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Related posts: Shia massacre in Gilgit: Media apathy and misrepresentation of Shia genocide in Pakistan Kohistan Shia massacre: Those committing genocides in Pakistan and their handlers are repeat offenders – by Dr. Mohammad Taqi Last time it happened they called it the Holocaust. The Nazis did not annihilate the Jews for what they had [...]

  As you read these lines, 1.5 billion Muslims will be celebrating the birthday of their beloved prophet, a day known as Milad un-Nabi or Mawlid. Muslim love and admiration for the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) manifests itself beautifully through these various kinds of religious celebrations blended with local cultures and traditions. The [...]

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” – George Orwell (Animal Farm) The phrase is from George Orwell’s allegorical novella ‘Animal Farm’. A group of animals establishes a commune to safeguard the rights of animals proposing Seven Commandments. One of which reads: “All animals are equal”. Years [...]

The aura of her was something most frightful for the mindset that had evolved over the later period of her lifetime – an unshapely blend of religious intolerance, jingoism, counterfeit cultural assimilation and hegemonic masculinity. She was abhorred, loathed and scorned like anything just as she was adored, esteemed and revered like a goddess. [...]

  Such media frenzy over the departure of President Asif Ali Zardari to Dubai owing to medical reasons. Such are the hate speeches and death wishes for the person who, against all odds, has been serving as president of an almost ungovernable state for last three years and has proved successful in cohering the country together on the [...]

Today, November 13, marks the death anniversary of Hasan Nasir Shaheed who was succumbed to death in infamous Lahore Fort's chamber of horrors in 1960 by Pakistani state. Scion of an aristocratic family of Hyderabad, Deccan, Hasan Nasir was a student at the Cambridge University in England, when he came under the influence of the communist party, [...]

Ghareeb-o-sada-o-rangeen hai daastan-e-Haram Nihayat iss ki Hussain, Ibtada hai Ismail - Iqbal (Vague translation: History of Haram is simple, wretched and bloodstained. While the terminus is Hussain, the outset is Ismail) Sacrifice is among the most tempting of human attributes and most beautiful of words collective human consciousness has [...]

"At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people…For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect – if that were possible. See, I have told you ahead of time” – (Matthew; 24, [...]

8th of September, 2011 marks the commencement of three-day celebrations of 254th Urs of Baba Bulleh Shah in Kasur. The man who had been refused by the mullahs to be buried after his death in the community graveyard because of his unorthodox views, today enjoys worldwide reverence and recognition.  The tomb of Bulleh Shah in Kasur and the area [...]

Today, 25th August, marks the third death anniversary of the visionary, the defiant and one of the most acknowledged craftsmen of Urdu language, Ahmad Faraz. Faraz was probably among one of the last few protagonists of literary movement, Progressive Writers’ Movement, which led to change drastically the landscape of Urdu literature, in last [...]

Much has been speculated about the self-styled Gandhian social activist cum anti-corruption campaigner Baburao Hazare popularly known as Anna Hazare. Emphasis, primarily on electronic media, has been laid upon his ‘morally correct’ standpoint against the unscrupulous corruption of political class of country without giving much weightage to the [...]

There was a land of Cavaliers and Cotton Fields called the Old South. Here in this pretty world, Gallantry took its last bow. Here was the last ever to be seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair, of Master and of Slave. Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered, a Civilization gone with the wind. -An introductory foreword [...]

Brief Intro: Author is Head of Punjab Chapter of KHUDI, A counter extremism social movement working to promote a democratic culture in Pakistan, who frequently contributes to LUBP.  

The centre of hope for many from civil society and urban centers of Pakistan who were presumably of the view that so-called independent judiciary would be proved as the bastion of enlightened and democratic ideas – the Pakistani judiciary has gone overboard in its anti-secular, Islamofascist, orthodox inclinations and its selective amnesia [...]

Isn’t it amazing that while a large number of Muslims grieve over the Christian West’s highhandedness and imposition of wars on Islam, a Norwegian Christian brutally kills more than 90 innocents of his own ‘tribe’ and terrifies all of Europe because of the West’s support for Palestine, its friendly relations with Muslim-majority [...]

She was beautiful, she was eloquent, she was vivid, she was witty - while orating at the occasion of Sydney Writers’ Festival – In the same breath she was naïve, she was hollow, she was flimsy, she was juvenile. Seemingly, she is not yet out of trauma of her beloved father’s death and this, unfortunately, has become undistinguishable [...]

Narcissus, in Greek mythology, was the son of river god Cephissus and the nymph Liriope. He was distinguished for his beauty. His exceptional proud and vanity drew upon him the vengeance of gods. Nemesis (the goddess of Rhamnous) attracted Narcissus to a pool where he saw his own reflection in the waters and fell in love with it, not realizing it [...]

One of the basic problems with Pakistan is that all too often big issues are twisted in certain popular narrative at the cost of evading some more important facts. Partition of Subcontinent, Wars with India, separation of East Pakistan and many other incidents bear witness to it. These days drone attacks’ is such an issue. There has been decades [...]

And he was asked, “What is Love?” “You will see it today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.” He answered while smiling. They killed him that day, burned him the next day and threw his ashes to the wind the day after that. That’s how Farid ud Din Attar, a Persian poet and theoretician of Sufism, described the death scene of Mansur [...]

اُفتادگانِ خاک: جو تاریک راہوں میں مارے گئے دھرتی کے ایک اور سپُوت نے اپنی جاں پہ رکھا قرض چُکتا کر دیا اور بقول فیض وہ قرض جو واجب بھی نہ تھا۔ خون کی وہ لکیر جو تقسیمِ ھند کے وقت سے ہی گہری [...]

Related article: Selective ray of hope emanates from Veena Malik to Declan Walsh – by Sana Jokhio “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” (Section II, United States [...]

It all started a month ago when a disenfranchised university graduate Mohammed Bouazizi, 26, doused himself in petrol and set himself alight after police confiscated his produce, alleging he did not have the necessary permit. This public suicide grew into unprecedented country-wide anger and, ultimately, proved to be the death of a dictator. Zine [...]

Let’s not talk about the Murder. Let’s not point out the guns -they have and roses -they shower. Let’s not repent of the monstrous society -we have come into. Let’s not whine about the fanatical demeanor -zealots conduct. Let’s not growl at the horrifying darkness – we have plunged into. Let’s not talk about the Murder. Simply, [...]

That Pakistan is a nation bound upon a wheel of fire is not in any doubt. The assassination of Salmaan Taseer, killed for speaking out against a blasphemy law that has been used time and again to persecute minorities and settle private scores, would itself have been a significant blow, depriving the nation of one of the few politicians willing to [...]

"When I hear of a terrorist plot, I can count back from 10, and before I get to zero, someone will bring up the P word." This statement was quoted by Time’s Bobby Ghosh accredited to some top US counterterrorism official with further unneeded elaboration “That’s P for Pakistan”. Having known that most of the terrorist plots executed [...]

The dead besiege me with every new day And ask me, “Where were you? Give back To the lexicon all the words You offered me” And let the sleepers sleep without phantoms in their dreams! The dead teach me the lesson: there is no aesthetic beyond freedom “Yeh Bhutto sahib ki beti hai” (She is daughter of Mr. Bhutto) – With these words [...]

The 3rd death anniversary of a blazing fire of truth, a beauteous blossom of love, a soothing balm of peace, highly experienced lecturer, one of the best decision makers, esteemed, much-loved, daughter of the East Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto will be observed with the renewed commitment and pledge to strengthen the democratic institution in line with [...]

From out of all the many particulars comes oneness, and out of oneness come all the many particulars- (Heraclitus, Fragment 54) One, while formulating and distinguishing salient idiosyncrasies of Pakistani nationhood, cannot take liberty to overlook the historic as well as ethnic roots which contrive whole national scenario. Looking deep into [...]

Being an individual, who has modest experience in management, I can say without an iota of doubt that the survival of Pakistan relies on unbiased assessment of current state of affairs and subsequently taking a rational course of action. In management, whenever we come across any challenge, we confront it by taking into account the strengths [...]

Headnote: Addressees of this note are those who are fool enough to think skeptically in this land of “born perfectionists”. At first, let me share with you people an “exploding and exclusive” thought which has all ingredients of sensation (albeit sensibility). Here you go: “World will never be the same after WikiLeaks.” Heavy [...]

Itan Wali, Pakistan (CNN) -- In this village in Pakistan's Punjab province a tearful 12-year-old girl ponders if the Pakistani government will soon hang her mother. "Whenever I see her picture I cry," Isham Masih told CNN. "I want my mother back. That's what I'm praying for." This month a Pakistani court sentenced Isham's mother, 45-year-old [...]

"The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways — I to die and you to live. Which is the better, only God knows."-Socrates (Apology, 42a) After that, Socrates was condemned to death by drinking a mixture containing poison hemlock by the Athenian Ecclesia. This all started when Oracle at Delphi, subservient to Athenian Polis, [...]

WASHINGTON — Former US president George W. Bush has written in a new memoir that he became convinced Pakistan would not act against Islamic militants and all but admitted he ordered drone strikes on its soil. In his book "Decision Points" published Tuesday, Bush said he had "complex" relations with Pakistan and its former military leader [...]

JIHAD International Inc. and the contestation between Iran and its detractors developed at a time when the Pakistani environment was particularly hospitable to religious activism. General Mohammed Ziaul Haq had inaugurated the process of "islamisation" which had aroused anxieties among minorities including the Shi'a minority of Pakistan. One [...]

When Shahbaz Sharif & Ishaq Dar of PML-N meet with  PML-Q's senator S.M. Zafar  along with Tariq Aziz, it is labeled as political initiative by the representatives of two parties to discuss the problems which country is facing right now. On the contrary when BabarAwan meets Pervaiz Elahi on the same agenda, media starts crying foul. [...]

Related article: Was Bhutto’s nationalisation policy a mistake? This is response to P.M.Gilani's statement "Nationalization of educational institutions was blunder" I'am not going to vindicate Socialism, to be implemented as economic system of country, nor advocate the rhetorical demands of a class-less educational system. As an [...]

A few years ago, while walking through the F-9 park in Islamabad I overheard a conversation between two young men. Possibly in their early 20s, they were discussing in earnest how America was fated to self-destruct. From their conversation, it appeared that if given half a chance they might be willing to torch the “evil empire” themselves. [...]

Last month, in a camp set up for flood refugees outside Pakistan's southern city of Sukkur, a group of men and boys gathered around the medical tent complaining about the rising cases of stomach infections. "They give us food that's too spicy," they said. "What do they give you?" I asked a young man. "Korma," he said. "But they put too [...]

This was written in response to "The feudal battle against the judiciary-Dr Manzur Ejaz" published in Daily Times on October 20, 2010. Blindfolding by the habitual antipathy and gratuitous adherence with the classical conceptual dogma whilst completely neglecting the persisting ground-realities, inevitably leads to lethal intellectual [...]