Harvard Probed Samad For Stalking A Lahore Lady Lawyer
PakNationalists
These are the last two articles on the story of the Pakistani student who snubbed the U.S. ambassador.
Harvard Probed Samad Khurram For Stalking A Lahore Lady Lawyer
Samad Khurram snubbed the U.S. ambassador. Great. But he also stalked a respectable lady lawyer from Lahore who is also a commentator. Her crime? She disagreed with Aitzaz Ahsan. So are people like Samad a symbol of the good or the bad in Pakistani politics? Comments by YASMEEN ALI and Ahmed Quraishi.
By YASMEEN ALI
Wednesday, 25 June 2008.
LAHORE, Pakistan—It is with some amusement that I followed the story on this blog about one Samad Khurram.
The wah wah coming his way because we, as Pakistanis, are somewhat short on self respect these days. The joke our country has become owing to the likes of Aitzaz Ahsan & Co., who serve vested interests in the garb of serving the nation.
Late last year, I had come in contact with Mr. Samad Khurram. His name was listed in the ‘To’ line in emails send to me by a friend. It was a mailing list. The subject inevitably was politics and politicians. Everyone, I believe, is entitled to his or her views. And has a right to share the same in an academic discussion.
However, unfortunately, Mr. Samad Khurram did not think so. His grouse were my articles and my opinions did not agree with his. Until this point, fair enough. Unfortunately, he decided to handle this difference in political opinion in an ungentlemanly manner. First he accused me of being a non-existent person. Then he accused me of being a man by the name of Naveed Tajammal. At least three prominent individuals on the mailing list knew me personally.
When this did not work, he accused me of ‘concocting stories with Mr. Ahmed Quraishi,’ a person known to be by his blog only. Further, he accused me of working for an intelligence organization. Much harm can come to me as Kidnappings are rampant and he "hoped" I may be done away with by "someone".
WHO is the someone who would kidnap and murder me? I was tempted to ask him, since this sounded like a threat to me, which would be criminally punishable in the United States, where he was residing.
He had passed on his address to one recipient of the mails, who was kind enough to communicate the same to me reading these underhand threats.
In January 2008, when this transpired, I got in touch with the Provost of Harvard University, whose scholarship Samad accepts despite snubbing the U.S. ambassador. I was informed by one Mr. Marshall, Project Coordinator of Office of Provost that Samad khurram is possibly registered as a student.
Next I heard from Mr. Jay Ellison, Assistant Dean of Harvard College. He confirmed that the offender was asked to furnish copies of his mails to me and the same was done. The mails fully support my complaint against the said person. In his mail dated February 20, 2008, Harvard assured me that action was taken against the student accordingly but he said he could not tell me exactly what action has been taken against the student since U.S. law prohibited the university from disclosing to outsiders what action taken was in this case.
That was the last I heard of Samad Khurram. Till now.
What can one say? A person takes one action in public and another in private. In my considered opinion, this was a cheap ploy to gain publicity. People who value the lives of others do not go around threatening others. Or maybe I’m mistaken.
I
hear that some time ago, Samad Khurrum was also found hacking into private computers. I
would suggest that his American visa be cancelled, and he be sent back to
study in Pakistan. His
scholarship should be given to another student who can represent
Pakistan in a
better light in America.
Yasmeen A. Ali is a known lawyer. Her political commentary is widely available on this Web site and at other Pakistani blogs. She is based in Lahore. She can be reached at yasmee...@gmail.com
© Copyrighted Material. AhmedQuraishi.com. Click here for republication.
The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
By AHMED QURAISHI
Wednesday, 25 June 2008.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—For the past few months, Samad Khurram and another Pakistani student, Aqil Sajid, were responsible for creating many fake email IDs and then using them to send offensive emails, using an unusually grotesque and filthy language, to any Pakistani citizen who happened to disagree with their views on the lawyers and on the President.
Samad has gained the respect of many Pakistanis, and mine too, because he snubbed the U.S. ambassador at a ceremony where he was to receive some award from her for being a student at an American university on scholarship.
We at www.ahmedquraishi.com had the distinction of spreading out his story, Pakistani Student Snubs U.S. Ambassador, Payback For Attack , on June 18, within the first few minutes of the incident. Knowing firsthand about Mr. Khurram’s other unflattering and childish activities, we decided to overlook them and highlight his reaction to the June 10 U.S. military attack against the Pakistan Army, killing over 30 Pakistanis, half of them our soldiers.
What we did at that time was the work of real Pakistani nationalists, overlooking frivolous issues for the sake of something that we thought was more important. During last year’s lawyers’ movement, Mr. Samad and Mr. Aqil had emailed me some of the most offensive emails containing language that I have not seen anyone use during political or intellectual discourse. I have almost the entire record of their emails. One of them made the mistake of using a mail server owned by Harvard University to send the offensive email. They didn’t repeat the mistake subsequently. They were smart. I never thought this could be the work of young students at good universities. I honestly thought this was the work of uncivilized supporters of a political party.
I can’t reproduce here the dirty language used by these two gentlemen. It’s really sick. Instead of using their Harvard education to improve Pakistani politics, they spent hours prowling the net and planting abuses on every Pakistani forum that disagreed with the lawyers’ movement. Sometimes their writings were a smear campaign against Pakistan itself, hurling abuses at every Pakistani State institution, including, of course, the Pakistani military. In a short span of time, even Indian Internet campaigners and hackers have not been able to produce so much anti-Pakistan material like these two kids did. And their only problem is that they are blind supporters of Imran Khan and Aitzaz and won't tolerate any legitimate opposite opinion.
One of these two gentlemen even went as far as impersonating a lady lawyer from Lahore who is also a writer, Yasmeen Ali, and disagrees with Aitzaz Ahsan. These gentlemen used her name to post sexually explicit posts on various forums, including AhmedQuraishi.com.
I endorse Samad Khurram’s act of refusing to take an award from the U.S. ambassador. He registered a peaceful protest, shared by a majority of Pakistanis. But the other side of Mr. Khurram’s face is an ugly one. Let’s hope he will not repeat it.
© Copyrighted Material. AhmedQuraishi.com. Click here for republication.
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