Please don’t close down the zoos
It was with a heavy heart that I followed Islamabad zoo’s female elephant Saheli’s last days. News had it that she died due to an injury to her foot which got septic or a possible tetanus infection. Terribly tragic as the event was, Mr Kamran Shafi’s subsequent article on the subject was disturbing and added insult to injury. Speaking of Pakistan, he wrote, Close down all the zoos – For we do not deserve the poor things, the animal haters that we are. It is true that there are some terrible people in our country who exhibit an utter lack of compassion towards animals and even ...
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Why I will never leave Pakistan
I have been robbed twice at gun point. On an almost daily basis I witness the gross negligence or ignorance towards the concept of civic sense. Traffic cops more often than not are more interested in lining up their pockets with ‘chai paisa’ (money for tea) rather than implementing the traffic laws and regulations. The festive season in this country sees a surge in prices rather than a celebration of the occasion. Our current government doesn’t carry the best of reputations and is widely thought of as corrupt. The remaining political options consist of an idealistic autocrat, a tried and tested party from ...
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My reasons to believe in Pakistan
“Main to kehta hun bas karo aur Malaysia challo.” (I think we should drop everything and move to Malaysia.) For what seemed like an eternity, I just stood there with my eyes wide open. Shocked to the very core of my heart, I stared at him. My mind could not decipher where in God’s world my patriotic father had gone. He is the same guy who took bullets in his arm during student movements in his youth, and the man who helped me write my first speech in Montessori that ended with ‘East or West; Pakistan is the best.’ What happened to Pakistan Zindabad? What ...
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Corruption farce?
The present era is being called the age of corruption by many in Pakistan. Ranging from the National Reconciliation Ordinance to the growing allegations of corruption within state institutions, the perception of the current regime being highly corrupt has solidified. Despite its dominance in popular discourse, there has been little effort made to understand the global political context in which the anti-corruption rhetoric has developed. It is essential for Pakistanis to understand where the anti-corruption slogan is coming from. Ivan Krastev in his 2004 book titled Shifting obsessions: three essays on the politics of anti-corruption, writes: “It was the new anti-corruption rhetoric ...
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VIP protocol: Thanks for the extra sleep!
Over the last few years, Pakistanis have become accustomed to measures that are routinely taken to ensure security for VIPs of the land. Of these measures, blocking roads to ensure safe and free flow of traffic for our VIPs while the general public is stuck in huge traffic jams for hours has now become an accepted part of our culture. This indignity, inflicted on us in the name of providing foolproof security to senior political and military figures, has no roots in Pakistan’s original culture. It has been imposed on the citizenry, much like inflation, corruption, unemployment and poverty. However, ...
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Party campaigns: Where does their money come from?
Nearly all of us spend hours debating what our country needs, and almost every time we end up with the same list of priorities; education, eradication of corruption, job opportunities and other such basics. While I do agree that we require the above mentioned things, I also think that there is something else that we need on an urgent basis in our political system and which no one seems to be talking about it; campaign finance reforms. Even though it is the giant elephant in the room, I find it surprising that I have never come across a single discussion on it. For those ...
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Exposing corruption: Threats to journalists
It is a bitter fact in our country that if you expose the corruption record of any influential entity then you must be ready to face the dire consequences. During my journalistic career spanning 15 years, I too have received several threats from state and non-state actors alike. When I exposed the case of an alleged rape of a housemaid by the district Nazim of Sheikhupura in his camp office, I was threatened because the police were forced to register a case against their own Nazim. The parents of the 12-year-old girl had refused to lodge an FIR against the ...
Read Full PostMuch frustration and resentment
I will be accused of coming down hard on political parties but wouldn’t be wrong in saying that on most occasions, there is a wide gap between what our political leaders say and what they end up doing. Ordinary Pakistanis are suffering from a myriad of problems in the country, yet we find our political leaders busy building castles in the air. Take, for instance, the slogan of the PPP whose credo for all its existence has been to provide Pakistanis with ‘roti, kapra aur makan’. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has a motto where it says that it will eliminate corruption within ...
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Capitalism: A deal with the devil
It has been the greatest success story in the history of mankind. It has fuelled unprecedented economic, social and cultural growth, alleviated millions of people around the world from poverty and economic hardship, and ushered in a new era of technological innovation. However, while none of the political bigwigs and the so-called pariahs of the system care to admit, capitalism has created just about every problem in our world and the majority of its seven billion plus people face daily. It can be argued that terrorism global financial crises, famines, droughts and environmental changes are all the byproducts of the relentless need ...
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Don’t vote (but don’t complain)
As a young Pakistani I often feel patriotism is a virtue deficient in the Pakistani youth. To us, the phrase, ‘the grass is always greener on the other side’ is a suitable misfortune. We dwell upon how to escape – to a different country, a country more ‘suitable’ for the development of our skills or a country swelling with appreciation for individuals from other nations; those individuals being us. We, who didn’t like the working of the corrupt government in our country and didn’t bother making it suitable. Us, who didn’t vote and chose the ‘corrupt’ government by default. ...
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