Ali Malik's blog

As a result of cheap executive of Punjab's fascination with the cheap justice, Lahore looks like a city hit by multiple Predator strikes. Almost every road has sites of destruction and damaged buildings. There could have been a saner way to penalize the violation of laws as happens in the civilized world. However, the "speedy justice brigade", obsessed with some middle-aged justice model knows no other way. For the rest, I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

(Image Courtesy: http://www.dawn.com) Taliban have once again struck at Pakistan. The attack this time has been on the Ashura procession and target was Shia community in the sourthern city of Karachi. Whatever my views be on religious zeal and religious rituals, the underlying reality remains that this was an attack on innocent unarmed civilians who gathered to be part of a spiritual gathering. It cannot get any barbaric than this. Karachi has long been associated with Islamic Extremists. The roots of it date back to 1979 and the Jihad Inc. that emerged as a result. Unfortunately, even before that Karachi remained a strong hub of Islamist elements with strong vote bank for JI and JUP. Post 9/11 at one point, around 2004, it was dubbed as the city with most concentrated Al Qaeeda presences. Not only that but most Al Qaeeda activists in Pakistan have been captured from Karachi. In a history of sect related attacks, in 2003, a bus of SUPARCO carrying Shia worshipers was attacked. Appox. ...

We are the agents of good. We identify problems and we devise solutions. If as a result of our solutions, more problems start emerging, among us people appear and fix them. And this goes on, through times. And then come times, when the solutions devised by those among us, become too complicated the problems with time, for the vested interest in the dust of time manipulates them and turns them into sanctums. That's where the agents reemerge and cleanse the thought. Agents come and they preach and they struggle. And they take the brunt of the hostile reality that surrounds. In grief and in death, they pay for the wrongs that the solutions of the agents did - for the mistakes of theirs or for others. For those who were agents were all beloved - and for why they did what they did was with purest of intentions. It is battle for a better world, a battle for evolution of human spirit, a battle for progress and peace, a battle for a grave, and a battle to let humanity achieve what is divi...

Nawaz Sharif Contd.: In a story reported by all major newspapers in Pakistan on Nov. 12, 2009, it has come to public knowledge that one of the cases withdrawn by Pervez Musharraf under "Jeddah Deal" was a money laundering case. Ironically, there exists a confessional statement of Ishaq Dar, a close associate and father-in-law of Nawaz Sharif's daughter, confessed before interrogating agencies that he helped Sharifs do money laundering of around US$ 15 million through Hudabiya Paper Mills accounts. It is also worth-noticing that Sharifs during there second term gave deadline for those owning black money to turn it legal. Ironically, neither the money laundering of Sharifs, for which Ishaq Dar gave a confessional statement, nor the general amnesty given under Sharif's for money launderers has ever been taken up by the "azad adaliya". Neither did "azad adaliya" intervene to ask that under what law the investigation and case of money laundering against...

In the hearing on NRO cases, NAB admitted that it had spent over PKR 2 billion on investigations against Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari. Despite spending this hefty amount, nothing could be proved against the two. In this series, I am trying to highlight the allegations on Right-wing politicians, bureaucrats, army officials and media personnel. For the sake of justice, I want these allegations to be thoroughly investigated with an equivalent inflation adjusted amount spent and brought to logical conclusion. In the spirit of investigation against BB and AZ, I would suggest that the fairness demands that the prosecution team for these allegations be chosen by PPP leadership to have a level playing field. Nawaz Sharif: Here is a list of allegations of corruption against Nawaz Sharif - in a five clip series. Nawaz Sharif had two convictions against him, one is a case of hijacking and treason and the other of corruption in purchase of a helicopter. He had a number of corruption cases ...

Unfortunately the definition of and discourse on militant extremism in Muslim world in general and Pakistan in particular is being defined by the same elements who are this extremism's biggest proponents. With Pakistan and the society facing the existential threat at the hands of militant extremism, understanding the true element of militant extremism is an exercise worthy. The most popular conception is that extremism stems from poverty and injustice. However there has never been given any empirical evidence to prove either. For all the arguments around, the argument of injustice is the most bizarre. Never even once have we been shown that the suicide bomber who detonated himself was actually related to someone directly affected by war. Neither was any of the executioner of 9/11 or any later attack in the West a Palestinian, Afghan or Kashmiri. Saying that injustice causes those affected to seek revenge is biggest divergence for commoners to identify the root cause of extremism...