Daily Times

As a young lad, decades ago, I came across the word, “moron”; only to discover that it was another adjective for stupid; those unfortunate individuals, gifted with little or no intellect. On inquiring, I learnt that neither moron, nor idiot, improved upon stupid; which was the extreme adjective for these unfortunates.

Earlier, we had been introduced to the motivating verse that went:

“Good, better, best; may you never rest,

Till your good is better and your better best”.

Since I was never good, there was never any question of getting to the best. But, I was never too bad either. I am, therefore, destined to spend my life among those who were “not too bad”. However, at that time, one lesson that I learnt from the verse was, that every adjective had degrees before reaching its zenith. Stupidest must, therefore, be the infinite of stupid.

Many years later I managed to figure out that there was a philosophical aspect to this verse. It was intended to imply that every individual competed against him/herself; and to that end sought to do his/her best. In which case, it could apply to me as well as the trillions, like myself over the ages. And I could respond to the couplet with one of mine:

“Although I was never much good

But, I always did the best I could”.

I am quite fed up bemoaning the idiocies/moron-icities/stupidities of our worthy prime(d) minister “Im, the [very, very] Dim”. I for one, could not even figure out the relevance of OBL’s execution to the defense of his government’s lack of performance. What was he implying? Imran has constantly boasted of being on the “same page” as the establishment. Has he broken away from it? Is he flouting his independence by trying to implicate them?

Speaking in Urdu, he first said “mara gaya” [killed] and then corrected himself to say OBL is Shaheed. I am no theologist either but, from my little learning, I recall that a Shaheed is one who dies when he/she, in his/her mind, is in the service of Allah. It is immaterial how or why he/she dies; as long as the intent was the service of Allah.

But OBL? A man who has proudly claimed taking directly, or indirectly, personally, or on his instructions, thousands of innocent men, women, and children, irrespective of religion, color, caste, or creed? An international terrorist; a martyr? So identified by none other than Pakistan’s Muslim PM?

Governance is a demanding, fatiguing work. Perhaps mis-governance, ill-governance and no governance are even more so. Perhaps his recent experiences in life, at home, in politics and religion have taught him more on the subject of religion, than us lesser mortals could learn.

I wish someone would tell him how wise, masterful, and totally in control PM Imran Khan looks when he merely smiles; and how the image is shattered as soon as he opens his mouth

I wish someone would tell him how wise, masterful, and totally in control PM Imran Khan looks when he merely smiles; and how the image is shattered as soon as he opens his mouth. And, that he is the kind of gifted one who brings, not only the entire nation in disrepute, but also all Muslims.

Tragically, either he selected his own ilk to other slots or has infected many subordinates. As if PIA, which, regretfully, is still the national carrier [and, therefore reflects on the nation, not only its own management], did not have enough genuine tribulations of its own, some spiteful person(s), who are cloaked in filth, have chosen in their pique, to divert attention from themselves by smearing the cleanest linen in PIA; the pilots.

Some might remember the movie, “Catch me if you can”. It was a true story of a very gifted individual who could learn any profession, including commercial flying, on his own. But that may be one in many lifetimes. As one with some very modest, but intense, experience of piloting planes, I assure you, commercial piloting is not easy and, it’s the only travel in which passengers place their lives in the care of two [pilots].

While, I do not know if any among those named have cheated in their educational classes; if so, those [likely to be] very few, could be weeded out. I am certain, however, that the bulk of those named are those who question the [extremely dubious] quality of performance of the administration.

However, piloting is one profession for which a bare minimum education is necessary, as in professions of arms. When I was selected for training as a pilot in PAF, I was merely matriculate; as opposed to intermediate, for those joining the army. But only categories A and B made it from the ISSB for pilot training; as opposed to A to [possibly] D for the army. The skill sets required for flying are different.

Whoever is behind this attempt of tarnishing this image of pilots of our national carrier doesn’t realize that all this might achieve in the long run, is that non-Pakistanis and even Pakistanis travelling routes covered by other airlines may choose never again to trust their persons to travel by PIA.

Stupidest? For sure.

The writer is a retired brigadier. He is also former vice president and founder of the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI)