Adil Najam

The much- and multi-talented artiste Moin Akhter died on April 22, 2011. The word ‘legend’ is sometimes used rather loosely by us South Asians. Not every one who has been called a ‘legend’ really was. But Moeen Akhtar, clearly was one. Pakistan is poorer today because he is no longer with us.

His was a voice, a presence, a wit that I grew up with. I have memories of him from every stage of my life. Testimony to his versatility is the fact that even as I try, I cannot today put my finger on the one memory of Moin Akhter than stands out above others. There are as many Moeen Akhtar’s as there are memories. And all the memories are good memories.

Adil Najam

This is a sad and difficult post to write.

Today, the Supreme Court of Pakistan gave its verdict on Mukhtar (Mukhtaran) Mai’s appeal against an earlier verdict by the Lahore High Court (LHC).

The three-judge bench decided to uphold the LHC verdict. This means that the earlier decision will hold; of the six accused of Mukhtaran Mai’s gang rape, five are acquitted and a sixth will complete the life imprisonment that had already been awarded to him.

Mosharraf Zaidi

Under the burden of a 60 Minutes exposé on CBS and a blistering, 75-page takedown by adventure writer Jon Krakauer, Greg Mortenson’s phenomenally successful weaving together of fact and fiction has already faced more scrutiny than most pop philanthropy ever receives in its entire shelf life.

While opinions about Greg Mortenson have always varied within the international development community and among humanitarian workers, that debate never really got a full airing. The ideas and philosophy driving the Three Cups of Tea mania for school-building has become a bit of an orthodoxy. Orthodoxies usually have the effect of muting debate. Pakistanis should know. Pakistan has endured far too much unjustified and illegitimate orthodoxy in its short history. Until the 60 Minutes exposé, only the very brave ventured to openly mock Mortenson. The fact that there is now unforgiving scrutiny of every aspect of his two books and the charity that he founded is therefore a wonderful thing.

Many Mortenson sympathizers are perplexed by the strong reaction to the unraveling of Mortenson’s elaborate and carefully constructed fables. These sympathizers are not all innocuous middle-aged accountants or bleeding-heart housewives. Some very knowledgeable and clued-in people – heads of NGOs, education experts, media personalities – are also confused by the outrage at the little lies Mortenson told to help address a big truth: that girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan need help getting educated. Consider this: In Pakistan, the proportion of rural women who have attended school is one in three. In such dire need, many reasonable people wonder why there is such unmitigated outrage at a few Mortenson fibs.