Weekly Briefing
The weirdest, most wonderful and downright depressing stories that came out of Pakistan this past week.
Simon Henderson of The Sunday Times should be given an award (an all-expense- paid trip to North Waziristan, perhaps?) for writing what is surely the first pro-A.Q. Khan story to be published in the Western media. His defence of the disgraced nuclear scientist will be familiar to those who read Pakistan’s more hawkish newspapers; the added wrinkle is that A.Q. Khan sent him a letter explaining the ‘true story’ behind his smuggling activities.
Minister of the Interior Rehman Malik wants to abolish capital punishment, except when he doesn’t:
He said terrorists who had been sentenced to death would not be pardoned if the capital punishment was abolished. He said a draft had been sent to the law division for consultations to abolish the capital punishment.
Mullah Omar tells the West to study the history of Pakhtun resistance against imperial forces, but shows that he probably failed the subject in Madrassah High:
Omar said the US and Nato should study the history of Alexander the Great, whose forces were defeated by Pashtun tribesmen in the 4th century.
Alexander, of course, was routed about 600 years before the 4th century.
Catching terrorists can be hard; spelling their names is impossible. One local newspaper reported that Uzbek terrorist Nazim-ud-Din Khilalof had been killed in a drone strike. Another announced that Nazimuddin Zalalov was the man who had perished. They were both referring to the same person.
Tazeen at A Reluctant Mind writes about a Aamir Liaquat Hussain-Junaid Jamshed exchange that would be truly outrageous had the pair not stopped shocking the conscience many years ago. In a discussion about the food stampede in Karachi, Jamshed declared, along with many other such utterances, that poor people should follow religion and not worry about food. Read the whole thing.
Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer gently suggested that Pakistan may want to rethink the blasphemy law. That, according to Jamaat-e-Islami head Syed Munawar Hasan, is blasphemous.
And finally, let’s end on a positive note. Quote of the week comes from Pakistan cricket captain and unstoppable quote-machine Younus Khan:
Ab hamara bhi jeetne ka haq banta hai
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I haven’t read that AQ story yet but that heading and cover is Awesome.
Thanks a lot for the shout out Nadir
Long War Journal has a new spelling for Nazimuddin Khilalof/Zalalov: ‘Najmuddin Jalolov’
MD: I think it’s to assume you mean Time magazine and not me.
Tzaeen: Absolutely loved the post.
Saba: So we’re all agreed that he has two els in his surname then?
Look at the 2 countries born together. One embraced democracy and the other, well, embraced… I dunno what it embraced. One country’s nuke scientist is felicitated and made the country’s president. The other country’s scientist is condemned, jailed and then pardoned and finally put under house-arrest. The same govt which will house-arrest its “hero” will not even touch a known terrorist – Hafiz Saeed, let alone arrest him.
Abdul Kalam must be thanking his heavens that he was not born in Pakistan!!!
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