Religion in Politics Great article Umer!
Keep it up brother :)

Zara Hafeez

About Death Simple yet very powerful writing here, your article is beautifully written and has a great flow to it.

I am sorry for your loss. I wrote of a huge loss that I had here as well. Strange how, even by letting our emotions run with our words, they are as strong as ever.

Best wishes,
Zara Hafeez

Bollywood’s Stolen Concepts from Hollywood This is in reply to #31 RMor,

Sir,

I greatly respect the things that you noted in the article. It is additional knowledge to keep on doing better. So a huge thank you for that. I'd like to inform you and the readers of this article that this piece of writing was not written as a journalist 'reporting' something, rather like a debutant writer. This article was published in one of the Influence Life Style magazine, and keeping in view of the readership of that magazine I was ordered to write in the way a blog is written. I published this on chowk after getting some great reviews on it. Not for exhibiting true journalism.

Nevertheless, I thank you once again for your insightful critique of the article.

Regards,
Zara Hafeez

The Cost of a Pakistani Journalist Life Dear Mr Imran Ali Teepu.

You mentioned that media institutions should train journalists properly, as a journalist myself, I couldn't agree less with you. Having the great opportunity to be trained as in a war-corresponding course, I feel that those who actually end up going on the streets to report should certainly have this knowledge. A few workshops for journalists would do them great. Moreover, it is not only the heavy price that Pakistani journalists have to pay, there are also foreign journalists who end up quite in the same situation as us. This I relate from a personal view.

The cost of being a journalist is truly great. With journalists such as Tariq Ayub (Al-Jazeera) who died live on TV while reporting, to what happened to Daniel Pearl and how can I forget the abductions of Pakistani journalists in Wana? It's gruesome to see that those providing the naked truth and excersing the fundamental right of freedom of speech are treated in this manner. The worst is the sight of what I saw only as of yesterday, that in LUMS and FAST the protest that took place by the students againts the government, there journalists were beaten up along with a few students and the journalists were not even allowed to pass the premisses of the respective universities.

The cost of being a journalist is tremendous and indeed those of us like yourself, are doing a great job. All I have to say in the end is that do not stop at any cost! The stakes are high, lives are at risk, but by remaining true to the feild that we have chosen, as journalists, we are obligated to bring forth the truth and the gruesome reality to our masses, even if its at the cost of our life. It is people like you and so many others who will provide a reason for many more people to respect and perhaps even take up journalism.

Best of luck and thank you for an eye opening account for people to see the plight of us journalists.

Best wishes!
Zara Hafeez

The Cost of a Pakistani Journalist Life Dear Mr Imran Ali Teepu.

You mentioned that media institutions should train journalists properly, as a journalist myself, I couldn't agree less with you. Having the great opportunity to be trained as in a war-corresponding course, I feel that those who actually end up going on the streets to report should certainly have this knowledge. A few workshops for journalists would do them great. Moreover, it is not only the heavy price that Pakistani journalists have to pay, there are also foreign journalists who end up quite in the same situation as us. This I relate from a personal view.

The cost of being a journalist is truly great. With journalists such as Tariq Ayub (Al-Jazeera) who died live on TV while reporting, to what happened to Daniel Pearl and how can I forget the abductions of Pakistani journalists in Wana? It's gruesome to see that those providing the naked truth and excersing the fundamental right of freedom of speech are treated in this manner. The worst is the sight of what I saw only as of yesterday, that in LUMS and FAST the protest that took place by the students againts the government, there journalists were beaten up along with a few students and the journalists were not even allowed to pass the premisses of the respective universities.

The cost of being a journalist is tremendous and indeed those of us like yourself, are doing a great job. All I have to say in the end is that do not stop at any cost! The stakes are high, lives are at risk, but by remaining true to the feild that we have chosen, as journalists, we are obligated to bring forth the truth and the gruesome reality to our masses, even if its at the cost of our life. It is people like you and so many others who will provide a reason for many more people to respect and perhaps even take up journalism.

Best of luck and thank you for an eye opening account for people to see the plight of us journalists.

Best wishes!
Zara Hafeez

In the Loving Memory of Waleed Iqbal I just hope and pray that all of us who knew Waleed, and those who read this article and get to know a little about him, pray for him and keep him alive by celebrating the life he lived. As I mentioned in the article "Good men have the fewest years." Waleed indeed was a good man and so much more.

Anum, he has not vanished, just not physically seen, he is still with us.

In the Loving Memory of Waleed Iqbal I just hope and pray that all of us how new Waleed, and those who read this article and get to know a little about him, pray for him and keep him alive by celebrating the life he lived. As I mentioned in the article "Good men have the fewest years." Waleed indeed was a good man and so much more.

Anum, he has not vanished, just not physically seen, he is still with us.

Control Room Documentary an Eye Opener! I call it true journalism for several reason, one of them being that Al-Jazeera network is the first `international` Arab news network that was created in 1996 and that too by a few BBC reporters and correspondents. I mentioned in the article that- `` the director has also mixed small chunks of fiction in a way that reminded me that there can not be truly unbiased films once someone picks up a camera. `` So there goes the point of you not thoroughly reading what the article says and simply skeptically analyzing it. Apart from that, wiseguyin, what you wrote was what a secular country needs, and you did scrutinize the muslims as being people of a diffferent CULT. There is a difference between `cults`, `sects` and religions. You simply bashed up the entire muslim umma by proclaiming the muslims to be the ones who pick up swords against the world by implying the following:``Any attack by any mlusim species or country on any secular country will be considered as an attack on all humans. Response will be disproportionate and amplified.`` You gave twelve points on what secular countries should be doing and in that you eloquently slammed the muslims. So here is what I say, I DO NOT GET YOUR POINT!!!

Control Room shows you what the Arab network is all about. I have kept this post as impartial as possible. Yet to some degree I percieve that either you have not seen the documentary, or if you have you did not notice how the network opertates. Farenheit 9/11, got to everyone, because Micheal Moore took a very clever two pronged stance while making his documentary, one of ridiculing the Bush regime and the second one showing its audience a serious side to what the Bush-Blair pair are upto. Why is it that there were no London bombings, or 9/11`s or the Iraq and Afghanistan before the war mongerer better known as Bush won the presidential election? Control Room is a low budget documentary, but it is definitely more powerful than Farenheit 9/11.

Control Room Documentary an Eye Opener! I am extremely sorry to have missed out on referencing the article, it completely slipped my mind.
I shall keep that in mind next time. Thank you for your suggestion.

Zara Hafeez