The production of illegally detained,suspected terrorists in the Supreme Court should have been met with asense of triumph. Instead, the last month has seen families ofmissing persons, who have joined the Amna Janjua led missingpersonscampas sympathisers with terrorists and militants.Those who have hailed the Supreme Courts actions have been accused ofneglecting the memory of the [...]

Served By A Liberal Facist Beghairat Mind

Perhaps some of you had a chance to watch Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson on the Daily Show a couple of days ago. The reason I am posting the video below is to share his enthusiasm and his, what I feel are completely valid arguments regarding the era of space exploration in the 1960s where the US was [...]

Served By A Liberal Facist Beghairat Mind

So the PTI announced its “Energy Policy Vision” and I for one was keenly looking forward to it. It was perhaps the first opportunity to see some policy rather than just slogans from PTI, something more meaty…constructive if you will. The language used is highly emotive, which suggests that the document presented isn’t a bland policy paper, and is [...]

Served By A Liberal Facist Beghairat Mind

Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, released in 1940 satirizes the rise of Hitler and Nazism. Given that Charlie Chaplin was famous for his silent films, this was perhaps his first speaking role on the big screen. One of the most powerful parts of the film is the following speech. Some 70 years later it remains relevant and sadly [...]

Served By A Liberal Facist Beghairat Mind

Polarized at our own peril As if Pakistan was not polarized enough, the last few months have seen Balochistan and the problems that the people there face, finally receive some much deserved attention. Then again, they are many who argue that yet not enough attention is being given, with reporting selective. As an example, this polarization was evident [...]

Served By A Liberal Facist Beghairat Mind

Another day, and it seems history repeats itself. When we are not discussing some vague educational policy buzzword, namely “uniform education”, newspaper articles announce the appointment of new Vice Chancellors or Rectors to various universities across the country. Apparently, in Pakistan there is a mass shortage of people to run universities. And if your university happens to [...]

Served By A Liberal Facist Beghairat Mind

Malik Hassan Ahmed, posted an interesting question to me on Twitter, I never went to an academy, my parents never did, do we really need them? Where were they 15-20 years ago? Commercial purposes only? So I thought that it would probably be best to bring this discussion to the blog so that we can [...]

Served By A Liberal Facist Beghairat Mind

Today a news article in Dawn revealed the shocking case of female students and staff members forced to offer sexual favours in return for grades and demands of their immediate superiors. I do not believe that this news is “shocking” because such cases are a rarity. In fact I believe that such cases probably proliferate throughout educational [...]

Served By A Liberal Facist Beghairat Mind

The last few weeks has seen the Karachi Stock Exchange nudge upwards. That has predictably led to cautious excitement. Could it be that we are returning to the glorious days of the Musharaf regime, when Pakistanis proudly pointed to KSE as one of the best performing stock markets in the world? Well, our Finance Minister threw [...]

Served By A Liberal Facist Beghairat Mind

The price of oil has gone up again.Predictably comments of how this is “democracies revenge” on the hapless people of Pakistan, and how Zardari’s corruption means we pay more at the pump.What is frustrating is the expectation that, “if there is a shortage of gas, alteast it should be cheaper”. Every few days, some article [...]

Served By A Liberal Facist Beghairat Mind

First off, thanks to @AliZeeshanIjazfor sharing the following picture with me. Now I am not sure what to make of this.We are all well aware of the Pakistan Armed Forces and its commercialinterests. I guess, getting into the business of knock off tablets,netbooks and ebook readers is just part of the evolutionary process. However, there [...]

Served By A Liberal Facist Beghairat Mind

This piece is more an effort to lower myblood pressure than anything else. (Apologies for typos) The Maya Khan brigade appears to havegone on a rampage in, wait for it….a park! Telling your parents that you are goingto the “park” is never going to be the same ever again. If you still haven’t seen the [...]

Served By A Liberal Facist Beghairat Mind

Damn! We were so close! The coup was just around the corner. The mathai shops had stocked up, this wretched, corrupt government was going to be booted out and Zardari would wipe that cheshire cat smile of his face. Ex-military, ex-civil service pundits were on the ready. TV hosts had their hair gelled. Qadam barhao [...]

Served By A Liberal Facist Beghairat Mind

Overseas Pakistanis have been comingunder some stick recently. The Election Commissions recent decisionthat dual nationals will not be allowed to contest the upcomingelections has been challenged in the Supreme Court. The current PPP government firstsuggested allowing overseas Pakistanis to caste votes a couple ofyears ago and a consultation process was initiated. Recently, the PTImoved a [...]

Served By A Liberal Facist Beghairat Mind