City of my dreams

My message to you all is of hope, courage and confidence. Let us mobilize all our resources in a systematic and organized way and tackle the grave issues that confront us with grim determination and discipline worthy of a great nation."

(Quaid e Azam)

Farooqu|

In 2007 Condi Rice, Richard Boucher and British diplomat Mark Lyall Grant created a law called NRO to whitewash the illegal wealth of Benazir Bhutto, Asif Zardari and many other Pakistanis to help them come to power.  Two years later, in 2009, the Supreme Court of Pakistan has indirectly declared the NRO as valid.  The excuse for this is to avoid ‘rocking the system’.  Musharraf is gone but his NRO will survive.  In a theatrical move, he was condemned but his illegal creation – and that of Condi, Boucher and Grant – was preserved.  This could prove to be the biggest deception carried out in Pakistan in the name of democracy.

SOURCE

Farooqu|

W00T! If exam fever has you! and you have already made mind that you will FAIL this exam then why you are tensed? Chill out! because you already know you are going to fail this exam. Do it with fun, I suggest you 20 ways to fail an exam with extra ordinary fun and making it memorable moment of your life. Here they are:

1. Come into the exam wearing night clothes. Chew gum loudly with all the disgusting noises and blow bubbles.
   
2. Bring things to throw at the instructor when she/he’s not looking. Blame it on the person nearest to you.
   
3. Go into the exam room. Sit down, put on a helmet with the blast shield down and tell the professor the Force will guide your pen.
   
4. Bring a water pistol with you, and start shooting in the middle of the exam.
5. Upon receiving the exam, look it over, while laughing loudly, say “you don’t really expect me to waste my time on this ?!?!
6. Run into the exam room looking about frantically. Breathe a sigh of relief. Go to the instructor, say “Gotta go.” and run off.
   
7. Get the exam. 20 min into it, throw your papers down violently, scream out “F*** this!” and walk out delightedly.
8. As soon as you get your exam paper pretend puking on it (better is that you really puke on it), hand it over to the teacher and leave in a calm manner.
9. Bring a black marker. Return the exam with all questions and answers completely blacked out.
   
10. Bring a giant cockroach into the room and release it on a girl nearby.(It works awesomely).
    
11. Upon receiving the exam, look it over, while laughing loudly, say “you don’t really expect me to waste my time on this ?!?!
12. Answer the exam with the “Top Ten Reasons Why Professor “Somebody” is a Terrible Teacher” .
    
13. Leave the whole exam blank after writing ‘THERE ARE ALWAYS MARKS FOR NEAT WORK’.
14. Bring cheat sheets of any other subject (make sure this is obvious… otherwise you’re not just failing, you’re getting kicked out too) and staple them to the exam, with the comment “Please use the attached notes for references.”
15. Call the teacher over. Repeatedly call him/her. When he answers, wait 5 seconds, then say “We’re taking an exam teacher!”
    
16. Stare at people doing their exams. When you catch their eye…give a BIG smile and wave fervently.
17. If it is a written exam, relate everything to your own life story.If the exam is math/sciences related, make up the longest proofs you could possible think of.
    
18. Every 5 min. stand up, collect all your things, move to another seat, and continue with the exam.
    
19. Complete the exam with everything you write being in mirror image.
20. After completing a question loudly sing “TA-DAAAAA.”

SOURCE


Farooqu|

Twitter is a very commonly used micro blogging service and many people in our beloved country Pakistan have start utilizing this great feature.

I myself am an ardent tweeter and no day goes by well if i do not tweet! :p i can be followed on twitter by clicking here.

14th August, as we all know is the independence day of Pakistan, and how well to celebrate it than to make it one of the trending topics on twitter. Tweeple from all over Pakistan, including me ofcourse, tweeted and retweeted relentlessly this afternoon just to get Pakistan in the trending topics.

Pakistan reached 6th in the daily listings...!

Farooqu|

It has been the usual practice of Pakistani politicians facing harassment or more intense persecution at home to look for safety and comfort in London. Following his ouster from the presidency in October 1958, Iskander Mirza lived there for the rest of his days.

The pension he received from Ayub Khan’s government did not go far and he worked in a middle management position in a hotel to supplement his income. He chose to remain silent on the affairs of Pakistan.Altaf Hussain, the MQM boss, has been living in London for a number of years now. He directs the affairs of his party in Pakistan from his offices in London. Other leaders, Benazir Bhutto among them, resided in London for periods of time. They commented on political developments in Pakistan and, while in London, tried to guide their followers back home.

Gen Pervez Musharraf has been residing in London, for some months and it is hard to say when he will return as doing so at present could be hazardous to his life and limb.

Revisiting recently the Nov 3 emergency the Supreme Court ‘invited’ (not summoned) Gen Musharraf to appear before court to explain his action. Considering that his Oct 12, 1999 coup and subsequent rule have led certain parties to call for his trial for treason under Article 6, it is easy to understand why he is inclined to stay on in London. He, accordingly, chose to ignore the Supreme Court’s invitation.

Had he returned to Pakistan and appeared in court, what could he have said? I imagine something along the following lines: ‘Yes, I executed a coup d’état on Oct 12, 1999 and I imposed emergency rule on November 3, 2007. Yes, in taking these actions I violated the constitution. But this honourable court validated my violations as extra-constitutional measures that had become necessary and, therefore, proper. So, what is there for me to explain? In validating my violations the court followed its own tradition: it had validated similar, if not worse, violations committed by Gen Ziaul Haq, and Gen Ayub Khan. The chief justice of this honourable court is judging an action of mine which entailed his own dismissal. He is acting as a judge in his own cause.’

This reasoning was not presented to the court which examined Gen Musharraf’s imposition of emergency and held that it had been contrary to the constitution and so were many of the actions that flowed from it. The court declared that Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar’s appointment as chief justice had been unconstitutional and illegal as was that of the other judges who had taken oath under the PCO.

Thus, Chief Justice Chaudhry and his colleagues cleaned up their own house. A distinguished lawyer from Pakistan mentioned to me the other day that so thoroughly sweeping had the operation been as to have left the Lahore High Court with only seven judges (instead of more than 50 that it normally has).

The court has not gone beyond judicial house-cleaning. It did not touch Musharraf’s remaking of the country’s political system. It did not void the ordinances he had issued following the emergency and left it to parliament to do with them as it might deem fit. It repudiated some of Musharraf’s actions but did not hold him guilty of a crime and did not award him any punishment.

It may now be appropriate to take note of the damage caused by Gen Musharraf’s violations. Apart from the fact that he overthrew an elected government, set up a dictatorship and militarised the country’s governance, he amended its constitution on a huge scale and, in the process, mutilated it. Second, he weakened the nation’s political institutions by dissolving, suspending or ignoring them.

Following the general elections of February 2008, political forces in parliament and civil society demanded President Musharraf’s impeachment. With an elected government in place, he had lost much of his former authority and power by this time. Weakened and harassed, he resigned as president in August 2008. He resided in the Army House in Rawalpindi for a time and then moved to London where he now lives.

One may wonder how the general is occupying himself in London. Reports have it that he has been delivering speeches at various places on extremism and militancy and Pakistan’s ongoing fight to eradicate them. The president of a public relations firm said that he could command between $150,000 and $200,000 for each appearance. If this is the case, it would seem he is doing well for himself. The likelihood is that speaking invitations coming his way will decline, for he has probably exhausted the subject of extremism and his expertise does not include much else.

During the months preceding his retirement he discounted speculation that at some point he might enter politics. In fact he did have a strong association with Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and other leaders in PML-Q. He continues to have their support. He was recently reported to have met some and might have consulted them about his prospects in the politics of Pakistan a few years from now.

DAWN.COM | Pakistan | Musharraf in London

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Earlier this week, I attended a talk about Islam and homosexuality at a medical school in Karachi. The very fact that medical practitioners, particularly psychiatrists, were gathering to discuss the subject piqued my interest. After all, a variety of psychological and physical ailments have been documented in patients who suppress or conceal their sexual identities in conservative societies.

But I was disappointed to learn that the lecturer was taking a historical perspective and simply tracing the history of homosexuality in Muslim societies. It would have been far more interesting to hear a debate about the prevalence of homosexuality in contemporary Muslim societies and consider ways in which psychiatrists and GPs respond to patients who are gay, and whether approaches differ if patients embrace their sexual identity or consider it an affliction.

Still, it was encouraging to see some acknowledgement within our local medical community that homosexuality is a phenomenon worth keeping in mind when dealing with patients (and what better place to start than at the very beginning). For readers who are now expecting a grand theological debate about whether homosexuality is permitted in Islam, feel free to click elsewhere on this website. That question is still up for debate, with some Muslim groups condemning homosexual acts as a sin and others arguing that it is natural, and therefore created and condoned by the Almighty. This post simply considers how Muslim societies deal with homosexuality in practice.

The fact that Muslim societies are struggling to figure out how to respond to homosexuals in their midst is perfectly illustrated by Iran. A few years ago, the country enraged human rights groups and made headlines when it publicly hung two young men – one 18, the other a minor – for being gay. Soon after, President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad further irked the global community by flat-out denying that there were any homosexuals in Iran. How then, the world asked, can you hang young men for something doesn’t exist and thus couldn’t have happened? Ahmedinejad’s – and Iran’s – confusion about what to do with homosexuals is widespread in the ummah – should Muslim societies seek out and punish homosexuals? Ignore their very existence? Or acknowledge that they live and – gasp! – worship in Muslim societies and therefore protect their human and constitutional rights?

To help address some of these questions, the lecturer went back in time to the Ottoman and Abbasid empires, during which homosexuality was commonly practiced and socially tolerated, though not explicitly legally protected. Back then, the lecturer explained, there were various reasons for homosexual behaviour (including lesbianism) being widespread.

Firstly, the legal system was multifaceted and did not take a decisive stand on homosexuality. Cases were judged either by the sultan’s law, common law or shariah, of which only the last had an opinion about homosexuality. Homosexuals were rarely taken to court on account of their homosexuality – if they did end up before a judge or qazi, it was for another social transgression (such as disturbing the peace). According to the lecturer, and here I summarise, the thinking at the time was that people’s sexuality was no one’s business unless they made a nuisance of themselves. Qazis who did pass judgement on homosexuals usually did not punish them for their sexuality per se, but for their conduct with regards to social norms (so, if someone abducted a young boy or committed a sexual act near a school, they would be punished for kidnapping or indecency and not for homosexuality).

Legal crackdowns on homosexuals during various Islamic empires were also few and far between because the burden of proof on the accuser was immense. As Brian Whitaker sums it up for The Guardian:

Furthermore, the levels of proof required by Islamic law are so high that if the rules are properly applied no one need ever be convicted unless they do something extremely blatant, like having sex in the street in broad daylight.

The lecturer also explained that if a person accused someone else of homosexuality and was not able to muster up the required evidence or witnesses, they would be permanently discredited and prohibited from testifying before any shariah court again.

In addition to legal laxity, homosexuality was prevalent in the Islamic empires because the cultures prescribed to a ‘one sex model’ in which conceptions of beauty were the same for men and women. The lecturer showed several miniature paintings from the Abbasid era in which men and women were indistinguishable (check out this famous illustration of Shah Abbas with a wine boy). Men would wear make up and drape themselves in gowns and jewels while women with downy mustaches were considered the most attractive (apparently, women would paint on mustaches to seem more comely!) Youth – rather than femininity or masculinity – was idealised, thereby eliminating the taboo around homosexual relationships.

Given the permissive attitudes of previous Muslim societies, how then did we get to a point where minors can be hung for being gay? The lecturer argued (convincingly, I might add) that present-day homophobia in Muslim societies is a fallout of the colonial encounter. Her logic relied on several premises.

Firstly, Europe subscribed to the ‘two sex model’ in which women were feminine and desired by men. Secondly, at the end of the eighteenth century, Europe, which was at the tail end of the Enlightenment, had reconfigured homosexuality from being a ‘sin’ into an ‘abnormality.’ When Catholicism was dominant, homosexuals were sinning against God, and could thus be managed (all that was needed was for them to confess their sin and atone by saying a few Hail Marys). As rationalism and science replaced God, homosexuality became a medical disorder, which was more threatening and harder to ‘cure’. Therefore, when ascendant European powers began to infiltrate the Muslim empires, homosexuality in the West was considered abnormal and inappropriate.

Now, as Muslims began traveling to Europe – which by this point was more progressive and wealthy than the Ottoman and Persian empires, and in some cases beginning to colonise the eastern powers – they saw that homosexual practices that were common and acceptable in their societies were considered abnormal in the West. They also began to wonder whether this ‘abnormal’ behaviour was not the cause of their weakness in the face of European colonialists. It was these initial encounters that began to taint the practice of homosexuality in Muslim societies.

And the rest, as they say, is history. With references to present-day Muslim societies and their attitudes towards homosexuality, Whitaker writes:

Nevertheless, while attitudes towards homosexuality in the west over the last few decades have generally been liberalising, Muslim countries have been moving in the opposite direction. This is largely a result of international politics. Perceptions of a domineering west, coupled with fears of globalisation and modernity have brought a revival of imagined “customs and traditions”, along with the spread of rigid and puritanical versions of religion.

The phenomenon he describes, however, is not that recent. According to the lecturer, as Muslim empires were colonised, they laid claim to the one thing that their colonial masters had not tainted and could not influence – Islam. And this they began to cling to in its most extreme and literal version. Since the mid-nineteenth century, then, Muslim societies have been largely anti-gay. Shariah courts that would previously disregard homosexual acts came to punish them harshly.

Or that, at least is the perception. Hearing the lecturer speak about the attitude towards homosexuals in the Ottoman and Abbasid empires, I couldn’t help but see parallels with modern-day Pakistan. Admittedly, there are no openly gay men in our society (and if there are, they suffer the consequences of social isolation, professional discrimination, and in many cases, arranged marriages which result in psychological trauma both for the man and the unfortunate woman he marries).

At the same time, though, we have Begum Nawazish Ali on our airwaves, hijras on every street corner, young ‘maalish walas’ at every roundabout, Dostana in our cinemas, innumerable curse words for homosexual men in our vernacular, and foppish characters in every comic skit. As Irfan Husain puts it:

This aspect of human sexuality is rampant in our part of the world, much as we would like to sweep it under the carpet….

Despite our prudish pretence, the fact is that we are relatively tolerant of homosexual behaviour. Our literature contains many references to romantic attachment between men. And for years, homosexuality in Pashtun society has been an open secret, although it might well be exaggerated. According to local tradition, many men live by the credo “Women for duty; boys for pleasure.”

While social mores condemn homosexuality and Pakistan’s didactic middle-class says ‘tauba tauba’ at the very thought of same-sex relations, we are thankfully not at the stage where there are witch-hunts for homosexuals. It seems as if the historic Muslim attitude towards gay men applies here too – out of sight, out of mind. As long as homosexuals don’t fly rainbow flags from atop the Teen Talwar, we don’t mind if they’re in our midst.

Indeed, as long as homosexuals are willing to preserve the façade of a heterosexual social order in which men and women get married and have babies, they probably have little to fear (at least in terms of prosecution and state punishment – society’s righteousness is another matter altogether). What this status quo denies them, though, is the option of ever celebrating their sexual identity. Gay pride is something I do not see on the horizon for homosexuals in Pakistan. But in an age where regard for human rights should trump all, they deserve better than that. One can only hope that the current era of don’t-ask-don’t-tell tolerance evolves into something more progressive and open. Sadly, looking at present-day Pakistan as it abandons social tolerance for blind extremism, it seems as if history truly is fated to repeat itself.

By Huma Yusuf @ Dawn Blog

Farooqu|

Make your life simple; stay on top of your e-mails through Telenor's SMS E-mail service. This new mobile e-mail service brings all your e-mails directly to your mobile phone through SMS. All mobile phones are supported! Subscribe to this service without having to install anything on your phone, regardless of your handset model or type and stay connected to your Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo or any POP e-mail account. All e-mails will be pushed to your phone instantly as e-mail alerts; you can read these e-mails in detail and reply to them immediately! You can access this service via the website, SMS or the WAP browser on your handset

 This is what it says if you click here to be directed to Telenor's website.

Telenor is famous as a pace setter in the services provided to be cellular companies to their subscribers. It was this particular network which brought us the widely used service of "easy-load" for the first time in Pakistan, along with timers for sms, ringer tones and many other.

Once again telenor brings its subscribers another great service by delivering their emails right to their sms inbox regardless of what cellphone they might be using. As more and more people in Pakistan are communicating formally through emails, this service may prove to be helpful to many people seeing the fact that the shortage of electricity means less time behind the monitor and much praying for the electricity to come back.

The great thing is that most people here use Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail, and primarily, these three are being offered by telenor and with compatibility for all POP email clients..!

Telenor sure deserves a pat on the back for once again providing a useful service to its customers.

Farooqu|

• When becoming humiliated, remember the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیہ وآلہ وسلم] in Ta'if.
• When being starved, remember the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیہ وآلہ وسلم] tying two stones to his stomach in the battle of Khandaq.
• When becoming angry, remember the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیہ وآلہ وسلم]'s control of anger on the martyrdom of his beloved Uncle Hamza R.A.
• When losing a tooth, remember the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیہ وآلہ وسلم]'s tooth in the battle of Uhud.
• When bleeding from any part of the body, remember the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیہ وآلہ وسلم]'s body covered in blood on his return from Ta'if.
• When feeling lonely, remember the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیہ وآلہ وسلم]'s seclusion in Mount Hira .
• When feeling tired in Salaat, remember the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیہ وآلہ وسلم]'s blessed feet in Tahajjud.
• When being troubled by neighbours, remember the old woman who would empty rubbish on the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیہ وآلہ وسلم].
• When losing a child, remember the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیہ وآلہ وسلم]'s son, Ibrahim.
• When beginning a long journey, remember the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیہ وآلہ وسلم]'s long journey to Madinah.
• When going against a Sunnah, remember the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیہ وآلہ وسلم]'s intercession, (Ummati, Ummati, Ummati) (My Ummah).
• Before shaving your beard, remember the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیہ وآلہ وسلم]'s face rejecting the two beardless Iranians.
• When experiencing less food in the house, remember the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیہ وآلہ وسلم]'s days of poverty.
• When experiencing poverty, remember the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیہ وآلہ وسلم]'s advice to Ashaab-e-Suffa (People of Suffa).
• When losing a family member, remember the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیہ وآلہ وسلم]'s departure from this world.
• When becoming an orphan, remember the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیہ وآلہ وسلم]'s age at six.
• When fearing an enemy, remember the Prophet [صلی اللہ علیہ وآلہ وسلم]'s saying to Abu Bakr in Mount Thour

Farooqu|

The highly anticipated Nokia N86 will soon be available to Pakistani consumers. Nokia N86 is the most advanced mobile phone camera ever. It comes with a powerful combination of wide-angle Carl Zeiss optics and an 8 megapixel sensor, resulting in performance comparable to a stand alone digital camera. The Nokia N86 8MP is designed to excel in both bright and low light conditions; and it’s optimized for both video and still imaging. Its high-speed connectivity ensures easy and convenient sharing. In essence, it let’s you capture more, capture quality and capture to share.

Farooqu|

Facebook is one of the most popular Social Networking websites in Pakistan and worldwide and has over 250 Millions subscribed users worldwide and considering growing popularity of this service Today Telenor Announced in a press release that they would offer Facebook connectivity to mobile users in Pakistan through Short Message Service (SMS).
Telenor is known for introducing innovative services and this is one of them and has become the First service provider to offer such service that would help Telenor subscribers to hook up their mobile with their Facebook account.
Facebook particularly gained publicity during the Justice Movement when Millions of people turned to Facebook to update with News and events and keep in touch with each other. Facebook is a social Networking site that helps users connect with their friends, family members or colleagues and upload their pictures and post notes.

SOURCE

Farooqu|

The events that have happened over the past few weeks need no explanation. Every child in this beloved country of ours has witnessed the lawyers getting out of hand and literally turning into brutes, frankly this is something one could not expect out of a highly educated and sensible fraternity.

 

Keeping the history aside, because we know of the scuffles that broke out during the lawyers movement, although it is known that it was the police who started harassing these custodians of law while they wished to lead their movement to a peaceful victory, now of course, both sides of the picture should be reviewed before jumping to any conclusions and pointing fingers at one another.

 

We know and we have seen the footage of the Chief Justice of Pakistan being manhandled by policemen, a person of his stature certainly has dignity and that certain incident is very sad indeed. We know that his counsel, Aitzaz Ahsan, also a prominent figure in the lawyers movement, was taken into custody from somewhere on the Motorway, and was exposed to literally freezing temperatures with no protection whatsoever by policemen.

 

Now if today, lawyers manhandle an ASI, of which I do not approve of, why does the media call for cancellation of their licenses, why don't they call for those policemen to be dismissed from their duties who handled the most senior man of the judiciary like an animal?

 

I have to say that yes, the lawyers who manhandled the ASI should be brought to justice, as no one should be allowed to take the law in their own hands. No matter what walk of life he belongs to or whatever might his profession be.

 

"Something's Amiss" as the famous detective Sherlock Holmes would have retorted would he have been presented the case of the peaceful community of lawyers turning into brutes.

 

While the movement for the restoration of judiciary was going on in the country, there were some reports from ;lawyers saying that they did not recognize some people in their gatherings who were dressed as lawyers and who were resorting to rioting while the whole movement was supposed to be peaceful. Senior analysts saw this as an attempt to sabotage the movement which was gradually getting much praise from the people of the country, and this was also seen as an attempt by the government to thwart the efforts of the lawyers for a free judiciary, and come to think of it, it actually feels like it was true.

 

Keeping the same scenario in mind, looking at the present situation where in one week, reports of manhandling of three men, one policeman and two reporters, have came forward, in all cases, the lawyers were seen carrying out these acts so the point of false accusations can be left out.

 

Has that same group of people returned to now tarnish the popular image of lawyers in front of the country? Or is it really that the lawyers are now considering themselves above the law?

 

A couple of hours ago Twitter experienced the longest downtime in history which resulted in a global 'black out' for the online micro blogging website. The site went down on the Thursday morning leaving millions of Twitterers frustrated.

Initially the twitter team was not clear about the problem as it posted on the twitter status blog:

Site is down, we are determining the cause and will provide an update shortly.

Upon further investigation, it was finally declared that the server went down because of a denial-of-service attack as posted on the twitter blog:

On this otherwise happy Thursday morning, Twitter is the target of a denial of service attack.

Denial of Service attack is an attempt of paralyzing a server by increasing the work load of a server through external communication methods. This results in the consumption of the server's resources, which bars the actual users from using the 'victim' machine.
According to reports twitter is under a massive hack attack this time. Pertinent to know that twitter had been into the headlines in the past for its security loop-holes. We saw a number of twitter accounts being hacked be some hacker, leaking secret information.
The Twitter team is working on the problem as said by the Twitter blog:

We are defending against this attack now and will continue to update our status blog as we continue to defend and later investigate.

Though Twitter is back but users are experiencing unusual delays and time-outs. Highlighting the matter, the twitter status blog says:

As we recover, users will experience some longer load times and slowness. This includes timeouts to API clients. We’re working to get back to 100% as quickly as we can.

Others sites which experienced a similar DDoS attack were Facebook, LiveJournal and YouTube. The attack was generated from some parts of Russia and Germany.

SOURCE


Farooqu|