Salmaan Taseer on Twitter: The gloves-off politician

Former Governor Salmaan Taseer was never short of words, be it for his political opponents, militants and extremists, Indians interacting with him or just regular people on Twitter looking to pick a fight.

Taseer joined Twitter on October 6, 2009. His initial tweets focused more on the former governor’s daily agenda and self-promotion, but this later branched into hitting back at political opponents (specifically the Sharif brothers) and commenting on a host of other issues.

On the politics front, Taseer never missed a chance to take a jab at the Sharif brothers and the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N), and was also an early critic of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan.

Taseer was also fond of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and would tweet about the sacrifices he made for the PPP during General Ziaul Haq’s tenure and also about slain party leader Benazir Bhutto.

He was also a vocal critic of the Indian Army in Kashmir and would equate its presence to the actions of Israeli forces in Palestine.

The following list of select Twitter updates from the late governor’s profile encompass his online political persona.

(Tweets have been proofread for readability)

TASEER BASHES THE PML-N

• MQM in Punjab? Excellent all parties should go national.
• I only wish PML N could get off the GT road and go national.
• In May I will complete 2yrs as Governor Punjab. Please send your flowers gifts etc to Raiwind to thank the Sharifs for their love and support.
• Noting with concern the Sharifs are only paying rs5000 per month tax. I have asked for them to be included in the Benazir Income Support Program.
• Let the Sharifs teach the UK Conservative Party the method of coalitions aka lota’s and forward blocks.
• I heard CM Punjab has joined Twitter after my debut. Imitation is the sincere form of flattery, bare mian to bare mian, chote mian subhanallah
• Like a newly married wife doesn’t take her husband’s name PML N refuses to say TALIBAN.
• I need input what sharmili dulhan PML N should call Taliban. Tweeters have suggested MERE VO or MUNE KE ABU etc…
• I’m writing to WWF to replace Panda as symbol of endangered species with Nawaz Sharif! In the political jungle he’s become extinct.
• News item today the US Govt wants to buy Governors House. I think the PML N govt will sell it for $1 provided they take the Governor with it.
• Nawaz Sharif and George Bush have degrees. Jomo Kenyatta and Mao ze Tung had no degrees. Form your opinion!
• After a long time PML N has come out Number one for the first time? Topped the list of fake degrees holders by a long way. Mubarik Chote bare Mian
• Initially I was targeted by PMLN, Islamic fundo hate groups etc. Now it’s Hindu lunatics RSS and Pak haters. I must b doing something right!
• Another Muslim League! PML N< nincompoops Q< qalabaz F < no marks 4 guessing. One has a sher now Shaheen next should have a rat!
• It’s comforting that anti Bhutto forces are led by Nawaz Sharif. If someone with brains was in that position we could face real problems!
• Shabaz Sharif threatens ANOTHER long march. If he can walk unaided from his new house in model town to Raiwind I’ll resign as Governor!
• Interviewing with Najam Sethi CM Shahbaz said Governor “honest good person”. Sethi “Govnor Punjab?” CM “no governor SBP!” I was shattered.

TASEER ON THE PPP/GOVERNMENT

• Vo jo karz rakhte th jan par vo hisab aj chuka diya… PPP gave the 1973 Constitution and now PPP gives the 18th historical Amendment.
• 18 Tarameem ka matlab hai 2018 tak Zaradari rehay ga!
• Told Bangladesh press delegation that by releasing Mujibur Rehman in 1971, Bhutto saved Pakistan from ignominy and shame.
• In politics there is no ultimate power and no ultimate defeat… 18th Amendment is good for the evolution of power… it is a victory for Pakistan.
• Signing of 18th Amendment by the President was a historic moment. Some people looked sad! Jahan shehnai bajti hae vahan matam bhi hota hae.
• Ranj se khoogar hua insaan tu mth jata hae ranj…Mushkelein itne pari mujh par ke ahsaan ho gayen
• The great Bhutto quoted that Ghalib sher before his judicial murderers in the Supreme Court.
• Like 1973 constitution what PPP sows is RAPED by others. This time Inshallah PPP will again be in power 2017.
• Perhaps UK Conservative Party should take advice from PPP as to how form a government with a hung Parliament.
• Of BB’s political life of 30 years she was in office 5 years only. Ironically she is more powerful in death than in her life as an icon visionary.
• I started my political career with Bibi witnessed the poisonous attacks on the Bhutto’s. Today they are the symbol of the federation of Pakistan.

TASEER ON IMRAN KHAN

• Imran Khan says he can solve Pakistan’s Problems in 90 days: terrorism, power, population growth water etc. What about Imran? Who is going to solve that?
• People messaged me Imran Khan must be given a chance. Unfortunately for him and fortunately for Pakistan it requires 173 seats in the NA. Thank God for democracy.
• Does this mean we will never be a welfare state! RT @ImranKhanPTI vows to make #Pakistan ‘welfare state if PTI comes to power.
• Imran Khan and Sarah Palin is a match made in heaven.

TASEER ON INDIA

• I’m always amazed to see how eager to believe Pakistanis are when there is anything negative about their country unlike Indians who cover up.
• The killing fields of Kashmir have overtaken Palestine. Under the cloak of shining India is a brutal story of murder, rape and suppression.
• The Indian occupation of Kashmir is an exact parallel of the Israelis in Gaza. Same tactics, same brutality.

TASEER ON THE ARMY/MILITANCY

• It is a time to stand up for Pakistan. I do not fear the terrorists. Never give in.
• Wants all Pakistani’s to stand firm behind the army and support your troops. A united Pakistan under one flag.
• How can the ISI aid Taliban who are killing Pakistani troops ? Irresponsible selective WikiLeaks are poison.
• I’m not a conspiracy believer but there are shadowy spook agencies that cannot see Pakistan as an Islamic moderate democratic nuclear success story.

OTHER POLITICAL VIEWS

• Police beating doctors… Doctors beating media… Media beating lawyers… Lawyers beating police……….. Circle complete!
• Knowledge can only thrive in a liberal atmosphere!
• Pakistan has been raped by the so called educated, not illiterates. So why do MPs need to be graduates?
• I have taken leave from the affairs of state to master by new iPad. Who says politicians cannot be techies?
• I was driving today without security talking on the phone and a policeman challaned me. I had to explain I have constitutional immunity!
• Legally the governor as constitutional head of province CANNOT be charged for anything including murder! My family is never excused they pay.
• Other than me which governors, Ministers,CJP, President, PM, Chief ministers etc are on Twitter and listening to the people?
• Bullet proof car being purchased for protocol use by governor house. Not by me I drive my own car, live in my own house and pay my own utilities.
• The existing car is 16 yrs old. Representing the Federal government I have to host Presidents international visitors. So can we stop the BS?
• Next time the Turkish president comes I’ll drive him around on a motorbike and if Hakimullah knocks him off we can tell the world we are too poor.
• Nothing in the Constitution prohibits a Governor from being member of a political party. So-called Non-political governors turn out the worst.
• A politician’s personal spending habits are his business as long as he is not stealing from the Government. I know many frugal thieves – we are not Ghandi.
• Nobody has accused me of a fake degree. NRO safe passage, bank default, tax fraud. Kya baat hae? Maza nahin a raha. I’m feeling left out!
• A judicial coup cannot work in Pakistan. The only formula is democracy, democracy and more democracy.
• The best thing about the APML (2) is that both their leaders Chaudhry Shujaat and Pir Pagaro can’t speak.
• One thing is clear from WikiLeaks – that elected persons with peoples mandate don’t run Pakistan. Makes elections pointless.
• Corruption! I believe rich and wealthy are more susceptible to greed than the poor.
• It is the rich educated and privileged who have destroyed Pakistan, not the poor illiterate and dispossessed.

This post originally appeared here.

Filtering SMS: PTA may ban over 1,500 English, Urdu words

After rumours of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) imposing a ban on porn sites in the country, a new PTA letter floating online orders the imposition of a “system” to ban select words in mobile SMS messages.

A set of two extensive lists in English and Urdu have allegedly been compiled by the PTA. The list of English words crosses the 1,000 figure, while the Urdu list contains over 550 words.

A scan of the letter (dated November 14, 2011) sent from Muhammad Talib Doger, Director General (Services) PTA, states that the filtering of content through SMS must be considered under the scope of “Protection from Spam, Unsolicited, Fraudulent and Obnoxious Communication Regulations, 2009″ and the SOPs laid down to control spamming. The letter is written with reference to a meeting held with mobile phone operators on October 18, 2011 in Islamabad.

PTA has ordered the implementation of the system within seven days of the issuance of the said letter. All operators have been asked to submit a monthly report to PTA regarding the number of blocked text messages.

“Spamming” has been defined as:

The transmission of harmful, fraudulent, misleading, illegal or unsolicited messages in bulk to any person without express permission of the recipient, or causing any electronic system to show any such message or is being involved in falsified online user account registration or falsified domain name registration for commercial purpose.

The letter states that under the “provisions and dictum” by the higher courts, the “fundamental rights of privacy and freedom of speech and expressions guaranteed under the constitution are not unrestricted and are subject to reasonable restrictions imposed by law”.

Clause (d) of sub-section (1) of section 31 of the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-organization) Act, 1996 states that:

Whoever “unauthorisedly transmits through a telecommunication system or telecommunication service any intelligence which he knows or has reason to be false, fabricated, indecent or obscene” is an offence under the Act.

Content filtering may be done through “through automated machine process(s)/function(s)”  without reading or disclosing “content of intelligence” by a human being in order to protect consumers under provisions of the Act.

Under license condition No.7.8 of the cellular mobile license:

The Licensee shall take all reasonable steps to track, locate and prevent the source of harassing, unsolicited, offensive, fraudulent or unlawful communication.

Director PR for PTA, Mohammad Younis, while speaking to The Express Tribune, said that he was not aware of any such letter being sent out, adding that many letters are sent out to operators every day, and not all of them go through the PR office.

Speaking on whether the PTA had taken a decision on SMS filtering in the past, Younis said that the authority does not take such decisions and only passes on the instructions to licensees once a decision is taken by a ministerial committee.

While much of the list contains expletives, a number of words to be banned include medical terms, terms used by particular minority groups, common words from the English language and rap group, WuTang Clan.

Medical terms to be banned:

Athletes foot

Breast

Condom

Flatulence

Intercourse

Period

Premature

Tongue

Herpes

Daily usage words to be banned:

Deeper

Fairy

Fingerfood

Hole

Hostage

Harder

Religious terms to be banned:

Devil

Jesus Christ

LGBT terms to be banned:

Gay

Homosexual

Queer

Musicians/artists to be banned:

Wuutang

Reactions online

faizanlakhani even the word “taxi” is on ban list of PTA … #Fail

Amara807 Bewakoof is banned? Random

abbasnasir59 With PTA’s legendary efficiency I am sure Pakistanis won’t be able to access Fcuk e-catalogue.

pateesa  So no Pakistani will ever apply to Lund University for his masters, or work at BundesBank. #PTABannedWords

kaalakawaa The banned list includes every conceivable incorrectly spelled version of “masturbation”. “Masturbation”, spelt correctly, is not banned.

ZebAslam And “slave driver” is gone too. Damn. I can imagine a lot of unhappy worker drones. #PTA #bannedlist

abidhussayn Expect Mobile Companies to shut down all their SMS bundle packages in 7 days.

shakirhusain why the hell has #PTA blocked Athlete’s foot???

anthonypermal  You know, with the word ‘creamy’ banned, one wonders what cheap-ass erotic novel the compiler was reading. #PTABannedList

(Additional input by Jahanzaib Haque)

This post originally appeared here.

Social media: From Egypt’s revolution to Karachi

“My family isn’t aware I’m in Karachi right now, they think I’m still in Turkey,” says Egyptian blogger Mohamed El Dahshan as he laughs when he is asked if Pakistan was as dangerous as it is portrayed in the media abroad.

Mohamed was in Karachi for ‘Network!!’ – Pakistan’s First International Social Media Summit. An economist by training and a consultant on government policy, Mohamed says he has been blogging for the last six years and has also moved into writing for the press.

He was actively involved in the Egyptian Revolution from day one and reported it on both social and traditional media.

“I was blogging anonymously before the Egyptian Revolution, focusing on travelling at first and then moving on to politics and current affairs. I’ve been focusing more on Egyptian affairs for the past seven months now,” says Mohamed.

Mohamed says a group of people was already actively expressing their concerns even before the revolution, both online and offline. He says they would gather in small numbers and protest to make their presence known. At the same time people in Egypt were also active online, pushing for awareness and focusing on critical issues.

“I would say 2010 was the buildup and 2011 was the explosion. People’s grievances had been building up for a while. Our job was to inform people and go out in small numbers to inform people about issues being faced.”

Mohamed says the revolution would have happened if social media was not there, but it would have taken a little longer.

“Social media allowed people to come together, organise and motivate themselves. It gave people an outlet to vent their anger,” says Mohamed.

“Social action is collective action. If the government tells you you’re on your own and everybody is happy, you are afraid of doing things. But social media changed that. It helped bring together people who were upset about the same things.”

Mohamed says the biggest social media platform that contributed towards helping people during the revolution was Facebook. He says there were influential blogs but Facebook had groups with hundreds and thousands of members, people who had been victims of “brutality”.

“Twitter was super important during the revolution, it helped us get live updates,” he says.

He says the government’s move of blocking social media websites and the internet itself to isolate people was a “stupid” move. “You can either be home alone and afraid or you can join a million people and live and die together, but you cannot be afraid alone.”

The Egyptian government during its crackdown against social media sites had labeled Facebook users as the “Facebook Youth” and stated that they were criminals against the government. Mohamed recalls when he was travelling in a cab and was stopped and beaten up by a mob because he was carrying a laptop with him.

Mohamed says the revolution helped people more active than they already were on social media sites. “People had a new found respect social media, even the Egyptian Army has a Facebook page now and they make all declarations through it. They recognize the power of social media.”

Now that the revolution is over, social media is helping people become observers and be more responsible in Egypt. Mohamed says people have put up documents found at state police offices and he himself went to a referendum and put up pictures of technical violations.

“We are still wondering what we should be doing now. Maybe we are on an observation mission.”

The Egyptian Ministry of Finance invited the youth of the revolution to ask for their feedback on the budget, Mohamed says. He believes social media has helped create the awareness that the youth is also a stakeholder in the country.

Mohamed says there is always a core of people and it is the core that takes the actual cause forward. He says focusing on the same issue counts the most and Egypt was lucky to have a dedicated core focusing on an issue.

Momentum is important for change he says, and adds that the government in Pakistan always manages to deflate the momentum.

This post originally appeared here.

Returning to Orkut: a surreal experience

In the wake of the blasphemy controversy and the Facebook ban in Pakistan and Bangladesh, many Muslims set out en masse to discover new social networking websites such as MillatFacebook and Sal.am to fulfill their online needs. Some of these websites turned out to be Facebook clones, while others were just plain useless.

While many local users resorted to using proxies to access Facebook, I opted to return to my original stalking grounds, Orkut.

A short background

For those who may have missed the craze in 2004-05, Orkut was an invite only website with a personalized profile where you have all your friends, pictures, testimonials in one place; a strong community-based system where discussions can take place based on the purpose of the community.

But above all Orkut was the perfect gossip harvester – and stalker friendly too.

Users could easily go to a profile, check the scraps left behind, and then maybe talk about it over Orkut or over the phone. Everything was open to public scrutiny, and later, Orkut also added ever-intrusive features such as the ‘who viewed your profile’ feature.

Naturally, Pakistanis were obsessed with Orkut when it launched.

According to stats from 2007, Pakistanis only accounted for 1.58% of the total population on Orkut, but were number two globally in terms of page visits.

Unfortunately, the invite-only open environment of Orkut made it easy for Facebook to break away users. Facebook offered private profiles, where the user could ch0ose what to display and who to display to.

Return to Orkut

My return to Orkut after the Facebook ban has been a surreal experience. Orkut had changed. And I still cannot clearly say if it is a good or a bad change.

For one thing there is a new interface, which allows me to change the color of the interface to my liking – something Facebook doesn’t give you, but something which you don’t really need either. In the interest of familiarity, I stuck to the older interface of Orkut, which was much simpler, and helped me get a good understand of what was new.

Orkut has borrowed or adopted some of the features from Facebook. They have managed to make it a more private experience. The privacy settings let you decide who can see you, who can add you and Orkut now also has the Friend Finder option, where people can look for you via your email address. Google chat has also been integrated into your Orkut profile, you can set your status according to availability, and friends on Google chat can talk with you.

Another new feature they brought in are applications such as iLike, movies, friend of the day, games and more.

The new interface also functions similar to Facebook. You can update your status on Orkut; all updates from friends show up on your home page from birthdays to events, and Orkut also recommends people you might know or you’d like to know based on interests.

If you visit a friend’s page, it shows mutual communities to show interests you might share. You can also share videos from YouTube and images from Picasa through scraps you leave for your friends.

Overall, Orkut has managed to do a good job to come up to par with the competition. In fact, it has done too good a job. While it cannot be called a Facebook clone, the obvious ‘follow the leader’ approach has stripped the already barren landscape of Orkut from any sense of identity. It acts and feels like Facebook but looks like Orkut.

As such, the major downside to the heavily revamped Orkut is that people who used the old site may find it a little difficult to use the new one and feel alienated. The disconnect is sort of like taking a Junoon fan from the band’s sufi days and transporting them to 2010 to meet the hip, new Ali Azmat of today.

Those who switch back to Orkut have been warned.

This post originally appeared here.

‘The saints will protect Karachi from Cyclone Phet’

As Cyclone Phet approaches the shores of Karachi and panic levels rise among local residents, many have turned to various patron saints of Karachi seeking protection.

Urban legends of the countless times Sufi saints have protected Karachi from storms and tsunamis are currently making the rounds in the city.

Some stories speak of the saints individually, while others claim that the collective prayers of these saints protect the metropolis.

Four saints

According to one legend four Sufi saints protect the city from impending disaster.

The saints are Abudllah Shah Ghazi in Clifton, Samandri Baba on the National Highway, Yusuf Shah in Manora and Manghoo Baba in Manghopir. It is said that the presence of these saints in Karachi have already saved the city from natural disasters including earthquakes, cyclones and all sea-related phenomenon.

The legend of Abdullah Shah Ghazi

Many Karachiites strongly believe that as long as Shah Ghazi’s shrine is kept clean and well-maintained, Karachi will always be spared from deadly sea storms. Most recently, storms were said to have been deflected by the Sufi saint to the Indian city of Gujarat when they were just 10 hours away from Karachi.

A famous legend regarding Abdullah Shah Ghazi says that once when the sea was rough and fishermen could not go out to sea, they went to Abdullah Shah Ghazi and asked him to pray for the sea to remain calm.

Abdullah Shah Ghazi took his eating bowl and submerged it into the sea water and curled the bowl by pressing it from the sides, enclosing the water inside.

He then said to the sea “you have been misbehaving quite a lot lately!”, the water is then said to have calmed down. Many people believe the the sea is said to have moved far away because of Abdullah Shah Ghazi’s warning.

The seven Sufi brothers

Another legend tells us of seven Sufi brothers, whos shrines protect Karachi from oncoming storms and tsunamis. These brothers were Ghayab Shah of Kemari, Alim Shah of Jamia Cloth, Vilayat Shah of Malir, Jumman Shah of Shahra e Faisal, Samandri Baba on the National Hihgway, Yusuf Shah of Manora and Misri Shah in Defence.

Mewa Shah

Mewa Shah, another local Sufi saint buried in Karachi, is also entwined in the legendary brotherhood of protective saints.

Mewa Shah was believed to have set fire to a ship carrying him to exile, said his prayers on the waves of the Arabian Sea and mounted a large fish which took him back to the shores of Karachi.

Visitors on The Express Tribune website have also kept their faith in Abdullah Shah Ghazi and the patron saints’ powers of protection.

Farrukh Ahmed stated, “It is to be noted that all of the times, Abdullah Shah Ghazi saved us from all the cyclones in the past, so please don’t worry and have a firm faith in Allah as this will not gonna happen InshAllah (only heavy rains might occur), so let’s start pray from today for our City.”

Meanwhile, Alam responding to news that Cyclone Phet will hit Karachi as a down graded level 2 cyclone succinctly stated, “Phet 0 – Abdullah Shah Ghazi 1.”

This post originally appeared here.

A new Facebook for Muslims?

(with Jahanzaib Haque)

The ongoing ban of Facebook in Pakistan has prompted some entrepreneurs to jump at the opportunity with the creation of an alternative social networking site, Pakfacebook.com.

Launched on May 19, the ‘kosher’ alternative to Facebook has become the 488th most active site in Pakistan according to search analytics website Alexa.

Controversy has surrounded the newly launched website however, as SMS messages being forwarded in Pakistan have warned users that the site is hosted in Canada and has been set up by a US citizen to, “take advantage of you, and earn money that they are losing from the original site”.

The site has also been plagued by downtime for most of Sunday, possibly due to the sudden load of traffic to its servers.

Alternatives are being sought by Pakistanis online:

“This situation is a golden opportunity for any Pakistani web developers to design a web like Facebook and if their site serves like Facebook, it will become a huge success for that developer, Muslims and Pakistan” said Hasham in an online comment to The Express Tribune.

“Marketing people are advised ‘go where the crowds are’. Guys Paki crowd is not on FB anymore. So go where they are going now. FB is not the only place for crowds, a new one can be created. I like the idea of Hasham, developers should come up quickly with something like a desi Facebook alternate. Our friends abroad can join in and we can have a cleaner social networking platform of our own. Hope somebody comes forward with it,” said Anis in a continuation of the online discussion.

So what are the options?

Some alternatives to Facebook do currently exist on the internet. Among the most popular of these is Muslim social networking site,Salam which offers many of Facebook’s features such as photo sharing, events, groups and videos. The site also adheres to the concept of modesty as indicated in its Community Guidance section.

Weblog TechMambo also provides a list of the Top 10 Facebook clonesavailable online.

The Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) on Tuesday inaugurated the ‘Millat Facebook’ website as an alternative to the banned social networking site. Read the full report here.

Privacy first:

Facebook has also seen competition crop up due to the ongoing controversy surrounding its privacy settings. The New York Times ran a recent report on four students who have set up Diaspora*, a social networking alternate to Facebook with personalised privacy settings for users.

As they describe it, the Diaspora software will let users set up their own personal servers, called seeds, create their own hubs and fully control the information they share. Mr Sofaer says that centralized networks like Facebook are not necessary. “In our real lives, we talk to each other,” he said. “We don’t need to hand our messages to a hub. What Facebook gives you as a user isn’t all that hard to do. All the little games, the little walls, the little chat, aren’t really rare things. The technology already exists.”

This post originally appeared here.