Moborate

* * * * * * * * * * * * CLARIFICATION: We posted the following in good faith but seem to have misconstrued some of the facts. It has been brought to our attention, particularly by our friend Shahid Saeed, that the letter addressed to PEMRA's Council of Complaints has not, in fact, been submitted yet and was circulated to gather input from others, and as such is a draft internal document. Saeed feels it may have been unethical of us to lay the document open to critique by people who are not part of the process and we think he may have a very valid point. In addition, the conversation with Zafar Siddiqui referred to below occurred after the Lahore chapter of the CFD filed an earlier complaint with PEMRA against Samaa, not after this letter was submitted. Unfortunately, it would probably also be unethical of us to remove this post altogether now that it has already become public domain. But we would like of offer our sincerest apologies to the CFD for this inadvertent publicization o

Can we just express how refreshing it was to watch  Najam Sethi 's first appearance on  Geo  tonight? In the middle of the hyperventilating cacophony surrounding the  shooting to death of two men in Lahore by a contractor of the US embassy  (and the death of a third in a hit and run accident apparently at the hands of an American consulate vehicle), Sethi began his new programme  Aapas Ki Baat  with the warning that he wanted to put emotionalism aside and analyse the incident only in terms of the facts. That in itself is an all too rare approach on our television screens these days. But what followed was close to a masterclass for other television anchors on how to impart clear, precise information with a logical, rather than emotional, analysis. Not only did Sethi cite the actual clauses of the  Vienna Convention  on diplomatic immunity (which Pakistan has ratified) that have been furiously talked about but never actually specifically referenced, but also put into context the whol

From an oped about the treatment meted out to Veena Malik  on Kamran Shahid 's tabloidy Front Line programme on Express , titled " Our Obsession With the Inane " by Kamila Hyat in The News today: "Of course a Pakistani man cavorting with a Hindu man would not have raised so much as an eyebrow." If for some reason, you wonder what we're getting at, read the line again. For all we know, this may not be a typo and she may have a point... Have been meaning to do a post on this whole issue but have been truly busy and fear it may already be too late. Meanwhile, DJ Shahrukh has come up with probably the best summarization of the saga and definitely the funniest:

If you had any doubts about what Meher Bokhari , the recently removed host of Samaa 's Newsbeat programme, is going through these days, here's an inkling. She turned up, unexpectedly, on Aaj TV 's Bolta Pakistan , whose current hosts Orya Maqbool Jan and Salim Bokhari - frequent participants on her programme - probably felt sympathy for her and decided to return her favours to them. Inevitably, there was much discussion of Meher Bokhari's own predicament and, also inevitably, her (and the duo's) barely suppressed bitterness about criticism of them kept creeping out. Have a look. Part 1: See in particular from 02:12... where Salim Bokhari claims an American plot to divide the media and society by labeling people (as right-wing and liberal), Orya Maqbool moans about Twitter and Facebook being used to defame people unlike in Tunisia , and Meher speaks in general terms about the dangerous polarization of society through labeling, the contradictions and rigidity of

First of all, on behalf of all of us, I wish to offer an apology for the lack of updates in the last 10 days. Call it a combination of too much other work and involvement in matters urgent, laziness and emotional fatigue. Sometimes we too need to take time off from blogging. Inevitably, some readers have written in to ask why he haven't 'covered' such and such, or made innuendos about our 'political' reasons for not writing about certain issues. There's nothing we can do as far as politically motivated innuendos are concerned but once more we'd like to point out that Cafe Pyala is not meant to be a newspaper or a news channel: we don't necessarily 'cover' everything, nor do we have the resources to do so. And more often than not, our reasons for blogging about something have to do with saying something that is not already being said in the mainstream media or by other bloggers, or to bring more attention to something that we feel is not receiving

... but who could have foreseen this... Picture of the Day courtesy the blog Capital Quips .

Ansar Abbasi triumphantly points out on the front page of The News today that what is "generally ignored in the ongoing discussions in the media" is that the mandatory death punishment for blasphemy "applies to all the prophets" as per the 1991 ruling of the Federal Shariat Court (FSC). He writes: "The selected portions of the FSC judgment are: "It is also to be noted that Allah Almighty creates no distinction or inequality in the status of the Prophets though. He did bestow on some of them more gifts than others." While quoting different verses of the Holy Quran, the judgment said, "Practically, all the jurisconsults and scholars agreed that in view of the above verses and the equal status of all the Prophets as such, the penalty of death as determined above shall apply, in case any one utters contemptuous remarks or offers insult, in any way, to any one of them."" Explaining how the FSC judgement becomes the law de facto , he says:

Ab roshni hoti hai ke ghar jalta hai dekhain Shola sa tawaaf-e-dar-o-deewaar karay hai - Mir Taqi Mir [Will it lead to light or the house burning down, we'll have to see A spark of sorts is circling the walls of our home] Some people still don't get it. They don't understand why people like us have been so incensed over the murder of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer and the deplorable shenanigans that have followed it from those who have felt no shame and have in fact celebrated it and from those who have not come forward to condemn it in the strongest terms. They question why we are insistent on turning a worldly politician into a saint (we aren't) or why Taseer's death has taken precedence over all the other killings taking place in Pakistan (I will explain this). I read recently some comments on the journalists' mailing group PressPakistan where the convenient and insufferably lazy bogey of 'extremists on both sides' has been trotted out to explain dem

In my last post, I included an alleged fatwa by an alleged mufti Muhammad Idris Usmani associated allegedly with a seminary called Jamia Islamia. The alleged fatwa was sourced from the Let Us Build Pakistan (LUBP) blog and indicated as such but was reproduced in my post without the qualifiers it should have included. Some readers correctly raised doubts about the authenticity of the religious opinion, after which we wrote to LUBP asking for the source of their information. A day has passed and we have not heard back from anyone at LUBP. Another reader Samad Khurram has pointed out that the alleged picture of Mufti Idris Usmani (also from LUBP) is actually of Mufti Fuzail-ur-Rahman (Fazl-ur-Rahman?) Hilal Usmani of the Darus Salaam Islamic Centre in Indian Punjab and Darul Uloom Deoband. We have also not been able to identify through our own research where Jamia Islamia is located and the only source for this fatwa seems to be the LUBP blog itself. All of this points to the fact th

Further evidence of the depths to which some in Pakistan have sunk. This is a short video of the Murtid Qadri being presented in court yesterday, charged with the murder of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer , where he was lauded by some lunatic lawyers, showered with rose petals, garlanded and even kissed. (Link courtesy Shahid Saeed.) This is an account of his presentation in court today  from the Express Tribune , where the lunatics once again greeted him. In addition to the lunatic lawyers, most religious   fitna parties have refused to condemn Taseer's murder, with many going out of their way to praise the "valour" of the deranged criminal. They include the so-called "sufism-inspired", "moderate" Barelvi parties (Qadri is from the Barelvi sect) who in fact have been at the forefront of defending the murder. Many in the media seem also to be hemming and hawing, refusing even to attach the word " shaheed " [martyr] to Taseer (whereas they

" Mera azm itna buland hai ke paraye shaulon ka dar nahin Mujhe khauf aatish-e-gul se hai, ye kaheen chaman ko jala ne de " [My resolve is so strong that I do not fear the flames from without I fear only the radiance of the flowers, that it might burn my garden down]  — Shakeel Badayuni couplet referenced by Salmaan Taseer on Twitter, 8 hours before his assassination  I had been hoping that I could post something light-hearted, more entertaining at the start to the new year, but today's Pakistan it seems is not the place for these sort of things any more. Four days into January and we already have yet another tragedy that has evoked not only pain and sadness but also immense amounts of disgust at the depths to which we, the unfortunate inhabitants of this blighted country, have sunk. Assassinated Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer: last man standing (Photo: APP/Dawn) Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer 's brutal and senseless murder in Islamabad today (Tuesday) is not only an