March 2012
2 posts
Mr. President, Bring Down this Wall
Chain smoking cigarettes staring at Bilawal House across the street, Siddique says, “I used to work with Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto,” pulling a photograph out of his drawer of himself with the late Pakistan People’s Party Leader, “now this wall built by the PPP government has ruined my business.”
Siddique, a state agent, says he has lost about ninety-percent of his customer base over the last couple of...
Extortion in Karachi
The Special Investigative Unit’s newly formed Anti-Extortion Cell (AEC) has produced two arrests fresh off the heels of widespread condemnation of a rise in extortion resulting in a shutter down strike throughout Karachi by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.
The AEC only came into being a little over a week ago and in that time it has received fifteen complaints, and according to DSP Wasif Qureshi who...
January 2012
9 posts
Barricades on New Year’s Eve solved a few problems...
Epaper version published in The Express Tribune on Jan. 4, 2012 here Online version here
KARACHI:
For the past two years, the police have been barricading parts of Clifton and Defence in an attempt to stop the revelry on New Year’s Eve from disturbing the residents of these areas. But it seems that this strategy itself has caused great inconvenience to those people it was supposed to...
Political meetings: Afaq Ahmed starts building...
Epaper version published in The Express Tribune on Jan. 3, 2012 here Online version here
KARACHI: A few weeks after the release of Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi (MQM-H) leader Afaq Ahmed, Kamran Rizvi, who was part of the MQM-H (Amir Khan) has rejoined Afaq’s faction of the party and meetings between the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) rivals are underway.
Former central secretary...
Jihadi kidnappings: As the year ends, a new trend...
Epaper version published in The Express Tribune on Jan. 1, 2012 here Online version here
KARACHI:
At least five of over a hundred kidnappings in 2011 have been committed by “jihadi” groups, according to the Citizens Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) — an increase from just one or two last year.
The links between kidnappings and jihadi groups are often exaggerated, but Pakistan...
Imran Khan Wins Hearts and Minds at Rally
Epaper version published in The Express Tribune on Dec. 26, 2011 here Online version here
KARACHI:
When people poured into the rally early on Sunday, sections of the ground seemed to arrange themselves into little microcosms of the greater class system prevalent in the country. But as the numbers grew, the lines blurred.
What most people in the family enclosure had in common was...
Bill passed for women’s rights, but the fight...
Epaper version published in The Express Tribune on Dec. 24, 2011 here Online version here
KARACHI: Although the Prevention of Anti-Women Practices (Criminal Law Amendment) Bill was passed in the National Assembly and Senate, the fight is far from over, according to women’s rights activists, members of the provincial assemblies (MPAs) and lawyers, who spoke at a seminar on Friday.
“The...
Imran Khan arrives with promise of historic rally
Epaper version published in The Express Tribune on Dec. 23, 2011 here Online version here
KARACHI:
Jinnah airport turned into a sea of red and green as Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) supporters flooded it to receive Imran Khan who declared that Sunday’s public rally would not only go ahead but would also be a “historic” one.
He said that the court had “suspended” the order to not...
Defiant Afaq hits out at MQM
Epaper version published in The Express Tribune on Dec. 21, 2011 here Online version here
KARACHI:
The chairman of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM-H), Afaq Ahmed, has been a free man for only three days but he already fears that he can be sent back to jail. As a result, he has come out swinging against the self-exiled leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Altaf Hussain, to...
As the need for blood outstrips supply, two brains...
Epaper version originally published in the Express Tribune on Dec. 19th 2011 here
Online version here
KARACHI:
In a city that perennially competes for the title of murder capital of the world, the demand for blood is hard to stanch. And, as with the other cities in Pakistan, such as Lahore, the same situation arises when there are intermittent outbreaks of epidemics like dengue ...
Haqiqi Frenzy
Epaper version originally published on Dec. 18, 2011 here
Online version here
KARACHI: Instead of taking the normal route to his court hearings, Afaq Ahmed’s convoy raced out of Central Jail on Saturday to a destination he hasn’t been to in seven years: home.
The Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi (MQM-H) chairperson was released after the Sindh High Court struck down his detention orders...
October 2011
2 posts
Anonymous asked: Hey are you located out of Pakistan?
September 2011
1 post
From Death Row - Mumia Abu Jamal
Thought I’d put up some of Mumia’s words here after the whole Troy Davis case. A lot of great pieces have been written about Troy Davis but there’s nothing like hearing from a man who lives that reality.
Click here for background on Mumia Abu Jamal if you’re not familiar with him, and below are just two transcripts from hundreds of excellent pieces written and spoken by...
August 2011
2 posts
Why Pakistan's Army Can't Cure Karachi
Shorter version originally published in Foreign Policy here on August 23, 2011
It’s been just over a month since the last time a hundred lives were lost to gun violence in Karachi, but even within that month the guns never fell silent. In less than a week another 100 people have been murdered by what Sindh’s Information Minister calls “terrorists, target killers, the mafia (land, or drug take...
Violence is a Political Tool in the City that...
This piece was originally published in the Indian monthly The Caravan, on August 1st, and can be read here
They looked like crows perched along telephone wires strung through the hills on the outskirts of Orangi Town in Karachi. But in fact they were armed men from the Pashtun-nationalist Awami National Party (ANP), crouched over and looking through the crosshairs of their rifles at homes near...
July 2011
2 posts
Chronology of Violence - Partition to Present
This website is a great resource, someone posted it as a comment on an article I wrote. Whoever you are, thanks. The full chronology until present day is here.
1.1 The Partition Massacres, 1946-1947
The exact number of casualties during the Partition violence will always remain a matter of debate. Estimates range from around 200,000 to one-and-a-half million. A British contemporary estimates...
The Origins of Karachi's Wars
Originally published in Foreign Policy
At least 90 people have been killed and scores wounded in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, over the last four days. The wave of violence was set in motion when a Pashtun-nationalist Awami National Party (ANP) activist was attacked on Tuesday, an act that led to another ten murders as gun battles broke out in the Orangi Town neighborhood, which has...
June 2011
4 posts
Just art.
Random art I found on my computer.
“Fuck Al-Qaida” is a perfectly valid sentiment.
Martyr. I may have posted this before.
Kashmir. Fuck off Pakistan and India.
War on Terror. It just won’t post the right way around.
Owls. Just because I love owls.
This too. Just cause.
My only fear of death is coming back reincarnated
I’m 23 years old. I might just be my mother’s child, but in all reality, I’m everybody’s child. Nobody raised me; I was raised in this society. - Tupac
Street art featuring Tupac in the US and around the world. There’s a lot more out there.
Happy birthday Tupac. June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996. Legacy.
Jeff Buckley on Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
Both Nusrat and Jeff are dearly missed.
“The first time I heard the voice of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was in Harlem, 1990. My roommate and I stood there blasting it in his room. We were all awash in the thick undulating tide of dark punjabi tabla rhythms, spiked with synchronized handclaps booming from above and below in hard, perfect time. I heard the clarion call of harmoniums dancing the antique...
May 2011
2 posts
“The headline you won’t be reading today: “Millions saved in Japan by good...”
– Dave Ewing (via kateoplis)
Libyan Rebel Art
Artist Salhen Obaidi cleans his hands after painting a mural in downtown Benghazi on May 15. Hundreds of new paintings and graffiti decorate the city of Benghazi since the rebels took control of the city.
Libyan youths sing near a courthouse in Benghazi
People stand next to caricatures of Moammar Khadafy in Benghazi
A Libyan girl looks at pictures of people killed or missing since the...
April 2011
6 posts
Anonymous asked: you seem very interesting!
Why Idi Amin Is Not the Leader of the "Free World"
These telegrams taken from the book “Talk of the Devil: Encounters with Seven Dictators” by Riccardo Orizio. The first telegram is from ex-Ugandan dictator Idi Amin to the Queen of England. The second is from Idi Amin to President Nixon during the Watergate scandal. Both of these were shared by Fatima Bhutto on Twitter. It goes without saying but this is a book I just have to read....
Watchmake music.
seawitchery:
I started out clicking strategically… and by the end was just wildly clicking and dancing in my chair.
biancavirina:
CLICK THE SQUARES.
THE WHOLE WORLD NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT THIS.
THIS THIS THIS THIS!
Media Man: Interior Minister Rehman Malik
There are only a few good reasons you should end up on Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s website. If you enjoy the banalities of a reporter’s life, the superficialities of a politician’s or the masochism of a news junkies’- that is the only reason for you to be spelunking around there. For those of you with a penchant for the absurd, allow me to take you on a short tour of the honorable, and...
March 2011
1 post
February 2011
3 posts
Anonymous asked: I am an IBA student but my major interests remain writing and reporting, and I would love to pursue my career as a journalist or columnist. For which, I wish I could polish my writing skills over the years. I would be grateful if you share with me some tips and let me know of any programs, conferences, training sessions, and major events taking place in this regard. Waiting for your response and...
Molotov Cocktails
What prevents many from truly understanding what took place all those years ago in Bulgaria and over the past three decades in Egypt, and across the Arab world, is that dignity, the very idea of it, is incredibly elusive. (A friend pointed that out to me recently, on Facebook, of all places.) Dignity, as Bob Dylan once said, has never been photographed. Most people wouldn’t know they had it...
January 2011
4 posts
Muhammad Ali & Malcolm X
Happy Birthday Muhammad Ali. Why all these pictures of Ali with X? Because they’re awesome. A quick google search will pull up lots more which I haven’t posted.
Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X. The children are Malcom X’s if I’m not mistaken.
The greatest ever at running his mouth. Ali and X with camera in hand.
The mouth only stopped when it was time to eat.
X and...
December 2010
5 posts
Manifest Destiny into a Lesson to Others
Beautiful to live in poverty Just to spite what they’re selling Take a thousand hits to prove the rest and I’ll move in Millimeters still won’t mean shit against well-done subversion Fathers of invention will one day turn in their graves When their own sons and daughters Manifest destiny into a lesson to others Sent away my crippled, let the old ones categorize their death camps,...
Thinning the Herd
An awesome Calvin and Hobbes strip.
November 2010
6 posts
mesoliloquy-deactivated20101118 asked: This is in reply to the question you asked here. http://smirza.tumblr.com/post/1085484213
The quote was actually made by François Guizot. The original quote was "not to be a republican at 20 is proof of want of heart; to be one at 30 is proof of want of head." It was reworked by many later.
The quote was actually made by François Guizot. The original quote was "not to be a republican at 20 is proof of want of heart; to be one at 30 is proof of want of head." It was reworked by many later.
The Boots and the Word
the9th:
“You can’t give them an order and expect them to obey immediately,” says an infantry officer in Vietnam. “they ask why, and you have to tell them.”
Bricks in the Wall
Revolutionary street art from around the world.
October 2010
7 posts
The Ballot or the Bullet
Famous speech by Malcolm X (El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz). In what I think is the greatest speech ever given.
“Any time Uncle Sam, with all his machinery for warfare, is held to a draw by some rice eaters, he’s lost the battle. He had to sign a truce. America’s not supposed to sign a truce. She’s supposed to be bad. But she’s not bad any more. She’s bad as long...