tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6110042250277519462024-03-12T19:14:31.470-07:00Archi-journo...Andaleebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15467453985279576728noreply@blogger.comBlogger259125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-611004225027751946.post-54747496206782613912017-11-29T06:02:00.002-08:002018-11-05T07:36:31.298-08:00Intolerance behind Sufis!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Since the deadlock between the government and Barelvi extremists of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan came to an end on Monday, November 27, one thing was loud and clear, the Pakistan Army refused to take action against “its own people”, as the chief of army staff said.<br />
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The civilian government had been trying to handle the situation since November 6, when the sit-in commenced, but was forced to request for army assistance to tackle the jihadi sentiments on the orders of the Islamabad High Court. However, the anti-Ahmadi rhetoric played by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz against the sitting Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa came back to bite them during the Faizabad Interchange sit-in. The army, instead of coming in to take hold of the situation 1953-style, chose to coach civilians about amicably handling Punjabis overdosing on the blasphemy law.<br />
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This incident has not only paved the way for the COAS to clear his name in the eyes of the largest sectarian group, but it also falls in place with the establishment’s plan to mainstream Islamic extremists as a political alliance. <br />
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Earlier, when Nawaz was deposed as per court orders, and by-elections were called in NA-120, one of the contestants was Qari Yaqoob Sheikh of the unregistered Milli Muslim League, technically a candidate of the Jama'at-ud-Da'wah, political wing of the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Qari Yaqoob bagged 4.59 percent or a total 5,822 votes in the by-election. The launching of the Milli Muslim League was opposed by the PML-N, but their protests went unheard.<br />
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The other religious person, who was ahead of Yaqoob was Shaikh Azhar Hussain Rizvi at 7,130 votes or 5.62 percent of the total. Azhar participated as an independent candidate against Begum Kulsoom Nawaz of the PML-N; however, he belongs to Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan - an Islamic political party founded by Khadim Hussain Rizvi, the architect of the Faizabad sit-in.<br />
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Since the time Shaikh Azhar bagged third position in the strategic Punjabi constituency in the heart of Lahore, the party had been aggressively campaigning for getting a strong foothold in mainstream politics ahead of the 2018 elections. Tehreek-e-Labbaik holds Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, the convicted murderer of Punjab governor Salman Taseer, as innocent and his hanging unjustifiable. It has resorted to sloganeering and urged people to take to the streets to protest against the perceived persecution of Muslims in the Muslim majority country. <br />
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Originally, the demand of those sitting at Faizabad was to reverse the law pertaining to the finality of prophethood, which was accepted. To further gain momentum and support for the new party, Khadim Hussain had expanded the scope of demands during the protest and also called on the entire cabinet to hand in their resignations.<br />
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Faizabad Interchange, made in the 90s is the gateway between Islamabad and its twin city Rawalpindi, from where thousands of people commute to the federal capital on a daily basis. The blockade of the interchange by the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan was strategic as it paralysed the twin cities for close to three weeks.<br />
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Since a vast majority of Sunni Muslims in Pakistan belong to the Barelvi school of thought, the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan founder Khadim Hussain is vouching on them to help him win a majority in Punjab. Especially under the 'namoos-e-risalat' banner. Under whose patronage is anyone's guess!<br />
Milli Muslim League on the other hand, has slightly lesser supporters due to its Salafi leanings, often at odds with the shrine-going majority of the rural and urban population, and hence closer to the Deobandi school of thought. It is this similarity which has been helpful in raising the Taliban and now Daesh among the Deobandis of Pakistan and Afghanistan, largely funded by the Salafi Saudi regime. <br />
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The turf war between the Barelvis and the other major Sunni groups is old and both have been involved in target killings of mosque imams for taking hold of an area in different parts of the country. The recent fiasco in Islamabad seems to be an extension of the same. The stance of the security establishment in the matter and their refusal to confront the previously obscure, but majority Sunni group, is recognition of the need for perhaps a grand religio-political alliance.<br />
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The failure to make the Pak Sarzameen Party and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan work jointly in Karachi might have served as a precedent for the deep state in this matter. Bringing politicians to heel is a problem when it comes to following without question.<br />
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This grand alliance in Punjab will not only deal with the PML-N and divide the Punjabi vote bank, but also keep in check the volatility of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leadership, another right-leaning set of hooligans who brought the federal capital to halt in 2014. A poor precedent was set during the more than 120-day demonstrations staged by the PTI and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) simultaneously in 2014 when Islamabad was locked down for more than three months. Prior to that, the PAT protest in Model Town, Lahore in June 2014 had ended in violence and multiple deaths. A re-enactment of the PAT demonstration is perhaps on the cards too, as Tahirul Qadri landed in Pakistan on November 28.<br />
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This time around, the Faizabad sit-in however ended 'amicably' as the COAS brokered a six-point deal between the miscreants and the government which includes the resignation of Law Minister Zahid Hamid, inquiries and investigations against those involved in changing the wordings of the oath related to the finality of prophethood, and freedom for all those arrested during the operation against the instigators.<br />
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Milli Muslim League lagged behind the Tehreek-e-Labbaik candidate, it was a major sign for those in the power corridors to realise their mistake of not recognising the bigger terror group hiding behind its tolerant Sufi-turbaned facade. How this will end, with Hafiz Muhammad Saeed walking as a free man now, only time will tell.</div>
Andaleebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15467453985279576728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-611004225027751946.post-26497971827572647032017-03-08T04:42:00.002-08:002017-03-08T04:42:18.611-08:00Women are humans<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
#BeBoldForChange is what the International Women’s Day 2017 is asking us to be. Calling on us to take a stand and work towards a better future that is not only more inclusive, but more equal and prosperous.<br />So, while the world is working towards adding more women to the executive boards to accelerate gender diversity, and urging more and more women to join STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields, is seeking reproductive rights for women, sending more and more girls to school, fighting against female genital mutilation, and explaining consent and that a no means no - teaching men not to rape, our society is still concerned about how to marry off girls to men who will ensure the women never work for wages and spend their life rearing their in laws offspring as well as their own.<br />These women are being forced into unpaid labour by their own parents who think a woman’s place is in the kitchen and her life must revolve around some lazy men who cannot be taught to cook, clean, make their own bed, and take care of children. (Sometimes I wonder if they expect us to be grateful that South Asian men wash their own piss and poo). These women will end with no say of their own in matters of finance, health, housing, employment, and even child rearing.<div>
For all the sacrifices these South Asian women will make, they will be given a lollipop in the form of “the door to heaven lies beneath the feet of a mother”, ensuring that even if they do not want to, they pop out a baby. They will be told to forget about all their dreams and aspirations of doing something more productive, and will be cajoled into taking the “natural course” of reproduction.<br />How many of these women will take a stand? How many of such parents who force their daughters into drudgery are around us? And how many of us will take a step to put a poke in the wheels and help the women who are being forced by their own parents into drudgery? How many of our friends will be sure of support from the community in case they runaway or divorce their abusive husbands?</div>
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Will we believe her if she said her own father abused her and her mother was an aide? Will we stand by the woman who left her husband because he raped her on the wedding night, and promise not to doubt her story just because she is a woman wearing makeup and not crying her heart out?<br />We have to #BeBoldForChange for ourselves, other women, and everyone else living on this planet. We have to take a stand for our own rights and for that of others. We need to stop being afraid of saying no, be it to our family, friends, colleagues. We are not born to please everyone. We are not here so our bodies can be used in bits to sell products or to make babies or save men’s honours.<br />We are here like other humans.</div>
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We are humans!</div>
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Andaleebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15467453985279576728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-611004225027751946.post-88290836423229672942016-09-06T18:00:00.001-07:002016-09-07T04:26:26.370-07:00When will the bubble burst?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Recently, a friend asked, how does one define 'elite' in Pakistan. It is one of the most important questions in the current circumstances. Not to make us hate them more personally, but rather to fix the mess we live in. The credit of this social mess, political mess, micro economic failure, and flawed policies, all goes to our elite. Basic human rights like access to quality education, healthcare, etc, are all out of reach for 60 percent or more of the population because of their non-elite status.</div>
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So, the question was, who were the elite?</div>
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The elite is at the top of all that is existing in this country. They are the ones in military, who have been there for the past many generations, decorated by the British. They are the ones who were bestowed with swathes of land by the British and have their people in the military, in the power corridors, in the cabinet, assemblies, etc. They have also married their children to people who form the business classes and bureaucracy to keep their money and power in place. These intermarriages have also enabled them to reproduce offspring who can go to the best schools, colleges, foreign universities or even local top academic institutions.</div>
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Their offspring are visible holding guitars in universities singing to the likes of Habib Jalib and Faiz Ahmed Faiz. They get to sing in Coke Studio, they get to become editors of newspapers and chancellors of universities. Which means they get to represent the 60 percent to the rest of the world in the language they speak, 'English'.</div>
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They can own and run hospitals. Their teenage kids get to blog on various news websites. So many of them, also get nominated for awards and run NGOs. It is the elite who are shaping the narrative of what this country is. They or their families have directly or indirectly created this mess that they sell in PowerPoint presentations to get the funding needed to make some cosmetic changes in between their foreign trips and shopping sprees in Dubai.</div>
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It is after them that we have the office working class, who serve all these people. They hardly reach the bottom of the merit list because their father did not have a personal library or a bank balance to send them to an elite school where they could have polished their English to the right accent or their understanding of international relations. They lag behind in almost every way compared to the elite. They lack the finesse to compete with the toppers. For them getting a 'Fullbright' after an education at a neighborhood school is close to impossible.</div>
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After them come the poor, those who were born to serve everyone. They are considered a test for everyone. If they get to eat, they provide us a perfect example to be content with whatever we have. "You should be happy if you are eating three meals a day, what if you have only one?"</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuIb_3oFYZy9vGtDPdeCD8EeQCYvB3ZBfFAwpAjqarx-ivEX8QF7-a7-xOGwMc2b6Y1f-I5mG-3G7OOUaSkze1lJggK7C4t0m8Gh5S2j7eF_0xvCciUGmAy9pUoNB1lhgKx0WkXNiEq_lE/s400/IMG_20160226_022105.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An excerpt from The Shape of the Beast: Conversations with Arundhati Roy</td></tr>
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If you want to read:<br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Shape-Beast-Conversations-Arundhati-Roy/dp/0670082074" target="_blank">The Shape of the Beast</a><div>
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/God-Small-Things-Novel/dp/0812979656/" target="_blank">The God of Small Things</a></div>
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Andaleebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15467453985279576728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-611004225027751946.post-12975854395291045382016-09-01T05:45:00.002-07:002016-09-01T06:35:10.270-07:00Military, land-grabbing, and the fate of Balochistan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-MeV6BHk_8rj2iV-cWB0VyPJj4L53MnbbeyFmfPW6vG4LDKVkY3uIv7w5U3AcDoPKw9xpXGuhHfRQEzwM3vGCL4GXIb4BULTt0GAYXQQJzXBUTopi9R0tX3MiXwg8FRmkQfCKDkTgHzT7/s1600/Hingol4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-MeV6BHk_8rj2iV-cWB0VyPJj4L53MnbbeyFmfPW6vG4LDKVkY3uIv7w5U3AcDoPKw9xpXGuhHfRQEzwM3vGCL4GXIb4BULTt0GAYXQQJzXBUTopi9R0tX3MiXwg8FRmkQfCKDkTgHzT7/s400/Hingol4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Destroyed by conflict, threatened by militancy, and crippled by lack of development and resources, Balochistan is mostly off-limits for tourists, especially non-Baloch nationals of the country. Contrary to the press reminders about the importance of the Gwadar Port, the province suffers from severe neglect. However, there is one place in Balochistan, which seems to be protected for not only visitors, but even the Hindu minority of this country, which is stuck in the turmoil of terrorism and rampant extremism. Hingol National Park, a protected piece of land covering 407,724 acres, hosts the Hinglaj Mata Mandar, and Chandragupt and Khandewari volcanoes, all sacred for the Hindus. </div>
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The diversity of the place attracts not just pilgrims for Hinglaj Yatra, but also the entertainment starved Karachiites, who are stuck with either eating out, going to the scarce and expensive cinemas, or the dirty beaches.</div>
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It is this niche that private explorers like <a href="https://www.facebook.com/RoverAdventureClub/" target="_blank">Rover Adventure Club</a>, The Globetrotters, etc are using to expand tourism, a neglected industry in Pakistan. The clubs take groups of 12-25 people each week to visit Hingol. One can find countless packages ranging between Rs2,500-3,000 for a day trip via the Makran Coastal Highway. The highlights include viewing the Princess of Hope, the Sphinx, and mud-volcanoes, as well as visiting the Kund Malir Beach and Hingol River. The area has varying geographical features from arid sub-tropical forest cover, to sandy mountains, and an estuary along the Hingol River.</div>
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Hingol National Park, the largest national park of Pakistan comprises 640 square miles that is home to a number of wildlife species listed as rare, vulnerable or threatened. The species include marine estuarine and terrestrial animals, including the marsh crocodile, green turtle, houbara bustard, two varieties of pelicans, plumbeous dolphin, Sindh ibex, urial, chinkara gazelle, pangolin, leopard, and some usual and seasonal visitors.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjACIzaI7EQuyP3lqaHrGoVCvqwhmwBKiN6Ct-UqUaOBEaUchaJZzW7iQcmD0utPb5EUXZ1wofU5WfYeBpJIUoRDn6s9ZW2lC2vW4dl8ZAryLS4WrGMhfsg03gL4WPVBYnvoomx4S24J8kS/s1600/Hingol2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjACIzaI7EQuyP3lqaHrGoVCvqwhmwBKiN6Ct-UqUaOBEaUchaJZzW7iQcmD0utPb5EUXZ1wofU5WfYeBpJIUoRDn6s9ZW2lC2vW4dl8ZAryLS4WrGMhfsg03gL4WPVBYnvoomx4S24J8kS/s400/Hingol2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Adult male ibex</td></tr>
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The presence of Hinglaj Mata, an avatar of Durga, is in a cave nestled between Kirthar Hills, on the banks of the river Hingol. The sacred site is taken care of by the devotees of Devi, who are very friendly and welcoming of all visitors. Since the site has restricted access and is a haven for pilgrims, even wildlife seems to find it a safe house.<br />
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Walking around the premises of the temple can be a delight for a bird-watcher as one can spot feral pigeons, plovers, black bittern, long-billed pipit, brown-necked raven, plovers, and bulbuls, etc. If one has a keen eye, it’s possible to spot a few reptiles, including the Indian fringe-fingered lizard and the sand-swimmer. Though the wildlife department does not report sighting snakes in the area, temple devotees speak of their presence due to the abundance of mongoose in the canyon. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyR2X7bVYPsuFPiSN_KAJDYFzk50y04cTgJQ0lh9eykDtZo4yMpIe3PsofAaRF91dMpsjYbWCb9IfBmlR3e08RdCKmhRhVrr5s43w1lEQ-rBupNs1UCv20KN-nowIuwB8Kz81HUhMjspTH/s1600/Hingol3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyR2X7bVYPsuFPiSN_KAJDYFzk50y04cTgJQ0lh9eykDtZo4yMpIe3PsofAaRF91dMpsjYbWCb9IfBmlR3e08RdCKmhRhVrr5s43w1lEQ-rBupNs1UCv20KN-nowIuwB8Kz81HUhMjspTH/s200/Hingol3.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>
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“We have seen snakes and mongoose both. We know mongoose and snakes are bitter enemies, but these two live in the same habitat,” one of the lady devotees of Nani Mandir said on a recent visit.</div>
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Another highlight of the visit is the Sindh Ibex or Turkman wild goat that abounds the anticline Kirthar Mountains in and around the temple premises. These stocky goats have thick-set bodies and strong limbs and hooves which enable them to climb up and down the almost upright hills.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjACIzaI7EQuyP3lqaHrGoVCvqwhmwBKiN6Ct-UqUaOBEaUchaJZzW7iQcmD0utPb5EUXZ1wofU5WfYeBpJIUoRDn6s9ZW2lC2vW4dl8ZAryLS4WrGMhfsg03gL4WPVBYnvoomx4S24J8kS/s1600/Hingol2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><br /></a>
However, the fate of this natural habitat for many of the protected wildlife species, including the natural heritage of the province has been put on stake by the Balochistan government, as well as Pakistan’s Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO).</div>
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In a conversation with an official, it was revealed that the 9,000 acres (14.06 square miles) of land allotted to SUPARCO would be used for research purposes (probably launching satellites). The land, owned by the Forest Department was handed over under the Balochistan Protection and Preservation of Forest and Wildlife (Amendment) Bill 2015, passed by the Balochistan Assembly on November 9, 2015.</div>
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SUPARCO already owned an area <a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/203614/clarification" target="_blank">Ras Malan in Hingol National Park</a>, which it said was dedicated for developing indigenous Polar Satellites under the National Satellite Development Programme. The space commission claimed the area would be better preserved as activities would be restricted.</div>
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Laying claim to protected areas by the sensitive agencies is not a new phenomenon in Pakistan. In 2006, Pakistan Air Force as well had applied for 23,000 acres of land in the protected nature reserve. </div>
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It must be mentioned here that earlier, PAF not only acquired land in Maslakh Wildlife Sanctuary, Pishin, established in 1968, but also managed to wipe out the protected urial and chinkara from the sanctuary.</div>
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Same was the fate of Khadeji Falls, which is about an hour away from Karachi. A family who tried to visit the site in 2008 were told by uniformed men to not get any closer or else they would be shot.</div>
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Andaleebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15467453985279576728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-611004225027751946.post-16442605162622173242016-07-09T13:20:00.000-07:002016-07-09T13:20:27.269-07:00State funeral or Edhi's final humiliation?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Abdul Sattar Edhi is the only man who consistently stood up for the poor throughout the history of Pakistan. He didn’t shy away from burying the dead, no matter what their political, religious, or sectarian affiliation. He was the man, who didn’t put a cloth to his nose while carrying a putrefied body taken out of an open manhole. He was the true revolutionary in the face of the feudal-military-capitalist trio. And the same trio, that threatened him for his entire life and work, and for filling the gap left by the failed ideas of the multiple military and feudal dictatorships, humiliated him in death by hijacking his funeral and only making it about the corrupt and the puppets in the power corridor.<div>
<br />The ruling elite of this country is only good at one thing, and that is depriving the majority of their right to live with dignity. Today, they proved it further by not just depriving the poor masses, who loved Edhi sahib, of performing his last rights, but also by insulting Edhi sahib himself who was never on the side of the VVIP culture. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Edhi sahib's funeral congregation at the National Stadium Karachi on July 9, 2016<br /></td></tr>
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The divide between the poor and rich was starkly pronounced on this tragedy.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Only men in uniform are visible in the front row at the funeral</td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: center;">The venue of the funeral was changed from Memon Masjid on MA Jinnah Road, a highly accessible area via most bus routes for all and sundry to the National Stadium amid ‘tight security’. The man who was threatened by the ISI’s notorious Hameed Gul and Taliban Khan, the man who travelled mostly in dilapidated Suzuki Bolan ambulances, the man who picked bodies amid deadly riots in Karachi and provided funerals for the unclaimed, was given a funeral by his tormentors. </span></div>
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<br style="text-align: center;" /><span style="text-align: center;">Women too were barred from Edhi sahib’s funeral, who prayed shoulder to shoulder with us, instead of the mullah prescribed step ahead.</span><br style="text-align: center;" /><br style="text-align: center;" /><span style="text-align: center;">Now there will be disclaimers and those who worship the armed forces will come out in defense of the hijacking. They will call it a well deserved state funeral and protocol. But to set the record straight, the protocol was not for Edhi sahib. It was for the ‘General’ and the ones responsible for every tragedy that befalls this country. It was for those people who left Edhi sahib no choice, but to continue being a philanthropist amongst greedy capitalists, and men with weapons and beards.</span><br style="text-align: center;" /><br style="text-align: center;" /><span style="text-align: center;">After all, the men in boots carried away our beloved Edhi the way Hameed Gul had threatened in 2011.</span></div>
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Andaleebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15467453985279576728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-611004225027751946.post-70280845269554817982016-05-19T07:21:00.002-07:002016-05-19T08:37:53.566-07:00Domestic violence is an exaggeration<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
When I mentioned the recent article on Dawn.com ‘<a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1250897/these-women-stayed-in-abusive-marriages-because-pakistan-failed-them">These women stayed in abusive marriages because Pakistan failed them</a>’ and quoted HRCP for saying 90% women face some form of domestic violence, I was told it doesn't happen this much because:<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li><b>nobody in this room beats their wife: </b>This makes sense to all those who feel they are being held responsible for something they did not do. Violence against women should not be mentioned to keep the fragile egos of such people intact.</li>
<li><b>they've never seen it happen: </b>Of course if you have never seen a woman
getting a public beating, it means it cannot even happen in the privacy of her
room. It simply means crazy feminists are making up things because they are
PMSing.</li>
<li><b>I have never seen it happen and I cannot believe what I have not seen: </b>I should only believe what I see. I can only talk about domestic violence if I see 10 women being beaten on the road daily. </li>
<li><b>I am not a domestic violence victim myself:</b> If I have not experienced it, other women have not experienced it either. I have to be a domestic violence victim myself or at least my mother has to be one for me to actually believe there is such a thing as widespread domestic violence.</li>
<li><b>women abuse women more than men:</b> Men cannot be as aggressive as women, so
of course it is the women who are beating the shit out of other women and the
innocent men are getting blamed just because feminists are misandrists.</li>
<li><b>yelling is not abuse because the woman yells back too: </b>If a woman can yell back she is not a victim and should not be considered abused. The only victims are those who can take it quietly.</li>
<li><b>even men cannot lodge an FIR in this country so it’s not a gender issue: </b>It is not just the women who cannot access justice, men cannot access justice either and so it means women are not facing domestic violence.</li>
<li><b>90% men in this country cannot be abusive: </b>It is impossible to comprehend that such a large male population can be aggressive. If my friends don't beat their wives, domestic violence is a myth.</li>
<li><b>it’s not an urban issue: </b>It may happen a bit in the rural areas, but urban women like my wife and my sisters are very empowered and do not face this issue.</li>
<li><b>it’s not an Urdu speaking issue:</b> Punjabis and Siraikis have a culture to beat their womenfolk, whereas Pathans sell their daughters and can kill them whenever they feel their women have dishonoured them. </li>
<li><b>there are 20 women in their acquaintance and only one has ever told of abuse: </b>If a majority of women are not talking about being abused, it is not happening. Stop being a feminazi. </li>
<li><b>it is an exaggeration by HRCP: </b>HRCP is anti-Pakistan and so it highlights all the negative things about this country. </li>
<li><b>HRCP is headed by Asma Jahangir who is an abusive woman: </b>If Asma Jahangir can use abusive language, other women can too and it means they are all lying about domestic violence happening at such a massive scale.</li>
<li><b>children are abused more: </b>Talk about other issues.</li>
<li><b>men are also abused: </b>Make a hashtag #ViolenceAgainstHumans.</li>
<li><b>our wives abuse us: </b>Women abuse as well, so it makes things equal.</li>
<li><b>shouting or yelling is normal discussion not abuse: </b>This is how we talk now because women no longer have patience the way they are supposed to have. </li>
<li>w<b>omen are empowered in cities: </b>Rural women are insignificant and can be ignored, it is the urban women who matter.</li>
<li><b>women are not as powerless as feminists want us to believe: </b>Everything the feminists tell us is a lie, women are not considered The Second Sex.</li>
<li><b>women beat back men too: </b>Some women beat back men and so women are not victims.</li>
<li><b>they heard a neighbour crying when his two wives were beating him: </b>Algebra is wonderful. If the same number of men are being abused by women, it means nobody is a victim.</li>
<li><b>Dawn.com is not credible: </b>Talking about domestic violence means one likes lies and sensationalism. </li>
<li><b>women have a habit to exaggerate: </b>Women are inferior mentally and physically and like to seek attention which is why domestic violence has been created by feminists to remain relevant.</li>
</ol>
Violence against women is a reality that is often shrugged off even in well-educated circles. Mostly people want one to cite statistics and numbers to prove that it happens as much as ‘feminists’ say it happens. And when the numbers are quoted, most people dismiss them by saying they are fuzzed or unrealistic. If that doesn’t shut the feminists up, there are always a million other topics that are more worthy of attention and discussion compared to the silly, stupid, abusive women who have nothing better to do but complain.<br />
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Andaleebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15467453985279576728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-611004225027751946.post-41192862949488107262016-04-28T07:45:00.000-07:002016-04-28T07:45:31.842-07:00‘Piercing Silence’ amid hidden facets<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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KARACHI: Keeping true to its commitment of bringing together different artistic narratives and allowing dialogue between cultural perspectives, Artchowk The Gallery inaugurated a solo exhibition ‘Piercing Silence’ by Fraz Mateen on Monday.</div>
The exhibition revolves around existentialism, as the artist keeps trying to find a true identity. Fraz Mateen is a sculptor, who works with latex, wood, fibreglass, terracotta, marble, stone and paper, using processes like moulding and casting, welding, carving and wood construction.<br />Perhaps the diversity of materials, mediums and methodologies Fraz employs, is also a manifestation of the big question of his collective identity crises. Even the title of all his artworks is ‘ID’ along with a number, explaining his concept aptly.<br />The multiple IDs that he has sculpted are mostly carved on paper, depicting the numerous faces we all posses on different occasions, in diverse environments.<div>
An art piece titled ‘My Life in Heavy Metal’ - carving on paper – is a strong conceptual 3D of the multifacetedness of a person, being born in a particular setting, at a given time.<br />Or as in the artist’s words, “One changes identities depending on which group of people one is with.”<br />When Fraz was asked about his favourite piece, a tricky question for a creative individual, he took a while to say ‘ID-4’, which is also a carving on paper, measuring 10.25 x 7 x 7.5 inches. The sculpture is a head lying on a telephone directory from 2007, as if listening to the secrets it carries. “We use a directory to search for people, places and their contacts,” he said, while talking about how, the place where one was born affects their character development.<br />Fraz speaks about how we correlate each of our identities to synchronise. Mentioning his own behaviour at work and home he states that although it is a necessary act, the question about ‘one true identity’ is left hanging in the air.<br />The society, or environment shapes who we are in even a fraction of a moment. Fraz said, “A force is asserting a collective identity and an individual has to compromise at times to come to terms with it. This compromise leads to a silence, which is piercingly present everywhere.”<br />The title of the exhibition, ‘Piercing Silence’ and Fraz’s works remind of ‘Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin’, an action video game developed and published by Konami, a Japanese developer and publisher of numerous toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets, video games, as well as health and physical fitness clubs in Japan.</div>
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Incidentally or otherwise, ‘Piercing Silence’ is a song composed by Michiru Yamane for Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. And though Fraz is not a gamer, his work, dealing with identities is very close to that of 3D role-playing games, where one keeps changing their roles and characters.<br />“I find these collective or group identities very interesting and how an individual has to manage and juggle these. As much as these are necessary for coexistence, they also create a drawback and that same individual at the end of the day is left wondering, which is his true identity? Maybe this is a process of self-discovery and a process of carving a true identity among different ones,” claims his statement.<br />Speaking of carving, Abdullah Qamar of Dhaba Art Movement considers Fraz’s work and skill exceptionally sensitive. “He has a good grip, and the finishing has been handled very properly. Fraz understands the mediums very well, and his compositions are brilliantly made.”<br />Abdullah said he was impressed with the way the artist turned paper into sculpture. “When we think of paper, we think in two dimensions, but Fraz has given paper a third dimension. Paper cannot be chiselled,” said Abdullah, while relating that Fraz uses surgical and cobbler’s tools to carve the basic form, and later uses a mini-grinder for finishing.<br />The artist completed his Diploma in Fine Arts from Karachi School of Art in 2006, majoring in Sculpture. He has displayed his work at Karachi School of Art Thesis Display and Emerging Talent at VM Art Gallery in 2006, as well as at Faculty Art 3 at IVS in 2008.<br />The exhibition will continue until December 10.</div>
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Published in Daily Times in November 2013. </div>
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Andaleebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15467453985279576728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-611004225027751946.post-60890688048634767042016-04-28T05:49:00.000-07:002016-04-28T05:49:12.571-07:00Daily wage earners get no respite<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Published in Daily Times in 2010<br /><br />KARACHI: The city relapsed into ethnic rioting for the second time within a month, making many daily wage earners to stay at home and lose their meagre savings.<br />Ishaq, 28, a pushcart vendor selling vegetables in PECHS, who hails from Punjab, while explaining his troubles said, “I have to send money back home to my parents, therefore even when the city situation is tense, I am on the road. I hope it remains peaceful or I would have to take a loan to survive this month.”<br />Muhammad Zahir who hails from District Shangla, Swat and is a taxi driver living in Manghopir said, “I have not worked for the last two days, and all the savings I had, which were only Rs 2,000, were spent. So, I decided to bring my taxi on the road even on a Sunday.”<br />Zahir usually stays at home on a Sunday to spend time with his family, but whenever the city situation is tense and he misses a day or two of work, he drives his taxi on Sundays to cover up for the losses.<br />“I want to get home as soon as possible as it is still not too safe yet,” he added.<br />While he spoke with this scribe his father called him twice on his mobile phone to make sure of his safety, just like Zahir, who was concerned about the safety of his children amid the ethnic violence in the city.<br />But both Zahir and Ishaq are not just worried about making their ends meet in Karachi, they are also concerned about their relatives back home in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab, who are facing the countries worst flood in history.<br />Zahir said, “I have been trying to call my cousins in Swat for at least four days, but I cannot reach them. Our village is near the Tarbela Dam and most of the elderly in my family members live in the village.”<br />Similarly, Ruby, 22, daughter of an illegal Bengladeshi, is one of the many unregistered house-helps who remain unheard and unseen despite their significant contribution to the workforce.<br />She said, “I only earn Rs 3,500 a month for working in three houses and for the days I am unable to work for whatever reason, I don’t get paid by one of my employees. For me every penny counts because I contribute to the household income with my mother, who earns Rs 6,000. After paying for the rent and our needs we are not left with much to spare.”<br />The deteriorating city situation is perhaps bothersome for the office workers, but for the daily wagers it is far worse.<br />For Gul Zaman, a Pakhtun fruit vendor in Nazimabad, who hails from Quetta, every time an ethnic riot breaks out, the best bet, is to leave the city.<br />“I am scared for my life when hooligans start prowling the streets to target whoever they please, especially us Pathans, so I leave for my native place when the situation goes bad, and don’t return until some semblance of normalcy is resumed,” said Zaman.</div>
Andaleebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15467453985279576728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-611004225027751946.post-5556555517424330052016-04-28T05:45:00.001-07:002016-04-28T05:47:48.999-07:00More squatter settlements in city following intensification?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Published in Daily Times on July 5, 2010<br />
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KARACHI: The global meltdown in the real estate sector and the apparent bubble-burst in the fixed-asset investment sector first struck down the United States, giving way to a global recession that crumbled Dubai, and now experts also point towards Beijing as the next victim.<br />
However, in Karachi, instead of taking a lesson from what the giants have already suffered, the government is furthering the plan for building high-density zones to attract foreign investors and develop the skyline.<br />
There are already many projects under way in different parts of the city, including Centre Point near DHA Phase VII Extension, IT Tower at University Road, Sofitel Tower and Emerald Tower in Clifton, and the in-process and most gigantic of all of them, the Karachi Port Trust's mixed-use 78-storey giant.<br />
With such development already under way, the Sindh government has also suddenly started taking swift measures to support the construction industry, and perhaps make a few quick bucks.<br />
Several actions have been undertaken by the government including the Sindh High Density Development Board Bill No 14 of 2010.<br />
Also, the recently announced anti-encroachment drive is perhaps connected to the same bill, paving way for the construction of high-rises on plots owned by the influential.<br />
However, apart from the economic aspect, it would be relevant to question the sanity of the intensification, looking at the already chocked infrastructure, environmental degradation, crime rate and terrorism.<br />
It remains to be seen how much the government and the private sector is able to control the existing problems while creating new ones with the giant commercial hubs, which would increase power outages, congestion and especially the deficiency in the housing sector.<br />
Since the time of partition and later during the rapid industrialisation, the city saw many people migrating from the rural or less-developed areas to the urban centres, looking for work as watchmen, drivers, cooks, domestic help, gardeners, lift operators and so on.<br />
Architect Nazar Rizvi, a University of Karachi graduate, said, "The government made the same mistake previously during industrialisation. North Karachi Industrial Area, Korangi and SITE labourers and workers were given an option to settle in Khuda ki Basti, forcing people to live in katchi abadis as commuting was time consuming as well as a drain on the household income."<br />
Although the situation in Nooriabad has been better comparatively, it is far from perfect, he added. <br />
According to reports, mass migration and unavailability of affordable housing has always been one of the major problems faced by the working class immigrants who came to the city in search of livelihood; hence, the city acquired a plethora of squatter settlements that the land mafia established for assisting them. As a result, around 50 percent of the city's population live in katchi abadis.<br />
An architect wishing to remain anonymous, said, "Looking at the current trend for building commercial hubs with high-end users in mind, it would not be wrong to assume that once again, the city would be thronged by desperate workers looking for a place to call home. Moreover, the chances of their exploitation by the land grabbers are high."<br />
She also said insufficient energy production was also a major aspect to be kept in view of the proposed rapid intensification, which would ultimately be a huge burden on the economy.<br />
Massive construction of new high-rise commercial hubs in the city would only create a temporary influx of investments, which would later serve to be a bubble-burst that the dilapidated economy of the city would be unable to withstand, she added.<br />
Moreover, the construction industry in the city is still not capable to build high-rises, which would prompt the government to import technology, requiring an exorbitant cost of investment, resultantly increasing the final open-market rent of the space that, hampered by the constantly deteriorating law and order situation of the city, cannot be a positive attraction for foreign investments anyway.</div>
Andaleebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15467453985279576728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-611004225027751946.post-36514092509925786502016-04-18T06:29:00.000-07:002016-04-18T06:29:06.116-07:00Pads are not a luxury<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Students of Beaconhouse National University recently protested against the stigma attached with menstruation and used one of the accessories needed by women in ‘those days’. They stuck sanitary pads on the walls of the institution to talk about something that is hidden behind a lot of negative mythology, especially in our part of the world. </div>
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The students dared to talk of the unaesthetic biological process that is directly connected to fertility, something without which the world cannot move forward. No new brilliant brains will be born, no new astronauts made or engineers or doctors if this process did not exist. At least! not yet. But still, unlike the Neolithic people of Çatalhöyük, we chide those who bleed once a month. <br />
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We can say in religion that under a mother’s feet is the way to paradise, but we cannot really wrap our heads around the process which enables her to bring that paradise to life. We simply hate menstruating women, but we also hate those who are beyond that age and hence of no benefit to men who want to continue spreading their seeds, whether they are needed or not. We can easily ‘bitch’ about them when we feel like, especially if we have a bloated male ego.<br />
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So it is not a wonder that Shaan Taseer was very upset with the BNU students. Using his position of power, Taseer spoke of the students as privileged who did not know the situation, as a very small percentage of women in Pakistan uses pads.<br />
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In his haste to judge women, especially on their class, Shaan Taseer forgot his own privilege, which was pointed out by a journalist. That did not sit too well with the spoiled brat of the late Taseer and he resorted to further insults to her as a woman, as a feminist, and as a ‘guttersnipe’.<br />
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Shaan Taseer forgot that being a male, and that too a privileged one, born to a family known for having an extravagant lifestyle and stealing wages of its workers, he was treading on soft ground. He also forgot that being male he does not menstruate and cannot really tell what a woman goes through or feels when she is told ‘not to touch the Quran’ or ‘to not even think of being an imam at a mosque because of being filthy’. <br />
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He does not know how a woman panics if her shirt is stained because she sat for too long or when she forgot her ‘date’. Shaan Taseer apparently does not even know that menstruating is beyond class, caste, or color. Perhaps he is too busy wallowing in his sorrows about his stolen heritage and drowning in foreign booze. <br />
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Half the humans of this world menstruate, have menstruated or will menstruate some day. So the protest by the BNU students was very much valid and very much needed. The ill comments made by Shaan Taseer were neither needed nor welcome.<br />
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The BNU protest or awareness campaign was labeled un-aesthetic and very displeasing by the bourgeois, who said 'there are aesthetic ways' of doing so. Perhaps wrapping those pads up in brown paper bags would have pleased their aesthetics. Or maybe never even mentioning the word pad could have done the trick.<br />
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The ignorance is very striking. Pads are not a luxury, but a necessity. Using branded pads might be a matter of class, but not using homemade pads or some other form of absorbent, including homemade tampons. For almost all the women, Always or Stayfree pads might be considered a ‘luxury item’ due to the cost, which shouldn’t be the case. A woman living in the village, who is turning old rags into a pad, an urban woman who cannot afford pads and is using cotton and cloth, both need access to sanitary pads. (A woman whose salary has not been paid needs money to buy pads and wishes that money was not being squandered by her employer on booze and foreign trips).<br />
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If Shaan Taseer had said that a very small percentage of women in Pakistan have access to branded and hygienic pads, it would have made sense. If he had said having access to sanitary pads should not be a matter of privilege, his comment would have been appreciated. Instead of attacking the women who disagreed and the women who protested, had he simply said pads should not be a luxury item, it would have been different.<br />
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Sadly, he did not say any of those things and simply used derogatory language and continued to attack whoever tried to intervene or show him the privilege mirror.<br />
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And like in all debates, when a privileged male takes a negative stand on something, there are always people who want to come to the rescue of the shehri baboo. In this case the descendent of a man who is considered a martyr by the liberals of this country. Who, we are told was being defended on stealing the wages of Daily Times workers by his son.<br />
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.....and they said daagh to achay hotay hein! </div>
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Andaleebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15467453985279576728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-611004225027751946.post-51148971816659704202016-04-07T14:19:00.002-07:002016-04-07T14:25:51.874-07:00Aasia died despite a burka<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
She had always lived her life cautiously. The caution began when as a child, her parents did not have enough money to buy her a good brand of watercolours. She persevered with the cheaper one. The colours were still pretty and bright, what if the quality was not the same. And anyway they say it’s not about the tools, but the skills.<br />
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Life went on and SLRs turned to DSLRs and those too were out of her range. She lived on. Wanting more out of a picture than what the other person desired. And the picture kept on getting blurred for lack of money. Pictures were blurred, life was dull in cheap paint, and without going to an expensive school, earning good money was out of question.<br />
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"Isn't life unfair," she asked Laila, her elder sister. Her friend recently bought a high end professional camera and she had to make do with a point and shoot. <br />
Laila only smiled. Being the older one, she was more accustomed to accepting defeat when it came to affordability of things and life. Pads were expensive and old cloth, even if it caused infection was far cheaper, she thought.<br />
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"Why don't you sell some of your work and buy a better camera Naina?" she asked her little sister. Naina was 20 now, not little by any standards. She had bloomed into a beautiful woman, and so many who came from the marriage market to judge Laila as a potential mate for their sons, preferred Naina.<br />
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"Baji, but it is still not fair that Nilofer can buy whatever she wants and whenever she likes. Abba could have worked harder," Naina said licking off the final speck of chocolate from the wrapper. "I know Nilo's father is in the same office as Abba, but they have a bigger house and so many people who help her mother in the house. She doesn't have to do the cooking and cleaning like Amma does. And Nilo never has to help with anything in the house, it is always the maids, chef, and drivers."<br />
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Laila smiled her patient smile. She knew the works of Nilofer's father. If he had a chance, he may even sell his daughter to the highest bidder and throw in his wife as a bonus. Did he not pimp his wife out to the boss to get an extension before his retirement?<br />
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In this little world of theirs, life was such. The black hearted lived a better life. It was fate, maybe karma, or perhaps just god.<br />
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"Abba is too old to work now Naina, maybe when you find a very good job, you can buy all the things you have ever wanted," she told the younger one.<br />
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Jobs in the market were hard to find. As a good looking woman, she often received offers of a different kind when her resume reached the desk of a Seth looking for some receptionist or secretary. May they rot in hell, she thought to herself before turning back to her book. <br />
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Naina has to be ignored a bit. She will learn, as I did, she thought to herself as she moved on to the next chapter. But Naina had other thoughts. She snuggled up to Laila and whispered if she knows the boy who lived in house number 38.<br />
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"His eyes follow me and it is very scary," she whispered to Laila, who almost jumped out of her skin.<br />
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"You did not talk to him, did you? Did he ask for your phone number? Don't accept his request on Facebook if he sends one. And don't ever send a picture to him on WhatsApp," the agitated sister said.<br />
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These men are lechers; he couldn't have a chance with me so now he is trying for my little sister. She thought of teaching such men a lesson. <br />
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In her mind she had punished the man several times. From complaining to his mother to chopping his genitals off. None of this will work though. She thought miserably. Naina needs to be protected, and she will have to do that. Their mother was too inspired by the resident alima of their neighbourhood to do much. At the most she will stop Naina from going to the university and make her do all the housework as punishment for giving the opportunity to men.<br />
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Laila did try complaining to her mother about the man from house number 38, and it did not work out well. She recalled the conversation.<br />
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"Amma, aunty Farhat's son stares at me a lot." And that was the end of her.<br />
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"Junaid is such a nice boy. He can never do that. Maybe if you wore a burqa, such things won't happen with you. Farhat's daughter never has a problem even though she goes in public buses to the university. Only girls who do not wear a burka face this problem. Had Zarina maasi (maid) ever complained of harassment?" the pious mother asked. Zarina was the only maid they had ever been able to afford. A beautiful woman of 40 years with pale eyes and dark-black curls. She used to wear a black burka and came from the nearby katchi abadi.<br />
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Laila could not help but think of the often black and blue Zarina. Once she came with a purple eye shedding tears of blood. The maid always said it was her fate. “It is the destiny of the woman to be a subordinate. That is how god ordained it. If this did not happen, we will all go to hell; have you not heard the prophet (pbuh) saw mostly women in hell? For, it is in our nature to be sinful,” Zarina maasi declared, perhaps even happily that her beatings were a way to avoid hell.<br />
<br />
What was her story, Laila wondered, forgetting all about her own stories of poverty and abuse. She remembered Zulekha, Zarina’s daughter, who often came with the mother and played with her. She stayed until it was time for the duo to go home.<br />
<br />
Zulekha and Laila were the same age. Laila went to school, whereas Zulekha went to a madrasa. She was not even allowed to visit them once she was nine years old, and it all ended abruptly.<br />
<br />
“Are you mad? Why will I add him on Facebook or send a picture on WhatsApp? He did ask for my phone number but I ran away,” Naina looked at her elder sister. She was much smarter than Laila, who was an introvert and hardly shared much. Naina knew Laila was harassed by aunty Farhat’s son, even though she never shared with her.<br />
<br />
“I know he is not a nice man Laila, he bothers every other girl in the neighbourhood. Remember Aasia? She committed suicide because of him. Junaid told her he will marry her, but he never did. He was only playing with her. Aunty Farhat only wanted a burka clad daughter-in-law and Aasia did start wearing a burka to please her,” Naina disclosed to her ever quiet older sister, whose eyes began shimmering at the tragedy.<br />
<br />
“Do you really think Naina that a burka will help us be safe from these eyes?” Laila asked thoughtfully.<br />
<br />
“No, not ever, or Aasia would be still alive,” Naina said.<br />
<br />
“But was she not already tainted?” Laila inquired.<br />
<br />
“No Laila aapi, nobody gets tainted without someone tainting them, burka or no burka,” Naina said forcefully before storming out of the room in anger.<br />
<br />
Naina had seen Zarina maasi the other day in the market. A shopkeeper was gesturing with his crotch at the burka-clad-old Zarina when she passed by his shop.<br />
<br />
“How does wearing a burka change any of that,” she had thought.<br />
<br /><br /><b>Zulekha's story:</b> <a href="http://andaleeb-rizvi.blogspot.com/2012/09/zulekha-wore-burka.html">http://andaleeb-rizvi.blogspot.com/2012/09/zulekha-wore-burka.html</a></div>
Andaleebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15467453985279576728noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-611004225027751946.post-30318187078133142252016-04-07T08:29:00.002-07:002016-04-07T08:34:52.816-07:00The potholes and the missing covers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
I counted at least 4-5
open manholes between Nagan Chowrangi and Centrum on the main road the other day. The
remaining 14 or so, and I am sure I missed many, were either too low below the
surface that a car or the plenty of rickshaws on the road could fall in or too
high that a new Mira could get its rear misaligned.<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
It was in one such manhole
that a rickshaw fell in today. The driver and passenger both suffered minor
injuries.<br />
<br />
Immediately some bikers stopped to help the rickshaw driver with
getting the front wheel out of the manhole so the traffic could continue
smoothly. The expertise with
which the matter was handled showed how often such accidents occur on the roads
of this megalopolis of more than 20 million residents.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
This reminded me of
an incident in July last year when the rickshaw I was travelling in hit a
pothole on Nishter Road and broke its front wheel. Luckily the rickshaw did not
topple and the driver and I both survived with a few minor bruises. After the accident
people just picked up the rickshaw and parked it on the roadside in front of
the Caltex petrol pump.<br />
<br />
At that time too I observed people simply went about
their business as fast as the accident happened. Some even said ‘ye to yahan
roz hota hai, ye garha bara khatarnak hai’ (this happens daily at this spot…this
pothole is very dangerous).<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
And this is
routine.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Those who travel on
the streets of Karachi are no strangers to the ailments of this city. From open
manholes to overflowing sewers, too many accidents to signal free corridors,
and lack of public transport to the dangerous qingqi (chingchi) rickshaws, we’ve
seen all.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
With no public transit
system one has no option but to avail the dilapidated buses, occasionally
sighted green buses, qingqis or rickshaws – taxis are only available outside
the emergency of public and private hospitals where they charge exorbitant
amounts to transport patients. But these options become more dangerous with the
horrible road conditions.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
On January 5, 2016,
just five days into the new year, Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah woke up to
a campaign run by a Pakistan-Tehreek-e-Insaf supporter Alamgir Khan asking to
fix the uncovered manholes of the biggest metropolitan city of Pakistan. The
esteemed CM ordered the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) to #fixit. However,
his directives held no sway over the KMC that has forever been complaining
about lack of funds to even fuel their dumpers.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK-qE3cL4orjVD_4e4o-X6lEJZ_k2LMnXZ7AKTgR6dooS09TCyqh_n98A4JDDMSYvxhMUwIx8Ezi2355VLLWdNze2wOYOigyUcHDg8mgO-H7SnqmSjao5E0tq7yif1HmUK5IVQIOTvElE8/s1600/fix-it.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK-qE3cL4orjVD_4e4o-X6lEJZ_k2LMnXZ7AKTgR6dooS09TCyqh_n98A4JDDMSYvxhMUwIx8Ezi2355VLLWdNze2wOYOigyUcHDg8mgO-H7SnqmSjao5E0tq7yif1HmUK5IVQIOTvElE8/s320/fix-it.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
So, on February 25,
2016, Khan attempted to dump the garbage he collected in front of the CM House,
for which he was arrested. Though the campaigner was later released, his idea
of stencilling the CM’s head next to manholes garnered him a lot of support, maybe even respect.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
This support was
not because people just thought the CM’s head looks funny next to a gutter
filled with filth, but because the public is genuinely unhappy about the road
conditions. Perhaps unhappy is too small a word to convey the public annoyance
over the lack of infrastructure maintenance.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Karachi has lived
without a local government for close to eight years now. The roads and bridges that
were so proudly laid out by Mustafa Kamal now lie in horrible conditions. Expansion
joints on each bridge have separated and one can imagine what ox-cart rides in Khairpur
and other dilapidated PPP constituencies must be like.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Potholes and broken
roads are only being filled and carpeted where a new multi-story projects are under way. But the quality is so poor that the roads go bad faster than the time
it took to get them fixed. The cherry on top is the the massive miscommunication among the public
departments. They consistently forget to do all their works
while a road lies dug up, messing up the routines of commuters and pedestrians again and again.<br />
<br />
If things remain the same, it won't be long before the Sindh CM's face becomes a regular feature next to all uncovered manholes.</div>
</div>
Andaleebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15467453985279576728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-611004225027751946.post-15687690285532440932016-02-10T05:20:00.000-08:002016-02-10T05:20:27.232-08:00Unending despair: women's access versus control over finances<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Globally, women are demanding for equal wages compared to men, but in Pakistan, even if a woman is earning an equal wage, her right to her own income is mostly not recognised. At the most she is gifted a gold or silver trinket, which too is either pawned or sold in the market if the man requires money at any stage.<br />But if she is the wife of a landless farmer, her situation is worse. Her existence is merely to assist her husband who works for a feudal on a farm where he is indentured along with his whole family, including women and children. These women and children merely add to the number of hands the head of the household has- their wages and power is zilch.<br />Though financial independence varies between rural and urban women as well as educated, less educated and illiterate women. Workforce participation is the highest among women with no education or those who have completed secondary school, whereas women with primary school education remain the least employed.<br />Perhaps this is one reason that participation of women in agriculture is higher compared to the other sectors. In Sindh, where the feudal system is still present on a larger scale, women have no bargaining power, whereas in Punjab, where landholdings have been diluted, mostly due to inheritance laws, there is a bit of room to bargain for women. Nevertheless, women do not get to have their fair share in the produce in any case; and on top of that, are held back by social obligations, including the burden of being the 'family honour'.<br />Hanging onto this delicate thread called ‘honour’, many women are continuously deprived of their right to refuse to work for a particular landlord, often at the risk of abuse and even rape. Worst is the situation of women who are part of the 1.7 million bonded labourers.<br />Many peasants are paid with a share in the crop produce, with a minimal monetary compensation, which can be as low as Rs5 per 40 kilogram of sugarcane, or Rs5 plus three kilogram of tomatoes for a day’s worth of picking tomatoes at a local landlord’s farm.<br />Experts have claimed countless of times that this situation can be mitigated via land reforms and distribution.<br />In March this year, Sindh government has reportedly distributed 55,439 acres of land among 6,000 people in 17 districts, which included 4,000 women and 1,200 men.<br />However, there are cases where the Sindh government allotted land to some women farmers, who later were stuck amid court cases brought against them by landlords who claim the allotted land as their property. This disparity, despite that women contribute close to 60 per cent in the rural agricultural economy, is one of the major reasons of rural to urban migration, which has its own downsides within the urban development sector. Nevertheless, urbanisation has its positives too.<br />With rapid urbanisation, participation of women in the workforce is increasing gradually; but again, many women, whether they work in a village or a city, do not necessarily have financial independence.<br />Many women, who have migrated to the cities, work as either home-based workers or domestic help, having no worker rights. Categorised under undocumented economy, their situation is dismal, with women getting Rs10 for a chickankari dress worth Rs3,000 at a flashy retail store; Rs17 a day for peeling 10 kilogram of garlic; or working eight hours a day as a maid at some NGO worker’s home for food (if lucky) and Rs1,200 a month.<br />But from there, it is downhill since the power over these resources is automatically taken over by the male members of a household, making a woman more vulnerable.<br />Though there is a difference between women working in menial jobs, and those in the white-collar sector, the access versus control matter remains.<br />One comes across countless stories of women domestic workers forcefully being relieved of their income by a male member; or stories of women working as teachers, doctors, engineers who have to give up their right to their own earnings due to the manoeuvrings of their partners.<br />Data of women’s workforce participation shows the most disproportionate numbers compared to men, especially in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka. But what is missing in the statistics is the information regarding how many of these women actually have power over the resources they generate or have been bequeathed via inheritance or any other means.<br />Between 2010 and 2012 the World Bank (WB) recorded female workforce participation of the total number of women in Pakistan at 24 per cent, which increased to 25 per cent in 2013, whereas male participation remained stable at 83 per cent throughout the same periods. This means female workforce participation in Pakistan has only been above Afghanistan within the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).<br />Among SAARC countries during the same period, women have made up the lowest percentage of workers in Afghanistan at 15 per cent in 2010 and 16 per cent between 2011 and 2013. India has been slightly ahead of Pakistan with 29 per cent in 2010, 28 per cent in 2011 and 27 per cent in both 2012-13, showing a downward trend. The highest and most stable number of women workers has been recorded in Nepal by the WB at 80 per cent during the same period, followed by Bhutan at 66 per cent between 2010 and 2012, and 67 per cent in 2013. Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, during the same period have remained stable at 57 per cent and 35 per cent respectively. Maldives is at par with Bangladesh and has a little more than double the female participation rate compared to Pakistan with 55 per cent in 2010 and 56 per cent between 2011 and 2013.<br />Though political parties talk of women participation in politics, and NGOs focus on women’s health, education, violence against women, and economic empowerment, the fact remains that financial independence of most women is a distant dream.<br />Economic empowerment of women is a game-changer in a staunchly patriarchal society. One of the most fundamental attack on a woman is deprivation of her financial rights, which is followed by food security, burden of extra manual labour, lack of reproductive rights and, more often than not, psychological battery regarding lack of financial means.<br /><br />Published in The News at: http://e.thenews.com.pk/newsmag/mag/detail_article.asp?id=10513&magId=10#sthash.2vk5s7RY.dpuf</div>
Andaleebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15467453985279576728noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-611004225027751946.post-84914626118383257292015-11-19T07:09:00.002-08:002015-11-19T07:09:19.829-08:00Junaid Jamshed to ISIS - Islamic Corporatocracy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is now a fact that Junaid Jamshed is a misogynist. No amount of selfies and hand holding with Hadiqa Kiani can convince us otherwise. The damage has been done and now he need not make a lot of effort to convince us. We have been reading several calls to boycott
the self proclaimed mullah of the Tableeghi Jamaat and a progeny of Mullah
Tariq Jameel. <o:p></o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">However, in those calls for boycott, people missed out the larger
business interests of these mullahs.</span><br />
<u1:p></u1:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let me digress here a
little. I lived in an average working class neighbourhood of Karachi, not poor,
not too rich. Educated, working class people, living in houses built in the good
old times of 60s and 70s. It was during the 80s and 90s as most of the older
lot was retiring, and their sons transitioning into promising stalwarts of the
corporate world; when all changed very rapidly. One can even say it changed as
soon as the local mosques turned Deobandi with a Salafi hint. Mind it that a
Deobandi might never admit to having a Salafi hint.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The suits, pants and
shirts were switched with longer kameez and shorter shalwars. The clean shaved
men grew beards without the moustache and suddenly the old used cars were
turned into black-shiny corollas and accords. They stopped saying salam to the
Shias and Ahmedis in the mohallah and kept upgrading their houses in leaps and
bounds. No more incremental house building. The money poured in, the old house
was torn and new one built. Where that money came from is a whole different
debate, but remember the 80s and 90s reference.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not just in the
neighbourhood, but in the entire block one could bet without a glimpse that
inside a shiny black corolla would be a moustache-less bearded mullah wearing
his younger brother’s shalwar and older brother’s kameez. Anyway…I digress too
much.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Coming back to Mullah
Junaid Jamshed of the pop band Vital Signs, his many business interests like
JDot, MeatOne, Al Shaheer Corporation Ltd, and celebrity business partners Inzamamul
Haq, Saeed Anwar, and Muhammad Yousaf, we need to understand the idea of mullah
corporatism. It is obviously a fraternity. So there is no room for women except
when invisible in a burqa and niqab...or when helping in damage control stunts via music programmes. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This corporatism or
coporativism is the foundation of Islamic Corporatocracy<span class="apple-converted-space"><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">. </span>From Islamic finance and banking ideas to ‘halal certification’, it is
all about increasing the coffers of this pop mullah generation. </span>There’s another side
to these pop mullahs.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The rogue or let’s say 'astray' of these pop mullahs
wreck havoc in parts of the world under the banners of al Qaeda, Isis, Daesh,
al Shabab, etc. Their militancy is replete with certain killing techniques, psychological
manoeuvres, and media campaigns. Perhaps next they will apply for patenting certain
decapitating techniques and women sex-slave finance and liquidity procedures as
purely ‘Isis style’.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So for these pop mullahs on both sides, women can
either be slaves or consumers of their designer goods.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Though on surface both
these sides show differences in opinion, style, and even ‘a bit’
of ideology, their main aim is the same, increasing the influence of Islam by
hook or by crook. In that, their misogyny, hatred for minorities, attire, and
even language remains the same.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpZ8_knDJFD74Mpxn8Goto541lkajeab_x3KcHEbuPthSjNrSwWyezgo9Arj78xhYuTPc57a9O-MjcuBVR52vQsN-8cL3sA8bydziXHQMyofkKYAvEAqPees9tOuxwcz6yQaj40vinN0XH/s1600/Tableeghi.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpZ8_knDJFD74Mpxn8Goto541lkajeab_x3KcHEbuPthSjNrSwWyezgo9Arj78xhYuTPc57a9O-MjcuBVR52vQsN-8cL3sA8bydziXHQMyofkKYAvEAqPees9tOuxwcz6yQaj40vinN0XH/s320/Tableeghi.bmp" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://pakteahouse.net/2015/08/11/junaid-jamshed-to-isis-islamic-corporatocracy/">http://pakteahouse.net/2015/08/11/junaid-jamshed-to-isis-islamic-corporatocracy/</a><br />
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Andaleebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15467453985279576728noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-611004225027751946.post-84692301377399613152015-11-17T02:13:00.000-08:002015-11-17T03:46:30.392-08:00Where life is not sacred<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Pakistan has lost more than 80,000 people in the war against terror. The country’s top intelligence agencies and the security establishment along with the Saudi-CIA coalition are to be blamed for this. Their not so savvy strategic maneuvers have failed and rather resulted in creating the monsters that now kill left, right and centre. But killings do not have an effect on this region as much as the thought of glory does.<br />
<br />
You can sell the idea of ‘glory in death’ to the people of this region very easily since they grow up on the Greek Hero cult. From teaching children how those who are killed in battle are never really dead to conditioning women into believing they will have a better life in hereafter if they forget they are alive human beings, we thrive on the death of humans, their dreams, aspirations, and thinking ability. Our politics too is played on dead bodies. A better political party has more ‘martyrs’ and not many good living politicians. We have replaced the Greek hero with the word ‘shaheed’ (martyr).<br />
<br />
Death is the other name of our religion. If you are Muslim, you must decide which kind to get the permission to live and then die to get access to the royal suite. If you are not Muslim, forget your basic human right to live, let alone live with dignity. It all boils down to living as a Muslim and dying while trying to make sure others are Muslim too.<br />
<br />
This is the reason why, even though thousands of people are dead in this country, and many continue to lose their lives on a daily basis, we are not bothered. Those who die are either the bad people like Shias, Ahmedis, Christians, or Hindus, or the good people like Deobandis, Salafis, and other Sunnis. The bad people are of course dispensable being sub-human and the good people are the exalted ones, the eternal ones, the immortal shaheeds.<br />
<br />
Lack of respect for the existence of life on earth and desire for the never-seen, never-proven next life is responsible for chaos in most of the countries where the religion of peace is sacrosanct, and Pakistan is no exception. It is why millions of people flee from the regions where this religion is sponsored by the state. But it seems that the roundness of earth is catching up with this escape route as well.<br />
<br />
Fighters of the religion of martyrdom are now making life unsacred even in the bowels of secure zones. They are leaving no place to run. Their desire for glorious death is all consuming. From 80,000 Pakistanis, to 250,000 Syrians, their appetite for blood is insatiable. They want to kill, and will continue to kill unless those who follow the same death cult, do not start loving life on this planet.<br />
<br />
For that, we need a rigorous rehabilitation process, since abandoning the drug of glory will not come easy.<br />
<br />
As a starter, instead of cherry picking, they need to stop reading the parts in their book that sanction death to the infidels, maybe the need is to even eliminate such writings, or add them to the list of redundant verses. Their barbaric literalism needs to be caricatured perhaps a lot more than it is done now. Hopefully though not at the cost of a few more lives in places like the ******* ***** office.</div>
Andaleebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15467453985279576728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-611004225027751946.post-59706252411213241482015-10-29T22:30:00.000-07:002016-02-10T05:32:09.664-08:00The missing bye laws and killer quakes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Last Monday, October 26, 2015 a 7.5 magnitude earthquake hit Badakhshan province of Afghanistan. While the epicentre was in Afghanistan at the depth of more than 200 kilometres, the effects of the earthquake were felt all the way till India. More than 390 people have died in the natural disaster, which triggered several landslides and a glacial lake outburst flood in the northern areas of Pakistan. The highest casualties have been reported from Pakistan with at least 272 dead and 2,123 injured. This is the third major earthquake to hit the South Asian region this year after the May 12, 2015 tremor in Nepal that killed more than 200 which followed the April 25, 2015 earthquake in Nepal that killed more than 9,000 people.<br />Earthquakes are a part of life for people who live on seismic zones. The only problem is that at times, the infrequency of tectonic activity gives people temporary amnesia and they forget to use the age old ‘disaster-resistant’ construction techniques and safety measures their forefathers mastered over millennia. Let’s forget the moral judgements for now, and focus on the scientific causes of earthquakes and how one can actually try to survive through such a catastrophe.<br />It is for the governments to enable people to understand the natural disasters that can befall and why. So the authorities need to conduct early study of geologic deposits, seismic monitoring and create early warning systems as a few of the necessary things to mitigate disasters. The second is to create awareness on safety measures necessary for each disaster.<br />Such measures include fire alarms, fire drills and ‘drop, cover, and hold on’ drills, public awareness campaigns, print and electronic media advertisements for public safety, and educating teachers and children about safety measure. Throughout my schools years, I remember having a fire drill only once, when internationally it is mandatory to have at least one fire drill in an academic year.<br />Installing early warning systems is also important. However, the problem with earthquakes is that they don’t give enough time before striking, unlike cyclones, tidal waves, tsunamis, hurricanes, and bushfires. So, while an early warning system may work to evacuate before a tsunami, hurricane, or cyclone, it would not work in an earthquake because earthquakes strike suddenly, almost always without any warning. <br />Therefore, people living in seismic zones, especially on fault lines must be aware of the looming threat of a simple shake when the earth desires.<br />Mostly, earthquakes do not kill people, buildings do. So it is important that building by-laws incorporate construction techniques that help increase friction in a building, which in turn will increase the time of ‘collapse’ allowing occupants to safely exit. In short, earthquake resistance needs to be taken into consideration when planning a city and designing any infrastructure and buildings in a seismic zone.<br />Incidentally, almost the whole of Pakistan is situated in a seismically active zone. And while we do have an active Pakistan Meteorological Department and a National Disaster Management Authority, both leave much to be desired.<br />The magnitude 7.6 earthquake that struck on October 8, 2005, was a major catastrophe to hit the nation. With 80,000 people dead and three million people displaced, the destruction was of epic proportions. The epicentre of the trembler was near the city of Muzaffarabad in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, which lies in the collision zone of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plate. This collision zone is also responsible for the giant Himalayan Mountain Range.<div>
It seems Pakistan learnt no lessons from the catastrophe. Building bye laws still remain neglected, and while the governments, both central and provincial are keen on bringing in foreign investment in the real estate sector, working out the necessary technicalities is at the bottom of their priority list.</div>
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<br /> </div>
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Andaleebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15467453985279576728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-611004225027751946.post-85892768025202596052015-05-14T07:50:00.000-07:002016-05-16T05:31:51.522-07:00Does the state sponsor takfiris?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
I quote from my previous blog I wrote about Sabeen Mehmud.<br />
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<b>In Pakistan, bad is on loop. You get done with the death anniversary of someone or some incident every month, and a new tragedy is added to the mourning list.</b></blockquote>
So, this time it is the killing of 47, nay 43 Ismailis. Since killings are merely a number for us now. Yesterday (May 13, 2015) six gunmen surrounded a bus carrying Ismaili Shias in the biggest city of Pakistan, Karachi. At least 43 people were shot dead including women and children. Their crime? They were Muslims of a different kind who do not believe in violent Jihad. They preach peace and tolerance and interpret Jihad as the spiritual striving to attain nearness to God (minus violence unless their imam calls for it and that too not for imperialism). Life is sad and getting sadder with time. Sorry for the rant. But I just saw a few pictures of the bus filled with blood.<br />
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Can we say none of this would have happened if there were no rogue elements in our security agencies and our society? Will we continue to remain blind to the problems within our system and blame everything on US, India, and Israel? Those three countries are not responsible for mosques that preach intolerance and violence, nor are they responsible for the public rallies and 'ijtemas' that banned militant organisations hold in cities or anywhere else. These are matters for the state to resolve, not for foreign countries to decide. Has the state banned websites spreading hatred against minorities? Did the state take any measures against religious seminaries that train militants and suicide bombers? Has the state decided to shut down mosques where extremists congregate, hide and hoard arms and ammunition? Or these are matters for RAW to resolve and take action on?</div>
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The fact of the matter is that our state is part of the problem. Otherwise the expenditure of more than 3.5 percent of the GDP on military would have shown some results. Unless, that money is spent on creating more monsters to target those 'unseen' hands of US, India, and Israel, or to give a helping hand to Sunni extremists funded by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and their likes. Here's a flyer found at the massacre site: </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Leaflet left at the crime scene</td></tr>
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The flyers (in English and Urdu) found at the crime scene, declare the Ismailis as Rawafidhs (an Arabic word that means "rejecters", and is used by extremist Sunnis to refer to Shia Muslims for their denial of the first three Khulafa-e-Rashideen's right to the Caliphate). Despite these flyers, an alternate discourse is being spread by the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) along with the state sponsored, ISPR dominated media. This discourse is interesting and part of the huge puzzle called Pakistani politics.</div>
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AWSJ condemned the attack on Ismailis by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). Yes, ASWJ, that thrives in propagating violence against minority groups, especially Shias, is condemning the violence against the peace loving Ismailis. On some level it might even sound ironic, as ASWJ is known to be associated with Sipah-e-Sahaba, a banned anti-Shia, terrorist organisation. But knowing how much the establishment recently tried to bring Taliban Khan in power and how they failed, it is not a wonder...</div>
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Andaleebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15467453985279576728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-611004225027751946.post-10485178808550217052015-04-28T08:50:00.000-07:002015-04-28T08:50:44.069-07:00Jamaat-ud-Dawa loves Pakistan army<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<img alt="Demonstrators took to the streets in Karachi in solidarity with the army and ISI. PHOTO. MOHAMMAD AZEEM/EXPRESS
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This year in January, I wrote about Charlie Hebdo and then I stopped. I stopped because I felt unsafe. I thought of removing my writings from my personal blog because this country, where I chose to live, has no respect for me as a human, let alone as a free-thinking, outspoken, working woman. I did not blog for a long time. Not because there was nothing to write, but because I felt exhausted with dissent.<br />
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Is there any good left in Pakistan, I often ask myself, and before I find an answer, something bad happens ---again. In Pakistan, bad is on loop. You get done with the death anniversary of someone or some incident every month, and a new tragedy is added to the mourning list.<br />
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Last week on April 24, 2015, we lost T2F founder-director Sabeen Mahmud, who was allegedly shot by 'unidentified' assailants. Her crime, they say, is her involvement or show of solidarity with the Baloch, especially Mama Qadeer, who spoke about the missing persons of Balochistan at the T2F. It has been four days since Sabeen's murder. She has been buried and will probably be forgotten by the time the next tragedy hits us, but do we remember what we were doing in April last year after Hamid Mir was also allegedly shot by the ISI on April 19, 2014?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: left;">MQM-H protesting against Geo in front of </span><br />
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We were, as usual, divided in two groups. One who refused to accept that Hamid was shot by the intelligence agencies, and the other, who alleged that the only people to attack the journalist were the farishtas. Last year, on April 28, 2014, there were countrywide protests by Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi (MQM-H), Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), Anjuman Naujawanan-e-Islam, Pakistan Forces Lovers Forum, Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), and countless other groups, some even from Kashmir, against Geo TV and Hamid Mir. Their clout? One cannot accuse a Pakistani intelligence agency of shooting someone.<br />
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The protesters refused to accept that the security agencies of Pakistan could be rogue or even have any rogue elements operating covertly. Their slogan? "We love Pakistan Army: Jamaat-ud-Dawa". We can guess the rest. A humble letter accompanying a metal pellet. <br />
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Last year's tags: Christianity, feminism, Islam, men, Pakistan, patriarchy, religion, temptation, women, academics, Army, colonialism, elitism, feudalism, generals, imperialism, India, military, archaeology, architecture, bye-laws, culture, heritage, Moenjodaro, Pink Floyd, Pink Floyd in Pompeii, PPP, Sindh, Sindh Festival, UNESCO, injustice, leftists, liberals, rights, secular, workers, Karachi, Parachinar, Quetta, Shia, Sunni, takfiri, Deobandi, Balochistan, British, Kashmir, nationalism, separatists, colonizers, English speaking, sub-continent, academia, employ-ability, employment, higher education, jobs</div>
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Andaleebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15467453985279576728noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-611004225027751946.post-76837492637899295882015-01-13T07:18:00.002-08:002015-01-13T07:23:16.489-08:00Je suis Charlie or not?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Charlie Hebdo (was) racist, islamophobic, misogynistic, etc, to say the least of their so-called satire, BUT I condemn the killing of their cartoonists and other contributors, as well as the killings of the cops, especially the Muslim one. He died defending those who 'ridiculed' 'his' religion. Killing someone for not agreeing with our ideals is wrong, BUT one should not 'hurt' the sentiments of millions who revere the Islamic State Khaleefa, err...the prophet.</blockquote>
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I condemn the killings of Charlie Hebdo, but what about the freedom of speech for the Palestinians who have been stopped from showing solidarity by the French government? It is wrong that terrorists (anybody who kills someone in the name of Islam does not have to be a Muslim) killed those who worked at Charlie Hebdo, but they should not have drawn the prophet (pbuh). If France cares so much about freedom of speech, why did it ban the advertisement showing Jesus as a woman? If France was not racist and had assimilated the 'Arabs' well, those two (killers) would not have done what they did.</blockquote>
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These are some of the comments and ideas strewn all over my Facebook and Twitter timeline. I thank thee for such enlightenment. The 'if' 'but' arguments highlight the duplicity of the human race so beautifully. It is like a breath of fresh air, or the first shower after scorching heat. Call me callous, but I want to compare this moment of those with pens versus those with guns to the Palestinian youth throwing stones at the Israeli military. That is how unmatched the rivals were and are and will remain perhaps.<br />
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Deaths do not matter. Be them of cartoonists or those of killers themselves.</div>
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Actually, it is neither about the killings of Charlie Hebdo workers, visitors and the cops who were simply there at the wrong time, nor is it about those who killed a dozen people because of a certain mindset. None of this matters any more. What matters are the narratives and counter narratives. What matters is the fact that it is not as important to say Je suis Charlie as it is to say je suis 'so and so...'<br />
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It is about France inviting Netanyahu and Merkel to the solidarity rally, the banning of the veil in public, war in Syria and Iraq, Western hegemony against the Islamic world, their double standards and the right-wing narrative that will further fuel the anti-Muslim mindset in Europe.<br />
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Human deaths are no longer as valuable as today when all and sundry are looking to collect martyrs. As if the deaths of thousands of people of colour at the hands of Taliban, Boko Haram, al Qaeda, Daesh were not enough, the militant Islamists have given the European far-right the right number of martyrs to push for anti-immigration laws, job cuts, racism, and further reinforcement of the 'savage Muslim' idea.<br />
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And if that was not enough, there are people of the Pakistani Awami Tehreek in Peshawar, who are already paying homage to the killers Said and Cherif Kouachi; and Charlie Hebdo with all its activism for equality has actually died in the fight amid the far right Muslims, Jews, Christians, and their apologist leftists... Even if a cartoon on the cover says Je suis Charlie!<br />
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Andaleebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15467453985279576728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-611004225027751946.post-9405433335865254962014-07-03T12:23:00.000-07:002014-07-03T13:27:39.434-07:00Highly educated unemployed survey<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
If you live in Pakistan, you are sure to have a few well qualified friends, who are unemployed because either they lack the right connections or they didn't get their degree in 'the right field'. I have a few too, and have been worried about the situation because it bodes ill for us as a whole.<div>
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Please go through the following form and help compile some data regarding the curse of unemployment and the abundance of over-qualification.</div>
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<iframe src="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Q5FOzYCNkPpPUu2zCuqqTtKThV4AfsetN1D-ZDVkUgk/viewform?embedded=true" width="500" height="1600" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0"></iframe>Andaleebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15467453985279576728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-611004225027751946.post-22997385347430216792014-07-01T09:34:00.000-07:002014-07-01T12:09:52.800-07:00Interpreter offspring of the brown ‘goras’<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Pakistan is a country for extremism. We welcome all sorts of extremes. Religious, liberal, educated, uneducated, privileged, under-privileged, the list can go on forever, but of all, we are best suited for the privileged. People who have money and belong to the upper class, the ones who can afford to live in a bubble which is hardly affected by inflation, bad public health, foreign policies, power failures, water shortages, etc. This bubble is well protected, having been reinforced by continuing with the colonial system, yes colonial and not post-colonial. The only difference is that the white supremacists have been replaced by their interpreter class. Whether that interpreter class comes from the Pakistani elite schools or consists of a bunch of foreign educated kids, who chose to return to the land of the pure, is irrelevant for the not-or-under-privileged. <br />
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They are the ones in whose hands the ‘goras’ left Pakistan in 1947. These brown descendants of the goras aspire to be ‘goras’. They are an alienated hybrid of this confused society which lacks an identity, or as it is said in Urdu; are suffering from “Dhobi ka kutta na ghar ka na ghat ka” syndrome. We have several words to identify them, including English medium, burger types, establishment, liberals, secular, etc, etc. It is our own hodgepodge of a feudal, capitalist, dash of Islamic socialist, colonial society.<br />
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"We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and color, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect," by Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859) a Victorian historian, essayist, and parliamentarian. He served as a member of the supreme council of the East India Company from 1834 to 1838, where he oversaw major educational and legal reforms. These lines might be from early 19th century, but they still ring true for Pakistan. We hardly see any significant changes in our education, health policies. Simply because, it isn't beneficial for the interpreter class that, as mentioned earlier lives in a bubble.<br />
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The most beneficial for the interpreter class is to let the system stay as is. Or perhaps make it worse, as making it worse only affects the under-privileged who are already dispensable and ‘oh so corrupt’. Their only utility is their voting capability. The privileged decry all that is under-privileged. They occupy higher ground and perhaps intentionally or unintentionally without realizing their own role in maintaining the status quo, blame it on the have-nots. In a way it is understandable. It is not a matter of good or bad, wrong or right, rather it is about retaining privilege with which comes power, a vicious circle, where policies are not made by people who are not in power. And power is not owned by people who are not privileged.<br />
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We are conditioned from our cradle to be adapted within one of these categories of privileged or under-privileged, depending on what class we come from. Our opportunities and lack thereof depend on who our parents are or were. We can even classify it as the privileged and ones that do everything in their power to become privileged. The earlier has all that it takes to stay privileged, including ‘interpreter offspring’, while the other tries its best to break this circle of privilege by hook or by crook.<br />
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These interpreter offspring are often foreign qualified or local elite school graduates, who have more market value compared to the local public university graduates. Some will argue it is because of what these graduates have to offer, but the million dollar question is should access to education be determined by the amount of money ones family possessed? Probably at this stage many readers would be squirming to say, but nobody stopped the other people from getting the same level of education. That if ‘one wants’ nothing is impossible, and 10 children of a Pakhtun laborer working in Karachi can have access to education at the Karachi Grammar School. The laborer will only have to work ‘really hard’ to achieve this. And only ‘lazy’ people complain.<br />
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God and state are all just and fair when it comes to equal opportunities. And there are plenty of opportunities to be had if one is born in the right place, at the right time. Being born as an offspring to the ‘interpreter class’ means, having access to better schools, better education and at the end of it all, a better job, better working environment and a higher position that pays well.<br />
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It is part and parcel of almost everybody’s professional and practical life. Be it architects, doctors, journalists, teachers, etc. In the field of architecture the pay scale depends on the school one graduated from. A graduate of the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture will be offered a higher salary after graduation compared to the one who graduated from NED University, Karachi University or Mehran University. It is very easy to guess at this stage that the one to be offered the lowest salary would be from Mehran University. Hence, the never ending cycle based on privilege continues. Forcing many people to resort to unfair means to break this cycle and become more privileged, powerful, resourceful and ‘equal’ within the unjust system.<br />
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Let’s take the example of the media that is owned by people from political, industrial, banking sector and where most of the positions of power are held by people from elite backgrounds. Someone’s father owns a hospital, another’s is a bureaucrat, yet another is the nephew of a serving MNA, or is related to an industrialist. They all probably went to the Karachi Grammar School, later attended Oxford or some other foreign university privately or on scholarship is a whole new topic of debate, but they have a silent covenant to follow. These people are city editors, senior editors, if without a foreign degree sub-editors at desks, concessions are also made when a local university graduate proves his/her metal against the ones who belong to the higher echelons, especially if this ugly duckling did his or her O levels from City School, Beaconhouse, etc. However, reporting is majorly dominated by the ‘chhota mota’ background people; graduates of Peshawar University, Jamshoro University, Baluchistan University, etc.<br />
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How many of us realize that the mere use of internet and capability to write proper English is a product of our class based post-colonial society? Should good education be a choice dependent on money? How many of us actually step back and let a public graduate take lead instead of us, because oh we are so much for the equality of opportunities? The reason nothing changed in 65 years is that the blame ball is being tossed around among the privileged class, who are not separate but a single entity. </div>
Andaleebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15467453985279576728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-611004225027751946.post-42835624941372383492014-05-02T14:52:00.000-07:002014-05-02T14:52:46.253-07:00Determining the right to be Kashmiri or Baloch<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Spoke to the boisterous Lateef Johar, who said with his mischievous smile that his mother thinks he is ignorant for not drinking juice as per the doctor's advice. Lateef belongs to Baloch Students Organisation <a href="http://www.sagaar.net/" target="_blank">(BSO) Azad</a>. He is on a hunger strike. Sitting along with his comrades, in front of the Karachi Press Club for the past 12 days, he has not eaten anything. They are hopeful that someone will hear their pleas for justice and BSO Azad Chairman Zahid Baloch will be released. Their aim is to see their leader free of the shackles that have allegedly been put on by the Pakistani security agencies.<br />
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<a href="http://frontierindia.net/we-are-arming-our-nation%E2%80%99s-daughters-with-ideology-and-a-thinking-pattern-banok-karima-baloch" target="_blank">Banuk Kareema Baloch</a>, the Vice-Chairperson of BSO Azad said that none of the mainstream political parties have shown their support so far. A thick register meant to record the voices in writing is progressing very slowly. When asked if she knew how many have signed it so far, she said she doesn't know, but the register was started only yesterday. She is a fierce voice among those who demand justice and freedom from the Pakistani State's oppression. Torture, threats, and illegal detentions are a norm, she said. The vociferous woman belongs to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbat" target="_blank">Turbat</a>, a city located in southern Balochistan, within the Pakistani 'disputed territory'. Banok Kareema was awarded a five-year sentence on March 16, 2010 for arranging a protest rally on August 14, Pakistan’s Independence Day.<br />
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The region of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balochistan" target="_blank">Balochistan </a>mainly includes southwestern Pakistan, southeastern Iran and a very small section of southwestern Afghanistan. Administratively divided between three countries - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balochistan,_Pakistan" target="_blank">Pakistan</a>, Iran, and Afghanistan - Pakistan holds the largest 'share' of the disputed territory. However, nationalists have never accepted any of the countries as their conquerors. The website run by BSO Azad clearly states that Pakistan occupied Balochistan on March 27, 1948.<br />
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The rational side of my brain says that while being a separatist and actively working against a state, expecting good behaviour either stems from naivety or extreme political savvy-ness. However, my emotional side, that grew up on feeling for the Kashmiris suffering at the hands of the Indian 'enemy', makes me want to lash out at the treatment being meted out to the Baloch. How does one strike a balance? How can I support Kashmiris and Palestinians, but forget the Baloch? If Kashmiris are suffering from illegal detentions and custodial disappearances, their bodies being dumped in unmarked graves, while women and children continue to suffer, should I not show solidarity with them? And if I do that, is it honest and justified to not extend the same to the people of Balochistan?</div>
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They say that the Indian authorities are brutal and have in the past tortured many of those who want to be independent, to death. Sometimes, they even shoot loved ones to teach a lesson. They only demand for their right of self-determination; nothing more, nothing less. Should we not stand in solidarity with our brothers in Balochistan, who are facing the same situation, but at the hands of India's enemy Pakistan?<br />
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Here is another story. Published on a Pakistani tv channel's website:<br />
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<b><a href="http://abbtakk.tv/eng/kin-of-missing-people-in-indias-kashmir-sit-on-indefinite-hunger-strike2110113/" target="_blank">Kin of missing people in Kashmir sit on indefinite hunger strike</a> (</b>October 21, 2013)</blockquote>
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Srinagar.Residents in Indian held Kashmir launched an indefinite hunger strike on Monday (October 21) to protest against the mysterious disappearances of their relatives from the strife-torn province.<br />
People in Kashmir’s Srinagar city, took to streets with empty utensils and photographs of their missing family members who had been allegedly subjected to custodial disappearances since the eruption of militancy over the region in 1989.<br />
Protesters said that the provincial government had been neglecting the issue and didn’t initiate any probe into the missing cases of several youths.<br />
The protesters demanded an intervention by the federal government to deliver justice to the families of the missing people.<br />
“Some people have been kidnapped, and a few are missing and we are unable to figure out whether they are alive or dead. We are urging the provincial government to put pressure on the federal government to find out these missing people,” a protester, Zahoor Ahmed Mir, said.<br />
Reportedly, nearly 50,000 people have been killed and countless have disappeared in Kashmir since insurgency started in the region, which India claims is sponsored by Pakistan.<br />
The 1958 Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in the country, which gives troops sweeping powers to kill suspected rebels and immunity from prosecution, applies only in Kashmir and insurgency-affected northeast India.<br />
Human Rights groups say it has given the security forces a license to kill torture and rape with impunity in Kashmir.</blockquote>
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Andaleebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15467453985279576728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-611004225027751946.post-13031154889560237552014-04-02T04:53:00.000-07:002014-04-02T04:55:10.018-07:00Takfir, recipe for ‘Halal’ genocide<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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We live in a cauldron of sectarian strife. Where Deobandis consider Shias, Ahmedis and Barelvis dispensable, Salafis consider every one disposable, Shias and Sunnis feel Ahmedis should be put to the sword. All in all, most of the mainstream sects have a hint of Takfiri, a dash of fanatic and a sprinkling of Tableeghi in them. And yet, there has been no mention of the treatment meted out to the non-Muslim minorities yet. Those dishes, err! People are not allowed in the kitchen called Pakistan. Or we use the whole set of chefs’ knives we bought using CIA funding.<br />
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Apart from Jhang, Karachi and other pantries of Pakistan, our crooks have been trained in Kashmir, against the vegetarian chefs; and Afghanistan, against the radical chefs from Russia. Remember the 80s? We had a famous General Crook working with the CIA? He’s the one who bought the knives. In short, our cookhouse is more of a madhouse. And these were just the chefs, we haven’t even mentioned our in-house official butchers yet. It’s a dangerous business, cooking. We cannot be hypocrites and claim we ensure safety and security, and that too peacefully for anybody, let alone the rare dishes.<br />
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The chefs, at least the ones trying to maintain a certain taste, want the Arab cuisine to be the favorite, not just the favorite; it should actually be considered the most supreme among all, compared to which any rare or medium rare dish should not be given any importance. However, there is a major problem, we are not sticking to Arab food and the chefs that be don’t like it. The reason is that everyone has opened a TV channel to promote their own recipe and hence it gives them an edge. Chefs from the Tigris and Euphrates valley are being given more airtime, and the Persian chef is increasingly poisoning the cooking trends. Hence, we have decided to purge his minions using our master chefs’ LeJ (lovingly known as the Jhangvi) & SSP (fondly remembered as the Sipah-e-Sahaba).<br />
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Here are a few recipes from the online archives of the Haq Char Yaar website, a favorite with SSP and LeJ, yes yes these are some famous chefs known for their unsavory methods for purifying our cookhouse. Their craving for purity is the driving factor, even if it means burning and slaughtering the dishes. They compete with butchers, but that is a separate story. Let’s not botch it up for now.<br />
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<img height="141" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=5527151869&view=att&th=143018d06ef6c2ec&attid=0.3&disp=emb&realattid=ii_13c69aa59e68e535&zw&atsh=1" width="400" /><br />
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<img height="212" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=5527151869&view=att&th=143018d06ef6c2ec&attid=0.2&disp=emb&realattid=ii_13c69aa7601a2672&zw&atsh=1" width="400" /><br />
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Avoid them at all costs, on the roads and wherever else you go. And don’t be offended if they shoot you down, especially if you are a Persian chef and a Shia; bear in mind that even if you have tasted Persian food you might not be spared, totally your fault for not sticking to Arab food. If possible, keep your greasy kitchens locked, as nobody is willing to take a guarantee against them. The supporters of the Arab food don’t even consider the Persian cooks worthy rivals. Useless and dispensable the food as well as the ones who make it, is what the clear message is. So read it carefully.<br />
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Not to be left behind in technology, many of these dangerous chefs are tweeples now. They know only good recipes are not enough to take down the foreign imposters, so they now use social media for voicing their frustration. They have quite a following too, more than 2000 followers and some blood curdling tweets, giving a step by step methodology to flush out the unwanted. They might even put our butchers to shame. Follow them for some good cleaving and beheading techniques if you are a butcher.<br />
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<img height="240" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=5527151869&view=att&th=143018d06ef6c2ec&attid=0.1&disp=emb&realattid=ii_13c69a9f1a5b3e62&zw&atsh=1" width="400" /><br />
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<img height="85" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=5527151869&view=att&th=143018d06ef6c2ec&attid=0.4&disp=emb&realattid=ii_13c69aa3b96ece22&zw&atsh=1" width="400" /><br />
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Our cookhouse, the madhouse, brewing war to spread all over the world to appease the oil giants and their consumers is in a sad shape. Be it Gilgit, Quetta, Parachinar, Lahore, Karachi, Hyderabad, the poison is spreading with no end in sight. For how long till it boils over and burns each and everything is anybody’s guess. One thing is sure though, none of our safety gear is in place and the inspectors aren’t interested in even checking the fire extinguishers. Till then, butchers roam freely in this land of pure!</div>
Andaleebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15467453985279576728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-611004225027751946.post-29232030913901844632014-01-30T00:28:00.000-08:002014-01-30T16:26:46.314-08:00In the name of politics: Dashing the Hague Convention<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The commoners’ idea that politics is a dirty business would not be too far-fetched when talking about Pakistan; instead, it is as extreme as those wearing sharia beards. An Urdu saying, ‘pait mein daarhi’ (literally: having or growing a beard in the stomach; figuratively: having a hidden beard), was written for those running so-called liberal parties. It’s a fight out here, and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has used the covert way to subvert Taliban, by targeting heritage at Sindh Cultural Festival. The planned fest is an unconventional example of how during armed conflicts, heritage sites might end up needing protection from overambitious politicians.<br /><br />In a recent interview with Daily Times, Sharmila Farooqi credited PPP Patron-in-Chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari (BBZ) for his idea to host Sindh Cultural Festival. Contrary to PPP’s inability to hold local government elections in a short time, arranging Sindh Festival was not much of a big deal. Using government funds, of course, not only was the PPP able to publish all sorts of advertisements accompanied by their cute little Superman logo in newspapers, they even pulled off an electronic advertisement targeting the mango people subconsciously via a well-tailored Baby Zardari as future prime minister.<br /><br />Not stopping there, the PPP launched on to the big idea of bringing on centre stage the Mound of the Dead or Mohenjo Daro. However, the controversial woman leader had said that though the festival would be inaugurated at Mohenjo Daro, the ceremony had been planned at a safe distance, keeping in mind international bylaws.<br /><br />Mohenjo Daro is an archaeological site in Sindh which was built around 2600 BC to house one of the largest settlements of Indus Valley Civilisation. Being among the four river valley civilisations, it is a record of not just Pakistan and India’s history and ancient heritage but the entire world. One might even argue in favour of political parties using such locations as a trump card to gain say in the pluralistic Sindh, but only if such a stage was not being set right atop the historically neglected but important UNESCO site.<br /><br />What currently has been planned “on” Mohenjo Daro is nothing short of a way to eradicate the material evidence of the rich and diverse culture of this land. When we think of war and its awful consequences, the deaths of soldiers and civilians as well as alleged terrorists are a reminder of destroyed futures. But in case of attacking historical sites, it becomes about wiping out history, its memory and our collective past. Exactly what the Taliban are accused of! In these circumstances, how can one support such callous neglect and destruction of our past, present and future?<br /><br />In their book ‘The Destruction of Cultural Heritage in Iraq’, Peter G Stone and Joanne Farchakh Bajjaly ask why, after millennia of human conflict, have we not become better at protecting cultural heritage and if we can get better? They attribute it to three aspects: targeted destruction to gain political advantage; ‘collateral damage’ where it is destroyed as an ‘innocent bystander’ as fighting takes place; and destruction caused by the trade in illicit antiquities. Perhaps the part about “political gain” is well suited to the current scenario, albeit there’s a difference in weapons.<br /><br />Mohenjo Daro at the moment is not under threat from an armed conflict, but from the political aspirations of one of the mainstream parties, the PPP. However, the rhetoric being used by the party that ruled the country for five years during the previous democratic regime reads “heritage is under threat, and the festival will protect it from destruction”. In BBZ’s words that we have to experience as part of our daily commercial dose: “Sindh Festival will make us aware of our existence.” And what better way but to replace weapons with stakes nailing the wooden stage and tapping heels in stupor atop 5,000 years worth of history.<br /><br />The 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (commonly known as the Hague Convention) is for protecting cultural property during an armed conflict. Perhaps they should come up with one called ‘Protection of Cultural Property Against Political Aspirations of Fledglings’.<br /><br />One might remind BBZ that even the internationally acclaimed English rock band ‘Pink Floyd’ performed to an empty, ancient, Amphitheatre of Pompeii in Italy, respecting heritage by keeping the maddening frenzy of concert attendees at bay.</div>
Andaleebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15467453985279576728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-611004225027751946.post-73891020315270549912014-01-24T16:22:00.000-08:002014-01-24T16:46:59.069-08:00Where clerks like generals, intellectuals prefer paternal elite<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Here I go again, talking about the interpreter class that forms the academic elite in this country. The ‘intellectuals’ for whom nearly all that is local, traditional or let’s say ‘desi’ is worth rubbishing merely because it does not fit in those defined Western boundaries of ‘civilized’, unless, mind it, the matter is about the exoticized version tailored for the sahib. Just like those perfect ‘gourmet samosas’ and ‘connoisseur jalebis’, all enjoyed wearing ‘dholki haute couture’. Tea party culture hidden behind Marxist theory and dialectics of how to buy vodka from the local bootlegger. Disjointed nuanced semantics of urban and rural divide that are not as feudal as they used to be just because the lord put some money in a couple of sugar mills and sent his children to study at Eton, Berkeley or Oxford.<br />
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Not to forget the sugar coated, tech-savvy babus who went to local IBAs and LUMs to get their humble degree; either because they were too mummy daddy to bear the routine of doing their own laundry, or because no international elite school found their credentials worth getting besmirched by the humble presence on campus. Do not count the odd ones out, for they are so few, you can count them on just one hand. [Also, to trample their self esteem, they are lathered in shariat terms like Qarz-e-Hasna]<br />
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It wouldn’t be a long shot if one said that it was summarised in the 19th century by Macaulay for the rest of the hullabaloos who were busy being ‘clerks’ [and continue to do so] since British Raj gave them the ‘authority’. <br />
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"We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population," Macaulay declared.<br />
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Apparently the enrichment never seized and continues to befuddle those who must be guided by the intellectuals as a shepherd guides ‘sheep’. <br />
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The intellectuals are stuck in the rut about generals, because supporting paternal elites in their opinion is better than supporting the status quo. Oh the fuzzy frenzy of semantics, prey the clerks cannot fathom the difference, if there is one, as they were never trained to distinguish the nuances of mere words.<br />
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But lest the clerks demand to send a general to a foreign hospital instead of the gallows, rest assured that the Berbers in them were never thoroughly put to rest. Though it is all right for my lord to inaugurate a humble school for the clerk, where never would he ever send his own son or daughter. The general must pay. Both for the hospital, as well as the school made for the clerk’s descendants. For who else would my lord not elite rule if there were no more clerks? Not those peasants, for the fiefdoms have them as serfs, and missing out the peasant lot comes natural to clerks and intellectuals alike, for those poor dudgeons exist merely as ballot papers.</div>
Andaleebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15467453985279576728noreply@blogger.com1