Not the best month for Pakistan. Political stability “supposedly” improved, financial strength deteriorated and Pakistan is obviously losing its war against terrorism. Not only has it been unable to control the attacks, but rarely is a suspect or a terrorist captured. Being from Lahore, I know how crowded the “Liberty chowk” can get. It amazes me on how a couple of fanatics gunned down numerous policemen and open fired at the Sri Lankan team’s bus without getting caught. It was a big failure for Pakistan’s government but no resignation announcements came. Instead of focusing on throwing the ball in each other’s court; the national, provincial and local governments should have collectively focused on capturing the culprits. Shameful! Let’s have a quick recap of March now.
March 3rd – 8 gunmen attack the Sri Lankan cricket team near Liberty Market, 
Lahore. Around a dozen policemen die. Two Sri Lankan players get shot. 250 suspects arrested but none really turned out to be affiliated with the real assailants.
March 16th – Pakistan’s president (Gillani? Right?) reinstates the sacked judges including Iftikhar Chaudhry.
March 28th – Governor Rule in Lahore comes to an end as per Zardari’s orders.
March 29th – Obama promises that there shall be no more Drone attacks in Pakistan without taking Pakistan’s approval (Pakistan’s approval or Zardari’s consent?)
March 30th – Ten terrorists (dressed as policemen) attack the police training centre in Marwan (near Lahore) and kill about a dozen police recruits. One terrorist actually gets caught while 3 blow themselves up to avoid arrest.
March 31st – Shehbaz Sharif gets restored as the Chief Minister of Punjab. Pakistan receives USD 840 million from IMF and USD 500 million from World Bank. Zardari takes out his calculator.
Lahore stayed in the news mostly for the bad reasons this month. Hope April brings some hope and peace to Pakistan.
3. Sean Penn for his amazing performance as Harvey Milk for which he won the academy award for the best actor. Penn’s performance in Milk even surpasses his previous best Oscar winning performance in Mystic River. He, however, makes it only to number 3 on my list 
saw this movie. The guy is an actor turned boxer turned actor. His performance in the 2008 movie “Wrestler” is astonishing. It seemed if he was born to do the role. Highly recommend this movie to all especially to the fans of the “WWF” era of wrestling. In fact this movie and Mickey’s acting is bound to move you even if you are not a wrestling fan at all.
1. Heath Ledger: Okay not only did Ledger deserve the 2008 best actor award for the Dark Knight, he deserved an award for the best actor of the decade. Can’t recall such a powerful performance in recent years. The movie has made billions worldwide and all credit goes to Ledger. Too bad Ledger didn’t live long enough to receive his first (and last) Oscar. 
Shiraz's Blog 