SAJAforum

Mohsin Hamid Is On A Roll: Latest 'Self-Help' Book Is Just The Beginning

Sameea Kamal is a student at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.

Author, Mohsin Hamid signing copies of his latest book, "How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia"

When Mohsin Hamid reads to you from his new “self-help” book, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, you'll want to listen in.

And that’s exactly what a crowd of about 75 people did Monday evening in an event put on by the Asia Society in New York City, introducing Hamid’s new book.

The author of Moth Smoke and international bestseller The Reluctant Fundamentalist joined fellow author Suketu Mehta for a conversation on his writing style, identity in fiction and his part in the buzzing Pakistani literary scene.

Getting Rich is Hamid’s “speedy third novel” in the works for the last six years (in comparison to the seven years each spent on his previous two). The novel carries on the second-person narrative Hamid used in The Reluctant Fundamentalist, taking the reader on a journey across both age and class – from young to old and from poor to rich, with themes of love, family, and fatherhood along the way.

Calling the act of writing a collaborative process between writer and reader, Hamid said the idea for framing the novel as a self-help style book came the idea that while fiction is meant for the reader, authors at times do it for themselves too, as a way of self-help.

“Clearly some need is being met by this [for the author], but even as a reader, the transportation to another place and the ability to be in the presence of someone else but completely by myself is a form of self-help,” he said. “I felt it was the most honest way to tell this story.”

Hamid also carries on the lack of character names from The Reluctant Fundamentalist with no name given to the place, the protagonist, or other characters like his love interest, called “pretty girl” all throughout the book.

Likening names to brands, Hamid said he wanted the novel to be free from the connotations that come from certain names of cities or people.

“Stripping away the names became a way for me to see things for myself, and to show it is possible to look for the universal in places that are thought of as peripheral,” he said.

And while exciting thing seems to be happening in the Pakistani literature circle – Hamid just returned from the fourth annual Karachi Literature Festival – he sees it more as something exciting happening among Pakistani readers.

“Young people growing up in Pakistan are looking for alternative ways of thinking about things,” he said, noting music, fiction and art as some vehicles. “They’re thinking about Pakistani society and what it should be like, what they should be like.”

In addition to his book release, the film adaptation of The Reluctant Fundamentalist is scheduled to come out in May, for which Hamid co-wrote the script. The process taught him how different the book versus film format is – a contrast he discusses in the novel as part of its plot.

But what he really appreciated about the film-making process was seeing a team of 200 people work together to create art – notably, a diverse group from India, Pakistan and England.

Hamid writes about this notion of cooperation in his Feb. 21 op-ed in the New York Times-- the potential to work together between India and Pakistan.

Because after all, the idea of self-help is really an oxymoron, as Hamid points out in the beginning of his book.

“You read a self-help book so someone who isn’t yourself can help you, that someone being the author. This is true of the whole self-help genre … None of the foregoing means self-help books are useless. On the contrary, they can be useful indeed. But it does mean that the idea of self in the land of self-help is a slippery one. And slippery can be good.”

 

Watch the trailer for The Reluctant Fundamentalist!

MAGAZINES: Time covers Imran Khan, Pakistani politician and cricket legend

Time is the latest US magazine this year to profile Imran Khan in an in-depth fashion, joining the NYT
 Magazine and the New Yorker (see below for links).

The story, "The Long Shot" is the cover in three of the four global editions (a profile of NFL 
commissioner Roger Goodell is on the US cover).

You can read the profle, by Aryn Baker, winner of this year's Daniel Pearl award from SAJA, at this link: 
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2130876,00.html?pcd=pw-w. 

You can also read an interview with Baker about the behind-the-scenes story of Khan 
and his attempt to become Pakistan's prime minister:
http://world.time.com/2012/12/07/behind-the-story-times-aryn-baker-discusses-imran-khans-chances-of-becoming-pakistans-prime-minister/ 

NEW YORKER, Aug 13, 2012: Can a Cricket Player Become the President of Pakistan? by Steve Coll:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/08/13/120813fa_fact_coll

NYT MAGAZINE, Aug 19, 2012: Imran Khan Must be Doing Something Right by Pankaj Mishra
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/magazine/pakistans-imran-khan-must-be-doing-something-right.html

RELATED: See a report, photos and video of SAJA's October 2011 event at Columbia Journalism School, where he was
interviewed by Time's Bobby Ghosh.

PAKISTAN: Umar Cheema discusses press freedom in Pakistan [AUDIO]

On Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011, Pakistani journalist Umar Cheema (@umarcheema1) won an International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists (you can read his acceptance speech here). He was honored for his bravery after being kidnapped and beaten in September 2010 by unknown assailants. Instead of staying silent as he had been ordered to do, he spoke out about the culture of fear that journalists face in Pakistan. [The photo on the right was taken after his attack.]

The day after the awards ceremony, SAJA and CPJ hosted a conversation about the state of press freedom in Pakistan with Cheema and Bob Dietz, CPJ's Asia director. You can listen to the conversation below.

Listen to internet radio with SAJA HQ on Blog Talk Radio

Speaking of press freedom, below is a press release from Reporters Without Borders about an ongoing story in Pakistan.

- - -

Reporters Without Borders / Reporters sans frontières
Press release / Communiqué de presse

11-24-2011

ENG: http://en.rsf.org/pakistan-journalist-receives-death-threat-24-11-2011,41463.html

FRA: http://fr.rsf.org/pakistan-un-journaliste-menace-apres-avoir-24-11-2011,41461.html

PAKISTAN

Journalist receives death threat after "memogate" stories

Reporters Without Borders is concerned by a telephone death threat received three days ago by Mohammad Malick, editor of the Pakistani daily The News International, from a blocked number.

IMRAN KHAN @SAJA: Politics and the Cult of Khan

NOTE: On Friday, Oct. 14, SAJA & Columbia Journalism School  hosted Imran Khan, Pakistani politician, cricket legend, Chancellor of the University of Bradford (UK) and author of a new book, "Pakistan: A Personal History," in conversation with Bobby Ghosh, World editor of Time. This is one of several SAJAforum reports on the event.

By Jasmeet Sidhu (@JasmeetSidhu), a student at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Photograph by Ted Regencia (@tedregencia), also a student at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.  

When Imran Khan, legendary cricketer and now politician in Pakistan, first entered the room for his talk sponsored by the South Asian Journalists Association at Columbia Journalism School Friday night, a crowd of eager and giddy men and women swarmed him, pulling out iPhones, Blackberries, and whatever else picture-taking devices they had on hand. 

The adoration is a strange sight for those uninitiated to the cult of Khan, especially given the fact that he is a politician in a politically troubled land. 

But Khan of course, is not just a politician. While observing normally serious journalists, lawyers, and activists turn into exhilarated fans, it is clear that Khan is a larger than life force, a strange mix of a sports star, political visionary, intellect and celebrity, the likes of which are unprecedented even in the Western world. 

In New York City promoting his new book, "Pakistan: A Personal History," Khan spoke to the packed crowd on such heavy topics as the war on terror, corruption and tribalism in Pakistan, and the prospects of his political party in the next election in his country. He was interviewed on stage by Bobby Ghosh, World Editor of Time.

And while many present were eager to probe him on issues like the blasphemy law and Pakistan's relations with India, others were simply satisfied to see their childhood hero in the flesh. 

"We're all very giddy," explained Ammara Afzaal, 21, a student at New York University. "We signed up immediately when we heard about the event."

"We both felt very unreal here," said an ecstatic Fatima Khan, 20, who grew up admiring Khan in her household. 

This dichotomy continued throughout the evening: a sincere, and sometimes tense discussion about the future of Pakistan and its politics, intermixed with adulation from a crowd that pulsed with excitement, and snapped photos every few minutes. 

The fandom reached an apex at the very end, when Khan, who barely finished his last sentence, was swarmed by a crush of admirers seeking an elusive photograph with him. The intensity of the crowd even caused Columbia professor Sree Sreenivasan, the host of the evening, to appeal to the crowd, "Please let him go down the center aisle (to exit). Please!"

Khan, surrounded by handlers that helped move him through the crowd, appeared unfazed at the reaction that he was getting, clearly used to his celebrity. 

Though the night's event touched on several issues facing Pakistan, one has to wonder whether Khan's status as a legendary cricketer distracted from a more serious conversation about Pakistan's future that night. 

As Omar Akhtar, a Masters student at the Columbia Journalism School, tweeted: "We lost a great opportunity to ask Imran Khan some tough questions."

 

IMRAN KHAN @SAJA: Khan on Pakistan's future, and his own

NOTE: On Friday, Oct. 14, SAJA & the Columbia Journalism School  hosted Imran Khan, Pakistani politician, cricket legend, Chancellor of the University of Bradford (UK) and author of a new book, "Pakistan: A Personal History," in conversation with TIME's Bobby Ghosh. This is one of several SAJAforum reports on the event.

By Hiten Samtani (@HitSamty), a student at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Additional reporting by Suhrith Parthasarathy (@suhrith) and photographs by Purvi Thacker (@purvi21), both of Columbia J-School.

Cricket legend and Pakistani prime minister hopeful Imran Khan spoke about his party's vision for Pakistan, the country's need for rule of law, and the implications of the War on Terror to a standing room only crowd at the Columbia Journalism School on Friday evening. In conversation with Bobby Ghosh, World Editor of TIME, Khan showcased his trademark swagger and charisma, but sidestepped tough questions in what was a crowd-pleasing but ultimately unfulfilling talk.

Ghosh gave the audience a lesson on how to do a refreshing introduction of a public figure; he mentioned Khan’s book, “Pakistan: A Personal History,” and said he felt “a twinge of sadness” that he could no longer see Khan as simply the heroic sporting icon of his youth. Ghosh asked Khan about a statement in the book in which Khan says that he could always see an opponent in his grasp on the field, and that he had now begun to feel the same way about politics. “The opponents are on the mat and they won’t be able to get up,” said Khan, with a touch of arrogance and his familiar thrusting palm gesture. “The public wants change and they want PTI,” he said, referring to the upcoming elections and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.

Khan said he wrote “Pakistan: A Personal History” for the youth of the country. “Never have I seen them so confused, about secularism, Islam, etc., ” he said. “There needs to be a direction.” Khan drew zealous applause from the crowd when he said that the one positive thing Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari had done is that “he had exposed all the political forces in the country, by buying them.” Khan hailed the vibrant independent media in Pakistan as vital to promoting Pakistani interests, rather than those of the politicians. When Ghosh asked him about the Arab Spring and why there was no parallel in Pakistan, Khan said that the 2007 “Lawyers’ Movement was the Pakistani version of the Arab Spring, but it was hijacked.”

The discussion moved on to the U.S.-led "War on Terror," a phenomenon that Khan said was the other reason he wrote the book. Khan--in a statement that will likely thrill Republicans--said “people don’t use guns just because they carry guns,” referring to the “million armed men from the tribal areas. You win the war when you win the people’s hearts and minds,” he said. “The Pakistani government should have asked the men from the tribal areas to isolate al-Qaida right in the beginning.” Instead, Khan said, “Musharraf made a blunder; under pressure from America, he sent the army into the tribal areas in 2004.” This was, Khan said, “an insane and immoral way to war, with artillery, F-16s, and helicopter gunships bombing villages. As a result, thousands have died, more than 3.5 million have been internally displaced, and the economy has lost $70 billion, compared to the $15 billion in foreign aid we received.” He also said that these were the reasons why “80 percent of Pakistanis perceive the U.S. as a bigger enemy than India.”

Khan took a stand against U.S. aid to Pakistan, saying, “if you do not respect yourself, no one will respect you.” He insisted that the Pakistani economy was “not poor, just mismanaged,” and drew a comparison to the election patterns in the country, stating that “35 million people were unregistered to vote, and 37 million votes out of the total 80 million cast were bogus.” He promised that his party would root out this type of corruption and establish a robust and independent justice system.

The talk was organized by the South Asian Journalists Association, and Khan’s cricketing and philanthropic appeal had drawn a large number of Indians. The conversation moved towards India-Pakistan relations. “Does India represent an existential threat?” Ghosh asked, and Khan said, “No. But it’s in the military genes, and hence the army has played a disproportionate role.” Khan said that relations between the two countries would remain fragile “unless we are confident that our intelligence agencies will not play a part in cross-border violence. One act like Mumbai will bring us back to square one.” When asked how India and Pakistan--countries that began in such similar circumstances--had taken such different trajectories, Khan said “Jawaharlal Nehru embedded democracy in India, while we (Pakistan) lost our only great leader (Mohammad Ali Jinnah).” Khan also referred to the East Pakistan crisis (which led to the eventual creation of Bangladesh in 1971) and cited these incidents as reasons why “our democracy never took off.” When asked by an audience member about Track II diplomacy and the difficulty of cross-border travel, Khan diverted the conversation to a more entertaining but less difficult answer about a cricket series in 2005.

Khan was then asked about whether he would repeal the blasphemy law, which erupted into controversy following the January 2011 assassination of Salman Taseer, Governor of Punjab, who spoke out against abuse of the law. “I was the only politician to side with Taseer,” Khan said. He then went on to give a history of the blasphemy law, and condemned the death of rational dialogue in Pakistan. But he did not definitively answer the question of whether he would repeal the law.

When asked about politics, religion, and the rural people of Pakistan, Khan said that people in rural areas tend to be more politicized, because their “lives depend on it. But they were petrified that they’d be on the wrong side, and so they would go with the powerful criminals.”

In the most insightful exchange of the night, Khan said that rural people do not think about the secularism issue, and that it was a topic more often heard “at dinner parties in Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi." In response to an audience member’s question about extremism in the tribal areas, Khan said that collateral damage from this war is what created the Pakistani Taliban. “If someone killed my family, I could become a suicide bomber,” he declared. He assured the audience that a robust rule of law would be a core mandate of his party’s time in office, but did not offer any specific policies towards this goal, other than insisting that the War on Terror had to end.

There were the inevitable questions about cricket, notably about the spot-fixing scandal. Khan fielded these with aplomb, and obliged a few of the swarm of supporters eager for a handshake and a photo op. But while he showed an acute understanding of his people and his desired place in their history, tonight, even with Ghosh and others pressing him, there was little straight talk about Imran Khan’s strategies to fix Pakistan.

PAKISTAN: Did Senior ISI Officials Order Saleem Shahzad's Murder?

According to the New York Times, US officials have concluded, based on classified intelligence, that "senior officials of [Pakistan's] spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence," directed the killing of Asia Times Online investigative journalist Saleem Shahzad, who disappeared in Islamabad on May 29th, "in an effort to silence criticism" of the agency:

The intelligence, which several administration officials said they believed was reliable and conclusive, showed that the actions of the ISI, as it is known, were “barbaric and unacceptable,” one of the officials said. They would not disclose further details about the intelligence.

* * *

The disclosure of the intelligence was made in answer to questions about the possibility of its existence, and was reluctantly confirmed by the two officials. “There is a lot of high-level concern about the murder; no one is too busy not to look at this,” said one.

A third senior American official said there was enough other intelligence and indicators immediately after Mr. Shahzad’s death for the Americans to conclude that the ISI had ordered him killed.

“Every indication is that this was a deliberate, targeted killing that was most likely meant to send shock waves through Pakistan’s journalist community and civil society,” said the official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicate nature of the information. [link]

[HT: Azmat Khan and Declan Walsh.] More from the Times's Eric Schmitt, appearing this morning on The Takeaway (audio player embedded to the right). As the Times reports, the ISI has threatened other journalists in the wake of Shahzad's killing:

The anger over Mr. Shahzad’s death followed unprecedented questioning in the media about the professionalism of the army and the ISI, a military-controlled spy agency, in the aftermath of the Bin Laden raid.

Since that initial volley of questioning, the ISI has mounted a steady counter-campaign. Senior ISI officials have called and visited journalists, warning them to douse their criticisms and rally around the theme of a united country, according to three journalists who declined to be named for fear of reprisals.

* * *

The efforts by the ISI to constrain the Pakistani news media have, to a degree, worked in recent days. The virulent criticism after Mr. Shahzad’s death has tempered a bit.

A Pakistani reporter, Waqar Kiani, who works for the British newspaper The Guardian, was beaten in the capital after Mr. Shahzad’s death with wooden batons and a rubber whip, by men who said: “You want to be a hero. We’ll make you a hero,” the newspaper reported. Mr. Kiani had just published an account of his abduction two years earlier at the hands of intelligence agents. [link]

This "counter-campaign" now may also have a legal component, in the form of a petition recently filed in the Supreme Court by a former government official seeking to ban certain journalists and media organizations from criticizing military and intelligence agencies:

The petitioner, Sardar Muhammad Ghazi, a former deputy attorney general for Pakistan, filed the petition under Article 184 (3) making the federation through Ministry of Information secretary, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), Geo TV anchors Najam Sethi and Hamid Mir, and Ijaz Haider, who wrote an open letter to ISI chief Lt General Shuja Pasha in the Express Tribune, as respondents.

* * *

"The pen pushers and anchor persons are spitting venom against the ISI and the armed forces," he said.

Ghazi contended that after the May 2 Abbottabad operation, which resulted in the killing of Osama bin Laden by US forces, and the attack on PNS Mehran in Karachi, a well-organised campaign was launched in the world media targeting army and ISI

"The anchorpersons and the writer jointly and severally are trying to run down the army generals and as such their command stands eroded in the eyes of the force being commanded by them," he stated. [link]

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 39 journalists have been killed in Pakistan since 1992, with eight journalists killed in 2010 -- making Pakistan the year's deadliest country in the world for journalists -- and at least five journalists killed so far in 2011. Overall, Pakistan ranks 10th on the CPJ's Impunity Index, which is based on unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of the country’s population.

At this year's annual convention in June, SAJA hosted a roundtable discussion on "The Perils of Reporting in Pakistan," featuring Beena Sarwar, Malik Siraj Akbar, Kamran Shafi, and David Rohde.

See also:

• Pakistani Journalists Honored in US Ceremony (The News International, July 4, 2011)
• A Journalist in Pakistan: Living on the Edge (Sabin Agha, Express Tribune, July 3, 2011)
• Silent No More: Pakistani Journalist Speaks Out (Jonathan Ernst, St. Louis Beacon, July 2, 2011)
• A Legal Attack Accompanies Assault on Pakistani Journalists (Bob Dietz, Committee to Protect Journalists, June 24, 2011)
• Journalist's Killing Unites Pakistan's Media (Julie McCarthy, NPR, June 21, 2011)
• Dying to Tell the Story (Umar Cheema, New York Times, June 11, 2011)
• RIP Saleem Shahzad (Kalsoom Lakhani, Changing Up Pakistan, June 1, 2011)
• The Perils of Covering Pakistan's Military (Huma Imtiaz, Foreign Policy AfPak Channel, May 31, 2011)

PAKISTAN: The asssination of Salmaan Taseer + SAJA Webcast

- including our coverage of the 2008 Mumbai attacks; the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka and the 2008 Pakistan elections.

That's a video of Salmaan Taseer, the governor of the Pakistani province of Punjab (NOTE TO U.S. JOURNOS: there's an Indian state with the same name) that I happened to tweet about around midnight, NY time, on Monday, Jan. 3, 2011. I went to bed and woke up to the news that he had been killed by his own security guard for speaking out against the blasphemy laws, particularly.

I posted the video, which was created by YouTube's CitizenTube division, because I was struck by how eloquently and passionately he talked about his troubled country. I had no idea he was already dead as I posted the video.

Below are links to various parts of the coverage, including opinion pieces. Please post your thoughts and reading suggestions in the comments section below.

SAJA is hosting a live webcast on Thursday, Jan. 7. We'll be joined by veteran Pakistan watchers in the U.S. and Pakistan (as well as those who knew him well) and we'll take your calls live.

{SAMPLE TWEET: @sajaHQ webcast on Taseer killing: Fri, 1pm ET; 11pm Pak time: http://bit.ly/sajataseer #sajataseer }

SAJA WEBCAST ABOUT THE KILLING OF SALMAAN TASEER & THE FUTURE OF PAKISTAN
Friday, Jan. 7, 2011
1-2 pm NY time
11-11:59 pm Pakistan time
see local time around the world: http://timeanddate.com/s/1xtz

==> VIA COMPUTER: Listen live or later to a recording at http://tobtr.com/s/1471340
(you can set an e-mail reminder for yourself at that link)

==> VIA PHONE: +1-347-324-5991 (you can call this U.S. number by phone or Skype to listen or ask questions)

Or send your questions in advance via e-mail: saja at columbia.edu or via Twitter - @ sajaHQ

We will be discussing the assassination of Salmaan Taheer, the governor of Punjab province and what it means for the future of Pakistan, US-Pakistan relations, the war on terror and much more. We'll be joined by veteran Pakistan watchers in the U.S. and Pakistan (as well as those who knew him well) and we'll take your calls live.

MOVES: Nisid Hajari lands major book deal & leaves Newsweek, as Tunku Varadarajan moves in

Big news for one of the more prominent desis in magazine publishing: Newsweek managing editor and longtime SAJA member Nisid Hajari has just landed a major deal to write "Midnight's Furies," a dramatic history of the Partition of India and Pakistan, told through the characters of Gandhi, Jinnah, Nehru, Churchill, and Mountbatten. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will be publishing the book, which Hajari says he hopes will help explain how so many of America’s problems in the region today stem from the traumatic birth of South Asia’s two great rivals.

You’ve probably been reading about all the tumult at Newsweek this year—the sale to stereo magnate Sidney Harman, the hiring of Tina Brown as editor-in-chief, the merger with the Daily Beast; Fareed Zakaria's move to Time. You might not have realized that Hajari has been running the magazine since late August as acting co-editor, while also writing several pieces about India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.

“Under Tina, this is going to be one of the more exciting places to be in magazines next year,” says Hajari, who plans to leave New York early next year to research the book. “The idea of staying on was tremendously tempting. But I’m really looking forward to digging into this subject, which I think is powerful, timely, and surprisingly, given how much has been written about it, not all that well understood outside the region.”

You’ll probably continue to see Hajari’s byline in Newsweek in the months ahead. As you may know, Brown just hired another SAJA member, Tunku Varadajaran, to oversee Newsweek International - we'll catch up with him soon. Seems like the international editions editor title has a deep South Asian connection. Varadarajan's predecessors include Hajari and Zakaria.

The topic of Hajari's book - due in a couple of years - is fascinating and full of drama. When I last co-taught a Columbia Journalism School class about covering India's religions, we assigned "Freedom at Midnight," the bestselling 1975 book by Dominque Lapierre and Larry Collins. It's nonfiction, though it reads as really gripping fiction. But it has been 35 years since it came out, so I can't wait to see what Hajari finds in his research and what kind of story he tells. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, I'm hoping he'll be on Twitter soon.

Post your comments below. We'll make sure he sees them.

EARLIER ON SAJAFORUM:

• OCT 2010: Three questions for Nisid Hajari, co-managing editor of Newsweek
• OCT 2007: Five questions for Nisid Hajari, foreign editor of Newsweek

PROFILE: Pakistan's Rabia Mehmood on MIT Fellowship

A guest post by Sonya Rehman, a Pakistani journalist based in Lahore. She blogs at http://sonyarehman.wordpress.com and tweets at @sonyarehman * if you'd like to contribute a post, write to saja at columbia.edu

* * *

“I was completely directionless,” Rabia Mehmood, a Pakistani journalist says reminiscing about her undergraduate college days. “At the most, I thought I’d end up teaching English Literature somewhere.”

But much has changed since then.

What followed was a Master's in Mass Communication from a college in Lahore and then, a stimulating career as a broadcast journalist with Express 24/7, an English Pakistani TV channel after grad school in 2007.

“Since I come from a simple Punjabi family, pursuing a Master's in Mass Communication was unheard of in my family,” she says.

Having reported on significant socio-political events in the country, such as the state of emergency (declared by ex-President Musharraf in 2007), the lawyer’s movement for the restoration of the judiciary in Pakistan (in 2009), bomb blasts, etc, Mehmood stands as a role model for many young Pakistani women hoping to make a name for themselves in the field of broadcast journalism in the country.

At Express, Mehmood was offered to be an anchor for the organization’s Urdu channel but she turned the offer down. “I wanted to learn the craft first,” she says, “I wanted to learn production.”

MAGAZINES: Three questions for Nisid Hajari, co-editor of Newsweek

Back in October, 2007, we ran a post entitled "Five questions for Nisid Hajari," who was then Newsweek foreign editor.

A lot has happened since then, especially in the last few months: The much publicized sale of Newsweek by the Washington Post Company to electronics magnate Sidney Harman (for a $1 pricetag and the assumption of $47 million of liabilities). Rumors of a hookup with The Daily Beast. The launch of a Pakistan edition of Newsweek. Several big names have left the magazine, including SAJAer Fareed Zakaria, who is now an editor-at-large at Time, connecting his CNN show, "Fareed Zakaria GPS" with the network's Time Inc cousin.

In the meantime, Hajari has been named interim co-editor of the magazine, along with Dan Klaidman. He also continues to write, putting together a major story in this week's issue about the tortured US-Pakistan ties. An excerpt:

 In America’s relationship with Pakistan, carrots predominate, in part because we have so few sticks. After our almost unquestioned support for Pakistani dictator Gen. Pervez Musharraf didn’t elicit sufficient cooperation against the Taliban, we showered the civilian government that replaced him with $7.5 billion in aid, to little effect. American generals praise the very real sacrifices—in blood and treasure—made by the Pakistani Army in the fight against militants in Swat and South Waziristan; yet calls to broaden the campaign to North Waziristan, home to one of the deadliest Afghan insurgent groups, the Haqqani network, go unheeded. U.S. and Pakistani diplomats recite platitudes about “our common enemy, and Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari repeatedly invokes his assassinated wife, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, to underscore his dedication to battling extremists. But that depends on whose extremists. 

We asked the always upbeat Hajari three quick questions about Newsweek, the future of US-Pak ties and the new Pakistan edition. His answers, via e-mail:

SAJAforum: What's it like at Newsweek these days?