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Pakistan's military has no record of its heroes
ISLAMABAD - When a young Peshawar-based banker decided to use his multimedia skills to launch a Web site honouring Pakistan’s heroes who received the nation’s highest military award for the ultimate sacrifice, he had no idea he was in for a rude shock.
Mr Umer Akhtar Baloch discovered that apart from a handful of famous heroes, none of the relevant military departments had any real pictures for the nation’s heroes who gave their lives for the homeland. They might be buried deep in records but none were available where they count the most: in public. The worst part was that when he did receive a CD from the military’s media wing in Rawalpindi, it contained the exact same sketches for a handful of the heroes that can be easily found on Google.
This is why a picture of Pakistan’s Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Noman Bashir visiting a memorial hall for fallen sailors at the US Naval Academy on March 22 angered Mr Baloch so much that he decided to break his silence. The picture, reproduced here from US Embassy’s media handouts, showed Admiral Bashir attentively listening to a US sailor describing a plaque decorated with the names of every US sailor who died fighting for his or her country. “I was livid,” says Mr Baloch. “I was thinking, look at our naval chief with that solemn face expression. I can bet we don’t even have a record anywhere celebrating all those Pakistanis who died for our homeland.”
Last year, when the Pakistani military launched a successful military action to rid Swat of terror bandits, the military spokesman, DG ISPR, published a letter in several newspapers aimed at refreshing the memory of the tradition of military heroism in Pakistan’s armed forces. But many Pakistanis were shocked to see that the only example that the military spokesman could find on this heroism was a story of how a US Army officer saved a dying soldier in Vietnam. Readers sent in letters chiding the spokesman for not quoting from the illustrious history of the Pakistani armed forces.
If anyone sitting anywhere in the world today wanted to read about Pakistan’s military heroes, or any other heroes for that matter, including the heroes of the Pakistan Independence Movement, not the Government of Pakistan nor the Pakistan Armed Forces have a single product that could satisfy those who surf the worldwide information superhighway.
A single page on the PakistanArmy.gov.pk provides a modest listing of eleven recipients of Nishan-e-Haider, Pakistan’s highest military honour. Each entry comes with a single coloured sketch of the hero with a single-paragraph introduction written in an uninspiring language.
Peshawar’s Mr Baloch started his search with Major Raja Aziz Bhatti, a Nishan-e-Haider and hero of the 1965 war against India. The ISPR could not help him find a picture for Major Bhatti. After a long search online, one of his friends was able to find a real picture for the fallen hero from a patriot who is based in Quetta who created a website called HamaraQuetta.com
Mr. Baloch explains his odyssey in the following words:
“I am a banker by profession and a web / multimedia designer by hobby. A few days back I was just surfing around Youtube and I found an audio clip containing the last communication of Air Force Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas Shaheed with the control tower just before his martyrdom. The clip gave me an idea to do a multimedia project on all Nishan-e-Haider-holding Officers. To do this, I started my search for the material over the internet and to my surprise I found no real pictures of our National Heroes anywhere. All I found were those tacky coloured sketches. I was very disappointed and I contacted ISPR for the real photographs from their archives. ISPR responded and a Colonel sahab called me up and assured me that they will provide me with the real photographs. After many reminders I finally received a CD from ISPR and I was ecstatic. But when I checked the CD it had those same coloured sketches. I called the Col. sahab in ISPR and told him these sketches are available over the internet I need the real photographs and the reply of Col. sahab was, “banda to pehchana jata hai na” (‘It’s enough that you can recognize the man from the sketch’
. This line hurt me so much.
“I again emailed a photograph of Maj. Raja Aziz Bhatti Shaheed (the only real photograph I have found so far after so many sleepless nights) to him and said that I need pictures like these. I said you people must have a record of all your fallen officers and soldiers. To my surprise Col. sahab called me up and said, “with the passage of time we have lost all the record.”
Mr Baloch goes on: “ What is this? We don’t even have a single photograph of our national heroes? Honestly I felt like crying. We have preserved nothing for our new generation. Those nations vanish from the face of the earth that cannot preserve their proud history. I felt so helpless and hurt, not because I can’t complete my project, but because of the pathetic situation where we don’t the pictures of our national heroes.
I contacted the National Archives in Islamabad many times for the pictures but they don’t even reply. I have decided now that I will dedicate all my web and multimedia skills to preserve the heroes of our nation by starting a website named www.nishanehaider.com.pk. Please help me if with any pictures and records that you might have access to.”
The above is an excerpt from Mr. Baloch’s email. It is high time that the Pakistani state created an integrated electronic and physical memorial for the fallen heroes of Pakistan.
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/31-Mar-2010/Pakistans-military-has-no-record-of-its-heroes
ISLAMABAD - When a young Peshawar-based banker decided to use his multimedia skills to launch a Web site honouring Pakistan’s heroes who received the nation’s highest military award for the ultimate sacrifice, he had no idea he was in for a rude shock.
Mr Umer Akhtar Baloch discovered that apart from a handful of famous heroes, none of the relevant military departments had any real pictures for the nation’s heroes who gave their lives for the homeland. They might be buried deep in records but none were available where they count the most: in public. The worst part was that when he did receive a CD from the military’s media wing in Rawalpindi, it contained the exact same sketches for a handful of the heroes that can be easily found on Google.
This is why a picture of Pakistan’s Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Noman Bashir visiting a memorial hall for fallen sailors at the US Naval Academy on March 22 angered Mr Baloch so much that he decided to break his silence. The picture, reproduced here from US Embassy’s media handouts, showed Admiral Bashir attentively listening to a US sailor describing a plaque decorated with the names of every US sailor who died fighting for his or her country. “I was livid,” says Mr Baloch. “I was thinking, look at our naval chief with that solemn face expression. I can bet we don’t even have a record anywhere celebrating all those Pakistanis who died for our homeland.”
Last year, when the Pakistani military launched a successful military action to rid Swat of terror bandits, the military spokesman, DG ISPR, published a letter in several newspapers aimed at refreshing the memory of the tradition of military heroism in Pakistan’s armed forces. But many Pakistanis were shocked to see that the only example that the military spokesman could find on this heroism was a story of how a US Army officer saved a dying soldier in Vietnam. Readers sent in letters chiding the spokesman for not quoting from the illustrious history of the Pakistani armed forces.
If anyone sitting anywhere in the world today wanted to read about Pakistan’s military heroes, or any other heroes for that matter, including the heroes of the Pakistan Independence Movement, not the Government of Pakistan nor the Pakistan Armed Forces have a single product that could satisfy those who surf the worldwide information superhighway.
A single page on the PakistanArmy.gov.pk provides a modest listing of eleven recipients of Nishan-e-Haider, Pakistan’s highest military honour. Each entry comes with a single coloured sketch of the hero with a single-paragraph introduction written in an uninspiring language.
Peshawar’s Mr Baloch started his search with Major Raja Aziz Bhatti, a Nishan-e-Haider and hero of the 1965 war against India. The ISPR could not help him find a picture for Major Bhatti. After a long search online, one of his friends was able to find a real picture for the fallen hero from a patriot who is based in Quetta who created a website called HamaraQuetta.com
Mr. Baloch explains his odyssey in the following words:
“I am a banker by profession and a web / multimedia designer by hobby. A few days back I was just surfing around Youtube and I found an audio clip containing the last communication of Air Force Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas Shaheed with the control tower just before his martyrdom. The clip gave me an idea to do a multimedia project on all Nishan-e-Haider-holding Officers. To do this, I started my search for the material over the internet and to my surprise I found no real pictures of our National Heroes anywhere. All I found were those tacky coloured sketches. I was very disappointed and I contacted ISPR for the real photographs from their archives. ISPR responded and a Colonel sahab called me up and assured me that they will provide me with the real photographs. After many reminders I finally received a CD from ISPR and I was ecstatic. But when I checked the CD it had those same coloured sketches. I called the Col. sahab in ISPR and told him these sketches are available over the internet I need the real photographs and the reply of Col. sahab was, “banda to pehchana jata hai na” (‘It’s enough that you can recognize the man from the sketch’
. This line hurt me so much. “I again emailed a photograph of Maj. Raja Aziz Bhatti Shaheed (the only real photograph I have found so far after so many sleepless nights) to him and said that I need pictures like these. I said you people must have a record of all your fallen officers and soldiers. To my surprise Col. sahab called me up and said, “with the passage of time we have lost all the record.”
Mr Baloch goes on: “ What is this? We don’t even have a single photograph of our national heroes? Honestly I felt like crying. We have preserved nothing for our new generation. Those nations vanish from the face of the earth that cannot preserve their proud history. I felt so helpless and hurt, not because I can’t complete my project, but because of the pathetic situation where we don’t the pictures of our national heroes.
I contacted the National Archives in Islamabad many times for the pictures but they don’t even reply. I have decided now that I will dedicate all my web and multimedia skills to preserve the heroes of our nation by starting a website named www.nishanehaider.com.pk. Please help me if with any pictures and records that you might have access to.”
The above is an excerpt from Mr. Baloch’s email. It is high time that the Pakistani state created an integrated electronic and physical memorial for the fallen heroes of Pakistan.
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/31-Mar-2010/Pakistans-military-has-no-record-of-its-heroes
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