** This post is contributed by Khawar Shamsul Hassan, PTI Coordinator, Orlando, Florida, USA. **
“If you wish to converse with me”, Voltaire said, “Define your terms”.  Pakistan is a funny country where we excel at changing the meaning of the words to use them for our own benefit.  Business is now the equivalent of fraud and scams. Intelligence is the ability to lie and cheat. Integrity and honesty are equivalent to naivety and foolishness.  Politics is just another name for raw, crude and naked opportunism.
As a result we have politicians …

** This post was originally published on FASTRising Official blog on March, 19th, 2009. **

The short version, by our in-house wit: An idea whose time has come cannot be contained - nor container-ed.
The spiel:
While the nation celebrates and the most pessimistic activists are in wait-and-see mode till the 22nd of March, it behooves us to do a tally.
Some positives:

At the national level, a large number of people have finally seen a practical demonstration of the effectiveness of popular power in a democratic setup - however young and weak our …

In a not-so-surprising move, the Government of Pakistan has cut the higher education spending by a ridculously huge amount of 73 percent !
On my way back home after a lazy day at work, Mast FM 103 was having an interactive talk show to discuss this move where people condemned the decision saying education should be the first priority of any Government irrespective of economic conditions.
After a detailed study of the Google search results I am enlightened to know that the education sector is not the only affected sector but its …

The Supreme Court (read Dogar Court) of Pakistan, after a prolonged hearing of the case of electoral eligibility of the Sharif brothers, had declared them ineligible for contesting the elections (which were held back in February 2008 ). This result, thus, disqualifies Shahbaz Sharif as the MPA and consequently the CM of Punjab - Pakistan’s largest and politically most influential province.
In a surprising move, the President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, imposed Emergency in the province and issued orders for Governor rule under his right-hand-man Salman Taseer who had earlier …

I happened to visit Rawalpindi with friends a couple of days back. This was my first visit or stay-in, to be precise, to the garrison city. Earlier, I had only passed through the city on my way to Taxila a few years back and then during the recent Long March.
Interesting and shocking observation: No matter where you are in the city and whatever the time be, there would be one thing which I am sure you will be able to see in the reach of your eyes, the word Askari …

CJP at the Lahore airport lounge [Photo Courtesy: ARYOne World
Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry reached Lahore on Saturday noon to administer the oath of newly elected members of Lahore district bar and address a convention of lawyers. His flight landed around 12 in the noon at Lahore airport where President Supreme Court Bar Ali Ahmad Kurd, Chaudhry Atizaz Ahsan, deposed judge Khalil Ramday and large number of lawyers, civil society activists, students and workers of PML-N, Jamaat-i-Islami, Tahreek-i-Insaaf and other political parties received him.

Earlier, large number of lawyers …

I found this article published around one a half year ago, this morning and found it to be an interesting read, specially the second half. Based on Dr. Ali Shariati’s work, Asghar Ali tries to unfold the truth behind the Shia-Sunni clash in Iraq - a Shia majority country where members belonging to these two communities have been living peacefully for so long. The author, relying on the work of Shariati, calls this conflict to be a clash between power seeking Tashayyu’-e-Safavid and Tassunun-e-Ummavi and not to be clash …

Guest Post by Lubna /  Images by ALE-Xpressed

Inspired by the prestigious booker prize of UK, Pakistan Academy of Letters (Maqtadira-e-qaumi zabaan) initiates ‘cook-er’ prize in Pakistan. There are two categories, chota cook-er (for best short story writer) and bara cook-er (for best novel writer).
For 2008, the sole nominees, for each category, are
Ahmed Qureshi (chota cook-er)

Zaid Hamid (bara cook-er)

While scanning the electronic versions of the daily newspapers , I came across the following image. This is from a local market of Mingora where the Taliban have gained significant power to decide the way of life for others. They have banned the entry of women in the market !

‘Women are not allowed in the market,’ reads a banner displayed at the entrance of a market in Mingora. Taliban have banned the entry of women in markets and ordered the killing of women who violate the ban. Most shop owners …

Zubair Torwali, a social/human rights activist from Swat writes:

The main town of Swat, Mingora, has now virtually fallen to the militants. The police are escorted by army officials and come out from their ‘hide-outs’ only for a couple of hours. One of the busiest squares, Grain chowk, was renamed by the shopkeepers as ‘Khooni chowk’ because when they come to their shops in the morning on each day they find four or five dead bodies hung over the poles or the trees. They see dead bodies scattered along the foot …

Dozens of Left wing activists participated in a rally to protest the latest Israel invasion of Gaza in Lahore, Pakistan today on 4 January. The rally was Organized on few hours notice. Organized by Anti War Committee Pakistan, the rally was attended by several left wing groups including Labour Party Pakistan, PDF, NSF, CMKP, National Workers Party and others.
The protesters gathered at Regal Chouck Mall Road and marched to Chairing Cross. They raised slogans condemning the Zionist aggression and demanded an immediate end of bombing and invasion. They were holding …

If I am to answer what developed the most in the last quarter of twentieth century, I would say Islamic extremism. Agree or not but IslamoFascists have been in direct or indirect conflict with the west especially in this period. The radical Islamists believe that the conflict must take place on multiple fronts: militarily, economically, diplomatically and ideologically. The ideology factor becomes most critical to keep recruitment, funding and support in all forms, for this conflict, coming. This ideology is a fiercely fundamentalist form of orthodox Sunni Islam, but one …