The All Pakistan Lawyers Convention was held under the auspices of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) and the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA), attended by approximately 3,000 lawyers, some political leaders, NGOs and even some students and faculty members from LUMS.
The Convention commenced at 10:00 a.m. at the Karachi Shuhada Hall of the LHCBA and the LHCBA Courtyard, both packed to capacity. The plan was that, after the convention, the lawyers would take out a peaceful procession to the Punjab Assembly and back. At about 11:00 a.m., lawyers started to march out from the LHCBA courtyard and towards the GPO Gate of the Lahore High Court (LHC). They were still in the precincts of the LHC parking lot when the police, without provocation, started teargassing the lawyers. Teargass shells were fired indiscriminately into the crowds, injuring dozens of people and temporarily incapacitating hundreds. Teargas cannisters were falling even inside the courtyard of the LHCBA.
For the past few weeks CNN has been seen to be running 15-second spot on its network which is actively promoting the division of Pakistan. The promo is for a book being sold on Amazon for $15.95 called Divide Pakistan to Eliminate Terrorism, the surprising thing is this unknown author has the spare change to run an advertisement which can run upwards of US$20,000 per slot, surely not spare change for any, let alone an unknown author.
The commercial is said to be aired every day and charges Pakistan with terrorist activities across the world and says the only way to stop this is to split the country into half dozen separate entities, including Sindhudesh, Jinnahpur, Balochistan and Pakhtunistan.
I personally think this is just to irritate the Pakistanis and exert pressure on a peaceful nation to do something stupid. I urge the media outlets to be a little more responsible on what is permitted on their airwaves, no one is naive to see the hatred driven message on the commercial which reflect unkindly on the editorial policy being maintained at CNN. There is little doubt that the editorial board would certainly object had it been an Osama Bin Laden commercial for his blockbuster book, it would have never been permitted because of the negative propaganda it might portray within the Americans. The Americans can plead the first amendment all day long but they will definitely draw the line when it comes to Osama and slam him with the Patriot Act.
I urge all Pakistanis to exert pressure and force the global media to STOP THIS HATRED AGAINST PAKISTANIS As a matter of principle I have NOT provided a link to the book on sale and neither the blog which is being maintained for this propaganda
Yeh Hum Naheen¸ (This is NOT us) is an NGO headed by Waseem Mahmood and a number of like minded popular Pakistani vocalists have choosen to join hands and raise their voice on behalf of the Muslim world coming together in the form of a an amazing soul touching sound track, featuring names like Haroon, Ali Haider, Ali Zafar, Shufqat, Strings, Shuja Haider and Hadiqa Kiani.
Since the tragic events of 9/11 which shook the world to the core the world has started to label all Muslims as terrorists, the veil, the beard and other Islamic symbols have come to be recognized more as a threat to the world rather then a symbol of a peaceful Islamic religion. The movement aims to address the issues of the growing radicalization of the Pakistani youth and the rise in terrorist activities breeding locally as well as on the international front, the long term objective of this organization definitely remains to address the negative image of Islam in the West. Continue Reading
This is a video of Rep Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) who spoke to the congress a few months back, its interesting to see him eloquently voice his frustration at the way George Bush continues to give the American people the roller coaster ride of their life.
Quite a number of people ask what exactly is Web 2.0, many definitions exist but no definition can adequately describe this phenomenon as this video tries to do in a brief 4:31 minutes.
I assure you, you will come out having understood the entire concept and still yet not be able to write a proper definition for the Web 2.0 phenomenon. Do tell me how you liked it. Continue Reading
Nancy Johnson (Wikipedia) a republican congresswoman from Connecticut has recently launched a TV commercial where she actually depicts Pakistan as the source of terrorism. Watch the short commercial here.
We as Pakistanis object to such accusations and must work against people who label Pakistan as a terrorist state. Ever since 9/11 Pakistan has stood shoulder to shoulder in supporting the grieving American nation in helping it root out all forms of terrorist. The Government of Pakistan offered full unrestricted cooperation since 2001 which actually meant going against popular local vote and offer a supporting helping hand to the Americans in their battle against terrorism.
Five years down it continues to be a battle fought by the United States of America and even now we stand along side in any decision handed to us by the United States. But what really hurts a peaceful nation which has chosen to lend the Americans a helping hand, is when a congresswomen like Nancy Johnson, a republican, who chooses to highlight the name of Pakistan as a terrorist state. We then have to reevaluate our unconditional support to the United States of America asking ourselves if it is OK to offer a helping hand to an arrogant nation which has no care for its allies and friends.
What can you do
Write an email to all CT newspapers pressuring them to ask Nancy to issue a PUBLIC APOLOGY – copy all these email addresses into the BCC field of your email and send them a strong letter in protest.
A music video produced by the band OK Go for their track Here it goes Again. Its truly some amazing choreography to pull this stunt out and simply watching the video makes me wanna run and buy a couple of treadmills and try this at home, most likely I would fall flat on my face but damn its exhilarating to watch them do it with such ease.
Please do check out this interview of George Galloway to Sky News, its simply brilliant, in my opinion he has literally belted the bias media for its unethical reporting standards on Israel. Let me say no more just watch this 9 min video and you would throughly enjoy it.
Do also check out George Galloway’s Senate hearing a year back when he took care of the Senate Committee – Galloway Fires Punches
Its amazing how the United States continues to stand by quietly to watch the genocide in Lebanon, they have continued to claim to be unable to intervene and stop this war, which were seen a number of statements made by the White House only “requesting” the Israeli army to take care in attacking Lebanon (truly BS) but they never issued a call to stop this mass genocide.
For every innocent life lost in this war I US and Israel equally responsible, Israel for this blatant act of war which have been sponsored by American tax dollars to purchase the advanced weaponry for the Israeli Army to humans with absolute no compassion. I call for an end to this one sided war and also urge the US to stop playing games and strictly force the Israelis to stop this genocide of Lebanese.
I would like to share an interesting 26 second video which is worth watching or check out the website JusticeOrGenocide.com
The President of China on his recent official trip was not only heckled by a Falun Gong activist during his address on the White house lawns
If this were not enough then being heckled by President George Bush, is rude enough by an annoying tug on his sleeve. Many Chinese have said that this was uncalled for and label Bush as a “protocol-impaired dweeb”
A dialogue which may have transpired off the record…..
BUSH: Can I come too…. pretty please!
HU: Dang it Bush! Leave me alone!!! (“Idiot doesn’t know when to stop bothering us rich folks”)
Reported by: Rai Muhammad Saleh Azam
