Loud Thinking

Archive for February, 2015

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”

—Nelson Mandela (1918-2013)
Former President Of South Africa

THE MANAGEMENT TIP OF THE DAY: Harvard Business Review

February 5, 2015

The Right Way to Finish a Project

The final stage in the life cycle of a project is the phase out, during which your team completes its work. If all went as planned, it’s time to celebrate. But if you (more likely) hit some rough spots along the way – say, the project ran past deadline or exceeded the budget – it’s still important to recognize the team’s efforts and accomplishments. Before the team moves on to other projects, debrief and document the process together so that lessons learned can be shared. Conduct a post-project evaluation – one last meeting to identify what went well and what went wrong. Make a list of best practices to help future projects go more smoothly. Discuss how to improve the process and avoid problems during the next project. Since people can lose perspective after working so closely together, consider bringing in an outside facilitator to objectively assess the information.

Adapted from “Managing Projects (20-Minute Manager Series).”

Ban Ki-moon Kashmiris are not asking for the Moon :

An Open Letter to Mr. Ban Ki-moon Secretary General of the UNO..!

Posted at www.snayyar.com by Syed Nayyar Uddin on May 3, 2014 in Counter Terrorism, India Peace and Pakistan, Indian Genocide in Kashmir, International Affairs, My Views, Pakistan

Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-moon,

Greetings.

Pakistan is extremely grateful for your visit, particularly for being the chief guest at our Independence Day celebrations, on 14th August 2013.

As it may be already very well in your knowledge that UN has described the 8,00,000 Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, being tortured, displaced, faced travel and trade limitations, murders, now Rohingya Muslims face child-limitation policies as well.

Similarly, over 10 million Kashmiri Muslim population living since 1947 under Indian occupation forces, are the most persecuted MAJORITY in the world. The list of humanly unimaginable atrocities perpetrated for the last almost seven decades, is so long that its compilation will be more voluminous, than the final print edition of 2010 of 32-volume set of Encyclopaedia Britannica.

However, just to refresh the serious human rights violations committed by the Indian military, para military and other forces on the Kashmiri Muslim unarmed children, ladies and men, a very concise but an eye opening report compiled from the wikipedia is submitted as below:

“This article is about Human rights abuses in Indian-administered portion of Kashmir.
Human rights abuses
Human rights abuses in Jammu and Kashmir, a disputed territory administered by India, are an ongoing issue. The abuses range from mass killings, forced disappearances, torture, rape and sexual abuse to political repression and suppression offreedom of speech. The Indian central reserve police force, border security personnel and various militant groups have been accused and held accountable for committing severe human rights abuses against Kashmiri civilians. A WikiLeaks issue accused India of systemic human rights abuses, it stated that US diplomats possessed evidence of the apparent wide spread use of torture by Indian police and security forces.

A US state government finding reports that the Indian army in Jammu and Kashmir, has carried out extrajudicial killings of innocent civilians.
In 2010, statistics presented to the Indian government’s Cabinet Committee on Security showed that for the first time since the 1980s, the number of civilian deaths attributed to the Indian forces was higher than those attributed to terrorist actions.

Thousands of Kashmiris have reported to be killed by Indian security forces in custody, extradjudicial executions and enforced disappearances and these human right violations are said to be carried out by Indian security forces under total impunity. Civilians including women and children have been killed in “reprisal” attacks by Indian security forces and as a “collective punishment” villages and neighbourhoods have been burn down and women raped.

International NGO’s as well as the US State Department have documented human rights abuses including disappearances, torture and arbitrary executions carried out during India’s counter terrorism operations. United Nations has expressed serious concerns over large number of killings by Indian security forces.
Human Rights groups have also accused the Indian security forces of using child soldiers, although the Indian government denies this allegation. Torture, widely used by Indian security, the severity described as beyond comprehension by amnesty international has been responsible for the huge number of deaths in custody.

The Telegraph, citing a WikiLeaks report quotes the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that Indian security forces were physically abusing detainees by beatings, electrocutions and sexual interference. These detainees weren’t Islamic insurgents or Pakistani-backed insurgents but civilians, in contrast to India’s continual allegations of Pakistani involvement. The detainees were “connected to or believed to have information about the insurgents”. According to ICRC, 681 of the 1296 detainees whom it interviewed claimed torture.

US officials have been quoted reporting “terrorism investigations and court cases tend to rely upon confessions, many of which are obtained under duress if not beatings, threats, or in some cases torture.

Amnesty International accused security forces of exploiting the Armed Forces Special Powers Act that enables them to “hold prisoners without trial”. The group argues that the law, which allows security to detain individuals for as many as two years “without presenting charges, violating prisoners’ human rights”.

Indian Army

The soldiers of the 4th Rajputana Rifles of the Indian Army on 23 February 1991 launched a search operation in a village Kunan Poshpora, in the Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir and allegedly gang raped 53 women of all ages. Human Rights organizations including Human Rights Watch have reported that the number of raped women could be as high as 100. The Indian Army is also accused of many massacres such as Bomai Killing, 2009, Gawakadal massacre,2006 Kulgam massacre, Zakoora And Tengpora Massacre, 1990, Sopore massacre. They also didn‘t spared the health care system of the valley. The major hospitals witnessed the crackdowns and army men even entered the operation theatres in search of terrorist patients.

Border Security Force

On 22 October 1993, the 13th Battalion of the Border Security Forces was accused of arbitrarily firing on a crowd and killing 37 civilians in Bijbehara. The number of reported dead and wounded vary by source. Amnesty International reported that at least 51 people died and 200 were wounded on that day.
The Indian government conducted two official enquiries and the National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC) conducted a third. In March 1994 the government indicted the Border Security Force (BSF) for firing into the crowd “without provocation” and charged 13 BSF officers with murder. In another incident which took place at Handwara on 25 January 1990, 9 protesters where killed by the same unit.

Central Reserve Police Force

During the Amarnath land transfer controversy more than 40 unarmed protesters were killed by the personnels of Central Reserve Police Force. At least 300 were detained under Public Safety Act, including teenagers. The same practice was again repeated by the personnels of the Central Reserve Police Force, during the 2010 Kashmir Unrest, which resulted in 112 deaths, including many teenager protesters at various incidents.

Special Operations Group

The Special Operations Group was raised in 1994 for counter terrorism. A volunteer force, mainly came for promotions and cash rewards, comprising police officers and policemen from the Jammu and Kashmir Police. The group is accused of torture and custodial killings. A Senior Superintendent of this group and his deputy are among the 11 personnels, who were convicted for a fake encounter, which killed a local carpenter, and was labelled as a millitant to get the promotions and rewards.
Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958

Main article: Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958

In July 1990 Indian Armed Forces were given special powers under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) that gives protection to Indian Armed Forces personnel from being prosecuted. The law provides them a shield, when committing human rights violations and has been criticised by Human Rights Watch as being wrongly used by the forces. This law is widely condemned by human rights groups. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay has urged India to repeal AFSPA and to investigate the disappearances in Kashmir.
“All three special laws in force in the state assist the government in shielding the perpetrators of human rights violations from prosecution, and encourage them to act with impunity. Provisions of the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act clearly contravene international human rights standards laid down in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as members of the UN Human Rights Committee have pointed out. One Committee member felt that provisions of the act – including imunity from prosecution – were highly dangerous and encouraged violations of the right to life“.

—A clipping from a report published by the Amnesty International, 1995.

According to the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), in an area that is proclaimed as “disturbed”, an officer of the armed forces has powers to:

Fire upon or use other kinds of force even if it causes death, against the person who is acting against law or order in the disturbed area for the maintenance of public order, after giving such due warning.

Destroy any arms dump, prepared or fortified position or shelter or training camp from which armed attacks are made by the armed volunteers or armed gangs or absconders wanted for any offence.

To arrest without a warrant anyone who has committed cognizable offences or is reasonably suspected of having done so and may use force if needed for the arrest.

To enter and search any premise in order to make such arrests, or to recover any person wrongfully restrained or any arms, ammunition or explosive substances and seize it.

Stop and search any vehicle or vessel reasonably suspected to be carrying such person or weapons.

Any person arrested and taken into custody under this Act shall be made over to the officer in charge of the nearest police station with the least possible delay, together with a report of the circumstances occasioning the arrest.
Army officers have legal immunity for their actions. There can be no prosecution, suit or any other legal proceeding against anyone acting under that law. Nor is the government’s judgment on why an area is found to be disturbed subject to judicial review.

Protection of persons acting in good faith under this Act from prosecution, suit or other legal proceedings, except with the sanction of the Central Government, in exercise of the powers conferred by this Act.

Fake encounters

According to the Srinagar-based Association of Parents of Displaced Persons (APDP), a minimum of 8,000 people have disappeared since the insurgency began. In February 2003, the government of India-administered Kashmir, led by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, told the state legislative assembly that 3,744 people were missing.

Hundreds of civilian’s including women and children have been reported to be extrajudicially executed by Indian security forces and killings concealed as fake encounters. Despite government denial, Indian security officials have reportedly confessed to human right watch of widespread occurrence of fake encounters and its encouragement for awards and promotions. According to a BBC interview with an anonymous security person, ‘fake encounter’ killings are those in which security personnel kill someone in cold blood while claiming that the casualty occurred in a gun battle. It also asserts that the security personnel are Kashmiris and “even surrendered militants”.

In 2010 three men were reported missing proceeding these missing reports 3 men claimed to be militants were killed in a staged gun battle the army also claimed they had found Pakistani currency among the dead. The major was subsequently suspended and a senior soldier transferred from his post. In 2011, a Special Police Officer and an Indian Army Jawan were charged by the Kashmir police for murder of a civilian whom the duo had killed in an encounter claiming that he was a top Lashkar-e-Taiba militant.

Disappearances

Indian security forces have been implicated in many reports for enforced disappearances of thousands of Kashmiris where the security forces deny having their information and/or custody. This is often in association with torture or extrajudicial killing. The number of men disappeared have been so many to have a new term “half-widows” for their wives who end up impoverished. Human right activists estimate the number of disappeared over eight thousand, last seen in government detention.These are believed to be dumped in thousands of mass graves across Kashmir.

Mass graves

Mass graves have been identified all over Kashmir by human right activists believed to contain bodies of thousands of Kashmiris of enforced disappearances. A state human rights commission inquiry confirmed there are thousands of bullet-ridden bodies buried in unmarked graves in Jammu and Kashmir. Of the 2730 bodies uncovered in 4 of the 14 districts, 574 bodies were identified as missing locals in contrast to the Indian governments insistence that all the graves belong to foreign militants. According to a new deposition submitted by Parvez Imroz and his field workers asserted that the total number of unmarked graves were about 6,000. The British parliament commented on the recent discovery and expressed its sadness and regret of over 6,000 unmarked graves. Christof Heyns, a special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, has warned India that “all of these draconian laws had no place in a functioning democracy and should be scrapped.”

Extrajudicial killings by security personnel
In a 1994 report, Human Rights Watch described summary executions of detainees as a “hallmark” of counter-insurgency operations by Indian security forces in Kashmir. The report further stated that such extrajudicial killings were often administered within hours of arrest, and were carried out not as aberrations but as a “matter of policy”. In a 1995 report, Amnesty International stated that hundred of civilians had been victims of such killings, which were often claimed by officers as occurring during “encounters” or “cross-fire”. A 2010 US state department report cited extrajudicial killings by security forces in areas of conflict such as Kashmir as a major human rights problem in India.

Suicide

According to a report, 17,000 people mostly women have committed suicide during the last 20 years in the Valley. According to a study by the Medecins Sans Frontieres,
“Women in Kashmir have suffered enormously since the separatist struggle became violent in 1989–90. Like the women in other conflict zones, they have been raped, tortured, maimed and killed. A few of them were even jailed for years together. Kashmiri women are among the worst sufferers of sexual violence in the world. ‘Sexual violence has been routinely perpetrated on Kashmiri women, with 11.6% of respondents saying they were victims of sexual abuse’,”

At the beginning of the insurgency there were 1200 patients in the valley‘s sole mental hospital. The hospital is now overcrowded with more than 100,000 patients.”

Mr. Secretary General, in view of the above extracts compiled by the International organisations, governments and the UNO, there is no doubt that the entire freedom loving world is witnessing a perpetual worst ever human rights violations (never witnessed by the humanity on this planet on a majority population of an specific area) by the Indian forces facilitated by the Indian government with the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), about which the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay has urged India to repeal AFSPA and to investigate the disappearances in Kashmir.
In view of the foregoing your Excellency is urgently requested to advise Indian government to immediately implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 47, adopted on April 21, 1948 and instructed the UN Commission to go to the subcontinent and help the governments of India and Pakistan restore peace and order to the region and prepare for a plebiscite to decide the fate of Kashmir.

As a first step India must withdraw over 7,00,000 forces personnel from occupied Kashmir. Remember, nowhere in the world repeat nowhere in the world so much troops are posted for just about 12.5 million population.

However, if the Indian government declines your request, the UN must come to the rescue of the most persecuted majority population of an specific area on this planet Earth; and initiate war crimes proceedings, on the pattern of Nuremberg war crimes tribunal, against all the Indian civil, military and other forces personnel, about whom all the crimes of GENOCIDE on Kashmiri people are very well documented in the archives of International Human Rights Organisations, world governments and the United Nations.

YOUR EXCELLENCY, LET NOT THE POSTERITY DOCUMENT THAT YOU SIDED WITH THE HOLOCAUST OFFENDERS OF INDIA AND FAILED TO USE YOUR INFLUENCE TO STOP GENOCIDE OF INNOCENT KIDS, WOMEN AND MEN DEMANDING THEIR LEGAL AND MORAL RIGHT OF SELF DETERMINATION.
REMEMBER KASHMIRI PEOPLE ARE NOT ASKING FOR THE MOON.

Best regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

All acid throwing cases must be tried by the military courts..!

By Colin Shaw

First impressions count.

When you start a job interview one of the first things you will do is shake your prospective employer’s hand. What impression will they get of you by doing this? Handshakes can indicate many things.

The strength of a handshake conveys a lot of information. From a firm to a limp handshake, each intensity communicates pertinent conscious and subconscious clues about your personality. It doesn’t take an expert to interpret these clues either. Anyone can tell you that a limp handshake is not a great first impression.

Handshakes can also symbolize important information. For example, at the conclusion of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit in mid-November, the importance of handshakes took center stage. From a reluctant handshake between the prime minister of Japan and the Chinese president to the choreographed approach of Barrack Obama, handshakes became an important demonstration of the power of body language.

An article in The Economist describes the significance of both handshakes. In the case of Japan, the handshake between Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping signified the triumph of diplomacy over conflict regarding a disputed island ownership between the two countries. Also, the article describes how President Barack Obama’s approach from the left gave him a “defensive position” toward the photographers. They compared his approach across the stage to the Chinese President to a metaphor for Obama’s paying tribute to his host.

Handshakes are a form of body language, and body language is an important part of the interview, too. From your handshake to your shaking hands, your body language is also sending signals for good or ill. Fidgeting, eye contact, the position of your hands above or below the table are all details communicating clues about you to the interviewer. Sometimes without either of you realizing it, as body language often has subconscious interpretation.

Body language is something we talk a lot with our clients about when we consult them on Customer Experience. How your team presents itself to customers can become an extension of your brand. At Beyond Philosophy, we often refer to these as White Coat Moments.

A White Coat Moment is defined as a person’s appearance helps others determine that person’s ability and personality. The name refers to the famous Milgram Studywhere participants administered what they thought were lethal shocks to a fellow participant when prompted by the authority in the “white lab coat.” Grim origins of the term aside, the white coat moment, has evolved to represent the branding moments of an experience. Examples of these moments could be how a Ritz Carlton employee responds with, “My pleasure,” to guests’ requests, or the subconscious reaction we have when we see the blue shirt worn by the Apple Genius at their retail store.

Body language is an important part of these white coat moments, particularly for your Customer Experience. Little things from eye contact to posture can convey signals to the Customer. If you don’t consider the signals sent by body language in your Customer Experience design and related training of your team, these signals might be the wrong ones.

Two organizations that understand this are Apple and Disney. In a past post, we have looked at how Apple trains their employees how to stand and gives them specific language to use when responding to customer objections. At Disney, they also define the white coat moments of their experience in detail as well. Moreover, they assess their employees by their body language. For example, if a Disney employee is caught leaning against the wall rather than standing straight, they will be marked down in the mystery shopping survey.

If we learned anything from the APEC summit last year, it is that there is meaning in everything we see from body language. Even something as benign as a handshake can have implications intended or otherwise. Body language also influences the Customer Experience, intended or otherwise as well.

Every impression you make at an interview counts. Be sure that you consider how your handshake and other body language signals become white coat moments for your interview experience–and make sure that you are sending out the right ones! You never know…you might handshake your way into a better job.

This article is published in collaboration with LinkedIn. Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

To keep up with the Agenda subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

Author: Colin Shaw is CEO of Beyond Philosophy

“When you are grateful — when you can see what you have — you unlock blessings to flow in your life.”

— Suze Orman

“No two leaves are alike, and yet there is no antagonism between them or between the branches on which they grow.”

—Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948)
Indian Political And Spiritual Leader

Terrorism is only temporary…Peace is forever..!

Sports is more powerful than government in uniting the people.

An Open letter to the Prime Minister of Pakistan on way forward in Sports

Honourable Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif Sahab,

AoA.

Sir, It may not be a news for you that Pakistanis are a true sports loving people. Nothing unites the nation more than the news of an international level victory in any sporting arena.

I am greatly surprised about the fact, that why our successive governments failed to channelise the energy of our youth, towards the various traditional and non traditional sports, to lure them away from the engulfing culture of drugs and related crimes.

It should also be understood that Pakistanis not just only love the sports, they also understand its very basics as well. While victories are celebrated like a festival, defeats suffered after putting up a good fight, are also duly appreciated. Nevertheless, the masses are so intelligent that they can easily smell the rat, when our teams lose to the minnows like Bangladesh, Ireland and Zimbabwe etc.

Similarly, the whole nation knows how politics coupled with corruption, has spoiled the sports in the country, which has earned the distinction of the worlds BIGGEST nation, NOT to have earned a single medal in the Olympics, since the year 1992.

While much smaller and poorer countries like Ethiopia and Kenya, have proved that winning medals at international levels is just a matter of commitment, dedication and simple hard work, sans politics.

In the past, luckily our cricket, hockey, squash and some other sporting teams and players have been bringing laurels for Pakistan; with very little money, extremely small size governing boards and minimal politics.

Gradually, the foundations of key sports in Pakistan were eaten up by the greed of money, rampant corruption, nepotism, politics and incompetencies of the successive governments, sports managers and the players combined.

If, we have to put the sports in Pakistan back on the right track, two basic things are necessary.

Firstly, a vision and secondly, visionary leaders, to put Pakistan back on top, at the worlds’ sports map. As far as, the vision is concerned, nothing ever said about sports can match the following quote of Mr. Nelson Mandela, “Sport has the power to change the world…it has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers.”

Now, taking a cue from the above mentioned statement of Mr. Nelson Mandela, it is suggested that Pakistani government should slightly re-phrase it and declare the following as its mission statement: “Sports has the power to change Pakistan…it has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite Pakistani people in a way that little else does. It speaks to the Pakistani youth in a language they understand. Sports can create hope for the entire Pakistani nation where once there was only despair, lawlessness, hunger, poverty, drugs, suicide bombings and alarming increase of suicides, due to the economic hardships. It is more powerful than government in breaking down the menace of terrorism which has blown the country to the smithereens.”

Coming to the visionary leadership, may be Pakistan is very lucky in the sense that its current Prime Minister, is himself a born sportsman. Moreover, if in the past, we had world class sports administrators cum leaders, like Syed Wajid Ali, AIS Dara, Brig. Rodham, AH Kardar, Air Marshal Noor Khan and last but not the least Zakir Hussain Syed; then even today we are lucky to have a great sports administrator cum leader (AVM Farooq Umar), who can be appointed as advisor to the PM, for revamping the entire sports canvas of Pakistan, in consultation with the provincial governments, all the sports governing bodies and sports lovers of the country.

The need for a dedicated advisor to the PM on sports matters is all the more urgent and necessary, keeping in view of the total collapse of the sports infrastructure and its out put in Pakistan, which needs immediate revamping, starting from the zero level. Never ever in the history of Pakistan, the performances of our players in all major and minor sports (Cricket, Hockey and Squash etc.) have gone so dismal, as it was today.

It is hoped that the above submissions, if juxtaposed with your recently announced package for youth, may bring the desired results for which, you have been dreaming about, for so long.

Wishing you all the success and Godspeed in your endeavours to turn around Pakistan, in all
the walks of life.

Younis Khan, we have had it

Noman Ansari Updated about 5 hours ago Dawn

Dear Younis Khan,

Let me start by saying I am a vocal fan of yours. Many would agree that you are one of the greatest test match batsmen to play for Pakistan and you are certainly our greatest test match batsmen at the moment.

But as good as you are at test match cricket, you are not a limited overs’ cricketer.

After you were last dropped from the ODI squad, you threw a very public tantrum.

This wasn’t unexpected; after all you’ve thrown many such tantrums before.

Here, the test match series followed against the Aussies and you scored heavily. While I cheered for you, I was weary.

I was weary of the smirk on your face that said: ‘See? Try dropping me now.’

I was also weary of those who used your test match performances as proof of your class as a limited overs cricketer.

Explore: Age of the Playerzilla

Of course, this makes as much sense as someone claiming a truck can drive on the 60-minute race track because it was so good at carrying a heavy load on a day-long journey from Karachi to Peshawar.

Younis, you sir are not a sports car. You are a truck.

A beautiful truck that is as good as any truck we’ve had in our history of cricket. But you are a truck nonetheless.

Here are the cold hard facts:

You’ve only scored one century and two fifties in recent times. The century you scored was painful to watch and wasn’t quick enough to win us the game.

Your overall strike rate stands at 75.31 when batsmen playing at number three from other nations are close to 100.

Meanwhile, your batting average is a poor 31.65. With all due respect to Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, and the West Indies, with your record, you’d be unable to automatically walk into their ODI teams either.

Fawad Alam is a much better accumulator
Perhaps what is worse is that by emotionally blackmailing your way into the World Cup team, you are keeping Fawad Alam, a more deserved player, out of the side.

Fawad Alam was dropped when you forced yourself in, and Moin Khan hinted at this in an interview with PakPassion.com

“As for Fawad Alam, look, he’s a good player but at the same time, you have to understand that this is a difficult decision for us. We have to make sure we have the right composition of players in the team. We cannot have too many similar players in the team.”

Like yourself, Fawad Alam is an accumulator of runs. But unlike you, he is a better accumulator.

What’s more, he can bowl and is an excellent fielder. Compared to your awful numbers, Fawad Alam seems like the Don Bradman of Pakistani ODI cricket.

Fawad’s batting average stands at 45.14 and he’s been Pakistan’s top scorer in the format for some time.

His exclusion also perplexed the intelligent former Indian skipper, Rahul Dravid, who said:

“He seems to have a fantastic record, but for some reason they don’t seem to pick him. I read somewhere, that they think that his game wasn’t going to be good enough in Australian conditions. That’s a presumption and they’re playing a lot of games in New Zealand.”

Also read: Why are we carrying this baggage to the World Cup?

Moin Khan’s reasoning that we can’t have too many players anchoring the innings bears logic. But in you Younis, we have the wrong anchor.

While Fawad keeps the boat steady, your chain is broken.

Even in the current squad, Sohaib Maqsood, a young aggressive batsmen has missed out on vital practice, while you’ve flopped in the four matches played in New Zealand so far.

Younis, what if everyone starts acting like you?
There could be many reasons why you can’t perform in the shorter format. Perhaps the white ball used in ODIs swings too much and exposes your technique. Perhaps the faster pace of the game is unsuitable to your style.

Frankly, it doesn’t matter, because you’ve been given enough chances, and have failed time and time again, especially at World Cups.

Also see: Younis deserves to play at the World Cup: Zaheer Abbas

At this time, I urge you to lose your ego and withdraw from the team, so someone like Fawad can take your place. Otherwise, this vicious cycle will continue. Four or even eight years from now, when Fawad Alam passes his prime, with this injustice still lingering in his mind, he too will refuse to leave the squad in favour of younger talent.

Younis, I can’t quite fathom why you insist at earning more chances. At the age of 37, perhaps you feel ashamed to admit that this format is beyond you. But there is no shame in accepting your limitations.

The only shame is in having yet another disastrous World Cup campaign.

Younis Khan, we have had it

Noman Ansari Updated about 5 hours ago Dawn

Dear Younis Khan,

Let me start by saying I am a vocal fan of yours. Many would agree that you are one of the greatest test match batsmen to play for Pakistan and you are certainly our greatest test match batsmen at the moment.

But as good as you are at test match cricket, you are not a limited overs’ cricketer.

After you were last dropped from the ODI squad, you threw a very public tantrum.

This wasn’t unexpected; after all you’ve thrown many such tantrums before.

Here, the test match series followed against the Aussies and you scored heavily. While I cheered for you, I was weary.

I was weary of the smirk on your face that said: ‘See? Try dropping me now.’

I was also weary of those who used your test match performances as proof of your class as a limited overs cricketer.

Explore: Age of the Playerzilla

Of course, this makes as much sense as someone claiming a truck can drive on the 60-minute race track because it was so good at carrying a heavy load on a day-long journey from Karachi to Peshawar.

Younis, you sir are not a sports car. You are a truck.

A beautiful truck that is as good as any truck we’ve had in our history of cricket. But you are a truck nonetheless.

Here are the cold hard facts:

You’ve only scored one century and two fifties in recent times. The century you scored was painful to watch and wasn’t quick enough to win us the game.

Your overall strike rate stands at 75.31 when batsmen playing at number three from other nations are close to 100.

Meanwhile, your batting average is a poor 31.65. With all due respect to Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, and the West Indies, with your record, you’d be unable to automatically walk into their ODI teams either.

Fawad Alam is a much better accumulator
Perhaps what is worse is that by emotionally blackmailing your way into the World Cup team, you are keeping Fawad Alam, a more deserved player, out of the side.

Fawad Alam was dropped when you forced yourself in, and Moin Khan hinted at this in an interview with PakPassion.com

“As for Fawad Alam, look, he’s a good player but at the same time, you have to understand that this is a difficult decision for us. We have to make sure we have the right composition of players in the team. We cannot have too many similar players in the team.”

Like yourself, Fawad Alam is an accumulator of runs. But unlike you, he is a better accumulator.

What’s more, he can bowl and is an excellent fielder. Compared to your awful numbers, Fawad Alam seems like the Don Bradman of Pakistani ODI cricket.

Fawad’s batting average stands at 45.14 and he’s been Pakistan’s top scorer in the format for some time.

His exclusion also perplexed the intelligent former Indian skipper, Rahul Dravid, who said:

“He seems to have a fantastic record, but for some reason they don’t seem to pick him. I read somewhere, that they think that his game wasn’t going to be good enough in Australian conditions. That’s a presumption and they’re playing a lot of games in New Zealand.”

Also read: Why are we carrying this baggage to the World Cup?

Moin Khan’s reasoning that we can’t have too many players anchoring the innings bears logic. But in you Younis, we have the wrong anchor.

While Fawad keeps the boat steady, your chain is broken.

Even in the current squad, Sohaib Maqsood, a young aggressive batsmen has missed out on vital practice, while you’ve flopped in the four matches played in New Zealand so far.

Younis, what if everyone starts acting like you?
There could be many reasons why you can’t perform in the shorter format. Perhaps the white ball used in ODIs swings too much and exposes your technique. Perhaps the faster pace of the game is unsuitable to your style.

Frankly, it doesn’t matter, because you’ve been given enough chances, and have failed time and time again, especially at World Cups.

Also see: Younis deserves to play at the World Cup: Zaheer Abbas

At this time, I urge you to lose your ego and withdraw from the team, so someone like Fawad can take your place. Otherwise, this vicious cycle will continue. Four or even eight years from now, when Fawad Alam passes his prime, with this injustice still lingering in his mind, he too will refuse to leave the squad in favour of younger talent.

Younis, I can’t quite fathom why you insist at earning more chances. At the age of 37, perhaps you feel ashamed to admit that this format is beyond you. But there is no shame in accepting your limitations.

The only shame is in having yet another disastrous World Cup campaign.