Today has been a fascinating day by all means.
Who would have thought they would see a day when Dr. Aamir Liaquat Hussain would be sitting right next to Imran Khan and would announce joining the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI)?
Others would say it is not a surprise considering Aamir Liaquat Hussain’s career on the hawkishly pro-establishment Bol Network after his exodus from Geo TV and MQM. This can be said for the reason .
Aamir Liaquat Hussain obviously has no shortage of his haters. While I personally thought that his Geo TV leaks showed more of his human side, it also shed light on the hypocrisy of his self-righteousness as was the focus of most people analyzing them. As a matter of fact, that revelation had actually liberated Aamir Liaquat Hussain, making him more sarcastic, more fearless, and far more caustic and candid in his approach to his public conversation. As if he was almost relieved that the cover of his “holy religious figure” was blown.
Though what you can argue about Aamir Liaquat is that he is a survivor who knows how to make the best of every situation, or at least to make a lot of money. Seeing Aamir Liaquat Hussain should not be such a big surprise on his part. It is not something that is beyond him. Actually, he has been at it before. However, it does reflects on the PTI which claims to set very high moral standards for themselves. Though one thing that has come off as a constant with this party is that the only wrong they think in this world is financial corruption.
Still, this development hit a number of influencing PTI followers hard who would not have imagined in their wildest dreams that someone like Aamir Liaquat will join the party. Many people who would go to great lengths to defend the party and its morally uncompromising stance are backing off. Salman Ahmed of Junoon is just one example.
After 35 years of defending, supporting & justifying @ImranKhanPTI to the world , i no longer can. i fear that reptiles surround him.
— salman ahmad (@sufisal) March 19, 2018
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However, Imran Khan is finally showing signs of going beyond his brand of politics of uncompromised principles, which probably means he is taking the upcoming election very seriously and he better. Particularly in the Senate elections in which he believes he scored by preventing having a Senator elected from either PML-N or PPP, (which is not much of an achievement as the Supreme Court had already grounded the party affiliation of the PML-N candidates) while working with the PPP in terms of getting the vote to the same candidate for the position of Chairman Senate. However, with all the talk of the military establishment behind all their recent Senate moves, and not being able to say no to Aamir Liaquat Hussain is a factor that still casts a shadow of doubt over the softening of their stance.
There is little doubt that the PTI can hardly do anything to counter the PML-N juggernaut unless they make an electoral alliance with the PPP in the parliament. And they should try whatever possible legal tactic to do so, even when it comes to welcoming people like Aamir Liaquat Hussain in the party.
The number of people who passionately defend PTI is falling sharply. Obviously, there are still diehard Imran Khan fans, even I have him as a childhood hero, so yes they are going to stick no matter what but as long as he is heading the party.
Filed under: Commentary, Videos | Tagged: Aamir Liaquat Hussain, Imran Khan, military establishment, Pakistan, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf, politics, PTI | Leave a comment »
In the Defense of the Ramadan Game Shows
Source: Dawn
Ramadan, the holy fasting month, is here. My personal fervor or lack thereof for the festival aside, you are bound to get caught in its whirlpool if you are living in Pakistan.
It does not matter whether you fast or not, you need to follow a certain eating pattern for the most part due to the society around you. One way or the other, you cannot avoid Ramadan no matter how hard you try. And just like the eating patterns, the piety is infectious too.
But just like everything else such as mass hysteria on the roads, another factor infectious about it is a sense of festivity and entitlement.
Born out of this market need was the showmanship of Geo Network’s original Aalim Online, Aamir Liaquat Hussain. With Aamir Liaquat, Reality TV entertainment meets religiosity. He took it a step further in the recent years by branding the Ramadan Transmissions and turning it into an extravagant variety show. Even more recently, he turned it into a giveaway fest loaded with corporate sponsors big and small who saw their image going with his “circus.”
Yes, “Ramadan circus” was what Islamabad High Court Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui referred to his show. He considered this gambling an abomination and blasphemous in an “Islamic Republic” that was supposed to safeguard Islamic tenets in a Shariah sanctioned society. He even insisted that the title of Islamic Republic should be removed from the state of Pakistan. What else could you ask for?
Perhaps Justice Siddiqui is one of those self-proclaimed “True Islam” purists who believe that religion should be practiced in its supposed authentic state, unaware that the monolithically solid idea in their perception is nothing more than an abstraction. They are not aware that these religious ideas have become cultural and have evolved. Even the Prophet himself could not have stopped them from evolving. He is not aware that people don’t just want to but will practice Ramadan on their own terms.
Justice Shaukat Siddiqui – Source: geo.tv
The judge makes a fool out of himself by threatening to ban Fahad Mustafa Tunio, Aamir Liaquat, and Waseem Badami for life, wonder what that means in the glossary of Pakistani justice. Are these the guardians of democracy, free speech, and freedom of the press in this country? Are these the authoritative figures who cite the superiority of the Constitution every second hour? We must not share their hideous, anti-freedom, authoritarian, totalitarian views. It would even be a duty to resist this stupidity which is a far more ridiculous spectacle than the TV circus it condemns.
In the day and age when the worst form of state censorship of journalism has returned, we have a judge that wants to worsen the censorship on the media. While there is little doubt that
Before our self-righteous hate of commercialism becomes too out of control, we must not forget that people always complain about not having free handouts during the holy month. Now that someone has come up with that, we have a problem with it. This is what freedom is about and it is manifesting itself into this. And then again what’s the harm? Even if a very small pool of people are being given electronic appliances, and occasionally motorbikes and cars randomly? It is not going to end world hunger but it is certainly not contributing to it. It only creates a bunch of jobs people like Justice Siddiqui believe the government is supposed to create.
Ramadan is a festival of gluttony after all. It is only appropriate that it should be celebrated with greed.
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Filed under: Commentary | Tagged: Aamir Liaquat Hussain, authoritarian, circus, culture, Fahad Mustafa Tunio, gambling, game shows, Geo TV, judicial activism, Pakistan, Ramadan, Ramadan transmission, religion, television, True Islam, TV, Waseem Badami | Leave a comment »