Madspeak

Uptil June 1977 Pakistan was a free thinking - extremely moderate Islamic country. Mullahs kept their noses out of everything. In fact if a mullah were to create scene he would be taken away by the police for disturbing the peace. Liquor shops, bars were open, massage parlors, there were discos and night-clubs. The main advertisements of the newspapers were about the latest foreign stripper in town. When protests against the ZA Bhutto the late prime minister, he thought by banning the sale of alcohol would end the demonstrations - he was mistaken, he was removed by most terrible military dictators. His agenda 'Islamise' Pakistani society. Evertything that existed till June 1977 disappeared. Even then time no party was without liquor being served in secret. It was normal pattern of life. Everything was there but remain hidden. General Zia may have been preparing Pakistan for something far worse. A communist government had overthrown the King Zahir Shah in Afghanistan, dur

Perhaps what I say gets lost in translation - a site says it is the best sex chat site only to discover there are terms of use and everyone who is chatting extremely politely or it could be code. 'be polite but means something else'. I am the sort of of person who does not like hypocrisy in any form, particulary website pretending to let people exactly what they want and later find one has been booted out for being offensive, these some of the terms of service I have gathered from such website. You will not post on the Service, or transmit to other Members or employees, any defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, obscene, profane, offensive sexually oriented, threatening, harassing, racially offensive, or illegal material, or any material that infringes or violates another party's rights (including, but not limited to, intellectual property rights, and rights of privacy and publicity). We will remove any offending communication from the site or service and terminating the membersh

  The Karachi Electricity Supply Company (KESC) finally did it:Not supplying electricity for 18 hours at a stretch.Sending bills which only some mulimillionaire can afford to pay, sometimes not even them.When the shop-keepers received the bills they got together and put all the bills in a huge pile and set them on fire. Defied the KESC who threatened to remove the meters. The people began to warn them against doing that - saying what they will do if the KESC does that.Strangely enough none of the members of the Sindh Provincial Assembly was there to resolve the mattter. It is as if the problems of the people of Karachi is not theirs. For some reason the Federal Government wants to interfere in an entirely provincial matter. The KESC has failed and will continue to do so, if it insists on doing this. The misery caused by KESC's incompetence and unreliable behaviour intolerable. Why should there one electricity supply company why not many more? The people in Karachi are absolute

Now that all the banks have come online, in the haste to get the latest technology is that a few things were left behind, had they remained, they would be a great help.  I use the ATM much of the time, but a few days back, there was on the screen 'transaction cannot be completed'.  I tried once or twice then went to bank to next bank and received the same message. Later I returned to the bank to the ATM tried again and failed. This was the bank where I have saved my money. I went in and told some officer over there that the ATM machine is not working. He said he will do something about it - but he ran off somewhere else. I had my cheque book with me and decided to use it, instead of the ATM and the teller told me that his bank branch link with the head office of the bank ( in this case MCB) was down which is why neither the ATM cannot  conduct transactions and nothing could be done about my cheque unless the branch was back online with the head office. Nothing can be done unles

'Gates said that in his view the UN charter allows the United States to act in self-defence against international extremists in Pakistan if the government is unable or unwilling to deal with them' This is the US idea of friendly relations with Pakistan, I forgot - the USA is not a friend of Pakistan, it is only using Pakistan to attack the Taliban.  The USA does not regret killing Pakistanis. Like it has never regretted killing countless Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians.   Only the USA has the right to kill people and no one should dare defend themselves. Despite their insane war in Vietnam the USA was badly beaten and ran with its tail between its legs.  In order to fight in Vietnam there was an undeclared war against Cambodia and Laos.   The problem, many now say is that the bombers and fighter bombers flew so fast that the pilots did not know where they were, they had the coordinates wrong. The same thing happened in the Balkans.  US planes flew right across Serbia and bo

60 Pakistanis  have been killed by US forces. US aircraft and drones just bomb for the sake of bombing and allege they are killing 'insurgents' and 'terrorists'.  What they ared doing is killing innocent Pakistanis.  The USA is slowly but surely become a terrorist state - in fighting this phoney war on terrorism has itself become a terrorist.  It thinks that it can kill Pakistanis and get away with, they should think again. Because this 'Special Relationship' is going to take a new turn. If our military is not going to defend Pakistanis, the Pakistanis will do it themselves. But then the government will realise enough is enough and any straying aircraft or drone into Pakistan will be destroyed before it can even enter Pakistan. Too  many Pakistanis civilians have died because the USA.  The USA has become so arrogant that it considers  Pakistan incompetent and weak. When US planes are captured and drone destroyed, the USA will be screaming and cursing Pakistan. I

Both great series unfortunately cancelled. The funny thing about these shows is that do not grow up with their fans their audience - why not have an R or X rating, comic book style the rating never changes. How is it all the aliens look like humans in both shows - it does not matter if there foreheads are large or their colour is blue. Aliens should look like aliens. The imagination of the people who make these shows seem stunted when it comes to conceiving aliens.. Star Trek never lived out on its premise and promise to seek out new life and new civilisations. The air was sucked out of Stargate after defeating Goul'd and the Ori. Only really good science fiction/fantasy writers can breathe life into these shows. So many people have written Star Trek novels, but no one really cares to take ideas from them. Slowly and gradually Stargate moved from gate travel to star ship travel - what is known as hyper drive in Stargate is warp drive in Star Trek. Does it really matter wha

Finally Canada has been found to be as brutal and barbaric as its neighbour in the south. Torturing a 16 year old boy. That is just one incident no one knows how many similar there really are, we only know of one - the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Canadians do not torture people that way only, they do not consider Pakistanis welcome in their country - particularly those who are trying to visit the country for the first time. I wasted almost Rs 30,000 to get a visa for that frigid wasteland and which I never received and provided private details - which is no business of the Canadians to know. I have heard of Pakistanis coming to back home from Canada - they are placed in a separate line and checked as if they are a bunch of criminals. Since when has Pakistan become an enemy of Canada? The war is in Afghanistan not here, unless they themselves responsible for terrorism in Pakistan and blaming the Taliban. Make Pakistan look like some hellish place. It is easy to blame the Talib

The Internet and mobile phones have created a very unique situation. Children growing up in this digital age - when they first find out about how easy it is to stay in touch with their friends - all the time - end up discovering that when they meet there is nothing to talk about because they have already said all that was to be said - together they are moping and scratching their heads wondering what to talk about - however they learn very quickly not stay in touch at all and only talk with each other when they meet. The biggest disaster of all are family pictures. A baby a barely born and his (or her) first moments are instantly recorded and sent - in fact a several hours long video are sent particularly by new parents. Pictures and videos of engagements and weddings are not only very boring but in order to see all of them will take several hours, but no one has the time or the inclination to see. Such things were thrilling in the beginning - now they have eventually become te

Not everyone is so bold as to fall in love and get married - they agree to an arranged marriage. Men and women go blindly into a relationship, because their parents have told them to do so. The criteria is wealth and family background. But there is one matter which both the parents of the groom and bride ignore - it is the health of the two. Does any one of them have any hereditary disease like thalassemia, diabetes and hypertension? If any one of them does they are bound to have diseased children. No one considers other factors such if any of them is HIV positive or not. Did the man suffer from mumps -which would make completely unsuitable for marriage. There are some problems such as impotence in men and frigidity in women. Is either of them fertile or not. There are issues of sexual preferences, is the man completely gay and the woman completely lesbian - but such things are taboo no one wants to talk about such things it is embarrassing and illegal. It is high time health

When I received my monthly telephone bill of Rs 3500, I was shocked beyond belief. My regular bill was has been for a long time Rs 750 and if I made several international calls I naturally expected to be billed more. Around Rs 1500 which was the maximum. Dial-up for the Internet was treating as one call and there was no multi-metering charges now there are. I wrote to several newspapers and even local TV channels about this increase in the land line telephone charges. It appears as though the government wants to destroy PTCL. The local media was completely indifferent about this. Anyway regarding the charges, for the same amount of money I could buy a new mobile phone or buy a used full-featured mobile phone. Why should I rely on the only land line telephone company in the country Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL). Why should PTCL have this blind authority to charge as it pleases and why does the government's Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) let it

So far there is no indication the candidates of the two US political parties intend to end USA ’s military involvement in the world Seemingly it does not concern the people of the USA , they are not like the activists who wanted the end of the Vietnam war. They are content with their lives, what happens abroad does not concern them anymore, one of the reasons is that they are do not know enough. During the Vietnam war the media was free and could report everything which was happening in the Vietnam war. With the media under absolute control - with ‘embedded journalists’ they only report what the military will allow them to report. If the US media actually free then the facts would speak for themselves and the people would know what is really going on. But when the media is entirely in the pocket of the US establishment there can never be any truth. People will only know what the establishment will let them. The result is there is an air of absolute apathy and in

The newspaper and publication owners are asking the new prime minister not to make them implement the newspaper employees wage award. They did the same thing with former prime minister and he took tremendous bribes from these people at the cost of his own job. If the present prime minister chooses to do the same, it is entirely approach. Journalists do not too kindly to leaders who betray them. It is the work of journalists which enables newspapers,(publications and the electronic media) be in a position to bring the stories which bring about changes in society and the way politics is conducted in the country - whether there should be dictatorship or democracy. Journalists work hard at their jobs and deserve to be paid well. The newspaper and publication owners do not see it that way. They do not want to pay anything at all, although get lots of money from advertisements and sales - the government is by far the biggest advertiser. If the prime minister chooses to side with newspaper o

On every Bakra Eid, all kinds of livestock throngs Karachi. The stench of these animals fills the air, besides they attract tremendous amount of flies - by their presence alone within the city is in itself a health-hazard. The entire city is turned into on gigantic cattle pen. Just because it is a religious duty it does not necessarily mean that people should choose to ignore the various diseases which these animals are likely to suffer from. The livestock owners who bring them over to the city are desperate to get rid of them - either because they are suffering from some kind of disease or another or that they are too old. Some of these animals suffering from internal bleeding due to some injury or perhaps of some sort of disease. Many livestock owners have their animals medicated, those medicines are in the bloodstream and some end up in the kidneys. Some of these are so sick in order to make look healthy they are overdosed with drugs long enough to survive and be sold during Bakra

The violence which ensued after Benazir Bhutto's assassination was far worse than her death. The rioting and violence which ensued immediately appeared too staged to be genuine many people died and select areas were damaged, cars were destroyed. Tactics normally employed by the MQM. Coming back to the matter of Benazir Bhutto, she got herself elected life chair-person of the PPP, turning it a one person party, no democratic process within the political party, which meant no one else would have the opportunity to lead the party. Benazir's father ZA Bhutto won the election in West Pakistan, was not because of who he was, rather what he stood for. It was his socialist stand and improving the conditions of ordinary people - the destitute and poor were made aware of their rights. The PPP won in West Pakistan, thrashing all the political parties peddling religion. The PPP party slogan was 'roti, kapra aur makan" meaning bread, clothing and shelter for all. This was th