Adil Najam

Sometimes the only way to deal with a really serious situation is to make it funny. So, here is our little experiment to see what words you would put into the “leaders” mouth (please, no batameezi!).

So, basically, here is the storyline we all know so well. What we do not know is what these guys have been actually thinking and saying.

Adil Najam

Not unexpectedly, the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz Group has decided to quit from all cabinet positions in the coalition government it had so recently formed with Asif Zardari’s PPP.

According to The News:

Following the failure of London talks on the reinstatement of judges; Pakistan Muslim League (PML)-N has decided to resign from federal cabinet in central executive committee meeting underway here. Earlier, federal ministers reached to attend the meeting without official car and other privileges. The meeting has discussed that coalition with Peoples Party was made for the restoration of deposed judges but Peoples Party has failed to fulfill its commitment therefore PML-N has decided to quit the coalition.

The report here says that they have “quit the coalition” but other rumblings suggest that they have only left the cabinet and will continue to work with the PPP on the ouster of Gen. Musharraf. That, however, remains to be seen.

Adil Najam

Today is May 12.

Today marks the first anniversary of the carnage in Karachi.

Today is the day when the resolution on the restoration of the Supreme Court judges was to be presented in Parliament.

Ominously, even eerily, today also marks the 15th death anniversary of the Pakistan’s pre-eminent poet of political protest, Habib Jalib.

May 12 will forever be a date in infamy because of what happened on this date a year ago. A year ago today, I was in Pakistan. Karachi was burning and I wrote: “The city is at war. Morchas everywhere. Clashes, violence, firing, deaths... Khuda khair karey.” What were your thoughts then? What are your thoughts on it now?

Distasteful as it may seem, let me repeat just some of the pictures that were on our front page a year ago. I do so to remind myself, and you, of exactly what it was that we must never, ever, let happen again.