Madspeak

The democratic government in Pakistan is a mirage.  The power lies in the hands of the military which decides everything.  It is above the law hence not accountable to anyone. During the 1990s the military was playing the role of puppeteer - after General Zia was killed in 1988 - it was assumed the end of a military dictatorship. It was not so - the military was very much in control and remains so.The generals may change - but within the armed forces there is a central command. It does not have to show its face. The military consumes 90% of Pakistan's budget. There is no money left for anything else. There is no room for development of infrastructure or anything else. When a general is removed the central command offers the people a political government of its own choice. All the failures of the military, all the allegations of corruption of decades is dumped on the new civilian government. The generals and the central command which run their affairs are the ones to blame. T...

http://tribune.com.pk/story/420919/no-dance-parties-but-dars-allowed-rules-dha/ Some people are pleased to abandon their freedom.  Their privacy taken away. There are military officers who imagine by denying people freedom they are doing a great service. The military has occupied a large chunk of Karachi and is running it as its personal fiefdom. Its are rules are not debated. It is dictation and nothing else. Greed and corruption runs rampant there is no one to challenge it. Commissioned officers firmly believe that only they have the right to run Pakistan - for better or for worse. When General Zia took over he changed Defence Housing Society into Defence Housing Authority. Ever since then every kind of racket started. The water supply racket. Although water pipelines were set up, but the water was not supplied through them by through water tankers. The road building racket. The sewerage line racket. Every conceivable violation has taken place Schools were set up by private p...

People have such little regard for their personal freedom - when they do not like something on TV and films they start making calls for  banning it. If not not entirely banning it - seek to have it censored. What they forget are the people who do not find it offensive or are curious to know about it. Not wanting to watch something, is a personal choice but it is not something which should apply to others. Just because they feel in a certain - does not necessarily mean that others feel exactly the same way. Some go along with the condemnation of books, films and TV shows - because they do not want to be seen as separate from the rampaging crowd, lest they become a target. Because of this attitude the government sets up organisations which censor everything the public sees the most fundamental of liberties - freedom of expression is gone. It is dangerous. Because when the government starts making mistakes, there is no one telling it what it started doing wrong. Those who report ...

I suppose nowhere in the world are courts closed for 'summer vacations' as they are in Pakistan. Courts are closed for two long months. For that reason cases pile up by the end of those two months.  The number of judges are few and the number of cases run for into hundreds at times., every single day. Court sessions are only  from 9.30 AM to 1.30 PM with a tea break in between.  The cases which are not heard on that day are given a new date or never given any. The lawyer has to get a new date provided a judge is available.  Before any case can have its day in court - it has to be registered - the registrar is a very powerful person he can choose to reject a case if he wants to. After the case is registered - the bailiff takes his time to send the case to the respondents.  The respondents hire their lawyers who prepare a reply. When the reply is sent a rebuttal is sent.  There is such a thing called Katchi Peshi - meaning rough presentation of the case - i...

For decades in Pakistan telephone connections was the purview of the government. These were given on priority basis. Ordinary people who were in no particular field could not get a telephone connection for years. The procedure had tremendous red tape.  Strangely enough the application was addressed to the president of Pakistan, as if he had nothing better to do than approve telephone connections. It was some time later that civil servants realised that telephone connection was not privilege but a business like any other. The PTCL was apparently 'privatised' but it remained a monopoly. Land connections belonged to only one organisation namely PTCL and no other company 26% shares belong to Etisalat Telecommunications instead of allowing private Pakistani companies own. it. The rest of PTCL is still owned by the government. In all fairness privatisation should have meant that PTCL's different operations should have been sold to different Pakistani companies.  There should n...

The film 'Saving Face' won an Oscar Award. But the the question about who is  really responsible for the acid attacks on women. Women have been mentioned very categorically. The problem is why has no one heard of men being attacked in the same way? The number of places such attacks take place in the red light areas. Any prostitute is beautiful and is a source of attraction to the majority of men  - such a woman is taking business away from other brothels and this affects them. What they do in retaliation is throw acid on those prostitutes. When those women are scarred - the men will visit other brothels. The business is a nasty one. The brothel in which the women are scarred retaliate by doing the same to the prostitutes belonging to other brothels. This is one aspect. Women vehemently hate each other and are very jealous of one another. Immediately after marriage - a man has to shift to a new place with his wife. Because his wife cannot get along with her mother in law and ...

The development of middle class - was a result of several forces.  The concept of a middle class, rather the middle class being a force to be reckoned with was not realised. It is easy to rule a country - if there are only two classes - the rich and the poor. The rich rule the poor obey. The cliché term 'widening gap' between the rich and the poor' which the pseudo-intellectuals have used - would apply if there was no such things as a middle class. The existence of the middle class negates such perceptions. When Pakistan  came into existence - the middle class was small - it comprised mainly of civil servants.  There were doctors and lawyers - as time went by retired military officers joined the ranks of the middle class. Instead of people plunging into abject poverty - people floated to the surface to form the middle class. With large number of labour moving to the oil rich countries and returning - they started settling in cities  - initially Karachi became fir...