Terrorist Islamic Republic of Pakistan (TSP): Aug 05, 2011

[Aditya_V]

can some one explain what this really means

Pak building railway station close to zero line

Doesn't make sense to build so close, especially when arty can hit it so easily. Unless Pakis want to do tactical brilliance and involve China in the conflict.

ANd if they remember 1971, they will make it easy for the Indian supply chain once they advance.

[vina]

What does this have to do with Pakhanastanis in the west? I will explain. It is my hypothesis that the vast majority of Pakhanis who went to the west came from a class of extremely wealthy "Royal family" like or rich feudal/aristocratic Jinnah like families. Most Pakistanis who went abroad came from such families and attended elite schools, travelled elite class and mingled with the cream of society in the west - just like an earlier generation of travelling Indian Maharajas. When it came to education the wealthy Pakistani, like Rajiv Gandhi and Bhutto (both wealthy aristocratic families) was "sent" to top schools like Harvard.

This was true until the 80s. The Dilli Billi class fixated on Britain (still are, going to Oxbridge is still the thing to do in Dilli society) and it wasn't until the 80s, that the Yindians started arriving in the US in big numbers. The hey day of the US-Paki relationship was the 60s and 70s and RAPES and top boor-o-crats gubmint, Army, business etc kind of spawn went en masse to US (fully paid for by the loot of the Abdul Paki of course) as full paying students.

Compare that with the demographic profile of Indians in the west.

But unfortunately for the Pakis, come Zia (1977) and later, the Pakis went down well, Pakistan! The mango Paki showing up all over the world was the unwashed, illiterate , bad dental work and smelling of yesterday's Abdul, who at best could be cab drivers. The Indians on the other hand were rising up in all places in their careers, (all kinds, tech, wall st, chemical, oil & gas, manufacturing.. heck including diaper and toilet roll making) to the executive suites and the 2nd generation and now 3rd generation of Indian Americans were kicking serious butt. The Pakis went from upper level Pakistan to the Pakistan of the septic tank. Today, just take a sampling of any half decent Univ in the US , the Indians will outnumber the Pakis by a massive margin .. easily the order of 20 or 30 to 1. In Ivy League and other top programs like MIT, UCB, Stan Madrassa kind of places, it will be even more skewed towards the Indians. If you look at the ratio of Indian Americans vs Poak-Americans , it will be even more massively skewed. If you include faculty and leadership positions, it is a no contest at all. It is a walk over.

All in all, that initial RAPE led influence is dead and gone. It simply was not sustainable. Now it is the Yindians who are in positions of power and influence (executive suites in top corporations, the entrepreneurs, the wall st, the money bags, the ability to influence and increasingly hopefully electorally) and that lead will get magnified over time when the kids of those who came in the late 80s and 90s on H1s grow up and start kicking butt. The Pakis lost the plot the moment the RAPES were done and all that was left going outside were the cabbies and halal butchers. That society doesn't have the middle class to actually have anything sustainable (the middle class that exists there is a thieving supplicant and accomplice to the RAPE and exist solely on the good humor of the RAPE and Jarnails).

[Rohit_K]

didn't see this news posted from 3 days ago..

88 die as flashfloods wreak havoc in Kohistan, PoK

[shiv]

Yikes Sridhar and ramana - it's startling to see an image there. Could you just post a link to the image along with the same explanation?

I would disagree with you shiv saar about the positioning , the diagram + Table are really great and are really in their right place at the front page. Unless it is going to cuase any bandwidth issue please do not provide just a link to them. As they say a picture speaks louder than words. And these figures are a correct assessment of TSPs situation.

OK.

Sridhar - could I trouble you to edit the first page again and insert the code for this thumbnail where the main image resides. Clicking on the thumbnail will show the image. You can cut and paste the code below.



The code is as follows

Code: Select all

[URL=http://s8.photobucket.com/albums/a11/cybersurg/brf/?action=view&current=paksociety.jpg][IMG]http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a11/cybersurg/brf/th_paksociety.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[SSridhar]

can some one explain what this really means

Pak building railway station close to zero line

Doesn't make sense to build so close, especially when arty can hit it so easily. Unless Pakis want to do tactical brilliance and involve China in the conflict.

Now, the PLA will be stationed along the IB as well. If you recall, a month-long war game of the armies of China & Pakistan was conducted barely 25 Kms from the India-Pakistan international border along the Jaisalmer-Bikaner sections of Rajasthan concluded last week. This was the first time such a military exercise between China and Pakistan had taken place so close to an Indian border. And now, this news. Slowly, PLA presence is extending from Ladakh to Rajasthan border. Let's wait for the announcement along the Punjab IB.

[Prem]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 21138.html
CIA Strikes Strain Ties With Pakistan Further

WASHINGTON—The Central Intelligence Agency is racing to deal a death blow to al Qaeda while the network is weakened, raising concerns for some U.S. officials that the campaign of drone strikes could become so politically damaging for Pakistan's leaders that they may seek to curtail them.But the strike stoked Pakistani anger over the U.S.'s aggressive unilateral pursuit of militants in their country, revealing the double-edged nature of the current drone program in which each U.S. victory takes a toll on the U.S.-Pakistani relationship. Several senior U.S. officials said there was growing fear that Pakistani leaders could move to curtail the flights in response to outcries from the Pakistani public, which believes the strikes kill civilians. U.S. officials say militants—not civilians—are killed.The killing of Attiyah Abd al-Rahman, who was effectively al Qaeda's chief operating officer, in the rugged mountains of Waziristan bordering Afghanistan, "seriously weakens al Qaeda," said Seth Jones, an al Qaeda specialist at Rand Corp., a think tank. "It doesn't push them to irrelevancy, but it probably pushes them closer to strategic defeat."

The CIA carries out two different types of drone strikes in the tribal areas of Pakistan—those against so-called high-value targets, including Mr. Rahman, and "signature" strikes targeting Taliban foot-soldiers who criss-cross the border with Afghanistan to fight U.S. forces there.High-value targets are added to a classified list that the CIA maintains and updates. The agency often doesn't know the names of the signature targets, but it tracks their movements and activities for hours or days before striking them, U.S. officials say.Islamabad doesn't generally get a say over who the CIA targets and when the strikes take place, much to the chagrin of Pakistani officials.U.S. officials have so far ruled out making such changes to the program. But there are growing calls within the U.S. military and State Department for the CIA to take a more "judicious" approach to the strikes in order to try to improve U.S.-Pakistan relations.We're not blind to Pakistani sensitivities, and the Pakistanis shouldn't ignore major successes that help their security, too, such as the recent demise of Rahman," the official said. "Surely they recognize the benefits of American counterterrorism operations that accrue to Pakistanis."
Rather than focusing largely on the U.S., the official said the Pakistanis should also be "spending a lot of time thinking about how they can tighten the screws on murderers based in their own country."

[SSridhar]

Sridhar - could I trouble you to edit the first page again . . .

Shiv, I had already removed the jpg and made it a plain url. Let's leave it there.

[Dilbu]

If there is a clash with TSP does it matter whether it is PLA or KLA that is manning the border?

[disha]

Don't compare her to Arundhati roy, That will be an insult to her. For what she stands for. That's opposing fundamentalist ideas. Whereas Arundhati is the one who support fundamentalist ideas. She was the one who vouch for Pakistan which itself is a nation born out of the two nation theory of Hindus and Muslims cannot live together. That itself is fundamentalism. So if someone is opposing this two nation theory, then that person is against Arundhati roy and is a true liberal and not a pseudo liberal.

^^^ +1. Ms. Sirmed is really brave to stand up to the fundoos in pakhanistan and show them their place with proper debates and succint articles. On the other hand, Arundhoti Roy is a political gadfly - without any literary ability - reading her prosaic garbage is worser than taking prozac.

[Philip]

Arundhathi Roy,the self-styled premier of the independent republic of Roy.She now sits gnashing her teeth,sticking pins into wax dolls of AH,livid at losing the space she thought was her birth-right,the "conscience keeper " of India-rather the specific class of chatteratti and gliterratti Indian.

[Gaurav_S]

PM doesn’t rule out ‘foreign hands’ in Karachi violence

[Rony]

How-urdu-got-associated-with-muslims-in-India-- written by a Paki

Languages are basically a means of communication, expression of emotion, attitude and mood. But they are also associated with identity in various degrees. Identity is nationalistic, sub-nationalistic (ethnic) and, in some rare cases, also religious. In India, it so happened that Urdu got associated with the Indian-Muslim identity between the late 18th and the early 20th centuries. Despite the fact that this language is spoken by both Hindus and Muslims and Muslims themselves speak a number of languages, mainly Bengali, Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi and Gujrati. Moreover, in the villages of UP and Bihar, both Hindus and Muslims actually speak the dialects of Hindi such as Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Braj Bhasha, Maithili etc. And yet, modern Urdu is associated with Islam in India in both India and Pakistan. How did this happen? This is explained in two parts. The first part deals with the movement for the purification of Urdu between 1750 to the early 1900s.
The movement for linguistic purification — which I call the ‘Islamisation of Urdu’ for reasons given below — started in the middle of the 18th century. The ancestor of Urdu was an Indic-oriented language. By this I mean that it had words of the local languages (bhaka or bhasha) and Sanskrit, and its allusions were to India and the local culture. Even though the script of some writings in this language is Perso-Arabic (Urdu), as opposed to Devanagari used in the Rajput writings, the language is similar. This common language underwent a great change from the 1750s onwards which is the theme of this article.
In this purification movement, the Indic element was purged out by Muslim poets who, it appears, wanted a class-identity marker. Among the changes which occurred were: the removal of local (bhaka) and Sanskritic words, the substitution of Iranian and Islamic cultural allusions and metaphors in place of Indian and Hindu ones, and the replacement of the Indian conventions about the expression of love (woman to man) by Persian ones (man to woman or adolescent boy). Among the more than 4,000 words purged out were nain (eye), prem (love), mohan (dear one) etc. They do exist in songs and some other forms of poetry, of course, but they were banished from the ghazal. The grounds given in the writings of the poets who did all this — such as Shah Hatim (1699-1786), Imam Baksh Nasikh (d. 1838), Insha Ullah Khan Insha (1752-1818), etc — are not communal. They said that certain words are obsolete, unfashionable and rough. However, the end result was that words of Indic origin were the ones which were purged. That is one reason why I call this movement ‘Islamisation’. To take one concrete example, Hatim made a small extract of his voluminous poetic work calling it Divan Zada (1756). In the preface of this compilation, he writes in Persian that he “had stopped using the local idiom which was called ‘bhaka’” (bhaka goend mauquf karda). In its place, he tells us, he had started the refined idiom of the gentlemen of Delhi. And what was this? For an answer we have to go to Insha who defined it precisely in his Persian book Darya-e-Latafat (1802). For Insha, this was the language of the Muslim elite of Delhi and Lucknow. Such notions about linguistic excellence were in circulation from the 14th century at least, as Amir Khusro’s own notions illustrate. However, during the 1750s the ideas of Sirajuddin Ali Khan Arzu (1687-1756), a Persian poet and linguist, had a stronger impact on Hatim and the other reformers. Arzu corrected an existing dictionary naming it Navadir-ul- Alfaz (1751). In this he indicates at several places that the standard language he had in mind was that of the elite of Delhi. And this idiom was far more Persianised and full of Islamic cultural references than the other styles of the language spoken elsewhere. So it was this Persianised language which became a marker of the educated, mostly Muslim but also Hindu Kaesth, identity during British India.
The impact of this movement was that it changed the identity of the common language of north India to two languages: Persianised Urdu and Sanskritised Hindi. The process of Sanskritisation started from 1802 onwards and it was a consequence of political awareness, incipient nationalism and reaction to Muslim cultural dominance. But this dominance had been contributed to; by the same movement of the Islamisation of Urdu so that a Hindu poet had to use Islamic phraseology in order to be appreciated. And yet, ironically and most unjustly, Azad’s book Ab-e-Hayat ignores both Hindu poets as well as women. There is no doubt that this process of Persianisation was a class movement meant to strike out an independent path rather than to write in Persian itself as the Iranians made fun of Indian-Persian. Moreover, from the 1830s onwards, Persian was being phased out from the domains of power. Both the Muslims and Kaesth Munshis were interested in using Persianised Urdu to retain their monopoly over jobs in UP and the Punjab. But the apprenticeship (ustadi-shagirdi) tradition, the poetry recitation sessions (mushairas) which were assemblies of rivals and the cultural capital given to language was such that the allusions, references and the atmosphere, at least in the ghazal, was Persian and Muslim. That is why the movement alienated Hindus and that is why I call it the Islamisation of Urdu. Its greatest harm was that it began the division of Urdu-Hindi into Urdu and Hindi and this was continued by the Sankritisation of Hindi later. And yet, the spoken language of ordinary people remains undivided. It is only by recognising this history and resolving to build upon common themes and continuities of this common language of north Indian cities that we exorcise the ghosts of the past from this subcontinent.

[JE Menon]

>>It is only by recognising this history and resolving to build upon common themes and continuities of this common language of north Indian cities that we exorcise the ghosts of the past

As always, to find the meaning of any Pak article, go for the last sentence. These effing Paks are bloody snakes I tell you...

[Philip]

Great "exorcism" ceremonies going on in Karachi and all over Puristan right now. The author is getting his wish!

JEM,was the people's comon lingo then what we call "Hindustani"?

[RajeshA]

For shiv saar especially!

An article on racism in Pakistan from an year ago.

Published on Sep 03 2010
By Sadaf Fayyaz
A mythical racist culture: Aaj TV

Code: Select all

http://www.aaj.tv/2010/09/a-mythical-racist-culture/

The racial ethnicity and internal discrimination is something that forms the fabric of our current social set up and infrastructure. It is something that has deeply penetrated into our roots, blood, and beliefs. It has just been rooted into our thoughts, daily life conversation, jokes and behavior. We don’t have any anti-Pathan or anti-Sindhi theory to support our racist behavior, but our daily talk does reflect this.

Comments are good too!

Akhrot (Pathan), Dhagga (Punjabi), Mattarwa or Bhaiyya (Mohajir), Stupid (Sindhi or Baluchi)

[JE Menon]

>>JEM,was the people's comon lingo then what we call "Hindustani"?

I should have thought so Philip, but perhaps the better person to answer this would be someone who has a more academic knowledge on the matter - perhaps Brihaspati.

[SSridhar]

How-urdu-got-associated-with-muslims-in-India-- written by a Paki

The movement for linguistic purification — which I call the ‘Islamisation of Urdu’ for reasons given below — started in the middle of the 18th century. . . . In this purification movement, the Indic element was purged out by Muslim poets who, it appears, wanted a class-identity marker. Among the changes which occurred were: the removal of local (bhaka) and Sanskritic words, the substitution of Iranian and Islamic cultural allusions and metaphors in place of Indian and Hindu ones, and the replacement of the Indian conventions about the expression of love (woman to man) by Persian ones (man to woman or adolescent boy). . . . To take one concrete example, Hatim made a small extract of his voluminous poetic work calling it Divan Zada (1756). In the preface of this compilation, he writes in Persian that he “had stopped using the local idiom which was called ‘bhaka’” (bhaka goend mauquf karda). In its place, he tells us, he had started the refined idiom of the gentlemen of Delhi. . . .For Insha, this was the language of the Muslim elite of Delhi and Lucknow.

I wonder if this movement to 'Islamize Urdu' was started by none other than Shah Waliullah Dehelvi (1703-1762). He appeared on the scene at the time the Mogul empire was declining after the unpopular rule of Aurangzeb with the Hindus and the Sikhs revolting. This was also the time the Christian East India Company was making a presence in India. His aim was to rid the low-church ajlaf Indian Muslims of their Hindu practices. His argument was that the decline of Islam could be arrested only by making it more rigorous and he wanted to get rid of the Hindu practices that might have corrupted Islam. He wanted an intensification of Aurangzeb’s efforts. Can anybody shed more light ?

[Suppiah]

An interesting parallel can be found in today's status of Malay language...which is even more interesting considering the so-called Bahasa Indonesia, which is identical has quite a different status.

The point being, there was a time when Malay was said to be the common language of so many, including Dutch sailors and others in trading circuit primarily because it was so easy to learn, practically had no grammar, very basic and limited vocabulary hence easy and so on...it was also lingua franca of all races and religions. Then came a point where the Islamist fundoos started using Malay/Muslim as a co-joined word to engage in identity politics and Islamisation. That essentially meant you are not Malay unless you are Muslim. Which was codified in laws to a point where you lose legal rights and concessions if you convert. This Islamist zeal included bans on preaching any religion other than Islam in that language and also of course, ban on using words like 'Allah' to describe any other god, contrary again to historical practices. They have done a good job. Today practically no non-malay youngster in Malaysia or its neighbour, Singapore, speaks the language, at least not unless there is no choice such as dealing with Malays that dont speak English, that too because they have been forced to learn it. (other than a few misguided Tamils particularly muslims from southern districts some of whom have managed to get themselves reclassified as Malay through some clever means...)

Oh by the way, this is the country held up as moderate and pragmatic by ROP apologists.

So give anything, be it language, culture whatever, to the faithful, they will treat it like garland in hands of monkeys...so no surprises here.

[A_Gupta]

The above links on Urdu didn't work for me, here's what I have:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/235805/how- ... -india--i/
http://tribune.com.pk/story/240607/how- ... --part-ii/

[Suppiah]

Getting OT but there was some talk of using Devanagiri script with Urdu, giving up on Persian to make it acceptable to more...wonder if there are still takers for that....

[A_Gupta]

Fears for Marvi Sirmed's safety:
http://criticalppp.com/archives/56426

Editor’s note: We at LUBP are deeply concerned for Marvi Sirmed’s safety and will not see our national treasures like Marvi Sirmed and Professor Pervez Hoodbhoy being left at the mercy of wolves. They showed amazing courage in taking on the warped and twisted narratives of the military establishment and talked about issues (Baloch, Shia and Ahmadi genocide) which are simply not being talked about.

We urge all the prominent journalists, especially those who consider themselves as liberal/progressive, to come out and not just cheer Marvi but reinforce the truth that was said by her.

By speaking the truth, Marvi is now in grave danger. She must not be abandoned.

Instead our liberal champions must now pick up the load and challenge the wolves of the Deep State on the media.

If they choose to limit themselves with meaningless platitudes, token cheers and otherwise stay silent on the issues raised by Marvi, it will be as good as abandoning her in her hour of need which is unacceptable.

Demagogues and their backers such as Imran Khan, Hamid Gul, Farid Paracha, Ansar Abbasi, Mehr Bokhari, Zakir Naik, Farhat Hashmi, Moeed Pirzada, Talat Hussain, Maulana Ludhianvi, Hafiz Saeed, Ibtisam Ilahi Zaheer etc need to be attacked and deconstructed at every forum available. If more people step up to the plate and confront these extremists head on, it will be the best way of supporting Marvi Sirmed. (End Note)

[SSridhar]

^All that would be pious hope. Pakistan is way beyond redemption. Marvi and her daughter must immediately seek refuge in another country.

[Dipanker]

JEM,was the people's comon lingo then what we call "Hindustani"?

Yes.

[RamaY]

Marvi Sirmed is now wajib-ul-qatl

A good article by Marvi Sirmed that gives insight into a Paki mind, even when it looks/sounds/smells enlightened -

1) Every textbook account of the creation of Pakistan starts with a mention of the Two Nation Theory as the basis of partition. One randomly picked up textbook from the Punjab Book Board states the theory as: “Muslims and Hindus are two separate nations from every definition; therefore Muslims should have a separate homeland in the Muslim majority areas of India, where they can spend their lives according to the glorious teachings of Islam.” Do you smell something? You could be right if you say it initially made the basis of a movement that culminated in reorganisation of the map of the Indian subcontinent due to various other factors covering what is not possible to debate in this limited space.The evolution of Muslim ‘community’ of India into a Muslim ‘nation’ entailed many ebb and flow, which were rooted in the quest for power sharing, political and social rights for the community and a convoluted anxiety foreseeing a submissive position under the majority community (Hindus).

The only important part of Pakistan's existence is TNT; why Pakistan is needed in the first place. The author doesn't explore that fundamental question in this article. What political and social rights that the pre-partition Muslim 'community' was looking for in united Bharat? Why is it different from other communities of Bharat and why should it deserve 'special' treatment?

2) The unnecessarily overhyped Two Nation Theory has been constructed in the minds of Pakistanis of almost every class (one feels relieved that most of rural Pakistan does not give a hoot about such historical distortions) as the foundation on which Pakistan stands. Any slightest movement on this issue and the country would, God forbid, fall like a deck of cards.

The hugely misunderstood and misreported raison d’être of Pakistan, in my humble opinion, is the root cause of most of the problems and contradictions we are facing right now. It is high time to address that and at least make an attempt to move towards the right side of history by giving our young generations one last chance to say it with confidence and aloud: we Pakistanis need to exist on our own rather than being always ‘relative’ to another nation.

TNT is not unnecessary for Pakistan's existence in 1947 or in 2011, it is essential. So it must continue - Pakistan is different from Hindustan and it should do opposite to what Hindustan does.

The moment TNT is deconstructed, Pakistan will fall like a deck of cards. There is no Pakistan without TNT, so "there is no moving towards the right side of history for Pakistan, now or never"

3) Being a Muslim might be a pride for us, but making it our first and foremost identity definitely undermines national interest.

Why being a Muslim a pride? Does the author think Islam is higher than other abrahamic or Indic religions? If so she deserves Pakistan more than anyone else.

4) If anyone has been affected the most by terrorism and violence emanating from religio-political radicalisation, it is the ‘educated’ middle class in urban Pakistan. Yes, the same class that is now spearheading our voyage towards intellectual annihilation and violent destruction.

This is the biggest lie. The Pakistan middle-class are nothing but parasites. So far they lived off of the RAPE elites' version of modern-islam. From now on wards they will have to live at the mercy of TTP types. They never have a vision or clarity or responsibility or power to steer the nation in the right direction.

The truly affected group by the creation of Pakistan was the poor and rural Pakistanis. They were forcibly kept under BPL by RAPEs and so-called middle class. This BPL class did not see any development for past 60 years and is way behind rest of the world where as the RAPEs and middle-class moved ahead.

[Rangudu]

SSridhar,

Marvi Sirmed has a daughter? Are you perhaps thinking of Marvi Memon?

[RamaY]

can some one explain what this really means
Pak building railway station close to zero line

Doesn't make sense to build so close, especially when arty can hit it so easily. Unless Pakis want to do tactical brilliance and involve China in the conflict.

Now, the PLA will be stationed along the IB as well. If you recall, a month-long war game of the armies of China & Pakistan was conducted barely 25 Kms from the India-Pakistan international border along the Jaisalmer-Bikaner sections of Rajasthan concluded last week. This was the first time such a military exercise between China and Pakistan had taken place so close to an Indian border. And now, this news. Slowly, PLA presence is extending from Ladakh to Rajasthan border. Let's wait for the announcement along the Punjab IB.

Could it be part of the deal between Unkil-Chinkil-Paki-MMS? That -

1. Paki clown-jewels will be reclaimed and safe guarded by PRC
2. Pakis will focus on their western border to contain the advancement of TTP
3. Chinkil will secure paki eastern-border by infusing their forces, thus Pakis are used simultaneously by unkil/chinkil at the same time.
4. MMS will make no move during this process in return for the de-jewelification of Pakis
5. MMS and Chinkil agree that they will remain the main contenders of Asia. Is that why MMS is crying foul on India's eastern border (but not western border)?

India will end up paying a big price for UPA's (I and II) short-sightedness on PoK.

[pgbhat]

SSridhar,

Marvi Sirmed has a daughter? Are you perhaps thinking of Marvi Memon?

Sirmed does make a reference to her daughter in her article.

we Pakistanis need to exist on our own rather than being always ‘relative’ to another nation. However, there is a remote possibility to see it happening in my lifetime or even in my daughter’s lifetime.

[A_Gupta]

RamaY - the point of view is that Pakistan exists, even if it was conceived illegitimately; sticking with the founding narrative ("I'm a bas****") will sink the country, and Pakistan has to move beyond that.

[RamaY]

Got it A_Gupta ji, read the following posts after I posted my comments.

[sivab]

http://coffeewithmarvi.blogspot.com/

Who Am I?

I'm a highly emotional person with strength of resolve and passion. I love reading and entering into discussions on smallest possible issues. Thoroughly anti-religion person (ummm I mean, a passionate atheist!), I think there's a greater possibility of god being a creation of human beings. I have an unbeatable passion for swimming against the tide. I leave no stone unturned in challenging the status quo. Everything widely accepted as a "belief" itches me. I have a special corner in my heart for the weak and the marginalized. I'm a peace loving creature but a nuovu feminist too, so a little of militancy is allowed if it is against men! )))) I'm a lover of art and theater, myself an actress and a member of Ajoka Theater Lahore. Have performed in many plays in India and Pakistan from Ajoka's platform. I love to make films. Short films, documentary films etc. Script writing for documentaries and TV serials is a newly discovered potential of mine! I like to stand up for the rights of powerless, and for democracy. A committed Marxist but still believe that no other alternative of democracy is better than it. So, you'd often find me on roads protesting on one thing or other! See you sometime soon

[sivab]

http://marvisirmed.com/?page_id=2

Born on June 11, I’m a citizen of Pakistan and have Masters’ degrees in Political Science, Science Education and English Linguistics.

My current project involves working closely with the Parliament of Pakistan for the capacity building and orientation of the honourable members of the parliament along with the officials of the parliament’s secretariats. Earlier, I’ve been working as Institutional Development Specialist with the Ministry of Women Development, Government of Pakistan and as Policy Advocacy Specialist with National Commission on the Status of Women.

I started my career as journalist in 1990 and have been working as Sub Editor, Editor Women’s Page, Editor Students’ Page and Member of Investigative Team in different national dailies (Daily The News, Jang, Pakistan, Khabrein etc.). After an enriching experience as a media person, I moved on to work with two of the top educational institutions of Lahore, The Crescent Model School and Pamir Knot College. Afterwards, switched to the development field and joined South Asia Partnership Pakistan in March 1997, where I engaged myself in the program development, organizational assessments, monitoring and evaluation of the development projects in Punjab and interior Sindh. It makes me proud of the fact that our work resulted in establishment of women’s groups and community based organizations in many districts of Punjab and Sindh.

In 2000, I joined Institute of Overseas Pakistanis to develop a leading organization to watch the process of legislation in Pakistan, Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) where I got very enriching learning opportunities and became a part of pioneering team to develop maiden programs for the capacity building of parliamentarians.

Then I joined Aurat Foundation, a leading NGO, in 2001 as Provincial Coordinator (Punjab) of Legislative Watch Programme. Under this programme, legislative processes going on at federal and provincial levels were watched through Legislative Watch Groups (LWGs), established in all the provinces and composed of legislative experts and technocrats. Advocacy programmes were developed in the light of LWGs’ observations and executed in order to affect policy change and legislations.

One of the marked achievement and successful advocacy programme was a unanimous recommendation from all Legislative Watch Groups for the reservation of 33% quota for women in law making bodies. Before the military coup of 1999, these recommendations were submitted to all provincial legislatures and parliament of Pakistan, pursuing which, General Pervez Musharraf’s government later promulgated the legislation providing allocation of 33% reserved seats for women in local bodies while for provincial and national legislatures, this quota was lowered down to 17%.

I’m fond of traveling and like to see places as well as meet people. My travels include USA, UK, Malysia, Indonesia, Bangkok, India and Bangladesh for reading various papers, participating in conferences / seminars / training events on legislative development, democratic governance, poverty reduction, and community development. One of the most enjoyable learning and touring experience was my participation in International Visitors Leadership Programme (IVLP) run by State Department of United States of America, in 2004. We visited many states and observed different models of management existent in non-profit sector of USA. Besides, traveling in different countries of South Asia has been not only a treat at personal level, but has added a lot of richness to my worldview.

Not only traveled in South Asia as part of different delegations, but also, am fortunate to get the opportunity of performing theater in these countries especially India and Bangladesh. My theater activities started in 1997 when I got introduced to Ajoka Theater and later performed in many plays produced by Ajoka. We from Ajoka, have performed at many stages of the world, but performing on Broadway is still an unfulfilled dream!

Besides being founder member of an independent political think tank, Voice of Democracy, I’m a member of Women’s Initiative for Peace in South Asia (WIPSA), Women’s Action Forum, Insaani Haqooq Ittehad, Pakistan India Peoples Forum, and Pakistan Forum for Social Democracy. I’ve also authored many research based papers, articles, and contribute columns in different dailies of Pakistan. I’m also an independent blogger and have named my blog as BAAGHI, an Urdu for rebel. I’m using this term to put it strongly that I refuse to accept ages old stereotypes, unjust societal traditions & norms, religious implements of subjugation and everything that perpetuates inequality, injustice and gender / religion / caste / linguistic / ethnicity based discrimination. Being a strong supporter of social democracy, I believe in progressive and socialist ideals of governance and strongly believe in complete separation of religion and state.

I look forward to your comments on posts and overall blog approach.

Warm wishes!

Marvi Sirmed

[KLNMurthy]

Marvi Sirmed is now wajib-ul-qatl

Most vocal Paki critics of ISI hold dual-citizenships or are atleast permanent residents of some western nation.Gotta give it to the lady for ripping Zail Hamid (pbuh) to pieces! I still don't get it why she turned up wearing a bindi, either she was trying to send a strong message about real cultural roots of Pakis, or like someone else mentioned Pakistan has finally found its own Arundati Roy! If you guys are more interested do check her youtube channel 'MarviSirmed', has plenty of interesting videos. She does seems to have an affinity towards oppressed minorities in Pakistan. More power to her and may her tribe increase.

While unreservedly admiring Marvi's sheer courage and sense of right and wrong, having more of her ilk in TSP only postpones the inevitable, feeds WKKism, and generally adds to the cost imposed by TSP on India and humanity at large.

[sivab]

http://www.blogger.com/profile/00297330385197116670

Marvi Sirmed

* Gender: Female
* Astrological Sign: Scorpio
* Industry: Non-Profit
* Occupation: Political Scientist
* Location: Islamabad : Pakistan

About Me

Political commentator, governance specialist, free lance columnist, theater actor, peace & human rights activist and an independent blogger. Currently working with a parliamentary development program and is based in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Interests

* Watching Films
* Hosting friends
* Reading especially about History
* Politics
* Literature
* Art & Theater

Favorite Movies

* Tess of D'Urbervilles; 12 October; Murder
* My Sweet (Farewell
* My Lovely); Crossfire; Emergency Wedding; The Robe; Roman Holiday; Casablanca; Breakfast at Tiffany's; The Philadelphia Story; The Notebook; My Fair Lady; A Streetcar named Desire; Sense and Sensibility; Becoming Jane; A Good Woman; The Good Bye Girl;

Favorite Music

* Meera Bahajans by Lakshami Pandit and Pandit Ravi Shankar
* Old Film music by S.D Berman
* Madan Mohan
* Lata
* Rafi
* Kishor
* asha
* Hemant Da
* Geeta Dutt

Favorite Books

* Glimpses of World's History by J.L.Nehru
* India Wins Freedom by Abul Kalam Azad
* Art of Loving by Eric From
* The Trial of Bhagat Singh: Politics of Justice by A.G.Noorani
* A will for freedom: Netaji and the Indian Independence Movement in Singapore and Southeast Asia
* 1942-1945 by Romen Bose
* Tarikh aur afsanah: Soz-i natamam
* rahguzar
* shakhsar
* tarikh aur afsanah by Ashiq Hussain Batalvi
* Homage to Guru Gobind Singh
* by Khushwant Singh
* Suneet Vir Singh
* Nonviolent Soldier of Islam: Badshah Khan: A Man to Match His Mountains by Eknath Easwaran

My Blogs
Coffee With Marvi
Honest Expressions
Murder of History

[Ambar]

Marvi Sirmid was a part of 'Aman ki Aasha'. 'Ajoka theater' - now isn't that the theater group that performed in Delhi recently ? One of its members wrote a couple of travelogues about his travel to Delhi from Islamabad that was posted on the forum recently.

[Dilbu]

I have been following Marvi Sirmed on Twitter for a while now. She is indeed a rare voice of sanity among TSPian twitterati & RAPE. Hope she remains safe.

[KJo]

SSridhar,

Marvi Sirmed has a daughter? Are you perhaps thinking of Marvi Memon?

Sirmed does make a reference to her daughter in her article.

we Pakistanis need to exist on our own rather than being always ‘relative’ to another nation. However, there is a remote possibility to see it happening in my lifetime or even in my daughter’s lifetime.

Hard to say. Might mean hypothetical daughter in the phoochur.

[Prem]

I have been following Marvi Sirmed on Twitter for a while now. She is indeed a rare voice of sanity among TSPian twitterati & RAPE. Hope she remains safe.

Unfortunately , Pakistaneeyat Islamiat will win the day .Asma bint Marvi Sirmed is marked for sacrifice to please Poaqstwanian haivaniat.

[abhijitm]

Its third day and Shahabaz Taseer has not or has not been returned yet. cutlet by piglet?

[subodh]

Its third day and Shahabaz Taseer has not or has not been returned yet. cutlet by piglet?

http://www.dnaindia.com/world/report_12 ... on_1580972

looks like!

[Prem]

Photos: Mystery Drone Crash in Pakistan
http://defensetech.org/2011/08/29/myste ... -pakistan/

What on Earth is this little guy? You’re looking at pictures of what’s apparently a small U.S. spy drone that crashed last week in Pakistan. The little drone apparently took off from a U.S. base at Qarar Ga airbase near Spinboldak in Kandahar and went down about 300 meters inside Pakistan near a Pakistani Frontier Corps base, according to press reports.Anyone recognize the micro-UAV that’s apparently equipped with two cameras (though the picture above shows what could be four sensor apertures)? I’ve asked several analysts, including Teal Group UAV expert Phil Finnegan, to ID the bird and no one seems to know what it is.

( Check the Pictures)