Ali Malik's blog

During 90's the emotional, cynical columnists and so-called opinion-makers (mostly mouth-organs of our establishment) would keep raising one issue. The parties have ignored the workers who sacrificed while awarding ministries and important public offices. So this time around, I thought that with people, like Yousaf Raza Gillani, Ahmad Mukhtar, Ahsan Iqbal, Sherry Rehman, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Khawaja Asif, Rehman Malik, Hussain Haqqani and Siraj Shams-ud-din, given important ministries and public posts, those emotion-building cynics will appreciate the appointments. Alas, not to be. For the cynic remains a cynic. May be a lafafa remains a lafafa. Leading the pack this time around is Rauf Klasra. I think he is a nice chap just a bit emotionally imbalanced. However, on a broader scale, knowing the consistent pattern of maligning campaign against political governments and forces by Pakistani establihsment, it is a no brainer from where this criticism is stemming from. First, fr...

We the elected leaders of Pakistan have deliberated on the political crisis in our beloved homeland, the threats to its survival, the erosion of the federation's unity, the military's subordination of all state institutions, the marginalisation of civil society, the mockery of the Constitution and representative institutions, growing poverty, unemployment and inequality, brutalisation of society, breakdown of rule of law and, the unprecedented hardships facing our people under a military dictatorship, which has pushed our beloved country to the brink of a total disaster; Noting the most devastating and traumatic experiences that our nation experienced under military dictatorships that played havoc with the nation's destiny and created conditions disallowing the progress of our people and the flowering of democracy. Even after removal from office they undermined the people’s mandate and the sovereign will of the people; Drawing history’s lesson that the military dictatorship...

Those who made a comeback to idiot box (and now I know for which idiosyncratic content it is named idiot box) through opening up of media by PPP govt. were chewing their words and cursing PPP govt. for heaven knows what. Pakistan media and in particular electronic media has proven to be a shame thus far. Myopic analysis, picking non-issues, talking about them, and then talking about why non-issues have been given so much hype. It first happened in case of Kashmir Singh and then again in the case of Dr. Niazi and Arbab Ghulam Rahim. First media spent hours and hours on projecting these as big issues and then (when after Dr. Niazi's issue, the buck was passed to their "beloved ones") talking about why on earth is there so much hue and cry about these issues. Irrespective of the talk of heroic rule the media has played in bringing about the "change", my opinion all along has been that Pakistani media is a jack-shit (for lack of any other suitable word). And what ch...