Asking questions, discussing issues & Facebook friends – by Shoaib Mir sahib:   Maybe a few national issues are a little too serious, sensitive to discuss. Maybe certain important questions are a little too discomforting, blasphemous to answer. Maybe some respected people are a little too patriotic, faithful to have a

عشق کا لام – گل نوخیز اختر: Source: http://www.bathak.com/column/column-gul-nokhaiz-akhtar-jan-2-2016-51952

People of the Facebook – by Mobarak Haider: I think quarreling is a softer form of fighting. In Pakistan most of our quarrels can grow into fights. The people of the Book have fought for centuries. But people of the Facebook only quarrel because they cannot fight.

Karbala e Quetta and Shia News Facebook Pages Blocked by PTA while Taliban pages continue to spew hate: Editor’s note: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/07/world/asia/pakistan-facebook-blocked-users-from-political-pages-and-outspoken-rock-band-laal-against-taliban-.html According to this New York Times article, Facebook has been blocking many “left-wing” pages in Pakistan. This fundamentally goes against the principles of free speech. Peaceful Facebook pages are being blocked whereas ones that are pro Taliban

HRW slams Saudi Arabia after 7 jailed for ‘inciting protests’ on Facebook: Human Rights Watch has slated Saudi Arabia for violating international human rights obligations after it jailed seven people for up to 10 years for ‘inciting protests’ via Facebook. The indicted denied charges and said they were tortured into confession.

The smaller infinites of our thoughts – Qurat ul ain Haider Zaidi: Tweets and Facebook posts; thank god instagram is still away from all this shorbazi which seem quite interesting now a days.On one hand, the Young blood is doing a good job in front of computers/laptops and on the other

A Silent Moment In Pakistan – by Umer Raza Bhutta:  We are in the generation of Facebook. Facebook has its users from the age as small as 8 to as high as 80. According to a research        Radio took 50 years to reach a market audience

Social media management strategy -by Naqash Butt: A customer posted a self-made music video on You Tube complaining about how United Airlines mishandled his guitar. There are over 5 million views of this video on You Tube! A single bad experience magnified over social media can

Google this, Your Honor! – by Nargis Khan: Yesterday, Justice Azmat Saeed of the Lahore High Court issued orders to the Ministry of Information and Technology, asking to block access to all those websites that spread religious intolerance. This order was given out at the conclusion of

Govt establishes social media cell & the News reports negatively: Firstly, we would like to commend the Pakistan Peoples Party led government for realizing the importance of alternative forms of media on internet. The new web based social media is a new emerging domain where readers, listeners and viewers

Nusrat Javeed on Zaid Hamid‏: lal topi wala maskhara: Source: Daily Express ——– PS: Apparently General Kayani was a bit generous with the truth. He too seems to have good relations with Zaid Hamid who was specially invited to PMA, Kakul, Osamaabad Abbottabad – in 2010

If your website’s full of anonymity, that might be okay: Hmm, lots of interesting responses to If your website’s full of assholes, it’s your fault, and even more interesting conversation about the topic of commenting culture in general. A few highlights from the last few days: My wonderful friend

Looking for ‘Pakistan Spring’ makers? -by Nusrat Javeed: A group of frighteningly brilliant and youthful professionals seemed dominating the reception that Mark Davidson, the US Counselor for Public Affairs, held at his residence Friday evening. The event facilitated two communication experts from Open Source at Brown University

Over a coffee: Alcohol is thicker than blood —Dr Haider Shah: The courts should remain defenders of fundamental rights and personal liberties. When the Facebook ban was issued, the court appeared to be playing to the gallery of populist radicals A long time ago, when I was a college student

Pakistan’s first international social media summit: Pakistan has over 3 million social journalists and the number is increasing with the passage of every day with 6.2 million users on microblogging site Twitter and over 4 million social network Facebook users already. This was observed by

Fragile democracy and 64-channels media cottage industry – by Chaudhry Ahmed Khan: I recently came across a comment by the President and PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari, which really struck me for its succinct and bold portrayal of the Pakistani media. The President was countering one of the many false impressions

Fatima Bhutto: please focus on fiction- by Nasima Zehra Awan: Pakistan may have lost a talented fiction writer when Fatima Bhutto went into journalism. Clearly, she is adept at spinning a tale, fudging facts and re-defining reality in a manner that is the exclusive domain of talented story tellers.

PPP emerging in Information Technology (IT): Pakistan Peoples’ Party is known to date to be a party of the masses and indeed the peoples’. Though it is a cumbersome task to be in constant contact with all of the 18 crore Pakistanis but the supporters

Of blasphemy, Facebook and terrorism —Imtiaz Alam: Times are horrifying in this land of the pure and a chaotic world around. A “satire” protesting censoring of an episode of ‘South Park’ by Comedy Central turned viral, forcing the irreverent cartoonist to take refuge behind opposing censorship

Welcome to Pavlovia –Farrukh Khan Pitafi: When the court had ruled only to block one website, PTA’s decision to block a number of others was uncalled for and appeared symptomatic of a ‘holier than the Pope’ attitude Rome was not burnt in one day. Russian

In qualified support of the facebook ban – by Muhammad Amir Khakwani: While a number of valuable articles have been posted on the LUBP criticising the facebook ban, here is an alternative, thought provoking perspective by Muhammad Amir Khakwani. Unlike our tradition, we are placing this newspaper article on the front

Biggest crime of internet based media and social networking – by Junaid Qaiser: “The fact is that censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates, in the end, the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion.” – Henry Steele Commager Pakistan is a developing nation where digitally networked technologies

Students for a democratic Pakistan discuss Facebook ban: For those of you who can’t watch youtube:

Pakistan and Facebook: both victims of Lahori Islam – by Ahmed Nadeem Gehla: There is a ‘mass madness’ ranging from TV talk shows to headlines of News Papers and debate on internet. Charged workers of religious organisations are out in streets of Pakistan. As Malaysian are relatively more religious people as compared

The Facebook shame – by Ahmad Rafay Alam: source : The News There’s a new joke doing the rounds: what’s the difference between Facebook and the Lashkar-e-Taiba? Answer: Facebook is banned in Pakistan. The Lahore High Court’s un-technical appreciation of social networking sites, the mechanics of the

The Facebook Heat – by Bahadar Ali Khan: Back in 1984, General Zia-ul-Haq conducted a referendum to legitimize his rule. The referendum was based on one question: “Do you want to continue the process of Islamization in Pakistan ?”, and the polity was given choices to tick

Internet blockade and urban middle class youth – by Ahmed Nadeem Gehla: On Wednesday 19th May 2010, the Lahore High Court, famous for acting as a “moral brigade” rather than judiciary, once again passed a strange order to ban Facebook across Pakistan on a petition of Muslim Lawyers Forum. The demand

The sinking middle-ground – by Nadeem F. Paracha: The best was when a friend of mine told me about another such agitated Pakistani’s Facebook page. According to my friend, the following were the Facebook groups the restless young man was a member of: “Proud to be Muslim”;