When Twitter gets it wrong

I spend an average of 14 hours online every day. During this time, I monitor stories on different news sites, wires stories, Twitter and various other sources. Being in the news business, you can gauge where the news is wrong and where factual inaccuracies are coming from, which (newsflash) happens often.

From politicians to opinion makers to senior journalists, factual errors and incorrect news is nothing new but it isn’t only media folk who are to blame. The online community itself is also part of this phenomenon. While ordinary citizens are never short of spreading rumors or incorrect news online (coup rumours anyone?) the community in their attempts to play the role of a media watchdog has also gotten ahead of itself on multiple occasions.

Fact-checking is skipped, a practice that makes mountains out of molehills when news starts to spread like wildfire. This often results in damage. But is anyone held accountable for their actions? Rarely.

While the internet is a powerful tool that can be used to further causes, a trend has emerged in recent times to misuse it. A recent example is the online petition against Geo News’ Najam Sethi. The petition, which carries more than 650 signatures, alleges that Sethi made “false claims” and attempted to “defame” Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf by calling his ex-wife Jemima Khan a Jew. While the senior journalist did indeed refer to Jemima Khan as a “Jewish woman” , is his statement something that should launch an online campaign? Is this campaign being led by the right people?

I don’t mean to defend anyone or demean a cause. My point is that we need to use online activism intelligently. The Maya Khan case is one example where it was used in a constructive manner and produced positive results. Do all cases merit a campaign, that too, one that ends in the removal of those against whom action is sought?

Most people on Twitter also choose to tweet information that they have received, and most of the time this information is unverified. After an hour or so of the tweet making the rounds, it disappears once the person who posted it realizes it is incorrect. Recently, rumors of a military coup in Pakistan were started by someone who heard there was troop movement in Islamabad. Interestingly, the government-run APP has also fallen into the trap of misreporting or failure to check the report if you will.

Besides this, many tweets and Facebook status updates can technically be construed as defamation, invasion of privacy and a whole host of other worrisome legal grey areas. It is important for citizens to look at their own actions when calling others out.

So the next time you start an online campaign, make sure you do your research and choose your course of action wisely.

This post originally appeared here.

Dear dictator, your rally really sucked

Dear dictator,

Your ‘show of power’ in Karachi was, if I may respectfully say disappointing and anti-climatic. Despite all your tall claims of having massive public support, and an equally large Facebook following, you did not garner enough support to draw even close to 10,000 people at your rally.

Leaders from your party proudly boasted that your rally would be bigger than Imran Khan’s, yet one can only wonder what happened and where you went wrong. Maybe if the attendees were paid more than Rs1,000 and a plate of biryani, you would have been able to fill the ground.  Not only did the numbers disappoint, the fact that friction in the party ranks has now surfaced also shows that there is much to be done before you actually launch your political career.

That your party has started to fall apart even before your return to Pakistan speaks volumes of how far you have to go with your political career. You launched the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) in 2010 and lost one of your major supporters, Sher Afgan Niazi, before you could even reach the first anniversary of your party.

In addition to this, your supporter, the King’s Party, the Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid (PML-Q) is silent about your return and even the cases against you. And what of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM)? You helped them stand on their feet again; you supported them and they gained. So, have they pledged their support to you yet?

Let me remind you that things in Balochistan went downhill during your tenure, when the Baloch demanded rights over resources in the provinces. Of course, your military mindset would have none of it. People started disappearing in your tenure, and many mothers lost their sons because you would have none of their ‘separatist talk’. Sir, let me tell you this, the Baloch do not forget so easily.

Your bloated ego does not help your cause either. The people of Pakistan are sick of hearing every single political leader talk the usual rhetoric, about how they are the only ones who can save Pakistan, and they are the only ones who are sincere to the country. A little advice to you sir: please bring humble back.

One last thing before I sign off: if you want to gain supporters, I suggest you return to your country. A true leader stands with his people and fights for them. He doesn’t sit miles away, addressing them over the phone.

Sincerely,

A citizen of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

This post originally appeared here.

Victims need action not rhetoric

According to the government, around 800 people have died in floods that have struck Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Around 270,000 people have been affected by floods in Balochistan, more than 15,000 houses have been destroyed and 25,000 families in Naseerabad are homeless. While we sit in the comfort of our homes up to 300,000 people remain without food and shelter, struggling to get to higher ground with what little is left of their belongings.

I can only wonder what we are to do for our brothers and sisters who no longer have homes to go back to, who are without food and now struggle for their very lives.

Fawad Ali Shah, a reporter at The Express Tribune spoke to a recent graduate of Peshawar University Ghaffar who told him that he was in the mountains with his family. There was no food, their homes were gone and the children had started to weaken and suffer because of the unavailability of food and water.

Balochistan has always suffered the most when floods hit, yet we always manage to forget about the province a few days after the crisis by supplying them with food items. Homes are washed away, families are lost, people go hungry and all we can do is sit and debate about what the government is not doing.

We cannot even imagine for a second what these people are going through but we can try to make things easier for them. Instead of making appeals and debating the number of casualties we can donate and collect supplies and food for flood victims.

Can we please stop commenting about how bad things are and how we should all pray? Can we go out and actually do something to help?

Unlike the Airblue crash (which was tragic, don’t get me wrong) we can still help control this disaster and hopefully, save lives.

A number of politicians have taken the initiative to visit flood victims and spend time with them which I appreciate but it would have been better if instead the politicians had taken victims supplies.

The army is also doing its best to evacuate people, but we still need more and that is where you and I can play our part.

I want to end by requesting President Asif Zardari to cancel his trip to the United Kingdom, not because of PM David Cameron’s comments. Rather so that those funds can be used to help flood victims. I’m sure the nation would appreciate it more if for once we don’t spend millions of taxpayer cash on lavish hotels and rental cars.

I’m sure there are many of us who would like to help in some way or the other. Let’s do something about it (for a change)!

This post originally appeared here.

Naval base attack: When will we learn?

Pakistan has a habit of not learning from its mistakes. We are stubborn and arrogant, and we scoff at others when they tell us we’re wrong, and let’s not forget, we believe our armed forces are brilliant and unstoppable.

In 2009, ten terrorists managed to enter the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi and killed 11 soldiers and two civilians. The terrorists were dressed in army uniforms when they entered the base.

Fast forward to two years later – More than ten terrorists enter PNS Mehran, the air support base of Pakistan’s Navy, and destroy two air surveillance aircrafts worth $36 million each.

Once again our armed forces have been caught napping. The attackers did not use the frontal assault route, but rather entered using sewerage lines behind the base.

Was there no security present at the base?

Did those who handle the base’s security look at the sewer line and say “it’s okay, nobody is going to take this route.”

Most importantly, why is an air support base with crucial apparatus located next to a museum and a shaadi lawn – places which the public has access to seven days a week?

The interior ministry was quick to announce that it had warned the military of a possible attack, much like the Punjab Home Department had passed on intelligence that the military might come under attack by men wearing army uniforms in 2009. This is a matter of serious concern.

Where is the military intelligence in this?

Considering that the navy has been under attack during the past month, where is our intelligence failing?

Who are these terrorists, and how deep have alliances to militant organisations become rooted?

An inside job?

Given the latest WikiLeaks cables on radicalisation within the ranks of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) and the sabotage of its equipment by its own men, there is a strong possibility that insiders were once again involved in the attack on the navy.

When the navy buses were last attacked in Karachi, there was news of insiders being involved but it was never disclosed by the agencies if this was true or not.

With the PNS Mehran attack, there are reports that the attackers were dressed in black, but bodies of those who were killed are not being taken out of the base because the government ‘does not want to disclose ethnicities.’ There have also been unconfirmed reports of some terrorists being captured alive and some of the men killing themselves during the operation.

Did the Taliban do it?

Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attacks just as they had done in 2009 after the attack on the GHQ.

However, there aren’t too many factors linking the TTP to this attack. For starters, the Pakistan Navy is not involved in operations being carried out in the north, nor does it provide any kind of support to those operations. Secondly, the equipment destroyed in the attack is used for maritime surveillance.

Also, several defence analysts are of the view that the Taliban cannot be involved in this attack. Security Analyst Ikram Sehgal talking to the media categorically said that sabotaging maritime warfare can only benefit one county, that is, India. This speculative sentiment is currently making the rounds on most TV channels in Pakistan, along with other far-flung theories ranging as far as the relevance of control of Gwadar port and Pak-China ties to the current attack.

Defence Analyst Maria Sultan said that the attacks were carried out by well trained personnel who seem to have been backed by higher powers to show the world that Pakistan cannot adequately protect its military equipment.

The navy has repeatedly come under attack now, and while there are several possibilities as to who could be behind them, why our military does not take measures to prevent such incidents is a question on many minds.

This post originally appeared here.

The big bra brouhaha

Working in the online news world helps you develop a certain knack for determining viral stories. Words like sex, death, rape, religion and blast call out to you from the screen.

So, when a headline like “Padded Bras are Devil’s Cushions says Council of Islamic Ideology” pops up in the wires I can understand why a bored sub-editor would sit up and take notice. Here’s a story about extremist mullahs from terror infested Pakistan cracking down on a symbol of women’s sexual liberation – it’s so perfectly cliché, it’s almost funny.

The small story soon found its way to international websites, newspapers and channels.

In their eagerness to publish the oh-so-revealing story that Pakistan’s Council of Islamic Ideology was ‘protesting the use of padded bras’ Fox News, Times of India, Hindustan Times and Zee News all missed one key fact – the story was fake.

The original story appeared on a satirical news site, Rozanama Jawani known for its absurd and unlikely stories which are humorous because they are so ridiculously impossible. The website has been known to produce gems such as:

Peshawar celebrates Valentine’s Day with Saudi Arabia

Hakimullah Mehsud admits father never hugged him as a child

Sindhi music sensation ‘Malal Chandio’ releases album “Adi Quit Playing Game” – covers Backstreet Boys

Eventually, these mainstream websites realised their mistake, but considering how stupid this mistake was it is understandable that there has been no overt retraction and admittance of the error. In fact, Zee News has yet to remove the story from their website.

Do they stand by it then?

If we look at this incident through the eyes of a conspiracy theorist, the international media jumped at the perfect opportunity to bash Pakistan. Either that, or everyone collectively decided to be stupid together. Did someone fail to do a check on the source? The website clearly states that the news published on the page is not true. Or did someone miss the ridiculous looking picture that is clearly photoshopped?

In any case it is amusing to see the media can make mistakes of this magnitude in its eagerness for a “Pakistan extremist” story.  But then again, I cannot blame them entirely.  After all, in Pakistan the ridiculous and reality are becoming increasing similar.

This post originally appeared here.

The colourful world of comments

“Don’t you have anything better to write about?” is the response you get when you do a story that does not cover pressing issues or one that would be ‘making a difference’.

If you do get a story on topics along the lines of corruption, rape or violence, the reaction you get is, “Stop maligning the name of the country! What will others think when they read this?”

Working for The Express Tribune Web Desk, I have come across a very diverse group of comments – everyone seems to have something to say, whether you like it or not.

There are the ‘something betters’ – these guys are never happy. They always want to know why we don’t have anything better to write about. Sirs and madams, you’re in the Life & Style section, for ‘pressing issues’ please use gates, ‘Home’ and ‘Pakistan’.

‘The defenders’ – yes, they defend everyone and everything. If theres a story on corruption, they respond by saying, “Stop reporting it!”; Rape? “Why are you giving us depressing news?” Business? “We’re the best, what inflation?”

‘The All-India-We’re-Better-Than-You-League’ – this bunch is stalking the website, literally. They jump at every single opportunity they can get, quoting from Wikipedia like 2nd graders running through their ABCs. They don’t like you, they want to bring you down and they pretty much manage to do it too.

‘The ‘Religious lot’ – this group will defend the faith, and it doesn’t matter which faith they’re defending. They’re all for the blasphemy laws and they want to be heard, via 700 word essays, of course.

‘The punishers’ – like their name suggests, they want everyone punished, they don’t even want to know if the suspect has been guilty. Hang them, jail them, punish them, lynch them, they want blood sitting behind a computer monitor.

‘The shameful’ – “shame, shame”. That is all.

Unfortunately, I don’t have enough space to list all of them down. I do have this to say though – what we have on the site is a very diverse and vibrant bunch of people who get to express their views, unlike on many other websites.

This post originally appeared here.

Salmaan Taseer: The case of the missing governor

Sound the alarms! Inform the Army! The governor is missing…again! Armed with his designer sunglasses and iPad, Governor Punjab Salmaan Taseer managed to slip from under the provincial government’s radar for the second time in a row. Television channels ran tickers on the governor’s absence today, while the governor tweeted that he hadn’t gone anywhere (not to mention taking out the time to slam the Punjab government and a certain media group for the hype around his alleged ‘exit’).

Known for his outrageous comments and responses to political opponents, Mr Taseer never fails to surprise us. From defending minorities in Pakistan to annoying fellow politicians on Twitter (read Marvi Memon), Mr Taseer’s latest escapade has kept us all entertained, to say the least.

The Punjab Assembly woke up to the governor’s absence after 72 hours, when media reports alerted the speaker. The 18^th amendment made way for the speaker of the provincial assembly to take charge if and when the governor is not able to perform his/her duty.

34. Substitution of Article 104 of the Constitution.— In the Constitution, for Article 104, the following shall be substituted namely:—

“104.  Speaker Provincial Assembly to act as, or perform functions of Governor in his absence.- When the Governor, by reason of absence from Pakistan or for any other cause, is unable to perform his functions, the Speaker of the Provincial Assembly and in his absence any other person as the President may nominate shall perform the functions of Governor until the Governor returns to Pakistan or, as the case may be, resumes his functions.”.

When Rana Sanaullah woke up to the absence, he announced that the governor had fled to Dubai without informing the cabinet secretary and the speaker (who would be acting governor). Another news report ran that the spokesperson for the governor house had said that Taseer was in Sukkur.

The News ran a report stating that Salmaan Taseer had met (or rather ran into) a senior correspondent of Daily Jang on a Karachi-Colombo flight. Taseer had declared that he was on his way to Sri Lanka to follow up on President Asif Ali Zardari’s recent trip. When the Sri Lankan High Commissioner was asked about this, he said he was not aware of the visit, as Salmaan Taseer had not applied for a visa.

“If the governor has gone to Sri Lanka, he must have travelled on a private passport. Otherwise on official or diplomatic passport he is required to obtain visa from the High Commission before embarking on the journey. At least I am not aware of his visit to Sri Lanka last week” – Sri Lankan High Commissioner Air Chief Marshal (R) Jayalath Weerakkody.

The governor of course, announced on Twitter that he was hanging out with (imaginary) friends:

@SalmaanTaseer According 2 The News. UAE Ambsdr & Sri Lanka HC denied my prescence However Ambsdr of Narnia has officially admitted I was there! (sic)

Inside sources reveal the governor was busy raising an army with Aslan to help save Punjab. Meanwhile, as to Rana Sanaullah and the media groups clamoring to know where the governor was, he had this to say:

@SalmaanTaseer I don’t have to answer any joker where I am (sic)

@SalmaanTaseer GEO has gone mad again! I’m here. Going no where Their credibility is zero (sic)

To add to the drama, another report stated that the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) had confirmed the trip and released the relevant documents.

In all this drama, there is of course a serious issue to be raised. The absence of the governor without handing over charge to the speaker meant that the province was without a constitutional head, and it also renders the assembly speaker ineligible to preside over the session. If we accept that the governor has travelled to Sri Lanka, on a private passport, as a representative of the federation and without informing his successor, a clear violation of the constitution has taken place.

Since there is talk of proof and a violation, will the Governor of Punjab perhaps set an example for current and future generations of politicians and leaders in the country? Will he be moral enough to resign if the reports are true? Or should we buy into his claims of a rabid Punjab Government using under-handed means to topple him from his throne? Whatever the case may be, Taseer is sure to continue ‘saving’ Punjab – even if it has to be one tweet at a time.

This post originally appeared here.

I’m from KGS and I can’t study next to… a big building?

When you live in Pakistan, you are never short of burning issues that you can spend hours debating. There are floods, corruption and the rising cost of living  - but for a select few there is another far more pressing concern – the construction of a high rise building next to Karachi Grammar School.

Parents have been protesting and taking to the streets to stop the construction that is to take place right next to their children’s private school.

Their concern you ask?

The building, they say, is a security risk and an environmental hazard. Environmental hazard? KGS is located next to a nullah, butobviously the trash, dirty water and whatever else is housed within the nullah has never been a health hazard for the kids.

Placards at the protest asked the administration to ‘protect our national treasure’ and told them ‘don’t be mean, go green.’ Armed policemen stood quietly in front of the protesters (amusing how when citizens protest power outages and water shortage they usually get a taste of the ‘lathi’ or are told to clear off.)

Of course, the parents have a right to protect their children. When they protested against the construction of a United States consulate near the campus it was understandable – who would want to live or study next to a structure that represents ‘enemy number one’?

But this case is a bit different no? Barring the whole debate about how half the country does not have food, money, education, let us ask the Karachi Grammar School administration and this ‘concerned’ lot of parents what they were doing when they started jamming the main road (lets not even discuss the side road) with their every day traffic. Cars are sometimes parked up to the third lane, with drivers and mothers conveniently gone to pick up the kids while their car stands in the middle of the road, an obvious ‘hazard’ to cars and trucks driving on the main road, not to mention noise pollution and an overall negative impact to the environment for nearby residents.

And what about the old Saddar campus?

Pollution? Check.

High rises? Check.

And don’t even get me started about the traffic jams in Saddar.

These people are either just ignorant or seated too high on their well-fed horses to  look around (or down for that matter). Seriously guys, I don’t see any schools complaining about high rises, and they’re not even located next to a ditch filled with half of Clifton’s trash. Let’s be fair shall we? I’m sure none of the residents who had to bear with the school when it opened took out a rally complaining about the noise every morning.

Some of us who have to travel by Boat Basin have to face some inconvenience while the policemen obediently stand by making sure nobody offends ‘the wrong people’, even though they’re not being law abiding citizens at all. The situation is not only pathetic, it also reeks of the elitist mindset that is so rampant in our country. The one that screams ‘We are always right – you shut up and sit down.’

This post originally appeared here.

Why should I pay a flood tax?

As the flood waters start to recede and the government gears up for rehabilitation, it plans on putting the burden on the tax paying segment of the public.

It will be people like you and me who are going to pay flood tax while our friends riding around in SUVs will have a good laugh.

The government planned a one time tax that would be deducted from the taxpayers’ salary via property tax, while the 98.4 per cent of the non tax paying population will get away with more than just not paying tax.

I, for one, am not in favor of paying flood tax.

For starters, considering our track record, there is a very high probability that the tax we pay will be lost somewhere between us handing it over and it reaching the flood victims. Or it might just end up being used for another much needed fountain off the beach of Karachi – or get used for a certain monument everyone is shouting about.

Secondly, why is the government not taking action against the tax evaders? Why not broaden the tax net? Simple statements like ‘the elite are hampering the broadening of the tax net’ are just not good enough. Can the government really be so helpless that they have to run away from the all mighty tax evaders and come running after the honest tax payers?

I don’t mind giving donations in cash or kind for the flood victims, but I certainly don’t appreciate the government forcefully taking money from me while there is a whole bunch of people out there who have been getting away with not paying taxes all their lives.

This post originally appeared here.

Taqwacore: rise of the Muslim punks

I discovered Michael Muhammad Knight while searching for some obscure punk bands on the internet. Clicking through different portals, spam pages and search engines I ended up on a page that stated The Taqwacores, with a drawing of a bearded man with a Mohawk sitting in the jalsa position saying his prayers.

Muslim punks was a term I never thought I’d hear, but here it was, a fictitious manifesto depicting a person caught between rebellion and Islam, choosing both.

I got hold of the book and went through it within a day. The book is written well enough to keep you engrossed through to the end. The narrator of the book is a young engineering student who moves into a house full of muslim punks who party every night yet wake up to say their Fajr prayers in the morning.

Shocked, intrigued, I searched for more.

Where Knight’s first book on punk spoke about their day-to-day life and the setting up of a Woodstock of muslim punks, the second book talks about muslim punks is an entirely fictional piece featuring Knight himself and the real world taqwacore band The Kominas.

This book, while not as engaging as The Taqwacores, is a decent read. It follows one of the characters from the previous book, Amazing Ayyub, on a mission to kill a pop punk band who have taken the term muslim punk and turned it into a commercial venture.

Knight seems to know what he’s writing about, his experiences in Pakistan as a muslim and then moving back to the US after being advised not to leave for Jihad can be a possible explanation of him creating characters who look towards an Islam that is not limited to a geographical location.

The two books by Knight that I’ve read were an equally enlightening and shocking experience, and they would definitely be shocking for the majority of Muslims the world over, yet there is a quality to them which lends to re-affirming one’s faith. Overall, his writing style keeps you engaged and his works are curiously fictitious enough to be real.

This post originally appeared here.