Chowraha

The following blog post has been republished with the permission of the author Fayez Asar and originally appeared as a Facebook note on the author's page - this post is an account of the 23rd March 2013 PTI rally in Lahore, Pakistan.  10 Magical Minutes at the PTI Jalsa I wanted to write about the entire Jalsa at the Minar-e-Pakistan on 23rd March 2013, but I’ll save that for another day.  Right now, I just want to write about the last 10 magical minutes of the Jalsa.  Just those last few minutes made my entire trip completely worth it. The weather was extremely pleasant throughout the day.  It was not too hot to begin with and the occasional light drizzle helped cool everyone down even further.  The mood was extremely festive as it always is at PTI Jalsas.  As expected, the crowd became much more focused once Imran Khan stepped onto the podium.  The crowd knew that this was a special day where he was going to officially kick off PTI’s ...

Pakistan is a state. But what kind of a state is it? Is it a nation state? Is it a country for Pakistanis? If it is then we need to understand who Pakistanis are. Are they a group of people who speak the same language? Or are they from the same race? The only commonality amongst all Pakistanis (or at least 95% of them) is Islam . This is why during the movement for independence of Pakistan the slogan on the tongue of Pakistanis was پاکستان کا مطلب کیا؟ لا الہ الا اللہ (What does Pakistan mean? There is no god but Allah). The slogan was the heart beat of every Muslim of subcontinent who supported a separate homeland. And this is why the leaders of Pakistan movement created a slogan مسلم ہو تو مسلم لیگ میں آو (Muslims should be Muslim Leaguers). These slogans were rationalized by Quaid e Azam in his speech at many occasions.  One such occasion was his address to Civil, Naval, Military and Air Force officers of the Pakistan government at Khalaqdina hall, Karachi ...

Monday morning, last day of bank holiday weekend, and I was sleeping in late when a message from a friend in Egypt woke me up - "Osama bin Laden is dead" it read.  Being my mother's daughter, any such news on TV and my first reaction is to run to the TV and staye glued to it for the next several hours, if not the next few days, flicking between news channels and hearing every political analysis possible. My first reaction? I thought Osama bin Laden died a few years ago! The next slightly saner reaction? Pakistan is screwed now! But the more and more I think about it, the conspiracy theorist within me continues to stare back at me saying "The war on terrorism is so not over...it might just be the beginning!" Victory is like an opium you get addicted to. The death of bin Laden is a symbolic victory as many are calling it, but it is a huge symbolic victory which makes his enemies feel more addicted to winning, and definitely invokes a stronger self-belief in th...

The extremely sad assassination of Salman Taseer has shocked Pakistanis throughout the world and is a shrewd reminder of how Pakistan’s state of affairs have reached a point that not a day goes by without a disturbing news. Living outside of Pakistan, I am trying as quickly as possible to hover all the details, and reactions about the tragic death of a well-renowned governor of the country. There are articles over the net discussing groups that hold the assassin as a hero and others condemning the vileness that is attached with any murder. The incident is a sombre reminder of where Pakistan is coming from, and the direction in which things are leading. For me, it is an episode of bafflement, a reminder that things in the country are no longer wrong or right, they are chaotic and we have ended up in this in a complicated trail of events because of our own short-sightedness and lack of sensitivity. There are speculations on whether the murderer acted under the instructions of a bigge...

The Taliban are advancing in Pakistan and weakening the government's control over the country. This brings Pakistan at the centre of concern worldwide. Read more: http://pakistan.suite101.com/article.cfm/is_taliban_going_to_take_over_pakistan#ixzz0FP0kqiT3&B