The Immoral Family poor excuses to justify the great dissapointment you must be to your parents.

French Not the Only Offenders on Hijab although i consider the concept of hijab to be totally idiotic, those who want to wear the silly headgear should be allowed to do that. the author is right however, the french have done nothing compared to what the saudis and iranians (especially saudis) have been doing to their female population for years. if protests are needed its in front of the saudi embassy.

Is Science without Religion really Lame it is depressing to see that the ummah simply can`t let go of this nonsense of mixing religion with science and politics.

drumz: star trek is nice entertainment but no substitute for a good science/math education.

i once attended a seminar from this guy who believes that ether exists - i know - we were amused too - but he did get his phd under the supervision of heisenberg. the point is simple - scientific theroies have a whole lot better foundation than the burning bush concept and no one is going to lynch me or damn me for all eternity to come if i don`t believe in ether.

Another Attempt on Musharraf re: 368

that`s probably because most units from what is now pakistan fought with the brits to quell the rebellion. celebration would mean talking about it in some detail.

nava saal mubarak

Punjabi Heroes that History Forgot re: 176

i thought moenjodaro was in sindh - perhaps not - you should read fatimi`s ``pakistani quamiyat`` - a much more convincing read than aitezaz ehsan`s ``indus saga``. from what i have heard the book was bought in large numbers from bookstores by the jamat goons and destroyed - all for the protection of ummah.

Operation Searchlight re: 21 urstruly

thanks for the post!

Are Secularism and Islam Incompatible? Are Secularism and Islam Incompatible?
YES!! But then secularism is incompatible with any religion. It is sad that centuries after reformation and what not, the ummah is still grappling with this basic stuff. The ummah will be in fine shape once it figures out that religion should have nothing to do with ``business of state``. What are the odds of that happening?

Greatest Indians a pretty stupid set in almost every category - e.g., the author picks tipu sultan over chandragupta who is not even mentioned.

The Zionist In Me re: ali87

thanks for the link - have you read mulk raj anand`s book ``untouchables``? its a must read.

The Vagina Monologues re: 22
``What next? The Penis Monologues?!``

that would be an appropriate title for your interacts.

The Defence College Experience re: fuzair

cheema was a ds at staff college around 77/78 (?). he was definitely a brilliant officer and earmarked for the general staff. the better ones usually go for the war course instead of the ndc course which is more of a consolation thingee. i think you go for the war course first and then become ds at staff college - but i doubt if there`s a hard and fast rule about this - the ms has to take into account all sort of other things also. i don`t remember when cheema did his war course (before or after the stint at quetta) - don`t know about gulfaraz - what were his arms and when was he in quetta? as for zia - he was in my opinion quite a sick individual - if you were a brigadier or below the rank of a brigadier, you posed no threat to him - all promotions to maj. gen. and above used to be approved by him personally. many of those ``rebel officers`` at quetta were promoted to brig. and given good posts. those were the early days - bhutto was behind bars but still alive - and zia was moving with caution - i guess he was hoping that those chaps would eventually become part of the herd, but most of them retired as brig. i can`t think of any who made it to the rank of maj. gen.
right before executing bhutto, zia sent a questionaire to all formation commanders - brigade and div commanders (corps commanders ofcourse were already with him) asking for the opinion of the commander and his troops on the following: should martial law be lifted? and should bhutto be hanged? you can imagine what happened to the careers of the officers who gave unpleseant replies. there was actually one commander who literally asked his battalion commanders to call darbar and get the opinion of the troops :-) - during the eighties a lot of incompotent and corrupt officers were promoted just so that zia could keep them under his firm control - there are too many to list - i think fazal-i-haq and akhtar abdur rehman were probably at the top the ladder - it was quite prevalant in all services at that time - lots of stories about mrs. & acm anwar shameem - but you probably know all the stories anyway. the good thing is that they have faded away and i hope the likes of begs and nasirs are being sent home by the time they become majors.

The Defence College Experience re: 100

http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/mana/map1.jpg

The Defence College Experience re: 81

welcome back fuzair!
if my memory serves me right, ghulam sarwar cheema was not kicked out of the army - he resigned his commission to protest martial law. i personally know quite a few army officers who did that. cheema caught zia`s attention while he was a ds at staff college - that`s right around the time when martial law was imposed. there were many officers along with cheema who openly protested the imposition of martial law at quetta - which resulted in zia saab`s famous order to the commandant asking him ``to sort out these rebel officers``. what i know of gen. nishat - he would never have allowed those taping sessions at ndc your friend talks about. besides i am not sure why you would want to do that - an officer`s opinions and reputation, other news/views in the armed forces travel quite quickly by just word of mouth.


re: tahmed
i am a great fan of the civil war myself. had a chance once to see some of the battlefields - manassas, gettysburg, and there are couple of them right around the fredericksburg area - have you seen ken burn`s civil war series done for pbs. he did a nice job.

The Defence College Experience re: 52

it takes more than 2-3 top army men. you pretty much need all the pso`s, head of the isi + majority of corps commanders on board. the pindi brigade is 111. but that`s ok, you are a shaheen and a pretty disgruntled one at that.

An Open Letter to the Editorial Staff of Chowk re: 174

go bar-hopping - by the time you`ll get back it will be time for salat-ul-fajr - and you`ll be in the right state of mind to communicate with the man above.

Ancient Pakistan re: 41
i mostly know sufis - waris shah`s heer is sort of a bible for me or in my case i should say koran - ustaad daman (not a sufi) is also pretty good - would however like to learn more - maybe you can write an article on the subject sameer.