The Pakistani Spectator

A Candid Blog


Author Archive

Response to Thomas L Friedman’s Article: “Calling All Pakistanis” in New York Times

By Asim • Dec 6th, 2008 • Category: Politics, Worth A Second Look

Dear New York Times Editors
Response to Mr Friedman’s article ” Calling All Pakistanis”..He wanted ordinary citizens of Pakistan to protest. Well here is the protest in words, from an ordinary Pakistani which is more effective rather than being on the streets. Mr Friedman must realise that his statements cannot be tolerated as they do not [...]



Children of Congo

By Asim • Nov 7th, 2008 • Category: Misc

Your war
Then why us
Or is it mine
Then why you
Or is it of the rebels
Then why us
Your land
Or my land
Or is it of the rebels
Only our hands and hunger
You depict, in the pictures
Only you fight for land and greed
Not for hunger and poverty
Old politics hard to let go
As you walk past my remains
Carved out
From your shells [...]



The Disease called “Indifference”

By Asim • Nov 1st, 2008 • Category: Misc

There is no cure for indifference
It kills, it maims, it destroys, it breeds
Flows like blood in our veins and existence
Benefit we cannot neither from past or future
As we see tombs built from its marble and wood
Neither the locksmith can unlock or the scholar
Like an old disease it roams in our land
See we all day our [...]



Balochistan (The Earthquake Poem)

By Asim • Oct 30th, 2008 • Category: Politics

THEY NEED OUR HELP, SUPPORT AND ALL WHAT WE CAN DO, AS THEY ARE US, AND WE ARE THEM in this hour of their need.
I am beyond those limitations
Of suffering and indifference
Years of neglect, and its toll
The divine gifts and its effect
All in presence, all to witness
The land is barren and dry
Full of life, [...]



Suicide Note

By Asim • Oct 25th, 2008 • Category: Politics, Worth A Second Look

Part 1: The Introduction
I am an outsider
A view from inside
I will kill
Myself
And my own
Two angels
All that existed
For me and them
To return
To perfection;
As the sun rises tomorrow!
Part 2: THE GOLDEN BRIDGE
As life walks past,
Upon this golden bridge,
Symbols of our past
In distance, of unity and strength
From promise of slogans
Of “roti, kapra and makan”
To dazzling boards enshrined
Of our [...]



Swat

By Asim • Oct 12th, 2008 • Category: Politics

Wrapped up in million stars this old sky,
As they stare from little windows of existence
From the wooden bridge, in the mountains
As the mist rises in its colors of remembrance,
There lies the valley, where beauty is suicidal
There lies home, where protection is nature
All in there, fleeting glance or permanence
The old days of reflection, spent in between
As [...]



The Marriot Blast

By Asim • Sep 23rd, 2008 • Category: Politics

Another barbaric act thrust upon poor citizens of Pakistan…People with their lives lost, injuries, and families in grief…
The whole psychological profile of us as a nation has been changed in past 9 years gradually. US government has to protect their interest and for that they will go to any lengths, whether to [...]



SCHIZOPHRENIA

By Asim • Sep 16th, 2008 • Category: Misc

Years ago, pronounced upon me this old affliction
Of not knowing who I am and where I belong
In conflict my mind with its mnemonics and its past
In conflict my mind, with this world and its existence
In conflict my mind, with you and your norms
With Entangled dreams and thoughts, as I speak
As this grows, concept of expansion [...]



In Memory of Ahmed Faraz

By Asim • Aug 27th, 2008 • Category: Misc

I remember his verses
In his trails, words of revolution
In his thoughts, words of gold
Now carry we will, in our way
In continuation, to find
What became a dream?
For the poet, for our friend
A blessed soul, of our own
Not borrowed, not stolen
One of our own, the Faraz
We will miss him and words
That breathed revolution
Death can only bring whispers
But [...]



All What I have

By Asim • Aug 14th, 2008 • Category: Misc

It is all what I have,
My soul and my existence
Imprinted and embedded
In these lines, drawn and felt
In this star and crescent
Long are those trails and hidden
Stories of my ancestors
Some in me and some in graves
In its lap, intoxicated in its slumber
My old remains, my ancestors
Years it takes to build this oasis
Which we all call [...]