Baithak Desi May 18: 'Vigilante Justice? Zardari IS a murderer,' Saqi Farooqi, Nadeem Paracha, Anjum Niaz, Khaled Ahmed,

Fatima Bhutto, niece of the slain former Pakistani premier Benazir, said in comments published on Sunday she will continue to pursue her aunt's widower Asif Ali Zardari whom she accuses of involvement in her father's death.

Fatima Bhutto's father and Benazir's brother Murtaza was killed in 1996 in an ambush that Fatima blames on both Benazir and Zardari, who is now the head of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party.

"We are currently waiting for Zardari's acquittal judgement. But I am not going to give up this struggle. I am not going to stand down quietly. This is bigger than us - this is about justice. I will continue to do all I can to stand between Asif and a clean record," Fatima Bhutto told the Sunday Times in an interview.

Zardari is set to be acquitted of four murder charges, including the one for Murtaza, and several corruption allegations under the terms of an agreement - the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) - between Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto. Benazir's niece calls Zardari the killer of her father

A hungry, starving public is rapidly getting into a real dirty nasty mood. Its impatience has alarmingly begun boiling over. And a storm is veritably in brewing on the street, which will in all likelihood burst sooner than later to blow over violently if the new leadership doesn’t move in quick to preempt it. This fledgling leadership has just frittered away weeks of its nascent rule on haggling over the turfed-out judges’ reinstatement, a tiff that it should have better handed down to parliament to sort out as indeed will have it to do in any case ultimately, and should have instead set about single-mindedly to tackle the food crisis .... words from FP editorial


Saqi Farooqi has long nurtured the wish to be known as a great sinner. He is a veteran poet with more than five decades of verse writing. During those days many compliments were paid to him on his unusual poetic expressions. But his verses carry in them nothing which would have brought for him the reputation or the ill-repute of being a sinner.

He has now come out with his autobiography published by the Academy Bazyaft of Karachi under the title Aap Biti Paap Biti, which may simply be translated as The Autobiography of a Sinner. It may be seen as the poet’s latest attempt to establish himself as one. In it he has cast aside his poetry, and depended more on his life as he lived it and on what he has been committing in his prose writings in respect of his religious views and his private life. Intizar Hussain


....interestingly, noted former Islamic socialists, especially historian Ervand Abrahmian and activist Bizhan Jizani, claim that much of today’s Islamic radicalism is actually a consequence of Islamic socialism, in spite of the fact that this was never its aim. They say such an outcome was expected the moment progressive Muslim activists started devising the third way by fusing Islam with socialism, because rather than the third way, Islamic socialism became an apologist ideology for secular individuals in conservative Islamic societies. By Nadeem F. Paracha


Benazir Bhutto is badly missed today. Her successor Asif Zardari has flailed her party. He has failed to keep the coalition government intact. This is not something that can be laughed away with a wisecrack as AZ is in the habit of doing when confronted with a serious question from the press. He has become overconfident and talks in the first person when resolving thorny national issues. “I can do this; I can do that…” It’s all about ‘I, me and myself.’
.....
Meanwhile, things at the Zardari camp are heating up. His interior adviser Rahman Malik is upsetting the applecart. First he co-opted the postponement of the by-elections and passed orders to the Election Commission to send out notifications of postponement which the EC dutifully did. Second, he began sending messages to some media people to behave themselves or get “punched.” Those who got the warning broadcast this bit of information on their TV shows making light of the warning. “I am the establishment,” Malik told a famous news anchor. The amused anchor gave a blow by blow account on air of how he and another senior colleague were told to lay off AZ and Malik. The anchor has thrown a challenge to the PPP to prove the anchor wrong. Anjum Niaz

BOOK REVIEW: Mullahs and wars in Tribal Areas by Khaled Ahmed

Frontier of Faith: Islam in the Indo-Afghan Borderland;
By Sana Haroon; Hurst & Company London 2007;
Pp254; Price £25;
Special Price £15.95;
Available at bookstores in Pakistan

Syed Ahmad Shaheed of Rai Bareilly has finally won his battle in 2008, albeit at the cost of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan which embraced the Deobandis in the hope of making itself acceptable but to no avail

Sana Haroon has written an excellent book that will help us understand the killing fields of the Tribal Areas of Pakistan today. This month (April 2008) the local Al Qaeda warlord and alleged killer of Ms Benazir Bhutto, Baitullah Mehsud of Wana, convened a big conference of the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Aurakzai Agency near the tomb of Haji Turangzai to proclaim that his emirate had come to stay. He was himself not there for fear of being killed by an American drone but his deputy representing Bajaur was there as were warriors from all other tribal areas including Malakand in the NWFP.

But if the Pakistan army loses, the next rout will be that of the representatives of the Wali who are in the habit of quickly leaving Swat after indirectly supporting Maulana Fazlullah of TNSM. The legacy of Haji Turangzai is in the ascendant. Syed Ahmad Shaheed of Rai Bareilly has finally won his battle in 2008, albeit at the cost of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan which embraced the Deobandis in the hope of making itself acceptable but to no avail. * Khaled Ahmed


Warning: Graphic Image

KARACHI: Alleged robbers are engulfed in flames after a mob burnt them alive on Saturday. daily times

In what this vigilante justice different from the stoning to death or cutting off heads under the tribal "pukthoonwali, jirga-shariah" vigilantism? Is this what the k(h)akistocracy in Pakistan, and the Goldy-Sharipov Circus has unleashed?

If this spread, forget the judiciary, this will be the end of the very state that judiciary was supposed to safeguard.



At least four unique and distinctive paintings of Pakistan's legendary artist Sadequain have been stolen from the "Gallery Sadequain" in Frere Hall Library, owned by City District Government Karachi (CDGK) came under the administration of Community Development Department (CDD), The Nation has learnt on Saturday.
Sources on condition of anonymity told that four precious and highly artistic paintings of Sadequain, which were being painted on skin, highlighting the issues of starvation in Africa, Faiz Ahmed Faiz's famous poetry "Bol Kay Lab Azad Hain Teray," the struggle of Iranian students and the 'Spider Web', have been stolen. Three paintings are stated to be of 11 x 5 ft size, and one is measured at 5 x 4. But surprisingly the matter did not bring into the knowledge of CDGK higher officials. The DCO Karachi Javed Hanif has also not been informed due to which the issue of stolen paintings still lying in abeyance and no decision has been taken so far for the recovery of paintings. Sadequain's paintings stolen from CDGK office


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