Urban Elites and Middle Class Archive
Class-based activism? Sympathy for Shahzeb Khan, apathy for Baldia factory fire victims: The Global Trade and Labour Compliance conference organised by the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (Piler), in collaboration with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Pakistan, took an interesting turn when Advocate Faisal Siddiqi compared the death of Shahzeb Khan to
بجلی کے بغیر ٹھنڈک کرنے والا، غریبوں کا ریفریجریٹر: خبردار! اس تحریر کو خبر سمجھ کر نہ پڑھا جائے۔ کبھی کبھی سائنس کے بہت ہی سادہ اصول نہایت کارآمد ثابت ہوتے ہیں۔ ایسا ہی کچھ معاملہ اس ’’ریفریجریٹر‘‘ کا ہے جسے آج سے پندرہ سال پہلے نائجیریا
In the name of the people: Rehman Malik has been off loaded – by A Z: There was minor incident today (15th September, 2014) that warmed the cockles of my heart. It was encouraging to see common man rising spontaneously against his/her own exploitation. Today (15-9-2014), Mr Rehman Malik kept PK-370 delayed for 2 hours
Why do Pakistani Shias distrust Beena Sarwar brand of liberals?: As soon as a senior government or political leader or a media celebrity tweets about Shia Genocide or Deobandi terrorism, some flatterers whole-heartedly retweet his or her status. A case in point is how some people fall over one
Hamza Ahmed and the urban feudalism in Karachi – by Maheen Usmani: In Pakistan, lest we forget, the hired underlings are at the lowest rung of the ladder and are the puppets of their masters. PHOTO: IRFAN ALI Karachi gives off a palpable sense of fear which stems not just from
PPP leads the march of folly – by A Z: I am sorry to have borrowed Barbara Tuchman’s axiom in a much lesser context. There has been much talk recently about PMLN’s overt or covert electoral accommodation of ASWJ. However, deplorable as it may be, it does not really
No respect for the silver medalist – by Ali Taj: He is “Naveed Asif” from Nahranwali village Okara who scored 919 marks in matric and got second position in BISE Lahore. His school was 7 km away from his house he used to walk 7 km everyday to go
Why elites fail: This article is adapted from Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy, © 2012 by Christopher Hayes and published by Crown Publishers, a division of Random House Inc. In 1990, at the age of 11, I stood in a line of
#SocMM12: Social Media Mela or Twitterati Kitty Party? – by Imaan Sheikh: Related posts: A critical assessment of #SOCMM12 – Social Media Mela 2012 – by Wusatullah Durrani #SOCMM12 in pictures: Punjabi-Muhajir elites and their wannabe middle class flatterers at Social Media Mela 2012 LUBP Editor’s note: Finally, a candid assessment
On LUBP’s ridiculous criticism of Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy – by Bina Shah: When Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Daniel Junge won the Oscar in March for their short documentary Saving Face, about the victims of acid attacks in Pakistan, the entire nation erupted in joy. Obaid-Chinoy was hailed as a “daughter of the nation” (a phrase
What is Pakistan’s elite? -by Ayesha Siddiqa: A few days ago in a morning show, I saw a top journalist hold forth about the reckless elite of Pakistan. While there is no doubt about the fact that Pakistan’s elite is irresponsible towards itself and the people,
While Rome burns the Quarter-Pounders rule – by Zachary Latif: In a Troubled Country, Still Time for High Society. Pakistani High Society exerts a unifying influence along the same lines as Bollywood does for India. Pakistan’s elite is predominantly English speaking, convent educated and with strong overlapping ties to
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy wants to get my sister harmed: Dear LUBP, I will be eternally grateful if you could please publish the following few lines. I don’t want to disclose my name due to obvious reasons. A few years ago, my sister (an acid attack victim) was contacted
Looking back at the Lawyers’ Movement -by Ayesha Siddiqa: The protests, rallies and demonstrations by the legal community from 2007 to 2009 took everyone in and outside Pakistan by surprise. People were impressed with the perseverance of the lawyer’s from around the country in the face of a
What Hazrat Imran Khan is not? The immortal letter by Shafqat Mahmood – by Riaz Malik Hajjaji: Dear readers, I want to express my appreciation to the PTI Information secretary, Mr. Shafqat Mahmood for his brilliant deconstruction and dismantling (What Imran Khan is not ) of the rubbish post by Saroop Ijaz called “The lies and triangulations of Imran
An open letter to Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy – by Ravez Junejo: Dear Miss Chinoy, Before I move on to the main theme of this post, I must clarify its purpose as not being the blind adulation you have received from some quarters at your Oscar win. I wish I could
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy: Contradictions of an Oscar win – by Safiya Khan: This class exploits the poor on selective causes and profitable NGO businesses but stands with anti-women politician Imran Khan and pro-establishment politician like Farooq Leghari. Esteemed anti-establishment writer and media critic, Nadeem F. Paracha wrote this blog in Dawn
Comparing Karachi Literature Festival 2012 with Difa-e-Pakistan Conference: Source: Pakistan Blogzine Related post: “I’ve been in a rickshaw”: Some critical reflections on the Karachi Literature Festival 2011 Two key events took places in Karachi a few days ago (12 Feb 2012): Difa-e-Pakistan Conference (DPC) attended by about
This is how we self-congratulate us: A comment on Nasim Zehra’s article in Express Tribune: Traditionally lifestyle liberals in Pakistan use an 80-20 mixture formula, i.e., they inject the 20% pro-military establishment discourses within the 80% objective facts or neutral assessments in their articles. Of course we agree with the 80% of their content,
A critical comment on Pakistan Blog Awards 2011 – by Mureed Bizenjo: Related posts: Social Media Summit in Karachi which never was! Aisha Aijaz and Saad Khan’s My Bit for Ahmadi Phobia I had registered myself as a guest, not as a nominee, in the Pakistan Blog Awards (PBA), obviously not
On Najam Sethi’s Punjabi ethnocentric, pro-establishment propaganda: Related Post: Najam Sethi parrots Deep State’s lies by equating Pashtuns with Taliban – by Salma Jafar A manufactured perspective about the Pakistani media is that the sauve English speaking types are somehow more objective in their reporting and
Pakistan’s Modernity: Between the Military and Militancy – by Ayesha Siddiqa: In Pakistan economic progress does not automatically translate into liberal progressive modernity mainly due to the nature of the state. Pakistan’s modernity is structured along two axes: neo-liberal nationalism and right-wing radical nationalism. While the neo-liberal nationalism axis depicts
Urban middle class, extremism and biases – by Dr. Zaeem Zia: In my opinion the word extremist has been too narrowly defined. Extremists are not only those who kill but are also those who have a narrow and intolerant mindset. Thus extremism is another term for the intolerance, and it
A Pakistani perspective: A series of unfortunate events – by Dr. Muhammad Taqi: Related posts: Husain Haqqani’s replacement with Sherry Rehman was jointly engineered by Uncle Sam and Pakistan Army – by Laibaah HRW and elite media must not misrepresent Sherry Rehman We are reassured to see that at least some writers
The identity crisis of the urban middle classes – by Murtaza Haider: From the banks of river Nile to the sand dunes of Kashgar Prefecture, Muslims were perceived as one people by the poet philosopher Muhammad Iqbal. All other manifestations of a person’s identity were deemed irrelevant. The unity in faith
Pakistan’s urban, elitist liberals must not uncritically promote Sherry Rehman: Cross-posted from Pakistan Blogzine Related posts: Some gems from Declan Walsh’s article promoting Sherry Rehman Where Ansar Abbasi and Mosharraf Zaidi converge: “PPP killed Sherry Rehman’s bill” Adil Najam and his pseudo-liberals’ outpouring of sympathy for Sherry Rehman –
What lies beneath!: At times when madness and miserliness is prevailing, sanity becomes a virtue. At times when uncertainty, bewilderment and deformation substitute realities, it is hard to keep sight. At times when vultures overshadow the sun on sky like dark clouds,
The blocked elite’s euphoria on Imran Khan’s arrival – by Nadeem F. Paracha: On the block by Nadeem Paracha In February I wrote an article on these pages called The blocked elite. Today after following all the excitement amongst the urban middle-class youth and in the populist electronic media about Imran Khan’s
The False Prophet – by Suleman Akhtar: Change we need, but not at the expense of sagacity. Change we need, but not through mere rhetoric rather sound understanding of state of affairs. Change cannot be even envisioned until unless touching upon the matter that who holds
Concern for Marvi Sirmed’s Safety – by Alamdar Mengal: Editor’s note: We at LUBP are deeply concerned for Marvi Sirmed’s safety and will not see her being left at the mercy of wolves. We appreciate Marvi Sirmed’s attention to human rights issues which are simply not being talked
Holier-than-thou Middle-Class and Anna Hazare Phenomenon -by Suleman Akhtar: Anna Hazare is personification of holier-than-thou middle class morality that aspires to see every seed blossoming overnight, despite being outright apolitical. The dilemma of middle class is that it holds the moral grounds of Jesus and fantasizes about the
In Defence of Asif Ali Zardari – by Abdullah Zaidi: What comes to your mind with the mention of Asif Ali Zardari? “A cunning, vile, and corrupt man,” said my 19 year old cousin. This was a good summation of what the urban middle-class thinks of him. The more
Book Review: The Redefined Dimensions of Baloch Nationlist Movement: Book: The Redefined Dimensions of Baloch Nationalist Movement By: Malik Siraj Akbar Editor The Balochhal Publishers: Xlibris Subject: Balochistan, Politics, Nationalism Book Reviewed by Arif Jamal Author of Shadow War: The Untold Story of Jihad in Kashmir Most Pakistanis,
Deconstructing Pakistani liberals: A response to Shashi Tharoor and Raza Rumi: Related posts: Recommending Aatish Taseer How to identify liberal proxies of GHQ in Pakistani media and blogs Taseer’s murder and the call for a ‘broad-based alliance’ between PPP and the ‘civil society’ – by Ahmad Nadeem Gehla Recently I
Karachi Reportage and stereotypical Douchebaggery – by Ali Arqam: Last night in a recently launched TV show by Express News with a Janus-faced title “Sirf Sach” hosted by a relatively new face Ali Mumtaz, the participants from Karachi were asked about violence in Karachi. He chose the
Social Media Summit in Karachi which never was! – by Laibaah: Related posts: How to identify liberal proxies of GHQ in Pakistani media and blogs Fake Civil Society (FCS) – by Shahid Khan At Pakistan’s first sever Social Media Summit (aka PKSMS) in Karachi, the following resolutions were passed: At
How to identify (fake) liberal proxies of Pakistan army in mainstream and social media?: Preamble Commenting on the state of pro-establishment journalism in Pakistan, Ayesha Siddiqa once said: Today, we face a state of military hegemony: political, economic and intellectual control. Today, there is not a single university in Pakistan or a young
Why Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto loved us – by Ali Sher Mussali: Related posts: A brief history of PPP: mauj mela, madari, maqtal – by Hasan Mujtaba Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto slaps General Zia and Ziaists from his grave – Hasan Nisar What is the difference between ZAB, Benazir Bhutto and other
r3v0LuT!0n: the Pakistan style! – by Ali Suleman: r3v0LuT!0n says : Hey! Revolusion says: Hello! r3v0LuT!0n says: Wana chat? Revolusion says: Yeah, sure. ASL? r3v0LuT!0n says: 19, Male, Pakistan. You? Revolusion says: 23, Male, Libya. r3v0LuT!0n says: Oh, you’re actually from Libya? That’s so cool man! I
On Newsweek Pakistan’s 100 women: Shaking Pakistan with lipstick? – by Nabiha Meher: Editor’s note: We are cross-posting an interesting piece from the Express Tribune which offers a thought provoking commentary on a list of 100 Pakistani women recently published by the Newsweek Pakistan. While we have a number of reservations about