The True Perspective

Deleting Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (H.) — Sat, 23 Aug 2025 12:32:00 -0400

The slow regard for neurosis, thanks to social media

Last night before I fell asleep, I was watching a YouTube video about how there seems to be a growing backlash against “social media” apps; against “smart” phones; against the very things that were once meant to foster inclusivity, connection, collaboration. But somewhere along the route, the “greater good”, the “noble mission”, got replaced with greed, malarkey, and all the hallmarks of capitalism. As Jack Conte pointed out in the video, the customers of Facebook are advertisers, and the product that they demand from Facebook is every last ounce of your attention. So what does Facebook do? It pilfers, peddles, and mainstreams anything that will keep you on their platform, even if it means it destroys your minds and results in social neuroses.

I can’t remember the last time I posted on Facebook, but it must’ve been years ago now. I keep hearing about how Facebook is now full of disgusting AI Slop targeted at the basest desires of its Boomer population, to keep them hooked onto the app. This is just another attempt, but the tide is overwhelming and the next generation is abandoning Facebook and it’s mind destroying antics like there’s no tomorrow.

It was a noble mission in the beginning — connecting people together, friends, family. It was also new, and we didn’t know what a privacy nightmare it was going to be. I still remember the early days of Facebook when friends and family would get together to “create” photo albums. It was a thing. After any event, a get together, a party, a hangout, there would always be someone saying “I’ll upload the pictures to Facebook.” And honestly, if that model had stayed, it would have worked. Facebook would still be our default. But the more Facebook has evolved, the more they’ve shown how truly evil and inhumane they really are.

A few months ago, I ended up reading the book “Careless People” by Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former Facebook employee and whistleblower. This is what I wrote after reading the book:

This is the story of how Facebook has destroyed countries, economies, politics, social norms. This is a story of how Facebook has lied, obfuscated and perjured itself. But because the chief evangelist of Facebook is richer than God himself, he has gotten away with it. Over and over and over again. This is a story about the disdain that people like Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, Joel Kaplan, Elliot Schrage have for ordinary mortals, who do not have the same excess and naked wealth that they do.

If you think you know how Facebook operates — because they present sanitized versions of their corporate hierarchy to the outside world — let me assure you, you don’t. You don’t have a single fucking idea how deep rooted and inherent the malaise is in Facebook. You don’t even have to read the book; just look at the latest updates that they’ve pushed to WhatsApp — their most “privacy” focused product. They’ve shoved their privacy shattering, god-awful AI tool into your most intimate and private conversations, and as soon as you so much as touch it, it will send your “encrypted” chats to their servers, where they will read them, and use them to shove more privacy denying garbage down your throats. They expect you to not care about that; they expect you to think that even your AI interactions (and the subsequent data that they’re collecting — which includes your private, personal chats by the way) are encrypted and safe. But they’re not. None of it is. It’s icky and disgusting and it is why the Zoomers are leaving this dystopian hellscape in droves.

To be fair, WhatsApp was never, and has never been a privacy first product. They say it’s “end-to-end encrypted” only because they were forced to say it, not because that is what they wanted. Signal had come to eat their lunch after their privacy debacle in 2021, when they said they would share your chats with Meta/Facebook (especially your chats with businesses), before begging and pleading with everyone that they’re not breaking any encryption and privacy.

But the lack of privacy is only one side of the coin. The other side is the soul destroying neuroses that they peddle and mainstream. They allow — deliberately — hate, bullying, perversion on their platforms because that is what creates shock and awe. That is what keeps you hooked. That is what allows them to turn back to their advertisers and say how many minutes and hours and days you spend on their apps because you can’t look away. The system is designed to break you, so that the system can turn you into a mindless lemming who can’t figure out why it’s so stunted and anxious and broken all the time. All the while, there are algorithms programmatically capturing every single data point about you, from your age, your gender, your political beliefs, to the brand of ice cream you like, to your secret dating partners, to your deepest darkest secrets. And you know what they do with that data? They horde it, to sell you slop in the best case, and hand that data over to your governments so that those governments can completely and utterly destroy and ruin your lives (and the lives of your loved ones) in the worst case.

So tell me again, what exactly is the point of having social media apps owned by these narcissistic, perverted, elites who live in a bubble so far removed from reality, that they will never know, nor care, the damage that they have unleashed upon society in their quest for unimaginable wealth and power? What is the point when the meaning of “social” in social media has been corrupted? So I did what so many before me have done, and so many after me will continue to do: I deleted Facebook. In protest. And I know it is more symbolic than functional, because it won’t make a lick of difference in the end; because I’ll still be tracked and an algorithm will continue to build my profile, adding things that even I don’t notice about myself. But one day, when hopefully enough people have done the same, that’s when it will start making a difference. And that is the future we should all hope for.

Why I logged off Twitter for good: A personal reckoning with its descent into hate

noreply@blogger.com (H.) — Mon, 4 Aug 2025 13:30:00 -0400

Shout into the void, get zero likes, and still somehow feel attacked. But maybe zero likes is better than drowning in hate.

I haven’t posted on Twitter for a couple of years now; the majority of people that I knew on that platform have either abandoned it, or jumped ship. Including myself. I’m here, posting this here, instead of over there. And I’ve finally figured out why — Twitter seems like a dystopian hellscape. It’s a collection of the worst people, anonymous by design, shouting into their infernal echo chambers. It’s racist, xenophobic, and despairing. There’s too much hate being platformed on it in the name of free speech. It was always going to end up like this, but there was always this hope that maybe — just maybe — Twitter will survive the X-ification that Elon Musk unleashed upon it. How naive, we all were.

Every time I open it nowadays, it’s the same version of talking points over and over again — Muslims are terrorists, Islam is a cancer, brown folks are replacing European descendants. There are giant mega threads dedicated to utterly insane and xenophobic discourse about how “immigrants” have made areas “no-go”. It sounds unhinged and insane, but the collective echo chamber effect reinforces these beliefs over and over again, until they become part of your infernal and rabid psyche. And honestly, it’s a chicken and egg situation. Like Mehdi Hasan says, there was always a racism problem in the West, but it was hidden because it's common courtesy to not be a fucking race baiter. Well guess what? In the neofascist age that we’re living through, it’s become quite fashionable (and lucrative) to be an open racist and bigot. And it’s not just anon accounts fanning these flames, it’s congressmen too.

Of course this whole discourse is a pivot to distract away from their shortcomings, and how pathetic they really are. Charlie Kirk, Ted Cruz, Randy Fine to name but a few, are now so severely spewing Islamophobia, that it’s become their whole personality. They’re doing it because they don’t want people talking about their moral failings and shortcomings. They keep getting reamed in, but they double down. Because as I said earlier, it is now advantageous to be racist and xenophobic. The world is making that pivot, and these bigots want to get in on the ground floor.

The world is scary, but logging onto Twitter makes it feel 50 times worse, because all you’re subjected to repeatedly is how much you’re hated because you’re not a European descendant with the correct “genes”. The skin of your color is the defining characteristic of whether you’re worthy of any consideration, or if your value is relegated to the “subhuman” category. The whole setup is so broken. Instead of being hopeful and optimistic, we’re entering a doom spiral where everything feels hopeless and pessimistic. I don’t know how and where this cycle will end. In the meantime, log off Twitter. The xenophobia won’t magically go away, but at least you won’t have to worry about living with an existential crisis everyday.

Returning to blogging?

noreply@blogger.com (H.) — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 14:39:00 -0400

Is blogging dead?

Part I

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged. There are so many reasons for why I haven’t. I’m thinking of where to begin — and to be honest, I’ve thought about penning this post for a while now — but I have no idea where to start. Do I start with why I gave up blogging? And if so, do I talk about why blogging seems like a helpless and lost cause? Do I talk about my personal changes? Struggles? Things that caused me to (sort of) abandon this blog? It’s all rather overwhelming.

I guess I’ll start at a while ago. It’s been several years — and when I say several, I mean several — since I left the land of the pure. For a while after I had left, I still felt connected to that land. I still used to talk about it. In that time, Pakistan has gone to war with India twice, Imran Khan rose from the ashes to become the king, only to then be deposed. Pakistan suffered. Then recovered. And it’s still stuck in that loop of trying to get out of its existential crisis. Gradually however, I’ve begun to lose touch with the realities of life in Pakistan. I am still intimately connected to it, through friends and family. But I don’t live there anymore. I don’t know what trials and tribulations people go through every day. Every now and then something horrific breaks through the plumes and I’m sucked back into the harsh specifics of human existence in Pakistan, but more often than not, it’s just a background blur now.

And when I started feeling this way, I also started feeling like my words about Pakistan were going to start sounding hypocritical. I mean, I left. I found a way out. I found a way out specifically to get away from that reality, from that existence. So who then, gave me the right to pontificate about that reality to people who are living through it everyday? I felt guilty talking about it; I felt like a hypocrite. After all, when I was going through it all, I never wanted to hear from “overseas Pakistanis” with their holier than thou attitudes about what we, the people living in Pakistan, should or shouldn’t do; how we should behave, think or talk.

And then, there’s the ever growing and ongoing threat of consequences for words. Mere words. Which has led people to start self censoring. We police our thoughts, and we censor our words because we don’t want our words to be perceived in ways that could be harmful to our lives. The security state that once existed inside Pakistan, where the proverbial secret state disappears those who it considers dissenters, has now spread to the rest of the world too. The wrong thought and word — arbitrarily defined by the cabal of elites who rule our world — can land you in a world of pain and hurt and trouble. But the bigger shock isn’t that there are consequences for your originality, it is that there is also now, no recourse. You cannot appeal to the conscience of good men and women, women of justice and law, to rescue you. To save you. Those men and women are also subject to the same tyrannies. And try as I might, I don’t believe I’m a revolutionary. There is too much at stake — and I understand what’s at “stake” is all relative. But the harsh truth remains: being outspoken, original, fearless, has consequences that I cannot bear. In a different world, with different circumstances, perhaps I would. But so far, in this world? I’ve not found that courage.

Part II

So, we’ve established that I stopped blogging because: I was talking about Pakistan, and then I left, which made me feel like a hypocrite for continuing to talk about Pakistan; and the things that I was saying fell on the wrong side of the viewpoints of the elitist cabals, and I didn’t have the courage to keep going.

But there’s also the rise of artificial intelligence and machines that has rendered much of our words and writing irrelevant. Blogging as a profession, as a hobby is dead. AI slop rules the internet waves now. Originality is dying. Couple that with our attention deficit disorders thanks to short form content being blasted at us through social media, and you really end up with a double whammy. No one wants to sit and read. Which makes no one want to write. Because if no one reads, what’s the point of writing? The rise of short form slop has fried our neural circuits, and lead to the death of criticality. Maybe that was the goal all along; maybe the goal was to get the masses into a state of collective psychosis. If so, the goal has been properly achieved.

Blogging became popular because it was a way for us to say our piece into the ether of the internet. When traditional and mainstream media was the only form of information, blogging was our way of fact checking them, and making sure everybody (who cared) could hear our voices too. But then slowly, this whole concept was eroded thanks to the rise of social media. Blogging was penalized because social media wanted those voices to shout into the wind on their platforms. So that’s where everybody went. And because of the very nature of social media (where sensationalism rules), it ended up being a gold rush for the grifters. Which left bloggers even further in the dust. Nobody wanted to read a 500-600 word article which might have some nuance, when they could get their fix from someone else in 280 characters. And then there came the age of the siloed platforms. New social media companies emulated the Facebook and Twitter model, and created new platforms that are walled off and siloed themselves. The era of an “open” internet, where you write something and publish it for everyone to see, has been replaced by “distribution platforms” (e.g., Substack), where you write and publish only for the users of that specific platform. The big challenge with that now is that unless you have, or had, a large social media following — that you can now transpose onto the new platform — you’re at the bottom of the barrel, and no one’s really reading your words anyway. Once upon a time, the internet was searched and indexed by web crawlers like Google. Now these platforms don’t let the words being spoken on them from being found by simple search engines. If you want to know what your favorite journalist, blogger, photographer, newscaster, peer, friend is saying, you have to sign up for that platform. You can’t simply type a web address into your browser and catch up. Those days, are long gone.

Part III

So why then, would I return to blogging? I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently. I guess it’s not so much about returning to blogging, as it is an itch to say the things that I want to say. I know I talked about how there are consequences to your words and thoughts now (side note: if you haven’t read George Orwell’s 1984 yet, I recommend that you read it ASAP), but I also figured that I’m an unknown person throwing my words into a dark void. My website — this blog — is not highly ranked in the search results. No one will likely ever find it. No one will ever read these words. Maybe it’s a passion? Maybe writing here will make me think that I’m playing just a small, tiny part in the grand scheme of things? Despite the risks associated with saying our truths, it still is important to say those truths. Maybe I feel like I want to take those risks anyway? Not because I don’t worry about those consequences, but because those consequences may be worth bearing, if push does come to shove.

There will be changes. This piece is reflective of those changes. I won’t only talk about Pakistan anymore. I’ll talk about everything. Myself. My life. There will be politics, but it won’t be relegated just to Pakistan. Europe and North America are in a grip of an unfurling crisis. It’s important to talk about them too. Maybe I’ll talk about how the moon looks so beautiful in the night sky. After all, the essence of blogging has always been to say the things that you want to say, because no one other than you can say them. So we’ll see how it goes.

In the end, this post isn’t really for you, dear reader. It’s really for me. But if you’ve found this, I’m glad you’re here. I hope I continue to write, and I hope you will return for more.

The hate is entrenched

noreply@blogger.com (H.) — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 12:53:00 -0500

Imran Khan (Image: Dawn.com)

I remember having a conversation with a friend a while back. It was about the filth that Imran Khan has mainstreamed. The uncouth language, the harebrained takes, the perversion, the duplicity. This friend of mine came back with the mother of all Teflon-esque responses; he said that it didn’t matter how Imran Khan talks, or how he behaves, or the degrading language he mainstreams, because that language is used in Punjab anyway. It was in that moment that I realized that the damage has already been done. Rational thought and argument has all but vanished from our citizenry. It is only vileness and hate that remains.

Twitter is a prime example of this exact phenomenon. Go to any tweet that offers some criticality of Imran Khan. You will not find decent discourse under it. What you will find instead is vileness, name calling, grudges and hate. Just today for example, Talat Hussain posted the letter that Imran Khan has penned to Arif Alvi asking that an inquiry be initiated against General Bajwa. Instead of taking the content of the tweet and the letter on its merit, the loafers of the cult of Imran came crawling out of the woodwork to attack Talat Hussain. They did not debate the merits or the contents of the letter. No. They just spewed their hate.

Amongst this garbage, someone put up a response saying Talat Hussain is a journalist who’s been exposing Bajwa, Saqib Nisar and Niazi, and that he wished all pro Pakistan politicians would gather together under one banner. A perfectly innocent suggestion. But even that was not spared. He was attacked based on his looks and asked: why do you have a woman’s ponytail on your head?

Imran-Bajwa war offers a public window onto dirty games they were playing fr thr petty interests. Bajwa’s stupid bravado is biting him back.He was a small man in a big position. Imran’s own deeds r no less self incriminating. Both deserved each other. Pakistan deserved neither. pic.twitter.com/eh1Ka0o21w
— Syed Talat Hussain (@TalatHussain12) February 16, 2023

Often I am told by the cultists that Nawaz Sharif and his lackeys use degrading and defamatory language against Imran Khan too. I agree. There are certainly those in the corridors of the high castles that use derogatory language. But they don’t do it the way Imran Khan does it, or has done. For example, in Nawaz Sharif’s hard hitting recorded video about the 2018 election rigging, you will notice that he keeps using the term General Bajwa “sahib”, and he refers to him using the respectful title of “آپ”. Yet again there are those who counter this by saying so what? So what does it matter if Imran Khan uses derogatory language? So what if he uses boys locker room talk? So what if he uses sexist, misogynist tropes? At least he isn’t “corrupt”.

Facts don’t matter to the cult of Imran, so it is useless to state that Imran Khan is corrupt, and not just financially at that; he’s also morally and ethically corrupt. The extent of the corruption that prevailed under him and by him includes: laundering of hundreds of millions by his cronies including Farah Gogi, Usman Buzdar, Malik Riaz, Jehangir Tareen, Bushra Bibi; legalizing the corrupt and forceful seizure of land for housing societies; looking the other way when journalists were picked up, shot, beaten, disappeared. Pretending to make riyasat-e-Medina all the while legalizing the illegal Hyatt Towers in Islamabad, where he was presented with two flats. His corruption has had such far reaching consequences that they have corrupted the minds of the brainwashed generation. He has fed them fodder and eroded their critical thinking skills. The damage has been devastating, and the hate he has filled in those crevices is now entrenched. Remember when Naeem ul Haq slapped Daniyal Aziz on TV and Imran Khan’s response was “why didn’t you punch him instead?” There is hatred where there was disagreement. He has divided a nation that cannot afford such division and hate.

Imran Khan is not the promised messiah. He certainly presented himself as one, and he along with the super king Bajwa was able to brainwash a lot of the people desperately looking for a savior into believing that he is one. But he is not. Leaders — corrupt or not — are supposed to lead. And when a leader is a text book narcissist, a hypocrite, a master of deceit, a grade A sexist and misogynist, a pervert, morally and ethically corrupt, he legitimizes this perversion in his followers.

Imran Khan is a 70 year old boomer. You can’t teach him to mend his ways. He is part of that classic privileged, elitist bad boy club who got away with everything. He’ll get away with this too. But the damage he has unleashed is permanent. It will take a new generation (and one that needs to be taught love, empathy and kindness, all of which we cannot because it has been systematically drilled out of us) to right this broken and hollow ship. Until then, the troll army of the grand charlatan will keep spreading their lies, filth and deceit around.

The death of Pervez Musharraf

noreply@blogger.com (H.) — Sun, 5 Feb 2023 12:39:00 -0500

Pervez Musharraf

This is not a eulogy. I grew up in the era of Musharraf. I was a teenager, living in a privileged bubble watching as the country flush with American dollars boomed; metaphorically and literally. Pakistan had recently discovered the concept of marking up land values, and the terrorists had discovered that you can brainwash young men and women to blow themselves up. And such was my existence. The closest I’ve come to this boom was when my family migrated from a trusty old Suzuki Khyber, to the status symbol of the newly minted middle class, the Corolla GLi; and when the parade lane suicide bombing took away the lives of friends and people I had known; and that one time when I luckily missed being caught in the middle of a suicide bombing by 15 minutes (the attack on the then Surgeon General of Pakistan, Lt Gen Mushtaq Ahmed Baig).

I remember Musharraf’s fists of power in the air as he was informed of the carnage that unfolded in Karachi. And I remember when he said Pakistan has now embarked on an era of enlightened moderation. Privilege has this uncanny habit of making you blind to the pain, misery and suffering that surrounds you. Because it doesn’t affect you and bother you. It affects and bothers others. And who cares about others when you’re privileged?

It was only later that I recognized what a poisonous and treasonous snake the man who had said “Pakistan first!” actually was. Because if he had actually put Pakistan first, he wouldn’t have tried to play with its destiny like a man flipping a house for quick money does. Selling people for dollars to satiate the American appetite of goriness; filling the country and its institutions with holier than thou army officers who had no business or knowledge running those institutions; repurposing the law of the land and landing jiujitsu chops on it to make himself the tall and high lord of the country. I believe he thought he was doing the right thing. I believe he thought he knew what Pakistan needed, and I believe he thought he knew how to do it. Back then there were only 140 million of us, and the sad reality is that one man, no matter how perfect (let alone a treasonous snake), cannot, will not and has not ever been able to fix the mess. If it takes a village to raise a child, you can bet it was going to take a lot more people than one Pervez Musharraf to raise Pakistan.

But perhaps the most iconic and stunning blunder of his era — and the example that perfectly encapsulates that he believed himself to be the Napoleon Bonaparte of our times — was before he booted Nawaz Sharif from office. It was the wild, incomprehensible idea to turn the Line of Control into an active war zone. There was no need for that. Absolutely none. But Musharraf’s stupidity was such that he decided to take Kargil by himself; without informing his Prime Minister, without informing his own corps commanders, or the services chiefs of the branches of our military. We saw this film play out before, in 1965. When another tiny IQ man fancying himself as the liberator of Kashmir didn’t inform the Air Force of his folly to invade Kashmir. Anyway, the Indian response to Musharraf’s wet dream was swift, dramatic, and intense. It got so bad, that the same chief who had decided he would take Kargil and kill India’s aspirations of ever accessing Kashmir again, had to publicly deny that the soldiers who’s dead bodies were freezing in the mountains of Kargil were his. The shamelessness of it all should’ve made Musharraf rethink his rhetoric, but a narcissist never questions his antics. He only finds blame. It was the Indian Army that buried the men Musharraf had sent in to take Kashmir from them.

Musharraf was a larger than life personality. But he was a dictator who thought he knew better, just like the narcissists before him, and the narcissists after him. Just like all his predecessors and his successors, he too sought to place blame on anyone but himself. But history is not kind to those who are immoral and unprincipled. Because ultimately, the populist rhetoric wears off and the only thing left is you, your morality, your humanity, and your principles. And when the whole basis of your legacy is based on subversion, abrogation and treason, you cannot hope to be remembered fondly.

Farewell Musharraf.

The bullies need to be bullied

noreply@blogger.com (H.) — Sat, 21 Jan 2023 09:51:00 -0500

The faces of the bullies

I am not a pacifist. I believe that when someone slaps one cheek, you do not offer them the other; you load up your fist, and conk one back. I also believe that up until that first slap, you should do everything to avoid confrontation. But once that confrontation has begun, you do not hold back.

There are reasons for why I believe this. But we’ll get to those in a minute. I’m writing this out today because of the incident that took place at the Scarsdale International school in Lahore. Three girls, ganged up on one, beating her, harassing her, scarring her, whilst her peers stood around, laughing, joking and making videos. In fact, one of the bullies who got on top of her was making a video herself. Clearly, they wanted this to get out. Idiots.

So when news broke that those three girls have been nominated in an FIR, and then have subsequently gotten pre-arrest bails, the liberal wing of Twitter went into meltdown mode. ‘You don’t bully bullies!’ they said, as if the teens in the video would learn their lesson because someone on Twitter was advocating compassion on their behalf. There was even a tweet that said ‘you should condemn this behavior, but police should not be involved.’ I’m sorry, but what?

Here’s the thing: If justice wasn’t such a scam in Pakistan, nobody would give that video a second glance. And I don’t mean the Star Plus like indulgences of our high lords; I mean the justice that we practice in everyday life. The one that the great pied piper of Bani Gala keeps referencing. But the brutality, the bullying, the injustice, the lack of consequences all prick the conscience. That’s where the anger and need for retaliation comes from.

Learned liberals on Twitter are horrified. “Minors being violent in schools need to be suspended and expelled, not thrown into jails!” But let’s map out this logic. Suspending the bullies for a few days, heck even expelling them isn’t some kind of “punishment,” because you’ve forgone the greater social nuance at play here. They’ll go back, or go to some other elitist school. That’s not a consequence. It’s also not punishment because their parents clearly don’t give a shit. If they had, their kids would’ve worried about the consequences of their actions, instead of making videos about them and giggling like low functioning sociopaths. These elitist pricks have grown up in environments where casual bullying is a feature of daily life, not a disappointment. So clearly, it’s not the school or the parents that are going to do anything to fix the bullies.

This is why there is such a large public reaction. It’s all of our frustrations being channeled into one incident. It’s got all the hallmarks; the bullies are being defended because oh no, they’re teens! On top of their teen-ness, they’re also elite. So the expectation is that they will of course get away with it. But what about the bullied? Imagine the humiliation and suffering of having your face plastered all over the internet as you’re being beaten, and then imagine no one coming to your rescue. Meanwhile everybody’s out there using imported western ideology to counsel the bullies, or let the school deal with them. Fuck that.

In this particular case, it appears (although I can’t be sure) that the bullies have ended up bullying a fellow elite child. The entire school has been sealed, and an FIR was filed against the bullies. And that is excellent. The bullies need to suffer the consequences of their actions. Make it so real for them, they shiver when they think of even looking at someone with ill intent. Love and compassion works in societies where justice is easy, immediate and plenty. It doesn’t work in societies like ours where we have to fight and condemn for scraps of it. But who am I kidding; even in this instance, the bullies won. They got their pre-arrest bails and are enjoying their days sipping their cokes whilst mummy and daddy fight tooth and nail to keep them from suffering what they actually deserve.

The moral depravity of the civilized world

noreply@blogger.com (H.) — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 13:08:00 -0500

A vast swathe of Pakistan has been submerged under water due to the recent floods. Credit photo: AP Photo/Zahid Hussain

33 million. It is about the same number of people who call Canada their home. It is 10% of the population of the United States.

33 million people. Humans. Old and young. Men and women. Children.

33 million lives.

33 million stories.

Sounds so random doesn’t it? 33 million. But it isn’t. That is the number of men, women and children who are starving, afflicted, sleeping on the side of roads that haven’t been washed away. It is the number of men, women, children who had a house, a home, family, friends, pets, relationships who now don’t even have access to clean drinking water. It is the number of men, women and children who are frying under the open skies in the bright unrelenting sun, whilst malaria, dengue, dysentery, fungal infections have a field day.

33 million.

It is the number of men, women and children who have been abandoned, to fend for themselves, to fight for morsels at the feet of the ever self aggrandizing and self declared magnanimous governments and nonprofits of the world. It is the number of people who have become invisible to any and all. Maybe they should have been one of the Notre Dames, burning high into the sky. Maybe then the world would wake up and take stock. But no. Malnourished brown folk from the global south, often accused of being uncivilized, often hated and reviled for their faith, are invisible. Their pain is invisible. Their suffering is invisible.

I’ve seen this fact quoted out and about often. Pakistan is responsible for less than 1% of global warming emissions, and yet it is in the top 10 countries most at risk due to global warming. But it isn’t at risk anymore. The catastrophe has arrived. It is here. It is now. When the floods stop one day, we will suffer droughts. Our plains will turn to deserts, our water will evaporate, our livestock which has been washed away will become famished and die. Our food chains will perish. And as invisible as we are, what will we do then?

The West has set out on a path of irreversible destruction to our planet. In their quest for putting money and profits above all else, they have deliberately ensured that the “collective and greater good” becomes a pejorative term. Because it is now an “us” vs “them”, instead of “all and everyone.” The flood waters will recede, but ruins are just beginning to form.

Pakistan, a poor country, drowning under increasingly furious flood waters, has been abandoned.

The radicalization of the Indian masses

noreply@blogger.com (H.) — Wed, 6 Mar 2019 07:14:00 -0500

Indian public burns a Pakistani flag

On February 26, 2019 when India crossed the international border and dropped bombs on a hilltop inside Pakistan, a fundamental shift in how Pakistan India relations work took place. Gone was the status quo of restraint and diplomatic threats that India fomented against Pakistan in the aftermath of every unsavoury incident that took place in India. Suddenly, it was replaced with the idea that India could not only teach Pakistan a lesson but that it could do so brazenly, and without threat of reprisal. Clearly, India assumed its social capital in the international comity was established enough to allow it to pull off the kind of daring raids that say, the USA, might be able to pull off. There was only one problem — Indian aggression is a matter of ego and existentialism in Pakistan. The Pakistani military for 70 years has existed to neuter this threat from India. If it does not react or respond to Indian acts of aggression, then why do we even have it?

So on February 27, 2019 Major General Asif Ghafoor got in front of a podium and told India it was time for Pakistan to give it a surprise. On February 28, 2019, in broad daylight, Pakistani warplanes intruded into Indian airspace, identified six targets and dropped bombs around them. The message was clear: we might not have the courage to take on a US invasion, but an Indian invasion would be met with the full might of the Pakistani military.

Analysts from both sides of the border and across the world will dissect the war cries, doctrines, nuclear thresholds, risk appetites and risk capacities aplenty in the aftermath of this escalation. Already we’re seeing them tell us what Modi thinks, what India wants, where Pakistan went wrong, what the next move from both sides will be. But I’m not interested in any of that. Because all of that fails to take into account the most shocking revelation that has come to light during this unfortunate saga: The extreme jingoism teetering on abject fascism across the Indian diaspora.

I have tried finding a reason for it, but I’ve merely ended up scratching my head. Who knew that Indians have this much hatred for Pakistanis? That normal, middle class Indians are willing to impose collective punishment on the people of Pakistan in the form of a doom and gloom war? That they are willing to let their armed forces butcher Pakistanis for the sake of teaching the state of Pakistan a lesson?

For the longest time I believed that the people of India and Pakistan were largely the same; suffering from the same economic corruption, injustice, inequality, vice, ethnic nationalism and social dogma. I believed that due to a shared history, language and culture, the people of India and Pakistan were sympathetic to each other’s plight. They both wanted normalization in relations between the two countries and that it was the governments and establishments of the two countries that fomented this hysteria on either side of the border. The past ten days have proved me wrong.

You see, if India had decided to pursue the dogged but ultimately unsexy route of pressurizing and isolating Pakistan internationally, people like myself would be further emboldened to hold our government accountable today. Why does the state of Pakistan, after all, not arrest Masood Azhar and Hafiz Saeed? But with Modi’s blood baying, the Indian media’s fascistic approach to win the ratings war and the Indian populace’s extreme jingoism, what’s ended up happening instead is that people like myself have started to reconsider the existential threat India poses for Pakistan. Suddenly, it’s not so much why does the Pakistani establishment tolerate these snakes, but more how do we defend ourselves against this Indian onslaught. Because an onslaught it has been, and one that refuses to subside.

Despite Imran Khan’s unilateral goodwill gesture to release the captured pilot Abhinandan Varthaman, Modi has refused to deescalate. Their media has spun every humiliation suffered by India into a win. Their people have been radicalized beyond measure. Egged on by a hysterical media beating war drums, a populace that will not back down until it has spilled blood, and an establishment that thinks teaching Pakistan is the only solution to save face from the crushing humiliation of losing two fighter jets and a pilot, Modi is looking to teach Pakistan even more lessons.

But see, none of that would be shocking on its own accord. Modi is not a pacifist. He is known as the Butcher of Gujarat after all. What is shocking is the vitriol and hatred that has been on display since February 14, 2019. While Pakistanis make memes, Indians make prophetic death threats. While Pakistanis turn Adnan Sami into a caricature, Indians resort to the worst kind of trolling imaginable. The sense of camaraderie that I, perhaps mistakenly, felt with my Indian compatriots is now gone. It is now Pakistan versus them, and when it’s come to this, how can I choose them?

This has been a heartbreaking episode. Not because India and Pakistan have almost gone to war; not because Kashmir is on fire and we’re completely choosing to ignore the Kashmiri plight for our own selfish reasons again; not because mothers have lost sons because a tiny man with a large ego took oath as the prime minister of India. All those reasons make this a rage inducing interlude.

It has been heartbreaking because I’ve finally realized, that we’re not the same as them.

“Violence is justified, as long as my party is perpetrating it.”

noreply@blogger.com (H.) — Tue, 22 May 2018 21:54:00 -0400

Naeemul Haq of the PTI (pictured) slapped Daniyal Aziz of the PML-N on TV

Violence. The great means to the great end; the great end being the establishment of the Naya Pakistan. For if the end is the creation of Naya Pakistan, who cares if a few people get slapped along the way, right?

For those who still don’t know, Naeemul Haq of the PTI slapped Daniyal Aziz of the PML-N, on Muneeb Faruq’s show on Geo, after Daniyal Aziz called Naeemul Haq a ‘thief.’ What a noble man is Naeemul Haq, that he gets offended when somebody calls him a thief. Clearly, we must all side with him for he is the radical revolutionary we have been waiting for, the one who will deliver us from our penance, and then we can start actually building the Naya Pakistan.

Whether you find this sad, alarming or hilarious, there are those who actually believe everything I’ve written up there.

You see it started in 2014, when the great Imran Khan of Mianwali decided it was OK to mainstream uncouthness into Pakistan’s politics. When it was pointed out that more is expected from the leader of a party that claims to represent the educated, urban lot of Pakistan, his followers came out of the bushes like snakes and consistently asked ‘so what if he uses uncouth language?’ Well so his lackey slaps a minister on TV. That’s what. It doesn’t take a genius to draw that line. One would’ve hoped the great Khan would reprimand Naeemul Haq, like he is wont to do with Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif, but his Twitter account sits quiet today.

But Imran Khan not berating Naeemul Haq is not out the ordinary. In fact, one might go so far as to call it “mundane.” Imran Khan who indulges in uncouthness himself is hardly the kind of person you would expect to come to the aid of Daniyal Aziz, or tell his minion to apologize, or say that this is not how civilized people behave. Imran Khan then, is like Khadim Hussain Rizvi. When Rizvi was asked about the filthy, vulgar language he employs in his sermons and his homilies, he said even at the time of the prophet the companions used such language. It is nothing bad, or out of the ordinary. It didn’t take too long for that vile language to turn into a full fledged war on the state of Pakistan either.

So it should come as no surprise then that the followers of Imran Khan — the ones who claim they are the educated, urbanized, progressive, modernist people of Pakistan — say Daniyal Aziz deserved being physically assaulted because “he was taught a lesson.”

It’s absolutely what a danyal aZiz deserves ... in Pakistan if you call a passerby one bad word he runs after you hence danyal was slapped and taught a lesson
— Naz Fatima (@NazFatima17) May 23, 2018

According to the perverted logic by this person, it would be quite OK now for any PML-N supporter to go and “teach” Imran Khan a lesson by punching him in the face, or “teach” Asad Umar a lesson by throwing a shoe at him, or “teach” Jehangir Tareen a lesson by violently accosting him. I mean, it is OK to use violence to teach people a lesson apparently.

This periphery that we’re standing on, is unacceptable. You may hate the words and actions that your opponent uses. You may hate their guts. You may hate the fact that they refuse to see your point of view, but know that you are in the wrong if you stand behind the person who violently accosts another person just because you don’t like the words that he’s saying.

I’ve seen Naeemul Haq up close. He can usually be found sitting at the Burning Brownie cafe in F-11 Markaz in Islamabad on weekend nights. I’ve always been put off by his vibe, but I never imagined that this lazy, cantankerous waste of human flesh would have it in him to slap a person from an opposing political party. Clearly, our politics has reached a point where this is an acceptable modus operandi.

This is not the Naya Pakistan I had envisioned when Imran Khan first coined the term. Instead of it meaning something positive or good, Naya Pakistan has become a pejorative term; the kind you want to disinfect yourself from. I really hope Imran Khan will put his money where his mouth is, and reprimand Naeemul Haq. Because if not, this will just be one more item in the list of hypocrisies Imran Khan has committed and is known for.

In defense of Nawaz Sharif

noreply@blogger.com (H.) — Sun, 13 May 2018 16:00:00 -0400

Nawaz Sharif

And once again I must brace myself, for the torrent of “you love Nawaz Sharif” trolls is forthcoming. But that’s OK, because sometimes objectivity and truth is more important than reality denying denizens attacking your integrity. Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, let us talk about Nawaz Sharif.

Two days ago, an interview which Nawaz Sharif gave to Cyril Almeida of Dawn was published in which Sharif claimed:

“…we have isolated ourselves. Despite giving sacrifices, our narrative is not being accepted. Afghanistan’s narrative is being accepted, but ours is not. We must look into it. Militant organizations are active. Call them non-state actors, should we allow them to cross the border and kill 150 people in Mumbai? Explain it to me. Why can’t we complete the trial?”

This statement of his, particularly his allusion to the fact that non-state militant organizations active on Pakistani soil were used to kill people in the Mumbai attack has caused the military establishment and its social media mongering masses’ libido to go into overdrive. Some choice comments from social media following the publishing of Nawaz Sharif’s interview present the following narrative: Nawaz Sharif is a traitor! Look how he defames Pakistan! He is an Indian agent! He has been placed in Pakistan for Indian interests!

The outlandishness of these claims is only exceeded by the outlandishness of the well read, well connected, well educated masses, who have ample access to fact checking resources, yet still choose to not only believe in such nonsense, but revel in spouting it off. When it is the educated people who hawk such nonsense, it is an indicator that any debate on merit and value is effectively dead in Pakistan. Nawaz Sharif is a traitor because he is a traitor, ergo anything he will say and do is because he is a traitor.

Just the other day I was having a discussion with a friend and I told him the genius of the military establishment is not that they can meddle and muck with the civilian government; it is that they have made the general public believe that it is not only acceptable, but it is actually for the greater good. Spoiler alert: we’ve seen this film before, and the greater good is a pound of horseshit that never hits home. Nawaz Sharif being removed from the post of the premiership on the flimsiest of excuses, the censorship imposed on him, the humiliation he is being subjected to (re: not being given an extension to visit his cancer-stricken wife), is not only acceptable, it is actually preferable because it is “for the greater good.”

Tomorrow (May 14, 2018), the military has called for a meeting of the National Security Council “…to discuss recent misleading media statement regarding the Bombay [sic] incident.” No doubt, the Supreme Ruler of Pakistan, General Qamar Javed Bajwa will tell his puppet Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, to put the out of control madman Nawaz Sharif on a leash. In what universe does any of this make sense, or sound appropriate?

But let’s back up for a moment. In 2009 Rehman Malik held a national presser in which he proclaimed:

“Some part of the conspiracy has taken place in Pakistan. We have lodged an FIR into the case.”

He then went on to say that the “attackers left from Karachi on a boat hired from Balochistan” and that, “an e-mail claiming responsibility for the attack was sent by Zarrar Shah of the Lashkar-e-Taiba.” All this was admitted by the Interior Minister of Pakistan … in 2009.

In 2016 Rehman Malik further said (in response to David Headley’s testimony):

“We have the details about who paid tickets, who funded him and how he recruited non-state actors from Pakistan [for the attacks].”

But that’s Rehman Malik. He too is a traitor in the mould of Nawaz Sharif. Why should we listen to him?

OK then. Here’s General (R) Mahmud Durrani, the National Security Advisor describing the 26/11 Mumbai attack in his own words:

“I hate to admit that the 26/11 Mumbai attack carried out by a terror group based in Pakistan on November 26, 2008 is a classic trans-border terrorist event.”

Mahmud Durrani further went on to explain that he has —

“… very good information that the government of Pakistan or the ISI was not involved in 26/11. I am 110% sure.”

Then there is Bob Woodward, Michael Hayden and Hussain Haqqani who all said the same thing — that General Pasha (ISI chief at the time) admitted that the Mumbai attack was planned and executed from Pakistan by non-state actors. His exact words are said to have been “the people were ours, the operation was not.”

Now that you have all this information, scroll up and look at the statement Nawaz Sharif made. Does it sound traitorous and treasonous anymore? Does asking a legitimate question — can we allow non-state actors to operate from our soil? — really make one a traitor to Pakistan? Because if this is the definition we’re using now, it’s only a matter of time before each and everyone, including those who think they’re above board, are accused of treason.

This is not to say that Nawaz Sharif is without fault and we need to defend his integrity. Not at all. What this is about is the fact that a de facto shadow government is in place, with unwilling puppets dancing in front taking the abuse. Nawaz Sharif’s self-indulgence is revolting, his satiation repulsive, but in the same vain ask yourself why him only? Why do we think it is OK to break every single norm that we bandy about as being essential to a democratic, prosperous Pakistan when it comes to Nawaz Sharif and single him out? If there is accountability, it should be across the board. But does it look that way to you?

If your answer is “for the greater good,” and that it needs to start from somewhere, I have nothing but despair and hopelessness for you. The greater good is nothing, if it is not for everyone including those you hate, loathe and detest.

When little Zainab was raped and killed … the second time

noreply@blogger.com (H.) — Tue, 8 May 2018 23:28:00 -0400

Artwork for the TV drama ‘Zainab kay Qatil’

A friend of mine sent me the link to the post (shown above) by A-Plus TV while I was asleep today. I’ve never watched A-Plus TV myself, but a cursory glance at their Facebook page tells me that they have more than 2.4 million likes on Facebook; clearly, the channel is very popular amongst the masses. My first introduction to this abhorrent lick of degeneracy masquerading as a TV channel was in the form of a video that another one of my friend’s had posted on his Facebook wall, way back in 2016. The video was from a Ramzan Iftar show that aired on A-Plus TV in which that famous misogynistic insult to men Waqar Zaka, and his female version Maya Khan, had blindfolded an elderly lady and asked her to ‘live on the edge.’ She was to put her hands in 6 containers placed side by side and identify what was inside them, and if she could successfully do it for all, she would win something or the other. The first basket was filled with lettuce; the second with mice; the third I do not know, because my stomach flipped after it saw a woman who looks like a grandmother, picking up and squishing a mouse whilst blindfolded. The video thumbnail showed a crocodile, so I’m assuming at some point, she would’ve had to put her hand into container with a crocodile and squish it too.

Here’s the irony: The video was titled “most fascinating and thrilling moment.” This was a Ramzan show.

Now A-Plus TV is back, and it’s even more fascinating and thrilling. They’re going to make a drama around the death of little Zainab; the same little Zainab who was 6 years old, and who was brutally raped and murdered by her neighbor in Kasur. Clearly there’s a market for morbid, debased and vitiated TV, because why else would A-Plus TV decide to shoot an entire drama around the brutal, gruesome death of little Zainab? The erudite brains at A-Plus TV saw that the drama ‘Baaghi’ based on the life and death of Qandeel Baloch was largely successful, so they decided it would be apt to rehash the formula with another tragedy. Only this time, it’s a 6 year old girl who’s body has been cold for only 5 months.

In the summer of 2017, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (the show runners behind Game of Thrones) decided to pitch a TV show called ‘Confederate’ who’s premise was that the South had successfully seceded from the Union “…giving rise to a nation in which slavery remains legal, and has evolved into a modern institution.” The reaction to the idea was swift and brutal; slavery in the USA might’ve been abolished in 1865 with the passage of the 13th Amendment, but even in 2018 the thought of two white men creating a show with an alternate history in which black people are shown as slaves is condemned with a vociferousness we seldom see. On the other hand in 2018 in Pakistan, little Zainab’s death can be exploited for ratings, fame, money and glamor, and there’s nothing anyone can/will do except pass a comment, or heave a sigh. Our collective amnesia seems to be the culprit, but it is more likely the fact that somewhere in the past 70 years, our morality committed suicide.

Some things are sacred. Some things you do not make light of. Zainab’s death is one such thing. Imagine the pain her parents must go through every day. Now imagine them watching their worst nightmare exaggerated and dramatized, and broadcasted into the homes of millions of people across the world. Does your head bow with shame? Because mine does. It pains me to think that we have become so desensitized to basic human emotions that it is OK for us to exploit someone else’s tragedy for our own benefit. After this drama airs, which it inevitably will, the actors and actresses which take part in it will laugh and drink as they accept and give awards and congratulate each other, and say cliché things like “Zainab’s death is an eye-opener” or, “Zainab’s story is the story of millions of children in our country.” They will fail to mention the millions they will earn to exploit these stories.

Meanwhile in Kasur, one less light will burn in little Zainab’s home because she doesn’t exist anymore and there’s no one left to fight for her honor.

The curious case of Meesha Shafi, which isn’t really that curious after all

noreply@blogger.com (H.) — Fri, 4 May 2018 21:29:00 -0400

Meesha Shafi and Ali Zafar

Raima Khan has penned an op-ed in the Daily Times where she uses the same tried and tested arguments to shame the victims of harassment into submission. They range from the ‘if she didn’t like him, why did she hang out with him?’ to the ‘but she’s also done such terrible things in the past, why don’t we talk about those?’ Before we go any further, it is important to remind the good people of the fact that Daily Times is the same newspaper that published a post by Mohsin Sayeed in which he called women who disagreed with Meesha Shafi “cock sucking cunts.” Then, it apologized to Mohsin Sayeed for publishing the post in the first place. So you can understand if I don’t pay much attention to this worthless rag of a newspaper.

But a lot of people seem to think that Raima Khan has provided some genius insights into the whole Meesha Shafi, Ali Zafar saga. Spoiler alert: She hasn’t. Here I debunk the arguments she’s made, point-by-point.

1. “This is a case of two equals and therefore cannot possibly be talked about and discussed in the same narrative as other sinister and harrowing cases of sexual harassment.”

No it’s not. Now I believe in the multiverse theory, which suggests there is an infinite number of universes, so I can imagine a universe in which Meesha Shafi and Ali Zafar are equal, but it most certainly is not this one. Meesha Shafi does not get paid as much as Ali Zafar. She doesn’t get the same list of overzealous band of fans who will defend her to her detractors. Heck she isn’t even given the benefit of doubt when she makes an allegation of harassment. She’s dismissed, as if she’s overstepped her bounds. Ali Zafar on the other hand is immediately believed when he denies the allegations.

2. “Her former manager, Fahad Rehman claimed his experience with [Meesha Shafi] included ‘blackmail’; two women part of the band at the jam session where the alleged harassment was said to take place came out as witnesses … a former theatre colleague, Talia Mirza wrote a public note on Facebook claiming that she had been bullied and Shafi had slut shamed other women. She also said that Meesha’s brother, Faris Shafi, also a public figure, had put women in uncomfortable situations in the past including herself.”

This is an interesting one. Let me talk about the women first. The two women who came forward said Ali Zafar has never harassed them, and they did not see the harassment take place. They did not say the harassment did not take place. When incidents of harassment take place (the kinds which Ali Zafar is accused of), they usually aren’t done in public for the benefit for all those present. But let’s assume the witnesses are absolutely correct. To wit, the counter is the several other women who’ve come forward claiming Ali Zafar harassed them. Raima Khan chooses to believe the witnesses at the gig. I choose to believe the women who’ve come forward otherwise. See the problem?

Now about her manager and Talia Mirza. They both have made serious accusations against Meesha Shafi, and if their accusations are correct, then Meesha Shafi’s only proving the point that she’s no different than a slimy sleaze ball who people should stay away from. But I put it to you, does Meesha Shafi being a sleaze ball give anyone the right to harass her? If you answered no, then stop bringing her other transgressions up. They are irrelevant and have no bearing on this incident. If you answered yes, you’re a perverted slime ball and you should be ashamed of yourself.

3. “It is also important not to dismiss the pictures of Shafi and Zafar together simply as misogynistic media trying to portray her negatively.”

I rolled my eyes so hard when I read this, I think I gave my eye a cramp. Wife, gets beaten by husband everyday, still takes a smiling picture with him. Why didn’t she leave him? What stopped her? Niece, abused by her uncle, still takes a smiling picture with him. Why did she take a picture with him? Why didn’t she tell anyone? Girlfriend, slapped around by boyfriend, still takes a smiling picture with him. That’s her own fault. Why was she his girlfriend? Why didn’t she behave like proper Muslim women?

Meesha Shafi, harassed by Ali Zafar, still takes a smiling picture with him, for any number of reasons. Maybe he’s a friend who she thinks hasn’t realized he’s overstepped his bounds; maybe she’s afraid of the reaction she’ll get if she creates a scene, so she finds it easier to smile and take a picture with him; maybe it’s a professional picture because they’re both celebrities who work together, so they need to take smiling pictures; maybe she just smiles when she takes a picture.

Seriously, what kind of an absolutely ridiculous argument is this? They took pictures together, so Meesha Shafi must definitely be lying about being harassed? OK then.

4. “Shafi herself, according to public records, has had an FIR filed against her some years back. This was by her very own family members and famous musician, Farhad Hamayun. Why is none of this being documented and talked about?”

Because it’s already been dealt with. It was years ago, an FIR was filed, some outcome came out of it, and it’s not an issue anymore. Creating a deliberate logical fallacy — Meesha Shafi was harassed by Ali Zafar, oh but here look, she had an FIR filed against her — is disingenuous at best, and petty, vile, crude and immature at worst. None of this is being talked about because Meesha Shafi being a sleaze ball does not give anyone the right to harass her. It’s like Maiza Saeed talking about Imran Khan being petty, when she was asked if she will condemn the words of Rana Sanaullah and Abid Sher Ali. One does not make the other right.

Here’s where we stand at the end of the day. You will believe what you choose to believe, but some hard facts just can’t be mollycoddled. As a Pakistani man I know exactly the kind of locker room talk, objectification and debauchery men indulge into. As a Pakistani man, I know exactly how men with power and influence, manipulate women. It surprises me when men come to the defense of other men with the ‘where’s the proof?’ line of argument, because they know exactly where that proof is; it’s in the mirror staring back at them. There’s about a 98% chance that Ali Zafar is indeed a sexist, misogynistic, harassing pig, and men and women who choose not to accept that can continue to stick their heads in the sand. They’re fooling nobody but themselves.

When contemptible street scum actually is contemptible

noreply@blogger.com (H.) — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 23:04:00 -0400

Abid Sher Ali (left) and Rana Sanaullah (right)

Shireen Mazari uses the word ‘guttersnipes’ to describe the filthy Rana Sana, Abid Sher Ali and Talal Chaudhry of the PML-N. As an upstanding citizen of Pakistan with the moral obligation to tell misogynistic a-holes to go to hell, I stand with her and her choice of words to describe these men.

So PMLN guttersnipes have come out showing their gutter origins by using filthy lang ag PTI women - from Abid Sher Ali to Talal Ch to Rana Sanaullah & in footsteps of Kh Asif! Can respond in kind abt PMLN women but will not stoop to gutter level! Let them wallow in their filth
— Shireen Mazari (@ShireenMazari1) April 30, 2018

It all started when Abid Sher Ali in his infinite (lack of) wisdom decided to call Shireen Mazari a ‘tractor trolley’ on the floor of the parliament; the very same parliament where we expect the best of us to go and debate and listen and make laws. Instead of apologizing, he doubled down on his vulgarity and gave a new weapon to PML-N supporters — that it was OK for them to harass and verbally abuse the women of PTI.

It is no secret that the PML-N has always been envious of Imran Khan’s unrelenting popularity in the upper-middle class of Pakistan. This class is educated, moneyed, social, outgoing and constantly calls for changes to the established power structures that we’ve been seeing since the 1980s. So how does the PML-N react to this class? They go after the upper-middle class women by slut-shaming them. In their tiny, regressive worldview, the PML-N yanks think that slut-shaming these women will elicit the same reaction that they would have if somebody slut-shamed their own mothers, wives and daughters — hurt the ego of the men.

Will boycott interviewing Abid Sher Ali, Rana Sanaullah and all such misogynist creeps if they don’t publicly apologise. Enough is enough.
All female anchors/journos should boycott them. #RespectWomen
— Rabia Anum (@RabiaAnumm) April 30, 2018

But this vileness does not swing from one tree. PTI is also notorious when it comes to lack of women protection. The vitriol they spew against Maryam Nawaz Sharif Safdar, or Ayesha Gulalai, or heck, even Imaan Mazari (daughter of Shireen Mazari) will leave anyone’s mouth agape. It all points to the bigger fact that these men (of the PML-N and PTI) believe it is OK if women are befouled as long as it’s the women of the other side; it only becomes an issue if it’s the women of their own side who are harassed.

@MaryamNSharif @marvi_memon @Sairaafzalpmln @shaistapervaiz @Marriyum_A & all other women in PMLN:

Have the moral courage to stand up to safeguard respect of ur female colleagues 2day & women in general by ENSURING action is taken over the FILTH spewed by your party-bearers,
— ایمان زینب (@ImaanZHazir) April 30, 2018

I do not expect Rana Sanaullah or Abid Sher Ali to be punished by the leadership of the PML-N. Rana Sana’s foul mouth has uttered unbelievable vitriol in the past without a single hair ruffling on either of the Sharif brothers’ heads. It will be no different this time. What I am happy to see is that instead of the people saying “this is more of the same,” they’ve really taken both Rana Sana and Abid Sher Ali to the cleaners. Rabia Anum of Geo says she will not invite or interview Rana Sana, Abid Sher Ali or any other “misogynist creeps” until they apologize. Imaan Mazari has publicly called out Maryan Nawaz Sharif Safdar, Marvi Memon, Saira Afzal and Shaista Pervaiz and demanded that they stand up to safeguard the respect of their female colleagues.

Will this ugliness make any difference to the political careers of those who foul-mouth women as if they were consuming Rooh Afza on a hot summer day? Most probably not. But if there’s one thing everybody can be proud of, it’s that the conscientious people of Pakistan will not stay silent in the name of such backwardness anymore.

When the election turns into a selection

noreply@blogger.com (H.) — Thu, 26 Apr 2018 20:46:00 -0400

Khawaja Asif

Imran Khan likes to refer to Nawaz Sharif as The Godfather because the Supreme Court in its infinite wisdom decided to reference “The Godfather” (a fictional book by Mario Puzo) in the Panamagate verdict. He likes to use it because because the analogy reinforces the idea that Nawaz Sharif is a don (head of the PML-N), surrounded by his henchmen (top leadership of the PML-N), running Pakistan’s version of the Sicilian mafia. Today, the Islamabad High Court disqualified another one of Nawaz Sharif’s henchmen — Khawaja Asif, for life. Khawaja Asif said he’ll appeal the verdict in the Supreme Court, but we all see a lost cause when we see one, right?

Or maybe we don’t. This is more fuel to the fire. First, they went after Nawaz Sharif. They technically couldn’t do much to him because hey, nothing — not the offshore companies and not the accursed flats in London — was actually in his name. They were either under his sons’ names, or they were under Maryam Nawaz Sharif Safdar’s name. So what did they do? They pulled the lamest excuse in the entire universe, that Nawaz Sharif is dishonest and untruthful because he did not declare that he could have received a salary from the company of his son, registered in Dubai, and even though he actually did not receive that salary, he still could have received it, to disqualify him from the prime ministership. You still want to say they weren’t out to get him from the start?

Khawaja Asif’s case is different. He has an iqama of the UAE — a residence visa — which allows him the ability to flitter between Pakistan and Dubai should the going get tough; which it seems to have gotten. But the judges said it was not his iqama that was the problem; it was the fact that he was receiving a monthly salary from Dubai, and had not declared his employment in his nomination papers. This made him ineligible to contest the elections in the first place. In 2017, Usman Dar of the PTI filed a petition challenging the legality of Khawaja Asif’s election and thus, Khawaja Asif was also found dishonest and untruthful much like Nawaz Sharif and now, he’s out on his butt for the rest of his life. The establishment’s blue eyed boy celebrates wild today.

We are part of the democratic process. This means that when a judge passes a ruling, we are bound by our civic duty as upstanding citizens of our country to accept it. But even the judges in this case had to concede that this ugliness has gone on for far too long now. Justice Athar Minallah wrote in the judgement that:

“It would have been been appropriate if the petitioner [Usman Dar of the PTI] had gone to the parliament to deliberate on this matter, before invoking the jurisdiction of the court.”

But Usman Dar did not go to the parliament. He used the precedent set by the Supreme Court, which weaponized Articles 62 and 63 of the constitution of Pakistan, and used it as a sword to cut off Khawaja Asif’s political legacy.

The judiciary (and by extension, the PTI) has made a complete mockery of the democratic and political process in Pakistan. It is the people of Pakistan who elected Nawaz Sharif, Khawaja Asif, Chaudhry Nisar, Imran Khan, Usman Dar, Jehangir Khan Tareen, Asad Umar, and it should be the people of Pakistan who should decide how to punish those who lie to them. And the ladies and gentlemen that the people of Pakistan have elected to sit in the parliament of Pakistan, should deliberate on what needs to be done to those who violate the sanctity of the oath that they’ve taken. That’s the democratic process.

Instead, we’ve got power hungry maniacs invoking a judicial martial law and using it again and again to fire at those that they’re opposed to. The judiciary’s role is not to adjudicate on the political destiny of Pakistan; that is the job of the parliament and the people of Pakistan. The judiciary’s job is to ensure that due process and the spirit of the law is followed.

As it turns out, the PTI would much rather have the judiciary of Pakistan decide the political destiny of Pakistan, even if it means the spirit of the law gets trampled beneath the heavy boots of irony.

When #MeToo isn’t enough to save you from being set on fire

noreply@blogger.com (H.) — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 18:05:00 -0400

Parents of Asma Yaqoob hold up a phone with a picture of their burned daughter

Nobody is talking about Asma Yaqoob Masih. Nobody wants to talk about her. Nobody wants to listen to the sad, sordid, gut twisting story that Asma’s cold body wants to tell. And do you want to know why? Because she wasn’t some rich, famous, in your face celebrity. She was a maid, who was set on fire because a man felt jilted that she did not want to be with him. So he set her on fire.

Asma’s story isn’t the only one. If you go down this rabbit hole, you’ll find hundreds and hundreds of these stories — spurned men setting their rejectors on fire, or throwing acid on their faces. I felt my faith failing when I Googled “Pakistani woman set on fire.”

“Teenager burned to death for declining marriage proposal” ... “Woman set on fire for attending wedding without husband’s permission” ... “Girl burned alive for refusing marriage proposal in Murree” ... “16 year old schoolgirl drugged, strangled and set on fire for helping friend elope” ... How many hundreds more are we missing?

Last night I had an epiphany. Those who have turned the “mera jism, meri marzi” movement into a meme should be forced to watch the horrors their high handedness inflicts on those who shout “mera jism, meri marzi.”

It was Asma Yaqoob’s jism, but it was not her marzi. Because her marzi was overturned and she was set on fire. It was Khadija Siddiqui’s jism, but it was not her marzi. Because her marzi resulted in her being stabbed 23 times in broad daylight. It was 16 year old Sumaira’s jism. But it was not her marzi, because her marzi resulted in her throat being slit by her brother, and her writhing in front of a crowd of onlookers for almost an hour before she passed. It was Qandeel Baloch’s jism, but it was not her marzi. Because her marzi resulted in her brother strangling her in the middle of the night in the misguided belief that he was saving the family’s honor.

Rizwan Gujjar was a good, pious Muslim man. He wanted Asma to covert to Islam and then marry him. She said no. She said no to becoming a Muslim, she said no to marrying him, and she said no to his ego. How could she have dared? He doused her with kerosene and set her on fire.

I wonder how these good, pious Muslim men find it in them to set another human on fire, stab them, strangle them or slaughter them. I wonder which religious decree these good, pious Muslim men follow which leads them down this road of depravity. I wonder why these good, pious Muslim men don’t die of hypocrisy when they say it is not women’s jism, and it is not their marzi; when they say it is God’s jism and God’s marzi; when they forget to speak when God’s jism and God’s marzi are desecrated by men.

Asma Yaqoob Masih is just another statistic. She didn’t even make a blip. You might’ve heard of her just in passing. Or you might not have heard of her at all. But it’s too late now anyway. She’s dead because our apathy, our myopia, our insistence women don’t have it as bad as they say it is, led to a man thinking the appropriate response for a rejection, was inflicting intolerable, unbearable, unendurable, unmanageable pain on an innocent soul.

It wasn’t the first time, and it won’t be the last.

When Meesha Shafi wasn’t hot enough to be harassed by Ali Zafar

noreply@blogger.com (H.) — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 07:48:00 -0400

Ali Zafar

Meesha Shafi called out Ali Zafar for sexual harassment, publicly — and all hell broke loose on Pakistani social media. The Twitterati had a meltdown, the social justice warriors went tapping away on their keyboards frantically, and the rest of us watched in amazement as those who we thought had some modicum of sanity, resorted to obscene objectification of Meesha Shafi to prove that Ali Zafar would never harass her.

The amount of social breakdown I saw in the aftermath of Meesha Shafi’s allegations has rendered me completely speechless. I knew there was a reaction to the feminism movement in Pakistan — I just didn’t know it’ll come out in such force. The number one objection to Meesha Shafi’s allegations was that she’s simply not good looking enough to be harassed. This was quickly followed by the more conventional “she’s a slut, so she was asking for it” line of thinking that the Pakistani nation is accustomed to.

Now I am not going to go into the depravity of someone believing only “good looking” girls can be harassed, or the fact that most guys commenting on this tragedy today were of the opinion that being harassed is actually an honor that Meesha Shafi should quietly accept. No.

What I am going to go into is the fact that the vast majority of men and women are so biased in their assessments against victims, it should literally give you migraines. Pick any victims over the last 10 years. Mukhtaran Mai, was bullied and harassed on national TV by Mubasher Lucman in his show; to be followed by Pervez Musharraf saying she conveniently got herself raped to get foreign visas. Malala, shot in the head by Taliban, conveniently dismissed as a western agent, an actor, and questioned about how she’s alive after being shot in the head. Shazia Khalid, a doctor posted at Sui, raped by an army officer in the middle of the night, beaten and tortured, and then drugged by the medical staff who she had gone to ask for help. And then, she was put under house arrest. Then her husband’s grandfather asked her husband to divorce her for bringing dishonor to the family, and when the husband refused, the grandfather assembled a mob to kill her. Khadijah Shah, stabbed 23 times in broad daylight, who’s perpetrator’s father said in open court, in front of a judge, that he would leak her pictures if she didn’t back off. Her attacker was sentenced to 7 years in prison. Then it was reduced to 5 years. Then the judge himself asked Khadija to pardon the attacker.

How many men and women in this country believed the stories of these victims? These victims who’s stories are verifiable without any question? We still laugh at Mukhtaran Mai, dismiss Malala, have conveniently forgotten Shazia Khalid and have pushed Khadija to fend for herself in a society that will not rest until her attacker is free to torment her once more.

I have no love lost for either of the two individuals involved in this very public kerfuffle. I don’t know them. But some things do stand out to me. 1) No sane woman in this country called Pakistan would be stupid enough to willingly subject herself to the vitriol that is currently being directed at Meesha Shafi. 2) We have documented proof from Ali Zafar’s Twitter account that he is in fact, a sexist pig. 3) Since Meesha Shafi’s allegations against Ali Zafar, a bunch of other women have stepped forward to claim the exact same stuff as Meesha Shafi. 4) Meesha Shafi’s ignominious attitude aside, there really is never any justification for one human sexually harassing another human.

Ali Zafar says he’ll take Meesha Shafi to court. If I was Meesha Shafi’s lawyer, I would throw Ali Zafar’s Twitter account in his face, call the women who’ve called him out publicly as witnesses, and call it a day. But I’m not her lawyer. What I am, is a rational thinking human who thinks Ali Zafar crossed one too many lines. He’s rich, he’s famous, he’s handsome, and women probably don’t say no to him. And those that do, probably don’t go public with it. He probably tried the same with Meesha Shafi, and now he’s got his face plastered all over the Pakistani internet.

But he should fear nothing, because the overwhelming majority of Pakistanis have convinced themselves that he would never do it because a) Meesha Shafi isn’t hot enough, b) Ali Zafar doesn’t look like the kind of person who would sexually harass another person, or c) it’d be an honor if Ali Zafar harassed them.

Meanwhile the rest of us are going to go stand in the corner with our hats in our hands thinking about the social breakdown that’s led us down this path.

The True Perspective — 2018 Edition

noreply@blogger.com (H.) — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 21:10:00 -0400

The True Perspective

Welcome to the new, and welcome back to the old! The True Perspective is now updated and ready for 2018 and beyond. It’s been 8 years since my first post on this blog. In the time since, this blog has undergone massive transitions — design and concept wise. But I’ve finally gotten around to fixing some of the most glaring issues with this blog (I had to go and learn a bunch of HTML and CSS in order to make that happen) and hopefully, this’ll lead to a more streamlined experience for you, dear reader.

So what are some of the changes that you can expect on thetrueperspective.com then?

1. Mobile — The website is now properly optimized for mobile! Yay! This is something I’m actually very proud of. Previous versions of the website did not render correctly on mobile, with oversized buttons, lack of padding, and no coherency between the desktop and mobile versions of the site. But no more! The desktop version now morphs perfectly into the mobile version. If you’ve opened this link on mobile, you’re already looking at a streamlined interface. If you’re on the desktop, open thetrueperspective.com on your smartphone and check it out for yourself!

2. Medium — The True Perspective on Medium.com doesn’t exist anymore. While Medium is a good platform, I never saw any real traffic on there. I still have a couple of thousand views on this website every month, but the same just wasn’t true for Medium. So I decided it was time to bin it.

3. Comments — There are no more comments on The True Perspective. There isn’t any scientific or spam related reason behind removing the comments section from the blog, except for the fact that nobody comments on actual blogs/websites anymore — discussion about any article, news, link, blog now happens on Facebook or Twitter after the link has been posted there — and it was a resource hog on the website, causing page load times to increase. So I made the decision to get rid of the comments completely.

There are also subtle changes and under the hood tweaks to make this website more responsive, intuitive and easier to load. Please continue to follow The True Perspective on Facebook at facebook.com/thetrueperspective. If you’ve got any comments or you want to get in touch, you can send me a message at m.me/thetrueperspective.

Cheers!

Pakistan’s unhealthy obsession with its military prowess

noreply@blogger.com (H.) — Sun, 19 Mar 2017 19:00:00 -0400

Pakistani F-16s

They say minstrels write songs about the military might of Pakistan. They say poets try to equate the omnipresence of God with the creation of Pakistan. They say even philosophers are forced to concede that the existence of Pakistan is a miracle.

Meanwhile in the mortal world, we’re left to wonder if Pakistan is so great, why the hell do they turn off mobile networks every time a bird sneezes?

The other day I went to McDonald’s. Right in front of me was a military officer wearing his uniform. He crossed the metal detector and was on his way. When I crossed the metal detector a security guard jumped out of nowhere and told me to stretch out my arms for the proverbial “checking.” I was outraged. Why did that security guard not “check” the military officer? To which that innocent, misguided, gullible representation of the Pakistani populace replied, “because he defends us. It doesn’t behoove us to check those who defend us.” Pure anger coursed through my veins. So the 70,000 Pakistanis that we like to bandy about before the international media, did they drop dead of their own accord? If these men of the so-called Allah’s army are supposed to defend me, why did the attack on APS Peshawar happen? Or the attack at Sehwan Sharif? Or the attack in Iqbal Park Lahore?

I’m not a fan of the military in Pakistan. This is the reason why: They get a free pass, every single time. And they’re allowed to get a free pass every time they want to show off their love affair with phallic toys. Like today.

I woke up today with fighter jets whizzing over my house. They were on their way to the military parade ground in Islamabad, for the full dress rehearsal that’s taking place, before the actual thing takes place on the 23rd. So I picked up my phone and tried to message a colleague, but the message wouldn’t deliver. And that’s when I saw that I had “No Service” instead of the bars of phone strength signals. So there it was again — a free pass. People’s lives can be damned; their inconveniences can be ignored; their priorities can be shelved, as long as the boys wearing camoflague uniforms get to show off their toys. And for what? What have these toys achieved? I still don’t feel safe going to a market, or a mosque, or a bazaar.

They say when you go to a foreign country, they treat you like a second class citizen. That’s a load of bullshit if I ever heard one. But what about being treated like second class citizens within your country? What do you think your status is when they shuffle you like sheep and ask you to “prove your identity” when they stop you at checkpoints and search your vehicles without warrants? Thatis called being treated like second class citizens. It doesn’t happen in America. It doesn’t happen in Europe. Or Canada, or any other country where the majority of Pakistanis want to escape to.

It is tme for catharsis. This country which we claim is all we need in the world is not great. It’s not even good. In this country we have problems of terrorism, extremism, corruption, lack of rule of law. Instead, what we’ve decided to tackle is free speech, the internet, the very existence of social media and inclusion. State agencies, without following due process, kidnap people who are critical of the state, and judges scream profanities when those same kidnapped people are recovered and try to find asylum abroad. I mean the sheer naivete and blindness that makes up the national character of this country astounds me to no end.

I don’t know. It’s the culmination of the little things that has boiled over. The terrible traffic, the electricity crises, the lack of due process, the relentless war on the freedom of speech.

And now, today, them turning off my mobile phone network.

We hate liberal fascists... Why?

noreply@blogger.com (H.) — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 12:24:00 -0500

Liberal Fascist

The top trend in Pakistan on Twitter today was #WeHateLiberalFascists, started by a charming young man called Farhan Khan Virk who according to his Twitter bio is a "Global Youth Ambassador for the UN" - (since I wrote the post, he has changed his Twitter bio), as well as a medical student, blogger, social media activist, and by the look of his tweets, a PTI fanatic and yadda yadda yadda. So I went to his blog to check out what kind of views this man espouses, when I discovered that he's "neither a liberal fascist, nor a religious fanatic". Well good for him.

The reason Mr Virk started the #WeHateLiberalFascists hashtag was because according to him "TTP and Liberal Fascists are same! One group kills us and the other group protects those killers from hangings!" [link].

Now before I delve deeper into the narrative espoused my Mr Virk, let me just clarify who a fascist actually is. A fascist is someone who believes in radical authoritarian nationalism. The same kind being displayed by Mr Virk and his ilk. So by any stretch of the imagination, it is Mr Virk who is technically a liberal fascist, and not those who disagree with him.

I don't know under what rock Mr Virk lies but the truth of the matter is that the so called "liberal fascists" he wants to hang (along with the Taliban) are the same people who have been voicing their anti Taliban opinions since this whole mess started in Pakistan. The same people who said do not make a distinction between the good and bad Taliban; the same people who warned talking to these terrorists will come to bite you in the ass; the same people who stand outside Lal Masjid and demand that those terrorist apologists who spew hate from the pulpits of mosques are held accountable. But as Mr Virk is a PTI supporter (member?) logic, common sense and decency do not seem to be his forte.

Hypocrisy seems to be woven into the fabric of the PTI so let me refresh everyone's memory a little bit. Imran Khan has been shouting himself hoarse by saying repeatedly that these terrorists who kill and maim Pakistanis are "our people" who have been wronged, and who have lost loved ones in drone attacks. That these terrorists responsible for the deaths of 60,000 Pakistanis are angry because American drones kill terrorists inside Pakistan. Imran Khan also famously said that the "Taliban do not want to impose Sharia in Pakistan by using force". Imran Khan, by the looks of it, seems to have a great in with the Taliban. The problem however is, that every time Khan opens his mouth to drop his pearls of wisdom, he's proven wrong; but that's a discussion for another time. What's important to note here is that just like Imran Khan, his supporters have cried themselves hoarse in defending the Taliban, and flayed the government when it decided to launch an operation against these terrorists. So it astonishes me that Mr Virk has the audacity to say the so called liberal fascists and the Taliban are the same when these liberal fascists were the one constantly opposing the Taliban, while Mr Virk and his ilk were defending the soul less monsters roaming in Pakistan's tribal belt.

Hijacking a narrative and obfuscating the truth has become the norm in Pakistan. That's what Mr Virk and his fellow PTI supporters have done in this instance. Let me just briefly mention the backstory of why liberal fascists offend Mr Virk so much. After the government lifted the moratorium on the death penalty in Pakistan, a lot of clear headed Pakistanis implored the government to rethink the decision. The reason was that 86% of the death row inmates were tried by anti terrorism courts, when they had in fact nothing to do with terrorism. Shafqat Hussain's case is a glaring example of this injustice. When people raised their voice on this issue, in swooped Mr Virk and his ilk to hijack the issue and say liberal fascists are defenders of terrorists because they don't want them to be hanged. But that's not really the truth now, is it?

Now Farhan Khan Virk is a man who likes to stir the pot every now and then against all those people the PTI loves to hate. But I don't see him starting a Twitter trend to ask the government about the unfortunate release of Malik Ishaq, the leader of the terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, or the release of Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi, the main accused in the Mumbai attacks. This is what ticks people off. The hypocrisy of these so called defenders of Pakistan. Maybe next time Mr Virk would be well advised to go after people who have actually harmed Pakistan and harbor the intent to do it again, instead of those who simply do not fit in the myopic bracket of Mr Virk's acceptable opinions list.

Why I do not support Imran Khan

noreply@blogger.com (H.) — Sat, 23 Aug 2014 01:39:00 -0400

Azadi March 2014

I do not believe Imran Khan has the skills, or the fortitude to lead this country. The only thing people keep saying in his defense is that we've tried the rest, now we should give him a chance. But he had a chance. That chance is called KPK. He failed miserably.

His foreign policy has no sense or direction, his interior policy is extremely dangerous for the country and his emotional tantrums make him unfit to be an administrator. And because he's made the same tall claims that the rest of our political gentry has made, you can be rest assured he'll fall even more spectacularly than the Sharifs (if they fall of course). By comparison the Sharifs policy of non confrontational politics and reconciliation is a refreshing and welcome change.

Imran Khan's only calling for the resignation of Sharifs because he wants to be the next prime minister. That is it. I would've agreed with him, heck even supported him if his so called freedom march was for accountability of the Lahore genocide; was for electoral reforms; was for drafting new local body rules and elections; was for re-elections in the districts that were found to be rigged (so far all of PTI's petitions have been rejected because they couldn't prove their allegations).

But I am not going to support a pied piper who's deluded himself into believing he is the rightful heir to a throne in Islamabad, and who will kill the system just so he can have his way.

You shameless hypocrites

noreply@blogger.com (H.) — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 13:26:00 -0400

People danced after setting Ahmedi houses on fire

So I did a social experiment last night. After talking to a friend of mine, I shared his post about the horrendous Ahmedi murders on my Facebook page, as well as The True Perspective's page. Guess what? Zero likes. Zero. Not a single comment agreeing with the sentiment; not a single comment saying anything about the affair at all. Apparently as a collective group, we don't really care if innocent pregnant women are burned. We don't care if a 7 year old dies because she was set on fire; or that a 16 month old baby, who still had to decide whether she wanted to grow up to be an apostate by the way, died because her skin melted off and her body fried in the sizzling fire. Meanwhile outside the burning houses people jumped up and down and danced around because Islam had been saved.

As I told my friend last night, and as I've been saying on Twitter for a little while now, the only difference between Pakistan and Israel — the country Pakistanis love to hate — is that Israel is populated with Jews, while Pakistan is populated with Muslims. Both foolish, both lost in the purpose of a cause that is as far removed from common sense as Pluto is from the sun.

Pakistanis love to condemn Israelis; they make YouTube videos and posters and start hashtag campaigns on Twitter and pretend they're the champions of Gazans; that if somehow they got their way, they would wipe Israel of the map. But now let's draw a comparison that's closer to home shall we? The Israelis condemn the Gazans and call them all terrorists; the Israelis say all Gazans must die, children, women, men what have you. The Israelis say Gazans are all terrorists and apostates bent on destroying Judaism. The Israelis sit on hillsides with popcorn and cheer when Israelis rockets kill 1300 Gazans. What about Pakistanis? They say Ahmedis, Shias, Sunnis, Barelvis — basically anyone who disagrees with their narrow, xenophobic, myopic worldview through the prism of religion — are all apostates. That they must pay the price for their apostasy. That we must kill these scoundrels to save Islam. And boy, do they save Islam everyday! The Israelis eat popcorn, the Pakistanis set houses on fire and dance around playing ring a ring of roses.

The sheer hypocrisy of this country's educated elite astonishes me. Not too long ago I got into an argument with a person about Malala Yousafzai. The gentleman sitting behind his computer launched a tirade against Malala for not condemning Israel. When I countered by saying it's not her bloody job to condemn anything — she's a 17 year old girl who's an education activist — he turned on me. This person who was so angry and riled because Israel was killing innocent Gazans that he stooped down to the level of defiling the morality a 17 year old girl, did not have the fucking guts to speak out against the Ahmedi butchering that took place not 2 hours from where he lives. And it's not just him. It's every single fucking Pakistani like him who think the only problems we have in Pakistan are all in Gaza actually, because Israel's committing a genocide.

There are only around 150,000 Ahmedis left in Pakistan. I urge them all to leave. This is not their country. They have no right to live here, to exist, or even to breathe the same air as the pious Musalmans of Pakistan. They are a sport to be hunted and brutalized as and when the pious Musalmans of Pakistan feel their religion slipping away. As my friend wrote on Facebook, miscreants or terrorists did not kill those innocent persons -- the ordinary people of Pakistan did. That's all you need to know about Pakistan anymore.

The Gazan blood hasn’t dried yet

noreply@blogger.com (H.) — Sun, 20 Jul 2014 18:41:00 -0400

Gaza on fire

I have avoided writing about this topic for as long as possible. After all, as a Pakistani my first duty is to talk about Pakistan and all the atrocious nonsense taking place in my homeland. But there comes a breaking point, where no matter who you are or what you believe in, you have to speak up against the injustice. My breaking point came after seeing pictures of dead children lying on the streets of Gaza, and people like Nick Kristof (who generally I have much respect for), blatantly trying to justify Israel’s genocide of Gazans.

As of this moment, 400 Palestinians have died in Israeli aerial and land bombardment. The UN says 80% of all those killed in this genocide are civilians. But of course that matters none to President Barack Hussain Obama, who at the White House Iftar Dinner stated “Israel has every right to defend itself”. Might one ask Mr President, what about the Gazans? Do they also have a right to defend themselves? Yes? No?

There are people, and learned people at that, who claim that if Hamas stops firing homemade rockets into Israel, Israel will become a good boy and go play in its own backyard. But these learned men and women are simplifying the last 70 years of Israel’s existence. Why pray, did Hamas come into existence in the first place? Well it came into existence because Israel is an occupier of the Palestinian territories and the Palestinians want them to get the fuck out of Palestinian lands. Hamas was founded in 1987 at the end of the First Intifada, which incidentally was a Palestinian non-violent movement to get Israel off of Palestinian properties. So Mr Kristof, your suggestion that Palestinians indulge in non-violent resistance movements [sic] has been tried before by the Palestinians. Didn’t really work out in their favor, buddy.

I have no sympathy for Hamas. Their blatant disregard for Palestinian life is self evident. However to call the Israeli Palestinian conflict a fair fight is bordering on the insane. You see every single logic you can concoct to justify Israel’s genocide of Palestinians (Hamas throws rockets at Israel; Hamas has built tunnels in Gaza; Hamas is a terrorist organization and must be eliminated) falls flat in the face of hundreds of women and children that have been killed by Israel’s bombs. So instead of asking Hamas to show restraint, why don’t you ask Israel to grow the fuck up, and act like a responsible fucking state by stopping the Palestinian genocide? And then you can feel free to cuss at Hamas all you want.

Many hundreds more will die. Many of them innocent people, who were trying to escape the Israeli genocide. Once a truce is announced, we’ll forget all about it, until it starts again and then the same bullshit arguments, and the same bullshit justifications will be used when Palestinian deaths are announced.

The curse of the Qadri

noreply@blogger.com (H.) — Sun, 22 Jun 2014 16:45:00 -0400

Tahir Ul Qadri

It was around a year and a half ago that Tahir Ul Qadri was sitting in a heated bullet proof container in front of the Parliament building of Pakistan while thousands upon thousands of people froze in the cold Islamabad night outside. Back then Qadri had arrived on a similar mission to the one he’s about to embark on today - rid the country of its current rulers. He failed miserably. Not only did he let thousands suffer on his behalf, but he also did not achieve anything and left with his tail between his legs. I said at the time that Tahir Ul Qadri is not Pakistan’s promised messiah. I say it again today.

And now tomorrow he arrives with similar ambitions. Thousands of men, women and children will join him in the sweltering heat of Pakistan’s hot summer and all of them will boil under the sun while the self-promised messiah sits inside an air conditioned bullet proof container. After all, who has the time to give a rat’s ass about normal, regular people, right?

The unmistakeable irony of Tahir Ul Qadri’s mission is that he has no stake in the entire process anyway. He’s a Canadian citizen, where he resides most days of the year, and only ever comes to Pakistan on these blitzkrieg missions where he disrupts the lives of thousands of people and then leaves without achieving anything. The man is amoral; he uses religion to propagate his own nefarious designs and agendas and has no qualms about how many precious lives are lost in the process. His claims are as hollow as his gratuitous lies and his claim to fame is based on an absurd tale of deceit, corruption and dishonesty.

But I digress. As a citizen of Pakistan he has a right to protest whatever demonic cause he so chooses. On the other end of the spectrum we have the Sharif brothers who have been trying to run this country like their own private enterprise. Just one problem with that whole plan: Countries don’t work that way. On the day the Punjab police conducted a mini genocide in Model Town Lahore, the Khadim-e-Ala Shahbaz Sharif appeared on TV and said if it is proven that he had anything to do with this massacre he would resign. Of course no one took him seriously because a) he has promised to resign for things so many times it’s like a running joke now and b) as the chief minister of Pakistan’s most prosperous province there was no way in hell that this man did not know what was going on. Was he at a hair salon getting new hair plugs? I hardly think so. So by common logic, go stand in front of metro bus and let it crush you Shahbaz Sharif, you shameless lying twerp.

Saroop Ijaz in an op-ed for the Express Tribune said it brilliantly “…Mian Sahib, we stand with you for the sake of democracy, however for your own sake stand by yourself.” There is heavy truth in those words. Yes, the process of democracy is slow, painful and fragile. It takes time to yield results. But the truth is for the first time in Pakistan’s history it is at a point where we can be hopeful about its outcome. While I am no supporter of Nawaz Sharif or his ilk, I do maintain strongly that the democractic process, one that Tahir ul Qadri is trying to upend, needs to be defended at all costs. This however does not mean that the government needs to go batshit crazy because it is so scared of a pseudo preacher from Canada and his followers. If Qadri wants to protest, then let him protest. If he wants to cry out loud, then let him do that. Democracy is not a one way street. While I disagree with Qadri, I also disagree with the government’s reaction to the arrival of Qadri. The only losers of this confrontation will be us, the normal, regular people of Pakistan.

I thought things in Pakistan couldn’t get worse than the lynching of the two brothers, Mughees and Muneeb Butt, in Sialkot. However since that fateful event I have been proven wrong so many times, I have literally lost count. Selfish men who are out of touch with reality and who have larger than life egos have never been able to make wise decisions. We’re witnessing a prime example of that today.

If Musharraf's a traitor, then Nawaz Sharif isn't that far behind either

noreply@blogger.com (H.) — Thu, 3 Apr 2014 18:51:00 -0400

Nawaz Sharif and Pervez Musharraf when they were best pals

Khawaja Saad Rafique is a man of many words. Recently, he said:

"There is no doubt that Musharraf is a traitor; he is Pakistan's worst offender."

Technically Musharraf is a traitor. He subverted the constitution of Pakistan for personal gain. But is he Pakistan's worst offender? Well Khawaja saab needs to get a neuro-exam so that he doesn't continue to spout off such utter nonsense.

I have always believed that Musharraf needs to be held accountable for his mistakes. There is no doubting the fact. But I have also always maintained that those baying for his blood need to be held accountable for their actions too. Nawaz Sharif for example lied to the people of Pakistan about his "deal" with Musharraf. Let's go back. His goons trashed the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Actions do indeed speak louder than words. Let's rewind up a bit more. Nawaz Sharif got into bed with Zia-ul-Haq, the madman who slaughtered Pakistan for his hypocritical gains. Maybe Nawaz Sharif needs to be brought to book as well. I mean, when we're calling one person a traitor based on certain parameters, those parameters need to be applied across the board, right?

The hypocrisy needs to stop. If Musharraf's head is rolled, then I suggest everybody else who's responsible for fucking Pakistan up from 1947 also gets the same treatment. If the law is to be applied, it should be applied equally. This selective amnesia that everybody seems to have needs to be checked.

Fox News thinks Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 landed in Pakistan

noreply@blogger.com (H.) — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 17:35:00 -0400

Fox News thinks that MH370 landed in Pakistan. Somebody needs to tell Fox News to hire a brain.

Yesterday there were reports in the media (later refuted by MAS) that engine data received from flight MH370 meant that it had continued to fly on for almost 4 hours after contact was lost with ground control. This meant that the plane could have flown to any location within the circle in the picture above. For some at Fox News however, it meant that flight MH370 was taken hostage and taken to Pakistan. Of course Fox News thinks that's the only logical outcome since Pakistan is a word associated with very negative connotations in the Fox News thesaurus.

The truth is Fox News, MH370 did not land in Pakistan. I mean, the idiocy and sheer lunacy of your proposition defies conventional logic. But of course in order to be Fox News I believe you have to transverse the boundaries of common sense and logic that set humans apart from, I don't know, baboons. Or buffoons if you're into that kind of thing.

Grow up Fox News. It's about fucking time.

Update 1:

Source: The Wall Street Journal

So this is the map that Fox News (and other news outlets) used to "predict" that flight MH370 might have reached Pakistan. As you can clearly see, it doesn't "reach" Pakistan. At all. Another map on The Guardian's website also shows that flight MH370 could only have reached somewhere in India at the maximum.

Once again then, grow up Fox News.

Update 2:

The Malaysian Prime Minister went on TV and said the plane continued flying for 7 hours after the last communication with ground control.

Let's assume the plane had enough fuel to go anywhere it wanted. In order to get to Pakistan, it would have to cross India. That is extremely sensitive and restricted airspace.

Even will all electronic equipment shut down, if the plane had entered Indian/Pakistani airspace, both countries' military/federal aviation radars would have picked it up. This is a plane. A big one. Not a penny with wings.

And then you would have to land the plane. Does everyone seriously believe that anyone could land that plane in Pakistan without anyone knowing? Without anyone seeing? You've got American military with all their fancy gadgetry right next door in Afghanistan. You've got the Indians on the other side. Does anyone honestly believe that a commercial airliner duped everyone and just landed itself in Pakistan without anyone knowing?

The Pakistani government for its part has denied that the plane is inside the country's borders.