146 people dead in South Korea Ferry disaster

Disclaimer: This post was originally posted in TechNews on April 27, 2014

There are times in our life when we think we are going through a lot of struggle and pain. While we think about this, something so disastrous happens right in front of us that we forget about our struggle and pain and all we think of is the pain that the other people are going through.

We are still not out of the trauma of the missing Malaysian Airlines flight when a ferry sinks in South Korea. The Sewol (name of the ferry) was en route from Incheon, on South Korea's Northwest coast, to the Southern resort island of Jeju when it turned sharply, listed and began taking on water. There were more than 300 people in the boat including high school students.

Until now at least 146 people were confirmed dead, according to the joint task force leading the search. Earlier, when the death toll was reported to be 128, authorities had said that 174 people were still missing. The death toll had been expected to climb as divers were able to reach the ship's cafeteria, where many passengers were thought to be when the ship began to have troubles last week.

Just imagine how many people lost their loved ones in this tragic event. How many relations turn into memories which will always be associated with pain? How many parents lost their children, with whom they had seen their future? We sit here and complain that we are struggling because we don’t get good food or grades. How about those children who were struggling in that ferry for their lives, all because of one captain’s mistake.

I feel sad and ashamed over those people who played stupid pranks by sending messages to the parents of missing children saying that they were still alive and wanted their help. Don’t they have any emotions? Why do we always forget that what goes around, comes around? We have no right to play with someone’s emotions especially during this crucial time when we know that they are wishing for some good news but some people are just so senseless that they want to play pranks with them.

I don’t know about other people but for me such events are always an eye-opener. They let me reflect over my blessings and be thankful for whatever I have. They teach me the importance of relations and the uncertainty of life. They teach me how easy it is to lose your loved ones and how hard it is to wait for someone who has been missing for a while. They teach me how people survive through pain and how hard it is for them to resume their lives once again.

All I want to say is, please try be good to everyone around you. You never know when a person we know becomes a person we knew. What’s the use of living your life with guilt of not appreciating someone or something around you? All you have to do is to be a good person, not for others but for yourself because when you lose a relation, you are the only one who knows what you are going through.

Link to original post: 146 people dead in South Korea Ferry disaster

Journalists close Quetta press club to mourn killing of colleagues

Disclaimer: This post was originally published in TechNews on Sept 13, 2014

I have been working as a journalist for the past seven years, and every year, I hear about the death of my fellow journalists in Pakistan. It really pinches me thinking about the fact that I am here, all safe doing whatever I wish to, but my people are not safe. I’m tired of this violence, I'm tired of the pain I feel and still can’t help it. I'm tired of being on the road, lonely as a robin in the rain. I want to run away from all this, but will it bring a change in my society? I’m tired of people being ugly to each other. It aches like pieces of glass in my body; it feels like scars on the soul of humanity. I'm tired of all the times I've wanted to help and couldn't. I want to do something at least that would bring a little hope to people who lost their families, their friends, their whole lives and have been torn apart in just a second. I'm tired of being in the dark of this ruthless war of injustice. Mostly it's all about the pain. There's too much that words can’t explain. If I could end it, I would have, but there is no hope for humanity. I wonder what can relieve these people, what can change their fate.

On August 28, gunmen barged into the office of he Online News Agency and killed its Bureau Chief Irshad Mastoi, Reporter Abdul Rasool and Accountant Muhammad Younas. Since then the Press Clubs across Baluchistan, like elsewhere in Pakistan, remained closed to protest against what journalists describe as the inability of law enforcing agencies to trace the murderers of senior journalist Irshad Matoi and his two colleagues who were gunned down inside their office.

The strike was called by Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and Pakistan Press Clubs Council. It is the first ever extreme step taken by journalists to shut down the Press Clubs in Pakistan. The protesting journalists hoisted black flags on top of their press clubs. Journalists pitched strike camps outside the Press Clubs.

The police and law enforcing agencies have so far failed to find any clue regarding the killings. Baluchistan Union of Journalists (BUJ) demanded the government announce compensation for the grieving families of the journalists who were brutally murdered in Baluchistan. Again, my question is, will this thing stop the killers from killing the innocent people, or will it bring their loved ones back to life? No, it will do nothing. Instead of giving them money, why don’t they have a better law and order system, which will stop people from killing others. Why don’t they pass such laws which will stop the terrorists from spreading violence in my country? Why can’t we live in peace like other countries?

The President of BUJ, Irfan Saeed, says that journalists will observe a hunger strike, if there is no progress in investigation. “This is a serious issue and we will not give up until the culprits are arrested,” Saeed said.

President of Quetta Press Club, Raza Ur Rehman said the recent killings have sent a shockwave among the journalists who are now working under immense fear. “This culture of impunity should end now. Law enforcers should expedite investigation and trace the culprits. We will not further tolerate any negligence on the part of law enforcing agencies,” he said. Senior Journalist Shahzada Zulfiqar quoted that journalists are on protest for the unending targeted killings of their colleagues. This is the first time when I have seen such unity in them. I wish they would have learned this lesson the easier way, but I guess sometimes, it better to learn it the other way around.

BUJ announced that in the next phase, the journalists will observe hunger strike to put pressure on law enforcers to fulfill their responsibility and this statement was given last week. Until now, there has  been no progress, so I am afraid they will definitely start their hunger strike. I just hope and wish that the government will take notice of this and will help them out. My country bleeds again and I mourn, I mourn for its fate, its destiny, and its people.

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Nobel Prize Winner Malala Yousafzai

Disclaimer: This post was originally published in TechNews on Oct 25, 2014

Malala Yousafzai and India’s Kailash Satyarthi were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work in promoting children’s rights on Friday, October 10. Yousafzai became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. She is the first Pakistani to become a Nobel laureate since Abdus Salam who also shared the prize in 1979 with U.S. nominee Steven Weinberg for Physics.

What makes the event more thoughtful, though, is that she passed the two-year anniversary of the horrid event that tossed her and her cause onto the world stage just a day prior to the announcement.

Yousafzai was riding home from school on Tuesday, October 9, 2012. Gunmen halted the van she was in and demanded that other girls in the vehicle identify her. She was pointed out. At least one gunman opened fire, wounding three girls. Two suffered nonlethal injuries, but bullets struck Yousafzai in the head and neck. She was left in critical condition. Fortunately, she received proper treatment in time and survived.

Soon, Yousafzai became a global symbol for the fight to allow girls everywhere access to an education. She founded “The Malala Fund,” which invests in local educational initiatives for girls in Pakistan, Nigeria, Kenya, and Jordan, where it focuses on Syrian refugees. She continued to advocate around the world for a girl's right to an education, speaking before the U.N.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the prize, stating that peaceful global development can only come about if children and the young are respected. “The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2014 is to be awarded to Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education,” the jury said.

For me, Yousafzai is a real life super hero who is ready to give up everything for the sake of education, not only for herself but for every individual in our country. Being a Pakistani girl and coming from a remote area of Pakistan just like Yousafzai, she has a very especial place in my heart. Not just for what she is doing, but for how she is doing it.

A citizen is awarded the highest moral award of our civilization. In the words of a former committee chairman, this is a symbol “of goodwill and purity of heart all over the world”. This is the Nobel Peace Prize after all, and it’s about the glory of the human ideal, and I think Yousafzai can be the perfect example for struggle and determination for a noble cause. But then it all goes wrong; A local paper screams “not to provoke the (…) people by rewarding this traitor to the nation.” Parts of the press call our hero a ‘puppet’ and ‘an insult’ to the country. Our local laureate is feted abroad and unwanted at home. Yes, the sane voices sigh, we haven’t heard this one before.

It really hurts me to see how she is being criticized by my fellow countrymen for getting this award. They say there are “candidates more deserving.” It should have been Abdul Sattar Edhi, an unsung angel they mention once a year (whenever Yousafzai might win another award). But an award for Yousafzai isn’t one less for Edhi because both of them are not in opposition to one another. If nothing else, her win leaves the door open for 2015, 2016, and any other year we’d want to spend making ad hominem arguments instead of volunteering at the Edhi Foundation. Instead of criticizing her, we should all be happy that she is presenting Pakistan on an international level. She is the one who is standing tall in front of the world, bearing the criticism and searching for positivity in every negative comment she gets. She is the one who is still not quitting, but moving forward to bring a change in the world. I just hope and pray that sanity prevails and we learn to love and accept our own people.

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Advice, lessons in positivity

Disclaimer: This post was originally posted in TechNews on Nov 23, 2014

Have you ever had that moment in your life when you felt like giving up but just couldn’t because you thought it’s not worth it? Or maybe one of those Kodak moments where something just clicks for you? Or something you’ve been struggling with for a long time and it was finally coming to an end but suddenly everything changed? Whatever the source of our insight, it’s these moments that bring us to a deeper understanding of our world. The better understanding we have of life, the more we live in the truth.

This Ramadan I started a 30 days lesson Facebook update challenge, where every day I shared something positive about my life and any positive lesson which I learnt in my life. Most of my friends loved it, so I thought to put them all together in shape of article and share it with rest of you.

I remember once there was a time in my life where I thought nothing good will ever happen in my life and that is when my mom told me that, “Nothing is impossible in this world. Faith is the only thing that matters and will make a difference, and trust me it did make a difference. There will come a time in your life when the most important decision of your life would be the hardest but, ‘You’ve got to do what’s right for you, even if it hurts.’ When are going through such time than just stop focusing on how stressed you are and remember how blessed you are. It could be so much worse. No matter how long it takes, it will get better. Tough situations build strong people in the end. Look for something positive about this moment. Even if you have to look a little harder than usual, it still exists.

There is a very famous saying by Victor Hugo that, “The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved,” and you will never understand this thing till you learn to love yourself. Learn to love yourself first, instead of loving the idea of other people loving you. My favorite poet Rumi said in his one of verse that, "Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it," and in his support he said, "Do not be satisfied with the stories that come before you. Unfold your own myth." If you will just read between the lines of his both verses trust me you will live a very peaceful life because life is all about love and the best thing one can do is to love himself. There is another good verse by Rumi which resonate with these verse, “Ignore those that make you fearful and sad, that degrade you back towards disease and death.”

Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart. All you have to do is look for that desire and fight for it. When you will start your journey there will be many people who will try to put you down but just remember one thing that, “When setting out on a journey do not seek advice from someone who never left home” – Rumi

There will come a time in your life when everything will go against you and you might stop believing in yourself but just remember what Alice Walker said, "The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any." Everyone is born with powers, you only have to polish them with time. There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. Speak up before it's too late. Let the world know about your power and show them that you are the one who will make his story a better one, in fact an inspirational one. As Aristotle said, “Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - choice, not chance, and determines your destiny.” So make your choices, put in your sincere efforts and keep your good intention high, nothing can then stop you from being successful. The most reliable way to predict the future is to create it. Participate in life instead of just watching it pass you by.

Everyone likes to complains and I like that too but next time when you complain then just remember this saying by our prophet Muhammad (pbuh), “When you see a person who has been given more than you in money and beauty, look to those, who have been given less.”  Remember, social comparison is the thief of happiness. You could spend a lifetime worrying about what others have, but it wouldn’t get you anything. But also remember that this doesn’t mean that you have the complete right to make fun of other people. Saying someone is ugly doesn’t make you any prettier. So why hurt someone's feeling. Plus nothing is ugly in this world, it's just the way we see it. Someone who appears to be ugly for you, could be someone's reason for living. When you choose to see the good in others, you end up finding the good in yourself.  So think before you speak and if you commit any mistakes just accept them move ahead. You can learn great things from your mistakes when you aren’t busy denying them. There isn't anything noble about being superior to another person. True nobility is in being superior to the person you once were. It’s absolutely okay to be wrong at times and guess what someone else doesn’t have to be wrong for you to be right either.

One of the most important lesson you will ever learn in your life is that don’t listen to what people say, watch what they do. And I would like to end my article with another awesome verse by my most favorite Sufi mystic Rumi, “This being human is a guest house. Every morning is a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor…Welcome and entertain them all. Treat each guest honorably. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.” I hope you enjoyed these tiny lessons and learned something, if you did I will feel blessed and if you didn’t I will still feel blessed because you read my entire article.

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Chapel Hill shooting prompts reflection

Disclaimer: This post was originally published in TechNews on Feb 21, 2015

I have been trying to write about the shooting at Chapel Hill for quite a while now, but each time I sat down to write about it, all I could do was relate the tragedy with myself. I lost my older brother to cancer four years ago and I still cannot overcome his death. The day my brother left us was the day my heart wanted to stop beating but I had to stay here and keep his memory alive. I know I’ll see him again one day, but still I miss him so much. I saw my brother suffering and I knew he is going to die but still, when he left us for good, we couldn’t accept the truth easily. We still sit and think about how it happened all of a sudden. So it’s hard to just imagine the pain the families of the Chapel Hill victims are going through, where someone else decided to kill them because they thought they didn’t deserve to live.

On the evening of Tuesday, February 10, something really unusual happened in a quiet neighborhood. Everything seemed to be quite okay until two women called 911 to report multiple gunshots and screams echoing through a condominium complex near the University of North Carolina (UNC).

By the time the police arrived, three people were dead. The victims were identified as Chapel Hill residents Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Abu Salha, 21, and her sister Razan Abu Salha, 19, of Raleigh. They were young university students, muslims of Arab descent, and high achievers who regularly volunteered in the area.

A neighbor, a middle-aged white man, went missing on the same evening and was later under arrest when he turned himself in after the shooting in Chapel Hill, just outside the UNC campus and was charged with three counts of murder. The shooter, identified as Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, was being held in Durham County Jail, the Chapel Hill News and Observer newspaper and other news outlets said.

The victims’ families described it as a hate crime. The police said that the shooting appeared to have been motivated by “an ongoing neighbor dispute over parking,” but that they were investigating whether religious hatred had contributed to the killings. I just don’t understand how you can decide to kill someone just because you don’t like the way they look. You are not the Lord, you have no right to decide either who will live or die. When they never questioned you over your appearance, who are you to decide to end their lives over their appearance?

Mohammad Yousif Abu-Salha, the father of the two women who were killed, said that daughter Yusor Abu-Salha had told him that she and her husband had been harassed for their appearance by a neighbor who was wearing a gun on his belt. As mentioned in NY Times, “A friend of Yusor said she knew that Mr. Hicks had complained to the couple before about making noise and the use of parking spaces by their visitors, and that he once came to their door carrying a rifle. It is not clear whether they ever called the police about the altercations.”

Following the murder of three muslim students in the university town of Chapel Hill in North Carolina, many questioned the kind of coverage the gruesome incident received from mainstream US media in comparison to similar incidents involving members of other faiths. President Obama took four days to offer his and first lady Michelle Obama's condolences to the victims' loved ones, and stated, "We are all one American family."

I liked that President Obama added to his statement regarding the debate over the crime's motive that, "No one in the United States of America should ever be targeted because of who they are, what they look like or how they worship.” But then again, are people really following the laws regarding the hate crime?

While #ChapelHillShooting was the top most trend around the world, many gathered under #MuslimLivesMatter to combat racism and the creeping scepter of Islamophobia.

Haya Barakat, cousin of one the victims Deah Barakat, tweeted that her cousin and his wife, her sister-in-law, were murdered for being Muslims, questioning growing racism/hate crime in the society. My question is whether anyone even knows what hate crime is and what its laws are? The FBI defines a hate crime as one with an added element of bias against a person's race, religion, disability, ethnic origin or sexual orientation. The agency says: "Hate itself is not a crime - and the FBI is mindful of protecting freedom of speech and other civil liberties." Proving whether something is a hate crime can be extremely difficult because you have to show that someone committed the crime as he had certain beliefs regarding some issue.

This will be very prolonged and many people will forget this sooner or later, but their families will have to live with this pain forever. My humble request to everyone out there is that if you ever had any negative vibes against anything then try to work on it and talk it out to someone who can help you because you never know when that negative feeling will change into hatred and you might end up doing something which you will repent your entire life. Everything can be sorted out except for the death because when someone dies, everything comes to an end and that person can never come back, no matter how hard you try. If you have any questions regarding any religion then please attend an interfaith talk where you can talk it out and remove your misconception because it’s never too late.

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Ethnicity trumps humanity in Quetta

Disclaimer: This blog-post was originally posted in Express Tribune on Jan 11,2013 and won also an award for best non-fiction writing in Illinois Tech Spring 2014

My city paints its streets with red as I attempt to write this blog. Tears trickle down my face as I reminisce over Quetta, once known as the city of peace. There was a time when people would take shelter in this harmonious city.

Now people run from it.

My head aches from the blasts and my heart longs for home.

I still remember when I was a mere six-year-old; this city flourished with love and hospitality. My childhood memories are fresh and alive. I remember frolicking up and down the uneven streets of Quetta accompanied by my Baloch, Pathan, Punjabi and Hazara friends. Humanity trumped ethnicity in those days- friends were just friends. We didn’t discriminate based on which sect they belonged to.

Winter was a popular season in Quetta and tourists were scattered everywhere. I would see them strolling around in the local markets, holidaying at the famous hill station, Ziarat, and visiting other historical and memorable places in interior Balochistan.

There was no fear of a gaudy death or a deafening bomb blast back then.

I had once heard that Karachi was not a safe place to live in as it was infested with terrorists. I didn’t really understand this. Upon questioning my father about terrorism, he said:

 “It’s not a part of our city, honey.”

Today I beg for the same answer- not only for my city but for my country.

Jan 10, 2013 a string of bomb explosions took place in Quetta, leaving at least 93 people dead and over 150 injured.

The first suicide bomber detonated his device inside a crowded snooker club, and minutes later another attacker in a car outside the building blew himself up. Police, media workers and rescue teams rushed to the site.

The attacks happened in a predominately Shia neighbourhood and sectarian group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has claimed responsibility for the blast, saying they were targeted attacks against the Hazara community.

Eight of the dead are reported to be police officials. The rest include a cameraman, a reporter from a private television channel and five Edhi workers.

SHO Jaffer Ali also died yesterday. My brother met him two weeks ago in Karachi. He had come to Quetta to treat his Hepatitis B and had travelled by air because he feared death (the route by road is not safe these days). Who would know his death was calling him here?

The authorities couldn’t even find his body.

Mujahid, the DSP Gawalmandi got a promotion three months ago. It was his first posting and what was most exciting for him was that his station was right next to his home.

Today, half of his body is still missing.

Currently, 93 families are mourning the death of their loved ones in this blood bath. What makes it more heartbreaking is that their bodies mutilated; the blasts have ripped them to pieces.

How does one accept this kind of a death?

We forget that this country was made for all Muslims. There is no room for distinction between Shia, Sunnis, Baloch, Punjabi, Pathan or any other ethnicity. For what it’s worth, Quaid-e-Azam was a Shia Muslim himself but he never discriminated on this basis.

So does this mean that the Shia Muslims should claim that it’s their country only?

Is it a crime to be born as a Hazara? The people living in this country are living with this distress that at any time of the day they might hear the news of their loved ones death. We live with this fear.

“What if we go out for a festival; will we come back alive?”

We are afraid to tell our names to strangers because what if they don’t like it? Will they kill us?

My city has changed drastically. The Baloch people suspect everyone as an agency infiltrator who has been sent to spy on them; Sunni parties see every Shia as an outcast and the Punjabis find it hard to live amongst their own trusted friends.

Nobody is at peace.

Over 900 Hazaras have been killed in bomb blasts and target killings in Pakistan. Don’t these people realise that the value of human life does not depend on their ethnicity?  Even if you kill a Hazara that’s a loss for a parent, spouse, children, brother, sister and a friend.

Come see my city today, it’s drowning in blood and tears. Every citizen questions the purpose of such a life.

In this war of ethnicity and religion we have lost sight of humanity; we have forgotten to be human beings.

I feel sorry for my country; I mourn the fate of my city which was once named “Little London”. Now people call it “the place of death.”

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Farzana Iqbal: Another woman who died while living!

The day I was born my dad distributed sweets all over the city and couldn't thank God enough to bless him once again with a daughter. Everyone who received the sweets would congratulate my dad over the arrival of a son but he would correct them and say not son but a daughter. My dad was posted in a rural area of Baluchistan when I was born and over there they don’t share the news for the arrival of their daughters because for them it’s not something to be proud of. But my dad is an exception, for him his daughters are his reason to live. He is a father who have groomed his daughters into ladies, who not only represent him but his entire community with great honor.

When I look at my father and then think about Farzana’s father, who stoned his own daughter to dead just because she married someone she liked, I can’t believe it. How can a father kill his own daughter, how can a brother see his own sister in pain, how could the people of his community help them kill her. Didn’t they have daughters or maybe they didn’t consider them as human beings? As I am listening to the news and seeing how they are twisting the story I can literally hear her screams and feel the pain, to her each and every fractured bone.

Just put yourself at her place for a while and imagine I throw a stone at you. Will it hurt? Of course it will. Then how could you do this to her? Couldn’t you hear her screams?  Didn’t she call you Baba once or didn’t she call you Brother. Didn’t she trusted you enough to protect her against all the evils? Of course she did but she didn’t know that she is calling the evils with such respectful names which are not meant to be used for them. She was encircled by so many men where she stood all alone trying to protect herself and her baby. I can’t stop imagining a poor woman screaming "O baba you are my father, o brother I am your sister, wait uncle remember I am your same favorite niece who used to make tea for you, and you, you were my favorite cousin, we used to play in the same backyard and you and you and you all are my people please don’t kill me." She was stoned and stoned till she swallowed her own blood oozing down her face while praying to God for some mercy not for her because it was too late but for the other women who are still alive and might be a victim of honor killing. Due to such people we are losing hopes over the humanity and justice.

As I sit here writing this article I feel like Farzana is sitting next to me and begging me to be her mouth piece so she can get justice. I feel as if my soul was the stoned with hers. How ashamed I am of being a so called human being, who is so helpless in this male dominant society. I am sorry Farzana I couldn’t help you but I promise to take your story across the bridges and make sure the entire world get united to punish your killers.

I want to ask a simple question from all those men who kill their women in the name of honor thinking they have saved their honor that how can one gain honor by killing a woman who is a mother, daughter, sister and wife to someone. How can you save your honor by shedding the blood of an innocent soul who has spent her entire life in your dominance?

I am a female too, I have studied in co-education throughout my life and I have been living in America from past four years. I interact with males on daily basis, I have many male co-workers and class fellows but I have never brought any disgrace to my family. My father and brothers are proud of who I am today and they have no shame in telling their friends that their daughter or sister is studying abroad and is an international journalist. Then how can marrying someone of your own choice can be such a crime that you decide to kill your own blood.

I know it’s not the first time that this happened in my country nor its the last time but now it’s about time and I really want this to be the last time. Farzana sister was also killed four years back in the same way but what made it worse this time that she was stoned outside the court, the same court where people go to get justice. Was this a justice to Farzana and her husband? No, even if you say yes I will not agree to you because killing someone like this cannot be justice. Yes, if you do the same to all those people who killed Farzana then this would be a justice to Farzana, her sister and her baby.

I have a very simple request from you all to take a moment and imagine your beloved one standing at the same place where Farzana was that day and ask yourself what would be your reaction to it. I am sure you would never let this happen to your loved ones.

Mr. President and Prime Minister, I request you to give justice to Farzana soul by punishing her killers or else not only you but the entire nation won’t be able to sleep peacefully. Help her soul to rest in peace by punishing these tyrant people and let them know that honor killing is not supported in today’s society. As an adult we all have the right to marry someone we love and even if we don’t then you also don’t have the right to kill someone for making this choice.