Author Archive
Daniyal Mueenuddin, a Pakistani wins The Story Prize
A Pakistani-American author—cited for the empathy, depth, and complexity of his work—is the winner of the $20,000 The Story Prize for his book In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
At the end of an evening of readings and conversation, debut writer Daniyal Mueenuddin took the stage and accepted The Story Prize for his collection In Other Rooms, [...]
Offroad Expedition to Poldat – Pictures & GPS Tracks
This Friday a few offroad enthusiasts headed off to Hingol National Park deep within Baluchistan some 280km from Karachi, reaching Aghore Camp we then dropped off the metaled Coastal Highway and headed into total offroading wilderness going up north some 40-odd km to a location called Poldat.
Poldat is a natural mountainous gorge which [...]
Laidback Show Episode 17 – Expedition Poldat
Faisal Kapadia and I headed off to Hingol National Park for three exciting days of offroading adventure along with OffroadPakistan for Expedition Poldat. During that trip we recorded our 17th Episode of the Laidback Show – Enjoy
Mai Jori leads the Huqooq March
Mai Jori, a peasant women contesting the Baluchistan Assembly by-elections has embarked upon an eight day Huqooq March (March for Rights) journey across her constituency by foot rallying voters to stand up for their rights and be a part of the change. Mai Jori started on the 1st of March from the village Ghulam [...]
Mai Jori, a ‘Peasant’ Contesting Baluchistan By-elections
Mai Jori Jamali a peasant farmer belonging to a village called Ghulam Muhammad Jamali in Baluchistan filed to contest the bye-election on the vacant seat of Baluchistan Assembly PB 25 Jaffarabad – I on March 10th 2010. Her papers have been accepted and declared correct after scrutiny. Mai Jori is illiterate and helps her [...]
Rendezvous with Farah Pandith, US Special Rep for Muslim Communities
Last week a few “new media” journalists were invited by the US Consulate to an exclusive meeting with Farah Pandith, who has been recently appointed as the U.S Special Representative for Muslim Communities. The usual bloggeratti excitement was held at bay since the invitation card had a blazing “No-Camera” policy, which had most of [...]
Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim Comments about the Present Judicial Crisis
by Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim
We are again faced with a judicial crisis – not a bonafide crisis but a crisis created for ulterior reasons.
Ostensibly the crisis is the elevation of chief justice for the Lahore High Court in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the elevation of the next senior most judge Justice Saquib [...]
My Judges or the Highway
In a frenzy of political maneuvering in Islamabad today, Pakistan is yet again precariously positioned in yet again another stand off. Today the President of Pakistan chose to elevate the chief justice of the Lahore High Court (LHC) Justice Khwaja Sharif as a judge of the Supreme Court. The decision was taken and official [...]
CPLC in the midst of a Political Turf Battle
Two days back the Governor Ishrat ul-Ibad had issued a Press Release recommending the appointing of businessman Mr Ahmed Chinoy, as the new head of Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) replacing the outgoing Sharfuddin Memon whose appointment has come to an end. The Governors request was forwarded to the Home Ministry so that the request [...]
Farhat Taj analyzes Zaid Hamid in strategic depth
Dr. Farhat Taj wrote a column in Daily Times critically analyzing the Zaid Hamid phenomenon, to say for instance “Zaid Hamid is his use of a particularly narrow interpretation of Islam that proposes a belligerent agenda for the Pakistan Army and drawing on controversial Islamic literature. Thus the authenticity of the hadiths — sayings of [...]
PTA blocks website : Make Pakistan Better
In an email sent just now by the webmaster of Make Pakistan Better, I was shocked to read that the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Director General (Enforcement) Yawer Yasin has instructed all its Zonal Directors on 18th January 2010 to block the website http://makepakistanbetter.com on an IP level.
Since its blocked from Pakistan one [...]
Bilawal Bhutto missing from Leadership Conference
This short three minute video is enough to update you at how the “democratic parties” in Pakistan are run, the future leaders have no inclination to be a part of the leadership development process and are gifted with the golden spoon and waltz in from the top and are expected to rule an entire nation [...]
Laidback Show Episode 16
DAWN Raping the Rape Victim
Much out cry has been heard regarding the Daewoo rape incident which has lead many human rights organizations working hand-in-hand with the police to hopefully arrest the perpetrators – but today I was shocked to read in Dawn (10th Feb 2010 – Page 9) while discussing the story – the “correspondent” very casually mentions the [...]
PTA blocks Asif Ali Zardari’s ‘Shut-up’ Youtube Video
Sunday evening Youtube.com started facing intermittent reports of inaccessibility. It initially started off with a simple white page saying “This Site is Accessible” subsequent reports were submitted on Herdict Web shows the inaccessibility lasted for about an hour but then everything recovered back to normal.
It was then later reported that the crackdown by the [...]
