How to End Politics of Hate and Intolerance "Pakistan for the last many years is witnessing all kinds of conflicts—economic, socio-political, center-provinces disagreements, sectarian, tribal, ethnic and religious fights, suicidal attacks, thrashing of political opponents and what not."
------- True but not accurate--------
The fact and dependent on how far back the author(s) are able to account for this distress could be the reason.
"the last many years" should be revised by the readers to read as last many decades
When criticizing an improper situation we should be prudent in our approach and get out of our self-imposed nut shells, while the topic discussed by the author(s) is a sincere attempt to shed light on the prevailing deteriorating conditions nationwide, but this has been going on for more than just last many years, such conditions have prevailed in the past extending beyond Musharraf's rule, the Operation Clean up in the 90's is no concealed matter although plenty of efforts have gone in to conceal it in a manner so it does not become an issue, but it was and is an issue. In years previous to that, live women and children were picked up and thrown in the fire in Orangi town, in the fires that were burning these people's very own homes, or should I say huts yani jhonprian, majority of these people were from those refugees who repatriated after quite an struggle from Bangladesh, and have already gone through what could be considered hell like conditions prior to suffering once again on the hands of the so-called brothers in Islam.
During the period of the rule of Nawaz Not-So-Sharieff brutalities surpassed even the cruel most limits and when people sent their young kids to go live with someone over in another province such as Punjab, the Punjab Govt did not allow them to stay there and returned them home to be killed by the barbarians who were seeking and killing every young man they can get their hands on, plenty of sacked dismembered bodies were found in the city of Karachi.
During the rule of Z A Bhutto throughout the 70's the govt insisted that the Baluch & Pashtun have declared revolt against Pakistan and have climbed over the mountains while they will not come down and talk and rather kill & die, to strengthen such blames the govt with the aid of the interior ministry and subordinating police departments went to the extent of scattering weapons around the dormitories at Karachi University where Baluch & Pashtun students who have come for education were living and then awakened these students in the middle of night after fabricating, engineering and doctoring it's conspiracy to build a case, waking these students at 2 & 3 AM and rounding them up for conspiring against Pakistan's solidarity and existence, charged hundreds of these students and booked them.
Aitezaz Ahsan the famous lawyer who was once the interior minister ordered the police force in Hyderabad sindh to open fire on a peaceful demonstration by women which resulted in numerous deaths and serious injuries.
During the same tenure Aitezaz Ahsan who now portrays himself as a supporter of freedom of media had ordered deportation of visiting journalist and author Lamb because he did not like the truth that she accounted in her writing.
If an honest accounting of all that has been going on in Pakistan for "decades" is carried out volumes of books can be written and still there will be some more.
We have become very used to picking up slogans and proverbial statements from writers and philosophers and use those with pride in our writings and statements while we fail to recognize as individual citizens as to what we as individuals have contributed?
Talk about a protest, demonstration or a rally we happen to be the most experienced nation with ability and knowledge on how to disturb peace and how to cause mischevious acts to disturb the civil life, be it pahiya jaam, black out, white out, red out or some other out, a boycott or whatever it may be, we are just too used to finding some way to cause disturbance and avoid going to work for another day.
If all these so-called politicians who are so cunning in their approach would announce a day of clean up throughout Pakistan on the weekly day off no one will show up to participate but we love to get out there on a weekday instead of working and cause damage to every and anything that is made of glass or plastic, be it the traffic lights, a showroom or a vehicle we know all the techniques on how to burn what and how to damage what.
The judges that are out of their seats now like being politicians and have no interest in discharging their actual duties, while this special group of judges have some pioneers of the first PCO under which they took oath but now that they had established themselves in their seats they are aspiring to pick on a bigger bone than they have swallowed in past but their conspiracies that they have sowed in the greed to turn over the govt will not come true and they will soon find out that no matter how much they conspired with the Nawaz Not-So-Sharieff they will not succeed in their attempts to set their teeth on a bigger bone.
They like to hold seminars in the name of Judicial authority and use the court auditorium premeises where they sit pretty chairing the occasion while under their leadership and under their chairmanship of the occasion they use aspiring individuals to make statements way below the belt and less than the ethics of their profession accords them.
In the beautiful words of the author, "Blame game and mudslinging must end now."
As far as the beneficiaries of NRO are concerned it includes quite a few Not-So-Sharieffs.
With regards to masses like in Georgia nothing less than the French Revolution which culminated ankle high blood in streets can work, people voted for the national and provincial assemblies however our shrewd politicians are still not awake and dreaming by insisting as if it was a referundum for the President of Pakistan, how long can we go denying the facts? & how long will we allow these wolves to suck the blood of Pakistan? its time to find an obsolete ship of Pak Navy and put all these politicians on it, take it to the deep sea and torpedo the hell out of these politician so that even the whales and sharks cant find a chunk of them.
Its time for the entire nation to re-align their Kabbah away from the direction of white house.

The ‘shoey’ Side of Politics A society where most people are used to having "a sayaan as their kotwaal", the earnest advice is, "keep your shoes where your mouth is".

The Alternative Muslim Identity All these wannabe's should jump in and take a deep dive in the cess pool of melting pot.
Most definitely there is a serious deficiency in their brought up that reflects a great deal of liberalism from every word they say and every step they take.
People without established values will always be lost no matter what part of earth they reside in while it is the responsibility of their elders to have "conveyed" a set of values if they themselves had any lack of which is demonstrative here.

Color-Blind Love Re: # 341
Hello dear Kulharee
No not at all, I used those examples only to exemplify the failures of some of the people most successful in many other arenas of life other than the battlefield of their very own households.
I certainly do not mean to voice against the inter-faith or inter-racial marriages, as a matter of fact Islam does encourage inter-cultural, inter-ethnic and inter-racial marriages, but what I am attempting to focus on is immature decisions by people who cant live together in a marriage that they entered due to some worldly attraction or appeal and later come to find that they were not a good match.
As a father I have always encouraged my children to marry by their choice as I don't believe in imposing my proposal for anyone's marriage, I am very much against "arranged" marriages too and what I use as a term instead is "assisted" marriage, even with my own son's and daughter I am very open to hear from them if they have made a choice and if I can assist them and be a part to further with their choice of marriage. Alhamdulillah two of my children are married and I fully permitted them to select and approve their life-mates.
However I admonish them at the onset that they should give their selection a serious thought as the most disliked one thing by Allah SWT among which that HE has lawfully allowed is divorce, so they should be prepared to negotiate and resolve among themselves when they have differences and should not allow spousal differences to become a nuclear war. Alhamdulillah I have a daughter in-law and a son in-law who both have same love for me that my children.
I would not even want to discuss Tahira & Bukhari, its not worth the time and effort.
Hope my explanation clarifies my position on this matter.
Regards

Color-Blind Love Re: # 343
Hi ana
The examples I use are strictly of failures while I personally am not aware of success stories, oh well I should not say that because yes I do know of real successful that are not stories, at least 3 of them, I know of a Pakistani physician a professor of medicine who has a very good relationship with his Danish wife, I know of another Pakistani who married a German lady and they are like two people and one soul and a third one also a Pakistani Geologist who is married to a Hawaiian lady and again they both were meant for each other as I see it.
All three of these gentlemen that I know personally not only married these ladies because of the charm or appeal but they also contributed positively towards showing the right path to the ladies while the ladies who I would say really loved their life partners learned and understood from them and went to the extent of adopting their faith in real live terms.
Similarly one of my cousin's son who is not anywhere quite as steadfast as the above three gentlemen but God paired him with an American lady of great morals, she lives like she was brought up in the sub-continent when it comes to submission to her silly husband while she is a very highly educated professional herself, so this is love for real.
Like you said in your comments that what attracts you towards marrying a lady is it her looks, her wealth, her fame the green-card or some other worldly attraction you have.
Not implying to be a mullah but I was listening once to a lecture where the scholar mentioned that when you migrate you receive as a result what intention you held within, he resembled migration from one place to another with, migration from one state to another, i.e. going from the state of being single to a married state would also be considered migration, and what you internally wish, is what you receive. This is similar to "one's deeds are dependent on their intentions", if one's intentions are clean, the outcome will also be favorable.
You are right that there are numerous examples of failures of marriages within people of our very own culture & religion.
Sometimes I am amazed when watching Pakistani dramas of today as to how easily divorce & separation is considered.
The challenges in an interfaith and/or inter-racial marriage a lot more than the glamor of being married and it takes a great deal of steadfastness on part of both spouses to make it work.
The reason I noted those failed marriages is not to be negative about interfaith or inter-racial marriages but to use those examples of some of the most successful individuals who failed to negotiate their very own household's integrity.

Color-Blind Love The most important and significant example of failure of such inter-racial relationship (1) Imran Khan & aunt Jemima (2)Princess Di & the egyptian playboy.
The next one coming up to be another legendary one is famous fast baller who is barred from Pak Cricket team I dont even want to name him.
Interfaith marriage the one most important example of that was that of Qaid E Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah and a very sad one too.

Pakistan Elections 2008 - An analysis This all sounds so childish, apparently free from any intellect interActors are acting in a playful manner with their 2 cents worth, deserving a short response: he he he he, or, may be a LoL, mein manjhi kithay pawaan?

Farewell to Shimla Quite a description of the lovely place Shimla, a place where all came with a spirit of joy and happiness and to have a great time. I have not even dreamt about it but have heard a lot from my late Ammi, as it was often that her entire family would visit Shimla in summer time, couple of things she mentioned about shimla's will always be stuck in my mind as I aspire to be able to visit one day.
Whenever she discussed Shimla & it's beautiful scenery and high mountains she mentioned that often one would experience a cloud breezing through the home as you leave doors & windows open, while she also mentioned about the abundance of monkeys that they used to prowl freely and would pick up anything that you would leave sitting outside.
In my opinion you have described Shimla like someone drew a painting of that lovely place all over.
I am not sure if I will ever be able to go and visit all those places my parents mentioned with such pride, including Shimla, Bhopal, Agra, Banaras and Hyderabad which was their final home before migrating to Pakistan.
God only knows if it was right or wrong we all can only go so far in drawing our own conclusions taking into account the current affairs, the loss of family members and splitting of the families.
I dont find myself worthy of blaming one side or the other as to who was right and who was wrong since I was not around to experience firsthand their reasoning and the consequent decisions while I feel that all we have now is the history which is transcribed by several people in several different ways. So what's in an argument about something we know superficially specially holding our side of story none of us are going to win this argument and may only culminate bitter taste.
I feel that we should allow the be gones to be by gones and live happily ever after adding a sparkle to our lives and if we can contribute a little to others lives that could be even more wonderful.
After all we are all humans and we also know that to err is human so what is griping worth specially all these decades later when we are able to fly into all these no fly zones without tickets or visa on the internet ride and can communicate with each other.
Shouldn't we forget the wounds and start getting over them now as this has become and ever bleeding wound for all of us be it someone on the east or west side of the border.
Best wishes to all.

Small Spies Must be Hanged , While Bigger Ones Prosper Over my life time I have heard the word "caste" mentioned numerous times, sometimes I hear it in context with the Hindu faith and at times in context with Punjabi ethnicity or culture.
If there is someone out there with knowledge on the subject of "caste system" in Hindu faith and also in typical Punjabi culture, I will appreciate understanding the basics of caste system and the castes itself.
Anticipating a scholarly response.
Thank you.

Simply Outrageous! Re: # 28
here is your gift laddu, if you have an open mind you will find this quite amazingn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8b3wNXEyPA

Simply Outrageous! Re: # 28
With best wishes a gift for Laddu

Color-Blind Love White black or in between, whatever tickles one's fancy, as the beauty is in the eyes of beholder. In the good old US of A it has been observed & heard from black women specially when they have an adversarial conversation filled with envy, they would usually comment that, whats in white color, when white girls get a black mole they call it a beauty spot! now thats not untrue, poets backhome have abundantly written poetry such as "teray mukhray da kala kala till way" and others.
I have come across a few desi men in their 50's & 60's who when once upon a time they were charged up with their youthful spirits ended up marrying a white lady, and there is nothing wrong with that in my opinion although I did not commit such an act, but now after few decades when their children grew up they look back and regret their indulgence.
But then there are a few of those desis also who are married to white ladies and are quite content, off course they wont regret because they did all the right things from inception of their relationship to be worthy better halves of each other.
The principle matter is the intention of one getting involved in an inter-racial &/or inter-faith marriage, is it , the beauty, the appearance, the appeal, the lust or is it that love at first sight, or, were the two made for each other.
As you state in your article there has been many killings based on this very issue where people of one color felt insulted that their kind of person got married to a different color or faith although it has gone down however not quite totally and such sentiments and emotions are still present in today's society specially among the white supremacists where some consider any "colored" person to be inferior than themselves.
Conventionally among the people of Jewish faith the off-springs are to take mother's religion, i.e. if mother is Jewish the children are expected to be Jewish as well regardless of faith, in a manner that is the sign of a self-destructive society since most Jewish women marry Jewish men although there is still a good number of Jewish women who end up marrying a non-Jewish man. On the other hand the children of today specially in the western society don't necessarily follow the religion of parents while some go astray some reserve the right to chose their own once they have developed wisdom to examine various faiths therefore raising children by a given faith of parents does not necessarily have any serious influence.
While there is beauty in all colors and shades, I pretty much feel that our sub-continental sanwla salona complexion beats all other shades and grey-scale too.

Color-Blind Love with due regards for viewing pleasure of the wannabees

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cReHCdLBB5Y

injoy

Simply Outrageous! Re: # 25
Laddu seems to be running the Hindu version of "madrassa" as specified by Bush.
Take care of your langoat Shastri jee because when the angel of death will choke you and your dead body while it burns like chestnuts on open fire you still will endure the beating as you try to sit up and run, those who love you the most will strike you the hardest as your bones explode.

Simply Outrageous! Re: # 22
Surely, those who seek Allah SWT's help must first help themselves; just as you suggest.

Simply Outrageous! Re: # 23
"gabriel shared with mo"
correction,
Jibreel(aka Gabriel) conveyed (not shared) the message from Allah SWT to Mohammed Sallalahu Alaih-e-wassalam (i.e. Peace be upon him).
It is only in the faith of Islam that one cannot substitute for another in praying, as opposed to some other faiths where the concept is that you can pay someone and confess, or, you can ask someone to communicate with the Almighty on your behalf, most certainly if you announce to me before your obituary is printed knowing you from your distraught writing with reference to Allah the almighty/SWT, Prophet Mohammed SAW/PBUH and Jibreel-e- ameen/trustworthy, I will definitely pray for you to be treated accordingly.
However I pray that Almighty Allah SWT blesses you with a better vision and tolerance, however the choice is yours, there is no compulsion in religion, i.e. la ikraha fi deen.