Tag: Alice

  • Alice in Phaansiland

    Alice in Phaansiland

    One summer evening a little girl called Alice was dozing on a green meadow when she saw a white rabbit wearing a blue coat running on two legs, and seeing a watch said ” My God, I am late ”. Saying this it jumped into a hole on the ground.

    Alice got up, and following him jumped into the same hole. She fell and fell, and finally landed with a big thud near a phaansi ghat ( gibbet or gallows ).

    She got up and started looking around.

    On the gallows she saw a corpse hanging from the gallows.

    She asked a man standing nearby as to whose corpse was it ?

    He replied ” It is that of the judge who granted bail to the former Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan ”.

    ” But who hanged him ? ” enquired Alice

    ” They were Pakistan army soldiers, acting on the orders of the Pakistan army chief Gen Munir ” the man replied.

    Alice walked ahead and saw another gallows with two corpses hanging on it.

    She wondered whose corpses were these, and asked another man about it.
    He replied ” They are of the former Prime Minister of Pakistan Shahbaz Sharif and the former Interior Minister of Pakistan Rana Sanaullah ”.

    ” But why were they hanged, and who hanged them ? ”, she asked.

    The man replied ” They were hanged because they abetted the army which unleashed a fascist reign of terror in our country, and they were hanged by an angry vengeful mob led by people whose relatives were killed, imprisoned and/or tortured in this reign of terror.”.

    Alice proceeded further and this time saw several gallows on which were hanging the bodies of several army officers in their uniforms.

    ” Now whose bodies are these ? ”, she enquired of a passerby.

    He replied ” They are of Gen Munir, former Pakistan army chief, and the Corps Commanders of the Pakistan army ”.

    ” But how could they have been hanged ? ” she queried.
    ” Haven’t you heard ? ” said the man, ” There was a revolution in this country, and the vengeful people, who had suffered unspeakable horrors at the hands of these tyrants and rascals, caught hold of them and hanged them ”.

    Walking further Alice saw a gallows on which was hanging a skeleton.

    She wondered why people should hang a skeleton, and enquired about it from some people who were kicking the skeleton and spitting on it.

    They replied ” This is the body of that rascal Jinnah who to satisfy his own ambition got India partitioned, at the instigation of our wicked erstwhile British rulers, by befooling us with his bogus and crazy two nation theory that Hindus and Muslims are two separate nations, thus causing us enormous suffering, misfortune and calamity. We dug out his skeleton from his grave and have hanged it ”.

    This hanging of a skeleton, and hanging of so many people, so shocked Alice that she got up from her sleep with a start, and realised she was dreaming.

  • Alice in Daakustan

    Alice in Daakustan

    One summer evening a little girl called Alice was dozing on a green meadow when she saw a white rabbit wearing a blue coat running on two legs, and seeing a watch said ” My God, I am late ”. Saying this it jumped into a hole on the ground.

    Alice got up, and following him jumped into the same hole. She fell and fell, and finally landed with a big thud on a heap of garbage.

    She looked around, and saw on a wall a big signboard on which it was written ” Welcome to Daakustan ”.

    She wondered what that meant, and getting up enquired from a man walking nearby what the signboard meant.

    He whispered into her ears ” Can’t you understand ? In this country most prominent persons are daakus ( dacoits ) ”.

    Alice asked how was that ?

    He replied ” It is very simple to understand. Our political leaders are mostly daakus because they have looted the country, and taken its wealth abroad, where they have bought huge assets like mansions and luxurious flats, as the Panama Papers revealed.

    Our army generals, whose job is to defend the country, instead of doing that have amassed huge wealth during their tenure, and ended up as billionaires, like Gen Bajwa, and they have also imposed a reign of terror on our country, imprisoning thousands of our people, and violated all human rights ”.

    Alice asked ” But don’t you have a judiciary to protect the people’s rights under your Constitution ? ”’.

    He replied ” Our judges are only concerned about their salaries, perks and pensions. They too are daakus because instead of protecting the people’s rights they help the above two kinds of daakus by giving dishonest verdicts, like Justice Munir who invented the ‘doctrine of necessity’ justifying army coups, like Chief Justice Maulvi Mushtaq Husain who sentenced former Prime Minister Bhutto to death, or like Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court Aamer Farooq who coerced Additional Sessions Judge Humayun Dilawar into giving a dishonest judgment against former Prime Minister imran Khan and sending him to jail for 3 years, to deprive him of the right to contest elections, and promptly rewarded him by sending him and his family to London ”.

    Alice was shocked to hear all this.

    She walked ahead and saw thousands of people with their lips sealed and eyes closed, with their hands on their ears, carrying placards which read ” Speak nothing, see nothing, hear nothing ”.

    She asked some people there what this meant, but none was willing to answer. Ultimately one man gathered courage, and whispered into her ears ” Keep quiet, or else you too will be carted off to a dungeon, like those who protested ”

    She walked further ahead, and saw a huge crowd of people who were evidently hungry and looking like beggars. She asked one of them the cause of their plight, and he replied in a whisper ” All our wealth has been taken away by our daakus, and we are left with nothing. Our leaders are now going around to the IMF, Saudi Arabia, etc begging for money ”.

    Alice saw an army officer, and asked him why they were behaving like tyrants ?

    He was surprised how anyone could ask such an impertinent question, and then replied ” The people are like dumb driven sheep and cattle, and the only way to control them is by using a whip and a danda. Power grows out of the barrel of a gun, and we will use the gun we have against this riffraff, rabble, scum, hoi polloi and ragtag and bobtail ”.

    Alice shouted ” You are nothing but a bunch of daakus ”, at which he pointed his gun at her, and was about to shoot, when Alice woke up, and realised she had been dreaming.