REPUBLIC DAY: Let us start celebrating it again

Let us start celebrating the Republic Day once again.
With the promulgation of the first Constitution in 1956, we became the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. It was decided that March 23 would be henceforth celebrated as the Republic Day.
Two years later, martial law was imposed. The military regime obviously could not celebrate a Republic Day because the constitution was not there. Therefore, the clever people around the rulers decided that March 23 would be henceforth celebrated as “Pakistan Day.” It did not make sense because August 14 was the day when Pakistan came into being while March 23 was the day when we finally terminated the formal links with the UK and turned the country into a republic.
Since the martial law continued for a long time under various military rulers, the people forgot the significance of celebrating the Republic Day.
Now that we have democracy once again, we should resume the celebration of March 23 as the Republic Day. Let the change take effect with an official notification from the Federal Government.

BBC: Why does it always describe militants as Islamic?

During the BBC news bulletin at 0700 on December 7, 2004, “Islamic” was added every time the word “militant” was used in the story on the attack on the U.S. consulate in Jeddah. There could be some justification – if at all – if Saudi Arabia was a non-Muslim country. With the entire country being a Muslim, why should it be necessary to describe the militants as “Islamic?”
The adjective is not confined to militants in Saudi Arabia. Every time a Muslim is involved in militancy, BBC describes him as “Islamic.”
On the other hand, BBC never ever says “Catholic IRA terrorists” when it would have been perfectly justified because the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland is fighting against the Protestant majority.
The only explanation for the outrageous usage of the BBC editors is that they want to create hatred against the Muslims.

PARLIAMENT: Which one is more representative?

The lower house, Lok Sabha, of Indian Parliament has 525 seats for a population of 1.05 billions, or one member for every two millions.
Pakistan's lower house, National Assembly, has 342 seats for a population of 150 millions, or one seat for 438,596. That comes to less than one-fourth of Lok Sabha.
Which Parliament is more representative of the people?

MOON: Why bother to see it to celebrate Eid?

There is something wrong with the moon. At the beginning and end of every Ramzan, it hides itself behind a veil, like the beloved of our poets. It shows a glimpse only to the people in the remotest parts of Balochistan and NWFP. It makes sure that they do not live anywhere near a place that has a phone. So, the poor fellows travel for hours to convey around midnight the good news to some maulvis in the Lunatic (or Moon) Triangle (Peshawar, Mardan, Charsadda) that they alone saw what the entire country could not. Invariably, they turn out to be very pious people, whose evidence can be accepted readily in accordance with strict Shariah standards, without even seeing them.
Since there is no way we may persuade the moon not to behave like the traditional beloved, let us ignore its devious way and follow the Buddhists of Sri Lanka, who know better. After all, they have been watching it for about twice longer than us.
In Buddhism, 14th of every lunar month is a sacred day, when special prayers are offered. So, it is a public holiday in Sri Lanka every month. The Government calculates these holidays every year in advance for all 12 months. It cannot afford to make an error or will have to face the wrath of the entire nation. At the same time, it also works outs the dates of religious holidays for the Muslims. The dates never turn out to be incorrect.
We do not have unanimity on the appearance of the moon despite involving thousands of maulvis in Ruet-i-Hilal Committees all over the country at national, provincial, district and tehsil levels. So, why bother any more? The Government should use astronomical calculations regarding the moon and announce them in the beginning of the year, along with corresponding holidays. If some people want to follow the obscurantists, let them do it. They are already doing it anyway.