Now it’s mannequins

I think there is something seriously wrong with Muslims...

I wonder when will they learn...

Even a Mule after so much thrashing should learn they ways of his master....Yet they now seems immune to all types of shocks....and keep on doing the same blunder again and again...

Omar,

Your word is good enough. However, I wanted to confirm the source. I think NWFP government should have made alternate arrangements before imposing such restriction. Loss of one human life because of our negligence is too many. I think Islamic injunctions provide some relaxation if the matter is of life and death. In short, I support such restrictions within the limits of reason because they are more representative of our cultural and moral values.

As far as number of male gynaecologists is concerned I am still skeptical

urstruly-- i have one question for you -- do you live in peshawar or the nwfp? also, what is your claim that male gynaecologists in Pakistan can be counted on the digits of two hands -- i think the figures given by the Pakistan Medical Association would be more relevant and off hand I can name at least a dozen male gynaecologists in Karachi alone (including some of the better-known ones) -- in any case the ban applied not only to male gynaecologists but was being implemented in general even in the case of matters as routine as getting a lab test done -- and the source of the ``claim``, as you say, is several newspaper stories, quoting families of the victims and specific instances -- i think the figure was 53 deaths -- two were published in Dawn and one was carried by a foreign wire service -- also, the NWFP government or its health department never denied them --

As an outsider, all I can say is that Pakistani politics is a mess...

Now, I will admit the banning of male gyno`s is dumb even by Pakistani standards. This aside consider if after MMA, a more secular-minded party comes into power. Their very first order of business is to undo all the `harm` the MMA did. So by edict of new government, hijab is no longer compulsory, ban on male coaches for female temas lifted, lifting ban on business/transportation shutdown on prayer time, and darn `tootin - the mannequin`s are trucked back in by the thousands. If this is their first order of business, will you be kind enough to write an article on how they`re wasting their time on such useless issues, while real issues go on ignored? Or will you and precious foreign press sing their praises? Please, be honest.

Any adminstration should be judged by it`s actions and the efficacy of these actions. You are absoloutely correct in stating that there are more pressing issues to be dealt with. But why so harsh on MMA? What about past leadership that was apparently more secular? Why should any future leadership be better than any of the past ones? Or did people honestly think MMA would have made an attempt on those big issues?!?!?! HAHAHA, what a laugh that is...I mean, if MMA was undoing progress made, I could understand the anger...but...come on...NWFP province has always been a mess...

Echoboom

Amen brother.

CHERRYBLOSSOM:(tan, brown, or black?)

It would be very difficult for you to comprehend. You are a DESI pretending to be a foreigner in Pakistan. Talk to your mohalla Imam to give you a rating on your I.Q

What a laa` nat on you slaves when your masters assure the safety of your President. And is this the army, O baighairato, which gets paid in plots to safeguard the nation? I say, the biggest feudals in Pakiland are the khakhis: They plot for plots. Whoever ever heard of `Defence Colonies`? Askari banks ? Fauji Construction & Dev. Fauji Cornflakes? Sugar Mills..for Allah`s sake THIS is where these MANNEQUINS are found.

Earn some Ghairat and lesser Money: and you will be on your way to become wealthy. Give a kick to the Leuchodermia (whitespot-disease) of colonialism & westernism and you will win by flying colors.

O laa`ntee , write something which has even a remote possibility of you getting fired or becoming jobless. To be able to drink and fcukk around is not progress and achievement. Gynkhanas and boat-clubs are for the lowest of low in Pakistan.

Start visiting the mohalla Imam, your anglicised educated mind needs surgery.

Omar

``The decision, according to several stories that came in its aftermath, cost several dozen pregnant women their lives, who died during childbirth because female gynaecologists were not available.``

What is the source and evidence of this claim. As far as I can tell, the number of male gynaecologists in Pakistan could be counted on the digits of two hands. It is not a profession that male doctors go into. In my opinion if there are male gynaecologists in Paksitan then they are mostly in private consultation, where mostly they treat infirtility issues rather than operational issues of childbirth in the hospitals. And I really doubt that there were so many male gynaecologists in a province as conservative as NWFP, so that their absence would have caused the death of dozens of women. It doesn`t sound plausible.

echo boom (from what i can make of your posting) -- the story about the mannequins first came in the media (the english one to be precise), and so did this particular article

The kind of news which the BOOTLICKERs from cantonements and colonies are terrified to print in the illiterates media--the english media!

Time to read the writings on the masjid walls--better still, make them your friends. The Burra sahib has gone . Look, walk, and talk like the real Pakistani--Vajpaee looks like his majority subjects. Why can`t Pakis like you. Feel I.Q going down in vernacular?

---

READ, REPENT, REVERT!

Telegraph, London 4th january, 2004

The Muslim veil has become a hot political issue in France - but Stella White cannot see what the fuss is about. A Catholic from Kent, she explains the joys of the complete cover-up.


How not to be mistaken for a LIVE-MANNEQUIN

romair: according to the 2002-03 economic survey of Pakistan the country has at least 3 million Internet users -- this is the figure for connections by the way and there may well be more actual users (and this number is constantly rising and does not include use of the net in cyber cafes, which by the way i found even in nathiagali) -- and this is a government figure which anyway might be lower than the actual -- as for chowk users, the internet is available in many small towns and cities such as say muzaffargarh, sahiwal, dadu city, toba tek singh, turbat etc. I gave the example of muzaffargarh and turbat because we (as in Dawn staff) get mail from these places quite regularly -- in any case the internet is widely available, though Paknet is in many cases the only ISP around -- as for cable viewers, a recent government and industry estimate said that at least 25 million Pakistanis have access to cable -- and one also cannot assume that this would exclusively be confined to the urban areas -- many smaller towns and cities have cable networks -- besides, the way the census defines rural and urban areas can be problematic though beyond the scope of what i am trying to argue here -- the way you arrived at the chowk estimate is a bit simplistic -- i personally know several people who log on to chowk and by no stretch of teh imagination would one call them super-rich or even rich -- perhaps upper middle-class or even middle-class would cut and that does not make them the top 1 per cent -- and yaar please, for the sake of argument please realize that even those who live in karachi`s `posh` defence and clifton have to deal with bad roads, stray dogs, open manholes, theft, power outages, bad or non-existent solid waste collection and so on just like people in other less affluent neighbourhoods -- true, that they have more resources at their disposal to deal with such problems but that isn`t always true and in any case this does not mean that their problems are different from everybody else`s in pakistan

by the way your last para of your post, romair, i dont know where your getting your view of pakistan -- it isn`t like that and things are quite rapidly changing, though not always for the better -- i dont know what big words like self-actualization mean and i dont think that ``most pakistanis`` are in the food and physical security stage -- and even if they are then many `rich` pakistanis are also probably worried about their physical security

omar_r_qureshi #25: ``when i said that your estimates were generally off target i was referring to the figures/percentages you gave in your earlier posting -- you would probably agree that basing judgments on estimates, especially when there is no basis to make an accurate estimate, can lead to highly misleading conclusions``

I agree.

This is why I used the word, ``guess.`` I based the figures on the following:

- The literacy rate of Pakistan is roughly 40% +/-. Most of that is from urban Sind and Punjab. So NWFP has a lower percentage. Within NWFP, the poorer voterbase is more towards MMA. Hence the number would be even lower. I would say 30% literacy would be a good guess. Though I could be wrong.

- I remember reading that 1 million Pakistanis have access to the Internet. That is around .75% (1 million out of 140 million) of the population. Most of it is in urban Sind and urban Punjab. So the figure of 99.5% not having Internet access at home in NWFP.

The figures for cable TV access and higher education are based on extrapolating from similar figures. So not completely off target.

The one about wearing manequin clothes, I came up with on my own.

As regarding Chowk interactors:

Anyone who lives in a major urban center, even if he/she is poor, is in the top 40% of Pakistan, since 60%+ population is rural. Anyone who has Internet access at home, is already in the top 1%. Anyone who has a foreign degree or lives abroad with a foreign degree based job (non-labor), is probably in the top .1% (1 out of a thousand). Anyone who has any kind of a college degree form Pakistan is probably in the top 5%. Anyone who can write good English is in a similar fraction. etc. etc.

All of Chowk satisfies the above. This would put them in the top 1% or less (probably much less) of Pakistan. To me, that is a good definition of the super-rich in the society. Usually, people who are in the super-rich group, do not realize how rich they are, in comparison to others in their society.

Thus, I doubt, at a personal level, the problems of us Chowkies have much in common with the problems of the remaining 99% of Pakistan. Hence we will give completely different importance to issues and problems, which maybe completely irrelevant to the average voter. This does not mean our issues are invalid or wrong. However, politicians will always concentrate on issues, which appeal to the remaining 99%. We are all in the self-acculization stage stage of the hierarchy, while most of Pakistan is still in the food and physical security stage.

romair -- who said banning mannequins isnt a ridiculous idea???? my whole article would seem to suggest that it -- when i said that your estimates were generally off target i was referring to the figures/percentages you gave in your earlier posting -- you would probably agree that basing judgments on estimates, especially when there is no basis to make an accurate estimate, can lead to highly misleading conclusions -- besides, i am not sure if everyone who comes to chowk (and who lives in Pakistan) is super-rich, though they might have other problems -- in any case the MMA government people in the NWFP certainly do not come to chowk and probably are not super-rich -- but they still seem to have time to indulge in such non-issues -- and its people on chowk sometimes actually discussing real issues, even though (as you say) they might be quite different from the `average pakistani`

omar_r_qureshi #22: ``romair -- your estimates are mostly quite off target -- ``

To summarize, my estimates are as follows:

- An overwhelming majority of the voting population of Pakistan (probably over 95%) has very little in common, with all of us on Chowk. We are super-rich, by Pakistani standards (many of us are even rich by North American standards). The average and even above average Pakistani has compeletely different problems.
- Banning manequins is a ridiculous idea
- At the same time, it, and other similar actions, are not going to be the deciding factor regarding the success or failure of any govt. in NWFP, nor in Pakistan, in the eyes of the voter
- The deciding factor is going to be how much of an improvement the govt. can bring to the economic and infrastructure conditions of the poor (who are the main voting block)
- Now that we have four different kinds of govts. in Pakistan, it will give us a good opportunity to see, which ones` efforts are the most effective

Could you highlight what you find off-target in this.

romair -- your estimates are mostly quite off target --

so now what will they do? stand in place of the mannequins??(wont bearded mannequins wud look weird?)
the New Year celebrations were also banned...what are these Mullahs turning NWFP into?! it has started to resemble Taliban-controlled Afghanistan already.
give it a break, MMA !!