In Pakistan, the fate of anti-establishment writers and activists is very clear. Just refer to how prominent Asia Times correspondent Syed Saleem Shahzad was killed and dumped for being critical of the ISI due to its supports to Jihadist militants. Similarly, Shia blogger and LUBP writer Irfan Khudi Ali was killed minutes after he tweeted that he was going to help the victims of first bomb blast in Quetta.

Evidence of certain pro-establishment fake liberals who routinely harass and bully Shia and other anti-establishment activists is on record. The same fake liberals publicly hook up with Sipah-e-Sahaba (ASWJ-LeJ) affiliates and apologists on Twitter to harass anti-establishment writers and activists.

There’s strong indication that senior eye surgeon Dr. Ali Haider and his son’s murder in Lahore and senior lawyer Malik Jarrar’s murder in Peshawar was due to the fact that they were tipped to be relatives of Shia bloggers and activists of Pakistan.

In recent past, The Friday Times bloggers Raza Rumi, Ali Chishti, Muhammad Shahzad and certain pro-Taliban Deobandi activists and clerics have openly harassed and threatened Shia and other anti-establishment writers and activists on Twitter. Incidentally, Mr. Rumi also happens to be a director of Jinnah Institute, an Islamabad based thinktank allegedly financed by the ISI via Tameer Bank.

In this grave situation, it is only a sane precaution that Shia and other anti-establishment activists use pen name in order to keep their families and themselves out of harm’s way.

It is better to write under pen names than be picked out by ASWJ-LeJ killers who are in turn tipped off by pro-establishment fake liberals in particular those who promote blatantly anti-Ahmadi and anti-Shia clerics as prophets of peace. Under these circumstances it is better to use pen names to confront the fake discourse of fake liberals. History has always supported this stance.  Pro rights and anti Sipah e Sahaba ASWJ/LEJ bloggers and journalists should be absolutely secretive about their identities. These malicious people will for sure feed you to the Takfiri hounds at the first opportunity.

We request our rapidly growing group of fellow anti-establishment bloggers to take strength from history. Refer to these excellent tweets by Baloch Faryad.

The Strange Stories Behind Famous Writers’ Pen Names

In October 2011, senior right activist Salam Jafar wrote the following blog post for LUBP in which she offered the following rationale for the use of pen names:

… the issue of anonymity; this is about the strong and bold voices without faces and with pen names. The mainstream journos are in a sheer superiority complex for having a face and id to their writings and blogs and very obviously look down upon those who for reasons which can be very well understood don’t. It is a basic freedom to be who you want to be on the net; this is understood because anonymity is also an established part of many cultures…for good reason.

Even famous authors throughout the centuries have used pen names:

George Orwell (real name Eric Arthur Blair)
George Eliot (real name Mary Ann Evans)
Lewis Carroll (real name Charles Lutwidge Dodgson)

And many writers today use pen names. Why pen names are used is for a wide variety of reasons, which includes to remain anonymous if producing a politically or religiously sensitive work. However it draws criticism as people want to uncover who is behind the pen name and don’t want that voice which in many instances is stronger than theirs to be heard. Many people do charity work without revealing the identity and many do human rights work without revealing identity many have concerns for their own or their families safety due to their involvement in some movement and from fear of reprisal.

This has to be understood in a country where there is always a fear that the big brother is watching you and even phones are tapped. Very unfortunately mature and immature journos and even others don’t understand this perhaps purposefully. All they are concerned about is the ‘name’ they want to recognize with. The concern is blown out of proportion and becomes so big that the Voice and the Issue that has been voiced by the pen name is not paid any heed to. This in itself is ignorance when there is so much to be learnt from those using pen names. We fairly have to give these voices their due share in writing about hidden issues and personalities, if we don’t agree that is fine but blaming them as vested interests, and dishonest is shameful. We also need to encourage the alternative media to be independent and not pressurize and intimidate it to apologize (sounds dictatorial doesn’t it coming from the champions of democracy).

In a previous LUBP post in 2011, we wrote the following:

The latest weak tactic to counter LUBP is to attack its authors and supporters for using pen names. Since ancient Greece and Rome and up to present times (several pro-democracy activists in Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain use pen names to evade persecution and murder by the ruling class), the use of pen names has been the strategy of those who write against the established order. It is the arguments that count and the refusal to address critiques and offer a counter by dismissing the critic as “anonymous” betrays a sad insecurity in one’s conviction in one’s own argument. It’s another weak tactic. However, it has now gone beyond abandoning one’s point of view. An active effort is being made to sneak out the information from those whose lack of credibility should alone question the veracity of this information.

Whenever this pro establishment mafia is confronted with difficult questions (eg, about financial sources of the Jinnah Institute, promotion of pro-Taliban clerics etc) they immediately resort to abuse, threats and deflection tactics. One of their favourite excuses is to silence debate by tagging the questioner as “anonymous trolls”. These fake liberal thugs are so paranoid and insecure about their work that even those using their actual names are shouted down as “anonymous”.  Ravez Junejo, a PPP activist and one of Pakistan’s earliest i-reporter for CNN was also harassed by the same group.

Today, Rabia Shakoor, a prominent left-liberal activist and former editor of LUBP was abused and called anonymous simply for stating a different point of view.

The abuser, Ejaz Haider is well known for such dirty tactics http://cafepyala.blogspot.com/2010/09/newsweek-editor-who-never-was.html . Similarly, Ali Taj, current LUBP editor has also been called an anonymous ID on more than one occasion. Ali Taj is an active human rights activist for Pakistan’s targeted Ahmadi and Shia communities. There are numerous pictures of him at these events for raising concern for the rights of targeted communities.

These three who use their actual names are just the tip of the iceberg and represent those anti establishment bloggers that are harassed and threatened by this Fake Liberal Mafia. Even veteran journalist, Saqlain Imam, is not being spared by them and is the current target of their paranoid rage.

Raza Rumi also used his “intelligent sources” to locate whereabouts and publish family pictures of another social media activist Ada Khakwani.

 

It seems that the aim of pro-establishment bullies is to locate and silence critical voices of Shia and anti-establishment writers and activists just as they did to Irfan Khudi Ali, Dr. Ali Haider, Malik Jarrar and Professor Sibte Jafar.

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