Pak Tea House » Archive
Why Pakistanis and Some Western Liberals Need to Rethink about Drone Attacks
By Raza Habib Raja The latest news about war in Afghanistan, which is making headlines, is the suspension of US military aid to Pakistan. Among other things, the rationale given by the US administration is the refusal of Pakistan’s military to allow further use of Shamsi Airbase for launching of drone attacks. Drone attacks have recently attracted a lot of controversy and are vehemently opposed in Pakistan by the nationalist circles. The sentiments against drones are not restricted to “loss of sovereignty” but are also supplemented by continuous reminders about loss of innocent lives. And yes, the critics are not just restricted to ultranationalists in Pakistan but also include some western liberals who construe drone attacks as a symbol of traditional American hegemony. In fact drone attacks have actually “united” apparently … Read entire article »
Filed under: People's Pakistan
What needs to be done in Karachi
By Raza Rumi: The recent escalation of violence and senseless butchery in Karachi serves to remind us once again just how the state is withering away in Pakistan. State-building has always been a neglected project in Pakistan’s largest city. Ineffective and weak institutions were commandeered by large, organised mafias often with public support on the basis of ethnic identity. This spurred other groups to organise themselves in a similar manner and now Karachi is a playground of ethnic battles and fascist tactics with violence seen as a legitimate instrument to achieve and exercise political power. Click here to read complete article. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Karachi
Conspiracy or not – who should decide?
By Kiran Nazish “The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words.” – Philip K. Dick We have been watching the so called democratic governments around the world, using words to enchain millions of minds and turn people into their obedient machines without a will and without any thoughtfulness in their actions beyond the lies … Read entire article »
Filed under: Opinion
Mumbai Massacre Part 2
By D. Asghar As these lines are being written, over 20 precious lives are no more in Mumbai. 100 plus people are injured and as reports trickle in, sadly the number of impacted physically, keeps on rising. People of Mumbai have barely recovered from the 2008 terrorist attacks and now this. Many speculations and opinions came to fore almost instantaneously, thanks to electronic media and twitteriti. Some were just down right stupid as usual and some were worth paying attention to. The electronic media reported just yesterday that, India has given a list of most wanted criminals to Pakistan. Mostly people related to terrorism and related senseless acts. Its a pity that we have (supposedly) within our boundaries, responsible for such heinous acts. It is equally damning to hear rebuttals, which are proven … Read entire article »
Filed under: India, Pakistan, Pakistan-India Peace Process, Terrorism, violence, war
Just say no, yes you can
By Ghazala Akbar In case you were otherwise engaged and missed this momentous event, the President and his son visited N0.10 Downing Street last week, where they were cordially received by Mr. David Cameron. The British Prime Minister also accepted a gift of a cinema-poster style painting of his wife, himself and baby daughter Florence. Mr. Cameron has two other children, but they were mysteriously excluded. (Since Mr. Cameron’s Government is furiously engaged in cutting family welfare … Read entire article »
Filed under: Politics
Partition of Sudan: Learning from India and Pakistan
By Yasser Latif Hamdani Sudan, the largest country in Africa, has been partitioned into two much like British India was partitioned in 1947. The principle on which South Sudan today stands as the newest member of the comity of nations is the same principle on which Pakistan was founded. In both cases the underlying principle was not religion but rather a group identity escaping the majoritarian identity of the mother state. At the very least it … Read entire article »
Filed under: Jinnah, Pakistan, Pakistan-India Peace Process, Partition
Why it is “our” war?
By Mashal.S Ahmad: I do not know what is a greater tragedy; that Pakistan is targeted by terrorists who have bombed mosques and shrines, army and civilian areas, universities, marketplaces, and have killed and maimed people of all faiths, ages and ethnicities, or that we are still, 10 years down the line, stuck in an intellectual grey space about whether terrorism is our problem or not. In Pakistan, one aspect of the issue is that there is … Read entire article »
Filed under: Opinion
Does the Millennial Generation have every right to be the Melancholy Generation?
By Rabab Khan Back when we were still in our teens, the favorite term to bandy around to explain why we could never get along with our parents was ‘generation gap’. And seemingly, this is exactly how things had worked for generations before that. Some of us had pre-partition parents, some had post partition parents. Those with post partition parents would have a different story to tell about their parent-child differences. Those with pre-partition parents… well, … Read entire article »
Filed under: culture
Pride in Pakistan?
By : Sohail anjum / www.sohailanjum.co.uk … Read entire article »
Filed under: Photos
What Pakistanis think about Americans
By Raza Habib Raja Orginally published at Huffington Post Martin is one of my American friends and has travelled frequently to Pakistan on official trips. Almost all of his trips have come in the recent days and thus have coincided with some of the most turbulent times in Pakistani history. I initially got to know Martin because he was a government consultant sent by the US government for providing technical assistance to my organization (Central Bank of Pakistan) and therefore I was required to assist him in understanding its various functions. Martin was very inquisitive about Pakistan and its people. Since I became close to him during his stays, he asked me a lot of questions and also expressed his views as they were being formed. Martin was surprised at the contrast of … Read entire article »
Filed under: Opinion
On Nationality
By Kiran Rizvi “Where do you come from?” people often ask me in the US. It makes for an excellent question to break the ice in a meeting or at a party, or maybe they are curious to find out my roots so they can pass an ‘educated’ judgment on my demeanor. Even people from Pakistan and India ask me the same question; I guess they want to know which part of the subcontinent I belong to. It has always been hard for me to answer this question. The idea of nationality intrigues me; what makes a geographical area on earth, one’s ‘homeland’? My mother often talks to me about the small village in India where she was born. She often recounts her trip to the village orchard where she used to … Read entire article »
Filed under: People's Pakistan, USA
Childhood in Parachinar
R A Toor Childhood By Riaz Ali Toori: On a beautiful evening with an overcast sky, while I was travelling from Islamabad to the historic city of Taxila, Syed Ali Abbas Zaidi, the founder of Pakistan Youth Alliance and an activist, asked on twitter to share everyone the era of 1990s which one had experienced as a child growing up in Pakistan. His tweet took me back into time forcing me to reminiscence about those golden and … Read entire article »
Filed under: Blogroll
The Apologists Blindly March Forth
By Zia Ahmad The Nation has always been a bit of an oddity amongst the English language in Pakistan. A sister concern of the vehemently conservative Urdu daily Nawa-e-Waqt, The Nation has inherited the responsibility to play the custodian of the Two Nation Theory for the English paper readership in Pakistan. Apparently 1971 never happened In Nawa-e-Waqt’s version of history. … Read entire article »
Our apologist athlete and his students
By Saadia Gardezi: Last week in class, two of my students were to present the impact of the War on Terror on the Pakistan economy. My young freshman students missed the point of the presentation, to focus on the economy, and economic policy in light of a war. Rather they delved into Pakistani politics and said that the War on Terror was Americas war, nothing to do with Pakistan and we should have stayed out of it (as if we had a choice of wanted to do that) and the only politician calling this spade a spade was Imran Khan. They ended their presentation with this video clip, where repeatedly Khan says that the military was wrong to go into Wazistan… the military by attacking its own people had ‘created’ the Taliban said … 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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