Afrah Jamal

Published in Global Affairs? / Oct 2017 When someone like Altaf Hussain – the one of body bags, bhatta fame meets someone like US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher known for being rabidly anti Pakistan, it sets the room a buzzing. The founding father of MQM who lives in exile in London and under whose reign Karachi was reduced to a hulk, now wanders the halls with a human rights violation pitch that always tests well with Western audiences as he leads an anti Pakistan lobby in his spare time. It could be nothing. Or it could mean everything. The Coming Storm or a Storm in a Tea Cup? Dana Rohrabacher who went on to meet WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange – the fugitive, had once drafted a bill with Senator Ted Poe to declare Pakistan a state sponsor of terror making him the perfect candidate for such a rendezvous. Altaf Hussain was also seen hobnobbing with the exiled Khan of Kalat, a Baloch dissident strongly opposed to CPEC and soft towards Modi. Altaf’s closest aide has expressed s...

Author: Omar Shahid Hamid Reviewed by: Afrah Jamal Thanks to Liberty Books for the review copy & Jamaluddin for the launch invite. Published in Daily Times / Sunday 26 Jan 2013 “ When you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss gazes back” The plaque reads Deputy Director Counter Intelligence Terrorism - Police Intelligence Bureau (IB), Senior Superintendent (SSP) CT & Anti Extremism cell (CID) (2011). The resume is equally moving. It belongs to a man who has been in the cross hairs of extremists, banned outfits of different denominations and local mafia men who may or may not have political backing. Since he knows where the ‘boris’ are buried, the impact of Omar Shahid Hamid’s revelations will be explosive. But cops don’t read so as a rule so he thinks he’ll be ok. Though ‘The Prisoner’ resides unobtrusively in the fiction section, its outlines are expertly crafted from those off camera moments and unacknowledged victories. A kidnapped American journalist comes into p...

First Published in Economic Affairs - Islamabad based Magazine (Pakistan) / Aug 2013 BY Afrah Jamal ‘What was it for ?' The BBC Two anchor asks Farooq Sattar (MQM’s Deputy Convener and Parliamentary leader) with an impassive face, referring to the stash of pounds found after a raid on Altaf Hussain’s London pad. ‘Whatever it was for ’, he answers, at his inarticulate best. The word ‘body bags’ ominously flashes on the screen, Mr. Sattar changes tactics; ‘ we were all laughing ’, dismissing it as a joke. The savvy anchor runs more damning clips. ‘It is out of context ’, Farooq declares. ‘ There is no reference to context ’, he adds helpfully. But your own SC took notice… ‘o’ that ’, ‘ mere emotional outburst. ’ Unlike those ‘media types’ this party member would not speculate on the origins or purpose of the stash. He, like other loyalists filed away the latest episode under ‘more malicious propaganda’ and ‘sinister witch hunts’, accused BBC of falling prey to T...

Thanks to Liberty Books for the review copy Published n Daily Times / Saturday, November 12, 2011 Reviewed by Afrah Jamal Author: By Steve Inskeep This is ostensibly the “story of a single day in Karachi’s life” — a city that remains in a violence-induced stupor for the most part of the year now. The choice of the day is perplexing since it happens to be the Ashura (10th day of Muharram) incident circa 2009 when a bomb ripped through a procession and ensuing violence ripped apart the community. High-profile tragedies like the one chosen to be this book’s centrepiece have complex backgrounds, and unresolved endings. Isolating a single bloodcurdling note from a lavish production can be restrictive. Here, however, life and death are constants — one brings the city’s narrative to a standstill but also spawns multiple plotlines — and as the writer will demonstrate, not all with tragic beginnings. Steve Inskeep is the host of NPR’s ‘Morning Edition’ and recipient of the 2006 Rob...

Unpublished piece A strike call to protest the IDP’s arrival in Sindh, issued by virtual unknowns – JSQM, had been set for 25 May 2009. MQM’s initial support and subsequent withdrawal late Sunday night (24 May 2009) came too late for the strike to be called off – but in time for them not to ‘strike out’ completely. In baseball terms, however, this would be MQM’s third strike. First a deposed judge (barred for bringing in Marching lawyers); recently a fiery Cricketer turned politician (barred for bringing a peace rally) and now displaced people (barred for unwittingly bringing excess baggage of the Taliban). As compassion and aid pours forth from all over the world for victims of Pakistan’s biggest humanitarian disaster, this very public display of hostility is bewildering. MQM reps were hauled in by talk show hosts to explain. Glib talking politicians nimbly danced around, careful not to admit wrongdoing, loathe to take responsibility, yet, eager to defend their flimsy pretext for ...