Ali Zaidi’s response to Kamran Shafi’s Verbal Diarrhea

Reproduced from Ali Zaidi’s Facebook Page

While I was in my teens, my father took the onus and ensured that I grow up to be a man of religious & social values. Beyond that, it was my own choice to lead my life the way I preferred. The most important value was to respect a private conversation between individuals, and not flaunt it around, just because you don’t agree with the their views. Unfortunately for Mr. Shafi, he either lost those values down the road, or has a personal agenda/vested interest to malign everything and anything Imran Khan has to say, or is to do.

Mr. Shafi has made public, what was supposed to be an SMS conversation between him & Imran Khan. Not to forget, a private conversation. If this was supposed to be public, Imran would have made a live call on TV to express his views. What Mr. Shafi has utterly failed to understand here is that, it is he who should be insulted as Imran clearly called him a “Westoxified”brown sahib. On being shamed by Imran, Shafi goes on rambling like a typical Desi Saas (Mother in law) to her fellow com padres.

Moving on to the content of Mr. Shafi’s letter, the absurdity of his claims begin, when he objects to the time taken (My God, a whole week) by the KPK government to visit Aitzaz Hasan’s family. He mentions that it took Khattak and Co an entire week!! Hello Mr. Shafi, wakie wakie, imagine Imran’s temerity to take an entire week for the aid of a martyr’s family. Did you ever question the previous democratically elected official of his stand against WOT, in FIVE bloody years!!?? Have you had the courage to question the current PM of his role towards this WOT!!?? You have not! The most important thing to note here is that never in the history of Pakistan, has any leader dared to comment so candidly about his/her party’s led government in public. Instead of appreciating the feat, Mr. Shafi possibly out of shear hatred and/or otherwise, decided to ignore it and criticize it based on the date(s).

The next complaint/issue he highlights is that Imran Khan has never criticized banned outfits by their name. This is factually wrong!!! It seems as if Mr. Shafi’s “Westoxified” mindset prevents him from understanding Urdu as well. I would not get into the details of when and where Imran Khan has categorically denounced terrorism and out rightly condemned the banned organizations by naming them, but just for reference, I would like Mr. Shafi to please do watch the video clip viral on social media these days where Khan sb has vociferously condemned the terror acts carried out by TTP, LEJ etc by “NAMING” them. Mr. Shafi’s stern ignorance comes because his time is focused towards watching Fashion TV. Only a man living in lala land would come up with such buffoonery as he has, with his concocted claims.

Let me add here that since the clips are in Urdu, Mr. Shafi might need an interpreter while watching it so that he refrains from stating an incorrect fact next time. Mr. Shafi goes on to claim that the issue of terrorism dates back to 1994. Well, May I ask him how many suicide attacks took place between 1994-2004 (when we launched the first military offensive against TTP).

Mr. Shafi very naively suggests that military ops have yielded more terror outfits because they were not conducted properly just like the operations conducted in our main cities against street crimes. In essence, he means to say that the Army has done half hearted operations. If that is the case, why then, does he go on to say that the military is sick and tired burying their martyrs without retaliating? A classic case of an individual confused to the core. Why does Mr. Shafi conveniently ignore that a recently concluded APC was the 4th one where ALL, I repeat, ALL parties unanimously concluded that dialogue is the only way forward. PTI is just ONE of the parties attending the APC. I am sure Mr. Shafi, who often poses to be the flag bearer of democracy understands that the word literally means “by the will of the people”. How can he hold PTI solely responsible for a decision taken by all the parties unanimously? Very cute of Mr. Shafi, because this is where I got the popcorn out for his thought provoked and comical piece of writing.

Also has he forgotten that during the 2013 Elections the top two parties in terms of votes had both spelled out in their manifesto that the priorities would be to initiate a dialogue process with the militants? Right or wrong, this is the choice made by the People of Pakistan and so Mr.Shafi should respect the mandate. Or maybe a major reason for his irritation is the inability to digest the constant rising popularity graph of PTI.

I would sincerely like to advise Mr. Shafi for being rational while doing critique. It is imperative that one doesn’t let anger/frustration get the best of him/her while criticizing an extremely popular public figure because it further dwarfs you and makes your case weak. Mr. Shafi, snow white is definitely not going to be pleased if one of her dwarfs goes gallivanting around town, acting to be literate.

Instead of lamenting the fact that Imran Khan went to an event in London on the insistence of an old friend who helped him during the SKMH campaign, Mr. Shafi should come down to the real issues. I can understand Mr. Shafi’s misery because on one place a certain Prince and Heir to the throne proudly clicks away with Imran Khan; whereas, on the other hand your local thailay wala (fruit seller) won’t budge an inch to have one with you. I can understand Mr. Shafi burning sensation, obviously the irony is understandable. I side with him here because I can feel his pain. Throwing that picture in his letter was nothing but a cheap shot explicitly depicting hate and venom. Not that it really makes a difference to Imran Khan, but for the record, this is not the first time he was in the company of Royalty, be it British or other.

I browsed through Mr. Shafi’s open letter twice with his rants in regards to PTI Chairman Imran Khan and realized that it was again in-line with the regular dribble that comes from the self proclaimed “liberal” mindset in Pakistan. I can’t digest that those who consider themselves “liberals” still advocate war. Most liberals in the West consider being antiwar one of their cardinal principles. Remember the reaction in the western countries to the Vietnam War or even the recent Gulf war’s?

Instead of besmirching the true liberal philosophy, I suggest you and your likes start calling yourselves “Neo-cons”. It would be more befitting to your similarity in philosophy to Neo-cons like George W. & Dick Cheney. Oh yes…I almost forgot, last week the former PPP PM Yousuf Raza Gillani also asked Taliban to join mainstream politics.

Mr. Shafi, let me remind you again that national security is a federal subject and you may want to scold your friends in PMLN to act accordingly to your wishes of further military operations to solve the problem. Please get out of this “Imranphobia” and fairly criticize the leadership of the other political parties that have ruled this country over the last 40 years.

The “liberal” are hypocritical on dialogue because they believe in operations when it comes to Tribal Areas but when talking about the issues in Baluchistan they advocate dialogue even though you there are groups in Baluchistan that advocate secession from Pakistan and are allegedly supported by external forces.

I just hope after reading this response that you and your fellow “Neo-cons” will direct their criticisms fairly onto others instead of one person or party which is not in power in the center, and most importantly is still propagating peace in this Great Country of ours.

I’m sure the pain of not being relevant enough, caused a short circuit to erupt Mr. Shafi’s creative juices. I’ve heard that people who couldn’t achieve stardom, generally tend to become bitter during their older days. Retiring from the army, just as a major, seeing your peers and juniors progress to the ranks of Colonel and General must have been very tough, to hang up those heavy boots. A welcomed civil life was thought to be relatively easy, but in the end, started to nose dive and Mr. Shafi went in a flashback of his army days. The biggest irony and discomfort for a bitter unsuccessful man is to see another man reach a feat where people start to politically preach him. In this case, Mr. Shafi, I understand what you feel right now, and I consider jealousy an incurable disease that grows bitter like Parkinson’s. I personally advise you to seek help, and if you cannot finance it, I as a staunch PTI troll will fund you, for a shrink.

Lastly, I consider your articles very hilarious, and advise you to go on because I’ve spoken to the editors of Archies to make a comeback with a certain Ex Major. Your writing credentials might find some serious readers in the comical section because, grown ups consider your work, as ramblings of a benign old man.

Ali Zaidi
Member CEC
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf