One Vintage Pakistani Travel Item A Day: Indian State Railways poster for Kashmir (1940s)
Disputed area between Pakistan and India, and just for the record I am all for Kashmir’s independence from both.
Vintage Collections / One Vintage Pakistani Travel Item A Day / Pinterest
— Jose Mujica, President of Uruguay aka The Worldest Poorest President. He donates roughly 90% of his income to charity (keeping $775 a month) and has opted to live on his wife’s farmhouse with their three-legged dog over the presidential palace. Kind of makes Ahmadinejad’s mattress-less, one suit wearing regime sound like a party. (via insaniyat)
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The End of Human Rights: The rhetoric surrounding the protection of human rights has been appropriated by Western nations that are only too complicit in the derogation of values once cherished around the world, writes Rohit Chopra.
The banal, everyday affirmation of America’s right to intervene in the affairs of sovereign nations, the justifications for military strategies such as drones, and the selective invocation of human rights as a principle of US foreign policy have given the imprimatur of legitimacy to a grossly unequal vision of the world in which powerful nations can capriciously decide the fate of weaker ones with no answerability to any higher standard or body.
One of the most comprehensive articles I’ve read.
(via mehreenkasana)
I’ve been seeing this photo circulated on Tumblr from an issue written by Robert Fisk in 1993 in the British publication The Independent. And I’m glad people saw this since it readjusts political perspective on one of the most violent and destructive men to have existed: Osama bin Laden. But at the same time, it points directly - if not intentionally - at Reagan and the West’s bizarre, inevitably horrendous fascination and support for this man a decade or so ago. Reagan and Co. had a strange friendship with Bin Laden and it’s very funny how a few American politicians and historians like to point it out and say, “This is where the real hypocrisy begins.”
I once shared a document on how the CIA funded the Jihad wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, later on shamelessly denying any kind of responsibility for the horrific consequences of such complicity and encouragement. From the PDF:
In fiscal year 1987 alone, according to one estimate, clandestine U.S. military aid to the mujahideen amounted to 660 million dollars—”more than the total of American aid to the contras in Nicaragua” (Ahmad and Barnet 1988,44). Apart from direct U.S. funding, the CIA financed the war through the drug trade, just as in Nicaragua. The impact on Afghanistan and Pakistan was devastating. Prior to the Afghan jihad, there was no local production of heroin in Pakistan and Afghanistan; the production of opium (a very different drug than heroin) was directed to small regional markets.
Here’s another excellent analysis of how the then-US President Reagan maintained an alliance with Osama bin Laden and turned the jihadist into a terrorist kingpin.
As they say: Yesterday’s friend, today’s enemy.
(via fuckyeahsouthasia)
Indians and Pakistanis celebrate their respective countries’ Independence Days together at the India-Pakistan border in Wagah, holding up candles and joint-national flags, at midnight on August 14, 2012. Pakistan celebrated Independence Day on August 14 and India on the 15th. Photos: Getty Images (via thebengalcat)
On this 65th Independence day for both Pakistan and India, prayers of mutual respect and coexistence for another 65 years to come! amen.
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(Source: meenerhabi)
Instead of analysing the shortcomings of its ground campaigns and rectifying them, the commission turned to the magic wand of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra). It has taken the identity cards that are part of Nadra database but not on its verified lists and simply added them to the final rolls.
The ECP terms this process ‘augmentation through Nadra’ and 37 million of the 81 million voters in the current rolls have been added through this process.
This could not have been legal but the parliament enacted the Election Laws (Amendment) Act in May 2011 with the “holding of a Nadra-issued identity” card as a voting pre-qualification. The card has not proved to be the panacea.
Identity cards are valid for a decade or even longer and people move places quite frequently. Nadra does not continuously track every cardholder to keep his/her place of residence updated. Moreover, while documenting residential addresses, Nadra does not follow a scheme that the Commission could pursue to ascertain which electoral constituency a particular cardholder lives in.
Moon walkers in Karachi (1973). When there was still love between Pakistan and USA, Apollo 17 Astronauts made it to Pakistan on an official state visit and were paraded through streets of Karachi.
At expense of sounding cheesy it actually does remind of a vintage Pakistani song, “wo jo hum main tum main qarar tha, tumhay yaad ho kay na yaad ho” (the special connection which was there once between us, you might not remember it anymore).
(photo via desvas, post via umalik)
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(Source: toobusyprocrastinating)
For politics!? seriously..why would he do that..
he has probably earned enough money…
why do i doubt intentions ….ah yes…business CEOs just think about moneyyyy
— according to a custodian of the shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti. I just hope Mr President that it wasn’t from the tax I pay! (via umalik)
Prayers for the brave selfless men stuck by avalanche in Siachin, the highest battle ground in the world (related news item and more details). On Saturday an avalanche hit the battalion headquarters of Northern Light Infantry (NLI) trapping over 135 men.
I sincerely hope that sanity can return for both Pakistani and Indian authorities so they can permanently demilitarize the glacier by perhaps declaring it a joint Natural Reserve.
182 registered parties!! seriously?! :O
me: they’ve gone mad
But, dare I point out to Shaikh Sahib, polio immunisation is serious business, so please don’t mess with that. I don’t even know if there is a connection between his statement and the US SEALs’ OBL raid for which the target had been reconnoitered by a team masquerading as polio eradication workers.
Here is what the Shaikh told a TV programme earlier this week. “Unicef (WHO) is involved in bringing dodgy Indian polio drops, changing their labels and administering them here … they use even expired drugs”. He also said this had happened in thousands of cases.
Pakistan Votes: Kuch samajh mey aaya? (trans. Understood anything?)
From the video: Pakistan Votes is an apolitical campaign asking Pakistanis to either cast one’s vote or to void one’s vote. The underlying philosophy of the campaign generates from the fact that the 2008 electoral list hosted 40 million ghost voters (multiple entries, voters registered without authentic identification). Bogus votes get casted under the pretext of unverified voters and also under the names of those who fail to show up.
In 2008, roughly 35 million votes were casted. The voter population of Pakistan is ~ 80 million. Some quick math, if we remove the 40 million bogus voters from the 2008 electoral list, we’re left with 40 million ‘genuine’ voters. Now out of those 40 million, 35 million casted their votes. A 90% voter turnout? Really? Here’s the real question, how many rigged votes were casted using ghost votes or even under our names because we were no-shows? 10 million? 20 million? 30 million?
Do you like being taken advantage of? Haven’t you had enough? Come election time, if there’s no candidate you’d like to vote for, then go to the polling booth regardless and make your vote void (how do you void a vote — simple — select multiple candidates on your ballot! Did you seriously need to be told how it’s done?). Pakistan Votes is not in for the “video hits/likes” — all the campaign seeks is that you act responsibly by protecting your vote. And this isn’t a one time effort, Pakistanis have to vote every time there are elections, every single time. We must stop rigging, we must stop our votes from being misused. The system has to be detoxed, there’s no quick fix, let’s begin cleaning our mess.
The initiative is not backed by any sponsorships, or any political agenda. It is purely youth driven. A grand total of PKR 5,000 was utilised on this effort.
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My add: Though audio could’ve been better, this is a message which needs to be amplified. If nothing else, reblog it for the Aunty at 1:13!
Previously this blog was called 'The Socio-Economy of Pakistan'
Pakistani, Female, Married, PhD
Re-blogging something does not imply its endorsements in this blog.
The Boss, the wedding, Our life, Pakistan, South Asia, Politics, Economics, Culture, Religion, Society, Art, Humour, fashion, things i love, photography, people, interiors, food and some other random posts.
