Pakistan Alpine News: Romanians Summit Nanga Parbat 8125-M

Pakistan Alpine News: Romanians Summit Nanga Parbat 8125-M: Zsolt Torok (Leader) during briefing at Alpine Club of Pakistan Paul Popescu Today, July 19, 2013, Romanian team consists of Zsol...

An All Pakistani Mountaineering Team Conquers Broad Peak

Pakistan Alpine News: Pakistani mountaineers climb Broad Peak: Broad Peak 8047-M A team of Pakistani mountaineers climbed Broad Peak on July 13, 2013. The mountain is 8,501 meters high and is t...

Truck Art

The kind of stuff in sale in isloo <3

Rickshaw

This my friend is a foriegn convertible :D
Instagram.com/saadm0hamed

$1 breakfast

The sights & sounds of Islamabad <3

A Cause Worth Dieing For

RSA - Pakistan Calling

RSA - Pakistan Calling

Nothing like a home made quiche <3

http://instagr.am/p/U0C6kJGt18/

Looking for abstracts in simple things

http://instagr.am/p/Uj4j1cmt2c/

Paragliding - Falling With Style

PARAGLIDING TRAINING FLIGHT FOOTAGE

My first long training flight in early 2010. Flying was my dream and paragliding is the closest I have come to feeling like a soaring bird. Since I had only one camera to work with therefore the footage has been edited from 2 separate but similar flights and has been merged together to look like one. So there you go; the cat's out of the bag now :D http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Shimshal - Yak - istan!

A memorabilia from my 2008 expedition to Shimshal. Yaks fascinate me a lot and this particular specimen was lazily grazing in the Yazghil area of the Shimshal region.

Shimshal Kahanee Teaser

Media: One Man's Terrorist

The other day a I commented on a friend's Facebook status and a debate ensued regarding the freedom of media in Pakistan. I'm not a news addict and I, like many other people, hate the sensational news-casting style of Geo but we cannot shut our eyes and ears to what the world has to say about us and live in a make belief. That happens in countries like North Korea and Uzbekistan and up until recently in China. But even China has opened up now, maybe not entirely... but its no more a pure communist regime.

I'm not saying that we start believing that Pakistan is an "international migraine" like some have said but it is a news worthy story and the media has done its part by letting us know that. It now becomes the job of the foreign office and the government at large to cope with this news. You don't kill the mailman for the news he brings because he's just the messenger.

News is like the saying about terrorists, "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter". There are always parties with different perspectives of the same news. You can't just brand a media channel anti-state or unpatriotic because they tell you the harsh truth. Same was done to Al Jazera when it took up bold stories. Geo may have a sensational [disliked] style of reporting but their content is not entirely objectionable.
The first step in making a difference and being part of the bigger change is to know what the issue is. If we choose to turn away from the message we would never know what to fight for and what we are up against.
India's media in comparison has been very unforgiving towards issues and concerns of the state. There is far less unbiased coverage of the Kashmir issue for instance. Tune into PTV any day and you get to hear the same tune over and over again even when we are in the middle of so called peace talks with India. I call that lunacy.
There is a fine line between patriotism and denying the truth, we as a nation seem to blur it. Before we start clamping down on free media we should remember that it is the media that has kept a check and balance on the government's actions. Never in Pakistani history has that happened before. It was the media that brought down Musharraf and I hope it will be the media that helps churn out the revolution we so badly need. Democracy has failed us again and again, we as a nation do not deserve a luxury as lavish as democracy. Democracy is meant for nations with at least 70% or above literacy rate, where people can decide who to vote for based on their knowledge base alone and not on pure political motivation [coercion]. Because although we do elect a government into power despite the rigging and the illiteracy and ignorance of our people, and that we can live with, but we certainly did not elect a "shoe magnet" president.

Thanks to the media awareness things are not the same as they used to be under the PTV era ... thank God!

Rehnuma - Website Launch!

Hey people its been a while. I've been busy with my status updates on Facebook :P and planning this year's expedition [postponed].
www.rehnuma.webs.com it is and its more than just a website. Its a start-up venture and totally changes the way I go about doing my alpine-ism.

Irony^^

I always thought that life would be different for me; that it would be possible for me to choose what I wanted to be. I thought Maslow's hierarchy of needs would classically apply on me. I was never a top student, although a lot of people thought of me as one. I never had clarity of vision or mission or even an aspiration to be someone. But now when I have started to see through with unprecedented clarity, I am split between tradition of doing what is expected of me and to pursue my dreams.
Not that my dream is to become a rock star, I simply dream to be a business leader [by making a career up the corporate ladder]. But even if I had chosen to pursue a career in music or other forms of art I am sure I would have come across a lot of resistance from family, relatives and society.
Its not only that talent is unappreciated here, it is that people have double standards when it comes to performing arts and mainstream media in Pakistan. Even the bearded mullah knows who Reema and Meera are but sadly even the most liberal families will forbid their young ones from acting in a theatrical production. It is that as a nation we envy, aspire and even worship movie stars but wouldn't want our children to become one. For our own children it becomes a forsaken profession.
I ask you, how can you thump to the beat of Asaan Tey Jana Aye Bilo Dey Ka`r but can't allow our children to become the next Abrar ul Haq? When will this bigotry cease to exist? We as a nation discriminate, probably not to the extent to what the white man did to the black race, and probably not as violently as the Hindu does to the minorities of India but we discriminate - without knowing that we do. And there is nothing that can justify it and this is probably the most dangerous form of discrimination.

Time to Listen to Saner Voices

By Imran Khan

The issue of militancy and the Taliban continues to be framed erroneously — most recently as a variant of the “with us or against us” choice: either one supports the military operation in Swat and Fata or one is supportive of the Taliban. Just as the Bush choice has been largely responsible for the chaos and radicalisation in the Muslim world, so the Pakistani variant doing the rounds currently misses the real issue. After all, there is and always has been a consensus in Pakistan that militant extremism should be crushed and the writ of the state and government established.

The disagreement is over how to go about achieving this objective. Should there be an attempt to go to the root causes of militancy and then to resolve the issue through a multi-pronged strategy including dialogue backed by state power as well as policies to bring in the marginalised population by giving them a viable stake in the system? Or does the solution lie in simply unleashing indiscriminate military force to establish the writ of the state while the roots of the problem continue to fester?

Having just returned from a visit to the US organised by the Pakistani community to raise money for Shaukat Khanum Hospital, as a result of meetings arranged by the community I had the opportunity to meet with Senator John Kerry and Congressman Gary Ackerman, both influential players in the context of our region. I was surprised to find both quite open to rethinking their present Afghan strategy. In fact, they have realised that the continuation of the military-centric Bush approach has failed and new options must be examined. There is, therefore, a need to engage with those in the US seeking more viable alternatives for this region as well as with members of the Obama administration. A meaningful engagement can be done through sending a delegation of experts who understand the tribal areas and Afghanistan - not simply the self-anointed “experts” — referred to by one analyst as “native Pakistani informer(s) — who speak what the traditionalists in the US want to hear. I am convinced that a powerful presentation can be made about the need for a US exit strategy from Afghanistan and I believe the Obama Administration can be made to see the following points:

* It is costing the $60 billion a year and costs will go up with the surge - and with no guarantee of a turnaround. Simply sending more troops into a multidimensional conflict will not turn the tide in one’s favour.

* The longer this war goes on, the more chances of a radical takeover in Afghanistan and the greater the threat of radicalisation amongst the Muslim youth. These youth, especially in the Western countries, pose a greater danger to these countries including the US than al-Qaeda.

* The situation in Afghanistan has been moving in favour of the Taliban and deteriorating for Nato and US forces since the past few years.

The question is why our government does not realise that there has to be a new strategy as the current one is sheer madness? The answer is that there are those in our leadership who are quite willing to go along with the current policy of spilling Pakistani blood — both of the soldiers, civilians and militants — as long as they can get dollars and US support. Even more crucial, all the issues of bad governance and corruption (400% rise in 3 years) are papered over as the leadership hides its incompetence under the counter terrorism banner.

Like their predecessors, they also know that if things go out of control in Pakistan, they can always take off to western capitals where their wealth and properties await them.

Beginning from zero militant Taliban in 2004 before the Waziristan operation, today there are around 30 Taliban groups (according to the presentation given by the army to the Parliamentarians). No one has any idea who is backing which group; what percentage are fighting because of Pushtun solidarity; how many belong to the old jehadi groups created at the time of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan; how many are actually criminals and unemployed; how many are paid by the enemies of Pakistan to destabilise the country; and so on. In other words, there is an odd amalgam of militants and criminal elements seeking to destabilise the Pakistani state.

How can military operations be supported when our soldiers die in vain, when each operation produces more militancy as well as increasing the suffering of the local civilian population? While the government correctly claims that drone attacks are counter productive and produce more militancy, would the Pakistan military’s aerial bombardment with its indiscriminate “collateral damage” also not have the same effect?

Herein lies a basic contradiction in the government’s policy. Those who are suffering the most are the people of the tribal areas and Swat - with over three million people displaced, their homes, livelihood and children’s education destroyed.

What about the forgotten Bajaur operation earlier this year when 500,000 civilians were displaced and our soldiers suffered many casualties. Today, the Taliban control the same areas that the army had removed them from earlier. The most disconcerting aspect of the present military action is that no one is interested to know what needs to happen for us for “victory” to be declared.

As happened in the fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan, this “war” could go on endlessly and spread across the country. After all, a brief look at the history of the tribal areas reveals how the British were embroiled in an unwinnable war for 80 years and before them the tribals confronted the Moghuls for 69 years.

Can Pakistan afford these operations for even the next five years? How will we deal with the continuing flow of displaced people - or how long will the IDPs survive living as nomads in their own country? How are we planning to stop the radicalisation of the youth in such conditions? Where will we find the resources to eventually rehabilitate these displaced families, given the massive infrastructure damage? What about the impact on the economy if these operations continue endlessly? Already the political situation in the NWFP is getting worse by the day. We have created perfect environment for our enemies to exploit tensions emerging from the current chaos- ethnic, provincial, religious (shia/sunni, deobandi/barelevi) and class (as in Swat).

The critical question is: what is the solution? In Swat, despite being a severe critic of the timing and nature of the military operation, now that it is in full swing, it has to go on till the writ of the government is established. Otherwise there will be even more anarchy as all existing infrastructure has been destroyed. But there is still a need for a more targeted focus of the military operation and a gearing up of the civil administration including the police and local judiciary.

The solution lies in pulling our troops out of Fata gradually and simultaneously reviving the tribal structure. But this means not only withstanding political pressure from Washington but also doing without US dollars - both of these seem beyond the capability of the current dollar-addicted leadership!

However there are voices within the US political and administrative structures that are becoming more sceptical about the US policy in Afghanistan. For instance, Graham Fuller, the former CIA station chief in Kabul wrote in the International Herald Tribune that there was no military solution to the problem in Afghanistan. According to him, Pakistan was “cracking under the pressure” put on it to “do more” by the US and that the Pakistan security forces could control the militancy within its borders provided Nato leaves Afghanistan. If sane voices in the US can see the writing on the wall, why is our leadership still going down a suicidal course for their own vested interests - destroying the military and the nation in the process?

Source: Insaf.pk

India's Leaders Need to Look Closer to Home

Tariq Ali
The terrorist assault on Mumbai's five-star hotels was well planned, but did not require a great deal of logistic intelligence: all the targets were soft.The aim was to create mayhem by shining the spotlight on India and its problems and in that the terrorists were successful. The identity of the black-hooded group remains a mystery.

The Deccan Mujahedeen, which claimed the outrage in an e-mail press release, is certainly a new name probably chosen for this single act. But speculation is rife. A senior Indian naval officer has claimed that the attackers (who arrived in a ship, the M V Alpha) were linked to Somali pirates, implying that this was a revenge attack for the Indian Navy's successful if bloody action against pirates in the Arabian Gulf that led to heavy casualties some weeks ago.

The Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, has insisted that the terrorists were based outside the country. The Indian media has echoed this line of argument with Pakistan (via the Lashkar-e-Taiba) and al-Qaeda listed as the usual suspects.

But this is a meditated edifice of official India's political imagination. Its function is to deny that the terrorists could be a homegrown variety, a product of the radicalization of young Indian Muslims who have finally given up on the indigenous political system. To accept this view would imply that the country's political physicians need to heal themselves.

Al Qaeda, as the CIA recently made clear, is a group on the decline. It has never come close to repeating anything vaguely resembling the hits of 9/11.

Its principal leader Osama bin Laden may well be dead (he certainly did not make his trademark video intervention in this year's Presidential election in the United States) and his deputy has fallen back on threats and bravado.

What of Pakistan? The country's military is heavily involved in actions on its Northwest frontier where the spillage from the Afghan war has destabilized the region. The politicians currently in power are making repeated overtures to India. The Lashkar-e-Taiba, not usually shy of claiming its hits, has strongly denied any involvement with the Mumbai attacks.

Why should it be such a surprise if the perpetrators are themselves Indian Muslims? Its hardly a secret that there has been much anger within the poorest sections of the Muslim community against the systematic discrimination and acts of violence carried out against them of which the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in shining Gujarat was only the most blatant and the most investigated episode, supported by the Chief Minister of the State and the local state apparatuses.

Add to this the continuing sore of Kashmir which has for decades been treated as a colony by Indian troops with random arrests, torture and rape of Kashmiris an everyday occurrence. Conditions have been much worse than in Tibet, but have aroused little sympathy in the West where the defense of human rights is heavily instrumentalised.

Indian intelligence outfits are well aware of all this and they should not encourage the fantasies of their political leaders. Its best to come out and accept that there are severe problems inside the country. A billion Indians: 80 percent Hindus and 14 percent Muslims. A very large minority that cannot be ethnically cleansed without provoking a wider conflict.

None of this justifies terrorism, but it should, at the very least, force India's rulers to direct their gaze on their own country and the conditions that prevail. Economic disparities are profound. The absurd notion that the trickle-down effects of global capitalism would solve most problems can now be seen for what it always was: a fig leaf to conceal new modes of exploitation.

I Told You So ...

Some brilliant road expansion work has been going on in Islamabad for the past many months. Thanks to Kamran Lashari's CDA, we haven't seen such rapid development in recent history of the city. That aside, although I don't want this to sound like a cliche` but the appearance of a makeshift shrine, on the turning just under the National Monument in Islamabad, is more than just a coincidence. There are actual graves, which seem to have appeared out of thin air, within the gaily colored shrine-like enclosure. The place is en route to my work and what concerns me the most is that this development is very much in the direct path of current road expansion project underway near Zero Point. These graves may also directly hinder the expansion of the Zero Point bridge itself, which is a direly needed extension to the capital's road network. I suspect Land Mafia behind the scenes. This is to urge the authorities concerned to take proper investigative action before its too late.

Fit for Wisden

In the early fall of 2004 around 20 of us cousins went on a camping trip to Kaghan Valley. This is what the world looked like up there with the help of some fresh snow and clear blue skies. Some breathtaking vistas and a tape-ball cricket match awaited us at 3200m above sea level.

I have sometimes thought about submitting some of the photos I took of the cricket match to Wisden but never really got around to doing it. Maybe ... just maybe some one from Wisden might take note of this one and ask me for the whole series ..... now that's called wishful thinking :)

Table Talk - Identity

So this collegue from work her friend and their dorm mate went out to dinner at Mirchi and I ended up going with them .... Belal (he spells it Bilal actually), is a Pakistani-American who is in the process of becoming a full-fledged American, is the sort of guy who loves to indulge in intellectual dialogue ... maybe without realizing that his discussions may actually qualify as intellectual musings.
Clemmy is here not because she thinks that the 'Gorra Saheb' did great injustice to the Muslims of the subcontinent and that she needs to give something back but because she wants to be here and it would look great on her CV.
Same is the case with Cecili (I hope I spelled it right) whose wearing a rather exotic necklace tonight. This is probably the second time we r all together. Hey! we could start having our own GTs now :p
So somewhere between the cheese na`ns and the spicy palak and my philosophy on how palak (spinach) is more spicy with the na`n when compared to having it without one, we started talking about 'identity' and how it is so hard to define what it exactly is.
To me identity became an issue only recently, because a few months ago a friend of a friend came to me asking for help on a speech that was all about identity and how to preserve it and I started thinking on the lines what exactly identity would be. She, the friend of a friend, was of the view that our culture is mostly borrowed from the subcontinent and we are very much influenced by the west. So if we are to preserve our identity then would that simply mean to encourage people to learn Sindhi, Balochi or Banghrra dance? In a nutshell we arrived at the conclusion that there should be much more to identity than just that. I never followed up on how well she did at the debates but the issue got wedged into my head forever.
Clemmy's point of view was that identity is to be recognised through small gestures as being part of a culture. To her the British customs of saying "please" and the general politeness and conservatism of the British culture is what her identity is.
I don't know ..... I'm still not convinced that if this is all that is to identity then what is it that we are supposed to safegaurd?
Then the talks took an interesting turn and Belal said, "So Clem, what would you call a guy born and raised in the UK but coming from a Pakistani family..... would you consider him? A Pakistani-Brit or a British-Paki?
Guess what she said ..... She took an awkward pause with her jaw half-drooping, as if a word she had meant to say would not come out .... and then with an err and a squint of an eye, she said, "I would consider him a Pakistani-Brit, even if he was born and raised in UK, I would never consider him a Brit first and then a Pakistani..... she was as new to this thought as we were .... maybe that's why she and Cecili weren't that keen on having sweet-dish (humaree sweedish). That reminds me Mirchi has some yummm Shahi-Tukrre (that would be royal-bits if literally translated).
I had to catch a bus to isloo the same night so after unseccessfuly trying to gracefully exit a few times I did the "time-out" ritual and poofed away.... I do wonder at what note the discussion might have eventually ended .... hmmmm ....

The Number One Fan

‘My name is Annie Wilkes. And I am ………’
‘I know,’ he said. ‘You are my number-one fan.’ ‘Yes,’ she said, smiling. ‘That’s just what I am.’ Stephen King (Misery)
When I first started reading, I would secretly believe that I, in some untold manner, had become the most loyal fan of the author. I always thought that I could remember a book and its characters like one can remember the basic plot of a movie. I used to feel that the sense of association built between the author’s work and myself was unique and may not be apparent to others reading the same work. I am not sure about the commonality of this phenomenon, or if it has a name but what I do know now is that when a person writes a book she may never think of these so called ‘number one fans’. People write for themselves and maybe for people they love. They write for people whom they’d love even if these people never read their books.