A newer Open Thread is up: Open Thread: Navarātri and Durgā Pūjā →
So the rumours of Bilawal’s marriage was instead a cover for the family to leave Pakistan.
Pakistan apparently to have a referendum on new provinces regardless.
Open Thread: Zardari in (self-imposed exile). New Provinces to be made
sorry, i am just adding ethnol blending mess in india.
https://theprint.in/national-interest/ethanol-blended-petrol-sugar-shortage-bjp-vote-bank-hindu-middle-class/3034150/
Shekar gupta’s article in print is good. some cut and paste:
BJP’s loyal hindu middle class’s questions
● What benefit do I get? I pay the same price, but get less mileage, as the government admits. Further, it might damage the engine while I’m still paying EMIs.
● What benefit does my country get? If there’s any, why am I not being told?
● Why am I not given a choice? First, nobody tells me why I should use EBP. Then, I’m told to use it, or take a walk. Literally.
● Who’s benefiting from my suffering or sacrifice?
I’ve been a bit disenchanted by the Print. They seem to have become a sort of mercenary journalist website. They’ll pretty much host or promote any view as long as they are paid for it. The reality is EBP was being introduced as long back as 2008 if I remember correctly, the transition has if anything been rather smooth and auto makers have had ample time to design engines which are capable of running on EBP. The reality is if the first pangs against a policy are emerging almost 20 years after its initial introduction then the policy by and large is successful. The part of the policy that maybe impacts most people isn’t even mentioned in your points, its the rise in sugar prices it causes. The fact that this policy creates a food vs fuel dynamic is the greatest point against it rather than any of the other talking points.
Is Ethanol consumption cheaper that fuel for India on a per KWH generated basis?
Seed + Fertilizer + water + electricity + harvesting cost + grain/cane processing + fermentation + distillation + labour cost -> lower energy output + time
Is it better than Forex save + Crude Import + Refining costs?
It’s turned into a narrative war with spurious infographics.
Any analysis needs to cut out govt subsidies and taxes and an appropriate charge placed for water usage.
I wonder if the best way is to set up a website with a model and community source the solution.
Once ‘Anna-datas’ of India get in on this grift there is no going back. Acute water shortage, rampant pesticide, and fertilier use, inefficient cropping patterns …
Indian farmers are the biggest burden on this country. The problem is: they are the biggest block in the country, vote together, vote shamelessly and are always ready to be sell themselves to the highest bidder.
Land ownership and farming are deeply tied to status-quo, anti-reform, protection from competition, begging for subsidy, peacocking as a small business while not paying taxes, and grifting the urban tax payer all across the world. Gadkari and his BJP/RSS kisaan-union ilk know this and are knowingly finding a new way for subsidizing their annadata vote bank.
food vs fuel dynamic is real but so is geopolitical chokepoints. I agree the gov has done a piss poor job of communicating the need for EBP. There was a Telangana MP Konda Vishweshara who has done a good job addressing the concerns of EBP. More power to him. Even Vaishnaw has also done a recent clip on semiconductor chips.
Coming back to EBP, the main benefit to the country is that it reduces your dependence on imported petroleum in roughly the same proportion as the amount of blending. Plus the subsidy to sugarcane and corn is more spread out across the county. Frankly it is good for the country’s overall health and even finances if people consume less sugar. Have people zoned out what is happening in 2 of the major oil producers namely west Asia and Russia?
I frankly don’t understand the FUD that seems to be afflicting sections of GC. Galaxy brains think that they need to reach MoSha a lesson. Reminded of Kalidasa’s wood-cutter chopping off the branch one is sitting on.
Sure, but how do you know you’re right? This should not be a narrative problem, it is multi variate and complex, but I think it is solvable.
Ultimately I think the variable you will end up solving for is the price of water.
Which could be a narrative problem.
When using the blended gasoline, the Engine Control Unit (ECU) detects the O2 in exhaust and infers the engine is running leaner (air left over in exhaust). It will run a short term fuel trim to makes corrections to the main volumetric efficiency map. ECU will then keep the fuel injector open for fraction of a millisecond longer spraying more fuel next time. This compensates for the lower volumetric energy density of the blended fuel. By and large, older cars will do just fine. The mileage per gallon would be lower, obviously because ethanol is less energy dense.
The problem are the nitrile rubber gaskets and seals in the old cars. They will dissolve in ethanol, or become brittle and clog the engines.
At this point, Gadkari is being blamed even for punctured tires and chipped paint on old cars.
why should zardaris oppose? they will have two chief ministers instead of one ?!
Mohsin Naqvi’s vision, nerve, and execution is for all to see in the mess he has created in PCB. Bhagoda Naqvi ran away with Asia cup trophy. If the more provinces idea is from him, it is doomed to fail.
Poms are calling out Imam-ul-Haque for faking injury! Hahahaha!! Idiot used a sketch pen to color his toe! and the doctor wiped it off!! Hahaha! PCT never fails to entertain.
I’ll rework this to think on the Province situation.
I think restoring the 13 Princely States would be a good first step.
“‘Pasoori’ becomes first Pakistan-made music video to cross 1 BN views on Youtube”
https://images.dawn.com/news/1195794/pasoori-becomes-first-pakistan-made-music-video-to-cross-1bn-views-on-youtube
It’s a good song..
https://www.dawn.com/news/2028346/houthi-attacks-disrupt-saudi-energy-facilities-wound-73-authorities-say
Is Pakistan going to war with Houthis now?
Mecca Pact bros! Iron bros ! Where are you? Maccah-Pucca, Madina-Pundina Hahaha!
Geopolitics? Free market of military power? Al-Bakistan the regional superpower! Hahahaha!!
Pakistan is duplicitous, it has duped USSR and US, it think it has duped China and Iran, and it continues to dupe Saudia. Their word is not worth the paper it is written on.
calm down. The Mecca Pact is an insurance policy against post-US bullying by Iran.
There is no need to hurl invective and kick folks when they are down.
Saudis are down. I am not poking them. I am kicking Pak Fauj, and Jaiyyad Saiyaad Asim Munir, Salahuddin reborn, the vanquishers of Imran, the shaboinker of Sharif, the enjoyer in chief of Al-Bakistan
This feels Islamophobic
Mecca & Madina are the two holiest places in Islam..
Nah! Come on! What is religiously hateful here? This is Fauj-misia not Islamophobia. Houthis are Muslims too as are Iranians. Mecca Pacca just implied Mecca pact was being sold as ‘firm/baked/final’.
On this blog itself there has been all this boasting about assabiya, on newfound wisdom of middle eastern countries … Shifting blames to people not present in the room : Yahud, Hanud, and Nasara to forge a common identity. A unity grounded in an underlying current of anti semitism and, anti Americanism. A unity that does not exist.
I don’t think you should decide what is or isn’t offensive when it comes to the ‘other’ party’s sensitivities. Its bad manners.
You want to troll, or provoke, its one thing. But should avoid crossing certain lines. Disrespect is…not on.
Let a man cook in peace. There are enough people policing the site as it is.
People are allowed to explain their intent. Judging intent uncharitably is poor form.
Nearly everything is, objecting to your objecting spawns spirals of recrimination.
Madina-Pudina: Madina is universally famous for its incredibly aromatic mint (known locally as Hasawi or Madany mint). Pilgrims visiting Madina buy fresh or dried Madini mint as a gift to bring back home.
I am not as bigoted as you guys imply, that I would joke about civilian victims of terrorism and militancy.
If Pak fauj is to fight in Yemen, as honor demands, that is another matter.
With the explanations out of the way.
When do you think Pakistan will invade Yemen now?
They can’t. All busy making shoddy AI generated ‘victory’ videos.
Now there’s something that can be made fun of. Its….incredible how silly the propaganda released by Pak Institutions are. Its almost as if they don’t care how preposterous the nonsense is, they know that the ..awaam will swallow it all without spitting.
I’ll probably rework this post a little bit to discuss Pakistan’s provinces.
https://theprint.in/world/28th-amendment-for-pakistan-sindhs-boundaries-stand-in-way-of-munirs-gamble-to-expand-power/3037403/
##There’s going to be a civil war in Sindh if 28th Amendment comes to a pass,’ says Ayesha Siddiqa. Husain Haqqani adds that taking Karachi out of Sindh would be akin to ‘creating a Maharashtra without Mumbai in it’.##
To say this is far-fetched is a euphemism.
The Sindh ‘assembly’ Kabuki is mere negotiations for the wadera slumlords to increase their payoffs.
Reality is that Pakistanis have no alternative but to bend over and accept whatever nonsense ‘system reset’ the Failed Marshal’s minions cook up.
I mean, if the illegal persecution of their greatest post-independence sports, humanitarian and political legend – whatever his flaws and warts – didn’t spur this docile oppressed citizenry into a ‘civil war’, procedural ‘province reorganization’ never will.
The Sindhis and Punjabis are not the Baloch or the Pukhtoon, that they will rise up and fight back. It is what it is.
This budgetary powergrab in guise of a ‘province’ re-org is going to go ahead, and do what prior phaujj dictatorships have done – enrich the kleptocrats, empower the PakMil to buy shiny toys, and kick the accountability can down the road.
This current drama will play out the same exact way – some pretense of ‘restoration of civilian rule’, and then yet another crisis, and a new “medal-studded jernail’ will step up to ‘rescue’ Pakistan from another crisis.
I wonder how old the current province configuration is
Does it matter?
Basically, these are the provinces that existed during British times and in 1947: Punjab, Sindh, KPK (NWFP) and Balochistan.
From the fifties till 1971, all these provinces had been abolished and there was “One Unit” called West Pakistan. This was in order to create parity with East Pakistan.
Changes to territorial boundaries require a two-thirds majority in the concerned provincial assembly and then in the Senate and National Assembly. It’s much easier said than done.
The PPP will not allow Sindh to be split. PML-N will never allow Punjab to be split.
Yes I remember that article you posted.
“Explained: Why is everyone so mad about Karachi province?”
By Dr. Asma Faiz
https://www.dawn.com/news/2028603/explained-why-is-everyone-so-mad-about-karachi-province
Personally, I see the need for more administrative units. But they should not be made on an ethnic basis.
This is obviously a very emotive issue since it strikes at the basis of people’s identities.
The Sindh Assembly won’t allow Sindh to be divided. The Punjab Assembly won’t allow Punjab to be divided.
So this is not going to be an easy fix.
The whole problem with having already existing provinces on a ethnic basis is that it undermines the Pakistani identity. As a nation, it is much better for us all if we stop thinking of ourselves as Punjabis, Sindhis etc and only think of ourselves as Pakistani.
The US has 50 states and while people do take pride in being Marylanders or New Yorkers, there is no possibility of secession.
Secession is obviously a red line for any nation.
Being a Sindhi or Pashtun are millennia+ identities.
Those are just Imperial Constructs to ask long standing ethnicities to sacrifice themselves for the nations. Should Kurds stop being Kurds?
I am not asking anyone to stop being whatever they are or asking them not to take pride in it.
But those ethnic identities need to be subordinated to the national identity. We need to be Pakistanis first just as Marylanders and New Yorkers are American first. Or indeed the way that let’s say Tamils and Maharashtrians are Indian first.
Pakistan has experienced the loss of territory once already. We cannot let that happen again.
Secession is a real fear.
Provinces should be re-organized on a non-ethnic basis. In China, any city that crosses a certain population threshold gets provincial status. On that basis, we could certainly have a Karachi province, Lahore province etc.
NWFP was created in 1901.
Sindh was created in 1936.
Creation of administrative/political units do not have anything to do with ‘sacrificing ethnicities’.
I’ll write on this
The Pakistani…experiment with identity continues to run into a wide variety of challenges. Its a non-trivial problem, compounded by the fact that they do not have representative governance, and the ‘elites’ have markedly different incentives than the …awaam.
The Indian federal government created the state of Telangana against the explicit consent of Andhara assembly. Pakistani constitution does not allow creation of new provinces without 2/3rds approval of the provincial assembly. So provinces seem to have way more power in Pakistan than even India legally, so sometimes they need to be a balanced by the Chief in uniform.
*Andhra. Bhra, Dhra, the TNT shibboleth works even in writing apparently.
More like Aadha pradesh now 😭
Pradesh mein kya, tum log desh hi aadha hua. Aur phir se aadha hone wala hai. Bachake rakhna 😂😂
Jimmy jimmy jimmy aadha aadha aadha, until all you will be left with is Rawalpindi cantonment, into which you can host your TNT nautch parties with a blast.
Sindh’s provincial boundaries are an artefact of partition, independence, Brit colonial rule etc but the ethnicity predates all of that. And its undeniable that these ‘administrative’ changes (read – money grab) is being forced down their throats, no?
1) No – Sindh’s provincial boundaries predate partition and are from 1936. Sindh was not divided in 1947 (which is why there are Hindu majority districts in Sindh even today).
2) The area known as Sindh was conquered by Britian in 1843 from Baloch Talpur rulers. It was then merged with Bombay presidency and ruled like that until 1936 so almost a century it spent under Bombay administration.
3) The entire reason it became seperated from Bombay was because the Sindhi Muslims had become beholden to Gujratai/Marwari baniyas and money lenders who were not from Sindh and were exploiting the peasants and the landlords alike. They sought help of influential UP Muslims in the Muslim League to seperate Sindh from Bombay. This is one of Jinnah’s 14 points to the British in 1929, after which the British acquiesced and made Sindh a seperate province in 1936.
4) Sindh Provincial Assembly passed resolution in favor of Pakistan not once, but twice in 1946. A lot of Sindhi nationalists use this fact to say that Sindh created Pakistan and not vice versa but the fact is that Sindh itself was created by the Muslim League otherwise it would have been like any other area that is not a province today (Awadh, Hyderabad, Bhawalpur, Kalat etc).
5) Sindh was then merged with other Provinces in West Pakistan in 1955 under the One Unit, after a controversial vote in Sindh Assembly. The One Unit was abolished in 1970 and Sindh was restored. So there is precedence.
6) The administrative changes are being done to primarily wrest control of Karachi which contributes 95% of Sindh’s revenue but is only allocated 5% of its budget, and the city itself has been terribly mismanaged by Sindh government. Since this is the only real port city of Pakistan, the country cannot afford to let it get dilapidated.
PPP knows this as well, which is why they are shrieking against the division of Sindh, it’s not about Sindh, it’s about the cash cow in Karachi.
7) Karachi is mostly dominated by Mohajirs who actually want seperation from Sindh so they can have local government and more revenue/better administration. Despite the population being very anti army, they will suppport the army to make it a seperate unit. From their persepctive, this would end PPP’s money grab in Karachi.
They are not one ethnicity though. People of Tharparkar speak Dhatki/Thari which is a Rajasthani Marwari language… anyone can come up with such misdirections all day to disarm talkative Sindhis.
Fact is Sindhis have no gumption, and have achieved nothing* for a thousand plus years. The last Sindhi to put up a fight was Raja Dahir.
What will Sindhis do? roll over two times instead of one?
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged by a Mojahir-Punjabi Zia and Sindhis could not do anything.
Allah Bux Soomroo was murdered in 1943 by Jinna-boi’s Muslim League. And Sindhis couldn’t do anything.
In September 1942, to support the Quit India Movement. he renounced his British knighthood and Khan Bahadur titles. Because of this open defiance against British imperialism, the British Governor of Sindh, Sir Hugh Dow, formally dismissed him from the office of Chief Minister.
GM Syed spent 30 years in jail and died while under house arrest. And Sindhis could not do anything.
Musharraf, another Mojahir, allegedly had Benazir murdered. And Sindhis rolled over as usual.
Mojahirs put their blood and sweat into Karachi. They will make Jinnahpore the Singapore of Pakistan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinnahpur
What sort of weird comment is this.
What is weird about it?
Sindh has no memory or muscle to put up a fight against this sort of thing.
Only ~ 55-60% of Sindh’s population is Sindhi speaking.
Sindh is the land of Muslim Waderas, i.e., feudal land lords and Haaris, i.e., share croppers under debt bondage.
Two third of all land is under haari system. ~80% of all rural households don’t own any land, and 60% of all farmers are haaris. This is the new Medina of the UP muslim feudals who were running from land reforms.
Munir can execute Zardari-Bhutto duo and nothing will happen in Sindh.
The assemblies can be dissolved. Referendum can happen. Pakistan carried out it’s own op Sindoor in Afghanistan, why can’t they copy Kashmir’s assembly dissolution, president rule, and constitutional change?
It is obvious that Sindhi feudals sabotage Karachi and Mojahirs. What is the problem if Karachi becomes a province of its own? Singapore had the Chinese, Karachi has the Mojahirs. In a different world it would have been the capital of Pakistan.
Mojahirs can successfully conspire and execute Sindhi leaders. They run circles around Sindhis all day. It is like Hindu Bengalis in Jharkhand or Tripura. It is not even a competition.
Not so sure about the Southern States or indeed the lone star state…might just need the right catalyst. There’s still a fair bit of North South divide imo. Not to mention Hawaii where the native islanders absolutely despise the “settler” mainlanders.
such tribalism is the ‘natural’ human condition. Everywhere.
There is no serious possibility of secession in the US. And if there were it would be clamped down on.
No nation-state will permit the loss of territory. This is a complete non-starter.
The point is that it is not the number of administrative units that is the issue. It just should not be done on an ethnic basis since that undermines national unity. National unity should trump everything.
Anyway, the issue of Pakistan’s internal arrangements is not one that needs to concern non-Pakistanis.
That’s an absurd last line Kabir; you are welcome to leave this blog permanently if you write lines like that.
“Anyway, the issue of Pakistan’s internal arrangements is not one that needs to concern non-Pakistanis.”
People can write whatever they want to write on this blog. Please apologise to Agni for your rudeness and flippancy; especially after we instituted the Online Safety Protocol on your behalf.
Why is it “absurd”?
Why should people who are not citizens or residents of a country worry about its internal boundaries?
I didn’t intend for that sentence to be rude or flippant. I apologize if it read like that.
This is just hyperbole, there is not going to be any war or insurgency in Sindh. PPP will lose big time if they lose Karachi, as the city provides 95% of Sindh’s revenue while getting only 5% of the provincial budget allocation, and it does not ever vote for PPP. However normal Sindhi peasants outside of Sindh don’t have a stake in it either way, they will accept new provinces as it may change the status quo and spur some development in their region.
What do ‘patriotic Pakistanis’ wish to see come out of the current ‘governing’ setup?
You are happy with Muneer running things into the foreseeable future?
He’s making some splashy diplomatic moves, but is presiding over seemingly the worst phase in terms of internal security….
1) More provinces are always good. If Asim Muneer manages to do it he will become a hero/villian in many places and probably the most controversial figure after Zia.
2) His moves regarding the MENA region are great and he has been good diplomatically there.
3) However he has been weak internally against insurgent groups. He has not paid much attention to destroying insurgency and just took some stop gap measures like dropping bombs on Afghanistan or deporting Afghans. This will not do, and a comprehensive operation is required like the one under Raheel Sharif 10 years ago to eliminate terrorism. That needs political legitimacy which he lacks and needs Imran Khan for. But Imran Khan probably loathes him by now.
Imran Khan is over. He’s going to be in jail forever.
He and his party are not even worth talking about.
The man incited his followers to attack Pakistan’s military installations.
This is unforgivable.
Incidentally, the one thing that PTI is on the same page as everyone else about is that provinces cannot be divided.
He is not over, since he is the most popular Pakistani politician and will win any election held today, easily, perhaps by even 2/3rds majority.
However his party is more or less a joke and that is his own doing.
He is “over” in the sense that he is never getting out of jail.
May 9, 2023 was absolutely unforgivable.
This is what will happen to anyone who antagonizes the Fauj. Anyone with any intelligence should know how things work by now.
If everyone plays their cards correctly, 2029 will lead to another five years in power for PML-N.
The last time Pakistani military decided to play geography games with provincial units, in order to control politicians, they had to pull their pants down and surrender.
The omens are not great for Muneer, or for Pakistan.
The current setup is not working, why not try new ideas? Look Pakistan’s cricket fightback yesterday with new faces. Reorg might actually work.
The resulting chaos, and waste will get India another 2-3 years of lead in the short term. If it works for them, we can copy it. I think of it as demonetization, high risk, high reward (UPI).
Balochistan current size only makes sense to keep Baloch population in balance with more ‘patriotic’ Pashtuns. Things could get interesting if it is carved.
I just don’t see a future in which Balochistan and KPK become rich ever. Everyone is stupid, double-dealer and lazy in Pakistan. Rules are not respected, court intrigues are too complex, there is no continuity or vision, just naked survivalists. Imran was the ‘new’ idea whose time had come…
Punjabi-Saraiki division also makes sense. Karachi-Sindh division makes sense. I enjoy the Mojahir-Sindhi slugfest, zero-sum-games, and the lazy Sindhis being shown their place. When will we see this happen to North Punjabis…
I can try to be more understanding towards an idea like dividing up states into more manageable units. However, Pakistan’s approach towards it doesn’t seem to originate from a desire for better governing capacity, more regional autonomy or lower state upkeep. If they are to try to make this into a reality there must be a white paper or some kind of a committee set up to provide some insights on what such a change would actually entail. Until that happens it will remain just another farman coming from the sultan to provide jagirs for his loyal subedars.
India also didn’t form any committees on dividing J&K. Conditions in Balochistan are ten times worse than Kashmir in 2019.
There are advantages to the Sultanate. If shit goes south, the sultan can be blamed and subsequently hanged/exiled and the ‘innocence’ of the ‘system’ and ‘Pakistan-mata’ remains intact. If Kashmir went south after the reorg, Indians could have always blamed Modi, and gone back to old ways of Kashmiriyat…
Also, negotiations, back-and-forth, checks-and-balances work when both sides are principled, earnest and good natured. Do you think any political party in Pakistan is like that? Everyone is out for flesh of the others. Munir is a solution to such deadlock.
I think some of Munir’s maximalism it is him creating leverage. He knows if all goes quiet it will be bad for him, he needs the tamasha.
Pakistan already has the disadvantages of autocracy, why should it be shy of trying out it’s advantages: radical reforms and large changes?
Because without a principled or a logical approach towards reform it is just as likely to be more counter-productive for the state in comparison to the status quo. Constantly changing governing setups doesn’t benefits autocracies.
Sharif was allowed to see his dying wife, Imran is probably already blind. Benazir was blown to bits by Musharraf. Bhutto was hanged. There are no principles in Pakistan. Air Chief Marshal Asghar Khan (Air Force Chief, 1957–1965) was a principled man, was swatted aside like a housefly.
Methodical approach is impossible in Pakistan as horizons are short. The best they can do is have a intuitive somewhat logical PoV and see it through. Pakistan is the Army of British raj and the Royal Court of Delhi Sultanates. Munir is atleast not corrupt (?), maybe he pulls something off?
In either case it is good for us. If it goes badly, we enjoy. If it goes well, we copy, make central government divide UP, Bihar and MP, and then we enjoy.
Pakistan can explore solution space quickly, with hardware in the loop, in ways India cannot.
The time they waste on this, is time they don’t think about the 4.5 Billion they are paying annually to Independent Power Producers (IPP) primarily Chinese state owned ones. Electricity in Pakistan is 2-3X more expensive than India. Every year we race ahead counts. Its this slow grind or Ukraine-Russia.
Munir is the hero here if he pulls this off, and is not just saying it for leverage. He is putting his neck on the line. Like Modi is the hero for doing the immoral re J&K. He was willing to risk a fall that narcissist egomaniacs like Gandhi, and Vajpayee wouldn’t.
Depends on how you define ‘benefits’. Its not the citizens’ welfare thats the goal here, its to ‘simplify’ the PakMil’s ability to ‘oversee’ Pakistani governance without having to deal with pesky chief ministers who can potentially attain nation-wide prominence.
Its actually worse than that – its to prevent future subedars from getting too big for their britches.
Cutting down provinces to size is less about helping folks than to just cut bloody civilian politicians to size.
The big structural problem in Pakistan right now might be that their greatest net revenue contributor to the center, Karachi, is getting hollowed out faster than the northern Punjab/ Isb corridor can pickup the slack. Unlike in India, where a dysfunctional UP, Bihar or Bengal sends its human capital to Pune, Hyd and BLR, in Pakistan they relocate abroad. The instability in Karachi didn’t see a boom in Islamabad.
Karachi would really benefit from separation, local governance, and local taxation. So much of it’s potential is squandered by PPP’s Sindhi Feudals who cannot compete with Mojahirs on talent.
Check this out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karachi_Circular_Railway
All of this left to rot!
The combined estimated local government budget across Karachi’s single city-wide corporation (KMC) and its 25 localized Town Municipal Corporations (TMCs) totals approximately $331.24 million (Rs. 91.70 billion). This is comparable to Bhopal, Thane, Kanpur in India which are an order of magnitude smaller cities.
But you are being charitable to Karachi’s Mojahirs. If Karachi was stable then too they would have left. Telugu, Kannada, and Tamil human capital in America is proof.
The urdu saying goes : ‘For Mojahirs, Pakistan is but the layover on the flight to Canada.’
I would suggest there’s a difference in the latter point. The Kannada diaspora is not particularly ex-Bangalore. Like its neighboring states, its done a really good job of cranking out engineering grads from district towns, who at best use a stint at an MNC as stepping stone to the US. They are priced out of Bangalore for the most part, and building wealth in the west and either pivoting back to Karnataka is their goal. The elite is not fleeing. I grew up in the diaspora btw, and the amount of “diasporic reflux” in this state is remarkable. If someone has modest savings or can work remotely, there are several districts that offer a lifestyle that people are choosing over living abroad. The Telugus seem a bit more resolute in establishing themselves abroud, but I think it says more about the fact that their rural folk are competitive in white collar ITES type of stuff that it would be near impossible for any economy alone to absorb that human capital. They can make a generational class leap and then invest in real estate back home and donate to ngos that are enhancing the regions they came from. I’m not certain about Chennai, but Pune/Hyd/Blr are not really shedding human capital even if we restricted the cohort analysis to people from their city’s hinterland
Very interesting observation on the diaspora homing instinct of Kannadigas.
You’re presumably Indian American living in KA? That’s pretty uncommon at least amongst people I know. Most wouldn’t move back but those would be more recent expats. Though as you say, there would be a small minority that choose to live in India if a few boxes are ticked.
Have been seeing a strong return trend in recent grads, though Trump has contributed a lot to facilitate that.
Karachi is irreplaceable. It has high human capital, cheap labor and COL, good 4 season weather, a deep water port and an enviable geographical location in the entire region. It has been systematically destroyed by PPP that basically governs it using votes from rural Sindh and has no mandate in the city. Things can only get better if PPP’s choke hold on the city is destroyed.
COL?
Cost of living
Here is just another proof of Aryan incursion into South Asia.
The red shows Steppe pastoralist DNA in different castes/tribes.
Elamite-Dravidian seems a real hypothesis?
Maybe, what else explains the existence of Brohi language in Pakistan? We don’t have any concrete evidence. Since South Asians lack ANF, the Zagros (West Eurasian) incursion into India appears to be much much older than 6,000 BCE which makes it even harder to draw a direct link.
Who were the west Eurasian farmers? How come irulas have a good percentage of this? Irulas were supposed to be cousins of Australian aborigines.
West Eurasian farmers = Zagros/Iran_N
They form ~70% of IVC DNA and theorized to have brought farming to the subcontinent..
All Indians are admixed with this group.. even Paniyas and Irulas that have high SAHG (AASI) have at least 25-30% Zagros.
This is the ancestral group Indians share with Iranians, Iranians have a similar percentage of it as North Indians.
But UP Shia Syed’s have very high west Eurasian
That just means they are slightly more western shifted than UP Brahmins/Rajputs and closer to Pakistanis (Punjabis/Kashmiris)
https://www.ft.com/content/cd652b20-1fa3-4a51-bea7-4d7e33b1eaa2?syn-25a6b1a6=1
Houthis capture Red Sea port in blow to Saudis
Rebels overrun historic Yemeni port of Mocha as they advance south towards strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait
“Parliament to debate new provinces next month, says minister”
https://www.dawn.com/news/2028912/parliament-to-debate-new-provinces-next-month-says-minister
This whole thing is a tempest in a teacup. Changing provincial boundaries requires a 2/3 majority in the concerned provincial assembly and then in the Senate and National Assembly.
The Sindh Assembly will not support the division of Sindh. The Punjab Assembly will not support the division of Punjab.
Unfortunately, in Pakistan, this is not looked at purely as an administrative issue. It’s an emotive one. It hits at people’s identities. Also dividing the provinces is clearly an attempt to cut the Sharifs and Bhutto Zardaris down to size. No political dynasty will stand for that.
This is not funny. Gloating about the secession of East Pakistan and threatening further secession from Pakistan is despicable.
The territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is not up for negotiation.
Pakistan has actually experienced secession. That’s a deep national trauma. Further attempts at secession will not be tolerated.
https://www.axios.com/2026/09/11/houthis-yemen-saudi-trump-mbs-strikes
Scoop: MBS urged Trump to strike Houthis amid Red Sea threat
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) called President Trump twice Thursday, urging him to launch strikes against the Houthis as the Iran-backed group closed in on a vital Red Sea chokepoint, two U.S. officials told Axios.
I see online safety protocol just means not replying under. 😂😂
What’s good for the gloater is good for the gloatee Jimmy.
To Aadha Desis with love. 💋
This is low-signal and simply trolling Pakistanis.
@XTM: What value does this type of comment add?
The “ceasefire” means neither party can reply to the other. I am respecting that.
It doesn’t mean I cannot call out comments that are below the belt.
Secession is not something to joke about.
More importantly, there was a demand to create Telengana. There is no similar demand to divide Sindh.
With due respect Kabir, please leave the moderation to Admin. XTM and I have accommodated the safety protocol out of consideration for you.
Q and Indo are welcome to their opinions. There’s no gag order here.
I am not asking for a “gag order”.
I was simply pointing out a comment that was below the belt. This is something that everyone is entitled to do.
There is no call for gloating about the secession of East Pakistan or calling for further secession from Pakistan. This is obviously going to hurt Pakistani sentiments.
Calling for secession of any Indian state would not be accepted. The same should apply to Pakistan. Especially since we have actually experienced secession–which India has not.
If my comments can be called out for being “rude” and “flippant” (which is obviously subjective) then others should not get a pass either.
I think mispronouncing my state, followed by mocking its division, by people in glass houses is sort of begging for a response.
The outrage pity tantrum while violating the online safety protocol is pure weaponisation of purported victimhood.
Stop abusing mod rules and mod generosity.
Just as a clarification: It is not a violation of the “online safety protocol” to quote the other party’s comments.
It is a violation to reply directly to the other party.
As for “mispronouncing” Andra Pradesh, I doubt Q did this deliberately. Pakistanis have trouble with Indian names just as Indians do with Urdu.
I’m leaving it here.
And I corrected Q politely recognising that. His choice to be uncouth.
Mock and be mocked.
Quoting someone while replying is an obvious violation. Your choice to ignore it.
Violate and be violated.
Now you’re replying directly. That’s a ceasefire violation.
No it is not. How else is one supposed to call attention to problematic comments? Anyway, I’m happy for Admin to clarify this point.
“Mock and be mocked”– This is not a road you want to go down.
If you can call for parts of Pakistan to secede, we can certainly call for parts of India to secede.
If “mispronouncing” things is a crime, your Urdu is pretty atrocious.
you can email in Kabir, if you don’t have time to email the mods (which you have done before) to highlight problematic comments then we don’t have time to impose the Online Safety Protocol.
also re your earlier comment, don’t police the blog. that was a rude comment to Agni, who is not Pakistani.
BP can discuss whatever it likes, you are not here to regulate it.
Fine, I will email in next time.
Please do clarify if gloating about the secession of East Pakistan and threatening further secession is acceptable to you.
“Rudeness” is subjective. I see a lot of rudeness from other people that gets a free pass.
I still don’t see why people who are not citizens or residents of a country are so concerned about how many administrative units it has.
I don’t make an issue out of how many states India has.
who died and appointed you the monitor of ‘violations’? Please stop this charade. Your attempted policing of this space has been “rejected”.
Don’t start with me.
Suffice it to say if you get nasty with me I’m quite prepared to put you in your place.
Kabir, you need a break from this site. Try to stay away for 1 week. See if you can. These repeated patterns of belligerence, policing, getting upset with what people say, none of this is good for you.
Now I know currently I am enemy no 1 in your mind and you will think I have a subliminal ulterior motive, whatnot.
I am happy to stay away too in solidarity.
Think about it.
It’s isn’t just me, most Indians on this site have voiced concern for your mental health. The ‘online safety protocol’ is constantly subverted by you to be effectively meaningless.
Don’t condescend to me. You are no one to tell me what is good for me or not.
Your “concern” for my mental health is completely fake and meaningless. It’s barely been two weeks since you were joking about driving me to “self harm”.
It’s very rich that you are playing the innocent given that barely 24 hours ago you were gloating about the secession of East Pakistan.
Look in a mirror and introspect about your own role in creating toxicity.
I have no issues respecting the “ceasefires”–which I had asked for.
You have no reason to be replying directly to me.
Let’s let the Admin decide whether quoting someone’s words in a separate comment is acceptable or not.
I never joked about it.
This is a stupid lie you keep telling yourself, because horror of horrors, god forbid that an ‘enemy’ designate can actually show concern.
Instead you want to focus on semantics of rules made up on an online blog which you instituted ‘to protect yourself’ but cannot help but transgress.
Happily you quickly erase all guilt I feel over entertaining myself by displaying your many abominable views and rank hypocrisy.
“I never joked about it”– Keep telling yourself that. I don’t trust a single word you say.
Stay in your lane. I don’t need you to show fake “concern”.
The fact that you admit on record to “entertaining” yourself at my expense is a very damning admission on your part and doesn’t help your case.
Is your life really that empty that you need to bully people online?
I didn’t “make up” the Online Safety Precedent. It was instituted during your absence from this blog after someone threatened to hold a gun to my head.
I’ll leave it here. Don’t antagonize me.
It’s the 25th anniversary of 9/11.
I remember exactly where I was when it happened–third period concert choir. It was a really big deal in our school because we were located in the DC suburbs and people had parents who worked in the Pentagon.
9/11 and the ensuing “war on terror” was probably the formative experience of my adolescence.
I am glad that I was brave enough to speak up in class and that I knew enough about Islam to be able to quote the Quran on their being no compulsion in religion.
I was driving to work in Jersey, my first “full-time job” after college. Saw the towers smoking from the highway.
Most Radio stations were piping in the CNN coverage. When I reached work and found out what had happened, we were all in a conference room watching tv in shock. And my mind instantly went back to my memories of the 1992 Bombay bombings. “They are doing it again, Its happening again.” slipped out from me, and my dept head asked me what I was talking about.
Years later, when I visited the ‘Newseum’ in DC and walked into the 9/11 exhibit, I was …surprised at how emotional my reaction was.
Living through terrorism impacts one deeply. In so many ways.
For all of George ‘Dubya’ Bush’s stupidity, its unreal to me that America managed to elect somebody orders of magnitude worse than him as president. At least Dubya had the grace to make the right noises about not blaming all muslims and Islam in the aftermath of 9/11.
I do not think that Drumpf would respond like that.
Most Americans don’t care about 9/11 and it’s been like this for over a decade now. For the rest of the world, even earlier. Almost 25% young americans even think it was an inside job or a zionist conspiracy.
911 is pretty irrelevant now with regards to modern geopolitics.. however if we were to point out where it all started going downhill for the American Global Empire, it would have been this incident. US was at the peak of its military, economic, and cultural power and the slow decline started after this incident which provided a lot of avenues for elite corruption. Now in 2026, it’s all unraveling pretty quickly.
That’s not been my experience with Americans. Its almost a rule that every other drunk conversation with a white person somehow ends up being about my opinion on 9/11.
Agree, even the sober conversations. Some are in shock to hear that India battled this much sooner.
Many Americans came to know of terror only because of 9/11. Till that, it was somebody else dying somewhere far away. In their minds “not their circus, not their monkeys “.
I don’t know whether “most Americans” don’t care about 9/11.
My point was that it was a formative experience in my adolescence. It’s like the Kennedy Assassination for that generation. Everyone knows exactly where they were when they found out about it.
9/11 led to the “War on Terror” and peak Islamophobia as well as the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq.
In his speech yesterday, President Trump framed the war on Iran as a continuation of the “War on Terror”. Was that cynical? Yes.
But clearly 9/11 still matters.
A very good article on 9/11:
“The end of 9/11”
By Rafia Zakaria
https://www.dawn.com/news/2029302/the-end-of-911
I saw this on instagram and felt it ought to be shared:
Mohammad Salman Hamdani, a Pakistani American from New York City, was an emergency medical technician and Police Department cadet who died trying to save lives at the World Trade Center during the 9/11 attacks. He was 23. Instead of being initially hailed as a hero, Hamdani was being investigated due to his Pakistani roots and Muslim faith. One newspaper even questioned, “Missing or Hiding?”
Eventually, the suspicion surrounding Hamdani was proven false. The NYC mayor and police commissioner later hailed him as a hero for his selfless actions on 9/11.
However, Hamdani’s name is absent from the list of fallen first responders at the National Sept 11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan. Nor is he listed among the victims whose remains were recovered from the wreckage of the north tower, where his body was ultimately found in 34 pieces.
Instead, Hamdani’s name appears on the memorial’s final panel for World Trade Center victims, reserved for those with only a loose or no official connection to the towers.
His mother was shocked to receive a notification from the Sept 11 memorial informing her that her son’s name would not be listed in the separate section for the first responders, despite the fact that he died while trying to save lives there.
“They do not want anyone with a Muslim name to be acknowledged at ground zero with such high honors,” his mother said. “They don’t want someone with the name Mohammad to be up there.”
His mother fought for her son to be recognized on the Sept 11 memorial as an early responder. She reached out to politicians and even wrote a letter to President Obama, from whom she received a respectful but noncommittal response. Despite her efforts, her son’s place on the Sept. 11 memorial has not changed.
She established a scholarship in her son’s name, honoring his legacy, but she is still waiting for justice. In 2014, a corner in Bayside was renamed “Salman Hamdani Way”.
“What I want is not complicated – a recognition that, when Salman died beneath the rubble that day, he died as a first responder,” she told CNN.
Source: “Sept. 11 Memorial Obscures a Police Cadet’s Bravery” by Sharon Otterman, NY
Thanks for sharing.
It’s quite shameful that he wasn’t recognized as a first responder.
9/11 and the “War on Terror” legitimized all kinds of Islamophobia. Some of it effected non-Muslim South Asians too since many people can’t tell the difference.
I was lucky that my school was in a relatively liberal area so I didn’t experience any direct racism.
I was also lucky that I was politically aware enough and knew enough about Islam to be able to argue against the facile connection that was made between Islam and terrorism in those days.
On a lighter note:
“Rakhi Sawant defends Hania Aamir against critique of her debut single ‘Pablo’”
https://images.dawn.com/news/1195824/rakhi-sawant-defends-hania-aamir-against-critique-of-her-debut-single-pablo
Just wow! This comment is extremely low-signal as well as certainly falls under the category of “rude” and “flippant”.
The same comment continues with references to “lazy Sindhis”. This is stereotypical and against a specific ethnicity.
Really a new low in the discourse.
“Modern Indian History-1”
Anjum Altaf wrote this piece after re-reading “The Discovery of India”, “Pakistan or the Partition of India” and “India Wins Freedom”
https://anjumaltaf.substack.com/p/modern-indian-history-1?
Just looking at the comments about 9-11. Theres a noticeable absence of any commensuration with America over it. It was a horrific event, a terror attack in the purest definition of the word against civilians, using civilian airlines, non combatant innocent lives of people just going about their daily routines.
Is it that the subsequent war on terror overreach was too heavy handed?
Is it the completely unjustified lack of decency and ethical grounding of the current obscenity of a war with Iran.
Or did the Americans finally get a sense of homeland insecurity for atomic bombing Japan, the Korean war, napalming Vietnam, firebombing Cambodia, embargoing Cuba, the Blood telegram, arming Islamic fundamentalists in Afghanistan, commando raids in Somalia?
By and large the American military paid lip service to civilian lives or suffering, in their expeditions abroad.
Americans all remember 9-11, but I doubt half of them will even know of the rest.
ironically, the notion that islam is a religion of peace got shattered in west for all times to come.
What are you talking? I thought a little boy stood up in class and fixed all that.
On a more sober note, I visited the spot on Bondi. While we all watched the clips on the internet, the distances felt much closer in real life.
It’s incredible how cold blooded that attack was, from where the man was shooting you would have been able to read the expressions on the children’s faces before they were shot dead. Hardly 50m.
You do realize it is quite bigoted to associate an entire religion with the actions of a terrorist group?
This is like blaming all the world’s Jews for the actions of the Israeli government in Gaza. Not a good argument.
The Quran clearly states “There is no compulsion in religion”.
It also states:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Baqarah_256
1) i am not associating any thing, as in india hindus get accused of all sorts of “evils” supposedly seen in today’s society and any amount of protestation that these practices have no canonical support is brushed aside, saying that the present conduct matters etc..
2) further to above, muslims are measured by their present conduct and not scriptures.
a) https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/pakistan-hindu-sisters-case-sindh-court-sends-minors-to-safe-house-hindu-minors-tando-allahyar-2991628-2026-09-11
b) sex slaves made out of yezidi girls in iraq.
3) i have told my my muslim colleagues, that the statement “There is no compulsion in religion”, has been over ridden by later day revelations / sayings and hence the original one is not valid. Pl. correct me.
I am not an expert on Islam so I don’t know about anything being “over ridden” by other revelations.
However, “There is no compulsion in religion” is clearly part of the Quran and it is used to support the argument for religious tolerance.
The main point is that it is Islamophobic to blame an entire religion for the actions of terrorist groups.
If you wouldn’t like your entire religion blamed for terrorist acts committed by Hindus then don’t blame Islam for Al Queda.
Looks like most Islamic countries aren’t Islamic by your standards.
He prefers it that instead of replying to him directly, you quote his entire comment and spawn a new thread.
Requesting everyone to be calm. Heads up to everyone, I will edit language that feels excessive.
Hey! I was wallowing in how funny that was. Prude.
Passive aggressive.
What exactly is your issue with being prevented from interacting with me?
At this point, you and I both know that any such interactions are not going to lead to a good place.
Nothing you do will change the impression I’ve formed of you.
The “ceasefires” are meant to prevent the mods from having to deal with a lot of nasty back and forth.
The simple point is that blaming an entire religion for the actions of a terrorist group is bigoted.
I already gave the example above of not blaming all the world’s Jews for the actions of the Israeli Army in Gaza.
Even immediately post 9/11, President Bush did not blame all Muslims for Al Qauida.
Hey you are free to live in any kind of echo chamber you prefer. Just don’t expect the rest of us to believe your fairy tales. We wouldn’t want to burst your bubble after all.
What exactly is your problem?
I made the quite non-controversial point that you cannot blame an entire religion for the actions of terrorists. You came at me for no reason.
I didn’t want to have to do this but perhaps this example will drive the point home:
Graham Staines and his sons were murdered by members of Bajrang Dal. Should Hinduism be held responsible?
Because that is exactly the argument you are making when it comes to Islam.
Keep digging deeper and proving your Islamophobia.
The point was that you made a rather absolute statement of about a lack of compulsion in Islam which can be directly contrasted by the policies against apostasy in most Islamic countries. But you continue to ignore those points and instead wish to sidestep any real argument regarding those issues. The reality is 95%+ of global terrorists are Islamists of some nature, to create that kind of a disproportionate representation should lead to some level of self-reflection which seems to be lacking on your end. Instead what comes out repeatedly is a victim complex which tries to ignore all faults of the religion.
I made the (extremely banal) point that blaming all followers of a religion for the actions of terrorist groups is bigoted.
Btw, Apostasy is different from forcing non-Muslims to believe in Islam.
If you don’t believe that all Hindus should be blamed for the murder of Graham Staines then you shouldn’t blame all Muslims for 9/11.
To do so is Islamophobia pure and simple.
Terrorism is a complex topic. State terrorism (such as what Israel is doing in Gaza) is one aspect. Terrorism mostly has political causes rather than religious ones.
I don’t think you really wish to have a productive discussion on this topic.
Being against apostasy is a form of compulsion isn’t it? It is the act of not allow a non-believer to even be able to express their non-belief.
I’m fine with Hindus being blamed for any and every death directly caused by them. Are you willing to do so for the Muslims? Because the difference would be orders of magnitude higher for the Muslims.
It’s great that you brought up the topic of State Terrorism which is what Pakistan does. We’ve had so much proof at this point of its existence that even military personnel are openly attending terrorist funerals for the LeT leaders in Pakistan at this point. I’ve attached a great picture of the event it remains a memorable event from the last year.
hey guys the online Protocol exist; you all need to start replying to each other now..
Thank you for the reminder.
Just as a point of clarification: Is it acceptable to blame Islam for 9/11?
My limited point is that this is a bigoted argument.
It is absurd, quoting each others comments , instead of directly replying.
Funnily enough your statement is in the same spirit.
Inadvertently?
All sorted.
I had allowed the Protocol to lapse a little as Kabir was rude to the co-Admin.
But there is a nuance; for instance if either side want to discuss, intellectually, a comment then that is encouraged.
If it’s just to shadow tweet one another and continue the same process temporarily, that obviously goes against the spirit.
Dont think the west ever had a good opinion on islam or Muslims tbh.
If anything defending islam and Muslims has at least made the complexity of the Muslim world more easy to understand outside of the groups and people specially interested in the islamic world.
I dont think opinions on religions are set in stone because of the above factor and they can change quite easily.
There is a whole history of relations between “Christendom” and Islam. Islam was considered a heresy since Muslims don’t accept Christ as the Son of God. Dante placed the Prophet Muhammad in the circle of hell which was meant for heretics. Edward Said wrote about this in “Orientalism”.
However, Muslims clearly don’t have huge issues with Christianity as such. Some of the Prophet’s wives were Christian. Maria the Copt was one of them.
Muslim men can marry Christian women without the woman having to convert.
I don’t think most Americans cared about Islam one way or the other. It was only post 9/11 that the question of “why do they hate us?” became salient.
From my own life experience, I can tell you that Islamophobia in the US peaked in the early 2000s.
“What is my tradition”– Aren’t you a Hindu?
If you don’t want the sacred figures of Hinduism insulted then you need to refrain from insulting the Prophet of God and his wives.
This is Islamophobic.
You know very well that no believing Muslim will tolerate any kind of disrespect aimed at the Prophet of God.
As for “incest”: In today’s day and age, sleeping with one’s brother-in-law is considered beyond disgusting. Having more than one husband at a time is unacceptable in most cultures. How does one know who the father of any child is? Or does that not matter to you?
Cousin marriage is permitted in Islam. It’s not considered “incest”.
In European royal families, marrying one’s cousins was the norm until fairly recently.
Homeland insecurity has made them even more paranoid. That’s partly the reason to target Iran.
Amongst people I know, there’s more empathy towards others who have suffered terror attacks relentlessly, like India. The resilience of Mumbai and Mumbaikars has stunned many.
Here I disagree. If America can get into a war with Iran after experiencing 2 pointless multi decade wars in west Asia which objectively left both Afghanistan and Iraq worse off, I don’t think 9-11 is really in the frame.
If anything I feel the American sense of immunity has heightened given their new found vigour over picking fights with everyone, even Canada.
Mumbai has a great resilience narrative built in. I truly love their self confidence, if only it extended to sorting out infrastructure and appalling visible disparity.
My theory is that Mumbaikars are just de-sensitised to disaster due to the daily assault of visible eyesores.
Neither Iraq nor Afghanistan possess(ed) the capability to strike back militarily. Iran has successfully blunted the American attack with help from its proxies and I daresay both Russia and China.
Iran also imo has the ability to orchestrate a 9/11 type of attack with more sophisticated machinery, drones?
Besides, the life of US Marines is cheap currency to the current crop sitting in the Congress. Biden atleast had a son serve in the military. Only those who experienced the horrors of war like John McCain would have had a more holistic view instead of the myopic view the current administration espouses. Trump is literally a mercenary, there’s no other word.
The Western perspective of resilience is just that, a view from the outside. My point was about their impression.
Agree with you, in Mumbaikars, its just plain apathy masquerading as resilience.
I would have to disagree on that front a bit. Due to the fact that the Americans have been so careful in hiding the casualty figures for this war until now. Their ships have constantly bristled at the thought of going to relieve the blockade on the straits of Hormuz even when they had the capability to do so. Even the current administration consists of several veterans who have gone to war previously. They don’t consider the value of US Marines as cheap they just consider the price of visibly losing a war much heavier.
Not entirely in disagreement here. Both can be true. Loss of face is too much to take especially for the likes of Trump and lives are expendable, including those of Marines. Casualty count cannot be kept under wraps indefinitely (it is the US after all despite the recent plunge towards dictatorship). Imo Trump’s commiting gradual harakiri politically. The US seems to have hit rock bottom with the menagerie in Congress.
One man’s will seems to be imposed on the rest. Everyone in Congress, both sides of the aisle are double faced Januses. They say one thing publicly but vote the other way. Everyone knows how Trump went after those who publicly went against him in the previous term.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_ly3PbcOII
The governance of Pakistan cricket in oh so many ways, is an accurate microcosm of how Pakistan itself is governed.
I should make this into a post actually.
You should 🙂
For those sincerely interested in discussing the nature of “terrorism”:
Anjum Altaf wrote an excellent piece way back in 2009 which discusses the character of Colehouse Walker in Doctorow’s novel Ragtime.
https://thesouthasianidea.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/september-eleven/
Colehouse was driven to terrorism due to the racist treatment he received and after his wife was murdered.
I thought this was funny:
“Harry and Meghan Return Home|SNL UK”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kzHYu6Gumc
Haha. Those two are the new age Edward and Wallis Simpson.
I actually like Prince Harry.
I think he’s been treated quite badly by his dad and by his brother and sister-in-law.
If it’s true that concern was expressed about how dark Prince Archie was potentially going to be that is not flattering.
Also, it’s admirable that he stood by his wife. We know in South Asia that if a man has to choose between his wife and his parents he most of the time chooses his parents and the wife has to deal with it.
But certainly the Sussexes also don’t do themselves favors.
+1
I don’t think so tbh .. I think they doing some very smart manoeuvres
For Calvin:
“Soundscape: The Legacy of Christian Music in Pakistan”
By Arieb Azhar
https://www.dawn.com/news/2029591/soundscape-the-legacy-of-christian-music-in-pakistan
Thank you will check it out.
There’s also this piece by Brian Bassanio Paul (whom we have also published in “The Peshawar Review”)
” A Raag Beyond Borders And Belief”
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2616584/a-raag-beyond-borders-and-belief
Thanks for this as well.
This is about the Baha’i Faith and Urdu prayers in Pakistan:
” A Faith Finds Its Voice”
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2622841/a-faith-finds-its-voice
Yes thank you, lovely article.
Urdu, Persian Arabic, possible Turkish are the languages that are directly translated from the original language of The Writings.
On a lighter note:
We had a marriage in Pakistan’s royal family (the Sharifs) on Saturday.
Mahnoor Safdar married Azaan Jabbar
“A look into the fashion at Mahnoor Safdar’s nikkah”
https://images.dawn.com/news/1195836/a-look-into-the-fashion-at-mahnoor-safdars-nikkah
Incidentally, both Mahnoor and Azaan are alums of SOAS (as am I)
I wrote this essay for a political philosophy class during my undergrad. I was reminded of it because of the 25th anniversary of 9/11.
“Why have some authors compared modern terrorism to totalitarianism?”
https://kabiraltaf.substack.com/p/why-have-some-authors-compared-modern
so much has changed in 25yrs..
“Diljit Dosanjh pays tribute to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan while becoming first Punjabi singer to headline Wembley”
https://images.dawn.com/news/1195842/diljit-dosanjh-becomes-first-punjabi-singer-to-headline-wembley-stadium-pays-tribute-to-nusrat-fateh-ali-khan