Aitizaz Ahsan, flaws and all, has become the voice of the moment. The voice of a generation. This voice, which has become my voice and, maybe, yours speaks more passionately in the idiom of poetry than in the idiom of prose. It speaks most passionately in this poem – Kal, Aaj and Kal – that reflects his thoughts on current issues after his recent release.
Listen for yourself. And listen again. It is worth pondering upon. Worth thinking about.
Looks like our last ATP Quiz has turned out to be a bit tough for readers as very few came close to guessing correctly. Let me just give you the answer.
The votary stupa that you are seeing above (left picture) was carved some thousand years back and often referred as ‘Chilas Stupa’. It used to be there on a rock in the Northern areas just outside the small town of Chilas. Once in its original shape, it was famous for its fine flowing banners.
Unfortunately between August-November 2001, sometime before the 2002 elections and right after the US attack in Afghanistan, some extremist elements decided to white wash it and put name of their political candidate. The idea was to take revenge of US bombing in Afghanistan. Strange but true. The pictures above shows a comparison how it looked before and after the damage.
The nation is gearing up for Election 2008 but issues-based politics remains a distant dream. However as an electioneering ritual all major political parties have announced their election manifestos to offer voters their pledges, promises, potential policies and programmes that will be realised if they are voted to power on February 18, 2008.
The comparative analyses of the manifestos of various political parties reveal that special emphasis has been laid on education. At least in the manifestos of Pakistan Muslim League-Q and Pakistan Muslim League-N education figures as priority number one.
Written in grand narrative most of these manifestos are economical in terms of practical strategies to realise a party’s vision. Vague statements and slogans like “universal primary education†are being raised once again. It is surprising that the government and establishment is claiming that they have done a lot in the field of education but the gross domestic product (GDP) allocated for education is below three per cent and international ratings are not showing and magnificent height in the percentages of literacy.
While All Things Pakistan has remained alive and online, it has been dormant since June 11, 2011 - when, on the blog's 5th anniversary, we decided that it was time to move on. We have been heartened by your messages and the fact that a steady traffic has continued to enjoy the archived content on ATP.
While the blog itself will remain dormant, we are now beginning to add occasional (but infrequent) new material by the original authors of the blog, mostly to archive what they may now publish elsewhere. We will also be updating older posts to make sure that new readers who stumble onto this site still find it useful.
We hope you will continue to find ATP a useful venue to reflect upon and express your Pakistaniat. - Editors
Aitizaz Ahsan, flaws and all, has become the voice of the moment. The voice of a generation. This voice, which has become my voice and, maybe, yours speaks more passionately in the idiom of poetry than in the idiom of prose. It speaks most passionately in this poem – Kal, Aaj and Kal – that reflects his thoughts on current issues after his recent release.
