The Pakistani WMD

As the back-and-forth between actress Veena Malik and FHM India over the nude cover continued into its second day on Saturday, people on social media networks Facebook and Twitter began to clamour for Veena Malik to join the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) as “she had declared her assets”.
Meanwhile, Veena’s father called for a ban on the actress for transgressing her limits while Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the government would investigate the matter. While Veena has denied posing nude and threatened to sue the magazine, FHM India editor Kabeer Sharma insists that he has a video and an email from the actress that prove the authenticity of the photo. Meanwhile, the magazine’s website on Saturday changed the cover of the December edition though it still featured her in a different pose. This time, the “Pakistani WMD’’ — as the magazine chose to call her — is caught in the act of pulling the pin out of a grenade with an ISI tattoo on her arm. Reacting to the controversy, Rehman Malik told reporters, “If she has done so, she did wrong. But, such pictures are tampered many times and we will look into this issue.” Humour and anger spread on the webosphere, with a number of jokes and photographs focusing on how Veena had ‘shown’ her assets as per PTI doctrine went viral. Commenting on the latest FHM cover, one tweeter said “Veena Malik would make a terrible ISI agent considering how much she reveals,” while another wondered if cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan’s PTI would invite her to the party fold now that she had “revealed all her assets”.
However, Veena also received her share of detractors. On a Facebook page floated to hate all things Indian, the administrator posted: “Shameless Veena Malik poses naked for men’s magazine FHM (India). Notice the ISI tattoo on her arm. This gesture from eastern neighbour speaks of their frustration and hatred towards the ISI. Veena Malik shame on you”. Over 80 comments followed requesting members of the page to ask Pakistan’s Supreme Court to cancel Veena’s nationality and to make sure that she does not live in the country again.
Zubair Khan, a 40-year-old shopkeeper in Peshawar, agreed, saying the photo had given rival India another opportunity to insult Pakistan.”She has earned a bad name for the entire Pakistan nation,” he said. Another Facebook user posted a photoshoped picture of Veena fully clad in a burqa and a veil and labelled it, “This would be the REAL conspiracy against her”. Actress Meera, Veena’s bete noire, called her a “completely mad woman”. Feminist commentators, while supporting Veena’s decision to pose nude, wondered if it also amounted to real empowerment. “Why ‘empowerment’ and a ‘free life’ mean no clothes?” tweeted Ayesha Malik. Some others explained why Veena was in denial. “After all, she probably fears being stripped of her Pakistan citizenship,” wrote blogger Cafe Pyala.