Moborate

I don't watch Kamran Shahid 's show. I really don't. That's why I had to be told by another Pyala that I should probably see what happened on his show on Express TV yesterday. Having now seen the show in its entirety, I can safely say that my initial position was well-founded. Here was a show on Balochistan , whose dire situation is, thankfully, finally receiving some space in the media that has long shut its eyes hoping uncomfortable truths would all just go away. Recently there have been a few eloquent and blood-curdling pieces in the print media as well as no-nonsense coverage on some television channels. Some of the best coverage in the mainstream print media has been in Dawn : Here is veteran journalist I. A. Rehman today on " Balochistan's Agony ", here is writer Mohammed Hanif 's heart-rending front-page piece on February 11 on " The Baloch Who Is Not Missing ", and here is Dawn 's strong editorial on the same subject a day after...

It's been a busy day for lovers around the world. In Malaysia , authorities arrested 80 umarried Muslims from budget hotels and parks . The catch would no doubt have tripled if they'd dared to go upmarket. In Pakistan, the transgendered community distributed flowers and luddoos in a hospital. And in Uzbekistan , the state picked bromance over romance and cancelled an annual Valentine's Day concert and aggressively promoted the birthday of the Mughal Emperor Babur instead. But you know the world really is going to hell in a handbasket (with a little red bow and some flowers) when you turn on the TV to cleanse your palate of the faux-sentimentality of February 14th with that most bitter of things, local politics, and find Hamid Mir on Geo's  Capital Talk wearing a red shirt and talking about how what Pakistan needs now is love, sweet love. If that isn't surreal enough for you, consider the intro, in which some of our elected respresentatives unite to wish us Hap...

Many of us have often had a laugh about Americans' woeful knowledge about the rest of the world. Well, what would you say to this? A BBC Urdu correspondent roamed the streets of Punjab 's largest and most cosmopolitan city, Lahore , to ask random people on the street how much they knew of Balochistan . His report is compiled under the heading "Punjab Balochistan Ko Kitna Jaanta Hai?" (How well does Punjab know Balochistan?). Keep in mind that Lahore is not a rural backwater where media is not easily accessible, that Punjab's population comprises some 60 percent of the Pakistan's population and that in the last three years, the issue of Balochistan has probably been one of the most talked about issues in domestic politics. Think for a moment what it says about our educational system, our media, our democracy, our policy-making,  our national integration and yes, our majoritarian chauvinism. If this does not actually shock you, you're made of sterner stuff...

Reading through the top story in today's The News and Jang , my eyes grew progressively wider and wider. Not so much from the latest Wikileaks revelations about India as from sheer incredulity.   The News Karachi's front page today Titled " Enough evidence of Indian involvement in Waziristan, Balochistan " (aside: how much is 'enough'?) in The News , the main story deals with a slew of information allegedly from US diplomatic cables sent from Delhi as well as other missions around the world about India. They confirm everything Pakistanis (or at least certain types of Pakistanis) always said about India: it's direct involvement of India in the anti-state activities in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Balochistan, the weakness of the Indian dossier on Ajmal Kassab, the manipulated nature of Indian evidence about the ISI's involvement in the Mumbai attacks, the sissyness of India's generals who do things out of personal ego an...

Remember this story in The News on November 3 by its Group Editor, Shaheen Sehbai ? The front page 'expose' of an allegedly massive corruption scandal around the Reko Diq copper and gold mining project in Balochistan set tongues wagging all over Pakistan and among Pakistani expatriates abroad. The scale of the scandal was said to dwarf all previous scandals. The headline screamed: "$260 billion gold mines going for a song, behind closed doors"   Front page of The News on November 3, 2010 Now, in case you didn't follow the story or do not remember the exact words Mr. Sehbai used in his typically convoluted but bombastic style, let me briefly remind you what the investigative story said. Mr Sehbai begins by building conspiratorial suspense, clearly implying that President Zardari and his partymen are on the take to sell national wealth down the river to line their own pockets: "Quietly, and below the media radar, some 20 top corporate bosses and lobbyists of...