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Pakistan: Blood Money Sets Raymond Davis Free

Teeth Maestro — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 20:21:32 +0000

On January 27, in broad day light, an American security official, Raymond Davis opened fire at two alleged robbers. In the aftermath of the shootout people in the immediate vicinity arrested him and in an effort to rescue this operative from the street, a car reportedly sped down the wrong side of the road and killed a third Pakistani man.

Over the next few weeks a huge diplomatic uproar ensued, with the US State Department alleging him to be a diplomatic official and under the Vienna Convention strongly urged the Government of Pakistan to set him free. On a local level the public was enraged and proceeded to resist his release. Finally on 16 March at a hurried trial in the compounds of the Kot Lakhpath Jail, Raymond Davis was charged for two counts of murder. Immediately the lawyers produced the family members of the two victims whom Raymond Davis murdered, who told the presiding judge that they had been offered blood money [Diyat - is compensation paid to the heirs of a victim the word means both blood money and ransom] and had subsequently pardoned Raymond for the murder.

The judge immediately set Raymond free, and the American Embassy is said to have immediately flown him out of Pakistan aboard a private jet to Afghanistan for debriefing.

After the release order of Raymond Davis protests were held in Hyderabad, Pakistan. Image by Rajput Yasir. Copyright Demotix.

Farhan at Guppu writes:

Pakistani court indicted Davis in the double murder and denied statements by his lawyer that they did not trust the investigation process. Money was later paid to the families of the victims to receive a pardon.

Kalsoom at CHUP reports:

According to the lawyers of the families, they were “forcibly taken to Kot Lakhpat Jail by unidentified men and made to sign papers pardoning Davis.”

Punjab Law minister Rana Sanaullah told private television, “The family members of the slain men appeared in the court and independently verified they had pardoned [Davis].” And, while sources vary slightly on the blood money amount, (ABC News reported that $700,000 was paid to each family, totaling around $1.4 million, while Dawn reported the amount was $2.35 million),

Hence the court proceedings were shrouded in a mystery fueling the conspiracy grapevine, Cafe Pyala outlines the payouts:

Here's the main prayer to the court setting out that the persons named have no objection to ‘Raymond Davis' being acquitted by the court since they had accepted compensation and reached agreement to settle the matter.

The operative part in each is the share of the blood money received, divided according to shari'ah rules. The following is the detail of the diyat received by Faizan Haider's family:

Faizan Haider's Mother: Rs. 33,333,333/-

Faizan Haider's Wife: Rs.25,000,000/-

Faizan Haider's Brother No.1: Rs. 7,575,758/-

Faizan Haider's Brother No.2: Rs. 7,575,758/-

Faizan Haider's Brother No.3: Rs. 7,575,758/-

Faizan Haider's Sister No.1: Rs. 3,787,879/-

Faizan Haider's Sister No.2: Rs. 3,787,879/-

Faizan Haider's Sister No.3: Rs. 3,787,879/-

Faizan Haider's Sister No. 4: Rs. 3,787,879/-

Faizan Haider's Sister No. 5: Rs. 3,787,879/-

Total Diyat paid to Faizan Haider's relatives: Rs.100,000,002/- which translates into US$1,166,744/- at the current rate of exchange.

The relatives of the second man killed, Mohammad Faheem, received similar compensation.

The mystery as to who eventually paid the blood money fell into confusion when the US State Department categorically denied having any involvement with the issue. Pakistaniat comments to suggest that it might have been the Saudi government:

whether the US paid it directly or had some fixer of choice – maybe the Saudis (although they deny it) – to pony up the cash it was an arcane and less than endearing provision in Sharia Law that saved this CIA agent’s skin.

Immediately after the incident I, at Teeth Maestro shared that crying over Raymond Davis was like crying over spilt milk. Pressure instead must be mounted on the politicians who orchestrated this hurried case letting go of a murder without charging him for espionage or even attempting to take him to task for the possession of a weapon:

Locally I believe now we cant do much to argue about Raymond Davis, he has skipped out and at best is absolved of his murder, but what Pakistanis must exert tremendous pressure on the government to hold them accountable including the Govt of Punjab. Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif to suddenly skip off to London claiming health reasons is a definite ploy to avoid getting mixed up in Lahore, all these lunatic politicians who are selling this country off need to be thrown into the gallows, they all are unfit to rule this country now or ever.

Kalsoom passionately concludes:

Was this case shady? Of course. I have no doubt that there was some back-end wheeling and dealing by both U.S. and Pakistani officials to reach this conclusion. It was in the interest of the Pakistani government to not be seen as cow-towing to U.S. pressures to release Davis under diplomatic immunity. It was in the interest of the U.S. government to get Raymond Davis out, whatever the financial and diplomatic costs. So they both got their wish, didn’t they? Davis was indicted for murder charges yesterday, and he was swiftly released today after paying off the families of the men he killed in cold blood. But this was not justice, and really, it didn't fool anyone.

There is a huge uproar in Pakistan as to how a murderer can snick free exploiting a loophole in Pakistan's Shariah law, exploited by Americans who are fundamentally against this law. The political ramifications will go deep. All major Pakistani leaders are not commenting publicly on the issue and instead issue statements that it was a court decision, thus turning a deaf ear to the total lack of transparency.

Facebook Is Blocked in Pakistan As It Indulges In A Controversial Campaign

Teeth Maestro — Wed, 19 May 2010 21:00:02 +0000

After the outcry surrounding the Draw Mohammed Day Facebook page which is campaigning for the creation of mass cartoon caricatures of Prophet Muhammed [PBUH] on the 20th of May, today the Lahore High Court ordered the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to block the entire Facebook.com domain in Pakistan till 31st May.

Reports of blockage had been appearing around the country from the morning, initially the PTA had only blocked the URL of the offending Facebook page on a number of ISP, but by the late evening it had spread throughout the entire Facebook domain. Over 1.8 Million registered Facebook users from Pakistan will not be able to access their Facebook pages for the next few days.

The official PR notification as reproduced by Aamir Attaa at ProPakistani is as follows:

BLOCKAGE OF FACE BOOK WEBSITE DUE TO PUBLICATION OF PROFANE ANTI ISLAMIC CONTENT ON ITS WEBSITE.

ISLAMABAD: MAY 19, 2010

In compliance with the orders of Honourable Lahore High Court, Lahore, on the Writ Petition No.10392/10, dated the 19th May, 2010, the Ministry of Information Technology has issued a directive to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to block the ‘Face Book’ and all other internet links displaying sacrilegious caricatures of the Holy Prophet.

Ministry of IT has also directed the PTA to remain alert and watchful and block all such links displaying the profane caricatures immediately.

Ministry of IT has requested public at large to contact a dedicated Telephone No.0800-5505 and e-mail address: complaint@pta.gov.pk , to transmit necessary information, should anything to the effect of objectionable caricature get displayed/propagated at any website.

This open ended notification does little to signify that its on an entire domain and also lays no significant directive on the deadline of the blockage.

According to Foud Bajwa, who writes on Internet governance in Pakistan:

13.48% of Pakistani Internet Users will not be able to access Facebook.com starting at 12am tonight on 20th of May 2010.

Adil Najam at Pakistaniat shares a very valid and compelling argument quite literally blaming the Muslim community to have brought attention to the devious campaign designer in helping him achieve his goal.

I am offended by the idea that page purports and the goals it seeks to achieve. So, why should I dignify it by a visit? Why should I publicize it? Why should I give it the attention it was created to seek. Yet, all of us (now me included, which is why writing this is uncomfortable) are doing exactly that. And that is what pains me.

They simply could not have done this without us. The only people who have turned this from nothingness into a huge issue is us. I am sure that those who set up the page are jumping up and down and thanking us for making their page such a huge success! And that is what pains me.

Rumaisa Mohani conversely suggests to condemn this issue:

We have to decide now that “Do we respect ourselves, as mentioned in the words of Iqbal”? …. Because if we don’t , then we will have to accept what others say about us and do to us. The pictures, cartoons and insulting remarks are increasing day by day , only because we are getting used to them…. and that is where lurks the real danger !!!

An immediate action can be condemning any such hurtful act, which is against our religious beliefs peacefully. We can give them an impression that nobody believes them and make them believe that they are wasting their time and effort to berate us… show out self-respect ! But, we need to do this as a unified force. We should neither deviate from our focus (i.e.,condemning them) nor getting into petty issues (i.e., our own lacking)… because this is what they want us to indulge in.

Tehseen Bajwa at Techie Buzz shares his frustration that Facebook did not block the page:

Interestingly, the group inviting people to draw cartoons only has 42,000 members while the group that is asking Facebook to take action against this has 58,000 members. This however, has failed to get Facebook’s attention. After lots of protests and boycott-Facebook campaigns online, people also gathered on the streets of Pakistan to push Facebook for an action. When disappointed, users appealed the Government to intervene and as a result the ban was issued.

Sardar Mohkim Khan writes to say that the facebook page must be banned:

I think Mark Zuckerburg should take notice and give his social network’s Terms of Use a good read. Once done, he must then remove this page or simply let all hate groups flourish, I mean you have to be just and not be biased. Again religion is not the major reason, simply put the issue is with how Facebook has ignored its own rules and making people hate it more.

Ayesha comments:

by banning Facebook we are giving them financial loss and then they will remove all the nonsense, but what about the real culprits? you think they will stop? NO!, they will definitely find some other platform to harass us

Waqas Kamran at CooL Yar Forums says

We should stop using Facebook until they realize and respect Muslims and till privacy concerns are solved. We should use our own websites and support Muslims in anyway.

Meanwhile I wrote on my own blog at Teeth Maestro:

It does little to solve the problem, we as peaceful Pakistanis were lobbying to force Facebook to block the groups activities, our outreach was peaceful and with a definite commitment we had condemned this issue to such a strong degree that we might have possibly been on the verge of a break through, to be honest no one from the Muslim world was so emotionally charged lobbying against this group as we were here in Pakistan, now they have a free reign to celebrate the Draw Mohammed Day. to have won, while our government simply forced us to keep our eye closed.

ProPakistani's stance on this issue is:

We are Boycotting the Facebook on May 20th, 2010 and we will abandon all our activities on Facebook ever after. We have this stance because:

Staying on Facebook for reporting the bad URLs is pointless, as Facebook has made its mind to not to listen you

ProPakistani (not saying about you) can’t preach at a platform where people are abusing and using indecent language

Pakistan: The Draw Mohammed Day Controversy

Teeth Maestro — Tue, 18 May 2010 17:50:06 +0000

Everybody Draw Mohammed Day Facebook Page

On April 25 a Seattle Cartoonist Molly Norris came on a radio show to announce that she was organizing a cartoon drawing event called Muhammad day in response to Comedy Central’s decision to censor an episode of South Park which had depictions of Prophet Muhammad [PBUH].

In the interview she said:

“as a cartoonist, I just felt so much passion about what had happened.. it’s a cartoonist’s job to be non-PC.”

This resulted in Jon Wellington creating a Facebook fan page on this issue labeling it as “Everybody Draw Muhammed Day”, he introduces the group as:

As a snarky response to Muslim bloggers who “warned” Comedy Central about an episode of South Park showing the Prophet Mohammed wearing a bear suit, one Seattle cartoonist, who calls laughter her form of “prayer,” is asking artists all over the world to create depictions of Mohammed on May 20, then submit the images to a Facebook page she set up. Speaking on a Seattle radio show on Friday, cartoonist Molly Norris said she announced her idea as a way of countering the fear exhibited by Comedy Central in censoring episode 201 of South Park.

The Pakistani blogosphere is in an uproar over the issue, Aamir Attaa at ProPakistani says:

Despite thousands of complaints, Facebook administration is not banning the page; unlike they usually do even for very minor violation of Facebook Terms of Services. This page is clearly violating the terms, by spreading hatred and disrespecting Muslims and their values.

Sana Saleem at Dawn blog writes:

Laughably, the campaign website also claims that the point is not to promote certain “personal/political/religious” messages, but to show the world that “we’re not afraid to depict Muhammad.” But, the question remains, who is the target audience for such a campaign? And what is the purpose of a mass campaign that has the potential to target and offend people of a certain religion?

….. Let’s act rationally once and for all, and help change the trend of the freedom-of-speech excuse being used to justify discriminatory campaigns.

Mani Pro at MANI's Fragasss reacts to say:

The Facebook fan page has been created to hurt our hearts, our souls, our emaan, our love for the prophet (SAW), the prophet for which his real followers faced all the pain in the world. Now when it's up to us, what pain are we willing to suffer?

Expressing her frustration Sahar Rabbani responds at Chowrangi:

They prove by their actions that they are the extremists, not we, and still they call us extremists and terrorists. It seems as if our whole life revolves around Facebook, we’re just so used to all this derogatory stuff that no one really bothers, we’re a dead nation who doesn’t take any action on such events which is really depressing. What we should do is to deactivate our Facebook accounts.

My response to the Molly Norris's interview at Teeth Maestro's blog was to question her hypocrisy on where she chooses to draw the line of Freedom of Expression when questioned about drawing on the holocaust:

Its interesting if you hear her Interview, when asked if she would make fun of the Holocaust – she responds “No, there is nothing funny about it” what a hypocritical statement exposing her idiotic position on Freedom of Expression:

This has generally lead to an uproar across the Facebook with many opposing groups cropping up against this initiative, but the most interesting and the neutral way of opposing this event was presented by some peaceful Muslims to launch a group called Honour The Prophet Muhammad Campaign, which is explained in this YouTube video:

Rabab Khan at Cacoethes Scribendi suggest restraint in going all out condemning the issue:

While I do agree with condemning Draw Muhammad Day, reporting it and insisting Facebook remove it, I also believe that we should look within for the inspiration required to battle such attacks. When we abuse, slander and increase the hatred, we are not helping the cause. We are only adding insult to the injury.

The uproar continued but in all the pressure Molly Norris may have withdrawn from her earlier position to regret to have gone to the show in the first place:

I regret going on a local radio show on April 25th; my ego took me there, it was a mistake. I meant for this to remain a fictional CARTOON, an artistic IDEA, never to catch fire as an actual ‘event'

Facebook or the group URL might be banned in Pakistan

With all the hue and cry about the event it seems that Ministry of Information and Technology in Pakistan may have instructed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to block the Facebook or the Facebook page according to the sources close to Aamir Attaa of ProPakistani:

A reliable source, who is in direct contact with Secretary MoIT, told ProPakistani that ministry has issued the directive to PTA to ban said blasphemous content in the country. Ministry of Information Technology directs PTA for banning any URL or whole of website in case of any inappropriate content available on it. It is yet to be ascertained if the whole Facebook will be banned or just a single URL will be filtered. In both the situations, step is inline with thousands of Facebook users and according to their urge of boycotting Facebook on May 20th.

While Imran Jafri at Mabo0t comments on the pending Facebook ban:

It is not yet clear If the directive was issued to ban the entire Facebook or the Facebook fan page in question. We will of course update this post as more details become available to us.

As of filing of this report neither the facebook fan page nor the main domain was blocked in Pakistan.

Pakistan: PTA Blocks President's ‘Shut-Up' Video

Teeth Maestro — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 18:28:26 +0000

On Sunday evening [7th February 2010] YouTube.com started facing intermittent reports of irregular inaccessibility across various ISP's in Pakistan. It initially started off with a simple white page displaying the word “This Site is Restricted” throughout the YouTube domain which were reported widely on Herdict Web, roughly displaying that the site-wide inaccessibility lasted for about an hour but after that everything seemed to have been recovered back to normal.

Huma Imtiaz wrote:

About 90 minutes ago, YouTube suddenly got blocked in Karachi – with the message “This site is restricted” popping up instead. PTCL expressed ignorance about the ban, whereas representatives of various ISPs’ helplines said that Pakistan Telecommunication Authority had banned YouTube. At around 9:30 PM PST, YouTube came back, but now one cannot access the video of Zardari saying shut up to a crowd that surfaced recently on the website. Since its a Sunday, PTA representatives are unavailable.

Screen Capture From YouTube Video

Instead it was then reported that the Internet governing body Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, which monitors internet access from Pakistan has placed an URL-specific ban on one particular video in which the President of Pakistan Mr. Asif Ali Zardari is seen to deliver a very forceful and curt “Shut-up” to some participant at the rally he was addressing a rally barely a few weeks back.

It must be noted that Mr. Zardari actually says in Urdu:

“What has happened to this democracy ……. Shut Up”

Many Pakistanis would find this as a hilarious coincidence coming from a infamous corrupt leader who has a quite a large number of corruption cases outstanding against him. In 2007, his wife Benazir Bhutto was assassinated after which Mr. Zardari successfully hijacked her party and nudged his way into the power corridors in Pakistan and land up in the Presidency. All this was only possible as he negotiated a compromise with the then President of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf by fabricating an illegal constitutional order [NRO - National Reconciliatory Ordinance] which pardoned him of all his corruption cases.

Here is the video uploaded by YouTube user c1ickme3:

Tassaduq Bashir at Techreaders comments:

Having said that I don’t understand what Government is thinking by banning the video in Pakistan. Literally anyone with small Internet knowledge can access those easily. Also the ban is in Pakistan and Pakistan isn’t the whole world, Global users still have the access to the video.

Sources analyzing this recent censorship attempts suggest that the PTA engineers were yet again testing & fine tuning the URL-block list as they slowly nudged these videos inaccessible to Pakistani, this risky trial and error has been the hallmark of the very same PTA engineers who in February 2008 masterminded [accidentally] to knock out the entire youtube.com network as then PTA tried to block a certain election vote rigging video ending up to misconfiguring the DNS records of Youtube resulting an serious outage world wide for a good few hours before youtube scrambled to fix the errors.

Farhan at Guppu writes:

I got a friendly message to Mr. President Asif Ali Zardari and that is; there’s nothing bad if you got angry on someone from audience who might have provoked you on some sensitive personal issue but what you did wrong is; tried to censor the words of your own! If you are so much embarassed about that video, why did you say such thing at first place, and now that you had said that already, what stimulated you to block that?

Political analysts believe this recent run of censorship is more a knee-jerk reaction by the present rulers of the country as they are facing pressure from a number of areas, more specifically the previously side-lined corruption cases that they had in 2008 nudged away by some illegal constitutional reforms, to get themselves elected. These cases have been reopened for a detailed investigation by the Supreme Court of Pakistan which was done away with the various constitutional reforms bringing at stake their appointment to these high-level offices.

The post was co-authored by Farhan Janjua.

Pakistan: Sharif Brothers Declared Ineligible For Election Whilst Governor Rule Imposed

Teeth Maestro — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 01:29:03 +0000

The Supreme Court after prolonged hearing of Sharif brothers’ electoral eligibility case, finally declared today that the two leaders of Pakistan's most prominent political party Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz group have been deemed ineligible to have contested the elections a year back on 18th February 2008. Although it must be noted that the merit of this decision was based on a certain case in which Nawaz Shairf was convicted of a crime in 1999, the in-famous plane hijacking case in which Nawaz Sharif the then Prime Minster of Pakistan did not permit the then Chief of Army Staff General Pervez Musharraf's plane from landing in Pakistan, it was after this tussle that the Pakistan Army over took the country at the behest of Pervez Musarraf and overthrew Nawaz Sharif's elected government and enforced a martial law on the country.

Immediately People in Pakistan reacted vehemently to this Supreme Court verdict and were seen to be rioting on the streets mostly in the province of Punjab. With the sitting Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif effectively ineligible to occupy this position, a two month governor rule was enforced allowing Salman Taseer full control of the province.

Though justice must be served across the board and one cannot expect the judiciary to be selective, If the Nawaz brothers are guilty then the Mr. Asif Ali Zardari must also come under the knife and open his billions of dollars of corruption cases, or even the mere fact that all elected parliamentarians in Pakistan need to have a basic Bachelors level higher education and Mr. Zardari cannot even produce a degree and merely suggests ‘to have been educated from ‘a business school in London'.

Farhan at the Guppu Blog starts off to say:

Just for the political revenges, they keep on holding a particular case as to be able to use it as a weapon against someone when needed. I ask a simple question; what took so long for the Supreme Court to pronounce the decision? Answer is simple likewise, that Supreme Court continued the hearing and pronounced the decision when Zardari wanted it to.

DeadPan Thoughts feels Justice needs to be served across the board:

Personally I do agree that people with marked and murky histories should not be allowed into our politics anyways, but if this is so then why were they allowed to run in the last election. Why were they accepted as the “Chief Minister of Punjab” and why are some politicians declared “unfit” while others enjoy the protection of various deals brokered outside Pakistan.

Omar Azam at Pak Times talks about how Nawaz Sharif was disqualified earlier but Shahbaz Sharif was allowed to serve as Chief Minister of Punjab for over a year:

On June 23, 2008, a full bench of the Lahore High Court disqualified PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif from contesting the election. However, the court had conditionally allowed PML-N President Mian Shahbaz Sharif to hold the office of the chief executive of the province.

Pakistan Policy Blog analyzes the overall political gravity of the situation:

Politically, the Sharifs and their faction of the Muslim League (PML-N) are isolated. Its major allies are those outside of parliament: the lawyers, Jamaat-i Islami, and Tehreek-e Insaaf. Zardari is politically secure. The Pakistani president has Musharraf-era constitutional powers (the hyper-presidency), a docile (though occasionally rebellious) prime minister, a healthy coalition in the center, a share in all provincial governments, a pliant Supreme Court, an army stuck in the barracks, and support of major Western governments. An influx of foreign aid could bolster his hold on power. Also, the PPP will likely be the largest party in the Senate after elections in March. Zardari — if he makes the right deals — could get a constitutional amendment passed that would fall short of restoring the presidency to its original nominal status. In short, Zardari could have his cake and eat it too.

While Pro-Pakistan questions the decision:

Shahbaz Sharif will have to step down from the position of Chief Minister of Punjab. This will also intensify their involvement in the upcoming Long March of Lawyers on 16th March, 2009. This will have major implications on the political scenario of the country

Derwaish from All Things Pakistan expresses dismay at this decision which might cause political instability:

Without going into merits of the decision, I think it will create more political instability and uncertainty which is the last thing we want to see in Pakistan. It is rather unfortunate but the initial reactions and statements suggests that Pakistan might be heading towards the politics of confrontation and horse-trading of 1990's

Yasir Latif Hamdani from Pak Tea House is stumped:

I thought the PPP government and President Zardari were more astute than this. By allowing this to go through, they have called forth a flood vis a vis the Lawyer’s Movement and this time around it would be the civilian government of liberal and democratic PPP instead of the Military regime. I wonder who will gain from this?

Pakistan: Baluchistan Quake

Teeth Maestro — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 22:29:13 +0000

On Wednesday morning an earthquake shook the eastern section of Pakistan tipping the Richter Scale at a massive 6.5. The most devastated region was Ziarat, a remote location in Baluchistan. It resulted in more than 300 deaths, hundreds were injured and thousands were left homeless out in the open in the freezing winter cold.

Baithak notes that:

Pishin, Ziarat, Qila Abdullah, Chaman, Loralai, Sibbi, Mastung are badly hit areas. According to the geological survey of Pakistan, the epicenter of the quake was in Chiltan mountains. Ziarat is the worst hit area.

As soon as the quake shook the region, a Wiki page on the quake was up and running, which is managed by a renowned blogger iFaqeer at Wiki Pakistan. The map of the affected region can be found at the CARE website.

Here is a video of the quake uploaded in YouTube by pakirajput:

Pakistaniat started with a chilling post sharing the facts of the incident:

Officials are saying there were two tremors, striking at about 0409 and then 0510 PST followed by at least three aftershocks.

Adnan shares his concern:

Things are not as good financially as they were in Oct 2005 but hopes are high and Insha Allah with help of (fellow) Pakistanis this disaster would be overcome. I can just hope all political parties, Lawyers, Army quit their personal differences for a moment and get ready to help victims. May Allah help us all and make us able to help others.

Changing up Pakistan shares a comment:

Today, yet another tragedy has occurred, this time on the brink of a harsh winter. Mohammed Hashim, a resident in Wam, one of the hardest hit villages, told the AFP, “We are doomed…We have nothing left to save our families from the cold in the night.” [..] Many of the residents had spent “the day in a desperate search for loved ones or burying the dead in mass graves, as aftershocks nearly as big as the initial quake pounded the landscape, sending rocks spewing from nearby peaks and sparking fresh panic.”

Lahore Metblogs tells about aftershocks in the post titled nature’s wrath taints an October in blood again:

Rescue efforts have been initiated to save as many people trapped under the debris and landslides as possible with Pakistan Army taking the lead. Powerful aftershocks are being felt around Quetta, and the epicentre in Ziarat Valley, which also happens to be the most picturesque of all places in the province.

Islamabad Metblogs narrates Ziarat's Mayor's plea:

“There is great destruction. Not a single house is intact.”

Our duty to our brothers and sisters in Balochistan calls us. We did whatever we could for the victims of October 08, 2005 Earthquake and our efforts didn’t go in waste. We make an appeal to unite again and show a greater level of unity, enthusiasm and love for our Muslim brothers and sisters in pain.

While in my own blog I highlighted two relief efforts trying to help the devastated region: an appeal by the IDSP director and another relief effort by an educational institute FAST whose students stepped up with a FAST-Relief collection drive to immediately deliver relief goods into the region.

More efforts can be located at Wiki Pakistan Earthquake Page which has been set up for the cause.

Pakistani Bloggers on the McCain-Obama Debate

Teeth Maestro — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 18:10:21 +0000

Pakistani bloggers found much to analyze in last night's televised debate between United States presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain.

What the US approach to Pakistan should be was a core part of discussion, since Pakistan has come under greater scrutiny in recent times and is considered a hot-spot.

In roughly 37 days, the United States of America will be electing its 44th President. Though the elections are limited only to the US, the outcome of the election will have a far greater global impact.

Riaz Haq writes on Haq's Musings blog:

There is a significant concentration of Muslim vote in Florida and Michigan. If, as the anecdotal evidence suggests, Obama gets the lion's share of the Muslim American vote, then he could win the presidency by a thin margin of Muslim votes. Is an Obama win good for Muslim-Americans or Pakistani-Americans?

He summarizes the result of the debate in favor of McCain:

it is clear that Sen McCain is far more knowledgeable about Pakistan than Senator Obama. Mr. McCain has also repeatedly stressed diplomacy and close working relationship with Pakistan and demonstrated his commitment by his actions such as several visits and phone conversations with Pakistani leadership recently and in the past. On the other hand, Mr. Obama has made aggressive statements about Pakistan without making serious effort to understand the issues faced by Pakistanis in FATA.

Pakistan Policy Blog argues extensively for and against both sides:

OBAMA GOOD FOR CIVILIANS, BAD FOR MILITARY Obama’s support for Pakistan’s fledgling democracy and appropriation of the Biden plan, which calls for vastly increasing development aid, is excellent. It is an integral part of a transition toward a full-fledged Pakistan policy. But Obama seems unaware of the clear and present economic danger in Pakistan

MCCAIN GOOD FOR MILITARY, BAD FOR CIVILIANS McCain has yet to really come to terms with the existence of a civil, democratic government in Pakistan. He fails to include Pakistan in his proposed League of Democracies. He seems in denial — or his talking points have yet to be updated — so much that he is confused as to what the president’s name is. “Kardari.” …. it also demonstrates the greatest flaw in McCain’s Pakistan policy: he has failed to adapt it to a post-Musharraf Pakistan

Interestingly Pakistan Policy Blog coins a keyword “McBama” which could potentially be a mash-up of both policies:

MCBAMA GOOD FOR COMPREHENSIVE U.S-PAKISTAN RELATIONS neither the candidates, nor most in the U.S. policy community, truly understands the comprehensive failure that is Afghanistan. In respect to a Pakistan policy, Obama’s is more promising. McCain offers strengths vis-a-vis relations with Pakistan’s military and respect for its sovereignty that Obama fares miserably on.

Temporal at Baithak shares his frustration at McCain mispronouncing names:

John McCain, the “expert” in foreign policy mispronounced Ahmadinejad's name four times in a row and screwed up Zardari's name to boot.

On my own blog Teeth Maestro I also commented on the mispronunciation puzzle:

Probably the most interesting surprise was when McCain could not properly pronounce the name of our President Mr. Asif Ali Zardari to utter a mumbling Kirdari (sic), its not a crime by any standard to fumble with a difficult pronunciation, but when dealing with foreign dignitaries you try your damnedest to ensure that you pronounce their name correctly, lest they be offended. If this was just the start then the Iranian would have a field day ripping him apart since a few minutes later McCain made minced meat out of pronouncing Ahmedinejad’s name to utter something like Ahmadinenene (sic) – Definitely a diplomatic PR disaster awaiting to happen.

Desi in DC writes:

Who would have thought that I would say this but after yesterday’s US presidential debate it seems maybe McCain may be better for Pakistan. I disagree with most of his policies except his foreign policy, In Obama’s case his domestic policies make sense but his foreign policy shows his lack of experience.

Changing up Pakistan discusses the debate extensively to say:

It was a victory, albeit a narrow one, for Democratic candidate Senator Barack Obama. Regardless of political posturing, the U.S. will always act according to its national security interests. If Coalition forces are being killed by militants in cross-border attacks, it inherently threatens U.S. security; that would be true for any country. The difference in this presidential election is that Obama openly acknowleges this reality, while McCain merely chooses to equate it to an attack on Pakistani sovereignty. Ultimately, however, there isn’t an easy answer to this issue, and the next president will be forced to respond to the realities on the ground. Therefore, it may come down to how they tend to respond to major issues rather than their current political stances.

Procastination summarized his LiveBlogging coverage to say that, “I would rate it a draw. Obama didn’t land any knockout punches” and later pipes in with a CBS poll swinging in favor of Obama to say, “That sounds good for Obama & CNN Polling is even better.”

On Teeth Maestro, my analysis is in favor of an Obama-Biden victory:

Pakistan stands at a fork, if the same old policies are followed, the same blind sighted relationship maintained with crooks and dictators running our country the menacing war on terror will only get worse surely something both America and Pakistan wish not to happen. Obama on the other hand represents a fresh change, as per my neutral review of the debate, it is my understanding that if they both support the approximately the same line of action for Pakistan, I would carefully put my eggs into Obama’s basket, he talks with more commitment to the challenges ahead while simultaneously suggesting and a tough guy approach on Pakistan. He wants to solve the issue of War on Terror and not let it linger on longer then necessary. With Senator Biden as his side who has been the only American bureaucrat to fully understand the problem in Pakistan, I feel that an Obama-Biden presidency will be a brighter future for Pakistan.

Photo above, of a television screen showing the presidential debate is by Captain Alcoholica.

Pakistan: Musharraf has Left the Building

Teeth Maestro — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:49:51 +0000

Eight years, three hundred and five days ago a peaceful coup masterminded by a Pakistani Army General overtook the reigns of power from the then ruling corrupt leader Nawaz Sharif. It was then the promise of a new tomorrow; it was then a romantic walk towards the faint vision labeled as the ‘enlightened moderation' and definitely a step towards the ridding society of a plague called corruption. Pakistanis celebrated then, but very soon people realized that this blessing had slowly grown into an unwanted plague and the stay had become an unwelcome dictatorship. After many moons of tyranny, yesterday marked the end of a reign of power barely 60 days shy of nine years, Pakistan turns over a new leaf.

It seemed to be a normal day for Pakistan but it turned into a roller coaster of adrenaline pumping and rumor mongering session for its citizens as news started to flow. For the people it was one rumor after another flooding from TV newscasters to SMS's and even emails; it was as if the fate of Pakistan were to be decided by each other. Deadpan Thoughts quite easily summarizes the roller coaster of rumors in one sentence saying “The phone beeps - Mushy’s being impeached..go put on GEO [a TV channel]..NOW“. Some had us believing that this outgoing chap would go down fighting while some on the other hand conspired for the restoration of judiciary as his last vengeance but in the end it fizzled out to be a valiant outgoing speech, throwing in the towel before his tearful adios which Siam's Blog shares ‘A grim-faced Musharraf backed by Pakistani flags and a portrait of the country's founder' to say “I leave my future in the hands of people.”

Pervez Musharraf - Image credit: World Economic Forum Photostream in Flickr and used under a creative commons license

The tearful good bye on the 18th of August by Musharraf came barely four days after the celebrations of the 61st Independence Day. Pakistan gingerly marks the end of a long nine year dynasty. His concluding remarks were mostly a walk back into history as penned down by The Pakistani Spectator, which was just to highlight his services for the people and for the country.

Pakistani bloggers reacted with mixed feelings, on one hand some celebrated Musharraf by chiming in with the ‘For he is a Jolly Good Fellow' tune, while some faithfuls were quick to lend him a standing ovation but most cautiously celebrated the end of a dictatorship. Sarcastically Yeah That too had a few words to share, Ammar wrote about how the new ‘Cat Fight' is now about to begin, Chowrangi talks about Pakistan's future after Musharraf, Psychotic Discourses sheds light on the new form of Demon-cracy, MB confuses us with the talk about circle of circuses.

The immediate question that remains lurking is whether Musharraf is allowed to seek asylum outside of Pakistan or will he be put to trial for the charges alleged against him. Its definitely a tough juncture for Pakistan with a lot at stake.

One does wonder what next, wherein lies a huge mixture of political wannabes eying for the top slot, though the onus of pulling the country out of the mess lies squarely on the shoulder of Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif, both unelected politicians entrusted with the faith of a nation to hopefully pull this country out of the mess it now finds itself in.