Opening Up The (So Called) Defense Council of Pakistan

I’m sure many of you would have recently heard about the ‘Pakistani Council of Defense’, which has suddenly emerged out of nowhere, holding rallies in Lahore, Multan and soon will be doing another show in Karachi.

So What’s All the fuss about ?

Even I’m not too sure about that, but this council seems to be an umbrella for all banned/extremists/and known establishment stooges to unite on one platform. It came to existence a couple of months ago, after the much dreaded NATO strike at the Salala checkpost of Pakistan.
They probably think of themselves as the ‘Saviors’ of Pakistan, out to rid the country of all its ills, motivating the nation with false hope, and portraying the U.S. as Pakistan’s enemy number one, which is the main card in every religious/extremist and establishment backed group, perhaps not realizing that they themselves are the biggest cancer which has inflicted Pakistan.

Calling the people towards false Jihad with pictures of American made F-16's

These people want to promote the same mindset which has lead to a completely intolerant and polarized society. Here’s a quick look at the people who are at the helm of this council (Courtesy Wikipedia).

Hafiz Muhammad Saeed:
Hafiz Muhammad Saeed (Urdu: حافظ محمد سعید; born 1950) is the amir of Jama’at-ud-Da’wah, a charity organization that is widely considered to be a cover organization for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), one of the largest and most active militant Islamic organizations in South Asia, operating mainly from Pakistan.

Hamid Gul:
A retired high-ranking general officer in the Pakistan Army who served as the Director General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s premierintelligence agency, between 1987 and 1989 during the late stages of and after the Soviet-Afghan War. Gul is widely known and credited for starting the insurgency in Kashmir against India in 1989 by diverting the Mujahideen who participated in the Soviet-Afghan War to Jammu and Kashmir in India. Gul was also instrumental in the establishment of the Taliban and was once known as the “father of the Taliban”

A surprise entry to the council’s latest gathering in Multan was none other than the highly notorious Malik Ishaq, who heads the well known and banned militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi which is said to be a breakaway faction of the Sipa-e-Sahaba.
Apart from them, the council is being fully supported by the country’s biggest Islamic party, the Jamat-e-Islami and by Shaikh Rasheed, the famous politician of Rawalpindi and one of Musharraf’s ex close advisors.

So what now ?
Well, if Gen Hamid Gul thinks that he can create another IJI in the name of ‘Pakistan Defense Council’, he’s dead wrong. These people must realize that they are not helping the country in anyway. Pakistan’s future lies in a democratic and tolerant society, where we preach books, not guns and rockets. And with such dubious characters, God forbid if this council succeeds, Pakistan will go back to the 80’s.

Hello Again!

This wasn’t planned, it just so happened that I opened up my email tonight (which I don’t in normal circumstances), I was expecting an email from my aunt, but instead I found an email from ‘Amna Khan’, (my aunt’s name is also Amna so I was confused there for a little while). Anyway, I don’t know this Amna, nor have I met her. But her email was so encouraging for me that I had just had to fire up my WordPress Dashboard and write a new post. I never imagined that a random person would email me and appreciate my blog, so this is a first for me. Here’s what she wrote:

“Hi,

I just came across your site and it is really wonderful. I am curious to know, why have you stopped writing? Are you writing on some other site?”

I’m sure many more of you have the same question. It would be safe to assume that I was and still am lazy, but considering that I was also approaching my first year of my Ordinary levels, so I had to shift my focus towards studies. Now I am in my second and final year of O levels, and the stakes are even higher.
However having said that, I have decided to break the long hiatus on LIP, and will be doing at least two posts per week. I will continue to give my opinions on the rapidly changing Pakistani political atmosphere and its repercussions on the international community.

So, Welcome Back. Let the blogging begin!

Two teens take on Facebook and Google+ with ‘Scapehouse’

Two classmates have come up with a new social experiment, which they call Scapehouse. Scapehouse is the brainchild of two Dubai residents, Ali Razzouk and my good friend Abdullah Khan.
Ali describes Scapehouse in the following words:

 “I’ve been using Facebook and Twitter for a long time, and I have things that I like and
 dislike about both. Facebook’s privacy issues drive me crazy. On Twitter, the discussions
 are a mess, and 140 characters are just not enough for me to express myself most of the
 time. So we decided to combine the two models and came up with a whole new
 experience”, says Ali.

This is not ‘just another social network’ as you may feel, in fact this little thing carries immense potential. Following are some of the highlights of Scapehouse which makes it stand out from the competition.

The registration is fairly easy and simple, in fact if you already have a Facebook account, you can register via Facebook too. There is also a mobile site, so if you’re using one, just point your device to Scapehouse.com and you’ll be automatically be taken to the mobile site.
Also, Scapehouse is open to all feedback and criticism which can be given at http://scapehouse.com/corporate/contact 

Go ahead and give it a shot, and don’t forget to add me on Scapehouse > MAK009X.

Congratulations Mr. President, Commiserations Mr. Prime Minister

After the passage of the 18th Amendment by the parliament and its subsequent induction into law, the 18th Amendment is now officially a part of the Constitution of Pakistan. A big achievement indeed, the political parties, Prime Minister and especially the President–who agreed to strip his powers, deserve praise.

However while on one hand the 18th Amendment does away with the notorious 58(2)b, which gave the power to the President to dissolve all sitting assemblies at will, on the other hand, it has also given the power to the heads of the political parties to sack any member of the National or Provincial assemblies belonging to his party. Just in case you forgot, our President is currently the effective chairman of the PPP, which means he can sack the PM at any time, in a matter of minutes.

In other words, the final word will be the Presidents, and it will be on his orders that the government will act.

Apart from this, the requirement for political parties to hold intra party elections has also been finished. Another controversial clause in the amendment is the procedure for the appointment of the judges. Apparently many top jurists and eminent lawyers are not happy with it, and see the issue going to the Supreme Court, which they say the SC can strike down on the basis that it is against the basic structures of the constitution.

The 18th Amendment is big step but our lawmakers should begin the groundwork for the 19th Amendment to amend the flaws in the 18th Amendment.

WikiMir Fraudia List: A compilation of all the big names of corruption in Pakistani politics and beyond

I was googling around when I happened to stumble upon this interesting list, dubbed the ‘fraudia’ list, which is an initiative to compile the names of the all the corrupt politicians, bureaucrats, Generals and journalists. The list contains names from people like our President to corrupt bureaucrats like Ahmed Riaz Sheikh along with all their known corruption. A message on the page says:

We are compiling this list as a community project. If you have any information regarding a Pakistani politician, bureaucrat, military person, journalist just write it here. If you do not want to edit this web page, you car write on the Discussion Page for Fraudia List. It would be then added onto the Fraudia List. Any, all help is highly appreciated.

This a highly appreciable project– if you think you know any politician/bureaucrat/general or journalist involved in corruption, feel free to add their name to the ever growing fraudia list.