The less said about the Bhutto period the better).
The End
Khurshid Anwer, June 29
I have received the following observations from a lady who is obviously fed up with more of the same continuing to result in much more of exactly the same:
“I have grown up watching the PPP. I am now fed up with an unchanging status quo where the same political methodologies (the description of Dr. Mubashir still applies today*) still continue with the same faces who refuse to step down, like other organizations where those who go past the retirement age refuse to leave the seat for the next generation, and instead beat the younger generation down with their bitterness, sarcasm and harshness in making sure they ‘stick’ to the seat and their dreams of power. Reflective of a nation with an absolute lack of vision and understanding and respect for life, the circle of life and human beings. No compassion and no ability to go above pettiness, to say the least”.
* this is with reference to the very bleak picture of his misrule Dr Mubashir Hasan had painted for Bhutto when the latter had asked why people had joined the PNA agitation against him in such large numbers. Excerpts from Dr Mubashir Hasan’s ‘The Mirage of Power’; Rafi Raza’s ‘Bhutto and Pakistan’; Air Marshal Asghar Khan’s ‘We’ve Learnt Nothing from History’ and Sherbaz Khan Mazari’s ‘The Journey to Disillusionment’ are attached.
I fully agree with the lady on the malaise in our society where the entrenched people, be it politics, government, industry or whatever, are not prepared to call it a day and pass the baton to the new generation. The worst situation is in politics where a few families have grabbed the parties and will not let go. The Bhuttos, the Sharifs, the Wali Khans, the Altaf Husains and what have you.
Let us take the Bhuttos. PPP is not only a blue blooded dynasty of father, daughter, husband, son, ad infinitum, it is also now a cult, with the number of devotees of the Deity increasing by the day due to the populist policies of the party. That these policies are causing the economic ruination of the country does not cross their minds. As long as the devotees are happy with the hollow slogan of ‘roti, kapra aur makan’ all is well. It is not for them to consider that to provide ‘roti, kapra aur makan’, a certain amount of economic development is essential i.e. development of industry and agriculture, the two fields which can provide real jobs (as opposed to unproductive jobs), which in turn can alleviate poverty (as opposed to ‘bheek’ programs). Otherwise why would the number of people below the poverty line have increased in all three previous tenures of PPP. Statistics do not lie.
But I digress. The point is with PPP being what it is, a full fledged, certified cult, built upon pseudo martyrdoms, how can we expect the other parties to democratize themselves and leave PPP with a clear advantage. These other parties are not about to commit ‘harakiri’, no thank you. So we are back to square one. We keep going round the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush.
And pray who is responsible for this sorry state of affairs, certainly not the unwashed illiterate ‘awam’, not by a long shot. It is the literate, well to do, well placed members of the party who are suffering from a permanent suspension of disbelief – much like the Ostrich with its head in the sand. A complete refusal to see that PPP has abdicated its will to the will of the ‘awam’, as an easy means to remaining in power. If PPP remains, Pakistan will not.
A big element of the so-called “Pakistani Dream” is this idea of lifting yourself up, that anyone can succeed with hard work. That Pakistan is the land of opportunity (unquote: President Zardari at the EU headquarters in Brussels ), a class-free society too.*lost his senses*
–
There may have been, for some people, just such opportunities (PPP ministers and ‘jayalas’) Many of us can look at friends or family and see people who moved upwards in social station, both economically and socially( though we are always confused about their sources of ‘hard work’)
The Pakistani Model
Just what has that model become? It’s certainly NOT one that rewards hard work, but rather one that rewards acquaintances, and ONLY kinship. Perhaps it never came close to what it once promised to be, especially for hardworking middle class members of our society, but the crony capitalism that we all labor under now has locked this country into a harsh and unforgiving feudalism.
In many ways, an institutionalized form of indentured servitude has been established for entire populations of people. The contracts now aren’t labor in return for room and board, or in return for training for a trade. Instead of signing away freedom for a short amount of time in return for passage, today one signs contracts for credit: credit for a home, credit for education, credit for the proper clothes and accessories to be presentable for work. Credit for a vehicle to get you to the job, a job that serves mainly to feed those lines of credit that were necessary to get the job in the first place.
Bootstraps have been replaced by invisible chains, chains locked in place by signatures on a line marked by an X. Thanks to a political class that serves only owners, not workers, breaking free of those chains has become much harder, while obligations that are supposed to flow down to workers, like healthcare and pensions, are increasingly being abandoned by the corporations. Unlike the contracts that old indentured servants labored under, today’s workers have no end date in sight. There is no contract with an employer, because the contracts have been threaded into the warp and woof of everyday life.
Have a problem with your wallets? Well, obviously the problem is with YOU. YOU didn’t restrain yourself, or weren’t disciplined enough, or didn’t network effectively. Here, buy some books that will teach you how to fix yourself. Workers are the problem. Always the problem, and interlocking institutions work in concert to reinforce this message. WE all work together to reinforce this message. It’s a strange and insidious thing that has grown up over time, and now those who benefit from it are buying and selling political access to ensure that it never changes. (we are a nation of ever-lasting beacons IDIOTS)
What of those who don’t or can’t get on the treadmill, those who’re too poor, or too uneducated thanks to our eviscerated schools, or too dark for our still racist nation to welcome into even this fold? They are left to labor in less essential jobs, still out in the fields and held out as an internal threat, used to frighten middle class workers with stories of crime or threats of a bottom waiting to swallow them up.
In short, most of us are left to fend for ourselves.
The only way out is to help keep the ’system’ in place. If you want to climb the ladder, you need to be either preternaturally disciplined, magically lucky or (and this is how it is usually done) you must not look too closely at what you’re doing and step over any and all in your path and oh yes you need to be a son of a top bureaucrat.
Many of us have realized NOW that the current setup isn’t working for us and our families. No matter how often it’s banged over our heads that the economy is growing and creating jobs (the budget 2009 claims though), more and more of us see no signs of it in our daily lives. Instead, we feel our wages stagnating (despite the 15% raise in the salaries) and our opportunities contracting(as if there were before). Given our collective lack of historical awareness, many of us don’t even realize that this iteration of capitalism isn’t even more than a few decades old.
It’s not set in stone, it’s not a byproduct of some natural law.
We can choose to change it.
Or we can keep on as we are, living with a ’system’( http://www.thesaurus.com hasn’t been able to come up with a better synonym for our so called ’system’).??
SAY??!
This is the sort of reaction, that this man is getting from Pakistanis from around the world!
Global
Type: Common Interest – Politics
Description:If you agree that traitors like Asif Zardari should be hanged and not allowed to flee from the country, please sign this petition. We intend to put pressure on the Chief Justice of Pakistan and the Pakistani Media to bring this traitor to Justice.
Asif Ali Zardari, the current President of Pakistan, has a free run over Pakistani taxpayer’s money and is busy filling his bank accounts. The country is burning while he enjoys unprecedented protocol on his regular foreign excursions visiting dance bars and inviting hookers to his hotel – all at the Pakistani taxpayer’s money. This comes at a time when over 3 million Pakistanis are refugees within the country due to the ongoing military action against terrorists.
This is just the tip of the iceberg – He is also guilty of compromising Pakistan’s security for money.
All his wealth is stored in foreign bank accounts, his family and properties live abroad. His policy is to make as much money as he can and run. In doing so, he is harming Pakistan’s interests.
PPP Flags have replaced Pakistani flags and his son’s photo has replaced Quaid-e-Azam’s photo in the President House.
He is a traitor and deserves to be hanged to death.
Asif Ghaddari Ko Islamabad ke khambon pe tanga dekhna hai!!!!
HANG THE BASTARD FOR ROBBING THE PEOPLE!
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Hazaroon Saal uski Maa karti rahi uskay baap ke saath ghaddari,
Phir ja kar payda huwa Asif Ali Zardari
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ASIF ZARDARI:
The most corrupt man in the history of this region and easily the most degenerate and despicable c*nt of a human being (If you can call him that) who has been implanted as President of Pakistan.
Half the country is burning while this asswipe is busy filling his bank accounts, knowing that he has very little time left before he can pack up as much as he can and run.
We’re using this group to call for our countrymen to ensure he isn’t allowed to run away, and is brought to justice.
The day isn’t far when we shall see Asif Ali Zardari hanging on a lamp-post in Islamabad!!
InshaAllah.
By Syed Shoaib Hasan BBC News, Islamabad
Groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba had to close down camps after the 2002 ban
Militant groups banned in Pakistan are expanding operations and recruitment in Pakistani-run Kashmir, according to a government report seen by the BBC.
The observations are from a detailed secret report submitted to the region’s government on the groups’ activities in the city of Muzaffarabad and elsewhere.
Pakistan banned the groups in 2002 after an attack on India’s parliament brought the two states close to war.
A senior Pakistani minister denied that such a report had been submitted.
"No such report has come before the government which shows that these organisations have revived their activities," Qamaruzaman Qaira, Pakistan’s Information Minister, told the BBC.
"However, if the report was submitted by a secret agency then that is another matter altogether," he said.
Pakistan’s allies, including the US, have expressed fears regarding the groups’ proliferation and their close links to al-Qaeda.
‘Cover for militancy’
A copy of the report, which was submitted by regional police to Pakistan-administered Kashmir’s cabinet on 25 March, was obtained by the BBC in Islamabad.
These people are being protected here 
Raja Faisal Majeed
lawyer living near suspected militant camps in Pakistani-run Kashmir
It finds that three banned groups – Harkatul Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba – are active in Muzaffarabad.
Harkatul Mujahideen and Jaish-e-Mohammad are said to be planning to open madrassas, or Islamic schools, in the city where Lashkar-e-Taiba is already operating a madrassa.
"No officials are allowed to enter these premises to gather any sort of information," the report says.
"We fear these madrassas maybe a cover for furthering militant activities."
The report also elaborates how the militant groups are growing in size and number across Kashmir.
It especially mentions the Neelum district, where they are said to be at their most powerful.
The report says the militants are involved in the logging of trees, one of the most lucrative trades in the region.
They have also set up offices in the Kandal Shahi market in Neelum, where they have become a major law and order headache, the report says.
The report mentions an incident which led to the killing of some locals and a resulting stand-off with the militants.
"The situation was only resolved by the intervention of the local administrator and senior army officials," the report says.
It then goes on to say that the authorities should take up the matter with the intelligence agency responsible for the militants.
The report says officials from that agency should relocate the militants to some area near the border, otherwise clashes with locals could take place.
Deadly groups
The report comes as Pakistan’s security forces are involved in a fully fledged operation against the Taliban.
The militants are said to be backed up by the jihadi organisations, especially the Jaish-e-Mohammad and the Harkatul Mujahideen.
Jaish-e-Mohammad has been involved in several assassination attempts on top Pakistani officials, including former President Pervez Musharraf.
Its members were also responsible for the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street journalist Daniel Pearl, and are said to have carried out the attack on the Indian parliament.
Harkatul Mujahideen is the Jaish’s parent organisation and one of the largest militant groups in the world.
Lashkar-e-Taiba remains the prime suspect in the Mumbai attacks and is India’s enemy number one.
The charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa has been accused of being a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba – but it denies any links with militants.
Local people have confirmed to the BBC that there has been a great increase in militant activity in the regions mentioned.
"These people are being protected here," said Raja Faisal Majeed, a lawyer living in a village near where some of the militant groups have set up base.
"Sometimes they operate under the guise of a charity, sometimes as a school. We have protested against them to no avail."
The deputy chief of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Abdurehman Makki, told the BBC that the group had not purchased any properties in the area or been involved in any alteracations with locals in the area.
Despite the fact that the groups mentioned in the report are banned under Pakistan’s terrorism act, it does not advocate any action against them other than to keep an eye on their activities.
In the late 80’s I was attending a seminar being held at the Avari Hotel in Lahore, where a lady from an NGO was talking about the money being spent on our nuclear program, and contrasted it against the 3 bombs we already possessed!
This comment really drew everyone’s attention, and we were all ears to learn about these three mysterious weapons we actually had in our arsenal, and till now, had no inkling of!!! A break for tea was announced, and the room was suddenly abuzz with spontaneous discussion to find out if anyone knew of the 3 bombs the lady was alluding to! We couldn’t get the tea down fast enough for the speaker to resume her talk and relieve us all of our intellectual tension and misery!
Slowly she began to draw our attention to the largest section of our Population, the poor, undernourished, uneducated, unemployed and marginalized folks all over Pakistan; those were the days of an authoritarian ruler who had just religion on his mind, so much so that the impact, even today, we are suffering the effects all over our Motherland, and steadily we continue to multiply!
Thanks to that same bigot who began the journey down the road of religious confusion, we note with horror how we have multiplied our numbers when every resource is stretched to the limit as a result! Family planning was made to take a back seat in an agenda that furthered the cause of his time!
In recent years I was party to a nikah ceremony being held at a mosque in a seminary, (I refuse to use the M word because it conjures up all sorts of images! And believe me the attitudes and demeanor displayed there was distasteful). The sermon before the ceremony lasted by contrast, for 45 minutes! While the nikah, took 10 minutes!
The sermon included the subject of procreation, the message was very loud and clear! Go forth and multiply, we need the numbers if we are to win the global conflict! OMG! I thought, we are headed for oblivion! Today you see the effects of such preaching on our streets, under bridges, in kutchi abadis, in rural and urban seminaries, everywhere they can possibly seek respite from all the ills that plague their wretched existences.
Having successfully projected a picture of this segment of society, she then, began telling us of how we all were actually choking the Motherland to death, simply by not having set up an effective way to dispose of our waste and garbage! How we all worked to make sure that our homes were clean and spotless, without casting a thought to what happens when the cleaner walks away with the day’s waste and garbage. How it all ends up at the street corner or is just dumped over the wall, or outside the front door for a phantom collector to clear!
Planned waste management was still in its infancy and the afghan kids had yet to take up this lucrative livelihood, of making money from rummaging thru our waste and garbage.
Till recent years, they never addressed the final fate of the heaps that have now become landfills despite which we continue to suffocate and choke the atmosphere, with the smoke of the heaps of burning garbage, the naalees, the nalluhs and the canals of our Motherland!! Only recently private enterprise has got involved in setting up projects to address the challenge, while making a pretty penny for their pocket, challo, I condone that, as they are beginning to scratch the surface of the pollution challenge. She then drew our attention to the smoke belching out of vehicles on our roads, 20 years down the road; we have yet to resolve this challenge of Pollution!
Finally the lady drew our attention to the crisis of the economically challenged.
In a previous article I had mentioned the US Aid program that directly converted us into a Nation of beggars! Ever since, we have adopted our nick name of Kashkoleistan! And despite all the money that has found it way into the coffers and pockets of the Motherland there is no change in the living standards of the majority of the population! Look around you, everywhere there are the deprived, lesser people of this Motherland, but we all continue to elect those who continue to loot and plunder, heartlessly, our beloved Motherland, including most of them in today’s Management Team.
The poor are still relegated to their permanent existence without any hope of seeing any ray of hope in their lifetimes! Poverty will reign supreme!
To be fair though, the numerous, genuine institutions and NGOs who are bravely attempting to support and provide for them while provincial and federal governments continue their mere lip service of their good intentions and responsibilities.
There you have them! What you ask? The 3 P-Bombs of Pakistan of course! With ignited fuses, slowly burning away until they finally explode!
POPULATION, POLLUTION AND POVERTY!
Published: June 28, 2009
ISLAMABAD – Spokesperson of the Presidency Farhatullah Babar has dismissed the report by a private channel, alleging that portraits of Quaid-i-Azam had been removed from the Presidency.
“It is not only false but also mischievous, unethical and highly unbecoming of any professional media outlet and professional journalists,” the spokesperson contradicted in a statement issued on Saturday. The spokesperson also said such tendentious and malicious reports should jolt professional media organisations into asking themselves if this is what the freedom of media is and for which democratic political parties, civil society bodies and media organisations have rendered great sacrifices.
Monitoring Desk adds: Portraits of Founder of Pakistan Quaid-i-Azam Muhammed Ali Jinnah had been removed from the Prime Minister House and Presidential House, a private TV channel reported Saturday.
Two days ago, President Zardari hosted a reception in honour of the national cricket team on winning the ICC Twenty20 World Cup title. On this occasion, the team players and officials had a group photo with President Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
There were pictures of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto, Bilawal Zardari Bhutto and President Zardari hanging on the wall behind the group but there was no portrait of Founder of the Nation.
Similarly, an Internship Award ceremony was held with PM Gilani in chair on Friday. On this occasion, the stage was decorated with the pictures of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto, President Zardari and PM Gilani; however, there was no picture of Quaid-i-Azam.
In a similar photograph, President Zardari was administering oath of Federal Mohtasib to Dr Shoaib Suddle; however, the backdrop flashed with a picture of Quaid-i-Awam sans any photo of Quaid-i-Azam.
Similarly, in a meeting with US delegation, no photograph of Muhammed Ali Jinnah was visible.
Under law, to hang the portrait of Quaid-i-Azam at offices of government officials, Presidency and Prime Minister House is compulsory.
Sir: This is with reference to Samad Khurram’s article “Preparing for a funeral”. (Daily Times, June 18) I agree with the sentiment expressed by Mr Khurram, i.e. Imran Khan’s strange and confused ideas are responsible for the destruction of the promise of his party, which was built on the ideals of justice, transparency and progress. By aligning with the religious right and by sympathising with and apologising for those who are trying to destroy our country, Imran Khan had disappointed those who supported his project, including myself, as well as the rest of the nation.
KAZIM ALI
Karachi
Daily Times June 20th, 2009
* Passer-by says young people waste time in pointless chain messages
* Protest coordinator says text messages help students stay in touch with families in other cities
LAHORE: A number of young people, belonging to various youth organisations, on Friday protested outside the Lahore Press Club, demanding that the government withdraw the 20 percent tax on short messaging service (SMS), which was announced in the annual budget for the financial year 2009-10.
The Progressive Youth Front (PYF) organised the protest against the ‘SMS tax’. The protest provided an interesting spectacle for the passers-by, who were amazed by the youth shouting slogans against SMS being taxed.
“People here are struggling to make both ends meet, but these young people are protesting against taxation on SMS, which sounds funny,” said Abbas, a young man who was standing on the curb, and staring at the protesters with mock amazement.
Another passer-by said the tax on SMS was quite justified. He said most young people wasted their time in sending pointless chain messages.
PYF Coordinator Kashif said the youth of Pakistan lived without basic facilities, and cheap SMS was the only ‘luxury’ they could enjoy. He said it was deplorable that the youth was now being deprived of this facility.
Staying in touch: He did not deny that young people were circulating indecent and meaningless SMS. However, he insisted that the tax imposed on SMS was a great blow for the young people who stayed in contact with each other through the ‘service’.
He said the young people who left their native cities to study in urban centres stayed in touch with their families back home through SMS. He claimed the PYF had conducted a survey and found that an overwhelming majority of young people opposed the decision of the federal government.
Kashif said telecommunication companies should also raise their voice against the tax. “The government is already taxing calling cards. It should withdraw the tax on SMS,” he said. ali usman
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