Megalomaniac

“Liberal newspaper Express Tribune cowed into silence by Pakistani Taliban,” reads a headline of The Guardian . Those of us in the media had of course heard about a policy shift after a second attack on Express’s Karachi offices last year and now it is out in the open as well. It is tragic that a liberal newspaper had to take such measures because they feel they are on their own and no one is willing to protect them. Senior journalist Imtiaz Alam, who hosts two weekly programmes on state-owned Pakistan Television (PTV) and two weekly programmes on private TV channel Express News, says that everyone in the media should put up a united front to counter these threats. “ Express Tribune is under serious threat because of its consistent radical position. They have been terrorised into silence because of the last attack in Karachi, which was a clear message. Similarly, other media persons who are vocal against militants also feel this threat. Media groups should not be silent on the plig...

Talks, no talks…operation, half-hearted operation, no operation…end result: confusion. Despite the federal cabinet’s approval of a national security policy and air strikes against suspected TTP hideouts in the tribal areas, there is still confusion regarding the question of talks with the TTP and/or a military operation in North Waziristan. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s National Security Adviser Sartaj Aziz says the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is not serious about peace talks while Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan says the government would still prefer the route of peace talks with the TTP. There are those who argue that the military wants an operation in North Waziristan but is waiting for a nod from the government while the government is still waiting for a parliamentary consensus on the issue. In a strong democratic country, this argument would have been valid but in a country where the military is the most powerful institution, this should be taken with a pinch of ...

On Thursday, the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for an explosion targeting a police bus in Karachi. Thirteen people lost their lives and 47 were wounded in the attack. The TTP spokesman said their “defensive war will continue until an agreement is reached on a ceasefire” between the government and the Taliban. Instead of condemning the TTP, their apologists in politics, media and society continue to lay the blame elsewhere. They always come up with an excuse: some ‘third force’ is responsible for these attacks; the Taliban are innocent. Paranoia and schizophrenia: two words that best describe the current frame of mind of many Pakistanis. We think the world is out to get us while we turn a blind eye to the enemy within: i.e. the Taliban and their affiliates. The government is hell-bent on talking to the Taliban; the same Taliban who continue to bomb our civilians and security forces alike. With each passing day, we cement the path for self-destruction. The ...

A political event, a cultural extravaganza, an attempt to seize back the mantle of secularism, a platform to recast the past, a private party or all of it together “I hereby declare emergency” are words that have terrorised millions of democracy-loving Pakistanis in the past. But, the way Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) patron-in-chief Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari played on these words was witty and profound at the same time. In a promotional video for the Sindh Festival, Bilawal addressed the nation in a televised address in the same vein as that of Pakistani military dictators. But, unlike the generals, he declared a ‘cultural coup’ instead of a military coup d’état. It was refreshing to see this humorous take on coups by a civilian leader. Those who think such festivals are not promoting our culture need to brush up on their history. From paying tribute to the Indus Valley Civilisation through a tableau to a fashion show with songs and dance routines, from a laser show to pop songs,...

Ali Dayan Hasan, Human Rights Watch Pakistan Director and human rights activist, talks about the Sindh Festival, its purpose, and how it reflects on Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari The News on Sunday: Is the Sindh Festival about politics or culture? Ali Dayan Hasan: The Sindh Festival is primarily a celebration of history, culture and heritage. It aims to preserve and advance the same. In the face of an armed onslaught, such a statement of cultural assertion is of course, political. Extremists want to define who we are and to take away the power from us to do so. The Taliban and affiliates are adept at using cultural destruction as a means of asserting ideological control. If Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari is using his political capital to fight this, it can only be for the better. Other politicians should do so too and one hopes they will. Political support and ownership of such initiatives across Pakistan would be welcome. TNS: Do you think a cultural celebration or propagation can have mean...

“There are wounds that never show on the body that are deeper and more hurtful than anything that bleeds” ― Laurell K. Hamilton This quote reminded me of what a Hazara man told someone after the recent Shia carnage in Mastung, Balochistan. The man, who lost his wife and daughters in a suicide attack on Shia pilgrims, said: “ Yeh jo mai aap ko dikh raha hoon na, yeh mai nahi hoon. Andar se mai khaali hoon abb ” [What you see is not what I am. I am completely empty from inside now]. After every attack on the Shias, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) claims responsibility but the state does not budge. A crackdown against the LeJ was announced after the Mastung attack but, as expected, it was only a sham exercise. Shia Muslims are being killed across the country while their killers roam our streets with impunity. When one condemns these attacks, nay genocide, one is asked why just condemn Shia killings and why not other attacks. The answer is simple: while one does indeed condemn all murders,...

“…And Man saw that all is passing in this mad, monstrous world, that all is struggling to snatch, at any cost, a few brief moments of life before Death’s inexorable decree. And Man said: ‘There is a hidden purpose, could we but fathom it, and the purpose is good; for we must reverence something, and in the visible world there is nothing worthy of reverence.’ And Man stood aside from the struggle, resolving that God intended harmony to come out of chaos by human efforts.” These lines from Christopher Marlowe’s famous play ‘Doctor Faustus’ have a different context yet they remind me of a brave Pakistani teenager, Aitzaz Hasan – a 15-year-old boy who embraced martyrdom when he confronted a suicide bomber who wanted to bomb his school in Ibrahimzai, Hangu. The list of brave people in Pakistan is long: brave teenagers (be it Shaheed Aitzaz or the living legend Malala), brave leaders (Shaheed Benazir Bhutto, Shaheed Salmaan Taseer, Shaheed Bashir Bilour), brave cops, brave soldiers… and i...

Six years ago, Pakistan lost a brave – if not the bravest – leader, Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. Six years is a long time but every year on December 27, we mourn her martyrdom; we cry for a leader loved by millions of Pakistanis. In an interview with the Herald in 2000, BB said: “Either the democratic forces win or the establishment wins. If the establishment wins, the past will be repeated and that is what has happened for 50 years. If the democratic forces win, maybe the 21st century will be different for Pakistan. It is a fight and we are unable to say who will be the winner. But then, democracy is also about evolution. And democracy is also about fighting for what you believe is right and not giving up.” Benazir Bhutto did not give up on her country, she did not give up on the people of Pakistan, she did not give up on democracy; she knew she could be, nay would be, killed but she came back to fight for a democratic and pluralistic Pakistan. “2018 belongs to Bilawal,” said...

Pakistan’s most popular Chief Justice (CJ) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry retired last week. When the clock struck midnight, a friend tweeted: “For the record I state that I hold Justice (retired) Iftikhar Chaudhry in contempt, with retrospective effect.” CJ Chaudhry lorded it over Courtroom 1 like no other. While he reigned supreme, most people eulogised him — many of them still do — but as his tenure came to an end, even some of his supporters became his detractors. I am no fan of opportunistic detraction but somehow felt vindicated at this turn of events. The Lawyers’ Movement began as a populist movement but it ended up politicising the judiciary, especially Justice (retd) Chaudhry. The power that came with the Lawyers’ Movement led the restored judiciary to act in a manner that was beyond its ambit of power. Justice (retd) Chaudhry exposed himself to criticism due to some of his judgements, including the way the apex court handled (read mishandled) his son’s alleged corruption c...

When the news of an attack on the Express Media Group’s Karachi office was reported on social media and TV earlier this week, I was panic-stricken. I called up my friends working there to make sure everybody was alright. Three people were injured. This was the second attack on the Express office in four months. It reminded us all of the fact that Pakistan is indeed one of the most dangerous countries for journalists in the world. Attacks on journalists and media houses are not an unknown phenomenon in this country. Many Pakistani journalists have been killed over the years just for doing their job responsibly. Several others have faced death threats, been kidnapped, tortured, harassed, etc. Despite threats from various quarters, the great courage and steadfastness being shown by some journalists in the conflict-ridden regions is commendable. The role of those mainstream journalists/media houses who have taken great risks in exposing the wrongs in powerful institutions must also...

Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP) chief Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike earlier this month. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan wants to block NATO supplies from crossing through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in response to this particular drone strike. Jamaat-e-Islami chief Syed Munawar Hassan called Mehsud a ‘martyr’. Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that anyone killed by the United States — even if it is a dog — is a martyr. Pakistan’s Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan described Mehsud’s death as “the death of all peace efforts”. This is how most political leaders of mainstream, albeit rightwing, parties reacted at the death of Pakistan’s worst enemy. All terrorists are horrible creatures, but Hakimullah Mehsud was one of the most callous terrorists this world has ever seen. However, the way our ‘leaders’ and the media (some honourable exceptions aside) reacted to Mehsud’s death was unbelievably shameful. In any other country, the ...

Cowardice is certainly not a crime but there are occasions when one simply cannot forgive political cowards. Unfortunately for Pakistan, after the 2013 general elections, there is no dearth of such cowards in our parliament and provincial assemblies. Every time a terrorist attack takes place, some such coward will come forth and say something to justify the attack and the attackers, i.e. the Taliban. Most of these men are the members of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) or Mian Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). Mr Khan himself is guilty of making most callous and insensitive of statements after several terrorist attacks. When the government is unable to stop deadly attacks against its citizens, the least one expects is for our leaders to condemn the terrorists in no uncertain terms and show compassion towards those martyred. Instead, what we see is PTI and PML-N leadership calling the attackers our ‘misled brothers’ who will see the light as soon as drone...

“I stood firmly with those who opposed Musharraf’s Balochistan operation and earlier the sending of the military into Waziristan,” wrote Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Imran Khan. These lines were penned by Mr Khan to explain his position on why he is in favour of initiating a dialogue with the Taliban. It was astounding to see Mr Khan drawing parallels between the genuine Baloch struggle and terrorism by the Taliban. Mr Khan is not alone in coming up with such ridiculous arguments. In recent months, many in Pakistan – especially in Punjab – have started equating the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and other Baloch nationalists with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Those who do this are either unaware of the history of the Baloch struggle or want to undermine it – or both. The narrative surrounding the TTP and the Baloch nationalists is quite dangerous, to say the least. Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur, who has an association with the Baloch rights movement going back to the early 1970s,...

The Nobel Committee awarded the 2013 Peace Prize to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the UN chemical weapons unit. Other nominees for the peace prize included 16-year-old Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Prize nominee in history. While a lot of Pakistanis and others around the world were disappointed that Malala did not win the Nobel, she is no less a heroine for us. As an editorial ("The Malala story," October 9, 2013) in Pakistani English daily, The News , noted: "The question to be asked is not whether Malala deserves to win the Nobel Peace Prize; it's whether the Nobel Peace Prize deserves a winner as worthy as her." Malala is being celebrated around the world as an icon. She is not just an inspiration for millions of youngsters around the globe but even for those who are much older than her. Whenever one hears her speak — from her speech at the UN to her recent interviews — it melts your heart and makes you cry. Her becoming a...

In the aftermath of a double suicide attack after a service on Sunday at Peshawar’s All Saints Church, more than 80 Christians, half of them women and children, were martyred and more than 100 others injured. It was the deadliest-ever attack on Pakistan’s Christian community. Words cannot describe the pain everyone must have felt while watching the tragic visuals on our television screens: parents looking helplessly for their children, family members holding dead bodies of their loved ones, children in shock at the tragedy they had just witnessed, men and women shouting and screaming at the authorities to help them. It was a nightmare…a nightmare that will not end when we open our eyes, a nightmare that will keep unfolding until our state decides to stop capitulating before the terrorists responsible for murder and mayhem. Unfortunately, it seems that those at the helm of the affairs have no such intentions. As a result, our religious minorities will continue to be threatened, persecut...

The most common thing in Pakistan, apart from conspiracy theories, is Zardari-bashing. To blame Mr Zardari for all the ills that befell our country is easy but at the same time it is wrong and unfair. The reason he tops the list of the most unpopular leaders in Pakistan’s history is because a concerted campaign was started against him by the military establishment and its lackeys from the moment he got married to Benazir Bhutto. It was not just to malign him as an individual but also to tarnish his wife’s name in the process. He spent more than eleven years in jail as a political prisoner. Imagine being away from your wife and young children for eleven and a half years, spending time in solitary confinement, being tortured only because you were married to the country’s most popular leader - a woman the military establishment feared like no other. Mr Zardari might not be a saint but then again, none of us are; yet he has suffered like no other. President Asif Ali Zardari’s presidentia...

General (retd) Pervez Musharraf was indicted this month for the murder of Benazir Bhutto. He was charged with “murder, criminal conspiracy for murder and facilitation of murder.” It is a matter of public record that the security agencies that were answerable to Musharraf, who was a powerful dictator at the time when Ms Bhutto was assassinated, engaged in behaviour that amounts to a cover-up and resulted in the destruction of vital evidence. An article adapted from Heraldo Muñoz’s forthcoming book, Getting Away with Murder , was recently published in the magazine Foreign Affairs , highlighting such a cover-up. Muñoz headed the special UN Commission that investigated the assassination of Ms Bhutto. While General Musharraf’s indictment is quite symbolic in a country where the military has directly ruled for more than three decades, most analysts believe he will be set free sooner or later. Being a general in the Pakistan Army means you are immensely powerful. Being the army chief means ...

Decline and fall of General Pervez Musharraf High on his popularity on social media (Facebook 'likes' and Twitter followers) and misled by party workers that Pakistanis wanted him to come back, General (retired) Pervez Musharraf returned to a country he once ruled. That act of hubris has landed him in the dock for murder. On August 20, Musharraf was indicted by an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi for the December 27, 2007 assassination of two-time prime minister Benazir Bhutto. "He was charged with murder, criminal conspiracy for murder and facilitation of murder," Public Prosecutor Chaudhry Azhar told AFP. Musharraf's farmhouse in Chak Shahzad on Islamabad's outskirts was declared a sub-jail by the courts. Gossip is, he lives a comfortable life there. He watches TV, reads newspapers, smokes cigars, drinks Scotch every evening and is in touch with the world. Pakistani political prisoners have never seen such luxury. Time is another luxury the general...

Freedom from colonialism is something worth celebrating but as Pakistan fights for its survival, it was hard to be in a celebratory mood this August 14. Being an optimist (some may call me an ‘idealist’), I have always been hopeful that my country will one day defeat all its inner demons and be at peace with itself. I am still an optimist but the mindless violence around me has all but sapped my spirit and energy. I am sure there are other Pakistanis who feel the same way. Despite our weariness, we trudge along in search of something meaningful … in search of fulfilment … in search of a new dawn. To many it may seem as if Pakistan is in a self-destructive mode but that is not entirely true. There is still hope. Despite terror threats, we saw an increase in voter turnout in the recent general elections. It showed us that the people of Pakistan want to have a better future and won’t give up. Living in Pakistan is like a rollercoaster ride: it is rough, has its ups and downs but in the ...

The Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan has come under criticism in recent days. On Tuesday, the Lahore High Court Bar Association adopted a resolution demanding presidential references against CJ Iftikhar Chaudhry and two other SC judges for allegedly violating the constitution by rescheduling the presidential elections. Then came another blow. Pakistan’s Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim resigned on Wednesday. According to a report published in Dawn, the CEC saw the SC’s decision to reschedule the presidential elections as an “encroachment into the domain of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)” and an “attack on the independence of the ECP”. On top of that, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan has been asked to appear before the SC today (August 2) to explain his remarks against the apex court. Khan had alleged in a press conference that the ECP and the judiciary played a role in rigging the general elections. The contempt notice s...