Adil Najam

The grades are in. And, in the opinion of 263 ATP readers who voted, General Pervez Musharraf’s performance review yields an overall GPA (grade point average) of 2.53; right in between a grade of B- and C+.

(Click image for larger picture)

In this, the fourth ATP Poll (earlier: on womens’ rights here, on Gen. Musharraf’s future moves here, and on past leaders here), more than twice as many people voted as in the last ATP Poll. They were asked to grade Gen. Musharraf’s performance in four key areas: (a) domestic governance, (b) economy and development, (c) governance and reform, and (d) foreign affairs.

Bilal Zuberi

It is Ramzan once again, an exciting part of the year for Muslims around the world. I have experienced Ramzan (also called Ramadan in some non-Urdu speaking countries) in many cities in many countries, and one thing that has always remained the same is the ritual of breaking fasts with dates (Khajoor). I have had dates at Iftar since childhood and now if dates are not available at Iftaar, I feel empty inside (in more ways than one). If I know that I may be traveling at Iftar time, I pack a few dates to go with me.

Dates are considered a delicious addition to confectioneries and food around the world. I have consumed dates in more ways than just popping one as is in my mouth . Palestinians make excellent cookies with dates. Afghans add dates and figs to their cakes. I have had scrumptious khajoor ka halwaa in Pakistan, and my mom would sometimes leave dates and almonds in milk overnight and give them to us in the morning. As a kid, I loved eating Khajji, which I understand to be a non-ripe date, but if you know more about it, please do elaborate. Oh, and what about Chouharay, which are ceremonially distributed after a Nikah ceremony. They are just dried khajoors, no?

Adil Najam

They seem to be at it again (here). Is this another case of super-patriots and our unintelligent intelligence types trying to control and direct free speech and use of the internet?

This morning my email box contains four different messages saying that ‘pkblogs‘ — the technology being used by bloggers in Pakistan to circumvent the stupid ban that Pakistan has on blogspot.com blogs — is itself blocked. This means that Pakistanis cannot, for now, view or visit any blogs on this service (this is the largest blogging platform, especially for Pakistani blogs).

[For those who do not know, Pakistan has – ever since the Danish cartoon controversy – blocked/banned all blogspot.com blogs and some other website. Ingenious Pakistanis had devised ways to get around this and had also helped Indian bloggers in doing the same after the Indian government clamped down its own ban after the Mumbai bombings. The Indian ban has now been removed, the Pakistan ban continues, thrives, and is now set to be expanded. (More here)]

Most sad for me was to read my friend S.A.J. Shirazi on his blog:

End of Blogging Era in Pakistan
While blogs on Blogspot are banned here, bloggers have been using pkblogs.com or inblogs.net to access the blogs but this morning both these sites seem to be down. Is this the end of blogging era in Pakistan? I am wondering while contemplating my options and future of blogging in this part of the world?

Shirazi is a mild, reasoned and reasonable soul and not prone to hyperbole. For him to contemplate the ‘end of blogging’ in Pakistan suggests to me that this is now really getting beyond a silly agency prank.

Of course, it could just be a technical glitch (UPDATE: It is! But, read on, the point of this post is still valid!). Over the last many weeks there seems to be an on-again off-again pattern to the ban. For the paranoid – and you have to be paranoid if you live through this – it seems that someone is testing and trying out new technologies to clamp down a ‘realââà ¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢ ban; one that Pakistanis cannot circumvent.

This, however, is not about conspiracy theory. It is about government policy.