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Nov 13, 2014    |       34 comments

What has PTI done in KPK up until now! [Updated Nov 13th]

KPK Govt

[UPDATED 13th Nov 2014]

PTI remains focused on bringing a positive change in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and these progress notes will continue to be updated highlighting the efforts being made throughout the province

Post by PTIOfficialVideos.
Nov 12, 2014    |      Comments Off on HEC “Fed on Ideology” by Bina Shah

HEC “Fed on Ideology” by Bina Shah

An op-ed by Bina Shah spilling the beans as to what triggered the HEC directive to silence – primarily started from the Islamic University UN Model Conference where students smashed the Israeli stall – but typical bureaucracy, they stretched their imagination to ordering the censorship of all/any voice of political reasoning “The state has no right to dictate the ideals of individuals” read the full op-ed by Bina Shah in Dawn – Fed on Ideology

Nov 9, 2014    |      Comments Off on Sindhi Number plates – Bhej Pagara – 1

Sindhi Number plates – Bhej Pagara – 1

Sindhi number plates “Bhej Pagara – 1” I’m told there are a number of cars (30-35) with the same identical number plates roaming around in Sindh – presumably by devout followers of Pir Pagara in some sense it provides them the unlimited access to exploit the administrative system with no one to catch them on

Being a non-Sindhi speaking individual (know only very little sindhi) I have always wondered what Bhej actually stands for – upon asking on twitter I was told, please clarify if there is some other / alternate meaning to Bhej

  ہرکارہ یا پیامبر پگارا
Hrkara ya Paimbar [sic] Pagara

The devout followers of Pir Pagara do place him and his lineage in a high degree of respect, its their choice, but to impose that right to safe passage all across Sindh …. I have my own reservations.  By any sense of the law this is wrong.

 

Nov 6, 2014    |      Comments Off on HEC Fatwa – Letter by Isa Daudpota to HEC

HEC Fatwa – Letter by Isa Daudpota to HEC

A letter sent by Isa Daudpota to the Executive Director of HEC regarding the HEC notification silencing anti-Govt discussion and debate

————
Dr Mansoor A Kundi
Executive Director
Higher Education Commission
Islamabad.
Dear Dr Kundi (cc Chairman HEC and some academics),

Dr Abdullah Sadiq and I received a query about the attached note — circulated by you to universities — from our friend, Mr Naeem Sadiq in Karachi.

Only now have I ascertained that the note is genuine. What you are essentially recommending is censorship! Given the already suffocating intellectual environment on our campuses, your note will only strengthen those who wish to create a repressive atmosphere of George Orwell’s brilliant dystopia, “1984”

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Nov 6, 2014    |      Comments Off on HEC silencing Students from having Political opinions

HEC silencing Students from having Political opinions

 

In a shocking notice to Universities across Pakistan the Higher Education Commission has instructed all students enrolled in universities to refrain from raising any objections or opinions against the Government of Pakistan.

HEC Directive (No.10-1/A&C/HEC/2013/869) instructing all degree awarding institutions to “remain vigilant and forestall any activity that in any manner challenge(s) the ideology and principles of Pakistan, and/or perspective of the Government of Pakistan thereof.” – Courtesy Access is my Right & Bytes For All

Nov 5, 2014    |      Comments Off on Re-Blogging Social Media Brain Farts

Re-Blogging Social Media Brain Farts

The Teeth Maestro blog has been online for over 10 years, since July 2004, back in the day when Blogging was considered a fad and called citizen journalism and not social media perse, from its infancy, many saw it grow, from the era of Orkut to Blogspot, the era of Google, to Facebook and then cometh the crashing the sensational micro-blogging site called Twitter. All technologies have been a rude awakening for each passing trend, each technology struggled to present to the vibrant youthful generation hungry to share nuggets of their “brainfarts” to an awaiting audience of millions, whosoever presented the right exposure usually captivated the content producers for sometime to come – but ironically this new generation has a very short term memory, and quite literally an hour later this young content producer truly and totally forgets his previous brainfart to move onto a new one, hence no need to search or the need to walk down memory lane of what he/she may have said a month back.

Social Media Brain Farts: Sporadic bursts of Social Media regurgitationsBloggers in general were true content producers, they penned their thoughts, oblivious to the scrutiny of any hawkish editor, their idea came into existence in true raw form, uncensored and unmanipulated by any grand content policy, they made abundant errors, from mere spelling mistakes too hideous grammatical blunders, but they wrote, they debated, they argued, and oft they just had a good time. For them literally any platform with an audience would do just right, and in the midst of their hunt for their own audience, this content producer aka blogger aka citizen journalist got lost in the frenzy and their content hijacked into a wormhole by the very same platforms they choose to embrace, the content no longer belonged to them, but instead held captive by the platforms owners to use as and when they please, to up-expose or down-expose as per their own algorithm of human brainfart research to best cater to their audience.

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Nov 5, 2014    |      Comments Off on #StartWithTheBoys – Vogue Empower message for Violence Against Women

#StartWithTheBoys – Vogue Empower message for Violence Against Women

Just came across this infomercial campaign by Vogue Empower – their message for Violence Against Women / Domestic Violence – the video is a very thought provoking message and a message that needs to be drummed up massively to a point of embarrassment to those who do engage in domestic violence

I fully support this campaign and hope you do too.

Nov 4, 2014    |      1 comment

25 Million children are Out of School in Pakistan — But, those ‘in’ school are equally Out of School

Recently Alif Ailaan published a report titled 25 Million Broken Promises: The Crisis of Pakistan’s Out-of-School Children exposing the pathetic situation of education in Pakistan – but if there are millions of children out of school in Pakistan – then Im embarassed to share that the children “in-school” are equally uneducated and can be eqaully categorized as “out-of-school” – This is a video of a school in the metropolitan school based in Karachi – if such is the standard of education in an urban center – pray what might be the state of education in a rural school reportedly educating the future of our children

May Allah have mercy on our rulers, Sindh has received billions in funds for the past year but the situation in education and all other sectors are still at the mercy of corruption by the same leaders who rule over them

Nov 2, 2014    |      Comments Off on “Pillars of Clay” by Fahd Husain

“Pillars of Clay” by Fahd Husain

Fahd Husain writes an op-ed in Express Tribune — These two paragraphs are worth reading — “Don’t blame democracy or dictatorship or even the system that remains the same regardless of who is at the top. Blame the fact that we are missing the fundamental element of a representative system: the individual is the foundation”

“If you wait for this manipulative system to reform itself, you are in for a long wait. If you think these rulers — all of them — will suddenly grow a revolutionary brain, you need to see a shrink. This, my friends, ain’t happening. The increasingly aware citizenry — yes you — will have to make a collective heave to push the fat cats out, and reclaim this glorious nation that the Quaid gave to you — not to them” Read the entire op-ed at ET “Pillars of clay“

Oct 31, 2014    |      Comments Off on Petrol Prices > Tabdeeli Aagaye Hai

Petrol Prices > Tabdeeli Aagaye Hai

تبدیلیی آ نہی رہی – تبدیلی آ گئی ہے
پٹرول کی قیمت میں بہی تبدیلی آگئ ہے

Tabdeeli Aa-nahi Rahi – Tabdeeli Aa-gaye Hai
Petrol prices mein bhee Tabdeeli Aa-gaye Hai

Mubarak to all Pakistani – let it be on record that it is definitely because of Imran Khan sb’s pressure & the popularity of the Dharna’s and the Virality of the Go Nawaz Go chant that has made the Noora’s scramble to provide some relief to themselves even if its mere moral survivability from the #GoNawazGo slogan

I leave you with a thought as the Nooras are high fiving each other on Rs. 9.4 of price reduction – the fact is that globally the crude oil prices have fallen by ~34% which if translated from Rs. 103/ltr should have been close to a fall of Rs 35+ tax – someone is still pocketing the ~25% difference – shared on Facebook by Awab Alvi [link]

Oct 31, 2014    |      Comments Off on Nilofer scares Karachi billboards to expose a city underneath

Nilofer scares Karachi billboards to expose a city underneath

For what its worth Nilofer has striped clean Karachi skyline from the billboard clutter. To expose, albeit partially, a beautiful city of ours which used to lay beneath

Oct 31, 2014    |      Comments Off on Where’s my refund, Mr Zardari? – Ali Najib Sidiki

Where’s my refund, Mr Zardari? – Ali Najib Sidiki

Good to read that Ali Najib Sidiki raising his voice on this issue >> Tribune Blogs >> Where’s my refund, Mr Zardari? >> Ironically it was quoted as the only charity they did claim and it was SZABIST – so one has to wonder where the “rest” of the looted money has disappeared off too. Possibly deep pockets of “Zardari families “own” charitable case” – I guess they deservingly need it the most [?]

Aug 6, 2014    |      Comments Off on Ten truths about electoral rigging — a rebuttal by Dr Awab Alvi

Ten truths about electoral rigging — a rebuttal by Dr Awab Alvi

Awab Alvi on TribuneZahid F Ebrahim, in his article of August 4 titled, “Ten truths about electoral rigging”, published in The Express Tribune, presented a very biased view on the topic. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should have stepped in to allay doubts of any election rigging, but with this article, it seems that the neutrality that was needed to conduct a free and fair election was never there to begin with. It seems that this was the mindset from the start: to appease the powers that be, instead of giving Pakistanis even a semblance of a free and fair election.

I truly respect Mr Ebrahim and his father. I believe Mr Fakhruddin G Ebrahim is an honest person, but his appointment, especially considering his age, probably was the factor that failed Pakistan. This job required a commander, who would whip, snap and beat the life out of anyone who so much as stumbled in performing his duties to conduct transparent elections. I do not challenge the former chief election commissioner’s honesty or integrity on a personal level. I am aware that he, along with his family, have sacrificed a lot this past year — but I would like to raise some concerns here.

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Jan 23, 2014    |       2 comments

10 Lessons Pakistan can learn from the Northern Ireland Conflict

Pakistan has suffered extensively from a war which has bled this nation with hundreds and thousands of lives lost to a ruthless enemy called TTP & Talibans. Pakistan needs to come out of this conflict for the survival of our own existence – but to solve this crisis, we as a nation are forced to stand at a cross-roads – to either go headlong into a “military action” or explore a “ceasefire option”.

The choice is not, one or the other, but the choice is to explore a combination of both, using good cop – bad cop approach, try to head into a ceasefire talks but use strategic & timed military force to drag the militants back onto the peace table

Truly the bleeding hearts of every Pakistan screams, to beat the hell out of these murdering terrorists, but for the sake of Pakistan, and as, educated Pakistanis we must avoid being lead into a mindless war without exhausting avenues and all non-military options, for the fear of loosing our country further.

I share a paper published by London School of Economics and Political Science titled Ten Lessons for Conflict Resolution from Northern Ireland by Jonathan Powell is a great paper to read it sheds light on the lessons that can be extracted from the Northern Ireland conflict. Jonathan Powell was the principal negotiator on Northern Ireland and was instrumental in bringing about a lasting peace in that troubled province after centuries of conflict this

I accede even prior to quoting this paper in context of Pakistan there is no way to convinceably argue that the conflict in Pakistan is similar to the Northern Ireland, but it is equally wrong to suggest that there are no lessons to be learned, from the mistakes the British made and from the successes they achieved.  These lessons can be applied elsewhere, with care, by people like us in Pakistan to learn and seek a lasting settlements to this armed conflict.
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Jan 20, 2014    |      1 comment

Ali Zaidi’s response to Kamran Shafi’s Verbal Diarrhea

Ali Zaidi

Reproduced from Ali Zaidi’s Facebook Page

While I was in my teens, my father took the onus and ensured that I grow up to be a man of religious & social values. Beyond that, it was my own choice to lead my life the way I preferred. The most important value was to respect a private conversation between individuals, and not flaunt it around, just because you don’t agree with the their views. Unfortunately for Mr. Shafi, he either lost those values down the road, or has a personal agenda/vested interest to malign everything and anything Imran Khan has to say, or is to do.

Mr. Shafi has made public, what was supposed to be an SMS conversation between him & Imran Khan. Not to forget, a private conversation. If this was supposed to be public, Imran would have made a live call on TV to express his views. What Mr. Shafi has utterly failed to understand here is that, it is he who should be insulted as Imran clearly called him a “Westoxified”brown sahib. On being shamed by Imran, Shafi goes on rambling like a typical Desi Saas (Mother in law) to her fellow com padres.

Moving on to the content of Mr. Shafi’s letter, the absurdity of his claims begin, when he objects to the time taken (My God, a whole week) by the KPK government to visit Aitzaz Hasan’s family. He mentions that it took Khattak and Co an entire week!! Hello Mr. Shafi, wakie wakie, imagine Imran’s temerity to take an entire week for the aid of a martyr’s family. Did you ever question the previous democratically elected official of his stand against WOT, in FIVE bloody years!!?? Have you had the courage to question the current PM of his role towards this WOT!!?? You have not! The most important thing to note here is that never in the history of Pakistan, has any leader dared to comment so candidly about his/her party’s led government in public. Instead of appreciating the feat, Mr. Shafi possibly out of shear hatred and/or otherwise, decided to ignore it and criticize it based on the date(s).
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