Adil Najam

For nearly two days now I have been debating whether to put up this post and, especially, the accompanying photograph. A shiver runs through my body to think about, let alone see, this picture.

But as we have done before (here, here, here, here, here, here) we put up this picture of mob vigilante violence – with the strongest possible advisement for caution by the faint of heart – not because we wish to glorify or fetishize violence but because we want to jolt ourselves, and you, into a realization of just what a horrible, horrifying and horrendous epidemic of violence is spreading through our land.

Recently we had heard of people in Multan reacting to the energy shortage by violently attacking WAPDA offices and officials. Now, one reads of a much more horrifying spectacle of residents in Karachi on May 14 burning alive robbers; two died at the spot and another later in the hospital (details below).

We had called 2007 “A Year of Angst and Anger.” But maybe we live in the age of angst and anger.

Owais Mughal

Last year we carried out this post on Polio Vaccination Drive Facing Threat in Pakistan. In a disturbing development, polio which had almost been eradicated from Pakistan is making a resurgence.

The target of getting Pakistan polio free was for 2010 but according to Dawn news report of May 15, 2008, eight cases have so far been reported in this year alone. All of these 2008 cases so far belong to Sindh province. This shows the rebirth as well as spread of the virus. It is said that peak transmission season of polio starts in June. Doctors also say that if a single case of polio is reported in any part of a country it indicates outbreak of the disease.

Syed Ahsan Ali

Recently PPP’s co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari told media categorically that we were not elected for the restoration of judges but for basic issues such as roti, kapra aur makaan. Since then factions in media have been trying to build up an argument about what is more essential, our basic necessities or restoration of an individual?

I am not going to ponder here about what did we vote for? But I’d like to draw the attention of all of my readers towards another thing which becomes a norm now in Pakistan society. We are turning into “us” and “them” kind of people who are always standing on one side of the line. As the famous line from Rodney King after the Los Angeles riots goes, “Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?”