Pakistanis create rival Muslim Facebook
Pakistanis outraged with Facebook over "blasphemous" caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed have created a spin-off networking site that they dream can connect the world's 1.6 billion Muslims.
A group of six young IT professionals from Lahore, the cultural and entertainment capital of Pakistan, launched www.millatfacebook.com on Tuesday for Muslims to interact online and protest against blasphemy.
The private venture came after a Pakistani court ordered a block on Facebook until May 31, following deep offence over an "Everyone Draw Mohammed Day" page considered "blasphemous" and "sacrilegious".
"Millatfacebook is Pakistan's very own, first social networking site. A site for Muslims by Muslims where sweet people of other religions are also welcome," the website tells people interested in signing up.
Dubbed MFB, after Facebook's moniker FB, its founder says professionals are working around the clock to offer features similar to those pioneered by the wildly popular California-based prototype.
Each member has a "wall" for friends to comment on. The site offers email, photo, video, chat and discussion board facilities.
The Urdu word "Millat" is used by Muslims to refer to their nation. The website claims to have attracted 4,300 members in the last three days -- mostly English-speaking Pakistanis in their 20s.
The number of aficionados may be growing, but the community is a drop in the ocean of the 2.5 million Facebook fans in Pakistan and there have been some scathing early reviews of the start-up.
Neither has Facebook been immediately reachable for comment.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
What’s religion got to do with it?
The place for religion in public life remains one of our biggest conundrums. And no matter how far we seem to progress in other ways, the tendency, need, desire, whatever it may be, to believe in divinity spills over into the rest of our lives.
The past few weeks have seen Belgium banning the burkha, Deoband issuing fatwas against women in the workplace among other things and, interestingly, a Lebanese Muslim woman winning the Miss America title.
Also, someone set up a page on Facebook encouraging people to post images of prophet Mohammed —which is forbidden in Islam — as a reaction to a death threat against the creators of the cartoon South Park, which had portrayed Mohammed as a bear. This led to Pakistan banning Facebook.
There is no doubt that Islam is public enemy number one in many parts of the world today. Some of this comes from the current threat of Islamist terrorism, especially after the September 2001 attacks on New York.
The subsequent Iraq war added to the anger — on all sides. The use of Christian terminology by the then US president George Bush to justify the war aggravated the tension and the clash of civilisations theory was presented to explain why the “Islamic” world would always be different from the rest. Of course, finally, there was always the Israel-Palestine conflict to explain the matter although there is a fine historical irony in the idea of Jews versus Muslims with Christians as the arbitrators of peace.
But even a cursory glance at all these events and beliefs seems to suggest that we are not dealing with a simplistic us-versus-them battle. The burkha ban in Belgium and France comes from an apparent liberal desire — if misguided — to save women from patriarchy, happily ignoring the fact that forcing women not to wear something is also a form of oppression.
Deoband’s sudden flurry of fatwas seems to come from a desire to re-establish its supremacy amongst India’s Muslims. India’s Muslims — like Muslims all over the world — are as fragmented and diverse as any other so-called homogeneous group.
So there was a series of reactions to Deoband’s ideas and most of them were opposed to the fatwas. Noted lyricist and scriptwriter Javed Akhtar was most vociferous and got a death threat for his pains.
The new Miss America found she had to deal with her own share of controversy. This time it was not the outrage of Muslim conservatives so much as non- Muslim conspiracy theorists who felt that her winning was some kind of an appeasement policy to placate Muslims .
Of course, it is likely that by cavorting about in a bikini, the young lady has now upset everybody. As a Saudi female columnists pointed out, women in the Arab world make news either for being covered up or for being half-naked.
The Facebook-South Park skirmish was to do with something that we in the subcontinent understand only too well — public sentiment. Our governments, the minute they think that law and order might be in jeopardy, have no compulsion in trampling on fundamental rights and banning and proscribing things left, right and centre. All major world religions have to learn to deal with criticism and blasphemy. Sad but true.
So what have we found from this mixing up of religion with everything else? Feminism of more than one kind (pro-choice, anti-burkha, anti-bikini and commoditisation of women, pro freedom), liberalism of more than one kind (freedom of choice, no freedom to cover your face, freedom from oppression), cultural disconnects (us versus them, me versus you), patriarchy and fear (women must not mix with men, true Muslims believe this, that, the other, whatever I say), freedom of expression (I have a right to insult your religion, you have the right to object) and finally politics (war, conflict, history, resolution, anger, mistrust, diplomacy).
In which case, maybe nothing has anything to do with religion in the first place!
The place for religion in public life remains one of our biggest conundrums. And no matter how far we seem to progress in other ways, the tendency, need, desire, whatever it may be, to believe in divinity spills over into the rest of our lives.
The past few weeks have seen Belgium banning the burkha, Deoband issuing fatwas against women in the workplace among other things and, interestingly, a Lebanese Muslim woman winning the Miss America title.
Also, someone set up a page on Facebook encouraging people to post images of prophet Mohammed —which is forbidden in Islam — as a reaction to a death threat against the creators of the cartoon South Park, which had portrayed Mohammed as a bear. This led to Pakistan banning Facebook.
There is no doubt that Islam is public enemy number one in many parts of the world today. Some of this comes from the current threat of Islamist terrorism, especially after the September 2001 attacks on New York.
The subsequent Iraq war added to the anger — on all sides. The use of Christian terminology by the then US president George Bush to justify the war aggravated the tension and the clash of civilisations theory was presented to explain why the “Islamic” world would always be different from the rest. Of course, finally, there was always the Israel-Palestine conflict to explain the matter although there is a fine historical irony in the idea of Jews versus Muslims with Christians as the arbitrators of peace.
But even a cursory glance at all these events and beliefs seems to suggest that we are not dealing with a simplistic us-versus-them battle. The burkha ban in Belgium and France comes from an apparent liberal desire — if misguided — to save women from patriarchy, happily ignoring the fact that forcing women not to wear something is also a form of oppression.
Deoband’s sudden flurry of fatwas seems to come from a desire to re-establish its supremacy amongst India’s Muslims. India’s Muslims — like Muslims all over the world — are as fragmented and diverse as any other so-called homogeneous group.
So there was a series of reactions to Deoband’s ideas and most of them were opposed to the fatwas. Noted lyricist and scriptwriter Javed Akhtar was most vociferous and got a death threat for his pains.
The new Miss America found she had to deal with her own share of controversy. This time it was not the outrage of Muslim conservatives so much as non- Muslim conspiracy theorists who felt that her winning was some kind of an appeasement policy to placate Muslims .
Of course, it is likely that by cavorting about in a bikini, the young lady has now upset everybody. As a Saudi female columnists pointed out, women in the Arab world make news either for being covered up or for being half-naked.
The Facebook-South Park skirmish was to do with something that we in the subcontinent understand only too well — public sentiment. Our governments, the minute they think that law and order might be in jeopardy, have no compulsion in trampling on fundamental rights and banning and proscribing things left, right and centre. All major world religions have to learn to deal with criticism and blasphemy. Sad but true.
So what have we found from this mixing up of religion with everything else? Feminism of more than one kind (pro-choice, anti-burkha, anti-bikini and commoditisation of women, pro freedom), liberalism of more than one kind (freedom of choice, no freedom to cover your face, freedom from oppression), cultural disconnects (us versus them, me versus you), patriarchy and fear (women must not mix with men, true Muslims believe this, that, the other, whatever I say), freedom of expression (I have a right to insult your religion, you have the right to object) and finally politics (war, conflict, history, resolution, anger, mistrust, diplomacy).
In which case, maybe nothing has anything to do with religion in the first place!
‘Leaving Islam?’ ads appear on NYC buses
New York bus ads asking readers if they were leaving Islam caused a stir in the American muslim community on Thursday.
A conservative activist and the organizations she leads have paid several thousand dollars for the ads to run on at least 30 city buses for a month. The ads point to a website called RefugefromIslam.com, which offers information to those wishing to leave Islam, but some Muslims are calling the ads a smoke screen for an anti-Muslim agenda.
Pamela Geller, who leads an organization called Stop Islamization of America, said the ads were meant to help provide resources for Muslims who are fearful of leaving the faith.
“It’s not offensive to Muslims, it’s religious freedom,” she said. “It’s not targeted at practicing Muslims. It doesn’t say ‘leave,’ it says ‘leaving’ with a question mark.”
Geller said the ad buy cost about $8,000, contributed by the readers of her blog, Atlas Shrugs, and other websites. Similar ads have run on buses in Miami, and she said ad buys were planned for other cities.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials said Geller’s ad was reviewed and did not violate the agency’s guidelines.
“The religion in question would not change the determination that the language in the ad does not violate guidelines,” MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz said Wednesday.
All ads are screened, MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said. Most are reviewed by the company that handles the MTA’s advertising opportunities, but some are sent to the MTA for ultimate approval.
Last month, Miami-Dade Transit pulled the ads from 10 buses after deciding they “may be offensive to Islam,” according to The Miami Herald. But the agency decided to reinstall them after reviewing the ads with the county attorney’s office.
The county decided “although they may be considered offensive by some, they do not fall under the general guidelines that would warrant their removal,” Transit spokesman Clinton Forbes told the newspaper.
Glenn Smith, a professor at California Western School of Law in San Diego, said discriminating against the ads could result in First Amendment issues for the city.
While people may find the content objectionable, courts have ruled that the First Amendment requires Americans to put up with “a lot of unenlightened and objectionable messages,” he said.
“It’s sort of the price of keeping government out of the marketplace of ideas,” he said.
Eugene Volokh, a First Amendment expert at UCLA School of Law, said the ads could leave some Muslims reluctant to ride the bus. There could also be a risk that some extremist groups might bomb the buses, although that possibility wouldn’t limit free speech rights, he said.
The agency had received no complaints since the ads went up on May 14, MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said. The 30 or so buses with the ads pass through all five boroughs of the city.
Council member Robert Jackson, a Muslim, said he had not seen the ad. But he questioned the criteria the MTA uses in determining what is appropriate.
He also takes issue with the content. He doesn’t believe anyone is being forced to stay in a religion, especially in America, which was built on religious freedom.
“I think this is a campaign by the extreme right, those that are against the Muslim religion,” he said. “Quite frankly, I would think the average New Yorker would take it for what it’s worth.”
Faiza Ali, of the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the ads were based on a false premise that people face coercion to remain with Islam. She said Muslims believe faith that is forced is not true belief.
“Geller is free to say what she likes just as concerned community members are free to criticize her motives,” Ali said.
Geller has a history of speaking out against Muslims, and the ads are “a smoke screen to advance her long-standing history of anti-Muslim bigotry,” Ali said.
Geller said she had no problem with Muslims, but was working to “maintain the separation of mosque and state.” She is also among those speaking out against the building of a mosque and cultural center near ground zero.
New York bus ads asking readers if they were leaving Islam caused a stir in the American muslim community on Thursday.
A conservative activist and the organizations she leads have paid several thousand dollars for the ads to run on at least 30 city buses for a month. The ads point to a website called RefugefromIslam.com, which offers information to those wishing to leave Islam, but some Muslims are calling the ads a smoke screen for an anti-Muslim agenda.
Pamela Geller, who leads an organization called Stop Islamization of America, said the ads were meant to help provide resources for Muslims who are fearful of leaving the faith.
“It’s not offensive to Muslims, it’s religious freedom,” she said. “It’s not targeted at practicing Muslims. It doesn’t say ‘leave,’ it says ‘leaving’ with a question mark.”
Geller said the ad buy cost about $8,000, contributed by the readers of her blog, Atlas Shrugs, and other websites. Similar ads have run on buses in Miami, and she said ad buys were planned for other cities.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials said Geller’s ad was reviewed and did not violate the agency’s guidelines.
“The religion in question would not change the determination that the language in the ad does not violate guidelines,” MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz said Wednesday.
All ads are screened, MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said. Most are reviewed by the company that handles the MTA’s advertising opportunities, but some are sent to the MTA for ultimate approval.
Last month, Miami-Dade Transit pulled the ads from 10 buses after deciding they “may be offensive to Islam,” according to The Miami Herald. But the agency decided to reinstall them after reviewing the ads with the county attorney’s office.
The county decided “although they may be considered offensive by some, they do not fall under the general guidelines that would warrant their removal,” Transit spokesman Clinton Forbes told the newspaper.
Glenn Smith, a professor at California Western School of Law in San Diego, said discriminating against the ads could result in First Amendment issues for the city.
While people may find the content objectionable, courts have ruled that the First Amendment requires Americans to put up with “a lot of unenlightened and objectionable messages,” he said.
“It’s sort of the price of keeping government out of the marketplace of ideas,” he said.
Eugene Volokh, a First Amendment expert at UCLA School of Law, said the ads could leave some Muslims reluctant to ride the bus. There could also be a risk that some extremist groups might bomb the buses, although that possibility wouldn’t limit free speech rights, he said.
The agency had received no complaints since the ads went up on May 14, MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said. The 30 or so buses with the ads pass through all five boroughs of the city.
Council member Robert Jackson, a Muslim, said he had not seen the ad. But he questioned the criteria the MTA uses in determining what is appropriate.
He also takes issue with the content. He doesn’t believe anyone is being forced to stay in a religion, especially in America, which was built on religious freedom.
“I think this is a campaign by the extreme right, those that are against the Muslim religion,” he said. “Quite frankly, I would think the average New Yorker would take it for what it’s worth.”
Faiza Ali, of the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the ads were based on a false premise that people face coercion to remain with Islam. She said Muslims believe faith that is forced is not true belief.
“Geller is free to say what she likes just as concerned community members are free to criticize her motives,” Ali said.
Geller has a history of speaking out against Muslims, and the ads are “a smoke screen to advance her long-standing history of anti-Muslim bigotry,” Ali said.
Geller said she had no problem with Muslims, but was working to “maintain the separation of mosque and state.” She is also among those speaking out against the building of a mosque and cultural center near ground zero.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Miss USA is not the only role model for Muslim women
It surprised me last week that my article about Rima Fakih becoming the first Arab-American and Muslim to win the Miss USA beauty contest turned out to be Cif's most-read item of the day.
But quite a number of readers thought that Fakih, dependent as she is on her looks, is not the most rousing role model for Muslim female empowerment. They asked why no similar attention was accorded all those successful and inspirational Muslim women who have made inroads into what is still largely a man's world.
So, in tribute to the many remarkable women in the Muslim world (including non-Muslims) throughout the centuries – both remembered and forgotten, loved or ridiculed – here's my personal selection of 10 mould-breaking women. They appear in chronological order.
1. Khadijah bint Khuwaylid (555–619): First wife of the Prophet Muhammad and the world's first convert to Islam.
2. Aisha bint Abu Bakr (died 678): A controversial figure, particularly in the west, because of the young age at which she appears to have been betrothed to the elderly prophet. Less well known is that she was a central figure in spreading Islam after his death and even led an army to battle.
3. Fatima al-Fihri (died 880): This Tunisian established, in 859, what is reportedly the world's oldest academic degree-granting university, al-Qarawiyyin in Fes (Morocco). But medieval Muslim women were not only patrons of academic establishments, they were also academics. A 15th-century Egyptian biographical dictionary lists over 1,000 prominent female scholars.
4. Shajaret al-Durr (died 1257): From modest beginnings as a slave of probable Turkic origin in the royal household, "Tree of Pearls" rose to become Egypt's only queen in the Islamic period. Although she ruled the country directly for only 80 days, her proxy reign continued through her husband until her murder. She not only repelled the Seventh Crusade, but she also instigated the unique Mamluk era during which Egypt was ruled by elite slave warriors. In modern times, a number of Muslim-majority countries – including Pakistan (Benazir Bhutto), Indonesia (Megawati Sukarnoputri), Bangladesh (Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina) and Turkey (Tansu Çiller) – have been led by women.
5. Malak Hifni Nassef (1886-1918): An early feminist who scored a number of impressive firsts in Egypt: the first woman to get a degree from a government college, the first woman to lecture publicly, and – at the age of only 13 – the first to publish poetry in a mainstream journal. Today, though, she is largely forgotten and overshadowed by Hoda Sha'rawi who is widely considered to be founder of the modern Arab feminist movement.
6. Nawal el-Saadawi (born 1931): Despite being a physician and psychiatrist by training, Saadawi describes herself as "a novelist first, a novelist second, a novelist third". She has, in more than 50 novels, revolutionised the treatment of Egyptian women in fiction, and wielded her pen as her mightiest weapon in the battle for female emancipation. Her writings have covered numerous controversial feminist themes, including women's inferior position in religion and female genital mutilation, and their author has endured imprisonment, death threats and attempts to forcibly divorce her from her husband.
7. Fairuz (born 1935): Known as "ambassador to the stars", Fairuz is not only the national pride of Lebanon but the most famous living singer in the Arab world. She was born with the name Nouhad Haddad into a poor Maronite Christian family in 1935. Throughout the 1960s, she was the "first lady of Lebanese singing", although overshadowed on the Arab stage by the giant Umm Kalthoum. Widely regarded as the enchanting voice of Arab nationalism, her output has been prolific and has included hundreds of songs and musical operettas. Fairuz never left her country during its tumultuous civil war.
8. Hanan Ashrawi (born 1946): Ashrawi played a pivotal role in the first Palestinian intifada and the subsequent peace process, where she served as the Palestinian delegation's spokesperson. She has also been elected numerous times to the Palestinian Legislative Council and established the department of English at Birzeit University. She currently runs Miftah, the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy.
9. Sana Hasan: Three years before the Egyptian president, Anwar Sadat, made his audacious trip to Jerusalem in 1977, Hasan – a PhD student in her mid-20s – went to Israel as the Arab world's first and probably most unusual peace envoy (albeit unofficial and ostracised). Her six-week trip turned into a three-year sojourn, from 1974 to 1977, in which she seems to have met just about everyone in Israel, in an attempt to understand her people's enemy and build bridges to peace.
10. Asma Jahangir (born 1952): This prominent Pakistani lawyer has built a career defending the rights of women, children and religious minorities. Jahangir put herself in the firing line defending Muslims and Christians who have fallen foul of Pakistan's controversial and intolerant "Hudood" laws. She is currently the UN's special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief.
It surprised me last week that my article about Rima Fakih becoming the first Arab-American and Muslim to win the Miss USA beauty contest turned out to be Cif's most-read item of the day.
But quite a number of readers thought that Fakih, dependent as she is on her looks, is not the most rousing role model for Muslim female empowerment. They asked why no similar attention was accorded all those successful and inspirational Muslim women who have made inroads into what is still largely a man's world.
So, in tribute to the many remarkable women in the Muslim world (including non-Muslims) throughout the centuries – both remembered and forgotten, loved or ridiculed – here's my personal selection of 10 mould-breaking women. They appear in chronological order.
1. Khadijah bint Khuwaylid (555–619): First wife of the Prophet Muhammad and the world's first convert to Islam.
2. Aisha bint Abu Bakr (died 678): A controversial figure, particularly in the west, because of the young age at which she appears to have been betrothed to the elderly prophet. Less well known is that she was a central figure in spreading Islam after his death and even led an army to battle.
3. Fatima al-Fihri (died 880): This Tunisian established, in 859, what is reportedly the world's oldest academic degree-granting university, al-Qarawiyyin in Fes (Morocco). But medieval Muslim women were not only patrons of academic establishments, they were also academics. A 15th-century Egyptian biographical dictionary lists over 1,000 prominent female scholars.
4. Shajaret al-Durr (died 1257): From modest beginnings as a slave of probable Turkic origin in the royal household, "Tree of Pearls" rose to become Egypt's only queen in the Islamic period. Although she ruled the country directly for only 80 days, her proxy reign continued through her husband until her murder. She not only repelled the Seventh Crusade, but she also instigated the unique Mamluk era during which Egypt was ruled by elite slave warriors. In modern times, a number of Muslim-majority countries – including Pakistan (Benazir Bhutto), Indonesia (Megawati Sukarnoputri), Bangladesh (Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina) and Turkey (Tansu Çiller) – have been led by women.
5. Malak Hifni Nassef (1886-1918): An early feminist who scored a number of impressive firsts in Egypt: the first woman to get a degree from a government college, the first woman to lecture publicly, and – at the age of only 13 – the first to publish poetry in a mainstream journal. Today, though, she is largely forgotten and overshadowed by Hoda Sha'rawi who is widely considered to be founder of the modern Arab feminist movement.
6. Nawal el-Saadawi (born 1931): Despite being a physician and psychiatrist by training, Saadawi describes herself as "a novelist first, a novelist second, a novelist third". She has, in more than 50 novels, revolutionised the treatment of Egyptian women in fiction, and wielded her pen as her mightiest weapon in the battle for female emancipation. Her writings have covered numerous controversial feminist themes, including women's inferior position in religion and female genital mutilation, and their author has endured imprisonment, death threats and attempts to forcibly divorce her from her husband.
7. Fairuz (born 1935): Known as "ambassador to the stars", Fairuz is not only the national pride of Lebanon but the most famous living singer in the Arab world. She was born with the name Nouhad Haddad into a poor Maronite Christian family in 1935. Throughout the 1960s, she was the "first lady of Lebanese singing", although overshadowed on the Arab stage by the giant Umm Kalthoum. Widely regarded as the enchanting voice of Arab nationalism, her output has been prolific and has included hundreds of songs and musical operettas. Fairuz never left her country during its tumultuous civil war.
8. Hanan Ashrawi (born 1946): Ashrawi played a pivotal role in the first Palestinian intifada and the subsequent peace process, where she served as the Palestinian delegation's spokesperson. She has also been elected numerous times to the Palestinian Legislative Council and established the department of English at Birzeit University. She currently runs Miftah, the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy.
9. Sana Hasan: Three years before the Egyptian president, Anwar Sadat, made his audacious trip to Jerusalem in 1977, Hasan – a PhD student in her mid-20s – went to Israel as the Arab world's first and probably most unusual peace envoy (albeit unofficial and ostracised). Her six-week trip turned into a three-year sojourn, from 1974 to 1977, in which she seems to have met just about everyone in Israel, in an attempt to understand her people's enemy and build bridges to peace.
10. Asma Jahangir (born 1952): This prominent Pakistani lawyer has built a career defending the rights of women, children and religious minorities. Jahangir put herself in the firing line defending Muslims and Christians who have fallen foul of Pakistan's controversial and intolerant "Hudood" laws. She is currently the UN's special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief.
Pakistan’s economy improving: IMF
Pakistan’s economy is getting back on track after a balance of payments crisis 18 months ago but it still remains vulnerable to shocks and a risky market for investors, the IMF’s representative said.
The International Monetary Fund said that Pakistan’s economy is getting back on an even keel.
Pakistan was suffering from a balance of payments crisis 18 months ago and remains vulnerable to shocks and a risky market for investors.
The IMF representative in Islamabad, Paul Ross said political uncertainty, chronic insecurity and a budget deficit inflated by spending to tackle militancy are threats to recovery.
However, Ross said the outlook is still brighter than the one two years ago.
Inflation has dropped to 13 per cent, foreign reserves are in a better position and the current account deficit has come down to 3 per cent of GDP this year.
Inflation in 2008 was 25 per cent, central bank reserves had fallen drastically and current account deficit climbed to 8.5 per cent.
Political uncertainty, chronic insecurity and a budget deficit inflated by spending to tackle a militant insurgency are all threats to recovery but the outlook is far brighter than when Pakistan was on the brink of default in 2008. “In terms of the economy, stabilisation seems to be taking hold … progress has been made,” Paul Ross of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in an interview in Islamabad. Pakistan turned to the IMF for an emergency package of loans in November 2008, when inflation was 25 per cent, central bank reserves were the equivalent of just one month of imports and the current account deficit had widened to 8.5 per cent of gross domestic product for the fiscal year 2007.
Now, inflation has dropped to 13 per cent, reserves are four months of imports and the current account deficit is set to be around 2-3 per cent of the GDP this fiscal year ending June 30. Even among risky “frontier markets” Pakistan is seen as too long a shot for many investors due to its insecurity, poor governance, corruption and crippling power shortages. Foreign direct investment (FDI) has almost halved over the past year, standing at just $1.77 billion in the first 10 months of the fiscal 2010.
In Vietnam, by comparison, the government expects FDI of $10-11 billion in 2010. However, there has been an upturn in foreign portfolio investment as the economy has improved, with net inflows into the stock market of $508.7 million in the first 10 months compared with an outflow of $392 million in the year-earlier period. CDS SPREADS NARROWING Ross pointed to a narrowing of the spread on Pakistan’s sovereign CDS, used to insure against sovereign debt default, as a signal of returning confidence in the economy. The five-year credit default swap (CDS) spread started to drop steadily at the end of February from levels above 900 basis points.
It dropped as low as 675 this month before rising again in line with global trends as Eurozone tremors spooked markets. It was at 750 on Tuesday. “The security situation adds to uncertainty, which investors don’t like, but if the economic stability deepens further I would expect CDS spreads to come down some more,” Ross said. The IMF agreed this month to release a fifth tranche of the $11 billion loan agreed in 2008 after Pakistan sought a waiver on some of its targets, including for the budget deficit, which the government has targeted at 5.1 per cent of GDP for fiscal year 2010.
The government’s initial forecast for the budget deficit was 4.9 per cent of GDP for fiscal year 2010. The government, which will unveil its budget for fiscal year 2011 on June 5, is now expecting GDP growth of 4.5 per cent for the next fiscal year starting July 1. The government is expecting 4.1 per cent GDP growth for fiscal year 2010. However, Ross said a rise to the Asia emerging markets growth rate of 8 per cent will require a leap in the tax-to-revenue rate, which is just 9 per cent of GDP.
Plans for a Value Added Tax face significant opposition and there are currently fewer than two million taxpayers from a population of 170 million. This leaves no domestic cushion for the government in the case of an economic shock, constantly forcing it to look externally for assistance and it limits the resources available for investment in health, education and infrastructure.
Pakistan’s economy is getting back on track after a balance of payments crisis 18 months ago but it still remains vulnerable to shocks and a risky market for investors, the IMF’s representative said.
The International Monetary Fund said that Pakistan’s economy is getting back on an even keel.
Pakistan was suffering from a balance of payments crisis 18 months ago and remains vulnerable to shocks and a risky market for investors.
The IMF representative in Islamabad, Paul Ross said political uncertainty, chronic insecurity and a budget deficit inflated by spending to tackle militancy are threats to recovery.
However, Ross said the outlook is still brighter than the one two years ago.
Inflation has dropped to 13 per cent, foreign reserves are in a better position and the current account deficit has come down to 3 per cent of GDP this year.
Inflation in 2008 was 25 per cent, central bank reserves had fallen drastically and current account deficit climbed to 8.5 per cent.
Political uncertainty, chronic insecurity and a budget deficit inflated by spending to tackle a militant insurgency are all threats to recovery but the outlook is far brighter than when Pakistan was on the brink of default in 2008. “In terms of the economy, stabilisation seems to be taking hold … progress has been made,” Paul Ross of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in an interview in Islamabad. Pakistan turned to the IMF for an emergency package of loans in November 2008, when inflation was 25 per cent, central bank reserves were the equivalent of just one month of imports and the current account deficit had widened to 8.5 per cent of gross domestic product for the fiscal year 2007.
Now, inflation has dropped to 13 per cent, reserves are four months of imports and the current account deficit is set to be around 2-3 per cent of the GDP this fiscal year ending June 30. Even among risky “frontier markets” Pakistan is seen as too long a shot for many investors due to its insecurity, poor governance, corruption and crippling power shortages. Foreign direct investment (FDI) has almost halved over the past year, standing at just $1.77 billion in the first 10 months of the fiscal 2010.
In Vietnam, by comparison, the government expects FDI of $10-11 billion in 2010. However, there has been an upturn in foreign portfolio investment as the economy has improved, with net inflows into the stock market of $508.7 million in the first 10 months compared with an outflow of $392 million in the year-earlier period. CDS SPREADS NARROWING Ross pointed to a narrowing of the spread on Pakistan’s sovereign CDS, used to insure against sovereign debt default, as a signal of returning confidence in the economy. The five-year credit default swap (CDS) spread started to drop steadily at the end of February from levels above 900 basis points.
It dropped as low as 675 this month before rising again in line with global trends as Eurozone tremors spooked markets. It was at 750 on Tuesday. “The security situation adds to uncertainty, which investors don’t like, but if the economic stability deepens further I would expect CDS spreads to come down some more,” Ross said. The IMF agreed this month to release a fifth tranche of the $11 billion loan agreed in 2008 after Pakistan sought a waiver on some of its targets, including for the budget deficit, which the government has targeted at 5.1 per cent of GDP for fiscal year 2010.
The government’s initial forecast for the budget deficit was 4.9 per cent of GDP for fiscal year 2010. The government, which will unveil its budget for fiscal year 2011 on June 5, is now expecting GDP growth of 4.5 per cent for the next fiscal year starting July 1. The government is expecting 4.1 per cent GDP growth for fiscal year 2010. However, Ross said a rise to the Asia emerging markets growth rate of 8 per cent will require a leap in the tax-to-revenue rate, which is just 9 per cent of GDP.
Plans for a Value Added Tax face significant opposition and there are currently fewer than two million taxpayers from a population of 170 million. This leaves no domestic cushion for the government in the case of an economic shock, constantly forcing it to look externally for assistance and it limits the resources available for investment in health, education and infrastructure.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Inside Pakistan’s adult film industry
It’s late at night and the room is dimly lit. The walls are decorated with paintings, posters of sportsmen and some birthday cards. There is silence. A boy and a girl are sitting hand in hand. In due time, the boy starts playing with the girl’s hair. She walks away from him and he follows her to the edge of the bed. The girl looks coyly up at him and says, “Please don’t.”
The moment of intimacy is broken as someone shouts, “Repeat.” The young couple has been shooting a scene for an adult movie at a studio in Defence, an upmarket Karachi suburb. The studio, which is considered one of the best in the country, combines the innovative with the traditional in its products. Two of the four rooms in the bungalow serve as sets. The room in which this movie is shooting has been designed to look like a study.
“The movie has been made to attract students and to show them how to enjoy intimate relationships,” claims Junaid, owner of the studio and producer of the film. While the use of hi-tech equipment has given his work a more sophisticated look, Junaid credits another factor for the rapid rise of his career.
“The reason for our success is not the use of sophisticated equipment but the introduction of youngsters,” says Junaid. Producing such flicks can be very lucrative. A film typically costs Rs 400-600,000 and can make as much as one million rupees. “Last year,” says Junaid, “we produced seven films.”
Do the math and it becomes obvious that this little makeshift studio is minting money. As for the actresses, they are paid between Rs 30,000 to 50,000 per film. For three of the seven films he produced, says Junaid, youngsters volunteered themselves for the main roles. And what of the rest? Tina, a director who was once an actor herself, adds somewhat menacingly, “We have the ability to convince people.” Junaid and Tina laid the foundations for the studio in 2002 and claim to have produced more than 90 films since.
They have, in time, learned the ropes of the industry. At first they mimicked the moves and plots of English movies but then slowly gained the confidence to add a hint of local flavour to their productions. Tina says, “We wanted something that would appeal to the local audience and show them something about sex in Pakistan.” Tina remembers the first time they produced a film without providing directions to the actors. It was in 2005 and, in Tina’s words, “it rocked the market.”
The studio initially hired commercial sex workers for their films. Soon, though, they began to expand by hiring enthusiastic volunteers. They felt it would make the performances look more natural. During the filming none of the actors are allowed to use condoms. “Condoms take away from the viewer’s pleasure,” is Junaid’s calculation, proffered with a loud smile. He does not think it necessary to carry out HIV tests before employing performers. Defying all odds, the producers of both of Pakistan’s leading adult film-studios claim to never have encountered a single HIV-positive actor in this field.
Beena, 24, volunteered for a movie in 2007 and has appeared in seven since. She says, “My friend Aliya worked in them and would tell me stories. One day I asked her to take me with her to a shoot and she agreed.” After attending, she decided to give it a go herself. Zunaira, who is 5’6 and has blonde streaks in her hair, followed a similar path to the adult film industry. “After attending classes at college I would come to the studio. It turned into a sort of addiction.” Twenty-three-year-old Zubaida is sitting in a well decorated ‘guest room’ at her Tariq Road flat. Located in a commercial building, the interior is adorned with colourful prints.
There are four other people in the room; three men aged between 30 and 35 and Binda, a girl in blue jeans and a red T-shirt, who joined the industry two years ago. In 2006, Zubaida ran away from her home in Gujarat with a boy she loved. “He used me for 10 days and then sold me to a man from Gulshan-e-Iqbal. The man raped me for a month and then put me up for sale again.”
In the spring of 2008, Zubaida met Arsalan, a handsome boy from Defence, at a party at Hawke’s Bay where she had gone on a ‘date’ with a customer. Zubaida and Arsalan soon became closer and started an intimate relationship. Arsalan was already in the business and convinced Zubaida that appearing in adult movies would make her famous. She describes the experience of making her debut movie. “I was confused in front of the camera the first time. I had seen never pictures or movies of myself in such a situation.”
Arsalan and Jan, the producer and star of the film persuaded her to do a photo shoot undressed and then started shooting the film. “It was all new for mebut I am used to it now,” the young actor said, blushing. The process of shooting a film, according to Arsalan, is not as easy as it sounds. “You have to arrange sets, dresses and hire professional cameramen to do the job.
It not as simple as two people doing scenes and one cameraman shooting them,” he explained. They then circulate the films in the market with the help of their regular shopkeepers. The films are circulated all across the country and posted on websites. The team also poses as viewers and start chat room discussions and post blogs about the quality of their films and beauty of their stable of actors. Arsalan reckons that Titlyaan and Andheri Raat are the biggest hits that have come from his studio as yet. Junaid and Tina’s shortlist consists of Take Me in Your Arms and Love On The Beach. Junaid’s latest innovation has been shooting films in cars at night.
It took some very brave actors and skilled cameramen, but after some initial glitches, they pulled it off. “The police are not a problem. Pay them Rs 5,000 and they shan’t bother you,” the producers say. For its part, the police deny the existence of such movies. Some police officers laughed at the very idea of such adult movie studios in Karachi. But others did accept them. Crime Investigation Police SP Fayyaz Khan said that such films are not allowed and whenever police receives information regarding the presence of these movies in shops, they take action. “Many shops have been raided in the recent past,” concedes Khan.
For their part, the police are quick to defend their role in turning a blind eye to these productions. CCPO Karachi Police Waseem Ahmad rebuffed the allegation that police are involved in promoting the industry saying wherever, “we find such movies or people we fine and punish accordingly.”
(UPDATE: Press Trust of India (PTI) quotes this story.)
It’s late at night and the room is dimly lit. The walls are decorated with paintings, posters of sportsmen and some birthday cards. There is silence. A boy and a girl are sitting hand in hand. In due time, the boy starts playing with the girl’s hair. She walks away from him and he follows her to the edge of the bed. The girl looks coyly up at him and says, “Please don’t.”
The moment of intimacy is broken as someone shouts, “Repeat.” The young couple has been shooting a scene for an adult movie at a studio in Defence, an upmarket Karachi suburb. The studio, which is considered one of the best in the country, combines the innovative with the traditional in its products. Two of the four rooms in the bungalow serve as sets. The room in which this movie is shooting has been designed to look like a study.
“The movie has been made to attract students and to show them how to enjoy intimate relationships,” claims Junaid, owner of the studio and producer of the film. While the use of hi-tech equipment has given his work a more sophisticated look, Junaid credits another factor for the rapid rise of his career.
“The reason for our success is not the use of sophisticated equipment but the introduction of youngsters,” says Junaid. Producing such flicks can be very lucrative. A film typically costs Rs 400-600,000 and can make as much as one million rupees. “Last year,” says Junaid, “we produced seven films.”
Do the math and it becomes obvious that this little makeshift studio is minting money. As for the actresses, they are paid between Rs 30,000 to 50,000 per film. For three of the seven films he produced, says Junaid, youngsters volunteered themselves for the main roles. And what of the rest? Tina, a director who was once an actor herself, adds somewhat menacingly, “We have the ability to convince people.” Junaid and Tina laid the foundations for the studio in 2002 and claim to have produced more than 90 films since.
They have, in time, learned the ropes of the industry. At first they mimicked the moves and plots of English movies but then slowly gained the confidence to add a hint of local flavour to their productions. Tina says, “We wanted something that would appeal to the local audience and show them something about sex in Pakistan.” Tina remembers the first time they produced a film without providing directions to the actors. It was in 2005 and, in Tina’s words, “it rocked the market.”
The studio initially hired commercial sex workers for their films. Soon, though, they began to expand by hiring enthusiastic volunteers. They felt it would make the performances look more natural. During the filming none of the actors are allowed to use condoms. “Condoms take away from the viewer’s pleasure,” is Junaid’s calculation, proffered with a loud smile. He does not think it necessary to carry out HIV tests before employing performers. Defying all odds, the producers of both of Pakistan’s leading adult film-studios claim to never have encountered a single HIV-positive actor in this field.
Beena, 24, volunteered for a movie in 2007 and has appeared in seven since. She says, “My friend Aliya worked in them and would tell me stories. One day I asked her to take me with her to a shoot and she agreed.” After attending, she decided to give it a go herself. Zunaira, who is 5’6 and has blonde streaks in her hair, followed a similar path to the adult film industry. “After attending classes at college I would come to the studio. It turned into a sort of addiction.” Twenty-three-year-old Zubaida is sitting in a well decorated ‘guest room’ at her Tariq Road flat. Located in a commercial building, the interior is adorned with colourful prints.
There are four other people in the room; three men aged between 30 and 35 and Binda, a girl in blue jeans and a red T-shirt, who joined the industry two years ago. In 2006, Zubaida ran away from her home in Gujarat with a boy she loved. “He used me for 10 days and then sold me to a man from Gulshan-e-Iqbal. The man raped me for a month and then put me up for sale again.”
In the spring of 2008, Zubaida met Arsalan, a handsome boy from Defence, at a party at Hawke’s Bay where she had gone on a ‘date’ with a customer. Zubaida and Arsalan soon became closer and started an intimate relationship. Arsalan was already in the business and convinced Zubaida that appearing in adult movies would make her famous. She describes the experience of making her debut movie. “I was confused in front of the camera the first time. I had seen never pictures or movies of myself in such a situation.”
Arsalan and Jan, the producer and star of the film persuaded her to do a photo shoot undressed and then started shooting the film. “It was all new for mebut I am used to it now,” the young actor said, blushing. The process of shooting a film, according to Arsalan, is not as easy as it sounds. “You have to arrange sets, dresses and hire professional cameramen to do the job.
It not as simple as two people doing scenes and one cameraman shooting them,” he explained. They then circulate the films in the market with the help of their regular shopkeepers. The films are circulated all across the country and posted on websites. The team also poses as viewers and start chat room discussions and post blogs about the quality of their films and beauty of their stable of actors. Arsalan reckons that Titlyaan and Andheri Raat are the biggest hits that have come from his studio as yet. Junaid and Tina’s shortlist consists of Take Me in Your Arms and Love On The Beach. Junaid’s latest innovation has been shooting films in cars at night.
It took some very brave actors and skilled cameramen, but after some initial glitches, they pulled it off. “The police are not a problem. Pay them Rs 5,000 and they shan’t bother you,” the producers say. For its part, the police deny the existence of such movies. Some police officers laughed at the very idea of such adult movie studios in Karachi. But others did accept them. Crime Investigation Police SP Fayyaz Khan said that such films are not allowed and whenever police receives information regarding the presence of these movies in shops, they take action. “Many shops have been raided in the recent past,” concedes Khan.
For their part, the police are quick to defend their role in turning a blind eye to these productions. CCPO Karachi Police Waseem Ahmad rebuffed the allegation that police are involved in promoting the industry saying wherever, “we find such movies or people we fine and punish accordingly.”
(UPDATE: Press Trust of India (PTI) quotes this story.)
A new Facebook for Muslims?
The ongoing ban of Facebook in Pakistan has prompted some entrepreneurs to jump at the opportunity with the creation of an alternative social networking site, Pakfacebook.com.
Launched on May 19, the ‘kosher’ alternative to Facebook has become the 488th most active site in Pakistan according to search analytics website Alexa.
A new Facebook for Muslims?
Controversy has surrounded the newly launched website however, as SMS messages being forwarded in Pakistan have warned users that the site is hosted in Canada and has been set up by a US citizen to, “take advantage of you, and earn money that they are losing from the original site”.
The site has also been plagued by downtime for most of Sunday, possibly due to the sudden load of traffic to its servers.
Alternatives are being sought by Pakistanis online:
“This situation is a golden opportunity for any Pakistani web developers to design a web like Facebook and if their site serves like Facebook, it will become a huge success for that developer, Muslims and Pakistan” said Hasham in an online comment to The Express Tribune.
So what are the options?
Some alternatives to Facebook do currently exist on the internet. Among the most popular of these is Muslim social networking site, Salam which offers many of Facebook’s features such as photo sharing, events, groups and videos. The site also adheres to the concept of modesty as indicated in its Community Guidance section.
Weblog TechMambo also provides a list of the Top 10 Facebook clones available online.
Privacy first:
Facebook has also seen competition crop up due to the ongoing controversy surrounding its privacy settings. The New York Times ran a recent report on four students who have set up Diaspora*, a social networking alternate to Facebook with personalised privacy settings for users.
70 percent of Pakistanis want permanent ban on Facebook: Poll
A new poll has revealed that 70 percent people in Pakistan want a permanent ban on the social networking website Facebook, while another 15 percent support the Lahore High Court's order to ban the website till May 31.
According to the 'ProPakistani.pk' poll, the participants expressed their sheer anger on Facebook for displaying blasphemous drawings of Prophet Muhammad.
In the first three days of the poll, which is still running, eight percent participants were of the opinion that a single URL ban was enough, while the remaining seven percent said they did not want ban on Facebook at all.
Acting on the court's decision the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) had earlier directed all Internet service providers in the country to shut down Facebook, as protests over the Prophet Muhammad issue had intensified across the country.
Commenting on the poll results, Jabran Rafique, a student, said that thousands of people had complained to Facebook to remove the blasphemous content through the website's standard reporting procedure, but no action was taken.
"But on the other hand they only took 20 minutes to shut down a page against Jewish on demand of some so-called Jewish cyber force. Does it not a discrimination against only one race and religion? We must not use Facebook ever again," The Nation quoted Rafique, as saying.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Pakistan Singer Bets on Reality TV
Komal Rizvi is betting an MTV reality series will reignite her long-dormant career in pop music. But this is Pakistan, and Ms. Rizvi—a voluptuous singer who wants to become the country's equivalent of Rihanna—has to carefully calibrate what she can show on screen.
Komal Rizvi was known in India in the 1990s as the sole Pakistani VJ on Channel V, the music-television channel, at a time of near-war between the two nations. She caused a stir back home by playing down her Pakistani origins on Indian television in a bid not to alienate the local audience.
Now, after a failed marriage, she’s back with a Pakistan MTV reality show charting her attempts to re-launch a pop music and movie career at home and in Bollywood.
Times have changed. A number of Pakistani stars have made it singing “playback” on Bollywood soundtracks and have become stars in their own right. The most famous is Atif Aslam, who is a household name in India. Pakistani rock groups also tour to packed stadiums in India.
“Komal,” which has just started airing on Pakistan MTV, is the first Western-style reality show in Pakistan
While still socially conservative, Pakistan has opened up to different cultural influences in the past few years as cable channels bloomed. Bollywood music videos have been by far the most popular cultural import. And that means that to make it big in Pakistan, local acts have to look to Bollywood.
On a recent afternoon, Ms. Rizvi was planning a wardrobe for her first pop video in a decade, an R&B song in Urdu that contains elements of Pakistan Bhangra, a fusion of Western pop and Punjabi folk music. The song is titled "Chahiye," which means "I want." Standing in front of a ceiling-to-floor mirror in close-fitting black culottes and a stretch top, Ms. Rizvi, 32 years old, parried the advice of a stylist to opt for a Lady Gaga-esque jacket and show generous cleavage.
"I'm personally not going to be showing too much skin," Ms. Rizvi says, the reality-TV cameras rolling. "I actually think it's sexier to leave something to the imagination."
Pakistan remains a deeply conservative country, where female decorum and arranged marriages are prized. Alcohol is officially banned, and there are no public bars or nightclubs. It is considered inappropriate for women to smoke. Yet an explosion of cable television stations in recent years, following deregulation of the industry, has led to an eclectic range of cultural imports, including racy Indian Bollywood music videos and a local MTV franchise. Some of the new stations are pushing the boundaries of what's culturally acceptable. Ms. Rizvi, star of the first Western-style reality program in Pakistan, embodies the new balancing act.
The show also offers glimpses of a Pakistan most Pakistanis never see: that of Karachi's American- and European-educated elite, which for years has pursued Western-like lifestyles behind closed doors. Karachi has even become known abroad for its raves on deserted beaches and drug-filled parties in luxurious, sea-facing villas in the city's posh Clifton district. Earlier this year, Karachi attracted global attention for its fashion week.
Whether Pakistan becomes more culturally liberal or continues to be shaped by rigid interpretations of the Quran is viewed by U.S. policy makers as a key issue. President Barack Obama's administration, as part of the $7.5 billion civilian aid package for Pakistan over the next five years, is funneling millions of dollars into local campaigns aimed at supporting projects working on subjects like the rights of minorities and women.
Putting the lifestyle of Pakistan's elite on television is bringing it to a wider slice of the population, most of which makes a living from agriculture and is conservative in outlook. Already, Pakistanis have embraced scantily clad Bollywood stars from India on cable TV. Now the question is whether they will accept more liberal cultural standards for homegrown talent.
MTV Pakistan is a franchise of Viacom Inc.'s MTV run by Indus Television Network, a local channel that has pioneered music television in Pakistan.
Talk shows have emerged in recent years. "Matches," aired by Eye Television Network Ltd.-owned Hum Television, was based on the Jerry Springer Show from the U.S. but has featured topics that aren't controversial for Muslims, like whether a man was neglecting his first wife after taking a second.
Things are changing. Wajahat Rauf, a senior executive at a music and entertainment channel run by Geo Television, one of the country's largest English-language networks by viewership, says it used to receive threatening phone calls from Islamic groups for airing Bollywood music videos, but no more. Nor are acts getting banned for politically charged lyrics, as happened to rock band Junnon in 1997—when the prime minister was Nawaz Sharif—after it released a track called "Accountability" about corruption in government.
"What changed everything is the media boom," Mr. Rauf said. After years of seeing female anchors wearing veils on state-owned Pakistan Television, local audiences now had access to Bollywood videos. "Suddenly it was OK for a Pakistani teenager to come on TV wearing a T-shirt and jeans."
Still, Shahbaz Sumar, the creator and director of "Komal," has faced difficulties filming his reality show in Pakistan. For one, he's had trouble getting the upper classes of Karachi to open their houses for settings.
"I can't go to too many places; people won't let me in," he says. "It's showing a slice of life that no one has really seen here. Viewers are shocked to see it."
Ms. Rizvi is the daughter of a banker and is the product of U.S.-style schools in Africa and the Persian Gulf. She sees the reality show as a vehicle to restart her career at home. In the 1990s she became a star on state-run PTV and went on to try to break out in Bollywood—as many top Pakistani acts do—where she started as a TV host and pop artist.
She stepped out of the spotlight about a decade ago when she got married. The family of her then-husband, a Pakistani industrialist, didn't want her to work in front of the camera anymore.
The MTV reality show, which went on air a few weeks ago, has a niche audience of urban viewers. During shooting, Mr. Sumar, the director, constantly urges Ms. Rizvi to use Urdu to make her more accessible to the masses, but she keeps slipping back in to English.
Ms. Rizvi makes no bones about the fact she'd like to make it again in India and is planning a trip there soon to meet her Mumbai manager and to discuss the possibility of a Bollywood film role.
Whether she'll succeed in Pakistan is another question. Tariq Amin, a fashion stylist and music label owner, says Mr. Rizvi could carve out a mass market through her show. But she faces an uphill battle. "For a woman to be out there, it's not easy," Mr. Amin said. "Here, this isn't done."
Komal Rizvi is betting an MTV reality series will reignite her long-dormant career in pop music. But this is Pakistan, and Ms. Rizvi—a voluptuous singer who wants to become the country's equivalent of Rihanna—has to carefully calibrate what she can show on screen.
Komal Rizvi was known in India in the 1990s as the sole Pakistani VJ on Channel V, the music-television channel, at a time of near-war between the two nations. She caused a stir back home by playing down her Pakistani origins on Indian television in a bid not to alienate the local audience.
Now, after a failed marriage, she’s back with a Pakistan MTV reality show charting her attempts to re-launch a pop music and movie career at home and in Bollywood.
Times have changed. A number of Pakistani stars have made it singing “playback” on Bollywood soundtracks and have become stars in their own right. The most famous is Atif Aslam, who is a household name in India. Pakistani rock groups also tour to packed stadiums in India.
“Komal,” which has just started airing on Pakistan MTV, is the first Western-style reality show in Pakistan
While still socially conservative, Pakistan has opened up to different cultural influences in the past few years as cable channels bloomed. Bollywood music videos have been by far the most popular cultural import. And that means that to make it big in Pakistan, local acts have to look to Bollywood.
On a recent afternoon, Ms. Rizvi was planning a wardrobe for her first pop video in a decade, an R&B song in Urdu that contains elements of Pakistan Bhangra, a fusion of Western pop and Punjabi folk music. The song is titled "Chahiye," which means "I want." Standing in front of a ceiling-to-floor mirror in close-fitting black culottes and a stretch top, Ms. Rizvi, 32 years old, parried the advice of a stylist to opt for a Lady Gaga-esque jacket and show generous cleavage.
"I'm personally not going to be showing too much skin," Ms. Rizvi says, the reality-TV cameras rolling. "I actually think it's sexier to leave something to the imagination."
Pakistan remains a deeply conservative country, where female decorum and arranged marriages are prized. Alcohol is officially banned, and there are no public bars or nightclubs. It is considered inappropriate for women to smoke. Yet an explosion of cable television stations in recent years, following deregulation of the industry, has led to an eclectic range of cultural imports, including racy Indian Bollywood music videos and a local MTV franchise. Some of the new stations are pushing the boundaries of what's culturally acceptable. Ms. Rizvi, star of the first Western-style reality program in Pakistan, embodies the new balancing act.
The show also offers glimpses of a Pakistan most Pakistanis never see: that of Karachi's American- and European-educated elite, which for years has pursued Western-like lifestyles behind closed doors. Karachi has even become known abroad for its raves on deserted beaches and drug-filled parties in luxurious, sea-facing villas in the city's posh Clifton district. Earlier this year, Karachi attracted global attention for its fashion week.
Whether Pakistan becomes more culturally liberal or continues to be shaped by rigid interpretations of the Quran is viewed by U.S. policy makers as a key issue. President Barack Obama's administration, as part of the $7.5 billion civilian aid package for Pakistan over the next five years, is funneling millions of dollars into local campaigns aimed at supporting projects working on subjects like the rights of minorities and women.
Putting the lifestyle of Pakistan's elite on television is bringing it to a wider slice of the population, most of which makes a living from agriculture and is conservative in outlook. Already, Pakistanis have embraced scantily clad Bollywood stars from India on cable TV. Now the question is whether they will accept more liberal cultural standards for homegrown talent.
MTV Pakistan is a franchise of Viacom Inc.'s MTV run by Indus Television Network, a local channel that has pioneered music television in Pakistan.
Talk shows have emerged in recent years. "Matches," aired by Eye Television Network Ltd.-owned Hum Television, was based on the Jerry Springer Show from the U.S. but has featured topics that aren't controversial for Muslims, like whether a man was neglecting his first wife after taking a second.
Things are changing. Wajahat Rauf, a senior executive at a music and entertainment channel run by Geo Television, one of the country's largest English-language networks by viewership, says it used to receive threatening phone calls from Islamic groups for airing Bollywood music videos, but no more. Nor are acts getting banned for politically charged lyrics, as happened to rock band Junnon in 1997—when the prime minister was Nawaz Sharif—after it released a track called "Accountability" about corruption in government.
"What changed everything is the media boom," Mr. Rauf said. After years of seeing female anchors wearing veils on state-owned Pakistan Television, local audiences now had access to Bollywood videos. "Suddenly it was OK for a Pakistani teenager to come on TV wearing a T-shirt and jeans."
Still, Shahbaz Sumar, the creator and director of "Komal," has faced difficulties filming his reality show in Pakistan. For one, he's had trouble getting the upper classes of Karachi to open their houses for settings.
"I can't go to too many places; people won't let me in," he says. "It's showing a slice of life that no one has really seen here. Viewers are shocked to see it."
Ms. Rizvi is the daughter of a banker and is the product of U.S.-style schools in Africa and the Persian Gulf. She sees the reality show as a vehicle to restart her career at home. In the 1990s she became a star on state-run PTV and went on to try to break out in Bollywood—as many top Pakistani acts do—where she started as a TV host and pop artist.
She stepped out of the spotlight about a decade ago when she got married. The family of her then-husband, a Pakistani industrialist, didn't want her to work in front of the camera anymore.
The MTV reality show, which went on air a few weeks ago, has a niche audience of urban viewers. During shooting, Mr. Sumar, the director, constantly urges Ms. Rizvi to use Urdu to make her more accessible to the masses, but she keeps slipping back in to English.
Ms. Rizvi makes no bones about the fact she'd like to make it again in India and is planning a trip there soon to meet her Mumbai manager and to discuss the possibility of a Bollywood film role.
Whether she'll succeed in Pakistan is another question. Tariq Amin, a fashion stylist and music label owner, says Mr. Rizvi could carve out a mass market through her show. But she faces an uphill battle. "For a woman to be out there, it's not easy," Mr. Amin said. "Here, this isn't done."
Pakistan vs India:
the widening gap
In 1947, Pakistan and India had roughly the same gross domestic product per capita, i.e. the average Pakistani was about as rich (or rather, as poor) as the average Indian. But with the end of British domination and the formation of a new country, this was an era of great ambition.
Alas, things did not work out as planned. Jinnah died a year into independence, a string of successive military defeats by India — including one which led to the loss of our Eastern half — and deep, corrosive political instability and corruption, plus an inability to even remotely deal with the deep structural problems the British never addressed (such as feudalism), have left Pakistan in a terrible fix. Our country is broken.
For the longest time, however, this hasn’t mattered becaus, as it was said to me many years ago, the most important thing is our national security. It’s true — perhaps after hundreds of years of foreign rule we have an excuse to be a little pathological about our security. But surely we should consider that no one in their right mind would want to annex Pakistan. Countries go to extreme lengths to keep our citizens out, the last thing they would seem to want to do is to invade us. Besides, what are they going to take?
Yet, our elite continues to trot out this argument time and time again, stuck in some sort of time-warp, a time when Pakistan could afford self-importance and lofty concerns about its safekeeping. The stark reality — that we have not only hit a brick wall but that we will continue to sink economically, socially, politically, and in practically every sphere of human activity — has been held off by the illusion of Pakistan’s need for protection.
I think I know what will get the attention of our elite. I accept that many people —perhaps the vast majority of our leaders — are only interested in self-enrichment. In Kenya, whenever a new government comes to power they use the refreshingly honest phrase ‘Now it’s our turn to eat’. But there surely must be some who are thinking of a Pakistan a few years from now, perhaps five, 10, or, even 20 years from now. And what will that Pakistan look like?
With some certainty one can predict that it will be a desperately poor country with a largely illiterate population. Its cities will continue to be overpopulated. A small minority will have access to drinking water and a working toilet. The country will continue to produce little art, possess little advanced technology, publish few books and perhaps will continue to have remotely flown toys police our backyards from the skies. It will have a reasonable sized military though, the ‘largest in the Muslim world’ perhaps.
This scenario isn’t going to be a wake-up call to action. But — and here’s the kicker — although Pakistan will continue to be as poor and as miserable a place as it is now, our neighbour India is becoming a dramatically different place altogether. Last year the average Indian made about $3,500 annually. The average Pakistani, $2,000. Ten years ago the disparity was reversed. Ten years from now the average Indian will be twice as rich as the average Pakistani and this gap is only going to widen in the decades and years to come.
India is racing toward economic and social advancement. Its population is becoming richer, more literate, more tech-savvy. And why is this happening? Because China’s awesome economic growth scares the living daylights out of India and this ensures that Indians are fixated by their economic growth in turn. Our former rival has put on running shoes and barely has enough time to check its rear view mirror to look at us, so focused is it on the Chinese panda.
Even though the Pakistan of the future will still be what it is now — and since our leaders can tolerate the present they will be perfectly willing to tolerate this future — what they and any proud, prickly and pathologically paranoid Pakistani might not be able to tolerate is turning up to a party to find out that your former neighbours who were once as poor and wretched as you now seem to have won the lottery. The sad fact is that unless we do something we will soon be alone in our misery and backwardness. Today’s India is not so much disinterested by Pakistan as it is embarrassed by its continued association with us.
the widening gap
In 1947, Pakistan and India had roughly the same gross domestic product per capita, i.e. the average Pakistani was about as rich (or rather, as poor) as the average Indian. But with the end of British domination and the formation of a new country, this was an era of great ambition.
Alas, things did not work out as planned. Jinnah died a year into independence, a string of successive military defeats by India — including one which led to the loss of our Eastern half — and deep, corrosive political instability and corruption, plus an inability to even remotely deal with the deep structural problems the British never addressed (such as feudalism), have left Pakistan in a terrible fix. Our country is broken.
For the longest time, however, this hasn’t mattered becaus, as it was said to me many years ago, the most important thing is our national security. It’s true — perhaps after hundreds of years of foreign rule we have an excuse to be a little pathological about our security. But surely we should consider that no one in their right mind would want to annex Pakistan. Countries go to extreme lengths to keep our citizens out, the last thing they would seem to want to do is to invade us. Besides, what are they going to take?
Yet, our elite continues to trot out this argument time and time again, stuck in some sort of time-warp, a time when Pakistan could afford self-importance and lofty concerns about its safekeeping. The stark reality — that we have not only hit a brick wall but that we will continue to sink economically, socially, politically, and in practically every sphere of human activity — has been held off by the illusion of Pakistan’s need for protection.
I think I know what will get the attention of our elite. I accept that many people —perhaps the vast majority of our leaders — are only interested in self-enrichment. In Kenya, whenever a new government comes to power they use the refreshingly honest phrase ‘Now it’s our turn to eat’. But there surely must be some who are thinking of a Pakistan a few years from now, perhaps five, 10, or, even 20 years from now. And what will that Pakistan look like?
With some certainty one can predict that it will be a desperately poor country with a largely illiterate population. Its cities will continue to be overpopulated. A small minority will have access to drinking water and a working toilet. The country will continue to produce little art, possess little advanced technology, publish few books and perhaps will continue to have remotely flown toys police our backyards from the skies. It will have a reasonable sized military though, the ‘largest in the Muslim world’ perhaps.
This scenario isn’t going to be a wake-up call to action. But — and here’s the kicker — although Pakistan will continue to be as poor and as miserable a place as it is now, our neighbour India is becoming a dramatically different place altogether. Last year the average Indian made about $3,500 annually. The average Pakistani, $2,000. Ten years ago the disparity was reversed. Ten years from now the average Indian will be twice as rich as the average Pakistani and this gap is only going to widen in the decades and years to come.
India is racing toward economic and social advancement. Its population is becoming richer, more literate, more tech-savvy. And why is this happening? Because China’s awesome economic growth scares the living daylights out of India and this ensures that Indians are fixated by their economic growth in turn. Our former rival has put on running shoes and barely has enough time to check its rear view mirror to look at us, so focused is it on the Chinese panda.
Even though the Pakistan of the future will still be what it is now — and since our leaders can tolerate the present they will be perfectly willing to tolerate this future — what they and any proud, prickly and pathologically paranoid Pakistani might not be able to tolerate is turning up to a party to find out that your former neighbours who were once as poor and wretched as you now seem to have won the lottery. The sad fact is that unless we do something we will soon be alone in our misery and backwardness. Today’s India is not so much disinterested by Pakistan as it is embarrassed by its continued association with us.
The woman Jinnah loved
The personal life of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948) arouses great compassion simply because he was an astutely rational man. He was married off in 1892 when he was 16 and still in school in Karachi. He travelled to Kutch to marry a bride called Emibai. Fatima Jinnah said the wedding took place in Paneli Gondal in Gujarat. Then Jinnah took off for England for his studies.
Evidence on Emibai is so hazy that you have to look up the book Ruttie Jinnah by Khwaja Razi Haider (Oxford University Press, 2010) to know that she may have died in Bombay when Jinnah was studying to become a lawyer: “His father, sister and his wife were living in Khoja Muhalla of Bombay; and it was during these days that Emibai fell victim to an outbreak of cholera” (p.4).
When Jinnah’s father wanted him to remarry he refused “and stood by this decision for about 22 years” (p.5). The granite in the man showed early. With his hard work, good looks and eloquence, he mingled with Bombay’s Gujarati-dominated elite with ease.
At the Parsi Club he socialised with his clients, the family of Sir Dinshaw Manockjee Petit. Sir Dinshaw’s daughter Rutten Bai, born in 1900, was the arguably the most beautiful girl in Bombay with a readiness to shock with unorthodox views. Ruttie was drawn to him perhaps because he was so “understated”. The Petits took Jinnah along on a vacation in Darjeeling. That is when Jinnah had his defences down and Ruttie got close to him.
The romance was no flash in the pan. Ruttie wanted to get married at the age of 16. Sir Dinshaw went to the court and got a restraining order (p.24). The couple then waited for two years till Ruttie reached legal age and married him after leaving her parental home.
They wanted a civil marriage and the law then stated that you had to forswear religion to get married in court. That meant Jinnah had to resign his Muslim seat in the Imperial Legislative Council (p.29). She embraced Islam and married him. It was now much more than innocent love sealed during horse-riding in Darjeeling.
The Parsi community was outraged as were the Muslim religious leaders. They kept referring to the civil marriage, which never took place, and called Jinnah an apostate for having contracted it.
But Jinnah did not care. He even insulted the viceroy Willingdon to defend her against criticism. She was by his side in the 1921 Nagpur joint session of League and Congress and defended his not addressing Gandhi as Mahatma—only because he didn’t want religion dragged into politics. When the pro-Gandhi namesake of Jinnah, Jauhar, began attacking Jinnah she successfully persuaded him to call off the war of words. Ruttie and Jinnah separated a few months before her death at the age of 29 in 1929. Jinnah’s daughter Dina was 10 years old at the time. Later, Jinnah could not bear to see the pattern repeated: Dina married a much older man of a different faith and became a relapsed Parsi after divorcing him.
In 1946, Jinnah met Dina Wadia and his two grandchildren in Bombay. Boy Nusli Wadia liked his Jinnah cap and wanted it, which he got: “Nusli prizes the cap to this day”. Jinnah cried when Ruttie died. Later in life, he used to take out her belongings and look at them, not letting go of her memory. It remains a mystery why Ruttie and Jinnah never got together again.
Comments:
A marvelous piece of writing! I am wondering if Jinnah was against dragging religion in Politics as mentioned in case of his refusal to address Gandhi as Mahatma then why he fell pray to politics of two nation theory and a separate homeland for some Muslims. I am afraid, he was more interested in securing a prominent place in politics than to keeping away religion from politics. The religion which Gandhi is accused of propagating was more a popular form of religious outlook among all inhabitants of sub continent. Gandhi was more like a mystic than a religious zealous whereas Jinnah despite bearing a liberal outlook happened to be the most conservative leader of undivided India. History is still unable to reconcile with his approach of dividing Indians on grounds of religion which, of course, he could not do except for helping British rulers fulfill their mission of ‘divide and rule’. The very base of his decades long politics has been rejected by his followers who found it unnecessary and impractical to remain stuck to two nation theory. It is evident from 1971 debacle and current political situation in Pakistan.
…there is a possibility that the ‘born-again’ crowd may see your comments as against the Islamic republic. Thanks for reminding us of the real Jinnah.
The personal life of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948) arouses great compassion simply because he was an astutely rational man. He was married off in 1892 when he was 16 and still in school in Karachi. He travelled to Kutch to marry a bride called Emibai. Fatima Jinnah said the wedding took place in Paneli Gondal in Gujarat. Then Jinnah took off for England for his studies.
Evidence on Emibai is so hazy that you have to look up the book Ruttie Jinnah by Khwaja Razi Haider (Oxford University Press, 2010) to know that she may have died in Bombay when Jinnah was studying to become a lawyer: “His father, sister and his wife were living in Khoja Muhalla of Bombay; and it was during these days that Emibai fell victim to an outbreak of cholera” (p.4).
When Jinnah’s father wanted him to remarry he refused “and stood by this decision for about 22 years” (p.5). The granite in the man showed early. With his hard work, good looks and eloquence, he mingled with Bombay’s Gujarati-dominated elite with ease.
At the Parsi Club he socialised with his clients, the family of Sir Dinshaw Manockjee Petit. Sir Dinshaw’s daughter Rutten Bai, born in 1900, was the arguably the most beautiful girl in Bombay with a readiness to shock with unorthodox views. Ruttie was drawn to him perhaps because he was so “understated”. The Petits took Jinnah along on a vacation in Darjeeling. That is when Jinnah had his defences down and Ruttie got close to him.
The romance was no flash in the pan. Ruttie wanted to get married at the age of 16. Sir Dinshaw went to the court and got a restraining order (p.24). The couple then waited for two years till Ruttie reached legal age and married him after leaving her parental home.
They wanted a civil marriage and the law then stated that you had to forswear religion to get married in court. That meant Jinnah had to resign his Muslim seat in the Imperial Legislative Council (p.29). She embraced Islam and married him. It was now much more than innocent love sealed during horse-riding in Darjeeling.
The Parsi community was outraged as were the Muslim religious leaders. They kept referring to the civil marriage, which never took place, and called Jinnah an apostate for having contracted it.
But Jinnah did not care. He even insulted the viceroy Willingdon to defend her against criticism. She was by his side in the 1921 Nagpur joint session of League and Congress and defended his not addressing Gandhi as Mahatma—only because he didn’t want religion dragged into politics. When the pro-Gandhi namesake of Jinnah, Jauhar, began attacking Jinnah she successfully persuaded him to call off the war of words. Ruttie and Jinnah separated a few months before her death at the age of 29 in 1929. Jinnah’s daughter Dina was 10 years old at the time. Later, Jinnah could not bear to see the pattern repeated: Dina married a much older man of a different faith and became a relapsed Parsi after divorcing him.
In 1946, Jinnah met Dina Wadia and his two grandchildren in Bombay. Boy Nusli Wadia liked his Jinnah cap and wanted it, which he got: “Nusli prizes the cap to this day”. Jinnah cried when Ruttie died. Later in life, he used to take out her belongings and look at them, not letting go of her memory. It remains a mystery why Ruttie and Jinnah never got together again.
Comments:
A marvelous piece of writing! I am wondering if Jinnah was against dragging religion in Politics as mentioned in case of his refusal to address Gandhi as Mahatma then why he fell pray to politics of two nation theory and a separate homeland for some Muslims. I am afraid, he was more interested in securing a prominent place in politics than to keeping away religion from politics. The religion which Gandhi is accused of propagating was more a popular form of religious outlook among all inhabitants of sub continent. Gandhi was more like a mystic than a religious zealous whereas Jinnah despite bearing a liberal outlook happened to be the most conservative leader of undivided India. History is still unable to reconcile with his approach of dividing Indians on grounds of religion which, of course, he could not do except for helping British rulers fulfill their mission of ‘divide and rule’. The very base of his decades long politics has been rejected by his followers who found it unnecessary and impractical to remain stuck to two nation theory. It is evident from 1971 debacle and current political situation in Pakistan.
…there is a possibility that the ‘born-again’ crowd may see your comments as against the Islamic republic. Thanks for reminding us of the real Jinnah.
Fatima Bhutto beats Jaswant Singh but Musharraf still leads
Fatima Bhutto’s “Songs of Blood and Sword” has been selling up to 15 copies a day, making it a better seller than former Indian foreign minister Jaswant Singh’s book on Jinnah but it has yet to overtake Pervez Musharraf’s memoir ‘In the Line of Fire’.
Readers started flocking to bookstores the day after ‘Songs’ was launched, March 30.
The book, published by the Penguin group, is about a daughter’s love for her father and her search to uncover and to understand the truth of his life and death along with a history of the Bhutto family. A manager at a bookstore near Bilawal Chowk said the response was tremendous on the first day.
“We sold all 30 copies of the book in less than 24 hours and ordered about a hundred more from the head office,” he told The Express Tribune. The demand for this book is overtaking that of “A Case of Exploding Mangoes” by Mohammed Hanif, he added. The book is priced at Rs1,395. “It’s a collector’s item and is worth the price as it deals with a true subject,” said Ammara, an interested reader.
Fatima Bhutto’s “Songs of Blood and Sword” has been selling up to 15 copies a day, making it a better seller than former Indian foreign minister Jaswant Singh’s book on Jinnah but it has yet to overtake Pervez Musharraf’s memoir ‘In the Line of Fire’.
Readers started flocking to bookstores the day after ‘Songs’ was launched, March 30.
The book, published by the Penguin group, is about a daughter’s love for her father and her search to uncover and to understand the truth of his life and death along with a history of the Bhutto family. A manager at a bookstore near Bilawal Chowk said the response was tremendous on the first day.
“We sold all 30 copies of the book in less than 24 hours and ordered about a hundred more from the head office,” he told The Express Tribune. The demand for this book is overtaking that of “A Case of Exploding Mangoes” by Mohammed Hanif, he added. The book is priced at Rs1,395. “It’s a collector’s item and is worth the price as it deals with a true subject,” said Ammara, an interested reader.
Musharraf’s party starts political activities
All Pakistan Muslim League (APML), party of former President Pervez Musharraf has started its political activities.
According to media reports, important decisions were taken in a meeting, presided over by Pervez Musharraf. The meeting held in London at the residence of Musharraf was attended by more than 50 people including Barrister Saif and Rashid Qureshi.
Addressing to the meeting, Musharraf said that Pakistan is facing severe challenges and PPP and PML-N failed to tackle crisis being faced by the country.
He said that the current challenges being faced by the country forced him to come into politics, adding there is a need to prefer the country’s interests over personal interests.
The former President said that he would return to Pakistan and to face the situation courageously, adding that he would participate in elections. Musharraf is expected to visit the United States on May 18.
Facebook pokes Pakistan the wrong way
Over the past few years, Pakistani musicians, designers and artists have embraced Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube.
It is not uncommon for designers to tell journalists to use their Facebook album pictures to accompany stories about them. Musicians have used the website to keep in touch with their fans – an essential act in a country where cultural events are halted for months on end after one major bomb blast. These websites have served as the only source for work to be promoted in a low-cost manner.
Pakistan discovered a singer who is one of its biggest stars today – Atif Aslam – through a song circulated online. Bands such as Noori, EP, Zeb and Haniya and Call have all capitalised hugely from the internet. Noori was born out of a series of songs that were circulated online, and Zeb and Haniya’s “Chup” was released years before the duo made their formal debut.
Retail labels like Daku, Ego and Daaman thrived through their Facebook group. These websites were a forum for self-promotion and marketing.
While the ban on Facebook is expected to stay in place till May 31, thus making its short-term impact minimal, politicians have called for a long-term ban on Facebook.
While, as Maleeha Nasir said, businesses thrived before and after Facebook, it is important to remember that websites such as this and YouTube have played a part in promoting Pakistani culture abroad. The ban on YouTube and Facebook has been picked up by major news outlets abroad, running as one of their top stories of the day.
There are negatives associated with social networking websites as well. Fake accounts of celebrities have been doing the rounds on Facebook and Twitter, leading their fans to believe it is their icon.
The lack of privacy on Facebook, a debate that has heated up worldwide for several months now, is a valid concern that Pakistanis also share.
Over the past few years, Pakistani musicians, designers and artists have embraced Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube.
It is not uncommon for designers to tell journalists to use their Facebook album pictures to accompany stories about them. Musicians have used the website to keep in touch with their fans – an essential act in a country where cultural events are halted for months on end after one major bomb blast. These websites have served as the only source for work to be promoted in a low-cost manner.
Pakistan discovered a singer who is one of its biggest stars today – Atif Aslam – through a song circulated online. Bands such as Noori, EP, Zeb and Haniya and Call have all capitalised hugely from the internet. Noori was born out of a series of songs that were circulated online, and Zeb and Haniya’s “Chup” was released years before the duo made their formal debut.
Retail labels like Daku, Ego and Daaman thrived through their Facebook group. These websites were a forum for self-promotion and marketing.
While the ban on Facebook is expected to stay in place till May 31, thus making its short-term impact minimal, politicians have called for a long-term ban on Facebook.
While, as Maleeha Nasir said, businesses thrived before and after Facebook, it is important to remember that websites such as this and YouTube have played a part in promoting Pakistani culture abroad. The ban on YouTube and Facebook has been picked up by major news outlets abroad, running as one of their top stories of the day.
There are negatives associated with social networking websites as well. Fake accounts of celebrities have been doing the rounds on Facebook and Twitter, leading their fans to believe it is their icon.
The lack of privacy on Facebook, a debate that has heated up worldwide for several months now, is a valid concern that Pakistanis also share.
History of web censorship
February 2006: Blogger.com and blogspot.com addresses blocked in the wake of the Danish cartoons controversy.
February 2008: Pakistan’s attempt to block YouTube caused an outage of the website for thousands of YouTube users worldwide.
February 2010: Temporary block of YouTube for an hour, after which the website was reportedly scrubbed clean of a video featuring President Asif Ali Zardari allegedly yelling ‘shut up’ to a crowd he was addressing.
Several websites that have been used to spread dissident opinions in Pakistan have also been blocked in the past. Several pornography websites are also blocked in the country.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Ghazal Festival from 22nd
Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) will hold a three-day Ghazal Festival from May 22-24 to pay tribute to King of Ghazal Singing Mehdi Hassan, at PNCA auditorium.
Renowned vocalists including Ghulam Ali, Asif Mehdi, Ghulam Abbas, Sara Raza, Ali Raza, Ijaz Qasir, Salamat Ali, Saima Jahan, Siara Naseem, Humaira Channa, Asif Javed, Sultan Fateh Ali Khan and many other would amuse the audience by signing famous ghazals of Mehdi Hassan in their melodious voices.
Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) will hold a three-day Ghazal Festival from May 22-24 to pay tribute to King of Ghazal Singing Mehdi Hassan, at PNCA auditorium.
Renowned vocalists including Ghulam Ali, Asif Mehdi, Ghulam Abbas, Sara Raza, Ali Raza, Ijaz Qasir, Salamat Ali, Saima Jahan, Siara Naseem, Humaira Channa, Asif Javed, Sultan Fateh Ali Khan and many other would amuse the audience by signing famous ghazals of Mehdi Hassan in their melodious voices.
How to make drawings with the Prophet Muhammad
I like it Stay-out-of-trouble tips for the ignorant Cartoonist...It's not so difficult to avoid making images of Muhammad and still have clear and effective visual communication.
The Prophet ridiculed -
This is not a cartoon but an illustration from a Dutch-Islamic children's book about the life of the Prophet. It's a good example of how to depict Muhammad if you must make a drawing. Just use a calligraphic symbol.
The actual scene here depicts the prophet being ridiculed by the non-believing Quraish people. According to the story, they were throwing goat dung at him when he was praying and laughing at him.
I could not find any reference to the artist that made the illustrations in this book (title: Ik ben een gelukkige druif). if you know who made the drawings, please contact us so we can give her/him credit)
I like it Stay-out-of-trouble tips for the ignorant Cartoonist...It's not so difficult to avoid making images of Muhammad and still have clear and effective visual communication.
The Prophet ridiculed -
This is not a cartoon but an illustration from a Dutch-Islamic children's book about the life of the Prophet. It's a good example of how to depict Muhammad if you must make a drawing. Just use a calligraphic symbol.
The actual scene here depicts the prophet being ridiculed by the non-believing Quraish people. According to the story, they were throwing goat dung at him when he was praying and laughing at him.
I could not find any reference to the artist that made the illustrations in this book (title: Ik ben een gelukkige druif). if you know who made the drawings, please contact us so we can give her/him credit)
Muhammad row cartoonist 'sorry'
US cartoonist apologises over Facebook Muhammad row
A cartoonist whose work inspired an internet campaign inviting people to draw images of the Prophet Muhammad has apologised for her role in the row.
Writing on her blog, Molly Norris said her satirical cartoon was "hijacked" and that the campaign was "offensive to Muslims".
Other people set up a page on the social networking site Facebook backing an Everybody Draw Muhammad Day.
It sparked outrage in Pakistan, where a court ordered Facebook to be blocked.
On Thursday the video-sharing website YouTube was also blocked in Pakistan. Reports say more protests against the Facebook campaign are planned for Friday.
Molly Norris drew a cartoon in April to protest against the decision by a US television channel to cancel an episode of the popular show South Park because of a contentious depiction of the Prophet Muhammad.
In her cartoon, Ms Norris satirically proposed May 20 as an Everybody Draw Muhammad Day.
The idea inspired a separate Everybody Draw Muhammad Day group on Facebook which rapidly gained in popularity.
The page contains drawings and cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad and characters from other religions, including Hinduism and Christianity. Depictions of the Prophet are forbidden in Islam.
Ms Norris says she that she had nothing to do with the page even though her name was posted on it. Some media reports implied that she had set up the Facebook campaign.
US cartoonist apologises over Facebook Muhammad row
A cartoonist whose work inspired an internet campaign inviting people to draw images of the Prophet Muhammad has apologised for her role in the row.
Writing on her blog, Molly Norris said her satirical cartoon was "hijacked" and that the campaign was "offensive to Muslims".
Other people set up a page on the social networking site Facebook backing an Everybody Draw Muhammad Day.
It sparked outrage in Pakistan, where a court ordered Facebook to be blocked.
On Thursday the video-sharing website YouTube was also blocked in Pakistan. Reports say more protests against the Facebook campaign are planned for Friday.
Molly Norris drew a cartoon in April to protest against the decision by a US television channel to cancel an episode of the popular show South Park because of a contentious depiction of the Prophet Muhammad.
In her cartoon, Ms Norris satirically proposed May 20 as an Everybody Draw Muhammad Day.
The idea inspired a separate Everybody Draw Muhammad Day group on Facebook which rapidly gained in popularity.
The page contains drawings and cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad and characters from other religions, including Hinduism and Christianity. Depictions of the Prophet are forbidden in Islam.
Ms Norris says she that she had nothing to do with the page even though her name was posted on it. Some media reports implied that she had set up the Facebook campaign.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Pakistan Widens Online Ban to Include YouTube
Pakistani authorities broadened a ban on social networking sites on Thursday, blocking YouTube and about 450 individual Web pages over what it described as “growing sacrilegious content.”
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, or P.T.A., blocked YouTube after a special Internet monitoring cell within the agency determined that “objectionable content” was increasing.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, or P.T.A., blocked YouTube after a special Internet monitoring cell within the agency determined that “objectionable content” was increasing.
“Earlier we were blocking the links,” he said of YouTube, “but when content increased we had to block the whole Web site.”The ban, which also included certain pages on the Flickr and Wikipedia sites, occurred a day after access to Facebook was suspended on orders from a Pakistani court. An Islamic lawyers group won that injunction, arguing that a contest started by users for drawings of the Prophet Muhammad — whose depiction is considered blasphemous by some Muslims — was offensive.
The ruling demonstrated the power of hard-line Islamic groups in Pakistan. Although they rarely garner many votes in elections and represent a minority of this country’s population, the groups are often able to impose their will on the more peaceful majority by claiming a defense of Islam.
Social networking sites are extremely popular in Pakistan, a country of 170 million, where more than 60 percent of the population is under the age of 25. Pakistan has about 25 million Internet users, almost all of them young, according to Adnan Rehmat, a media analyst in Islamabad.
The Telecommunication Authority said in a statement that the ban was “in line with the constitution of Pakistan, the wishes of the people of Pakistan.”
On Wednesday the court said its ruling would remain in effect until May 31, but Mr. Mehran said on Thursday it would continue until the administrators of sites removed the offending material.
Cartoons of the prophet published in a Danish newspaper in 2005 sparked violent protests by Muslims around the world, including in Pakistan.
Pakistan is not the only country to ban access to Web sites. In Turkey, authorities have imposed a sweeping ban for months at a time on YouTube, because of what authorities described as material offensive to the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The authorities in Thailand also blocked YouTube in 2007 over video content that officials said was disrespectful of the king.
But Internet users in Turkey get around the ban by using special addresses called proxies. That might also happen in Pakistan.
Twitter, another networking site, remained open, and people used it to express their views of the suspension.
“One day,” one user said, “they will ban breathing in Pakistan.”
The ruling demonstrated the power of hard-line Islamic groups in Pakistan. Although they rarely garner many votes in elections and represent a minority of this country’s population, the groups are often able to impose their will on the more peaceful majority by claiming a defense of Islam.
Social networking sites are extremely popular in Pakistan, a country of 170 million, where more than 60 percent of the population is under the age of 25. Pakistan has about 25 million Internet users, almost all of them young, according to Adnan Rehmat, a media analyst in Islamabad.
The Telecommunication Authority said in a statement that the ban was “in line with the constitution of Pakistan, the wishes of the people of Pakistan.”
On Wednesday the court said its ruling would remain in effect until May 31, but Mr. Mehran said on Thursday it would continue until the administrators of sites removed the offending material.
Cartoons of the prophet published in a Danish newspaper in 2005 sparked violent protests by Muslims around the world, including in Pakistan.
Pakistan is not the only country to ban access to Web sites. In Turkey, authorities have imposed a sweeping ban for months at a time on YouTube, because of what authorities described as material offensive to the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The authorities in Thailand also blocked YouTube in 2007 over video content that officials said was disrespectful of the king.
But Internet users in Turkey get around the ban by using special addresses called proxies. That might also happen in Pakistan.
Twitter, another networking site, remained open, and people used it to express their views of the suspension.
“One day,” one user said, “they will ban breathing in Pakistan.”
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Indian Women Told Not To Work?
Are Muslim women in India allowed to work outside the home according to religious dictates, and if so, do they have to wear a veil? That is a question that seems even further from being answered in the last week.
A fatwa from the leading clerics in India, which was apparently issued on the internet and is supposed to be considered almost a "Dear Abby" of proper Islamic etiquette, was extraordinarily vague in answering the query as to whether a woman was allowed to work outside the home, creating the crisis within the community as to what the religious leaders were truly saying.
Are Muslim women in India allowed to work outside the home according to religious dictates, and if so, do they have to wear a veil? That is a question that seems even further from being answered in the last week.
A fatwa from the leading clerics in India, which was apparently issued on the internet and is supposed to be considered almost a "Dear Abby" of proper Islamic etiquette, was extraordinarily vague in answering the query as to whether a woman was allowed to work outside the home, creating the crisis within the community as to what the religious leaders were truly saying.
The exchange that was posted on the website was as follows:
Question: Asalam Aleikum. Can Muslim women in India do government or private jobs? Shall their salary be “halal” or “haram”?
Answer: It is unlawful for Muslim women to do a job in the government or private sector, where men and women work together and women have to talk to men frankly and without a veil. (But) Allah knows best.
After receiving huge backlash from angry Muslims of both genders, The Darul Uloom, Deoband, the top Islamic seminary in India, backtracked on its published fatwa stating that women should not be allowed to work because they would come into contact with men.
The Darul Uloom, Deoband, India’s foremost Islamic seminary, on Wednesday denied that it had asked Muslim women not to work alongside men, saying it had only suggested that working women should dress properly.“We had only given an opinion based on Sharia that women need to be properly covered in government and private offices,” said Maulana Adnan Munshi, spokesman for the seminary in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh.
He denied a media report that the seminary was opposed to men and women working together. “No new fatwa was issued,” Maulana Munshi said, adding that the opinion was to a query on whether women could go to work without a veil, and issued over a month ago.
Earlier, in the day, activists and lawyers criticised the fatwa saying Muslim women should not work since in doing so, they would interacting with men, which was against Islamic tenets.
Even after hearing the allegedly clarified response from the clerics, numerous women who were primary breadwinners for their families responded with utter outrage at the declaration.
Pakistan moving away from war on terror
Strategy shows Muslims lack spirit to fight co-religionists
While a number of sources have documented the threat to the very existence of the government in Pakistan from its own resident Islamists, a recent military exercise there pointed toward India as the nation's main threat, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
The exercise indicates little worry on the part of the Pakistani army over the possible actions of the Muslim radicals – created by Pakistan's government to pursue its Islamist agenda in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
And that should alarm Washington regarding the commitment by the Pakistani army's high command to fight the radical Islamists who are launching attacks against U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
The key to such a direction is Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the highly regarded commander of the Pakistani army who once headed Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence Directorate, or ISI.
It was the ISI that originally created such insurgent groups as the Afghan Taliban, the Lashkar-e-Taiba, or LeT, and the Pakistani Taliban, also known as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, which is linked to the car bomb attempt in New York City's Times Square May 2.
As leader of the Pakistani army, Kayani is very aware of the impact on morale of the Pakistani soldiers when they are called on to fight their Muslim co-religionists in what has been dubbed "America's War."
In a recent meeting with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zadari and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, for example, Kayani reportedly had expressed his reservations over the army's role in fighting the Taliban militants.
Strategy shows Muslims lack spirit to fight co-religionists
While a number of sources have documented the threat to the very existence of the government in Pakistan from its own resident Islamists, a recent military exercise there pointed toward India as the nation's main threat, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
The exercise indicates little worry on the part of the Pakistani army over the possible actions of the Muslim radicals – created by Pakistan's government to pursue its Islamist agenda in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
And that should alarm Washington regarding the commitment by the Pakistani army's high command to fight the radical Islamists who are launching attacks against U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
The key to such a direction is Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the highly regarded commander of the Pakistani army who once headed Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence Directorate, or ISI.
It was the ISI that originally created such insurgent groups as the Afghan Taliban, the Lashkar-e-Taiba, or LeT, and the Pakistani Taliban, also known as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, which is linked to the car bomb attempt in New York City's Times Square May 2.
As leader of the Pakistani army, Kayani is very aware of the impact on morale of the Pakistani soldiers when they are called on to fight their Muslim co-religionists in what has been dubbed "America's War."
In a recent meeting with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zadari and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, for example, Kayani reportedly had expressed his reservations over the army's role in fighting the Taliban militants.
A Muslim Miss America? Shock, Horror, Scandal
First Arab-Muslim woman crowned Miss USA
She was hailed as the shining example of the American dream, a Lebanese-born woman who became the first Muslim Miss U.S.A.
Marketing executive Rima Fakih, 24, beat 50 other contestants to win the beauty pageant in Las Vegas.
The controversy began as soon as the glittery diamond tiara was lowered on Rima Fakih's dark tresses.
Is she the first Muslim Miss USA? Will she be able to keep the title after photos surfaced of Fakih winning a pole-dancing contest?
And -- on the conservative blogosphere -- is she a secret Islamist extremist?
Fakih, a Lebanese immigrant from Dearborn, Michigan who was raised in both the Christian and Muslim faiths, is clearly no fundamentalist.
Pageants are intended to be full of the kind of drama that comes wrapped up in the suspense of seeing who takes home the glittering crown. This year, it's political drama that has taken over in the aftermath of Sunday's beauty contest.
Since Miss Michigan Rima Fakih was crowned, the pageant has been deconstructed by political commentators on the right and the left.
Fakih, who is from Dearborn, was born in Lebanon and has been celebrated by Arab Americans as the first Muslim Miss USA. (Contrary to the widespread reports that Miss USA 1983, Julie Hayek, was of Arab descent on her father's side, Hayek said in an e-mail that her father grew up in Ohio and is half Czech and half German.)
False claims on blogs, Wikipedia, and even some mainstream media outlets have asserted -- without any reporting -- that Miss USA 1983, Julie Hayek, was an Arab-American with roots in Lebanon.
But Hayek says that is not true.
Contacted by the Free Press, Miss USA 1983 said that she has no ancestry in the Arab world at all and is not Arab-American.
"I am not Arabic," Hayek told the Free Press on Wednesday. "I am Czech. Hayek is of Czech descent."
But Hayek says that is not true.
Contacted by the Free Press, Miss USA 1983 said that she has no ancestry in the Arab world at all and is not Arab-American.
"I am not Arabic," Hayek told the Free Press on Wednesday. "I am Czech. Hayek is of Czech descent."
After Fakih's win Sunday, some bloggers, Wikipedia, and newspapers claimed this week, without offering any evidence, sources, or reporting, that Hayek's father was Lebanese. The falsehood circulated around the world, with other reporters and people picking up on the idea that Hayek was Arab-American and Lebanese-American.
Pakistan first… Facebook second?
As I sit writing this piece, hitting the refresh button on former president Pervez Musharraf’s Facebook page, watching the number of followers add up by the minute (over 150,000 at the rate of 100 per day) I have to admit – whatever else – the former President really has an ace team of Facebook advisors.
And that’s not where it ends.
Musharraf’s Facebook page announced the former president’s bold leap into the 140-characters-only world of Twitter in March, where he has, admittedly (surprisingly?), only garnered a smattering of less than 1,000 supporters. Perhaps this low response is due to the fact that being limited to saying what you need to say in just one sentence is a lot harder than it looks.
But that’s okay.
What goes unsaid on Twitter can always be delivered in a suitable, seated-behind-a-dull-desk online video. Yes, Musharraf also has his own YouTube channel, the aptly named “ThePasdarePakistan” where his latest video’s description reads, “Facts on Balochistan”. (Geo beware – the rumour mills predict that the markets may soon be awash with a downloadable Musharraf-in-your-pocket mobile application.)
But wait a minute.
Similar to Twitter, the YouTube channel is showing a massive discrepancy in the number of visits.
According to the available statistics, Musharraf’s YouTube channel has received less than 200 views despite being active for over a month. And despite the videos being blasted across the 150,000 plus Facebook fan page, “ThePasdarePakistan” only has 30 subscribers and a few thousand total views at the time this article is being written.
I fear the former president may be wrong in his assumptions about riding the online tide back into the hearts and minds of Pakistan’s youth.
Alas, these hearts and minds appear to have enough time to click a “like” button, or toss over a quick “Sir! Please come back to Pakistan!” on Facebook, but giving them the arduous task of actually watching a seven minute video seems to be asking too much.
Lets not even attempt to talk about getting fans such as this to vote.
As I sit writing this piece, hitting the refresh button on former president Pervez Musharraf’s Facebook page, watching the number of followers add up by the minute (over 150,000 at the rate of 100 per day) I have to admit – whatever else – the former President really has an ace team of Facebook advisors.
And that’s not where it ends.
Musharraf’s Facebook page announced the former president’s bold leap into the 140-characters-only world of Twitter in March, where he has, admittedly (surprisingly?), only garnered a smattering of less than 1,000 supporters. Perhaps this low response is due to the fact that being limited to saying what you need to say in just one sentence is a lot harder than it looks.
But that’s okay.
What goes unsaid on Twitter can always be delivered in a suitable, seated-behind-a-dull-desk online video. Yes, Musharraf also has his own YouTube channel, the aptly named “ThePasdarePakistan” where his latest video’s description reads, “Facts on Balochistan”. (Geo beware – the rumour mills predict that the markets may soon be awash with a downloadable Musharraf-in-your-pocket mobile application.)
But wait a minute.
Similar to Twitter, the YouTube channel is showing a massive discrepancy in the number of visits.
According to the available statistics, Musharraf’s YouTube channel has received less than 200 views despite being active for over a month. And despite the videos being blasted across the 150,000 plus Facebook fan page, “ThePasdarePakistan” only has 30 subscribers and a few thousand total views at the time this article is being written.
I fear the former president may be wrong in his assumptions about riding the online tide back into the hearts and minds of Pakistan’s youth.
Alas, these hearts and minds appear to have enough time to click a “like” button, or toss over a quick “Sir! Please come back to Pakistan!” on Facebook, but giving them the arduous task of actually watching a seven minute video seems to be asking too much.
Lets not even attempt to talk about getting fans such as this to vote.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has blocked Facebook across Pakistan following directions issued by the Lahore High Court.
Zonal Directors have instructed all ISPs in their respective areas to immediately block the website at the URL level and to continuously monitor the same to ensure compliance with the instructions of the authority.
Earlier in the day, the PTA blocked the controversial link on Facebook following the orders of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday.
The Lahore High Court had ordered the Telecom ministry to ban the social networking website following the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) caricatures controversy.
The PTA has issued a circular in this regard which states that the link is blocked with immediate effect, however, sources confirm Facebook is still accessible through mobile phones and via Facebook proxies.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Breaking: PTA is Going to Ban FaceBook in Pakistan
Facebook is getting Banned in Pakistan – A reliable source, who is in direct contact with Secretary MoIT, told HumAyuN.Pk that ministry has issued the directive to PT
A to ban said blasphemous content in the country.
After clear discrimination of Facebook for not banning blasphemous Fan Page, Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom has directed PTA to ban Facebook in Pakistan, told us sources close to authority.
It is yet to be ascertained if the whole Facebook will be banned or just a single URL will be filtered. In both the situations, step is inline with thousands of Facebook users and according to their urge of boycotting Facebook on May 20th.
Ministry of Information Technology directs PTA for banning any URL or whole of website in case of any inappropriate content available on it.
Despite thousands of requests, Facebook didn’t put this page down even it violated Facebook’s own terms of services.
Facebook has been very strict for Fan Pages about Islam. Just this week we saw many Fan Pages getting banned from Facebook due to their relation with Islamic content.
A to ban said blasphemous content in the country.After clear discrimination of Facebook for not banning blasphemous Fan Page, Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom has directed PTA to ban Facebook in Pakistan, told us sources close to authority.
It is yet to be ascertained if the whole Facebook will be banned or just a single URL will be filtered. In both the situations, step is inline with thousands of Facebook users and according to their urge of boycotting Facebook on May 20th.
Ministry of Information Technology directs PTA for banning any URL or whole of website in case of any inappropriate content available on it.
Despite thousands of requests, Facebook didn’t put this page down even it violated Facebook’s own terms of services.
Facebook has been very strict for Fan Pages about Islam. Just this week we saw many Fan Pages getting banned from Facebook due to their relation with Islamic content.
ISPs directed to block Facebook’s blasphemous link
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has directed the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to close a Facebook’s link about the competition of the blasphemous caricatures.A caricature competition is being held on May 20 at a link of the www.facebook.com under a plot to hurt the millions of Muslims around the world. The PTA, taking notice of this attempt, has asked the ISPs to ensure the blockage of this particular link of the facebook website.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Pakistanis want British MP to remove terror stigma
“There is an urgent need to find out why terrorists of all sorts in every nook and corner of the world are either Pakistanis or of Pakistani origin,”
The rise of a Pakistani-born Briton to become the first Muslim woman named in a British cabinet has given Pakistan something to cheer after weeks of introspection and blame over the failed New York bombing.
Barones
s Sayeeda Warsi, the Conservative Party's chairwoman, has been named minister without portfolio by Prime Minister David Cameron in his new coalition government.
In Pakistan, a country where many fear they are being stigmatised as “terrorists”, people are jubilant over her appointment.
Born into a modest family which migrated from Pakistan's central town of Gujjar Khan to Britain in the 1960s, Warsi has been involved in politics since her college days.
Newspapers prominently published photos of Warsi standing in front of 10 Downing Street and television channels interviewed her proud relatives and family friends in Gujjar Khan.
Warsi runs five vocational training centres for orphaned girls in villages near Gujjar Khan through a women's charity.
Cameron visited Gujjar Khan with her in 2008.
“We feel proud that she is from us,” said Hina Shaukat, a student in a vocational training centre in Bewal village near Gujjar Khan. Eight girls sat around her, busily sewing.
Warsi's appointment could not come at a better time for Pakistanis distressed by the arrest of Faisal Shahzad, 30, a Pakistan-born US citizen accused by US officials of driving an explosives-laden car into New York's Times Square on May 1.
Shahzad's case is not the first linking extremists in the West to Pakistan. British authorities have said most of the al Qaeda plots against Britain are rooted in Pakistan.
Three of the four terrorists who carried out suicide bombings on London's transport network in 2005, killing 52 people, were also of Pakistani origin.
“There is an urgent need to find out why terrorists of all sorts in every nook and corner of the world are either Pakistanis or of Pakistani origin,” the liberal Daily Times wrote.
Pakistan has been a breeding ground for militancy since the late 1970s, when it supported the US-backed fight against the Soviet invasion.
Its lawless ethnic Pashtun tribal belt on the Afghan border has become the global hub of Islamist militancy after thousands of al Qaeda and Taliban fighters fled the US-led war in Afghanistan.
Warsi's appointment has come as a national morale booster.
“At a time when there is an impression all over the world that all terrorism emanates from Pakistan, Sayeeda Warsi's appointment is like a breath of fresh air,” said Warsi's cousin, Nusrat Mubashar.
“If some people are involved in terrorism, it does not mean that every Pakistani child is a terrorist,” Mubashar said.
“There is an urgent need to find out why terrorists of all sorts in every nook and corner of the world are either Pakistanis or of Pakistani origin,”
The rise of a Pakistani-born Briton to become the first Muslim woman named in a British cabinet has given Pakistan something to cheer after weeks of introspection and blame over the failed New York bombing.
Barones
s Sayeeda Warsi, the Conservative Party's chairwoman, has been named minister without portfolio by Prime Minister David Cameron in his new coalition government.In Pakistan, a country where many fear they are being stigmatised as “terrorists”, people are jubilant over her appointment.
Born into a modest family which migrated from Pakistan's central town of Gujjar Khan to Britain in the 1960s, Warsi has been involved in politics since her college days.
Newspapers prominently published photos of Warsi standing in front of 10 Downing Street and television channels interviewed her proud relatives and family friends in Gujjar Khan.
Warsi runs five vocational training centres for orphaned girls in villages near Gujjar Khan through a women's charity.
Cameron visited Gujjar Khan with her in 2008.
“We feel proud that she is from us,” said Hina Shaukat, a student in a vocational training centre in Bewal village near Gujjar Khan. Eight girls sat around her, busily sewing.
Warsi's appointment could not come at a better time for Pakistanis distressed by the arrest of Faisal Shahzad, 30, a Pakistan-born US citizen accused by US officials of driving an explosives-laden car into New York's Times Square on May 1.
Shahzad's case is not the first linking extremists in the West to Pakistan. British authorities have said most of the al Qaeda plots against Britain are rooted in Pakistan.
Three of the four terrorists who carried out suicide bombings on London's transport network in 2005, killing 52 people, were also of Pakistani origin.
“There is an urgent need to find out why terrorists of all sorts in every nook and corner of the world are either Pakistanis or of Pakistani origin,” the liberal Daily Times wrote.
Pakistan has been a breeding ground for militancy since the late 1970s, when it supported the US-backed fight against the Soviet invasion.
Its lawless ethnic Pashtun tribal belt on the Afghan border has become the global hub of Islamist militancy after thousands of al Qaeda and Taliban fighters fled the US-led war in Afghanistan.
Warsi's appointment has come as a national morale booster.
“At a time when there is an impression all over the world that all terrorism emanates from Pakistan, Sayeeda Warsi's appointment is like a breath of fresh air,” said Warsi's cousin, Nusrat Mubashar.
“If some people are involved in terrorism, it does not mean that every Pakistani child is a terrorist,” Mubashar said.
The sinking middle-ground
The best was when a friend of mine told me about another such agitated Pakistani’s Facebook page. According to my friend, the following were the Facebook groups the restless young man was a member of: “Proud to be Muslim”; “I Hate Zardari;” “Free Dr Afia”; “Zaid Hamid”; and, hold your breath, “Big Boobs!”
The most convenient understanding of the phenomenon of Pakistani extremists that one hears being echoed from TV studios suggests that young Pakistanis turning into religious fanatics has something to do with illiteracy and unemployment. Though not entirely incorrect, this notion however is a complacent explanation.
It fails to explain the emergence of young religious extremists such as Omar Shaikh (involved in the murder of American journalist, Daniel Pearl); Shahzad Tanveer and Hasib Hussain (7/7 UK bombers); and recently, Faisal Shahzad (the failed Times Square bomber). Each one of these young men came from educated middle-class families.
Saying they were products of the western societies that they were raised in or thrown into is a weak retort. This attitude simply refuses to seriously address the issue of educated young Pakistanis falling for an extremely myopic and nihilistic brand of the faith — something that was once explained as a vocation only of the illiterate and the financially desperate. There has been an alarming rise in the number of young, educated middle-class Pakistanis (here and abroad), embracing the most reactionary and anarchic strains of the faith, believing it to be a justified and logical portrayal of ‘true’ Islam.
The state and the government of Pakistan will have to thoroughly investigate and rectify this alarming trend. While actors like the 7/7 bombers and Faisal Shahzad are an obvious embarrassment to Pakistan and to the Pakistani communities in the West, so are the growing number of rabid, tech-savvy young people floating around various interactive websites to mouth the most obnoxious ideas about Islam and politics. There are websites out there glorifying utter mad men and the most twisted conspiracy theories, and many of these are owned, run and frequented by Pakistanis who work and are comfortably settled in western countries.
For example, last year columnist Fasi Zaka was being pestered by a young man (through email) who accused him of being an American agent. When Zaka discovered that this person (a Pakistani) lived in the United States, he wrote back, sarcastically offering him help by reporting his dislike of American policies to the notorious US Homeland Security agency. As expected, the emails came to a dead stop. The cyber jihadi had chickened out.
Then there is a gentleman who runs a pro-Zaid Hamid website. He lives and works in the US, but has the audacity to call a number of journalists (including me), ‘Zionist/CIA agents.’ He also frequently litters his site with ridiculous conspiracy theories involving the US. He has a fetish for fast cars as well.
Just as the sudden rise of certain crackpots (via TV) in Pakistan was keenly followed and supported by a chunk of young, urban Pakistanis, various cranks are happily catering to the already confused religious and ideological bearings of Muslim Pakistanis living abroad. Much has been written about people like Zaid Hamid, Aamir Liaquat and Zakir Naik — men who cleverly represent (and glorify) the increasingly chauvinistic mindset of the current generation of young, urban Pakistanis. The situation is equally distressing in the West.
A recent book on Farhat Hashmi’s organisation, Al-Huda, (written by a Pakistani woman), accuses her of spreading hatred against Christians, Hindus and Jews among Pakistani women living in Canada. Recently, in the wake of the Faisal Shahzad episode in New York, the Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC), a group of liberal Muslims living in Canada, accused American Islamic organisations of refusing to distance themselves from the doctrine of armed jihad, as did the Deobandi ulema’s conference back home only recently.
The MCC goes on to state that many young Pakistanis living in the United States and Canada regard Pakistan as a safe haven for their preparation and training for waging wars against the West. Organisations like the MCC have also come down hard on outfits such as Al-Huda, ridiculing their claim that they are on a mission to convert westerners to Islam.
A few weeks ago I got an email from a reader about a Pakistani living in the United States who (on Facebook) accused me of being a ‘Zionist-backed agent of secularism’. When someone asked the gentleman that, if he hated the US so much why was he living there, he conveniently (and without any hint of irony) claimed that his mission was to convert as many Christians and Jews in the US as possible. Imagine what might have happened to a European or an American Christian in Pakistan if his/her ‘mission’ was to convert Muslims to Christianity.
The best was when a friend of mine told me about another such agitated Pakistani’s Facebook page. According to my friend, the following were the Facebook groups the restless young man was a member of: “Proud to be Muslim”; “I Hate Zardari;” “Free Dr Afia”; “Zaid Hamid”; and, hold your breath, “Big Boobs!”
Saying that such young people are wilfully delusional and dangerously hypocritical would be an understatement.
The best was when a friend of mine told me about another such agitated Pakistani’s Facebook page. According to my friend, the following were the Facebook groups the restless young man was a member of: “Proud to be Muslim”; “I Hate Zardari;” “Free Dr Afia”; “Zaid Hamid”; and, hold your breath, “Big Boobs!”
The most convenient understanding of the phenomenon of Pakistani extremists that one hears being echoed from TV studios suggests that young Pakistanis turning into religious fanatics has something to do with illiteracy and unemployment. Though not entirely incorrect, this notion however is a complacent explanation.
It fails to explain the emergence of young religious extremists such as Omar Shaikh (involved in the murder of American journalist, Daniel Pearl); Shahzad Tanveer and Hasib Hussain (7/7 UK bombers); and recently, Faisal Shahzad (the failed Times Square bomber). Each one of these young men came from educated middle-class families.
Saying they were products of the western societies that they were raised in or thrown into is a weak retort. This attitude simply refuses to seriously address the issue of educated young Pakistanis falling for an extremely myopic and nihilistic brand of the faith — something that was once explained as a vocation only of the illiterate and the financially desperate. There has been an alarming rise in the number of young, educated middle-class Pakistanis (here and abroad), embracing the most reactionary and anarchic strains of the faith, believing it to be a justified and logical portrayal of ‘true’ Islam.
The state and the government of Pakistan will have to thoroughly investigate and rectify this alarming trend. While actors like the 7/7 bombers and Faisal Shahzad are an obvious embarrassment to Pakistan and to the Pakistani communities in the West, so are the growing number of rabid, tech-savvy young people floating around various interactive websites to mouth the most obnoxious ideas about Islam and politics. There are websites out there glorifying utter mad men and the most twisted conspiracy theories, and many of these are owned, run and frequented by Pakistanis who work and are comfortably settled in western countries.
For example, last year columnist Fasi Zaka was being pestered by a young man (through email) who accused him of being an American agent. When Zaka discovered that this person (a Pakistani) lived in the United States, he wrote back, sarcastically offering him help by reporting his dislike of American policies to the notorious US Homeland Security agency. As expected, the emails came to a dead stop. The cyber jihadi had chickened out.
Then there is a gentleman who runs a pro-Zaid Hamid website. He lives and works in the US, but has the audacity to call a number of journalists (including me), ‘Zionist/CIA agents.’ He also frequently litters his site with ridiculous conspiracy theories involving the US. He has a fetish for fast cars as well.
Just as the sudden rise of certain crackpots (via TV) in Pakistan was keenly followed and supported by a chunk of young, urban Pakistanis, various cranks are happily catering to the already confused religious and ideological bearings of Muslim Pakistanis living abroad. Much has been written about people like Zaid Hamid, Aamir Liaquat and Zakir Naik — men who cleverly represent (and glorify) the increasingly chauvinistic mindset of the current generation of young, urban Pakistanis. The situation is equally distressing in the West.
A recent book on Farhat Hashmi’s organisation, Al-Huda, (written by a Pakistani woman), accuses her of spreading hatred against Christians, Hindus and Jews among Pakistani women living in Canada. Recently, in the wake of the Faisal Shahzad episode in New York, the Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC), a group of liberal Muslims living in Canada, accused American Islamic organisations of refusing to distance themselves from the doctrine of armed jihad, as did the Deobandi ulema’s conference back home only recently.
The MCC goes on to state that many young Pakistanis living in the United States and Canada regard Pakistan as a safe haven for their preparation and training for waging wars against the West. Organisations like the MCC have also come down hard on outfits such as Al-Huda, ridiculing their claim that they are on a mission to convert westerners to Islam.
A few weeks ago I got an email from a reader about a Pakistani living in the United States who (on Facebook) accused me of being a ‘Zionist-backed agent of secularism’. When someone asked the gentleman that, if he hated the US so much why was he living there, he conveniently (and without any hint of irony) claimed that his mission was to convert as many Christians and Jews in the US as possible. Imagine what might have happened to a European or an American Christian in Pakistan if his/her ‘mission’ was to convert Muslims to Christianity.
The best was when a friend of mine told me about another such agitated Pakistani’s Facebook page. According to my friend, the following were the Facebook groups the restless young man was a member of: “Proud to be Muslim”; “I Hate Zardari;” “Free Dr Afia”; “Zaid Hamid”; and, hold your breath, “Big Boobs!”
Saying that such young people are wilfully delusional and dangerously hypocritical would be an understatement.
Coke Studio: spinning a new tune
Coke Studio’s third season looks set to be full of interesting contrasts. Arif Lohar, Punjab’s beloved folk singer whose chimtas (tongs) – as a friend of mine once put it, “seem to be an extension of his body” performing with the edgy Overload singer, Meesha Shafi.
The extraordinary Tina Sani singing with Arieb Azhar of “Husn-e-Haqiqi” fame, and pop singer Amanat Ali performing an Urdu version of the hit Cheb Khaled hit, “Aicha”. With a line-up that is every Pakistani music fan’s wildest dream come true, this year’s Coke Studio promises to provide a deeper insight into the very basic concept of fusion music when it goes on air on June 6.
At a press launch on Thursday night, the artists performing, the crew behind the show and representatives from Coke came together to introduce the third season.
Coke Studio’s third season looks set to be full of interesting contrasts. Arif Lohar, Punjab’s beloved folk singer whose chimtas (tongs) – as a friend of mine once put it, “seem to be an extension of his body” performing with the edgy Overload singer, Meesha Shafi.
The extraordinary Tina Sani singing with Arieb Azhar of “Husn-e-Haqiqi” fame, and pop singer Amanat Ali performing an Urdu version of the hit Cheb Khaled hit, “Aicha”. With a line-up that is every Pakistani music fan’s wildest dream come true, this year’s Coke Studio promises to provide a deeper insight into the very basic concept of fusion music when it goes on air on June 6.
At a press launch on Thursday night, the artists performing, the crew behind the show and representatives from Coke came together to introduce the third season.
BEYOND THE BOUNDARY: A clinical performance
But at the same time one must not forget that Pakistan, known to cave in easily, fought well till the end and against the expectations of their countrymen. There is no shame in this kind of a defeat
In a nerve-wracking semi-final against Pakistan in the ICC World Twenty20 at Gros Islet on Friday, Australia, with their clinical performance, showed why they are the most professional and top team in the world. In the nail-biting and thrilling contest, Australia, as well as Pakistan, played some marvellous and dazzling cricket. The excitement stretched till the final overs. Australia owed their victory to Michael Hussey who played a memorable innings to steer his team to the final for the very first time in this shortest version of the game. Hussey’s striking in the final 12 balls was a master class in limited-overs batting. The target began as 34 from 12 and Hussey collected all 16 that came from the 19th over with deft placement and brilliant running. It was one of the finest chases, and beyond one’s comprehension, ever seen in modern cricket. Had Pakistan been chasing that kind of a target, the result would have been obvious for the unpredictable bunch.
What must go through the mind of a cricketer when he produces a sublime innings, only to see the fruits of his labour turn to dust? The match was a tale of two precocious talents producing moments of brilliance, brothers Kamran Akmal and Umar Akmal struck half-centuries as Pakistan piled up an imposing total of 191 for 6, only to end up on the losing side. Kamran (50 with 6 boundaries and 2 sixes) and Salman Butt (32 with 4 boundaries) gave Pakistan an electrifying start. The duo’s partnership was a master class of technique and timing. Umar (56 with 2 fours and 4 sixes) gave glimpses of his vintage form as he produced a barrage of exquisite strokes on both sides of the wicket. Captain Michael Clarke’s decision to bowl after winning the toss looked to be a costly call.
Chasing 192 to win, the Australians rarely seemed in the hunt and were down in the dumps at 105 for five in 12.3 overs with David Warner (0), Shane Watson (16), Brad Haddin (25), Clarke (17) and David Hussey (13) back into the hut. But the man of the moment Hussey hammered a 24-ball 60 to script a dramatic run-chase as Australia snatched a three-wicket victory over Shahid Afridi and his charges to set up a summit clash with England.
Coming at number seven, very thoughtful Hussey added 53 runs off just 16 balls with Mitchell Johnson (5) and blasted 3 sixes and a four off spinner Saeed Ajmal in the last over as Australia romped home with one ball to spare. A lot of credit should also be given to Cameron White because the sixes (in all 5) that he hit, probably Australia would have had no chance of getting there in the end.
Defending champions Pakistan never deserved to be in the semi-finals. It was the lady luck that smiled and they qualified for the last-four stage on a better run-rate. Throughout the tournament, their fielding was pathetic and captaincy even worse. Their below par performance, except against South Africa, was unforgivable. Pakistan were always well behind other teams when it came to fielding and running between wickets. Afridi failed to lead from the front and let Pakistan down. His decision of bringing in Ajmal in the last over of the semi-final and not any pacer was a criminal act. Had shrewd Shoaib Malik been the captain, the result would have been quite different.
But the curse being faced by Pakistan cricket, since Ijaz Butt’s arrival at the PCB, has started showing its affects even on outcome of the matches. Pakistan were unable defend the formidable total as a wag by the Australian tail ensured to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat with an exhilarating finish. Australia, who whitewashed Pakistan in all formats of the game earlier this year in Australia, not only gave a good cricketing lesson to Afridi and his men but also put a deep scar on their minds. But at the same time one must not forget that Pakistan, known to cave in easily, fought well till the end and against the expectations of their countrymen. There is no shame in this kind of a defeat.
But at the same time one must not forget that Pakistan, known to cave in easily, fought well till the end and against the expectations of their countrymen. There is no shame in this kind of a defeat
In a nerve-wracking semi-final against Pakistan in the ICC World Twenty20 at Gros Islet on Friday, Australia, with their clinical performance, showed why they are the most professional and top team in the world. In the nail-biting and thrilling contest, Australia, as well as Pakistan, played some marvellous and dazzling cricket. The excitement stretched till the final overs. Australia owed their victory to Michael Hussey who played a memorable innings to steer his team to the final for the very first time in this shortest version of the game. Hussey’s striking in the final 12 balls was a master class in limited-overs batting. The target began as 34 from 12 and Hussey collected all 16 that came from the 19th over with deft placement and brilliant running. It was one of the finest chases, and beyond one’s comprehension, ever seen in modern cricket. Had Pakistan been chasing that kind of a target, the result would have been obvious for the unpredictable bunch.
What must go through the mind of a cricketer when he produces a sublime innings, only to see the fruits of his labour turn to dust? The match was a tale of two precocious talents producing moments of brilliance, brothers Kamran Akmal and Umar Akmal struck half-centuries as Pakistan piled up an imposing total of 191 for 6, only to end up on the losing side. Kamran (50 with 6 boundaries and 2 sixes) and Salman Butt (32 with 4 boundaries) gave Pakistan an electrifying start. The duo’s partnership was a master class of technique and timing. Umar (56 with 2 fours and 4 sixes) gave glimpses of his vintage form as he produced a barrage of exquisite strokes on both sides of the wicket. Captain Michael Clarke’s decision to bowl after winning the toss looked to be a costly call.
Chasing 192 to win, the Australians rarely seemed in the hunt and were down in the dumps at 105 for five in 12.3 overs with David Warner (0), Shane Watson (16), Brad Haddin (25), Clarke (17) and David Hussey (13) back into the hut. But the man of the moment Hussey hammered a 24-ball 60 to script a dramatic run-chase as Australia snatched a three-wicket victory over Shahid Afridi and his charges to set up a summit clash with England.
Coming at number seven, very thoughtful Hussey added 53 runs off just 16 balls with Mitchell Johnson (5) and blasted 3 sixes and a four off spinner Saeed Ajmal in the last over as Australia romped home with one ball to spare. A lot of credit should also be given to Cameron White because the sixes (in all 5) that he hit, probably Australia would have had no chance of getting there in the end.
Defending champions Pakistan never deserved to be in the semi-finals. It was the lady luck that smiled and they qualified for the last-four stage on a better run-rate. Throughout the tournament, their fielding was pathetic and captaincy even worse. Their below par performance, except against South Africa, was unforgivable. Pakistan were always well behind other teams when it came to fielding and running between wickets. Afridi failed to lead from the front and let Pakistan down. His decision of bringing in Ajmal in the last over of the semi-final and not any pacer was a criminal act. Had shrewd Shoaib Malik been the captain, the result would have been quite different.
But the curse being faced by Pakistan cricket, since Ijaz Butt’s arrival at the PCB, has started showing its affects even on outcome of the matches. Pakistan were unable defend the formidable total as a wag by the Australian tail ensured to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat with an exhilarating finish. Australia, who whitewashed Pakistan in all formats of the game earlier this year in Australia, not only gave a good cricketing lesson to Afridi and his men but also put a deep scar on their minds. But at the same time one must not forget that Pakistan, known to cave in easily, fought well till the end and against the expectations of their countrymen. There is no shame in this kind of a defeat.
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