Pak Tea House » liberal Pakistan
Traitors and Reactionaries
Dedicated to Hameed Gul and Nadeem Farooq Paracha By Raza Habib Raja The political spectrum in our country is polarized between two extremes: patriotic conservatives and the liberals. Both these extremes are often in complete conflict and accuse the other of naivety and even fanaticism. While conspiracy theories of the rightwing are well known, I have seen that liberals are not at all far behind and churn out their own conspiracy theories in which they try to absolve the PPP government of everything under the sun. Following are the “pearls” of wisdom uttered by both sides. The Patriotic Brigade 1. We are patriots and love our motherland like hell. We are macho and believe in jingoism. Our favorite terms are: Islam; nationalism; traitors; baigharat liberals; strategic location; CIA; Mosad; RAW; corruption; and independent judiciary. … Read entire article »
Filed under: dynasties, Humor, liberal Pakistan, Pakistan, Society
The Fight for Pakistan's Future: Violently Reflected on Campus
The New York Times, Published April 20, 2010 By SABRINA TAVERNISE; Waqar Gillani contributed reporting. April 21 (New York Times) — LAHORE, Pakistan – The professor was working in his office here on the campus of Pakistan’s largest university this month when members of an Islamic student group battered open the door, beat him with metal rods and bashed him over the head with a giant flower pot. Iftikhar Baloch, an environmental science professor, had expelled members of the group for violent behavior. The retribution left him bloodied and nearly unconscious, and it united his fellow professors, who protested with a nearly three-week strike that ended Monday. The attack and the anger it provoked have drawn attention to the student group, Islami Jamiat Talaba, whose morals police have for years terrorized this graceful, century-old … Read entire article »
Filed under: human rights, Islam, Left, liberal Pakistan, Politics, psychology, Punjab, youth
Khuda Hafiz Pakistan
by Nirupama Subramanian Cross Post from http://beta.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article258515.ece “There is a Pakistani in every Indian; and an Indian in every Pakistani,” President Asif Ali Zardari famously said two years ago. Those words rang in my head with new resonance as I packed my bags and left Pakistan recently after a nearly four-year-long assignment as this newspaper’s Islamabad-based correspondent. It should have been easy to leave a country that is by word and deed hostile to India, and where the state machinery treats every Indian as a “RAW agent”, spending considerable human and material resources on the surveillance of the only two Indian journalists — from The Hindu and Press Trust India — that are permitted to be based there. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Afghanistan, Army, culture, Democracy, India, Islamabad, journalism, liberal Pakistan, Media, Pakistan, Society, Terrorism, Yusuf Raza Gillani, Zardari
Let Pakistan Make Its Own Progress
From The New York Times: By Nadia Naviwala CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts — What do we do about Pakistan? Because I am a Pakistani-American who recently spent several months there, people here are constantly trying to get me to answer that question. One of the most important things I can offer them is a reality check. … Read entire article »
Filed under: liberal Pakistan
Is Article 227 indispensable?
By Naeem Sadiq The News, January 28, 2010 If the Taliban were to come to power in Pakistan (which is what their struggle is all about), what would they do to the Constitution? The answer is: they would retain Article 227 and discard the rest of the Constitution. This single article of the Constitution would be sufficient for them to run the country. Their interpretation of this Article would be: “All laws to be brought in conformity with the injunctions of Islam – as perceived by the Taliban.” They could arguably use the article to make laws to kill a barber for a haircut, bomb a school if it was attended by females, gouge the eyes of those who watched television, lash people for wearing shorts and cut off hands for theft, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Democracy, Islamism, Justice, Law, Liberal Democratic Pakistan, liberal Pakistan, minorities, Pakistan, Parliament, Religion, Rights, secular Pakistan, secularism, state, Taliban
Attention Madam Speaker Of The National Assembly Of Pakistan
I received this email and an appended letter to the honorable Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan, Dr. Fahmida Mirza. This is not being posted here for sectarian debate or any other kind of debate but for right of information- any attempts at introducing a theological debate on the issue shall be subject to automatic deletion. Surely the geniuses who believe that the second amendment to the constitution was justified should not have any problem bringing to … Read entire article »
Filed under: Liberal Democratic Pakistan, liberal Pakistan, minorities, Parliament, People's Pakistan, secular Pakistan
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