A grim reminder
People often ask me if it is too risky to be a reporter. “Not really”, I tell them, “but if you try to be too adventurous, you can get killed.” I didn’t think of reporting this way until I covered the massacre of May 12, 2007 — a day I will never forget for many reasons: bodies lying in pools of blood, ambulances transporting the wounded and dead, powerful display of firearms by political activists, no policemen for the rescue and escaping bullets. Had I not been adventurous, I would have missed out on what I now consider a lifetime ...
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PTI in Balochistan: Quetta loves Kaptaan
In this video, I explored the true sense of excitement that surrounded Imran Khan’s rally in Quetta. As one of the locals who attended the jalsa (rally) in person, I recorded scenes that show what this gathering means to the people of Balochistan. I interviewed men who travelled long distances to see their beloved leader, Imran Khan. The general sentiment around the rally reflected adoration, positivity and patriotism. One can gauge the amount of respect people in Balochistan have for Imran Khan by the fact that many people showed up to support him despite the flooded streets and traffic jams. “Rastay ...
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Is the Punjab government protecting Ludhianvi?
After decades of abuse over corruption, politicisation, complicity with criminals, outright disregard for their own duties, and their inexplicable fear of unarmed lynch mobs, the Punjab police showed that there is at least one group whom they don’t fear- their own- when they pointed their guns at the Islamabad police to protect a known hatemonger from arrest. Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (read Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan) leader Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi, along with fellow extremist and Jamaatud Dawa (read Lashkar-e Taiba) chief Hafiz Saeed were wanted by the city police, for breaking a ban on their entry into the city, when both appeared ...
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Defy Pakistan: How the right-wing turned rogue
The Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC) is a tightly-held multi-party alliance of some 40 parties representing all shades of the country’s religious right-wing. It is led by veteran cleric Maulana Samiul Haq, who is popularly known as the father of the Taliban. The alliance is founded upon a single anti-US agenda, to drive out the Nato forces in the region and sprang up soon after Pak-US relations took a nosedive post the Salala bombing. After some low-key, closed door seminars on Pak-US relations, the alliance took to rallies, the first of which was staged at the Minar-i-Pakistan in Lahore. This rally was an ...
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Dear dictator, your rally really sucked
Dear dictator, Your ‘show of power’ in Karachi was, if I may respectfully say disappointing and anti-climatic. Despite all your tall claims of having massive public support, and an equally large Facebook following, you did not garner enough support to draw even close to 10,000 people at your rally. Leaders from your party proudly boasted that your rally would be bigger than Imran Khan’s, yet one can only wonder what happened and where you went wrong. Maybe if the attendees were paid more than Rs1,000 and a plate of biryani, you would have been able to fill the ground. Not only ...
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Another Imran Khan article that’s not about Musharraf’s rally. Sorry.
If Pakistan were a school and voters were the graduating class, then we’d know exactly where Musharraf would fit in. Musharraf would be the angry guy who sits at the front of each class and has a problem with things no one cares about, like the colour of the chalk the teacher uses. He would be a suck-up to everyone but his peers, and be like the head boy or prefect who gets the job done, but really, does anyone like him? His dog (his profile picture on Facebook) would probably be a lot more popular than he is. This was ...
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Dear Imran Khan, I beg to differ…
I have observed Imran Khan’s recent meteoric rise with mixed emotions. On the one hand, he is scrupulously honest and seemingly sincere in his desire for a new Pakistan. This is in stark contrast to the political cretins who inhabit our legislature and executive. And as my sister would confirm, I am somewhat predisposed to a positive view of Imran based on years of boyhood hero worship (she labelled it a man-crush). On the other hand, thoughtful liberals can only cringe as he invokes a heady mix of right-wing ideology, jingoism, Islamic nationalism, and anti-American vitriol – dangerous follies that tap into ...
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The Karachi tsunami strikes
The successful PTI rally in Karachi proves one thing for sure, especially to the Imran Khan naysayers and doubters: that come next election, his party will be a formidable force to reckon with. A bulk of the audience comprised youth, many of them presumably disenchanted with the way politics is done in this country. Of course, his party has already accepted several former ministers and members of parliament from the PML-Q and one heavyweight from the PML-N in the shape of Javed Hashmi. Mr Hashmi stood on three seats in the last general election and won all three and is ...
Read Full PostA field trip to a festival of hate
“The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.” Stephen King Teachers are entrusted by parents to help mould children into ‘good’, responsible, people. They are also trusted to tell their parents the truth about what their kids are being made to do in school. That trust is one of the most important things in the student-teacher-parent relationship. Breaching it makes one an embarrassment to the profession, and threatens the welfare of the child. In the last fortnight, there was the Gujranwala incident, where, according to this newspaper, “the local administration ordered the heads of all government schools to ...
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Imran Khan: The hero that stole Christmas
In a recent letter addressed to Imran Khan, the Lahore-based umbrella organisation for NGOs, the Centre for Human Rights Education (CHRE), expressed its ‘concern’ to the PTI chairman on his party’s plan of holding a public rally in Karachi on December 25 which marks the celebration of Christmas the world over. While recognising the right of the party to hold a public gathering on a day of its choosing, the organisation asked the PTI chief to change the day for the rally that is scheduled to be held in Karachi on Christmas. The letter states that holding a rally on December 25 will ...
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