UNBELEIVABLE: in the middle of his little IT and special zones speech at the launch of whatever he's launching, the PM says he will NOT go to Quetta till they bury their dead. Says he cant 'understand this demand'. Says if they bury today, he'll go today.
The PM also said that no country's PM can be 'blackmailed' like this. [Yes, he used the word blackmail. I'm very interested to see how this is spun].
He added that India is fanning 'Shia-Sunni fasaadaat'. That the govt has agreed to all the 'demands of the Hazaras'.
Very passionate appeal by @BBhuttoZardari right now, for justice for the oppressed. Says: this country, this federation is in danger if justice is not ensured. Promises to stand by the #Hazaras
. @MaryamNSharif talking about the ghettoisation of the #Hazaras About the 2000 Hazaras killed in Pakistan. About the family that lost its only male member.
PM Ik talking to Hamza Abbasi about colonialism. Says the colonised have an inferiority complex. Says in Aitchison they were told to never speak in Urdu. Says when growing up in Punjab Club and Gymkhana u couldnt wear Pakistani clothes. (Says this is the background he grew up in
Says when he went to the UK he realised they were trying to make 'us' into replicas of themselves. IK says his strength is that he always analysed his life at every step.
So he realised then -- when he was in England [also adds that not many have seen England the way he has] -- that 'we' have a concept of Allah and Akhirat and realised that in the West there was no such concept and Marxism was the leading concept there at the time.
Huge crowds at the #PDMQuettaJalsa You can watch it live here:
Also: many apologies for not live-tweeting the jalsa. I miscalculated the time it would start.
Akhtar Mengal speaking: says Balochistan has seen so much grief, so much bloodshed, so many missing people whose parents and families have been awaiting their return for decades.
Because I'm in Lahore. And because winter is at the door, I go back to these words written by @SairaAnsari_ about the city (we) left behind:
"Come, walk with me through a city I left behind. There is a sense of bereavement, of grieving, mourning, lamentation.
"Interspersed, there is also a warm nostalgia. Lahore was home. No, Lahore is always home. Like many ageless metropolises, Lahore is that brew of uncanny juxtapositions that is hard to concoct on your own.
"It is an adolescence that never quite matures – an unbridled youthful energy that is so charming; but then so clumsy when you need it to be responsible...." .