Pakistani media circus
There is a clear divide in Pakistani print and electronic media. On the one hand you have the circus being performed by the likes of Ansar Abbasi, Shahid Masood, Irfan Siddiqui, Zahid Hamid and Ahmed Qureshi. On the other hand, you have Nadeem Farooq Piracha, Fasih Zaka, George Fulton, and many others. The former is a gang of right wing conspiracy theorists who believe the US and India are behind everything bad that happens in Pakistan. The latter is apparently a group of western educated progressive journos who frown upon everything that reeks of any association with Islam, they might not agree to it but they toe the US line when it comes to reporting and analysis of the war on terror. In all this mayhem truth and objectivity are the major casualties.
Ghalib
Ghar mein tha hi kia ke tera gham jisay gharat karta
Bas ik hasrat-e-tameer jisay ham dekhtay thay so woh hay.
Lahore O Lahore!
My romance with Lahore started in early 80s when I first visited the city as a seventh grader. It had seemed a world apart from my small dusty town. Green, urban and clean. I immediately fell in love with the leafy green new campus of the Punjab University where my Uncle was studying. The environment in the hostel, the sports ground and the tree lined canal all left an impression upon me that was to last forever. Almost ten years later when I myself took up lodging in the new campus hostel, it was like a dream come true for me.
Since then I have moved on in my life. Lived, studied and worked in cities like Birmingham, Melbourne and Toronto. But Lahore still resides in my heart like the fragrant memory of a childhood beloved. It has changed almost beyond recognition in the last ten years. In the words of Patras Bukhari, Lahore is all surrounded by Lahore. The traffic has become too messy for comfort. It seems as though the whole city is going somewhere on cars, rickshaws, vans and motorcycles. The winter is no longer associated with nostalgic scent of Alstonia, but with a persistent smog. Commercial buildings have cropped up all over the city in the most ungainly fashion. Despite all this, the city retains its openness and warmth. Every time you come back to Lahore and with the first aerial view of the city from your plane makes your blood race in your veins. The memories of the university days, endless walks along the canal, long lost loves and friendships, the struggle for career; all conjures up in your mind.
Lahore canal provides repreive from heat
Pakistani Air Cheif Marshal apears in an Indian Government Advertisement
Well India might not need Pakistani Cricketers for IPL but it seems they can do with some male models, particularly Pakistan armed forces figures. That seems to be the case as a photo of Pakistan’s ex-Air Chief Marshal was included in a Ministry of Women and Child Development advertisement. The advertisement titled “where would you be if your mother was not allowed to be born” is intended to show some of the Indian public icons but due to an interesting mistake includes the photo of a former Pakistani Air Chief.
Karachi Target Killings Count
Muhajir Qaumi Movement (Amir Group) – 1314
Muhajir Qaumi Movement (Afaaq Group) – 270
Motahida Qaumi Movement (Altaf Group) – 84
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) – 75
Awami National Party (ANP) – 54
Jamaat-e-Islam (JI) – 51
Sunni Tehreek (ST) – 40
Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) – 14
In response to the target killings in Karachi, the federal government has formed a crisis management cell that has started to receive complaints from the political parties related to assassination of their workers. The cell will report their findings to the Interior Ministry on 30th January 2010. Different political parties have reported more than 320 of their workers assassinated in targeted killings and the breakdown of those workers killed is listed above.
Source: Daily Jang
Notice the high count of splinter factions of MQM.
