Arif Lohar – the Desi Rockstar rocked Sydney

It was Saturday, the 23^rd of May 2015. I was very excited as it was my first ever chance of attending the live concert of Jugni King Arif Lohar who was in Australia for his concerts in all major cities. Raja Taseer of Parwaz Multicultural Arts with the cooperation of Event News Australia and ARF (Ali Rana Folk) managed this beautiful evening for Pakistani and Indian people living in NSW, which will be remembered for a long time. I reached C3 Conference Centre at 7:00 pm where the gig was being held. There were hundreds of Jugni fans there waiting for the show to start.

Concert started at 7:30 pm with solo performance of Sydney based Pakistani Singer Shagufta Zia who beautifully sang Madam Noorjehan’s super hit Punjabi song ‘Way sub tou sohnaya’ (وے سب توں سوہنیا). She got high applause from the jam packed hall. Arif Lohar’s talented musicians played live for Shagufta.

Then came Sherry (Arif’s keyboardist-cum-singer) on the stage and performed a beautiful classical song. He had very good command on his vocal range. He also got good appreciation. He was replaced by Fauzia, the female back-vocalist of Arif Lohar Band. She sang three melodious Punjabi songs. Her performance was highly appreciated by the crowd.

Now the audience had got fully charged and they wanted to listen to Arif, who didn’t disappoint them at all. Arif came on the stage with 3 more musicians of his talented team. He started singing Punjabi songs of folk genre. Very few singers have such a wonderful command and over their musicians that I saw in Arif. His team understand his hand signals and gestures. They changed their way of playing according to Arif’s requirements, i.e. off-beat, extra beat, solo guitar riffs and fully fledged orchestra. Arif’s Dholak player Shahzad stole the show with his extra ordinary performance and stylish look. He played a great role in making the event superb. Guitarists played some beautiful electric guitar pieces. Drummer, flutist, keyboardist and others also played very well.

Arif sang his super hit ‘Jugni – Coke Studio version’ in the end. He was joined by four Sikh folk dancers for this and another song. I was amazed to see the way Arif managed them like a choreographer. Arif’s move-n-shakes were just like the chocolate topping on a very delicious ice-cream. Youngsters and middle aged guys danced wildly and many of them gave tips to Arif and his Dholak player Shahzad. Arif during his performance also went into the crowd and provided them with the opportunity of making their photographs with the Jugni King. At the end he asked Raja Taseer to come on the stage. Raja Taseer thanked all the audience for making the event a big success.

Israeli terrorism and the shameful silence of Arab world

Once again heartless and brainless Israeli army started killing innocent Palestinian men, women, kids and old age people in Gaza. They are doing this shameful act in the holy month of Ramadan when Muslims all over the world keep fasts, do extra prayers and donate generously.

On the other side there is once again complete silence from the neighbouring Arab countries. Allah SWT is punishing Muslims just because of their sectarian differences and lack of unity which is the main reason of this barbarian attitude of Israeli terrorists. If we look today’s situation thoughtfully we will find Shias and Sunnis fighting against each other in Arab countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Today one of my Indonesian friends in Sydney told me that in his country where Sunnis are in majority, Shias are considered as infidel (کافر). He added that he got his early education at an Islamic madrassa and was taught that Shias were non-Muslims.

In Iraq Sunnis and Shias are fighting for the sake of power (اقتدار). In Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Libya there are Muslims fighting against each other. In Pakistan and Afghanistan we see Taliban killing Shias and common people. Therefore I can say that we don’t need any other enemy for destroying us. We have atomic bombs but no passion (جذبہ) at all. Hundreds of years ago Hajjaj Bin Yousaf sent Muhammad Bin Qasim to the combined India on the complaint of one Muslim lady against the cruel ruler Raja Dahir. Today hundreds of Muslims are being slaughtered in Israel but Arab countries that fear from USA have sewed their lips against this uncontrolled barbaric and inhuman torture.

This is the time when we need real unity keeping all our internal sectarian differences on side. We need a united approach on controlling the mad Israeli leaders and army. Allah SWT will bless us with victory once we hold His rope together as per His instructions given in Quran. In Sydney Palestinian expatriates are holding a protest on Sunday afternoon. All Muslims in Sydney are requested to try their best in joining our sad Palestinian brothers in their sorrow.

Kissay Apna Kahain… a memorable Urdu TV drama serial

Pakistan has a wonderful TV drama industry. Our highly talented artists, writers and directors have produced number of drama serials that cannot be forgotten. India is far ahead in making movies and their film industry is competing with Hollywood now. However they cannot beat us in TV dramas where we are the best without any doubt. Hum TV is these days leading in telecasting the quality drama serials.

I normally cannot watch any TV serial continuously as they require lot of time and to be honest most of the time they have extra elongated stories. Last drama serial that I watched completely was ‘Thori Si Wafa Chahiye’. This June I got some time for watching TV dramas on Youtube. My mother introduced me to a current TV drama serial ‘Kissay Apna Kahain’ (کسے اپنا کہیں) which has just finished.

This amazing drama had 44 one hour episodes. The story was so catchy that I could not resist myself from watching all the episodes completely. Veteran actors Shabbir Jaan and Rubina Ashraf have given their best ever performances.

The drama revolves around a family of an old couple (played by Shabbir Jaan and Rubina Ashraf) and their four daughters. The family passes through a very tough time. However their patience, strong faith in Allah Almighty and good intentions pay them and at the end everything gets normal.

Writer Mansoor Mushtaq and Iftekhar Usmani have done a great job by writing the story of this memorable TV serial which has been directed so professionally by Zeeshan Ahmed. Greatest living Pakistani singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan has sung the beautifully composed and written OST for this drama serial. The best lesson that I got from this drama is that one should never feel down for having daughters. Good daughters are the blessing of Allah for their parents. I would recommend this drama especially to those who have daughters only.

Minhaj Ul Quran and Karachi Airport incidents show failure of PML (N) government

Yesterday (17 June 2014) proved the worst day for the current federal government led by Pakistan Muslim League (N). Punjab Police, on the foolish instructions of provincial law minister Rana Sana Ullah, attacked members of Minhaj Ul Quran in Model Town Lahore where they were sent for removing the barriers. Police had clashes with the members but no one could expect such brutal action that resulted in 8 causalities including two females who were sisters-in-law to each other. Dr. Tahir Ul Qadri, chairman of Pakistan Awami Tehreek and Minhaj Ul Quran (MUQ) condemned the brutal and nonsense action in the strictest words. He had announced few days back of his returning back in the next week and leading his followers towards a revolution in Pakistan.

This incident proved very damaging for the provincial government of Punjab and Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif is now really worried. He dismissed some senior Police officials immediately. However the worst thing in this sad incident was that one of the females who lost their life was pregnant and was shot a bullet in her jaw. Other blunder was the breaking of car screens by a dedicated PML (N) member identified as Gullu Butt under the Police supervision. He is given title of Sher-e-Punjab (شیر پنجاب) by Mr. Shahbaz Sharif. Other highly condemn-able thing was the inhuman torture on the female members of MUQ by the male Police force who beat them vigorously without any mercy.

Before this brutal incident on 8th June 2014 Pakistan busiest airport Jinnah International Karachi was attacked by 10 terrorists who were later identified as Uzbeks. They killed more than 20 people including Airport Security Force members, Police and common men in the exchange of nonstop firing. All terrorists were finally killed and airport was functional again after suspension of flights for almost 14 hours. This took the impression of our country further down. How can we expect that Pakistan would be considered a safe place for the foreign investors? Security collapse is the main reason of this attack. Cathay Pacific has suspended its flights to Pakistan after this incident. British Airways, Singapore Airlines, Malaysian Airlines and Lufthansa already have suspended their flight operations for Pakistan.

Both these incidents have brought a bad name for Pakistan and the PML (N) government. Pak Army with the consent of parliament has started its operation in North Waziristan called as Zarb-e-Azab (ضرب عضب) for targeting the terrorists’ shelter places. Let us pray for their success and a peaceful country where one could live with safety and dignity.

پاکستان زندہ باد

WAAR – the amazing Lollywood movie that increased my patriotism!

Finally I got chance of watching the long awaited movie WAAR in Sydney last Sunday (18 May 2014). I with my friends reached the cinema for the afternoon show. Waar was given two shows on Sunday. I queued up for the ticket and when I reached the counter I asked the staff proudly that I wanted a ticket for the PAKISTANI film Waar. The girl gave me a good smile and handed over the ticket after being paid.

Waar name on Event Cinemas billboard

I entered the cinema and was delighted to see that around 150 Pakistani people in the groups of friends and families had gathered for watching this Lollywood film that has created a very good impact on the cine-goers. Film started after a little while. I could not believe that it was a Pakistani film. 90% of the dialogues were in English and I must appreciate the director Bilal Lashari who worked very hard on the accent of all artists. Lollywood superstar Shan is the hero in this movie and TV star Shamoon Abbasi has played role of the main villain. Other artists include Aisha Khan, Hamza Abbasi, Ali Azmat, Meesha Shafi, Kamran Lashari and Bilal Lashari. Producer and writer Hassan Waqas Rana has done a great job. Waar is the story about Pakistan Army’s war against the foreign supported terrorism in Pakistan. It shows how skilful and brave our army and police officials are.

Shamoon has played his negative role just wonderfully and has been shown as a highly talented Indian spy and killer. Meesha Shafi is his partner and agent in Pakistan who provides him with the resources and information for targeting the Army, police and the common people. Shan works for the Army and Aisha Khan and Hamza Abbasi assist him in his mission against Shamoon (Ramal in the movie). Whereas Ali Azmat has played role of a patriotic politician Ejaz Khan.

Camera, editing, background music, direction, sound quality all are just superb and match with the Hollywood standards. Climax is superb and audience in the cinema gave a loud round of applause to the creative team. The best dialogue in the movie was, “As long as history will be written by hunters, lions shall never be glorified”. I would recommend this movie with a loud voice to all those who haven’t watched it yet. I bet that you will for sure start loving Pakistan and our brave soldiers more than ever.

PAKISTAN ZINDABAD!!!!

Geo Group Vs ISI (in Urdu)

جیو گروپ کا ستارہ آج کل گردش میں آیا ہوا ہے اور پاکستان بھر میں اسے شدید تنقید کا سامنا کرنا پڑ رہا ہے، خصوصاً اس گروپ کے سینئر صحافی جناب حامد میر پر کراچی میں ہونے والے قاتلانہ حملے کے بعد سے جس میں بغیر کسی ثبوت کے فوج کے ادارے آئی۔ایس۔آئی اور اس کے سربراہ کو اس حملے کا ذمہ دار ٹھرایا گیا۔ میں اس حساس موضوع پر لکھنا ضروری سمجھتا ہوں لیکن اس بات کو واضح کرتا چلوں کہ میرا تجزیہ بالکل منصفانہ اور غیر جانبدارانہ ہے۔

جیو ٹی وی بلا شبہ پاکستان کا سب سے زیادہ دیکھا جانے والا چینل ہے اور پاکستان میں اس ٹی وی نے بہت سی اچھی باتوں کی بنیاد ڈالی۔ اگر ہم دیکھیں تو جیو کو اس بات کا کریڈٹ جاتا ہے کہ اس نے جمہوریت کو سپورٹ کیااور جنرل پرویز مشرف کے خلاف چیف جسٹس جناب افتخار محمد چوہدری کا ساتھ دیا۔ پاکستان کے باقی پرائیویٹ ٹی وی چینلوں نے بھی اسی روش کا مظاہرہ کیا۔ جیو کے پروگرام “کیپیٹل ٹاک” اور “آج کامران خان کے ساتھ” میں ہمیشہ حکومت وقت کی خامیوں اور کوتاہیوں پر بغیر ڈرے تنقید کی گئی اور تمام معروف سیاسی لیڈروں کو بولنے کا بھرپور موقع دیا گیا۔

جہاں جیو کو ان باتوں کا کریڈٹ جاتا ہے وہیں اس گروپ نے چند بہت بڑی غلطیاں بھی کیں جو کہ پاکستان سے غداری کے مترادف ہیں۔ جیو نے ممبئی حملوں میں حکومتی موقف کے برخلاف اجمل قصاب کو پاکستانی ثابت کرنے میں ایڑی چوٹی کا زور لگایا۔ اسی طرح جیو نے انڈین پریمیئر لیگ کو نشر کیا جبکہ انہوں نے پاکستان کے کرکٹ کھلاڑیوں کو اپنے ہاں کھیلنے کی اجازت دینے سے انکار کر دیا تھا۔ جیو ٹی وی نے بھارتی ایوارڈز کو نشر کرنے کا سلسہ جاری رکھا ہوا ہے جبکہ بھارت میں جیو اور دیگر پاکستانی چینلوں کو نشر کرے کی اجازت تک نہیں۔

ڈاکٹر عامر لیاقت کا معاملہ بھی ایسا ہے جس نے جیو کی ساکھ کو بری طرح متاثر کیا۔ جیو نے ڈاکٹر عامر کی خفیہ وڈیو نشر کر دی جس میں وہ آف کیمرہ غیر مہذب گفتگو کر رہے تھے۔ وجہ صرف یہ تھی کہ ڈاکٹر عامر نے ایک دوسرے میڈیا گروپ کو جوائن کر لیا تھا۔ ڈاکٹر عامر کی ساکھ خراب کرنے کے بعد جیو نے پھر انہیں اپنے ہاں بہت اچھے عہدے پر رکھ لیا اور اپنے اخبار جنگ کے ذریعے پاکستان کے لوگوں کو بتانا شروع کر دیا کہ ڈاکٹر عامر کا شمار دنیا کے 500 بااثر ترین مسلمانوں میں ہوتا ہے۔

اب آتے ہیں آئی۔ایس۔آی کی طرف۔ یہ ملکی سلامتی کے حوالے سے ایک بے حد اہم ادارہ ہے جس کی سربراہی کے لئے پاک فوج کے انتہائی ذہین اور قابل لیفٹنینٹ جنرل کو چنا جاتا ہے۔ یہ ادارہ خفیہ طور پر ملکی سلامتی کے لئے کام کرتا ہے۔ ہر محب وطن پاکستانی اس ادارے کا بے حد احترام کرتا ہے اور کبھی بھی اس کے خلاف بولنے کا نہیں سوچ سکتا۔ بھارت کو آئی۔ایس۔آئی کی وجہ سے ہی ہمارے ملک میں پوری طرح کھل کھیلنے کا موقع نہیں مل سکا آج تک۔

تاہم معذرت کے ساتھ اس ادارے نے بھی کچھ ایسے کام کئے ہیں جس سے اس کی ساکھ متاثر ہوئی ہے۔ سب سے پہلے اگر ہم لاپتہ افراد کا معاملہ دیکھیں تو اس نے اس معتبر ادارے کی ساکھ کو بری طرح نقصان پہنچایا ہے۔ پاکستان کے مختلف علاقوں خصوصاً بلوچستان سے ہزاروں کی تعداد میں شریف لوگوں کو، جن پر کوئی الزام نہیں، اٹھا کر نامعلوم مقام پر رکھا گیا ہے اور یا پھر امریکہ کے حوالے کر دیا گیا جس کا اقرار سابقہ صدر جنرل پرویز مشرف کر چکے ہیں۔ ان کے لواحقین پر قیامت ٹوٹ گئی ہے کہ وہ جانتے تک نہیں کہ ان کے اٹھائے گئے عزیز زندہ بھی ہیں یا نہیں۔ اسی طرح اسامہ بن لادن کی ایبٹ آباد میں موجودگی اور امریکی فورسز کے آپریشن نے بھی اس ادارے کی ساکھ پر سوالیہ نشان لگایا ہے۔ اس متنازعہ آپریشن کی تحقیقات سے قوم کو آج تک مطلع نہیں کیا گیا۔

جیو کے الزامات کے بعد فوج، حکومت اور جیو گروپ کے درمیان حالات کافی کشیدہ ہو گئے ہیں اور پاکستانی قوم بھی اضطراب کا شکار ہے۔ تحریک انصاف کے چیئرمین عمران خان نے بھی جنگ اور جیو ہر انتخابات میں دھاندلی میں ملوث ہونے کا الزام عائد کر دیا ہے اور ان کے بائیکاٹ کو اعلان کر دیا ہے۔ جیو کے خلاف حکومت نے پمرا (پاکستان میڈیا ریگولیشنز اتھارٹی) سے رجوع کر لیا ہے اور اس پر پابندی کا مطالبہ کیا ہے۔ جبکہ جیو کا کہنا ہے کہ اسے پمرا سے انصاف کی توقع نہیں۔

میری رائے میں پاک فوج کو آئی۔ایس۔آئی کے اقدامات کی قوم کو وضاحت پیش کرنی چاہئیے اور لاپتہ افراد کے بارے میں ان کے گھر والوں کو آگاہ کرنا چاہئیے۔ اگر ان لوگوں کا کوئی جرم ہے تو انہیں عدالت میں پیش کیا جائے کیونکہ آئی۔ایس۔آئی مسلسل توہین عدالت کا مرتکب ہو رہا ہے، جس سے عوام میں پاک فوج کا تاثر خراب ہو رہا ہے جو ملکی سلامتی کے لئے کوئی اچھا شگن نہیں۔ دوسری طرف جیو گروپ کے خلاف بھی موثر کاروائی ہونی چاہئیے تاکہ یہ ادارہ اپنی اصلاح کر سکے اور پاکستان کے مفادات کے خلاف پروگرام نشر کرنے سے باز آئے اور بھارتی ثقافت اور پروگراموں کو فروغ دینے سے پرہیز کرے۔

Geo TV’s insulting attitude towards legend Anwar Maqsood

Mr. Anwar Maqsood

These days Khabarnaak (خبرناک) is one of the most popular comedy show run on Geo TV network. Aftab Iqbal hosts this programme and discusses many issues with a team of six to seven jugglers. One of the jugglers is so called educated Muhammad Ali Mir who has a good talent of getting getup of any popular figure and mimicking their talking style.

It’s a good way without any objection to make people happy who are already having problems in their everyday life. However I have noticed that Geo TV management plays a great role in controlling the script and level of humiliation of the person who Muhammad Ali Mir presents in his mimicry. Anwar Maqsood is one of the most talented media persons of Pakistan. He is a wonderful compere, writer and producer. He has produced many popular comedy programmes with his highly talented colleagues late Moin Akhtar and Bushra Ansari from PTV Karachi centre. He is one of the best comperes/hosts who can be compared only with legendary Zia Muhiuddin, Naeem Bukhari and Tariq Aziz. In addition to comparing he wrote comedy scripts that gave popularity to late Moin Akhtar.

In many episodes of Khabarnaak, Muhammad Ali Mir adopts getup of Anwar Maqsood and is introduced by the host as ‘Danishwar Sahib’ (دانشور صاحب) which means ‘Scholar’ in English. Then he is shown as a very silly person which is a highly condemnable thing. It can be easily judged that this is being done on the orders of Geo TV management because Anwar Maqsood sahib is the recognition of PTV Karachi centre. Geo TV could not hire him perhaps for their channel and that is the main reason that they started humiliating such a nice and talented person.

Muhammad Ali Mir as dummy of Anwar Maqsood

Aftab Iqbal is a very rude person, who has attitude problem. He was removed from the Dunya TV’s popular show Hasb-e-Haal. Later he had issues with the senior actor Aman Ullah who was a permanent member of his Khabarnaak team. Because of his negative attitude talented artists Aman Ullah, Iftikhar Thakur and Sakhawat Naz left him and joined Dunya TV show Mazaaq Raat (مذاق رات).

From Sada-e-Shahid we demand Geo TV to stop insulting the national heroes and give them their due respect, because the nations who insult their heroes eventually disappear from the page of history.

Pakistan leading towards peace and prosperity (Allah willing!)

Finally after a long tenure of terrorism, fear and disappointment, Pakistan has started gradually improving now. On the precious advice of PTI Chairman Mr. Imran Khan, prime minister Mr. Nawaz Sharif and his team started peace dialogues with the leadership of Taliban. As a good gesture Taliban assured of complete seize fire for one month, which was later extended. Soon after the start of their dialogues, some unknown hands tried to create the misunderstandings between both sides and blasted bombs in different corners of our beloved country. However Taliban leadership not only condemned the attacks but also gave a clear verdict that they were not involved in the blasts at all.

On the other side credit goes to the PML(N) government for somehow convincing the US government on stopping the drone attacks during the peace process. On the economic side, government has made some progress and US$ is now selling around PKR 98.00 in the open market which was selling around PKR 110.00 just a few days back. Recently fuel prices have also been brought down which has given some comfort to the transporters and the common people who drive their vehicles for going to work and meeting their everyday necessities.

However being responsible citizens now Pakistani people must learn from their individual mistakes so that the progress could be sustainable. We must develop habits of honesty, simplicity, hard working, mutual respect, tolerance and helping the people in need around us. We have to be free of any discrimination for others. We need to learn basic manners like how to cross a road, how to make a queue, how to greet others with smile, how to help a disabled person, and how to keep our streets clean. Insha Allah Pakistan will become a heaven then where people will prefer to live rather than immigrating to other countries after getting degrees from Pakistani universities.

پاکستان زندہ باد

Respect for Dr. Abdus Salam and Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan

Dr. Abdus Salam, the first Nobel Laureate from Paksitan

These days on Facebook and other social media a large number of Pakistani people and groups share the posts for highlighting the wrong attitude adopted towards the only Pakistani Nobel laureate Dr. Abdus Salam by the Pakistani governments. It is really sad that he was never accepted as a great Pakistani scientist in a true sense just because he was a Qadiani (Ahmadi).

I understand that this is of course a blunder and nations who never appreciate their heroes can never make any progress. However we must understand that we must be highlighting these issues without crossing our religious limits. Once such posts are shared many Muslim people start writing, “He was an Ahmadi Muslim”.  Then if you try to tell them that Qadianis/Ahmadis are not Muslims as per the teachings of Islam as they don’t believe that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is the last prophet of Allah, they start attacking you personally by saying, “People like you promote terrorism”, “Who are you to decide about their not being Muslims”, and many other rude comments.

I must say that Islam teaches us to be moderate. I am never in the favour of attacking physically or verbally on any person who has a different approach to yours. We must respect their way of thinking. However Islam also tells us to never make a compromise in the matters where we have a clear guideline or commandment from Allah SWT and Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). So I would request my Muslim friends not to cross their religious limits when appreciating a non-Muslim. Yes Dr. Abdus Salam was our national hero and he deserves lot of respect from all Pakistanis, however he was not a Muslim. Some people after his death and burial damaged his grave title which mentioned him to be the first Muslim Nobel laureate. I personally condemn this action by so called Muslims as we have no right to enter their graveyard and cause any damage to the graves. This is indeed a shameful act.

Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, our national hero!

Now I come to the issue of Dr. Abdul Qadeer, who is our father of nation after the founder Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. He is the person who played great role in making Pakistan an atomic power. Once I commented in response to the comments under Dr. Abdus Salam’s issue post that our nation also does not acknowledge Dr. Qadeer and he was humiliated by the ex-General Musharraf on the public TV channel, one man started saying that he was a traitor who stole the technology from Netherlands. I was shocked to read such shameful comments from a mature person about our national hero. We as Pakistani nation must respect him for his great efforts in making Pakistan safe from our enemies.

I would just conclude by saying that we must not say anything that we cannot defend in front of Allah SWT on the judgement day. At the same time we need to develop a sense of respecting others’ views and beliefs. Peace is the most important thing we need at this time.

Think before you vote in PTI NSW Intraparty elections 2014

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) New South Wales, Australia chapter is going to have their intraparty elections next week (13-15 January 2014). I have been working with the last winning team as Information Secretary for few months until I resigned from my post as a protest.

This time former President Mr. Waqas Bashir has come up with new candidates for the positions of Vice President, General Secretary and Information Secretary. Here I would just like to mention what were my main reasons of resigning, even though I got great respect from the PTI NSW members and Pakistani community members living in Sydney. I request the readers to think before they vote for the contesting candidates.

On our special request Mr. Muhammad Farooq, a well known solicitor has agreed to contest for the position of President PTI NSW against Mr. Bashir. He is supported by Imtiaz Chaudhry, Dr. Faiza Cheema and Mr. Umer Farooq for the positions of Vice President, General Secretary and Information Secretary respectively.

Designed by the talented Mr. Shahid Iqbal Ch.

After winning the last intraparty election, Visionaries lead by Waqas, formed a very large working team comprising of several groups. I was interviewed on Skype by the President and his General Secretary Mr. Imran Mirza formally and then was selected as the Information Secretary. My long experience of blog writing helped me in getting this position. After a few weeks we arranged our first big function in November 2012. I came across many hardworking members, i.e. Shahid Iqbal Chaudhry, Waseem Shah, Dr. Faiza, Muhammad Ahmed (Vice President), Tahir Saeed, Zahir Khan, Arfeen, Salik Khawaja and Murtaza Hamid who put best of their efforts under the leadership of Mr. Waqas Bashir. The function was a big success for the newly elected team and it motivated all of us.

Shahid Iqbal especially played a great role as he arranged 20 Kg PTI flag designed cake for the event for free. Not only this, he also designed the beautiful posters and tickets with the coordination of team members. I arranged the chief guests, photography and live music. We all were very happy and satisfied. When it came for the next function on 23rd of March 2013, once again we started our preparations. However we felt that Mr. Bashir started doing very strange things. First of all he and Imran Mirza started keeping the Vice President Muhammad Ahmed out of any decisions. Both strangely gave poster and ticket designing job to some unknown person sitting in Dubai. Highly motivated and talented Mr. Shahid Iqbal was not even asked for once to design the same. This was very strange thing for us. Secondly, they tried keeping me out of the music arrangements and related things. I and Shahid Iqbal together with Muhammad Ahmed had sold out the maximum tickets in the first function. Waqas once again gave us too many tickets, without knowing that we had come to know what he was doing on our back.

When I felt that he was planning to keep me out of any major activity, I resigned from my position. Mr. Shahid Iqbal also announced that he would not sell any ticket and not participate as well. On this our beloved members started contacting us with the requests that we should have been in the programme. Matter was taken up very seriously when some other members also came up with serious concerns about Waqas’s attitude. Everyone was complaining of his dictatorship. We arranged a meeting with him in Lakemba where the complaints were raised up. Waqas could not answer a single allegation and the meeting adjourned without any conclusion.

For the sake of PTI we later decided to participate in the function and joined the team. Waqas welcomed us in a good way. On Imran Mirza’s request I took my resignation back. However later Waqas again started to dictate us like a child. On this I resigned permanently from my post. Due to his behaviour many talented people like Shahid Iqbal, Waseem Shah, Muhammad Ahmed (Vice President), Asim Saleem, Umer Akhlaq, Hussain Chagani and Dr. Faiza Cheema left his team. Imran Mirza came up with a very strong stance against him at the end of their tenure and the matter was referred to the PTI Pakistan for their intervention. Mr. Bashir later apologised Imran in writing on his wrong attitude.

Mr. Bashir’s action demotivated the whole team and caused big damage to the PTI image in Australia. In some protests later and their last program held in August 2013 people’s turnout was very disappointing. Due to his attitude local Urdu meida, i.e. Sada-e-Watan, Raabitah and Pak Link also stopped covering our events properly.

I request all eligible voters not to trust Mr. Bashir at all as he is responsible for the de-motivation of highly talented and patriotic members. I request my PTI NSW member friends to vote for Mr. Muhammad Farooq (presidential candidate), Mr. Imtiaz Chaudhry (candidate for the Vice President), Dr. Faiza Cheema (candidate for the General Secretary) and Mr. Umer Farooq (candidate for the Information Secretary) in the forth coming election so that we could see a real change. UNITED FOR CHANGE!!!

Designed by the talented Mr. Shahid Iqbal Ch.