A mouse that roared (unconvincingly)
by Zia Ahmad An American friend recently sent a youtube clip featuring the uberPakistani sensation with the red beret circa 2007/8 Zaid Hamid/Zaman. The clip appears to have been made around the time of the Osama killing and offers nothing new. Its yet another final warning to India, Amreeka and the zionists. What is more noticeable about this clip is the amateur nature of the video. The often repetitious monologue does not benefit from the uneven audibility of Mr Zaman’s voice. Keeping the same bland … Read entire article »
Filed under: Media
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 »
President of APNS confirms that Saleem Shahzad’s emails were not ‘baseless’
Statement from Hameed Haroon, Chief Executive Dawn Group of Newspapers and President All Pakistan Newspapers Society. A leading newspaper publisher in Pakistan and the president of the nationwide newspapers body has reacted sharply to charges by the Inter Services`Intelligence Agency (ISI) that allegations by Human Rights Watch of the intelligence agency’s involvement in the abduction and murder of Pakistani journalist Salim Shahzad were “baseless” . It has … Read entire article »
Filed under: journalism, Media, Pakistan
Meet the new apologists on Pakistan TV channels
By Zia Ahmad We are already familiar with the rants and tirades of Taliban apologists on TV screens and Op-ed pieces. Enter the Pak Army apologizers. Since the May 2 Abbottabad incident, this lot has come to fore defending, justifying and making excuses for the khakis. Hasb-e-Haal has been a well received TV show which has enjoyed more than two years of popularity with the masses, owing more to Sohail Ahmed’s alter ego Azizi than the trite … Read entire article »
Social media and Pakistan – prospects and possibilities
By Raza Rumi In a picture taken on May 27, 2010 Pakistani IT professionals Omer Zaheer (L) and Arslan Chaudhry browse their newly created networking site in Lahore. Pakistanis outraged with Facebook over “blasphemous” caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed have created a spin off networking site that they dream can connect the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims. A group of six young IT professionals from Lahore, the cultural and entertainment capital of Pakistan, launched www.millatfacebook.com for Muslims to interact online and protest against blasphemy. – AFP Photo When I started to blog, almost by accident, a few Pakistani bloggers were found in cyberspace. Within half a decade the number has multiplied beyond belief. From the senior writers to young students, blogging is now an avenue that allows forunfettered self-expression and also puts the mostly … Read entire article »
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 »
Politicians and Media: Fostering McCarthyism
By Saad Hafiz There are a lot of lessons to be drawn from the political and media experiences of the United States, but the most relevant one is this: there can be a dangerous alliance between politicians and media using the same pulpit to promote hatred and intolerance with lasting effects. In the early 1950′s, Senator Joseph McCarthy’s anticommunist crusades, aided by a pliant media, destroyed lives and fostered a climate of fear and hostility in American Society. The Governing Class’ use of the media to spread fear is prevalent in American history, most recently in the run up to the war in Iraq. The “Red Menace” and “WMD” bogies trumpeted by Senator McCarthy and the Bush administration assisted by a section of the media confirmed that: “the great masses of the … Read entire article »
Pakistani media does not report on the brutal realities of Balochistan
Ali Dayan Hasan — Pakistan representative, Human Rights Watch The News on Sunday (TNS) How does HRW view the current state of human rights in Balochistan? Ali Dayan Hasan (ADH) The toxic mix of armed nationalist, sectarian and Taliban actors on the one hand and the trigger-happy military authorities on the other, makes Balochistan one of the most dangerous places in the world today. Illegal detention. torture, disappearances and targeted killings by the military are commonplace. Abuses by nationalist militants are also on the rise. It is an appalling situation and the great losers in this are the long-suffering people of the province. TNS: Your report on attacks on education in Balochistan was criticised by the nationalists as focusing too much on the issues of settlers. What was the reason for highlighting that? … Read entire article »
Filed under: baluchistan, Media
Ghairat Brigade To The Rescue
By: Sana Saleem Let me (re)introduce you to a term called “slut shaming”, undoubtedly our most favorite pass time. This might not sound familiar to many but I promise after I get done with the definition most of us will be able to relate fully. Slut shaming is the deliberate act of calling a woman a slut, a whore or impugning her character in sexual terms in order to embarrass, humiliate, intimidate, degrade or shame her for … Read entire article »
Filed under: Liberal Democratic Pakistan, Media, Women
Pakistan has to make a choice
Bilal Qureshi For my mental health, I never watch Pakistani television, be it state run or the so-called ‘private’ channels. And if I am forced for whatever reason to put up with it for an hour or so, it is, and I am not exaggerating here, the most painful experience; an experience I find difficult to explain in language that is utterly unacceptable in any civilised society. Personally, I am convinced that as soon as the media became independent in Pakistan, it has been a race to the bottom by these anchors and other personalities on T.V. And except for one or perhaps two voices of reason, majority of the talk show hosts in Pakistan are narrow minded, one dimensional, Zardari hating, Osama worshiping, illiterate gangsters who are determined to destroy logical … Read entire article »
Filed under: Media
Impoverished Journalism and Impious Mullahs
Amaad Ahmad’s exclusive piece for PTH. On June 16th 2010, Ulema of different religious parties appeared on the popular show Point Blank hosted by Mubashir Lucman of Express News for a discussion on the case of Ahmadis. The ‘scholarly’ panel launched unwarranted and slanderous attacks on the founder of the Ahmadiyya movement Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian and his followers. Compromising all journalistic ethos, no hearing was given by Mr. Lucman to those being denounced as the infidels. Image the reaction if Sunni beliefs were analyzed by Shia Ayatollahs on Point Blank instead. This was not a discussion between two points of view since no Ahmadi scholar was invited to rebut or reply to the pronouncements of the Ulema. Rather it was only an affirmation of the alleged heresy of … Read entire article »
Filed under: journalism, Media, Taliban
The national narrative
Salman Tarik Kureshi Daily Times, June 12, 2010 What happened through the 1950s was the piecemeal articulation of a national narrative for the new state. Jinnah’s liberal, inclusive vision was converted into a faux Islamic exclusivism. Conformity was imposed on political pluralism and a unitary state, belying the Quaid’s crusades for provincial autonomy, was created Pakistan, we learn, is rated among the five most unstable countries in the Global Peace Index. Scarcely surprising, given the ongoing civil … Read entire article »
Filed under: Army, Civil Service, Colonialism, Constitution, Democracy, History, Judiciary, Media, Pakistan, state
Our Wonderful Hosts
by Amaar Ahmad In the aftermath of the carnage in Lahore against Ahmadis, life returned to normal. Our prime minister gazed at the wonders on display at another art gallery, our law minister spoke to TV channels highlighting the great efforts of Punjab police in striking down the terror cells, our mullahs ranted fatwas against infidels and the hosts of our television shows switched to their favorite topic of the failings of the PPP government. The scale of the tragedy in Lahore on May 28 must have been enormous. After all, how can you explain why our television anchors felt obliged to parade Allama after Allama for delivering words of condemnation that night. No sooner did the Ulema utter words of commiseration than sermons on the context and pretext of why and … Read entire article »
Filed under: Media
Half Muslims and Non Muslims
By Farzana Versey Born in the Ismaili faith, I have been quite accustomed to the ‘aadha Mussalman’ (half Muslim) tag. Members of the community are none the worse for it. However, I cannot understand the attitude towards Ahmadis in Pakistan. Ismailis have a living Imam, yet they are not considered a minority. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Democracy, human rights, Islamism, journalism, Media, minorities, Religion, Rights, state
The argument of violence
Salman Latif has sent us his rational views on the Facebook saga. I am glad that PTH is attracting the wise and the sanguine. Yet, we seem to have invoked the ire of our zealous compatriots who think that by opposing the ban, we are (God forbid) guilty of blasphemy. We condemn the myopia of those who want to provoke Muslims and display lack of respect for the Prophet (pbuh) who is central to our belief system. At the same time, PTH holds that banning of information flow in the 21st century is not acceptable. Today it is ‘blasphemy’ excuse, tomorrow it will be something else. There are other ways of protesting and we should employ them before resorting to blanket banning of the Internet. (Raza Rumi) Guess what? The cartoon … Read entire article »
Filed under: Islam, Islamism, Liberal Democratic Pakistan, Media, Pakistan, Politics, public policy
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