REALITY and ILLUSION

Light at the end of the tunnel

2012-01-02T21:05:00.001Z

For much of the year 2011 Train Pakistan had been hurtling through a dark tunnel. As the year drew to a close, however, it was possible to glimpse light at the end of the tunnel. The twin-headed monster of Zardari-Gilani, primarily responsible for pushing the train into the dark tunnel, is rapidly losing its strength and may well be in its death throes. It seems the traitorous duo of

!کبھی اے حقیقت منتظر

2011-12-12T22:34:00.002Z

قدرت اللہ شہاب نے جو سب سے پہلا افسانہ لکھا اس کا نام "چندرا وتی" تھا، جس کی ابتدا یوں ہوتی ہے: "جب مجھے چندرا وتی سے محبت شروع ہوئی، اسے مرے ہوۓ تیسرا روز تھا- " یہ یقیناً ایک چونکا دینے والا فقرہ ہے- اس افسانے کے پس منظر پہ قدرت اللہ نے "شہاب نامہ" میں خاصی تفصیل سے روشنی ڈالی ہے- یہ افسانہ نوجوان قدرت اللہ کی نا تمام اور نا کام محبت کے گرد گھومتا ہے- مجھے جوانی کی لغزشوں یا حوادث سے سرو

A Change of Direction

2011-11-13T23:33:00.002Z

It seems an eternity since I last posted a blog. The events of last May, culminating in the murder of the journalist Saleem Shahzad, shook me up. Posting blog after blog about the hopeless situation in Pakistan appeared to me to be a pointless exercise. I wrote my last blog on 24 May, lamenting the internal and external evils which threatened the very existence of Pakistan. Some six months later

The farce of Abbottabad, part 3 : the consequences

2011-05-24T22:12:00.002+01:00

This blog post is a continuation of the issues discussed in the previous two - hence the words "part 3" in the title. What made the farce of USA's "daring" raid on Abbottabad - in which the hapless Osama died a second death - believable was not so much the brazen lies of the USA president as the humiliating response of Pakistan's President and the Prime Minister. It was as if both these

A tsunami of lies

2011-05-10T22:45:00.001+01:00

Those who feel overwhelmed by the tsunami of lies which has come roaring from the governments of the USA and Pakistan following the OBL drama in Abbottabad should not despair. Help is at hand! FIRST, let us go back to an earlier blog, Anne Patterson, Queen of Pakistan , at the end of which there is a quote from Roedad Khan, a retired senior civil servant who had worked closely with several

The death of Osama Bin Laden

2011-05-02T21:16:00.000+01:00

According to the Americans, they killed Osama Bin Laden in the very early morning today in a raid on a mansion in Abbottabad, Pakistan. This is the main news item on British television as it no doubt is in the rest of the world. As the day wore on I found myself becoming more and more confused thinking about the claims that the Americans have made, and their uncritical acceptance by the BBC and

Libya! Here we come!!

2011-04-04T20:07:00.003+01:00

With hindsight, my blog The Fall of the American Empire last February may have been a bit premature. I had underestimated the cunning and sheer ruthlessness of the USA Administration. The Americans, and their sidekick the NATO countries, are adept at turning a blind eye to the worst sort of barbarities so long as their interests are not threatened. Bahrain, the oil-rich state under the USA's

DAVIS FLIES OUT

2011-03-18T19:51:00.002Z

So,’ Raymond Davis’ – or, whatever his name was – flew to safety on 16 March 2010! [for the full background, see the last blog post, The Fall of the American Empire] This CIA spy – claimed by the twin liars, Obama and Clinton, to be a USA diplomat in Pakistan - had broken several Pakistani laws: carrying firearms illegally, engaging in activities harmful to Pakistan and killing two Pakistanis.

The Fall of the American Empire

2011-02-20T19:14:00.004Z

The current turmoil in the Arab world that shows no signs of ending has an extra dimension which is usually glossed over in the stirring debates about the valiant Arabs' determination to free themselves from dictatorship. It is the simple fact that most Arab dictators are indebted to successive American governments for their hold on power. At the height of the Egyptian uprising, when Tahrir

No Way Out for Pakistan?

2011-01-20T18:28:00.014Z

The pretender to Anne Patterson’s throneSo far as Pakistan is concerned the WikiLeaks’ disclosure of our rulers’ sell-out to the Americans appears to have been a bubble that burst all too soon. Initially frightened out of their wits, the Americans have dropped any pretence of showing respect towards their factotums who occupy the highest offices of state in Pakistan. Cameron Munter, the new

The End of Conspiracy Theories

2011-01-01T21:18:00.040Z

In global terms the single most significant event of 2010 may have been the WikiLeaks disclosure of the USA diplomatic cables. I am not surprised at the merciless hounding of Julian Assange by the USA government. Assange has committed the unpardonable sin of whipping away the fig leaf of “conspiracy theories” with which successive US administrations tried to discredit

Anne Patterson, Queen of Pakistan

2010-12-21T16:22:00.013Z

In her small womanly frame Anne Patterson packed a punch that the manliest of men would feel proud of. Thanks to WikiLeaks disclosures, it is public knowledge that during her 3-year sojourn in Pakistan as the USA Ambassador, she was effectively the uncrowned queen of Pakistan, before whom the half-men at the top of Pakistan’s power structure humiliated themselves shamelessly.

Angelina Jolie, "UN Ambassador"

2010-10-30T18:17:00.002+01:00

Following the devastating floods in Pakistan, and the world's indifferent response to the colossal damage to the country, not to mention the sufferings of some 20 million people, the UN eventually managed to pack off the comely - or, unappealing, depending on your point of view - actress to Pakistan. Her stay in Pakistan proved quite eventful.

EID MUBARAK

2010-09-12T08:49:00.002+01:00

The Lessons of Ramzan 2010 This has been an extraordinary month, like no other I can recall. The Floods, of course, stand out high above everything else but there has been much else going on. The Floods The floods brought out the best and the worst in our nation. There have been numerous instances of extraordinary heroism where people have put their lives on the line to save others from drowning

Dialogue with a Giant

2010-08-09T21:03:00.000+01:00

Jinnah’s vision of Pakistan. In December 1943, Quaid-e-Azam, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, gave an interview to a British journalist, Beverley Nichols. On returning to England from his tour of India, Nichols wrote a book, “Verdict on India” (publisher: Jonathan Cape). One of the chapters in this book has the title “Dialogue with a Giant”, a reference to Quaid-e-Azam. Extracts from

Terrorising Pakistan: part 2

2010-07-27T22:42:00.000+01:00

A guest post by Asif Haroon Raja In accordance with the chalked out plan, terrorism was intentionally pushed into Pakistan to destabilize the country. The two extreme flanks of Pakistan , FATA and Balochistan were inflamed to make things difficult for Pak Army, fundamentally poised to guard eastern border. Apart from CIA and FBI gaining a strong foothold in Pakistan under the pretext of

Terrorising Pakistan

2010-07-14T20:00:00.003+01:00

A conspiracy of silence. Already this year there have been five deadly attacks in Pakistani cities resulting in the deaths of hundreds of innocent Pakistanis. The most recent act of savagery occurred on 9 July in Mohmand in the North West of Pakistan, close to the border with Afghanistan, when over 100 ordinary citizens lost their lives and some 200 were injured (see Tailpiece for a full list of

Feminists join mullahs in making Islam irrelevant

2010-06-24T20:04:00.004+01:00

Imamahs leading mixed congregations of the faithful. On 10th June a report appeared in a British newspaper, The Independent, under the heading “First woman to lead Friday prayers in the UK”. The opening line of the report began, “A Canadian author will become the first Muslim-born woman to lead a mixed-gender British congregation through Friday prayers tomorrow”. Very helpfully, the

ISLAM: the Reality beyond time and space

2010-06-10T21:37:00.005+01:00

La ikraaha fid-Deen [Al-Qur’an, 2:256].There is no compulsion in matters of Religion In my article on Islam and, especially, the discussion that followed - Islam: back to basics - I touched on the differences in the interpretation of Quraanic aayaat which can arise among scholars of great repute and intellectual attainments. I think this aspect of the world of Islam requires a bit of

The self-destruction of Pakistan....

2010-06-01T16:04:00.005+01:00

.... by religious fanatics and USA lackeys. Religious fanatics The catalyst for this post is the massacre of Qadianis (Rabwah Ahmadi group) in their mosques in Lahore on 28 May, 2010. About 90 people, including children, died. The responsibility for the killings has been claimed by “Pakistan Taliban”, a monstrous organisation that sprang up suddenly some five years ago. Its origins are steeped

The British General Election, 6 May 2010

2010-05-10T00:19:00.012+01:00

Why I welcome a hung Parliament Election time in the UK can be a bit of a surreal experience for Pakistanis with entitlement to vote in British elections. A part of the problem is the difficulty of identifying with the politics of a country where they are constantly being suspected of being “extremists” or, worse, “terrorists”. For Pakistanis, a feeling of unease in this unfriendly environment

Pakistan’s “liberals” and the mullahs: two sides of the same coin

2010-04-24T21:55:00.003+01:00

Excerpts from my final reply to Man 1.This is the fourth and last instalment of my internet exchanges with Pakistan’s westernised secularists. For all their vaunted “liberalism” they turned out to be just as prejudiced and narrow minded as the mullahs they despised. More surprisingly, the “Islam” they professed to follow appeared to be a carbon copy of the religion that the mullahs shout from the

Daily Express News Story

2010-04-13T16:54:00.001+01:00

The 18th constitutional amendment a rip-off? Read Javed Chaudhry's remarkable article: Daily Express News Story

Pulling Quaid-e-Azam every which way – PART 2

2010-04-06T11:36:00.002+01:00

Small-minded bigots distort history and religion. All my attempts to reason with MAN 1 came to nothing as he proceeded to attribute all kinds of views to me and to support his rants by digging up “evidence” from the “scriptures” in a manner which distorted the Message. He said: “Following Comment are for those “who talk of Islamic Republic of Pakistan” and accept that Pakistan was came into being

Pulling Quaid-e-Azam every which way

2010-03-21T22:44:00.002Z

Westernised fascists' "secular Mr Jinnah". My last blog post was primarily an account of a discussion I had at a political website where some westernised fascists were attacking Pakistan’s journalists writing in the Urdu press. In that very discussion the subject of our conversation veered off towards Quaid-e-Azam when someone referred to stuff published in Pakistan’s English language newspaper