The “Cult” of Imran Khan

Blink and you’ll miss it. The political landscape of Pakistan has completely shifted over the past few weeks. Without getting into the nitty-gritty of what happened and why we can safely say that a lot of people are very angry. Imran Khan’s ouster as the prime minister, while a grim reminder of how no prime minister has completed a full term in office, is actually quite different from every other prime minister who was ever forced out. 

Political pundits are arguing that Imran Khan’s current political momentum is due to his “anti-US” narrative and claims of a foreign conspiracy. They liken Imran Khan’s rhetoric to a cult and his supporters to cultists/fascists. While it is true that unfortunately anti-US propaganda still sells in Pakistan, focusing on the alleged conspiracy alone misses the point. Regardless of whether a foreign conspiracy was involved or not, one cannot ignore that the majority of young people of Pakistan consider Imran Khan as their only hope. Even if there were no conspiracy (or interference, if you prefer), Imran Khan’s ouster was bound to ire the public. 

So how did we get here? Why does the only popular politician among the educated youth give a “culty” vibe? The answer is simple and right in front of us. None of the other major political parties have ever clearly presented their case to the public. As much as we’d like new political parties to break through to the main stage, only PML-N and PPP are the alternatives to choose from at the moment. After all, it took somebody as popular as Imran Khan 17 years to be part of any form of government in Pakistan. 

So, let’s start with PML-N and why the majority of young people rule them out as an option. The primary issue with PML-N is that they don’t stand for anything. Historically, the party started under Zia’s shadow and later claimed to be democratic. Having played “will they, won’t they” with PPP since the 90s, it is safe to assume that their ideologies do not contradict significantly. At different times, they have claimed to both bring back all the looted wealth and never to have fought against corruption. What adds to this lack of a solid footing is a barrage of mind-numbingly stupid lies that insult the intelligence of anybody willing to believe them. They continue to dance around pro and anti-establishment positions and expect people to completely ignore one thing they said for another. I understand that walking back has become an integral part of Pakistani politics (including Imran Khan), but nobody does that more than PML-N. If you ask a PML-N leader/supporter why Nawaz Sharif is still in London, they will not be able to give you a satisfactory answer. Recently, during a TV interview, a PML-N leader said that Nawaz Sharif will be back soon because doctors in London say that doctors in Pakistan have now started treating patients well, so it is okay for him to go back to Pakistan. In what dimension can one say that and expect intelligent people to respect you? 

Moreover, the fact that the whole of the Sharif family is entrenched in corruption cases does not help. They never give acceptable answers when asked about corruption, and in fact, one of the leaders said, “Yes, it is all looted money, do whatever you want.” This is the 21st century, and we live in a digital world where arguments and counter-arguments need to be established to convince people. I personally know a few PML-N supporters and none of them argue the fact that the Sharifs are corrupt. Each and every one of them say they prefer “corrupt competence” over “honest incompetence.” That is a matter of shame for the whole party that their supporters have simply accepted the fact that our leaders are corrupt, and that’s just the way it is going to be. 

The PPP, on the other hand, has all of the characteristics of PML-N listed above and some. They have the added baggage of feudalism. While their core principles are (or at least historically were) democratic, the current PPP is not even a shadow of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s PPP. Any claim otherwise is a lie, and putting up pictures of dead leaders or changing Bilawal’s name or hairstyle is not going to change that. They refuse to acknowledge how despite being in power in Sindh for two decades, it continues to lag behind in education and health. Add to that the disappointment of the people of Karachi, and you can clearly see that they just don’t care and are perfectly fine ruling over Sindh using existing power and influence in rural areas. They don’t even try to address Karachi’s core issues. The law-and-order situation in Karachi has been the same (if not worsened) over the past few years, and the PPP couldn’t care less. They know they can stay in power in Sindh without Karachi. 

Furthermore, the PPP government has shown no respect for the law when it comes to prosecuting influential personalities. They have historically provided VIP treatment to the accused and prisoners from influential families in Sindh. They have made sure murders by influential people go unpunished. They also harbored racist cops who targeted certain ethnicities and backgrounds with impunity. Despite claiming to be leftist, they have taken no concrete steps to prevent forced conversions. They also refused to take IDPs during times of crisis. While journalists raise hell over alleged harassment elsewhere, murders of multiple journalists in Sindh have gone unmentioned. The people of Pakistan are well-aware of these facts and will never forget. 

What adds to the frustration of the youth is the blatant partial behavior of certain “senior journalists.” You would find them on Twitter peddling false propaganda and labeling any response as “trolling.” Some of the people post fake news and videos that’s sole purpose is to hurt Imran Khan. For example, one particular journalist has been posting videos of Imran Khan’s gatherings from the night before and claiming the grounds were all empty. This is the most critical problem with why people side with Imran Khan. The people criticizing him are so helplessly out of ideas that they resort to extremely dumb propaganda, insulting the public. A lot of the journalists also throw around a misogynistic curse (cursing one’s mother), coined by twisting the term “youth.” This term has been so normalized that recently I heard it twice on the television. 

With the lack of choices and blatant propaganda, it is no surprise that the young people of Pakistan have no choice but to support Imran Khan, even if they don’t completely agree with his ideologies. If the political parties are to present a challenge to Imran Khan’s “cult,” they need to introspect and adapt. As long as they remain in the shackles of the two families, the new generation will not take them seriously. When party leadership is inherited and not elected, the party has no right to call itself democratic. When any alternative to Imran Khan feels like an insult to one’s intelligence, the young educated Pakistanis will always stand behind him, willingly or unwillingly.

Why I will be voting for PTI in this general election

Before we get started, let me just make a few things clear. I am NOT a PTI or even Imran Khan fanboy. I would just be laying down (and countering) a few arguments as to why PTI is the best option in my opinion. Feel free to disagree and/ or debate.

Like most people who grew up in Punjab, I had accepted the fact that we will forever be governed by the Sharifs even if they were corrupt gangsters. I was one of those who were content with the "khata hai to lagata bhi hai" (even if he's corrupt, he works for development too) argument. In the 90's when Imran Khan had just started raising his voice, I had no particular reason to believe in him. More so, I knew Pakistani politics was a dirty game and a cricketing playboy had no business jumping in. The only admirable thing I do remember from back then is that he refused to join Nawaz Sharif when he was asked to join PML. That showed integrity.

As the years passed by and we were governed by Gen. Musharraf and the Chaudhrys, like most Pakistani youth back then, I couldn't care less about politics. Of course, one did feel bad for democracy as military dictatorship once again showed a comeback. But to be honest, I did not feel any different. In fact, the Musharraf era was one in which all the private news channels took flight and I heard the words "freedom of press" the first time. Although I don't remember any major development projects from that time, I do remember there were no crises and we even had a very friendly relationship with India.

But of course, it was the calm before the storm. No major power projects were started despite the growing need, motorways were not expanded at an optimal speed and biggest of all, we became a pawn in the USA's war in Afghanistan. That put Pakistan on the Taliban's list of enemies and we are still reaping the fruit of that decision. While I'm all for uprooting terrorism, it was well-known that Afghanistan was an unwinnable affair for the US (as we are painfully aware 17 years down the road).

During all this time, I saw Imran Khan's views changing pretty much the same as my own. Initially he was supportive of the Musharraf regime but was hostile towards the 00s. Again, in 2008, when he boycotted the elections because he refused to contest the election as long as Musharraf was president, it showed integrity. The way Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardarti swung back and forth before and after the election, I grew more and more disgusted by them and knew we needed to change as a nation. My disapproval of Musharraf peaked when he signed the NRO, which surprisingly people don't talk about anymore. That is the single most disgusting piece of legislation I have ever witnessed in my lifetime. As Imran Khan's narrative was making more and more sense to me, I was completely behind him when he was the only one who stood by his promise not to contest the election as long as Musharraf was the Chief Executive. Nawaz Sharif backed out of that promise and Asif Zardari reconciled with Musharraf as well. That was the point of maturity in Imran Khan's career as a Pakistani politician. His boycott was enough to make me boycott the 2008 election as well.

What followed was another phase of maturity as he stood on the sidelines and prepared for the 2013 elections while PML-N and PPP locked horns with unbelievable hypocrisy. How can we forget when Shehbaz Sharif used to sit in a tent in Minar-e-Pakistan to protest loadshedding when PPP was in power, something he never repeated when his brother was the prime minister. These disgusting tactics and promises of "dragging on the streets" made me realize we needed a third option, badly. I was super-pumped and excited for the 2013 elections. I was confident that if everybody had seen this ring around the rosie the way I did, we would surely turn to the next best option, Imran Khan.

However, it was not meant to be. As much as I'd hate to admit it, in 2013 I thought may be we don't deserve democracy. If a PML-N, PPP amalgam is what we were always choosing, we needed to stop wasting resources on an election and just go with a coin toss instead. In terms of performance, I must admit that PML-N was slightly better than their predecessors but overall it was much of the very same. Major issues like health, education, poverty and power remained pretty much the same. We continued to drown in the quicksand of loans and our international relations are no better, if not worse. Hence, I firmly believe that PML-N or PPP should be never be allowed one more day in public office ever again.

Brace yourselves PTI supporters, this is where it went downhill for Imran Khan. The whole sit-in in Islamabad was a gigantic failure of energy and resources, which would have better served his cause if he had worked harder in KPK. Don't get me wrong, I agreed with his notions of investigations into the election and accountability in the Panama leaks case but that does not justify the extremes to which he pushed his protests. There were other ways to keep fighting and he chose the worst option. I actually thought he would be a healthy opposition after losing the 2013 elections but he was anything but. I wish he would one day admit he was wrong there, again something he is not that good at.

Thereafter, I am not quite sure what convinced him to compromise on his principles but I like to believe it's the fact that he knew to be prime minister, he needed to win Punjab. And to win Punjab, he had to accept the feudal lords of the land. The massive influx of turncoats that followed was supremely disappointing and in stark contrast to the reasons I had supported him all these years. The fact that he welcomed with open arms a number of people with shady pasts did not resonate well with me, as I'm sure is the case with most PTI supporters today. This is not to say that PTI dropped to the same level as the other big two. This was just like Imran Khan borrowing some bad apples from two piles of garbage. Please note that garbage is still garbage.

However, there were some positives that derived from this process as well. People who had been in PPP or PML-N for decades with no accountability were suddenly scrutinized for everything that maligned their past. I was astonished the way PTI supporters were criticizing Imran Khan and co for welcoming goons (especially the convicted rapist from PML-N). It showed that even though most of the PTI supporters were still behind Imran Khan, they were quick to raise their voices when it started to hit the fans. It was something completely alien to Pakistani politics; supporters criticizing their own political party. It was a pleasant surprise and I am glad they set this trend of accountability, although my confidence in Imran Khan dropped further and further.

Now, I am not a strong believer in Imran Khan's politics and definitely don't have an angelic outlook of him as many of his fans do. I just don't feel that confident that he would perform as well as I had once hoped he would. I am still hopeful, just not confident or overzealous. Thus, it is with a heavy heart, a lot of reservations and significant doubt that I will vote for PTI this election.

The Punjab Health system is a joke. And it’s not funny.

Every summer the beloved Khadim-e-Ala makes Punjab dance the dance of dengue. It involves massive expenditure on spraying the city, creation of specialized units with ICU’s, surprise visits to buildings and of course, banners boasting the efforts with his portrait in that oh-so-smug smile.

If only people knew what a joke this actually is. The sprays are of very little benefit against the mosquitoes, the specialized units and ICU’s overburden the already full infrastructure but of course, you can’t doubt the effectiveness of those banners. But that’s not the problem. The dengue fiasco is given attention only because of the hype attached to it. If the government really wanted to do something about preventable deaths in Punjab, dengue would be much, much down the order.

For instance, the first infection they should be concerned about is Hepatitis C. It infects between 2.2 to 14% of Pakistan, depending upon different populations. 80% of these people develop chronic hepatitis and while about 15% remain asymptomatic, 65% develop chronic active hepatitis C. These patients are heading towards miserable life leading to a painful death. If you take a mean infection rate of 8.1, that makes the number of patients around 1,05,30,000. That’s more than 1 crore people who are going to die a miserable death from Hepatitis C in the next 20 years. Now compare that to the fuss created about dengue that has a mortality rate of less than 1%.

You must be thinking, “why don’t we hear about this?”. And that’s where the joke lies. You don’t see or hear about them because we, the doctors do. These people come to ER’s in scores and bleed out in our hands. You don’t hear about it because they die a slow miserable death, which even their relatives seem to expect with time. That makes it a bad story for the media and where’s there’s no media coverage, there’s no government action.

But that’s not all. The number of patients who die from other chronic diseases like heart disease, lung disease, kidney disease and strokes is unimaginable too. Among these, deaths from kidney disease are the most preventable ones. These patients require regular dialysis and since the poor population cannot afford it, they simply accept their fate and die. Now they don’t die of their kidney disease, they die of their poverty. If we were a poor country, one would accept it. But knowing that the Punjab government is willing to spend billions on roads but none on dialysis centers, you cannot use the “poor country” excuse. Again, these are the preventable deaths we deal with every day, knowing there is nothing we can do about them.

If you argue that well, chronic diseases kill people either way, there is more. There is such a massive shortage of supplies and machines in hospitals that people die of benign diseases everyday too. People from as far as Afghanistan come to Lahore expecting the best care for their loved ones. But only we know the sad state of affairs of public hospitals. The ER they present to has ONLY one ECG machine for about 100 patients who are already stuffed on each other usually two on a bed (if they’re lucky). That leads to very late diagnoses of heart attacks and poor management of patients requiring cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Moreover, there is immense lack of drugs. The poor people come to these “free” hospitals expecting that every treatment is free of cost. But the reality is that only the medical expertise they get from doctors is free. And by free I mean actually free as up to 30-40% residents in training hospitals work without salaries. But that doesn’t matter, since what we want best for the patients is never going to happen. All of the guidelines go down the drain when the only antibiotics available in the hospital are Augmentin and Flagyl. When we make the patients buy a few of the drugs privately, they tell us they have exhausted their resources and wish to go home, again accepting their fate. Along with that, average wait time for elective investigations like an ultrasonogram is one week, a CT scan two weeks and an MRI twenty days. Of course, usually these patients die well before they’ll ever get to their appointment.

Every now and then, young doctors go on protest for better facilities for the patients and better incentives for themselves. But the government doesn’t seem to care since good hospitals don’t get them votes, good roads do. But the faces don’t remain the same. Most of the people fighting this battle have disappeared to better worlds with a vast majority going to Ireland, UK and USA. There’s more respect, better infrastructure, higher pay and quite honestly, less depression.

As for me, I had always been a strong advocate of staying in Pakistan and serving the poor. But after training unpaid for a year and knowing I wasn’t respected either way, I realized I was fighting a lost battle. I had been a straight A’s student in O and A Levels, studied on self-finance in a public medical college, passed national and international postgraduate exams and got a year of disappointment for it all. On the other hand, many of my peers (and now me too) were offered attractive resident positions in the US. While saying goodbye, I just wanted everyone to bear witness that I tried my best to stay in this system and fight for it. But the cruel truth is that nobody cares, not even me now.

My USMLE Step 1 testimonial

I recently took the USMLE Step 1 and got a good score by the Grace of God. A lot of people have been asking me about my preparation so I thought I should write a blogpost about it to help others.

What I used (I'll explain the brackets later):
1. UWORLD
2. First Aid
3. Pathoma (redundant)
4. Kaplan review books (redundant)

Total time: 7 months (effectively 5 months)

Kaplan period: (~2 months)
I started off in April with a late November plan to take the exam. Initially I sat down with the Kaplan review books for Step 1 because that's what everybody tells you to do. I completed Biochemistry and Anatomy in about a month each. Halfway through Physiology, I realized I was chewing more than I could swallow. I made the decision to abandon Kaplans altogether. These 2 months I regretted.

UWORLD: (~3 months)
I then started solving UWORLD questions for the sole purpose of learning. It was really tough for me since I usually got 40-50% right per block. But I didn't fret. I spent a lot of time on the explanations and studied UWORLD as my primary knowledge base. Once completed, I revised them completely a second time briefly (and a third time after my first FA read). Here I would like to mention that while UWORLD is a very good learning tool, I would not recommend it as an assessment tool. It is much harder than the actual exam and tends to ask questions in a very different way.

First Aid: (2 months till exam)
First Aid is the best prep you can get. Almost all of the exam is from First Aid. At first it may look like a strange jumbled up piece of crap but with repetition, you come to realize its greatness. It tells you everything you should know for the exam.The biochemistry part might be a little hard to fathom if your old knowledge is dusty. That's the only part where studying the biochem Kaplan felt relevant: to ease the transition to First Aid. I studied Pathoma for the system part of FA too but felt it was redundant and left it as well. The first read of First Aid is very important. You need to make sure you understand each and everything written there, even if you don't remember it later. I spent an average of one day per chapter for my first read, just making sure I understood everything. The second read should be to identify your weak points and stuff you tend to forget. With each subsequent read, you'd realize the problematic stuff gets smaller and smaller and you feel more comfortable with the book.

NBME:
NBME's are the best representatives of the actual exam. I took my first NBME 35 days out (NBME 11) after feeling a little confident with FA and got a 234. It was okay but I believed I could score higher. Still, I booked 27th November for the exam, being confident that I'd make it better in that time. 5 days out, I took NBME 16 and got 237. I was devastated. I felt like running around circles. I really thought I was going to improve but a score of 237 felt like I wasn't doing enough. My performance charts for both NBME's are shown. Then I had a Eurika moment when I was going through the explanations of questions. I realized that the exam is only as difficult as you make it to be. There was a question in NBME 16 that sounded like one of those that you feel like you have no idea about. And when I found the right answer, I realized that it demanded the simplest possible explanation for it. Bearing this in mind (and the thought that 240ish wasn't a bad score either), I gathered my confidence and went for the exam.

Exam day:
Naturally, I was extremely anxious but confident too. I took a lot of chocolates with me and some Panadol Extra tablets. I did the first two blocks in one go because I was feeling very confident. I did each question as quickly as possible while marking the doubtful/ difficult ones. Almost everybody I knew had problems with their timing and this is the best strategy to deal with it. With this strategy I always had 6-10 minutes surplus after the first go in each block. NEVER spend any time trying to confirm the answer in the first go, do it in the surplus time. My first block was really tough but the second one was okay. I took a 5-7 minutes break and did two more blocks. Then two more and then the final one. Briefly, blocks 1, 6 and 7 felt really tough and I had to mark 13-16 questions per block. Blocks 2, 3, 4 and 5 felt very easy and I marked 6-7 questions per block. After the exam I wasn't sure how I performed but I was confident I wouldn't get a bad score.

General advice:
1. Confidence is key. You should be confident that you know everything and are ready for the exam. Keep a date in your mind and stick with it. I had planned for the last week of November from Day 1. I got the triad of October-November-December but never once thought of delaying the exam.
2. Don't listen to people too much, believe in yourself. When I decided to go ahead with my last score of 237, a lot of people tried to convince me to delay my exam. Some even joked that I should leave the exam half-completed if it felt too difficult so I could reappear.
3. Never be afraid of a question. Always tell yourself that you know the idea behind the question and it's only a matter of getting there. You should never feel like "Oh my God, I never studied this/ forgot this". Most of the times, you can easily get the right answer in such questions just by simplifying it.
4. Try reading the last line of each question before reading the full question. It tells you what to look for before reading the question. This is very very helpful.
5. Keep yourself positive no matter what i.e. don't think you can't do anything but study. In the last month leading to the exam, I took a week off to study for FCPS Part I and went out with friends on several occasions including going to the cinema once.
6. People had scared me that anatomy is really tough on the exam and I should have studied a separate book for that. I did not feel so. While there were really tough scenarios, the questions were really simple. Most of it I knew from my knowledge of first year anatomy. You may study a separate book for it if you like but I wouldn't recommend it.

Eventual score and conclusion:

My actual score was 251 which I had a lot of trouble believing. It was definitely much higher than I expected. It shows that while NBME's are an essential tool, you should never let them keep you down. That being said, I would also like to emphasize that what's true for me, might not be true for you. Feel free to post any queries, I'd be happy to reply.

Best of luck!

A poem from a brilliant young doctor

The best graduate of Allama Iqbal Medical College for the session 2002 to 2007, Muhammad Zaman Khan expresses his feelings in a poem.

It is a great honor for me to introduce Dr Muhammad Zaman Khan, one of the most idealized personalities of Jinnah Hospital. Here is a glimpse of his excellence.

He expresses his feelings about the current situation in these words:

Aey Khadim-e-aala rehney de, is khidmat se bezaar hain hum
Gar jeena marna aik sa he, merney k lia tayyar hain hum

Ho malik arbon kharbon ke, aur 'Khadim' bhookhey nangoun ke?
Ye shaubada bazi rehney de, be-haal sahi, baidaar hain hum

Auroun ki to wa’da shikni par, cheekhay bhi bohat, chillaey bohat
Kuch yaad dilaya ham ne agar, to keh daala “ghaddaar hain hum”

Hum tairey a’qoubat khanoon main, goonjey hain hila kar bunyaadain
Hum cheekh nahi majbooron ki, Aa ghour se sun lalkaar hain hum

Ye ehl-e-sitam ham se larr kar, khud haamptay kaamptay phirtey hain
Lapkey to jala kar rakh dain gey, ae barq! Subak raftaar hain hum

Haan tuj se shikayat na-haq he, han tuj se taqaaza khoob nahi
Hum ne hi diye they vote tujhe, is zulm k bhi haq-daar hain hum

Wake up, Pakistan.

Salute to the Punjab Government

When doctors are emotionally blackmailed to work and arrested for non-compliance, it's time for them to go.

I am a medical student of Final Year in a public medical college. I scored straight A's in both O and A Levels and have been passing my annual professional exams in first divisions. So you can safely presume that I'm not retarded.

Not long ago, I made the very tough decision to enter this profession. Now, I was facing the very tough decision whether to serve my country or go abroad and earn a worthwhile salary. But this decision has been made for me, thanks to the Punjab Government.

Lets take a quick round-up of the doctors' strike:

• Doctors went on strike for a service structure last year but the government merely increased the existing pays to cool the doctors down and promised a proper service structure.
• February 2012: Supreme Court orders Punjab Government to give the doctors a service structure.
• May 2012: Doctors continue to pursue the government to give the doctors a service structures or they'll call a strike.
• 15th June, 2012: Doctors call an OPD strike. This doubled their duty as instead of dealing OPD patients in office hours, they were dealing with them 24/7 in the emergencies. Wards and Operation Theaters were running as normal too.
• Media gives the impression "Doctors are on strike and patients are dying". The public and the government are convinced.

• 1st July, 2012: YDA calls a meeting of it's general body to discuss the future of the strike.
• 11.30 PM: Police raids the Services Hospitals hostels and arrests all doctors in their sight. Remember, these were the doctors who were resting after their Emergency shift and were going to work the next shift.
• After this treatment, all doctors from public hospitals flee. 

Now let's answer a few questions in the minds of the public.

Where is the injustice?
In Pakistan, doctors do not have a service structure. What this essentially means is that after 5 years of MBBS, about 50% of the doctors will get a paid house job of Rs 22,000 per month (Yes! In contrary to the blatant government lie that doctors earn at least 60,000!). The rest will work as honorary house officers, not earning a dime for their 36 hours shifts. After the house job, he'll have to pass FCPS Part-I to get employed as a trainee. If he is lucky enough to get a paid seat, he'll earn Rs 44,000 per month. Otherwise, he'll have to work honorary till a paid seat is vacated. Once he completes 4 years of his specialization, his contract ends and he is unemployed again. Again, he can start working on an honorary post as a Senior Registrar till a paid seat is available. Yes, 5 years of MBBS, 1 year of house job, 4 years of FCPS and there is still no guarantee of a paid job. I personally know a Senior Registrar working for free, tell me and I'll tell you the correspondence.
So who are the senior doctors? Out of about 34,000 young doctors in Punjab, only 200 will get from grade 17 to 20 via Public Service Commission. Wonderful prospects there, you see.
If there's one thing the doctors are fighting for, it's equality. Equality with other professions of this country, if not any special treatment.

What about the taxes spent on doctors?
Hardly any money is spent on doctors in reality. The medical teachers don't earn much, and facilities are in alarming state. Regardless, first the 90% female doctors who don't even practice after graduating should be held accountable instead of the ones working tirelessly in the wards. So please, think before you speak

Isn't this country too poor to afford this service structure?
No. Healthcare is a top priority in all developed countries. But we are an unfortunate lot where the state has failed to give the doctors a service structure for the past 65 years. Here, Rs 2 billion are spent on laptops to support political campaigns but we are too poor for an efficient healthcare system.

What do doctors earn in other countries?
Doctors mostly go to the gulf, US, UK or Australia.
KSA- 4,000 riyals onwards.
USA- $10,000 onwards.
UK- 2,000 pounds onwards.
Australia- $7,000 onwards.
And just for interest, Indian doctors earn 1,70,000 Indian rupees. That's more than PKR 2 lacs.

Why don't they leave then?
This, just like our Ex-Prime Minister, is the million dollar question. The doctors are putting their patients- the poor Pakistanis ahead of their prospects to earn abroad. But they are frustrated now. They want a better future in Pakistan, or else other countries will sweep this country of it's finest minds.

As for me, I don't see how things are going to get any better for doctors in this country. Naturally, I have planned to apply abroad. And I'd like to salute the Punjab Government for helping me and many others like me to make this decision.

Shh... Don't tell the Taliban

While contradicting statements keep coming, it's not that difficult to make out the actual story behind Osama's death.

Let's analyze the story at hand. The following are a few key points we're told:

1. Osama lived nearby the Pakistan Military Academy for years where every nook and cranny is cleared.

2. ISI, rated among the top intelligence agencies in the world didn't have any clue of his presence in such an area.

3. Four combat helicopters entered the Pakistan airspace up till the PMA (about 300 km assuming they came from the Afghan border) and Pakistan didn't have any idea.

4. There was a 40 minutes' operation near the PMA and still, Pakistan didn't have any idea until after they left.

5. All this happened while PAF didn't have any idea, though with all their state-of-the-art technological equipment, their response time to an airspace violation is 5 minutes.

6. The government, army and ISI, all made public statements/ apologies about their ignorance.

The response in Pakistan:

1. Confusion and insult for the majority.
   
2. Protests, funerals and tears by some religious parties.
3. Terrible threats by the Taliban to attack Pakistan in every way.

Now, I'd like to bring to your attention a tweet of a journalist in the Guardian.
"Pak diplomat just told me: we have to play to our people's sensitivities. of course we were involved but we can't admit it"

Add that to the possibility that we were told about our involvement and imagine what the response would have been. I rest my case.