Adil Najam

Folks, I want to stay on the subject of our elected officials — out-of-control Ministers and misbehaving MNAs — for just a little longer. Rest assured, ATP will come to misguided military-men soon enough.

There is a particular variety of Pinglish that goes beyond simply juggling Urdu and English idom and grammer; it adds a third language to the mix, in particular Punjabi. One hears this varient a lot in parts of the United Kingdom, and this genre now has a poetic tradition all its own.

Comedic poet Khalid Masood Khan has made a name for himself by utilizing this version of Pinglish. I will not even try to translate, but here is an examplar that relates to who gets elected and who does not:

Luch lafang elect huwa hai annay-wa
Beeba phir reject huwa hai annay-wa
Sooe pay dhaga daalnay waali nokri pay
Anna aik select huwa hai annay-wa

For more on the meaning of Pinglish see ATP’s first blogpost on the subject.

Meet Zamir Ulhaq, 34 years old when this picture was taken (in 2001), originally from Faisalabad, directing traffic at Zarghoon Road, Quetta.

When I was very young (as young as my son now is), I wanted to grow up to be this man (or someone like him). And why not. This police cop wears a kool uniform, is obviously in control, has a whistle that he can blow whenever he wants, and people listen to him (well, some people, sometime).

Obviously, I did not know then just how difficult his job is and how under-appreciated he is. I do now.

(The photograph is by Vincent Laforet, first published in the New York Times, and found here).

P.S. I know my friend Suleman is going to say I am too soft on ‘tullas’ but I wanted to put this picture today, partly as a tribute to the ASI who stopped the arrogant MNA from Karachi.

Adil Najam

Disgraceful behavior by Pakistani politicians is not restricted to our Federal Minister of Law, Justice and Human Rights Chaudhry Mohammad Wasi Zafar… see the earlier ATP post accounting his ‘encounters’ with lawlessness.

It turns out that a certain Mr. Abid Ali Umang, MNA from Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has similarly confused ideas about what the ‘priviliges’ of being a politician should be. This is how Dawn (16 July, 2006) describes the events under the headline ‘MNA carrying gun creates scene at airport’:

Unruly scenes were witnessed at the Islamabad airport’s VIP Rawal Lounge on Friday night when a parliamentarian belonging to the ruling coalition insisted on carrying a firearm aboard and hurled threats at the Airport Security Force (ASF) official on duty. Sources said Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) MNA Abid Ali Umang along with his colleague MNA Mohammad Pervez Qureshi arrived at the Rawal Lounge to take a PIA flight (PK-319) to Karachi. The two legislators were allowed to enter the lounge without a security check after they identified themselves as MNAs. However, when the ASF official on duty inquired about the contents of a bag carried by Mr Umang, the latter replied: “There is a pistol in the bag.� The ASI told the lawmaker that carrying firearms was strictly prohibited, therefore, he could not proceed.

This infuriated the MNA and he entered into a fiery dialogue

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