May I suggest that the editor of this newspaper reassure Ishrat Saleem of Lahore, whose letter was published yesterday and who has expressed his concern about the news item in this paper on January 10 announcing that "Lahore to be made biggest kite-flying city in the world" that the Pakistani nation has been flying kites for the past 57 years and has survived.

For good measure, he may also recommend that Mr Saleem read "Living in cloud cuckoo land", Irfan Husain's column printed yesterday on the editorial page, and be doubly reassured that even if the Supreme Court of India does rule in favour of the word "Sindh" being deleted from the Indian national anthem, we, as a nation, will continue to survive.

A final recommendation may bring him clarification. A front-page report, dateline New York, January 14, tells us that the latest report of the New York-based Human Rights Watch relates that "the government of Pakistan has excused its failure to uphold human rights and the rule of law by citing domestic political pressure from hard-line religious groups and militant organizations."

Thus, in this nation of purity, it is blind faith and ignorance which prevails over reason, knowledge and sanity. This is exactly why we are where we are today.

My last two columns entitled "Brass hats and mortar-boards" which touched upon, amongst other related subjects on the educational wasteland, the engineered removal of scholar Isa Daudpota from Comstech (headed by chief of our Higher Education Commission Ata-ur-Rahman) by the vice-chancellor of the Quaid-i-Azam University, former army captain G. U. Isani, have brought in 38 e-mails from readers (many of them men of learning) around the world.

Their comments have strengthened the belief shared by many that the governments and administrations of this country firmly hold that brawn supersedes brain.

For quite a few weeks now, what are accepted as the "brains" of this country have been preoccupied with a total non-issue, the inclusion in the new machine readable passports, which are meant to conform to international standards, of a column that should never have been in the old passports in the first place, that strange animal known as the "religion column".

A passport, as those odd creatures who really do have brains well know, is a statement in the form of a pocket able book which identifies a person and supposedly enables him/her to travel unhindered.

The opening statement on the first page of the document reads "This is to request and require in the name of the President of Pakistan all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance and to afford him/her every assistance and protection of which he/she may stand in need."

How does this column issue affect a man like me? Every time I apply for a passport I write correctly in the column which demands to know my religion that I am a Zoroastrian. The learned passport officer then makes out a passport for me in which the "religion column" indicates that I am a "Parsi".

I then have to spend a good deal of time attempting to communicate with the man and explain to him that the word "Parsi" merely denotes the fact that I am one of those odd bods, a Zoroastrian by religion, whose ancestors, over a thousand years ago, came to the Indian subcontinent from the province of Pars in Persia and came to be known as "Parsis" - men from Pars.

He is firmly informed that there is no such religion as "Parsi" and that I am a Zoroastrian or a Zarathustri (take your pick).

After having heard me, a blank expression on his face, the man refers to his green rule book and announces with aplomb that no such religion is listed therein and that I will have to put up with being a "Parsi". Helpless, I can do nought but accept the used-lube oil green coloured booklet, error and all.

Not having travelled westwards since 9/11, I can only relate what used to happen at the other end, on arrival in the US, when one has to present one's green book to get into the country.

I hand over the passport to a young raw officer who opens it the right way round and finds he is at the back of the booklet and trying to read it upside down. At this stage it is best to remain silent and let him find his own way around the puzzle.

He finally does, then looks up at my face, sees a beard, flips through the passport, glances at that strange column headed "religion", reads the word "Parsi", and asks if it is an Islamic sect. I explain that I am a Zoroastrian, a religion not recognized by the passport fraternity of Pakistan.

The American becomes more confused. The passport is that of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, I have a beard, therefore I must be a Muslim, perhaps with terrorist tendencies ready to blow myself and others up in the name of my religion.

He checks me out on his computer, consults an equally raw colleague, and I am ushered into a side room where a more senior, and most polite, officer asks if I would mind a body search? No.

Do I wish to have my rights read to me? No, again. I request that whatever must be done should be done quickly as my son is awaiting my arrival outside. The maximum I have been asked to do is to empty my coat pockets. The examiner then decides I am a waste of time and shunts me out.

On one occasion, many years ago, when my friend Abida Hussain was our ambassador in Washington, she most kindly and thoughtfully came to the airport to meet me.

As my unchecked and unopened luggage was being wheeled through the customs area, an embassy man who had come with her came up to me and conveyed that "Her Excellency, the ambassador of Pakistan, has come to receive you. She is in the outer foyer." A customs officer overheard this, I was immediately recalled, and a thorough search was made of all my baggage.

President General Pervez Musharraf, whose watchwords are now enlightenment and moderation, should explain to his contentious hirsute comrades in parliament that those who wish to be identified as Muslims may be so identified by stamping the words "Religion: Muslim" on one page, or on all the pages, in his passport.

The majority who do not wish to be identified as Muslims when they travel may stick to the international norm and not disclose their religion, a personal matter, which should be of no concern to anyone else. The option should be given. Most of us wish to travel without let or hindrance.

Email: arfc@cyber.net.pk.