COMMENT: Pursuit of acceptance —Taha Najeeb Khan Our society essentially functions on this perverse notion that Urdu must be reduced in its application as the language of the illiterate masses, while the role of English is elevated as the language of the privileged elite, an unfortunate hangover from the days of the British Raj Most of us are aware of the Berlin Wall that split Germany. It is said that while the eastern side of the wall was dirty and stained, the western side was clean and polished. This, in some manner, depicted the glaring divide in the German population. … Continue reading Pursuit of acceptance

COMMENT: Letters concerning toleration — II —Ahmad Ali Khalid Quashing God-given liberty (free will), stifling debate and criticism in an attempt to safeguard power under the pretence of religion can happen all too often when we cannot clearly separate religion and the state institutionally Those who arrogate the seat of judgement are most irrational and ungodly. God has made it clear that, “His is the judgement and to Him you shall all be brought back” (28:88). If one continues to argue the case that judgement on a person’s religious convictions and the nature of one’s heart and conscience must be … Continue reading Quashing God-given liberty (free will)?

COMMENT: Our Muslim and cultural identity —Munir Attaullah It is a gross error to think, as some would have us believe, that either our Islamic identity or our Islamic culture are threatened in any way. Instead of being seduced by arguments based on special pleading, let us not wilfully shut our minds to what was always so and always will be: the inevitability of change and evolutionary development Continuing today with the discussion of ‘culture’ I began last week, I remember that all I did then was skate round the subject. And, as my alibi for doing so, I took … Continue reading Muslim and cultural identity

COMMENT: Afghanistan portents —Dr Rashid Ahmad Khan Those who see the NATO forces’ withdrawal as a repeat of the American pullout from Vietnam in 1975 or the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989 are grossly mistaken The year 2010 has witnessed a series of developments in Afghanistan, which, as Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) has said, are going to make it a make or break year for the US-NATO-led war in the country. The war in Afghanistan has become more intense and the NATO casualties have risen. President Hamid Karzai has fixed … Continue reading Afghanistan portents

Unity needed by Faisal Kapadia Pakistan faces a terrible time at the moment with the worst ever floods in its history. Around twenty million people are out there, in the flood-affected regions, most of them without a roof in the pelting monsoon rains which have lashed the country for the last two weeks. The resulting flood has devastated Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, large swathes of land, villages and crops in Punjab and is now presently wreaking havoc in Sindh. As I write this, an image of a woman carrying a four-month old baby I saw on the news today, is burnt in … Continue reading Unity needed for Pakistan

Next time, throw a book by Saima Shakil Hussain Along with a shoe, one wishes someone would throw a book or two at some of our newsmakers. Maybe, just maybe, it would do a world of good to them and to us, the 175 million Pakistani people who are affected daily by their words and (mis)deeds. However, in the case of some newsmakers, it appears that they are already hard at work studying some old classics …. What they are reading President Asif Zardari: The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli Granted, the sixteenth-century treatise on statecraft will read like a virtual … Continue reading Forget shoes – throw books instead

by Sana Saleem “It would have been better if we had died in the floods as our current miserable life is much more painful,” said Ahmed who fled with his family from the town of Shikarpur and spent the night shivering in the rain that has continued to lash the country.” “It looks like the number of people affected in this crisis is higher than the Haiti earthquake, the tsunami or the Pakistan earthquake, and if the toll is as high as the one given by the government, it’s higher than the three of them combined,” Maurizio Giuliano, spokesman for … Continue reading Lend a helping hand

Silence is not an option By Kamran Shafi dawn.com Relatives and policemen carry the flag-draped coffin of Sifwat Ghuyur, a senior police officer, to a burial site during his funeral in Peshawar August 5, 2010. Ghuyur was killed in a suicide attack on his car a day earlier in the city of Peshawar, a police official said. – Reuters Photo Enough is bloody enough! Enough of deafening silence as our people, women, men and children, are mercilessly killed and maimed and widowed and orphaned by cold-blooded murderers and their handlers and motivators. How many more Safwat Ghayyurs and Mushtaq Baigs … Continue reading ISI needs to take on Mullahs