Vantage point Karachi
June 23, 2009
Bismillah, alhamdulillah.
The PC as it is locally well known is a 5 star hotel in the heart of downtown Karachi at the end of King Faisal Road. The entrance to the car park is manned by security guards dressed in their smart blue uniforms with their black caps giving the SWAT team appearance commonly found in US police forces. The car comes to a halt in front of a barrier which rises above the ground as the the boot and engine are opened and checked for suspicious devices. A man handling a white dog takes it round the vehicle as it sniffs for explosives. Having witnessed security in various places in Saudi Arabia, even in the well protected diplomatic zone in Riyadh the security measures here were one step higher.
A parking spot was quickly found and the entrance through the metal detector was mandatory. It lead into a brightly lit foyer with spot lights arranged high overhead and the welcome draft of cool air conditioned air hit us as we entered. The corridor was immaculate and the faint sound of music was coming down the corridor. We continued walking down the corridor inquiring about our final destination, as we got half way down the corridor the annoying piano music now much louder my sight was caught by a board sitting on the floor. It was an advert for the services of an astrologer.
I had to pause and clear my eyes as I could not believe what I was seeing. The advert was clear and unambiguous. I was told by someone that the person now quite famous in Pakistan was a blue collar worker in the HBL bank once upon a time. Astrology in Islam is a clear form of polytheism and shirk, there are clear Prophetic hadith warning against it in the strictest terms. But it seems these issues are of the least concern here. Our journey down the corridor was continuing and I had to walk quickly to catch my colleagues.
The annoying piano music had now reached a crescendo and I was thankful that its blare was fading into the background as we stepped into the glass elevator which clung to the outside of the building. Up we went to the highest floor watching Karachi shrink below us as we rose into the night sky.
The elevator doors opened to reveal a corridor and our host for the night. We had been invited to have dinner and were responding to the invitation. We walked down the corridor and were soon seated at our table. A buffet meal was on display with various quite mediocre standard food available with various, meats, deserts, rices and other Pakistani foods.
The dreadful and unholy ambience of the restaurant was set by the ghazal musicians in one corner who had decided to increase the volume of their amplifier to make sure that everyone in the restaurant would take notice. The other customers served to underline the degree of moral decadence that has set into the Pakistani elite, with women dressed in dresses that would be appropriate for a liberal Western country. It was an uneasy moment as I sat to decide whether we should walk out forthwith or whether there was possibly some greater good that could come of our meeting with our host. In the end the decision was made to stay. This perhaps was the right decision as the opportunity arose to convey the message of Islam to an open minded audience.
As the night ended I was left with the after effects of nausea from eating the mediocre food and remnants of the conversation that had taken place. Pakistan had seen especially in the last 15 years an acceleration in its moral degradation, lies were common, it was nearly impossible to find anyone whom you could trust, materialism had become the be and end all of most men and women. The story of politicians with morals, lining their own beds with ever increasing property portfolios abroad and little concern for the locals was a recurrent theme.
As we drove down the now quieter but by no means empty main roads of Karachi another conversation earlier in the day began to replay in my mind. A citizen of Karachi was arguing for isolation from the world and a concentrated effort by parents to protect their children by monitoring and limiting their access to the outside world.
Sadly, it seemed as if someone was trying to close the stable doors after the horse had bolted. The world outside had already invaded the house and the separation between the big bad wide world outside and safe environs of the home had become blurred. As the night reaches its depth the colossal nature of the job that faces Islamic social reformers in Pakistan only continues to grow in my estimation. The interfering parties from outside whom the locals are convinced are behind every targeted killing and explosion in the country fail to realise that the are falling to victim to the very disease that blighted Andalucia. The root cause is decadence and disobedience of God while the poor governance, sectarian strife and interference of outside agencies were a symptom rather than a cause. But analyses such as these fall onto deaf ears.
The search for taqwa (the fear of God), morality and purity have on the whole been sacrificed at the altar of material wealth. The false promises of material wealth is a Holywood narrative that is well told and sold. Most people seemed to have ignored the fiction label.
Entry Filed under: Pakistan. .
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