Tale of Musharraf’s Coup in 1999
Parvez Musharraf, ex-Dictator, landed in Karachi today, amid much fanfare(and while wearing a suicide jacket). He was ousted democratically on 18th August, 2008 and left the country. Pakistan has successfully completed transition from an elected government to a caretaker setup without direct intervention of the Military for the first time in its history. This does not mean we forget the history of military interventions and the disastrous consequences. To commemorate the arrival of Musharraf, we … Read entire article »
Filed under: Anniversery, Army, Civil Service, Constitution, Democracy, drama, History, ISI, Islamabad, Pakistan, Politics, Society, state, Uncategorized
Death of a Nation
by Hafsa Khawaja Holding on in the midst of political, social and economic storms, the Pakistan of today is an illustration of an almighty bedlam. Unsurprisingly, death and destruction have now eased into humdrum routinely occurrences for most people; Predictably throwing a cloak of desensitization over them; giving rise to chronic apathy. A common trend that has been nurtured in this environment is the juxtaposition of tragedies for comparisons to exhibit selectivity of people’s reactions and responses. To question … Read entire article »
Filed under: Citizens, culture, drama, History, human rights, Identity, Opinion, Pakistan, Society, violence, war
A Battle of Ideas
by Abdul Majeed Abid “When I knew that they were burning our schools, I thought they were burning education, they were burning books. I have to be educated. I’ll be educated no matter what the odds.” Malala Yousafzai Last Week’s attack on Malala Yousafzai, a 14 year old beacon of hope from Swat, garnered all sorts of reactions. Most people were shocked by the brutality of the perpetrators. The timing of that attack, in my opinion, was an extremely unfortunate one as it co-incided with the ending of PTI’s “Peace March” towards Waziristan. Attack on Malala has been construed as a stepping stone to military operation in Waziristan, a primer that turns public opinion towards a certain tilt. Conspiracy theories have been spun at an alarming pace about involvement of various Intelligence Agencies … Read entire article »
Filed under: Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Army, Democracy, Education, FATA, Islam, Islamism, Pakistan, Religion, Society, Taliban, Terrorism, USA, violence, Women
Indo Pak Agreement: A Great Leap Forward
Pak Tea House welcomes the visit of Indian Foreign Minister S M Krishna and the agreements regarding Trade and a relaxed Visa Regime. It was a step in the right direction, towards Making South Asia a peaceful place. Trade between the two countries and frequent contacts between ordinary folk from both sides will pave the way for a gradual end to the belligerency and Jingoistic narrative adopted by Hawks on both sides of the border. Express … Read entire article »
Filed under: Democracy, History, Identity, India, Lahore, Pakistan, Pakistan-India Peace Process, Partition, Society, south asia, Uncategorized
How Trolls are confounding the Shia Rights Discourse
by Abdul Majeed An article recently published in a notorious blog went on to criticize The Friday Times, Raza Rumi, Saleem Javed, Khaled Ahmad and Ali Chishti,because they dared to use the word “sectarian killings” instead of “Shia genocide” which is the term favored by the author of that post. The article also posited that there is a systemic genocide committed against Shias and that the #DeepState is somehow promoting it. The author did not specify exactly what benefit the #DeepState gets if they are actually complicit, when all it does is to actually compromise and damage its own writ and control. The article wanted us to believe that “Sectarian Violence/Genocide” is being “mis-represented” as a Proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The article mentioned the plight of the Hazara … Read entire article »
Filed under: Al Qaeda, Army, baluchistan, Citizens, Democracy, Iran, Islam, Media, Pakistan, quetta, Religion, Society, Taliban, Uncategorized, USA
Disaster Porn and Pakistani media
by Ali Ahsan First of all, my apologies for using an ‘objectionable word’ in the title of my piece given how some 15 year old is already on a self-crusade to note down every single ‘vulgar’ website there is, and try to get the PTA to ban them all for ‘protecting our youth’. Never mind the mental masturbation, but an adult website is the last worry we should have in Pakistan when there are more vulgar and … Read entire article »
Filed under: Citizens, drama, Fiction, human rights, Identity, Islamabad, journalism, Media, Pakistan, Regulatory Affairs, Society
Fallacies that befuddle the ‘educated’ Pakistani mind
by Abdul Majeed Wise people always say, Do not try to present complex matters in black and white terms as it will defeat the purpose. To quote Paul Valery: “That which is simple is always false; that which is not simple is always unusable”. Kala Kawa, a widely read blogger, recently wrote, “Something I Wrote On Pakistan Day”. In that particular blogpost, the blogger expressed his opinion about “confronting your own biases or assumptions” and “middle class … Read entire article »
Filed under: Al Qaeda, Conservation, Islam, Islamism, Pakistan, Politics, Society, Taliban, Terrorism, Women
Murder of History (Part 2)
For Part 1, Click here. by Abdul Majeed I have written in for Posterity. In a hundred years’ time when the future historian sets out to contemplate the Pakistan of an age gone by and look for the causes that brought it low, he might find in this book of mine one small candle whose quivering flame will light his path. K.K.Aziz, in Preface to his book ‘The Murder of History’ We discussed last week about some of the prevalent … Read entire article »
Filed under: History, Identity, Islam, Literature, Pakistan, Society
Dismantling the barriers of hate
By Ghazala Akbar Midway between the cities of Lahore in Pakistan and Amritsar in India each about 25 km away is the village called Wagah. It stands on an ancient pathway that stretches from Kabul in the North West to Calcutta in the North East and beyond to Shonargaon in Bangladesh. Known variously in history as Uttara Patha, Sadaq – e -Azam or the Grand Trunk road, it was until very recently, the only road link … Read entire article »
Filed under: Citizens, culture, Democracy, India, Pakistan, Politics, secular Pakistan, Society
Profile: Zaid Hamid
by Abdul Majeed Biography Zaid Hamid was born in Karachi on March 14, 1964. His father, Col. Zaman Hamid (Retd), served in the Pakistan Army. Zaid spent his early life in Karachi. He received a Bachelor of Engineering (BE) degree in Computer Systems Engineering from NED University, Karachi in 1980′s. According to the brochure published by BrassTacks, available on the website www.zaidhamid.pk. Zaid Hamid rose to the fore when he started a program named Brass Tacks on a TV channel, discussing … Read entire article »
Filed under: Democracy, History, Islam, Pakistan, Politics, Society, Terrorism
Murder of History(Part 1)
by Abdul Majeed I have written in for Posterity. In a hundred years’ time when the future historian sets out to contemplate the Pakistan of an age gone by and look for the causes that brought it low, he might find in this book of mine one small candle whose quivering flame will light his path. K.K.Aziz, in Preface to his book ‘The Murder of History’ In the last 64 years, a lot of wrong Information has been passed on as “facts” by our textbooks and Media. In this article, I have mentioned some of the most popular myths about Pakistan History and tried to debunk them using authentic sources. I should admit that this is a beginner’s effort, I don’t claim to possess absolute knowledge nor do I claim that whatever … Read entire article »
The Curious Case of Difa e Pakistan Council
Difa-e-Pakistan is an Urdu word meaning Defense of Pakistan. Difa-e-Pakistan Council means a council willing to/responsible for defending Pakistan. The semantics dictate that the said council should comprise of representatives of the armed forces, the para-military forces, domestic law enforcement agencies, defense ministry and foreign ministry. In fact, the esteemed council that has come to the fore recently consists of none of the above. In the words of the journalist Ejaz Haider, it’s a “circus”. Much … Read entire article »
Filed under: Democracy, Islam, Pakistan, Politics, Society, Taliban, Terrorism, Uncategorized
Is Islam a patriarchical tradition (I): Understanding the hermeneutical gap
By Aasem Bakhshi We have made it a Qur’an in Arabic, that ye may be able to understand. (Al Quran, 43:3) Nothing exists except through language. -Gadamer in Truth and Method Islamic tradition, in many ways, can be described as a tradition of literature and one way to legitimately analyze the above question is to ask whether the core Islamic texts, i.e., Quran and Hadith are necessarily patriarchical [1]. Although it is true that Quran was originally revealed in a primarily patriarchical society and, at least in Islamic tradition’s formative and post-formative periods, interpreted mostly by the subjects of patriarchies, its text equally allows more coherent, less subjective and unauthoritarian interpretations to contest the popular traditionalist (or orthodox) interpretations with a visible patriarchical bent [2]. A … Read entire article »
The Curious Case of Suo Moto Notice of Ms. Odho’s Wine Bottles
By D. Asghar Any reasonable person will not disagree, that if Ms. Odho was violating any law by carrying two wine bottles in her luggage, from Islamabad to Karachi on a PIA flight, she is answerable. If there is a law that requires her to declare the spirits she is carrying, with her on a domestic flight, then it should be enforced. There is no question that Ms. Odho is a frequent traveler and more than likely … Read entire article »
Filed under: Democracy, Fashion, Images, Judiciary, lawyers movement, Pakistan, Politics, Society
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