Featured
Staying the constitutional course
By Saad Hafiz: Pakistan’s troubled history has been dominated by power-hungry generals and mostly corrupt and incompetent politicians supported by a cast of cunning bureaucrats, pliant judges, invisible spooks, political fixers and middlemen, and biddable media persons. These well known ‘pantheon of villains’ thrived in an arbitrarily divided country where unrelated areas and peoples were just illogically and hurriedly joined together. … Read entire article »
Twitter, Twitter where have you gone.!!
Twitter, the famous micro-blogging website, has been blocked in Pakistan since today morning i.e. that of 20th May 2012. A similar action was taken against the social networking web site Facebook two years ago, when it was banned by the Lahore High Court. According to News Agency AFP, Pakistan blocked Twitter on Sunday, saying the website had refused to remove posts promoting … Read entire article »
Pity the Nation….
By: Riaz Ali Toori Our history is replete with judicial transgressions and military interventions, the implications of which can be very unnerving. A quick glimpse at Pakistan’s history would reveal that when the dictator, General Ayub Khan deposed Iskandar Mirza, the change was welcomed but what did we ultimately reap? Governmental corruption and nepotism, in addition to an environment of repression … Read entire article »
Remembering Manto
Saadat Hasan Manto, perhaps is the greatest story teller in the history of urdu language. We have collected some thoughts about him by people who knew him best Kamal Ahmed Rizvi The Progressive Writers Movement never completely owned and recognised Manto in his life. Hasan Askari also mentioned that in his essays on Manto. Apparently, there were some lists issued in literary … Read entire article »
Ugly Mullahs of Pakistan
(We received the following contribution from an angry reader of PTH and we are publishing it without malice or much editing. The views expressed by the writer are completely his own and do not reflect the policy of PTH. By: Farooq Ahmad Khan Mullahs of Pakistan are the worst of creatures. They are responsible for religious hatred, intolerance and spreading of extremism in our society. These mullahs freely issue kufar fatwas on their opponent sects and threaten those with a different belief. They say that religion should be part of politics in Pakistan nut in reality, mixing religion and politics has played a negative role against the prosperity and development of the country. Until 1968, the mullah’s role … Read entire article »
SOS! Save Our Shalwars!
By Ghazala Akbar: For the past few years, a silent revolution has been in progress in Pakistan of which our security agencies, political parties, the religious right, Ghairat Brigades, Difa- e- Pakistan Council are blissfully unaware. It is not an Indian – Zionist – Western inspired conspiracy. US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher has no hand in it.There are no hectoring articles written by Western think tanks. Scholars at the Jinnah Institute have not issued any erudite papers.The Human Rights Commission has failed to comment. Honourable Justices of the SC are otherwise engaged to take suo motu notice. Most surprising of all it has escaped the keen trend – spotting eye of NFP, the ever- vigilant cultural critic … Read entire article »
National Sovereignty, What Sovereignty?
By Raza Habib Raja One of the most hyped up slogans on the media and the rightwing nationalist circles is of “National Sovereignty”. This slogan is so powerful that Pakistani leadership particularly that of PPP is always on the defensive. According to this “National Sovereignty” school of thought, Pakistan has sold its soul to the foreign powers due to personal greed of the ruler class and has compromised the autonomy by facilitating the drone attacks. People like Imran Khan have made a full career out of opposition to these attacks. Not surprisingly these attacks, despite killing militants are continuously being cited as a “proof” of the great treachery. But then in the past, everything ranging from Nazam-i-Adl … Read entire article »
America Still Survives under Fear of Its Security despite Osama’s Death
By Sidrah Zaheer: In search of Osama bin Laden, the United States went on a manhunt not seen in history. The Allied Forces, and in particular America, should be thankful that Adolf Hitler committed suicide or else there would had been more death and destruction to hunt him down too. Still to this day, there are articles, books, and documentaries based … Read entire article »
Kaleidoscope
Giant Slaying in Madrid By Roxane Akhtar The Mutua Madrid Open tennis tournament, currently taking place, has been quite the roller coaster ride. The no. 1 seed, Novak Djokovic, fell to his countryman, Janko Tipsarevic, intheir quarter final match on Friday evening. The first ‘giant slaying’ was a day earlier, in Round 3. Fernando Verdasco, ranked no. 19, defeated his compatriot, Rafael Nadal, currently … Read entire article »
Life and E.R.
by Abdul Majeed Working in the emergency department is not exactly as fancy as portrayed by the long-running drama E.R., with doctors like Dr. Mark Greene and George Clooney. It is not even as much glamorous as participating in a House M.D Differential Diagnosis, or an episode of Grays’ Anatomy. I will explain below, my hands on experience of doing just … Read entire article »
What Should Have Been Done
Raza Habib Raja At the onset, I would like to make this thing clear that I have contrasting views on two recent executive judiciary standoffs: Memo scandal and NRO verdict. The clarification is essential because generally both the standoffs are analysed by the conservative as well as liberal media analysts through the same paradigm. The conservative viewpoint generally castigates PPP as the epitome of corruption and incompetence. It is by and large completely supportive of the judiciary and regards the current hawkish approach of the judiciary as “essential” in order to check the “corrupt” politicians. On the other hand large section of the liberal press (assuming such a section actually exists!) construes the entire situation as establishment’s deep … Read entire article »
PM’s conviction: Is Supreme Court acting ultra vires its scope?
By Yasser Latif Hamdani The constitution of Pakistan envisages a trichotomy of powers i.e. federal, legislative and judicial powers. Each of these three branches are distinct and derive their powers from the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Pakistan is a creature of the Constitution. It derives its original jurisdiction in terms of disputes between provincial governments and federal government from Article 184 (1) and 184 (2) which judgments have to be declaratory in nature. Article 184(3) vests the Supreme Court with jurisdiction to decide questions of fundamental public importance. The Appellate and Advisory Jurisdictions are derived from 185 and 186. The Supreme Court and the High Courts have the power of judicial review i.e. to review … Read entire article »
Treating Religion like a brand?
By Amaar Ahmad: Just when it seems that the boundary of idiocy cannot be pushed any further, Punjab police has proved us wrong. There are recent reports that an Ahmadi “place of worship” in Sultanpura, Lahore was damaged by policemen to fulfill the demands of local religious clerics. The offense which the Ahmadi “place of worship” had caused was the public … Read entire article »
Difference between Islam and Political Islam
(This is a rare post about religion on PTH, because we do not encourage religious discussions on our page. The aim of this post is to understand differences between Islam and “Political Islam”, a notion having its origins in the last one and a half century,) Following are excerpts from Tarek Fatah’s book, “Chasing the Mirage: The Tragic lllusion of an Islamic State” The views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of PTH. What Islamists seek and what Muslims desire are two separate objectives, sometimes overlapping, but clearly distinct. While the former seek an “Islamic State,” the latter merely desires a “state of Islam.” One state requires a theocracy, the other a … Read entire article »
culture
Fashion week pakistan
By The fashion police The wait is finally up!!! Fashion Pakistan Week 3 is coming back with a … Read more »
Dismantling the barriers of hate
By Ghazala Akbar Midway between the cities of Lahore in Pakistan and Amritsar in India each about 25 … Read more »
Music
Strings of hope
By: Dr. Zehra Saqlain I would like to congratulate the whole nation that we still have visionaries and … Read more »
Aaloo-eating zionists – Pakistan’s youth reacts to daily doses of ghairat and lies
By Saadia Gardezi The latest music video to go viral in the Pakistani blogosphere, Aaloo Andey by Beyghairat Brigade, … Read more »
Opinion
Love it or leave it
By: Dr Zehra Saqlain The deafening noise of horns & fast cars zoomed by me as i walk … Read more »
Arts and Crafts
Pakistan 2011: the Movie…at a TV set near you!
By Ghazala Akbar: Sonia Gandhi once imperiously remarked that the Indians need not bother going to war with Pakistan anymore, the invasion of Indian TV was enough. She had a point. For a … Read more »
Continuation of a joint heritage
Ilmana Fasih recounts some examples of the ‘Ganga Jamuni Tehzeeb’ and centuries’ old, peaceful coexistence beyond religious … Read more »
Technology
The internet divide: it’s just not cricket
By Ghazala Akbar: In cricket as in politics, the Machiavellian dictum holds: if your opponent is your enemy, then your opponent’s enemy is your friend. Pakistanis, on the back foot on just about … Read more »
Headline:The Hard Knock Life of an Internet Troll
Source: http://chzdailywhat.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/9f50499e-33c1-4be6-aa6b-aef9300b96b5.jpg … Read more »
Humor
SOS! Save Our Shalwars!
By Ghazala Akbar: For the past few years, a silent revolution has been in progress in Pakistan of which our security agencies, political parties, the religious right, Ghairat Brigades, Difa- e- Pakistan Council … Read more »
Everything is More Fun in Pakistan!
“This is just a off shoot of the new “More Fun in Philippines” campaign by the Philippines … Read more »
Politics
Breaking the impasse in Indo-Pak relations
By Saad Hafiz: The heavy baggage of history in Indo-Pak relations includes Partition, Kashmir, armed conflict and ongoing arms race, Bangladesh, Siachen, Kargil and Mumbai. Mostly shrill jingoism and xenophobic nationalism on both … Read more »
A hope for friendship, a prayer for peace
By Chintan Girish Modi: I read this morning’s news with great delight. Soon as I signed into my Twitter account, two fabulous news items grabbed my attention. ‘Cabinet nod to easier visas for Pakistanis … Read more »
Popular
Are Ahmadis Non-Muslims?
By Yasser Latif Hamdani (Written exclusively for PakTeaHouse. Please give credit when crossposting) The poison of ignorance and extremism that Bhutto and General Zia jointly fathered during their dictatorial regimes has fully indoctrinated even … Read more »
Nations within a Nation – The Search for a Pakistani Nation – 2
By Adnan Syed “Indeed, world is ruled by little else but ideas.” — John Maynard Keynes The Two Nation Theory and Inequality in the New State of Pakistan The two nation theory was … Read more »
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