Crow's Nest...

There has been a recurring thought in my mind over the past many many months.  Every time I sit on the table to eat food with my  family  I thank God for giving me this opportunity to sit down and enjoy one of the basic needs of living beings.  Apart from the ability to sit down and eat with family I also do enjoy the absolute variety of tastes that are reaching my taste buds.  It is indeed a fact that our table is almost always stuffed with different  flavours by virtue of quite intricately cooked foods with lots of love.

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...

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...

The snow is falling yet again. There was in interval of time in the past one week when spring seemed to be a fulfilling reality; alas! no more. In the next 24 hours the white cover will engulf everything that had dared to raise its head from the snow dunes. Everything will be fresh and white. For some a delight and for others another torment. I belong to no particular group when it comes to snow. All I care about is my drive to and fro from work. If that goes smoothly there is no reason for me to be alarmed. While we are knee deep in snow in the north western part of the world the warmer climates are souring with the tempers of their inhabitants. From Iran to Senegal there seems to be a wind that will settle scores of counts in just one blow. The forefront of the change happening there is fancier than the real change. I am a reluctant believer. I see similar faces and similar cronies replacing older tired ones. Democratic struggle, it seems, has become a farce. People ar...

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...

OJ Simpson has been found guilty on twelve counts of kidnapping and armed robbery. It is likely that he will spend the rest of his life behind the bars.

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...

I could never muster any courage nor get any time to watch soaps on Pakistani TV channels. Every now and then, though, I get to catch a glimpse of TV screen while transiting through the TV lounge to any other part of the house. All I see is a shot of a women, which is either zooming in or zooming out, and the women weeping, sorrowfully. I am told that at times whole episodes are dedicated to shots of a woman, either sitting or standing, in a lush lounge of a lavishly built house and weeping over one thing or the other. I am also told that it is safe to assume that almost 80% of the time screen shots involve a character who is in remorse over either something lost or something found. There is too much crying and wailing involved in the Pakistani soaps of the day. These soaps are too depressive for a general viewer. Women find these emotionally charged soaps very interesting and close to their hearts. Generally because they think that they can relate to all the depression depicted...

The power crisis seems to have been overcome for the time being in Pakistan. Or the population has grown used to frequent power shutdowns. I think the second option is more probable. However the danger of plunging into darkness remains ever so imminent. While we are plunging into darkness the sun remains shining brighter and brighter above us in the never so blue sky. Our Govt. seems reluctant in harnessing the power of sun for wide scale use. To be very true almost all Govt. remain skeptical of the use of solar energy for meeting population demands. With oil prices driving everyone mad this trend might not last long enough. In the more developed parts of the world where populations hardly get to notice the vulnerability of natural resources the heat is turning on for more non-conventional methods of generating energy. I have always been a big fan of solar cells and have had faith in all that they can do to change our world. The solar cells of the 90's however were not capa...

Every year 14th February comes and goes. Every year there is a lot of hustle and bustle, in the opinion sections of the Internet, where self righteous people of every kind flock to make head way on their point of view about what is right and what is wrong. The activity starts to build up in the beginning of February and chokes every forum till finally the day is over. Such is the colossal power of globalisation and media that every Pakistani now knows about the 'importance' of the day. But it is very sad to note that if not all then most of us just skim the surface and derive ideas out of the mirage. Almost none of the flockers know the roots of the tradition and people make very absurd statements about its origins . Very little is known about the Saint Valentine , after whom the day is named. But all accounts do not point to any relationship between this day and expression of sentiments of courtly love as we know them today. Nonetheless due to concentrated efforts of the...

His Excellency The President of the European Parliament, Brussels. His Excellency The President of France, Paris. His Excellency The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, London. Her Excellency Ms. Condaleeza Rice, Secretary of State, United States of America, Washington D.C. Professor Klaus Schwab, World Economic Forum, Geneva. All through their respective Ambassodors, High Commissioners and representatives. Excellency, I am the Chief Justice of Pakistan presently detained in my residence since November 3, 2007 pursuant to some verbal, and unspecified, order passed by General Musharraf. I have found it necessary to write to you, and others, because during his recent visits to Brussels, Paris, Davos and London General Musharraf has slandered me, and my colleagues, with impunity in press conferences and other addresses and meetings. In addition he has widely distributed, among those whom he has met, a slanderous document (hereinafter the Document) entitled: “PROFILE OF THE FORMER CHIEF ...

Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai. Dekhna hai zor kitna baazu-e-qaatil mein hai Karta nahin kyun doosra kuch baat cheet, Dekhta hun main jise voh chup teri mehfil mein hai Aye shaheed-e-mulk-o-millat main tere oopar nisaar, Ab teri himmat ka charcha ghair ki mehfil mein hai Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai. Waqt aanay dey bata denge tujhe aye aasman, Hum abhi se kya batayen kya hamare dil mein hai Khainch kar layee hai sab ko qatl hone ki ummeed, Aashiqon ka aaj jumghat koocha-e-qaatil mein hai Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai. Hai liye hathiyaar dushman taak mein baitha udhar, Aur hum taiyyaar hain seena liye apna idhar. Khoon se khelenge holi gar vatan muskhil mein hai, Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai. Haath jin mein ho junoon katt te nahi talvaar se, Sar jo uth jaate hain voh jhukte nahi lalkaar se. Haath jin mein ho junoon katt te nahi talvaar se, Sar jo uth jaate hain voh jhukte nahi lalkaar se. Aur bhadkega jo shola-sa humaare d...

The Asian Human Rights Commission has decided to award Aitzaz Ahsan and Muneer A Malik a special award for defending the human rights in Pakistan. Technorati Tags: Pakistan , Politics , Society Powered by ScribeFire .

I think she is aptly named Material Girl not more so for her song but her habits. The gossip goes that she spends $10,000 every month on her water alone . She picked up the outrageously expensive habit of drinking specially blessed Kabbalah water, which costs about $5 per bottle. It might not be a big news for the affluent society of Hollywood but for me personally it is a big waste of money. I think she has every right to drink all kinds of blessed waters if she can afford but again the spending is outrageous. When we keep in mind that clean drinking water is available to only 20% of Karachi's population. In most African countries people have to travel miles to get a drop of water to quench their thirst. Livelihood of people living in North Africa depends upon the seasonal rains that fall in the desert once in a while. But on a lighter note the calculation does not seem to make sense if the tag is for her drinking water only. By this measure she consumes 2000 bottles of wat...

It might not be a new thing for us Pakistanis but it certainly is getting worse by the day. this winter has been extremely bad in terms of load shedding and power outages that plague my nation. Power shortage cripples everything from daily life activities of reading, washing to industrial processes of all sorts. Our country is suffering from a huge power deficit this winter. It is estimated at a daily shortage of around 3000 Mega watts of electricity. What is happening in Pakistan is not new for the world either but in milder terms. The energy pundits are forecasting a worldwide shortage of fossil fuels and energy to run the world. The demand for energy is rising everyday with world population increase and increasing using of gadgets in accomplishing event the simplest of tasks. But as ever we Pakistanis are looking for our lame leaders to come to our rescue. If we were any wise we should have known that this is never going to happen. It is therefore that the nation starts th...

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...

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.