The founder of the group blog Pakistaniat was interviewed in the Boston Globe, and his idea of what makes a great blog is pretty much my nightmare. For one thing, the blog, which says it gets 10K visitors/day, had Lal Masjid militants posting comments during the commando siege:

… when Pakistani security forces laid siege to hundreds of Islamic extremists in an Islamabad mosque last summer, some of the extremists posted comments on Pakistaniat from inside the mosque, while supporters of either and neither side argued with each other in the comment section. [Link]

Which would seem to put the blog at risk for being blocked in Pakistan (probably a badge of honor), and for being raided due to overbroad U.S. laws about assisting terrorism. For another, the comments sound like a big flame-fest about that gentlest of topics, fundamentalist religion:

“The real flavor of Pakistaniat is the fights between liberal Pakistanis and religious Pakistanis.” [Link]

The blog is run by Adil Najam, who was a minor celeb in Pakistan as a teen sports reporter and later came to the U.S. to become an environmental engineer. But they’ve posted some good political analyses, most notably in the aftermath of Benazir’s assassination (one has to specify these days which Bhutto was killed, and by which method). That they function in a shaky security troll environment is a credit to the bloggers. My topi’s off to them.