By Nadeem F. Paracha

It was horrifying: the beating to death and then the upside down hanging of the two young brothers in Sialkot. Accused of theft, the teenagers were brutally beaten with sticks and kicks by at least four men — an event that was watched in silence by a couple of cops and dozens of onlookers.

Good to see that some of those involved are under arrest, but what about all those people who just stood there and watched as the self-righteous barbarians beat the two young men to death? Let’s not navel-gaze about how insensitive and brutal a society we have become. We all know that.

Yet, like all those cowards who just stood there as mere spectators watching one of the most terrifying cases of public bloodletting unfold in front of their eyes, we too have become victims of a strange sort of apathy when it comes to confronting acts of violence undertaken on the pretext of dispensing justice and upholding morals. Continue Reading »

By Irfan Husain

The ongoing furore over the so-called Ground Zero Mosque shows no sign of abating after weeks of noisy controversy. In a sense, it has become a litmus test of America’s cherished freedom of worship, as well as its tolerance of other people and other faiths.

But to put things in perspective, I would like to invite readers to imagine that a group of Christians asked for approval to build a church close to the site of an iconic building in Pakistan some of their fellow-believers had destroyed, killing thousands. How would we have responded?

Actually, this scenario is so implausible as to be practically meaningless. The sad reality is that non-Muslims in Pakistan live on sufferance, and it would be unthinkable for them to even dream of expanding their places of worship, let alone constructing new ones. A few years ago, I recall writing about the trials and tribulations of Christians trying to build a church in Islamabad despite having received official permission. They were bullied by a local mullah, and found no support from the city administration. Since then, things have got worse for the minorities. Continue Reading »

A heartfelt thanks to the young American servicemen and women who are helping our people caught in the devastating floods. They are operating in a country that is considered hostile to America by pollsters. May the Almighty keep them in His care and return them to their loved ones safely.

By Kamran Shafi

There is so much to write about this week, but first to my friend Mr Mukhtar Butt, earlier of Karachi Cantonment, now just of Karachi, as quoted in ‘Letters to the Editor’ of Aug 20.

He says, “We always target the army that ruled for almost 31 years but we tend to ignore the rule by civilians that also runs over 32 years and not 17 years as quoted by the writer.”

I had merely taken the years the Pakistan Army ruled Pakistan directly under various types of martial law and attempted to show the periods that dictators remained in power as against elected civilians.

But I do not have a problem to illustrate the periods of rule of civilians before Ayub Khan: Liaquat Ali Khan: four years and two months; Khawaja Nazimuddin: one year and six months; Mohammad Ali Bogra: two years and six months; Chaudhry Mohammad Ali (bureaucrat, nominated): one year; H.S. Suhrawardy: one year; I.I. Chundrigar: two months; Feroz Khan Noon: 10 months; Nurul Amin: 13 days. (I have not included the caretaker prime ministers in the list). Continue Reading »

By Bill Noxid

It’s Time for Americans to stop making false proclamations about this Country that only demonstrate their ignorance and unwillingness to face what happened yesterday, much less the historical truth of the United States.  Since the brief shift of direction toward exposing truth during the end of the Bush era and 2008 Presidential campaign, this country has wildly – even spastically – swung back in the direction of madness and deception, and it is certainly no mystery why.

In the last ten years this country (or the corporate slavers) has committed more crimes against Man, God, and Planet than is still possible to conceive, yet what ‘seems’ to be most Americans are content to pretend none of it happened.  Granted, a good portion of that ‘appearance’ is due to corporate control of media and mis-education from diversionary propaganda, but there is no shortage of examples of good old fashioned ignorance and denial. Continue Reading »

Read this New York Times report.

Then this Truth Spring story.

Then compare the truth with the fiction. Continue Reading »

by Anwaar Hussain

Every year for the past about nine years, the following article is run by the TS with only a date change. Alas, nothing else has changed for Pakistan. It is the same old story of the same old wine in the same old bottle except with a poisonous dash of religious bigotry now added to the brew. Here it is yet again.

This 14^th of August 2010 will mark the 6^3rd year of our existence. For most nation states, the age of innocence would have long passed by now. Having shed their baby fats by the time they reach this age, nations are supposed to have developed strong limbs, a healthy body and a powerful brain to command the body and limbs into efficient and productive actions. Also around this age, most nation states would have firmly established where they stand and where they are going.

What happened to us along the way? Where are we headed? Why do we frequently find ourselves between a rock and a hard place? If a civilian rule is the norm for most other nations, why does the Khaki intervene so regularly in Pakistani governance? If the Khaki does intervene, why doesn’t it continue for good making it the rule rather than the exception? Why is it that people are, in the end, as fed up with the military rule as its civilian predecessor? If democracy is that universal cure-all medicine for all other contemporary nations, why doesn’t it work in Pakistan?

What exactly is the problem?

Pakistan’s problem, exactly, is: “The military intervenes regularly and interrupts the civilian governance with a disturbing frequency.”

Why does the Pakistan Army intervene in civilian governance? The simplest answer to this question is because it can. Continue Reading »

By S Ifitkhar Murshed

“Bad laws are the worst form of tyranny,” declared Edmund Burke, the brilliant 18th-century Irish statesman who served for many years in the British House of Commons as a member of the Whig Party. The purpose of all laws is to protect, and not persecute, citizens. Any deviation from this norm unleashes tyranny, as has been the experience of Pakistan after the enactment of the blasphemy laws of Gen Ziaul Haq.

This was vividly demonstrated yet again when two Christian brothers, Pastor Rashid Emmanuel and Sajjad Emmanuel, were gunned down by unidentified assailants outside a court of law in Faisalabad on July 19. They had been arrested earlier in the month for allegedly distributing blasphemous pamphlets on which, one is expected to believe, they had inscribed their names and contact particulars.

Under the blasphemy laws introduced by Ziaul Haq, Section 295-B was added to the Penal Code in 1982. This prescribed life imprisonment for “defiling the Holy Quran.” In 1986 Section 295-C was incorporated, mandating the death penalty for the “use of derogatory language in respect of the Holy Prophet.” Continue Reading »