Pervez Hoodbhoy

The man who tried to set off a car bomb in Times Square was a Pakistani. Why is this unsurprising? Answer: because when you hold a burning match to a gasoline tank, the laws of chemistry demand combustion.

As anti-American lava spews from the fiery volcanoes of Pakistans private television channels and newspapers, collective psychosis grips the countrys youth. Murderous intent follows with the conviction that the US is responsible for all ills, both in Pakistan and the world of Islam.

Faisal Shahzad, with designer sunglasses and an MBA degree from the University of Bridgeport, acquired that murderous intent. Living his formative years in Karachi, he typifies the young Pakistani who grew up in the shadow of Zia-ul-Haqs hate-based education curriculum.

Adil Najam

Not totally unexpectedly, Gen. Pervez Musharraf has announced that he will return to active politics, that he will contest in the next elections whenever they are held, and that he will form a new political party. How do you react to this news? Is it great, good, irrelevant, bad, or terrible news? Cast your vote in our ATP Poll here and then, please, tell us why.

As you think about this, you may also like to revisit our August 2008 ATP Poll done right at the time of his departure, where we had asked what lay in Pakistan’s future after his departure: 30% said “everything will become much much worse” while another 30% said that “everything won’t become perfect, but things will improve.” Clearly a split decision.

We did a similar ATP Poll in October 2008 asking how people thought Pakistan had fared in the first two months without him: 31% said “everything became much much worse,” 24% said “only the faces changed, things are what they always were,” and 22% said “Everything hasn’t become perfect, but things have improved.”

Adil Najam

This is an amazing picture (click on picture, or here, to see an enlarged version). Here are just a few of the giants of Urdu literature in this group: Majnoon Gorakhpuri, Mahirul Qadri, Maulvi Abdul Haq, Hasrat Mohani, Saqib Lakhnavi, Seemab Akbarabadi, Hafeez Jullandhari, Dr. Taseer, Josh Maliahbadi, Behzad Luckhnavi, Raja Sahib Mahmoodabad, Tilok Chander Mehroom, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Col. Majeed Malik, Ghulam Rabbani Taban, Dr. Zakir Hussain, Chaudhri Mohammad Ali, A.D. Azhar, Ishwar Dayal, and many more.