Guest post by Saad K.
The start of spring marks the end of the hunting season in Pakistan. It also marks the end of the stay of some of nature’s guests that fly back to their homeland having fulfilled their annual migration from the winter cold of the fall-away Soviet states to the relative warmth of Balouchistan and Sindh particularly the Chaghi District and the Sanghar/Sukkur area. Of course, some leave heavily depleted in numbers having been hunted vigorously by the Sheikhs of various Middle Eastern countries such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar. One of the migratory birds that suffers the most in Pakistan is the houbara bustard that is currently on the endangered species list.
Continue reading ‘Of the rich Sheikhs and the poor bird’
Published on March 31, 2007
in Islam.
Though I was in the midst of writing a post regarding the holy month of Rabiul-Awal and the birth of the Prophet (P.B.U.H.), I came upon an excellent article by Ms. Naureen Aqeel published in The News yesterday.
Following is the article in its entirety:
Loving the Prophet (pbuh), but how?
Love is a potent emotion and it is one of the most vulnerable avenues by which Satan attacks and misleads people. When limits are crossed in love, we often fall into the most despised sin in the sight of Allah, and that is the sin of Shirk (associating partners with Allah). We have the example of the people of Nuh (Alaihis Salaam) who, because of their great reverence and love for their pious elders, ended up making idols of them, which later generations began to worship.
Whenever the expression of love deviates from the method taught to us by Allah Almighty and His Messenger (Sall Allaho alaihe wasallam), it opens doors to shirk and innovation and we fall into sin while thinking we are involved in worship.
Continue reading ‘Rabiul-Awal’
Meenah, a reader, cries out to all Pakistanis to stand up for justice. She quotes Faiz’s poetry to reflect upon the current dismal state of affairs and to point towards an eventual solution. She urges us to stand up for our rights and for justice. Ghafoor’s rejoinder to a question posed by Meenah is posted below. He looks at, ‘When will we finally wake up?’
Justice, anyone?
Justice is said to be blind. Unfortunately, when we’re talking about Pakistan, it also happens to be deaf, dumb, and slightly retarded.
Perhaps that is why, over the decades, we ourselves have become our worst enemy. A long time back, Faiz Ahmed Faiz penned a beautiful piece of poetry: “Hum dekhein ge” {We will watch}. He talked about Indian occupied Kashmir and how he hoped we would watch it liberated one day. On Friday, the 16th of March 2007, this rallying cry rang out over the radio, as our press was attacked by our very own “saviors”, the Punjab Police.
Sab Taj uch’halay jaein ge, sab takht giraey jaein ge,
Hum dekhein ge…
{All kings will be dethroned, all rulers ousted; We will watch…}
Haven’t we remained silent long enough? Continue reading ‘Justice, anyone?…and a rejoinder’
We had first posted a story about DAWN being pressurised on March 8th 2007. This was exactly a day before the Chief Justice was made ‘non-functional’. Obviously, at that time I had no idea what was to follow, but I found this attack on the freedom of press to be so significant that I commented, ‘Shameful. Is the Musharraf government headed towards self-destruction?‘
From then on it has been a roller coaster ride and the government has made it evident to the media that it can and it will at any time infringe upon their freedom. I had termed it the ‘Government’s war on Media’. However, those inane tactics earnt the government nothing but embarrasment. These tactics that are hidden from the public eye and not as obvious or as visible might prove successful. For the time being DAWN is trying to give the government a fight. However, I am not too sure how long they will be able to resist.
Continue reading ‘Worrying email from Hameed Haroon, CEO of DAWN Newspaper’
Published on March 27, 2007
in Sports.
So, it’s confirmed that Bob Woolmer was murdered. Last couple of days everyone’s been trying to voice their theories about how he was murdered, who may have done it and why. I’d like to put out my theory as well before we actually find out who did it. You see, its a high profile investigation and the rate at which things are going you never know how soon we might find out the identities of the killers and their motives. That’ll be the time when those whose guesses would have clicked would say, ‘Told ya so!’. The so-called foretellers would gloat on the exactitude of their claims. Obviously, they would say that they knew all of it as a matter of fact much before the investigators did. Which makes me wonder about the state of their knowledge? Are they accomplices in crime? Or, did they figure all this out through some next level, divine formulas and calculations? Either way the mystery surrounding Woolmer’s death has allowed many minds to wander and to attempt to figure out reasons for his death.
I made my own little attempt. Having taken all the facts into account and having done my own set of calculations I can say who I think DID NOT murder him. None of the Pakistani team members are involved. Also, even though violent crime is a serious problem in Jamaica I don’t think the local thugs or gangs may have anything to do with it. Why?
Continue reading ‘Bob Woolmer’s death: My theory’
Mohsin Hamid has produced a dull novel that is bereft of any creativity or literary value. I would like to be fair to him and his labour but there is not much to celebrate in his latest novel Reluctant Fundamentalist. Reading, like any other important activity, is sacred and I take it very seriously. Firstly, I think the title of Mr. Hamid’s novel tells you all without even reading 170 pages of it. So the publishers have done an abominable job with respect to naming the novel because it leaves little or even nothing for imagination. Readers who like good literature will see through this cheap technique. Even before flipping a page of this novel one is thinking about the eventual fate of the reluctant fundamentalist. Continue reading ‘Reluctant Fundamentalist should be read reluctantly’
After years under the radar, we now live in times where Muslims are constantly in the spotlight. Our culture, our beliefs, our way of life and above all our religion, for the most part, are projected negatively to the rest of the world through Western Media. Strong words like hate, radical, fear, etc. are always associated with Islam to such an extent that people unfamiliar with the religion and it’s people begin to correlate them habitually but along comes a sitcom to save the day. The first Muslim sitcom viewed in North America, Little Mosque on the Prairie is a new Canadian Broadcasting Corporation sitcom that premiered on January 9th 2007. It has already gotten more than 2 million viewers watching it every Wednesday at 8pm. Set in a post-9/11 era, the sitcom focuses on a Muslim community in the prairies.
Continue reading ‘Sitcom: Little Mosque on the Prairie’
Guest post by Momina S.
Introduction
Water is an increasingly scarce resource. The distribution of water in an agricultural society is an explosive issue and explains the controversy surrounding the construction of the Kalabagh dam in Pakistan. This project has been ready for implementation since the 1980s but due to opposition from three of the four provinces in Pakistan, it has been put on standby. However, the current Musharraf regime, with its emphasis on ‘growth at any cost’, seems willing to push ahead with the construction of the Kalabagh dam.
Continue reading ‘Kalabagh Dam: A Provincial Water War’
Published on March 24, 2007
in Pakistan.
By Qazi Faez Isa
THE Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-i-Azam) stole the title of our great leader but regretfully disregarded his principles and teachings. The All India Muslim League on March 23, 1940, passed a resolution at Lahore deciding that it was no longer possible to live in thrall to the British or under a domineering Hindu majority. The Congress dubbed the resolution ‘Pakistan Resolution’ and the name stuck.
Leading constitutional lawyer, barrister and president of the All India Muslim League, M. A. Jinnah, in a statement (reported in Dawn, February 4, 1947, reproduced in Jinnah Papers, published by the National Archives of Pakistan, 1993 ) on the Punjab situation (prevailing before the adoption of the Lahore resolution) stated, “Section 144 and various other methods are adopted for gagging the legitimate constitutional expression of the public opinion and criticism of the government by banning meetings and processions… and other executive methods by which the police and the administration are used not only to gag the free expression of opinion and criticism, which are the elementary rights of the citizens, but … have destroyed all semblance of civil liberties and have, by various methods, chloroformed the press.”
Continue reading ‘March 23: then and now’
Published on March 23, 2007
in Sports.
I am pasting two news stories. The first one states that the Pakistani President honours Bob Woolmer with the Sitara-e-Imtiaz. I had shown support for such an honour in an earlier post. The second one talks about something very sad. It is now confirmed that Woolmer was murdered. I find it very difficult to say anything about this latest development and will wait to see who did it and why. There are a lot of theories flying around lately, but there is no doubt that there is something seriously wrong with the sport these days:
It should serve as a wake-up call to those who run cricket, and those who profess passion for it. If a game starts taking lives, there is something sickeningly wrong with it - Sambit Bal, Cricinfo
Continue reading ‘Bob Woolmer: The plot thickens’
