Extraordinary Rendition

By: Hakim Hazik

Some say it is Paradise Lost. Some say it could have been Paradise Lost. It wasn’t in the end because she switched sides at the last minute. Some say it is a fool’s Paradise. They are the biggest fools themselves.

Governments can come and go, but Dr Awan will stay. Her place in the government is eternal and everlasting. She is a woman of all seasons. Empires will rise and fall, coalitions will form and reform, Nullah Dek will overflow and dry up but Dr Awan will continue to work for the welfare of population.

This is one task that she has done with dedication and care. We are not a small country but we have much bigger and growing population. It needs to be well fed and well nourished like Dr Awan. The population bomb is ticking away. It is going off from time to time. It went off in Kamra yesterday. Some say that it was a suicide bomb. They are fools. Don’t pay any heed to them. Dr Awan will confirm that this was the population bomb.

It is important not to underestimate her contribution to the world of letters. She should be recognised for enriching the Urdu and Punjabi languages and introducing ingenious new idioms into the political discourse. It is heartening to know that the National Academy of Letters, the Sahitya Academy, the Man Booker Committee and the Nobel Committee for literature have all taken note and it seems certain that many literary honours will be flowing into her direction as long as she continues to present her urbane self on the national TV and continues to practice her matchless eloquence on the self serving political opponents and social climbers.

I don’t know why FJ has been brought into this. FJ is a fine institution. It has a growing national and international reputation. Its graduates have served the population and many of them hold positions of prestige and power. It does not behove political upstarts like Kashmala Tariq to denigrate this institution. She should remember that it is now a university, which both the Law College and LSE are not.

Sialkot is famous for its footballs and other spherical objects. Some misguided people call them lotas. This is a huge mistake which needs to be corrected, for the benefit of the contemporary and future historians. Lota is not a perfect sphere. It can run off at the spout. Furthermore it lacks polish and it lacks class. In sharp contrast, Dr Awan is endowed with huge quantities of both. This, in addition to incisive logic and rational discourse, decency of comport and politeness of expression makes her unique in Pakistan’s rising democracy.

We have come a long way since the famous son of Sialkot, Iqbal dreamt of a sanctuary which would be a paradise for the Muslims of the region. Dr Awan is a true realisation of Iqbal’s dream. It is reprehensible to see enemy agents conspiring to undermine this great leader.

If you ask me, it is all the fault of the faithless roosters of Sialkot.

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