Ali Malik's blog

The recent crisis in the ruling Muslim League in Pakistani has taken some interesting and funny twists and turns. It started with the meeting of four, then Shujat's televised statement about Jamali, then Jamali's reaction to it, removal of ARYOneWorld from the list of channels of major cable operators (and we call it a country with free media), statements of League leaders (Humayun Akhtar Khan, Leghari, Jamali, Wasti etc.) against Shujat, then Jamali's visit to Shujat's place and subsequent meetings, Shujat's U-turn on what he said about Jamali despite all what the nation saw and heard for themselves on TV, and last but not the least the big Nanny jumping in and calling all the kids and lecturing them to behave properly. And in the end all summed up by Sheikh Rasheed "Everyone has agreed to work at the same pay". But one thing that still remains unanswered is why did it all begin and who wanted it? Some say it is because of the coming local bodies polls an

PPP's strength lies in her worker base. The worker base is committed to the cause of democracy and is anti-establishment in essence. Anyone making an arrangement with Army will be considered a traitor in the ranks of PPP and cannot be accepted. The leadership revolves around Benazir Bhutto and it will be hard for anyone to succeed her. Everyone will agree that a free and fair election, held today, will lead to nothing but PPP in power with quite a sizeable majority along with governments at Punjab and Sindh for sure and NWFP and Balochistan probably. Now if the present regime goes for election now and it sows the seed of doubt that all this is being done as a result of a deal between PPP and establishment, the credibility of that majority would diminish. A little help from some high ranking PPP men (in the form of their statements showing eagerness to have dialogue with the men in Khaki) will strengthen that view even further. If they decide to work with Musharaf in presidency, it

Of American journalism in the first quarter of the last century the incomparable H. L. Mencken had this to say: “Most of the ills that continue to beset American journalism today, in truth, are not due to the rascality of owners nor even to the Kiwanian bombast of business managers, but simply and solely to the stupidity, cowardice and Philistinism of working newspaper men...There are reporters by the thousand who could not pass the entrance examination for Harvard or Tuskegee, or even Yale. It is this vast and militant ignorance, this widespread and fathomless prejudice against intelligence, that makes American journalism so pathetically feeble and vulgar, and so generally disreputable.” With minor amendments this judgment is equally applicable to Pakistani journalism.Ayaz Amir - Daily Dawn