In the wake of escalating Line of Control skirmishes between India and Pakistan, the fear of a war is still lurking in the air. In the following cartoon, this fear was captured with dangerous implications. [This cartoon appeared in the Pakistan print edition of the International Herald Tribune of January 19-20, 2013. The caption read as: India and Pakistan are playing with fire.]

Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Riyasati Ashrafiya Ka Pakistan – 5 – A: Bakery Tashaddud Case Mein Wazeer-e-Aala Punjab Ke Damaad Ki Bariyat

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What’s a conspiracy mindset? It’s a mind set in to explaining things or events by going beyond the same things and events. That is, it places itself at the exterior of a thing or an event, and sees it from there, and instead of explaining it scientifically in parts or philosophically as a whole, so to say, explains it in a causal relation to “something / someone else” existing outside of it. Such a mind takes things in their totality and explains them away once and for all as absolutely caused by A, or B, or C, etc, where A,

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Here is a cartoon published in The Express Tribune today (January 16, 2013) depicting Tahir-ul-Qadri as an exploiter of his followers. Is it so? Another interesting cartoon published in Pakistan Observer today casts doubts on Tahir-ul-Qadri’s demands.

As the Supreme Court issues orders to arrest the Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf in Rental Power case, the ever-alive factories of conspiracy mindset have set in motion in Pakistan. Here is the report: Rental Power: SC orders to arrest PM “Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) has issued orders to arrest Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf in Rental Power case, Geo News reported. The SC directed the authorities concerned to arrest 16 accused including the prime minister after presenting challan within 24 hours. The chief justice ordered that all concerned, regardless of their rank, who have been booked in the

Apart from the fact of corruption, inefficiency and criminality rampant in and under the present government of Pakistan Peoples Party and its allies, Awami National Party, Pakistan Muslim League (Q), and Muttihad Qaumi Movement, is it OK for any adventurer to bring 100, 000 or so protesters and stage a sit-in in the capital – and demand ouster of the government! Should it be so? Is it constitutional? Is it moral? If it is not constitutional for the Pakistan Army to go against the dictates of the Constitution, and the politicians of any hue to do the same, how can

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Amid continuing bloodshed and the criminally failed State, what the citizens of Pakistan need, first and foremost, is Protective Agenda – a State fully and completely given to its original job of protecting life, property and the fundamental rights of each and every citizen – Nothing less than and nothing more than that! That’s what I argue for in my book published in August in 2012: سیاسی پارٹیاں یا سیاسی بندوبست:  پاکستانی سیاست کے پیچ و خم کا فلسفیانہ محاکہ © The BloggerAll rights reserved. No part of the contents published on this Blog – Notes from Pakistan may be

Animism did not die with the men that endowed inanimate things with life and soul. It survived and flourished in different areas in different forms with different denominations without being known as animism. However, its role altered greatly from that of primitive animism, and from one area to the other; and that, its implications, its importance also varied immensely. [1] In poetry, it came to be known as ‘personification’ or embodiment: attributing human form, personality, and characteristics to things animate or inanimate. [2] Here in poetry, personification is taken, and made use of as an effective vehicle of poeticizing; and,

Here is the latest manifestation of ideological robotics: Maoists plant bomb in dead Indian cop Patna: Maoist rebels planted a bomb inside the stomach of an Indian policeman killed during clashes in the eastern state of Jharkhand, hotbed of Left-wing extremism, police said on Thursday (January 10). The bomb was found by a team of doctors conducting post-mortems following the death of 10 policemen in Latehar district, 108 kilometres (67 miles) from the state capital Ranchi, after a clash with the insurgents on Monday. – AFP [The News, January 11, 2013] Does any mission justify trampling of humans and human

In the following they seem to be of the same ilk: Both believe in violence as the most effective instrument of their policy! Both believe in killing innocent citizens in lieu of their human and institutional targets! Both are ruthless! Both are ideologically robotic! Compare the following as the latest soulless doings of theirs: As for Taliban’s ruthlessness, it is well-established and well-known. See this piece and watch the video the link to which is given in the report: “They are dead men talking, and they know it. Gulping nervously, the prisoners stare into the video camera, spilling tales of

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Here is one measure how dangerous they are: Turkey lifts ban on thousands of books “Istanbul: From communist works to a comic book, thousands of titles banned by Turkey over the decades were taken off the restricted list Saturday (January 6, 2013), thanks to a government reform. In July, the parliament adopted a bill stipulating that any decision taken before 2012 to block the sale and distribution of published work would be voided if no court chose to confirm the ruling with six months. – AFP” [The News, January 7, 2013]

“Islamabad: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Thursday (December 20) directed the ministry of defence to abolish lifetime perks and privileges to all former managing directors of the Pakistan International Airlines. The directions came during the PAC meeting chaired by its chairman Nadeem Afzal Gondal in which the audit paras related to ministry of defence were examinded. Chairman PAC directed the ministry of defence that if they want to improve the functioning and operations of the PIA then the lifetime perks and privileges to all former MDs of the PIA should be abolished. Secretary defence Lt. Gen (Retd) Asif Yasin agreed

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Copied below is the Exordium from my latest paper, Pakistan’s Democratic Impasse – Analysis and the Way Forward, released by the Alternate SolutionsInstitute on December 29, 2012. After so many stumbles through the 65 years of its existence, Pakistan has finally come to be: a government of the criminals, by the criminals, for the criminals. Exordium First, this treatise derives its rationale and insight from a reading of the constitution of Pakistan which considers the fundamental rights and the articles protecting these rights and freedoms as the core value of the constitution, as the same has time and time again

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The caption reads: A rickshaw and a small trailer, with Jamaat-i-Islami posters and flags, have been making rounds on The Mall (Lahore) to tell people about the party’s demands. [The Express Tribune, January 4, 2013] 

“ISLAMABAD: Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) Buland Akhtar Rana on Thursday (January 3) told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that he had ordered to conduct an inquiry regarding an audit report which mentioned that Minister for Railways had been using 51 official vehicles. “I saw a report on electronic media the other day which made a reference to an audit report that 51 vehicles were being used by Minister for Railways Ghulam Ahmed Bilour so he has asked his auditors to verify this report,” he told the PAC which met Thursday with its head Nadeem Afzal Gondal in the chair. 

In order to secure constitutional protection for Muslims, the Muslim League argued in separatist language on the basis of a different religious identity. However, as the Congress would not budge on the issue, the Muslim League went ahead with its demand for Pakistan. Thus, the constitutional issue was merged into a religious issue. Naturally when Pakistan came into being, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah found himself facing a dilemma: the Muslim League had been using the rhetoric of separate religious identity and now he wanted to make the new homeland a religiously neutral state as is evident from his speech of

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[This cartoon was published in Pakistan Observer on December 30, 2012.]

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Alternate Solutions Institute released my latest paper, Pakistan’s Democratic Impasse – Analysis and the Way Forward, today (December 29). Copied below is the text of the Media Release: New paper – “Pakistan’s Democratic Impasse” published The paper indicts politicians as the main culprit for failing the state of Pakistan The paper falsifies the myth of blaming the Pakistan Army for the ills Pakistanis facing Author argues constitution authorizes politicians to rule, not the Army Lahore December 29, 2012: Alternate Solutions Institute released today Dr. Khalil Ahmad’s latest paper, Pakistan’s Democratic Impasse – Analysis and the Way Forward. Already this year,

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Most of the English and Urdu newspapers of today (December 27), published the following full page advertisement on behalf of “Chief Minister Sindh and All Cabinet Memebrs, Information Department, Government of Sindh.” Also, there are other smaller-size advertisements in almost all of the newspapers sponsored by various government departments. See this full page ad copied from The News: I checked online editions of The News, Dawn, The Express Tribune, Business Recorder, The Nation, Pakistan Observer, and Urdu dailies, Express, Dunya, Nawa-i-Waqt; they all contain the full page ad.

In The News of December 24, on page 5 there published an Advertisement. Here it is: What does that Ad mean? How come that suddenly 8816 posts emerge vacant in various organizations working under the Ministry of Interior! What does this Ad as a whole amount to?  On December 25, The News published Ansar Abbasi’s story, Desperate rush to recruit thousands en masse. This story reveals what may have prompted the publishing of that Ad! Here is the link to this story: http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-13-19700-Desperate-rush-to-recruit-thousands-en-masse In The News of December 26 published another story by Ansar Abbasi on the same issue. Here

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The News in its print edition on December 23 reported the following: Bakery boy absolves CM’s relative, cops of torture LAHORE: A judicial magistrate of cantonment courts on Saturday adjourned the hearing by January 9 of a case against Ali Imran Yousaf, son-in-law of the Punjab chief minister, eight others including seven officials of Elite Force.  On Saturday, the court recorded the statement of complainant Irfan who said that neither the CM’s son-in-law nor elite force officials had tortured him. He said he had been tortured by unidentified persons. After recording the statement, the court adjourned the case until January

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[This cartoon was published in daily Pakistan Observer on December 23, 2012.]

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Anyone can see that there is not one Pakistan. After more than 60 years the two Pakistans can clearly be demarcated. One is for the ordinary lot of the people, and the second one is for the elite classes. Pay a visit to the ordinary Pakistan, and experience the ordinary life there, have a taste of some basic social services available there, and you will realize how neglected is this ordinary Pakistan of the ordinary people of Pakistan. Likewise almost in every big city, there are two cities, one for the ordinary lot and one for the special elite. All

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Ordinary Pakistanis are in the jaws of another government-created crisis: they are facing shortage of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in their homes as well as in their vehicles. The other side of the coin is the industrial sector suffering a lot due to the shortage and limited supply of the CNG. Years back caught in a fever of Greenism and making policies with no insight into the future, the government promoted CNG. When everything has gone Green, it was revealed that there was no more CNG to feed those who shifted to the use of CNG. Rationing started, and another

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Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf by, using his discretionary powers, has appointed his son-in-law, Raja Azeemul Haq to the prestigious post of Executive Director of the World Bank Washington.  The decision was taken despite resistance shown by Finance Minister Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, who tried to convince the Premier to change his decision, and told him that his son-in-law is “junior” for such an important position. The Economic Affairs Division, the department which was asked to formally move the summary by the Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary Ayub Qazi, also opposed the move. The department suggested that a head-hunting committee or

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It is strange, rather outrageous that the same media, which is truly active and activist, as regards many a genuine issue, and in certain cases quite imbued with a fighting spirit, is all set to advance the cause of new young leaders of the political elite classes. Ah, the senior and experienced media men, the editors, reporters, op-ed writers, and those who are known as political analysts, (and the established newspapers and TV channels), they are all avidly promoting the Political Princelings. Such as: Bilawal Zardari, Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, Moonis Elahi, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, Fizza Gilani, Aseefa Zardari, and all

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This book was published by Alternate Solutions Institute in February this year. Originally it is in Urdu, Pakistan Mein Riyasti Ashrafiya Ka Urooj. After the Media Release announcing the publication of the book was made, I sent its copies to prominent newspapers, journals, and eminent intellectuals and writers for the purpose of review. However, no one bothered even to acknowledge the receipt of the book except Dr. Tariq Rahman, who called me and told that he had received the book. Here are the reviews done: The day (February 21) the Media Release was issued, I received a call from Business

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How vacuous the speeches and statements of state dignitaries look! But it is for them to inaugurate this or that thing, to make speeches! It seems that’s the only thing they can do, at least in Pakistan!  Maybe since they have nothing else to do, they like to be the chief guests at many an occasion so diverse in nature that they would never be able to go to were they not in that position. The difficult part of this exercise requires them to deliver speeches. However, they are privileged – they have speech-writers. That makes their speeches all Greek

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Lal Masjid is once again making headlines. This time it has been resurrected by the Supreme Court. As a result of a hearing of a suo moto case of Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa along with a contempt petition filed by Maulana Abdul Aziz, and after the federal police failed to file a satisfactory report on the matter, a three member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry constituted a one-man judicial commission comprising Justice Shehzad Al-Shaikh, Senior Judge of Federal Shariat Court. The judicial commission will ascertain: whether the State had paid compensation

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