Crow's Nest...

The evil that is Benazir Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari has taken over as the chief of the PPP. He has also posted his son, another Zardari now turned Bhutto, as the token chief. I had no doubt in my mind that Zardari would take over the party. For him it has like fallen into his lap like a ripe apple from the heavens. This hurts me more than the death of his wife. Another most troubling thing is the fact that Pakistan's largest party has no structure whatsoever. IT is yet another dynasty where the leadership is decided not based on the capabilities and the right turn but blood relations to the leaders. The shortsightedness of the leaders is very evident. Similarly the selfishness of these people can also not be ignored. Benazir Bhutto new that there was danger to her life but even then she didn't choose to think or devise any democratic method to ascertain her successor. Actually none of the parties has the right to call themselves democratic parties as there is...

It is late in the night here and more than a day has passed since BB was killed in a successful attempt at her life. I have been reading all kinds and all sorts of reactions to her sudden but much expected death, however unwanted it stands, though. I think our nation is very superstitious and takes up incidences to always be part of a greater plot or a conspiracy. But more than that whenever someone dies he or she is always cast into a very heavenly light forgoing all their misdeeds and misgivings in their life. Benazir and her husband plundered this nation during her rule in the 90's, but when time came of her death 144 million people of this country forgot everything bad about her and started showering all kinds of praise as if she were an angel bestowed on this country. This attitude is really annoying for me. More so when we praise her after her death and then feel it a necessity to classify our comments by the phrase that we never liked her when she was alive or that we n...

Benazir Bhutto, Muslim world's first women prime minister has been assassinated in Rawalpindi. Therefore another moderate force in the country has been shut silent to the joy of the dictator. Sad!

“I am a proud child“ This letter is for all the Judges who refused to take oath under PCO and who happen to be my uncles as well. I had never thought that one day I will have to convey my message to you people like this, through this mode but we know things are not smooth as they had been and it is one of our testing times. This might be one of the crucial times we are facing but we should be proud that Allah chose us to sacrifice for this country. Yes it is indeed a sacrifice which we have to bequeath, not for ourselves but for this country. Ever since I opened my eyes I have seen my father affiliated with judiciary and now it is like a part of our lives. Our life is like a tree and judiciary is one of its branch. We have grown up with this branch and we cannot let anybody slice it. If we will not protect it then who else? We may not be allowed to attend our schools or universities, we may have got our mobile phones blocked, we may not be allowed to meet anyone or go out, we may be ke...

A lot of letters on or about the state of affairs in Pakistan are rotating on the Internet these days. Most of them are emotional outbursts and some of them are logical. I have no idea and no way to ascertain the authenticity of any of the correspondences that i read everyday. But i have to believe hearsay on this. For me it is meaningless to try and go through the exercise of ascertaining the authenticity of the letter as it is not the writer but the thought expressed in the letter that is important to me. So here is a series of letters to and from Bilal Musharraf to his friend Salman Ahmed of Junoon fame. I will post excerpts from each and provide you a link to the detailed account with context of the conversation. Bilal Musharraf writes to Salman and urges him not to openly criticise his father for his criminal actions. He writes, "This year though, has left me truly disappointed and hurt. If Salman feels the need to neutralize the burden of prior public contact with my father...

I have always believed that media has a far greater role in shaping a society today than it ever had in the past. It can make people believe in things that don't exist or that might exist. It can make us dream for the good or the worse. But why is it that media has become so influential in my world? I think it so because all that we see on the television screen today seems very plausible. All the cars, clothes, houses and women seem plausible existence to the viewers of today as compared to those of yester years. The world has shrunk into a true global village and all that happens in the developed world is actually felt by the viewer in the developing world. With all the live streams and audio video content on the air we can actually feel our presence in the center of any situation. This changes things a lot from a layman's perspective. Earlier when we saw huge cars, seamless roads, large casinos, colourful vibrant beach fronts on the TV screen we could not associate ou...

December 05, 2007 My dear colleagues,Asalam o alaikum. As I write this from a sub-Jail, let me tell you how proud I am of each one of you and of myself to be part of the community that is writing the present chapter in the history of our unfortunate country. As you are all aware we the lawyers are the vanguard in this long over due mammoth battle for civil rights and democracy in our country. As for myself, jail is not new to me. I was first arrested as a one-year old in the arms of my mother when she courted arrest in 1946 after my father and grandfather had already done so in the Pakistan movement. During the Martial Law imposed by General Zia-ul-Haq I was arrested and detained without trial several times for long terms only because I pursued, even then, the ideals of democracy and an independent judiciary. Let me assure you that the sacrifices that you have given and the selfless courage that you have shown for a completely selfless cause of an independent judiciary and civilian rul...

Eid Mubarak to everyone who visits or stumbles onto this blog. While i am writing this eid wish i am told that another suicide bombing in NWFP has left 50 people dead while they were saying their eid prayers. This is heinous, to say the least.

Pakistan's famous art icon and calligrapher Amin Gulgee is dead. He was found, murdered, along with his wife and maid in his Clifton house, yesterday. This is a tragic event. One of the two tragic events that took us by surprise yesterday. The tragic train crash has left around 50 people dead and many more injured. Gulgee's death has taken away a renowned artist. Of many things his death will further strain the weak links between our society's different sections.

My country has been hijacked, by the army and the spineless politicians. I hope that musharraf dies a miserable death and benazir and nawaz suffer no less. Are these people going to live forever? Are they never going to die? Is there no end to this suffocation that this nation has to suffer at the hands of these tyrants? At some level my nation deserves what we are going through. In this era of change we are going through the process of defining our core values and one of the most important core value is supremacy of justice and the judicial system. No country can work without a patent, working and well greased judiciary. Some of us have realized the prime importance of this eternal pillar of state. And these few of us are the ones who are fighting for our country and our state. On the other hand opposed to this and our struggle are most of the politicians, the army, the bureaucracy, and uncle g. None of these players want a free media or a free active judiciary. But we must keep on fi...

The weather here at my place is very unpredictable. It is more like crazy than anything. One day it is freezing cold an the next it is hot and humid as hell. Maybe its to do with the proximity with the ocean. Whenever the ocean air current flows towards the land mass it brings hot humid weather with it. On the other hand whenever the air currents flow towards the ocean from the land mass the weather becomes dry and cold. See... there you have it... a scientist in making. hah!

In an interview, that I came across on Islamica Magazine , Karen Armstrong explains, in her usual comprehensive way, the reasons for the present conflicts in the world of today. I have always been very fond of reading her writing and/or lectures because she one of the few blessed ones who still think the world can live in peace. For the purpose of archiving and for the purpose of ease I am including her interview in the post. " Divisions in Our World are Not the Result of Religion by ANDREA BISTRICH Karen Armstrong was a Catholic nun for seven years before leaving her order and going to Oxford. Today, she is amongst the most renowned theologians and has written numerous bestsellers on the great religions and their founders. She is one of the 18 leading group members of the Alliance of Civilizations, an initiative of the former UN General Secretary, Kofi Anan, whose purpose is to fight extremism and further dialogue between the western and Islamic worlds. She talks here to the Ge...