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...

First and foremost, I strongly believe that there should be no regulations on media or for that matter any form of speech or expression. I oppose any government control over the media. However, as any responsible member of a nation or society, we have to be responsible for our actions. So in this post, I am going to raise a few issues where I believe media is hurting Pakistan. First and foremost is the issue of professional dishonesty. Its examples could be limitless. For instance, there is this continuous talk that the current mandate is for restoration of judiciary. In all honesty, except for PML-N, all other parties got their mandate without raising the judiciary issue (and their mandate out-numbers PML-N's mandate). Also, the call of boycott to show solidarity with judiciary failed miserably resulting in one of the largest ever turn-outs. So, you can say that independent judiciary and restoration of judiciary are good things, but sorry the mandate is not for restoration of judi...

Dear Members of Civil Society, Writing this letter to you kind of puts me in a moral dilemma. I, with all honesty and sincerity, think that terms like Civil Society are discriminatory and are a miniature of the concept of Brahmanization in which educated elite classes (Lawyers, Journalists, Students etc) try to set the agenda for the rest of the nation and want the nation to abide by it. It is not the setting of agenda that bothers me. These are the hijacking tendencies of Civil Society that are troubling me. It is this sense of superiority in which one takes the whole moral authority to define what is right or what is wrong for Pakistan is what I have problem with. So just when I am someone who refuses to accept that there is any role of "Civil Society" in any democracy, my dilemma is that gravity of the issues facing us makes me right to you all who bracket yourselves as "Civil Society". Secondly, let me confess that I actually have high regard for quite a few i...

A clarification: Following hypothesis is for establishing a truth and it in no way compares personalities (and I have to give this explanation because 60s style Ikhwan inspired rightists treat any such logical reasoning as blasphmy. Also, comparing personalities is not my purpose here so I am making clarification to avoid digression, otherwise I would not shy away from it.). When I learnt how to interpret poetry, and it was the idealist teenage, I always wondered how Katl-e-Hussain asl main marg-e-yazid hai (Hussain's killing, in reality, is death of Yazid) could be true? I mean ultimately Hussain died and Yazid and his system triumphed at least for his life time. An idealist that I was back then, I grabbed the concept as is and moved on without thinking about it much on the course. Then in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto I found the true meaning of this verse. For in a time when we, the society, start thinking that principles do not matter and there is always room for complace...

This time I am going to raise an alarm. I do not know how it is happening? Or why people are overlooking the obvious? My concerns and more importantly what is at stake are just too much. So I am going to narrate my version of events - not for record but more for retrospection. In short, I am very disturbed at how conveniently establishment and its faces are trying to pass the buck of Benazir Bhutto's assassination to US and I am disturbed at the thought of how changing faces (i.e. departure of Q-League and possibly Musharraf) is going to make us lose sight of the real culprit - Pakistani Establishment. - General Kiyani orders Army to stop meeting politicians … link - Musharraf telling US that they should look for another partner … link - PMLN being offered participation in National Government through various sources … link - Khurshid Qasoori saying that Pakistan can live without US Aid … link - Altaf Hussain calls for MQM ’s urgent meeting in London for future plans … AAJ ...

I am not going to write anything on the loss I felt on Benazir Bhutto's death. I have never hidden the fact that in Pakistan''s political landscape, I had been a sympathizer, supporter and voter of her since 1997, even in times when people predicted her political career is over. I do not feel like publicly expressing my grief on the loss of hope that I had. However, there are a few issues that need deliberation of us the nation. I attended a talk by Mr. Adil Najam in Weston last Sunday. One of the most interesting questions raised there was why are we all so shocked and grief stricken at her death? Many possible explanations of the question could be given and to be honest there are a lot of things that contributed to this magnitude of grief and shock - some more, some less. There, unfortunately, are people (and thank God it is a very small minority in an otherwise very humane society of ours) who hated her to the core and are either indifferent or relieved at her death (And...

I know this one is going to be the most controversial of all my posts. Yet at the same time I deliberated the most while writing this. This post in many ways is crumbling of the myth of my childhood fascination and idol. If there was anything that I followed like mad in my childhood, it was my hero, my idol, the demigod of my childhood – Imran Khan. I would mimic everything that I found him doing. I would bowl for hours in the scotching heat of June and July in street and in the courtyard. I went ecstatic when I found that he too is a Fish-buff like me. His father, Niazi Uncle (someone I have learnt a lot from, and someone who has always been extremely kind to me), is a good friend of my father and a mentor to me. Through this connection I had the privilege of meeting my childhood idol a few times. When he initiated fund raising for cancer hospital, I was selling tickets at fuel stations, road sides, walkways and shops. When he formed Tehrik -e- Insaaf , I was one of its earliest m...

Following are results based on my calculations. Calculations were based on 2002 results where seats with less than 10000 vote margin were considered based on factors like a) MMA split b) Nawaz’s return and its impact in his strongholds c) Winning/No.2 candidate switching party d) Backlash to PPP in urban centers of central and northern Punjab e) Boycott of APDM parties Disclaimers are a) A massive anti MMA wave in Frontier can change the results and might give gains to PPP S, PML N, PPP and ANP. b) Country wide seat adjustments between parties. c) A strong pro-PPP wave in Southern Punjab and Sindh. d) Massive rigging. e) A better PPP showing than expected in North and Central Punjab. Margin of Error is +/-15% Results are: PML - Q (including PML-F, PML-Z and NA): 42-57 PML - N: 42-57 PPP: 89-102 MMA: 19-37 ANP: 0-5 PPP Sherpao: 2-2 MQM: 16-16 Total Seats: 272

In the outrage post emergency, I was confused about whether the opposition should boycott the elections or not? For instance, soon after emergency, when a Lahore based journalist (and one for whom I have high regard for), currently in Karachi , was emotionally advocating oppositions' boycott of the polls, my only response was, I am not sure whether boycott is a good option or not. As the outrage is giving way to rational, I am getting more and more convinced that boycott is not the best option. Before I build my case, let me clarify one thing. Just when I believe that boycott of 1985 elections by MRD was not the right decision; I am not ready to buy the argument that had MRD contested those elections, under Zia and his apparatus, it would have won them. However, what contesting would have done then was, make life a lot more miserable for Zia and let democratic forces have more bargaining power against Zia. And I don't expect miracles happening in 2008 either. Then why am I adv...

I have been known to be a PPP sympathizer and I have never shied away from admitting it. In my case, I never needed to base my support on loyalty, obsession, admiration or emotion. In the political roller-coaster called Pakistan , whatever opinions I had on any major issue, PPP was the one upholding them. For instance, back in our F.C. College days (what notoriety has fell on the name of our alma in last few years), my friends were all for a militant struggle in Kashmir, logistically and physically backed by elements in Pakistan . Those were the days of Crush India . In my naïve opinion, it was a disaster for Pakistan , Kashmiris and the moral high ground they had in the world on the issue, apart from potential backlash of these militants outfits on our homeland. My position was a hard sell back then in the educated upper and middle classes of Pakistan , and yet PPP had the courage to take this position. For some very odd reason, despite all my naivety, I was of the view that the so...