Sherry Rehman was born
on 21.12.60 in Karachi as Shehrbano ‘Sherry’ Rehman.
She is the founding chairperson
of Jinnah Institute a think tank in Pakistan, former Information Minister and
Pakistan ambassador to the United States.She is married to Nadeem Hussain
founder of Tameer Bank. Don't be misled
by the name Sherry which reminds one of
merry days full of fun and frolic spiced with occasional sinful pleasures behind
the curtains. Not with Sherry Rehman. She is a
intellectual,diplomat,parliamentarian and a social activist. She introduced 5 five PPP bills tabled in the National
Assembly: the Women Empowerment Bill, Anti-Honor Killings Bill, Domestic
Violence Prevention Bill, Affirmative Action Bill and Hudood Repeal Bill. She
also moved two bills concerning the media: the Freedom of Information Bill and
the Press Act, which prevents working journalists from being arrested under the
1999 Press Ordinance. A case was registered against her under the notorious
Anti Blasphemy Law of Pakistan. Occasionally she has dragged herself into
scandals also. The most famous being her merrily puffing a cigarette. You can
see the video here.
After the change in Govt in Pakistan the
Jinnah Institute is her pet project.Certain quarters in Pakistan have raised
concerns that Jinnah Institute is being funded by the ISI through Tameer
Bank.Dr Siddiqa who is a prominent Pakistani scholar has already exposed the
ISI plan to infiltrate the US think tanks to echo the nefarious agenda of the
military establishment of Pakistan. In 2011The Jinnah Institute together with the United States Institute of Peace(ULIP)
produced a report entitled "Pakistan, the
United States and the End Game in Afghanistan: Perceptions of Pakistan". The report stressed the
importance of a dialogue between Pakistan and US governments with the Taliban with the intention of paving way
for Mullah Omar’s rule in Kabul and Kandahar, consistent with ISI’s agendas. This is the goal of the Pakistan military and ISI and the Jinnah
Institute faithfully incorporated it in
its report
.
However
coming to her lecture at the Jama Millia on 31.7.13 it may be said it was
literary a lecture to India. She kept her face straight and gave a lecture on
how India is not reciprocating the love and effection
Pakistan is pouring on it. Incidentally if you see the picture above, you would
observe that her face has started resembling the gentleman whose photograph is
hanging behind her. Mohd Ali Jinnah divided India in the name of religion .
After getting Pakistan he changed track and started harping that religion and
state would be kept separate in Pakistan. This new found ideology he announced
in a speech on 11.8.47. The records of this speech has mysteriously disappeared
from the archives of the Pakistan radio. Similarly Ms Sherry Rehman is also
saying something which is not the truth. The art of subterfuge has been
perfected by the Pakistani establishment. They seldom say something which they
believe and they seldom believe in what they say. So Sherry Rehman is not a
exception.
I have not been able to lay
my hands on the full text of her speech. Let us analyse some of the issues she
has raised as reported in the media :
1.
"Kashmir will remain a core concern but we need to move beyond that,"
she said.
How
is that Kashmir is a core issue for Pakistan? Was it earlier part of Pakistan
and India snatched it? The truth is that a part of Kashmir has been snatched
away by Pakistan which has still not been returned to us. The entire Kashmir
has been acceded to India legally by then Maharaja Hari Singh. So the core
issue is returning of POK to us. It is another matter that India is not
pressing for it. Ms Sherry Rehman is aware that Kashmir is legally and constitutionally
integral part of this country now. Issues like UNO resolution or plebiscite
have become redundant and time barred. India will never enter into any
negotiations with anybody for deciding the status of of Kashmir. As far as POK is concerned,
Pakistan may return it back to us since it is illegally occupied since 1947. Therefore
core issue drama of Pakistan just does not hold water. It is only a cleverly
devised tool to needle India and a medium for its political elite to remain in
power. The reality is that Pakistan is not interested in the welfare of
Kashmiri's. Its only wants its territory and rich natural resources.Pakistan
love for the Kashmiri's and its support for the Kashmir cause is also exposed.There
has been a number of killings of persons in Pakistan who advocated a
independent Kashmir. The
most prominent was the killing of Arif Shahid (based in POK) who advocated Independence for
Kashmir. On one side Pakistan continuously shouts that Kashmir's should decide
the status of Kashmir and on the other side it is itself eliminating those who
are supporting its independence. It only goes to prove its real intention of
swallowing Kashmir. This is the core issue for Pakistan. Report.
Since
the core issue is a fake issue the condescending words of Madam Sherry
that"We need to move forward" as if Pakistan is doing a great favour
is unnecessary.
2. She also said the rise of Hindutva in India
was a cause of concern for Pakistan
Now
this statement is the funniest one I have heard in the last two decades of
Indo-Pak relations.
Which
Hindutva is she talking about? After Independence India adopted a secular
democratic constitution whereas Pakistan became a Islamic country. Religion and
state are separate here. In Madam Sherry country the state itself is Islamic
and is actively engaged in promoting Islamism and Islamic extremism. If she is
pointing her fingers towards the RSS,VHP then these organisations are here
since independence and they are not armed lashkars like the TTP ,Taliban. In
the past 65 years there may been a occasional
spurt in their activity but it has seldom disturbed the calm waters of
secularism.These occasional spurt in their activism cannot in any sense be
termed as rise of Hindutva. It is said that attack is the best form of defense.
Therefore Ms Sherry Rehman is taking resort
to this gimmick to defend the indefensible spread of cancer of terrorism in
Pakistan which is affecting the entire world.First
Ms Sherry Rehman builds a imaginary evil doll of rising Hindutva in India and
then further gives it a life by expressing
her concerns from it. Pakistan which has the most dreaded demons of
terrorism fearing from Hindutva peanuts
in India! Ridiculous . It would be better to leave this to the readers to judge
themselves.
While
on the subject it would be proper for me
to point out that mass international killings like 9/11,26/11 and other numerous terrorist attacks have
been planned and executed by elements in Pakistan. In most of the cases ISI has
provided logistic support as well as supply of weapons to the terrorist. Intelligence
reports gathered during a long span of time by the US and other nations have
clearly established the nexus between the Pakistani state and terrorist.
Everybody knows the ties between the PMLN and TTP,LeT,LeJ. The previous Govt of
PPP was obediently at the pleasure of the Army which in turn was using
terrorist as a legitimate force. It has became very difficult for Pakistan
therefore to hide the nest of snakes which it is feeding .Moreover the fire it
ignited for others have started burning in its own backyard. Since Pakistan
cannot hide the devil and neither it can destroy it the best next thing it did
was to justify it. Mumbai 26/11was because of Kashmir problem, Train blast,
Akshardam killings because of Babri masjid, New York was attacked because of
Palestine problem, Bodh Gaya attacked because of Rohingya problem, Innocents massacred
because of drone attacks,London metro attacked because of Muslim
discrimination, London soldier attack because of Afghanistan problem,Indian
Embassy attacked because of strategic depth problem. The list is long. Now
Pakistan is cherry picking some episode and justifying jihadis. Wait ! Imran
Khan is now going one step further to hug the Talibs.
That
is why people in India just smiled politely when Sherry Rehman spoke at the
Jama Millia.
3.
She
said both countries need to move beyond "cold war politics" and
"tired posturing of hyper nationalism".
India is a vast country and
it can adjust 4 Pakistans in it if we go area wise. What will it do with more
territory? Pakistan has constantly crying wolf over India as if we are going to
annexe it territories.There is nothing worthwhile in Pakistan which India would
like to possess. Infact some people in India thank God that Pakistan was formed
and all the Jihadis, Fasadis and Wahibis shifted there. Pakistan propaganda
about India intimidating has however paid rich dividends to it. Possession of
Nuclear weapons and billions of dollars in US aid and advance weapon systems .
So the cold war which Ms Sherry Rehman is referring to does not exist as far as
India is concerned but for Pakistan it is important to continue this
bogey.India has yet to be granted MFN status,Kashmir is not recognised as part
of India,Parts of Leh/Ladakh given to China,ISI sponsored attacks, beheading of
soldiers and so on. Are these not cold war attacks on India. The cause of the cold
war is Pakistan and it is expected that Ms Rehman would impress on the leaders
of her country to drop these tactics and embrace the hand of India to promote
peace and prosperity in the region.
Now what is this
"tired posturing of hyper nationalism" ? Has Ms Rehman ever gone through school text books
prescribed in Pakistan? Millions of Pakistani children are taught that Hindus
are cunning kafirs and India is Pakistan enemy one. Thousands of Madrassa's
believed to be approximately 40,000 are jihadi producing factories which churn
out thousands of jihadis every month. After years of such indoctrination the majority of
youngsters in Pakistan now consider themselves as Arab as if their ancestors
never belonged to the great Ganga-Jamuna tehzeb. So this is the kind of
nationalism which Pakistan is injecting into its population which is inimical
and hostile towards India. There is no such indoctrination in India. Yes there
is the pain of partition but there is no malice born out of religious
differences. And please remember Ms Sherry that India has more Muslims than
Pakistan and they are increasing but your country has reduced the Hindus from
22% to 2%. So Ms Sherry don't make us a partner in the sort of nationalism
which you are nurturing. It can be termed as 'viper' nationalism and not' hyper' nationalism.
4. she said, “we are here building bridges”.
Would Ms Sherry Rehman tell
us what sort of bridges she intends to build.Horrible attacks from Pakistan
based terrorists and from the Army has now become a common occurrence.
Thousands of Indians have been killed in these attacks. Our soldiers have been
beheaded and those captured have been mutilated. The perpetuators of these
crimes are roaming free and boasting about their vile acts in Pakistan. The Let/JuD
chief Hafeez Sayeed who has blood on his
hands openly threatens India from Lahore in his daily speeches. In one of his speeches
he said that " Hindus are mean enemy" and "they have to be
crushed as our forefathers have done". Instead of putting this rascal
behind bars guess what the Pakistan Government
does .It releases a grant of 61.35 million to his organisation JuD based in Muridke. A award
for his blood thirsty intention against India.Report.
Capt Saurabh Kalia was captured, tortured and mutilated and then his body was
thrown in a pit by the Pakistani Army. All along Pakistan denied this but now
see how a Pakistani soldier is boasting about it in a function organised by the
Pakistan Army. Video.
It is clear that Pakistan
never wanted bridges to be built. Its entire military and civil complex is
working overtime to devise new ways to target the people of India. Even a small
thing like granting MFN status to India cannot be carried out by Pakistan and
and Ms Sherry Rehman is talking about building bridges.Ms Sherry show yourself
a mirror and you would see the utter falsehood of the statement you are making.
First apologise for your misdeeds,punish those responsible for it,apprehend the
terrorists, control your army and then come for building bridges.
5. she also
mentioned that “India still looks at Pakistan through an outdated lens” and
while they try to move forward with any discussion, the Mumbai attacks “burns a
hole in every conversation” and “negotiations in this view are not possible.”
India
still looks at Pakistan through a outdated lens? What does it mean? The entire
world and not only India knows that the entire ground in Pakistan has become a
quick sand in which it is slowly being swallowed. Killing have become norm
there,Muslims are killing Muslims. The administration has become ineffective
and Army has been infiltrated by Jihadis. Elections are won by getting support
from extremist organisations.Mediveal laws like the blasphemy law , anti Ahmedi
laws , non Muslims voter rights law are prevailing there. People like Salman
Taseer are publicly executed and his killing is celebrated by educated citizens
of Pakistan. The killer is showered with rose petals.The judiciary has become
redundant. The judges do not pronounce judgments because of threats to their
life.Witnesses fear to depose. Hindu girls are kidnapped ,converted and forced
into marriage with Muslim landlords. Nobody even blinks.Even TV shows are aired
showing some poor Hindu being converted
to Islam with much fanfare and the entire Pakistan audience applauds. Presidents
and Prime Ministers run away from Pakistan and take shelter in Dubai or London.
Even your former ambassador to US Hussain Haqqani has to run away to prevent
his throat being slit by some celebrity
extremist or the ISI.
I
am quite sure Ms Sherry is aware of all these facts. India is looking at
Pakistan with the latest modern lens and not with a outdated one. The more you
remain in a self denial mode the sooner you will hasten the disintegration of
your country. India is wisely taking precautionary steps while dealing with
such a messy country.
The
next part of Ms Sherry statement is the cherry on the cake. Rubbing some extra
salt on the wounds.The Mumbai attacks was one of the most murderous event after
9/11 perpetuated by LeT and the ISI. It was organised and planned by the ISI of
Pakistan together with Pakistani terrorist organistion the LeT. There is a well
planned conspiracy to protect the perpetuators of this crime in Pakistan. 5
years have passed and there is no progress in the case. To escape criticism
from the international community a drama is being enacted where some of the
accused are kept behind bars where they are enjoying all the luxuries. There is
absolutely no progress in the case otherwise. Sometimes the lawyers make
themselves absent, sometimes witnesses don't appear, sometime the judge is not
well and sometimes they are on leave.Sometimes even some remote sections of the
law are digged into and quoted to delay the proceedings. Incidentally the
lawyer in the case ChaudharyZulfiqar has also been killed .Hafeez sayeed the
brains behind this crime is a hero in Pakistan and promising a second episode.
Even a fool can see the real intentions behind these mask of appearances. It
looks that so many killings in Pakistan has made you people immune to killings.
For us every life is precious and every killer is accountable for his actions.
Pakistan should not further degrade itself by
treating the Mumbai attacks as something which is of little importance and can
be set aside in favour of a dialogue. Dialogue is not possible with people who
hide murderers ,terrorists and assassins. What you are trying to suggest Ms
Rehman is preposterous. You want a dialogue with a country after killing 200 of
its people and then having the temerity to protect the killers. This type of
twisted logic only Pakistan can practice.
6. She said one key difference in the Pakistani mood today is that India
is no longer seen as Pakistan's principal enemy.
The
military and civil complex of Pakistan sings a different song. There is no
ground evidence to suggest that Pakistan has changed its policy of enmity with
India. Merely stating something does not make it a fact. Leaders of terrorist
organisations vowing to decimate India are still being patronised. There are as
much as 42
terrorist training camps running at
various places in Pakistan specifically for targeting India. The Pakistani army
regularly gives fire cover to militants crossing the LOC into Kashmir. The ISI
is providing funds and support to local groups in India to carry out extremist
activities. Groups like the Indian Mujahidin have become extension of the ISI. Almost
all the Indian terrorist are trained and sheltered in Pakistan. There are
almost 50
dreaded Indian terrorists who have
been given shelter in Pakistan. There has been no response from Pakistan to
various appeal made by India to hand them over. Killing of Indian soldiers on
the LOC is merrily going on. As recently as at the time of writing this article
5 Indian soldiers have been killed in Poonch by a joint team of Pakistan army
and the jihadis. Pakistan has a special regiment called mujahedeen 801 or BAT
comprising of regular Pakistan soldiers and LeT cadre terrorists to carry cross
border attacks. There is already evidence that after the withdrawal of US from Afghanistan,
Pakistan has planned to divert the bulk of mujahedeen's toward India.
So
how is the mood changed? There is no evidence of it. The declared goal of Pakistan to bleed India through
a thousand cuts is still being pursued vigorously. So if Ms Sherry Rehman
thinks that by voicing such homilies she can hide the ground realities then she
is sadly mistaken. She should cite some hard facts to substantiate her claim
that the mood in Pakistan has changed. Action speaks louder than words.
In
the end I would state that we all want a lasting friendship with Pakistan but
not on the terms which Pakistan is insisting. Dialogue for dialogue sake is
meaningless. Friendship with a demon is suicide. Cosmetic changes are useless. Pakistan
has to make fundamental changes to its polity by taking pro active steps. Reverse its present
engagement to deploy and support terrorism against India by taking positive
steps. Then only a lasting and true friendship between our two nations can be a
dream come true.
AK
BUNDI
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