By Sohail Parwaz
Those were the good days when it was thought and considered that the Indian channel Star Plus was the most favourite and popular channel in Pakistan. Soon its popularity relegated and it became hot favourite with the maids only, working in middle and upper class houses with a hope that someday may be sahib ji’s dashing and handsome sons make them their soul mates, nevertheless, dreams rarely come true, hence the poor young maids could just wait and wait for their frog princes. Thanks to regular watching, the only good thing happened to them was that most of them, who were smart and wise, started spotting the glaring and idiotic flaws in those fantasized soups.
As the Star Plus’s rating and popularity has sharply deteriorated so has gone down the reputation of the Indian intelligence agency RAW, which has failed to show even the infinitesimal improvement in its performance during the last 44 years i.e. from January 1971 to January 2016. It looks as if the winters have been very trendy with the guys at the helm of affairs at RAW, since all the dramas planned were during the period from November to February! May be its too convenient to cover-up certain acts – who cares to move out? – as the cold dark nights help in skipping certain mandatory stages of a good ‘stage play’.
First ever drama was staged in 1971 when an obsolete Indian airliner was sent to Pakistan and then blown off. Two dubious characters Hashim Qureshi and Ashraf Qureshi, allegedly Kashmiri youngsters were trapped to play a highjack drama. The poor and ignorant adolescents, all along considered themselves as the heroes of the Kashmir freedom movement, who were hijacking an Indian Fokker plane Ganga for a great cause, not aware of the fact that Ganga was one of the oldest aircraft in the Indian Airlines fleet and was parked in hangers long ago, nevertheless, it was mysteriously re-inducted days before the hijacking. The three days ‘long Play’ started on 30 January and curtains were drawn on 1 February 1971 when as per plan the plane was blown off. Usually the commercial aircrafts don’t have names. In very rare cases due to some historical background or for other reason or emotional attachment they are named. However, amazingly, this plane before being used as a prop was named Ganga to sensationalize the story as the Indians have an emotional attachment with the river Ganges. That’s a different thing that Ashraf died few years ago while Hashim lives on a hillside mansion in the Nishat area of Srinagar, where he gazes at the Dal Lake from his multi-terraced lawn, playing golf in between – and recounting his story. Never forget that he was a hijacker who is lavishly living in the premises subjugated by the Indian government. Today, why shouldn’t he be treated as a hero? After all, he is the one who helped India in banning over-flights by Pakistani aircrafts. A ban that had a significant impact on troop movement and brought the dismemberment of East Pakistan on cards, finally.
For almost twenty-nine years, the Indians remained happy and jubilant as they were yet not over with the ‘Breaking Pakistan Celebrations’, until December 2001, when the need of screening a new drama was badly felt at ‘RAW Notanki’ since the Kashmir movement was picking up the gear while Pakistan was getting strengthened again. The beauty of this new play was – as a young Pakistani Karachi based columnist wrote in the Guardian, UK, long ago – that, during the staged attack upon the Indian parliament on December 13, not one furl of one dhoti of one Indian legislator was unfurled, during which not one brick was dislodged from one pillar. The gunmen miraculously got through security checks, in a time of heightened alerts, and attempted to destroy the Indian parliament. In a further miracle, none of the ministers were hurt and the terrorists were killed. ‘Khail khatam, paisa hazam’.
The Indian government’s refusal to show the faces of the terrorists to reporters raised many eyebrows and created doubts amongpeople. Instead, they kept insisted that the terrorists were part of two groups fighting for the liberation of Kashmir and that the attack was planned in training camps in Pakistan with the complicity of Pakistan’s intelligence agency, ISI. Pakistan suggested a logical epilogue of the drama by offering a joint inquiry into the affair, however, M/s RAW Entertainment wanted an end, the Star Plus way, thus refused the offer.
These are just few of the dramas, whereas a lot more has to be discussed for the public’s entertainment, before coming to ‘Aik Din Pathankot Ka’.
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