Pak Tea House » Archive
The battle against Abdul’s Army
By Saad Hafiz His nom de guerre is Abdul, a member of the Tehrik Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Abdul is the resident ideologue of the TTP, his message resonates with the cannon fodder of the movement, the young recruits being trained as suicide bombers to bring murder and mayhem to Pakistani streets and neighborhoods. The TTP’s anti-nationalist pro-Khilafat (global Islam) message is simple and appealing because it is about fighting injustice. The oppressors are the mercenaries of the Na-Pak (unclean) Pakistan Army and their sympathizers who are working in the interest of Zionists, Crusaders and Infidels. This crusade between truth and falsehood sells to the dispossessed masses. … Read entire article »
Coloniality of Power and Human Rights: An unpublished paper by Zafaryab Ahmad
The concept of human rights is a construct based on a notion of relationship between an individual and society, but of a legally circumscribed individual: An individual whose action is limited to conform to the needs and practices of the bourgeois social order. These were defined in the eighteenth century Europe. The juridical ideology defined the domain of this juridically defined subject, the citizen, as of equality before the law and in the market, in an unequal structure of economic and power relations. This understanding of a legally defined subject is primarily abstracted from the act of exchange which takes place in the market. It was necessitated as relations between labor power and capital had to be contractual with the institutions of modern state as a sanction behind this contract. … Read entire article »
Filed under: human rights
America’s Pakistan
By Muhammad Asim The recent request made by Pakistan for the withdrawal of hundreds of US CIA agents and contracts from the country and the cessation of drone strikes comes as another sound bite as the innocent Pakistanis continue to be killed by America. With the latest plea supposedly originating from General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani himself, 335 personnel are being asked to leave the country – a figure said to represent anywhere between 25-40% of the number of foreign spies and fighter in the country. This request was relayed by General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, DG ISI, at a meeting with CIA director Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen in Washington. Such apparent shows of independence and strength have been seen before by the sceptical Pakistani public … Read entire article »
I’m a better Muslim than You
By Meera Ghani In Pakistan being a Muslim isn’t enough anymore. You have to be a certain type of Muslim, constantly having to prove your piety and religiosity to others (by religiosity I mean public religiosity). We seem to have gone so far as a society that senseless violence justified by religion is becoming part of our culture. Once you go down that path it’s very hard to come back. In Pakistan we wear our religion on our sleeves. With people obsessively competing to prove their adherence to “true” Islam, piety seems to be more about making a public show of how religious you are rather than looking at how your deeds affect others. For me religion is a personal matter and should be kept that way. Virtually every major issue in society … Read entire article »
Filed under: Islamism
Pakistan has been playing us all for suckers
‘Pakistan has been playing us all for suckers’ Britain is spending millions bolstering Pakistan, but it is a nation in thrall to radical Islam and is using its instability to blackmail the West Christina Lamb Published: 10 April 2011 (Sunday Times) An injured child is carried from a Peshawar mosque hit by a suicide bomber W hen David Cameron announced £650m in education aid for Pakistan last week, I guess the same thought occurred to many British people as it did to me: why are we doing this? While we are slashing our social services and making our children pay hefty university fees, why should we be giving all this money to a country that has reduced its education budget to 1.5% of GDP while spending several times as much on defence? A country … Read entire article »
Filed under: Great game, Pakistan
Karachi’s Industrialists and “Institutionalized” Extortion.
Asad Furqan Siddiqi Karachi is often referred to as the backbone of Pakistan’s economy. In reality it is actually the heart of Pakistan’s economy. Home to over 20 million people of various ethnic and religious backgrounds, Karachi is a place where everyone is fiercely competing for livelihood. For the last 25 years or so Karachi’s diverse population, has always seen MQM as a coalition partner under every Government. Many people give MQM the credit of being “the owners of Karachi” as well as being the party with the “Mandate” to run and operate Karachi. Both are claims, which are often disputed by independent analysts who argue that if polls in Karachi are carried out under strict neutral scrutiny there is no way that the MQM will emerge as the single majority party of … Read entire article »
Filed under: Karachi
French Veil Controversy: Muslim rethinking of Islam is overdue
French Veil Controversy: Muslim rethinking of Islam is overdue By K. Itarwala The Mullah and the torch-bearer Hail from the same stock; They give light to others, And themselves are in the dark. (Bulleh Shah, Sufi, revolutionary and poet) The shrill opposition of many ‘Muslims’ to the French ban on the face veil has only reinforced my conviction that a thorough reform, indeed nothing less than a complete paradigm shift, in the ways in which ‘Muslims’ understand Islam is more than overdue. My point is simple: ‘Muslims’, by and large, are guilty of equating their own historically-produced and conventionally-understood readings of Islam as equivalent to and wholly synonymous with Islam itself or the Divine Will per se. Since these understandings are humanly produced, and, hence, necessarily flawed and limited, to insist that these represent ‘true’ Islam … Read entire article »
Dialogue: Ali Abbas Jalalpuri on Iqbal’s scholasticism
by Aasem Bakhshi Even though it can be entirely attributed to my shameful reluctance to read philosophy in Urdu, I am embarrassed to be introduced to Ali Abbas Jalalpuri’s work so late, especially his profound critique on Iqbal. Jalalpuri’s critique of Iqbal, besides being academically valuable in its own right, is also important as it can help us immensely to reclaim Iqbal from armchair ideologues and political islamists whose strictly authoritarian projections are a source of constant … Read entire article »
Filed under: Books, Philosophy, Religion, Reviews
The Mohali exchange did not take place in a policy vacuum – Sherry Rehman
An interview with Sherry Rehman who visited India with Pakistan’s Prime Minister to enjoy cricket and build bridges with India. It was the first major interaction at this level since the Mumbai terror attacks. How was the reception? What did the Pakistani delegates and their Indian hosts talk about? What was the body language like? Sherry Rehman: As encounters between India and Pakistan go, this was certainly important, if only for the reason that it broke some serious ice, hitched as it was to a major public event. It was a landmark interaction after the Mumbai explosion had severely damaged bilateral relations, and it represented a clear investment in statesmanship on both sides. Pakistan and India have often relied on sideline moments at multilateral events to keep some interaction going, but this … Read entire article »
Filed under: Pakistan-India Peace Process
Burqa ban and liberalism
By Dr. Niaz Murtaza Liberal states aim to maximize personal freedom, restricting it only in cases where personal actions harm self or others. People are generally given greater license to harm themselves than others. In general, liberal states only restrict those actions which result in clear and immediate physical harm to self. So, suicide is banned. Persons who harm themselves physically repeatedly even without causing fatal injuries will likely be institutionalized. However, smoking, which causes clear but not immediate personal physical harm, is only banned in public places where it harms others. Liberal states generally deal with the lower level of self-harm caused by smoking not through bans but through awareness-raising among smokers. On the other hand, all actions that cause clear physical, economic and psychological harm to others or restrict … Read entire article »
Why I oppose Burqah Ban
By Ms Meera Ghani I must start by stating that I’m not pro-burqa but my argument is simple. No one has a right to tell a person how to dress- not their family nor the State. I oppose the law banning the burqa for the same reasons I would oppose being told to wearing one. By making it a State law against something, you impose just one interpretation and deny freedom to all others. In France it started with the 2004 law banning all religious apparel in schools but which in spite appearances mainly targeted the hijab that muslims girls wear. And last year the Parliament voted on banning burqa style Islamic veils. The French have been disingenuous about what their intent is and have banned what they call “covering of the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Islamism
Asma Jahangir – One of Pakistan’s Greatest Assets
By Nimra Zaheer Asma Jahangir is a leading Pakistani lawyer who defends mainly the women, children and religious minorities of Pakistan who are framed for crimes they did not commit. Her work primarily includes dealing with young wives with abusive husbands and children accused of blasphemy. I first heard of her from my aunt, who had spent some time working for her in Lahore in the Burnt Women Department. The stories and cases my aunt informed me of were heartbreakingly fascinating, mostly rape and domestic abuse cases, where Jahangir provided justice to those who deserved it. I find her intelligence and audacity astonishing in a country where there is no real system of law and order. Jahangir formed the first law firm established by women in the country and also set up … Read entire article »
Filed under: lawyers movement, liberal Pakistan
“Measuring”Pakistani Nationhood
By Niaz Murtaza, Ph.D. Why do some states enjoy peace while others are ravaged by strife? An analysis of their strength of nationhood provides insights into this puzzle. Nations and states are distinct concepts. Nations are large religious, ethnic or other identity-based groups concentrated highly exclusively in a region, usually with a history of some autonomy. States are geographical units recognized as sovereign internationally. Ideally, states should be built around nations to enhance cohesion. However, colonization often locked several nations within one state and divided one nation across several states. Thus, the strength of states’ nationhood varies considerably depending on innate and experiential factors. Innately, the lower the number of identity groups internally, the smaller the identity group overlaps externally and the larger the physical barriers with neighbors the stronger is nationhood. … Read entire article »
Filed under: People's Pakistan
We Are The Cannibals!
By D. Asghar Like many I was disgusted and shocked, when cannibals among us were discovered. These were two villagers in Punjab, who indulged in this inhumane and abhorrent act. The public disdain towards this madness was very natural. The electronic and print media rightfully reported and condemned this deplorable and pathetic act. Of course mental illness can be the only rational explanation for such a demonic practice. What kind of sadistic pleasure, can one derive by killing and consuming their own? But somehow, our condemnation only stops right there. We rarely demonstrate similar objections, when it comes to our own behavior, similar to those demented individuals. For those of you, who may be confused a bit by my statement, ought to observe and examine our personal behavior on a daily basis. … Read entire article »
Unpacking the HEC debate
An amended, rationalised HEC needs to stay in place By Raza Rumi The 18th Amendment approved by the Parliament in 2010 signified a new era in Pakistan’s troubled federalism. Given our turbulent constitutional history, the new governance arrangements approved by all parties and federating units settled for a leaner centre and addressed long-standing demands of provincial autonomy. But the implementation of this amendment has been slower than expected, largely for reasons of capacity both at the federal and provincial levels. Despite the constraints, the Implementation Commission has delivered fairly well. … Read entire article »
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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