We must begin by stating that we are immensely proud of you and your accomplishments. Your team work, character and commitment are a great lesson and an example for our youth to emulate and to excel in other fields of life and learning. Dear Team Pakistan, you perhaps know that scores of people were killed and injured all over Pakistan as a result of the aerial firing that followed your great victory. We appeal to you on behalf of every child who was killed, maimed or injured, to please never win a cricket match again. You must know that in Pakistan, the state has generously allowed 20 million, largely illegal, guns in the possession of militant individuals and mafias. The citizens of Pakistan have become hostage to the violent compulsions of the rich, powerful and medieval gun owners. They can indulge, indiscriminately and uncontrollably, in firing hundreds of rounds.
This has been happening for past several years. The governments are completely callous and disinterested in controlling the proliferation of guns or stopping the barbaric practice of ‘killing for joy’. We have therefore no recourse but to request you directly to please never win a cricket match again. Sad and disheartening that it may sound, it is the only option left to save our children from the ferocious aerial firing that awaits your next victory lap.
Naeem Sadiq
Karachi