Pak Tea House » Archive
Hating Zardari
Hit and run By Shakir Husain The News, May 17, 2010 Whenever people ask me about the funniest Asif Zardari joke I’ve ever heard, my response is always, “That he is the most successful president in the 63 year history of Pakistan.” I can picture readers cringing, noses wrinkling, and people asking to be passed the sick bag. What makes this nauseating sensation worse for most is that if you can get past the silly grin, the last name, the face – whatever your pet Asif Zardari peeve is, you will realise it’s true. Before you abandon this piece here to go and fire off a nasty email to me and the Editor, think about this rationally by removing the last name from the presidency, and just objectively look at what the man … Read entire article »
The Alleged Stunning Indiscretion of a News Anchor
One of our friends recently wrote: “Two highly recommended books for those who wish to understand Pakistan: Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and The Castle by Frank Kafka”. This is not a cynical view of Pakistan. Pakistan is a country that is a conundrum wrapped within a puzzle inside an enigma. As the previous proxy state militia broke into different factions and is now fighting the state, the lines between friends and foes are blurred. ISI that used to formant proxy militias to further its causes in Kashmir and Afghanistan is now itself being attacked by its very own Frankenstein. The previous masters of the Taliban are now either their prisoners or being killed by them. A case of Khalid Khwaja and Colonel Imam is a sad reflection of the evil of the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Army, FATA, North-West Frontier Province, Pak Tea House, Pakistan, Taliban, Terrorism, USA
Pakistani-Americans and Police Sharing, and Trying to Spread,Trust
Pakistani-Americans and Police Sharing, and Trying to Spread, Trust Cross Post from The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/17/nyregion/17conn.html By ANNE BARNARD (New York Times) — STRATFORD, Conn. — Last month, a resident of Avon, Conn., received a threatening letter full of religious references. The police chief there, Mark Rinaldo, wondered whether the letter implied a broader threat from a Muslim militant. He called Dr. Atique A. Mirza, a Pakistani-born Muslim cardiologist, who studied the letter for cultural, religious and political clues. They concluded that the threat probably involved a narrow dispute between neighbors. Now that a Pakistani-American man from Connecticut, Faisal Shahzad, stands accused of trying to detonate a car bomb in Times Square, setting off soul-searching and unease among the state’s thousands of residents of Pakistani descent, Mr. Rinaldo and Dr. Mirza are holding up their … Read entire article »
Filed under: Identity, Islam, minorities, Pakistan, psychology, Taliban, Terrorism, USA
For Times Square Suspect, Long Roots of Discontent
Reproduced from The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/nyregion/16suspect.html?pagewanted=1 Published: May 15, 2010 This article was reported by Andrea Elliott, Sabrina Tavernise and Anne Barnard, and written by Ms. Elliott. Just after midnight on Feb. 25, 2006, Faisal Shahzad sent a lengthy e-mail message to a group of friends. The trials of his fellow Muslims weighed on him — the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the plight of Palestinians, the publication in Denmark of cartoons lampooning the Prophet Muhammad. Mr. Shahzad was wrestling with how to respond. He understood the notion that Islam forbids the killing of innocents, he wrote. But to those who insist only on “peaceful protest,” he posed a question: “Can you tell me a way to save the oppressed? And a way to fight back when rockets are fired at us and … Read entire article »
Filed under: Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, FATA, Identity, Iraq, Islam, Islamabad, Islamism, Pakistan, Religion, Taliban, USA, violence
THE GREAT RECESSION, THE EUROPEAN FISCAL CRISIS AND LESSONS FOR PAKISTAN. Part 3: The European Debt Crisis
The Exploding Debt in Europe By Kashan Wali, exclusive to the PTH Wealth cannot be artificially created Finance in a real world relies on underlying wealth of a society. Governments cannot create wealth by printing money. Print too much money and it will lose its value. A fall in the value of money leads to inflation. Inflation viciously attacks the value of savings of the population. As population loses the stored wealth, the population becomes dependent on the state. State has to pay more now for healthcare, education and in extreme situation, food and shelter for population that is going poorer by the day. Either way, unless the underlying wealth (net output of goods and services produced) does not increase, a country cannot become wealthier. Let’s say state tries to pull another trick here; … Read entire article »
Filed under: Democracy, Economy, Europe, New Writers, Pak Tea House, Pakistan, poverty, public policy, state, USA
The Journey of a Pakistani Muslim
I was born into a Sunni Muslim family in a northern city in the UK. The city is home to a large Muslim minority from Pakistan. I come from an educated and broad minded family with middle of the road type of values. Religion was never really a huge issue but I did the usual cultural thing of learning how to read the Quran in Arabic till I was 10 years old. At around the age of 14, I became interested in Islam and joined the Young Muslims UK. This was my first real exposure to practical Islam. We would attend camps and have weekly meetings usually to discuss the Quran and the Hadith of Muhammad. For all intents and purposes everything was going well and my family was happy that … Read entire article »
Filed under: Activism, Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Citizens, culture, Democracy, Egalitarian Pakistan, Europe, human rights, India, Iran, Iraq, Islam, Islamism, Pakistan, Philosophy, Religion, Rights, violence, war, Women, youth
Geo's Crisis Cell – 10th May – with YLH
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixNWz4tc430] … Read entire article »
Filed under: Pakistan
PAKISTAN: MQM; Success or Failure in Punjab?
MQM needs to change perceptions about it before it finds any ground in the Punjab Crosspost by Yasmeen Ali MQM’s effort to enter Punjab can be deemed as a historic political development. Altaf Hussain in an address many months earlier, promised Punjab an end to feudalism, while announcing MQM’s entrance in the Punjab political kaleidoscope .This is an interesting promise, considering MQM was unable to dent the feudalism in rural Sindh where it exists, much more than in Punjab. According to the MQM’s 2008 election manifesto “the prevalent feudal system of Pakistan is the main obstacle in the progress of the country and the prosperity of the people”. Before going any further, let us identify what feudalism is. In one view, that of Marc Bloch, views feudalism as the complete system, political, military, social, and … Read entire article »
Pakistani ambassador to the UN on Faisal Shahzad
Pakistan’s Ambassador to the U.N., Abdullah Hussain Haroon, speaks to CBS News’ Pamela Falk about U.S.-Pakistan cooperation in the investigation of the case of Pakistani-American would-be bomber Faisal Shahzad and what needs to be done to eliminate jihadists in the tribal regions of Pakistan. Watch video here. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Al Qaeda, Islamism, Pakistan, Taliban, Terrorism, USA
The Dead Parrot
By Dr. Omar Ali Originally published at wichaar.com under the headline “The Air Marshal’s incompetent bombmaker son” http://www.wichaar.com/news/284/ARTICLE/20008/2010-05-07.html The son of an air marshal ruined his own life and abandoned his wife and kids in an utterly incompetent attempt to blow up innocent people (some of whom were probably Pakistani cab drivers). Why is Pakistan is breeding so many Islamic fanatics (luckily for us, some of them are incompetent Islamic fanatics)? In some ways, Islamic supremacism is not that different from Christian evangelism, Hindu revivalism or those Japanese rightwing nuts who go around in loudspeaker vans appealing to the emperor to restore Japanese honor and for everyone else to prepare to commit hara kiri. Its true that Christian fanatics and Hindu revivalists are not exploding in buses and trains in faraway countries, but psychologically … Read entire article »
Filed under: Al Qaeda, Islamabad, Islamism, New Writers, Pakistan, state, Taliban, Terrorism
Pakistan, Faisal Shahzad and the Pakistani Taliban
Pakistan: Faisal Shahzad and the Pakistani Taliban Published on May 10, 2010 | 2338 GMT http://www.stratfor.com/?utm_source=General_Analysis&utm_campaign=none&utm_medium=email Summary U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said May 9 that the United States has evidence linking the Pakistani Taliban to Faisal Shahzad, the man who confessed to the failed bombing attempt at Times Square in New York City on May 1. Shahzad is a naturalized U.S. citizen who demonstrated a willingness to carry out an attack on U.S. soil. However, his status as a U.S. citizen would have been problematic for the Pakistani Taliban, who must remain wary of potential infiltration from U.S. intelligence. Furthermore, the attempted bombing showed little to no signs that Shahzad had help from an outside group. … Read entire article »
Filed under: FATA, Identity, North-West Frontier Province, Northern Areas, Pakistan, Peshawar, Religion, Taliban, Terrorism, USA
Faisal Shahzad's Radicalisation
VIEW: Faisal Shahzad’s radicalisation —Yasser Latif Hamdani (Courtesy Daily Times) The Islamic organisations on American campuses are even more hardcore than what we have heard of the cancer of IJT, which is plaguing Pakistani campuses Faisal Shahzad’s arrest has brought renewed focus on our already much maligned country. Commentators with only a rudimentary knowledge of Pakistan and its history have been speculating that perhaps Pakistan’s status as a nation founded on Islam is the root cause, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Pakistan
THE GREAT RECESSION, THE EUROPEAN FISCAL CRISIS AND LESSONS FOR PAKISTAN. Part 2: The US Sub-Prime Crisis and the Great Recession
By Kashan Wali, exclusive to the PTH As the United States economy took off for most of the 1990s, the new found wealth across the world was staring at the best of both worlds; high economic output due to technological advances, cheaper labour entrance into the global economy from India and China, entrance of Eastern Europe and Latin America in the democratic capitalist system, all combined with a lower inflation. What could go wrong? In some ways, the situation was similar to the roaring 1920s of the United States. 90 years ago, the US economy was expanding rapidly. New technological advances in automobile and telephone technology were erasing geographical distances within and outside of the United States. Rising productivity was increasing wealth and the signs of prosperity were evident in the stock market and … Read entire article »
Filed under: China, Economy, India, New Writers, Pakistan, USA
Islam's Nowhere Men
Unlike third rate commentators such as Fareed Zakaria and Sassanad Dhume - inspired more by their national bias (both are fanatically anti-Pakistan Indian ultra-nationalists) to pin Pakistan down than any real objective analysis- Fouad Ajami is a true academic. His article in the Wall Street Journal hits the nail on the head. Americans are well advised to read Ajami’s analysis carefuly and realize that the problem facing Pakistanis and Americans is the same. However even Mr. Ajami hasn’t made the … Read entire article »
The Continuing Curious Case of Faisal Shehzad
In many ways, Faisal Shahzad has come to epitomize the confusion that Pakistan and its diasporas have had with Islam. Here is an outwardly successful Pakistani American who decided to blow up the very people he was living with. RAND has recently published an important report that calculates the percentage of wannabe Jihadis in the North America. This report finds Pakistani descent Jihadis topping the list. Like it or not, our country has had a hand in some aspect of terrorist acts perpetrated across the globe one way or another. There is absolutely nothing to be proud of hearing these negative headlines about our country; yet if we are not able to recognize our follies, we will never be able to redress them. Below, we are posting excerpts from two important commentaries and … Read entire article »
Filed under: Al Qaeda, FATA, Islam, Islamism, Pakistan, Palestine-israel, Religion, Taliban, Terrorism, USA, violence
PTH biweekly Cartoon
Picture of the Week
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Sunrise at the Arabian Sea, Charna Island
24 Dec 2011
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