You voted and you won!
Dear Pakistan, When you walked into the polling booth, you didn’t vote for an individual party or a candidate; you voted for Pakistan. Congratulations on winning! This was one of the bloodiest electoral contests in memory, yet you persisted. The past five years for you were engulfed with markers of dissonance: The unforgettable lawyer’s movement, the NRO crisis that threw the nation in turmoil, Salman Taseer’s unfortunate murder, the Abbottabad fiasco, Memogate and the expulsion of Ambassador Haqqani, the atrocity at Sallala and the resulting NATO supply route blockade, the disqualification of former prime minister Gilani, Malala’s shooting and the subsequent outpour of ...
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Elections 2013: Will the ‘injured’ parties refuse the results?
The country goes to poll on May 11, 2013 to elect the new democratic government for the next five years. The Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Interim Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso have already assured the people of Pakistan that fair and free elections will be held. However, the ground reality might be different. Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and other right-wing parties have enjoyed large public gatherings in Punjab, while other liberal political parties mainly, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Awami National Party (ANP), Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) and Baloch nationalist parties ...
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I will not vote for Imran Khan
In less than a week’s time Pakistan reaches a historic milestone- we vote! One might be a little sceptical of how free and fair these upcoming elections might be, but regardless, this will definitely be an achievement for us as a nation and it will prove that the democratic process seems to be thriving in Pakistan. As a citizen of Karachi, I have had a history of having unorthodox political views and have enjoyed being the odd one out, not concurring with the masses and arguing endlessly. However, what has alarmed me recently is that it has become increasingly difficult ...
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A SWOT analysis of Pakistan’s political parties
The following is an analysis of our political parties gauged on their Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT): Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) Strengths: PML-N has a strong following in Punjab – the largest and most powerful province in Pakistan. Furthermore, it has a great alignment with right wing groups and religious circles. Major cities of Punjab have seen tremendous development during the last five years. Weaknesses: PML-N has not been able to carry out any substantial development in remote areas and far off villages of Punjab. It has teamed up with same old faces that previously supported and strengthened a dictator’s government. Opportunities: The poor performance ...
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Do you know about the people of Tirah valley?
Have you ever heard of the valley of Tirah? This is not some valley in distant country in a faraway continent; it is located in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), in the northwest of Pakistan. Recently, Tirah has fallen into the hands of the Taliban after a fierce couple of months of fighting. The main battle for control of Tirah was between the Ansarul Islam (AI) and the Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) backed by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The news of this fight has been covered extensively by some of the leading daily newspapers of Pakistan, but unfortunately, the mainstream news channels of Pakistan have completely ...
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Dancing with the Taliban
I am not a national security expert – I could not intelligently drop one relevant term if I wanted to. Thanks to my mother’s geographical coordinates when she gave birth, I have a green passport (for which I signed away the religious rights of over three million Pakistanis). I feel like someone is about to sign my rights away as our politicos endorse negotiations with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Again. On February 14, as the world celebrated One Billion Rising (OBR), marching and dancing in protest against women’s rights being violated, a room full of (mostly) men decided talks with a ...
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A visual guide to the political circus in Pakistani media
Five years of democracy has meant a great deal of ups and downs for the free media. There has been a lot of drama, and occasionally some substance. Politicians returned from the wilderness into a completely changed world and had to adapt quickly. New phrases, techniques and protocols had to be developed and on most occasions, the result – apart from tragedy – was hilarity! Here are a few of the best trends that caught on in the Pakistani media. “Dekhein ghaltian tou sab se hui hein” (We’ve all made mistakes) The best of the trends came right at the start. Several politicians were ...
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Noise on the Connecticut shooting, but deafening silence at home
Shootings at Sandy Hook happened a day before the bombings in Peshawar. There was an outcry for justice and amendment in the United States gun control laws, worldwide. Pakistanis in the US and abroad, also expressed their deepest condolences towards the people who had died in this tragic incident. President Obama addressed the nation with immense grief. His teary-eyed, sombre voice sent a shiver down my spine. Several news publications and scholastic journals published detailed reports and academic discourses of the incident within 24 hours of the shooting. And the average person in the United States, is still reminiscing over ...
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Imran Khan is not ‘Taliban Khan’
Often mocked as ‘Taliban Khan’, Imran has drawn harsh criticism for a number of policies which he and his political party have consistently towed. We know that he is against military operations in FATA, he is against drone strikes carried out by the US government and wishes to disengage from the US war on terror (WoT). Imran Khan’s consistent opposition to military operations including the Lal Masjid operation has not come out of sympathy for the intended targets of such operations but of the eventual side effects. Or at least that is what he says. Imran believes that widespread military operations ...
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Yes, Malala is more important than the average citizen
A death of a leader is always grieved more than the death of a worker. Likewise, the life of a national hero is celebrated more than the life of an ordinary citizen. This is a universal law – a trait common to all cultures. The battle of Badr in 624AD, the most decisive battle in Islamic history, was fought and won by 314 Muslim fighters including Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) himself. The Holy Prophet (pbuh) went on creating an Islamic empire, and became the most eternal personality of Islam. Yet we don’t know much, or anything, about the remaining 313 fighters, apart from the ...
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