Today in Pakistan

It is very easy to be cynical about Pakistan and its politicians. It takes a person like Senator Israrullah Zehri of the Balochistan National Party- Awami to remind us that in some cases anger and outrage is far more appropriate than cynicism.

Balochistan Senator Sardar Israrullah Zehri stunned the upper house on Friday when he defended the recent incident of burying alive three teenage girls and two women in his province, saying it was part of “our tribal custom.”

Fans of irony should enjoy this sentence in a report about the Swiss case against Zardari being dropped.

The PML-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif also congratulated Zardari on the closure of the Swiss case, which was initiated against him by the PML-N government in 1997.

In related reading, I highly recommend this 2002 article by Samina Ibrahim on the government's pursuit of Zardari's stolen wealth. I particularly liked this bit:

Apparently their most effective undercover operatives in Pakistan are women and they have close to 50 female operatives working in social circles in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. Pakistan is apparently one of the easiest places in the world as far as intelligence gathering is concerned - everybody is willing to talk and there is no shortage of aggrieved parties.

Here's another one for you irony fans:

According to official sources, the vehicle being driven by a would-be suicide bomber was on its way to hit Orakzai Scouts checkpost near Pakistan-Japan Friendship Tunnel at Darra Adamkhel

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Finally, here's a blog post about sexual harassment at PTV. Be sure to read the over 200 comments.