ZulfiLeaks: Pot, Kettle, Ghairat!

Whatever Zulfiqar Mirza said today was almost similar to something that I said to a friend who is an ardent MQM supporter, some days back. However, trusting Zulfiqar Mirza's word on this would not be a smart move.

Courtesy: pyfpakistan on YouTube

In the video, the anchor Naseem Zehra reads a excerpt from one of Zulfiqar Mirza's speech. In the excerpt, it is said:

"We wanted to break Pakistan, we were against Pakistan. ... If Mr. Asif Ali Zardari would have not chanted the slogan of Pakistan Khappay (Stays), then we would have left Naudero and would have chanted the slogan of Pakistan Na-Khappay (Stays Not)..."

Upon which Mirza replies that his quote is taken out of context, and he apologizes. This kind of reasoning is nothing new, especially for Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leaders.

ZulfiLeaks: First Peceptions

Like it or not, Zulfiqar Mirza is officially the Grinch. Thanks to him, Eid may be a horrible event.

I might shed a light on his "resignation" speech, sometime later but one thing I can see clearly that he looked provoked. Why Mirza reached to such a drastic step? One can only guess. As far I can analyze, there are three possibilities.

First, we all know how Zulfiqar Mirza clings to Lyari and considers himself to be their savior. The surgical operation around Karachi are being done on the orders of Senator Rehman Malik. Earlier this week, it was Mirza who reminded Malik that Malik was made Senator from a Sindhi seat even though he is a resident of Sialkot. This whole event unfolded before the Prime Minister's eyes. Last night, as Mirza was in Badin, Malik took the chance and conducted the operation. 80 people were arrested and torture cells were unveiled. Hence, there was a fallout on Rehman.

Second, starting this Monday, the Supreme Court of Pakistan will start hearings related to Karachi violence. It is common that there is blood on everyone's hand. However, this whole debacle will cost PPP a lot. It needed someone to save their face. Zulfiqar Mirza is the perfect candidate. The amount of revelations made in his press conference shows that the pointing game has been taken to a new level.

Third, Mirza has been in the flood-hit area of Badin last night. Badin is supposed to be his hometown, and it has been affected by a flood since the middle of the month. While his hometown was drowning, Mirza was in Karachi tongue-lashing. His last night visit to Badin might have made him see the writing on the wall. Due to mishandling of the floods by their elected representatives, people in Sindh are now looking towards newer options. Mirza's presence in Karachi rather in Badin might have hurt his followers. This might be spelling doom not only for himself but his party as well. This resignation might be an attempt to renew his losing political power in the area. Moreover, the recent strike by MQM was observed in the areas of Interior Sindh, especially in Nawabshah, the hometown of Zardari.

All in all, this will end up in more bloodshed. Good thing, I did not buy new clothes for Eid. Who wants to celebrate when your hometown is burning?

WeakyLeaks?

Scottish novelist and poet Sir Walter Scott once wrote:

Oh! what a tangled web we weave
When first we practise to deceive!

The quote may not be very appropriate for the topic I am going to write on, but somehow, I feel deceived. Last year, in November, WikiLeaks, the whistle-blowing website, revealed a hefty load of information from U.S. Diplomatic Cables – popularly known as "Cablegate." These cables hold a lot of candid information, and a considerable amount of it was quite new. This release of information made the U.S. insecure. Intellectuals around the world were amazed by this revelation. Julian Assange became a worldwide sensation. it was considered that the U.S. would be in a lot of trouble after this event, however, it seems that nothing happened.

Almost nine months after the "Cablegate," it seems that a lot of the information revealed in these cables, somehow, resulted into events. I know that I would be called a "conspiracy theorists." However, the release of information and the event afterwards seemed so coordinated at times that it does nothing but fuels the fire of curiosity and suspicion.

When the first releases were made public to the media back in November, one of the most obvious ones was about Gaddafi and his "voluptuous blonde." The world raised an eye-brow over it. In February 2011, after the fall of regimes in Egypt and Tunisia occurred, the people of Libya started a movement against thier leader, Col. Muammar Gaddafi. Due to the stubborn attitude of Gaddafi, a war broke out. In the last week of the same month, the "voluptuous blonde" named Galyna Kolotnytska left Libya and returned home. She spoke about Gaddafi in the high regards. However, till this day, I cannot decipher the reason of bring this particular women in the scene. It is common knowledge that Gaddafi has an army of 40 virgin women protecting him but why a foreign nurse had to be pulled in. Furthermore, the stress on the word "voluptuous" is more than ordinary. Maybe, it is a case of "sex sells."

Moving on, in the last week of April this year, WikiLeaks released the Gitmo Papers. It was then reported that Khalid Muhammad Skeikh, one of the detainees and a senior at al-Qaeda, said that the death of Osama bin Laden will result in a "nuclear hellstorm." Almost a week later, on May 2, the U.S. Navy Seals fly into Abbottabad, Pakistan and killed Osama bin Laden who was living in a mansion almost a kilometer away from Kakul Military Base. Readily, questions about "nuclear safety" were risen. This month, almost all of the Navy Seals involved in the mission were killed by a missile shot by a Taliban soldier. Days later, the Taliban soldier was killed by the U.S. Army. This coordination is far too amazing to be left unnoticed.

In May this year, DAWN and WikiLeaks brought out the "Pakistan Papers"; the diplomatic cables related to Pakistan. In this revelation, there is one very peculiar. Filed under the Reference ID 09KARACHI138, and titled as Sindh – Gangs of Karachi, the Counsel General Stephen Fakan wrote in 2009 about the Gangs in Karachi in which he asserts that the police is outnumbered. In his report, he gives elaborate details about the gangs. Come August, the situation becomes quite like the one he has reported. The police looks out-numbered and powerless while tackling the Karachi unrest.

The way the information is presented is somehow amazing. These cables look as if they were constructed to benefit someone. Much to my surprise, these cables have done nothing for the world. It made the whole unsafe as well as opened new war-fronts, not one real-time but also online. The assumed affected, i.e. the U.S. Government, is not affected at all. Many a time, it looks as if WikiLeaks have benefited the superpower.  I guess it might not be so leaky after all.

Let there be sobbing!

First, this video:

Courtesy: Zohaibji0 on Dailymotion

And then its response:

Courtesy: thedaxxling on YouTube

Oh! Sob, sob. "Dr." Amir "Tunni" Liaquat Ali is in controversy – again, and I rolled my eyes again. Mute the first video and see the mouth diarrhea happening. It is evident that the "Tunni" is guilty of his doings, and he claims in the second video that he did insulted certain Islamic personalities accidentally. However, there is more than that meets the eye in these videos.

Mooning Around!

Pardon my language but every year there are two occasions when it gets as embarrassing as having your pants pulled down. The two moons (no pun intended) of Ramadan and Shawal have been controversial for decades, and it seems never-ending.

Every year, in the areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan, a controversy arises that whose moon is more accurate: the one of the local Maulvi or the one sighted by the government-appointed Maulvi? The practice was less exposed in the 1990s but as the electronic media grew in the last decade, the "divide" has become more evident than ever.