April 26, 2009 (23:20:52 +0500)

A CALL BY ARDESHIR COWASJEE,COLUMNIST OF “DAWN”

Dear All

Sorry for the mass email, but I think the time has come for us silent majority to speak up about what is happening here in Pakistan. We have no time to lose, every day we are losing more of our territory to those who do not believe in the sovereignty of Pakistan, and they are not going to stop in their war for power…please don’t forget, this war is not about religion but it is all about power. Never confuse the two.

A group of us concerned citizens has come up with a plan which we hope will mobilise people and put all state institutions into action, which is what we desperately need. Attached is a letter written by a lawyer friend of ours.

For those of us in Pakistan, the plan is that everyone forwards this letter and plan to as many like minded individuals as they can. We then gather together at our respective GPO (General Post Office. We need to be in thousands. We get TV stations to film us all posting the letter. We also get people in as many cities to do the same at a set date and time.

For those of you who are not in Pakistan, if you want to be able to visit and bring your children to your homeland in the future, then you have to help us – otherwise, this country will not be a place that you can visit. The idea is that you print off and circulate this letter to as many Pakistanis as you know in any country of the world, and get them to also circulate and print this and send to the Pakistani High Commission/Embassy in your respective countries. If we can all do this on the same day that would be the best thing.

We propose Tuesday, 28th April 2009 as the date to send this letter. We have no time to waste.

Please circulate this to AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU KNOW

We need to lobby Government to do their job and enforce the writ of the State all over the country, not just in certain cities, and we need Government to kick the Army into action and get them to do their job which is to protect the sovereignty of Pakistan and protect the citizens of its country. Lastly, we need the Courts to protect fundamental human rights across the country in all provinces.

If you love Pakistan, and you want it to remain as the beautiful country that it is, then we need to put aside our differences and work together to bring peace and prosperity to all our citizens. This is not about being Punjabi, Pakhtun, Balochi, Sindhi, Mohajjir etc, this is about being Pakistani and protecting Pakistan. We are Pakistanis first and foremost, and this country should be run for the good of the Pakistanis as a whole. We need to stop this extremism which will only bring bloodshed and take us back 100 years at least – look at Afghanistan, it is still not able to progress even now. Pakistan has so much potential – we all need to value that and ensure that this country has the chance to progress.

Thank you for your time

Concerned Citizens