journalists-from-pakistan

"We have an insane horde in Pakistan. These are strange people, who celebrate their own ruin."

"India's population is over one billion and Pakistan's population is 18 crore. In the event of a nuclear war, even if you inflict four times more casualties on India, there would be more than 20 crore people living in India. But, by then Pakistan will be finished."

"We have a bevy of uneducated people here in Pakistan. They don't know what is [an] atom bomb."

"Nine years ago I moved to Mexico City for a while to work at a public relations firm, helping them with their English-speaking clients."

"The greatest irony about (the Quid's August 11 Speech) is that it is generally believed to have addressed only the minorities' rights. This is only partly true. The Quaid's words were directed at all citizens of Pakistan; the progress of the entire population depended on burying the past (communal politics). What he clearly meant was that discrimination against the minorities would impede Pakistan's progress. Thus, in Jinnah's Pakistan, the rights and interests of the minorties will be protected by the constitution and the law, not only as something due to them, but also as an insurance of the state's integrity."

"It should be interesting to find out why the Pakistani film industry has shown little interest in celebrating 100 years of filmmaking – 2013 marks the centenary of film production in Subcontinent and not of film exhibition that had started earlier. And this despite being invited by Indian filmmakers to partake of shared glory. One reason could be the muddled thinking about the Pakistani people's cultural heritage. If they reject the arts and literature produced in the Subcontinent before it was partitioned, they repudiate not only the legacy of the great Indo-Islamic culture, that grew over centuries, but also the poetry of Mir, Ghalib and Iqbal (who spent all his life as a citizen of India). If the cultural history of our people is supposed to have begun in 1947, then we have no cultural heritage worth the name."

"We have come here to tell you that if you can carry on the fight with the same determination and discipline as had been displayed during the past three days, not only will you have achieved victory in the Punjab, but you will also have reached nearer to your goal of Pakistan."

"On that side stands Hafiz Ibrahim, here stands Abdus Samih On that side is Hardwari learning, here we have Shari’i training On that side lies submission to Gandhi, here stands the organization that submits to Allah’s Prophet On that side is Nehru’s Bharat, here you have the whole world O voters, open the ears of your hearts and listen, the threat to your Faith comes from the other side, There are no such dangers here."

"Muslim leaders deliberately spread false and baseless atrocity stories about East Punjab, and incited Muslims everywhere to murder and drive out Hindus and Sikhs. Especially was Pakistan propaganda openly and shamelessly directed against Sikhs. Zafar Ali Khan, proprietor of the Daily Zamindar of Lahore is a well-known Muslim League leader, and his paper an important League organ. On the 5th September in this paper appeared on the front page a highly inflammatory poem against the Sikhs, the last and telling line of which was: “Koi Sikh rehne na pae Maghribi Punjab men” (Let no Sikh be allowed to remain in Western Punjab)."

"The does not seem willing to shift its spending priorities despite the burgeoning COVID-19 challenges. Pakistan has emerged as one of the countries with the fastest rate of coronavirus infections in recent weeks, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The country reported its first coronavirus case on February 26 and is now among the top 15 most-affected countries. More than 4,000 people have lost their lives to the disease in Pakistan since the beginning of the outbreak. Moreover, there is a significant shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) and ventilators in the country. Despite all this, Islamabad allocated $7.85bn for defence and merely $151m for health in the budget for the financial year 2020-2021. This represents a 12 percent rise in Pakistan's defence spending compared with the last financial year. The single-line figure presented in the budget does not give a full picture of the amount actually being spent on defence either."

"India is the only major civilizational country where you are systematically taught to hate your heritage and glorify the invaders who came to destroy it. And this absurdity is called 'secularism'."

"I am an Indian born in Pakistan, a Punjabi born in Islam; an immigrant in Canada with a Muslim consciousness, grounded in a Marxist youth. I am one of Salman Rushdie's many Midnight's Children: we were snatched from the cradle of a great civilization and made permanent refugees, sent in search of an oasis that turned out to be a mirage."

"It wasn't us Muslims who built Babri Mosque over Ram's Temple; It was those wicked Hindus who built the Ram Temple under the Babri Mosque."

"Manufacturer’s Warranty. ALL EXPRESS AND IMPLIED WARRANTIES made by the manufacturer will be considered void if any unauthorized third-party add-ons are installed on top of the basic operating system of Islam. Such add-ons are causing a worldwide system failure. The manufacturer is warning the general public to be wary of unscrupulous vendors who are marketing bootlegged versions of the product to unsuspecting customers. Users are hereby warned that the manufacturer does not guarantee the proper functioning of Islam if these add-ons are installed over the basic operating system. The manufacturer also cautions all users that there has been no new version of Islam since the last upgrade in 632 CE. Speculation that the manufacturer plans to release a new Service Pack are without foundation."

"Pakistan is a living testament to the bankrupt idea of an Islamic State."

"The question is this: Why is it that when the Babri mosque in Ayodhya was demolished, hundreds of thousands of Muslims worldwide took to the streets to protest, but when Saudi authorities plan to demolish the home of our beloved Prophet, not a whisper is heard?"

"‘US-hating’ chemist held in India with 10Kg of Fentanyl Hydrochloride that could kill 5M people. Mohammad Sadiq’s name was concealed by all major newspapers except a local daily in Maharashtra. This is the same drug found with brother of Toronto terrorist."

"Any use of Islam to develop supremacist ideas, which are political in nature and subjugate people who are not from that philosophy, is fascism. Fascism involves whipping up people under a certain order by employing non-state actors to implement policies of supremacy, whether it is the concept of Aryan supremacy in Germany or Italian Blackshirts. Islamofascism is a new form of fascism where the religion is implemented and used as a political tool to implement the goals of a worldwide caliphate, in which the Muslims will rule supreme and non-Muslims will either have to submit by paying a tax or convert or die. The Muslim Brotherhood, Jamat-i-Islami, Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba, SIMI, Taliban, Al Qaeda or ISIS, they are all different shades of the same animal; a worldwide Islamofascist ideology."

"The US has been reduced to from Ronald Regan right down to the joker sitting there who lectured India about religious tolerance and then went to Saudi Arabia to kiss the king’s hand! How stupid can you be! You are going to the world’s most intolerant country by cutting short your visit to India. And the joke is, when Michelle asked, “Oh Barack, why aren’t we going to Agra?” he said, “Let me show you a living 17th century king!” The US doesn’t know what it is doing, and it won’t act unless that makes money for someone."

"In fact, India and Israel are probably better equipped about these problems then the US will ever be. You have a 13% Muslim population just as Israel has 20% Muslim population. Only Israel and India can figure out what is happening. But Saudi money is so prevalent in the West that everyone thinks that Iran is the problem and not Pakistan."

"Islam doesn’t need a reform. It is nobody’s business! All it needs is people to step down and say that no public laws can come from a divine text. I don’t care if you believe like most Christians that snakes can talk or the Muslims believe that horses can fly or Hindus that chariots can roam in the sky. But the day that you start making laws based on those myths then I have a problem. So we are looking at a nation state in which our laws should be governed by the International Charter of Human Rights of 1948. If it runs counter to that law, that country shouldn’t be a member of the UN or be able to trade with anyone. The embargoes placed on Iran should be placed on Saudi Arabia. Iran has not invaded any country. It’s mischief is very trivial compared to the mischief of Pakistan. Iran doesn’t have people in Philippines hijacking planes. Pakistan is there at the Thailand-Malaysia border. It is involved in Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, Turkey, the US and UK, and yet is a US ally."

"Sindh has been destroyed by the Urdu speaking people who arrived from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and took over its capital where Sindhi is not spoken anymore."

"But that is not my concern. My concern is that slowly the Arabisation of Indian Muslims is taking place, and of all the places in Kerala. But what is very fortunate is that Arabic will not be accepted by any self-respecting Malayalam speaking Muslim. Even the radicalisation of the Tamil Muslims is part of the same phenomenon. But then there is not one Muslim community in India. The Kashmiri Muslims are a completely separate issue than the Uttar Pradesh Muslims, who are very different from Kerala’s Muslims, who in turn are completely different from West Bengal’s Muslims. Therefore, in some ways you can’t say there is a Muslim community. That definition should not be used. As there are multiple Indian Muslims, so this label is ridiculous. Like when I use it, I associate it more with the Uttar Pradesh Muslims. Your president was a Tamil Muslim completely at odds with the clerical elite."

"I don’t think it is a controversy. It is a non-issue that stems out of several backgrounds. Too many temples have been destroyed for anyone to cry about a mosque. It was a reaction to a pent up emotion that can blow up anytime. You can’t expect people to forget 700 years of subjugation overnight and expect a rational reaction when no one has as yet admitted that they or their forefathers were wrong. Even now every history book I read tries to justify that the Islamic rule wasn’t so bad after all. There is no major admission that there was apartheid for 700 years. There was a law that allowed you to spit into the mouth of an untouchable, even if he were a Muslim. And even Indian Muslims used to pay jizya to Arabs."

"And so Daliah Mogahed was introduced as [Obama's] speech writer. And he goes where, to Cairo, and insists that Muslim Brotherhood members should sit in the front row and that the US is a great country because women can wear hijab! He reduced the entire United States of America to one issue: not the First Amendment, not its constitution, not its Seventh Fleet, not the aircraft that the Wright Brothers invented, not the motorcar of Detroit! He reduced it to a hijaab, in a country where women are fighting to take it off because his speechwriter or advisor was a Muslim Brotherhood woman. The former US ambassador to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Rashad Hussain, is a Muslim Brotherhood supporter. Saudi educated Chief of Staff, Huma Abedin, is another Mulim Brotherhood member."

"“My body, my choice,” means that no society can wage their wars at the expense of a woman’s body. We ask the men not to use our bodies for their ghairat or honor. We ask them to stop killing us in the name of honor and give us the right to say no because we have the right to say no to anything that we don’t feel comfortable with......We must have the right to say that we can’t tolerate sexual harassment and to say no to decisions regarding our marriages by other [family members]. Our religion gives us the right to choose our life partner, so why not society?....Further, we have the right not to be judged on the basis of our physical appearance..."

"Not only do these (Blasphemy) laws have no religious standing in Islam, they are repugnant to the basic principles of justice, equality and human rights in addition to challenging the basic spirit of the Constitution of Pakistan which guarantees equal rights to all citizens."

""...Sirmed and Sayed tried to defend United States Embassy's decision to invite members of LGBT community to the event. ..... The comment section of this youtube video was brief but filled with hatred against Sirmed and Sayed...and Sirmed was called a "randi" (a prostitute) for defending gays and distorting the image of Islam."

""" is an issue that is relevant to Pakistani women across all classes. When a woman is killed in the name of "honor," her body is attacked; when a woman is denied the right to choose her partner, her body and her choice are compromised; and when a woman faces domestic violence, her body is attacked. All other issues that our "Aurat March" (women's march) raised are equally important, but they all emanate from a deep-rooted misogyny in our society. Women do not have the agency over their own bodies and that is the main issue, in my opinion."

"But - and alas, there is a but- I don't believe it is in Pakistan's best interest to be the country whose armed forces consume the largest percentage of national income of any military in the world.I don't believe it is in Pakistan's interest to adopt a policy of seeking 'strategic depth' by destabilizing it's neighbors.I don't believe it is in Pakistan's best interest to try to wrest Kashmir from India by fair means or foul.I don't believe it is in Pakistan's best interest to be the cradle and crucible of militant Islamist terrorism.I don't believe it's in Pakistan's best interest to be a country where no elected civilian government has ever served a full term. And I do believe that any Pakistani liberal worth the name (take a bow, Marvi Sirmed) should have no difficulty in agreeing with any of these propositions."

"If ink and pen are snatched from me, shall I Who have dipped my finger in my heart's blood complain— Of if they seal my tongue, when I have made A mouth of every round link of my chain?"

"Last night your lost memory so came into the heart As spring comes in the wilderness quietly, As the zephyr moves slowly in deserts, As rest comes without cause to a sick man."

"I had to listen when my friends told me to wash my eyes with blood Everything at once was tangled in blood — each face, each idol, red everywhere. Blood swept over the sun, washing away its gold. The moon erupted with blood, its silver extinguished."

"Human ingenuity, science and industry have made it possible to provide each one of us everything we need to be comfortable provided these boundless treasures of nature and production are not declared the property of a greedy few but are used for the benefit of all of humanity… However, this is only possible if the foundations of human society are based not on greed, exploitation and ownership but on justice, equality, freedom and the welfare of everyone… I believe that humanity which has never been defeated by its enemies will, after all, be successful; at long last, instead of wars, hatred and cruelty, the foundation of humankind will rest on the message of the great Persian poet Hafez Shiraz: ‘Every foundation you see is faulty, except that of Love, which is faultless."

"One of Pakistan’s greatest Urdu poets of the twentieth century, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, had spent the first few years of Zia’s time in power in prison and then in exile in Beirut, preferring the chaos of Lebanon’s civil war to the darkness of repression. An uncle and mentor of Taseer, the leftist poet of love and revolution had embraced the intellectual effervescence of Lebanon and found kindred spirits among the Palestinian revolutionaries sitting on café terraces during cease-fires. But the Palestinians kept attracting worse and worse Israeli retaliation and, in the summer of 1982, Israeli tanks reached Beirut. Faiz and his wife were forced to flee and return to Pakistan. He died in his home country a month before Zia’s referendum, perhaps in anticipation of the unbearable realization that the general had found a way, yet again, to stay in power."

"Love, do not ask me for that love again. Once I thought life, because you lived, a prize— The time's pain nothing, you alone were pain; Your beauty kept earth's springtime's from decay, My universe held only your bright eyes— If I won you, fate would be at my feet. It was not true, all this, but only wishing; Our world knows other torments than of love, And other happiness than a fond embrace. Dark curse of countless ages, savagery."

"Faiz’s verses were deeply subversive. And they seemed directed not only at Zia the oppressor but also at those who proclaimed themselves the guardians of sacred places: the Saudis. There were screams of Inqilab zindabad at the concert: long live the revolution, in Urdu, long live the fight against Zia. A live recording of the song was smuggled out, and copies made on cassette tapes were passed around secretly and copied again until they had traveled well beyond the country’s borders. The Pakistan that Faiz had known was dying. So was the Beirut he had loved and left. The Lebanon of Musa Sadr and Hussein al-Husseini was no more."

"Faiz’s revolutionary poetry was still banned by the regime, but one woman, a singer, defied Zia. It was always the women of Pakistan who gave the dictator the most grief. A year after the poet’s death, Iqbal Bano, a national icon, obtained rare permission to hold a concert in Lahore. There were some things even Zia couldn’t refuse. And there was a way of getting around the ban of singing and dancing: asking for permission to hold a “cultural event.” Bano wore a sari, a dress forbidden under Zia both because it was associated with enemy India and because it showed a woman’s midriff. And then she lent her voice, powerful but melodious, controlled but emotional, to the most defiant of all of Faiz’s verses, written in 1979 in protest at Zia’s authoritarian Islam. Hum dekhenge, she sang, we shall witness. For ten long minutes she sang the verses as the emotions of the crowd of fifty thousand Pakistanis rose and swelled with her, applause punctuating every pause."

"Arab regimes need to come together far more than they have done if they are to convince their populations that the extremism carried out by IS in the name of Sunni Islam is destroying the traditional, tolerant Islam that most Arabs have always believed in."

"A debt-ridden farmer contemplating suicide in Maharashtra and a mother who abandons her children in Karachi because she can't feed them: this is what we have achieved in our mutual desire to teach each other a lesson."