Periscope on pakistan

Press and professional purchase

l DAWN (From Ardeshir Cowasjee’s column):The profession of weavers of facts into fiction, and fiction into facts, gained prominence in this country in the good old days of Ayub Khan, back in the ’60s. To emphasise their super-loyalty to their masters they adopted stereotype measures such as the nationalisation of newspapers, promulgation of oppressive ordinances, imposition of black laws, planting of informers in press offices, retaining columnists and letters-to-the-editor writers (the counttoday is 80), purchasing journalists (commonly known as lifafas), purchasing editors and thus control of a publication. The unpurchasable are harassed and persecuted in various ways, one favourite being the filing of false cases against them. In Punjab, the current saying is Kharido nahi to kaso (If you cannot buy, beat).

Something special about the war

l NATION: It would be ridiculous to say the Pakistan army is fighting a difficult war out there. No war is easy. But there is something special about the battle being fought at mountain tops and deep valleys: First you have to fight against the weather (and then) the survivor faces the enemy.

Surviving on those mountains and valleys is a miracle in itself. The piece of bread that costs one rupee in Islamabad becomes as expensive as Rs 400 when it reaches the most forward posts. The mode of communication is amazing…It would be easier to install a telephone on the moon than to put up the same network here (at the forward line in Northern Areas).