Hate campaign
A vicious hate campaign has been unleashed, at the behest of a television channel and its lead anchor, against The Friday Times' editor and GEO News analyst Najam Sethi. The main grouse of these two is with GEO News and its owners, for various reasons, to do with competition and the market. But there's more to it than that. Both the channel and the anchor have been nudged to attack all of GEO's leading anchors on various trumped up charges. Lately, the focus of the attack seems to have shifted to Mr Sethi because the Powers-That-Be are unhappy with his critique of their policies. Banners have appeared against him for being "anti-national" and a sedition case has been filed in a Karachi anti-terrorist court. An attempt to lodge a blasphemy complaint has been rebuffed by the Sindh High Court but this is unlikely to deter those who are inciting people to violence. Rallies have taken place in various towns and cities, and more are planned. This is nothing short of incitement to violence, and a new high in repression of free speech. As Pastor Niemoller, a holocaust survivor, said about the Nazis during World War II, "First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out -- because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out -- because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out -- because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak for me".
Incommunicado
Our mole from within The Great Khan's horde reports that the former Glaswegian Guv of the Punjab, who jumped ship from The Man of Steel not so long ago, is now thoroughly disenchanted with Khan & Co. We've heard he rarely attends kitchen cabinet meetings, and he's certainly nowhere to be seen in the high-profile PanamaLeaks hearings. Rumour has it that he's been gingerly considering a return to the late lamented Big Ben's party -- "gingerly" because no one in their right mind thinks the once-mighty party has a fighting chance in the Punjab. And "return" because the Glaswegian Guv was originally Big Ben's partisan before he moved on to The Brothers Sharifov.