President Asif Ali Zardari used this word “khappay” publicly for the first time when Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was martyred and there was a sort of insurgence shown by the Pakistan Peoples’ Party activists. Since then, this word has become an essential part of every speech President Zardari has delivered.

The word “khappay” is used both in Sindhi and Punjabi, in Pakistan. The angry activists and party workers chanted the slogan “Pakistan na khappay”, which means “Pakistan not wanted” after the martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto. Zardari, then came into play to calm down the people and reversed that slogan to “Pakistan khappay”, which means “Pakistan wanted” or “We want Pakistan (to exist)”. In Punjabi, the language spoken by more than 9 crore people around the world and around 45% population of Pakistan, “khappay” means “ jazb hona (get absorbed)” or “vanish”.

Pakistanis’ miseries have gradually increased since Peoples’ Party government has taken over. Not only inflation has risen drastically, but there is also unavailability of basic daily usage commodities. Besides the biggest menace of TERRORISM, we have aata crisis, we have sugar crisis, we don’t have electricity and apparently, there seems to be nothing coming out as a long-term plan to cater this big problem of us. We now have another big issue of CNG shortage. By the order of the government, CNG stations have to observe two-day shut down every week. This is not only a huge problem for those public transport vehicles, which run on CNG, but also for other such private automobiles as well.  Specially, in a country where more than 30% of the population lives below poverty line, people can certainly not afford petrol at PKR 65.11 per liter and diesel at 68.56 per liter, thence resulting in fare hike. People try to refill CNG the day before that two-day shutdown every week, resulting in huge queues on CNG stations and lot of mess. The same happens the next day, when CNG stations re-open after shutdown. So, this makes a total 4 days, every week, of tension, mess, and problems just because of CNG. This is absolutely un-understandable for the people of this third world country that where we are heading and what that “khappay” exactly means. Whether that “khappay” is used in Sindhi or Punjabi. Atleast for me, my president uses it in Punjabi, as he has been proving it since he has assumed the presidency. Because the problems are increasing and we don’t see any positive solution to any one of them.

People’s confusion regarding this word “khappay” has increased since President Zardari has delivered speeches, first in Faisalabad on 17 January and then in Talagang (Danda Shah Bilawal) on 21 January, when he spoke in Punjabi on both occasions and he used his trademark “khappay”. I fear, he is right in his words. He has been using “khappay” in Punjabi, not in Sindhi, from the last two years. How can it be possible that his speech is in Punjabi and his “khappay” is in Sindhi? While we can evidently see that Pakistan is really in a state of “khappay (the Punjabi one)” since long.

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