Friday, November 18, 2016

کامیابی اور خوشی کی چابی — قاسم علی شاہ

مولاناجلال الدین رومی رحمہ اللہ کو علامہ اقبال اپنا استاد اور اپنا مرشد مانتے تھے ، آپ لوگ ضرور ان کے نام سے واقف ہوں گے ان کی ایک بڑی مشہور کتاب ہے” مثنوی مولاناروم” ۔ مثنوی مولانا روم میں ایک واقعہ لکھا ہے آج کے لیکچر کی ابتدا اسی واقعہ سے کرتا ہوں۔واقعہ کچھ یوںہے کہ:
ایک عالم دین تھے بہت بڑے عالم تھے انہوں نے حدیث، فقہ ،سنت سب کچھ پڑھا ہوا تھا۔ ایک دفعہ انہوں نے دریا کے پار جانا تھا اور دریا پار کرنے کے لئے ایک ہی ذریعہ تھا یعنی کشتی کا استعمال ۔ اس عالم باعمل نے یہ کیا کہ کشتی میں بیٹھ گئے کشتی میں ملاح موجود نہیں تھا بلکہ اس کا بچہ بیٹھا ہوا تھا۔ اس بچہ کی عمر بارہ تیرہ سال تھی۔ اس بچے نے چپو چلانے شروع کئے اور کشتی دریا میں چلنا شروع ہو گئی۔
راستے میں مولانا رومی نے اس بچے سے پوچھا کہ تم نے کتنی تعلیم حاصل کی ہے یا کیا کچھ پڑھا لکھا ہوا ہے۔ اس بچے نے جواب دیا کہ میں تو کچھ پڑھا لکھا نہیں ہوں۔ اس پر عالم دین نےافسوس کااظہار کیا اور بچے سے کہا کہ تم نے اپنی آدھی زندگی ضائع کر دی ہے نہ کچھ پڑھا نہ لکھا۔ اتنی دیر میں کشتی دریا میں تھوڑا سا آگے چلی گئی آگے پانی میں بھنور تھا اوراس بھنور میں کشتی نے ہچکولے کھانے شروع کر دئیے۔ اب ملاح کے بچے نے چپو چلانے چھوڑ دیئے اور عالم کی طرف دیکھا اور ان سے پوچھا کہ کیا تمہیں تیرنا آتا ہے۔ عالم نے جواب دیا کہ نہیں۔ تو اس پر بچے نے کہا کہ تمہاری ساری زندگی غرق ہو گئی اور یہ کہہ کر بچے نے پانی میں چھلانگ لگا دی۔
ہم لوگ بچپن سے کھانا بولنا چلنا اور سب کچھ سیکھ لیتے ہیں اور ایک کام اگر ہم نہیں سیکھتے تو وہ ہے خوش ہونا جو ہم نہیں سیکھتے۔ ہماری تمام ڈگریاں مکمل ہوتی ہیں لیکن ہم خوش ہونا نہیں جانتے۔ میں ایک صاحب کو ملنے گیا ان کے حالات بہت ہی برے معاشی بدحالی اور مجھے لگا کہ ان کے بڑے بوڑھے ہیروشیما یا ناگا ساقی سے تعلق رکھتے ہیں میں تھوڑا سا آگے بڑھا گھر کے باہر ان کی نیم پلیٹ پڑھی ان کی نیم پلیٹ کے نیچے ان کی ڈگریوں کی فہرست لکھی ہوئی تھی انہوں نے انگلینڈ سے پی ایچ ڈی کی ہوئی تھی۔ میں نے دل میں سوچا ایسی انگلینڈ کی پی ایچ ڈی کی ڈگری کا کیا فائدہ اگر انسان نے پریشان ہی رہنا ہے تو۔
حقیقت یہ ہے کہ ہمیں بچپن سے سیاپے سارے سکھائے جاتے ہیں سارے مسائل ہمارے ذہن پر سوار کر دئیے جاتے ہیں۔ ہمیں خوش ہونا جینا سکھایا ہی نہیں جاتا۔ میرا ایک تھیسز ہے اور میں اس کا ذکر یہاں کرنا بہت ضروری سمجھتا ہوں کیونکہ آج کا موضوع خوشی اور مینٹل ہیلتھ سے متعلق ہے۔ ہم جانتے ہیں کہ ہمارے جسم میں ایک امیون یعنی مدافعت کا ایک نظام ہوتا ہے یعنی اگر باہر سے ہمارے جسم پر اگر جراثیم حملہ کرتے ہیں تو ہمارا امیونزم سسٹم ان جراثیم کی مدافعت کرتا ہے۔ امیونزم سسٹم ان جراثیم کو ہرا دیتا ہے اور ہمارے جسم کی صحت اور سلامتی کو برقرار رکھتا ہے۔ اسی طرح ہمارے مائنڈ کا ایمون سسٹم بھی مدافعت پیدا کرتا ہے یعنی اگر کوئی خیال، سوچ ، یقین غلط قسم کا دماغ میں داخل ہو جائے تو مائینڈ کا ایمون سسٹم دخل اندازی کر کے آپ کے ذہن کو نارمل رکھتا ہے اور آپ نارمل لائف گزارتےہیں۔
ہماری ایجوکیشن، ہمارا گھریلو نظام، ہمارا سماج ہمیں جینا نہیں سکھاتے، ہمیں خوش ہونا یا خوش رہنا نہیں سکھاتے۔ ایک تاریخ میں بہت بڑے استاداور صوفی بزرگ ہیں جن کا نام علی بن عثمان الہجویری ہے اور ان کی کتاب کانام “کشف المحجوب”ہے ان کا ایک جملہ بہت ہی قابل غور ہے” وہ فرماتے ہیں کہ برتن سے نکلتاوہی ہے جو کچھ اس میں ڈالا گیا ہے”
حضور والا یہ بات بہت سمجھنے کی ہے کہ اگر ایک بندے کے پاس زندگی جینے کی نہیں ہے تو وہ کسی دوسرے کو کیا زندگی جینا سکھائے گا۔ اگر ایک بندے کے پاس خود خوشی نہیں ہے تو وہ دوسرے کو کیا خوشی دے گا۔ اگر ایک بندے کے پاس اطمنان اور سکون نہیں ہے تو وہ دوسرے کو اطمنان اور سکون کیا دے گا؟ اور اگر کسی شخص کے پاس خود موٹیویشن نہیں ہے تو وہ خود کسی کو کیا موٹی ویٹ کرے گا؟
خوشی کے حوالے سے ہمارے ساتھ مسئلہ اور چیلنج کیا ہے۔ ایک تصویر ہے جس میں ایک بندہ کھڑا ہے اور اس کے سامنے اس کے اہداف یعنی گولز ہیں اور راستے میں اس کے دوست رشتے دار اور دیگر ملنے والے ڈنڈے لے کر کھڑے ہیں اور اس کو مارنے پر تلےہوئے ہیں اور کہتے ہیں کہ تجھے کامیاب نہیں ہونے دیں گے۔گویا آپ کے ہاتھ میںخواب ہیں اور راستے کا ہر بندہ آپ کی مخالف میں کھڑا ہے کہ اس کو آگے نہیں بڑھنے دینا۔
آج میں سوچتاہوں کہ ہم کتنے بڑے بڑے خواب دیکھتے ہیں دنیا کو بدلنے کے، زمانے کو بدلنے کے اور آخر نتیجہ یہ نکلتا ہے کہ ہم آخری عمر میں یہ سوچتے ہیں کہ ہم کچھ نہیں بدل سکے کیونکہ ہم خود کو نہیں بدل سکے۔ اس کی وجہ یہ ہے کہ ہمارے پاس الزام تھے ،شکوے تھے، ہمارے پاس شکایتیں تھیں۔
ہم سمجھتے تھے کہ حالات ٹھیک نہیں ہیں ، ہمارے پاس وسائل نہیں ہیں، ہمارے پاس کتابیں نہیں ہیں، ہمارے پاس لوگ نہیں ہیں۔ یہ ساری چیزیں ہماری مزاحمت میں کھڑی ہیں اور ہمارا ہدف یعنی گول ہمارے سامنے ہے یعنی خوش ہونا۔ ساری زندگی گزر گئی لیکن ہم خوش ہی نہ ہو سکے چونکہ ہم نے خوش ہونا سیکھا ہی نہیں تھا۔ یہ جو اتنی رکاوٹیں ہیں یعنی وہ لوگ جو آپ کے راستے کی رکاوٹ بنیں ہیں انہیں اگر ایک نام دیا جائے تو وہ کیا ہوگا؟ ان لوگوں کو ” سیاپا “کہتے ہیں اور بے وجہ کے خیال کا نام بھیڑیا رکھ دیں۔ یعنی وہ بندہ جو آپ کو آگے نہیں بڑھنے دے رہا وہ سیاپا ہے اور وہ خیال جو ہمارے راستے کی رکاوٹ یعنی شیر کے راستے کی رکاوٹ بن گیا ہے وہ بھیڑیا ہے ۔
دنیا کا سب سے بڑا انعام یہ سیاپا لوگ ہوتے ہیں وہ کیسے؟ ہمیں تیار کرنے والے، موٹی ویٹ کرنے والے ہمیں فائر دینے والے اور ہمیں جگانے والے یہی لوگ ہوتے ہیں۔
چار پانچ چیزیں ایسی ہیں جو زندگی میں جگہ جگہ کام آتی ہیں۔ میں نے ایک کتاب میں پڑھا تھا کہ ایک لڑکی صبح نکلتی ہے اس نے ایک جگہ پہنچنا ہوتا ہے وہ لیٹ ہو چکی ہوتی ہے اور ٹرین پر اس نے سفر کرنا ہوتا ہے وہ جب اسٹیشن پر پہنچتی ہے تو اسے پتہ چلتاہے کہ ٹرین تھوڑی سی لیٹ ہے۔ اب ناشتے کا حل یہی ہوتا ہے کہ پاس ٹک شاپ سے وہ بسکٹ کا ایک پیکٹ لے اور کھا لے۔ وہ اس شاپ سے بسکٹ کا ایک پیکٹ لیتی ہے اور اپنے بیگ میں رکھ لیتی ہے۔ بسکٹ کھانے سے پہلے وہ یہ سوچتی ہے کہ میں پانی پی لوں وہ دیکھتی ہے سامنے ایک کولر ہے اور وہ وہاں سے پانی لینے جاتی ہے جب وہ پانی لے کر آتی ہے تو واپس مڑ کر دیکھتی ہے کہ اس کے بیگ کے پاس ایک لڑکا بیٹھا ہوا ہے اور مزےسے اس کے بسکٹ کھا رہا ہے۔ اسے بہت غصہ آتا ہے کہ ایک تو میرے بسکٹ ، اور دوسرا ناشتہ میں نے نہیں کیا ہوا اور کھا یہ رہا ہے۔ جیسے ہی وہ قریب آتی ہے وہ لڑکا کہتا ہے کہ پلیز آپ بیٹھ جائیں۔ اس لڑکی کو اور غصہ آتا ہے۔ جب وہ بیٹھ جاتی ہے تو وہ لڑکا اس کو بسکٹ کھانے کی آفر کرتا ہے وہ ایک بسکٹ کھاتی ہے جبکہ لڑکا دو بسکٹ کھا جاتا ہے۔ جب آخری بسکٹ رہ جاتا ہے تو لڑکا لڑکی کی طرف دیکھتا ہے اور آخری بسکٹ اٹھا لیتا ہے اور اس کے دو برابر حصے کر کے ایک حصہ لڑکی کو دیتا ہے اور ایک خود کھا لیتا ہے اور وہاں سے ہاتھ جاڑھتا ہوا چلا جاتا ہے۔
اب لڑکی دل ہی دل میں اس لڑکے کو برا بھلا کہہ رہی ہوتی ہے اور غصہ میں بیگ اٹھاتی ہے اور چلی جاتی ہے اور ٹرین میں جا کر بیٹھ جاتی ہے۔ ساتھ ہی اسے خیال آتا ہے کہ وہ آئینہ میں اپنا چہرہ دیکھ لے اور حلیہ درست کر لے۔ آئینہ لینے کے لئے وہ بیگ کھولتی ہے تو اندر سے وہ بسکٹ کا پیکٹ نکل آتا ہے۔ تو اس کو خیال آتا ہے کہ کتنا عظیم انسان تھا وہ جو اپنا بسکٹ مجھے کھلاتا رہا اور میں دل ہی دل میں اس کو برا بھلا کہتی رہی۔
دنیا میں سو سچوئیشن ، سو سیاپے ، سو لوگ بالکل عین اسی طرح آتے ہیں لیکن جیسے وہ دکھتے ہیں ویسےوہ ہوتے نہیں ہیں۔ ہم کسی شخص یا کسی چیز کے بارے میں یہ سوچ رہے ہوتے ہیں کہ اگر یہ شخص یا چیز میری زندگی سے نکل جاتی تو کیا کمال ہو جاتا۔ لیکن یہ یاد رکھیے گا کہ اگر وہ شخص یا چیز آپ کی زندگی سے نکل جائے تو آپ کی تکمیل نہیں ہونی تھی۔ آپ کے اندر ادھورا پن رہ جاتا۔ آپ کی ذات کے اندر ایک خلا رہ جاتا ہے۔ یاد !رکھیے دنیا میں لوگوں کی محرومیاں ہی ان کی طاقت بنتی ہیں۔ آپ کسی بھی بڑے انسان کی زندگی کا مطالعہ کریں تو ایک عام انسان سے دس گنا بڑے چیلنج اس کی زندگی میں ملیں گے۔ {جاری ہے}

Monday, November 14, 2016

Famous Personalities Of Pakistan

Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Urdu: Hi-Muhammed_Ali_Jinnah.ogg (Urdu: محمد علی جناح) (December 25, 1876 – September 11, 1948), a 20th century politician and statesman, is generally regarded as the founder of Pakistan. He served as leader of The Muslim League and Pakistan’s first Governor-General.
He is officially known in Pakistan as Quaid-e-Azam (Urdu: قائد اعظم — “Great Leader”) and Baba-e-Qaum (بابائے قوم) (“Father of the Nation”). His birthday is a national holiday in Pakistan. He has been equally admired by his opponents due to his visionary approach and use of constitutional and legal channels as a lawyer to bring about and end to British rule to India and creation of Pakistan.
Jinnah rose to prominence in the Indian National Congress expounding ideas of Hindu-Muslim unity and helping shape the 1916 Lucknow Pact with the Muslim League; he also became a key leader in the All India Home Rule League. After observing Congress’s injustice with Indian Muslims, Jinnah left Congress eventually. He proposed a fourteen-point constitutional reform plan to safeguard the political rights of Muslims in a self-governing India. Jinnah embraced the goal of creating a separate state for Muslims as per the Lahore Resolution. The League won most Muslim seats in the elections of 1946, and Jinnah launched the Direct Action campaign movement to achieve independence of Pakistan. The strong reaction of Congress supporters resulted in communal violence across South Asia. The failure of the Congress-League coalition to govern the country prompted both parties and the British to agree to independence of Pakistan and India. As the Governor-General of Pakistan, Jinnah led efforts to rehabilitate millions of refugees, and to frame national policies on foreign affairs, security and economic development.
Muhammad Iqbal
Allama Sir Muhammad Iqbal (Urdu: محمد اقبال; November 9, 1877 – April 21, 1938) was a Muslim poet, philosopher and politician born in Sialkot, Pakistan, whose poetry in Urdu, Arabic and Persian is considered to be among the greatest of the modern era, and whose vision of an independent state for the Muslims of British India was to inspire the creation of Pakistan. He is commonly referred to as Allama Iqbal (علامہ اقبال‎, Allama meaning “Scholar”.)
After studying in England and Germany, Iqbal established a law practice, but concentrated primarily on writing scholarly works on politics, economics, history, philosophy and religion. He is best known for his poetic works, including Asrar-e-Khudi—which brought a knighthood— Rumuz-e-Bekhudi, and the Bang-e-Dara, with its enduring patriotic song Tarana-e-Hind. In India, he is regarding for the patriotic song, Saare Jahan Se Achcha. In Afghanistan and Iran, where he is known as Iqbāl-e Lāhorī (اقبال لاہوری‎ Iqbal of Lahore), he is highly regarded for his Persian works.
Iqbal was a strong proponent of the political and spiritual revival of Islamic civilisation across the world, but specifically in South Asia; a series of famous lectures he delivered to this effect were published as The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam. One of the most prominent leaders of the All India Muslim League, Iqbal encouraged the creation of a “state in northwestern India for Muslims” in his 1930 presidential address. Iqbal encouraged and worked closely with Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and he is known as Muffakir-e-Pakistan (“The Thinker of Pakistan”), Shair-e-Mashriq (“The Poet of the East”), and Hakeem-ul-Ummat (“The Sage of Ummah”). He is officially recognized as the national poet of Pakistan. The anniversary of his birth (یوم ولادت محمد اقبال‎ – Yōm-e Welādat-e Muḥammad Iqbāl) on November 9 is a national holiday in Pakistan.
Chaudhary Rahmat Ali
Chaudhary Rahmat Ali (Urdu/Punjabi: چودھری رحمت علی) (or Rehmat Ali Khan; Urdu/Punjabi: رحمت علی خان) (November 16, 1897 – February 3, 1951) was an Indian Muslim nationalist who was one of the earliest proponents of the creation of the state of Pakistan. He is credited with creating the name “Pakistan” for a separate Muslim homeland on the Indian subcontinent.
Education and career
Rehmat Ali was born in the town of Balachaur in Hoshiarpur District of Punjab (now Nawanshahr District). After graduating from Islamia Madrassa Lahore in 1918, he taught at Aitchison College Lahore before continuing Law studies at Punjab University. In 1930 he moved to England to join Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1931. In 1933, he published a pamphlet, Now or Never, coining the word Pakistan for the first time. Subsequently, he obtained a BA degree in 1933 and MA in 1940 from University of Cambridge. In 1943, he was called to the Bar, Middle Temple Inn, London. Until 1947, he continued publishing various booklets about his vision of the subcontinent. The partition process disillusioned him due to the mass killings and mass migrations. He was also dissatisfied with the distribution of areas among the two countries and considered it a major reason for disturbances. He died on 3 February 1951 and was buried on 20 February at Newmarket Road Cemetery, Cambridge, UK.
Conception of ‘Pakistan’ There are several accounts to the conceptualising of the name. According to a friend (Abdul Kareem Jabbar) the name came up when Rehmat Ali was walking along the banks of the Thames in 1932 with his friends Pir Ahsan-ud-Din and Khawja Abdul Rahim. According to Rehmat Ali’s secretary Miss Frost, he came up with the idea of the name ‘Pakistan’ while riding on the top of a London bus. In the early 1930s, Ali began writing about the formation of a Muslim nation in India. On January 28, 1933, he voiced his ideas in the pamphlet entitled “Now or Never; Are We to Live or Perish Forever?”. The word ‘Pakstan’ referred to “the five Northern units of India, Viz: Punjab, (Afghanistan Province), Kashmir, Sind and Baluchistan “” . By the end of 1933, ‘Pakistan’ become common vocabulary where an i was added to ease pronunciation (as in Afghan-i-stan). In a subsequent book Rehmat Ali discussed the etymology in further detail. ‘Pakistan’ is both a Persian and an Urdu word. It is composed of letters taken from the names of all our Indian Sub-continent homelands; that is, Panjab, Afghanistan (Pashtunistan), Kashmir, Sindh (including Kach and Kathiawar), Tukharistan, Afghanistan, and Balochistan. It means the land of the Paks- the spiritually pure and clean. It symbolizes the religious beliefs and ethnical stocks of our people; and it stands for all the territorial constituents of our original Fatherland. It has no other origin and no other meaning; and it does not admit of any other interpretation. Those writers who have tried to interpret it in more than way have done so either through the love of casuistry, or through ignorance of its inspiration, origin and composition.
Philosophy Like Allama Iqbal, Ali believed that the Muslims of India had to undergo a reformation politically in order to remain a viable, and independent community there. Ali noted that Hazrat Muhammad had succeeded in uniting fractured Arab tribes and that this example was to again be used by Muslims of India to pool together in order to survive in what he perceived to be an increasingly hostile India. As such, Chaudhary Rahmat Ali’s writings, in addition to those of Iqbal and others were major catalysts for the formation of Pakistan. He offered “Bang-i-Islam” for a Muslim homeland in the Bengal, and “Usmanistan” for a Muslim homeland in the Deccan. He also suggested “Dinia” as a name for a subcontinent for various religions. Ali dedicated a lot of time and energy to the idea of Pakistan, and after its formation in 1947, he argued on its behalf at the United Nations over the issue of Kashmir.
Post-independence While Chaudhary Rahmat Ali was a leading figure for the conception of Pakistan, he lived most of his adult life in England. The Cambridge-based pamphleteer had been voicing his dissatisfaction with the creation of Pakistan ever since his arrival in Lahore on April 6 1948. He was unhappy over a Smaller Pakistan than the one he had conceived in his 1933 pamphlet Now Or Never.Consequently, Rahmat Ali died in 1951, buried in Cambridge City graveyard.
Muhammad bin Qasim [695-715]
Muhammad bin Qasim was orphaned as a child and thus the responsibility of his upbringing fell upon his mother. She supervised his religious instruction herself, and hired different teachers for his worldly education. It was the uncle, Hajjaj bin Yousaf, who taught him the art of governing and warfare.
Qasim was an intelligent and cultured young man who at the age of fifteen was considered by many to be one of his uncle’s greatest assets. As a show of faith in his nephew’s abilities, Hajjaj married his daughter to Qasim. At the age of sixteen, he was asked to serve under the great general, Qutayba bin Muslim. Under his command Muhammad bin Qasim displayed a talent for skilful fighting and military planning. Hajjaj’s complete trust in Qasim’s abilities as a general became even more apparent when he appointed the young man as the commander of the all-important invasion on Sindh, when he was only seventeen years old. Muhammad bin Qasim proved Hajjaj right when he, without many problems, managed to win all his military campaigns. He used both his mind and military skills in capturing places like Daibul, Raor, Uch and Multan. History does not boast of many other commanders who managed such a great victory at such a young age.
Besides being a great general, Muhammad bin Qasim was also an excellent administrator. He established peace and order as well as a good administrative structure in the areas he conquered. He was a kind hearted and religious person. He had great respect for other religions. Hindu and Buddhist spiritual leaders were given stipends during his rule. The poor people of the land were greatly impressed by his policies and a number of them embraced Islam. Those who stuck to their old religions erected statues in his honor and started worshiping him after his departure from their land.
Muhammad bin Qasim was known for his obedience to the ruler. Walid bin Abdul Malik died and was succeeded by his younger brother Suleman as the Caliph. Suleman was an enemy of Hajjaj and thus ordered Qasim back to the kingdom. Qasim knew of the animosity between the two. He was aware that due to this enmity, he would not be well treated. He could have easily refused to obey the Caliph’s orders and declare his independence in Sindh. Yet he was of the view that obeying ones ruler is the duty of a general and thus he decided to go back to the center. Here he became a victim to party politics. He was put behind bars where he died at age of twenty. Many historians believe that had he been given a few more years, he would have conquered the entire South Asian region.
Syed Abul A’ala Maududi 
(Urdu: سید ابو الاعلىٰ مودودی – alternative spellings of last name Maudoodi and Modudi) (September 25, 1903(1903-09-25) – September 22, 1979), also known as Molana (Maulana) or Shaikh Syed Abul A’ala Mawdudi, was a Sunni Pakistani journalist, theologian, Muslim Revivalist Leader and political philosopher, and a major 20th century Islamist thinker.
He was also a prominent political figure in his home country (Pakistan). He was also the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami the Islamic revivalist party.
Biography
Timeline
• 1903 – Born in Aurangabad, Hyderabad Deccan, India
• 1918 – Started career as journalist in Bijnore newspaper
• 1920 – Appointed as editor of the daily Taj, Jabalpur
• 1925 – Appointed as editor daily Muslim
• 1925 – Appointed as editor Al-jameeah, New Delhi
• 1927 – Wrote the blockbuster book of the history Al- Jihad fil Islam
• 1930 – Wrote and published the famous booklet Deenyat
• 1932 – Started Tarjuman-ul-Qur’an from Hyderabad (India)
• 1938 – Moved to “Pathankot”, established Darul Islam
• 1941 – Foundation meeting of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, appointed as Amir
• 1942 – Jamaat’s headquarters moved to Pathankot
• 1943 – Started writing the most popular Tafseer of Qur’an Tafhim-ul-Quran
• 1947 – Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan Headquarter moved to Lahore (Ichhra)
• 1948 – Campaign for Islamic constitution and government
• 1948 – Wrote a booklet “Qadiyani Masla”
• 1948 – Sentenced to Jail by the Government
• 1949 – Government accepted Jamaat’s resolution for Islamic Constitution
• 1953 – Sentenced to death for his historical part in the agitation against Ahmadiyah. He was sentenced to death by a military court, but it never carried out;
• 1953 – Death sentence commuted to life imprisonment and later canceled.
• 1955 – Released from jail
• 1958 – Jamaat-e-Islami banned by Martial Law Administrator Field Martial Ayub Khan
• 1964 – Sentenced to jail
• 1964 – Released from jail
• 1971 – Ordered his followers to fight to save United Pakistan along with Pak Army.
• 1972 – Completed Tafheem-ul-Qur’an (Tafseer of Qur’an)
• 1972 – Resigned as Ameer-e-Jamaat
• 1979 – Departed to United States for Medical Treatment
• 1979 – Died in United States *1979 – Buried in Ichhra, Lahore (Inna Lillahi-wa-inna-ilayhi-Rajeeoun)
Early life
Syed Abul A’ala Maududi was born on September 25, 1903 (Rajab 3, 1321 AH) in Aurangabad, then part of the princely state of Hyderabad (presently Maharashtra), India. Syed Abul A’ala Maududi was born to Maulana Ahmad Hasan, a lawyer by profession. Syed Abul A’ala Maududi was the youngest of his three brothers. His father was “descended from the Chishti line of saints; in fact his last name was derived from the first member of the Chishti Silsilah i.e. Khawajah Syed Qutb ul-Din Maudood Chishti (d. 527 AH) At an early age, Maududi was given home education, he “received religious nurture at the hands of his father and from a variety of teachers employed by him.” He soon moved on to formal education, however, and completed his secondary education from Madrasah Furqaniyah. For his undergraduate studies he joined Darul Uloom, Hyderabad (India). His undergraduate studies, however, were disrupted by the illness and death of his father, and he completed his studies outside of the regular educational institutions. His instruction included very little of the subject matter of a modern school, such as European languages, like English.
Journalistic career
After the interruption of his formal education, Maududi turned to journalism in order to make his living. In 1918, he was already contributing to a leading Urdu newspaper, and in 1920, at the age of 17, he was appointed editor of Taj, which was being published from Jabalpore (now Madhya Pradesh). Late in 1920, Maududi went to Delhi and first assumed the editorship of the newspaper Muslim (1921-23), and later of al-Jam’iyat (1925-28), both of which were the organs of the Jam’iyat-i Ulama-i Hind, an organization of Muslim religious scholars.
Founding the Jamaat-e-Islami
In 1941, Maududi founded Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) in British India as a religious political movement to promote Islamic values and practices. After the Partition of India, JI was redefined in 1947 to support an Islamic State in Pakistan. JI is currently the oldest religious party in Pakistan. With the Partition of India, JI split into several groups. The organisation headed by Maududi is now known as Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan. Also existing are Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, and autonomous groups in Indian Kashmir, also in Sri Lanka. Maududi was elected Jamaat’s first Ameer (President) and remained so until 1972 when he withdrew from the responsibility for reasons of health.
Political Struggle
In the beginning of struggle for a state of Pakistan Maudidi and his party were against the idea of creation of a separate state of Pakistan and attacked Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan and other leaders of Muslim league. After became clear India was going to be partitioned and Pakistan created, he began to support the idea. Maududi moved to Pakistan in 1947 and worked to turn it into an Islamic state, resulting in frequent arrests and long periods of incarceration. In 1953, he was sentenced to death on the charge of writing a seditious pamphlet about the Ahmadiyya issue. He turned down the opportunity to file a petition for mercy, expressing a preference for death rather than seeking clemency. Strong public pressure ultimately convinced the government to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment. Eventually, his sentence was annulled.
Last Days
In April 1979, Maududi’s long-time kidney ailment worsened and by then he also had heart problems. He went to the United States for treatment and was hospitalized in Buffalo, New York, where his second son worked as a physician. During his hospitalization, he remained intellectually active.Following a few surgical operations, he died on September 22, 1979, at the age of 76. His funeral was held in Buffalo, but he was buried in an unmarked grave at his residence in Lahore after a very large funeral procession through the city.
Abdul Qadeer Khan 
Early life
Khan was born Bhopal into a Urdu Speaking-Pathan family, which migrated from India to Pakistan in 1952. He obtained a B.Sc. degree in 1960 from the University of Karachi, majoring in physical metallurgy. He then obtained an engineer’s degree in 1967 from Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands, and a Ph.D. degree in metallurgical engineering from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium in 1972.. He is a Pakistani nuclear scientist and metallurgical engineer, widely regarded as the founder of Pakistan’s nuclear program. His middle name is occasionally rendered as Quadeer, Qadir or Qadeer, and his given names are usually abbreviated to A.Q..
Development of nuclear weapons
In 1976, Khan was put in charge of Pakistan’s uranium enrichment program with the support of the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. The uranium enrichment program was originally launched in 1974 by Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) as Project-706 and Khan joined it in the spring of 1976. Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan took over the project from another Pakistani nuclear engineer, Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood in July 1976. In July of that year, he took over the project from PAEC and re-named the enrichment project as the Engineering Research Laboratories (ERL) at Kahuta, Rawalpindi, subsequently, renamed the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) by the then President of Pakistan, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. The laboratories became the focal point for developing a uranium enrichment capability for Pakistan’s nuclear weapons development programme.
Competing Against Munir Ahmad Khan and PAEC
But KRL led by dr. Khan was not mandated or involved with the actual design, development and testing of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons which was the responsibility of PAEC. Nor was KRL responsible for developing the front end of the nuclear fuel cycle, comprising uranium exploration, mining and refining and production of yellow cake, conversion of yellow cake into uranium hexafluoride gas which is the feed material for enrichment and nuclear fuel fabrication; or the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle comprising the civil and military nuclear reactor projects and the reprocessing program, all of which was developed and led from 1972 onwards by PAEC under Mr. Munir Ahmad Khan.Dr. Khan initially worked under Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), headed by Munir Ahmad Khan, for a short period. But the pair fell out, and in July 1976, Prime Minister Bhutto gave dr. Khan autonomous control of the uranium enrichment project, reporting directly to the prime minister’s office, which arrangement has continued since. Dr. Khan founded the Engineering Research Laboratories (ERL) on 31 July 1976, with the exclusive task of indigenous development of Uranium Enrichment Plant. Within the next five years the target would be achieved. KRL led by dr. A Q Khan and PAEC led by Munir Ahmad Khan created a tough institutional rivalry against each other. Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan was also a staunch critic of Munir Ahmad Khan’s work. In the early 1980s, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan’s KRL also sought to develop nuclear weapons in competetion with PAEC and claimed to have carried out at least one cold test in 1984, but it seems that this effort did not prove to be successful since PAEC led by Munir Ahmad Khan had carried out the first cold test of a working nuclear device on March 11, 1983, and in the following years continued to carry out 24 cold tests of different weapons designs. That is why PAEC also conducted the 1998 nuclear tests for Pakistan at Chaghi and Kharan.
Relationships with President Gen. Zia ul-Haq and Pakistan Army
According to the media reports, it said that dr. Khan had an extremely close relationship with President Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq and Pakistan Army. Dr. Khan had extremely close relations with the Pakistan Army. On 01 May 1981, after President Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq official visit to ERL; ERL was renamed by Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq as Dr. Khan Research Laboratories (KRL). It was enrichment of Uranium in KRL that ultimately led to the successful detonation of Pakistan’s first nuclear device on 28 May 1998. However, KRL also launched other weapons development projects like in competion ofPAEC the development of the nuclear weapons-capable Ghauri ballistic missile. the PAEC was developing the solid fuelled Shaheen ballistic missile. KRL occupied a unique role in Pakistan’s Defence Industry, reporting directly to the office of the Prime Minister of Pakistan, and having extremely close relations with the Pakistani military. The former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto (late), has said that, during her term of office, even she was not allowed to visit the facility (KRL).
Heading KRL
Pakistan’s establishment of its own uranium enrichment capability was so rapid that international suspicion was raised as to whether there was outside assistance to this program. It was reported that Chinese technicians had been at the facility in the early 1980s, but suspicions soon fell on Khan’s activities at URENCO. In 1983, Khan was sentenced in absentia to four years in prison by an Amsterdam court for attempted espionage; the sentence was later overturned at an appeal on a legal technicality. Khan rejected any suggestion that Pakistan had illicitly acquired nuclear expertise: “All the research work [at Kahuta] was the result of our innovation and struggle,” he told a group of Pakistani librarians in 1990. “We did not receive any technical know-how from abroad, but we cannot reject the use of books, magazines, and research papers in this connection.”]In 1987, a British newspaper reported that Khan had confirmed Pakistan’s acquisition of a nuclear weapons development capability, by his saying that the U.S. intelligence report “about our possessing the bomb (nuclear weapon) is correct and so is speculation of some foreign newspapers”.] Khan’s statement was disavowed by the Government of Pakistan. and initially he denied giving it, but he later retracted his denial. In October 1991, the Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported that Khan had repeated his claim at a dinner meeting of businessmen and industrialists in Karachi, which “sent a wave of jubilation” through the audience.
During the 1980s and 1990s, the Western governments became increasingly convinced that covert nuclear and ballistic missile collaboration was taking place between China, Pakistan, and North Korea. According to the Washington Post, “U.S. intelligence operatives secretly rifled Dr. A.Q. [Khan’s] luggage … during an overseas trip in the early 1980s to find the first concrete evidence of Chinese collaboration with Pakistan’s [nuclear] bomb effort: a drawing of a crude, but highly reliable, Hiroshima-sized [nuclear] weapon that must have come directly from Beijing, according to the U.S. officials.” In October 1990, the activities of KRL led to the United States terminating economic and military aid to Pakistan, following this, the Government of Pakistan agreed to a freeze in its nuclear weapons development program. But Khan, in a July 1996 interview with the Pakistani weekly Friday Times, said that “at no stage was the program [of producing nuclear weapons-grade enriched uranium] ever stopped”.
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (Arabic: محمد ضياء الحق‎) (b. August 12, 1924–August 17, 1988) was the President and military ruler of Pakistan from July 1977 to his death in August 1988. Distinguished by his role in the Black September in Jordan military operation in 1970, he was appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976. General Zia came to power after he overthrew ruling Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in a military coup d’état on July 5, 1977 and became the state’s third ruler to impose martial law. He initially ruled as Chief Martial Law Administrator, but later assumed the post of President of Pakistan in September 1978.
Zia’s major domestic initiatives included the country’s Islamization, the consolidation of the fledgling nuclear program, denationalization and deregulation leading to a rejuvenated economy, as well as the abridgement of civil and political liberties. However, he is most remembered for his foreign policy; the subsidizing of the Mujahideen movement during the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Zia was killed along with several of his top generals and the then United States Ambassador to Pakistan in a sabotage-induced aircraft crash near Bahawalpur (Punjab) on August 17, 1988, the circumstances of which remain unclear.
Hakim Mohammed Said 
(Urdu: حکیم محمد سعید) (January 9, 1920 – October 17, 1998) was a renowned scholar, and philanthropist of Pakistan and a former Governor of Sindh. He established Hamdard Foundation in 1948. Within few years, the herbal medical products of Hamdard became household names. Hakim Mohammed Said wrote or compiled about 200 books. These include books on religion, tibb (natural medicine), health and sciences, books on literary, social and scientific topics and travelogues.
Establishing Hamdard University
Hakim Mohammed Said founded Hamdard University in 1991. The establishment of a university which could enliven the intellectual tradition of the educational institutions of the golden era of Muslim civilization had always been his most cherished dream. In fact it was the central point towards which all his endeavors were directed. The actual appearance of the university was just the culmination of a long dedicated and continued effort spanning his whole life.
A great personality of PakistanShaheed-e-Pakistan Hakim Mohammed Said (1920-1998) was a man of vision and was endowed with many virtues. He was a multifaceted personality, a physician, author of books, and editor of journals, bibliophile, an organizer, an idealist, an innovator, educationist and above all a patriot of the highest order. He sacrificed his life in the service of the nation. In a life span of 78 years he made enormous contributions in the field of health, science, education and culture, which has left an imprint on the course of history for generations to follow.
He was strictly a man of principles with extraordinary sense of time management. The guidance he gave showed that he was an extraordinary genius, born to guide and lead the people. Although the assassin’s bullets extinguished and silenced the noble soul ten years ago, the light of his spirit lives on to inspire and encourage others to follow his mission. Lest we forget what is owed to this remarkable personality, an institution under the name of “IDARA-E-SAID” has been set up in one of his most ambitious projects – Madinat-al-Hikmah – city of education science and culture whose doors are ever open for the seekers of knowledge. The library, housed in Madinat-al-Hikmah is undoubtedly one of the finest seats of learning east of Suez, for scholars and researchers to drink deep from the fountains of learning.The crowning activity of his life is the establishment of Madinat-al-Hikmah. It comprises Hamdard University with such institutes as Hamdard College of Medicine and Dentistry, Hamdard Al-Majeed College of Eastern Medicine, Hafiz Mohammad Ilyas Institute of Herbal Sciences, Hamdard Institute of Education & Social Sciences, Hamdard Institute of Management Sciences, Hamdard Institute of Information Technology, Hamdard School of Law, Faculty of Engineering Science & Technology, Hamdard Public School and Hamdard Village School. . Bait-al-Hikmah (the Library) is also a constituent part of Madinat-al-Hikmah. This is one of the biggest and well-stocked libraries of Pakistan.
His Work
Shaheed Hakim Mohammed Said wrote, edited or compiled over 200 books and journals in Urdu and English on Islam, Education, Pakistan, Science, Medicine and Health. Besides writing travelogues of countries he visited, he also wrote books especially for youth and children. He also edited some journals such as Hamdard Islamicus, Hamdard Medicus, Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society “Historicus”, Hamdard Sehat and Hamdard Naunehal. For several years he was also editor of “PAYAMI”- Urdu edition of UNESCO’S journal “Courier”. Shaheed Hakim Mohammed Said participated in various international conferences on medicine, science, education and culture and traveled widely to many countries of the world. While in Pakistan he himself organized numerous international and national conferences on topics of prime importance.
IDARA-E-SAID Shaheed Hakim Mohammed Said, Research and Documentation CentreIn order to preserve his works, a Research and Documentation Center by the name of Idara-e-Said has been set-up. It is a joint venture of Hamdard Laboratories (Waqf) Pakistan; Hamdard University; and Hamdard Foundation Pakistan. Idara-e-Said will project and focus the life and works of Shaheed Hakim Mohammed Said, most particularly in the field of science, education and research, medicine and health care. The project is aimed at collection of Shaheed Hakim Mohammed Said speeches, writings (both published and un-published), personal memorabilia, photographs and artifacts. After the collection of materials related to his life and works, all records will be preserved and displayed in a scientifically arranged and properly managed museum. Hakim Mohammed Said Archives / Museum is being set-up at Madinat-al-Hikmah.
Research Projects of Idara-e-SaidIdara-e-Said will also initiate research projects leading to the award of post graduate (M.Phil. & PhD) degrees on the contribution of Hakim Mohammed Said to Islam, education, medicine, sciences & culture. Idara-e-Said will also patronize publications of literature and books written by different authors on the life of Hakim Mohammed Said, his personality, leadership and his endeavors for the propagation and promotion of education and learning. It is a matter of great pleasure that first M.Phil degree on the life and works of Hakim Mohammed Said Shaheed was awarded to Mr. Javed Swati in Hamdard University convocation 2002. His topic of research was “Education Ideas & Perceptions of Hakim Mohammed Said”. Two students are doing PhD from University of Punjab and Sindh University. Some more scholars are doing M.Phil and Ph.D’s from other universities of Pakistan. A Web Site about Shaheed Hakim Mohammed Said has also been developed. This website was launched in October 2002 on 4th death anniversary of Hakim Mohammed Said Shaheed. . The address of this website is: http://www.hakim-said.com.pk
The addresses of other websites are: http://www.hakimsaid.infohttp://www.hakimsaid.org
Hakim Said’s motto was: Love Pakistan, Build Pakistan
Contributions to medicine
However, apart from being a great educational leader, Hakim Mohammed Said was also one of the finest exponents of eastern medicine, who had treated millions of patients from all over the world including Pakistan, Europe, Africa and the Middle East by the time of his death in October 1998. He had lent a new dimension to Alternative Medicine having getting it recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO). In the fifty years of his active career as a practitioner of Greco-Arab medicine par excellence, Hakim Mohammed Said also achieved international renown as a scholar and researcher in medicine in recognition of his meritorious services and scholarly achievements when he was awarded Nishan-e-Imtiaz (Posthumous) by the Government of Pakistan in 2002.
As a scholar
He was prolific writer, having a large number of books and articles to his credit. He edited many research journals and periodicals on medicine, history and Islam. Hakim Mohammed Said also created two very widely attended national forums: Hamdard Shura (for leaders of public opinion) and Naunehal Assembly (for children). He attended and read papers at numerous conferences all over the world and organized a number of international conferences for the promotion of science in Pakistan in collaboration with national and international organizations including UNESCO and WHO. He also held important offices and memberships of dozens of national and international organizations related to education and health care, the fields to which his contributions are universally acknowledged.
He also attended around 100 International Conferences as a delegate from Pakistan. He was associated with more than 30 international associations and learned bodies. He also launched two world-class journals, Hamdard Medicus and Hamdard Islamicus. Hamdard-e-Sehat, which was already being published under his editorship since 1940, also appeared from Karachi in 1948. To get the young ones involved in good literature and to inculcate a healthy reading habit among them, he launched a magazine, Hamdard Naunehal; and established a separate division, Naunehal Adab, for producing quality books for children.
Death
Hakim Mohammed Said was murdered on October 17, 1998. Nawaz Sharif, then Prime Minster of Pakistan, accused the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) of the murder. Several MQM workers were arrested and subsequently sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court. Counsel for some of the appellants, Abdul Waheed Katpar, challenged the jurisdiction of the anti-terrorism court. His contention was that the trial in the ATC was wrong because it was not a case of terrorism. On May 31, 2001 Sindh High Court acquitted all accused. “The defence counsel in appeals had argued for the acquittal because the prosecution had failed to prove any evidence, whether they pertained to confessional statement, witnesses’ account, ballistic expert’s report and evidence about the recovery of empties and finger-prints. On confessional statements the defense had argued that signatures were obtained first on blank paper while contents of the confession were written afterwards and therefore, they were fabricated evidence.”
A prosecution witness in the Hakim Said murder case on December 24, 1998 identified Amirullah Sheikh and Zubair, two activists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), as the main accused involved in the killing. (News, Dec 24, 1998).
Another accused in the Hakim Said murder case and an alleged assassin of Zuhair Akram Nadim arrested in two raids conducted by Surjani Town police and CIA Sadar respectively. Two more alleged accomplices were also arrested on being pointed out by Asim, reportedly an accused in the Hakim Said murder case on a tip off police cordoned off some parts of Sector L-1 in Surjani Town of District West from where Asim was arrested. Korangi police arrested Zubair alias Landhi Wala, who according to polices has confessed his involvement in the killing saying that Asim was the first to open fire at Hakim Said from a KK rifle. On the information given by Asim raids conducted in Yousuf Goth, Surjani and Sher Shah areas. Shujauddin alias Shujoo and Habib Ullah were arrested.
The main accused in Hakim Saeed case were Zulfiqar Haider, MQM MPA, Naushad alias Major Dandy, and Shakir alias Langra. Zubair alias Landhi Wala, Asim, Ajzaz alias Wazir, Asif and Amirullah were arrested. One person suspected to be Wahab Bandhani, who claims to be Hanif Kabarhi was also arrested.
The arms used by terrorists to murder Hakim Mohammad Said recovered from a nullah near Burns Road on the pointation of an arrest accused namely Nadeem Mota, Korangi police arrested three alleged terrorists said to be close associate of Aijaz alias Kala Munna named in over 200 heinous cases. A team of Rangers in Korangi recovered a considerable quantity of arms and ammunition. The inquiry officer of Hakim Mohammad Said case, SP Agha Mohammad Tahir ordered a raid when Nadim Mota during interrogation told the arms dumped near nullah behind Sindh secretariat. The arms seized from there included four Kalashinkovs, three TT pistols, one mauser and 300 bullets of KK rifle and pistols.(Nation Dec 16, 1998).
Abdul Sattar Edhi 
Early life
Dr. Edhi was born in 1928 in Bantva in the Gujarat, British India. His father was a textile trader and earned a modest income for his family. He was a natural born leader and would encourage his friends to hold tiny circuses and perform gymnastics for the locals. When his mother would send him to school she would give him two paisa, one to spend for himself and the other to spend for another. At the age of eleven he started to take care of his mother who suffered paralysis from severe diabetes. From an early age Edhi learned to help others before himself – this would be crucial to success in his life later on.
Starting up
In 1947 his family migrated to Karachi, Pakistan after the Partition of India. In 1951 he used the money he saved up while he was looking after his mother to purchase a small shop. It was at this shop where he opened a tiny dispensary with the help of a doctor who taught him basic medical care. He also encouraged his friends to give literacy classes there. Edhi had spent his life a simple man, and would continue to do so, he would sleep on a concrete bench outside the dispensary so he was available at any time to help people. In 1957 a major flu epidemic swept Karachi. Edhi was quick to react, setting up tents on the outskirts of the city to distribute free immunizations. Grateful residents donated generously to Edhi and so did the rest of Pakistan after hearing of his deeds. With all the donation money he bought the rest of the building his dispensary was located in. Edhi opened a free maternity centre and nursing school, and so Edhi Foundation was born.
Growth of Edhi Foundation
In the years that followed, Edhi Foundation grew through all of Pakistan. After the flu epidemic, a businessman donated a large sum to Edhi and with the money he purchased an ambulance vehicle which he drove himself. Today the Foundation has over 600 (about 2000 in year 2008 according to BBC Asia) ambulances located all over the country. He himself continues to travel with call outs out of Karachi to the rest of the Sindh province, the response time and services the ambulances provide are renowned for being better than the municipal ones. Along with hospitals and ambulance services, Edhi Foundation has set up clinics, maternity homes, mental asylums, homes for the physically handicapped, blood banks, orphanages, adoption centers, mortuaries, shelters for runaway children and battered women, schools, nursing courses and soup kitchens. A unique part of every Edhi centre is that there is a carriage outside each one, so that women who cannot afford to keep their children or have had a child out of wedlock and cannot keep it, can simply place their baby in the basket and Edhi Foundation will place it into an orphanage and give them a free education.
Modern legacy
Today not just in Pakistan, but in the Muslim world, Abdul Sattar Edhi has earned a reputation as being one of the most selfless and honorable human beings today. Despite his fame and reputation he continues to lead a simple life, he wears traditional Pakistani Shalwar Kameez, of which he only owns one or two, and he owns one pair of slippers, which he has supposedly worn for the last twenty years. This is despite the fact the Edhi Foundation has a $10 million budget, out of which he takes nothing for himself. His son Faisal once stated that when the Foundation was setting up in Afghanistan, local staff had purchased chairs for guests and the press when a new center was being opened, when Edhi arrived he was furious because the money that was spent on the chairs could have been used to help people. That night he slept on the clinic floor with the ambulance drivers. The Edhi Foundation continues to grow. Dr Edhi, looking to the future, has stated that he aims to build a hospital every 5 km in Pakistan. Although he is given the title Maulana out of respect, he himself dislikes the title as he has never been to a religious school and he is not an Islamic cleric. He prefers being called ‘Doctor’ as he has received an honorary doctorate from The Institute of Business Administration in Pakistan for services to humanity. He also Completed his MBBS Degree From Pakistan in 1981. He is also famous for being very shy about his popularity and when people personally praise him for his work. He also refuses to accept donations from governments or formal religious organisations, because according to him they set ‘conditions’. Both General Zia-ul-Haq and the Italian government sent him generous donations, which he sent back. In 1996 his biography, A Mirror to the Blind, was published. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, as of 1997, Edhi Foundation’s ambulance service is the largest volunteer ambulance service in the world. He also personally holds the world record for having gone the longest time working without having taken a holiday. As of when the record was set, he has still not taken a single day off work.
US Authorities confiscate passport of Abdul Sattar Edhi
On January 8, 2008, US immigration officials interrogated Abdul Sattar Edhi at the John F. Kennedy Airport in New York for over eight hours, and seized his passport and other documents. Edhi told that US immigration officials had questioned him for eight hours at the airport. “During the interrogation, they wanted to know why I travelled to the US so frequently” he said. “I told them about the nature of my work, but they did not understand. They also wanted to know why I was not living in the US in spite of having a green card.” “The only explanation I can think of is my beard and my dress,” he said when asked why he had been stopped so often.
Edhi not allowed to visit Gaza
On Thursday, January 29, 2009 The News newspaper reported Edhi is not allowed to visit Gaza.. The newspaper further reported that Abdul Sattar Edhi, who is in Cairo along with Faisal Edhi and his two daughters for the last two weeks to help the affected Palestinians of Gaza, regretted that every coming day was making the sphere of human rights more restrictive across the world. A spokesman for the Edhi Foundation said on Wednesday that Edhi after staying in Cairo and not getting permission to visit Gaza, has reached the conclusion that human rights have been killed and buried deep. He said that he has helped in the provision of relief to people affected by wars, civil wars, earthquakes and drought in 28 countries and was never stopped to do his job. The spokesman said that Edhi has been trying to get permission from Cairo authorities to visit Gaza but in vain. He thanked the Pakistani ambassador to Egypt and the staff of the embassy for their cooperation and said now he was returning home as a depressed person.
Honors received – International awards
• 1986 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service
• 1988 Lenin Peace Prize
• 1992 Paul Harris Fellow Rotary International Foundation
• In 2000, Edhi was awarded the International Balzan Prize for Humanity, Peace and Brotherhood.
• On 26 March 2005, Edhi was presented with the Life Time Achievement Award by the World Memon Organization (WMO).
• On 11 November 2006, Edhi was presented with an Honorary Doctorate Degree by the Institute of Business Administration Karachi (IBA).
• In 2008, listed in a poll by the The Financial Daily as a favourite personality.[]
National awards
• Nishan-e-Imtiaz from Government of Pakistan 1989.
• Human Rights Award by Pakistan Human Rights Society.
• Khidmat Award by Pakistan Academy of Medical Sciences.
• Shield of Honour by Pakistan Army (E & C).
• Silver Jubilee Shield by College of Physicians and Surgeons, Pakistan.(1962-1987)
• Recognition of meritorious services to oppressed humanity during the eighties (1989) by Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Government of Pakistan. 45 Years Of Selfless Service.
• The Social Worker of Sub-Continent – 1989 by Government of Sind
• Pakistan Civic Award 1992 – by Pakistan Civic Society.
Imran Khan Niazi
(Urdu: عمران خان نیازی) (born 25 November 1952) is a retired Pakistani cricketer who played international cricket for two decades in the late twentieth century and has been a politician since the mid-1990s.
Currently, besides his political activism, Khan is also a charity worker and cricket commentator. Khan played for the Pakistani cricket team from 1971 to 1992 and served as its captain intermittently throughout 1982-1992. After retiring from cricket at the end of the 1987 World Cup, he was called back to join the team in 1988. At 39, Khan led his teammates to Pakistan’s first and only World Cup victory in 1992. He has a record of 3807 runs and 362 wickets in Test cricket, making him one of six world cricketers to have achieved an ‘All-rounder’s Triple’ in Test matches.
In April 1996, Khan founded and became the chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice), a small and marginal political party, of which he is the only member ever elected to Parliament. He represented Mianwali as a member of the National Assembly from November 2002 to October 2007. Khan, through worldwide fundraising, helped establish the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre in 1996 and Mianwali’s Namal College in 2008.
Tipu Sultan [1750-1799]
Tipu Sultan, the eldest son of Haider Ali, was born on December 10, 1750 at Devanhalli. Right from his early years he was trained in the art of warfare and at the age of 15 he used to accompany his father Haider Ali, the ruler of Mysore, to different military campaigns. In Addition, he also learnt different languages, mathematics and science. Tipu Sultan had a fascination for learning. His personal library consisted of more than 2,000 books in different languages. He was an extremely active man and worked hard for the welfare of his subjects. He took over the kingdom of Mysore after the death of his father in 1782, who died of a carbuncle in the midst of a campaign against the British. He continued fighting the British and defeated them in 1783.
Tipu Sultan was a farsighted person who could foresee East India Company’s design to get entrenched in India. He therefore negotiated with the French for help and also sought assistance from the Amir of Afghanistan and the Sultan of Turkey. The British were scared of Tipu’s growing strength and after their defeat in 1783 they formed an alliance with the Nizam of Hyderabad and Marhattas. The French, however, deserted Tipu after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. The British availed the chance with the help of the Nizam and the Marathas, and started the third Anglo-Mysore war in 1790.
As long as the British fought alone, Tipu always defeated them. But he could not come over their diplomacy, conspiracy and intrigue. Thus he was defeated in his capital, Seringapatam, and was forced to sign a humiliating treaty on March 22, 1792. As a result he had to concede half of his kingdom and pay an indemnity of 33 million rupees to the British and their allies. The alliance between the adversaries was soon broken and in 1795 the British, after defeating the Nizam, once again turned their attention towards Mysore. After the treaty at Seringapatam, Tipu Sultan did not waste his time and made extensive preparations against the British. He had rebuilt his war machine in the shortest possible time with the help of the French. The British regarded it as a violation of the treaty. This led to the start of the fourth Anglo-Mysore war in 1798 with the help of the Nizam. The French were unable to provide the needed support to Tipu Sultan. Tipu Sultan retreated to his capital and continued fighting till he breathed his last in May 1799. Tipu Sultan is buried at a mausoleum that he himself had built, along with his father Haider Ali and his mother Fatima Begum.
Tipu Sultan was a great patriot and like his father realized the danger of letting the British becoming stronger. Although much of the period of his rule was given to war with the Marhattas, the Nizam and the British, he made his state secure and peaceful with benevolent rule. He was an enlightened ruler who treated his non-Muslim subjects generously. He built a chain of excellent roads and constructed tanks and dams to promote agriculture. He introduced new industries, promoted trade and commerce on a large scale. Tipu prohibited the production and distribution of liquor and other intoxicants in Mysore. He also built and fortified numerous forts and many palaces, which were demolished by the British after his death. Bangalore Summer Palace still survives and is a remnant of his grand rule.

Benazir Bhutto - A Great Politician and Ex Prime Minister of Pakistan

Benazir Bhutto was sworn in as Prime Minister for the first time in 1988 at the age of 35, but was removed from office 20 months later under the order of then-president Ghulam Ishaq Khan on grounds of alleged corruption. In 1993 she was re-elected but was again removed in 1996 on similar charges, this time by President Farooq Leghari. She went into self-imposed exile in Dubai in 1998.


Bhutto returned to Pakistan on 18 October 2007, after reaching an understanding with President Pervez Musharraf by which she was granted amnesty and all corruption charges were withdrawn. She was assassinated on 27 December 2007, after departing a PPP rally in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi, two weeks before the scheduled Pakistani general election of 2008 where she was a leading opposition candidate. The following year she was named one of seven winners of the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights.


Education and personal life 




Benazir Bhutto was born at Pinto Hospital in Karachi, Dominion of Pakistan on 21 June 1953. She was the eldest child of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a Pakistani Shia Muslim of Sindhi Rajput descent, and Begum Nusrat Ispahani, a Shia Muslim Pakistani of Kurdish descent. Her paternal grandfather was Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto.


She attended the Lady Jennings Nursery School and Convent of Jesus and Mary in Karachi. After two years of schooling at the Rawalpindi Presentation Convent, she was sent to the Jesus and Mary Convent at Murree. She passed her O-level examinations at the age of 15. She then went on to complete her A-Levels at the Karachi Grammar School.


After completing her early education in Pakistan, she pursued her higher education in the United States. From 1969 to 1973 she attended Radcliffe College at Harvard University, where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree with cum laude honors in comparative government. She was also elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Bhutto would later call her time at Harvard "four of the happiest years of my life" and said it formed "the very basis of her belief in democracy". Later in 1995 as Prime Minister, she would arrange a gift from the Pakistani government to Harvard Law School. On June 2006, she received an Honorary LL.D degree from the University of Toronto.


The next phase of her education took place in the United Kingdom. Between 1973 and 1977 Bhutto studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, during which time she completed additional courses in International Law and Diplomacy. After LMH she attend St Catherine's College, Oxford and in December 1976 she was elected president of the Oxford Union, becoming the first Asian woman to head the prestigious debating society.


On 18 December 1987, she married Asif Ali Zardari in Karachi. The couple had three children: two daughters, Bakhtawar and Asifa, and a son, Bilawal.


Family 


Benazir Bhutto's father, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was removed from office following a military coup in 1977 led by the then chief of army General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, who imposed martial law but promised to hold elections within three months. Nevertheless, instead of fulfilling the promise of holding general elections, General Zia charged Mr. Bhutto with conspiring to murder the father of dissident politician Ahmed Raza Kasuri. Mr. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was sentenced to death by the martial law court.


Despite the accusation being "widely doubted by the public", and many clemency appeals from foreign leaders, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged on 4 April 1979. Appeals for clemency were dismissed by acting President General Zia. Benazir Bhutto and her mother were held in a "police camp" until the end of May, after the execution.


In 1985, Benazir Bhutto's brother Shahnawaz was killed under suspicious circumstances in France. In 1996, the killing of her other brother, Mir Murtaza, contributed to destabilizing her second term as Prime Minister. Murtaza, who had been outspoken in his accusations of corruption by his sister and her husband Zardari, was gunned down just outside of his home by police. This extrajudicial killing was almost certainly approved at the highest levels and it was widely believed to have been instigated directly by Bhutto's husband Zardari.


Struggle against martial law of General Zia-ul-Haq 


After the overthrow of her father Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's government in a bloodless coup Benazir Bhutto spent the next eighteen months in and out of house arrest as she struggled to rally political support to force Zia to drop murder charges against her father. The military dictator ignored worldwide appeals for clemency and had Zulfikar Bhutto hanged in April 1979. Following the hanging of her father Bhutto was arrested repeatedly, however, following PPP's victory in the local elections Zia postponed the national elections indefinitely and moved Bhutto and her mother Nusrat Bhutto from Karachi to Larkana. This was seventh time Benazir had been arrested within two years of the military coup. Repeatedly put under house arrest, the regime finally imprisoned her under solitary confinement in a desert cell in Sindhi province during the summer of 1981. She described the conditions in her wall-less cage in her book "Daughter of Destiny":


"The summer heat turned my cell into an oven. My skin split and peeled, coming off my hands in sheets. Boils erupted on my face. My hair, which had always been thick, began to come out by the handful. Insects crept into the cell like invading armies. Grasshoppers, mosquitoes, stinging flies, bees and bugs came up through the cracks in the floor and through the open bars from the courtyard. Big black ants, cockroaches, seething clumps of little red ants and spiders. I tried pulling the sheet over my head at night to hide from their bites, pushing it back when it got too hot to breathe."


After her six month imprisonment in Sukkur jail, she remained hospitalized for months after which she was shifted to Karachi Central Jail, where she remained imprisoned till 11 December 1981. She was then placed under house arrests in Larkana and Karachi eleven and fourteen months respectively.


Movement for Restoration of Democracy 


As restrictions on press and media were intensified and persecution of political activist increased Bhutto realized that only way to fight Zia's regime was to unite with a section of the opposition Pakistan National Alliance. The talks with PNA were successful and Movement for Restoration of Democracy (MRD) was established. The movement was widely supported by people of Pakistan and brutally repressed by the junta. The MRD included sections of Pakistani society that were outside Zia's preview of Islamization of the country, like Shiites, ethnic minorities such as Balochs, Pathans and Sindhis and Bhutto's own PPP. While Benazir spent most of the time under house arrests and imprisonments the MRD movement continued its protests against the regime. An estimated twenty thousand PPP workers were killed and between 40,000 to 150,000 people made political prisoners in crackdown by Zia.


Self-exile in London 


In January 1984, after six years of house arrests and imprisonment, Zia succumbed to international pressure and allowed Bhutto to travel abroad for medical reasons. After undergoing a surgery she resumed her political activities and began to raise concerns about the mistreatment of political prisoners in Pakistan at the behest of Zia regime. The intensified pressure forced Zia into holding a referendum to give certain legitimacy to his government. The referendum held on 1 December 1984 proved a farce and due to only ten percent voter turnout despite use of state machinery.


Further pressure from the international community forced Zia into holding elections, for a unicameral legislature on a non-party basis. The PPP thus announced a boycott of the election on the grounds that they were not being held in accordance with the constitution of Pakistan. She continued to raise voice against human rights violations by the regime and addressed the European Parliament in Strasbourg in 1985,


"When the conscience of the world is justly aroused against apartheid and against human rights violations.. then that conscience ought not to close its eyes to the murder by military courts which takes place in a country which receives.. aid from the West itself." The speech was responded by the Zia regime with announcement of death sentences of 54 PPP workers in a military court in Lahore.


Prime minister 

First term 


At left during Parliamentary session in 1998-1999. From left: Chaudhry Muhammad Barjees Tahir, Ajmal Khattak, Aitzaz Ahsan, Benazir Bhutto.
Benazir Bhutto on a visit to Washington, D.C. in 1989


Bhutto, who had returned to Pakistan after completing her studies, found herself placed under house arrest in the wake of her father's imprisonment and subsequent execution. Having been allowed in 1984 to return to the United Kingdom, she became a leader in exile of the PPP, her father's party, though she was unable to make her political presence felt in Pakistan until after the death of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. She had succeeded her mother as leader of the PPP and the pro-democracy opposition to the Zia-ul-Haq regime.


The seat from which Benazir contested for the post of Prime Minister, was the same one from which her father had previously contested, namely, NA 207. This seat was first contested in 1926 by the late Sardar Wahid Bux Bhutto, in the first ever elections in Sindh. The elections were for the Central Legislative Assembly of India. Sardar Wahid Bux won, and became not only the first elected representative from Sindh to a democratically elected parliament, but also the youngest member of the Central Legislative Assembly, aged 27. Wahid Bux's achievement was monumental as it was he who was the first Bhutto elected to a government, from a seat which would, thereafter always be contested by his family members. Therefore, it was he who provided the breakthrough and a start to this cycle. Sardar Wahid Bux went on to be elected to the Bombay Council as well. After Wahid Bux's untimely and mysterious death at the age of 33, his younger brother Nawab Nabi Bux Bhutto contested from the same seat and remained undefeated until retirement. It was he who then gave this seat to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to contest.


On 16 November 1988, in the first open election in more than a decade, Bhutto's PPP won the largest bloc of seats in the National Assembly. Bhutto was sworn in as Prime Minister of a coalition government on December 2, becoming at age 35 the youngest person and the first woman to head the government of a Muslim-majority state in modern times. In 1989, Benazir was awarded the Prize For Freedom by the Liberal International. Bhutto's accomplishments during this time were in initiatives for nationalist reform and modernization, that some conservatives characterized as Westernization.


Bhutto's government was dismissed in 1990 following charges of corruption, for which she was never tried. Zia's pro govt Nawaz Sharif came to power after the October 1990 elections. She served as leader of the opposition while Sharif served as Prime Minister for the next three years.


Second term 


In October 1993 elections were held again and her PPP coalition was victorious, her to continue her reform initiatives. According to journalist Shyam Bhatia, Bhutto smuggled CDs containing uranium enrichment data to North Korea on a state visit that same year in return for data on missile technology. In 1996, amidst various corruption scandals Bhutto was dismissed by then-president Farooq Leghari, who used the Eighth Amendment discretionary powers to dissolve the government. The Supreme Court affirmed President Leghari's dismissal in a 6-1 ruling. Criticism against Bhutto came from the Punjabi elites and powerful landlord families who opposed Bhutto. She blamed this opposition for the destabilization of Pakistan. Musharraf characterized Bhutto's terms as an "era of sham democracy" and others characterized her terms a period of corrupt, failed governments.

Policies for women 


During the election campaigns the Bhutto government voiced its concern for women's social and health issues, including the issue of discrimination against women. Bhutto announced plans to establish women's police stations, courts, and women's development banks. Despite these plans, Bhutto did not propose any legislation to improve welfare services for women. During her election campaigns, she promised to repeal controversial laws (such as Hudood and Zina ordinances) that curtail the rights of women in Pakistan. Bhutto was pro-life and spoke forcefully against abortion, most notably at the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, where she accused the West of "seeking to impose adultery, abortion, intercourse education and other such matters on individuals, societies and religions which have their own social ethos."


The Zina ordinance was finally repealed by a Presidential Ordinance issued by Pervez Musharraf in July 2006.


Bhutto was an active and founding member of the Council of Women World Leaders, a network of current and former prime ministers and presidents.

Policy on Taliban 


The Taliban took power in Kabul in September 1996. It was during Bhutto's rule that the Taliban gained prominence in Afghanistan.She, like many leaders at the time, viewed the Taliban as a group that could stabilize Afghanistan and enable trade access to the Central Asian republics, according to author Stephen Coll. He claims that like the United States, her government provided military and financial support for the Taliban, even sending a small unit of the Pakistani army into Afghanistan.


More recently, she took an anti-Taliban stance, and condemned terrorist acts allegedly committed by the Taliban and their supporters.


Charges of corruption 


After the dismissal of Bhutto's first government on August 6, 1990 by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan on the grounds of corruption government of Pakistan issued directives to its intelligence agencies to investigate the allegations. After fourth national elections, Nawaz Sharif became the Prime Minister and intensified prosecution proceedings against Bhutto. Pakistani embassies through western Europe, in France, Switzerland, Spain, Poland and Britain were directed to investigate the matter. Bhutto and her husband faced a number of legal proceedings, including a charge of laundering money through Swiss banks. Though never convicted, her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, spent eight years in prison on similar corruption charges. After being released on bail in 2004, Zardari suggested that his time in prison involved torture; human rights groups have supported his claim that his rights were violated.


A 1998 New York Times investigative report claims that Pakistani investigators have documents that uncover a network of bank accounts, all linked to the family's lawyer in Switzerland, with Asif Zardari as the principal shareholder. According to the article, documents released by the French authorities indicated that Zardari offered exclusive rights to Dassault, a French aircraft manufacturer, to replace the air force's fighter jets in exchange for a 5% commission to be paid to a Swiss corporation controlled by Zardari. The article also said a Dubai company received an exclusive license to import gold into Pakistan for which Asif Zardari received payments of more than $10 million into his Dubai-based Citibank accounts. The owner of the company denied that he had made payments to Zardari and claims the documents were forged.


Bhutto maintained that the charges levelled against her and her husband were purely political. An Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) report supports Bhutto's claim. It presents information suggesting that Benazir Bhutto was ousted from power in 1990 as a result of a witch hunt approved by then-president Ghulam Ishaq Khan. The AGP report says Khan illegally paid legal advisers 28 million rupees to file 19 corruption cases against Bhutto and her husband in 1990-92.


Yet the assets held by Bhutto and her husband continue to be scrutinized and speculated about. The prosecutors have alleged that their Swiss bank accounts contain 740 million. Zardari also bought a neo-Tudor mansion and estate worth over 4 million in Surrey, England, UK. The Pakistani investigations have tied other overseas properties to Zardari's family. These include a $2.5 million manor in Normandy owned by Zardari's parents, who had modest assets at the time of his marriage. Bhutto denied holding substantive overseas assets.


Despite numerous cases and charges of corruption registered against Bhutto by Nawaz Sharif between 1996-1999 and Pervez Musharraf from 1999 till 2008, she was yet to be convicted in any case after a lapse of twelve years since their commencement. The cases were withdrawn by the government of Pakistan after the return to power of Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party in 2008.


Early 2000s in exile 


In 2002, Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf amended Pakistan's constitution to ban prime ministers from serving more than two terms. This disqualified Bhutto from ever holding the office again. This move was widely considered to be a direct attack on former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif. On 3 August 2003, Bhutto became a member of Minhaj ul Quran International (an international Muslim educational and welfare organization).


While living in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, she cared for her three children and her mother Nusrat, who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease, traveling to give lectures and keeping in touch with the PPP's supporters. They were reunited with her husband in December 2004 after more than five years. In 2006, Interpol issued a request for the arrest of Bhutto and her husband on corruption charges, at the request of Pakistan. The Bhuttos questioned the legality of the requests in a letter to Interpol. On 27 January 2007, she was invited by the United States to speak to President George W. Bush and Congressional and State Department officials. Bhutto appeared as a panellist on the BBC TV programme Question Time in the UK in March 2007. She has also appeared on BBC current affairs programme Newsnight on several occasions. She rebuffed comments made by Muhammad Ijaz-ul-Haq in May 2007 regarding the knighthood of Salman Rushdie, citing that he was calling for the assassination of foreign citizens.


Bhutto had declared her intention to return to Pakistan within 2007, which she did, in spite of Musharraf's statements of May 2007 about not allowing her to return ahead of the country's general election, due late 2007 or early 2008. It was speculated that she may have been offered the office of Prime Minister again.


Arthur Herman, a U.S. historian, in a controversial letter published in The Wall Street Journal on 14 June 2007, in response to an article by Bhutto highly critical of the president and his policies, described her as "One of the most incompetent leaders in the history of South Asia," and asserted that she and other elites in Pakistan hate Musharraf because he was a muhajir, the son of one of millions of Indian Muslims who fled to Pakistan during independence in 1947. Herman claimed, "Although it was muhajirs who agitated for the creation of Pakistan in the first place, many native Pakistanis view them with contempt and treat them as third-class citizens."


Nonetheless, by mid-2007, the U.S. appeared to be pushing for a deal in which Musharraf would remain as president but step down as military head, and either Bhutto or one of her nominees would become prime minister.


On 11 July 2007, the Associated Press, in an article about the possible aftermath of the Red Mosque incident, wrote:


Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister and opposition leader expected by many to return from exile and join Musharraf in a power-sharing deal after year-end general elections, praised him for taking a tough line on the Red Mosque. "I'm glad there was no cease-fire with the militants in the mosque because cease-fires simply embolden the militants," she told Britain's Sky TV on Tuesday. "There will be a backlash, but at some time we have to stop appeasing the militants."


This remark about the Red Mosque was seen with dismay in Pakistan as reportedly hundreds of young students were burned to death and remains are untraceable and cases are being heard in Pakistani supreme court as a missing persons issue. This and subsequent support for Musharraf led Elder Bhutto's comrades like Khar to criticize her publicly.


Bhutto however advised Musharraf in an early phase of the latter's quarrel with the Chief Justice, to restore him. Her PPP did not capitalize on its CEC member, Aitzaz Ahsan, the chief Barrister for the Chief Justice, in successful restoration. Rather he was seen as a rival and was isolated.


2002 election 


The Bhutto-led PPP secured the highest number of votes (28.42%) and eighty seats (23.16%) in the national assembly in the October 2002 general elections. Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML-N) managed to win eighteen seats only. Some of the elected candidates of PPP formed a faction of their own, calling it PPP-Patriots which was being led by Faisal Saleh Hayat, the former leader of Bhutto-led PPP. They later formed a coalition government with Musharraf's party, PML-Q.


Return to Pakistan 


Possible deal with the Musharraf Government


In mid-2002 Musharraf implemented a two-term limit on Prime Ministers. Both Bhutto and Musharraf's other chief rival, Nawaz Sharif, have already served two terms as Prime Minister. Musharraf's allies in parliament, especially the PMLQ, are unlikely to reverse the changes to allow Prime Ministers to seek third terms, nor to make particular exceptions for either Bhutto or Sharif.


In July 2007, some of Bhutto's frozen funds were released. Bhutto continued to face significant charges of corruption. In an 8 August 2007 interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Bhutto revealed the meeting focused on her desire to return to Pakistan for the 2008 elections, and of Musharraf retaining the Presidency with Bhutto as Prime Minister. On 29 August 2007, Bhutto announced that Musharraf would step down as chief of the army. On September 1, 2007, Bhutto vowed to return to Pakistan "very soon", regardless of whether or not she reached a power-sharing deal with Musharraf before then.


On September 17, 2007, Bhutto accused Musharraf's allies of pushing Pakistan into crisis by their refusal to permit democratic reforms and power-sharing. A nine-member panel of Supreme Court judges deliberated on six petitions (including one from Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan's largest Islamic group) asserting that Musharraf be disqualified from contending for the presidency of Pakistan. Bhutto stated that her party could join one of the opposition groups, potentially that of Nawaz Sharif. Attorney-general Malik Mohammed Qayyum stated that, pendente lite, the Election Commission was "reluctant" to announce the schedule for the presidential vote. Bhutto's party's Farhatullah Babar stated that the Constitution of Pakistan could bar Musharraf from being elected again because he was already chief of the army: "As Gen. Musharraf was disqualified from contesting for President, he has prevailed upon the Election Commission to arbitrarily and illegally tamper with the Constitution of Pakistan."


Musharraf prepared to switch to a strictly civilian role by resigning from his position as commander-in-chief of the armed forces. He still faced other legal obstacles to running for re-election. On 2 October 2007, Gen. Musharraf named Lt. Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, as vice chief of the army starting October 8 with the intent that if Musharraf won the presidency and resigned his military post, Kayani would become chief of the army. Meanwhile, Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed stated that officials agreed to grant Benazir Bhutto amnesty versus pending corruption charges. She has emphasized the smooth transition and return to civilian rule and has asked Pervez Musharraf to shed uniform.On 5 October 2007, Musharraf signed the National Reconciliation Ordinance, giving amnesty to Bhutto and other political leaders except exiled former premier Nawaz Sharif in all court cases against them, including all corruption charges. The Ordinance came a day before Musharraf faced the crucial presidential poll. Both Bhutto's opposition party, the PPP, and the ruling PMLQ, were involved in negotiations beforehand about the deal.In return, Bhutto and the PPP agreed not to boycott the Presidential election. On 6 October 2007, Musharraf won a parliamentary election for President. However, the Supreme Court ruled that no winner can be officially proclaimed until it finishes deciding on whether it was legal for Musharraf to run for President while remaining Army General. Bhutto's PPP party did not join the other opposition parties' boycott of the election, but did abstain from voting. Later, Bhutto demanded security coverage on-par with the President's. Bhutto also contracted foreign security firms for her protection.


Return 


Bhutto was well aware of the risk to her own life that might result from her return from exile to campaign for the leadership position. In an interview on September 28, 2007, with reporter Wolf Blitzer of CNN, she readily admitted the possibility of attack on herself.


After eight years in exile in Dubai and London, Bhutto returned to Karachi on 18 October 2007, to prepare for the 2008 national elections.


En route to a rally in Karachi on 18 October 2007, two explosions occurred shortly after Bhutto had landed and left Jinnah International Airport. She was not injured but the explosions, later found to be a suicide-bomb attack, killed 136 people and injured at least 450. The dead included at least 50 of the security guards from her PPP who had formed a human chain around her truck to keep potential bombers away, as well as six police officers. A number of senior officials were injured. Bhutto, after nearly ten hours of the parade through Karachi, ducked back down into the steel command center to remove her sandals from her swollen feet, moments before the bomb went off. She was escorted unharmed from the scene.


Bhutto later claimed that she had warned the Pakistani government that suicide bomb squads would target her upon her return to Pakistan and that the government had failed to act. She was careful not to blame Pervez Musharraf for the attacks, accusing instead "certain individuals within the government who abuse their positions, who abuse their powers" to advance the cause of Islamic militants. Shortly after the attempt on her life, Bhutto wrote a letter to Musharraf naming four persons whom she suspected of carrying out the attack. Those named included Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, a rival PML-Q politician and chief minister of Pakistan's Punjab province, Hamid Gul, former director of the Inter-Services Intelligence, and Ijaz Shah, the director general of the Intelligence Bureau, another of the country's intelligence agencies. All those named are close associates of General Musharraf. Bhutto has a long history of accusing parts of the government, particularly Pakistan's premier military intelligence agencies, of working against her and her party because they oppose her liberal, secular agenda. Bhutto claimed that the ISI has for decades backed militant Islamic groups in Kashmir and in Afghanistan. She was protected by her vehicle and a "human cordon" of supporters who had anticipated suicide attacks and formed a chain around her to prevent potential bombers from getting near her. The total number of injured, according to PPP sources, stood at 1000, with at least 160 dead (The New York Times claims 134 dead and about 450 injured).


A few days later, Bhutto's lawyer Senator Farooq H. Naik said he received a letter threatening to kill his client.


2007 State of Emergency and response 


On 3 November 2007, President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency, citing actions by the Supreme Court of Pakistan and religious extremism in the nation. Bhutto returned to the country, interrupting a visit to family in Dubai. She was greeted by supporters chanting slogans at the airport. After staying in her plane for several hours she was driven to her home in Lahore, accompanied by hundreds of supporters. While acknowledging that Pakistan faced a political crisis, she noted that Musharraf's declaration of emergency, unless lifted, would make it very difficult to have fair elections. She commented that "The extremists need a dictatorship, and dictatorship needs extremists."


On 8 November 2007, Bhutto was placed under house arrest just a few hours before she was due to lead and address a rally against the state of emergency.


During a telephone interview with National Public Radio in the United States, Ms. Bhutto said "I have freedom of movement within the house. I do not have freedom of movement outside the house. They've got a heavy police force inside the house, and we've got a very heavy police force - 4,000 policemen around the four walls of my house, 1,000 on each. They've even entered the neighbors' house. And I was just telling one of the policemen, I said 'should you be here after us? Should not you be looking for Osama bin Laden?' And he said, 'I'm sorry, ma'am, this is our job. We're just doing what we are told.'"


The following day, the Pakistani government announced that Bhutto's arrest warrant had been withdrawn and that she would be free to travel and to appear at public rallies. However, leaders of other opposition political parties remained prohibited from speaking in public.


Preparation for 2008 elections 


On 2 November 2007, Bhutto participated in an interview with David Frost on Al Jazeera where she claimed Osama Bin Laden had been murdered by Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who is also one of the men convicted of kidnapping and killing U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl. Frost never asked a follow up question regarding the claim that Bin Laden was dead.


On 24 November 2007, Bhutto filed her nomination papers for January's Parliamentary elections; two days later, she filed papers in the Larkana constituency for two regular seats. She did so as former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, following seven years of exile in Saudi Arabia, made his much-contested return to Pakistan and bid for candidacy.


When sworn in again on 30 November 2007, this time as a civilian president after relinquishing his post as military chief, Musharraf announced his plan to lift the Pakistan's state of emergency rule on December 16. Bhutto welcomed the announcement and launched a manifesto outlining her party's domestic issues. Bhutto told journalists in Islamabad that her party, the PPP, would focus on "the five E's": employment, education, energy, environment, equality.


On 4 December 2007, Bhutto met with Nawaz Sharif to publicize their demand that Musharraf fulfill his promise to lift the state of emergency before January's parliamentary elections, threatening to boycott the vote if he failed to comply. They promised to assemble a committee which would present to Musharraf the list of demands upon which their participation in the election was contingent.
On 8 December 2007, three unidentified gunmen stormed Bhutto's PPP office in the southern western province of Baluchistan. Three of Bhutto's supporters were killed.


Assassination 


On 27 December 2007, Bhutto was killed while leaving a campaign rally for the PPP at Liaquat National Bagh, where she had given a spirited address to party supporters in the run-up to the January 2008 parliamentary elections. After entering her bulletproof vehicle, Bhutto stood up through its sunroof to wave to the crowds. At this point, a gunman fired shots at her and subsequently explosives were detonated near the vehicle killing approximately 20 people.[84] Bhutto was critically wounded and was rushed to Rawalpindi General Hospital. She was taken into surgery at 17:35 local time, and pronounced dead at 18:16.


Bhutto's body was flown to her hometown of Garhi Khuda Bakhsh in Larkana District, Sindh, and was buried next to her father in the family mausoleum at a ceremony attended by hundreds of thousands of mourners.


There was some disagreement about the exact cause of death. Bhutto's husband refused to permit an autopsy or post-mortem examination to be carried out. On 28 December 2007, the Interior Ministry of Pakistan stated that "Bhutto was killed when she tried to duck back into the vehicle, and the shock waves from the blast knocked her head into a lever attached to the sunroof, fracturing her skull". However, a hospital spokesman stated earlier that she had suffered shrapnel wounds to the head and that this was the cause of her death. Bhutto's aides have also disputed the Interior Ministry's account. On December 31, CNN posted the alleged emergency room admission report as a PDF file. The document appears to have been signed by all the admitting physicians and notes that no object was found inside the wound.


Al-Qaeda commander Mustafa Abu al-Yazid claimed responsibility for the attack, describing Bhutto as "the most precious American asset." The Pakistani government also stated that it had proof that al-Qaeda was behind the assassination. A report for CNN stated: "the Interior Ministry also earlier told Pakistan's Geo TV that the suicide bomber belonged to Lashkar i Jhangvi an al-Qaeda-linked militant group that the government has blamed for hundreds of killings". The government of Pakistan claimed Baitullah Mehsud was the mastermind behind the assassination. Lashkar i Jhangvi, a Wahabi Muslim extremist organization affiliated with al-Qaeda that also attempted in 1999 to assassinate former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, is alleged to have been responsible for the killing of the 54-year-old Bhutto along with approximately 20 bystanders, however this is vigorously disputed by the Bhutto family, by the PPP that Bhutto had headed and by Baitullah Mehsud. On 3 January 2008, President Musharraf officially denied participating in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto as well as failing to provide her proper security.

Reaction in Pakistan 


After the assassination, there were initially a number of riots resulting in approximately 20 deaths, of which three were of police officers. Around 250 cars were burnt; angry and upset supporters of Bhutto threw rocks outside the hospital where she was being held. Through December 29, 2007, the Pakistani government said rioters had wrecked nine election offices, 176 banks, 34 gas stations, 72 train cars, 18 rail stations, and hundreds of cars and shops. President Musharraf decreed a three-day period of mourning.


On 30 December 2007, at a news conference following a meeting of the PPP leadership, Bhutto's widower Asif Ali Zardari and son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari announced that 19-year-old Bilawal will succeed his mother as titular head of the party, with his father effectively running the party until his son completes his studies at Christ Church, Oxford. "When I return, I promise to lead the party as my mother wanted me to," Bilawal said. The PPP called for parliamentary elections to take place as scheduled on 8 January 2008, and Asif Ali Zardari said that vice-chair Makhdoom Amin Fahim would probably be the party's candidate for prime minister. (Bilawal is not of legal age to stand for parliament.)


On December 30, Bhutto's political party, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), called for the UK Government and the United Nations to help conduct the investigation of her death. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has been appointed chairman of his late mother's opposition political party in Pakistan. Bilawal is only 19 years old. On 5 February 2008, the PPP released Mrs. Bhutto's political will which she wrote two weeks before returning to Pakistan and only 12 weeks before she was killed, stating that her husband Asif Ali Zardari would be the leader of the party, until a new leader is elected.


International reaction 


The international reaction to Bhutto's assassination was of strong condemnation across the international community. The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting and unanimously condemned the assassination. Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa stated that, "We condemn this assassination and terrorist act, and pray for God Almighty to bless her soul." India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he was "deeply shocked and horrified to hear of the heinous assassination of Mrs. Benazir Bhutto. ... My heartfelt condolences go to her family and the people of Pakistan who have suffered a grievous blow." British Prime Minister Gordon Brown stated, "Benazir Bhutto may have been killed by terrorists but the terrorists must not be allowed to kill democracy in Pakistan and this atrocity strengthens our resolve that terrorists will not win there, here or anywhere in the world." European Commission President Jos Manuel Barroso condemned the assassination as "an attack against democracy and against Pakistan," and "hopes that Pakistan will remain firmly on track for return to democratic civilian rule." US President George W. Bush condemned the assassination as a "cowardly act by murderous extremists," and encouraged Pakistan to "honor Benazir Bhutto's memory by continuing with the democratic process for which she so bravely gave her life." Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone expressed the sadness of Pope Benedict XVI, saying that "the Holy Father expresses sentiments of deep sympathy and spiritual closeness to the members of her family and to the entire Pakistani nation." Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Qin Gang said that China was "shocked at the killing of Pakistan's opposition leader Benazir Bhutto" and "strongly condemns the terrorist attack."


Scotland Yard investigation 


British detectives were asked by the Pakistan Government to investigate the assassination. Although expressing reservations as to the difficulty in investigating due to the crime scene having been hosed down and Asif Zardari refusing permission for a post mortem, they announced on 8 February 2008 that Benazir Bhutto had been killed on impact by the knob of the sun roof following the bomb explosion.

UN inquiry 


A formal investigation by the UN commenced on July 1, 2009.


B. Bhutto was one of the key political figures of Pakistan's Nuclear Program. Bhutto maintained close and friendly relationships with many prominent Pakistan's nuclear scientists. Benazir Bhutto also carried messages to Munir Ahmad Khan from her father and back in 1979 as Prime Minister Z.A. Bhutto had instructed her daughter to remain in touch with the Chairman of PAEC.


Shyam Bhatia, an Indian journalist, alleged in his book Goodbye Shahzadi that in 1993, Bhutto had downloaded secretive information on uranium enrichment to give to North Korea in exchange for information on developing ballistic missiles. Bhatia alleges that Bhutto had asked him to not tell the story during her lifetime. Nuclear expert David Albright of the Institute of Science and International Security said the allegations "made sense" given the timeline of North Korea's nuclear development. George Perkovich of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace called Bhatia a "smart and serious guy." Selig Harrison of the Center for International Policy called Bhatia "credible on Bhutto". The Pakistani Embassy in Washington, D.C. denied the claims and an United States official dismissed them, insisting that Abdul Qadeer Khan, who had been accused of proliferating secrets before to North Korea (only to later deny them prior to Bhatia's book), was the source.


Even when Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan's nuclear scandal came into public, Bhutto vowed that if she elected for Prime Minister of Pakistan as a third time she would allowed IAEA inspectors to investigate Dr. Khan. However, when her statement on-aired on Pakistani televisions, Bhutto faced a strong criticism from Pakistani civil society as well as strong response in her own party. A few hours later, she reverted her statement, her spokesperson Nahid Khan said that her statement was misunderstood.


Legacy 


Commenting on her legacy, the acclaimed south Asia expert William Dalrymple commented that "It's wrong for the West simply to mourn Benazir Bhutto as a martyred democrat since her legacy was far murkier and more complex".


The Pakistani government honoured Bhutto on her birth anniversary by renaming the Islamabad International Airport as Benazir Bhutto International Airport after her. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani, a member of Bhutto's PPP also asked President Pervez Musharraf to pardon convicts on death row on her birthday in honour of Bhutto.


The city of Nawabshah in Sindh was renamed Benazirabad in her honor. A university in the Dir Upper district of NWFP is opened in her name.


Benazir Income Support Program (BISP), a program which provides benefits to the poorest Pakistanis, is named after Bhutto.


Benazir Bhutto's books 


* Benazir Bhutto, (1983), Pakistan: The gathering storm, Vikas Pub. House,
* Benazir Bhutto (1989). Daughter of the East. Hamish Hamilton.


Daughter of the East was also released as:


* Benazir Bhutto (1989). Daughter of Destiny: An Autobiography. Simon & Schuster.


At the time of Bhutto's death, the manuscript for her third book, to be called Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West, had been received by HarperCollins. The book, written with Mark Siegel, was published in February 2008.


* Benazir Bhutto (2008). Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West. HarperCollins.

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