Closing the gates of Lahore 'Pakhtuns allege discrimination as the gov cracks down on terrori

[Panther 57]

Mohajirs should distance themselves from MQM savages. The recent election showed the opposite. We should look out for Pakistan first rather based on ethnicity and petty gains.

@Kolachi Punjabi
It is about the time we start identifying ourselves as Pakistanis rather then Pakhtoon, punjabi, muhajir, etc.

Over the period of time urdu speaking, including me, should stop identifying themselves as Muhajir, because if my generation has not seen Hijrat, I am sure most of the people on this forum must not have seen it. We all were born and raised in Pakistan. Hijrat ended with the preceding generation.

 

[Kabira]

I've been living in lahore for the past 2 years (on/off) and to be honest I've not encountered any discrimination (yes ethnic discrimination)... I have Pashtun Frnds here in lahore from Chaman and even as far as South Waziistan (educated folks)... And they can attet to that ... Apart from stereotypical joke (between frnds) there is no hostility .. We even have an urdu speaking frnd (his grandparents migrated from bikaner,Rajhistan india.. He also claims Pashtuns descent lol).


The issues highlighted in the article seem more like trader vs trader conflict (which I've witnessed here too) rather than racial discrimination.

But than again you will find arseholes everywhere in the world.

@ghilzai. Alaka you really need to visit lahore ..

yeah this is what I expect. People are giving ethnic colour to crackdown of illegal afghani muhajirs after Peshawar attack.

 

[ghilzai]

People like you are the reason ANP thrives in KPK and Karachi by playing ethinc shyte. People like you were the followers of khan abdul ghaffar khan aka Bacha khan who opposed pakistan and supported pashtoonistan.

Wow you have great imagination, if we wanted pushtoonistan then we would have that long ago.

When you can't defend your discrimination and crimes you committed against this country then you bring people like ghaffar khan in to the mix.

 

[DESERT FIGHTER]

People like you are the reason ANP thrives in KPK and Karachi by playing ethinc shyte. People like you were the followers of khan abdul ghaffar khan aka Bacha khan who opposed pakistan and supported pashtoonistan.

Pashtoonistan was a dead bird and had no support (hence died a natural death)...

As for Bacha Lhan or Ghaffar Khan .. One can say tht try had their opinions and thinkings just like Maulana Azad or Maududi .. and their supporters who came to Pak till decades after independence ..

So lay the issue to rest!

Pakistani cities are for Pak .. And what I observe here in Islamabad and Pindi is that it's very important to break stereotype and live peacefully side by side .. Today Rwp and Islamabad are multiethnic cities in the true sense and nobody complains here .

I have frnds from almost every corner of the country .. Yes we joke .. We mock the Kashmiri (my fnd) about the lack of courage,we joke the punjabi abt his accent .. The Sindhi abou being dark or miser (lol).. The Karachiite about being a bhaiya .. The guy fom Potohar about being a bapa... And so on .. And yet we hang out together .. Talk about chicks and politics and so on!


We should grow out of this ethnic BS and contribute positively instead!

We are different yet we are the same .. We are the sons of the soil !

 

[FaujHistorian]

I've been living in lahore for the past 2 years (on/off) and to be honest I've not encountered any discrimination (yes ethnic discrimination)... I have Pashtun Frnds here in lahore from Chaman and even as far as South Waziistan (educated folks)... And they can attet to that ... Apart from stereotypical joke (between frnds) there is no hostility .. We even have an urdu speaking frnd (his grandparents migrated from bikaner,Rajhistan india.. He also claims Pashtuns descent lol).


The issues highlighted in the article seem more like trader vs trader conflict (which I've witnessed here too) rather than racial discrimination.

But than again you will find arseholes everywhere in the world.

@ghilzai. Alaka you really need to visit lahore ..

Many of our family friends who moved from Karachi to Lahore

They say just one thing!

heaven!

Lahore is heaven for them in terms of living conditions.

 

[RazorMC]

@Kolachi Punjabi
It is about the time we start identifying ourselves as Pakistanis rather then Pakhtoon, punjabi, muhajir, etc.

Over the period of time urdu speaking, including me, should stop identifying themselves as Muhajir, because if my generation has not seen Hijrat, I am sure most of the people on this forum must not have seen it. We all were born and raised in Pakistan. Hijrat ended with the preceding generation.

I don't think there's anything wrong with identifying oneself with any ethnic background. I'm proud of my culture and heritage. Just as long we are Pakistanis first and ethnic second.

PS: Afghans should not cry about discrimination. You can't spew garbage for Pakistan and expect everyone to love you. Go back to whoever will accomodate you lot: Iran or India or whoever. Let's see who tolerates you.

Many of our family friends who moved from Karachi to Lahore

They say just one thing!

heaven!

Lahore is heaven for them in terms of living conditions.

Insecurity and bhatta-khori are what prevent me from going back to Karachi. If I had a foot-hold in Lahore, I'd jump on in a hearbeat.
I love my Karachi, but someone messed it up

 

[FaujHistorian]

Insecurity and bhatta-khori are what prevent me from going back to Karachi. If I had a foot-hold in Lahore, I'd jump on in a hearbeat.
I love my Karachi, but someone messed it up

bhai jaan

yes. hopefully soon.

We are leaving the lights on for you and everyone else who wants to move to Karachi the city of lights

 

[DESERT FIGHTER]

I don't think there's anything wrong with identifying oneself with any ethnic background. I'm proud of my culture and heritage. Just as long we are Pakistanis first and ethnic second.

PS: Afghans should not cry about discrimination. You can't spew garbage for Pakistan and expect everyone to love you. Go back to whoever will accomodate you lot: Iran or India or whoever. Let's see who tolerates you.

Yara honestly speaking .. That's not the fault of afghani refugees living here ..
I had a few afghani frnds in school and college .. born and raised here and had either never visited Afghanistan or faced the same shit in Afghabistan .. In Afghabistan thy are considered Pak and in Pak thy are considered Afghanis.

It's time either we give them NICs and deport them .. These ppl have been living here for decades .. Today their 3rd generations are born here .. And in one way or the other they have stakes here too.

 

[Devil Soul]

i am of the view that if one is holding a Pakistan ID card, he should be treated as a Pakistani Citizen, regardless of which ethnic background he/she belongs to, but the prob here is that a lot of Afghans have settled in Pakistan among Pakistan Pathuns and since their was no mechanism in place from start on how to keep a track of all Afghans, we are facing this dilemma...
... i tried to open a Bank account with a local bank, but was refused on the grounds that since i hold a NICOP (Overseas Pak ID) and not Local Pak issued ID .. i need to open a foreign currency ac .. WTF this is racist & discrimination...Well its time to jump on to bash band wagon & start bashing the sys,.... naaah i enjoyed it & joked around with the bank staff... take it easy guys .. till date i dont have a Pak Bank AC ...

BTW my Mom's Grandmother was Pathan & my Mom's Grandfather was Kashmiri..both Pakistanis from centuries.... neva faced discrimination in my life....i am settled in Lahore i consider myself Punjabi ..lol

 

[RazorMC]

Yara honestly speaking .. That's not the fault of afghani refugees living here ..
I had a few afghani frnds in school and college .. born and raised here and had either never visited Afghanistan or faced the same shit in Afghabistan .. In Afghabistan thy are considered Pak and in Pak thy are considered Afghanis.

It's time either we give them NICs and deport them .. These ppl have been living here for decades .. Today their 3rd generations are born here .. And in one way or the other they have stakes here too.

Good point, it is indeed not their fault if their parents chose to come to Pakistan.

But they are still refugees and they have been allowed to live in Pakistan for too long. They abused the protection allowed them and illegally moved to other areas where keeping track has become impossible. Why not go back willingly and build their country with honor and dignity?

Perhaps I wouldn't mind a long-term stay permit, but I am against issuing citizenship and NIC to them.

 

[Winchester]

What should be avoided at all costs is ghettoization like what has happened in Khi!
I have lived in Lahore too but i find Isb/Pindi to be much more multicultural.
Lot more Pakhtuns,Urdu Speaking even Baltis here as compared to Lhr.

 

[DRaisinHerald]

BTW i'm from karachi and half urdu-speaking

You only speak half the language? Or only one half of you speaks Urdu and the other doesn't? Split personality disorder?

 

[Kabira]

What should be avoided at all costs is ghettoization like what has happened in Khi!
I have lived in Lahore too but i find Isb/Pindi to be much more multicultural.
Lot more Pakhtuns,Urdu Speaking even Baltis here as compared to Lhr.

To be honest I expect ISB to be much more diverse because its federal capital, it represents well diversity of country in terms of % of different areas. But Lahore have all kind of ethnic groups as well. But in Pindi % of pakhtuns will be higher because Lahore is already much bigger city. So even if same amount of pakhtuns migrated to Lahore overall % will be less. So Pindi and Lahore are diverse on similar level but ISB is much more diverse because its federal capital.

People are ignoring this part

"When contacted, Superintendent Police Liaquat Malik tried to downplay the ethnic dimension of the issue. “Look, the Afghans have become a necessary part of our society. If you were to remove them all, some 75 per cent of Lahore’s businesses would disappear. But there are several Afghan bastis (settlements) in Lahore and 28 of them have been marked as sensitive by intelligence agencies. There was no mechanism for data collection for these Afghans, so we don’t really know how many people are living in these areas. It can become an easy sanctuary for terrorists.”

I read similar article on Peshawar where most of shops are owned by Afghani muhajirs.

 

[Kolachi Punjabi]

To be honest I expect ISB to be much more diverse because its federal capital, it represents well diversity of country in terms of % of different areas. But Lahore have all kind of ethnic groups as well. But in Pindi % of pakhtuns will be higher because Lahore is already much bigger city. So even if same amount of pakhtuns migrated to Lahore overall % will be less. So Pindi and Lahore are diverse on similar level but ISB is much more diverse because its federal capital.

Karachi is most diverse, we have people from everywhere, people have misnomer that everybody here is urdu-speaking

same thing in karachi, majority of shops i been to were owned by Pashtuns and cabs,buses,rickshaws were all driven by pashtuns; security guards and drivers are also most Pashtuns or Azad Kashmiris

You only speak half the language? Or only one half of you speaks Urdu and the other doesn't? Split personality disorder?

lol i meant in an ethnic sense, in pakistan "urdu-speaking" is another name for "mohajirs", my mother's parents were mohajirs and my father is Punjabi

 

[Kambojaric]

I feel Lahoris tend to be very nationalistic and xenophobic, things which aren't common in the rest of Punjab. And of course they are finding soft targets now.

I dont agree with that. Im a Lahori, my cousin is married to a Pashtun, my aunt is married to a Bihari, my maternal grandmothers family are Kashmiris. Such mixtures are very common thing in Lahore @Armstrong . Throughout my childhood I never saw any discrimination against non Punjabis or non Lahoris for that matter. Heck one of my dads best friends family from androon shehr had migrated there from Delhi in 1947. I never knew or realized this till I was in my late teens cuz none of our elders ever said that they were different from us.