Pak Tea House

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by iFaqeer 

In my last post, I mentioned the then breaking story that the Pakistan Telecomm Authority was in the process of blocking YouTube from the country. The “reason” given a video that was disrespectful to “An Hazrat, Maulana Mohammad, Rasul Allah”, as we are wont to say in Pakistan, or “The Gentleman, Our Lord, Mohammad, Prophet of God”. Of course, amongst our wonderful, patriotic Pakistanis, there were the immediate questions about whether that in itself was a rumour or documented. Well, please do take a look at one of the documents that went out from the Pakistan Telecomm Authority to the ISP’s on Siliconstani’s blog.

The suspicions on the part of the grapevine is that this blocking/censorship happened when it happened because of videos that were ending up on YouTube of vote rigging–both in Karachi and Lahore and elsewhere. Though the brunt of the suspicion is about videos of rigging in Karachi, and pro- the MQM.

But, wait! There’s more!!! Breaking news right now is that the way the regulatory organizations for the Internet in Pakistan went about blocking YouTube has caused an outage/inaccessibility of the site globally! Check out the BBC report here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7262071.stm

The first thing that went through my head when I saw that story was that people like me often hear from fellow Pakistani expats that we should not discuss our home country’s dirty laundry in public–you know, like raising Internet censorship at meetings where Pakistan’s technology industry is being discussed. I wonder what they think of sweeping our issue under the rug till a SNAFU like this happens does for the much-maligned Image of Pakistan that our PUPPIES (Pakistani Yuppies) keep talking about.

Interesting thing is, as I was saying earlier to someone, this case illustrates beautifully the issues related to censorship. If you accept that censorship is okay in some circumstances (the one that the British set the precedent for in South Asia just happens to be hurting the sensibilities of major communities–today’s Shining India also continues to ban stuff on that basis, from Rushdie to blogs), then governments will inevitably use the power either ineptly, or maliciously.

Now, I am not one to buy into American exceptionalism, and am often the one in a discussion amongst immigrants to challenge the “Milk and Honey” view of our lives in this country, but the First Amendment to the US Constitution is written the way it is for a reason: “Congress shall make NO law restricting the freedom of speech“. No if’s, and’s and but’s; it’s something even the US Supreme Court has never really lived up to. There is no such thing, as someone once said, as “being a little bit pregnant”. Either you’re okay with censorship, or you aren’t.

The right way to control harmful speech, or offensive speech is NOT governmental control. It is in society; if you’re offended, use the avenues reserved for that offense. If you harmed, use the methods for restitution of that harm. In some societies, it is law suits and other legal action (used to be that was what Muslims believed in, too); in others it is duels with a choice of weapon at dawn.

I am sorry, but I have paid a personal price in my life because I refused to live in the Gulf. Both my dear mother and my father-in-law would have loved it for me to take a job there and be nearer to them. And as for Pakistan, I cannot with a straight face keep on complaining about a “Show Cause Notice” from the Zia Regime for a small, very small Christmas message I put on the Contents page of a youth magazine in 1987 and yet say it is okay to block YouTube or Facebook. My conscience won’t let me. If I am okay with the latter, then I should be okay with the former.

Censorship is censorship. If you’re okay with censorship, please say so. I am not.

There’s an old (from our youth :p) Bollywood song that goes “Main ro’oon ya hansoon; karoon mai kyaa karoon?!” or “Should I cry or laugh; To do, what do I do?”

Users subscribing to the Internet though the PTCL (Pakistan Telecom Corporation Limited, the semi- or formerly-government-owned corporation), in particular, have been getting the following message today if they tried to access YouTube:

————–
Dear Internet Users

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (www.pta.gov.pk)has directed all ISPs of the country to block access
to www.youtube.com web site for containing blasphemous web content/movies.

The site would remain blocked till further orders from PTA. Meanwhile, Internet users can write to youtube.com to remove the objectionable web content/movies because this removal would enable the authorities to order un-blocking of this web site.

Best Regards

Manager
Technical Assistance Center
Micronet Broadband Pvt. Ltd.
Islamabad
————-

For background, see:
http://www.teeth.com.pk/blog/2008/02/22/youtube-blocked-in-pakistan/
http://www.teeth.com.pk/blog/2008/02/22/vote-rigging-videos-in-karachi-could-this-be-why-youtube-is-blocked/
http://www.kidvai.com/windmills/2008/02/last-laugh.html

by iFaqeer 

About two years ago, Cemendtaur and I started an Urdu language podcast we called Azad Karachi Radio. Yes, the name is intended to generate some discussion and carry a punch. And if you want to hear why we named it that, do listen to the first two programs or so.

To cut a long story short, the program has been offline for a bit, but we’re back with Program 10, the first of 2008. It has guest Mehdi Hasnain join me and Cemendtaur to discuss the American Elections, the Pakistani situation and events with Ayesha Siddiqa in California as well as a media item.

The program mentions, amongst other things: (more…)

Raza Rumi

Today while checking out the incoming links, I discovered that the CNN website had mentioned the Pak Tea House. This was quite edifying to say the least. PTH is just another blog-zine barely a few months old but it is getting some attention.

Not that attention from CNN is the aim of this blog-zine; corporate media picks up what complements its spin. Nevertheless, we aim to provide a strong voice that could be cacophonous at times, usually diverse but surely an alternative one.

But the real credit goes to its contributors who keep it alive and kicking; and the silent and vocal visitors who add much life to otherwise inanimate words.

I thank all these wonderful colleagues, comrades and friends.

Sorry I have been MIA for a bit. A couple or three things jump out from the New York Times, NPR and the ‘Net this morning.

Firstly, a shout-out to my peeps, so to speak. There’s a clip on Google Video today of an interview with two of Pakistan’s most prominent bloggers on an English-language breakfast show. Well worth watching, what with Pakistan in the news in such a big way.

Then there’s an op-ed in the NYT this morning by the country director for the Institute of War and Peace Reporting providing his personal perspective about the bombing of the Serena Hotel in Kabul, a watering hole (and just a place to hole up) for expats, particularly. And there have been other stories about Afghanistan in The Times, on NPR, other places in the last few days. It seemed to hit me; is it a coincidence that the Western Media and Zeitgeist is sitting up and noticing–or should I say acknowledging, since some information has always been around–that Afghanistan is down the tubes because the Taliban, as Mr. McKenzie tells us, have now started a policy of targeting westerners? The other thing that jumped out at me was from a series that NPR is doing on Muslim Women in Britain. (more…)

Apparently the blogspot is working and this was not a case of any order to ban the blogs. PTH carried the story below that appeared in the daily News. We apologise if the views below created a different impression. 

by RR

This is a disturbing development. Pak Tea House condemns the ban on blogs if such a diktat has come into effect. The irony of the situation cannot be missed. It was the Supreme Court that had ordered a ban on the blogs following the controversy on Danish cartoons that lampooned our Prophet (SAW). Today, the deposed judges are the subject of these blogs, and hence the ban. How the tables turn in the land of the pure…. (more…)

Came across this pointed though strongly worded post by Danial, where he urges Pakistanis to stop the vandalism against pre-Islamic heritage.

“As if the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha statues wasn’t enough, fanatical mullahs and their constituents from Swat in the Northwest Frontier province attempt[ed] to blow up yet another statue in the name of their twisted version of Islam which is quite alien to the Subcontinent……

(more…)

Raza Rumi

It was rather delightful to see that the leading Indian newspaper The Asian Age published a write up on the Pak Tea House blog-zine. Interestingly, the newspaper from South India, News Today also carries a story on us on December 3, 2007. News Today found the image below. Impressive.

This would not have been possible without the contributions and efforts of the PTH team. (more…)

Pakistan bourgeoisie .. now finds itself in a complete impasse, which threatens to drag it down into a horrific abyss.

This noisy, polemic, partial it is, makes some important points: (more…)

Bhupinder

Over the last fifteen years, there is only one book that has always accompanied me. I had bought it in 1991 for rupees twenty, a pretty neat sum considering my first job paid me a microscopic amount. (more…)

This is what Ali Raza of Chaikhana had to say about our young blog-magazine”

A new chai hotel around the block, hai mar javaan (more…)

by Lal Salam

Let me explain Lal Salam in the beginning, coz he doesn’t want any sh*t later. (more…)

First it was Pakistan’s renowned blogger Shirazi who wrote about PTH: (more…)