Sigh. I was alerted to this wonderful (I use the term in a tongue-in-cheek way of course) bit of television on DawnNews' Bolna Zaroori Hai a couple of days ago from kalakawa's blog (which in case you have never seen it, please do, it is usually bitingly witty.) It takes a special kind of talent to put together Marxist political economist and former LUMS academic Aasim Sajjad Akhtar with pop star turned conspiracy theorist and Zaid Hamid acolyte Ali Azmat. And I mean that quite sincerely: it does make for riveting television, even if it does not add much to one's bank of knowledge or insight. In fact, Azmat's performance here, is riveting in pretty much the same sense as watching a hurtling train you know is about to jump off the rails. Kalakawa has ranted enough about Azmat that I don't need to. But more than that...
I. Just. Don't. Have. The. Energy. To. Comment. On. This.
So, watch and weep (or laugh) all on your own.
Part 1: Where, probably for the only time, the study at the heart of the discussion is actually discussed in any detail, by host Wusatullah Khan...
Part 2: Where things get going, immediately on a tangent, thanks to Ali Azmat, who expounds his theory that the Pakistani media is demonizing Islam...
Part 3: Where Ali defends Zaid Hamid and disses democracy among other things...
Part 4: Where Ali really cuts loose... And by that I do mean LOOSE. He questions whether people would rather vote for the Indian military or the Pakistani military, talks about poor people who can barely run two airconditioners and voices support for a caliphate...
Part 5: Where Ali explains how the world is moving towards an Islamic caliphate system of governance and denounces the ending of the subsidiary on electrical power...
Part 6: Where Ali gives his view that what is labeled confusion among Pakistanis is simply them expressing a point of view different from the capitalist system and sings a song...
Oh, and yeah, in case you forgot, the programme was about whether Pakistanis are becoming more conservative.
I saw that show and it seemed azmat has now completely lost whatever little barins he had. I mean hats off to him because he actually BELIVES the utter nonsense that he spouts. Both the host and the the other guest were having a ball taunting and playing around with this babbling bald nutcase.
ReplyDeleteBtw, also check out the pics of the massive house he just bought in lahr. He flaunts these images on his FB page. A house made with the money of kafir Zionist multinationals' monery.
What. An. IDIOT!
what an utter chutya!!
ReplyDeleteLol! I second that. :D
ReplyDeleteAzmat should be locked up with Mulla Omar.
I am so depressed, I want to kill myself. If our 'role models' like Ali Azmat are so brainwashed, deluded, confused and plain jahil, God help us all.
ReplyDeleteWho needs a Hindu-Zionist-multinational conspiracy to destroy us when we can produce stupid, and ultimately dangerous, chelas of Zaid Hamid like Ali Azmat?
Wusatullah and Asim were treating Ali Azmat like a "case" and were quite patronizing to the 40-year-old pappu yar, given he was 17/18 when late Benazir Bhutto came into power for the first time. I can bet Asim is younger than him. Anyway, watching and listening Ali was quite disturbing and there are thousands of (actually) young people who are in the same confused state of mind.
ReplyDeleteyes they were treating him like a "case". is he not one?!
ReplyDeleteAm just impressed with Asim as not only does he speak like an intelligent man he actually managed to NOT laugh when Ali Azmat was talking. Also Ali Azmat was rude by not caring to remember the name of his fellow guest.
ReplyDeleteI think he is a brave person for speaking up and standing for what he believes in. Most of us quietly and desperately want to conform. I didn't understand what you disagreed with in his argument.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice if you logically stated where he was wrong. He doesn't believe in democracy, perhaps that could be it. Logically though, democracy gives equal say to the uneducated and uninformed jahil masses and the educated and well-informed "ashrafia". When you go for the least common denominator, you're bound to be stuck with people like Zardari, the Bhuttos, etc. Even in the west, democracies bring people like Bush and Blair. Promise the jahil masses a roti and they'll keep falling for it everytime, they very conveniently forget all the previous times that promise got broken.
The notion that democracy is government for the people, by the people is clearly misguided, it's government by the jahils, for the jahils that elect them. That's my opinion, feel free to berate me if that doesn't exactly conform to yours :).