From: jamalin@newton.ccs.tuns.ca (Nadeem Jamali)
Subject: Re: Karachi and Sind 
Keywords: Pakistan,capital
Organization: Technical University of Nova Scotia, Halifax, N.S.
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 20:17:56 GMT

In article <N1R-AP-@engin.umich.edu> chaudhry@schroedinger.engin.umich.edu (Iblees) writes:
>
>
>

......... (stuff deleted)

>The excerpt given above is my total [ extremely small :-) :-)] knowledge about 
>this affair. Can any netter confirm/refute the contents of the this excerpt or 
>give comments or more information about this important event in Sind's history 
>which may have had an effect on the present demographics(?) of urban Sind.
>
>BTW my 2 cent worth of opinion about how we should look at our history:
>
>While ascertaining the facts about Pakistan's history, I feel it is imperative 
>that we should not allow the past to bury our future.  Neither do I feel that as 
>a country, our future course should be *hostage* to the actions and aspirations 
>of the generation which founded Pakistan. While making decisions Pakistan's 
>history should be kept in perspective, to fully comprehend the situation or to 
>learn from history ( and, thus the need to know more about our country's 
>history). But present day decisions have to be made in accordance with the 
>*present* aspirations of the *present day* citizens of Pakistan ( this, of 
>course, includes many people from the generation which founded Pakistan).
>
>Thus statements like " XYZ was the reason why my/our parents/grandparents ( or 
>whoever ) made such and such sacrifices, and so the country should now be doing 
>XYZ" should not be sufficient reason to do XYZ now. ( I am saying this because 
>some people on the net have been making statements similar to the above 
>hypothetical statement in discussions about present/future course of action of 
>the people of Pakistan.   
>

Probably I couldn't have stated it better. Specially, although the arguement
that "my parents suffered this and this for XYZ kind of Pakistan" does have
quite an emotional appeal, that's the only thing they have. But, as 
Mr. Chaudhry says, history should be kept in perspective. What has happened has
to be considered. But mere mention of one's parents' hopes has no value.
First, there is no way to know what person A thinks without being the person.
Before believing in someone who presents an arguement such as mentioned, one
needs to be sure that the parents really conveyed the message sincerely to
the child... at least for one generation. We also need to be sure that the child
is sincerely conveying those views to rest of the world. The biggest catch in
this is that people tend to become emotional when others contest their 
statements about their elders... similarly about the sacrifices which/if
they made. Second, even if the parents did make all the sacrifices which are
being mentioned, they may be for a misunderstood cause... everyone is not
a genius... nor is every one expected to be. According to democratic norms,
people's views at a state of time should determine the decisions taken at that
time. If some person X somewhere in Russia was hoping for a communist Pakistan,
does that have any value? Similarly, the only people whose hopes have any
weight is the people who inhabited the region that was to become Pakistan.
Not the people who hoped to move to Pakistan... given that there was nothing
like migration of Muslims in the plan. The migrations to Punjab were justified
though in the sense that there was violence there. Those who migrate to Punjab
did not migrate for a financial benifit.

It is hard to imagine how people could be such fools as to entertain the idea
that an area of land with a certain number of people can be used for 
more than double the size of population. What's the fault of the people already
living there. And isn't it only those people who had any and every right to
decide whether migration be allowed.

Let's see... how many parents would like to tell their children that they
moved to Pakistan _only_ for financial reasons _IF_ they really did.

As regards Karachi's being the capital of Pakistan in the beginning, though
I do not have anything to add to what Mr. Chaudhry has mentioned, one can
better understand these people's purpose in settling in Karachi by imagining
what would have happenned had the capital not been moved to Islamabad.

>
>Nauman [Iblees Iblees kardey ni maiN aapey Iblees huya ] Chaudhry

Nadeem

-- 
Nadeem Jamali                                     jamalin@newton.ccs.tuns.ca
						 
School of Computer Science			  
Technical University of Nova Scotia		  (902)420-7882