Ahlan Wasahlan, Al Bakistan! Pakistan is now showing signs that are actually first steps towards Arabisation process. Out of the blue emerged these vehicle registration plates with the number either in Urdu or simple numbers and ‘Al Bakistan’ painted in white Arabic font on a red strip. The good thing is Jaws did not drop, frowns were not formed, laughs were not had and people were not rendered speechless at this totally new and unexpected phenomenon. Why would Pakistan not be called ‘Bakistan’? Whats wrong if we make the name Arabic ? Why not borrow Arabic words or alphabet sounds while the religious or Islamic language still remains Arabic? A few months later these number plates got an additional word: Al Bunjab. Karachi is sometimes written is Karatshi. The new plates have ‘Al Bunjab, Al Bakistan’ written on them in Arabic. And this has become quite conspicuous now. From a motorbike to a car, every other vehicle in Lahore, at least, seems to have been hit by Cyclone Arabic. “I was googling the world Pakistan today and mistakenly typed in a bracket ‘[’ instead of a ‘P’, as one usually does when in a hurry. I was shocked to see that in the address bar, Google not only recognised the search term, but also turned it into, no points for guessing, Bakistan,” a development professional said of the extent to which the trend has expanded. This is not it; at least, not yet. I hope. Earlier, there was quite a lot of debate whether the ninth month of the Islamic calendar should be called Ramadan, Ramazan, Ramdan, Ramzan, or even Ramdhan or Ramadhan. The discussion, surprisingly, still continues. What suddenly made people replace the ‘z’ with ‘d’ (‘zuad’ has a ‘d’ sound in Arabic) need no explanation. Greetings exchanged have also become ‘Ramadan Kareem’ instead of Ramazan Mubarak. And many people keep making statements that the government should introduce Arabic as a compulsory subject in schools. Number plates with Al Bakistan amounts to changing the name of the country. Rafzis would suffer from an identity crisis if they were to be called Rada instead of Raza. The administrative apparatus in charge of issuing number plates and registration is rather supportive in the Arabisation process. I also saw a much higher number of camels during the last Eidul Azha (please note it is not Adha for most of us but people have started calling that). Fee AMANILLAH instead of Allah Hafiz.” Are these the first few signs Pakistan is moving towards Arabisation? Is the land of five rivers slowly giving way to Arabic dress, culture, camels and date trees? Well, maybe . “I had gone to Dubai a few years ago where I saw similar number plates that I liked. They somehow looked cool. On my return I thought why not get one for my car. A few months after I got my car’s number plate designed with some Arabic, I saw a lot of vehicles bearing the same design. I felt good to be a trendsetter of sorts,” a young car showroom owner told us. A bike owner, who also had the same kind of number plate, said: “I saw so many cars with these fascinating new number plates. I clicked a photo of one, took it to a plate maker and got one made for my bike too.” The number plate makers are happily doing their job. What appears is that while this is not the government-prescribed design of a number plate, it’s not exactly illegal either. The good thing is there is no penalty for such fancy plates. Traffic police wallas seem to be very fine with anything as long as it’s legible. And anyone can get any kind of number plate designed in Arabic. But not everyone is amused by vehicles becoming ‘Arabised’. A businessman, says: “Most of the people who are doing this belong to upper-middle class Punjabi families based mostly in Lahore and other cities of Punjab. They are going through some kind of a good experience. They want to enjoy everything modern consumerism has to offer; a good car, preferably modified, mind/ear blowing sound system, giving their girlfriends a spin in their brand new Corollas and Civics every now and then. But wait a second, what about the fancy Altima they had when they used to roam around Riyadh, Dubai or Qatar? They had a nice Arabic plate on that elegant ride; let’s get made one for my car here in Pakistan.” The second reason, he says, is the “ridiculous amount of romanticism of Punjabi middle classes with their presumed / actual Arab roots”. “These plates, look fancy to the majority, however, only arab-haters despise them. This is surely one of the signs we can easily adopt Arabic culture, and we have seen many already. Basically, culture thrives on middle classes, and Punjabi middle classes are no more there for their culture and language. So more Arab culture to see in the coming days, We have been seeing and / or eating Arabic paratha and a few Arabic dishes in Karachi for quite a few years. But that’s not all. Arabic number plates may have gained popularity in a short span, but this design is not the only Arabic ‘gift’ to Pakistan. There are a few expensive luxurious cars in Lahore with Arabic-style number plates. The reason was the same: they liked the design and got it made. Does not all of this look cool?
Posted on: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 21:32:51 +0000
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