Afzal Khan

Keeping a watchful eye in the dark of night and also keeping himself away from dozing out when he is alone and the silence of night is so overpowering that the internal quietness of a person produces echoes and sounds that generate a mirage of illusions inducing a thought that someone is there.

Afzal fights these illusions all night daily with no day off, and then when the day dawns and the illusions of night turns out to be false as he knocks on the door of his house this sound of knocking is real and the outcome is beautifully satisfying and delightful as the door opens and behind that half in veil is his wife welcoming him with a gesture of love and words of prayers while he enters his small quarter in Banars Colony and takes a sigh of relief when he sees that his five old daughter looks at him with innocence and demands her toffee, which Afzal never forgets to take home daily from the Pan shop while returning home..

Azal is a night watchman working since he was 17 and now he is 46. He is a complete family man and supports a large family that includes an ailing mother, wife and seven children. He has brought his family sometimes back to Karachi from his native village Torachapper located in the tribal areas where Drones were killing and destroying everything indiscriminately. His family left their ancestral home and a small agricultural land and manage to come to Karachi to take a fresh start.

Afzal has no complains unlike most of financially well off and well placed Pakistanis, who day in and day out cry about load shedding, law and order situation and the dwindling economic conditions while shopping in plush markets, driving luxury cars, living in lavish mansions and eating out in five star facilities. Afzal is living and supporting his family on a meager income of Rs 7000, which is a minimum wage in Pakistan, and is a satisfied person and thinks life as a blessing and a challenge that has to be met head on, as there is no way to run and hide from it, the only way is to face it and live and find a way to live in it.

He claims that Pakistan is his destiny and Pakistan is the place which has chosen him so he believes he is the destiny of Pakistan also.