No end to dynasty worship

There seems to be no end to dynasty worship in Pakistan - even the most liberal and popular political party is not immune from it. Quite disappointing to see this news:

Benazir Bhutto's 19-year-old son Bilawal has been chosen to take over her Pakistan People's Party, after her assassination on Thursday.

It is thought he will take the role in a ceremonial capacity while he finishes his studies at Oxford University.

Bilawal told journalists at the Bhutto family home: "My mother always said democracy is the best revenge."

Ms Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, who is expected to run the party, said it would contest January elections.

Rejectionists

Just came across this article. It is insightful to know that extremists despise neardby moderates much more than they do faraway rivals.

In 1947, when the sharp East-West polarisation that came to be known as the Cold War was just beginning to take shape, Stalin came forward with an apparently strange theory. He identified the Soviet Union's main enemy not as the United States, but as the British Labour Party and its leader, Britain's then prime minister, Clement Attlee. The underlying logic of Stalin's theory was the same as the one that had led Lenin, just before the Bolshevic Revolution, to focus the main thrust of his attacks not against the Tsar but against the Cadet Party, the party of the Russian Liberal bourgeoisie. The logic in both cases was that these apparently less offensive parties, the Cadets in 1917 and the British Labour Party, a typical representative Social-Democracy, in 1947, were better equipped than any other anti- communist forces to attract the masses. As such, they represented the main obstacle in the way of a communist victory, and only by removing that obstacle would the communists succeed in isolating the capitalist enemy and paving the way for its downfall.

From Dynasty to Democracy - At the end of the tunnel

Let's hope this chaos may turn out to be a precursor of constructive change. I agree with Tariq Ali that it is a high time for its rank and file to transform Pakistan Peoples Party from a dynastic to a democratic party. Someone suggested on another forum that Aizaz Ahsan be asked to lead PP now and I fully concur with this proposal. Perhaps there exists some light at the end of the tunnel ! Or may be I am just being over-optimistic!


Benazir's horrific death should give her colleagues pause for reflection. To be dependent on a person or a family may be necessary at certain times, but it is a structural weakness, not a strength for a political organisation. The People's party needs to be refounded as a modern and democratic organisation, open to honest debate and discussion, defending social and human rights, uniting the many disparate groups and individuals in Pakistan desperate for any halfway decent alternative, and coming forward with concrete proposals to stabilise occupied and war-torn Afghanistan. This can and should be done. The Bhutto family should not be asked for any more sacrifices.

Assassination of BB

Benazir Bhutto is killed in a suicide blast in Rawalpindi today, along with 20 other people. Another unfortunate event in the land of crisis. Bhutto was far from impeccable politician but removing her from scene will do no good to already messy situation in Pakistan. More chaos ahead!

Pevez Hoodbhoy's 10 Commandments

Pevez Hoodbhoy, world renowned MIT-trained physicist and arguably among the best minds ever produced by Pakistan, reveals an upodated version of 10 commandents, 5 of them for USA and 5 for Muslims. I have nothing to disagree with him on this matter.

1. Muslims must STOP blaming the West (or the “infidels”) for everything that is wrong with them. Out of the 48 Muslim countries of the world, not one can be called a democracy in the pure sense of the word. Sadly, there has been NO significant scientific achievement in the last 700 years or so, whereas between the 9th and the 13th centuries, during the golden period of Islam, it was only the Muslims who kept the light of knowledge burning. The causes of Muslim decline have all been internal, and NOT the result of conspiracies. If Islam is to become a positive, constructive force in the 21st century, it must change from within, and worldwide opinion will follow.

2. Whenever and wherever there is an act of terrorism, condemn it LOUDLY and fully. The West has taken the majority of the Muslim communities’ lack of anger at 9/11 as tacit approval of militant Islam. Unfortunately Islam has become synonymous with violence and terror, and many moderate, peaceful Muslims have now become victims as well. The moderate Muslim community must fight against the hijacking of Islam.

3. Stop dreaming of theocracies and the reinstating of the Shariah law. Such ideas belong to the past, and are not compatible with the continuously evolving society and environment to which we belong. Insistence on such ideas can only drag the Muslims further into a medieval abyss.

4. Accept the fact that others do not see morality the way you do. Muslims have been brought up to believe that the only morality worth upholding is sexual morality. Other religions and cultures may not place so much emphasis on sexual morality, but that does not necessarily make them inferior human beings.

5. The last Commandment is for Muslims who have chosen to live in countries other than their homeland. Integrate. Do NOT try and stand out. Do NOT try and be different. And yes, it is possible to do all this AND maintain one’s individual identity, and without compromising principles and values we have grown up with. We must take more of an interest in our surroundings, in politics, and not just national politics but starting at the grassroots level.

Myths of Neocons About Pakistan

A beautiful dissection of "realism" of neocon pundits about Pakistani politics!

Back to Stone Ages


Shamshad Ahmed's article in The Nation:

A country without constitution or the rule of law and where there is no independent judiciary and no fundamental freedoms and rights is no better than the 'stone age' cultures, and has no place in the contemporary comity of civilised nations. Government and politics, as the world knows them, are alien to Pakistan. Our scene pathetically bears resemblance to Thomas Hobbes's concept of primitive anarchy marked by a 'war of one against all' and to Rousseau's idealisation of the 'noble savage'. Perhaps, Hegel spoke for us when he said that man can never learn anything from history.

Akbar's eclecticism

Khalid Ahmed reviews Stietencron's book on Mughal Emperor Akbar's syncretic approach to religion.

Akbar’s rule was a patch of effulgence in a general darkness on earth. Poets and artists gravitated to it; faiths rejected in other lands escaped to India to find tolerance. Today, Akbar is irrelevant to what is happening in the Islamic world

Aitzaz Ahsan - a break from past

Arguabley one of the finest political minds in Pakistan.. I have always admired Aitzaz's intelligence, in spite of his often defences of his corrupt leader. He has made a tough choice and I wish his very well.

Intellectual Bankruptcy in Pakistan

Bit old but still spot on! The article has a leftist slant but still, it is an interesting commentary on the sorry state of intellectual bankruptcy in "Mamlikat-e-Khudadad".



There are, I discovered, less than half a dozen good bookshops in the whole of Lahore, once considered to be the intellectual capital of India, that stock books in English. The vast majority of these books are, curiously enough, published in India, a few in the West and the rest, a very small proportion, are local Pakistani publications. Books on Pakistani society, based on empirical realities, are almost impossible to find, although the number of titles on the so-called 'two-nation theory' and the history of the Muslim League, as well as on elite politics in Pakistan, run into the hundreds. So do books on Jinnah and Iqbal, the two major ideological heroes of Pakistan, after whom a vast number of public institutions throughout the country are named. As a Lahori friend of mine quipped, 'The intellectual scene in Pakistan is so bad that our rulers think we have almost no one else to name our institutions after'.

Even on Islam and Kashmir, two issues that are central to the way in which the Pakistani state has sought to construct the notion of Pakistani national identity, I discovered hardly any decent literature in English in the numerous bookshops that I visited. Many of the few English books on Islam I came across were actually published in India. A few others were by Western writers, while the rest, not more than three dozen titles, many of these being were poorly-researched and ideologically-driven propaganda tracts of the Pakistani Jamaat i Islami and its associated publishing houses. Likewise, on Kashmir. In Lahore's biggest bookshop that also stocks English books I came across an entire shelf of books on Kashmir, but almost all of them were written by Indian scholars, published in India and probably represented the Indian position on the disputed territory.

Pay it Forward

I came across this website while going through Christian Science Monitor. Fun, learning and charity - all in one. Do give it a shot!

Daughter of the West

To date, Pakistan People's Party remains the only mass-based political party whose support runs across all ethnic and sectarian divides in Pakistan and has a cadre of dedicated and sincere workers. However, the integrity of its leadership leaves much to be desired. Tariq Ali's take on Pakistan's lady kleptocrat Benazir Bhutto.

Restless Few, Silent Many

Six soldiers are killed in a militant ambush in North Waziristan. A suicide bomber strikes a school bus near Kamra air force complex. Four CD and video shops bombed down in Peshawar. Meanwhile, "Great Leader" is busy establishing "writ of state" on judges, lawyers, and media and civil society. And "the people of Pakistan", while being rightly outraged against the dictator-in-chief keep mum about the increasing influence of wanna-be dictators.


In addition to sympathising with the Islamists’ anti-US stance and justifying their anger against western clout that has spawned economic inequality and despotic regimes, there is a tendency to endorse the ‘moral order’ that the militants want to impose on society. Thus, all kinds of atrocities are tolerated. Not a murmur is heard when women, accused of indulging in wayward acts, are beheaded, or when public executions (bypassing state justice) are conducted in the name of purging society of undesirable elements. Little concern is enunciated by the educational authorities when girls’ schools are bombed. If at all there is any protest at the way young boys are brainwashed in seminaries and then dispatched on suicide and other missions, it is muted.

The liberals lack the courage, possibly even the numbers, to come forward and forcefully explain why moral policing and extreme religiosity have no place in a society which would be better off concentrating on how to improve the lives of its people. Taking advantage of their silence, dogmatic elements propound views that fuddle clear thinking. This is the phenomenon that is described as Talibanisation. The latter does not merely pertain to actual deeds of violence in the name of religion. It is also a state of mind.

Balochistan’s prisoners of conscience

Balochistan is no doubt the most wronged province of Pakistan. Qazi Faez Isa gives an insight into the grievances of Balochistan's civil society against "the essence of democracy" introduced by Mush.

Time magazine’s (Dec 10, 2007) evaluation is, “Pakistan’s leader leaves the army, but his war on the Constitution continues. But regardless of what outfit he wears, Musharraf has left Pakistan with a tattered constitution patched with amendments and filled now with so many loopholes justifying his rule that it resembles a crocheted doily, ready to be thrown over whatever ugliness the next ruler creates in pursuit of power.”

The article concludes with the swipe: “When Musharraf took power in his 1999 coup, he quoted Abraham Lincoln, saying sometimes you need to amputate a limb to save a life. On the day he imposed emergency rule, he repeated the reference to justify his actions. The only problem is, amputated limbs don’t grow back.”

What is Free Society all about?

Timothy Gorton Ash makes valid points about the essence of free society and how it needs to accomodate religious believers (and vice versa).

Among the essentials is freedom of expression, which has been eroded to an alarming degree, both by death threats from extremists and by misconceived pre-emptive appeasement on the part of the state and private bodies. Freedom of expression necessarily includes the right to offend; not the duty, but the right. We must, in particular, be free to say what we like about historical figures, be they Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, Churchill, Hitler or Gandhi (and then let our claims be tested against the evidence). We may not agree with what controversialists say about these figures but we must defend to the death their right to say it. There should, for obvious reasons, be limits to what we are free to say about living people, but these limits must be very tightly drawn.

Among the liberal essentials is equality before the law, including equal rights for men and women. Among the essentials is also freedom of religion. Since a core liberal notion is that we must be free not just to pursue our own version of the good life but also to question and revise it, it follows that we must be free to propagate, question, change or abandon our religion. In a free society, proselytisation, heresy and apostasy are not crimes. This - and apostasy in particular - is not accepted in many versions of Islam, but it is a liberal essential on which there can be no compromise.

Ed Husain's piece in The Observer slashes the clauses of medieval Sharia that are at odds with free society and advoctes a "liberal" version of Islam. It's interesting to see how he mentions Shatibi and Locke in the same sentence.

What remain valid are the eternal truths that Shatibi, Locke and others enunciated. Our humanity must transcend adherence to scriptural literalism, especially if it leads to mayhem and loss of innocent lives. The whole purpose of religion is to bring order and harmony to our existence.

Entertainment Offense

Music, dance and entertainment have always been an anathema for this bunch of spoilsports and killjoys - known as Islamists. Nothing offends them more than the sight of anyone being happy and jubilant. A report from Islamist heavens of our "Wild Wild North-West".

The girls who turned to music concerts and stage shows, often held in Peshawar, the capital of NWFP, were thrown out of business when the cultural shows were banned.

Some of them benefited temporarily when the aficionados and businessmen on NWFP's dance and music scene diversified into the video CD business, producing and distributing long plays and dance sessions on VCDs and DVDs.

But a violent campaign by militant Taleban has caused this business to decline across large parts of NWFP. Hundreds of video outlets have been blown up. Others have voluntarily closed down or switched to other businesses.

Collective Self-destructiveness

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown laments the self-destructive behavior of "saviors" of Ummah! With "friends" like these, who needs enemies!

Today, creative, imaginative, dissenting and innovative Muslims have to wear virtual body armor, hunker down, just in case someone decides to get offended (and someone always does), inciting an uproar on the web, on the media, on the streets bringing out the mobs in Pakistan, Egypt, Syria, South Africa, Somalia and on and on. Inevitably some die for a cause they never really understood and the restless army of discontents shuffles off until the next noisy and bloody march.

I know of talented painters and poets in Pakistan who have just given up or fled. Arab artists, activists and thinkers unafraid of the truth are in actual prisons or enclosed behind limitations built by their fearful societies.

Explosive episodes are always gathering round the corner. We witnessed the organized outrage over the Channel 4 programs exposing some of the vile imams still controlling some mosques. The film of Khaled Hosseini's novel The Kite Runner, about a young boy in Afghanistan, is causing much anger. One of the pivotal scenes involves a homosexual rape of a Shiite boy. They won't have that, it is a slur, an insult. Muslims don't do such things. The same protests met Monica Ali's novel Brick Lane, in which a young Bangladeshi wife in Tower Hamlets has an affair. Muslims don't do such things etc, etc. Of course there is no rape and adultery in our countries, those are bad "Western" behaviors. The controversy will be reheated when the film of Brick Lane is released in a few weeks.

Transcultural dialogues

A lampoon on current political mess in Pakistan.

Someone "Insulted Islam" Again!

Gosh! Is there an end to this craziness? A British teacher faces six months in jail, 40 lashes or a fine if convicted of blasphemy. Her crime? Naming a teddy bear Muhammad. Yes, there is good reason to feel "insulted" and "offended". Not at teddy bear being named Muhammad but at the so-called "leaders" of Ummah who have yet to learn stop behaving like children!

She's got the looks......

So we males are still fascinated by looks and wary of brains. Marilyn Monroe still proves to be a better turn-on than Marie Curie. So says Maureen Dowd:

November 14, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
Should Hillary Pretend to Be a Flight Attendant?
MAUREEN DOWD

In 2005, a year after Ellie Grossman, a doctor, met Ray Fisman, a professor, on a blind date, she was talking to her grandmother about her guy.

“Never let a man think you’re smarter,” her grandmother advised. “Men don’t like that.”

Ray and Ellie “had a good laugh, thinking times had changed,” he recalled. The pair went on to marry — after she proposed.

But now, he says, “it seems like the students at Columbia University should pay heed to Grandma Lil’s advice.”

Mr. Fisman is a 36-year-old Columbia economics professor who conducted a two-year study, published last year, on dating. With two psychologists and another economist, he ran a speed-dating experiment at a local bar near the Columbia campus.

The results surprised him and made him a little sad because he found that even in the 21st century, many men are still straitjacketed in stereotypes.

“I guess I had hoped that they had evolved beyond this,” he said in a phone interview. “It’s like that ‘Sex and the City’ episode where Miranda went speed-dating. When she says she’s a lawyer, guys lose interest. Then she tells them she’s a flight attendant and that plays into their deepest fantasies.”

As he recapped the experiment in Slate last week:

“We found that men did put significantly more weight on their assessment of a partner’s beauty, when choosing, than women did. We also found that women got more dates when they won high marks for looks.”

He continued: “By contrast, intelligence ratings were more than twice as important in predicting women’s choices as men’s. It isn’t exactly that smarts were a complete turnoff for men: They preferred women whom they rated as smarter — but only up to a point ... It turns out that men avoided women whom they perceived to be smarter than themselves. The same held true for measures of career ambition — a woman could be ambitious, just not more ambitious than the man considering her for a date.

“When women were the ones choosing, the more intelligence and ambition the men had, the better. So, yes, the stereotypes appear to be true: We males are a gender of fragile egos in search of a pretty face and are threatened by brains or success that exceeds our own.”

Hillary Clinton, who is trying to crash through the Oval glass ceiling, may hope that we’re evolving into a kingdom of queen bees and their male slaves. But stories have been popping up that suggest that evolution is moving forward in a circuitous route, with lots of speed bumps.

Perhaps smart women can take hope — as long as they’re built like Marilyn Monroe. Scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the University of Pittsburgh have released a zany study on the zaftig, positing that men are drawn to hourglass figures not only because they look alluring, but because hips plumped up by omega-3 fatty acids could mean smarter women bearing smarter kids.

Yet Alex Williams recently reported in The Times that the new income superiority of many young women in big cities is causing them to encounter “forms of hostility they weren’t prepared to meet,” leaving them “trying to figure out how to balance pride in their accomplishments against their perceived need to bolster the egos of the men they date.”

Professional women in their 20s are growing deft at subterfuges to protect the egos of dates who make less money, the story said, such as not leaving their shopping bags around and not mentioning their business achievements. Or they simply date older men who might not be as threatened.

Even though men and women in surveys often say that a salary gender gap doesn’t matter, in the real world it can play out differently — either because the man has subterranean resentment he can’t shed, or the woman equates it with a lack of male drive.

Evolution is lurching ahead unevenly at the office, as well. The Times’s Lisa Belkin wrote this month about the confusing array of signals for executive women that can leave them hamstrung.

Catalyst, an organization that studies women in the workplace, found that women who behave in ways that cleave to gender stereotypes — focusing on collegiality and relationships — are seen as less competent. But if they act too macho, they are seen as “too tough” and “unfeminine.”

Ms. Belkin said that another study shows that men — and female secretaries — are not considered less competent if they dress sexy at work, but female executives are.

Women still tend to be timid about negotiating salaries and raises. Men ask for more money at eight times the rate of women.

Victoria Brescoll, a Yale researcher, found that men who get angry at the office gain stature and clout, even as women who get angry lose stature because they are seen as out of control.

That may be why Obama is trying to get “fired up,” in the words of his fall slogan, while Hillary calmly observes that she can take the heat and stereotypically adds that she likes the kitchen.

Ignoring and Repeating History

As Santayana remarked, "Those who forget their history are destined to repeat it". The "orphan" nation provides a living testimony to this statement.

A clue to the answer may lie in Professor Aziz’s remarks, particularly his brilliant social analogy. What distinguishes orphans in a community? The comparison implies not just a lack of means and privilege, which though an obvious handicap is seldom a permanent disability, but also insecurity and lack of breeding. Communities may pity orphans for the former but they have also learnt to be wary of them on account of the latter. History, myths and literature (particularly children’s literature) show that gods and emperors have always treated orphans and outcasts (orphans by choice?) with suspicion. Their total ignorance of rules makes these ‘aliens’ impervious to the reluctance and inhibitions that are often the reformer’s undoing but sometimes prove his saving grace. Their insecurity, leading in extreme cases to paranoia, makes them ruthless.

Having realised that behind almost every horrible crime against humanity (from genocide to apartheid), there lies an incurable sense of insecurity (the-entire-world-is-against-us syndrome), the world has seen the wisdom of Saadi’s advice — fear the man who is (unreasonably and irreconcilably) afraid of you — and learnt to shun the orphan more than the bully.

This, even though respectable senators dismiss it, is the unfortunate connection. When we turn our back on our national history, our neighbours in the global village are perplexed. When we refuse to acknowledge the facts and logic of world history, they panic. They wonder, and one cannot blame them, whether we are plain silly or suicidal maniacs. They fear an apocalypse.

The case of Musharraf and the drunk uncle

A scrutiny of Great Commando's eloquence:

And when he said, "Extremists have gone very extreme," it suddenly occurred to me why his speech pattern seemed so familiar. He was that uncle that you get stranded with at a family gathering when everybody else has gone to sleep but there is still some whisky left in the bottle. And uncle thinks he is about to say something very profound -- if you would only pour him one last one.

Consider this; in the middle of his speech when everyone was silently urging him to get to the point, losing the thread of his diatribe about how judicial activism was responsible for the rise of jihadis in Pakistan, he abruptly said, "I have imposed emergency," then looked into the camera, waved his hand in a dismissive gesture and said, "You must have seen it on TV."

He forgot to mention that he had pulled the plug on all television channels except the State-run television. It might sound like old-school dictator talk, but just imagine if somebody took away your television and then told you, 'Oh, did you see that thing on TV?'

The Siege of Mecca

Ziauddin Sardar reviews Yaroslav Trofimiv's book "The Siege of Mecca" that provides an investigative account into the siege of Kaaba in 1979. I was not aware how incompetent Saudi intelligence and security forces turned out to be in this whole episode.

The Saudi authorities were slow to realise what had happened. It was only when the first batch of police and security officials were gunned down that the state grudgingly moved into action. The insurgents had occupied prime sites on the nine minarets of the mosque and were able to pick off anyone who approached the site. A number of assaults, involving police, the National Guard and the army, which Trofimov describes in some detail, ended in bloodbaths.

The authorities faced a number of problems. They were totally incompetent. The three security forces had different commands, did not trust each other, and were unable to communicate with each other as they had different radio systems. And, most astonishingly, they had no architectural plans of the mosque.

Indeed, there were only two institutions in the whole of the kingdom that had detailed plans of the Sacred Mosque - the Bin Laden Construction Company, which had built various extensions to the mosque but which was unwilling or unable to pass the maps on to the authorities, and my own research centre. For the previous five years, we had measured, calibrated and photographed almost every inch of the mosque. At considerable risk to himself, our director, the dissident architect Sami Angawi, delivered the plans to the front-line troops.

One of the mosque's gates was identified as the entry point for a new offensive. It was blown up with a huge charge. Paratroopers backed by armoured personnel carriers (APCs) stormed in, only to walk into an ambush. Another bloodbath ensued. It seemed that the insurgents had an answer to whatever the army threw at them. Even blowing up the minarets of the mosque did not help much. Eventually, using heavy artillery and scores of APCs, the army and the National Guard fought their way, step by bloody step, to the centre of the compound, where the Kaaba is located. Qahtani, the self-proclaimed Mahdi, who fought with exceptional daring, was killed.

Yet this was only a partial victory. The rebels retreated from the mosque's surface to its underground section. Known as the Qaboo, this is a labyrinth of rooms and alleyways, a mini-city where the insurgents had stashed the bulk of their weapons. Once again, the army's attempt to enter the Qaboo proved futile and deadly.

After a week of horrendously savage combat, it was clear that the Saudis needed help. They turned to their foremost allies: the United States and the CIA. A horde of CIA operatives was quickly converted to Islam so that they could enter the Holy City to assess the battlefield for themselves. They recommended chemical warfare. Potent tear gas was pumped into the Qaboo through its various entrances, but the exercise turned into a fiasco.

Hardened rebel fighters were able to shield themselves with mattresses, cardboard and cloth and prevented the gas from spreading into narrow underground corridors. Their water-soaked headdresses protected their breathing. The gas had a natural tendency to rise, so it came up to the compound of the mosque - where the Saudi soldiers were ill-prepared to use gas masks. Their generous facial hair prevented the masks from sealing on the skin: the gas seeped through their beards and knocked out a large contingent. Then it made its way to the surrounding area, and most of Mecca had to be evacuated.

My own account of what happened next differs from Trofimov's. The grapevine in Jeddah, I remember, suggested that the Qaboo had been flooded on the recommendation of the CIA. The rebels who escaped drowning were forced to the surface and captured. But Trofimov provides us with another story. The Saudis, he suggests, called in the French Foreign Legion. Paris despatched Lieutenant Paul Barril, a mercenary commando with expertise in such situations, on a "provost mission" to the kingdom.

Barril recommended another dose of gas - indeed, a whole tonne of CS gas, enough to poison a small city. However, the entire French stock of CS gas came to only 300kg so the operation was limited to this amount. This time, the gas was to be used with a particular cunning. Countless holes were bored from the surface of the compound down into the Qaboo, and the gas was pumped in through these holes. At the same time, battalions of the army entered the Qaboo from two points, in a pincer movement. They succeeded in overpowering the insurgents and capturing Juhayman.

Emeregency +

Ejaz Haider continues with his satire of "Great Leap Forward" (aka "emergency plus") by His Enlightened Moderation.

A Tale of Two "Moderates"

Here are two "moderate" presidents bent on begetting anything but moderation in their countries. Compariosn between Messers Musharaff and Mubarak (and their other counterparts in Muslim world) couldn't be sharper . Mona Eltahway puts it brilliantly

You have brilliantly used the Islamist boogeyman. That is a trick your fellow Muslim dictators also have perfected, presenting themselves as the only sane choice in countries beset by Islamist lunatics. Mubarak might point to the Muslim Brotherhood, and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas can point to Hamas, but who can beat having Osama bin Laden allegedly hiding somewhere in his country? Or those Taliban and Al Qaeda foot soldiers crisscrossing the Afghanistan-Pakistan border?

You claim that your emergency law is aimed at fighting these suicidal maniacs and their Pakistani supporters. But Pakistanis know the real target of your clampdown is the country's Supreme Court and its brave judges who have steadfastly opposed you.

That's another thing you share with your fellow Muslim dictators: an allergy to an independent judiciary, which in many Muslim countries constitutes the most potent secular opposition. Mubarak recognized last year the danger of judges who dared demand independence. He had them beaten and arrested and had their supporters jailed, answering any questions about how "serious" he was about reform and democracy.

Pakistan’s General Anarchy

Muhammad Hanif's article in today's New York Times:

For those who have never had to live under his regime, the general/president can come across as a rakish, daredevil figure. His résumé is impressive: here’s a man who can manage the frontline of the Western world’s war on terrorism, get rid of prime ministers at will, force his political opponents into exile and still find the time to write an autobiography. But ask the lawyers, judges, arts teachers and students behind bars about him, and one will find out he is your garden-variety dictator who, after having spent eight years in power, is asking why can’t he continue for another eight.

General Musharraf’s bond with his troops is not just ideological. Under his command Pakistan’s armed forces have become a hugely profitable empire. It’s the nation’s pre-eminent real estate dealer, it dominates the breakfast-cereal market, it runs banks and bakeries. Only last month Pakistan’s Navy, in an audacious move, set up a barbecue business on the banks of the Indus River about 400 miles away from the Arabian Sea it’s supposed to protect.

It’s a happy marriage between God and greed.

Big Brother has taken his gloves off ...

Laughable or lamentable, you decide, - but definitely readable it is. If the "emergency plus" was aimed at fighting terrorists (as Great Leader proclaimed), it has missed the bull's eye way apart. Big Brother has taken his gloves off but to whom he wanna shows "who is the boss".. As Asma Jehangir said in her message:

... the President (who has lost his marbles) said that he had to clamp down on the press and the judiciary to curb terrorism. Those he has arrested are progressive, secular minded people while the terrorists are offered negotiations and ceasefires.

Our "Defining Moment"

It's not the first (and probably not the last) "defining moment" since its birth this crisis-ridden nation is currently passing though. Three days after the imposition of emergency, all private news channels remain off air - and hundreds of lawyers, political workers are under arrest or "in-house detention". All for one reason that C-in-C (Creep-in-Chief) is unwilling to go on leave.

Pen is Funnier than Sword

Some hilarious cartoons by Khalid Bendib!

Pathetic state of apathy

Pervez Hoodbhoy and Rasul Bakhsh Rais has pointed towards the sickening apathy of Pakistani civil society against the rising tide of religious extremism and terrorism. Ayesha Siddiqa provides her diagnosis of this sorry state of the nation:

As long as our honour is secure and we are not being insulted, why get up and fight. Unfortunately, today this is the mindset of most people. Everybody wants to secure his or her own space without bothering to stand up for the other.

I am reminded of the story of a king who ordered all his subjects to bring a pail of milk and empty it into the pond in front of the castle before dawn. Next morning when the king woke up, he found the pond filled with water and no milk. Everyone thought that others would bring milk so a bucket of water would suffice. This is pure realpolitik and pragmatism. People are encouraged not to fight for norms, values and principles but to save their interests. Power is the name of the game and people are meant to respect that.

How, then, can we expect a society, which could not snub two extremely arrogant agents of the state for insulting an educationist, to stand up against terrorists that kill innocent security personnel? This is not to justify the society’s complacency but an effort to understand the sickening apathy. Both the individual and the society he lives in do not have the strength to stand up to often violent humiliation at the hands of all sorts of rogue elements.

Flawed and failed

Razi Azmi has re-appeared on the pages of Daily Times after a long time, though not on a pleasnat moment and and not for a pleasant reason:


The famous French writer Victor Hugo once said that history repeats itself, first time as tragedy, then as farce. One is tempted to see all the Pakistani governments from Ayub to Musharraf, indeed from Nazimuddin to Musharraf, in this light. Only it is hard to tell which phase constitutes tragedy and which farce.


Meanwhile, Daily Times is still harping on it's "transitionist" (aka pro-Mush) tone, blaming anyone but Great Leader for imposition of "emergency".

Desperate Measures: Emergency rule declared in Pakistan

Finally an end to rumors circling around for past few days! Commando resorts to desperate measures to stick to hold on to power and declares emergency rule today. PTV's newscaster referred to him as "Chief of Army Staff"rather than "Sadr-e-mamlikat" while breaking the news of emergency. All private news channels including BBC and CNN have gone off air (Thank God, they did not terminate internet connection - as yet at least). A drowning man catching at a straw! Or a stooge flaunting to his pay masters "who is the boss" in the "most dangerous country of the world" (State Department unambiguously opposed the idea of emergency or martial law in Pakistan).

Meanwhile, I am faced with another personal emergency. Travel agent told me that I won't be able to leave for Dublin tomorrow. Instead, I have a chance to get ticket on 9th and he will give further details on Monday. Sigh!

Rape Conundrum

It was kinda shocking to know that in UK, less than 5% of reported rapes lead to conviction, not to mention that majority of sexual assaults remain unreported. Joanna Burke suggests a re-examination of masculinity as one of the possible remedies to this problem:

A politics of masculinity that focuses upon a man's body as a site of pleasure (for him and others), as opposed to an instrument of oppression and pain, demands a renewed focus on male comportment, imaginary, and agency. People discover sex: they learn its performance. Indeed, phallic masculinity represents a turning away from a complex model of pleasure, draining it (in the words of feminist Catherine Waldby) of "erotic potential in favour of its localisation in the penis, taken to be the phallus' little representative". Adopting a "good sex" model will enable men to love and be loved in more fulfilling ways.

The Myth of the Omnipresent Enemy

Here is a a review of John Mueller's article "Is There Still a Terrorist Threat? The Myth of the Omnipresent Enemy".

Sayonara Swat and Rawalpindi

A suicide bomb blast near Pakistan Army's General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi killed seven people and injured 11 others . I agree with Anjum Niaz's view in today's The News that while His Enlightened Moderation should get his due share of criticism, we should allow other actors in this fatal game to beat the rap under the guise of "anti-Mush"or "anti-imperlialist/US" - as these are the actors who are (unfortunately) likely to outlive Mush and bound to stay with us long after Mush is gone.


it is time we moved beyond the spectre of a lame-duck general and apportion equally the blame on others who with their unfettered greed have eviscerated the law and ruled over us as if Pakistan was their personal fiefdom.

Why have we fallen in a Musharraf rut? We rarely question the malfeasance of the mullah, the military and bureaucracy that have kept the majority of 170 million Pakistanis poor, illiterate, unskilled, and chained to medieval religious beliefs that over time have ripened into rabid faith often exhibiting itself in the worst of inhuman practices like suicide bombing, beheading, lashing, honour killing, slaughtering and stoning to death of helpless victims.

Where is the nazim? Where is the police head? Where is the military commander? Probably cooling their heels in some temperature-controlled, crony-infested, delicacies-laden 'office' while Stone-Age brutalities get daily enacted in their own backyard. And what are the politicians doing? Plotting who the next caretaker prime minister will be and who will be his/her cabinet of chamchas.

Pity the nation

Pity the nation that is full of beliefs and empty of religion;

Pity the nation that wears a cloth it does not weave;

That eats a bread it does not harvest;

Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero;

Pity the nation that despises a passion in its dreams, yet submits in its awakening;

Pity the nation that raises not its voice save when it walks in a funeral; That boasts not except among its ruins;

Pity the nation that will rebel not save when its neck is laid between the sword and the block;

Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox, whose philosopher is a juggler, and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking;

Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpeting, and farewells him with hootings, only to welcome another with trumpeting again;

Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation.
- Khalil Gibran

Mullahs - alive and kicking

Yesterday, Sheikh Rashid said in a press conference to the effect of, "Do not underestimate Fazalur Rehman. He has a big role to play".

Rashid's comments side apart, Fazl is indeed making smart moves and playing his cards very wisely, much to the chagrin of "moderates". From today's editorial of Daily Times:



Second Editorial: MMA returns from the brink?

After an explosion of mutual criticism, the two clashing Pushtun leaders of the clerical alliance Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), Qazi Hussain Ahmad and Maulana Fazlur Rehman, have met and, if reports are to be credited, made up. The Maulana went and asked after Qazi Sahib at his home where the latter was recovering from an illness. Apparently all is mutually forgiven, the Maulana’s dilly-dallying over dissolution of the Peshawar Assembly and Qazi Sahib’s “stab in the back” through vacation of the same assembly and destruction of JUIF’s majority there.

One has to first note the sophistication of conduct among the clerical leaders as opposed to the rough and tumble of the non-clerical leaders of the political parties. Most TV discussions are unwatchable because of the way the politicians shout at each other, exchanging defamations that would put to shame any “bhaand” (the village wit known for his foul tongue) of the lower order. One also has to appreciate the clerical realisation after 2002 that they can make their political presence felt only by sinking their “unbridgeable” confessional differences. The roles have reversed: there was a time when mainstream politicians used to make fun of the clerics for not “praying together”; now we have a complete lack of consensus among the politicians.

Taliban in Pakistan's Wild Wild West

Jason Burke writes in The Observer about recent developments in Pakistan's "Wild Wild West".

Across an area that stretches through Pakistani cities such as Peshawar, Islamabad and Karachi, through Kabul and Kandahar, to remote villages and Nato bases in southern Afghanistan, it is possible to unpick the intricate detail of the battle for the strategic centre of the War on Terror. What emerges is a picture not of a single movement or insurgency called 'the Taliban', but of a new state without formal borders or even a name, a state that is currently nothing more than a chaotic confederation of warlords' fiefdoms spanning one of the most critical parts of the world and with the potential to escalate into a very real presence - with devastating consequences for global security.

That's the region where all players suffer from lack of certainty about their borders, enemies, and strategies. The only faction that seems to have a clear vision of all that is - Taliban.

According to Brigadier Shah, the Pakistani army is 'currently fighting blindfold', and western intelligence agencies admit a 'lack of visibility' in the tribal areas.

Reminds me of Bertrand Russell, "The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt".

Zardari has a point

An interesting, though not necessarily a convincing take on Oct. 18 bomb blast:

While Baitullah Mehsud may still try to kill Benazir and may even decide to do it with a bomb, he is likely to come forth and own the deed. So who has been going about exploding anonymous bombs in Pakistan in the name of terrorists, and in the latest instance, who is behind the Karachi attempt?

Let’s venture a guess. It is quite clear that Benazir’s return makes none of the power players in Pakistani politics happy except the United States and perhaps also General Musharraf, who, though unhappily, might have had the sense to think that his own survival now depends on this unholy alliance with Benazir. He would have had this sense because he would know, one hopes, that there is quite clearly a part of the establishment — a powerful part — which has consistently tried to destabilise him for some time now.

The Chief Justice episode and its subsequent handling was not the result of incompetence on the part of the government, because no government, not even this one, can be so horribly incompetent. The police attacks on lawyers in Lahore two days in a row, the attack on TV channels, the manhandling of the Chief Justice, the bomb blast in Islamabad before the Chief Justice’s address to the bar and the May 12 incidents in Karachi were not just instances of ‘mishandling’.

Someone was surely up to something and this someone is obviously part of a setup, if not the setup itself, that has the wherewithal to make all this happen. Earlier on, while the “deal” between Musharraf and Benazir was being discussed and had not yet been finalised, these people would have had to eliminate only Musharraf from the scene. Now, however, there is another party: Benazir.

These people, with end goals that are perhaps not very different from those of the ‘fundamentalist terrorists’, are obviously hard at work. But while they may or may not be able to succeed, for all their campaign in the press about security threats from ‘terrorists’, it seems that Asif Ali Zardari, Benazir Bhutto and this writer will remain unconvinced.

It is our war

And sadly we seem to be on retreat! Hoodbhoy is spot on that most Pakistanis are not die-hard Islamists but by keeping their mouths shut in the wake of creeping Talibanization, they end up playing into the hands of these dreadful Islamists.


An overwhelming majority of Pakistan’s citizens do not want harsh strictures imposed on their personal liberties. They do not want enslavement of their women, their forced confinement in the burqa, or for them to be denied the right to education. Instead, they want a decent life for themselves and their children. They disapprove of Islam being used as a cover for tribal primitivism. But there is little protest.

We must understand this. Why is there no mass movement to confront the extremist Taliban of Miramhah and Waziristan, or the violence-preaching extremist mullah in Mingora, Lahore or Islamabad? This is because ordinary people lack the means and institutions to understand, organise, and express their values and aspirations. We do not yet have the democratic institutions that can give politics meaning for ordinary people. Depoliticising the country over the decades has led to paying this heavy price.


As Edmund Burke said, "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."

Bloodshed in Karachi

Everyday some bad news awaiting for the mere mortals of "land of the pure". No need to go to Islamic Emirate of South Waziristan to see the "writ of state" in tatters. "Daughter of the East" arrived at Karachi today after cutting a "deal" with His Enlightened Moderation and tow bomb blasts on her procession killed 139 and injured 550 others. Conspiracy theories and blame games are in the air (not unexpected in a polarized polity like Pakistan), though the involvement of suicide bomber points finger to the jihadist connection. As is the case in Pakistan, we may never know. Meanwhile, sorrow and grief for many !!

Whose "un-professionalism"?

Commando-in-Chief has blamed the captured soldiers for acting "unprofessionally". Arguably they did, following the footsteps of their C-in-C.

Meanwhile, a brief insight into the sectarian paranoi of de-facto runners of de-facto Islamic Emirate of South Waziristan.

He and Mahmood are convinced that if opposition leader Benazir Bhutto returns to Pakistan in a power-sharing deal with President Musharraf, this pro-Americanism will get stronger.

"She is actually a Shia, so what else can we expect," he says.

This anti-Shia resentment is palpable.

In early August, Baitullah Mehsud's militants slaughtered a captured Shia soldier by cutting off his head.

And the way they like to execute the captives:

One militant, Faisal, said "cutting off the head is the best and most humane way to kill".

"When the head is removed from the body the soul is immediately released. Whereas when you hang a person, the soul has to struggle to escape from the mouth.

"If we want to punish someone, we cut his head from the back of the neck, instead of the throat," says Faisal.

"That is very painful and its takes a long time to die."

One of the group, we are told, has decapitated 53 men.

Fatah's 'morality police'

Using piety as an alternative to good and transparent govenance has been a time-tested formula in the lands of Islam. Fatah is simply following the fad. However, as in rest of the Muslim world, the idea of beating the Islamists on their home ground is more likely to boomerang on "non-Islamist moralists".


The new Palestinian Authority (PA) outfit's mission has been to bust anyone caught violating the fast during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month ending this week. That means potential arrests and jail time for simply chewing gum.

Although the enforcement of Ramadan customs is common in the Arab world, this is the first time the PA has instructed police to look for offenders. It's a move seen here as an effort by Fatah to compete with Hamas – seen by many Palestinians as the more pious and less corrupt Palestinian faction – for the hearts and minds of West Bankers.

Cleric stops opposing polio vaccination

Personal grief leads to restoration of sanity. A living case of that:

PESHAWAR: Maulana Merajuddin, an Afghan cleric living in Pakistan, stopped opposing the use of polio drops after his own child fell prey to the crippling disease – the first ever polio case detected in Khyber Agency, in January 2007.

Mirajuddin, who lives in the Mastak area of Bara tehsil, told Daily Times that his two-year-old son Gul Khan was paralysed in January 2007, and doctors at the Jamrud Civil Hospital told him that his son had fallen victim to polio. “I made a mistake by opposing the visit of a polio-vaccination team to my village. I was impressed by the maulvis’ propaganda,” he recalled, and said polio had paralysed his son and made him a burden on his family forever.

“My child is suffering from paralysis. We spent a lot of money and time but could not find signs of recovery,” he said.

A majority of clerics in the NWFP and FATA oppose the polio immunisation campaign. Maulana Fazlullah of Swat and Haji Namdar, head of hardline organisation Amer Bilmaroof Wa Nahi Anilmunkar in Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency, have often asked locals to boycott polio immunisation campaigns through their illegal radio stations. They say polio vaccines make children infertile and that the vaccination is a Western attempt to curtail the growing population of the Muslim world. Following directions from religious leaders, a number of people refused polio drops for their children and banned the entry of polio campaigners to their areas in FATA and NWFP. “Now I am sure that there are no infertility elements in the polio vaccine as a Muslim doctor has made it clear to me,” Mirajuddin said.

Eid Gifts

Charity begins at home. Ministry of Population tries to test this lesson. :)

ISLAMABAD: Senators and MNAs received a unique gift of 100 condoms each on the eve of Eidul Fitar from the Ministry of Population in a bid to encourage population control at the top level.

“Yes, the condom packs have been distributed among the male parliamentarians. Each MP has been gifted a pack of condoms containing 100 condoms,” said an official of the ministry. The distribution of condoms has enraged some opposition MNAs, who have taken it as an insult, and they have decided to take up the matter with National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain.

“I will take up the issue with the speaker and move a privilege motion if need be. We are all educated people and know the benefits of contraceptives, but this move is meant to humiliate the MPs,” said a PPP MNA, who requested not to be named. He said that perhaps such “stupid acts” were the government’s way of showing the world its “moderate face”.

Mush can stand with his Uniform On.....

With 2/3 majority, Supreme Court of Pakistan has decreed that Musharaf's uniform does not bar him from running for president. Even lame-duck parliament could not bestow such "heavy manadate" on "His Enlightened Moderation"! Let's see if opposition lives up to its promise of "mass resignations" or Mush to his promise of post-election civilian presidency - or may be we are asking for moon in both cases. Whatever be the case, stay tune for more chaos ahead !!

Humor - Pakistani style

Laughable or lamentable - humor remains our most popular escapism!

Bomb Blast in Rawalpindi

This time they struck right under the nose of Gallant Armed Forces of "Land of the Pure".

Chickens are coming home to roost - and are roosting with great heat. Alas, they are not likely to calm down anytime soon - even if "Go Mushareff Go" movement carries the day. No pleasant moments ahead !!

In the Name of God (Khuda Kay Liyay)

Finally watched the movie today. It's s just awesome. One of the masterpieces produced by Lollywood to date. Definitely worth watching.

Science and Religion Blog

Found an interesting blog on science and religion here. Espeically the posts (1, 2) about moribund state of science in Muslims countries are worth reading.

Look alike games

Blasphemy And "People are on streets"

Here is an ex-liberal member of treasury presenting resolution against Rudhie.

Pakistan's parliamentary affairs minister Sher Afgan Khan Niazi, who proposed the resolution, said the knighthood would "encourage people to commit blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammad".


Government is in dire straits because of Chief Justice crisis and seems to play "holier than thou" to diffuse anger directed to itself, but it not likely to work.

Modernity, Generals and Ayatollahs

Finally a silver lining about political culture of Pakistan! Not sure how long it will last though. Sigh.

Pakistan’s saving grace lies in the democratic strain of its political culture which has made it possible for a work like Siddiqa’s to be published, marketed and debated at a scale never before seen in Pakistan before. This is a far cry from Iran, where it is inconceivable that a book exposing the economic empire of the ayatollahs could be published and circulated like Siddiqa’s book in Pakistan.

New controls on media in Pakistan

Finally the emperor sheds his mask and roles back on his own boastings.


President Pervez Musharraf has signed into immediate effect measures to increase control over the media. Current regulations related to television have been extended to the internet and mobile phones. Some regulations on who is allowed to be licensed to broadcast in Pakistan have been extended to cover "any foreign non-governmental organisation".

Let's not Politicize the Lethal Issues

Commando Sahib seems unwilling to "politicize" these lethal issues:


The current phase of Muslim thought is nihilistic, of tearing down without building, of creating disorder to oppose the order we don’t like because we think it is West-ordained. The tribal areas and increasingly parts of the NWFP are in the grip of this anarchy of our minds. The tragedy is that the state doesn’t know how to deal with this situation.

Pakistan: 'Bastion of freedom'

Laughable or lamentable: a perceptive account of the "laissez faire" in "Brave New World" of Pakistan.

Understanding the jihadi mindset

Dr Tariq Rahman reviews Sohail Abbas's book ‘Probing the Jihadi Mindset’ (2007). As many authors has pointed out, these are educated urban youths rather than illiterate rural masses who are more susceptible to the appeals of jihadism. Feeling detached from their physical surroundings, they seek refuge in meta-physical connections. It is pretty obvious from the dominance of Pathans, Punjabis and Mohajirs - and virtual absence of Seraikis, Baloch and Sindhis in the rank and file of jihadis. Some interesting excerpts from the article:


The jihadis were not completely uneducated. Whereas the illiterate population of Pakistan is 45.19 per cent, among the jihadis 44.3 per cent were illiterate. In the Haripur sample, however, only 23.2 per cent were illiterate.

Even more interesting is the fact that, contrary to common perception, most jihadis had not been educated in madressahs. While 35.5 per cent did attend madressahs they stayed there mostly less than six months (indeed merely 14 per cent stayed beyond that period). In the Haripur sample, 54.5 per cent had received no religious education while 45.5 per cent had — but again, even those who did receive religious education received very little of it. In short, as Dr Sohail Abbas concludes: ‘They were recruited largely from the mainstream of the Pakistan population. Their literacy level is above the average of the general population’.

This, indeed, is what reports on 9/11 tell us. Those who join radical Islamic groups are predominantly educated in technology and science. They do not necessarily belong to madressahs though, considering that the proportion of these religious seminaries to state educational institutions is so small, there is a proportionately large number of madressah students in radical Islamic circles in Pakistan.

According to the survey, 48.5 per cent of jihadis said that their families were more religious than those around them. However, they were not motivated for jihad by the family. In most cases (59.6 per cent in Haripur and 39.7 in Peshawar), they were motivated by religious leaders.

The peer group also had a strong influence and, of course, there was self-motivation. Indeed, not surprisingly, the jihadis saw themselves as the most religious member of the family. Some tried to change the family’s religious orientation stopping others from going to the tombs of saints because they believed it was forbidden.

Another interesting aspect of the jihadis’ attitude towards their families is that they did not bother about hurting or worrying their families. Nor, in the case of married men, did they think as to who would look after them. In short, ideology was so strong in their minds so as to break family bonds which are otherwise powerful in Pakistan.

These people also appeared to be less sociable than other Pakistanis. About 49 per cent reported limited social contacts. Maybe, in the absence of places for socialisation, the mosque filled in that gap in their lives. In any case, according to the survey, they were more emotionally unstable (29 per cent) than ordinary men (only nine per cent). Villagers, it appears, are more stable than the inhabitants of urban slums possibly because the villages are still rooted in a strong kinship network and tradition. In the city one is living in a void and feels rootless.

Women in Black

Here is one of the best articles I have come across in the wake of viglantism of Hafsa femme fetalls in the capital of "land of pure" - right under the nose of "His Enlightenend Moderation". The current vigiliantism on part of Beard & Burka brigade is just one of the symptoms of contradictions that run deep into the very foundation of Pakistan.


... while the Islamists have got their martyrs and are always ready to commit more cadres to die in the cause, the liberals work on Russell’s formula: “I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong”.

Neither would I. But this formula works in civilised environments. In a place where some are prepared to die for an absolutism, however misplaced their concreteness might be, some others also need to stand up and commit to defending the right of many to not die for beliefs because they might be wrong. This is a contest between the absolutism of the absolutist and the absolutism of the relativist.

The relativist has to fight to retain the absolute right to his relativism.

Colonial confluence

Jasanoff's book seems worth a read! An approach different from both "White Man's Burden" and "Orientalism".

Pakistanis need to consider this fluidity of colonial exchanges if we are to effectively reconcile with our past and move forward constructively. As Jasanoff aptly states: “Empires are a fact of world history. The important question for this book is not whether they are good or bad but what they do, whom they affect, and how.”

Charlie's Angels Strike Again

Charlie's Angels of the "land of pure" are back in action. Good luck with their "noble" mission!! Let's see how His Enlightened Moderation restores "writ of the state" right under his nose.


The women who led Tuesday night's raid near the city centre included teachers and students incensed, the school says, by reports the house was being used for immoral purposes.

They were later joined by male colleagues from the men's section of the madrassa.
When the alleged brothel's owner refused to shut the building, the raiding party forcibly shut it themselves and took the woman, her daughter and daughter-in-law back to the madrassa where they are still being held.
Initially the police were reluctant to step in to rescue the woman, but later registered a case and arrested two female teachers of the school.
But students then kidnapped two policemen from a nearby patrol. They too are being held in the madrassa and were allowed to speak to reporters.


Meanwhile, cities in further north have started bearing the fruits of so-called "peace deals" with Taliban, as this report seems to suggest:
Hundreds of heavily-armed militants have attacked security forces in north-west Pakistan, officials say. Up to 25 militants died, police said, along with a soldier and a civilian in the town of Tank near South Waziristan in the troubled Afghan border area. Security posts and property were said to have been attacked by militants with rockets in a seven-hour onslaught. Armed men also seized the headmaster of a school, where two people died when police and militants clashed on Monday.

Not to be tossed aside lightly .......

Can't say about the novel under review here but couldn't resist enjoying Dorothy Parker's wit. :)



It reminds me of Dorothy Parker’s comment on Mussolini’s The Cardinal’s Mistress: “This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.”

Witty Wishy

Diverse personalities - all joined by their share of wit. Some witty quotations from this aritcle:

The best often came from Winston Churchill. He had a style of saying things none of us can improve on. Consider this as a way of putting someone down: “He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.” Or, better still: “A modest little person with much to be modest about.”

Equally pithy and apposite was Oscar Wilde. Of an acquaintance he did not regard highly, he said: “He has no enemies but is intensely disliked by his friends.” Of himself, he’s alleged to have commented: “Falling in love with oneself is the start of a life long romance.” Of those he disliked: “Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.”

By and large, it’s the British who have this wonderful knack for tongue-in-cheek humour. George Bernard Shaw once sent Churchill two tickets for the opening night of a new play with a note which read: “For you and a friend — if you have one.” Churchill replied: “I can’t make the first night but I’ll be there for the second — if there is one.”

It may surprise you to discover that Americans can be equally clever with their wit. Amongst the best is Mark Twain. Consider this: “I didn’t attend the funeral but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.” Or, “Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without an address on it?” But my favourite is this description of a friend by Forrest Tucker: “He loves nature in spite of what it did to him.”

Now here are a few you could bandy about at a party or cast in the direction of those you want to snub. Believe it or not, they were dreamt up by politicians. Talleyrand, Napoleon’s foreign minister, once said of a woman: “In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yields easily.” Paul Keating, who was Prime Minister of Australia in the 1990s, said of an opponent: “He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up.”

With Friends Like These ...

With "friends" like these, who needs enemies. Fits rightly on the "advisors" of His Enlightened Moderation. Ayesha Siddiqa rightly points out the perils of throwing one's lot with sychophants.

Unfortunately, the problem with sycophancy is that it completely blurs the vision and does not allow a person to visualise the emerging threats. Past dictators were equally intelligent. But they also missed out on numerous warning signs once they gathered sycophants around themselves. The private admiration club takes away the ability of a leader to see which direction the wind is blowing.

Mush's survival tips

Hoodbhoy describs it accurately here :

Musharraf is not taking chances. He knows that the real threat to his power comes from within his constituency, the military. As a result, he has become obsessed with micromanaging everything from troop movements and special events to postings and promotions.

However, the looming crisis in the wake of Chief Justice's suspension will be a real test for Mush's survival skills.

Commando's latest shot

His Enlightened Moderation has never been averse to test his commando skills where they are least needed (i.e. outside the battefield). That seems to be his way of establishing "writ of the state". This time the target happens to be the Chief justice of Supreme Court of "the land of the pure". Pakistani polity is in hot waters - but nothing unusual or unexpected in a country where institutions have ceased to be functional except "A Few Good Men" of the "gallant and the glorious" Pakistan Army. However, I seriously doubt if this incident turns out to be the last nail in Mush's coffin - inspite of what the doomsayers say. To me, it does not seem to be "the beginning of the end"; just "business as usual". Consider. Benazir and Nawaz Sharif persona non grata on one hand, and mullahs alive and kicking across the country, on the other. 27 years jail for Javed Hashmi, and "temporary house arrests" for likes of Hafiz Saeed and Masud Azhar. "Peace deals" with Taliban, while " hitting from where you won't even know" for Bugti. And that's just tip of the iceberg. Stay tuned for more wonders ahead!

Post-Mortem Paternity

Death will not stop us ! Now humans will be able to reproduce even after death. Lovely!

In a precedent-setting decision, an Israeli court has ruled that a dead soldier's family can have his sperm impregnated into the body of a woman he never met.

Clash of Titans

Richard Branson and Rupert Mudroch at loggerheards! A constructive side of big business corporatism.

Science vs. Faith

A picture is worth a thousand words!

Microcosm of Global Islamist Vigilantism

Recent incidents of barbarity in "the land of the pure" are alas nothing but a microcosm of Islamist vigiliantism alive and kicking across the globe. Extracts from Razi Azmi's article in today's Daily Times:


Extreme conservatism, the preaching of jihad, Islamist supremacist chatter and terrorist attacks in Europe and America have allowed one Israeli academic to advance a theory that life can become untenable when the Muslim population of a non-Muslim country reaches about 10 per cent.

Fanatic kills Pakistani woman minister

And now an Islamist zeaolt vents his frustration at a woman minister in Pakistan. Zil-e-Huma becomes the latest, but alas not the last, victim of Islamist vigilantism. Genie is out of bottle and out of control.

One of the most successful............

Amir Taheri's remarks on Musharaf's role in "war on terror"! Most of the comments make sense but I am intrigued how come a man who became "one of Pakistan's most successful leaders" is still in need of changing so many of his tactics.

Pakistani Amazons in Burkas

Take a look at the Amazons of Pakistan in action. Charlies Angels of Indus Valley. Ninjas of God. Standing up, though also covered, to the "man-made" laws, and challenging the cardinal myths of feminism. Who says burka is a bottleneck to female empowerment! :)

And here is the background story to get an idea of the "root cause" of their vigilantism. Don't know why it reminds me of Marilyn Monroe. "I don't mind living in a man's world as long as I can be a woman in it." :)

'Honour killers' expect to walk free

A deadly mixture of tribalization and Islamization that has led to the "privatization" of crime.
Who's gonna stem the tide and restore"writ of the state" here?

Enlightened Moderation - A Goal Way too Far

So it was the mistake of ommision, not of (Higher Education) Commision that a homophile professor got her way into the citadel of International Islamic University. Looking at the response of the seemingly well educated Pakistanis at her appointment, it becomes amply clear that "Enlightened Moderation" in the "House of Islam" remains a goal way too far.

On the other hand, I'm somehow surprised on what basis Dr. Ghazala considers my alama mater to be a safer place than IIU. A report from Dawn:

Talking to Dawn, an HEC official said on condition of anonymity that Dr Ghazala, who has already left the country, had informed the commission that she felt she was not safe at the IIU and, therefore, she should be posted to institutions like the GIK or Karachi University.

Joint India-Pakistan venture for peace in Afghanistan

The suggestion seems quite reasonable but alas, it will remains wishful thinking considering the huge trust deficit between India and Pakistan at present. Two countries which have not been able to sort out their bilateral discords, expecting them to join hands to set someone's else house in order is asking too much. Excerpts from Prem Shankar Ja's article in Hindustan Times:


The only constructive course left open to Pakistan is to somehow rediscover the road to peace that the US and Nato have lost. This will involve getting them to declare a cease-fire, and brokering talks between the Karzai government and the Taliban. That can only happen if Nato and the US are prepared to accept that their present goal is unattainable. As New Delhi has found out in Kashmir, there are no economic remedies for political problems once blood has begun to flow. But Musharraf’s government is too heavily compromised by its past ambivalence towards Islamist militancy and jehad, to command the necessary credibility in Western eyes. It is also regarded with deep suspicion by Kabul. It cannot, therefore, bear this burden alone.

The only alternative — indeed, possibly the only way to restore lasting peace in Afghanistan — is for Pakistan and India to work together. India has almost as vital a stake in preventing the disintegration or Talibanisation of Pakistan as its own people do. It also has the necessary credibility both in Kabul and the Western capitals, and with the erstwhile Northern Alliance to complement Pakistan’s clout with the Pashtuns and the Taliban. And together they can offer Nato and the US an honourable way out of Afghanistan.

But India and Pakistan will only be able to do so if they cease to be mired in the past. They have to shed the inherited burden of distrust and learn to work with each other. The rise of global terrorism, the Bush national security doctrine, and the destruction of the Westphalian international order has given us ample reason to do so.

Indo-Russian Liaison

Earlier it was USA. Now comes Russia with its offer for transfer of civilian nuclear technology as well as other "non-civilian" technologies. India is wisely not puting all eggs in one basket and consequently, reaping the best of the both worlds.


On the other hand, our "Pak Sar Zameen" is still at a loss how to curry favor with jihadists and USA - without offending either side.

Americans spend more time with computer than spouse

Digital connections seem to be taking precedence over physical and social ones. :)

And I doubt if it is (or will be) unique to Americans.

Computer have turned the world into global village but it seems they will keep the divorce lawyers of the global village in business. :)

The past may not repeat itself

The beginning of the end (of U.S) ? In the long in the long haul, doomsayers may turn out to be right although, long-term predictions have rarely lived up to their promises! Excerpt from the article below:

The US prospered because it could attract the best brains in the world because of its open system. Except the communists, everyone was welcome and especially those who had some special skills. It was the liberal environment plus the economic opportunities that pulled the most innovative, hard working and brainy people to the US. These people put the US in a leading position in every field. Most US Nobel Prize winners are foreign-born or second-generation immigrants. The father of the US nuclear bomb, Albert Einstein, was also a Jewish immigrant from Germany. However, with the increasing dominance of its security-obsessed state and pro-rich economic system, the US has started losing its lustre. As a matter of fact, many long-time European residents of the US have started going back in recent years. If the prevailing suffocating environment continues—which I think it will— the steady stream of people with initiative coming to the US will dry up. Consequently, the US will slowly — not all at once though — go down the hill. It may take a few years or a few decades: it is hazardous to give a timeline for an ongoing historical trend. It will not be easy as it has been in the past for the American system to correct itself. The societal forces that culminated in the Bush presidency are still very strong and it is a difficult task for the Democrats to reverse the decadent trend. Therefore, it is not surprising that the US is losing its leadership in the financial world. Our friends back home would be better served if they do not confuse the American past with its future.

Kashmir: The Burning Paradise

Both India and Pakistan have been more interested in Kashmir - without giving a hoot about Kashmiris. The editorial of Daily Times is spot on.


Sadly, however, neither India nor Pakistan has done well by the people of Kashmir or the territories belonging to Kashmir. India has brutalised the poor Kashmiri Muslims for the past decade and a half without success. If the dispute is ever settled, it will have to heal the deep wounds it has inflicted on a small community of people traditionally known to be peaceful. Meanwhile, Pakistan has kept Azad (sic!) Kashmir as an appendage of the Kashmir Affairs Ministry in Islamabad and can hardly rebuke India for reducing the Srinagar Assembly to a puppet. It has detached the Northern Areas from Kashmir and then unleashed on the territory a long and bloody sectarian war whose consequences it will have to face for a long time. Just as after autonomy the Jammu and Kashmir state will be the first Muslim majority province in India, so the Northern Areas if given provincial status would be the first Shia majority province in the country. If both countries get to keep the territories they contest, they will have to work very hard to make the brutalised people forget what has happened.