Carnage in Karachi

OMAR SAEED SHEIKH

Anybody else can report on the progress of his trial?

At the end of the day, ultimately, the responsibility of carnage in Karachi falls squarely on military despot`s shoulders. He has absolute control over every aspect of our national life from a sweeper on the street to the supreme court justice. And he has been manipulating both alike. But when it comes to our safety and security, the fact remains that this despot cannot go to toilet in the morning without first asking Washington. Only if he finds time from attacking his own people with the blunt force of a regular army - an act that usually Washington accuses all despots of before raiding their countries. Then we have a boob (read faggot) of a prime minister who cannot find enough time from singing love serenades to his subordinate slash boss, the president. God what a mess we are in. No wonder Shias in Karachi have taken to the streets - an indication of absolute distrust in the state machinery.

What the need of the day is that we should organize public protests to show shia-sunni solidarity and to show the total disgust for the violence that is being unleashed on the two, especially shias. Despot cannot do it, for he has no support among masses. He cannot allow his cronies either because it might snowball into something else. Then the responsibility ultimately falls on the shoulders on the ulema and mullahs but alas only if they were as brave as those of Iraq`s. Had they not got scared like little girls when the first time of test came as there were attempts on Musharaf`s life, they would have some clout among the people. It is disgusting…..the whole cadre of culprits…and then there is Big Satan, the sore loser…..

oh plz feroz, stop ruminating and fulminating about a newspaper editorial`s `pontification`, cant you see your own sanctimonious pontification -- you have a right of reply -- why dont you write a letter to that newspaper and give your version of the truth -- isnt that what you`re after -- holding accountable, feroz, is something for the govt to do -- i think people in society need to realize that there`s only so much that a newspaper or the media can do -- of course it can an advocacy role, esp in a place like pakistan but it cannot be expected to replace the role of the govt or even of civil society -- how many people do you see coming out on the streets protesting what has happened -- feroz you write about eating haagen dazs and smoking a cigar and in the same breath fulminate on how rotten society has become -- and this you do by writing IN ENGLISH for a website read mostly by expats in the own comfort of your home -- feroz sahib how many rallies have you attended seeking the rights of the dispossessed and underprivileged, or press freedom, or calling for sectarian harmony -- sanctimonious hypocrites, all of us, arent we, ferozk? and by the way u dont have to give lengthy explanations to me -- that is the whole point -- i dont think u come on this website to explain your actions to people, which is what i have been forced to do sometimes -- i hope you get my point -- of course u can have haagen dazs, i have it all the time myself but that doesnt or shouldnt deprecate whatever good qualities i might have or doesnt make me insensitive to the plight of others --

temporal -- afraid your example would have made more sense during zia`s days , when editorials were left blank because of military censors -- of course the front page is read more than the editorial page -- but when society, the govt, or general readers want to see a newspaper`s stand on something, they refer to the editorial -- in any case, i think you underestimate the readership of editorials, in absolute terms that is -- besides, if you are writing something on ptcl, then you can be sure that the ministry concerned and the ptcl people would be reading it and hopefully take note of the changes --

noorulain -- i never thought my elitism, actual or imagined, was in question -- no i dont think i am part of the problem because what i do allows me to play a slightly constructive role than sitting in the drawing room fulminating at what is being done -- if i see something happen i at least can write about it and hold people accountable, and cynicism aside (abundant here in good measure) sometimes good things happen out of them -- and i am not talking about bomb blasts but even little little things like telling the police to not pick on motorcyclists or getting a park vacated from encroachers or telling the mullahs to lay off the textbooks -- that is precisely what the editorial did, it held the govt and its law enforcement agencies accountable -- now you can say that the problem is the govt itself but i am afraid our policy is not to advocate revolutions, at least not now, but to make things work -- after politicians come and go but the govt (read the state) is here to stay -- also noorulain, i wonder who the ch

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tiya here is when you consider that its different to criticize the content of an article and something else entirely to use the content of an article to attack someone personally -- im sure you would be able to relate to that noorul ain -- also, i dont like to have to come here to explain myself -- perhaps you are into that noorul ain but not everybody is --

noorulain -- to add -- plz get this -- i dont want feroz to ``admit`` or not admit his elitism -- it really is none of my concern -- it is a problem with me, however, when he insinuates things about me personally (which is not right because other than this site i have never met him and dont know him at all) or what i do -- what is with people here -- why should anyone have to explain themselves personally here - i suppose south asians like to do that -- i.e. ask others to explain personal things -- an extension, perhaps, of their generally curious nature -- digressions aside, noorulain, it doesnt bother me whether feroz is an elitist or not and i dont want him to admit to anything -- i had pointed out whatever i had only in response to his remarks about professional qualifications (or lack thereof), my morality (or lack thereof), etc.

yes there is sadna -- the mily has some pretty hypocritical and self-serving policies -- the guy who is being garlanded is the same guy whose followers killed several dozen army soldiers a few weeks ago -- its one of our remnants of our failed afghan/jihadi policy -- i dont think a few sentences can answer this -- you can try getting in touch with ahmed rashid, he would probably do a much better job of explaining this, or rahimullah yusufzai --

jay you need to check your facts (post. 37) -- dawn, like other papers, gave front page coverage to the attack -- ptv, which is state-owned, didnt -- it should have and every pakistani worth his salt knows that -- u still dont get the point about that other article -- well i am not going to waste my time explaining to you that for ptv to relay something like that is a big change, and that the change might be imposed from above -- thats all -- i think u seem to be reading too much into that --
jay -- again please get your facts right or dont speak unless you know fully well what you`re talking about -- what your referring to is the qisas and diyat ordinance -- on which dawn has written several editorials (three i have written myself) -- we even wrote something on how a drunk driver who had killed three young women was allowed to go free after the relatives of the women forgave him -- we had asked the judiciary to reconsider its decision but for that to happen our parliament needs to repeal the qisas and diyat law -- yes, you are right in saying that it is a terrible law but wrong in saying that the press (or at least segments of it) in pakistan have not been doing anything to get it repealed -- the state has to intervene and treat such crimes as crimes against it and not a personal matter to be resolved between the two parties - i wonder how many interactors and armchair philosophers/intellectuals on chowk actually know about how this so-called law works and the havoc it has wreaked on the poor in pakistan --

Jay, here is one such editorial that Dawn carried (Dec. 12, 2003)



Flawed and unjust


The call by sections of civil society that the Qisas and Diyat law should be repealed merits serious consideration of the federal government. First promulgated as an ordinance in 1990 and eventually passed into law without much debate by the National Assembly in 1997, the law has often been criticized as favouring the rich and influential, and for being discriminatory to women and minorities. Covering offences relating to physical injury, manslaughter and murder, it enables close relatives of victims to forgive those convicted of the crime in return for `blood money`. The rationale is that crimes, even as serious as murder, are committed not against the state, which is universally accepted principle of law, but against individual victims. Hence, the heirs of the victim have the right to pardon the killer. It is this aspect of the Qisas and Diyat law, which effectively translates into the government abdicating its responsibility to punish the murderers for their dreadful deeds that is most worrying.

Given the high incidence of poverty in Pakistan, and widespread illiteracy and intolerance, it should come as no surprise that the Qisas and Diyat law has often been misused, leading to the exploitation of the poor and the down-trodden. The criticism that it is biased in favour of the rich is valid because there have been several instances, particularly in the rural areas, where the poor family of a murder victim is pressured and coerced into pardoning the murderer, especially if the latter`s family is well-off or influential. Such a pardon is motivated not by a genuine feeling and expression of repentance on the part of the murderer but rather by the prospect of financial gain the poor family of the victim can make. The `anti-woman` label is also justified since there are numerous examples of murderers being pardoned after killing their wives, sisters, daughters or even mothers, ostensibly to protect so-called family honour. Such acts are usually carried out with the tacit approval of clan patriarchs and the killers know that a pardon is easily available or will be secured through pressure or blandishment or both. The law is also biased against the minorities because it does not allow a non-Muslim to pay diyat for the murder of a Muslim. Any law that treats murder as a family affair and deems the consequent prosecution and conviction as something to be negotiated needs to be repealed.

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jay: plz stop telling us what questions we should or should not ask without doing your own homework

Hamidm #63: The problem Pakistan has is that it has too many Rummys. And not enough Ted Kennedys.

The USA has its hands full trying to explain to the rest of the world, how it was liberating Iraq, by setting attack dogs lose on naked prisoners in a jail. And Rummy himself has stated that more videos are coming out. Not to mention the fact that US has a 10% approval rating in Iraq. I am not sure why they would be needed to the same in Pakistan. I just hope that Pakistan does not get lured into sending troops into Iraq. That would result in more explosions in Pakistan.

Are you suggesting that Americans should actually start taking the blame for the Shias killed by them in Iraq? The number killed there is well into the thousands. Total being between 10,000 to 15,0000. The number killed in Pakistan, not by the govt. mind you, is in the hundreds (according to you).

According to the people who did the killings, the Shia killed in the mosque in Pakistan, fall under the category of colateral damage, i.e. people killing others, for a greater cause. A concept perfected by individuals like Rumsfeld. And supported by individuals like yourself. Why get so upset now that it is applied in Pakistan, under similar motives?

Quite the double standard.

Rummy is only going to get the boot, if it helps George Bush get re-elected. Otherwise, he will continue to sit where he is. And create enough trouble in the world to ensure that countries like Pakistan are always in the, ``With us or against us`` situation. Pakistan has lost so many of its own people in Wana, and Rummy still wants Pakistan, ``to do more.`` The more Pakistan does, the more bomb blasts there will be.

I used to read Ayaz Amir`s anti-USA articles with a grain of salt. He knows more about the insides of Pakistan, than most,, but I still found some of his stuff to be too nationalistic. The guy used to keep arguing that Pakistan needs to stay away from US`s global ambitions. I always felt that the US would make Pakistan pay a huge price, if it did. But now I have other thoughts. The current mess in Pakistan, and the whole Klashnikove culture is directly related to the support during the first Afghan war. And now we are doing it again.

I don`t know who caused the Karachi bomb blast. I do know that sticking too close to Rummy is not the answer. Had he put electrical rods on Jewish prisoners, he would have been gone by now. But he has survived because the prisoners were Arabs and Muslims......You need to get with the program......

shri veeresh ji -- i have not chosen to ignore your remark -- i, as you might or might know, want to enjoy my one day off and unlike many who interact here do need to have some time for my other life -- AND, unfortunately, shri veeresh ji, you have this bad habit of posting responses on two boards -- you posted the response on the board for the `sign to come?` article and here -- i replied there and only noticed in passing that you had done the same here -- and, also assumed that i was shying for replying to you -- democratic responses yes, but not when they get personal and insinuate things never said -- besides, responses are fine but not when someone is deliberately misquoted -- and trust me shri veeresh ji we tend to get several responses to what we write from our readers and compared to responses on chowk they are far more well-argued and non-personal (i.e. comment on the content and not my person -- which is bound to happen here, i suppose, because i personally interact on this site) -- i doubt if, veeresh sahib, that you would get your letter to the editor printed in any newspaper in the world if you chose to focus on the merits or character of the person who wrote the article rather than the content of the article -- i have already responded on the other board about your remark -- i never said ptv is the fountainhead of truth -- i think you do not the english media in pakistan, or pakistanis at all, if you think that i or anyone would think that ptv is the fountain of truth -- it is quite the opposite and most pakistanis on this site who live in pakistan and watch its current affairs or news would agree with that -- also shri veeresh ji, since you are hard to mollify and bent on inventing things never written, said or implied, here is something i wrote on ptv for my newspaper -- plz go through it carefully and judge for yourself whether i think ptv is the fountainhead of truth -- plz do an editorial on why newspapers cost so much in pakistan hahhaha -- tell me which paper in india will run it too --

p.s. as for patronizing said readership, your post on sharmeen saleem`s article is ridiculously patronizing -- amazing you cannot see that -- and by the way bongdong did get what i was trying to say -- but you sir... well what can one say -- refuse to see the obvious -- or that you can sometimes misunderstand what someone has written --

(Printed on May 24, 2003)

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Back to square one

By Omar R. Quraishi


Khabarnama has gradually come back to square one. Over the past few years, at least four governments pledged to make the daily news bulletin more news-oriented and credible. We had Ms Bhutto`s government which in the middle of its tenure realized that people were no longer buying the hogwash that was being fed to them.

The information minister, if memory serves me right, Khalid Kharal, said a new look and more believable news bulletin would be presented to a potential audience of many millions. Nothing happened.

Then we had the Sharif brothers and their information minister Mushahid Husain also promised a lot of change. And then we had Gen Musharraf and his first information minister, Javed Jabbar.

It has to be said that there was some change because we saw at least professional journalists being used in the main news bulletin instead of the dullards that we have now (who ask the occasional minister/ex-ambassador/ex-general - invited as an `expert` - pointless questions like `so tell us your views on why India refuses to implement the UN resolutions on Kashmir). For a brief spell, PTV had credible discussion programmes and a news bulletin that had some news which was mildly newsworthy.

They said, the arrival of a full-fledged political government has really put the proverbial nail in Khabarnama`s coffin. All the major news bulletins, especially the nine o`clock one which comes on the terrestrial network (and hence beamed to the whole country) have news - in descending order - about the president, the prime minister, the governors, the four chief ministers, the federal and provincial ministers, the provincial advisers and special assistants, proceedings of parliamentary committees and so on.

On May 21 while having dinner I had a violent convulsion when I heard the newscaster say that the federal minister for water and power had proceeded to Kabul to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai. He then went on to say that the minister had gone with a paigham of nek khwahishat for the Afghan president and that matters relating to bahmee taluqat (bilateral relations) were discussed. Frankly speaking, who cares if the minister for water and power went to Afghan capital with a paigham of nek khwahishat?

I would like to ask PTV`s news producers what kind of news value could this story possibly possess, especially in its current anodyne form? Now, it is very possibly that the minister went with a message from the Pakistan government relating to Mr Karzai`s request made when he visited Pakistan recently and asked help in catching and handing over alleged fugitives of the former Taliban government.

The Khabarnama story didn`t mention this possible development and only talked of the nek khwahishat and the talks that were held on matters relating to bahmee taluqat.

I wish someone in PTV or the information ministry would explain just how the average Pakistani would be affected by, or even by mildly interested, in hearing of this exchange between the minister for water and power and the Afghan president.

Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Every night at nine the sensibilities of millions of Pakistanis are subjected to the worst kinds of assaults. There is no end in sight to the drivel that they have to bear with day in day out in the guise of `news`. PTV`s airwaves are the property of the people of Pakistan (let no bureaucrat deny that because the organization is funded by taxpayers` money) but regrettable, they have no say whatsoever in the kind of news programming that they end up watching.

(email: omarq@cyber.net.pk)

nooralain -- at least i am in pakistan trying to do something in a profession where we try and hold the govt accountable and provide a platform to civil society to come forward and air their grievances -- you on the other hand, and sorry to be a bit blunt, are in seattle or some nice place right, attending zakir hussain concerts, getting drunk, and telling us as if we are really interested in reading what goes on inside the mind of an ebriated person -- i wonder whose remarks are laden with, to use your lovely euphemism `chutyapa` -- you might have left the country because of valid reasons but that doesn`t give you the moral authority to trash those living here -- something that so many expats are experts at -- the part of the problem thing doesnt even apply to you - you ran away from the problem --

for shri veeresh ji, who seems to hold eternal interest in the pakistani media, but cant seem to (doesnt want to) understand how its works or operates -- and others who are quick to pass judgment on the press in Pakistan but have little knowledge of the environment it functions in or the professional hazards that many journalists have to face --


(And this is NOT from Dawn, from the Daily Times -- and SAFMA in Pakistan is a branch of SAFMA India) --


Pakistan — a vibrant press under constraint since 2003

* Three journalists and an author killed, says SAFMA’s ‘Media Monitor2003’ report

By Waqar Gillani

LAHORE The press in Pakistan, last year, remained fiercely independent in its criticism of the country’s military regime, observed the South Asian Free Media Association in its recently published report, “Media Monitor 2003”.

It claimed the rise of the religious right and growing militancy in the name of religion caused problems for various parts of the media: the secular section of the press came remained under pressure while journalists supporting orthodox religious views came down hard on the Musharraf government.

The report observed the most important development for the media took place in October 2002 when the outgoing military regime promulgated a set of six press ordinances before inducting the elected government. These were denounced by the All Pakistan Newspaper Society (APNS) (representing the country’s publishers) and the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) (of working journalists) as “illegitimate, unethical and unconstitutional”.

The SAFMA critically scrutinised the ordinances and proposed six alternative draft laws.

Meanwhile, the authorities withheld government advertisements in a bid to arm-twist certain newspapers. The Sindhi press, known for its hard-hitting reporting and the Nawa-i-Waqt group of newspapers were both targeted by the government. The report observed that 12 Sindhi newspapers had to wind up their operations in recent years due to lack of government advertising.

One of the most serious attempts by the government to check the free flow of information occurred when the authorities blocked Internet news sites, on the pretext of censoring pornographic material. Three journalists and an author lost their lives in December as they were preparing a documentary on the Taliban. The incident, reports SAFMA, caught the attention of the international media.

Attacks on the Pakistani press:

January 1: Police detained several journalists who attended a press conference held by the Lahore High Court Bar Association to condemn the suspension construction work on a new library in the court building by the bench.

January 6: Javed Akhtar Malik, president of the Faisalabad Union of Journalists, was attacked by unknown assailants but managed to escape unhurt.

January7: A group of armed men attacked the OK Cable Network in Peshawar and smashed its equipment.

January 10: A New York-based Pakistani journalist, Zahid Ghani, was accused by the government of “harming Pakistan’s relations with the United States” when he criticised the US for deporting Pakistanis in large numbers in the wake of 9/11. Also, a group of armed men attacked a cable network company in Peshawar, destroying its equipment and assaulting up its staff.

January 14: The Lahore High Court dismissed a petition seeking to reverse the government’s decision to ban Indian television channels.

January 18: Federal Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat served a Rs 500 million notice to The Friday Times for printing “libellous material” about him. The management of the weekly magazine claimed it had published nothing that other print media had not already reported. Three days later, the minister denied a news report that claimed he had been convicted of a crime before he joined the cabinet and issued a legal notice to Urdu language daily, Khabrain. Later, he admitted in the National Assembly that his name was on the Exit Control List which bars high profile figures wanted in criminal cases from leaving the country.

January 19: Intelligence agents intercepted and thrashed a radio journalist who tried to interview Sehba Musharraf, wife of the Pakistani president, during her visit to the Alhamra cultural complex in Lahore.

January 21: Unidentified assailants killed Fazal Wahab, a freelance writer, as he sat in a shop in the northwestern town of Mingora. He was writing a book, “Mullah ka Kirdar” (The Role of Mullah).

February 1: A journalist, who tried to take a picture of Sehba Musharraf at an art exhibition in Lahore was roughed up by her security guards.

February 22: Two henchmen of Afghan commander Hazrat Ali visited the office of The Frontier Post in Peshawar, threatening staff member, Syed Anwar, with “terrible personal consequences” for reporting that the commander had been arrested by US troops for drug smuggling and helping Al Qaeda fighters escape from military operations in Tora Bora.

March 3: Local journalist Imran Barkat was attacked and seriously injured by drug peddlers in Khankah Doggaran.

March 5: Sheikh Latif, a journalist based in Dera Ghazi Khan, went missing after visiting an influential man in his locality who owed him money.

March 10: A Lahore-based weekly, Independent, complained that Punjab Home Secretary Ejaz Shah threatened its publisher, Ilyas Meraj, by telephone, warning him against terrible consequences for “working against national interests”. Shah, a retired military officer, who formerly served the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), advised the journal to “roll back” its alleged “campaign against the army” if it wanted “to stay in business and stay safe”.

March 16: Mahmood Khattak, a Peshawar-based correspondent with Dawn, reported that police stopped his car and harassed him while he was travelling to Tank from Peshawar.

March 22: About 30 journalists from Peshawar, invited by the NWFP government to the chief minister’s house for a press briefing, were not allowed to enter the place and Security personnel allegedly insulted them on their arrival.

March 24: Intelligence agents picked up journalist and human rights activist, Akhtar Baloch, in Hyderabad. They detained him for three days.

April 11: Policemen thrashed Ashfaq Ali, a senior sub-editor at The News in Karachi, after a police van brushed his motorcycle.

April 12: The Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL) blocked 400 “indecent websites”, bringing the total number of the banned websites to more than 1,800.

April 13: Military officials in the tribal territory of North Waziristan allegedly harassed Hayatullah Khan, a correspondent with the Daily Ausaf, and his family after he reported the “misuse” of military vehicles in the area. His brothers and daughter were expelled from an army-administered school.

April 19: Amir Hashmi, a bookmaker, and his accomplices attacked the office of Khabrain in Sargodha. The newspaper had published reports about his match-fixing activities.

May 14: Paramilitary forces allegedly detained Sarwar Mujahid, a journalist covering issues pertaining to the military farm management in Okara. Mr Mujahid was accused of being a terrorist who was inciting the public against the Rangers. An anti-terrorist court remanded him in police custody for four days. His family complained of receiving threatening telephone calls.

May 22: Police beat journalists outside the Punjab Assembly in Lahore. Officer Aftab Cheema ordered the constables to baton-charge the journalists when they asked him to explain why an assembly member had been arrested.

May 29: Press photographers were denied entry into the Supreme Court of Pakistan to cover the proceedings of a case against a leader of the lawyers’ community.

May 31: Authorities blocked access to the Washington-based website, South Asia Tribune. A Tribune spokesman said in a statement the Pakistan Internet Exchange, established in 2002 to offer a single point of access to the ISPs in Pakistan, executed the punitive action.

June 10: A court in Peshawar sentenced sub-editor Munawar Mohsin of The Frontier Post to life imprisonment for publishing a blasphemous letter in the January 29, 2001, edition of the newspaper.

June 27: The information ministry instructed a newspaper not to publish a statement issued by the exiled former prime minister of the country, Nawaz Sharif. Also, Karachi’s Nazim stopped female models from posing for commercial advertisements, calling the practice “obscene and vulgar”.

July 16: Police detained the chief editor of a Lahore-based monthly, Shahrag-e-Pakistan, for allegedly publishing material against the government.

The same day, the government reinforced its ban on the broadcast of Indian television channels by cable operators.

August 8: PEMRA cancelled licenses of six cable operators for violating its rules.

August 15: Authorities in Khuzdar, Balochistan, detained Rasheed Azam, a local journalist, for allegedly distributing anti-army posters.

August 18: Unidentified assailants killed Liaqat Ali, secretary general of the press club in Nowshera.

August 19: Police in Peshawar entered without a warrant the house of a journalist who worked with the Pushto language service of the Voice of America radio station. He was accused of sheltering an outlaw.

In a separate incident, six unidentified gunmen killed Raja Ejaz, a reporter who worked with Khabrain, at his native town of Pind Dadan Khan. His colleagues described his murder as a target killing, but the motives could not be ascertained.

August 30: Police in the southern city of Hyderabad arrested seven local journalists during a visit of the Pakistani president to the city. The same day, Federal Information Minister Sheikh Rashid said the government received 13 times the amount of coverage given to the opposition on the state-run television channel P1V.

October 4: Unidentified assailants killed a journalist, Amir Bukhsh Brohi, in the town of Shikarpur. The 28-year-old journalist worked for a Sindhi language newspaper, Kawish, and was the president of Shikarpur Press Club.

October 17: Members of the Shakargarh Press Club protested against a threat allegedly issued by a paramilitary forces officer to a local journalist, Inamullah Butt.

October 19: Supporters of Tariq Pervez Janjua, Vice President of the Lahore High Court Bar Association, allegedly attacked press photographers taking Mr Janjua’s pictures after he secured bail following his arrest.

October 21: Amnesty International voiced concern over reports that the Sindh provincial government was interfering with police investigations into the murder of journalist Amir Baksh Brohi in Shikarpur.

October 24: Islamists defaced billboards picturing female models across the Faisalabad district.

October 25: The Information Minister of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) denied reports that the ruling coalition, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), was planning to cancel the declarations of newspapers publishing “obscene material”.

October 26: An association of Muslim clerics, Ittehad Tanzim-i-mema (ITU), in the town of Bara in the tribal belt of Pakistan’s northwest threatened to demolish the house of a local journalist, Nasrullah, for reporting the activities of the ITU.

October 30: Journalists covering the Punjab Assembly proceedings in Lahore staged a protest outside the assembly against the thrashing being given to a colleague by a sanitary inspector of a local hospital.

November 1: Journalist unions in the NWFP asked the provincial authorities to take action against the criminals who tried to attack Jehangir Shehzad, a senior crime reporter in Peshawar, for his investigative features.

November 10: Police in the town of Farooqabad allegedly registered a fake case against a local journalist, Mohammad Sarwar, after he reported alleged misdeeds of the police.

November 14: A female employee of the private Karakuram International University, in the northern city of Gilgit, claimed she was sacked because her brother, Mehboob Khayam, had reported the alleged malpractices of the education institute.

November 19: Journalists in Hyderabad protested the arrest of a colleague, Anwar Siyal, and his son, Zulfiqar, for lodging a police complaint against an army officer.

November 23: Unidentified men torched the car of Amir Mir, senior assistant editor of the Herald magazine, parked outside his house in Lahore. The miscreants also fired at a watchman who rushed to the crime scene. Mr Mir was accused of “subverting national interests” by filing investigative reports.

November 26: A senior police officer ordered an inquiry into the complaint filed by three journalists from Faisalabad that the local police raided their office, damaging furniture and hauling them up without justification.

November 30: Abdul Hafeez, an employee of a Karachi-based newspaper, was shot dead in the Mehmoodabad locality by an unknown man, while he was on his way to his printing press.

December 4: The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a letter to President General Pervez Musharraf that his government was becoming increasingly intolerant of press freedom in Pakistan.

December 9: Five men assaulted journalist Abbas Awan in Sargodha. Reasons remain unknown.

December 10: Journalists’ rights organisation, Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), urged the French government to take up the case of Pakistani journalist Amir Mir with the country’s prime minister, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, during his forthcoming visit to France.

December 18: Two French journalists, Marc Epstein and Jean-Paul Guilloteau of the weekly L’Expresse, were arrested along with their Pakistani colleague, Khawar Mehdi Rizvi, in Balochistan for unauthorised activities. Rizvi was charged with hiring local Pashtun tribesmen to pose as Taliban militants for the French journalists who were tried for travelling to restricted areas without meeting visa requiremenst. The Frenchmen were released on January 12, 2004, after a court waived the six-month prison sentence handed to them, but Mr Rizvi’s trial continues.

December 27: The Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL) reportedly asked its international Internet transit provider, FlAG Telecom, to block all pornographic and “objectionable” websites. Meanwhile, a provincial committee of the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors condemned the arson attack on a Sindhi language newspaper organisation.

December 31: The Sindh High Court issued notice to the government’s deputy attorney general and the director general of the Federal Investigation Agency in response to a habeas corpus petition moved by the family of Khawar Mehdi Rizvi, arrested along with French journalists earlier in the month.

Ref HP #62

[Why Pakistan can’t just be a small little country and people doing what they need to do to better their lives?]

Nothing wrong with that. I would bet 99.99% of Pakistanis just want to be left alone to pursue Life, Liberty and Happiness.

[The idea of being “something” that has been sowed into Pakistan middleclass via the grandiose-ness of Islam shows up in the thoughts of all slightly better educated, professedly elitist, Secular and liberal ideologues. Even the Non religious types have those Islamic grand designs engraved in their hearts.]

I do not blame it on Islam. I blame it on India-envy. I blame it on the politicians and the Pak Army who think that they need to match everything India does...except in education or scientific reasearch or advancement of democracy and political institutions or things that truly matter to the people of Pakistan.

[Near home, Pakistan has twice seen the worst human disasters. First, the partition and second, the Pakistani rulers inflicted on East Pakistan.]

You got your history wrong. It is Bangladesh that saw TWO human disasters. Pakistan PERPETRATED the second disaster you mention and was the CAUSE of the first.

Omar Quraishi
If you notice, armed militants in Waziristan are getting flower garlands and ever- lengthening deadlines to `surrender` and `register`.

At the same time, a returning Shahbaz Sharif`s associates are getting arrested like criminals. Is there a good reason for this discrepancy?

hamidm2 # 63 - sad to hear about violence in Karachi, I have friends who are impacted and believe me find it difficult to be sanguine or holier than thou on the subject.

But. I have to say this. IMHO, and supported by discussions here in Delhi, it seems that in Pakistan, all the local MLM/Amway schemes have started failing and all customers are going back to Unilever or P&G.

Samajh gaye? And now you know why it worries Indians? There are just too many lashkars walking about in Pakistan dreaming of a day when the goraa officer mai-baap sarkar will come back and restore order.

We don`t want goraa oficers again in India. Ask me, joining the Merchant Navy as recently as the early `70s, we were still convinced by older crew even then that ``goraa officer was reall maaloom sahib``.

So when you even use black humour to ask for American officers to patrol Karachi, then:-

a) it makes my hair stand on end, this is too close to home for us Indians, we have no wish to become Mexico, nor do we wish for Pakistan to become El Salvador.

b) I think you need to go walkabout in Pakistan and ask ordinary Pakistani soldiers about what ``support duty`` they are already doing, in a ratio of 6 Pakistani soldiers for 1 American soldier, in some parts of Pakistan.

Your post about American soldiers in Karachi is too close to the truth, my fellow survivor.

Bing dongs #46 (what a handle, what is the provocation for this, sirji?) . . . the complete issue behind Omar Quraishi and PTv as well as Omar Quraishi in general (in General and in Brigadier and in Air Marshal and in Admiral, too . . .) is about how he needs to learn how to handle a democratic readership that questions and argues back. Without patronising said readership.

That, apparently, is too much for him so he has gone back to the pavilion, choosing to ignore my question on whether PTV is the Fountain or not?

I mea, please take a look at my message #45 here, both Omar`s quotes are from the same article, his.

And he has still not done an editiorial on why newspapers cost so much in Pakistan.

Maybe I shall.

HP #62 Great post. I agree the average Pakistani needs this high and mighty political stuff and islamic ideology nonsense the way he needs a hole in the head. As Clinton said to the elder Bush a long time ago: Its the economy, stupid.

........ i watched poor rummy being grilled for six hours by fat fools like ted kennedy and even though i think it is a shame, he and general meyers will be packing their bags shortly ............. but who is going to pay the price for the hundreds of shias killed in pakistan over the last six months?................ we might be better off if we had the american army patrolling the streets of karachi - then, at least, we could pin the blame on a old white guy ..............