No it is not illegal. And yes the Government dose, or rather the district dose since prosecutions are generally the responsibility of the district authorities.
There are 10 million Christians in Pakistan.
I am from a rural area and I never heard of this.
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It is illegal to insult the Prophet yes. Depict him, well winked at since that prohibition is a Sunni thing and a third of Pakistanis are Shia.
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I am a lawyer so here goes. Law, Pakistan is a common law system like other common law countries. Islamic law is not the law of the land, the constitution says that no law can be repugnant to Islam, however it leaves it up to the authrorities to define what “repugnant” means. Most of the rights of an accused in a criminal trial that you would see in the UK or the US are practiced here, with the notable exception of the jury trial which was abolished sometime in the 1960’s, public confidence in them was never high.
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Drugs, big problem, they need to take drastic measures on it IMO.
4)“West” is a very imprecise term, the war in Afghanistan has had real and serious reprecussions in Pakistan (spill over obviously, but others such as a few million MORE refugess, so the US Gov is hardly popular these days), but the opinion varies. For Germany or France or Italy, the view is very positive, smart industrialised nations we would do well to learn from, Australia; cheats (cricket), UK (old colonial master, but we kept the language and many of the customs), the US people, good generally.
And yes women are allowed to go out alone.
Would you consider the term “Paki” offensive? Is it one you’d use to refer to each other, in the same way we’d say “Brits” or “Scots”?
In the UK it’s on a par with “nigger” as a totally unacceptable word but I know George Bush has used it as a simple abbreviation.
No. In Pakistan ,“Paki” would NOT be an insulting term. In the UK, probably. Our (Pakistani) culture is more focused towards the “meant to be insulting” side. If you said “Paki” in a clearly insulting manner, offence would be taken, saying it generally would not cause offence to be taken.
What’s your opinion of the ISI? What do ordinary Pakistanis think of them?
Finest intel agency in the world! Glad they are on our side!
Seriously, its amusing to read about the “rouge” “out of control” “state within a state” ISI, as if it is some monolith. The truth is much more prosaic, ISI is just one of several Pakistani intelligence agencies, its remit is foreign intelligence, they domestic intelligence agency is the Intelligence Breau, they are others with more specialised roles, like SIGINT etc. ISI is an instrument of the state and furthers Pakistan Government policy.
I read that article a while ago, but it doesn’t really explain why the two countries think it’s such a valuable place to control, except that it’s a source of water, and they seem to have worked that out. Why not either let it become independent or just keep the current boundaries and stop making such a big deal out of it? What does it have that’s so important? Huge gold mines? Amazingly beautiful women? Oil? The best cheeses in the world?
Amazingly beautiful women; check.
All the rivers on whose water Pakistani Industry and Agriculture depends run through Kashmir.
And its mostly muslim, most Pakstanis in the North have strong cultural links with Kashmir, it is contigious to Pakistan, (there is one road leading from Kashmir to India), while Kashmiri culture is alien to most Indians.
A very specific question. A while ago I read a National Geographic article about the state of emergency care in Pakistan, specifically ambulances. I was somewhat appalled to learn that there weren’t any, not for a long time, until one man - his name escapes me at the moment - started using his station wagon to transport people to hospital. Over the years he built it up until he has a fleet of cars, but there is no government or medical support for him, and he just manages to do it on his own.
Is this true? What kind of public services are there in Pakistan? Is the government concerned, generally, about the day-to-day well-being of the people?
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With respect thats a stupid question. Yes the Government is concerned, day to day services are rather important, if they stop there would be a revolution in around 5 minutes as in any other country. Health Care is a provincial matter and is usually delegated further to the districts as well. Ambulances would be run by the district government and yes they do exist and the majority of ambulances would be government owned. In addition private hospitals have their own services and health care companys have their own. So no need to be “appalled”. If you are ever in Pakistan and there is an emergency, call 1122.
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The gentleman you spoke about would be him. He is a philantrophist and is the most famous one in Pakistan. He began his service right after independance in 1947 when there was a flood of literally millions of refugee escaping violence and pogroms in India, and a war began, when the whole civic administration of half the country pretty much collapsed under the strain, Mr. Edhi and others took up the burden at a time of a grave national emergency and Mr. Edhi has continued his work with the poor and unfortunate ever since. That being said, I don’t see how one could construe that since this man owns a fleet of ambulances and began work during an emergency, that services do not exist.
Of course the US Government considers him a terrorist.. Or at least Homeland Security dose.
Just jumped in to thank AK84 for answering all the questions. Most of the answers are pretty accurate, but I have a slightly different opinion about the emergency services situation. The Government based emergency services are woefully inadequate. AK84, I dont know what city you’re from but I’m sure that 95% of the ambulances I’ve seen in Karachi are the Edhi ambulances or some other private hospital’s ambulances. The Government hospitals are mismanaged, underfunded and quite inefficient. However, there are a lot of charity funded private hospitals and trusts that provide healthcare to poor people.
I will have to disagree with some of your assertions. I get the impression that you are suggesting that Kashmir is an extension of Pakistan on cultural, religious and geographical grounds. And therefore a claim exists on that state. But by the same [incorrect] logic Pakistan can be considered an extension of India! Forget Kashmiri culture, Pakistani culture is not alien to most Indians. I am from the deepest South of India, and can speak to you in Hindi and smatterings of Urdu. I can offer you a meal in my home that will not be very different from yours [just vegetarian though]. There are contiguous roads leading to and from the sub continent.
A Muslim majority population in a state or area is irrelevant when thinking of India. Pakistan draws itself from a theistic perspective first. We in India have a 100 + billion people, with varying shades of belief, resources, poverty, intelligence and culture. We cannot see ourselves as One thing. We are many things, and being Indian is one of them. So just because someone is Muslim doesnt make him/her any different than any other Indian.
The real beef in Kashmir is this - to accept that a Muslim majority state must secede and cannot stay in an Indian Union is to accept Jinnah’s Two-Nation theory, that a Hindu majority and a Muslim minority cannot coexist in the same society. We have a large muslim population, we have a fairly large Christian population, we have Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists,Jews etc etc. For large parts of the day we get along. Whats so difficult about that??
Kashmir is also of strategic importance militarily [terrain] and besides religious reasons [which i reject] i have heard no sensible reasons to support the secession of Kashmir.
I was compelled to respond to AK84’s post as i could not let it go, but i do not wish to derail or hijack the thread. I think it makes for excellent reading.
Mallorux, I think you should have ideally started a separate Kashmir thread if you wanted to put forward your view, but I guess its a bit late now. Anyway, can we please not let this thread turn into a Kashmir debate (we can discuss that in a Kashmir thread if you want).
Why was that a stupid question?
Hi there, and welcome to the Board. My question is what kind of horses live in Pakistan?
Yup, i am ready to let it go. As you were then 
My family’s from Indian Punjab, from a village which was heavily muslim before partition, my family maintains pirs’ (Muslim saint’s) shrines. I feel a strong affinity towards Pakistani Punjabis, they’re the same as me, apart from religion. My father spoke Urdu (which I consider an Indian language, rather than an Islamic language as some people claim).
My neighbours in UK are Pakistani, we speak the same language, eat the same food etc. When there’s a bunch of Indians and Pakistanis at the same function, you can’t even tell who’s who unless they wear religious clothes.
What’s this shit about Indians and Pakistanis having nothing in common?
No offence intended, but since Kashmir isn’t solely a Pakistani issue, I think it was interesting to read an Indian point of view in the same thread (instead of a separate thread in, say, GD, that many people reading this would have missed). Not that I would want this thread to devolve into an argument about Kashmir, of course.