Pak Tea House » Entries tagged with "Islamabad"
List of Journalists Given Plots
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has been informed that some 1,000 journalists of Islamabad had applied for plots after the government launched new sectors in Islamabad and invited applications from the general public, government servants and others as part of a uniform policy to give plots to those who were permanently living in Islamabad and did not have any property. A two per cent quota was also fixed for Islamabad-based journalists. A high-powered committee comprising government officials and senior journalists was formed which after careful scrutiny of the applicants, had recommended names of 172 journalists who were given plots against payments. The PAC is in possession of a list of 172 journalists who were given plots in the federal capital in line with their two per cent quota in G-13 and G-14 sectors … Read entire article »
Filed under: journalism, Justice, Media, Uncategorized
Pakistan through pictures in 2011- Part 2
A Pakistani boy drinks tea in a makeshift shelter at a livestock market ahead of Eid al-Adha in Lahore on Nov.5. The annual Islamic holiday, is marked by the ritual sacrifice after morning prayers of sheep, goats, cows and other livestock whose meat is then shared with the poor. People carry posters of Pakistani cricketers Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif, who were sentenced by the London’s Southwark Crown Court to jail for their role in a … Read entire article »
Filed under: Pakistan
Au Revoir Ambassador Haqqani
By D. Asghar A fellow blogger commented on the recent development pertaining to Hussain Haqqani’s resignation as Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US, “its not the end of the world.” I agree with my esteemed colleague. It may not be end of the world, but it sure seems like the world around people leading the PPP government, although may not be ending but it is no longer going to be the same. Many Pakistani Americans would agree along with many Pakistanis that Haqqani sure was one of the best envoy to the US. Perhaps that was his biggest shortcoming. I agree with my colleague on another forum, where he has said that, many came and left PPP and it has survived. Undoubtedly, the party has the spirit of the most valuable and admired … Read entire article »
Filed under: Uncategorized
Pakistan’s State of Nature
By AA Khalid The Hobbesian Narrative Hobbes is perhaps the most important political philosopher Pakistanis concerned about their country should be reading. Of course it will require a ‘’Desification’’ (or ‘’Pakistanization) of the man’s central work, ‘’The Leviathan’’. The Islamic tradition too has works of political philosophy, we think of Al Farabi, who applied the utopian understanding of Plato’s Republic (the rule of the Philosopher King) to the prophetic experience of the Prophet of Islam as a pre-eminent example. Ibn Tufayl and Ibn Bajja were more realistic if not pessimistic about politics than Farabi’s enthusiastic application of political Platonism. In fact Tufayl and Bajja seek to return to another strand of the Platonic tradition which is more pessimistic and realistic. For Plato knowledge was power and that is why the Philosopher the … Read entire article »
Getting Islam “Burbaad” In Islamabad
By D. Asghar So barely two months and we have another brave human being murdered in the name of hyper religiousity. Shaheed Shahbaz Bhatti, may your soul rest in eternal peace and the scum bags who killed you, get to face you on the Final Day. Amen. … Read entire article »
Diplomatic Immunity for Afghan Ambassador in Islamabad
By Dr. Irfan Zafar “When we arrived in Peshawar I was taken to a lavishly-fitted office. A Pakistani flag stood on the desk, and a picture of Mohammad Ali Jinnah hung at the back of the room, I was in the devil’s workshop, the regional head office of the ISI.It was eleven o’clock at night and I was getting ready to go to bed when the door to my cell suddenly opened. A man entered; he was … Read entire article »
Filed under: Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Army, Democracy
Islamabad remembers Taseer
by Husham Ahmed As despondency and hopelessness descended in the hearts of the few who have been advocating reason and logic in this land of fanaticism, a decent number of people came out at a vigil held in Kohsaar Market, Islamabad to pay homage to Salman Taseer and to make an effort to reclaim their little space, or what is left of it. The place of tragic demise of Salman Taseer by the hands of a … Read entire article »
Filed under: Uncategorized
In and out of Isloo
Raza Rumi When I think of an airport, I envisage chaos, delays and inefficiency. Travelling across Asia teaches one to be patient. This is why I keep a book or two, a writing pad and of course my laptop that can be great companions in any circumstance. Last five years have entailed excessive travel, mostly involving airports. From the sleepy airstrip of Thimpu in Bhutan to the snazzy Chang Mai airport in Singapore, I have waited, walked and sometimes slept… the reluctant memories of airport lounges live with me. Of late, my travel has concentrated within Pakistan. The recent memories of airports in Pakistan are not all that pleasant. The vulgar VIP culture and the way the overstaffed Pakistan International Airline treats its customers is disconcerting. Before entering the airport, the first thought … Read entire article »
Filed under: Uncategorized
Floods and the Existential Threat
By Adnan Syed The existential threat comes from disowning the democratic structure, giving up on it and looking yet again for another instant messiah in face of tremendous adversity and hopelessness. We were wrong in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1990s when the elected governments were overthrown. And if we continue with our mindless obsession with artificial stability, we would be wrong in 2010 yet again. (AZW) … Read entire article »
Filed under: Army, baluchistan, Constitution, Democracy, Judiciary, Pak Tea House, Pakistan, Politics, poverty, public policy, Rights
A Vicious Circle
By Adnan Syed Pakistan is passing through a vicious negative feedback loop that is beginning to gather momentum. The vicious circle is a result of country’s inability to provide for the basic individual rights of its citizens. Combine that with a burgeoning population, and the rampant nationalist tensions within the society that have been suppressed in the name of religious identity, Pakistan is staring at a nightmarish scenario in the coming decade. Pakistan needs to realize that the existential threat is coming from the failure of its society and not due to the external influences that consume majority of the resources of our nation. Unless we start spending on providing for the four basic rights to our citizens, the chaos will just feed on itself in the years to come. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Citizens, Constitution, human rights, Identity, Islam, Islamabad, musings, Pak Tea House, Pakistan, Rights, state
Islamabad tragedy – a close call
Raza Rumi from Islamabad Ten minutes before the air crash this morning I was in a PIA aircraft that was unable to land at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport for 45 minutes. We were meant to land at 8.50 am but the pilot informed around 9 am that he was unable to land. He kept on circulating around Islamabad avoiding a major storm, heavy rain and lack of visibility. The passengers were quite petrified. Even I woke up from my early morning nap and could not help wondering if these were my last moments. It was rocky, turbulent ride. The plane finally landed at 9.45 am. The pilot was clever as he took different air routes and navigated the plane well. As we landed, my phone started to ring and just outside … Read entire article »
Filed under: Pakistan
Water Dispute Increases India-Pakistan Tension
The article from today’s New York Times highlights the water problem that will increasingly take center stage as populations in Pakistan and India grow in the coming years. For the first sixty years, we have lived under the shadow of the Kashmir dispute which to this day is unresolved. Hopefully water problem will not grow into another problem between the two nations over the next few decades. … Read entire article »
Daily Times: Nationalism: inclusive versus exclusive — II —
By Ishtiaq Ahmed When the Hindu members of the Pakistan Constituent Assembly expressed their worries about ‘sovereignty over the entire universe belonging to God’, Liaquat Ali Khan assured them that a Muslim state should have no problem in having a non-Muslim as prime minister. However, this was not true Jinnah wanted to establish a Muslim-majority state, but not a Muslim-majoritarian state that would privilege Muslims over non-Muslims in their status and rights as citizens; hence he spoke of Pakistani nationalism and not Muslim nationalism when on August 11, 1947 he addressed the Pakistan Constituent Assembly: “You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion … Read entire article »
Filed under: Democracy, Egalitarian Pakistan, History, Identity, Islam, Islamism, Jinnah, Liberal Democratic Pakistan, minorities, Pak Tea House, Pakistan
Daily Times – Nationalism: inclusive versus exclusive — I
At PTH, we have argued for the partition as a nuanced set of events that were characterized by extreme mistrust between the two major political forces of that time. These major parties harboured deep distrust against each other. The Muslim League politics increasingly focused on the idea of Pakistan as a bargaining chip to win the rights for the sizeable Muslim majority within the United India. The British hurry to leave the United India, emergence of Muslim League as the sole spokesman for the Muslims, and Congress unwillingness to recognize the Muslim nation demands within the United India resulted in a bloody and messy partition. We still live with the scars of the partition that resulted in one of the largest uprooting and human migration of modern times. … Read entire article »
Filed under: culture, Democracy, Egalitarian Pakistan, History, Identity, Islam, Islamabad, Islamism, Jinnah, minorities, Pak Tea House, Pakistan, Religion, secular Pakistan
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