The Danda Youth of Pakistan

This group of young people usually come from urban middle class backgrounds. Their parents are rich enough to send them to private English medium schools, and when they are done with their A-levels, they try to get a student visa of some European country or US; if they remain unsuccessful in getting a student Visa, they go to some top notch private university of Pakistan. They love to go to Shesha bars of the city in the evening or if this luxury is inaccessible, they, in case of being a male creature, just love to go to some posh area of the city to have some "poondi". They are very happy of the fact that now Pakistani cinemas can play Bollywood movies. They are pissed of the fact that now there are less concerts to attend and those few concerts that are left have very expensive tickets. They remember the old times when their Danda Man was in power and Bryan Adams performed “Summer of 69” in Karachi.

They think there is a lot of corruption in Pakistan. Wherever they go, they find people with their mouths open asking for some “mithai” for the jobs like to get their electricity meter fixed or to get their domicile made which is needed if they want to attend public medical or engineering school . They recognize that “mithai” is bad for health, and they also know that if they would give “mithai” to the official with open mouth, he or she would get addict. But they say that as long as we are the one who are giving this “mithai” and the officials are the people who are getting this “mithai”, this is just fine. They believe that they should get the easy way out by offering this “mithai” because the fair way is difficult time taking. The remember the old times when Danda was in the power and amount of “mithai” required to get a job done was less than it is today. Like, before, because of the Danda one kilogram of pure “Gulabjamuns” were enough to get their electricity meter fixed; now, it takes no less than two and half kilogram of pure “Gulabjamuns” to get their shit done. They want somebody to bring the old Danda again, but they are not willing to use the difficult and the right way; they only way they want is the easy way. They say that this is what their fathers did, and this is what they will do.


They think that the country is going through worst of its times. They hate the politicians. They believe that they are only good for corruption and nothing else. They say that they didn’t casted their vote because everyone is a “Kamina, Saala, Corrupt” and they are the poor souls who can only offer “mithai” to those who want it. They think that they can't do anything about the current state of their country because those in power are so powerful that they are just unable to do anything about that. Whenever you start discussion about the current affairs of the State with them, they stand up and in a loud growling voice, they say “ is mulk ka Kuch nahi hu sakta” ( nothing can be done of this country). They say the “Danda Man” kept everything in order. So what, if he allowed his allies to write-off the loans they had taken. At least, they didn’t build a “Surrey Palace” with that money; in fact, they started sugar mills as we all know that we need a lot of sugar for export, rather than for use at home.

They say that there were suicide bombings in the country on weekly basis during the Danda Raj. Now, they occur on daily basis. They ask the current Raj to do something about it and forget that the seeds of this problem were sown a long ago.


They say that all this “Democracy Shemocracy” is bullshit. They only want a Danda Man because they are horses tied to a carriage and you can’t drive a carriage without a Man with Danda.

On serious note: Alas! There are people in this “Land of Pure” who think they need a Danda.