Madspeak

The All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) the association of all the newspaper and publication owners in the country – is the most powerful organisation after the government Although it keeps losing cases in almost every court even up to the level of the Supreme Court of Pakistan - irrespective of the rulings, even of that of the apex court against them, the APNS stands defiant. It refuses acknowledge those decisions, with utter disdain. As if they are not legally oblighed to do anything at all. A number of people have contested cases of being fired illegally, the newspaper owners have prolonged such cases to the point that it has reached the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The poor people who win suchcases, even then do not get their jobs back, in fact the APNS gangs up against working journalists in particular – ensuring that they can never find a job in any publication, none of their reports and articles are ever published. thus their careers are permanentlty destroyed. The APNS is liv...

Josh Mali Abadi a prominent poet - wrote a verse which angered the British authorities in India so much that he was detained him for a couple of days. The British Empire was crumbling because of World War II. As the saying goes the enemy of my enemy is my friend - hence Germany which was attacking Britain, was considered a friend. Hitler was greatly admired and Josh wrote his verse translated to "Oh great Hitler, drop a bomb in our name". The British authorities were were so upset that they arrested the poet. The slightest amount of dissent was not tolerated by the British rulers (despite their claims to be great upholders of democracy and human rights). During theri stay here, they had their clubs signs 'Dogs and Indians not allowed" When ''World War II' was going on another man set up an army to defeat the British in India. He allied himself with Germans and the Japanese - to end British oppression. But war took its toll on 'Great' Britain T...

US forces bombed a village in Pakistan - believing terrorists were there. What they ended up doing is killing innocent Pakistanis in the name of 'War on Terrorism'. Yesterday it was a village, the next time around it could very well be a towns and then cities. US officials say 'Although the incident was regretable but the USA will be hit any place suspected to have terrorists'. Which only can mean one thing - the USA is prepared to destroy Pakistan in order to make the USA safer and perhaps the rest of the world. Are Pakistanis cattle? Is Pakistan the next Cambodia? The reason why I am mentioning Cambodia is because that country was bombed during the time when USA was fighting a war in Vietnam. Cambodia was suspected to enable Vietnamese forces from its northern part to attack the southern. Countless innocent Cambodians lost their lives as a result of massive and merciless bombing campaign carried out by the USA. Cambodia was devastated by the bombing campaign,...

The previous military dictator – General Zia-ul-Haq introduced water supply racketeering. The water pipelines blocked or removed and water is supplied via tankers. The tankers were owned by military officers who earned a lot of money by supplying water all over the city. This racketeering continues to this day with General Musharraf’s blessings. All the military officers have a complete control over the water supply system. Instead of people receiving directly into their homes, they are forced to rely on water tankers, for which they have to pay for. To add insult to injury – an annual water supply bill is sent to the people living in any part of Karachi – although water is not being supplied. The most common question is ‘If water can be supplied via a water tanker, why cannot the same amount of water not be supplied directly through the pipeline?’. This racketeering is unlikely to be stopped as long as the military remains in power. Although a normal supply of water is possibl...

Again all the restaurants, hotels were shut down. The way to the beach blocked. There is no specific law but officials make every attempt is made to stop merry making of any kind. This has been going for years. The mad Mullahs speak up against New Year's eve celebrations. As if enjoying oneself is some kind of terrible sin. There is no point on delving in this - it has become s pattern of our existence the people want to enjoy themselves - they will do everything in their power to circumvent the power of the officials and of the mad Mullahs. The more the military regime wants to quash merry making the more resistance they face. It may not be long when they people practically revolt and overthrow oppression of any kind.

The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) which oversees the operation of TV cable operators and private radio stations – has no other function other than to harass legitimate TV cable operators and radio stations. It claims to maintain standards of morality and quality – but those standards are subject to change. Ever since the local cinema industry collapsed, the Censor Board as a single organisation has practically ceased to exist. Everyone who is in a position of power can clamp down not only on the electronic media but also on newspapers and other publications, whenever he wishes. The recent banning of certain TV channels, which the legitimate TV cable operators have paid the subscription for showing have been banned. Over 40 channels cannot be shown. These legitimate TV cable operators are saying that PEMRA’s decision was based on the fact that the owners of private TV channels did not want foreign TV channels to be shown – because they could not compete aga...

I sent an email to a relative in USA and it came back with the following message: AOL does not accept e-mail transactions from IP addresses whichgenerate complaints or transmit unsolicited bulk e-mail.Connecting IP: 202.133.64.4 while talking to mailing-03.mx.aol.com. The IP is of Pakistan - is AOL blocking all emails from Pakistan? Are other similar organisations doing the same?