Farrukh Khan Pitafi's Official Website

Conspiracy theories - The right to ignorance | Mysterious deaths in uniform

04/03/2007

There is something inexplicable about the struggle between life and death. I say it because a curious incident took place this Friday. Whenever I am in Multan, I have made it a habit to take my nephews to school.

Posted by farrukh at 16:27:49.

Breathing space | Coming full circle

01/03/2007

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

What is common between Cheney and Beckett’s visit to Pakistan; Benazir’s visit to the American Enterprise Institute; the worsening situation in Balochistan and the tribal areas; the thickening of clouds over Iran and Afghanistan and Islamabad’s convening of a moot of the seven so-called ‘like-minded’ countries? The common denominator essentially remains Pakistan’s pivotal position in the war on terror.

Posted by farrukh at 01:32:56.

Breathing space | The noxious frameup

22/02/2007

A few hours after the reports of the mysterious fires on Samjhota Express (or murder on the friendship express, as the Economist website chose to call it) the members of an Orkut community dedicated to Pakistani print media found an Indian journalist collecting views of her colleagues from across the border.

Breathing space | O Captain! My Captain!

15/02/2007

“O Captain! My Captain! Our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead”
— Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass.

Posted by farrukh at 13:34:50.

Please do let me know what you of this rather long article titled Roots of anti-Islamism

Posted by farrukh at 18:09:29.

The right to ignorance | Letter to a Pakistani suicide bomber

11/02/2007

O brother, O son of the soil, O lost case,
You have decided to go and kill yourself and others. It is time that you are reminded of how many things have you taken along from your home and your land with you. .

Most unfortunate is the nation whose young and bright ones die. Pakistan today is losing its brightest souls at a breakneck speed. When you try to use word ‘death’ for someone you really adored your tongue twists and refuses to utter the word. Today, one of the brightest has left us mourning. It is difficult to express this abysmal loss in words.
I met late Ednan Shahid very late and today I can only wish that I could have enjoyed his company more. In this world of chaos and ignorance I have seldom found people that are so much committed to bringing about change. My editor Ednan who passed away due to heart failure early Saturday morning at the tender of 37 was a great soul. He was striving for change and was committed to conscientious journalism.
This country does not know what it has lost. Believe me nobody has any idea what has been lost. We, his colleagues and friends, can only pray that his family knows that while this humunguous lacuna left cannot be filled, his legacy will always remain with them as their strength and to warm their hearts.
On December 7, 2006 I had written in my column titled ‘Jonathan and the pygmies’, ” have known many owner-editors in my limited career. Of some, I have this complaint that they behave either in highly unprofessional way as if you are their slave or else they display a characteristic lack of imagination in advising you to write as per their dictates. I will make no bones about the fact that prior to my coming in contact with this news group, I had heard many a nonsensical tale. Yet my first meeting with the editor of this paper (Ednan Shahid), dismissed them in one go. Here I found things being done in a highly professional way. I found breathing space that I needed and very enjoyable company with unfathomable respect.” I had called him Jonathan after Richard Bach’s charactern Jonathan Livingstone Seagull. And there cannot be any better description of his. I sign off with the salute, Oh captain my captain. If you have seen Robin William starrer movie Dead Poet’s Society you’ll know I cannot say anything better.

So Anna Nicole Smith is dead. Most of us know her for her court cases and the show named after her. I have seen only half of the first season. It was painful how the producers celebrated her marriage to an octogenarian millionaire. Most of her show was embarrassing to viewers like me. But that is not the point. Most prominent in the show was her attorney friend who went on to become her boyfriend. And he has claimed to be the father of her recently born daughter as well. If we study the case carefully it is third death in the series of unexplained events. First was the demise of her husband’s son and her main challenger. Then very close to her daughter’s birth was her first child’s death who could inherit some of her potential fortune. Does it not appear the case of a well managed conspiracy. Her boyfriend certainly seems the chief suspect. But my hunch is that he’ll go free and something close to OJ Simpson will happen. OJ’s book, excerpts of which have passed my sight, also show the problem with the US justice system. Then don’t forget Michael Jackson’s case. And oh yes, the way Saddam and his step brother were executed. If you don’t know about Qila Jangi then you better google it with the catch phrase ‘war on terror’. Again what about Abu Gharaib and Gitmo. While the US certainly has double standards for its colonies and the other countries of the world, it seems its justice system has developed weakness regarding celebrity issues.
The trouble is that countries like Pakistan have always been places where judiciary serves as prostitute. But the US which is invading countries in the name of human rights and democracy one by one should at least try to come up with a better example. When we see what happened to a capable person like Al Gore in 2000 elections we are forced to ask ourselves is the democracy we are fighting for.

The right to ignorance | The world gone to the dogs

04/02/2007

Jkrowling.com has finally announced the date of release of the seventh and last book in the series, called Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
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Breathing space | Confessions of a cynic

01/02/2007

In my column “End of pipedreams” (The Post, December 29, 2006) I pointed out that new developments in the regional environment were not proving congenial to Islamabad’s long cherished dreams of pipeline projects.

Posted by farrukh at 16:13:30

The right to ignorance | Between the hammer and the anvil

28/01/2007

“For each life saved, we owe a debt of gratitude to the brave public servants who devote their lives to finding the terrorists and stopping them” — George W Bush, state of the union speech.

Posted by farrukh at 07:22:20

Breathing space | The sphinx without a riddle

25/01/2007

It is not clear why no one except Oedipus could solve the riddle of the sphinx outside of Thebes when it asked such a lousy question. I mean, come on folks, can’t we tell what goes on four legs in the morning, on two legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening?

Posted by farrukh at 22:04:47