Pakistan's Founder Jinnah Has No Place In His Homeland

This picture was an official handout from the Presidency on June 26, 2009, showing President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani receiving Pakistan's cricket team, winners of the T20 World series. The portraits of the PPP leaders can be seen in the background. No trace of the official portrait of the Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan's Founding Father.

The current democracy in Pakistan was installed by the United States. All the parties in power now in the country are pro-American and pro-Indian: the PPP, MQM, JUI-F and ANP. The last one, ANP, spent most of its career supporting separatist ideas. MQM's chief has just given a statement that opposes the very independence of Pakistan. But these ruling parties are not alone in completely ditching the Pakistani flag and the official portraits of the Founding Father of the nation. There is PMLN, JI, and other smaller parties that never raise the Pakistani flag in their rallies or public events.

This is how The News International, the largest Pakistani English-language daily newspaper, reported the story on Saturday, June 27:

The portraits of Founder of Pakistan Quaid-e-Azam Muhammed Ali Jinnah have been removed from the Prime Minister House and Presidential House, Geo News revealed Saturday.Two days ago, President Asif Ali Zardari hosted a reception in the honour of national cricket team on winning the ICC Twenty20 World Cup title. On this occasion, the team players and officials had a group photo with President Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani.There are pictures of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto, Bilawal Zardari Bhutto and President Zardari without any picture of founder of Pakistan are seen hung in the backdrop of photo.Similarly, an Internship Award ceremony was held with PM Gilani in chair on Friday. On this occasion, the stage was decorated with the pictures of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto, President Zardari and PM Gilani; however, there was no picture of Quaid-e-Azam.In a similar photograph, President Zardari was administering oath of Federal Mohtasib to Dr Shoaib Suddle; however, the backdrop flashed with a picture of Quaid-e-Awam sans any photo of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammed Ali Jinnah.Similarly, in a meeting with US delegation, no photograph of Muhammed Ali Jinnah was visible.Under law, to hang the portrait of Quaid-e-Azam at offices of government officials, President and Prime Minister is compulsory.

I still stand by my belief that the existing political elite in Pakistan is inept, uncreative and now compromised thanks to the 'outreach' done by the US and the UK embassies in Islamabad.

The best way is still this:

1. Ban any political party that is based on ethnicity/language. This will eliminate 98% of these parties.
2. Enforce fair and free internal elections, monitored by the Election Commission of Pakistan. No party allowed to run for office without this condition.
3. An interim, technocratic government in Islamabad for a minimum of five years, assigned to execute a visionary plan of reform that would include more administrative provinces and new laws organizing political activity and absolute focus on economic and education rebuilding.
4. Harsh measures against politicians who try to defy this plan. Harshest measures if necessary.
5. Stern warning to countries such as the US and UK to desist from interfering in Pakistan's internal matters. If they are allies, then they should support the stabilization of Pakistan.

See this PPPistan or Nawazistan or Altafistan or Pakistan?

PPPistan or Nawazistan or Altafistan or Pakistan?

For four days now, the flags of PPP, the ruling party, adorn the highway from the airport to the heart of the capital. No one dares remove them. The occasion for turning the capital of Pakistan into a capital of ‘PPPistan’ is the late party chairman Benazir Bhutto's birthday. But that was four days ago. The flags are still there.

Before these PPP flags, on this very same poles a few days ago were the flags of Mr. Nawaz Sharif's party. The occasion was the 11the anniversary of Pakistan's nuclear tests that officially turned our country into a declared nuclear power. Even national occasions have now been turned into narrow party occasions. We have few national occasions that bind all Pakistanis and even those are being eroded.

Political differences aside, late Mrs. Bhutto is a former Prime Minister of Pakistan. She has done a lot of good for the nation during her career and deserves full respect.

But this is not about her. This is about the gradual disappearance of everything Pakistani from our sights.

When the PPP came to power, somehow even the portrait of the Founding Father, the Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, was reduced into a dull, discolored and neglected little frame next to the fresh and newly framed picture of PPP leaders on the walls of the Presidency and the Prime Minister House.

Today, walk into any office of any federal minister and you will find party flags and pictures adorning walls and tables. PTV, the national TV network, has never celebrated the rich legacy of the Quaid-e-Azam the way it celebrated the founding fathers of a ruling political party. This happened a little over a year ago, when, for an entire week, the lobby of the PTV building in Islamabad was filled with the pictures of PPP leaders. And - believe it or not - audio recordings of the speeches of PPP politicians blasted from large speakers placed in the hallways of the building every day from morning till night for the whole week. Jokes have it that Aspirin consumption jumped in PTV during that week because of the headache from the noise but no one dared end the charade. [To be fair to PPP, the party didn't order this event. The Managing Director of PTV at the time had put together this show in order to save his job!! But he was still kicked out and now he's running another Pakistani news channel. So much for the 'visionaries' we have.]

Unfortunately, it is not just the PPP and Mr. Sharif's PMLN who think their party flags take precedence over the National Flag. There is MQM and ANP and JSQM and BNP and BRP and God knows what else. All of them are allowed to flaunt their flags in public places. So much so that it is rare to see any of these parties owning the national flag.

Pakistan's national flag, the Green and the Crescent, is slowly receding into the background. It is one sign of how the Pakistani identity has been weakened by these failed parties. I call them family-run businesses. When these parties have nothing else to sell to the people, they use ‘language and ethnicity’ and try to divide Pakistanis along language and ethnic lines, create new issues where none exist.

The average good-hearted Pakistani citizens await a group of strong leaders in Islamabad who will outlaw the public display of party flags and revive national confidence and morale. Until then, it should be the responsibility of every individual Pakistani to remind these 'leaders' why there is no place for the Flag of Pakistan in their offices, rallies, meetings, and press conferences.

American Child-Killers Are Crying Over Neda

Have you seen CNN or BBC or any other Am-Brit outlet repeatedly show this picture 24/7 like they are doing with the footage of that one Iranian woman killed during street chaos in one part of Tehran?

One woman dies in street hooliganism fully backed by CIA and the British embassy in Iran. And CNN and BBC and ITN and other Anglo-Saxon outlets can't have enough.

But none of them showed this picture which the news agencies published on 4 May 2009. If shown then it was certainly a couple of times for a few seconds as part of of normal coverage. No hype and business as usual.

But we in Pakistan and Afghanistan have not forgotten.

This is a LUCKY young Afghan girl. She lived to tell her story. But 130 to 140 other people, including many of her relatives in the village, who were with her were killed in cold blood by the American and British occupiers of Afghanistan.

This happened in May this year.

Last year, the US army killed 90 innocent Afghan children, women and men a village in western Afghanistan. Again, CNN and BBC and the Am-Brit media hardly noticed, let alone repeat the images like that of the Iranian woman.

A reader, Irtiza Ali, says this about the Am-Brit media:

'The hypocrisy is almost impossible to stomach. Hundreds of thousands of innocent women and children have been slaughtered in similar fashion by coalition forces during the bombardment and occupation of both Iraq and Afghanistan, and many of these deaths have been caught on camera. And yet the [American and British] establishment media has blindly refused to broadcast any of it. Indeed, it could be claimed that the footage of Neda’s death has already been broadcast more times by the corporate media than the thousands of victims whose deaths were caught on film in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last eight years.'

A fair-minded American journalist Paul Joseph Watson is disgusted by this Am-Brit hypocrisy. His article, titled Neda Death Footage: Poster Child For A Million More Tragedies? starts with this ironic statement:

"Establishment media falls over itself to broadcast footage showing death of young Iranian protester, yet completely refused to show victims of Iraq and Afghanistan wars, not to forget Israel!"

The best part is that US officials and SOME of their poodles in the UK and Europe are demanding Iran allow chaos and hooliganism to contiue on Iranian streets. Of course, the US itself doesn't allow for that kind of thing to happen on the streets of Washington DC.

In fact, a US Defense Department Training Manual Describes Protest As “Low-Level Terrorism” and considers it to be a terrorist activity that should be suppressed.

While the ordinary Americans and British are good people, their governments are worse child killers than the evil countries they claim to fight.

British Embassy Helping Demonstrators In Tehran

In a naked violation of diplomatic norms, the British embassy in Tehran has been quietly helping out radical elements responsbile for destroying public property and provoking demonstrators into an unnecessary bloody showdown with the government of Iran.

It is almost an act of proxy war where the British government is openly supporting anti-Iran activities. Of course the British government is concealing these activities in the language of democracy. But it is strange that no other embassy in Tehran shares the deep humanitarian instincts of the British diplomats. In fact, all of Iran's neighbors have congratulated Tehran on holding successful elections.

Today the British diplomats received a tip that the Iranian government has collected evidence showing the British embassy flouting the Geneva Convention by turning the embassy into a support base for hooligans working against the host government.

Afraid of an Iranian reaction, London issued orders to its diplomats to send their families back home and ordered British citizens to avoid travel to Iran, a move that smacks of British guilt since no other country has taken this extreme step.

Maybe the Iranian government should arrest some of these British diplomats and teach them a lesson or two about the disadvantages of the British poodle going the extra mile in supporting his American master.

Iran's PRESSTV Versus America's CNN

Just when the Iranian protesters decided not to defy their government's ban on street trouble, CNN and the rest of the American media went into an overdrive today to provoke the Iranian protesters, and especially mislead the younger ones into creating a situation that could result in bloodshed.

In twenty years of watching CNN, I have never seen it stoop so low as it did today.

The question is: If an American or British newspaper or TV network's agenda begins to eerily resemble that of CIA or MI-6 [the Am-Brit enterprise], does this mean that these custodians of media independence are actually government mouthpieces?

Obviously, the US government and the CIA will not let this opportunity in Iran slip out of hand. Remeber that the CIA, the NSA and other American spy agencies were given millions of dollars for covert operations targeting Iran under Bush. These programs are still operational and have not been cancelled by Obama. Once there is violence, all you need to do is to unleash local agents connected to foreign elements, coupled with massive media propaganda to encourage chaos in order to create maximum trouble and instability for the government in Iran.

The US government and CIA are already using Afghanistan to insert terrorists into eastern parts of Iran.

CNN today was no different than any state-run TV channel in a dictatorship in central Africa or the Middle East. And it was funny. I mean really. CNN never devotes more than 10 or 15 minutes in extreme cases for even the most important world leaders, and here it was devoting nonstop hours to endless drivel by 'Iran experts' some of them quite literally full of s**** and a majority of them wasn’t even able to give intelligent answers. Most of whom had nothing new to say but CNN wanted to create a worldwide hype to keep Iran's government under the spotlight. CNN editors allowed many unimpressive speakers to sit and speak for hours. But since there was nothing to "cover" today in Iran, CNN resorted to "creating" a crisis, manufacturing a hype about something that wasn't even happening: the 'expected' turnout of protestors defying the government.

Protestors largely stayed indoors. But CNN kept insisting that something was happening. For special effect, CNN used old footage to mislead the international audience about the size of today’s protestors.

Obviously I can't imagine that it is any of CNN's business to keep the protests alive and prevent them from dying out. But it is certainly the interest of the US government and the CIA.

So there is only one explanation to what CNN was doing:

To encourage the younger protestors to come out and defy the security and risk deaths so that CIA could stoke more trouble.

CNN also directly attacked PRESSTV, Iran's dynamic international English-language TV news channel. CNN anchors were apparently told to disparage PRESSTV calling it a 'government mouthpiece'.

Mouthpiece, eh? Compared to what? FoxNews, which spent the last eight years working as a mouthpiece to Bush? Or CNN and BBC that often become one with their governments when it comes to foreign policy and military aggression?

If CNN's agenda appears to mirror that of US government and the CIA, with no questions asked and no room for the opposite viewpoint, doesn’t that make CNN a government mouthpiece too?

How about CNN and New York Times and others airing and printing absolute lies about Iraq's nuclear program in order to convince the world that an invasion was necessary? And then when everything turned out to be a ruse created by CIA and MI6 and promoted by CNN, NYT and others as truth, do we see the Am-Brit free media apologizing for becoming government puppets?

When nothing happened on the streets in Tehran most of the day today, CNN anchorwoman Rosemary Church kept announcing with emphasis and with Broadway-dramatism, "There is a tense calm" in Iran.

Ooooh.

But my personal favorite was this line, "A very balanced reporting" or "a very balanced analysis" that Ms. Church repeated whenever a biased one-sided reporter or 'expert' finished his or her rant on Iran.

There were two exceptions in the CNN coverage coming from two journalists: Christian Amanpour and Jonathan Mann. Both refused to turn off their professional instincts and blindly follow the instructions from the newsroom.

Ms. Amanpour surprised everyone at one point when she inadvertently exposed CNN's hypocrisy by telling her interviewer Rosemary Church that it was important to underline that a majority of Iranian protestors stayed away today after the government warning.

And then Amanpour said that most of the videos that CNN kept showing throughout the day today were old footage. Amanpour appeared to be emphasizing that viewers need to be told that CNN was playing footage from yesterday and the day before and that there were no crowds on Tehran's streets of the size being shown in the footage.

Amanpour’s comment seemed to have struck Ms. Church smack in the face. She appeared dumbstruck for a minute. It was almost as if she knew [from the instructions she must be receiving thru an earphone from the newsroom] that she was not supposed to say these things and expose CNN's game plan.

Then Jonathan Mann also violated the script and at one point stopped to ask CNN to replay a rare video that came out of Tehran today. The fresh video showed a handful of protestors, certainly fewer than ever before.



Mann inquired from his biased commentator that he wasn't able to see the streets in previous videos because of the huge number of protestors. But the new video showed empty streets barring a few kids. Again, the commentator, who was pro-American Iranian, was dumbfounded.

Here's another fine evidence of who is motivating CNN and other 'Am-Brit independent international media outlets':

CNN did not go into overdrive until quite late in the day when it became clear that the protests were dying down. My guess is that some people within the US government freaked out at this. Someone might have said [probably at Langley], 'If the protests die down, that's it. Find a way to keep the momentum and encourage the kids there to come out on the streets. Let's push the Iranian security into a murderous mishap.'

And suddenly CNN goes into a nonstop one-sided ethically-questionable coverage. I am sure that simultaneously CIA's Iran desk must be busy in 'quiet outreach' through Facebook and Twitter and through their assets on the ground in Iran.

It is time that the Am-Brit 'international media' realize that many people outside Europe and America can see through their machinations, the way they gang up on certain countries or on certain issues that hide other interests of the Am-Brit combine. We've seen this happen so many times, in Georgia and elsewhere, that it stands exposed.

To me this has nothing to do with democracy and human rights. Sure, the Iranian government has problems and it has opponents within the Iranian populace. So it’s not a big deal if a few of them gather in Los Angeles and Washington in small demos. What IS a big deal is how the Am-Brit media has rushed to play a strategic game disguised as journalism. This is the same Am-Brit media that continues to produce CIA and MI6 agents hiding as accredited journalists. The latest example is of an Iranian woman who was sent back to Iran as an American journalist so that she could get in touch with her former colleagues in a sensitive government department and obtain secret documents. She was caught with those documents. And now we have two American journalists from Korean descent sent to North Korea for the same purpose, espionage. All three spies found major American news organizations ready to give them the cover of an accredited journalist so that CIA could use them for espionage. This is the state of the Am-Brit media that sets the world news agenda.

This episode should also serve as a lesson for Iran. The Iranian government actually helped Washington and London invade Iraq and Afghanistan and supported the two invasions on military and intelligence levels. The hope was that somehow this will convince Washington and London to accept the Iranian government and start working with it.

Today, the Iranian government learns the lesson the hard way.

And the Am-Brit media can be and is manipulated by the governments in London and Washington just like anywhere else. The best part of it, of course, is that the US State Department gets to issue grade reports about how other countries fare on media freedoms.

The Am-Brit media had been exposed during the false campaign against Iraq in 2003. But people have short memories. Iran's elections in 2009 should serve as a welcome reminder on the performance of the Am-Brit media.

And these elections should also become a permanent signpost for CNN's amazing fall.

P.S.: Google and Facebook are speeding up Persian translations of their sites and BBC rushes to find other satellites to beam into Iran. Wow. Even companies feel for democracy and are willing to go the extra mile for the sake of democracy in Iran! Last question to all the buffoons who still think this is about democracy: How come we don't see Russian, German, French, Singaporean, Indian or Israeli companies feeling the pain for democracy? Why is it that only Am-Brit companies are at the forefront of the fight for Iranian democracy?!!

Aussies, Why Hate The Good Indians?

Sydney is full of foreigners, entire neighborhoods of Lebanese, Iraqis, Chinese and others. But it's the Indians who are getting beaten on roads, parks and trams everyday in Australia.

For some reason, young Aussies don't like to see Indians. If one is spotted, they beat the living daylights out of him. CNN reports that "the most severe case left an Indian student in a coma, another student was stabbed in the stomach, and a third left with a nasty black eye.

So far more than a dozen arrests have been made."

This is strange. I mean, if anything, the Indians should be the most loveable people by now.

The Am-Brit TV networks, from CNN to BBC to Fox, are full of Indian faces.

Hollywood movies are increasingly putting Indians in their scripts in good roles in the same way Israelis always got 'good' roles and characters as opposed the 'bad' roles for the Arabs or the Turks.

The 'good Indian' is pretty much established now. So much so that when an Indian nuclear scientist disappears in mysterious circumstances, it doesn't even get as much as a mention on the Am-Brit media. So much for protecting India's good image.

Who wouldn't kill to get this kind of preferential treatment from the Am-Brits, and Australia is part of that pack?

The process of beautifying the Indian face doesn't stop there. Multimillion dollar 'Incredible India' TV ads jam the airwaves. The Indian government has done everything it could to help turn Indian cricket into American baseball, complete with cheerleaders in skimpy dresses.

The government also helped transform Indian films into another version of Hollywood, copying the style, the glamor and even ripping off entire scripts and storylines and turning them into 'Indian' movies. Gone are the classic bizarre Indian storylines where the lead character jumped from the rooftop of a 5-story building and perfectly landed on two, as if that was part of an average Indian person's normal day.

Also gone is the funny Indian look. You know, the funny retro hairstyle with wide-collared colorful shirts unbuttoned at the top and the sticky bell-bottomed pants. Credit goes to the Indian film industry. It quickly picked up style from Hollywood in the 1990s and helped the Indians discover they needed a makeover. Indian male movie stars that used to part hair from the middle a decade ago now have cool Marine cuts and dress more along the lines of 'international cool' [Damn those Clinton and Bush people. They messed up the Indian mind and set it on the path of delusional greatness. But that's a story for another story].

So what's the problem then, with the Aussies beating up Indians?

My guess is that nobody likes a smart ass.

The Indians have taken their newfound obsession with internationalism to new heights. It is almost vulgar. In a world that has seen man land on the moon in 1969 and witnessed the magnificent happen in mega films such as Titanic and Armageddon, who cares if India is the biggest democracy or whether New Delhi is a clean city or not?

Indians need to relax. Take it easy. If they're great, let it speak for itself. Japan is really a great country and yet I don't see them blowing their own horns the way Indians do everywhere they go.

Try this and you will nip this new trend that has started in Australia in the bud.

And, by the way, stop burning alive Australian priests with their young 6 and 10-year-old sons. That kind of doesn't help your case in Australia, right?

US Media Hides Indian Nuclear Scandal

What if the kidnappers have used the Indian nuclear scientist Lokanathan Mahalingam to penetrate the Indian nuclear arsenal and use the material for a future attack on Washington or New Delhi?

Maybe. But you won't hear it on CNN, BBC or the rest of the Am-Brit media.

Why? Because it exposes India's low nuclear safety standards which in turn will embarrass Washington and London, two countries that are keen to use India's cheap soldiers to fight the Anglo-Saxon wars in Afghanistan and China.

Not a single major Am-Brit media outlet covered the story of the kidnapping and murder of a man that holds the key to the Indian nuclear arsenal.
There are no scare stories about Indian nukes falling in the wrong hands on either CNN or BBC.

Why? There are two funny reasons.

One is that the Am-Brit liar brigade spent much of its energy in the last two years trying to scare the world about Pakistan's nukes and how the poor Pakistanis are unable to protect them.

And suddenly this happens: a major nuclear security breach in India. And India is something that the Am-Brit liar brigade wants to protect at all costs. Mainly because India is the new slave-soldier of London and Washington and is being groomed to help in sustaining the occupation of Afghanistan and confronting China.

Also, the Americans have just broken all proliferation laws and decided that India is such a responsible nuclear power that it deserves to be given advanced nuclear technology.

Imagine if this incident had happened in Pakistan. The entire Am-Brit media would have been beating the drums of war, reminding the world how dangerous and unstable Pakistan is.

But now the entire Am-Brit enterprise is embarrassed. By the way, the Am-Brit enterprise includes biased British and American diplomats in addition to think-tank types and outright rude and dimwit journalists most of whom think they know more about your country than you do.

What if one of the 14 or so separatist movements and organizations in India kidnapped the scientist to gain access to Indian nuclear bombs?

What if the terrorists have actually gained access to an Indian nuclear facility as we speak, killed the scientist and are now waiting to carry out a major terrorist act?

What if any one of those Indian separatist groups fighting for the independence of 14 out of the 28 states that make up India have used the scientist to sell information or nuclear designs to groups or countries that end up attacking the United States? It is a scary business.

But the Am-Brit media won't cover it. Period.

NOTE: Nor would the Pakistani media, by the way. Pakistani mediA should have been beaming this story all over the world by now. But 80+ private news channels in the country and a giant state-owned media setup and tens of Press Ministers earning lavish benefits and still nothing to show for it.

Zardari-Gilani: No Money, Just IMF

The Zardari-Gilani government is playing a cruel joke on Pakistanis. This government, which everyone should know is a US-installed puppet regime born out of a 'deal' knitted together by American and British diplomats, is pushing Pakistan to suicide. In return, this government promised us billions of dollars from its British and American allies. Now these allies have vanished.

We have more than three million Pakistanis homeless [thanks to the Americans] and none of the money promised by America and its allies has been delivered. We are left dealing with a massive humanitarian tragedy affecting our own people. The government ordered a military operation [which is every bit right] on the basis of American financial commitments.

Now the finance minister Shaukat Tarin is warning that if America and Japan don't come up with aid, Pakistan will go to IMF.

What kind of a joke is this? Who runs IMF, Mr. Tarin?

When this Zardari-Gilani government goes, Pakistan will end up irrevocably shackled by IMF and World Bank, under indirect or covert US occupation, and with a huge mess on our hands, with more poverty, crime and overall collapse. Make no mistake about it.

Is this what most of us want? Where is the Long March for this more noble cause compared to the lawyers’ movements where all of them were dealing under the table?

Do we want our homeland to end up like this?
Is this good? I still believe that showing the middle finger to the Americans and extricating ourselves from Washington's disastrous and failed war in Afghanistan remains a better option.

We Pakistanis will have to kill these CIA- and Indian-backed 'Pakistani Taliban' and Baitullah Mehsud, but not without also shutting down secret US bases in Pakistan. All honest Pakistanis must throw this demand on the faces of these politicians wherever they see them, and push our military to end its protection for this whole corrupt system.

Zardari: Bambino Diplomacy

Pakistan's top diplmats at the Foreign Office are worried that President Asif Ali Zardari might botch a possible meeting with the Indian prime minister in Moscow.

Why are they worried? Because Mr. President is known to make 'generous' foreign policy concessions on his own, off the cuff and without consulting even his pet dog Maximillian.

It's a joke. Mariana Baabar of The News that broke the story says that "Talking points are being prepared for this meeting both at the Foreign Office and the President House, with the top officials fervently hoping that the President would stick to the script."

The top Pakistani diplomats are obviously crapping in their pants at the thought of giving this advice directly to the President. So to avoid his anger, they are leaking this to the media. One of them was quoted sending this indirect message to Mr. Zardari:

"This Russian meeting will apparently be a very formal one and it is important that the President sticks to the brief that has been agreed upon by all sides. Each and every word will be monitored by the Indians and, unlike the other few times, the President should not be his generous self and give away too much."

My reaction: Hahahahaha. Is Mr. Zardari a kindergarten President?

The 'other few times' that the scared Pakistani diplomat was referring to includes the recent Washington visit where Mr. Zardari, in a conspiracy with his American adviser Husain Haqqani, gave away to India for free the right to use Pakistani land routes for trade. Last year Mr. President decided unilaterally that Pakistan accept no-first-use doctrine for nuclear weapons, effectively neutralizing our deterrence capability. And of course there is that famous example of presidential generosity when Mr. Zardari hit on Sarah Palin, a married woman, before the world media.

Mr. Zardari might have as well founded a new genre in international diplomacy. I call it the Bambino Diplomacy, which refers to his days as young man running his family owned Bambino cinema in Karachi. Bambino Diplomacy is about style, best described by a commenttor, Mr. Tariq Haider, who wrote the following on a website:

"Zardari never was a playboy. In his younger days, he was a street urchin at best, selling tickets in black at Bambino Cinema, Karachi, in collaboration with the manager of Bambino cinema, who later in Benazir Bhutto's prime ministership became Secretary Ministry of Petroleum."

No Politician Ready To Condemn Brahamdagh

The so-called Balochistan Republican Army is part of a list of three or four terrorist groups that do not really exist on the ground but are the joint creation of CIA and Indian intelligence in Afghanistan, with Karzai's intelligence acting as facilitator. This operation is headed by a traitor of his country and people named Brahmdagh Bugti, who keeps moving around in various Indian-protected safe houses in Kabul plotting how best to damage Pakistan.

Brahmdagh and some of our misguided kids recruited by anti-Pakistan foreign powers in Afghanistan pulled another terrorist attack inside Pakistan this week when they planted a bomb inside Bolan Express, a train connecting Karachi with Quetta.

The foreign-backed terrorists working for Brahmdagh accepted responsibility for killing and injuring innocent Pakistanis. And yet it was stunning to see that the Chief Minister of Balochistan refused to condemn these terrorists. And he's not alone. What about the President and Prime Minister of Pakistan? What about 'national' politicians like Nawaz Sharif and Chaudhry Shujaat? Is there not a single Pakistani politician willing to call a spade a spade?

Granted that problems in Balochistan need to be resolved but can't we even condemn those who are openly working against the country with the support of our enemies? What kind of a bankrupt politics is this?

These are the same politicians who refuse to blame the US for turning Afghanistan into a base for anti-Pakistan activities. Balochistan's chief minister and other politicians could have used the images from the killed and injured in the train to discredit the foreign-backed terrorists. But this chance has been wasted.

Pakistanis must take notice of this major failure of these politicians who consider their own interests more important than Pakistan's.

We have a bunch of jokers in power in the most difficult hour in our homeland's history.

Only in Pakistan can you blow up a train and then find no one ready to condemn you.

Businesswoman Mukhtaran Mai

She was supposedly gang raped eight years ago. Today, armed with the riches she collected from western embassies and NGOs, Mukhtaran Mai's school and NGO in her hometown [her personal business concerns] were busted by government inspectors who caught her using illegal electricity connections to run her business.

Mukhtaran Mai was caught stealing electricity to avoid paying money for a government utility service, like I and you and almost all the average Pakistanis do. Her two brothers actually beat up the government inspectors who came to investigate the fraud and threatened them with dire consequences. This is what powerful land owners and politicians do in their towns and districts.

Apparently Mukhtaran Mai has become as powerful as the feudal lords who once abused her and her family.

But she has every right to exercise power. She is backed by a lot of wealth and support from western NGOs and governments and their local Pakistani watch dogs.

I have no problem that she pocketed all that money. Good for her. At least someone got something out of it. My problem is how she consented to be exploited by every NGO, esp the western ones, that wanted to use her to mount politically-motivated campaigns against Pakistan, and make money out of it.

And these NGOs made a killing. They were fresh from making a lot of money from the sad story of Afghan women under Taliban but that was gone and they needed a new tear jerker. Enter Mukhtaran Mai.

Making money by smearing your country is an unforgivable crime regardless of how Asma Jehangir & Co. would spin it.

Musharraf screwed up in many places but here he was right when he refused to allow her to travel abroad and be exploited. Mr. Musharraf, of course, reversed his decision under pressure, like he did on so many other more important matters. But that's another subject.

Of course there is also that little matter of fresh information that surfaced recently where her original story, about the gang rape and about her role in the entire story involving her younger brother, became doubtful in the light of new information.Mukhtaran Mai deserved support as a rape victim regardless of how exaggerated her story turned out to be, and regardless of the fact that her role in the story was not as 'accidental' or innocent as she portrayed it to be. None of that absolves the villagers who convened an elders' council and ordered she be raped as punishment for whatever that she or her brother did.

But the beating of government inspectors at the hands of her brothers and the fact she was stealing electricity to run her business gives credibility to the doubts about this lady.

Does anyone know where she is spending all that money and who is auditing it, if it's really meant to serve the cause of women in her area?

PTV: Plz Don't Disturb

Pakistan's largest television news network, with 6000 employees [World Bank has 9,000] and one of the richest budgets and pay scales in the Pakistani federal government, interrupted its normal programs a few minutes ago to report on the terrorist attack on the Pearl Continental Hotel in Peshawar.

The rest of the 4 or 5 major Pakistani news networks smaller than PTV in terms of size, reach and budget, did the same followed by the rest of the 50 or so TV news channels in Pakistan.

The only difference is that PTV News was without live footage from the scene of the bombing. Every other major channel had live coverage vans beaming real-time footage.

And then, SURPRISE! PTV cut its live coverage to join ARY News, a smaller TV news network that was covering the bombing aftermath live through its satellite van on the scene.

The country's largest TV network, with a generous annual federal budgetary support, a long list of managing directors, directors, consultants and legendary war correspondents who published books about dodging missiles in Baghdad, and all it could do in Pakistan is to steal the hard work of other channels.

PTV buys the most sophisticated and the most expensive equipment every year. Government bureaucrats rake in high commissions. Then let this equipment rot in the warehouse so they can order replacements later. And take in more commissions. Some of this expensive equipment quietly goes to the private production houses secretly owned by senior employees of the organization.

And life goes on.

I know more. In the interest of full disclosure, I was hired by PTV for four years. When the United States launched a media blitzkrieg against Pakistan's nuclear program, I did a show titled, 'Don't Mess With Us' [click to watch] and convinced PTV to put it permanently on its dormant website as a means of giving the world a strong and robust Pakistani view. Unfortunately, when Washington renewed its media campaign against Pakistan this year, PTV removed the video. So much for defending the national interest, which is the only reason why we supposedly have a state-run TV news network.

But this still doesn't explain why PTV has to steal the live coverage of smaller TV channels. The real reason is the working hours.

You see, government bureaucrats work 9 to 5. They can't rush out with TV vans at 10pm to cover a bomb blast. The only time anyone can push them out of their houses after 5pm is if the President, the Prime Minister or the Information Minister [PTV's immediate boss] needed a camera crew to cover their activities.

So basically bureaucrats at the state-run channel can't be bothered to cover the Peshawar bombing live at 10pm because, well, they are bureaucrats.
Maybe PTV should let the terrorists know. Please schedule your attacks between 9-5 of you want coverage on PTV!

Holbrooke vs. Geo

Mr. Richard C. Holbrooke, the American Viceroy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, thinks GEO News, Pakistan's most popular news network, is anti-American. That's funny because Pakistani cyberspace is full of writeups accusing GEO of being pro-American.

The problem with Mr. Holbrooke is that Pakistan's small leaders have given him too much face time. We in Pakistan were joking when we compared him to a viceroy but Mr. Holbrooke seems to have taken this seriously. He can't be blamed when Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari lead the pack of Pakistan's lousy politicians falling over each other to meet this pompous American.

There is no place in the world better for Mr. Holbrooke's ego than Islamabad. Just ask his assistant Ashley Bommer.

It is humiliating how he can stand on Pakistani soil and accuse a Pakistani news channel of anti-Americanism simply because the channel dared to question American blunders in Afghanistan because of which Pakistan is suffering today.

Mr. Holbrooke is shameless because the American media is busy for the last two years in massive anti-Pakistanism with secret encouragement from some departments within the U.S. government. So much for being an ally and friend of Pakistan.

The liars in Washington and London have taken Pakistan for a ride in the past 7 years and are today destabilizing the whole region through their colonial outpost in Afghanistan, which the Brits, Americans and Indians [the new Anglo-American slave-soldiers] are preparing to use against Pakistan, Iran, China, Russia.

GEO should ask Mr. Holbrooke to:

1. Stop demonizing Pakistan
2. Admit America has failed to bring peace to Afghanistan in 7 years
3. Explain how a U.S.-occupied territory has become a launch pad for trained terrorists sent to Pakistan pretending to be Taliban
4. Stop lying to the world about Pakistani nukes and about Islamabad falling to Taliban
5. Explain how CNN, BBC and the rest of the Am-Brit 'independent and free' media marches in unison behind the lies of Washington and its British poodle without asking questions
6. Explain why American media and journalism has become a bastion of dirty spy work
7. Explain why American journalists have the highest incidents of being arrested in other countries on spying charges? Why one was recently arrested in Iran and was found in possession of sensitive Iranian official documents? Why two more have been arrested in North Korea? Is the U.S. mainstream media a shameless extension of CIA, NSA, etc.?

Pakistani journalists should take note and ensure that Mr. Holbrooke answers these questions the next time he is here in Islamabad.

[Click here to watch Mr. Holbrooke accuse GEO of 'showing a lot of anti-U.S. stuff.']

Pakistani Ministers In New York

I have nothing to add to this except to say, shame on us because we keep electing the same losers:

“Pictures from The Big Apple have been freely circulating on the internet, capturing the ministers of Pakistan in the throes of ecstasy while they shake their booty in a stretch limo that can outstretch any stretch limo. Inside, the stage is designed for fun and games. Loyal "supporters" of President Zardari's cabinet ministers whipped up the limo and the party was on. The custodians of Pakistan's destiny gyrated, shook their butts and roared with laughter and pleasure as the greenbacks flew, just as they do in the great "mujras" here. Mr Qamar-uz-Kaira and Mr Nazar Gondal, surrounded by their loving friends, had a blast. The reports say that by the time the party was over $16,000 had been thrown into the Big Apple's stratosphere. Not bad for a mission that went without shame to beg for more US aid.

What the legislators from Pakistan were celebrating is not known, but it was obviously a good-enough reason. As for what the bewildered Americans are making of this strange and bizarre performance of the president's party that had arrived with large begging bowls and looking like something the cat had brought in – well, we will never know. They must be wondering what kind of demented people now run the affairs of this blighted nation, which has nothing of substance left and certainly no shame in asking for alms every few hours. What has the president to say about this behavior? Is this conduct unbecoming? Can you hold a public office and behave like a common party lout? Where is the sense of decorum? Breeding? Education? Perhaps there is none of that, because they have none of it anyway. Will they be openly reprimanded? We shouldn't hold our breath. Worse things have gone unpunished.

No explanation will be required. The official thinking on this would be that there is no need to tell anything at all. As for the errant ministers who don't deserve to be where they are, no need to ever worry. Neither will they ever be questioned nor, God forbid, punished. Instead, they will, things being bizarre here, rise to greater heights and accumulate lots of money on the way up. This is not the first time public money and our tattered image has been further eroded by those whom a capricious twist of fate has placed where they least deserve to be. The capability of these people who call the shots in Pakistan today is very questionable. In real life you wouldn't even give them jobs as peons in your office. But this is not real life. You could sweep all this under the carpet because graver offences are taking place daily and the louts were just "boys" letting down their hair and partying, but it further depresses millions who see in such behaviour the end of our existence.

As for the "Chak De" business, the former president's Chak Shahzad villa has been under the spotlight. But rest assured, the media is as usual lying and gunning for a man who has given his all for this country. Nothing is amiss at the ranch, so we are told. This is wonderfully reassuring news. It transpires that the villa--constructed on land that has always been controversial, illegally occupied and in violation of all rules and regulations, and where the Big Man has built his retreat--also has an agricultural electricity connection which is meant for genuine farms and not plush retreats from the buzzing capital. This connection, of which the Big Man knows nothing and which is not noticed by his staffers who are forever searching haystacks for needles, is the cheapest form of electricity in Pakistan. When the story breaks with irrefutable proof in the form of power bills, the lying machinery goes into auto-drive. First there is denial, then indignation, then more mumbo jumbo. In between, IESCO, quietly "changes" the telltale meter and gives the connection another cloak to wear. By some twist of fate, Chak Shahzad is beamed to the FATA areas and, lo and behold! The villa receives a FATA power connection. Not as cheap as the agricultural one but cheap as dirt, nevertheless. FATA? Could IESCO not come up with a better lie? Even lying presupposes some common sense, which IESCO does not have.

Denials have been flying like drones. The issue is being sidetracked, so that the heat can be taken off. Since there is an open season on lying at all times of the year, this is easy to manage. No one can dare question anything that touches the life of the royals, even ex-royals, so this too will be dumped into the overflowing garbage dump of our national shame. Pakistan continues to be raped and plundered at will, particularly by those who claim to be its biggest champions. The common folk, slapped by absence of power in this summer and random acts of the violence that stalks our lives, have nothing to look forward to. This is our destiny. As Zia Moheyddin once said at a cricket match which Pakistan converted from an easy win to a bewildering loss, "Shikast hamara muqaddar ban-chuki hai." Defeat has become our destiny.”

This fine column was written by Masood Hasan in The News on Sunday, May 31, 2009.