By Anwaar Hussain

Condolences, Norway. Our hearts ache for you in this time of incredible sadness and shock. As more than 90 of your families bury their dead, we stand with you in solemn sorrow.

And welcome to the world of right wing zombies.

These are words written by the citizen of a country that continues to reel from the onslaught of these androids. We understand your grief and your disbelief. But please understand that these human low-lifes go by many different names i.e. fundamentalists, jihadists, radicals, extremists etc.–yet they all claim to get their instructions straight from their god. Afterward, they go out to slaughter some children in the name of that god. We are sorry that you had to taste firsthand what we’ve been living through for the past twenty years. We were taken there, we have seen it all, we are still there.

From the Oslo carnage, three facts emerge as usual. Continue Reading »

By Anwaar Hussain

I begin this piece with a solemn pledge that the scribe has not been bought by Zionists, Indians, Americans, or any combination thereof, for writing this piece, or ever for that matter. It is solely for the love of the fatherland that the following has been written. My intentions are sincere. If the insinuations in this article are proven unfounded, I would gladly retrieve the piece, after due apologies of course. The conspiracy theorists, therefore, can hold their horses.

On May 22 this year, PNS Mehran the headquarter of the Pakistan Navy’s Naval Air Arm and the most crowded Pakistani military installation, located near the PAF’s Faisal Air Force Base of Karachi, was struck by a handful of terrorists. The militants first attacked the aircraft parked on the tarmac and the equipment in nearby hangars. They used rocket-propelled grenades to damage and destroy several warplanes and premiere anti-submarine and marine surveillance aircraft – the US-made P-3C Orion. Several multi-million dollar aircraft were set ablaze. Up to18 military personnel too lost their lives, with another 16 wounded. So inept was the navy’s response to this incursion that not only the attackers were able to inflict heavy loss of lives and assets, a few of them managed to escape too. Continue Reading »

By Anwaar Hussain

This one will be as painful to read as it was to write.

There is this old method of hunting practiced in some parts of the world. It is called a fire-hunt. Two people are required. One goes ahead carrying a blazing torch (or a high powered flash light these days), while the other follows behind with his rifle. The two hunters thus move through the forest in tandem. When an animal is startled, he will stand gazing at the light, mesmerized and disoriented, with his eyes shining like bright diamonds in the darkness. This is called “shining the eyes.” The hunter with the rifle, thus seeing him, while the other shines him, levels his gun with steady aim, and takes a shot trying to put the bullet between the eyes.

With the Bin Laden killing, a fire-hunt has begun on the bewildered Pakistani leadership. Caught like deer in the headlights, the incident has had the effect of shining their dopey eyes. Presently, they are in an extremely high state of arousal caused by a weird mix of anxiety, fear, panic, surprise and confusion. Their eyes are now wide open and aglow, with their motor reactions dulled down. The kill shots, unfortunately, are not only being taken by the Americans, but by the Taliban too. Witness the endless concessions to the Americans by our so called leaders, while blabbering sweet nothings, and the revenge killings for Bin Laden by the Taliban, not to mention their recent attack on one of Pakistan’s major Naval bases. Continue Reading »

Your assistance in helping Rowan raise funds for a transplant are greatly needed and appreciated.

To make a tax deductible monetary, contribution please go to  Rowan’s page at NTAF.

THANK YOU!!

By Anwaar Hussain

A blizzard of lies indeed flies every which way in the aftermath of Abbottabad strike. Lies have surely been told before, during and after the operation. The fact, however, stays that Bin Laden is dead. In a singularly unmatched stunt, in one clean, surgical and slashing strike, Bin Laden is taken out and announced dead to the world, finally, officially and conclusively.  After years of fumbling and shuffling, the giant has at last delivered a masterstroke that leaves many gasping for their breaths.

The scribe thought long and hard about covering the many inconsistencies in the American reporting of the Abbottabad strike and carrying out its technical post-mortem but then thought it to be a useless exercise. At this juncture it seems pointless to raise doubts about the many variations in the Americans’ public narration of the event or whether the strike got airborne from Jalalabad or from inside Pakistan. Whether he was killed for the first time or the umpteenth time is meaningless too. At this time, the whole wide world, including the over patriotic Pakistani media, agrees that Bin Laden is dead. What matters is that now in the end, the snake’s head lies deep in its watery grave separated from its writhing body on land. Good riddance are the words that come instantly to mind. Other than that, here is what the scribe thinks of the occurrence. Continue Reading »

By Anwaar Hussain

Meerwala is a small, dusty village in the mostly rural Muzaffargarh District in the south of Punjab province of Pakistan. This small, nondescript village has produced a personality whose name has been reverberating across the globe for some years now.

The name of this person is Mukhtaran Bibi (also known as Mukhtar Mai).

In 2005, Glamour Magazine named her “Glamour Woman of the Year”. According to the New York Times, “Her autobiography is the No. 3 best seller in France … movies are being made about her, and she has been praised by dignitaries like Laura Bush and the French foreign minister”. She also won the North-South Prize in April 2007. The prize is awarded annually by the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe to two public figures who are recognized for their deep commitment, outstanding achievements and hope they have generated mainly in the field of protection of human rights. Mukhtaran spoke at the United Nations headquarters in New York where she was earlier welcomed by UN Under-Secretary General Shashi Tharoor. In October 2010, Laurentian University of Canada decided to award an honorary doctorate degree to Mukhtaran Bibi. So fearful of her work and publicity was the then President of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf that, by his own admission, he placed restrictions on her movement to prevent her from ‘hurting the international image of Pakistan’. Despite intense opposition, she started the Mukhtar Mai Women’s Welfare Organization to help support and educate Pakistani women and girls. She continues to be an outspoken advocate for women’s rights. Continue Reading »

By Anwaar Hussain

Everybody loves Raymond, the double slayer.

The Pakistani Government ‘loves’ him to the extent that they are willing to bend the rules to grant him diplomatic immunity from prosecution for the twin killings that he committed in Lahore. They ‘love’ him for the large one-time dose of Manna, over and above the routine dosage, that is likely to fly into their coffers from the Grand Masters for the deal.

The US of A ‘loves’ him to the extent that no less than the President of United States wants him released, and pronto too. The lesser minions of America, of course, blow hot and cold threatening to cut off all aid and bring to an abrupt halt the so called ‘strategic alliance’ that the two countries have. They ‘love’ him so much in fact that all drone attacks in FATA have been ceased lest a single hair on Raymond’s well-fed body is harmed in retaliation.

The Punjab Government, in whose domain the crimes took place and who now hold Raymond, ‘loves’ him because he gives them a handle with which to embarrass deeply, and irreparably if it so chooses, the central government –their political opponent. They want the country’s ‘law’ to take its course and the criminal duly prosecuted. Continue Reading »