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, Other Wonders, a book of eight connected stories set in southern Pakistan and centering around the estate of a feudal landowner. The curators of The Story Prize, Dark and Lindsey selected the three finalists from among 78 books entered in 2009, representing 53 different publishers. The Story Prize is the highest prize money given in the literature award
Its interesting to read the experience that shaped his debut book from being a student at the Lahore American School to graduate from Yale and working for some time as a lawyer at a New York law firm only to quit a few years later and return to his homeland to compose this book, the story is definitely worth reading. It is mostly his own personal journey across the years that has shaped this 256 page collection of short stories. Daniyal Mueenuddin links a number of short stories to describe the interwoven lives of an aging feudal landowner, his servants and managers, and his extended family who have lost touch with the land. The stories in – In Other Rooms, Other Wonders make up a vivid portrait of feudal Pakistan, describing the advantages and constraints of social station, the dissolution of old ways, and the shock of change.
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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 is the passageway of the Hingol river from the north to the south, many of Hingol’s tributaries aggregate ahead of this region and pass through this natural gorge to finally dump into the Arabian Sea. In all likelihood this mountainous passageway cannot be traversed by any vehicle and hence the offroaders took this up as a challenge to try and reach this remote destination. We were able to drive up to about a kilometer short of Poldat and trekked the rest of the way up.
I share here some pictures from our expedition while a 20-minute podcast was posted on Laidback Show website. I also choose to share detailed GPS tracks in the form of a KMZ file for easy open reference if someone in the future might be tempted to head this way
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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 Muhammad Jamali to Gandakha and visited several villages on the way and will continue to march across the region till the 8th of March. Men and women of the area joined this March for Rights in hundreds.
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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 husband in farming she also looks after her nine children. She brings water for the family after traveling 2 km distance and was shot into prominence in 1978 due to Pat Feeder Kisan movement when progressive and trade unions leaders had started living in the Goth area for the sake of movement.
Mai Jori is contesting from the area which was recently brought into focus for the infamous and heinous crime against women where a few women were buried alive in 2008 in a case of Honor Killing. Mai Jori Jamali is contesting election on party ticket of Awami Party Pakistan.
It is being reported that Mai Jori and her relatives have taken this decision to dare to fight with outdated customs of women brutality in the region.
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NRO Order, CJ Or 18th Amendment
Guest blog by Barrister Amjad Malik
16 December 2010 Supreme Court order on NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance) has shattered the ruling govt which was standing on the 4 pillars of this barter orchestrated by military & Pentagon , USA &UK and (PPP) Pak people party leadership which is clutching and hanging on to a straw now. Instead of whole heartedly, understanding the tenacity of situation and implementing the order by realigning politically based on reality, the leadership went for hit and run ditto of their predecessor General Musharraf who sacked the chief justice who was considering a petition on his Presidential election in military uniform.
Same is the case with PPP govt which is willing to lock horns with the judiciary and is willing to wipe out the whole political democratic dispensation if the buck comes to shove and the issue comes to their govt’s fall. They do not wish to leave as corrupt but be drummed out with a bang as victims and history tells victims reappear in Pakistani politics. Govt is in between rock and a hard place, either to digest, accept and implement the order of 17 superior court judges and sack a few loyalists who are wanted by NAB enquiry or stall the matter, seek refuge under political dispensation and chalk out a settlement with its foes and get the gunners out of the ring, though a wishful thinking devoid of public sentiments.
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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 us worried concerned about this concerning hush-hush meeting but on the contrary, when we reached the destination we were told it was only a deterrent to avoid the TV &/or Press media fan-fare as the consulate preferred to have a close face-to-face uninterrupted one-on-one discussion, else the meeting was blogable, tweetable and pictures were definitely welcome, immediately putting the anxious team of bloggers at ease and right in their own comfort zone, out came the iPhones, up came the blackberries, twitter clients were fired up and we were ready raring to go.
The guest list had some 10-odd new media journalists, a few from Dawn, of which I had the honor to finally meet Huma Yousuf, the list of bloggers, (or blAAgers [sic]) was the usual fun bunch, ranging from Faisal Kapadia of Deadpanthoughts, Ammar Yasir of Ronin and Tea Break fame, Sana Saleem of Mystified Justice & Dawn Blog, Sabeen Mehmud from T2F, our very own Zaheer Sb from BiTs Online and Windmills of the Mind and last but not the least our celebrity blogger Naveen Naqvi was also in the house, who we now have laid claim to be more of a blogger then a TV personality. The star-studded bloggeratti guest list almost guaranteed an exciting rendezvous with the US Representative for Muslim Communities.
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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 Nasir, as acting Chief Justice of Lahore High Court (a la Zia ul Haq style). Being of the view that more harm is done by ignoring seniority, which opens the door for exercise of discretion in principle, I am against seniority being ignored, particularly in judiciary.
My first reaction, therefore, was that the appointment of Chief Justice Lahore High Court to the Supreme Court and elevation of the next senior-most judge as Lahore High Court Chief Justice was justified. I had assumed that in accordance with the Article 177 of the constitution, these appointments were made by the president after consultation with the Chief Justice of Pakistan, and that the president was bound by such consultations.
Was the Chief Justice of Pakistan even consulted?
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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 notification issued without any consultation with Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, prompting him to take a suo motu notice of the judges’ appointment.
This stand-off happened more in the form of a tit-for-tat snub reaction by the President of Pakistan to the Chief Justice of Pakistan. It was in the same token, approximately three weeks back the CJP Iftikhar Chaudhry tried to appoint Justice Ramday as an ad hoc judge to the Supreme Court but then the President had snubbed this appointment and rejected the request quoting seniority issues. So today when the President tried to elevate a Lahore High Court judge into the Supreme Court, CJP Iftikhar Chaudhry reacted to quickly create a three-member bench and it in turn struck down the order declaring it null and void. Its scary to even begin to imagine that in such a stand-off situation we probably might never have any more judicial appointments as one or the other executive appointed with Pakistan will end up striking it down.
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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 can be drafted into an official notification but it seems that the Home Ministry has shelved this request and consequentially no official notification got issued appointing Mr. Chinoy as the head of CPLC. It must be remembered that CPLC according to its charter is a non-political statutory institution, operationally independent and managed by dedicated and concerned citizens offering their honorary services.
The appointment of Mr. Ahmed Chinoy, a staunch MQM supporter, is definitely against the Charter of CPLC of having a non-political figure head running this organization, and hence it might as well be the reason why the Home Ministry refused to issue a notification of his appointment
The sad part is that a number of sources are now reporting that today Mr Ahmed Chinoy has bulldozed and barraged himself into the CPLC offices located within the Governor House and has effectively (without any appointment) thrown out Sharfuddin Memon, the still legal head of this organization.
It seems that the new turf battle between PPP and MQM in Karachi is now going to be fought over the appointment of the CPLC head.
- 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 Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) — on Ghazwa-e-Hind that he often refers to in terms of the ultimate defeat of the Indians at the hands of the Pakistan Army is highly questionable.” — “Judging by the obscurantist message that he communicates, Zaid Hamid does not seem to be a new invention of the establishment” A must read column can be read at the Daily Times website, or you may want to read more about Zaid Hamid’s here and here on this blog → [10 Comments]
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 can still view the website from Google cache and it shows some interesting anti-government articles which may have been the thorn that lead to the blockage. I believe this is a serious invasion of freedom of speech and sadly the PTA has not defined or responded to the reason why this website has been deemed objectionable for users in Pakistan
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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 – Here suffers the fate of the missing Bilawal Bhutto and it shows his concern for Pakistan and its people
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 name of the victim with such intricate details of the crime that it seems as if he might actually be quoting the actual FIR verbatim
“SIALKOT, Feb 9: Police have yet to arrest the second alleged rapist in the kidnap-cum-rape case of a bus hostess here in Sialkot, Dawn has learnt. Daewoo bus hostess A**** Q**** [censorship added] alleged that Irshad Bhatti, of Gujrat, along with Sarfraz allegedly kidnapped her late on Saturday and raped her. ” link
I do not know if the victim has come forth with permission allowing the Dawn correspondent to publicly use her name so explicitly and repeatedly so many times through out the column that it infuriates me -she has suffered enough of this heinous crime that it alone will take many years for her to recuperate the rape trauma – now adding fuel to the fire the public record and everyone even remotely associated with this 20-yr old girl will always brandish her name quickly linking her with the Daweeo rape victim – the pain which she will go through emotionally and physically is now going to be quadrupled to unimaginable proportions as she now will also tainted in the public eye too
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