The assassination of Benazir Bhutto is reminiscent of the treacherous and callous murderings rampant under erstwhile monarchies where capturing and holding the throne was the only reigning value. No familial, human or personal relations could come in the way. The same has been happening in Pakistansince its early days. The brutal power politics took the lives of many politicians, to name a few, from Liaqat Ali Khan (1951), first Prime Minster of Pakistan, to Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (1979), the most popular leader of Pakistan.  One wonders whether we still live under the Mughal Kingdomwhere there was no constitution, no law,

Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Meray Voat Ki Barbadiyon Ke Mashwaray

Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Mera Voat Itna Sasta Naheen!

Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Intekhabaat Ya Riyasat Par Qabzay Ki Jang

I read regularly The News, The Express Tribune, and Urdu daily Express. The only reason I read The Express Tribune is that International Herald Tribune comes with it almost free. Just in Rs. 19 one can read both papers. So, that’s my limitation. I keep an eye how prominently these newspapers place pictures / statements of the Sons and Daughters of politicians. Of course, it’s the prerogative of the administration and the editorial staff of these newspapers how and where they place the pictures / statements of the Sons and Daughters of politicians. But at the same time, as a

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First, note please that the Blog has a domain of its own now: www.NotesFromPakistan.com  The blog – Notes From Pakistan – started last year (2012) in August. It has yet to see a whole year completed. However, I feel fortunate enough that without any publicity and promotional campaigns, it has been received well. Thousands of seekers, from abroad as well as from Pakistan, visited and read various posts. I hope they found what they sought for and what brought them here! Many thanks to all the readers who came to the Notes From Pakistan! Hope they will keep coming and

Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: 1962 Ka Aayeen Aur NaaEhaliyat Ki Dafaat

[It was the same day last year when the Chief Justice of Pakistan laid the foundation stone of this movement for the liberation of ordinary people of Pakistan from the yoke of elite classes. I dedicate this article to all those extraordinarily valiant lawyers who are continuing the movement unrelentingly. KA] Now after the 9thgeneral elections, there is much lure and a sort of euphoria among the intelligentsia even beyond Pakistan to dub the results as unprecedented, historic, revolutionary, and what not. In addition, a revived belief in populism is gaining strength. This needs to be clearly analyzed and understood

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It appears that Lal Masjid Brigade is again testing the waters. Few days back, various TV channels reported that Burqa-Clad females of Jamia Hafsa armed with knives and clubs removed and tore the posters and banners of General Pervez Musharraf (Retired) in G-6 Sector of Islamabad. This picture was published by The Express Tribune on April 18, 2013: The event has not been taken notice of. The same series of events happened earlier and ignored when finally Lal Masjid Operation became a necessity. Is the same crisis brewing again, who knows! See a previous post on Lal Masjid: Echoing Lal

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When I read the Charter of Democracy, the idea of rebutting it, and writing a new charter struck me. This found shape in the Charter of Liberty. I started working on it on April 14, 2007, and on May 17, 2007, completed it. The Charter of Liberty responds to the Charter of Democracy issued by Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Pakistan Peoples Party and signed by their respective leaders and former Prime Ministers of Pakistan Mian Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto. The 70-page document presents a critique of the Charter of Democracy and is an independent Charter of Liberty also.

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Ultimately property rights and personal rights are the same thing.  (Calvin Coolidge, 1872-1933) It was in January 2007 that a letter appeared in some newspapers. Its writer was a former cricketer. He was part of the national cricket team which toured India in 1952-1953. He also received an award from the president for his services to the game of cricket. He had a heart-rending story to relate: An engineer by profession, he spent a good part of his life in Middle East. On coming back to Pakistan, besides his family dwelling, he built a house in DHA, Lahore, with an

Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Falsafa-e-Tareekh, Nau-Abadiyaat Aur Jamhooriyat: Aik Kitaab Ki Taqreeb-e-Runamaai Ka Bayaan

I started collecting and sharing this information just because of my focus on how the state aristocracy makes use of its capture of the state to further its interests and loot; however, there is so much to it appearing daily in the newspapers that to me it requires another blog fully devoted to the state aristocracy’s appropriation of the citizens’ tax money and misuse of the public authority. Hence, I think I should give only the links to such news items and of course from such newspapers which I happen to see. راجہ پرویز اشرف نے جعلی اشتہاری مہم کے

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I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. [Barry Goldwater, American Politician and Senator, 1909-1998]    It is said that every government is a perfect target for criticism. But interestingly this time in Pakistan though the Pakistan Peoples Party government is under heavy fire and of course it must be and even if outside government it should remain so; however, what should be the real target is Pakistan Muslim League (N). This article is an attempt at highlighting

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Here is more evidence: Hamas shaves heads of Gaza youths with long hair Gaza City: Police in Hamas-ruled Gaza have started grabbing young men with long or gel-styled spiky hair off the streets, bundling them into jeeps, mocking them and shaving their heads, two of those targeted and a rights group said Sunday. It is the latest sign that they are imposing their strict practices on the population. The crackdown began last week, and two of those targeted told The Associated Press said they were rounded up in separate sweeps in Gaza City included more than two dozen young men.

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March 9, 2007 is an epoch-making day for Pakistani citizens. With Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry’s (at the time Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan) blunt refusal to bow down before the unconstitutional demand of the military elite, and his unconstitutional removal by General Musharraf, at the same time Chief of Army Staff and President of Pakistan, the movement for his restoration with time transformed into a movement for the Rule of Law in Pakistan. It’s just a co-incidence that the following article, which probably first time talks of the state of the Rule of Law in Pakistan, was completed

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Politics and morality are not the same thing. Politics is not religion nor is it a moral code. It is the art and the science of reaching, keeping and sustaining power. It is a system of making, or breaking alliances, for the common cause. [Nafisa Shah, PPP MNA] Lately in Pakistan, politics, politicians, political parties and their supporters have become an antithesis of whatever we associate with the name of morality. But the way this truth manifests itself under the present Pakistan Peoples Party government is dangerously alarming. We know our given world is amoral, and it is we who

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I read regularly The News, The Express Tribune, and Urdu daily Express. The only reason I read The Express Tribune is that International Herald Tribune comes with it almost free. Just in Rs. 19 one can read both papers. So, that’s my limitation. I keep an eye how prominently these newspapers place pictures / statements of the Sons and Daughters of politicians. Of course, it’s the prerogative of the administration and the editorial staff of these newspapers how and where they place the pictures / statements of the Sons and Daughters of politicians. But at the same time, as a

Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Aik Aur Azeem Dhoaka

I started collecting and sharing this information just because of my focus on how the state aristocracy makes use of its capture of the state to further its interests and loot; however, there is so much to it appearing daily in the newspapers that to me it requires another blog fully devoted to the state aristocracy’s appropriation of the citizens’ tax money and misuse of the public authority. Hence, I think I should give only the links to such news items and of course from such newspapers which I happen to see. PM Ashraf is a defaulter, CDA informs SC

Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Siyasatdanon Ki Nakaami Ki ‘‘Aamad’’

I started collecting and sharing this information just because of my focus on how the state aristocracy makes use of its capture of the state to further its interests and loot; however, there is so much to it appearing daily in the newspapers that to me it requires another blog fully devoted to the state aristocracy’s appropriation of the citizens’ tax money and misuse of the public authority. Hence, I think I should give only the links to such news items and of course from such newspapers which I happen to see. سندھ اسیمبلی: ارکان جاتے جاتے اپنے لیے مراعات

Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Finished reading: Mazameen-e-Sharar, Jild Haftam

So the time has come whence the citizens of Pakistan need to decide what they want: democracy or rule of law. The verdict of the Supreme Court (Jan 10) re the implementation of its own NRO judgment, in option 6 reads: “The constitutional balance vis-à-vis trichotomy and separation of powers between the Legislature, the Judiciary and the Executive is very delicately poised and if in a given situation the Executive is bent upon defying a final judicial verdict and is ready to go to any limit in such defiance then instead of insisting upon the Executive to implement the judicial

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Finished reading today (March 27), A History of Freedom of Thought, by J. B. Bury, M.A., F.B.A. This 272 page book was first published by Henry Holt and Company, London in 1913. As I read a lot, it is difficult, for want of time, to prepare a summary of the theme and insights the book contains. However, I may mention whether the book I read is worth reading and why. This history of the freedom of thought ought to be considered an essential reading. It narrates all the stages freedom of thought has undergone, and tries to explicate the layers

Here are certain advertisements published in various newspapers: [The Express Tribune, December 11, 2012] [روزنامہ ایکسپریس لاہور، 8 مارچ، 2013] [The Express Tribune, The News, March 14, 2013] [The Express Tribune, March 14, 2013] [The News, March 15, 2013] [The Express Tribune, March 15, 2013] [The Express Tribune, The News, March 16, 2013] [The Express Tribune, March 18, 2013] [روزنامہ ایکسپریس لاہور، مارچ 18، 2013]

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I started collecting and sharing this information just because of my focus on how the state aristocracy makes use of its capture of the state to further its interests and loot; however, there is so much to it appearing daily in the newspapers that to me it requires another blog fully devoted to the state aristocracy’s appropriation of the citizens’ tax money and misuse of the public authority. Hence, I think I should give only the links to such news items and of course from such newspapers which I happen to see. ٹپی سے 8 پولیس موبائلز اور 50 اہل

Recently I participated in the 2nd Annual Conference (Islam and the Institutions of a Free Society) of the Istanbul Network for Liberty, which was held in Islamabad from 28th February to 2nd March. The following paper was read in its 1st Session: Sociological, Philosophical and Legal Considerations of Shariah: The Rule of Law in Islam, on 1st March. The Session was chaired by Dr. Khalid Masood.    Rules as moral signposts – a brief sojourn in the realm of philosophy of religion The initial and original inspiration the entity of religion resorts to take advantage of, and exudes is moral.

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Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Buzdil Atum Bum

What has gone wrong with the Indians? It seems they are in for a Rape Season or a “Rape Jug,” just like a “Kal Jug?” As the outrage against the rape of an Indian girl-student, Jyoti Singh, who died later, got out of hands in India, a spate of news reports of more and more rapes and rape-attempts started pouring in; as if it’s a contagious crime! No doubt, that’s symptomatic of an ingrained inhuman attitude towards womenfolk! A few days earlier, we some friends were enjoying our talk about all the intellectual issues including a favorite of Pakistani Left,

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Here is a letter that challenges the state of Pakistan and the politics it protects. It appeared in The Nation as a Letter on March 10. Will this letter ever be taken notice of? Will we the ordinary citizens of Pakistan ever be able to know the price of the statecraft in Pakistan? Or, the price of the politics in Pakistan? The Letter: Daylight larceny March 10, 2013 I am an 86 year old man who has fought three epic wars against India, the 1948, 1965 and 1971. In my young days, I had sufficient money, which I deposited in

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After military might, religion is the greatest alibi to defy the rule of law in Pakistan. One of the most precious achievements of human civilization is the value of rule of law, as against the rule of man, ideology or faith. Herein is implied an inherent regard for the life and liberty of each person, his right to profess and practice any religion; in sum his right to live a life of his choice. It is as simple as that – that as against man, ideology and faith, rule of law is tolerant and accommodative of all creeds and all

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Back in 2011, on January 2, The Express Tribune carried an article, Pak Tea House, by Ayesha Siddiqa. In that, a reference was made to another article, Tea,anyone? by Ahmad Rafay Alam, published earlier on May 8, 2010, in the same newspaper. I read both. As I am an ardent lover of the Pak Tea House, as it has played an important role in my intellectual training and so many other souls, and also as I knew quite a bit of what was happening to the Pak Tea House then and to the owner of this property through friends who

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I started collecting and sharing this information just because of my focus on how the state aristocracy makes use of its capture of the state to further its interests and loot; however, there is so much to it appearing daily in the newspapers that to me it requires another blog fully devoted to the state aristocracy’s appropriation of the citizens’ tax money and misuse of the public authority. Hence, I think I should give only the links to such news items and of course from such newspapers which I happen to see. Government allows MPs to stay put at Parliament