Fool Rejoicing in Someone Else's Marriage/Fight: Parai ki LaRai/Shadi mai Abdulla Deewana

This post details how Pakistan had been entangled in someone else's war in anticipation of some crumbs falling to Pakistan as a largess in US Wars. In all these cases the results have been disastrous for Pakistan. This post is motivated by Pakistan's another venture to join the new US' Middle East War that portends huge costs for Pakistan vis-a-vis its neighbors especially Iran because the US Alliance of Arab Countries which is dominated by despots and royals is primarily against Iran, and Pakistan desperately needs a friendly neighbor on the West because its influence in Afghanistan has now been eclipsed by India [1].

To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions: Pakistan History 101

Why Dictatorships are Weaker in Accountability than Constitutional Governments

At What Cost? Costs of perceived strictness of military dictatorships vs the reality of constitutional governments in Pakistan. The comparison in this post indicates that the perception of better accountability in clean dictatorship is not valid because in the long term the constitutional governments of corrupt politicians deliver a far better accountability than the dictatorships which are forever trying to buy their legitimacy.  The table below indicates the stark contrast of 9 years of dictatorship of General Musharraf from 1999-2008 versus 9 years of civilian governments of Asif Zardari (2008-13) and Nawaz Sharif (2013-to date in 2017). It is mistakenly believed in Pakistan that dictatorships are cleaner and better in managing the accountability than the civilian governments. This perception is mainly due to the misunderstanding of how a constitutional democracy conducts the accountability. 

To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions

Family Tree Shajra of Sadat e Nehtaur: A Case Study of Compilation of Social History

Sadat e Nehtaur Shajra Compilation Effort

Syed Mohammad Khurshid Alam Zaidi

Khursheed Alam Zaidi in his keynote address at a get together of Sadat-e-Nehtaur on 7th May 2017 related the impressive history of compilation of "shajra" of Sadat-e-Nehtaur. The shajra documents their history in India from around 1175 AD when the ancestors moved from Tirmiz to Kaithal and later settled in Nehtaur: 

جب شہاب الدین غوری ہندوستان پر حملہ کرنے کیلئے افغانستان میں آئے تو ان کی ملاقات *جناب میر سید کمال الدین ترمزی* سے ہوئی جو *بہ ارادہ تبلیغ* اپنے اہل و عیال کے ساتھ ہندوستان جا رہے تھے ‫. *شہاب الدین غوری* نے *میر صاحب* کو اپنے زیرِ حفاظت سفر کرنے کی پیشکش کی جسے *میر صاحب* نے یہ کہ کر قبول نہیں کیا کہ *ہم دونوں کے مقاصد مختلف ہیں‫. تم ِہندوستان پر حملہ کرنے جارہے ہو اور میں تبلیغِ کے لئے*‫. مگر میر صاحب نے اپنے ہمراہ *گیارہ میں سے ایک بیٹے (میر سید ابراہیم شاہ)* کو شہاب الدین کے سپرد کر دیا *(جو بعد میں ہانسی قلعے پر حملہ کے دوران شہید ہو کر وہیں مدفون ہیں)*.

میر کمال الدین کے ایک صاحبزادے *میر جلال الدین* کے عیال میں سے ایک صاحب *جناب میر سید حسن (نہٹوری)* نے ہمارے خاندانی قصبہ (نہٹور) میں نقلِ مکانی کی‫. ہمارا موجودہ خاندانِ *ساداتِ نہٹور انہی کی عیال پر مشتمل ہے.

Importance of Literature in Law: A Case Study of the Panama Case Supreme Court Judgement

Importance of literature in law and legal judgments and arguments in the floor is an established tradition. This post collects together various quotations from masterpieces of literature in the Supreme Court judgement on the Panama Case Scandal on April 20, 2017. It also contains the references to Quranic definitions of Sadiq and Ameen. I think universities can use this judgement to enable a deep appreciation of how matters of law and constitution are analyzed in the context of culture, literature, religion, constitution and history. This judgement is also a very good example of how qualitative research methods are employed in dissecting the arguments and then reaching a judgement.

SC judgement starts with the following attribution to Mario Puzo's Godfather and Balzac:

Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, J.: The popular 1969 novel ‘The Godfather’ by Mario Puzo recounted the violent tale of a Mafia family and the epigraph selected by the author was fascinating: 

"Behind every great fortune there is a crime." — Balzac