My New Letter Series – Dear Zafar Hilaly, You Are One Of A Kind In A Country of Unique Similarities

When rhetoric dominates reform, nations debate language while structural crises deepen

February 14, 2026

Dear Zafar Hilaly,

Zafar bhai, you’re a career diplomat who speaks English, the British English sans the cockney touch, a little better than Urdu, and Pakistan is fortunate you’re one of them! Think about it! You speak English (which is a rarity in itself, considering most people don’t even speak Urdu; Punjabi is the only language your people seem to know)!! Anyways, you already know that! The problem with this is English, or the lack of English in the common populace, is the least of the problems you have to face!! I understand!!

Zaffu, 80% (and I am being conservative) of the people, you call fellow country people, can’t understand a word of what you say, regardless of whether you speak in English or Urdu! If it was in English, it would have gone right over their heads, for obvious reasons! If it was Urdu, they didn’t understand your Urdu. You also made the Urdu Professors wince!!

People generally talk about your country’s economic “issues”, as if these could be rid of just with the liquidation of your country’s “natural resources”! Some even went so far as to say these natural resources would be well over 10 trillion USD!! You, on the other hand, were a little more conservative! You said it was probably worth about 2 trillion USD!! Your logic was right!! These “natural” resources (not sure what they actually are, but I am sure these are valuable anyway), however, are in areas that are now claiming they’re not a part of your country! The gall of these ungrateful people!! So what if a few (million) people were killed by the extremely brave army, led by the highest caliber of people (like Yahya Khan, Zia Ul Huq, Bajwa, Asim Munir, and a host of others)? Balochs have never been a grateful people. I mean, how can they claim they were never in favor of God’s Own Country??? What? Is the US God’s Own Country? Ok, Allah’s own country! What? Is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Allah’s own country? Then, what is Pakistan? Oh, I see, no one knows!! Movin’ on!!

Hilali, Solving today’s problems using day after tomorrow’s solutions is generally the industry’s methodology; that’s called futuristic thinking. However, your country has believed in solving yesterday’s problems using solutions from 1400+ years ago! How 1400+, you ask? I am sure you can figure it out!! The fact is, and I am sure you’ll agree, any solutions (whether present-day or 1400 years old) are better than the present-day solutions that Moody’s India can come up with!

You talk so much about Moody (I assume you mean the Indian PM, but who knows!) and how he’s ruining Pakistan’s future. You’re absolutely right! Moody, er Modi, has an ONLY one point agenda: ruin Pakistan! Even if that means ruining India! Why doesn’t Moody stop, you ask? Moody is to Pakistan what..never mind!!

Your people talk about the Arab countries and claim that “Blood is thicker than water”. The actual saying is a little (well, okay, direct opposite ) different: “the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb,” which has the opposite meaning of the modern saying. The original phrase suggests that bonds made through a shared “covenant” (like soldiers in battle) are stronger than those of “the water of the womb” (birth or family ties)! Zaffu, this was said a year before you were born (at least it feels like it)

You have never fought a battle, let alone a war, alongside the Arabs! You have killed thousands of Arabs (courtesy Zia), but that’s water under the bridge!! We don’t need to revisit history. However, it needs emphasis as, yes, you got it right, Zaffy, those who forget history will repeat it!!!

Anyways, enough of me pontificating. You will have tons to say, although it will be a bastardized recitation of history and how the world has been misled by the version of history that India has propagated. You will probably talk about Gandhi (not the Gandhi family that wants power, but the one who talked about Ahimsa. The old guy didn’t know what Ahimsa actually is! But that’s for my next letter to that person. Till then, take care of yourself, Zaf!

Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.

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