Self Talk

We have to bear with Malala whether we like it or not. There are lapses in her story, so are controversies associated with the prize. But the fact is that neither the controversy associated with politicization of noble peace prize can undermine Malala’s heroic deeds nor can the lapses in Malala’s story destroy the prize nor her own internationalized charm. What circumstances actually convinced the jury to choose her, as the rightful recipient needs a deeper insight. She has got it, and no one else from Pakistan did it this time. Long live Abdus Sattar Edhi and his untiring love for humanity, Imran Khan’s service to cancer patients, Mukhtaran Mai for voicing against Mubashir Luqman or Junaid Jamshed for his line of kurtas , but so did Mahatma Gandhi. The list of omissions is quite long and the selection process itself is potentially not free of biases and errors. So, move on Pakistanis, or live with it, she is the one. Her father choose to publish her diary by the pen name of ...

A human crisis, or one of the several human crises born on this unfortunate land, displacement of North Waziristan residents on account of military operation has taken a heavy toll on over all wellbeing of the residents. It has been decades since people of this and adjoining areas had sustainable peace. The law and order situation has been frail since the invasions and wars started off many years ago and generations have passed without an end to the misery. The latest in this story have been the internal displacements to enforce writ of the state, and in this particular case, writ of Pakistani state. Few years back it was Sawat and Buner where military operation had to be launched, this time it is North Waziristan, allegedly a safe heaven for terrorist for long time. The people are asked to vacate their houses and move to another safer place where camps are established to house them and provide them with necessary modalities of life. Being a far-flung area, education and health faci...

Pakistan is a parliamentary democracy where the sitting prime minister is taking a third term. His past two terms as prime minister failed to complete. Once he was over run by his political rivals and the other one was overthrown by the military. Punjab, the most-populated province, however, has been under his party's rule during 5 of last six political changeovers. He heads a faction of Muslim League named after him (Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz The major opposition party, the Pakistan people's Party (PPP), has largely softened towards PMLN owing to their mutual realization that fighting only leads military interventions and weakening of democracy. During last five years, PMLN played a friendly opposition to PPP regime which led to first ever democratic transition in the history of this country, a political party completing its term and handing over government to another political party. PPP being the 2nd largest party in the country has their leader of the opposition in the ...

Next general elections are no more out of sight in Pakistan. One and the only clean politician and famous philanthropist in our country, Imran Khan, needs to move the masses. This is high time for him to appear on national scene as a true alternative. Thanks to his naïve ways of politics, he seems far away from sweeping the national election this time. But that can be made possible if he listens to some advice. 1. The impact of internet, especially social networks like Facebook and Twitter has shown its potential in last US presidential election as well as recent Middle East uprisings of Tunisia, Egypt and others. Imran Khan must come in close touch with the youth through Twitter and Facebook where he can convey his message in real time and gather feedback. 2. A talent hunt for candidates should be started now. Or if he has already chosen few people, they should be announced now. They should be asked to appear on their respective constituency’s skyline and should try to convey Imran...

In the age of twitter and facebook, witnessing a regime change in Egypt looked quite awesome. In fact I was quite lost into its final hours, stuck to live transmissions of BBC and Aljazeera, following people tweeting live from Tahrir Square and reading Cyril Almeida’s nice analysis in Dawn on regular basis. The history unfolded before my wide open eyes. It was unbelievable. Although I expected bloodshed many times in the last week, I kept my hopes high and wished the people a win.  More so because it was a led by Egyptian youth, using the social network forums to organize protest against the sitting president. Although Hosni Mubarak had been a favorite of Europe and US, he could no longer keep his hold on the government and had to surrender to the will of masses. Internet has started bringing meanings to people’s lives and now we can expect almost anything happening anywhere in the world. So is the potential of this technology. For a true democracy in Egypt, there is a long way to...

The killing of three people by an American citizen in capital city of Punjab, Pakistan is indeed a shocking incident. The man in question alleged that he acted in self defense and the guys were decoits who wanted to rob him of the freshly withdrawn money from an ATM.  However, the postmortem examination report belies his saying by stating that the killed were fired upon from behind. Revelations of the use of forbidden bullets and an allegedly weapon without a valid license has further complicated the situation.  Equally shocking is the demand by American embassy for his immediate release, saying that he enjoys the diplomatic immunity. According to the newspapers, however, he is on a business visa and was not there on a diplomatic duty neither did he had a diplomatic escort with him. So, what was he doing there? Complicated, isn’t it? How far will it go? Pakistan has so far shrugged off any request (read: pressure) for his immediate release. And it would be quite unwise even i...

Keeping a balance between ideals, hopes and ground realities, a beautiful 2011 can be like this. Peace and Democracy in Tunisia and rest of Middle East Advances in Palestine Israel peace process Good performance of Pakistan in ICC world cup 2011 Resumption of International Cricket in Pakistan Start of withdrawal of western forces from Afghanistan End to extrajudicial killings by American drone attacks in Pakistan Break in the recent wave of terrorism inside Pakistan Break in ongoing inflation in Pakistan Successful rehabilitation of flood affectees in Pakistan No more events of killings of civillians all around the world Resumption of HEC Foreign Scholarships Resumption of peace process between Pakistan and India International honors for my researcher friends Publishing results of my first experiment :)          and last but not the least My family's visit of France this summer :) Addition in the form of comments will be app...

Khalid Farooq We have all resources to condemn and agitate against US for punishing a lady who has obvious links with bad-groups, but we don't have a word to offer to those innocent women who are raped, punished and jailed in our very own PAK society.... Do I remember how many religious parties spoke in favour of Mukhtaran Mai when she was raped and tortured? Shahid Totally agree,yahaan molviyoon ko US ka naam milna chahiye,bloody hippocrates......... Shahbaz I think media focus plays important role to project certain issues, Allah says in quran" u r the best people, u enjoin what is best, and forbid what is bad, so u and me, molvi or non molvi, as long as muslims, are equally responsible for wh...atever is happening in the society, if u think molvi are forgetting that aspect of society, u and me can compensate or atleast can remind our fellows, we should not divide ourselves if we think we are one, "Momin is mirror of other momin, so what ever is wrong c...