By
Sohail Parwaz
Those
were the good days when it was thought and considered that the Indian channel
Star Plus was the most favourite and popular channel in Pakistan. Soon its
popularity relegated and it became hot favourite with the maids only, working
in middle and upper class houses with a hope that someday may be sahib ji’s
dashing and handsome sons make them their soul mates, nevertheless, dreams
rarely come true, hence the poor young maids could just wait and wait for their
frog princes. Thanks to regular watching, the only good thing happened to them
was that most of them, who were smart and wise, started spotting the glaring
and idiotic flaws in those fantasized soups.
As
the Star Plus’s rating and popularity has sharply deteriorated so has gone down
the reputation of the Indian intelligence agency RAW, which has failed to show
even the infinitesimal improvement in its performance during the last 44 years
i.e. from January 1971 to January 2016. It looks as if the winters have been
very trendy with the guys at the helm of affairs at RAW, since all the dramas
planned were during the period from November to February! May be its too
convenient to cover-up certain acts – who cares to move out? – as the cold dark
nights help in skipping certain mandatory stages of a good ‘stage play’.
First
ever drama was staged in 1971 when an obsolete Indian airliner was sent to
Pakistan and then blown off. Two dubious characters
Hashim Qureshi and Ashraf Qureshi, allegedly Kashmiri youngsters were trapped
to play a highjack drama. The poor and ignorant adolescents, all along
considered themselves as the heroes of the Kashmir freedom movement, who were
hijacking an Indian Fokker plane Ganga for a great cause, not aware of the fact
that Ganga was one of the oldest aircraft in the Indian
Airlines fleet and was parked in hangers long ago, nevertheless, it was
mysteriously re-inducted days before the hijacking. The three days ‘long Play’
started on 30 January and curtains were drawn on 1 February 1971 when as per
plan the plane was blown off. Usually the commercial aircrafts don’t have
names. In very rare cases due to some historical background or for other reason
or emotional attachment they are named. However, amazingly, this plane before
being used as a prop was named Ganga to sensationalize the story as the Indians
have an emotional attachment with the river Ganges. That’s a different thing
that Ashraf died few years ago while Hashim lives on a hillside mansion in the
Nishat area of Srinagar, where he gazes at the Dal Lake from his multi-terraced
lawn, playing golf in between – and recounting his story. Never forget that he
was a hijacker who is lavishly living in the premises subjugated by the Indian
government. Today, why shouldn’t he be treated as a hero? After all, he is the
one who helped India in banning over-flights by Pakistani aircrafts. A ban that
had a significant impact on troop movement and brought the dismemberment of
East Pakistan on cards, finally.
For
almost twenty-nine years, the Indians remained happy and jubilant as they were
yet not over with the ‘Breaking Pakistan Celebrations’, until December 2001,
when the need of screening a new drama was badly felt at ‘RAW Notanki’ since
the Kashmir movement was picking up the gear while Pakistan was getting
strengthened again. The beauty of this new play was – as a young Pakistani
Karachi based columnist wrote in the Guardian, UK, long ago – that, during the
staged attack upon the Indian parliament on December 13, not one furl of one
dhoti of one Indian legislator was unfurled, during which not one brick was
dislodged from one pillar. The gunmen miraculously got through security checks,
in a time of heightened alerts, and attempted to destroy the Indian parliament.
In a further miracle, none of the ministers were hurt and the terrorists were
killed. ‘Khail khatam, paisa
hazam’.
The
Indian government’s refusal to show the faces of the terrorists to reporters
raised many eyebrows and created doubts amongpeople. Instead, they kept
insisted that the terrorists were part of two groups fighting for the
liberation of Kashmir and that the attack was planned in training camps in
Pakistan with the complicity of Pakistan’s intelligence agency, ISI. Pakistan
suggested a logical epilogue of the drama by offering a joint inquiry into the
affair, however, M/s RAW Entertainment wanted an end, the Star Plus way, thus
refused the offer.
These
are just few of the dramas, whereas a lot more has to be discussed for the
public’s entertainment, before coming to ‘Aik Din Pathankot Ka’.
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