Moborate

This past week seems to have been a Nizami-obsessed week. Might as well share a final bit of news about the goings on at The Nation. So, Salim Bokhari has been tipped to take over as editor at The Nation in place of the recently departed Shireen Mazari. Bokhari has been a journalist for almost four decades though most people will recognize him most from appearances as an analyst on various television channels and his recent co-hosting with Orya Maqbool Jan of Aaj TV 's reconfigured Bolta Pakistan programme (the team was cobbled together after the departure of Nusrat Javed and Mushtaq Minhas for Dunya TV). Previously, Mr Bokhari's most high profile stint was as the Resident Editor of The News in Lahore. He had left The News to start up the Abu Dhabi-owned The National 's Pakistan operations but the Pakistani version was quietly shelved. Salim Bokhari (right) with Orya Maqbool Jan Now you might be wondering what would draw The Nation owner Majid Nizami to Mr Bokhari ...

As if almost on cue to khabardrama's long-delayed review of Arif Nizami's Pakistan Today (see previous post ), comes news from chacha Majid Nizami 's The Nation of large-scale layoffs at the paper there (no, we don't think there's any connection). More than 30 staffers have been summarily dismissed today without any advance warning from the Lahore office alone and several from Islamabad as well. The Peshawar and Karachi bureaus fear that the axe will next fall on them. Economic difficulties are being cited as the only reason. It's not entirely clear yet whether the personnel sacked were the same ones who had recently received long-delayed raises or whether these layoffs had anything to do with the very recent departure of editor Shireen Mazari . It should be kept in mind that Majid Nizami can be a vengeful proprietor. We heard about a peon who was recently summarily sacked after more than 20 years of service, simply because the management suspected that his l...

Since we're on the topic of poisonous senility... okay, so we weren't really on that topic, but it just seemed a good way to start this post... let me share with you what the Managing Director of the Nawai Waqt Group - which publishes the right-wing Urdu daily Nawai Waqt and the right-of-centre The Nation as well as runs Waqt TV - said at a recent 'Teacher Training Workshop' organized under the aegis of the Nazaria-i-Pakistan Trust [Pakistan Ideology Trust]. This lecture took place on November 2, 2010. The Trust is of course headed by the MD himself, Mr Majid Nizami , who not only fashions himself as, but actually believes he is, the defender of the 'true' ideology of the country. He has been a close confidante and supporter of Mardood-e-Momin General Ziaul Haq as well as Zia's one-time protege, former premier Nawaz Sharif (who calls Nizami 'uncle'). But keep in mind that this is also the head of one of the most politically influential media ...

So, the honeymoon of the conspiracy maniacs has finally come to an end. It has been confirmed that Shireen Mazari , that doyenne of hyper-nationalistic pseudo-patriotic nonsense nutters (a.k.a. 'everyone's out to get us because we are so brilliant' conspiracy theorists), who took charge of The Nation after the bitter falling out between patriarch Majid Nizami and nephew Arif Nizami , has been forced to resign her editorship. Staffers were formally informed of the change today.   Shireen Mazari: a particular kind of alaap She lasted in her position about 14 months to the day. Though in one sense it seemed like a marriage made in heaven, it lasted slightly longer than I expected, given the humongous egos of both Ms Mazari and Mr Majid Nizami. There has been a lot of speculation the whole day among journalistic circles about what exactly led to the falling out between obsessive India-bashing Majid Nizami (the main thrust of his 'doctrine' at the Nazaria-i-Pakistan Tru...