In memory of my friend Saad Ainuddin….

Losing a friend is always hard.

Particularly when you’ve known them since second grade. 

Rest in Peace. I hope you get to meet the father and brother you lost at a very young age.

A man lives on when his name is spoken….

GNU Terry Pratchett.

RIP Sir Terry Pratchett

When I finished all Wodehouse and then Douglas Adams, I cast around for my next binge read.

Terry Pratchett met the case, even if I started with “Snuff” – one of the weaker Discworld books.

I really hope that DEATH has amiable cat lover persona from discworld.

We will miss you.

And we will miss the world you made forus:

Unseen University
schooner Avenue
Pseudopolis Yard
Lancre
Havelock “do not let me detain you” Vetinari
Sam Vimes
the Silver Horde
The Mended Drum
Ook
The High Energy Magic Building
The monks of time
Drumknott
quirm
Fred Colon
Klatch
Nobby Nobs
Castananda
The Assassins, Fools, Beggars and Alchemists Guild
Detritus
Carrot ironfounderson
Albert
Angua
Gaspode
Rincewind the wizzard
Ponder Stibbons
Bursar!!!!
Ridcully
Oggs
granny weatherwax
Tiffany Aching
The Nac Magfeegles
UU library
Foul old Ron
71 hour Ahmed
Harry King
Moist Lipwig
Igor

And of course DEATH
RIP

We will miss you. And thanks.

Raza Rabbani is vile

He does the decent thing for once in his life, and professes to weep copiously at the prospect.

Give me unalloyed corruption and outright authoritarianism over this flowery self-satisfied devotion to principles they neither understand nor comprehend. He wouldn’t know democracy, constitutionalism or rule of law if it was served to him on a silver platter with water cress around it.

This is the man whose idea of rule of law is to take away the vote from punjabis in Balochistan in an effort to appease the murderers who have wiped out a long lived community.

Btw, Dawn didnt publish my comment. You have to toe the pseudo-intellectuals line if you want to get published in any Pakistani English paper.

Why “Homeland” misleads

I grew up in Islamabad.

It’s a friend of mine.

The caricature on “Homeland” is no Pakistan.

Islamabad was – and still is – green, leafy, piney, and at the base of mountains. Not a desert. No camels. And few palms.

Another hero

http://m.imgur.com/G7lV1SU

Fifteen year old Aitzaz Hasas gave his life tackling a bomber trying to get into his school.

As his father said, Aitzaz’s mother wept so hundreds of others would not have to.

Rest In Peace.

Massacre in Peshawar

Really, is there anything that can be said? When children are singled out and slaughtered, and teachers and administrators are burnt alive, there’s nothing can be said.

These children were not the “elite” – they were middle class whose parents sacrificed much in the hope of educating them for a better life.

Rest in peace.

The streets of heaven will be crowded tonight.

In memory of the children of the Army Public School, Warsak. And the many innocents who have gone before.

If there’s one glimmer of light here – because I expect the Pakistani public and politicians to forget quickly, their memories being notoriously short – it’s the outpouring of concern from good people.

Thank you for #IndiawithPakistan and #illridewithyou. Sometimes the worst tragedies also bring out our common humanity.

For Malala Yousafzai

Let there be no doubt: Pakistanis are proud of Malala Yousafzai. Ignore the claims that “most” are “ambivalent.” No they aren’t.

There will always be what Professor Job Thomas uses to call “the loony fringe.” But 99 percent are proud of her. Whether or not she wins the Nobel.

PS. Edhi should have won it years ago. Any process that didnt include him is a farce.

Daily Times swoons for murderers again

At a time when the world is appalled by the behavior of Balochi terrorists in firing on relief crews, your obsession with blaming the army and security forces is befuddling. Not content with providing valuable op-Ed space to those who would destroy the nation whose fruits you enjoy, you provide favorable coverage to insurgents and whiners through insinuations and distortions. Salman Taseer, who died for Pakistan, must be turning in his grave.

Sincerely,
Saad Gul

Another quote courtesy Rumpole

For the sword outwears the sheath,
And the soul wears out the breast,
And the heart must pause to breathe,
And Love itself have rest.

– Byron, I believe.