MAJID – the name that glitters in our hearts!!!

25 June 2009 is the date that put an inerasable black mark on my heart. I was driving on the roads of Sharjah and Dubai and crying like a kid. I was not finding any way to control myself. My most favourite person and son-like younger brother Majid had passed away and I was trying to board on Air Blue flight for Lahore. My boss arranged ticket for me and I left for the airport with the office secretary….. I was not finding courage to even talk to my parents. I just called Shahla (my beloved sister-in-law) and told that I would never forgive anyone if Majid’s funeral would have taken place before my arrival. Then I rang my best friend Ashfaq and asked him to immediately go to my place and take care of my parents who were in a very poor shape. He told me that he was on his way to our home.

I usually enjoy air travel, but that day it proved to be the longest ever flight of my life. I even didn’t want to drink water or cold drink because I was under severe depression. I was having very bad headache and therefore asked the airhostess to give me some painkiller.

Flight reached Lahore on time and I got opportunity to attend my brother’s funeral. He was smiling like a prince wrapped in the white sheet (کفن). My grieved parents, twin brother Rashid and other family members were around him. As I was in very bad shape and collapsed after seeing Majid in that white sheet, my cousins rushed to hug and hold me. We laid Majid in his grave around 10:30 pm in the presence of a large number of his loving friends, elders and cousins.

Dr. Javed’s Family decided to keep Majid virtually present among them. Our home in Lahore was given title of Al-Majid. Father wrote number of poems and ghazals on his beloved son and got them framed which are hanging on the walls of our sitting lounge and the drawing room. Our Sydney home is also known as Al-Majid. His pictures are kept in the sitting lounge. Majid’s love has grown with every passing day in our hearts and we will always keep him shining in our hearts. We love you MAJID and are thankful to ALLAH for sending you to us. We once again repeat our commitment that we have no place for those in our hearts who ignored you over your death.

I and my family have recently got the Australian citizenship and we are thankful to Majid (after Allah SWT) who was the first person from our family who landed in Australia in 2002 and convinced me in applying for the Australian immigration. Dr. Javed’s Family is thankful to all those who share our grief and love Majid.

25^th June 2015 marks the sixth death anniversary of Majid and we are definitely very sad on this occasion. However Majid is an integral part of our memories and not even a single day passes without having him in our minds.

Rashid and I are just incomplete without Majid. We feel his soul living with us. I would request all my friends and relatives to pray for Majid that Allah SWT bless him with high ranks in the paradise.

Wake up for the Rohingya Muslims!!!!!

In today’s world there is no value of a poor man’s life, especially when he belongs to Islam. I shiver from inside when I see horrifying pictures of Rohingya Muslims who are being slaughtered by the so called peaceful Budhist terrorists in Myanmar. Their dead bodies are cut into pieces after their death and they are left in open grounds for the vultures and animals.

The poor Rohingya community is fighting for its identity as the Myanmar government has clearly warned them to leave the country because they don’t consider them their citizens, and perhaps not the human beings at all. I don’t see any Islamic country worrying for them at all. Similarly no one from the human rightists has tried to do anything for the poor people who are straying from here to there in boats in the Indian Ocean for saving their life. They include large number of men, women and children. Neighbouring countries Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh have returned their boats. Many of them have died near the border of Malaysia and Thailand. Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran, UAE and other Islamic countries are silent on this fatal crime against the humanity. Thanks to Facebook from where we are getting the horrifying facts and pictures.

Only countries who dared helping them are Turkey, France and Germany. They have shown kindness towards the dying poor people who don’t have any homeland at all. I have come to know through media that government representatives from Australia and other countries have had a meeting for deciding about the fortune of the dying Rohingya people. They however couldn’t reach to any conclusion because there are news that some Bangali people are also getting advantage of this human crisis and they are trying to get illegal asylum in some well-off country by portraying them as part of the Rohingya community. This has added pain to the injury, and as a result Rohingya people are not been accommodated in spite of great necessity. However I believe that this is a lame excuse by the countries who do not help them at all. Rohingya people can easily be identified by using an interpreter who can understand their language but as it is said, “Where there is a will, there is a way”, unfortunately I don’t see any real will here. They are Muslims and they do not deserve to be treated as human beings. UNO and human rights activists shame on you all!!!!!!

A memorable musical and poetic evening in Sydney

Mahi Arts and Culture, a Sydney based cultural organisation, arranged a beautiful ‘one of its kind’ evening in Sydney on 11th of April 2015. Renowned Ghazal maestro Ustad Ghulam Abbas and a wonderful poet Mr. Hassan Abbasi were invited especially from Pakistan for sharing their talent with the Pakistani community based in Sydney.

I was asked by the promoter Mr. Zafar Khan to host the evening as the master of ceremony. Tahir Farooq of Taj Mahal Events decorated a very beautiful stage for the performers and proved his mettle. Programme started at 7:30 pm with the performance of Sydney based singer Shayan Rafique, who performed two songs of Atif Aslam and Ankit Tiwari and got high appreciation from the crowd.

After Shayan, highly talented keyboardist and singer from Sydney Adnan Gill came on the stage and sang two unplugged songs of Lata Mangeshkar. He was also successful in entertaining the audience through his strong vocals. Then I came to the stage and asked the VIP guest poet Mr. Hassan Abbasi to come on the stage for sharing his beautiful poetry with the audience. I gave a brief introduction of his work and achievements. Hassan shared 4 ghazals from his collection. He got very good response from the crowd who were delighted on listening to the beautiful romantic lines of Hassan.

After the poetic session time came for Pride of Performance Ustad Ghulam Abbas to perform in front of his fans. He was joined by the highly talented musicians Adnan Gill (keyboards), Jeddoun Francis (guitars) and Murtaza Damoon (tabla). Ustad Ghulam Abbas sang number of romantic film songs and hit ghazals on which audience got mesmerised and enjoyed every single word of his collection.

The programme continued till the midnight. Organiser Mr. Zafar Khan concluded the event by thanking the artists and the guests. Consulate General to Sydney from Pakistan Mr. Abdul Aziz Ukailee and prominent Sydney based Pakistani political figure Mr. Ejaz Khan were invited on the stage who thanked the artists for entertaining the music and art loving Pakistani people living in Sydney.

Review on Pakistani movie ‘Jalaibee’

Recently I got a chance of watching the Lollywood movie Jalaibee (جلیبی) in a Sydney cinema with some of my Pakistani friends. We also ran a publicity campaign for the movie and interviewed the viewers after the Friday nigh show. The film is based on a different subject and therefore can’t be compared with other Lollywood Urdu and Punjabi films. Definitely there is a lot of improvement in technology, i.e. shooting, editing and sound quality etc. Actors also performed quite well. Danish Taimoor, Ali Safina, Sajid Hassan and Adnan Jafar deserve appreciation. The story revolves around political parties, their conflicts and dirty politics for getting the power. It also throws light on the underground criminals.

On the other side film fails in impressing the true cine-goers. In this film the biggest flaw is that there is not even a single positive role in the whole story. You will see people killing each other in this movie but you will unable to trace any single Policeman at all.

There is just one song in the film that is shot in a bar. The director has shown an all together different Pakistan that we can’t digest at all. In this film there are only two female actors; Zhalay Sarhadi and Sabeeka Imam. Then one of the villains Wiqar Ali Khan is shown speaking English in more than 90% of his scenes with an extra ordinary accent, which has nothing to do with the Urdu film. Director Yasir Jaswal should have done more effort on the music as we miss any romantic and/or sad song throughout the film. This film is like a TV drama just filmed in a bold environment, although our dramas are also very bold these days and you can hardly watch them with the family. I will give a score of 6 to this movie on a scale of 0-10 (poor-excellent).

We remember Bob Woolmer

Today (15 March 2015) in a crucial match of ICC World Cup 2015, Pakistan beat Ireland by 7 wickets while chasing for a score of 238 in Adelaide Oval. I congratulate all Pakistanis over this victory which paved our way to the Quarter Final where we will face Australia on 20 March 2015 once again in Adelaide.

Today’s victory reminded me of former Pakistani coach Mr. Bob Woolmer who was coaching our team in the2007 ICC World Cup. Pakistan was playing its match against Ireland in Kingston, Jamaica on 17 March 2007 and die to the poor performance of our batting lineup we lost that game by 3 wickets against an associate member team.

Bob Woolmer was a great coach and wonderful person. Although he was not responsible for this shameful defeat, yet he took too much stress of this poor performance. He was found dead in his hotel room on the following night. Mr. Woolmer was not a Pakistani but the way he showed his sincerity for our team is a highly appreciable thing. Government of Pakistan awarded him with the Sitara-e-Imtiaz (Star of Excellence), a high ranking civil award of Pakistan, after his death for his contribution to Pakistan cricket.

Sada-e-Shahid remembers the legend coach today on the occasion of our victory against Ireland in World Cup. We love Bob Woolmer and dedicate this victory to his soul.

Lahore needs serious action to revive its showbiz industry

Lahore is known as the cultural capital of Pakistan. This great city produced artists and writers like Mehdi Hassan, Noor Jehan, Ashfaq Ahmed, Bano Qudsiya, Nadeem, Shabnam, Robin Ghosh, Muhammad Ali, Zeba Ali, Syed Noor, Umaira Ahmed, Mustansar Hussain Tarrar, Reema, A. Nayyer, Tariq Aziz, Naheed Akhtar, Nauman Ejaz, Shaan, Moammar Rana, Ali Azmat, Jawad Ahmed, Hadiqa Kiani, Tahira Syed, Atif Aslam, Nayyara Noor, Abid Ali, Uzma Gilani, Afzal Ahmed, Rahat Kazmi, Qawi Khan, Khalida Riasat, Jameel Fakhari, Irfan Khusat, Sarmad Khusat, Tauqir Nasir, Roohi Bano, Babra Shareef, Saba Hammed, Janan Malik, Saba Qamar and many others. Even Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan also got recognition from this great city. Theatre artists like Aman Ullah, Sohail Ahmed, Iftikhar Thakur, Nargis and Deedar also are from the showbiz industry of Lahore. Pakistan’s small film industry Lollywood also has its base in Lahore.

Karachi and Lahore always have been enjoying a healthy competition in making TV serials. At the PTV Awards there used to be always a very good competition between the artists of these two cities for winning awards on their performances. In the last decade however gradually the music and drama industries in Karachi got stronger and many TV artists and singers from Lahore relocated to Karachi. The reason was that in Karachi many production houses and private TV channels were formed that offered more opportunities to the artists. On the other side directors and producers there are more serious and committed than those working in Lahore. This affected the showbiz industry of Lahore badly.

On the other side, producers from the Lollywood kept producing low quality films thinking that they had no competition from Karachi in this area. However recently young TV artists and producers from Karachi have come up with some heavy budged high quality films and showed a new face of Pakistani cinema to the people of Pakistan. Today Lahore is left only with stage dramas where families cannot go because of the cheap comedy.

I am from Lahore and feel very sad over this situation. I request Lahore based artists (from TV and film) to sit together and develop a strategy for getting Lahore its status of the ‘cultural capital’ once again. We must remember that healthy competitions are necessary for improving the quality of artworks.

We have to promote harmony between people having different religions and sects

Pakistan has unfortunately been used by other Islamic countries for promoting their religious school of thought since its creation. If we look into our past, I feel surprised to see that in 70s our ladies were more liberal and in parties they used to wear modern dresses and interact with men more frequently as compared with today. After 1980 when General Zia ul Haq was the president and the army chief; Pakistan was forcefully converted into a Sunni state where Shiites, and Qadianis (who are non-Muslims but claim to be a sect of Islam) were targeted especially. With the time this thing aggravated in the society and our people started going away from each other just because of their religious or sectarian differences.

Similarly Christian minority in Pakistan was always mentioned in an insulting way. I remember that many people used to call a Christian person as Choorra (چوڑا) which in English mean sweeper just because most of the Christians in Pakistan belong to the poor families and many have to do the low paid jobs.

Today we see that Pakistanis have become more unsecure. They fear from each other just because of the religious, sectarian and the cultural differences. A Punjabi is not safe in Baluchistan. Residents of Interior Sindh face racism in the job market of Karachi. Balochis don’t like to live or work in Punjab. Urdu Speaking community of Karachi is not comfortable with Punjabis and Pathans. Similarly people of the Southern Punjab feel less fortunate as compared to the people living in Lahore.

This problem is the one that is not helping our nation to become a united one.  Our leaders including the current ones have their own motivations and have no sense at all that we could expect anything from them. We have to take this responsibility and must start bring people together belonging to different cultural and religious background so that we could promote the message of love and unity. We also need to tell the world that we are a peaceful nation whose each member shows tolerance and respect for the others.

Pakistan needs a large cleanup

Happy New Year to all our readers. Wish you all the very best for the New Year and your coming life.

I watched the spectacular fireworks in Sydney live on TV where around 1.5 million people peacefully welcomed 2015. I was feeling sad that why Pakistani people cannot welcome the New Year in this way. After Sydney, Dubai welcomed the new year by having fireworks from the world’s tallest building Burj Khalifa. A large number of people were present there as well. Peoples living in other developed countries also welcomed 2015 in large gatherings arranged by their governments.

Pakistan is a country full of passionate and energetic people. However our political and religious leaders have failed in grooming them. Our youth is deprived of tolerance, mutual respect and positive approach. They fight with each other over the political and sectarian differences. They spread hatred rather than promoting love.

After Peshawar attack, whole nation stood beside Pakistan Army to support them for their war against the terrors. However some so-called intellectuals like Zaid Hamid started promoting hatred against followers of the Deobandi school of thought (a sub-sect of Sunnis). On his Facebook page he is sharing unreasonable biased material against the Deobandis. Pakistan Army and the government must take serious action against such culprits.

Pakistan at this time needs a massive crackdown against those who play with the emotions of our people and bring them to such a level of stress that they become violent. Such culprits must be hanged in open spaces in front of huge crowds so that no one could ever dare to do such nasty acts in the future. After controlling law and order situation, government must start arranging healthy activities for the people so that they can enjoy a happy and normal life again. Government should arrange concerts, funfairs and other social events like exhibitions and friendly sports events for the people. Punjab Government must start National Horse and Cattle Show, Spring Festival and Lahore Marathon again at their earliest. Government can get the services of well built young boys for providing security at such events after getting their Police clearance. They will not only control the security but will also earn money.

Pakistan Army has been granted with the permission for establishing their own courts where terrorism cases would be dealt. These courts should decide the cases swiftly so that the culprits get punished in an exemplary manner. Our normal courts should also decide the terrorism cases within minimum time Pakistani nation will then have faith in the justice, which will boost their confidence in the system. I wish that Pakistani nation will definitely welcome 2016 just like peoples do it in other countries of the world.

Horrific incident at Army Public School Peshawar

I am writing today after a long struggle as it took me time getting the courage for writing on the topic that has shaken my soul. Pakistani nation always remembers 16th of December as a black day because on this date in 1971 East Pakistan announced their separation from Pakistan and became Bangladesh. This year on 16^th December, the day started with the same feelings. Nobody in Pakistan knew that on the same day the nation would experience the worst tragedy that would never be forgotten.

Our country has been fighting against the terrorism for more than 20 years. Taliban were created in the 80’s with the help of USA for using them against the Soviet Union which attacked in Afghanistan. These tribal people were told that they had to do the Jihad (جہاد), Islamic war, against the invaders into an Islamic state. General Zia ul Haq, that time President and the Army Chief of Pakistan, could not visualize that these Jihadists would start destabilizing their own motherland. After 9/11 when USA invaded Afghanistan the same Taliban declared war against them as they took them just like the Soviet Union.

For several years TTP have been fighting against the NATO forces in Afghanistan. Pakistani government assured the US and its allies to support them fully in their so called ‘war against terrorism’ and allowed NATO forced attacking the terrorists in Afghanistan from Pakistan using our air bases in. This action created unrest in TTP and they started attacking the innocent people in Pakistan. General Musharraf’s decision of allowing US Army to use drones for attacking the TTP terrorists in Pakistan added fuel to the fire. This decision proved the worst for our country. Many innocent kids and families got killed in these blind attacks. After the starting of these attacks TTP increased the level of their attacks and started attacking the armed forces in Pakistan.

During the last few years they attacked the GHQ, police and Intelligence centres, Wagha Border, army bases, shopping centres, and mosques and shrines in different corners of Pakistan.

Yesterday Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) did the highly inhuman act and attacked the school going children in Peshawar. They attacked Army Public School in Peshawar Cantt and killed 132 young students and 9 staff members including the female principal and teachers. The inhuman terrorists burnt one teacher alive after knowing that she had helped the students in rescuing.

After this national tragedy the whole nation announced that they are united against the bloody terrorists and have no sympathy with them. All political leadership sat together and vowed that they put their differences aside for fighting against the culprits. Imran Khan immediately stopped PTI’s protest against the rigging in the last election and announced that PTI would support the government in their war against TTP.

Prime Minister lifted the ban from the capital punishment and after three days two convicted terrorists were hanged. Indeed it is a good step and will prove pivotal in creating a better impression of the government and the judiciary.

I suggest that Pakistani government should now take serious steps in eliminating the terrorism from our land. Police must be trained properly by the Army and international law enforcement agencies for controlling the terrorists and finding their hideouts. Their cases must be preceded in the special courts which should give their decision within 2 weeks. Their verdicts must not be allowed to be challenged in any superior court at all. After the verdict the arrested criminals should be hanged in public. Identity of the judges of these special courts must be kept confidential and their families must be provided with the additional security. Terrorists captured with the clear evidence must not be provided with any legal facilities, i.e. lawyers etc.

All mosques and madrassas (religious schools) must be monitored by the government. Their contents must be approved before they share it with their students. Government also should pass the law for punishing the culprits in the worst manner that accuse non-Muslims without any evidence for carrying out the blasphemy against the Islamic personalities and literature, and promote unrest in the society that results in killing of the innocent accused persons.

Pakistan has to change now. Otherwise we will never be able to come out of this worst crisis that has now resulted in murder of the innocent kids. My heart is bleeding with pain in the memory of those little angels who were our future. WE HATE TERRORISTS. WE HATE TALIBAN. WE LOVE PAKISTAN!!!

A beautiful religious get together in Sydney with Najam Sheraz and Junaid Jamshed

Noble Mission Australia is a non-commercial organisation run by Brother Bashar Asadi and other Pakistani friends living in Sydney. They preach Islam to the non-Muslims by providing them published and verbal information in a very friendly environment. They organise weekly stalls in Mt. Druitt (a western Sydney Suburb) regularly, and also arrange open days in the masjids (mosques) where non-Muslim people are shown how we pray.

Yesterday (22 November 2014) Noble Mission Australia (NMA) organised a fundraising programme at the Rooty Hill Masjid for collecting funds for the construction of Slacks Creek Masjid in Brisbane. This Masjid will produce Islamic Scholars and will be the first of its kind in Australia. For this noble purpose NMA especially invited famous religious scholar Junaid Jamshed sahib. With him for the first time former pop singer Najam Sheraz also graced the occasion with his presence.

I know Najam since 1989 when he was a second year student of Civil Engineering in UET Lahore, which is also my alma mater. Najam later left engineering and started his career as a singer. He has a real melodious voice and we always loved attending his concerts. Initially he was the lead singer of a band Wet Metal (formerly known as Jupiters II). Later he got solo and gave many super hit songs. Junaid Jamshed was also a very popular singer in his youth.

Yesterday I met Najam after many years. He told me that two years ago he left music completely and now tours the world for preaching and fundraising for the Islamic cause. After the Maghrib prayer Najam was asked to deliver a brief speech about the change in his life. Najam shared his great experiences with the audience and told that how much comfortable he feels now when he has found Allah – the Lord in his life. He said that he got busier after getting into the new ear of his life. In last two years he has made so many journeys which he had never made being a popular singer. Junaid also shared little bit of his journey towards real Islam.

After the Isha prayer both were requested to recite (sing without music) their nasheed’s (religious poetry). Najam sang a beautiful nasheed “Alhamd ul Lillah” both in English and Urdu. Then he sang another one in Punjabi and Urdu “Allah Hu”. He was also explaining the thought behind the lyrics during the nasheed’s. Then Najam performed his most popular one “Naa tera Khuda koi aur hay” (نہ تیرا خدا کوئی اور ہے). All the people present there joined him in singing this beautiful nasheed and the atmosphere got extremely soulful.

Najam told us about the mercy of Allah SWT and requested everyone present there to bring real change in their attitude towards life. He advised that all of us must become example for the non-Muslims through our good acts.

I had to leave as it was too late. I could not listen to Junaid Jamshed unfortunately. However it was a very beautiful experience for me seeing Najam after a long time and finding him in such a great role. Allah bless both Najam and Junaid with His special mercy. Ameen!!!