Mediawatch Desi Apr 10: Karachi Violence: Who Is In-charge? Hamid Mir, Rauf Klasra, Sherry Rahman, Samia Altaf, Daily Times, Mahmud Sipra

Today the god of democracy shed a tear again, the third time in the past three days. How can the inhuman perpetrators who recite la ilaha illallah, lock their victims, who also recite la ilaha illallah inside a building and then set it on fire?

There are reports that the incoming Administration of Premier Shah was not in place. If true, this was grossly negligent. They had enough time since the election to put a working group at least in place. And in this Asif Zardari has to share some of the blame directly too.

In the links below please read the Urdu columns by Hamid Mir and Rauf Klasra and judge who is spinning and who isn't. Dawn, Large-scale transfers in Karachi police, Daily Times, Naik, Nation, The News, Hamid Mir's Spin(Urdu) , Rauf Klasra (Urdu)


So much for all the talk about disbanding PEMRA. A regulatory body that will NOT regulate! In reply to a question about the Pemra Ordinance, the minister said that Pemra was a regulatory body which would no more take actions like blocking television channels, stopping live telecast of events or forcing cable operators to take such actions or confiscating their equipment. Sherry Rahman

I DON’T really care if the cabinet eventually includes all 342 members of the National Assembly. As an analyst, I am interested in understanding what the size and distribution reveal about the nature of politics in Pakistan. I want to explore why an opposition, vociferous in its condemnation of the previous government’s excessively large cabinet, feels so compelled to go one better when it inherits power. On Politics of Appeasement - Samia Altaf

Therefore the events of this week in Karachi and Lahore have awakened the media to something that has been happening quietly in the background as they lionised the lawyers and gave good sound bites to their leaders. The depiction of violence that grew out of the confrontation between the lawyers and the government has inclined the lawyers to what they think is “reactive” aggression. But the lawyers are not a political party and are not disciplined. A large section are also a part of the problems hounding the judiciary. They are led by Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, but those of them allied to the confrontationist-boycotters Jama’at-e Islami and the Tehreek-e Insaf may not agree with his worldview, and he does not have the charter to compel them to follow his thinking. (Hence the supplication or hath jorna.) On the other hand, unfortunately, his “countdown” and veiled threats of agitation have further moved the already unruly ones towards misbehaviour. Daily Times on Media and Lawyers

PESHAWAR, Apr 10 (IPS) - In May 2007, officials sealed a multi-storey shopping plaza belonging to three brothers from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) because their tribesmen were reported to have abducted two former employees of the Pakistan Tobacco Company. The Gul Haji Plaza on University Road in Peshawar, capital of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), was closed under the archaic Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) introduced by colonial British rulers in 1901 in frontier regions jointly administered by FATA and NWFP. The set of laws, which contravene international conventions, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, empowers political agents in the tribal areas -- under direct rule of Islamabad -- to take punitive action against a tribe if even one member acts in a "hostile or unfriendly manner" towards the government or persons residing in the country. Harsh Colonial Law Set To Change - By Ashfaq Yusufzai

I grew up in the shadow of Kim’s Gun in Lahore, where my indulgent parents had to live with my lamentable academic track record, a record that I challenge anyone to improve upon.
The first time I played truant from school was for a very good reason. I hold a man called George Cukor, one of Hollywood’s great directors, entirely responsible. Had he not come into town, accompanied by Stewart Granger and Ava Gardner to shoot a film based on John Master’s Bhowani Junction, it would never have happened. In the shadow of Kim’s Gun — Mahmud Sipra