All’s not praise for General Kayani
Nadir Hassan stands apart from the courtiers in weighing up the achievements of General Kayani, ‘the political animal.’ See this article by him which The Newscarried on October 10, 2013.
By Nadir Hassan
The bar for a successful chief of army staff is very low in Pakistan. So long as you don’t show so much disdain for democracy that you do away with it altogether you have done better than most. This is why, in the six weeks left before he retires, there will be many odes to General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the man who could have grabbed absolute power but chose not to.
Ignore this hagiography. Kayani is without a doubt a very shrewd and calculating man but his net benefit to the country is in the red.
The first stint seemed to go so well. After the Musharraf nightmare, Kayani seemed like a new
Taking care of their elders
Two pictures, one from Multan and one from Lahore, tell how the elders are still loved and taken care of in a society where moral and social values are in disarray.
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[The Express Tribune, October 2, 2013]
[Daily Jang, October 12, 2013]
It’s sacrificial offering day . . .
It’s sacrificial offering day today. See it through the eyes of Sabir Nazar:
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[The Express Tribune, October 16, 2013]
In violent Pakistan, violent birth of an island
Here is the story of an island’s violent birth in an earthquake:
By Henry Fountain
A small island that appeared in the Arabian Sea off Pakistan after an earthquake last week most likely formed when the shaking released methane gas and water trapped in undersea sediments. The gas and water forced part of the seabed to the surface, experts said.
[The New York Times]
“It looked as if a section of shallow seafloor had simply been pushed up,” said Game McGinsey, a volcanologist with the United States Geological Survey. Photographs of the island, which measures roughly 100 feet by 250 feet and rises about 60 feet above the water, showed a rough-textured surface suggesting that the seafloor had risen and cracked, he said.
Dr. McGinsey said the way the island was created was similar in some ways to that of a so-called mud volcano, in which gas
But, who is the accomplice, and the culprit?
Isn’t the accomplice, and the culprit the federal government, which gave consent for this scheme? Isn’t it the ruling party, i.e. Pakistan Muslim League (N)? Aren’t they the politicians of Pakistan, who allow such usurpatory schemes?
So, who is the main culprit? The answer is: the politicians of Pakistan.
ISLAMABAD, Sept 14: General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who is retiring in November after completing his six-year tenure as Chief of Army Staff, approved a few months ago a scheme for allotting agriculture land to serving and retired army officers.
After the approval, the Welfare and Rehabilitation (W&R) Directorate of the General Headquarters circulated on July 31 details of the scheme to all the regiments, corps centers, station headquarters, ministry of defence and other relevant quarters.
According to a former officer, retired Colonel Mohammad Sajjad such schemes are announced after certain periods of time and
Softcore Taliban in action
The real strength of the hardcore Taliban lies in their softcore allies!
[The Express Tribune, October 7, 2013]
But who is she!
See how one member of an elite family is being showered with praises for her real degree and distinction in the LL.B. examination by a senior journalist! Though his story tells about her family, but her belonging to an elite family is not highlighted.
Also, the journalist writes: “Ayesha was elected member of the National Assembly on the reserved women’s seat on the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) ticket along with others after the May general elections.” It may be mentioned here that no elections are held for the reserved seats, only nominations are made.
Poor Pakistani media!
By Tariq Butt
ISLAMABAD: While lawmakers dubiously take pride in possessing fake degrees, getting or giving out of the way favours to their cronies and exploiting their positions, a female novice among them has earned a rare distinction that is reserved only for
Defending Pakistan the Pakistan way
Sabir Nazar best explains what it means to defend Pakistan the Pakistan way!
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[The Express Tribune, September 29, 2013]
Riyasati Ashrafiya’s “Insider trading”
Some of the issues are not political. Maybe one party which is in power toady will be in opposition tomorrow. So better be considerate regarding one’s political trading! Also, they are all brothers in arms after all!
See this news item regarding such an act of the Riyasati Ashrafiya’s (State Aristocracy’s) “insider trading”:
ISLAMABAD: Deafening political rancour apart, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has approved “compulsory” acquisition of a huge piece of land, 1,000 acres (8,000 kanals), for the Namal College Mianwali of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan at a throwaway price but several key PML-N figures are loudly protesting the decision.
Top officials of the Punjab government and Namal Education Foundation (NEF), which runs the facility, confirmed to The News that the chief minister has sanctioned acquisition of 1,000 acres of land from local landowners under the 1894 Act,
Rule of law and its phony guardians
That’s not uncommon in Pakistan; rather it’s sort of usual!
… See this report – how the guardians of the rule of law turn into phony guardians of the rule of law in Pakistan. One may follow up with this news item and see nothing happens at the end, though the Chief Minister of Punjab has taken notice of it.
FAISALABAD: Scores of traffic wardens staged a protest demonstration here on Friday shortly after a traffic warden was beaten up allegedly by an MPA’s guards.
The warden was taken to a hospital, from where he was released a few hours later.
The protesting wardens surrounded the office of the regional police officer and shouted slogans against the MPA. They demanded that action be taken against the MPA and his guards.
The wardens said that a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz MPA was passing through the road, when
Rule of Law’s Minor Domains
All men have equal rights to liberty, to their property, and to the protection of the laws.
[Voltaire, 1694-1778]
Years ago, it was in a National Book Foundation book-shop in Lahore that I came to realize the helplessness of hapless fellow citizens, though I am as unlucky as any one of them could be. The Foundation is a government body, and we know that government employees are a bit privileged than other people. For police it is not easier to harass or coerce them. Also general public consider them under a protective umbrella. But probably it was so in the past.
That man just reaching his middle age was in-charge of the shop. How weak he might be feeling at that time that he did reveal his heart to me. He lived apparently in an unprivileged locality. He owned a small house and was a father to three young ones,
Exposing the hypocrites
Sabir Nazar instead of pencil and brush uses knives and choppers and cuts his subject / subjects mercilessly into pieces!
[The Express Tribune, October 2, 2013]
Shame on the newspapers . . .
Shame on this and other such newspapers which play in the hands of Pakistan’s Riyasti Ashrafiya, and promote their sons and daughters and thus perpetuate Ashrafi Democracy in Pakistan!
[The Express Tribune, October 2, 2013]
Just give a thought what’s the political status of this little girl, what political wisdom she has that makes her statements placed in the national newspapers; other than that she is the daughter of an opportunist leader who betrayed the Pakistani citizens’ trust. And what about this little girl’s father – didn’t he irreparably damage the state machinery of Pakistan as well as the moral basis of Pakistani society!
See some of the previous posts on this issue:
The monster and the loath monster-killers
See this cartoon, which was published in The New York Times / International Herald Tribune on August 3-4, 2013.
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Are the monster-killers serious in exterminating the monster?
My successes and my failures – a short note
Whatever I achieved is fruit of my own labor, hard work, sincerity and commitment!
I do acknowledge I learned a lot from two of my teachers: Lakht Pasha and Dr. Sajid Ali
But in another realm, where elitist roots, connections and PR (Public Relations) count, I am a total failure!
That is why all of my work which is focused on the fate of Pakistanis especially and human world in general remains unidentified and ignored and is nowhere part of the mainstream debate.
Sometimes my work was taken notice of; however, as I understand now, it may have been discarded since it was not supported by any elitist roots, connections and PR. I have a number of such stories to tell; and waiting for the moment when they ought to be told.
But: There’s no regrets!
Here is some of my work:
Books:
This picture of a lone warrior will haunt you too!
This picture was published in the International Herald Tribune on the 1stof August. I kept this page of the newspaper in my loose-paper file. But this continued haunting me, and then finally made me to scan and post it in my Blog.
The caption reads as: A supporter of Pfc. Bradley E. Manning at a demonstration Tuesday night in front of the White House. The soldier now faces a theoretical maximum sentence of 136 years in prison.
I have been to this place where this lone warrior is waging his war, and I am all praise for such places and such lone warriors, and the spirit and determination of such lone warriors!
Hats off to all the Lone Warriors!
Popular Urdu columnist, “Javed Choudhry inventing stories and spouting nonsense”
A measure to measure a society’s level of culture and civilization is to see whom it rewards most. In Pakistan, Javed Chaudhry is one of the few Urdu columnists and television talk show hosts who are unimaginably highly paid.
The quality of Urdu language he writes in his columns is precarious. The accent with which he speaks Urdu in his talk show and the way he pronounces words may never be approved by a refined taste. His arguments defy logic, his sources are un-scrutinized and most of his information is misleading. Yet he is one of the most popular Urdu columnists!
C. M. Naim in his personal blog, www.cmnaim.comhas taken Javed Chaudhry to task regarding one of his columns, مذاکرات سے پہلے, which published in a national daily, Express, on September 17, 2013.
Here is C. M. Naim’s post:
Mr. Javed Chaudhry is a
In Lahore, a lecture on Cosmic Dust
On September 2, in an Urdu daily, a small advertisement appeared. It was about a lecture on Cosmic Dust on September 3 under the auspices of the Khwarizmi Science Society in the Ali Institute of Education, Lahore.
I made it a point to attend the lecture.
Dr. Tayyaba Zafar delivered the lecture. She teaches at the Department of Physics, University of the Punjab. I wondered whether University of the Punjab every holds such events!
Dr. Tayyaba was very much conversant with the topic of her lecture. She dwelt at length on Dusty Cool Cosmos.
She explained: 95 % of the universe is invisible; and 4.6 % consists of atoms. The invisible universe is 72 % dark energy, and 23 % dark matter. Through telescope only 5 % of the universe is visible to us.
She told: Cosmic Dust is carbon and silicate grains – sub-micron in size. This Dust
Who is Drone-prone!
Here is a cartoon by Sabir Nazar, which exposes the fallacy of opposing the Drone attacks. The cartoon published in The Express Tribune on September 26, 2013.
… 
See also two previous posts of mine on the issue of Drone attacks:
How to protect citizens from their killer governments
So Immanuel Kant already knew it!
See this article published in The News York Times on September 13, 2013.
Link to the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/14/opinion/the-duty-to-protect-still-urgent.html?_r=0
The Duty to Protect, Still Urgent
By Michael Ignatieff
TORONTO — PRESIDENT OBAMA’S failure to get Congress to support airstrikes in Syria, coupled with the vote against military action in the British House of Commons, brings home a key fact about international politics: when given a choice, democratic peoples are reluctant to authorize their leaders to use force to protect civilians in countries far away.
In 2001, the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, on which I served, developed the idea that all states, but especially democracies, have a “responsibility to protect” civilians when they are threatened with mass killing. For those of us who have worked hard to promote this concept, it’s obvious that our idea is facing a crisis of democratic legitimacy.
Let’s be