Aspiring to be a journalist in Pakistan

I started writing at the age of 9. I remember my essays and stories back in 3^rd grade, some of which even won me some prizes. I have been meant to write, to express, to let my feelings flow into words. I have always loved how words could beautifully express a person’s feelings at a specific point in time, how they could send you in a completely different world, away from reality. The main thing that amazed me was how much words could make you feel.

I started writing again a few years later, but it was more real than fictitious, based on current affair and human rights. Mostly, I wrote about Ahmadis and how their rights have been violated by the so-called Muslims of Pakistan. It was then I decided (a little bit too late) that I wanted to be journalist. I couldn’t possibly study it but I could try and write, learn some tips, get more recognition.

Everyone around me has been asking me to stop writing. Close friends, family, acquaintances, and even some people on Twitter. Not because I am a horrible writer (God forbid) but because they are scared for my life. They know what happens to people who speak out, who voice their opinions, who are blatantly honest. They kept telling me to go abroad and start writing there but for as long as I’m in Pakistan, I should just remain quiet. Or I should use a pen name. Something, anything, which would protect me.

This is the situation of journalism in Pakistan. People who speak the truth, who create awareness in people are being slaughtered like animals. People who dedicate their life to the country are being attacked. People who are doing what they have always been passionate about are being blown to bits and pieces. Is the truth so hard so hear that you’d rather kill someone than hear it? How brutal can you really be?

I have wanted to be a journalist for a long time. I have wanted to serve my country through my word, even though being an Ahmadi, I will always be discriminated. I have wanted to create awareness about the rights being denied to minorities in specific and humans in general, all over Pakistan. But I also know that if I get published in a paper that would be it. Being an Ahmadi AND a journalist? Double treat for the illiterate, inhumane terrorists residing in our country.

I didn’t write this post because I’m scared for myself. I wrote it because I’m afraid for the hundreds of journalists who are brave enough to step up and speak the truth, and end up getting murdered in cold blood. How long will we tolerate this? How long will the government keep hiding murders and condemn them dutifully and forget about them an hour later? This terrorism can’t go on forever, journalists shouldn’t be targeted.

All I want to say here is this. Killing journalist does not hide the truth. If one dies, another will take his place. The truth will always remain. No amount of murders will hide it. The terrorists will only be adding sins on their accounts instead of virtues.

Stop killing journalists.

Stop killing honesty.

Stop killing.

Just stop. 

Gossip, the scariest of all flaws

Gossip, we all do it every day. Even self-righteous people who claim they have never talked about anyone behind their backs, have done the exact same; they just refuse to deny it. It’s a norm, now. Everyone does it, you, me, our neighbors, our friends, everyone.

I wouldn’t call gossip a sin, but I would call it a major flaw, something I’m trying to get rid of these days, so I thought maybe I should talk about it.

Gossip is the same as backbiting, no matter which way you put it, no matter how much you deny it. It will always be a synonym to backbiting, it always has been. The worst thing about gossiping, in my opinion, is not hurting people, horrible as it may be. The worst part is spreading rumors about someone, without getting your facts straight, throwing another person’s reputation down the drain, forgetting that they are also human. Even if you THINK you have your facts straight, what if you don’t know their side of the story, just the side you THINK you know? And even you do know some delicious, juicy secret, why spread it? The person who told you must have entrusted you with it, thinking you would keep your lips sealed, but you ended up blabbering out the whole thing as if you were talking about the weather. Why? Don’t people have feelings?

What people, addicted to gossiping, don’t realise is what they would do if they were put in the same situation. What if one day, they were being gossiped about, ridiculed and mocked, what if they were the hot topic of discussion every day for people? It’s the worst possible thing to be talked about, especially if it’s in a negative way. Most people don’t realise it until they’ve been put in that position, but now and again, everyone experiences it. And it’s only when they experience it do they realise the horrible, sinking feeling of people judging your every move.

I do not meant to point out anyone’s flaws here, we’re all human and we’re all flawed in one way or the other. But we can’t possibly justify our flaws by saying that we’re only humans. Being Ashraf-ul-Makhlooqat, we have been given the intelligence to realise and rectify our wrongs, and bring a positive change in ourselves. We should try to rectify ourselves in every way, because there is ALWAYS room for improvement in all of us.

It is true what they say – you don’t realize something until you actually experience it. Gossip is similar. You won’t understand atrocity of gossip until you get talked about. Don’t worry! Everyone gets talked about. You will only be spared if you sit in your home, being anti-social, with no technologies whatsoever. But even then people will wonder where you have disappeared off to. See? It never ends.

So next time, when you decide to talk about someone’s personal life with juicy bits and pieces which may or may not be true, think about how you would feel if someone did the same about you. Because karma has a way of coming right back at you. Always remember that. 

TTP website granted access?

On Saturday, the banned militant group, Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan launched its website, hosting videos, a magazine, and its leaders’ interviews and statements. It would serve as the central information portal.

The website contains the TTP flag, verses from the Quran, videos containing hate especially against the security forces. There is also a message of TTP deputy Shaikh Khalid Haqqani for the people of Balochistan, and pictures of slain TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud and his successor and current chief, Maulvi Fazlullah. Also posted on the website are pictures of houses allegedly bombed by the army, details of the TTP position on the current peace process and information about the recent assassination of TTP leader Asmatullah Shaheen in North Waziristan Agency.

My question is this – Why is a terrorist site allowed access, a site which will bring terror and violence, but sites relating to Ahmadis, Shias or Balochis are blocked? Moreover, Youtube, which was used an educational site and an entertainment has been blocked for over a year but the TTP site is given approval?  Why the discrimination? Either PTA should block contradictory sites completely, or it should allow access to all sites. Furthermore, there is no point of granting access to a terrorist site. Is the government so under pressure by TTP that they are willing to agree on everything they ask? Makes me wonder how the negotiations are going to end up. Kind of scares me more.

The website contains videos spreading hate and propaganda material, especially against the security forces. Why is the government still not taking action on it? Which way are these negotiations going? Or are they only negotiating for their own lives and not the whole country’s?

Youtube, which was used to educational and entertainment purposes, has been blocked for over a year because of a blasphemous video. Time and again, the issue has gone to court, but without any result. The maulvis and religious extremists just won’t allow that website to be unbanned. But a TTP website? It’s such an innocent site, it can never be banned.
The second question that comes to mind is this – TTP are completely against the idea of the West and adoption of any practices of the West. How then did they decide to make a website, or use computers, something which signifies the West in every single way? Or their a rule that everything western that is practiced by the TTP is Halal and everything else is Haraam? How discriminatory is that?

Regardless of how much the government wants to show that these negotiations are going to work, terrorist sites need to be shut down by the PTA. They have already shut down hundreds of harmless religious sites, one terrorist site wouldn’t hurt them. PTA seriously needs to set their priorities right over what sites they believe should and shouldn’t be blocked.

What's more important - Famine in Thar or the objectification of women?

While the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) is doing its level best to undermine the women of Pakistan by giving parents/guardians the license to give away little girls in marriage and freeing men of the need to secure the permission of their first wives before admitting second wives to their harems, people in Tharparkar are dying from malnutrition. They don’t have food to eat. Young children are dying from starvation.

Tharparkar did not receive any rain this year and all the reservoirs have dried up, leaving it in a famine-like situation. Tharkparkar is hit by such a situation every couple of years during which they have severe shortages of food and water, causing starvations and eventually, deaths. This year round, more than 36 children died of malnutrition. Most of the children were under 5 years of age. Numerous animals and livestock died, forcing families to pack up their belongings and move elsewhere.

A lot of starved children and pregnant ladies have been admitted to the hospital in Mithi. Relatives of the patients admitted to the complained that its administration was not providing medicines and they were forced to buy expensive drugs. “We cannot feed our children, how can we purchase medicines?” The hospital also gave a statement saying they were facing a shortage of doctors, nurses and paramedics, adding to the frustration of the famine-affected people.

Although the Sindh government has declared Tharparkar a calamity-hit district, it is yet to take any concrete measure to avert further losses. Its announcement to provide 60,000 wheat bags to the drought-hit people of Thar is yet to materialize. The district administration is reported to have told the relief commissioner that 60,000 wheat bags would not meet the requirement of about 175,000 drought-hit families.

When such a situation is affecting the country where people are dying, why is the media diverting the attention to the idiotic “Islamic” rules made by the CII about how girls should get married as soon as they hit puberty and encouraging men to take on second and third and fourth wives? Islam never taught this. Islam always gave women a high status but this, this is degradation. This is pure humiliation and the people passing these fatwas know it. Just because they can’t satisfy their own sexual frustrations, they decide to make a law out of it?

I told this to a friend and she says so what? It’s not like anyone’s giving them any importance. But that’s where she’s wrong. When media is giving so much attention to something, people tend to take interest. And since we were all born with extremism embedded into our minds, people do listen, and then people take action. Next thing we know, parents are getting their daughters married at the age of 14. Husbands are taking 4 wives, because that’s what Islam allowed, right? Islam does NOT allow women to be objectified, but that’s what the modern-age mullahs are teaching the nation. And that’s exactly what’s being implemented.


But I digress. My point of writing this post was to create an awareness of the famine in Tharparkar district. People there need you. They need food. They need water. They need treatment. Please do whatever you can do help them. They are our fellow citizens after all, and if we won’t help them, who will? Help them, and spread the message. If the government is too cruel and ignorant to help them (and yes I consider giving them just 60,000 bags to be a cruelty, when they need, at the very least, 5 times that amount), maybe we should try and assist our fellow brothers. Raise awareness. Raise your voice. Do what you can. Save lives. 

They keep saying time and again that time heals all wounds. But what if time just reopens them and lets them bleed for life? 

Dunya kitni darpok hai iss ka mujhay ab andaza ho raha hai

Aaj subha say main aik cheez daikh rahi hoon. Naam kisi ka nahin loon gi because idhar ronay walay bohat hain. DMs main baat lay jaatay hain aur phir kehtay hain main buri hoon. Khair choro.

I'm a very opinionated person. I need to have an opinion on everything. And if I don't know about something, for example, politics, etc, toh main search kernay beth jaati hoon. I can't stand not having an opinion. Laikin kuch loug hain iss dunya main, badnaseebi hai unn ki kay woh itnay jiyaalay nahin kay apna opinion poori dunya kay saamnay hazir ker sakain. Kyoon? Unn kay peechay police lagi hai? Ammi nay mana kiya hai? Girlfriend/boyfriend nay break up ker laina? Nope. Baat sirf itni hai kay unnko ye dar hai kay kyoon kay unn ka opinion baaki sab say different hai toh unn ki baisti ho gi, ya people won't like them anymore.

Ji, sahi parha hai aap nay. Loug sirf iss liye apna opinion nahin batatay cuz unn ko dar lagta hai kay loug unn ki shaid baisti ker dain ya phir unn say baat kerna chorh dain. Twitter aur Facebook per aur social forums per ye cheez bohat nazar aati hai. Agla banda chaahay kitni hi ghattiya ya ghalat baat ker raha ho, ye loug unn say agree hi ker jaatay hain taakay inn ki popularity intact rahay.

Sawaal hai mera aisay logoun say. Aap ko popularity toh mil gayi, followings/friends bhi mil gaye? Izzat mili? Self-respect mili? Nahin nah. Toh kya faida aisay fame ka jis main aap nay zaleel hi hona hota hai? Matlab ye baat aaj aap mujhay samjha hi dain kyoonkay mujhay toh ye baat samajh aati nahin. 

Jahan tak mera khayal hai, everyone has their own opinions and thoughts, and everyone is original in that way. But if you keep trying to agree with others just for the sake of getting people to like you, then I'm sorry, you neither deserve that fame nor the popularity that you speak of. Also, you need to have the guts to tell people they're wrong where they ARE wrong, or to tell people you think differently. There is absolutely no harm in thinking differently, unless you make it out to be that way. For example, I absolutely hate nose piercings. Matlab. Zeher say bhi buri lagti hain. Laikin ab agar discussion ho rahi hai iss per toh main yeh bol doon kay nose piercing achi hai just because everyone else is saying so, means kay main intehaa kisam ka lota hoon. Hai baat kay nahin?

Iss liye baraaye mehrbaani, have some guts, koi aap ko khaa nahin jaaye ga for having an opinion. Ajeeb darpok ho sab. Opinion rakho, don't be afraid to voice it. Koi kuch bolay toh aagay say sunanay ki himmat bhi rakho. Aur khuda ka naam loh, ye popularity aur fame qabar main nahin aaye ga saath. Iss kay peechay bhaag bhaag ker apnay aap ko dunya aur khuda kay saamnay zaleel nah kero. 

Yet Another Terrorist Attack

11 people, including a judge, Rafaqat Awan, were killed and more than 30 people injured today when unidentified assailants opened fire and threw crackers in a court in the F-8 area of Islamabad. TTP has denied any involvement in the attack, saying they would not violate the ceasefire that they had announced just a couple of days earlier.

It doesn't matter right now who was behind the attacks. Well, it does, but that's not why I decided to write this post. It was horrifying to wake up to the news of people dying in my city but what literally made my mind go insane is the picture below. 

Taken from the court attack in Islamabad today

This is human blood. A person died here. A human life was lost. The people that died today, they must have woken up, late to court today, perhaps skipped their breakfast, in a hurry to get to court.. But for what? To lose their lives? Is that what today cost them? And what about their loved ones? What about them sending their beloved ones out into the world, thinking they'll meet them in the evening only to get the news within an hour that there has been an attack and that they're dead, or critically injured? Also, what of people who have no idea where there loved ones are?

This blood.. Doesn't it look like slaughter? Like when Muslims kills animals on Eid day and the blood covers the ground? This is what this looks like. Human slaughter. I've said this on countless occasions and I will say it again - we have forgotten the value of a human life. Even today, when I know the people of my country and city have been killed and critically injured, much as it breaks my heart, it's just a number. The first thought that came to my mind when I got to know of the blast was - how many people died? It didn't matter to me that even one person dying was enough. I just wanted to know the stats. And it's not just me. Stats are what matter now. Less than 10 people die, it was nothing important. More die, and people start flaring up.

11 people lost their lives today. Why? We might never know. By whom? No idea. But somehow, in the bigger scheme of things, it doesn't matter. What matters is that eleven families have been affected today. They might never be able to forget 3rd March, 2014, which was supposed to be just another day.

I just want to request you all to pray for the people who passed away today, and for the people who have been severely injured. They deserve a prayer, to say the least. I would also like to request prayers for the affected families. May they be able to bear this horrible, horrible loss with strength and dignity.