Adil Najam

Pakistan plays its second group match in the 2007 World Cup Cricket against Ireland today.

Having already lost the first match to hosts West Indies, if the troubled Pakistani team also loses this game, it would have effectively eliminated itself from the tournament even before the ‘Super 8’ begin. On the other hand, if Ireland wins, it will be a wonderful St. Patrick’s Day windfall for the Irish.

Even though Ireland had pulled in a remarkable effort by tieing against Zimbabwe, the odds say that Pakistan will not lose today (and if they do, would there be any hope at all left for Pakistan cricket?). But around 20 per cent of our readers seem to think that Pakistan will fail to make it to the Super 8 – if not by losing today’s game, then by losing the last Group game against Zimbabwe. This according to the results of our ATP Poll on Pakistan’s prospects for the Cricket World Cup 2007.

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Adil Najam

Today Chief Justice Chaudhry Mohammed Iftikhar is to appear again in front of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC). It is not at all clear what will happen today or in the days to follow. But the verdict from ATP readers does seem to be quite clear.

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The last week has been a whirlwind of disturbing development. Starting with the removal of Chief Justice Chaudhry Mohammad Iftikhar by the President, things just kept going from bad to worse. Protesting lawyers were mistreated, as was the Chief Justice, Minister Wasi Zafar embarrassed himself as well as the nation yet again, and most recently we saw that not just the judiciary but also the press is under stress as private TV channels are told to cool off and the GEO TV news show by Kamran Khan was banned.

We have tried to look at and make sense of these events fromvarious angles, including the poetic. But like Pakistanis everywhere we remain confused and concerned about the direction of events. Things seem to be spinning out of control. The government seems to be panicking. And public frustration with the turn of events is escalating.

By Darwaish

Another unfortunate development of the day and I am unable to understand who is advising government of making such foolish decisions.

It seems now that the Government of Pakistan has banned Kamran Khan Show as yet another casualty in the ongoing saga of the Chief Justice of Pakistan’s (CJP) removal from office. Geo has just made it public and Kamran Khan appeared on Geo News just a few moments ago and apologized to viewers that he would not be able to present his show due to this ban (audio of what he said, here).

It was Kamran Khan Show in which Mr Wasi Zafar’s misbehavior on VOA was reported (video of that program here). He was also the host of Geo’s live transmission which showed and commented on the misbehavior with Chief Justice of Pakistan and his family last Monday. I guess Kamran Khan has finally paid the price of speaking the truth and his efforts to present facts to the people of Pakistan.

GEO TV website has this information on how the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has banned this show:

Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has imposed ban on “Aaj Kamran Khan Key Sath”, the famous programme of Geo Television Network.

“Aaj Kamran Khan Key Sath” has been stopped as the government has imposed ban on it, said the spokesman of the Geo Television Network.

It was regretted at 11:05 PM, when this programme starts daily, that the programme could not be aired due to government ban.

Reacting to the ban on this programme, Kamran Khan, the host of the programme, condemned the government action and said that there was no other agenda of the said programme except making people aware of real facts and correct analysis.

This is a direct attack on freedom of press and freedom of expression. Looks like we will now see more bans if Pakistani Media didn’t cooperate with the government. I am also wondering what will happen to the Ansaar Abbasi now. We should all condemn this unjust action? But HOW?

Here are two samples of video clips from the Kamran Khan Show related to this issue.