Crow's Nest...

The contest between PTI and MQM has been very interesting to me. The fact that unlike Lahore PTI has been able to win a National Assembly seat in the city of Karachi in itself is harbinger of some interesting and revealng news. Everyone is so ecstatic on the PTI wagon about breaking MQM monopoly in their own back yard. I will come to this later but the fact that PTI was unable to do so in Lahore is more telling of future that is to come. I think Lahore will now see the emergence of a different kind of PMLN. The kind that is built more and more on the work ethics of MQM. Anyone who resists will meet stiff and violent resistance at the hands of the overlords. I mean why is it so difficult for the PTI worker to win a seat in Lahore - Imran Khan's home town?  I think the reason Nawaz Sharif met with Imran Khan was different than what was broadcast. I think he had a message for Imran Khan that must have been a lesson for him in politics. I think there was an offer of truce in exchan...

It was a refreshing series.  I did not get to watch it online.  I blame Dish Network for being guilty of greed.  They make us pay arm and leg for their programming but could not get us the coverage.  I am paying for a cricket channel's package but still was asked to shell out money if I wanted to watch this series live.  I think dish Network should be ashamed of these policies.  I do not believe they alone are the ones who adopt this kind of strategy though. I was pleasantly amused by the results.  It has been a long time since Pakistan and India met in a bilateral series.  I would have liked to see a test series as well but Indians do not want to oblige us that much.  I do appreciate even this little series.  It was such a show.  Such a short lived stint but interesting nonetheless.

Tahir-ul-Qadri is trying to rally Pakistanis to come out in his support and march towards Islamabad.  His million march started last night from the posh neighborhood of Model Town, Lahore.  He left in his bomb proof and bullet proof 150 million Rupee vehicle.  It is also reported that accompanying him in this march is his own palace like mobile home.  The home has been custom built to have a sleeping area, bathroom with own water supply, air conditioning, media outlets for entertainment and is bomb proof. I am astounded by the need of a so called mullah to travel under such heavy guard.  I am also astounded by the fact that he touts this as a movement of the commoner.  If he really believes in this then he should not need protection form this common man of Pakistan.  Yet whenever he speaks on stage a huge void and thick bullet proof glass separates him from his 'followers'.  His die hard fans who supposedly will do anything on his command need to...

Pakistan played a one day against Afghanistan in Sharjah.  Sharjah is the adopted home ground of the Afghanistan team since conditions are not suitable for home games in Afghanistan.  Both teams had something in common, both do not have home grounds available for playing games.  This is a sad situation.  But this also makes this match up interesting and unique.  Afghanistan did better than my expectation in the game.  They were able to score more than 100 in the game.  Then they bowled well as well and were able to take three Pakistani wickets.  So I would say that Pakistan win was good and expected but not thoroughly impressive against a non test playing nation.  Then again Pakistan's record against non test playing nations is not a very good one. I do think that Pakistan should have rested its experienced players and played with a different one day squad.  This way new players would have received some exposure. I was also interested ...

Pakistani team has done it again.  They have pulled off another win against the number one test team in the world.  They have, technically, achieved this feat on a pitch that is away from home.  The conditions are similar but not the same in the middle east.  Pakistan has beaten England in the second test in Abu Dhabi.  I just watched the highlights of the final day of the game on Ten Cricket.  It was a treat to watch.  There has been no good news coming out of Pakistan or about Pakistan for such a long time that every little news that is good catches our fancy and makes us happy.  I think there is double reason for us to be happy on this win.  We beat the number one test team in the world and we beat the country that has given us relentless pain and agony for the past few years in the game of cricket.  English are shameless in the game of cricket.  The way they behaved with the test match controversy involving Inzamam and then our ...

2012 started ticking last night.  A year has come to an end and another starts spreading its sunshine for the next few months to come.  Mayans thought 2012 would be it.  What I find interesting is that some of us in this world are hell bent on making this come true.  This is the sad state of affairs that we are entering 2012 in.  I think if this world would just realize how precious this life on earth is it would be very helpful for all of us as a whole.  But then there would be no fun if everyone agrees with everyone else.  No movement forward.  Contrast and contradiction is indeed the essence of life. Then there is this concept of new year's resolution.  I could never personally grasp the idea of a resolution that is made at the beginning of the year.  I think we make resolutions every day and all those resolutions should carry the same level of importance in our mind, or it beats the purpose of making resolutions.  We decide abo...

The past one week has been very unrestful for the people of Pakistan.  We have been turning and tossing either in the comfort of our sofas or on the streets about the developments that have transpired in the past seven days or so.  The developments are huge and the consequences will be huge still.  But should we not see how did this change of heart come into all of a sudden on Zardari's part.  I think the change of heart is not sudden in fact it is more planned and worked out and therefore will last longer than we think.  It will, for the same reason, be difficult for the people's resistance to trounce. As there were clear indications that Nawaz Sharif was feeling threatened by the present courts he decided to continue his struggle with the lawyer's movement.  Had he decided to do otherwise it would have been a political suicide.  He is in a catch 22 of a sort.  Zardari on the other hand is a product of NRO and feels threatened by any other cour...

In these times of uncertainty the question remains, 'Shall there be war?'  The answer might not be that simple.  There might be but there will not be war.  One might infer that it is my desire and denial to disagree with all things apparent that drives me to make this statement.  But the case is otherwise.  There is an implicit understanding between the two neighbors that there can be no war for the better of the two and the best of one. I was reading the news article posted in Dawn about the recent incursion of Indian fighter/reconnaissance planes into our air space in two separate sectors in one day.  Our planes had to chase them out.  It was claimed by our information minister that it was a un-intended mistake by the Indian side.  I know all too well.  But i am not impressed.  The thing is very simple.  It is Pakistani government's necessity to diffuse tensions.  We simply can not afford a war on our eastern front when we ...

It took the indian forces 60 hours to flush out 10 or so killers out of Mumbai . It was a horrible scene as it is always when innocent lives are lost and unsuspecting bystanders butchered. I have seen this all too often in my country lately to know any better. There is a blame game being played for meeting political ends on both side of the border. All the little trust that was ever there is being lost. My western friends are almost convinced that it is the Pakistani terrorists who are behind these happenings in Mumbai . I am not all too sure right now about that. The important question is who is to benefit from all this that has happened. Is it Pakistan, US, Al- Qaeda , other non state actors or perhaps India itself? It would be foolish to think that some 20 odd people will bring this carnage on a city without any clear and positives ends to meet in their own pereverted minds. But a look into their minds is the most difficult and likely impossible sight right now as all of them are ...

I was going through the pictures of the wedding ceremony of prime minister Yousaf's son in the president house.  I am not amazed by the pictures that I see.  to me Zardari is a lowly scoundrel who made it big time thanks to his wife Benazir.  He thinks like a small time businessman who has nothing on his mind but to negotiate and please every authority to get the perks that he lives his life for. But interestingly I was impressed by the pictures of the bride who looked too vain to be getting married in the president's house.  She, I am sure, will brag about this all her life and will not settle down on earth from the euphoria that she seems to be driving from it. This is an attempt by Zardari to get the prime minister at his side.  All corrupt leaders tend to gather support this way.  Zardari is no not unique in doing any of this.  But as the custom of the world dictates it will be his very own friends who will dig a deep whole for him one day....

The story of Iqbal Massih, the murdered Pakistani boy who became a symbol in the fight for children's rights, is being turned into an animated cartoon, AKI reported... ...Iqbal was a Pakistani boy sold to the carpet industry as a child slave at the age of four. He was forced to work twelve hours a day and at the age of 10, he escaped and later joined the Bonded Labour Liberation Front of Pakistan to help stop child labour around the world. Iqbal is reported to have helped over 3,000 Pakistani children in bonded labour escape to freedom and gave talks about child labour all around the world. But a rebellion led by 12-year-old Iqbal in 1995 cost him his life. He was believed to have been murdered by members of the so called ‘Carpet Mafia’ because of the negative publicity he created for the child labour industry. In 1994, Iqbal was awarded the Reebok Human Rights Award. In 2000, he was posthumously awarded The World's Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child... Read the f...

If you look at it, American US vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and our widower president Asif Ali Zardari can make a great couple together. Sarah Palin is a conservative through and through and Zardari is the self ascribed feudal of our land. They are a bond made in heaven and every Pakistani should be proud of what our president is out to achieve through his tactical and skillful approach. If you think of it the only time tested method of bonding two nations together is inter-marriage of the leaders together. Then again if you look at it with a keen eye you would notice that this is what fits in the exact scheme of the cosmos. Benazir died not because she had to die one day she died so that Zardari could approach Sarah and they could meet in a conducive environment for the better future of the two nations. Beggars can not be choosers yet our president in his desire to act as the perfect beggar chose the most powerful American beauty. Little does he know that his simple s...

The news is everywhere. Suddenly the condemned has become the master and everyone seems to be talking about him. Even the US local media is abuzz with the terrifying news of Zardari taking over the role of Musharraf. People are fearful and disappointed. I think they should not be. We must let go of our pessimistic sarcastic approach towards hardened and convicted criminals like our present president. After all we elected his party and voted for his men in every city and every province. We gave his party the power to nominate him. We voted for his party even though we knew he was the chairperson. So him becoming the president is a natural and logical consequence of our own actions and therefore we have no reason to be complaining about it at all. If he is a criminal and we know about it now then we also knew about it when we were all lining up to vote for him and his men. I remember the blogsphere being all abuzz in the immediate post election time with whiners proclaiming vic...

Indian security forces arrested two senior Muslim leaders in Occupied Kashmir and enforced a strict curfew on Monday to prevent locals from holding a pro-independence rally... To read the full story go here .

Dawn reports, What began as a dispute over land for Hindu pilgrims visiting a shrine in Kashmir snowballed into full-scale anti-India protests this month, boosting separatists who want India's only Muslim-majority region to secede... Police have killed at least 23 Muslim protesters and more than 500 have been injured in clashes in two weeks of demonstrations in Kashmir Valley. Protests were halted for three days, until Friday, to allow Kashmiris to stock up on rations... Read the full story here

It is a totally different way of celebrating Independence Day outside of home. Uzer sent a very optimistic email that i would like to link to here . On the flip side Hussain had a link that was equally interesting. Must reads.

PML-N has decided to resign from the cabinet. They seem to have made the popular move and tried to win a larger vote bank from their natural opponents PPP. But is it really the case? I don't completely agree. Undoubtedly the decision is a popular move but it has been disconnected from the dictator. It seems that the independence of judiciary is an independent cause from that of independence from the dictator. PML-N has, in recent past, admitted to their inability to get rid of Musharraf and this will turn out to be a disastrous admittance on their part. I think the people of Pakistan supported the cause of independent judiciary more so because they interpreted it as a revolt against the dictator. In itself the stand of the chief justice, or for that matter that of 60 other justices, carries little meaning if it is not understood in the context of the person against whom it is being made. PPP, JUI-F and MQM are happy to play down the role of Musharraf in the public. All th...

Just a conspiracy theorist's thought: Can it be that Musharraf and Nawaz are working together to out do Zardari and the rest with the help of PML-Q. After all PML-Q is changing its stance on major issues drastically and an alliance between Zardari and MQM has been reached. Can it be that Zardari fears the chief justice because he thinks that he is a part of the alliance against him. This theory is far fetched but not completely absurd.

Today is yet another March 23, 2008 in the history of our nation. The ordinary man is busy in making his ends meet while the rest are busy either making or analyzing the future of our country. Like always before the future of our nation is uncertain and there is a lot of debate on what is to come for us. But in the real deal of the things does this matter at all? I don't think so. All that matters is the continuity of the food chain for the common man. If it stays steady then the common man will never come on streets for any elitist ideologies.

Pakistan released an Indian spy who had been convicted for his spying missions in the country. Our minister stood with him hand in hand, elated with success and pride dripping from his face. He thought he had done a job that will make him a place in the midst of those who are known for their humanitarian work. His gesture is OK. It is neither good nor bad. A spent weapon is worth getting rid of. But it becomes all the more difficult when this same spent weapon spits malice for the very people who brought him freedom. He doesn't waste any time in telling his nation that he has been a hero who kept mum while he was with the enemy. I think he needed to do this to ward off the suspicions of his own countrymen. But this has turned into a whole lot of embarrassment for Burni who thought he had championed the cause of humanity by winning Singh's freedom. The Indians were quick to thank us. They thanked us in no uncertain terms by brutally torturing and then killing in cold ...