Pity the judges and judgements
With apologies to both the great Khalil Gibran and honourable Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, one is proud of this nation which, in the last 65 years, has survived even after breaking up. I beg to differ with two observations of Justice Khosa, one where he said “Pity the Nation” and second where in the final analysis he called people to stand up to defend the constitution, giving reference to the Arab Spring. I was part of this movement even before it was launched. For the first time, as the secretary general of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, I issued the statement ...
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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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How Pakistan got boxed into religion
The National Database and Registration Authority’s (NADRA) refusal to change MPA Rana Mahmood’s religion from “Islam” to “Christianity” has many boxed in. A plethora of questions have arisen. Is this a human rights violation? Will Mahmood be considered an apostate if his records were to reflect that he left Islam? How can you change someone’s faith with a stroke of a pen? But no one is talking about the real question: Why do we have a “religion box” on our legal documents anyway? Say that and you essentially open Pandora’s Box. After all, in a 97% Muslim majority country, what good can ...
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Pakistan’s got heroes (not just terrorists)
Pakistan is an interesting country to say the least. We have probably as many (if not more) news channels here than entertainment channels. Unfortunately, where other countries use their media to benefit their people and show case talent from within it, we use ours mostly to spread fear and loathing for ourselves. I was recently browsing the internet to see if we had success stories of our own, for motivating our people, when I found out about so many gifted people in our country about whom we hardly hear anything. The media shows one interesting story about these people and ...
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My problem with your staring problem
My daily walk from my point stop to my apartment is nothing less than torture for me; not because I am exhausted after a tiring day at college and my legs are unable to bear that five-minute stress; but because the dear men of my beloved nation are suffering from the staring syndrome. Whether I am wearing jeans with a shirt or am covered in a burqa, there are three points in that five-minute walk where I feel people eyeing me with extreme interest. The first is an under construction building, where poor and ...
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Saving Face at the Oscars
In the midst of all the negativity that seems to be coming out of our country, every now and then a bright spark emerges. Sometimes it’s a win against the best Test team in the world of cricket. Sometimes it’s something a little more enduring – like Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy. This remarkable woman’s documentary “Saving Face” has been nominated for an Oscar. Yes – you read it right – a Pakistani is going to the Oscars on the basis of a project which highlights “acid violence”. Instead of showcasing the negative, the documentary shows the resilience of its Pakistani victims. ...
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In a bubble: Away from Lyari
This morning, I was woken by a text message from a friend. ”Don’t go to work today,” she wrote. The message said: “Apparently there are a lot of target killings going on, 23 bodies have been recovered. Haalat seem bad, stay home today.” I barely thought anything of it. Haalat are bad everyday and I can’t stop working because of thua. In classic uptown Pakistani fashion, the only thing on my mind was “the odds of something happening to me are a million to one”. It seemed the odds were indeed stacked in my favour. I reached my internship safely – as if nothing ...
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Patriotism is for the rich
It was noon on a particularly lazy Sunday. I could not go out as the law and order situation in the city was bad – as usual. I decided to watch television to get my mind off the gloomy state I was in: tired of the situation in the city, where there is a strike everyday because some political figure decides to be inappropriate and crude on national tv. I flipped through news channels because I had heard enough about cars being burnt and people being shot. In hindsight I realise I wanted some kind of escapism. So I landed ...
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Sorry to annoy you but it’s my right
After a recent poll by Thomson Reuters Foundation stated that Pakistan is the world’s third most dangerous country for women, many men moaned. What else do you women want, they say, looking at their women colleagues who earn as much as them and get the same perks and privileges. Here is what we want: a realistic view of the acute problem of discrimination against women in our society. Even if we do not talk about sexual and domestic violence that Pakistani women are routinely subjected to, there is still a long way to go to address the chauvinistic attitudes that remain ...
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Are Pakistanis happier in 2011?
With regular bombings being just one of their constantly growing fears, and their country being ranked 12 on Foreign Policy Magazine’s Failed States Index 2011, Pakistanis hardly have reasons to be a happier nation in 2011. We haven’t stepped into particularly hopeful terrain this year. The CIA World Fact Book estimates that Pakistan’s net emigration rate is 9 per cent higher than in 2011. This is testament to the fact that many things are wrong in the country – the most glaring of which are: 1. Inflation The 15.5 per cent inflation rate in December 2010 was brought down by two ...
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