Madspeak

Since the time of the first military dictator General Ayub Khan - the day on which Eid is to take place has become a matter of superstition. It is said that some fortune teller told the former dictator that Eid is going to take place on Friday, which is not good sign for his regime, he could be toppled from power. The dictator was so worried that he hastily formed a committee of mullahs called the Ruet-I-Hilal Committee. This committee was assigned the task of announcing when the moon is to be sighted. This committee announced that Eid would take place on Thursday and not on Friday. So there were two Eids - the official one announced by the committee and the second one which was according to the calendar. Those who have absolute power become extremely superstitious. The Ruet-i-Hilal Committee still exists long after General Ayub Khan was ousted. People no longer bother to observe the calendar they just go by what the committee says. But in several parts of country Eid takes place o

When the Information Minister Sheikh Rashid was asked about the damage and in particular the loss of life, he was completely vague. As is the habit of military government to hide facts - the damage caused by the earthquake was not confirmed. Lot of questions would be asked as to why the roads were so badly constructed? Why there was no access to the worst hit areas. Lot of lives may have been saved and lot of damage could have been avoided if more money had been spent on infrastructure. Strangely enough there is not even enough money to conduct a domestic relief effort - aid it is being sought from abroad because whatever the government has is squandered on absolutely useless things. Only later was the information about the extent of loss of life and the devastation revealed. It is a long tradition of the government to avoid reporting bad news. The general perception is if such things are reported it may reflect badly on the overall performance of the government. Now with the accept

(President) General Musharraf said 'the easiest way a woman to become a millionaire is to be gang raped report it and be compensated for her traumatic experience by the government, it is also the easiest way for such a woman to obtain a visa and live abroad' . Later he denied ever having said this. The only reason which can explain why he made that statement was that he most probably was drunk though liquor is banned here. Although there could be some other reason is that he is a misogynist. Later he denied that he ever made that state Women here have not forgiven him - they want his head. They want not only him out but also all the members of his regime which have committing one blunder after another. The stories of gang rape and terrible torture of women are appearing regularly in the newspapers. This disease existed but no one dared reported, the scale of the epidemic was never known. When the self-made president of the country endorses rape, what hope is there?

The job of a journalist is based on news, news is work. To expect a journalist a specific number of hours in a newspaper office is absurd. Putting hours does not make news. Only when something happens which can happen at any time that is when a journalist is expected to work. It is a royal waste of time and energy to expect to put in 7 or 8 hours even there is no news. --------------- News item: A man gets fired for eating left over pizza. Opinion: What a flimsy excuse for throwing people out of jobs. Employers should not be allowed to have so much power as to throw people out on a whim. Employees should have rights, the quality of their work should determine whether they ought to stay in a job. Besides would it have killed the owners of the company if someone ate left over pizza? Firing people on such things is essentially inhuman if not absolutely evil.

At first I use to imagine that there was something wrong with my computers, both at home and office - that all the emails I sent to my famiy and friends in the USA were returning and there some error message which said that email address could not be found. I kept trying and continued failing, using my own ISPs email service or the various email services available on the World Wide Web. I found out I was not imagining anything, my family, friends and colleagues were all having the same problem. There was simply no way for anyone to contact anyone in the USA. I talked to the ISP people and they said all their clients were suffering the same. Then a few days back I received a phone call from a friend, who lives in the USA, he was furious with me. "What is wrong with your computer? I have been sending you emails for past several months." I did not know what to say, I do not have the technical expertise on this matter. But it is obvious that not only can anyone send emails to

A publication called 'sach bolna jurm hai' was banned and all its copies were confiscated. The literal translation of the title of the publication - Expressing The Truth Is A Crime. By confiscating the publication and banning it, only proves its publisher's point, that expressing the truth is definitely a crime. Even by losing his licence to publish and having the copies his recent edition destroyed, he has won - but the stupid the government is too stupid to realise this. There is obviously there is not cure for this insanity - as the saying goes - power corrupts........

What could be more obscene that Shaukat Aziz the prime minister and Chaudhry Shujaat who had promised that the Wage Award to the newspaper employees, which has been pending for the past five years would be paid this month in August. Instead these two 'leaders' left the country on their 'official' visits. How long with this injustice last, how long with the newspaper employees have to wait til the Wage Award is paid along with arrears of the past five years?