2013 was an exciting year for Pakistan. Apart from once again witnessing the usual and trivial episodes like terrorist attacks, discrimination and violence against Shias and Ahmadis, killing of polio workers and other such non-issues, we were lucky to witness some truly grand events as well.

First, allow me to waste some space here about one such trivial matter, that of terrorism. But rest assured, there were some non-trivial developments in this respect in 2013 that must be commended.

More than ever, the media finally got around to correctly using the word 'suspected' while reporting the tragic casualties of US drone attacks.

Yes, many 'suspected militants' were killed in 2013 in confirmed US drone strikes. After all, they are all suspects until proven guilty, even if some of them like posting videos of their suspected brethren allegedly beheading confirmed enemies of the faith on the internet.

It is now hoped that in 2014 the local media will go on to judicially use the word 'suspected' for the victims of suspected terrorist attacks by suspected extremist militants as well.

Headlines in 2014 should read, 'XX suspected civilian victims killed in a suspected suicide attack by suspected militants. The suspected militants were incensed by the confirmed deaths of confirmed innocent civilians in confirmed drone attacks.' Now that would be true objectivity and a great contribution to national interest and Imran Khan's charity balls.

This brings us to one of the most vital events of 2013: The All Parties Conference (APC) on the non-issue of suspected extremist violence and suspected militancy in Pakistan.

The APC was convened by the PML-N government of Mian Nawaz Sharif who invited all big and small political parties to reach a confirmed consensus on the issue of suspected terrorism and suspected terrorist organisations.

In a great show of maturity and common sense, none of the parties wasted much time on such a non-issue and reached a consensus in a jiffy. The consensus too was full of maturity, foresight and common sense.

All parties rightly and wisely decided that the best way to address the non-issue of suspected extremist militancy and suspected extremist organisations was to hold peace talks with the suspected militants.

The suspected militants welcomed the APC resolution and opened the first round of peace talks at a church in Peshawar. Over a hundred suspected Christian civilians lay down their lives there for peace.

Within a week, the suspected militants then held similar peace talks in the famous Qissa Khawani Bazaar in Peshawar where another 80 odd suspected civilians lay down their lives for peace.

The success of these talks then resulted in talks with the Pakistani military where a suspected senior army officer lay down his life for peace.

Unfortunately, as the peace talks were surging ahead and suspected civilians and suspected military men were giving their lives for peace, a confirmed US drone attack killed a leading suspected militant.

This was an outrage. The gallant Interior Minister, Chaudhry Nisar Hussain, rightly lashed out at the US, accusing it of derailing the Pakistani government and people's resolve to achieve peace through talks with the suspected militants.

Even his immediate family members, who are all US citizens were offended by the tragic and brutal drone strike. They resolved to boycott 2013's Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Parade down 6th Avenue in New York. A truly commendable sacrifice.

At least two leading suspected members of the suspected extremist organisation were taken out by two inhuman US drone strikes. The first suspected militant was correctly described by Imran Khan as a 'peace loving militant' who just wanted to lead a simple, poverty-stricken life of a mountain farmer, play the guitar and bowl googlies at the Sharjah cricket stadium.

Well, that dream was cruelly snuffed out by the Americans and the country suffered a major blow to its desire to talk peace with the suspected militants and exchange views with them on the art of growing really long beards.

But it was good to see that the Pakistani government not giving up its resolve to achieve peace through talks, and even better to witness Khan leading dharna upon dharna upon dharna against drone attacks until nobody was sure exactly what were all these dharnas upon dharnas were really about.

Khan and his confirmed revolutionary party, the PTI, along with the party's staunchest ally, the equally revolutionary, Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), blocked the routes used by trucks and tankers taking weapons and other goodies to the oppressive Nato forces occupying Afghanistan.

Inspirational scenes were witnessed at the site of the blockade, as young PTI and JI men bunked school, college, university and all other useless activity to stop and harass the truck drivers who, though, all working-class Pakistanis, were, of course, confirmed CIA agents.

The mastermind of the anti-Nato protests was Khan, but the main muscle behind the movement was PTI's charismatic muscle-woman, Shireen Mazari. It is said that she herself crushed two Nato trucks with her own bare hands.

She also claimed that she was the target of a US drone, but she repulsed the attack by crushing the drone with her own bare hands.

But the eccentric that Khan is, later in the year he greatly disappointed millions of his revolutionary supporters and Mazari, by deciding to lead an anti-polio drive in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.

Suspected militants who are suspected of killing polio workers because most of the workers are CIA agents, who mix chemicals in polio drops that make Muslim male babies sterile, also exhibited their anger towards Khan and hurled suspected threats to Khan whom Mazari now wanted to crush with her own bare hands.

But Khan was adamant. Let's hope he sees the light and concentrates more on important issues than waste time by getting involved in trivial and silly things like polio eradication.

2013 also saw the eruption of a widespread debate about what truly constitutes shahadat (martyrdom).

The revolutionary JI chief, Munawar Hassan, said on TV that he considered suspected militants killed in confirmed US drone attacks as martyrs. The comment offended the families of those suspected military personnel and suspected civilians who were suspected to be slaughtered by suspected militants.

The JUI-F chief, Fazlur Rehman, pitched in by saying that he even considers a dog killed by the US a martyr after which all the dogs of his hometown in the D I Khan district became his biggest fans.

Munawar did not take his comments back even after families of the suspected victims of suspected militant attacks and the ISPR criticised him, proving that he was a man of his words who always speaks his knee. Mostly his right knee.

Cricket too, was very much in focus in 2013. A host of cricket experts on various channels lambasted Pakistan's defeats against South Africa, especially former fast bowler, Shoaib Akhtar, who had been a beacon of discipline and stability as a player, rightly pointed out how indisciplined and unstable the Pakistan team had been. He wanted to crush Pakistan cricket captain, Misbahul Haq, with his own bare hands.

Meanwhile, another former player, Basit Ali, after deeply contemplating the technical issues that led to Pakistan's defeat against South Africa, suggested that the main issue that led to Pakistan's poor show was due to their unwillingness to perform sajdas for longer periods of time than they usually do after making a century. He said the batsmen should remain in that position for at least 15 to 20 minutes.

He was supported in this theory by former batsman, Inzamamul Haq, who suggested that sajdas should be performed by Pakistani batsmen after every 10 runs that they score.

However, when Misbah performed a small sajda after his side turned the tables and beat South Africa in South Africa, his critics suggested that he had actually slipped because in essence he was a 'liberal fascist' who refuses to say 'Thanks to God, boys plays well ...' at post-match ceremonies.

2013 was also the year when the nation saw the departure of Asif Ali Zardari after completing his full five-year-term as President. Though according to some very resourceful and insightful TV anchors he was supposed to be deposed in 2008 and then in 2009, he was only kept on by the establishment because it didn't want the predictions of the anchors to come true and their ratings to climb.

The crowning achievement of the Zardari regime actually arrived in early 2013 when his prime minister banned, unbanned and then banned YouTube for posting a terribly scripted, badly acted and easily forgettable straight-to-YouTube farce that offended the sensibilities of Muslims around the world.

But it goes to the credit of the progressive Zardari regime to make Pakistan the only Muslim country to ban YouTube, confirming its status as being the bastion of Islam ... and proxy servers.

Also retiring in 2013 was the chain-smoking, cool dude, army chief, Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, whose closet companion remained to be his baton which he kept twisting throughout his long tenure as army chief.

But the saddest exit of the year was that of Pakistan's very own judicial hunk, suo motu fan, headline-grabbing, dreamy-eyed super judge, Iftikhar Chaudhry. Ever since he was reinstated to his post of Chief Justice of Pakistan in 2008, he became a thorn in the side of anyone or anything that guaranteed newspaper headlines and TV analysis.

He crushed nepotism, corruption, dismissed PMs, admonished military officers and noblest of all, coolly sidelined the suspected allegations of suspected corruption against his son who was used by the judge's enemies to halt his crusade.

His courts also dismissed cases against suspected sectarian violence and suspected extremist militants because being suspected was no reason to sentence suspected men because only PMs can be suspected and receive a sentence.

It is true that even in 2013 though thousands of cases remained pending in the lower courts, this is a trivial issue compared to the gallant suo motu notices the judge took against the prices of tomatoes and potatoes. Kudos.

—By Nadeem F. Paracha