Darwaish

I am watching television right now and every news channel is reporting the latest interview by Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan. This interview came as a surprise to many people here in Pakistan and is sending shock waves around the world (wait and see after 4th July holiday in US).

Dr. Khan, who remains popular across Pakistan has lived in the shadows since 2004, confined to his Islamabad home. People of Pakistan last saw him in a tearful televised confession in which he admitted selling nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya. President Musharraf has been telling Pakistanis since 2004 that Dr. Khan did it for money and personal greed. In his interview on May 30 2008, given to British newspaper Guardian, Dr. Khan claimed that he took the blame on himself in the national interest. Dr. Khan has been in the news for last few weeks because of his detention case in the Islamabad High Court but today he returned to the spotlight with a new twist: that North Korea received centrifuges from Pakistan in a 2000 shipment supervised by the security forces during the rule of President Pervez Musharraf.

Raza Rumi

On these erudite pages, and elsewhere, there has been much ado about the fact that now the ruling coalition should split in response to the great betrayals perpetrated by Asif Ali Zardari. In classic machismo laden bravado, the honorific narratives have been urging Nawaz Sharif and his party to take the bold step and stick to their “principled” stand. What is interesting about these exhortations is the brazen rendering of political discourse in black or white terms.

Many a former ambassador, the recent cohort to jump into the fray of political activism, has found a great post-retirement vocation. Once the plush tenures are over and all that could be extracted from the holy state cow, now is the time to speak the truth and condemn military dictatorships. Convenient and most opportune! This low-risk strategy is paying its dividends: a great whitewashing of all that they were a party to, and all that they let happen in front of their red-taped offices. The ex-servicemen whose record is even more dismal are even more vociferous in their advocacy for a democratic Pakistan.

Owais Mughal

ATP’s regular contributor Mast Qalandar introduced us to this poetry clip. The poem is recited by the poet Dr. Nausha Asrar himself. The sub-title on the video suggests this poem was recited in Aligarh alumni’s aalmi mushaira 2007. Dr Nausha has a unique style of reciting poetry. The way he controls lowering and raising of his recitation tone makes his poetry all the more effective. Enjoy.

We have always tried to keep poetry in the mix of posts at ATP. Some other Urdu poets that have featured at our pages include Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Dilawar Figar, Inayat Ali Khan, Anwar Masood, Habib Jalib, Munir Niazi, Ahmed Faraz, Khalid Irfan, Parveen Shakir and Mirza Ghalib