Karachi News.Net Tuesday 30th September, 2008 Islamabad, Sept 30 : In a first major reshuffle in Pakistan Army and ISI ranks, Chief of Army Staff Ashfaq Kayani changed four of the nine corps commanders and ...
Adil Najam, Asma Mirza, Bilal Zuberi, Darwaish and Owais Mughal
From all of us at All Things Pakistan (ATP; Pakistaniat.Com) we wish our regular readers, our contributors, and all passers-by a wonderful and very happy Eid Mubarak (Eid Greetings). We wish you happiness, prosperity and all things good; now and forever.
Let us share today some thoughts that we wrote in our Eid post this time last year. They seem as pertinent today as they did then.
Eid is about community. And so is Pakistaniat.Com…
This year since the last Eid has been tumultuous. There have been too many ups and down. Maybe more downs than ups. The guiding spirit of community that had been behind this blog has not wavered. We have never wanted to make this a haven for like-minded robots who all think alike and say the same things. We have strong beliefs and so do you. We have wanted this to be a forum to share those beliefs, to discuss, to debate. But never to misbehave. Never to disrespect. Never to degrade. We do not want people to be disagreeable, but we never shy from disagreeing ourselves or letting others do that same.
Why am I saying all this today, in our Eid post? Because I believe that the spirit of Eid has much to teach us all about coexistence and respect for each other. This morning as I got up after Eid prayers and began embracing those around me, I realized that I disagreed (sometimes profoundly) with many of those who I was embracing on many issues, political, ideological, and others. I am sure that some of them disagreed with me on many issues even more than I disagreed with them. But that did not reduce the intensity or sincerity of the hug. Hopefully, that post-namaz embrace was not just a ritual for me or for them.
The galley milna at the end of the namaz, I realized, is not an indication of my total agreement with those I am hugging. It is an appreciation that at a higher level we are the same and we adhere to the same hopes, same aspirations, same principles. Even if you think it is just a ritual, it is a ritual of coming together, not of tearing apart!
Pakistaniat - both the term and the blog - is similar. It is a commonality of identity that does not demand common views and the same opinions, but merely the same aspirations for our nation. So, as I finished embracing those around me I thought about Eid, and I also thought about Pakistaniat. But, most of all, I thought about identity. Because that is central to both.
So, let us embrace each other today - in Eid and in Pakistaniat. Tomorrow we will have plenty to crib about and disagree about again. Today, let us just embrace each other. Not because we are all the same, but despite our differences.
As we said then, let us say once again: Today, let us just embrace each other. Not because we are all the same, but despite our differences.
Here is a sampling of our past Eid posts:
Eid Mubarak (Yeh Bacha)
Eid Mubarak!
Eid Poetry
Hajj and Eid Greetings
Bakra On-Line
Multiple Eids
Auspicious Days: Juma-tul-Vida, Diwali, and Eid
Gallay hum ko laga kar milliye
Eid Is…
Eid Dishes
Eid Cards
At least 35 people died when a bus collided with a milk tanker and caught fire in central Pakistan, police said Tuesday.
GEO News reports that Baitullah Mehsud, the amir of the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan is dead, apparently due to natural causes. Mehsud had been sick in recent days and reportedly slipped into a coma.
Pakistan’s commemorate Eid ul-Fitr today (Wednesday), marking the end of the month of Ramadan. The passing of this murderous terrorist, if true, is an Eid present of sorts for the violence plagued nation.
Expect the TTP shura council to elect a successor soon. It will, however, not be a smooth ride for the TTP, since the organization has continuously faced internal squabbling. It is possible that the TTP could elect a successor from the Mehsud tribe.
Mehsud’s death, however, will not mark the end of the TTP. Pakistan’s security forces should not take this as an opportunity to be complacent. The Pakistan military-intelligence establishment now has an opportunity to make use of potential divisions within the TTP. But while fragmenting the alliance weakens their existence as an ideological movement, it could also give birth to a wide assortment of criminal entities, further destabilizing the region.
There is no alternative to gaining the support of the local tribes, elders, wayward youth, and striking a fine balance between recognizing local autonomy and ensuring the writ of the government is present.
UPDATE: 6:12PM (New York) - BBCUrdu.com reports that a U.S. Predator drone fired two missiles at a home in North Waziristan, killing around four. Foreigners are among the dead.
UPDATE: 10:50PM (New York) - Renown Pakistani Pashtun journalist Rahimullah Yusufzai tells BBC Urdu that Mehsud’s death has not been confirmed with the Tehreek-e Taliban. Yusufzai did state that Mehsud was very ill recently, due to diabetes and heart-related afflictions.
Additionally, today’s missile strike took place in a village near Mir Ali. Yusufzai said that locals told him that the blasts were so strong they could be heard as far as Bannu and Miranshah.
Lahore, Sept 30 : Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, who has been selected for the four-nation tournament to be played in Toronto next month, will have to wait for his visa as the PCB has still not been able ...
MULTAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - Thirty-seven people were killed in Pakistan, most of them burned to death, when their bus taking them home for a Muslim holiday collided with a milk tanker, a senior government official said Tuesday.
The accident occurred Monday night in Muzaffargarh district, about 440 km (275 miles) southwest of the capital, Islamabad. Among the dead were nine children and three women.
"Most of the deaths occurred as many passengers were sleeping and the bus caught fire," Tariq Javed, a senior district government official, told Reuters by telephone.
KABUL, Afghanistan — As the Afghan war intensifies and American commanders call for increased troop levels, President Hamid Karzai said on Tuesday that he had sought the intercession of the Saudi royal family to bring the resurgent Taliban to peace negotiations.
But there was no immediate indication that the Taliban was ready to talk or that negotiations had begun.
(more…)
Pakistan has replaced the head of its powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency, following months of questions from the United States about its reliability in the battle against the Taliban and al Qaeda. Lieutenant-General Ahmed Shujaa Pasha, formerly head of military operations, will replace Lieutenant-General Nadeem Taj.
The change was part of a major overhaul of the military leadership by Pakistan Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani, who also replaced the head of the 10 Corps in Rawalpindi, the most powerful corps in the army. (more…)
Pakistan has named a new chief for its main intelligence service, an agency whose loyalties in the war on terror have long been a concern to the United States.
ISLAMABAD: Witnesses of women are not acceptable in Pakistani banks.A bank memo in Islamabad says that women are not authorized to sign the banks' documents according to the instructions of court and ...
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