“The possibility of a Scientific treatment of history means a wider experience, a greater maturity of practical reason & finally a fuller realization of certain basic ideas regarding the nature of life & time.” ~ Allama Iqbal
Tag Archives: Iqbal
We will miss Iqbal Haidar. A brave urdu speaking Sindhi who never hesitated in raising voice against terrorism, fanaticism & urban fascism
Former PPP Law Minister Iqbal Haider passes away
By: INP
Former Law Minister, and co-chairman of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Iqbal Haider passed away on Sunday in a local hospital here in Karachi. He was suffering from lungs ailment.
His funeral prayer will be offered after Zuhar prayer on Monday at Imambargah Yasrub in phase IV Defence Housing Society, Karachi.
Iqbal Tareen’s Interview with AwazTV on controversial & black “SPLGO.”
Iqbal Tareen is an author of “Harvest will come – Embracing diverse Pakistani heritage”, President of Silver Lining International, Inc., Chief organizer of “Democracy, Individual and Collective Human Rights, Education and Skills Development, Fight against Hepatitis in Pakistan”, former president of Sindhi Association of North America (SANA) & and founder president of Jeay Sindh Student Federation (JSSF). The language of the interview is Sindhi.
Courtesy: Awaz Tv
Pakistan from bad to worse : Iqbal Haider talking on the current situation of Pakistan
Iqbal Haider Former Chairman Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in an exclusive interview with Noor ul Arfeen Siddiqui in fresh episode of Hot Seat on Aaj News.
Separate the religion from the State – the Forum for Secular Pakistan (FSP) has been lanched in Sindh
FSP for a secular Pakistan
KARACHI: The Forum for Secular Pakistan (FSP) has been constituted by liberal progressive social activists and like-minded people to struggle for a secular Pakistan.
This was announced by FSP President Iqbal Haider at a press conference held at Karachi Press Club (KPC) here on Sunday.
Journalist Zubaida Mustafa, chief guest Sardar Sherbaz Khan Mazari, Vice President of forum Hasil Bizenjo, KPC President Tahir Hassan Khan and others were also present on the occasion.
Addressing the press conference, Iqbal Haider said that Pakistan’s critical situation was just because of us forgetting the principles laid down by Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
He said that FSP was a national forum being supported by people throughout the country. Secular system in Pakistan can change the situation of the country, he said adding that people from Sindh, Punjab, Azad Kashmir and other areas are being encouraged to join the forum.
Haider said, “Non-Muslims also gave us an opportunity by joining the forum,” adding that Pakistan came into being on secular basis where all were supposed to have equal rights. Hasil Bizenjo said that time was ripe for the people to consider secular system seriously. He said that secularism was a part of various parties’ manifestoes in 1970s, but eliminated later on, giving rise to extremism. People, who termed secular system as Kufr, favour it in India, he said. He further added that they would try to promote secular system through the forum. Earlier, Haider read the declaration of the forum in which he also quoted speeches of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Courtesy: Daily Times
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=20126\18\story_18-6-2012_pg7_18
Forced conversions: As leftists protest, ST takes offence
By Sameer Mandhro / Z Ali
KARACHI / HYDERABAD: Supporters of the leftist coalition group, the Sindh Progressive Committee, had a run-in with the Barelvi religious-political party Sunni Tehreek at the Hyderabad Press Club on Tuesday, resulting in the police hauling in almost two dozen activists.
The Sunni Tehreek had been protesting the recent spate of violence in Karachi and had wrapped up the event. The Sindh Progressive Committee (SPC), which comprises the Workers Party, Labour Party, Communist Party, Jeay Sindh Mahaz, National Party, Awami Party and Watan Dost Inquilaabi Party, held a protest outside the press club against forced conversions and religious extremism.
The fight reportedly started as the Sunni Tehreek supporters alleged that attendees at the SPC’s event had beaten up a man who had stopped them from chanting slogans that they alleged were against religion.
Sunni Tehreek’s protestors went back to the press club and the fight forced SPC event attendees to hide inside the club as the Sunni Tehreek men threw stones and chanted slogans against them. While some female SPC leaders including Professor Arfana Mallah and Sindh University lecturer and activist Amar Sindhu managed to escape, the police cordoned off the area around the press club and rescued the rest. While they had assumed the police would release them, they were sent to the Cantonment Police Station.
The Sunni Tehreek’s Abid Qadri alleged that the SPC had “attacked our man first” and “used abusive language”. Arfana Mallah said their protest was peaceful but they had been attacked by the Sunni Tehreek, who brought “weapons, stones and sticks” and “forced us not to chant slogans”.
According to the police, 23 men from the Sindh Progressive Committee were arrested. The Sunni Tehreek’s Hyderabad General Secretary Muhammad Yaseen Qadri registered a First Information Report (FIR) under sections 148, 147 and 149. Even though the FIR mentions 60 people, only three are mentioned by name – Comrade Iqbal, Allah Bux and Bakhshal Thallo. The Sunni Tehreek and SPC have both claimed their supporters were injured.
At the SPC’s protest in Karachi, activists demanded that Rinkle Kumari and Asha Kumari, the two women who have drawn attention to the rise of Hindu conversions in Sindh, be handed over to their parents. They chanted slogans against landlords, clerics, army generals and extremists and asked that the government separate religion from matters of the state.
Speakers included Yousuf Masti Khan, Nasir Mansoor, Jan Muhammad Buledi, Usman Baloch, Mehnaz Rehman, Comrade Iqbal and Abdul Khaliq Junejo. “We don’t support a state that promotes religious extremism and stifles the environment for other religions. Every man is free in this country and has the right to move freely and perform his religious rituals,” said Usman Baloch.
Courtesy: The Express Tribune, April 18th, 2012.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/366193/forced-conversions-as-leftists-protest-st-takes-offence/
What is the worst thing about Pakistan’s media?
By Jahanzaib Haque
The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) deserves a pat on the back for its bold move towards greater transparency in their online complaints section – they’ve given the public access to the complaint log.
To be frank, a pat on the back for Pemra and a cold shiver down one’s spine is unfortunately the order of the day. Let us delve into this treasure trove of the Pakistani complainant’s mindset.
First of all, the top 10 list of offenders:
| No | Name | Complaints |
| 1 | Samaa TV | 450 |
| 2 | Geo News | 147 |
| 3 | Geo Ent | 95 |
| 4 | Express News | 32 |
| 5 | AAG / Geo Aur | 26 |
| 6 | ARY Digital | 21 |
| 7 | HUM TV | 13 |
| 8 | Dawn News | 11 |
| 9 | Dunya TV News | 11 |
| 10 | AAJ News | 8 |
That is a total of over 800 complaints; again, an encouraging sign for an accountability service that has a very narrow reach and hasn’t been marketed heavily. Leaving aside the Maya Khan phenomenon that accounts for over 400 complaints alone, what is it that Pakistanis with internet access complain about the most?
[Key: Below is a rough estimate, as some complaints overlapped in subject matter, and some have been rounded off]
Against ideology of Islam/Pakistan: 150+ complaints
Yes my friends, the biggest problem in Pakistan’s media – if the complaints are to be believed – is the channels being anti-Pakistan, anti-Islam or the flip side of that coin: pro-India or pro-Israel.
Promoting Hindu Ideology, Destroying Islamic Identity and Two Nation Theory and ALLAMA IQBAL Status. Making Propaganda against PAK ISI and Armed Forces which are defending Pakistan, Severe Restrictions must be put on these channels to operate to restrain them from harming Pakistan
I would like to lodge a complaint against channels which are playing with the emotions of the common people. It is showing too much Indian content which is directly killing the ideology of Pakistan. They are ignoring all the sacrifices our ancestors gave at the time of Partition, in 1965, 1971 and 1999. It uselessly shows Bollywood filth in all its news bulletins, they should be given warnings or otherwise they should be banned. They are promoting nudity now. It’s seriously looking like if this continues for few more years they will show sex on their channels…long live Pakistan
No time, during in every breaking news firstly they show “One Eye” before starting the breaking news and this is a sign of Jewish. Our beloved prophet Hazarat Muhammad PBUH quoted regarding the sign of one Eye as a sign of Jewish. Please stop it.
Fueled by a foul mix of twisted mindset, outright hatred and the arrogance of a simpleton with a fancy red cap, this is the Pakistan we have come to know and love. Ah, the ol’ scum of the Earth, always there when you need them to set the agenda and mindset dead backwards. Classy. This is definitely the media’s biggest problem. ….
Read more » The Express Tribune
Imran Khan: Conscious fraud or deluded tool? or both?
Saroop Ijaz on Imran Khan
By Omar Ali
Saroop Ijaz asks the question and votes for “lies”.
I disagree, I think he is not consciously lying. I think he is genuinely deluded..at some level, he really believes his theories…maybe he knows he is exaggerating when he says “I will finish corruption in 19 days”, but I suspect he really does think corruption is something that can be finished once he becomes ameer ul momineen and applies the philosophy of Allama Iqbal and the glorious system of the Khulafa e Rashideen.. One must not underestimate the effect of Pak Studies and Allama Iqbal on a truly determined person…
If he is lying, then he may be thinking he has to say ridiculous things and repeat mindless notions of Allama Iqbal and his glorious philosophy in order to become prime minister and then gradually fix the system using more practical means….a sort of “noble lie”. I am afraid I remain pessimistic because I have a hard time imagining that he is just faking all the “golden age of Islam and Allama Iqbal” stuff. Somehow, I find that hard to believe… But I will be happy to be proven wrong….
Read more » Brown Pundits
via- Twitter
Let’s Talk Civil-Military, NOW!
By Marvi Sirmed
Atiqa Odho needs to change her name. Not only her name but also the prefix if she wants to avoid further humiliation that she possibly could not and would not want, just because she is a woman and does not bear the right prefix before her name. Brigadier Zafar Iqbal had both — the right name and the right prefix.
The good brigadier embarked on a PIA flight from Karachi to Lahore on Saturday night, intoxicated with the ‘sherbet’. The captain of the plane handed him over to the Airport Security Force (ASF) after the brigadier publicly harassed one of the female crew members. The ASF, obviously, could not hold him for more than a few minutes when they discovered the full name of the detainee. No wonder the news item merited just a few lines in Sunday newspapers. I am still waiting for the ‘suo motu’ and media-panic that we saw in Atiqa Odho’s case. Pertinent to remind here, Ms Odho was neither drunk nor did she harass anyone on the flight.
This points to two serious maladies of this society: one, a strong gender bias that women of this country have to endure everywhere, including the courts; and two, unjust and unfair partiality that society confers on the military. It is not only about an overly powerful military but also about an extremely weak civil society. It would be naïve to believe that civil society in Pakistan is powerful enough to foil any attempt to usurp power from the civilian entities. This is mainly because the military here never departed from power. Irrespective of who occupied the buildings of the Prime Minister Secretariat and the Presidency, the military always ruled in the country through its incontrovertible influence over political decision-making and social phenomena.
The way things happen in the court, and outside of it, memo scandal is a case in point. In the memo scandal, Husain Haqqani was treated as an accused by the media and society at large because the military thought so. Everything else had to be in sync with what the military wanted or at least, was perceived to be wanting. The same ‘evidence’ (the BBM conversations claimed by Mansoor Ijaz that took place between him and Husain Haqqani) implicated the head of the ISI who was accused in the same BBM conversations to have spoken to the leaders of some Arab states and gotten their consent to sack the present government. But no one from the media, politicians (even the ones who portray themselves as most committed to civilian supremacy) and the judiciary could ever point a finger towards General Pasha, the accused. Husain Haqqani was an easy target because he was not a general. Or even a brigadier.
Later, the chief of army staff and the head of ISI submitted their affidavits in clear departure of the government’s point of view — the same government that both of them are accountable to. The prime minister was openly criticised by everyone for calling this action of the two generals as unconstitutional. So much so that the media wing of the Pakistan Army, the ISPR, attacked the prime minister — their boss — by issuing a strongly worded statement warning the government of grave consequences and serious ramifications. So there were two statements, one by the chief executive of a country castigating his subordinate generals for unconstitutional actions, and the other from the subordinate generals threatening their boss with grave consequences. Guess who had to retract the statement? You got it right, it was the boss. The Islamic Republic is unique in its construction.
What can be more worrying for a people whose representative is humiliated by an agency that should be subordinate to the people. The agency, it is more perturbing, does so with popular consent. The absence of popular outrage amounts to consent if one could decrypt public reactions. We can go on endlessly criticising hungry-for-power generals, selfish politicians, corporate media and an ambitious judiciary, but what remains a fact is Pakistani society’s utter failure — rather refusal — to grow from a Praetorian state to even a half decent egalitarian democracy.
PAKISTAN – Three armed men snatched Minister for Ports and Shipping Babar Ghauri’s personal car
Babar Ghauri’s car snatched in Karachi
KARACHI: Three armed men snatched Minister for Ports and Shipping Babar Ghauri’s personal car in Karachi on Friday.
Ghauri told Express News that his daughter, who was in the car, was safe.
The minister’s car was intercepted by the snatchers near Gulshan-e-Iqbal Block 17. The armed men also beat up the driver and the guard and stole the weapon and mobile phones along with the car. …
Read more » The Express Tribune
Sindh will become a Waterloo for President Zardari if he does not roll back dictator Musharraf’s undemocratic, repressive & discriminatory local government ordinance
Courtesy: → Express News Tv (Kal Tak with Javed Chaudhry, 11th aug 2011 -p3)
Pakistan – the current Pushto song & dance
She might be describing the miserable conditions of lovers (Aashiqaan) in Taliban era. She is saying “Oh God, all lovers are crazy. Although lovers ostensibly look pretty happy, yet they are heart-broken from within. THE NAME OF THE SINGER IS NAZIA IQBAL & THE NAME OF THE GORGEOUS DANCER IS SHEHZADI.
Source – YouTube, adopted from Facebook
23RD MARCH 1940 – WHAT OUR YOUTH MUST KNOW ABOUT?
BY: FAIZ AL—NAJDI
The Pakistani youth of today seem to be simply ignorant of the historical background of the creation of Pakistan. The reason is mostly to do with detest of theirs for Pakistan Studies while at schools. Based on my interaction with many of them, it is my considered opinion that there is a weakness and void out there amongst our youth vis-à-vis history of Pakistan.
Continue reading 23RD MARCH 1940 – WHAT OUR YOUTH MUST KNOW ABOUT?
IQBAL’S HINDU RELATIONS
This above all – Khushwant Singh
I am beholden to P.V. Rawal of Jammu for sending me a photograph of Allama Iqbal’s Kashmiri Brahmin family taken in Sialkot in 1931. At this time Iqbal was in his mid-fifties. He had already risen to the top as the greatest Urdu poet, at par with Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib. Although he was proud of his Brahmin descent, he had nothing to say about his Hindu relations. In this picture, the elderly lady seated in the middle is his grandmother, Indirani Sapru, nicknamed Poshi, wife of Pandit Kanhaya Lal Sapru. The man standing on the left in a shawl is Iqbal’s cousin, Amarnath Sapru; note the close resemblance to the poet.
The family traces its origin to one Birbal. They lived in the village of Saprain (hence, the surname Sapru) on Shopian-Kulgam road. Then the family moved to Srinagar where Iqbal and most of his cousins were born. Birbal had five sons and a daughter. The third one, Kanhaya Lal, and his wife, Indirani, had three sons and five daughters. Kanhaya Lal was Iqbal’s grandfather. His son, Rattan Lal, converted to Islam and was given the name Nur Mohammad. He married a Muslim woman — Imam Bibi. The Saprus disowned Rattan Lal and severed all connections with him. There are different versions of Rattan Lal’s conversion. The one given to me by Syeda Hameed, who has translated some of Iqbal’s poetry into English, maintains that Rattan Lal was the revenue collector of the Afghan governor of Kashmir. He was caught embezzling money. The governor offered him a choice: he should either convert to Islam or be hanged. Rattan Lal chose to stay alive. When the Afghan governor fled from Kashmir to escape its takeover by the Sikhs, Rattan Lal migrated to Sialkot. Imam Bibi was evidently a Sialkoti Punjabi. Iqbal was born in Sialkot on November 9, 1877. As often happens, the first generation of converts are more kattar than others. Iqbal thus grew up to be a devout Muslim. It is believed that once he called on his Hindu grandmother, then living in Amritsar. But there is no hard evidence of their meeting and of what passed between them; Iqbal did not write about it. Though he had many Hindu and Sikh friends and admirers, he felt that the future of Indian Muslims lay in having a separate state of their own. Iqbal was the principal ideologue of what later become Pakistan. Iqbal’s mother-tongue was Punjabi but he never wrote in it. He used only Persian and Urdu, as did many Urdu poets before him. …
Read more : Telegraph Calcutta India
Blasphemy Law: Mullahs fighting each other for political gains
Blasphemy Law: Mullahs fighting each other for political gains (2 JI) – Wichaar Analysis
The prime mover of TNR is Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), the mother of most theocratic and extremist religious trends. JI is another case of fake contender of ideology of Pakistan. The party opposed the creation of Pakistan tooth and nail and issued fatwas against Mohammad Ali Jinnah. By the way it got foothold in Punjab courtesy of Allama Mohammad Iqbal. A landlord Chauhdry Barkat Ali had asked Allama Iqbal to recommend a suitable Islamic organization who can take his estate in Pathankot. Allama Iqbal recommended Maulana Maudodi and this is how JI expanded its base in Punjab. This one of the reason that I feel that JI cadres and Taliban are Iqbal’s ‘Shaheens.’
Presently, JI is competing for influence for itself but that is its secondary goal versus Fazalur Rehman whose main goal is political power. For JI, TNR is a vehicle to keep religious parties united and to slowly dismantle what is left of the secular institutions of the state. Taliban and other jihadi groups very well fit in its strategy to undo the system. Therefore, while Taliban and other jihadis keep the state engaged with guns JI provides a political cover to them. …
Read more : Wichaar
Justice Javed Iqbal’s Parents Murdered
LAHORE: The parents of Justice Javed Iqbal, a senior judge of the Supreme Court, were found murdered under mysterious circumstances in their house near Cavalry Ground on Tuesday night.
Courtesy: SAMAA TV (News Beat with Meher Bokhari, 12 Jan, 2011)
via – ZemTV – You Tube Link
US Court Issues Summons To ISI Chief
US court summons ISI chief Pasha, LeT’s Hafiz Saeed
Washington: A US court has issued summons to senior ISI officials including its powerful chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha, along with Mumbai attack masterminds and LeT leaders Hafiz Saeed and Zakiur Rahman Lakhvi in response to a lawsuit filed by relatives of two American victims accusing them of providing material support for the 26/11 attacks.
The 26-page lawsuit was filed before a New York Court on November 19 against the Inter-Services Intelligence and Lashkar-e-Toiba by the relatives Rabbi Gavriel Noah Holtzberg and his wife Rivka, who were both gunned down by militants at the Chhabad House in Mumbai. …
Read more : Express
In Pakistan, a Christian woman gets death for blasphemy
by Aziz Narejo
This is outrageous. The people must stand up and stop this nonsense. This women should immediately be set free and the judge should be arrested and prosecuted for such unjust, harsh and uncalled for verdict. This should not happen in the name of religion.
According to news reports ….
Read more : Indus Herald
For more details : BBC urdu
Ban on women vendors in Lahore
Municipal officers differ on why a ban is desirable
LAHORE: Town municipal officers (TMOs) across Lahore continue to grapple with the idea of banning women as vendors in Sunday Bazaars as was announced by Ahad Cheema, the DCO, two weeks ago.
The actual implementation of the order, for which Cheema had not given a reason for, still seems distant. In the Sunday Bazaars set up at Ravi Town and Iqbal Town, among others, female vendors were seen selling as usual without any opposition by the local market committee representatives. ….
Read more : The Express Tribune
Utho meri dunyA ke gariboN ko jagA do
– B. R. Gowani
Utho meri dunyA ke gariboN ko jagA do
KAkh-e-umrA ke dar-o-deewAr hilA do
Jis khet se dehkAN ko muyassar na ho rozi
Us khet ke har khosha-e-gandam ko jalA do
Rise and rouse my world’s wretched ones
Shake fiercely the palaces of the rich ones
Scorch every cluster of wheat in the field
That denies livelihood to the tilling ones
– Poet Iqbal (1877-1938)
To read full article named “Capitalism Zindabad” written by B. R. Gowani, please click here
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