I was very young when the fall and rise of Mr Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto happened after the Martial law of gen Muhammad Zia ul Haq was imposed in 1977...and the events that led to the arrest ,imprisonment and trial of Mr bhutto that sentenced him to be hanged till death.It was the most exciting time of my life.Mr Bhutto was a very popular person in our house because of the Pakistan television (ptv) almost as popular as world heavy weight champion boxer Muhammad Ali or Uncle urfi (udru soap)
.The whole(extended) family used to sit around the television in my late grand Mother's large bedroom to watch live shows and speeches.I remember we watched the reception in honor of the visiting heads of states and governments of Islamic conference (oic) from the shalimar gardens in Lahore.I loved and learned by heart the anthems of that conference sung my mr mehdi zaheer "hum ta ba abad sai o taghaiur kay wali hain..."
life was good....and joyous...then the elections were held in March 1977. I had a lot of fun watching with excitement the special election transmission.This was my first experience with the democratic process...I used to hear the debates among the members of the family with great interest...while trying to watch the shows on tv.My Family was visibly divided into two groups one watched ptv as usual and the other listened to BBC urdu service on the radio in the next room....there was chaos and uneasiness as both groups wanted to know eagerly whats happening in the other room the audio volumes keep changing people keep moving around in front of the tv screen as it was the time before there was a remote control.
The state run PTV gave the news of the happening as usual and left everything regarding the spreading cancer of fundamentalism for the BBC which became the invisible nanny mcphee telling fairytales about the protests by the opposition PNA an alliance of nine opposition parties including jamait ay islami the notorious islamist party usually instrumental in the Army take over of the country.
My Grand Mother and all the ladies in the house who had suffered a great deal during the migration from india and the wars with india were pro-peace and anti-war and chaos...they never trusted the war mongering BBC Urdu service and the infamous program "sairbeen" .The boys and young girls have been completely mesmerised during the election 77 and after ....
The only other interesting thing I can recall of that era in our house was the complete mistrust on the leading newspapers of the country such as Daily Dawn and Daily Jang....by everyone there was no divide there...the rumor factories of Jamait ay islami had totally convinced that mr Bhutto and his government censors the daily newspapers or use other coercive measures to make them print anything but the truth....as the youngest and most agile person in the house I had to run to the gate to stop the guy on the bicycle who use to shout (cry out loud) "agiya agiya..." (its here its here...) and sell special supplement of lesser circulation newspapers mostly believed to be supporting the opposition of Mr Bhutto....
4th of April 1979 was a sad day indeed.....people in our house were sad and eager at the same time....they were expecting a miracle jail break and escape to power like the movies....people read the special (extra) newspapers and listened to BBC Urdu...I sensed a little lack of enthusiasm in the transmission that night...the nine stars grand alliance (PNA) was begining to show cracks and rifts among themselves....and the political rhetoric and slogans of Nizam ay mustafa seemed a far cry with the Army beginning to loot and pollute the counrty after suspending the constitution and thinking ways of extending the Martial law rule.
I personally feel that it was not just Mr Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who died that day....BBC urdu service also lost all of their fans in our house.later on the technology changed the way people get their information.
I was very young when the fall and rise of Mr Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto happened after the Martial law of gen Muhammad Zia ul Haq was imposed in 1977...and the events that led to the arrest ,imprisonment and trial of Mr bhutto that sentenced him to be hanged till death.It was the most exciting time of my life.Mr Bhutto was a very popular person in our house because of the Pakistan television (ptv) almost as popular as world heavy weight champion boxer Muhammad Ali or Uncle urfi (udru soap)
life was good....and joyous...then the elections were held in March 1977. I had a lot of fun watching with excitement the special election transmission.This was my first experience with the democratic process...I used to hear the debates among the members of the family with great interest...while trying to watch the shows on tv.My Family was visibly divided into two groups one watched ptv as usual and the other listened to BBC urdu service on the radio in the next room....there was chaos and uneasiness as both groups wanted to know eagerly whats happening in the other room the audio volumes keep changing people keep moving around in front of the tv screen as it was the time before there was a remote control.
The state run PTV gave the news of the happening as usual and left everything regarding the spreading cancer of fundamentalism for the BBC which became the invisible nanny mcphee telling fairytales about the protests by the opposition PNA an alliance of nine opposition parties including jamait ay islami the notorious islamist party usually instrumental in the Army take over of the country.
4th of April 1979 was a sad day indeed.....people in our house were sad and eager at the same time....they were expecting a miracle jail break and escape to power like the movies....people read the special (extra) newspapers and listened to BBC Urdu...I sensed a little lack of enthusiasm in the transmission that night...the nine stars grand alliance (PNA) was begining to show cracks and rifts among themselves....and the political rhetoric and slogans of Nizam ay mustafa seemed a far cry with the Army beginning to loot and pollute the counrty after suspending the constitution and thinking ways of extending the Martial law rule. 
On Wednesday 30th March 2011 Pakistan and India were up against each other in the semi-final of the cricket worldcup 2011 ODI tournament in Mohali,Chandrigarh, India in the state of Indian Punjab just across the border of Pakistan.Punjab of India is very different from the Punjab of Pakistan both historically and politically.The British during the raj considered the Punjab as "the sword arm" of India which is probably why the congress party of India which succeeded the British rule did not want it as it is....The Punjab was first cut at the partition of India in 1947 and later in 1966 the indian punjab was further sub-partitioned into three states Punjab ,haryana and himachal pardesh.In june 1984 the then Indian prime minister indra gandhi of congress party ordered the Indian Army to conduct "operation Blue Star" at the most sacred religious place on earth for sikhs "the Golden Temple " in Amritsar.Since then the people of the Indian state of Punjab has firmly believed in Democracy and have tried their best not to get involved in the diplomacy.But what can one do when you have family,friends and well-wishers all over the world.The international media continuously tries to distinguish and differentiate between the poor people with rich culture of indian state of Punjab and the rest of the democracy.Recently I have observed that the hindi soaps and movies shown by satellite channels use ethnic terms such as "behan jee type","miss Hoshiyarpur" to create an image of a totally rural village punjabi girl very different in fashion and not willing to follow the modern trends....yet eager to the limits of desperation to prove herself to the world. 
