Random Thoughts

Kargil: another view

2011-12-10T09:51:00.002+05:00

The fact remains that the Kargil Heights were on the Pakistan side of the ceasefire line since 1949 and so was the Siachin glacier
until Indian forces moved there.

The Kargil Heights not only commanded the confluence of the supply line from Srinagar and Leh but, more importantly, provided access to Baltistan in the north, which India claims as their ‘atoot ang’.

As late as Aug 9, 1998, Defence Minister Fernandes reiterated: “The part of Kashmir under the control of Pakistan will have to be reclaimed”. He talked of finishing the ‘unfinished business’ of 1971.

The Indian occupation of the Kargil Heights was cause for worry.

In 1982 the Indians sneaked into Siachin (NW of Kargil). The world kept blatantly silent. Siachin adjoins the Chinese border, even they said nothing.

But in May 1999 when our forces moved into the Kargil Heights exactly like the Indians had done in Siachin, there was an
uproar.

It was a brilliant, well-planned move. Logistical support; and strategic depth was provided from the ridges in the north to the well-dug in positions on inaccessible high ground.

There is much ado about who was actually fighting. Call them ‘Pakistan-supported forces’ or ‘Kashmiri guerillas’, what’s in a name! They were fighting to take back what was theirs.

The Indians threw in four divisions of their elite troops with full air support but could not dislodge the Pakistanis.

They tried and tried for nearly two months, longer than any India/Pakistan war. Action on our international border was out of question, a nuclear deterrent was now well in place.

Hundreds of bodies were arriving at Indian homes. Exhaustion was setting in. A plea for ceasefire was imminent. Mr Bajpai tried the last trick in his bag. He sent an SOS to the always ready to help: president Clinton.

Nawaz Sharif was summoned to Washington. Even if he was kept in the dark about Kargil earlier, he was definitely advised this time by his generals to accept a ceasefire but under no condition concede to a pullback. That was the strategy. ‘Finders keepers’ was the prevailing law.

In Washington at the Blair House Nawaz Sharif and president Clinton were the only two persons present, other than Bruce Ridal who was taking notes. Our prime minister was no match for president Clinton. He was browbeaten and threatened.

Eventually he acquiesced.

Alas! A war that we had won hands down on the battlefield was lost on the table in Washington.

Later in March 2000, while addressing the Indian Parliament, Mr Clinton asserted: “It was not India but the US which intervened and forced Pakistan to withdraw from Kargil “.

While the Indian government and the media supported their armed forces to the hilt, our prime minister was telling the world: “I didn’t do it, it was my army chief’.

CAPT S. Afaq Rizvi
Karachi

This post appeared in Dawn: http://www.dawn.com/2011/12/05/kargil-another-view.html

Pakistan a Nation on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Fatima Bhutto

2011-06-06T21:09:00.000+05:00

Dilip Hiro, Pakistan's Other Partner

2011-05-25T12:36:00.003+05:00

Dilip Hiro says Americans have miscalculated Pakistan's strengths and weaknesses and at the moment Pakistan has stronger hand than America imagines.

Has the Obama Administration Miscalculated in Pakistan?
By Dilip Hiro

Washington often acts as if Pakistan were its client state, with no other possible patron but the United States. It assumes that Pakistani leaders, having made all the usual declarations about upholding the “sacred sovereignty” of their country, will end up yielding to periodic American demands, including those for a free hand in staging drone attacks in its tribal lands bordering Afghanistan. This is a flawed assessment of Washington’s long, tortuous relationship with Islamabad.

A recurring feature of the Obama administration’s foreign policy has been its failure to properly measure the strengths (as well as weaknesses) of its challengers, major or minor, as well as its friends, steadfast or fickle. To earlier examples of this phenomenon, one may now add Pakistan.

That country has an active partnership with another major power, potentially a viable substitute for the U.S. should relations with the Obama administration continue to deteriorate. The Islamabad-Washington relationship has swung from close alliance in the Afghan anti-Soviet jihad years of the 1980s to unmistaken alienation in the early 1990s, when Pakistan was on the U.S. watch list as a state supporting international terrorism. Relations between Islamabad and Beijing, on the other hand, have been consistently cordial for almost three decades. Pakistan’s Chinese alliance, noted fitfully by the U.S., is one of its most potent weapons in any future showdown with the Obama administration.

Playing the China Card

Another factor, also poorly assessed, affects an ongoing war. While, in the 1980s, Pakistan acted as the crucial conduit for U.S. aid and weapons to jihadists in Afghanistan, today it could be an obstacle to the delivery of supplies to America’s military in Afghanistan. It potentially wields a powerful instrument when it comes to the efficiency with which the U.S. and its NATO allies fight the Taliban. It controls the supply lines to the combat forces in that landlocked country.

Taken together, these two factors make Pakistan a far more formidable and independent force than U.S. policymakers concede publicly or even privately.

The Supply Line as Jugular

Angered at the potential duplicity of Pakistan in having provided a haven to Osama bin Laden for years, the Obama administration seems to be losing sight of the strength of the cards Islamabad holds in its hand.

To supply the 100,000 American troops now in Afghanistan, as well as 50,000 troops from other NATO nations and more than 100,000 employees of private contractors, the Pentagon must have unfettered access to that country through its neighbors. Among the six countries adjoining Afghanistan, only three have seaports, with those of China far too distant to be of practical use. Of the remaining two, Iran -- Washington’s number one enemy in the region -- is out. That places Pakistan in a unique position.

Currently about three-quarters of the supplies for the 400-plus U.S. and coalition bases in Afghanistan -- from gigantic Bagram Air Base to tiny patrol outposts -- go overland via Pakistan or through its air space. These shipments include almost all the lethal cargo and most of the fuel needed by U.S.-led NATO forces. On their arrival at Karachi, the only major Pakistani seaport, these supplies are transferred to trucks, which travel a long route to crossing points on the Afghan border. Of these, two are key: Torkham and Chaman.

Torkham, approached through the famed Khyber Pass, leads directly to Kabul, the Afghan capital, and Bagram Air Base, the largest U.S. military facility in the country. Approached through the Bolan Pass in the southwestern Pakistani province of Baluchistan, Chaman provides a direct route to Kandahar Air Base, the largest U.S. military camp in southern Afghanistan.

Operated by some 4,000 Pakistani drivers and their helpers, nearly 300 trucks and oil tankers pass through Torkham and another 200 through Chaman daily. Increasing attacks on these convoys by Taliban-allied militants in Pakistan starting in 2007 led the Pentagon into a desperate search for alternative supply routes.

With the help of NATO member Latvia, as well as Russia, and Uzbekistan, Pentagon planners succeeded in setting up the Northern Distribution Network (NDN). It is a 3,220-mile railroad link between the Latvian port of Riga and the Uzbek border city of Termez. It is, in turn, connected by a bridge over the Oxus River to the Afghan town of Hairatan. The Uzbek government, however, allows only non-lethal goods to cross its territory. In addition, the Termez-Hairatan route can handle no more than 130 tons of cargo a day. The expense of shipping goods over such a long distance puts a crimp in the Pentagon’s $120 billion annual budget for the Afghan War, and couldn’t possibly replace the Pakistani supply routes.

There is also the Manas Transit Center leased by the U.S. from the government of Kyrgyzstan in December 2001. Due to its proximity to Bagram Air Base, its main functions are transiting coalition forces in and out of Afghanistan, and storing jet fuel for mid-air refueling of U.S. and NATO planes in Afghanistan.

The indispensability of Pakistan’s land routes to the Pentagon has given its government significant leverage in countering excessive diplomatic pressure from or continued violations of its sovereignty by Washington. Last September, for instance, after a NATO helicopter gunship crossed into Pakistan from Afghanistan in hot pursuit of insurgents and killed three paramilitaries of the Pakistani Frontier Corps in the tribal agency of Kurram, Islamabad responded quickly.

It closed the Khyber Pass route to NATO trucks and oil tankers, which stranded many vehicles en route, giving Pakistani militants an opportunity to torch them. And they did. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, issued a written apology to his Pakistani counterpart General Ashhaq Parvez Kayani, conveying his “most sincere condolences for the regrettable loss of your soldiers killed and wounded on 30 September.” Anne Patterson, the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, issued an apology for the “terrible accident,” explaining that the helicopter crew had mistaken the Pakistani paratroopers for insurgents. Yet Pakistan waited eight days before reopening the Torkham border post.

Pakistan’s Other Cards: Oil, Terrorism, and China

In this region of rugged terrain, mountain passes play a crucial geopolitical role. When China and Pakistan began negotiating the demarcation of their frontier after the 1962 Sino-Indian War (itself rooted in a border dispute), Beijing insisted on having the Khunjerab Pass in Pakistani-administered Kashmir. Islamabad obliged. As a result, the 2,000-square-mile territory it ceded to China as part of the Sino-Pakistan Border and Trade Agreement in March 1963 included that mountain pass.

That agreement, in turn, led to the building of the 800-mile-long Karkoram Highway linking Kashgar in China’s Xinjiang Region and the Pakistani town of Abbottabad, now a household name in America. That road sealed a strategic partnership between Beijing and Islamabad that has strong geopolitical, military, and economic components.

Both countries share the common aim of frustrating India’s aspiration to become the regional superpower of South Asia. In addition, the Chinese government views Pakistan as a crucial ally in its efforts to acquire energy security in the coming decades.

Given Pakistan’s hostility toward India since its establishment in 1947, Beijing made an effort to strengthen that country militarily and economically following its 1962 war with India. After Delhi exploded a “nuclear device” in 1974, China actively aided Islamabad’s nuclear-weapons program. In March 1984, its nuclear testing site at Lop Nor became the venue for a successful explosion of a nuclear bomb assembled by Pakistan. Later, it passed on crucial missile technology to Islamabad.

During this period, China emerged as the main supplier of military hardware to Pakistan. Today, nearly four-fifths of Pakistan’s main battle tanks, three-fifths of its warplanes, and three-quarters of its patrol boats and missile crafts are Chinese-made. Given its limited resources, Islamabad cannot afford to buy expensive American or Western arms and has therefore opted for cheaper, less advanced Chinese weapons in greater numbers. Moreover, Pakistan and China have an ongoing co-production project involving the manufacture of JF-17 Thunder fighter aircraft, similar to America’s versatile F-16.

As a consequence, over the past decades a pro-China lobby has emerged in the Pakistani officer corps. It was therefore not surprising when, in the wake of the American raid in Abbottabad, Pakistani military officials let it be known that they might allow the Chinese to examine the rotor of the stealth version of the damaged Black Hawk helicopter left behind by the U.S. Navy SEALS. That threat, though reportedly not carried out, was a clear signal to the U.S.: if it persisted in violating Pakistan’s sovereignty and applying too much pressure, the Pakistanis might choose to align even more closely with Washington’s rival in Asia, the People’s Republic of China. To underline the point, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani traveled to Beijing two weeks after the Abbottabad air raid.

Gilani’s three-day visit involved the signing of several Sino-Pakistani agreements on trade, finance, science, and technology. The highpoint was his meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao. Following that summit, an official spokesperson announced Beijing’s decision to urge Chinese enterprises to strengthen their economic ties with Pakistan by expanding investments there.

Among numerous Sino-Pakistani projects in the pipeline is the building of a railroad between Havelian in Pakistan and Kashgar in China, a plan approved by the two governments in July 2010. This is expected to be the first phase of a far more ambitious undertaking to connect Kashgar with the Pakistani port of Gwadar.

A small fishing village on the Arabian Sea coastline of Baluchistan, Gwadar was transformed into a modern seaport in 2008 by the China Harbor Engineering Company Group, a subsidiary of the China Communications Construction Company Group, a giant state-owned corporation. The port is only 330 miles from the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf through which flows much of China’s supplies of Middle Eastern oil. In the wake of the Gilani visit, China has reportedly agreed to take over future operation of the port.

More than a decade ago, China’s leaders decided to reduce the proportion of its oil imports transported by tanker because of the vulnerability of the shipping lanes from the Persian Gulf and East Africa to its ports. These pass through the narrow Malacca Strait, which is guarded by the U.S. Navy. In addition, the 3,500-mile-long journey -- to be undertaken by 60% of China’s petroleum imports -- is expensive. By having a significant part of its imported oil shipped to Gwadar and then via rail to Kashgar, China would reduce its shipping costs while securing most of its petroleum imports.

At home, the Chinese government remains wary of the Islamist terrorism practiced by Muslim Uighurs agitating for an independent East Turkestan in Xinjiang. Some of them have links to al-Qaeda. Islamabad has long been aware of this. In October 2003, the Pakistani military killed Hasan Mahsum, leader of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, and in August 2004, the Pakistani and Chinese armies conducted a joint anti-terrorism exercise in Xinjiang.

Almost seven years later, Beijing coupled its satisfaction over the death of Osama bin Laden with praise for Islamabad for pursuing what it termed a “vigorous” policy in combatting terrorism. In stark contrast to the recent blast of criticism from Washington about Pakistan’s role in the war on terrorism, coupled with congressional threats to drastically reduce American aid, China laid out a red carpet for Gilani on his visit.

Referring to the “economic losses” Pakistan had suffered in its ongoing counter-terrorism campaigns, the Chinese government called upon the international community to support the Pakistani regime in its attempts to “restore national stability and development in its economy.”

The Chinese response to bin Laden’s killing and its immediate aftermath in Pakistan should be a reminder to the Obama administration: in its dealings with Pakistan in pursuit of its Afghan goals, it has a weaker hand than it imagines. Someday, Pakistan may block those supply lines and play the China card to Washington's dismay.

Dilip Hiro is the author of 32 books, the latest being After Empire: The Birth of A Multipolar World (Nation Books). His upcoming book on jihadists in South Asia will be published by Yale University Press later in the year.

Copyright 2011 Dilip Hiro

Copied from: Tomgram: Dilip Hiro, Pakistan's Other Partner | TomDispatch

Was Zardari ‘ill-prepared’?

2011-05-24T19:21:00.001+05:00

THIS refers to the report ‘2009: Nato officials bewildered by ill-prepared Zardari’ (May 21).

Those who take the time to read the piece in its entirety will see that President Asif Ali Zardari made an impassioned
and strong case for Pakistan.

He clearly explained to his audience what Pakistan’s role had been and was as a front-line state in the war against extremism and about all the sacrifices Pakistan and its people had made.

To mock the democratically elected civilian president for not knowing the language of Nato is cynical and not useful.

Perhaps those Nato officials were used to President Zardari’s predecessor who was more martial and less democratic in his language and more conversant with military manners.

FARAHNAZ ISPAHANI
MNA and Media Adviser to President
Islamabad

Dawn: Was Zardari ‘ill-prepared’?

Successes and Failures of #CIA People of #America should know

2011-05-18T20:32:00.012+05:00

(America needs to raise debt ceiling, on emergency basis, to avoid default)

Sometimes it makes me laugh when ppl blame pakistani agency for playing a double game, I mean identify a single agency in this world which does not play a double game? anyone plz?

It is actually the job of an agency to play games and safeguard interests of its country, for example CIA supported, against Russia, the Afghan Mujahideen and later started fighting Afghan Taliban. This was just because (CIA run) US had different interests on these two different occasions. When US points fingers on ISI tht it is playin a double game, it makes me believe tht CIA is very incompetent as an agency, which eventually forces them to use some other means (like diplomatic front and media) to counter ISI's professional strategy...
CIA, to me, seems so incompetent sometimes tht i feel sorry for the ppl of america who are funding their unprofessional agency. Incompetence of CIA? following are a few examples:

US destroyed the stealth helicopter to avoid transfer of technology but failed to destroy the most sensitive part (i.e. the tail. This, btw, is criminal.)
US killed 'the highest value target' and failed to produce any evidence tht they did it... a large number of americans considers it a lie
US secret operative Raymond Davis killed, in public, two men simply coz he thought they had guns?
US entered afghanistan without a good exit strategy...
US attacked afghanistan to gain a strong influence in the region, ten years into the war n they still have weak influence in the region, in addition they've lost their dominance in the rest of the region...
US attacked iraq on false intelligence information given by CIA (one of the unnecessary wars which brought US to the brink of default)
US failed to provide any evidence tht OBL was behind 9/11 - a huge intelligence failure...

The only success for CIA has been a defamed ISI, only if someone considers it a success.

CIA has a history of failures (and afghanistan will b just another 'feather in its cap') despite being one of the highest budget agencies, but it still enjoys the status of a professional agency in america. I wish ppl of america wake up soon n realize wht has CIA done with them? coz of CIA, USA has more enemies in this world than it has friends... USA has soaring economy coz of this notorious agency...
good luck ppl of america

Alex Jones - Hamid Gul - Osama Bin Laden Death - part 1/2

2011-05-10T22:04:00.004+05:00

Part 2/2

LUMS Admission 2011

2011-03-22T22:00:00.001+05:00

LUMS Ad. Admissions 2011

Liberated Libya rejects US intervention

2011-03-21T21:49:00.002+05:00

Libyans overwhelmingly reject foreign intervention! A US subsidiary the UNO came to help the people of Libya who did not at all want the kind of help US provided.

Supporting Libyan Revolution, Opposing Foreign Intervention

2011-03-21T21:47:00.007+05:00

Leave it to the people of Libya to decide. If not now, they'll bring the revolution a few years later. Let THEM do it!!! Why make their army weaker? It is loss of Libyans too!!

More at The Real News

Julian Assange and Raymond A. Davis | Sabbah Report

2011-03-04T00:05:00.001+05:00

Julian Assange and Raymond A. Davis | Sabbah Report

Most U.S. aid to Pakistan still in America’s hands | The Cable

2011-03-04T00:05:00.000+05:00

Most U.S. aid to Pakistan still in America’s hands | The Cable

Balancing parking tickets against murders

2011-02-13T14:48:00.002+05:00

By Murtaza Haider

For the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, a parking ticket violation is more atrocious than a murder. As a junior senator from New York, Mrs. Clinton wanted to revoke the diplomatic immunity for scofflaw diplomats who were stationed at the United Nations in New York and had racked up $21.3 million in parking violations. As the Secretary of State, however, she is invoking diplomatic immunity for Mr. Raymond Davis, who is accused of murdering two young men in Lahore.

Read full article Balancing parking tickets against murders

Salman Taseer sayin he is against blasphemy

2011-01-11T00:27:00.005+05:00

this video does not tell he did blasphemy or supported blasphemy... yes he pointed out some improvements in registration of the case.

Salman Taseer talks abt Blasphemy Law on CNN

2011-01-11T00:25:00.002+05:00

in this video he does not seem to b in favor of repealing the law. though he mentioned towards the end tht the penalty shld not b death sentence...

Unfriendly and Irresponsible US Behavior

2010-10-10T22:14:00.010+05:00

I was just reading about the blunt US warnings to Pakistan if it does not act aggressively against US defined terrorists. Actually US has an impression that Pakistan is avoiding direct conflict with the 'terrorist' because of strategic and political reasons.

I was wondering if US should issue such warning without showing its own progress and success after 100s of drone attacks on Pakistani soil? I think USA and its non-Pakistani allies should also present a report about their progress in Afghanistan in the last few years. They should also compare their performances with Pakistani army during the same period, to decide who fought better with the militants in almost similar terrain. I was also wondering where did US army go when Pakistan army was carrying out operation Raah-e-Nijaat? I have mentioned in one of my earlier posts that USA removed its check posts from Pak-Afghan border when Pakistani army was fighting TTP in South Waziristan. This was the best chance to sandwich TTP but the International armies missed it। Shouldn't we doubt their intent? They not only missed it, they wasted the efforts made by Pakistani army. Missing its own opportunity, US is now pressing Pakistan army for no reason. It makes me wonder, why does such events don't affect US image all over the world and US impression on Pakistan :s

US should be aware of the facts that Pakistani army does not have to see the western border only. It is already very stretched out:
1) On going war against militants all over Pakistan
2) Recent uprise in Indian occupied Kashmir requires Pakistani army to be ready for any situation
3) Recent floods in Pakistan

I'd question USA and the rest of the world if they would prefer saving and rehabilitating their citizens after a natural disaster or they would open a new war front against someone who is considered a 'bad guy' by some suspicious friend?

Regarding new Video of Stoning a Woman

2010-10-01T15:34:00.004+05:00

These days people are talking about another pretty blur video of, allegedly, Muslim radicals stoning a woman to death for her misconduct. Given the information that another such video, of whipping, has turned out to be fake, it is pretty naive to believe that this video is credible. But still I findd very few people who doubt the video. Rather, based on the video of some guys who misuse one Islamic law, people start criticizing the Islamic law of stoning to death if misconduct is proven through proper trial. Very disturbing!!!

Video: From Protest to Engagement - WebIslam.com

2010-08-21T15:45:00.000+05:00

Video: From Protest to Engagement - WebIslam.com

Permanently Deleted my FB Account

2010-07-03T16:59:00.002+05:00

Atlast I deleted my fb account today, though I planned to do it on June 30. The reason for deletion is:

FB's acceptable usage policy (AUP) prohibits hate speech. This criterion was n/a on the Everybody Draw Muhammad page, leaving no option for reporting that page. Subsequently, someone created a "H1tler" page using a fake ID. That page was removed overnight and the owner’s account was deleted, citing breach of AUP as the reason.

If you want to permanently delete your fb account goto the following link and click submit:

http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account

Taxonomy of a Secular Mind

2010-04-09T19:55:00.000+05:00

Taxonomy of a Secular Mind

From Holy War to Holy Terror: 18 Years in Afghanistan

2010-03-26T19:44:00.002+05:00

Recent streak of blasts!!!

2010-03-14T12:38:00.002+05:00

I have a few things to write but unfortunately not getting time to post the analysis on the recent series of blasts in pakistan, statements of indian FM and US gen. patreaus, visit of indian PM to KSA and death of a few indians in afghanistan... i wish i get time next week to present my analysis of the situation...

Killing more than two birds with one stone...

2010-02-16T01:04:00.003+05:00

This saturday a notification for appointment of judges was issued by the presidency... general response was like "PP walon ko kia ho gaya hai?", "wht made zardari do so?", "is he insane???", "can we afford any such turmoil at the moment?", "is this a time to confront?" is he nuts??? and blah blah... but wait...

PPP is not a party of amateurs, we must not think tht it was just a mistake.
keeping in mind the past of PPP and zardari, makes me beleive that zardari had a plan... see the following:

"Referring to the extraordinary step of constituting the three-judge bench in such an unusual manner, the expert suggested that the step was needed because if the notifications had not been suspended and the two judges had refused to take oath in accordance with them they would have been deemed to have retired as enunciated in the 1996 Al Jihad Trust case."

DAWN.COM | Front Page | Attorney general holds good meeting with CJ

perfect plan... both the judges are not useful for us (they r from CJ group)... we need some 'better' guys here in judiciary... we know tht they'll refuse... and they dont know tht we have more than two ppl ready to replace them :)

taking benefit of the situation, raja of lahore mr. salman taseer rejected the recommendations sent to him by CJ LHC :) tht's why i call it "killing more than two birds with one stone"

wanna learn politics? join PPP... PPP rocks

bechara gilani ab phir maamla suljhanay mein ulajh jaye ga...

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Why is South Asia so tense?

2010-01-21T12:51:00.002+05:00

For the past 63 years, South Asia has remained in a state of tension. The eight countries that make up this geopolitically sensitive region do not share a friendly and harmonious relationship with each other. This is despite their efforts to come on a single platform of Saarc to develop a major economic and political bloc. All smaller countries were enthusiastic about this model of cooperation to succeed in gaining progress and getting rid of pervasive poverty. But in the end it just collapsed.

All these countries have a closely interwoven history and common ethnic, linguistic, cultural and religious heritage but still they failed. It happened because all the contiguous states on India’s periphery are fearful of its hegemonic designs and its policy to dominate and dictate.

In case of India and Pakistan, given the historical divide between Hindus and Muslims, it is understandable that a certain amount of acrimony and distrust would impact their relationship. Instead of accepting Pakistan’s emergence in 1947 as a reality and resolving bilateral disputes in a spirit of understanding, India adopted a belligerent course. The resulting discord and three wars have plagued their relationship to this day, both countries diverting huge and precious financial resources to defence and development of nuclear weapons.

Even if Indo-Pakistan relationship is set aside for a moment as one of peculiar nature and even if Pakistan is presumed to be responsible for all the wicked behaviour, the question arises why do other countries of the region find it so difficult to forge a closer relationship with India? Why is it that India has failed to evoke trust and confidence among its neighbours to make any worthwhile collaboration impossible, including Saarc? Isn’t it time for hostilities to give way to a congenial environment among South Asian neighbours too?

The fact is that for regional alliances, political or economic, to succeed it is imperative for all stakeholders to treat each other as equals, irrespective of their size or strength. This comes with respecting each other’s sovereignty, willingness to set aside political differences and showing a degree of flexibility to promote a common cause. In case of South Asia, this has not happened. India has disputes with almost every neighbour, which has strained their relationships for years at end.

In Sri Lanka, India overtly and covertly supported the insurgency against the state by LTTE, a nationalist Tamil group in the northern Jaffna region of this small island country, which kept it politically and economically destabilised for decades. In the end, India paid a price for interference when its prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, was assassinated by a Tamil activist for having betrayed the movement.

With Bangladesh it is locked in an unresolved dispute over Farakka barrage that deprives Bangladesh of its water share. Despite the gratitude Bangladesh owes to India for having militarily dismembered Pakistan in 1971 to midwife its birth, relations between the two have often sunk to the rock bottom on a host of issues, including border dispute.

The tiny mountain state of Nepal has complained of persistent Indian dictation and interference in its internal affairs. That India employs economic blockades and manipulates transit facilities to this poor landlocked country for arm twisting is no secret.

Although not a part of South Asia, China’s relations with India for decades have remained frosty, at best. They went to war in 1962 over a border dispute. Competing for regional leadership, it does not hesitate to antagonise China by hoisting Dalai Lama off and on to keep the issue of Tibet alive. Lately, having aligned itself with America to contain China, India is bargaining for a tense Sino-Indian relationship in the years to come.

With Pakistan, India maintains the worst of relations mainly because of Pakistan’s political and military standing and its ability to reject Indian domination. Outstanding disputes including Kashmir, water distribution, dams that India constructs in violation Indus Water Treaty and border issues have remained unresolved.

By joining the American bandwagon in Afghanistan and positioning its troops in the name of infrastructure development, India created enough concerns for Pakistan. But by its collusion with CIA and Mossad to take out Pakistan’s nuclear assets through subversion in Fata, the NWFP and other areas using the militants of Tehrik-i-Taliban, India is slamming shut the door on the peace process that Pakistan has been persistently trying to keep open ever since 1947. With a history of constant endeavours to balkanise Pakistan, Indian military build up in Afghanistan is seen by Pakistan’s military as an effort to put it in a nutcracker.

That growing Indian influence in Afghanistan is a destabilising factor in the region, is acknowledged even by Gen McChrystal in his recent review of the war in Afghanistan. The make and types of sophisticated weapons, communications equipment and satellite pictures of troop movements recovered from the militants provide undeniable evidence about Indian involvement.

Mr. Ehsanullah Aryanzai, advisor to the Afghan regime has said that India is using Afghan soil to conduct anti-Pakistan activities. The executive editor of ‘News Indian Express’ has acknowledged the evidence of Indian activities in Balochistan in the issue of July 31, 2009. And evidence was recently handed over by Pakistani prime minister to his Indian counterpart.

The Indian psyche that breeds arrogance and expansionism is clear from the words of Pundit Nehru, India’s first prime minister, who said ‘India must dominate or perish’. Perish it will not. So dominate it must. To Hindu extremists, all others on this land are aliens who do not belong there and this includes Muslims and Christians. This justifies the commonly witnessed ethnic cleansing of non-Hindus and leads to the ultimate dream of the creation of Vrihata Bharat — a Greater India.

To ensure that this fatherland is reunited under Hindu rule, India pursues designs of expanding its boundaries to eventually include Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, and Bhutan and create the huge Indian empire.

It would be very naive not to see the direction towards which India is headed. Far from becoming the sole ruler of the entire Indian Ocean, India is destabilising South Asia and working its way towards its own disintegration. This is not only because it is surrounding itself with angry and insecure neighbours, but also due to its troubles at home.

shahidrsiddiqi@gmail.com

DAWN.COM | World | Why is South Asia so tense?

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How to clear the mess? Article by Imran Khan

2009-11-18T20:33:00.002+05:00

Read the article in URDU
The reason why there is so much despondency in Pakistan is because there is no road map to get out of the so-called War on Terror - a nomenclature that even the Obama Administration has discarded as being a negative misnomer. To cure the patient the diagnosis has to be accurate, otherwise the wrong medicine can sometimes kill the patient. In order to find the cure, first six myths that have been spun around the US-led “Global War on Terror” (GWOT) have to be debunked.
Myth No. 1: This is Pakistan’s war
Since no Pakistani was involved in 9/11 and the CIA-trained Al Qaeda was based in Afghanistan, how does it concern us? It is only when General Musharraf buckled under US pressure and sent our troops into Waziristan in late 2003-early 2004 that Pakistan became a war zone. It took another three years of the Pakistan army following the same senseless tactics as used by the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan (aerial bombardment) plus the slaughter at Lal Masjid, for the creation of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). If our security forces are being targeted today by the Taliban and their suicide bombers, it is because they are perceived to be proxies of the US army. Iran is ideologically opposed to both Al Qaeda and the Taliban yet why are its security forces not attacked by terrorists? The answer is because their President does not pretend to be a bulwark against Islamic extremism in return for US dollars and support.
Michael Scheuer (ex-CIA officer and author of the book Imperial Hubris), writing in The Washington Post in April 2007, cited Musharraf’s loyalty to the US even when it went against Pakistan’s national interests by giving two examples: the first was Musharraf helping the US in removing a pro-Pakistan Afghan government and replacing it with a pro-Indian one; and, the second, for sending Pakistani troops into the tribal areas and turning the tribesmen against the Pakistan army. To fully understand Musharraf’s treachery against Pakistan, it is important to know that almost a 100,000 troops were sent into the tribal areas to target around 1000 suspected Al-Qaeda members - thus earning the enmity of at least 1.5 million armed local tribals in the 7 tribal agencies of Pakistan.

The most shameful aspect of the lie that this is our war is that the government keeps begging the US for more dollars stating that the war is costing the country more than the money it is receiving from the US. If it is our war, then fighting it should not be dependent on funds and material flowing from the US. If it is our war, why do we have no control over it? If it is our war, then why is the US government asking us to do more?

Myth No. 2: This is a war against Islamic extremists ó an ideological war against radical Islam

Was the meteoric rise of Taliban due to their religious ideology? Clearly not, because the Mujahideen were equally religious - Gulbadin Hekmatyar (supported by the ISI) was considered an Islamic fundamentalist. In fact, the reason the Taliban succeeded where the Mujahideen warlords failed, was because they established the rule of law - the Afghans had had enough of the power struggle between the warlord factions that had destroyed what remained of the country’s infrastructure and killed over 100,000 people.

If the Pushtuns of the tribal area wanted to adopt the Taliban religious ideology then surely they would have when the latter was in power in Afghanistan, between 1996 and 2001. Yet there was no Talibanisation in the tribal areas. Interestingly, the only part of Pakistan where the Taliban had an impact was in Swat where Sufi Mohammad started the Shariat Movement. The reason was that while there was rule of law (based on the traditional jirga system) in the tribal areas, the people of Swat had been deprived of easy access to justice ever since the traditional legal system premised on Qazi courts was replaced by Pakistani laws and judicial system, first introduced in 1974. The murder rate shot up from 10 per year in 1974 to almost 700 per year by 1977, when there was an uprising against the Pakistani justice system. The Taliban cashed in on this void of justice to rally the poorer sections of Swat society just as they had attracted the Afghans in a situation of political anarchy and lawlessness in Afghanistan. It is important to make this distinction because the strategy to bring peace must depend on knowing your enemy. Michael Bearden, CIA station chief in Pakistan from 1986 to 1989, wrote in Foreign Affairs magazine that the US is facing the same Pushtun insurgency that was faced by the Soviets in Afghanistan. According to him, as long as NATO is in Afghanistan, the Taliban will get a constant supply of men from the 15 million Pushtun population of Afghanistan and the 25 million Pushtuns of Pakistan. In other words, this Talibanisation is not so much religion-driven as politically-motivated. So the solution to the problem in the tribal belt today does not lie in religion and “moderate” Islam but in a political settlement.

Myth No. 3: If we keep fighting the US war, the super power will bail us out financially through aid packages.

Recently, the Government’s Adviser on Finance stated that the war on terror has cost Pakistan $35 billion while the country has received only $11 billion assistance from the US. I would go a step further and say that this aid is the biggest curse for the country. Not only is it “blood money” for our army killing our own people (there is no precedent for this) but also nothing has destroyed the self-esteem of this country as this one factor. Moreover, there is no end in sight as our cowardly and compromised leadership is ordered to “do more” for the payments made for their services. Above all, this aid and loans are like treating cancer with disprin. It enables the government to delay the much needed surgery of reforms (cutting expenditures and raising revenues); and meanwhile the cancer is spreading and might become terminal.

Myth No. 4: That the next terrorist attack on the US will come from the tribal areas.

First, there is an assumption, based purely on conjecture, that the Al Qaeda leadership is in the tribal areas. In fact, this leadership could well be in the 70 % of Afghan territory that the Taliban control. More importantly, given the growing radicalisation of the educated Muslim youth - in major part because of the continuing US partiality towards Israeli occupation of Palestinian land - why can it not follow that the next terrorist attack on the US could come either from the Middle East or from the marginalised and radicalised Muslims of Europe, motivated by perceived injustices to Islam and the Muslim World.

Myth No. 5: That the ISI is playing a double game and if Pakistan did more the war could be won.

If Talibanisation is growing in Pakistan because of the covert support of ISI in the tribal areas, then surely the growing Taliban control over Afghanistan (70 % of the territory) must be with NATO’s complicity? Surely a more rational understanding would be to see that the strategy being employed is creating hatred against the US and its collaborators. Aerial bombardment and its devastating collateral damage is the biggest gift the US has given to the Taliban. According to official reports, out of the 60 drone attacks conducted between 14 January 2006-April 8 2009, only 10 were on target, killing 14 alleged Al Qaeda. In the process almost 800 Pakistani civilians have been killed, while many lost their homes and limbs.

Despite its military surge effort, the US will eventually pack up and leave like the Soviets, but the “do more” mantra could end up destroying the Pakistan army - especially the ISI which is being targeted specifically for the mess created by the Bush Administration in Afghanistan.

Myth No. 6: That Pakistan could be Talibanised with their version of Islam.

Both Musharraf and Zardari have contributed to this myth in order to get US backing and dollars. Firstly there is no such precedent in the 15-hundred years of Islamic history of a theocracy like that of the Taliban, outside of the recent Taliban period of rule in Afghanistan. However, as mentioned earlier, the Taliban’s ascendancy in Afghanistan was not a result of their religious ideology but their ability to establish order and security in a war-devastated and anarchic Afghanistan.

In Swat, the present mess has arisen because of poor governance issues. Also, it was the manner in which the government handled the situation - simply sending in the army rather than providing better governance - that created space for the Taliban. Just as in Balochistan (under Musharraf) when the army was sent in rather than the Baloch being given their economic and provincial rights, similarly the army in Swat aggravated the situation and the present mess was created.

What Pakistan has to worry about is the chaos and anarchy that are going to stem from the radicalisation of our people because of the failure of successive governments to govern effectively and justly. Karen Armstrong, in her book The Battle for God, gives details of fundamentalist movements that turned militant when they were repressed. Ideas should be fought with counter ideas and dialogue, not guns. Allama Iqbal was able to deal with fundamentalism through his knowledge and intellect. The slaughter of the fundamentalists of Lal Masjid did more to fan extremism and fanaticism than any other single event.

Pakistan is staring down an abyss today and needs to come up with a sovereign nationalist policy to deal with the situation. If we keep on following dictation from Washington, we are doomed. There are many groups operating in the country under the label of “Taliban”. Apart from the small core of religious extremists, the bulk of the fighting men are Pushtun nationalists. Then there are the fighters from the old Jihadi groups. Moreover, the Taliban are also successfully exploiting the class tensions by appealing to the have-nots. But the most damaging for Pakistan are those groups who are being funded primarily from two external sources: first, by those who want to see Pakistan become a “failed state”; and, second, by those who wish to see the US bogged down in the Afghan quagmire.

What needs to be done: A two-pronged strategy is required - focusing on a revised relationship with the US and a cohesive national policy based on domestic compulsions and ground realities.

President Obama, unlike President Bush, is intelligent and has integrity. A select delegation of local experts on the tribal area and Afghanistan should make him understand that the current strategy is a disaster for both Pakistan and the US; that Pakistan can no longer commit suicide by carrying on this endless war against its own people; that we will hold dialogue and win over the Pushtuns of the tribal area and make them deal with the real terrorists while the Pakistan army is gradually pulled out.

At the same time, Pakistan has to move itself to ending drone attacks if the US is not prepared to do so. Closure of the drone base within Pakistan is a necessary beginning as is the need to create space between ourselves and the US, which will alter the ground environment in favour of the Pakistani state. It will immediately get rid of the fanaticism that creates suicide bombers as no longer will they be seen to be on the path to martyrdom by bombing US collaborators. Within this environment a consensual national policy to combat extremism and militancy needs to be evolved centring on dialogue, negotiation and assertion of the writ of the state. Where force is required the state must rely on the paramilitary forces, not the army. Concomitantly, Pakistan needs serious reforms. First and foremost we have to give our people access to justice at the grassroots level - that is, revive the village jury/Panchayat system. Only then will we rid ourselves of the oppressive “thana-kutchery” culture which compels the poor to seek adjudication by the feudals, tribal leaders, tumandars and now by the Taliban also - thereby perpetuating oppression of the dispossessed, especially women.

Second, unless we end the system of parallel education in the country where the rich access private schools and a different examination system while the poor at best only have access to a deprived public school system with its outmoded syllabus and no access to employment. That is why the marginalised future generations are condemned to go to madrassahs which provide them with food for survival and exploit their pent up social anger. We need to bring all our educational institutions into the mainstream with one form of education syllabus and examination system for all - with madrassahs also coming under the same system even while they retain their religious education specialisation.

Third, the level of governance needs to be raised through making appointments on merit in contrast to the worst type of cronyism that is currently on show. Alongside this, a cutting of expenditures is required with the leadership and the elite leading by example through adoption of an austere lifestyle. Also, instead of seeking aid and loans to finance the luxurious lifestyle of the elite, the leadership should pay taxes, declare its assets and bring into the country all money kept in foreign banks abroad. All “benami” transactions, assets and bank accounts should be declared illegal. I believe we will suddenly discover that we are actually quite a self-sufficient country.

Fourth, the state has to widen its direct taxation net and cut down on indirect taxation where the poor subsidise the rich. If corruption and ineptitude are removed, it will be possible for the state to collect income tax more effectively.

A crucial requirement for moving towards stability would be the disarming of all militant groups - which will a real challenge for the leadership but here again, the political elite can lead by example and dismantle their show of guards and private forces.

Finally, fundamentalism should be fought intellectually with sensitivity shown to the religious and heterogeneous roots of culture amongst the Pakistani masses. Solutions have to be evolved from within the nation through tolerance and understanding. Here, we must learn from the Shah of Iran’s attempts to enforce a pseudo-Western identity onto his people and its extreme backlash from Iranian society.

The threat of extremism is directly related to the performance of the state and its ability to deliver justice and welfare to its people.
Source: The News

Rise of Pakistan

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The war in Afghanistan

2009-11-16T16:48:00.002+05:00

by Javed Hussain

AFTER the air bombing campaign had routed the Taliban in 2001, euphoric shouts of victory resonated across the United States, the loudest coming from the White House and the Pentagon.

But these were short-lived as the characteristic Afghan resistance began. Eight years on the American servicemen and women in Afghanistan are gasping for breath because their former president, who was also their commander-in-chief, and his staff had underestimated the enemy.

Not only that, they had also committed two strategic blunders, the consequences of which are being suffered not only by their servicemen and women, but also to a much greater degree, by the Pakistani people and their servicemen. Their strategic thought was distinguished by their stunning mediocrity.

The first blunder was to allow the Taliban to escape to

Pakistan

. Had they secured the Durand Line crossing sites prior to initiating their air-bombing campaign, this could have been pre-empted. The second blunder was to place their main military effort in the wrong direction — Iraq, which left the main theatre, Afghanistan, undermanned. They had several years after the resurgence of the Taliban in 2002 to correct their strategy, but their obsession with Iraq blinded them to the operational requirements in

Afghanistan

.

Instead, they found it politically and militarily expedient to blame Pakistan for their failures, and thus started their ‘do more’ refrain that continues unabated, even though Pakistan has done far more than them, and in the process, suffered more than all the countries put together in the coalition.

...

The Americans went to Afghanistan to fight a war. They should plan to win it — unless they want to be known as a superpower defeated twice by guerillas. Blaming Pakistan and prodding it to ‘do more’ would not win the war for them.

Full Article: DAWN.COM | Pakistan | The war in Afghanistan

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Rah-e-Nijaat... What Next?

2009-11-08T19:43:00.007+05:00

Pakistani army is advancing at a fast pace in south waziristan. Resistance by the opponent group is far less than expected. Question arises that why is the resistance that low when it was considered a safe heaven for the armed militants residing there for so many years? Answer to this question becomes evident if we note that american checkposts in afghanistan along the south wazriristan border were removed within a few days after the start of the operation (Reported Here). So we can easily conclude that the militants have moved to afghanistan (obviously they'd have, they were provided the chance by the troops on eastern border of afghanistan).

Once the pakistani army successfully completes the operation and takes full control of south waziristan we might see any or both of the following:
1. America will force pakistan to start an operation in north waziristan
2. Pakistan will ask america to take the responsibility and fight the militants pushed by the pakistani army in afghanistan. And pakistan should obviously pressurize, america used to continuously asking pakistan to do more and do more. Now the militants attacking pakistan have fled in the territory controlled by america. America should now act :)

Keeping the pakistani diplomacy in mind, 1 is more probable :) and 2 is very very less probable. But still pakistan can (and might) ask america at agency level.

Btw the removal of posts from afghan side and the following excerpt (Full Story) make me believe that america did not want pakistan to attack the (pakistan's enemy) militants in south waziristan (text in blue is not part of the excerpt):

"The United States has long pressed for a military offensive in Waziristan, claiming that it has become an Al Qaeda safe haven. And as the Pakistani army launched the offensive, two top US officials, Centcom chief Gen David Petraeus and Senator John Kerry, visited Islamabad to consult military and civilian leaders.

The US media claim that the two leaders encouraged Pakistan to continue the offensive. But the reports also claim that key differences between the US and Pakistan on how to tackle the insurgency remain unresolved.

It seems that pakistan wanted to go all out (as it is going now) and america wanted somethings else.

The media note that during his meeting with the two US officials, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani emphasised the need to speed up delayed payments of more than $1 billion to support its military and called on the US and Nato to stop infiltration from Afghanistan into Pakistan.

Seems that america wanted to pressurize pakistan by delaying the payments

US critics, meanwhile, continue to accuse Pakistan of only targeting those insurgents that threaten its own security while ignoring those who threaten Afghanistan.

another indication that america did not want pakistan to fight the south waziristan militants with full force... it seems tht some american plan is being affected... may b they wanted the pakistani army to stretch out instead of succeeding in the battle ( i.e. going step by step). And obviously it is the duty of pakistani army to fight the insurgents tht threaten its security in its territory. If someone threatens americans in their controlled territory, americans should learn how to handle them within the america controlled territory... there is no use of cryin and blaming pakistan...

American officials also disagree with Pakistan’s claim that the Haqqani network — termed by Gen Stanley McChrystal, the top US commander in Afghanistan, as the second-greatest threat to US forces there – is not in Fata. It mainly operates from Afghanistan.

The media, however, acknowledge that US generals understand why Pakistan is trying to befriend Waziristan militant leaders like Hafiz Gul Bahadur and Maulvi Nazir.

‘Gen Petraeus and Gen McChrystal understand that opening up on other fronts wouldn’t benefit the Pakistan Army,’ says one such report.

‘The American generals believe that Pakistan can afford to ignore the smaller guns — like Hafiz Bahadur and Maulvi Nazir — for the time being.’"

Proof of Indian hand South Waziristan: army

2009-11-03T16:26:00.002+05:00

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has found concrete evidence of India’s involvement in militancy in South Waziristan and decided to take up the matter with New Delhi.

This was disclosed by Information Minster Qamar Zaman Kaira and military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas at a press briefing on the progress of operation Rah-i-Nijat here on Monday. It was the first time in recent times that Pakistan had pointed fingers at India from a forum having representation of political and military leadership.

Mr Kaira said although it had been decided to raise the issue with India, Pakistan would not deviate from the peace process.

Gen Abbas said a huge quantity of Indian arms and ammunition, literature, medical equipment and medicines had been recovered from Sherawangi area, near Kaniguram. He said the Foreign Office had been informed and the matter would be taken up with the Indian authorities through diplomatic channels.

Sources in the Foreign Office said a dossier containing proofs of India’s involvement in South Waziristan would soon be handed over to officials in New Delhi.
KANIGURAM TAKEN: Gen Abbas said security forces had secured control of Kaniguram, a redoubt of Uzbek fighters.

He said there were fortified positions and bunkers in the area which were being used by militants in possession of modern weaponry. The entire area had been cleared of mines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Five truckloads of arms and ammunition were recovered from the area on Monday, he added.

Full Story: DAWN.COM | Pakistan | Proof of Indian hand South Waziristan: army

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Displaying More than 500 results from IEEE Xplore

2009-04-29T18:43:00.005+06:00

It is possible to have more than 500 records in search results at IEEEXplore. But using the IEEEXplore 'Organize Results' settings one can view 500 records at max. In order to view the records beyond 500 one needs to change the following fields in the query string (which is a part of the URL):

1. maxdoc
2. page
3. ResultStart

For example you have 1000 records in total and you want to view the results from 501 to 600 (if you display 100 records per page) then these fields will be set as follows:

maxdoc=1000
page=5
ResultStart=500

The URL will look almost like this:
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/search/searchresult.jsp?queryText=..what ever..&ResultCount=100&maxdoc=1000&..many parameters..&page=5&ResultStart=500&..other parameters..

OR

only change the URL of the first page of the results. change the 'maxdoc' field and set it to the maximum records retrieved in your search.

Search Results Format in IEEEXplore

2009-04-29T18:26:00.005+06:00

If you are the facing the problem that maximum of 100 records can be displayed from the search results returned by IEEExplore then please go to 'Organize Results' section on the search page where you submitted your search string and change the maximum number of records to 500 in the 'Maximum' field. From this page you can also change the number of records to be displayed per page.

See the following:

"You can change these specifications to view your results in a different format. IEEE Xplore keeps your specifications active until you change them.

Your options are:

Citation format consists of document title, author, publication title, and bibliographic information. Citation & Abstract format also includes the first 30 to 40 words of the Abstract.
Maximum sets the total number of results found. Choices are 100, 250, and 500.
Display...results per page sets the number of results displayed per page. Choices are 25, 50, and 100.
Sort by sets the criteria for ordering the results. Choices are Relevance (how well the result matches the search query as determined by IEEE Xplore), Year (numerical order by publication year), and Document Title (alphabetical, ignoring leading articles such as "a", "the", and "an").
In...order sets the sort order. Choices are Descending (high to low) and Ascending (low to high).

"
copied from IEEE Xplore Help. The link has further information regarding this.

Authoritarianism or Democracy?

2009-03-08T17:50:00.007+05:00

ZULFIKAR Ali Bhutto waged a long and hard struggle against Ayub Khan’s dictatorship. In retrospect one might say that, left to his own devices, he too would have opted for one-man rule — that is, his own.

As head of the government he suffered democratic institutions and processes to the extent that he did for want of an option. He wanted his writ to prevail not only at the centre but in all of the provinces, and to that end he got rid of the NAP-JUI governments in Balochistan and NWFP, imprisoned their leaders, and manipulated the remaining local politicians so as to form PPP governments in these provinces.

He had little tolerance for opponents or dissidents. I can think of none among them who did not end up in prison. But intolerance of the opposition was not something that Mr Bhutto had invented. It had been the order of the day before him and it did not cease with his departure from the nation’s political scene. Going beyond Ziaul Haq’s military dictatorship, we see that Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif instituted bogus criminal cases against each other and imprisoned each other and associates during their respective tenures as prime minister. Following their return from periods of exile abroad in 2007, they admitted their past “mistake”, and promised never to persecute their opponents again.

We cannot say what Benazir would have done with this promise, for she died in December 2007. After the elections on Feb 18, 2008 her party formed the government at the centre and in Sindh and entered ruling coalitions in Balochistan and the NWFP. PML-N put together a coalition, including some PPP notables, to form the government in Punjab with Mr Shahbaz Sharif at its head.

True to its tradition, the PPP could not accept the fact that another party had come to dominate the government in Punjab. Party stalwarts , spurred on by Governor Salmaan Taseer, worked to dislodge it. Then the wheel of fortune turned in their favour: the Supreme Court found the Sharif brothers to be ineligible to hold public office. Consequently, Shahbaz Sharif ceased to be a member of the Punjab Assembly and chief minister.

The normal procedure in this situation would have been for the governor to summon the provincial assembly to elect a new chief minister. Instead, governor’s rule was imposed on the province.

Leaders of several political parties and many other observers have condemned Mr Taseer’s action as improper. Mr Nawaz Sharif has called it an unconstitutional and unlawful act and asked civil servants and policemen not to obey the resulting government’s orders. He has also called upon the people to come out on the streets to protest and agitate against the Zardari regime. The people in fair numbers are coming out and a mass movement appears to be taking shape.

The governor on his part showed no signs of relenting. Within minutes of taking charge he replaced the chief secretary and the inspector general of police with officers of his choice, He locked the entrances to the provincial assembly to prevent members from meeting, and they along with the speaker, have been holding sessions outside on the building’s steps and adjoining grounds.

Mr Zardari’s government seems to be assuming that the people marching on the streets will get tired in a few days and go home. This may or may not happen. Mass movements have come and gone but some of them have persisted until their ends were achieved: for instance the anti-Ayub movement (1967-69); Sheikh Mujibur Rehman’s autonomy movement in East Pakistan (1969-71); anti-Bhutto movement (1977); Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (went on for several years to oust Ziaul Haq but fizzled out before his death); and the anti-Musharraf movement (2007-08).

Mr Taseer’s partisans told us that governor’s rule was a temporary expedient, and that the assembly would soon be called to elect a new chief minister. The intervening period would give the PPP managers time to do a bit of horse-trading and put together a majority in the assembly and form the next government. That may happen but it will not necessarily bring public tranquillity to Punjab.

It will probably be said that the PPP has taken power through crooked manipulation, that it is an expression of Mr Zardari’s unbounded and unprincipled pursuit of power, and that it does not mean well for Pakistan.

Professions of peace on the part of those who sponsor mass movements may be sincere. Our experience shows that when people in large numbers come out on the streets they will not remain content with chanting endearing slogans. Orators will use their way with words, highs and lows of voice and body language to arouse them and call them to action. They will then set private cars and buses on fire, break windows and plunder stores, clash with the police, kill and get killed.

Supporters of the present government brand Nawaz Sharif’s protest movement as the politics of confrontation that is liable to strain the country’s fragile democracy beyond endurance. This is specious reasoning. People protesting on the streets are a part of the democratic tradition. They are a needed warning to rulers that they cannot get away with arbitrariness and usurpation of the citizen’s fundamental rights.

There are times when it is beyond the government’s capability to meet the protesters’ demand. That is not the case in Pakistan at this time. Reinstatement of Iftikhar Chaudhry, the deposed chief justice of Pakistan, along with the related issue of judicial independence, is the principal objective of the lawyers’ movement and their intended long march. The same objective informs the PML-N’s plan for a protest movement. Mr Nawaz Sharif says he will call off his movement if Justice Chaudhry is reinstated.

It is thus open to Mr Zardari’s government to reinstate the gentleman, send the protesters home and return our city streets to peace and tranquillity. It is possible that Mr Zardari’s personal pride and stubbornness are keeping his government from making this simple move to resolve the current crisis. If that is indeed the case, it is an awful shame that this government has chosen to keep the country in turmoil merely to appease a single individual’s ego, even if he be the president of Pakistan.

The writer, professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, is a visiting professor at the Lahore School of Economics.

EMAIL

anwars@lahoreschool.edu.pk

Source: http://epaper.dawn.com/artMailDisp.aspx?article=08_03_2009_006_017&typ=0

A Series of Black Days

2009-03-04T18:42:00.013+05:00

History of my country is filled with many black days, but the very recent ones have left me stunned, speechless and hopeless to some extent. The most recent black days are February 25, 2009 and March 03, 2009.

On Feb 25, a provincial assembly was holding its meeting and the governor of the province intervened by suspending the assembly on the orders of the head of the state. The point to be noted here is that the head of the state is co-chairman of a party which claims itself a custodian of democracy in Pakistan, projects itself as the largest party in Pakistan, preaches nothing but democracy, claims to have sacrificed for democracy more than once, and blah blah... The head of the state ignores the ongoing meeting of the provincial assembly, in which a new leader of the house was about to be selected, and orders the imposition of the Governor Rule in Punjab. The reason mentioned for this act was that the provincial government cannot be run constitutionally at this point in time. Which is not less than a joke, since the elected assembly was holding its meeting and the custodian of the house i.e. the Speaker had called for the next meeting as well. A few reasons for the imposition of the governor rule are obvious and a few are still hidden.One obvious reason is the wish of the PPP to rule the most populated province Punjab despite being a minority in the elected house as compared to the PML-N, i.e. approx. 29% seats as compared to the 46% of PML-N. By ruling Punjab, PPP can get (mis)use the resources of this province very effectively. The other reason is to sabotage the image of the PML-N and the Sharif Brothers by portraying them as the ppl responsible for the politics of agitation and the unrest in Punjab. Third and possibly the most important reason is to change the machinery of the Punjab Government so that the participants of the Long March can be dealt with. I am sure the PPP government will not hesitate to use the force against the peaceful and unarmed patriotic citizens of Pakistan. The hidden objectives of the governor rule cannot be identified so early, but the time will soon uncover the objectives. One thing I have noticed is the appointment of so many judges right after the imposition of the Governor rule. A recording by a DawnNews reporter clearly tells that these appointments are political.

A political process had started a little time ago, and a group of stubborn persons derailed the process. Institutions were getting stronger (the resolutions in the assemblies and the positive debates in the assemblies etc.) and the (elected) President exercised his (so called) right when there was no need to exercise it. It would have been better if the Governor had invited the PML-N the largest party in the Punjab Assembly to show the majority on the floor. The governor could also have invited the PPP+PML-Q to do the same if he thought that the PML-N has lost the majority now. But he didn't do that because, it was not the case :)

On March 03, 2009 our guests and the ambassadors of goodwill, the Sri Lankan cricket players were attacked. It was a moment of shock for me to hear that, and I was praying for the safety of all the Sri Lankan players. They are such a helping lot, so friendly and co-operative people that they visited us when the world was not ready to visit us due to the possible risk to their lives. Sri Lankan Cricket had always responded positively to our invitations. And an attack on these ambassadors left me in a mixed feeling of shame, regret, anger, shock and uncertainty. Sri Lankans had not even imagined that they'd be attacked. Neither did I ever imagined that any cricket player can be attacked in this way in Pakistan. Why did the Sri Lankans imagine that? Because there are no such attacks in past, which prompted them to believe that sportsmen are not the targets of the terrorists operating in Pakistan or Sri Lanka. Why did I believe that such an attack will not be carried out in Pakistan? Because I live here, I know the love for the sport in the hearts of Pakistanis. I know that the cricket is played and loved even in the northern and western parts of Pakistan. I know the trend of attacks in Pakistan, where South Asians are not usually attacked. I know the respect and love the Pakistanis have for the Sri Lankan cricketrs. Both crickets have very friendly relations. Whenever there is a defeat against Sri Lanka, I do not see any angry faces as I see them when India beats Pakistan. When Pakistanis love cricket, respect the Sri Lankans as a whole, then who can it be to attack the ties between the two countries? Who can benefit from this? Who wants to pollute the image of Pakistan? Lets see.

Can it be Pakistan itself???
No. Only fools will believe that. Pakistan is not irresponsible and stupid that it contaminate its own image and worsens its position in the world.

Can it be Taliban???
May be. But why would Taliban attack Sri Lanka? Sri Lanka was neutral in Afghan Wars. Sri Lanka is neutral in current 'War on Terror' against the Pukhtoons (Afghani and Pakistani) and Muslims. But lets not close this option because the Taliban might use this to destabilize Pakistan.

India???
Yes. Look at the potential benefits India can have from these attacks. India can single out Pakistan. India can further spoil Pakistan's image in the whole world. India can use this event to convince the world that Pakistan is a failed state. India can recommend the world to attack Pakistan and capture its nuclear assets, the biggest threat to the Indian at the moment. India can itself justify its attack on Pakistan for the same reason. India can further delay the dialogue with Pakistan on the outstanding issues like Kashmir and the dams on Pakistan's rivers. India can specifically point out to the Sri Lankans that even you should not visit Pakistan, because we are working on a plan to prove Pakistan the most dangerous place on the earth, and your visits are affecting our plan.

America??
May be. To destabilize Pakistan and pressurize it to work according to the American plan in Swat etc.

Can it be Tamil Tigers???
Yes, but do they have resources to do such an act in Pakistan? I believe, No. But we cann't be sure about that. Lets not close this option yet. If we believe that these were Tamil Tigers, then it becomes even more clear that India is involved. It is not a hidden thing who created n supported the Tamil Tigers (LTTE). Attacking through the LTTE is equivalent to killing two birds with one stone for India.

Whoever did that, the event was so evil and horrific that I am not out of the shock after three days of the event. I am still unable to believe that someone attacked the Sri Lankan cricketers in Pakistan, to be more specific in Lahore where you can see cricket even on roads and streets .

One interesting observation from my side is: After the Mumbai incidents last November, there was a sense of fear in the Indian people. On the other hand peace was returning to Pakistan for the last few days. India does not want peace and stability in any of its neighbours (Look at its influence on all its neighbours except China). So India had to strike and it did.

Amish - An orthodox tribe, unlike orthodox muslims, allowed to live their own style

2009-02-21T23:59:00.002+05:00

Don't stare, gawk, or otherwise be disrespectful of the Amish.
When driving, keep an eye out for slow-moving Amish buggies (especially at night), and give them plenty of room when following or passing. Keep headlights on low-beam and stay away from the horn, except for a short toot when passing, to avoid spooking the horses.
Do not enter private property without permission.
No photos or videos, please. Most Amish consider posing for photographs to be an unacceptable act of pride and do not allow pictures of themselves. The Amish will usually allow you to photograph their homes, farms, and buggies if you ask respectfully, but even this can be intrusive and is better avoided. If you must take pictures, consider a telephoto lens, and avoid taking any photos which include recognizable faces. A picture of the rear of an Amish buggy as it travels down the road probably won't offend anyone.
Do not feed or pet horses that are tied to a hitching rail or harnessed to a buggy.
Out of respect for their privacy, it is best to avoid approaching the Amish unless they appear open to company. They are just like you and don't really appreciate strangers knocking at their door. When you do have a need to approach a group of Amish, it is polite to speak to a male, if possible. If you are sincerely interested in talking to the Amish to learn more about their culture, then your best bet is to patronize an Amish-owned business and talk with the shopkeepers. Most Amish people enjoy talking with outsiders, if they don’t feel like they are regarded as animals in the zoo.

Amish Country - Dos and Dont's When Visiting Amish Country

dont be direspectful to amish, but be curteous :) it is their lifestyle, let them live the way they want to live... let them prevent their children from goin to school... let them violate(or go against) the laws of their govt. when it comes to muslims, everyone wants to civilize the ' uncivilized and barbarian fundamentals' if they want to live as per their understanding of their religion under their cultural obligations.

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An interesting discussion :) on recent afghan war

2009-02-21T23:15:00.001+05:00

lightoftruth wrote: When will libs demand Obama pull out of Afgan instead of increasing our presence in that quagmire? What will libs do when Obama attacks Pakistan after the taliban takes it over?????

No one attacks a nuclear armed nation, & The Taliban will never take over Pakistan.

I think you are getting to much sugar in your diet Old mate, this is definately a sugar overdose post that you made.

In New Strategy, U.S. Will Defend Kabul Environs - UnitedStates.com FOREIGN* & DEFENSE - NEWS - Forums

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Deal acceptable in Afghanistan, not in Pakistan: US

2009-02-21T22:03:00.001+05:00

By Anwar Iqbal
WASHINGTON, Feb 20: The United States has rejected the truce in Swat but US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday that Washington could accept a similar agreement between the government and Taliban militants in Afghanistan.

The US rejection was conveyed by its special envoy Richard Holbrooke who called President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday evening to tell him that the Swat deal was tantamount to surrender by Pakistan.

Later, Mr Holbrooke told CNN that the Pakistani leader had assured him that the Swat deal was only an “interim arrangement” to stabilise the restive region and that he had not yet signed an agreement with the militants.

In a separate briefing on Friday, Defence Secretary Robert Gates told reporters in Poland that the United States could accept a political agreement between the Afghan government and Taliban rebels along the lines of the Swat deal.

Full story on Deal acceptable in Afghanistan, not in Pakistan: US -DAWN - Top Stories; February 21, 2009

:)

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Liberal Fascism

2009-02-20T19:07:00.001+05:00

By Nick Cohen
IT is undeniable that the best way to have avoided complicity in the horrors of the last century would have been to have adopted the politics of Jonah Goldberg, author of Liberal Fascism.

Much can be said against moderate conservatives, but it has to be admitted that their wariness of grand designs and their willingness to place limits on the over-mighty state give them a clean record others cannot share.

Few of Goldberg’s contemporaries will grant him the same courtesy. He lives in a western culture where “smug, liberal know-nothings, sublimely confident in the truth of their ill-informed opinions” accuse him of being “a fascist and a Nazi” simply because he is a conservative. Meanwhile, the heart-throb-savant George Clooney can assert that “the liberal movement morally has stood on the right side”.

Behind the insults and the self-righteousness is the assumption that politics runs on a continuum from far left to far right. Goldberg sets out to knock down this false paradigm and show that much of what Americans call liberalism, and we call leftism, has its origins in fascism.

Liberal Fascism is not a clean blow to the jaw, but a multiple rocket launcher of a book that targets just about every liberal American hero and ideal. The title comes from H.G. Wells, the most strenuous intellectual advocate of totalitarianism on the early-20th-century British left. “I am asking for a Liberal Fascisti,” he told the Oxford Union in 1932, “for enlightened Nazis. The world is sick of parliamentary democracy. The Fascist party is Italy. The Communist is Russia. The Fascists of liberalism must carry out a parallel ambition of a far grander scale.”

Wells saw no difference between communism and fascism and Goldberg puts a compelling case that neither should we. Mussolini began as a socialist agitator. The Nazis were a national socialist party which despised bourgeois democracy and offered a comprehensive welfare state.

I agree that all totalitarianisms are essentially the same, and that far leftists combined with far rightists in the 1920s and 1930s and are doing so again now. But I had difficulties with Goldberg’s concept of totalitarian unity. Communists killed different people to fascists. If you were a peasant farmer in Nazi Germany, Mussolini’s Italy or Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, they allowed you to live — as long as you did not cross them.

In America, flustered liberal critics have had far greater difficulty with the notion that they and their predecessors are the inheritors of ideas that began in the fascist movement. Goldberg certainly leaves them little left to be proud of as he provides an alternative history of an America that Simon Schama lacks the intellectual courage to confront.

He begins with Woodrow Wilson and shows that before Mussolini came to power, a Democratic president imposed a militarised state. When America entered the First World War, the progressives of the day used the conflict as an excuse to arrest dissidents, close newspapers and recruit tens of thousands of neighbourhood spies.

Beginning with the Black Panthers, multiculturalism has also placed racial and religious identity above all else and beyond the reach of rational argument. Fascism was a pagan movement, whose mystic tropes are repeated by new age healers, vegetarians and greens.

Repeatedly he insists that he does not want to allege that, for instance, Hillary Clinton’s admittedly sinister desire for the state to take the place of the family makes her a totalitarian, merely that her ideas come from the totalitarian movement.

Liberal Fascism is a bracing and stylish examination of political history. That it is being published at a time when Goldberg’s free market has failed and big government and charismatic presidents are on their way back in no way invalidates his work. Hard times test intellectuals and, for all its occasional false notes, Goldberg’s case survives. n

— The Guardian, London

DAWN - Editorial; February 11, 2009

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Distant planet is ‘an orbiting hell’

2009-02-05T16:14:00.001+05:00

PARIS, Jan 28: Astronomers have observed a planet some 200 light years from Earth that, for a few hours, becomes 700 degrees Celsius hotter every time its elliptical orbit brings it close to its sun.

The scientists, in a study released on Wednesday, said they had generated the most realistic images ever captured of the exoplanet, the name given to planets outside our Solar System.

They used infrared data collected from Nasa’s space-based Spitzer telescope to gain pictures of a strange world exposed briefly to an inferno.

One image shows a thin blue crescent on the “dark” side of the planet, opposite its star, while the scorched side glows a deep, crimson red.

Known as HD80606b, the planet is a giant ball of gas that has four times the mass of Jupiter, the biggest planet of our system.

Researchers led by Gregory Laughlin of the University of California at Santa Cruz analysed data collected in November 30 hours before, during and after HD80606b’s closest approach to its star.

From the telescope’s vantage point, the planet passed behind the star — an event called a secondary eclipse — just before reaching its maximum temperature of 1,227 C (2240 F), hotter than molten lava.

It was an unexpected stroke of luck, making it possible to measure the exact temperatures of the star and the planet separately.

“This is the first time that we’ve detected weather changes in real time on a planet outside our solar system,” said Laughlin. “The results are very exciting because they give us important clues to the atmospheric properties of the planet.”

As the atmosphere heats up and expands, it produces fierce winds — moving at five kilometres per second — that flow away from the day side towards the night side.

The planet’s rotation causes the winds to curl up into large-scale storm systems that gradually peter out as temperatures cool, Laughlin said.

HD80606b swings around its sun in an elliptical orbit every 114 Earth days. It is one of about a dozen so-called “hot Jupiter” extra-solar planets which spin on their axes in such a way that the same surface is always facing their respective stars.

The photo-like images were generated by a computer programme that calculated the colour and intensity of light coming from the glowing planet.

“These images are far more realistic than anything that’s been done before for extra-solar planets,” said UCSC researcher Daniel Kasen, who developed the programme.

When closest to its star, the sunlight beating down on the planet is more than 800 times stronger than at the far end of its egg-shaped orbit.—AFPDistant planet is ‘an orbiting hell’ -DAWN - Top Stories; January 29, 2009

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Recent Israeli offensive destroys rest of the palestinian economy

2009-01-30T23:52:00.001+05:00

By Donald Macintyre
ISRAELI forces used aerial bombing, tank shelling and armoured bulldozers to eliminate the productive capacity of some of Gaza’s most important manufacturing plants during their 22 days of military action in the Gaza Strip.

The attacks, like those which destroyed an estimated 20,000 homes leaving some residential areas resembling an earthquake zone and more than 50,000 people in temporary shelters, destroyed or severely damaged 219 factories, Palestinian industrialists say. Leaders of Gaza’s business community — who have long stayed aloof from the different Palestinian political factions — say that much of the three per cent of industry still operating after the 18-month shutdown caused by Israel’s economic siege has now been destroyed.

Chris Gunness, chief spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, said that widespread destruction of “civilian economic infrastructure” was a strike “at the heart of the peace process” because “economic stability is an essential component of a durable peace.”

While the main impact of the destruction is likely to be on the already politically fraught prospects of medium to long-term reconstruction in Gaza, it will not make efforts to help Gaza’s many stricken and displaced residents any easier.

It is those humanitarian relief efforts for which the main British aid agencies are appealing for help in the advertisement so far barred by the BBC. The Unrwa is meanwhile separately pressing donors for $345m for immediate repairs to homes still standing and to its own damaged premises.

The destroyed factories include: Alweyda, the biggest Palestinian food-processing plant and the only one still operating in Gaza until the war; Abu Eida, the largest, and now flattened, ready-mixed concrete producer; and the 89-year old Al Badr flour mills, which have the biggest storage facilities anywhere in the Strip.

The owners of all three said on Saturday they were proud of their close and long-standing contact with Israeli partner firms and suppliers. Dr Yaser M Alweyda, owner and engineering director of the demolished food-processing plant estimated the total damage to his plant at $22.5m and accused Israel of wanting “to destroy the weak Palestinian economy”. He added: “They want to ensure that we will never have a state in Palestine.”

The air and ground strikes have compounded the impact of the total 18-month trade embargo, which Israel imposed in June 2007 after the civil war between Hamas and Fatah ended in the collapse of the short-lived coalition between the two rival factions and Hamas’s enforced takeover of the strip.

Amr Hamad, executive manager of the Palestinian Federation of Industries, said: “What they were not able to reach by the blockade, they have reached with their bulldozers.” He added: “Businessmen are not connected at all to Hamas and are very pragmatic and open-minded.

“They are the last layer in Palestinian society who believe in peace and the importance of the economy. They also believe that the only economic link should be with Israel,” Mr Hamad said.

Meanwhile the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, told his cabinet that with “typical moral acrobatics” the “terrorist organisations” were trying to lay the blame on Israel, and that “the State of Israel did everything in order to avoid hitting civilians.” Israel would ensure that soldiers and officers who took part in the operation would be safe from any tribunals investigating them, he said.

At the Al Badr mills in Sudaniya, north of Gaza City, owner Rashed Hamada, 55, said the company had been making wheat flour for bakeries right up until the attack on Jan 10. He strongly denied that his compound had been used by Hamas gunmen, and said it was clear the production line itself had been the target.

“It seems that the father of the commander had owned a flour mill,” he commented ironically. “He knew exactly where to hit. The Israelis .... used to encourage me to expand production here. Now they have destroyed it. I don’t understand why.”

Standing beside mangled and incinerated refrigeration vans and the burned-out ruins of his food factory and warehouses, located for ease of access to Israel between the eastern Gaza City district of Shajaia and the border 650 metres away, Dr Alweyda said that as well as the production lines, 26 vehicles had been destroyed.

The company, sole Gaza agent for Israeli milk products company Tnuva, had managed to keep biscuit production going up until the outbreak of war. The Israeli military said that it was still investigating allegations of civilian casualties and property damage.

— © The Independent
DAWN - Opinion; January 27, 2009

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Columbus' Mistake

2009-01-30T23:21:00.001+05:00

THE next day after winning the Senate Foreign Committee’s vote, Senator Hillary Clinton while outlining her preferences said America needs the support of the world and the world needs American support.

This reminded me of a paragraph from Urdu ki akhri kitab, a book written by Ibne Insha, a short story writer and humourist. The paragraph says it all, “Earlier, there were nations in the world living in peace and harmony but Columbus discovered America. People say Columbus discovered it by mistake, if it is so it was his greatest mistake as he has departed but we are still paying for his mistake”.

H.K. NIAZI
Karachi

DAWN - Letters; January 21, 2009

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Indian ‘spy’ arrested

2008-12-25T19:09:00.001+05:00

By Our Staff Reporter
LAHORE, Dec 24: Law-enforcement agencies claimed on Wednesday night to have arrested a man believed to be an Indian spy and found fake identity cards and other material in his possession.

The suspect, identified as Satish Anand Shukla, is believed to have been involved in Wednesday’s bomb blast in the Bahawalpur House here.

Sources said the man was arrested after law-enforcement personnel had intercepted his cellphone calls. They said Shukla had disguised his identity.

Indian ‘spy’ arrested -DAWN - Top Stories; December 25, 2008

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UN official praises Pakistan’s cooperation

2008-12-25T18:32:00.002+05:00

By Anwar Iqbal
WASHINGTON, Dec 23: A senior UN official has said that Pakistan has extended full cooperation in implementing UN sanctions against Jamaatud Dawa and Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Richard Barrett, the Coordinator of Security Council’s Al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Monitoring Committee, told CNN-IBN in New York that the United Nations had received “across-the-board” cooperation from all Pakistani civil and military agencies.

The committee is responsible for monitoring sanctions imposed by the Security Council on individuals and organisations declared terrorist.

Mr Barrett said he found “very good atmosphere of cooperation” in all his dealings with officials in Pakistan, “whether it’s the government, elected officials, ministries, the intelligence services or the army”.

UN official praises Pakistan’s cooperation -DAWN - Top Stories; December 24, 2008

India must admit tht unlike india, pakistan respects decisions taken by UN ... the above excerpt shows tht UN officials r satisfied with wht pakistan has done...

wht steps has india taken to act on UN resolution on Kashmir???

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A message of tolerance to MQM

2008-12-08T18:28:00.002+05:00

THIS is apropos of your editorial, ‘Bloodshed once more’ (Dec 2). While expressing concern about the violence in Karachi, you have correctly observed that the MQM chief Altaf Hussain’s warnings about the possible Talibanisation of this city wasn’t the right thing to do.

Also, that, undoubtedly, one of the reasons behind his warnings could be the migration to Karachi of a large number of refugees from Fata. You are also right in noting that there is no evidence that all of them are arriving here or that none of them intends to return home after things return to normality.

Perhaps this is the reason for the concern of the MQM leadership. Actually they do not want the demographic balance to shift to their disadvantage. However, they are reminded that some among them and all their elders had come to Sindh as migrants from India, a large part of the city’s populace, including my family, are ‘muhajirs’ in this sense.

Therefore, if our unfortunate brethren from a battle zone of their own country wish to find shelter with their relatives, friends or acquaintances settled in another part of the country, it is not proper for us to object to that.

Emerson had said: “It is a beautiful compensation of life that we cannot help another without being helped ourselves”. Hence, whichever way one looks at it, ultimately it will be to our own advantage (if one must view it in business terms) to help these uprooted, destitute and desperate folks, many of whom have lost their family members and relatives.

Such a selfness and humane approach will definitely increase the goodwill and tolerance between communities and lead to peace and prosperity for the city, province and country. If we can tolerate millions of folks from Bangladesh, Afgahnistan, Burma and other places, why must we turn Pakistanis away?

F. SIDDIQI
Karachi

DAWN - Letters; December 07, 2008

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Humble vs Aggressive approach

2008-12-08T15:37:00.001+05:00

NEW DELHI, Dec 7: Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Sunday that claims he had made a threatening telephone call to President Asif Ali Zardari over the recent terror attack on Mumbai were false and intended to divert the world’s attention from New Delhi’s case that a Pakistan-based terrorist group had planned the assault.

“I have seen several misleading stories about a hoax telephone call from me to President Zardari of Pakistan,” Mr Mukherjee said in a statement a day after the Indian foreign ministry said the affair was unworthy of comment.

“We were informed by friends from third countries that Pakistan President Zardari believed that he had received a threatening telephone call from me on Nov 28, after the attack on Mumbai. We immediately clarified to those friends, and we also made it clear to the Pakistan authorities, that I had made no such telephone call,” Mr Mukherjee said. He was commenting on a report in Dawn on Saturday, which was picked up by several Indian dailies. Mr Mukherjee said his last and only conversation with President Zardari was in Islamabad during a visit to Pakistan in May.

He said the only telephone conversation he had with a Pakistani leader since the attack on Mumbai was on the evening of Nov 28 when he spoke to Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi when the visitor was addressing a press conference at the Women’s Press Club in New Delhi.

“It is, however, worrying that a neighbouring state might even consider acting on the basis of such a hoax call, try to give it credibility with other states, and confuse the public by releasing the story in part. I can only ascribe this series of events to those in Pakistan who wish to divert attention from the fact that a terrorist group operating from the Pakistani territory planned and launched a ghastly attack on Mumbai.”

The Hindu said on Sunday that, while the Indian foreign ministry had refused to comment on the hoax call, it believed “the thinking within the Indian foreign office is that such disinformation stories could only mean that Inter-Services Intelligence’s dirty tricks department is very much at work. The ISI and the army are trying to divert internal and external attention from their complicity in Mumbai terror and thereby clawing their way into public acceptability in Pakistan.” The newspaper did not quote any source for its report.

“The Indian foreign office is of the view that even to dignify such a disinformation campaign with a comment or denial would mean helping the rogue elements within the Pakistani establishment. The foreign office’s anticipation, though, is that these elements would muddy the waters and the world would see more such acts of disinformation,” it said.“New Delhi is aware that the ISI will continue to make attempts to sow misinformation to bring about a situation in which western countries would lose sight of the main issue at hand -- bringing to book the culprits responsible for the Mumbai blasts and dissuading elements from planning terror attacks -- in favour of an approach that says: ‘Okay little boys, stop fighting.’”

‘Hoax call’ claim termed diversionary -DAWN - Top Stories; December 08, 2008

this is another illustration of offensive approach! ... might is right... no proof provided whtsoever and india still keeps defaming ISI... they have a phobia, i m sure tht ignoring their local extremist elements will hurt them later on... i m not sure how long can they fool their ppl by always blaming pakistan

i still recommend pakistan to respond properly i.e. aggressively instead of being polite n down to earth...

i remember iqbal's words: "hai jurm-e-zaeefi ki saza marg-e-mafajaat"

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US urges Pakistan to cooperate with India 'or else to face the use of force :)'

2008-12-03T11:05:00.002+05:00

US intelligence officials, while talking to the US media, confirmed India’s claim that Lashkar-i-Tayyaba was involved in the Mumbai attacks.

They said that British intelligence agents had recorded conversations between the attackers and their backers in Pakistan.

In an editorial on Tuesday, The Washington Post also backed India’s claim that the LeT was behind the attack.

“The best way to salvage Pakistani democracy, and to prevent a slide toward war between two nuclear powers, is for Islamabad to shut down LeT and similar organisations swiftly, permanently and verifiably,” the Post wrote.

Also, a Post columnist, Robert Kagan, who is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment, Washington, suggested placing the tribal belt and the areas where terrorist groups allegedly had their bases under international control.

He suggested forming an international force to invade those areas and destroy the bases. Mr Kagan urged the US to convince China and Russia not to oppose the creation of such a force if and when the proposal goes to the United States.

He acknowledged that forming such a force to invade Pakistani territories would violate the country’s sovereignty but argued that “Pakistan and other states that harbour terrorists should not take their sovereignty for granted. In the 21st century, sovereign rights need to be earned.”

At the State Department, deputy spokesman Robert Wood said: “We’re going to continue to work with India and Pakistan … and to see what we can do to prevent these types of attacks from taking place and, of course, to get to the bottom of who carried out these attacks and bring those culprits to justice.”

US urges Pakistan to cooperate with India -DAWN - Top Stories; December 03, 2008

presure building on pakistan... for no reason!!! i still think pakistan needs to be more aggressive in order to earn its sovereign rights

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Karachi braves more violence, 24 arrested

2008-12-03T10:44:00.001+05:00

The clashes broke out on Saturday between fringe elements within the city's Urdu-speaking community and ethnic Pashtuns from northwest Pakistan.

However, political leaders of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) - the major political party in Karachi which represents many Urdu-speaking residents - and the Awami National Party (ANP) - which represents many ethnic Pashtuns - continued to condemn the violence and blame it on 'hidden elements.'

MQM minister Shoaib Bukhari told PPI that the 'involvement of hidden elements in this phenomenon can not be denied.'

According to Reuters, some commentators in Pakistan have raised the possibility of Indian instigation of the violence in Karachi as a response to last week's militant assault in Mumbai, which India has linked to Pakistan.

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said he was surprised by the timing of the Karachi violence.

'The killings in Karachi erupted suddenly after the Mumbai incident,' Sharif told reporters. 'I'm surprised how it erupted all of a sudden ... I think this needs to be looked in to thoroughly, which forces are involved in it.'

For the most part, violence has remained restricted to certain areas of the city such as Orangi Town, Sohrab Goth, Malir and to a lesser extent Gulistan-i-Jauhar.

However, many residents continue to be gripped by fear as a result of widely circulated yet unverified reports of violent mutilations being conducted by the rioters.

City police chief Waseem Ahmed said four people were killed in different incidents in the early hours of Tuesday but the city had been mostly calm since then.

'There has been no major incident since the morning,' Ahmed told Reuters.

At least 47 people have been killed and over 200 injured since Saturday, according to a tally of reports from police and hospitals.

Rivals fought gun battles and burned shops and cars in several parts of the city of 15 million people over the weekend and more disturbances erupted on Monday.

DAWN.COM | Sindh | Karachi braves more violence, 24 arrested

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Indian commandos killed Jews, says Israeli rescue group -DAWN

2008-12-03T10:24:00.002+05:00

By Jawed Naqvi
NEW DELHI, Dec 2: A private rescue group from Israel has claimed that Indian commandos inadvertently killed some of the hostages in the terror attacks in Mumbai, and the claim has evidently embarrassed both governments, news reports said on Tuesday.

“Based on what I saw, (although) I can’t identify the type of bullets in the bodies (of the victims), I don’t think the terrorists killed all the hostages, to put it gently,” Mr Haim Weingarten, head of the six-member team of Zaka voluntary organisation dealing with rescue and recovery, told The Jerusalem Post.

Press Trust of India said from Jerusalem that the claim had embarrassed the Israeli government, which is worried about its fallout on ties with the Indian government.

According to PTI, Mr Weingarten told the Post from Mumbai that all the six Jewish and Israeli hostages found dead in the Chabad House were killed by either gunshot wounds or shrapnel from grenade blasts, or both, and that he didn’t know who threw or fired the grenades that wounded the hostages.

Although lacking forensic tools to determine the time of death, Mr Weingarten was quoted as saying that his team’s observations led him to believe that “some of the hostages were killed on Wednesday (when gunmen first entered the building), some on Thursday, and some on Friday morning (during the start of the commando raid)”.

Zaka officials believe that in a final act of love, the director of the Chabad House, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, wrapped the body of his wife Rivka in a tallit (prayer shawl) before succumbing to his own wounds during the final hours of the siege, it said.

The volunteers on the scene found the bodies of Israeli grandmother Yocheved Orpaz (62) and Jewish Mexican national Norma Shvarzblat Rabinovich (50) bound to one another with a phone cord.

Meanwhile, the Indian foreign ministry held a briefing “to convey the deepest condolences of the Government of India to those countries whose nationals were killed in the terrorist attack in Mumbai.” Heads of mission from these countries were present in the briefing. “They were also informed of details of the terrorist attack and the investigation so far,” the ministry said.

Possibly following the briefing, the Israeli government slammed the Zaka group for alleging that Indian commandos might have inadvertently killed one or more Jewish hostages during the Nariman House operation, saying the “irresponsible” comments could cause considerable damage to bilateral ties.
“They are causing all kinds of problems,” a senior Israeli foreign ministry official said about the six-member team of the Zaka voluntary group that flew on Thursday “on its own volition” to Mumbai for a rescue operation after the deadly terror strikes.

“They are selling all kinds of stories to journalists looking for stories, and taking credit for things they didn’t do,” the official told The Jerusalem Post. It remains a mystery why India has allowed a clearly unauthorised group from Israel to carry out its self-styled rescue at the site of a mind-boggling crime. Usually such sensitive sites are sealed off to visitors till official investigations are underway.

Commandos killed Jews, says Israeli rescue group -DAWN - Top Stories; December 03, 2008

i dont know why the world reacts so belligerently if indian forces are blamed... and at the same time the world asks pakistan to be calm and cooperating when pakistan or its departments are blamed without evidence...

i am also thinking why are such blames on indian forces called irresponsible comments, but none of the comments by the indian govt. officials have yet been labeled as 'irresponsible' by the international community???

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Indian Militancy and its Blame Game

2008-11-30T00:33:00.003+05:00

in response to a few indians who claim india to have never played a role in insurgency???

see
"The Indian diplomat G. Parathasarathy admitted supporting terrorism in Sri Lanka. He synically recorded his confession “We have learnt our lesson” for backing the terrorist and that “India paid it price for backing the LTTE“. India has not paid a price for the atrocities committed by the LTTE. It needs to pay the price and call the dogs of war off. India is not doing that."
http://rupeenews.com/2008/07/26/india-admits-to-supporting-ltte-terroists-in-sri-lanka-pakistan-to-continue-to-help-lanka-crush-the-tamil-tigers/

and this
"In one of the biggest defeats of Indian foreign policy since it was thrown out of Sri Lanka, the Indian Intelligence services that supported the Indian based Tamil Tigers face imminent annihilation. President Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka has reasons to be optimistic. The international rules of the game have changed. India in the 80s wanted to impose a Cypriot like bifurcation of Sri Lanka an Indian beached for the Tamils which would allow India influence to extend to Colombo. Nothing less than total capitulation to New Delhi was acceptable. In 2008 China is building a port in Sri Lanka. Pakistan is supply arms to the legal government of Sri Lanka that happens to be Sinhalese. These arms have had a tremendous impact on the Sri Lankan civil war, and Pakistanis will stand on the podium along with the Sri Lankan brothers and sisters to celebrate the victory of the unification of the island and defeat of Indian imperialism"

http://www.zimbio.com/pilot?ZURL=%2FWorld%2BPolitics%2Farticles%2F1466%2F911%2Btragedy%2Beverday%2BLanka%2BPakistan%2BGifts%2BIndian&URL=http%3A%2F%2Frupeenews.com%2F2008%2F06%2F18%2Fltte-was-created-by-india%2F

for those who say india have never been pakistan centric??? see
"PAKISTAN FACES A 911 every day. In the 80s, RAW, and KGB destroyed Bori Bazaar and 300 died. This week dozens were killed in the heart of the caiptal. “911″ was a tectonic event for the United States and rest of the world. The event showed the world the horrors of terror. Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangaldesh, Sikkim, China and Bhutan have been facing “911″ since 1947–the targets of Indian agression and its hegemony designs. Pakistan is portrayed the epicenter of terror, while the real terror central is New Delhi. New Dlehi has used strong arm tactics to incorporate Hydrabad, and 560 other independent states into itself. It has forced Sikkim into its union and threatens and bullies Bhutan and Bangladesh. It has unleased a full fledged civil war on Sri Lanka-supporting, arming and training the Tamil Tigers (the LTTE) and sending them to bifurcate the Buddhist island paradise called Lanka. India used the Mukti Bahni to force Dhaka away from Islamabad, and then used the Rakhi Bahni to impose a “president for life” on Bangladesh. The patriotic Bangladeshis killed Shiakh Mujibur Rehman and aboshied the “treaty of freindship” which would have incorporated Bangladesh as a province of India."
http://www.zimbio.com/World+Politics/articles/1466/911+tragedy+everday+Lanka+Pakistan+Gifts+Indian

bloody indians shld stop polluting Pakistan's image and look into ur own backyard... dude actually India has dug its own grave... they supported militants n insurgents for so long n most of them have now turned against them...
see
"Unfortunately for India, the controversial Indo-Sri Lankan Accord of July 1987 proved to be as much of a failure as India’s policy of direct intervention. The result was India’s massively assisted LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) turned on its benefactor and declared war against the Indian forces in Sri Lanka. All in all, this Indian adventure killed 60,000 men, women and children and forced the Indians to withdraw their forces without successfully completing their mission. The price has been steep for both India and Sri Lanka and even today Sri Lanka is paying the price for this Indian-initiated and RAW inspired polarised conflict. The extent of RAW’s role in this affair has been painstakingly documented by Gunaratna in his book on the Indian intervention."
http://rupeenews.com/2008/06/26/raw-the-rascal/

Currently there are militants movements going on throughout india. India has around 600 districts out of which more than 200 districts have their sepratist movements. Every year thousand of people die in india in result of clashes between these movements and indian government. None of these movement has any link to PAkistan.

india has so many terrorist movements in their homeland and still they are blaming on Pakistan without having any evidence.

india shys away from the responsibility by blaming pakistan... since this seems an easier option :)

has the indian economic growth been able to provide enough food and shelter to the ppl of india??? A Big NO!!! indian poor is poorer than pakistani poor... go check any stats...

it is just the matter of time now... indian militants will soon fight each other like hell.... they'll kill each other soon, pakistani agencies need not do anything against them...

“911″ tragedy everday for Lanka & Pakistan: Gifts from Indian RAW

2008-11-29T22:01:00.002+05:00

PAKISTAN FACES A 911 every day. In the 80s, RAW, and KGB destroyed Bori Bazaar and 300 died. This week dozens were killed in the heart of the caiptal. “911″ was a tectonic event for the United States and rest of the world. The event showed the world the horrors of terror. Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangaldesh, Sikkim, China and Bhutan have been facing “911″ since 1947–the targets of Indian agression and its hegemony designs. Pakistan is portrayed the epicenter of terror, while the real terror central is New Delhi. New Dlehi has used strong arm tactics to incorporate Hydrabad, and 560 other independent states into itself. It has forced Sikkim into its union and threatens and bullies Bhutan and Bangladesh. It has unleased a full fledged civil war on Sri Lanka-supporting, arming and training the Tamil Tigers (the LTTE) and sending them to bifurcate the Buddhist island paradise called Lanka. India used the Mukti Bahni to force Dhaka away from Islamabad, and then used the Rakhi Bahni to impose a “president for life” on Bangladesh. The patriotic Bangladeshis killed Shiakh Mujibur Rehman and aboshied the “treaty of freindship” which would have incorporated Bangladesh as a province of India.

Pakistan today is the target of Indian agression. Pakistan is the one that got away. Pakistan’s nuclear weapons forced India to treat after maassing 250,000 soldiers on its borders. The encroachment on Pakistan continues. India used a forged article of accession and took over Kashmir. It now claims the article of accession is lost, if it ever existed. The document shown today has wrong, incorrect dates and it would be impossible for the personalities to sign the document becuase they were not persent on the sitess to sign the document. (Read Alistair Lamb and Stanley Wolpert on this subject–also posted on http://www.rupeenews.com) Junagarh and Manvadar were Pakistani territory where the states had signed articles of accession with Pakistan. India’s agresion against Pakistan continues–it took away Kargil 9which used to be Pakistani territory ’till the 70s) and took away Siachin (which was Pakistani territory ’till the 80s) Indian Intelligence RAW: Recent 2008 strikes inside Pakistan. The Indian RAW has to be unleased and declared a terroirst outfit. It has attacked the Pakistani capital again using its proxies Bait Mehsud and the other gangs of thugs, criminals and rug barons that it supports. India intelligence: “‘the aim of RAW is to keep internal disturbances flaring up and the ISI preoccupied so that Pakistan can lend no worthwhile resistance to Indian designs in the region.” ”China’s Israel”–Pakistan has been threatened.

India RAW attacks Marriot at Islamabad

The peaceful people of the Indus Valley have been rocked by explosions by Indian operatives. In the 80s, during the Soviet occupation of Pakistan, Indian RAW, Russian KGB and the Afghan Khad had a field day in Pakistan. While Reagan was announcing “Mr. Gorbachev bring down this wall”, the USSR wsabeing gutted from the inside out in Afghanistan. Pakistan was the frontline state. As such she bore the brunt of the Soviet and Indian sabotage. 300 people died in Bori Bazar in Karachi. Islamabad Pakistan Marriot: What was the US Marine role?

On the 23rd of December Pakistan faced its 911. Indian agents brought down the Marriott. Other bobms exploded by RAW agents and their apparatchiks in 2008 are listed below.

The incredible amount of planning based on detailed “casing” (sophisticated observation, research, and analysis of traffic patterns, routes, weaknesses and strenghts) of the target, the amount of TNT and incindiary material used, the expenses incurred on accumalating the explosives, and the sophistication and planning of the attack points to state machinery and organizations like RAW which can carry out such carnage. No FATA cave dweller has the capacity to organize, plan, and execute an attack of this magnitude. This has the fingerprints of RAW all of it

The purpose of the attacks was to:

1) Demoralize the nation

2) Take revenge for the defeats in Afghanistan

3) To hide the Kashmiri problems

4) Possibly decapitate the entire parliamentary and political leaders of the country (at the party that was happening at the spot)

Indian imperialism using RAW to destabilize all neighbors. There has been the Indian angle in Baluchistan. The Indian consulattes have been using the Baluch “nationalist” terrorists to create problems for Pakistan and malign the patriotic Pakistanis. Mr. Hamid Karzai, threatened by the “talibaan” has several times issued veiled threats against Pakistan. The Red Mosque and other related matters are part of the Indian-Afghan nexus supported by other anti-Pakistan forces which may want to threaten the government in Pakistan to relieve pressure on Kabul and Srinagar Osama Bin Laden turned against his benefactors.The explosion in Islamabad is to put pressure on Pakistan by derailing the economic progress. Already the Indians have cut off the water supplies by stealing Pakistani waters from the Chenab. RAW facts on South Asia- India fails to occupy countries.

With delusions of world power, and hallucinations of absorbing all the neighboring countries (Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh) India is trying to destabilize Pakistan. India as World Power 1 Extremist Hindus show power using the Swastika in triple entendre–as an ancient Hindu symbol, reverence for Hitler and sign of Anti-Western Indian power

An exegetical examination will show that the furtive condotierri supportive of the Mesud coterie and other mercenaries has evinced shame to India. A majority of precocious humans have clearly voiced disquisitions against the doltish and vindictive votary propagating and divisively daphenous demagogy. The world has presented copious monographs against a deleterious Neocon philosophy used as an excuse to wage The New Crusades Against Islam (TNCAI).

Indian Consulates-dens of inequity in Afghanistan supporting terror in Pakistan

Red Mosque Hostages: When Freedom Fighters turn “Terrorist”. Consistant support for the mehsud Terrroists from the 4 Indian Consulates in Afghanistan has kep the Pakistan army at bay.

Taliban Statement issued on Jan. 30th, 2008. “We have been fighting for Afghanistan’s independence against foreign aggression since 2001 [when the Taliban were ousted] and the Afghan nation has a lot of hopes resting on us. That’s why they have stood with us against the foreign military might. They are not supporting us to fight with Pakistan, but to fight against the US-led NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] forces and liberate Afghanistan,” Zabihullah Mujahid said. He said the Taliban had already issued a statement disowning Baitullah on their website (http://www.alemarah.i67.org).

However a small splinter group led by Mr. Mehsud has now turned its guns on Pakistan. Why is Mr. Bait Mehsud with his new organization “Tehrik e Taliban” now attacking Pakistan? These rhetorical questions were asked for effect.

LTTE was created by India

Indian sponsored Tamil terror in Sri Lanka continues unabated

Lanka: Indian LTTE terrorists use youth as cannon fodder

Lanka Letter: RAW THE RASCAL by Prem Raj in Columbo

Pakistan Sri Lanka growing military alliance

Growing Pakistan Sri Lanka ties

The Pakistan Afghan border map

Hands off Pakistan is the slogan on the Pakistan news media. Selective amnesia of Americans. Pakistan is the most mistreated friend of America. The post Benazir era must be different. The USA has often treated Pakistan as a colony. Kissinger threatened Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Bhutto the father of Benazir said it most elequently. Pakistan first: The devastating affects of appeasing India and kowtowing to the USA. Mr. Kissinger and US policy still threatens Pakistani leaders. Perhaps Mr. Kissinger living in the 70s should face the new realities. Waving goodbye to American Hegemony.

Indian penury: The reality vs. the Bollywood marketing gloss:
India as World Power 1 Extremist Hindus show power using the Swastika in triple entendre–as an ancient Hindu symbol, reverence for Hitler and sign of Anti-Western Indian power
Superpower India Pt 2 Extremist Hindus revere Hitler and use the Swastika as the Indian flag
How long to extripate penury from india? 300 years! India’s budget– fit for a superpower

Murder of 10 million Indian girl babies:Before or right after birth. The media is silent.

Sino-Indian relationship

India Balkanizing? Naxalite insurrection widening cracks in deep cavaties
The 2nd world revolution (after Buddhism) from Nepal: Another threat to India

Pakistan is China’s “Israel”

Red Nepal: Clear and present danger to India

The Singh Doctrine Fails

The Indian RAW has to be unleased and declared a terrorist outfit. It has attacked the Pakistani capital again using its proxies Bait Mehsud and the other gangs of thugs, criminals and rug barons that it supports. India intelligence: “‘the aim of RAW is to keep internal disturbances flaring up and the ISI preoccupied so that Pakistan can lend no worthwhile resistance to Indian designs in the region.”

Islamabad Pakistan Marriot: What was the US Marine role? The incredible amount of planning based on detailed “casing” of the target, the amount of TNT and incindiary material used, the expenses incurred on accumalating the explosives, and the sophistication and planning of the attack points to state machinery and organizations like RAW which can carry out such carnage. No FATA cave dweller has the capacity to organize, plan, and execute an attack of this magnitude. This has the fingerprints of RAW all of it. Here is a list of major RAW attacks in Pakistan since January 2008.

January 10: Twenty people, mostly policemen, killed in suicide bomb attack outside Lahore High Court.

January 14: Bomb kills 10 people at a market in Karachi.

February 9: Suicide bomber kills 25 people at an opposition election rally in the northwestern town of Charsadda.

February 11 : Nine killed in suicide bombing at an election meeting of an independent candidate in North Waziristan.

February 16 : Suicide car bomber strikes a rally of Pakistan People’s Party in the northwestern town of Parachinar, killing 37.

February 22: Roadside bomb hits wedding party in Swat, killing at least 14.

February 25: Suicide bomber kills army surgeon Lieutenant General Mushtaq Baigand seven others in Rawalpindi.

February 29 : Forty-four killed in a suicide blast in Mingorain northwest Swat valley during the funeral of three policemen killed by a roadside bomb earlier in the day.

March 2: Suicide bomber kills 43 at tribal elders convention in the northwestern district of Darra Adam Khel.

March 4: Two suicide bombers attack Pakistan Naval War College in Lahore, killing five people.

March 10 : Suicide truck bombings target Federal Investigation Agency building in Lahore; 26 killed.

March 15: Bomb blast at a restaurant in Islamabad kills a woman and wounds 10 others, including four FBI men.

July 2: Suicide car bomb outside the Danish embassy in Islamabad kills eight.

July 6: Fifteen killed in suicide attack on policemen during a rally to mark the anniversary of Lal Masjid raid.

August 12: Roadside bomb attack targets Pakistan Air Force bus in Peshawar, killing 13.

August 19 : Twenty-three killed in suicide attack on a hospital in northwestern Dera Ismail Khan town.

August 21: At least 78 killed in twin suicideattacks outside Pakistan’s main ordnance factory in Wah.

August 28: Nine persons, mostly policemen, killed in roadside bombing in North West Frontier Province.

September 6: Thirty people were killed and 70 injured in suicide bombing near a police check post in Peshawar.

Posted in Current Affairs, India CA, Pak CA, S. Asia History Tagged: Indian terror on RAW, Pakistan.

The article is copied from:

“911″ tragedy everday for Lanka & Pakistan: Gifts from Indian RAW - World Politics - Zimbio

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Superpower arrogance

2008-10-31T15:22:00.001+06:00

Superpower arrogance

WHETHER it is a member of the ‘axis of evil’ or ‘a major non-Nato ally’, the Bush administration does not seem to miss an opportunity to flaunt its military prowess and the unilateralism that has been its characteristic. With the presidential election only a week away, American forces on Sunday raided a Syrian town and claimed killing eight people, including what a US military spokesman described as “one of the most prominent foreign fighter facilitators”. The raid would remind the world of the Sept 3 attack by American troops in Fata, the first to come in the wake of President Bush’s secret order, signed in July, authorising raids inside Pakistan, the ‘frontline state’ in the war on terror. The Sept 3 raid by American special forces that killed 20 people in Angoor Adda sent shock waves across Pakistan. Since then, even though an incursion by US troops has not taken place, the Pentagon has continued to launch missile attacks on suspected Taliban targets in Pakistan — 18 have been reported since September — with the casualties each time not necessarily being the militants.

Since the Iraqi invasion, American military planes have often violated Syria’s air space, and sometimes US troops have chased militants across the border. But Sunday’s raid by US commandos in four helicopters near the Syrian border city of Qaim is the first incident of its kind and must shock observers of the Middle Eastern scene. With the level of ‘Sunni insurgency’ in Iraq having come down considerably and ‘the flow’ of foreign militants from Syria to Iraq declining by America’s own reckoning, Iraq appears to be gradually returning to normality. Hence why the need for such a raid at a time when the US has almost decided to cut troop levels in Iraq and send more troops to Afghanistan’s killing fields? America has had no qualms about launching attacks on the tribal areas of Pakistan to target Al Qaeda terrorists but without consultation with Pakistan. Since after the first ground attack, the subsequent attacks have been from the air, the casualties have been massive with civilians also being killed.

It is felt that these raids — especially the Syrian one — could be the Republican administration’s last major bid to boost John McCain’s sagging electoral prospects. A renewed demonstration of the Bush administration’s ‘hard line’ to the extent of carrying out a raid on an Arab country is something the strong Zionist lobby would love, more so at a time when Israel is in the midst of a political crisis. As for Al Qaeda, any military campaigns undertaken by the US for destroying its operatives have won popular support for the presidency.

DAWN - Editorial; October 29, 2008

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Leadership not IMF is the issue

2008-10-31T15:08:00.001+06:00

By Yousuf Nazar
PAKISTAN’S current economic meltdown is a crisis of competence if judged in light of the recent past. In the context of history, it represents a colossal failure of the establishment’s long-term foreign and economic policies.

Pakistan desperately needs $4-5bn to avoid default on its external obligations. The government is working on the multilateral institutions and the Friends of Pakistan to raise this sum within the next few weeks failing which it will go to the IMF.

The government does not want to borrow from the IMF to keep its hands relatively ‘free’ and avoid the likely political fallout from following the IMF’s prescriptions. Does Pakistan have an option? Unfortunately, no.

The World Bank has not disbursed any aid so far for this fiscal year. Its yearly aid to Pakistan is about $500-600m and is unlikely to come through now, that is, before the IMF puts its seal of approval on Pakistan’s economic plan.

The Friends of Pakistan group includes Saudi Arabia, China and the United States. Saudi Arabia has observed a meaningful silence for several months regarding Pakistan’s request to supply oil on credit. China’s commitment to help with specific projects is welcome but its ambivalence about outright cash loans is understandable given its own policy to channel foreign aid through project assistance. It did provide emergency loans to Pakistan in the past (in Dec 1996 and April 2008) but not to the tune of billions of dollars.

The People’s Party government took charge in April 2008 and put the privatisation programme on hold without making alternative funding arrangements. It did not act upon proposals from global banks to raise money from international markets at a time when market conditions were relatively stable. It kept hoping it would get the Saudi oil facility whilst the oil price shot up and the foreign exchange reserves evaporated. Capital flight ensued as the market confidence sank and business sentiment turned negative.

The government’s team of economic managers and advisers lacked the experience in international financial markets to anticipate or manage what was about to hit the economy. This writer warned on these pages of Dawn (May 30, 2008): “If the economy continues its present slide, even the US may not be able to bail Pakistan out. Its own once mighty financial giants are being rescued by Chinese and Arab investors. Pakistan’s last resort would be the IMF with its usual conditionalities and the inevitable pain they would cause. For Pakistan, the most sensible course would be to put its house in order now”. But the government devoted almost its entire attention to the judges issue and power politics as the country headed towards its worst financial crisis in a decade.

The government continued Musharraf’s Washington-centric foreign policy. Yet, in the hour of its greatest need, the US not only ditched Pakistan but a third-ranking state department official publicly humiliated its ‘friend’ by saying that the Friends of Pakistan “wouldn’t throw money on the table”. This wasn’t surprising given Condoleezza Rice’s more subtle remarks earlier on Sept 26: “We are very engaged with Pakistan, through the international financial institutions, to help Pakistan as it takes the difficult decisions that it is and must take on economic reform.” Translated: Pakistan should go to the IMF and reform its economy.While the US pressure on Pakistan to go the IMF has political undertones, it is also true that Pakistani rulers’ historic tendency to indulge in profligate spending and corruption has left them with few sympathisers despite the much trumpeted ‘geostrategic’ importance of Pakistan.

The US has historically directed most of its ‘aid’ to make Pakistan fight its wars. The aid has been primarily used for military purposes (e.g. Pakistan’s arms purchase orders in 2006 alone totalled $5.1bn) but the indirect cost of the conflicts since 1980 has been catastrophic, although some people continue to believe in the ‘benefits’ of such ‘aid’.

The ‘aid syndrome’ stymied any serious effort to reform the economy. Infrastructure investments and tax reforms were neglected because the so-called austerity programmes advocated by the multilaterals hit subsidies but not the pockets of vested interests. Oil and food subsidies played a major role in Asia and the European Union respectively in keeping the prices low because the governments had fiscal space, of which Pakistan never had much. Cutting fat in defence and establishment expenditures and taxing the rich were not high on the multilaterals’ reform agenda as the focus was usually on indirect taxes (e.g. sales tax) that inevitably hit the lower-income groups.

But what is the point in complaining about the US’s ‘real agenda’ or the IMF’s ‘conditionalities’ when the country’s leaders are unwilling to tighten their belts and undertake necessary reforms and are known to own assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars abroad? Confidence and credibility are important issues and cannot be wished away.

Today, there is hardly a major country in Asia or the Middle East that owes any debt to the IMF except Turkey and Pakistan. Turkey is the largest borrower of the IMF and accounts for about 40 per cent of its $18.3bn total lending worldwide. Pakistan owes about $1.3bn.

Turkey went to the IMF in 2001 and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) came to power in 2002. During the last six years, Turkey’s inflation fell to single digits (though it has risen again due to higher energy and food prices) and foreign direct investment (FDI) rose, helping it to repay almost two-thirds of its loans from the IMF. Turkey still has issues (e.g. a persistent current account deficit) but AK’s economic record is one reason why it easily won the July 2007 elections.

India was nearly bankrupt in 1991 when a balance of payments crisis forced the country to pledge its gold by actually shipping 20 tonnes of it abroad. It was left with no choice but to approach the IMF. Its then finance minister Manmohan Singh recalled later: “There was a silver lining though. India launched the most sweeping economic reforms that year dismantling decades of licence raj, and didn’t ever look back although progress was fitful in the first few years.”

Pakistan can learn from the experiences of India and Turkey. They had serious problems, although their nature differed. However, their leaderships demonstrated sincerity and political acumen to undertake difficult reforms to enable their economies to recover. The reform process was led and executed by people who were highly respected for their integrity and competence. In Pakistan’s case, the real problem is not the IMF; it has been and continues to be the country’s leadership.

DAWN - Opinion; October 29, 2008

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HEC Affair

2008-10-31T14:57:00.002+06:00

THE international scientific community is dismayed at the unfair criticism in some newspapers against the chairman of the Higher Education Commission, Prof (Dr) Attaur Rahman, for spending billions of rupees without any visible impact on quality and performance of universities and their graduates.

Those who have closely watched the development of higher education in Pakistan from outside and have been involved in the numerous programmes established by Prof Rahman in the past eight years can testify to the contrary:

the progress made was breath-taking and has put Pakistan ahead of comparable countries in numerous aspects.

To name just a few, the establishment of a free access to scientific literature by high-speed Internet for all universities, the thousands of promising young scientists who were granted PhD studies at top universities abroad, the upgrade of research equipment accessible across the country and the programme of establishing new universities of science and technology, including technology parks attracting foreign investors, prove the efficiency and the long-term benefits for the country enabled by the HEC’s chairman.

His efforts have made Pakistan a respected partner for cooperation for many countries leading in research and development, and it has to be feared that without Prof Rahman this status will be lost.

The United Nations Commission on Science and Technology has closely monitored the development in Pakistan in the past years, coming to the unanimous conclusion that Prof Rahman’s policy and programme is a ‘best-practice’ example for developing countries aiming at building their human resources and establishing an innovative, technology-based economy.

Moreover, to poorly qualify the graduates of Pakistan universities is another unjustified blame: almost all of the thousands of young Pakistani university staff sent for doctorate studies to Europe’s and Asia’s top universities in the past five years have performed well at these foreign institutions, thus causing their academic supervisors to ask for further supply of PhD candidates from Pakistan.

Those who have completed their PhD and returned to Pakistan to share their knowledge with students at their home institutions are keeping close contacts to their former supervisors, creating valuable international research networks.

The impact of this programme, installed by Prof Rahman, will only be seen after some more years, and is expected to bring progress to the country, not only in terms of science and technology, but also in terms of economy. DR BERND MICHAEL RODE Chairman/European Coordinator of ASEA-UNINET

You can find this article at: 'Higher Education Commission affair'Dawn ePaper - Digital replica of Print Edition.

the international scientific com- munity is dismayed at the unfair criti- cism in some newspapers against the chairman of the higher education commission, prof (dr) attaur rahman, for spending billions of rupees without any visible impact on quality and per- formance of universities and their graduates. those who have closely watched the development of higher education in pakistan from outside and have been involved in the numerous programmes established by prof rahman in the past eight years can testify to the contrary: the progress made was breath-taking and has put pakistan ahead of compa- rable countries in numerous aspects. to name just a few, the establish- ment of a free access to scientific liter- ature by high-speed internet for all uni- versities, the thousands of promising young scientists who were granted phd studies at top universities abroad, the upgrade of research equipment acces- sible across the country and the pro- gramme of establishing new universi- ties of science and technology, includ- ing technology parks attracting foreign investors, prove the efficiency and the long-term benefits for the country ena- bled by the hec’s chairman. his efforts have made pakistan a re- spected partner for cooperation for many countries leading in research and development, and it has to be feared that without prof rahman this status will be lost. the united nations commission on science and technology has closely monitored the development in pakistan in the past years, coming to the unanimous conclusion that prof rahman’s policy and programme is a ‘best-practice’ example for developing countries aiming at building their hu- man resources and establishing an in- novative, technology-based economy. moreover, to poorly qualify the grad- uates of pakistan universities is anoth- er unjustified blame: almost all of the thousands of young pakistani universi- ty staff sent for doctorate studies to europe’s and asia’s top universities in the past five years have performed well at these foreign institutions, thus causing their academic supervisors to ask for further supply of phd candi- dates from pakistan. those who have completed their phd and returned to pakistan to share their knowledge with students at their home institutions are keeping close contacts to their former supervisors, creating valuable international re- search networks. the impact of this programme, in- stalled by prof rahman, will only be seen after some more years, and is ex- pected to bring progress to the country, not only in terms of science and tech- nology, but also in terms of economy. dr bernd michael rode chairman/european coordinator of asea-uninet

TOP

Prefering dunya over Fighting in Allah's Cause

2008-10-27T10:16:00.003+06:00

9. Surah At-Taubah [The Repentance]

24. Say: If your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your wives, your kindred, the wealth that you have gained, the commerce in which you fear a decline, and the dwellings in which you delight ... are dearer to you than Allâh and His Messenger, and striving hard and fighting in His Cause , then wait until Allâh brings about His Decision (torment). And Allâh guides not the people who are Al-Fâsiqûn (the rebellious, disobedient to Allâh).

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Removing / Hiding Page Numbers from Latex document (Remove / Hide)

2008-09-25T15:58:00.008+06:00

Getting rid of page numbers from a latex document is a tricky thing to do :) sometimes you do not want page numbers in your document but the document class or style file you are using puts page numbers...

many websites/manuals/blogs suggest the use of \thispagestyle{empty} after \maketitle tag to overwrite the style file and remove the page numbers. But some style files will still print the page numbers on all pages except the first one... if this is the case then add \pagestyle{empty} tag and the page numbers from all the pages will be removed :)... the code will look like

\maketitle
\thispagestyle{empty}
\pagestyle{empty}

this trick worked in my case where i was using ieeetr.cls as document class... i hope it works for other cases as well...

Musharraf will wait for his political comeback. An interesting story

2008-08-19T16:46:00.001+06:00

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

By Shaheen Sehbai

KARACHI: General Pervez Musharraf has finally broken down and has accepted defeat, whether fully on his own terms is not yet clear, but he has set a very precious and respectable precedent for future of Pakistani politics and democracy.

By resigning in a constitutional way and allowing a non-violent, smooth and dignified transition, he has broken the tradition of past military dictators who would never quit, unless forcibly pushed, assassinated or removed unconstitutionally.

Of course the stage was set for this ultimate defeat by the political parties through their votes of no-confidence in the provincial assemblies, yet Mr Musharraf could have become a big spoiler, if he had so wanted. He had all the powers to do so, as he said in his final departing address.

But his last words gave away a lot of what remains as an active thought process in Musharraf's mind. The way he presented a long list of his achievements and successes it appeared that he was making the pitch, as if in an electoral contest, for his political comeback, believing firmly that he had, and would like to have, a future political role in Pakistani politics.

This role is not yet available to him but much will depend on how the coalition partners and major political parties behave in the next few months and years. If the six months after the Feb 18 elections are any guide, the omens are not very encouraging but politicians have to rise up to the occasion if they have to survive.

Musharraf had very obviously and conveniently devised the wait and see strategy after the elections as he expected, somewhat rightly, that the PPP and the PML-N would not be able to keep the coalition together and once they break up he and his supporters will again get a breakthrough and regain the initiative. He came perilously close to achieving his goal, of course through efforts he could make as the man occupying the presidency.

Yet Mr Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif stood together, demonstrating that they have understood one core and fundamental fact for their political survival and success ñ their sticking together for the common cause, as enunciated in the Charter of Democracy. It is that core value which defeated Musharraf and all his machinations.

Musharraf's insistence that he would stay in Pakistan is again based primarily on the calculation that until the two major parties break up he should be provided a safe stay and when they break up, he would re-launch himself, probably as a leader of the Karachi-led Mohajir population, with or even without, the blessings of Mr Altaf Hussain.

This streak of leading the Karachi political scene was more than evident in his recent visits to Karachi where he tried to create his own lobby of businessmen and mohajir leaders, almost to the exclusion of Altaf Hussain and his hard core supporters.

Musharraf's address one night a few weeks ago to a select group of Karachi businessmen, where his strong supporter Governor Ishrat ul Ebad was present and Karachi Mayor Mustufa Kamal made his famous, but mysterious, comment that within a few months the geography of Karachi may change, was seen by Altaf Hussain as an attempt to challenge him on his turf.

Within hours of that Musharraf address, his first after months of post-Feb 18 polls hibernation, Altaf Bhai had to arrange his own gathering of Karachi businessmen and address them from London. Why this need for a parallel event felt by the MQM headquarters in London was obvious: Mr Musharraf was trying to hijack his party and Altaf Bhai is not an amateur in fighting turf wars. Soon thereafter both Governor Ebad and Mayor were summoned to London for whatever happens to MQM men when they err.

Yet while it is too early to discuss the future of Musharraf, the coalition has to decide whether they would let him go Scot free, let him enjoy the interim period of absence from the scene, and then bounce back when the people get frustrated with the democratic experience or possible coalition infighting.

The alternative for them is not to allow Musharraf to leave the country, press on the charges that they have been preparing against him, restore the judiciary in its original form and let these independent judges decide whether Musharraf is guilty of any punishable crimes and what sentence should he be handed.

The mid-term strategy to get this possible political threat out of their way would be to get Musharraf convicted in a fair trial on any one or more charges and get him sentenced so that he is disqualified for holding an elected office.

Any indemnity, if offered under whatever domestic or foreign pressures, must be strictly conditional with a definite term that Musharraf would never indulge in politics and would not be qualified to hold any elected office. This could form the basis for a new NRO to be written by Mr Zardari for a fallen dictator who must now be left to stew in his own juices as people of Pakistan celebrate.

Yet if the fallen dictator is given a general amnesty, there is no reason on earth to offer the same to all the corrupt cronies and middlemen, who had descended on Pakistan from all around the world to enjoy power, pelf and perks. These men, like PCB Chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf and his types, must be brought to book and made examples of.

Musharraf will wait for his political comeback

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Not the time to resist, says musharraf

2008-08-14T15:31:00.002+06:00

President Pervez Musharraf said political reconciliation needed to be sought for stability of Pakistan not the resistance.

ARY OneWorld Leading News Protal of Pakistan (Urdu - English), Watch Live ARY News,8/14/2008 3:11:34 PM

so mr mush, y r y resisting??? y dont u go home when 3 assemblies have showed no confidence in u??? when will u get unpopular???? when u say tht its not the time to resist, whom r u addressing??? the coalition parties???? y dont u apply ur sayings to urself???

kuch to sharam karein sadar sahab... jab bacha bacha gaaliyan dega tab aapko feel hoga k aap unpolpular honay waalay hain???? chalein sharam na karein, damagh hi istemaal ker lein... ohh sorry! chalein aisa karein kisi damagh walay se mashwara ker lein...

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War on Terror, its root cause as per Gillani's point of view

2008-08-14T15:18:00.002+06:00

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said the war on terrorism and extremism is the war of survival for Pakistan, adding, ‘We will fight this war to ensure the writ of the government.’
...
Poverty is the main cause behind terrorism and the government has hammered out policy to cut down this menace to nothing, he observed.

ARY OneWorld Leading News Protal of Pakistan (Urdu - English), Watch Live ARY News

i disagree with both of his stmts.... nothing will happen to pakistan if pakistan stops attacking the bearded pakhtoons just because they do not want american or anyone else's occupation on their land... poverty is not the cause... its foreign occupation on their land... deprivation of rights... suppression of their breed... even if do not do anything for their poverty but u leave their area for them n let them live with their traditions... they'll do no harm to u...

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MQM helps Sindh Assembly pass a unanimous resolution against Musharraf :)

2008-08-14T15:06:00.004+06:00

The 168-member assembly of the southern province of Sindh Wednesday unanimously passed a resolution that demanded a vote of confidence on President Pervez Musharraf in the presidential electoral college or his resignation.

One of Musharraf's devout allies, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), staged a walkout as the debate on the resolution started, leaving no one in the house to defend the beleaguered leader.

The Sindh assembly has around 69 pro-Musharraf members from the MQM and three other smaller parties.

Sindh Assembly passes resolution against Musharraf's ouster

PML-Q and MQM should have voted and prevent a unanimous resolution... i mean this is the province where mush could get some support... 60 to 70 legislators could have voted for him n let him feel a bit stronger... but the 'representatives' of ppl of khi, who were blindly supporting mush for last so many years, suddenly turned their back towards the president... will the ppl of khi who kept supportin mush for many reasons includin the 'economic boom' ask their legislators y did this happen??? y did the legislators left their beloved man alone in difficult times??? wht is the stance of mqm??? wht caused them to change their loyalties???

From other provinces, where there was no or negligible support for mush, the resolution could not pass unanimously. Even in punjab, where there r so many critics of mush, PML-Q stood bravely for their leader... But in a province where almost 40% legislators were musharraf's ally, the resolution passed without any resistance... '0' votes against the resolution

the credit goes to 'representatives' of ppl of khi, and PML-Q... well done both parties...

it seems tht mqm is now friends with ppp coz it only needs govt. it only needs incentives... who cares for the ppl n their wishes... will ppl of khi think abt this behavior by their party??? will they ever hold them responsible for anything???

the time is not far when ppl of khi who were the strongest supporters of mush, will have anti mush sentiment... ppl r just waitin for an order from the headquarters, their only leader, the world's only honest man... altaf bhai... this is how mqm proceeds... this wht they call politics

Also see the following:

MQM members’ decision to boycott the session was described by Sindh Information Minister Shazia Mari as "a positive role" and a victory for the people of the province.
Earlier, a joint meeting of parliamentary party of MQM in Sindh Assembly and Rabta Committee late on Tuesday night announced that the party would not support the impeachment resolution against President Musharraf. A statement released by MQM affirmed its support for President Musharraf claiming that the party never ditches its friends.

Khaleej Times Online - Sindh MPAs pass no-trust motion against Musharraf

a unanimous resolution clearly shows tht "MQM never ditches its friends" hehehe... it just shows its back when friends need it... MQM actually is a friend in need... i.e. it is friends with u only if it is in need :)... wht does it need???? govt., power n its hold on khi... thts it!

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Corruption charges on mush

2008-08-13T21:01:00.001+06:00

DAWN - Cartoon; August 12, 2008

I do not think corruption charges should have been there in charge sheet against mush... because corruption is what every pakistani always does... so y shld hold him responsible for the corruption when there r stronger charges available n greater crimes mush committed... he was responsible for sowing hatred among the federating units against the federation and each other... he is also responsible for damaging constitutional, social, moral, geographic and ideological basis of my country...

i'd say include all charges but do not include the corruption thing... NRO kay bal pay aanay waalay corruption charges laga rahay hain... seems funny :) the above cartoon is very correct...

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Impeachment ??

2008-08-12T15:39:00.002+06:00

WITH the judges issue having apparently taken the back seat, the national scene now seems focussed on the president’s impeachment. Certain questions crop up. If the PPP co-chairperson had to make common cause with the PML-N, why did Mr Asif Ali Zardari have to wait for all these four months? He agreed to sign the Murree Declaration, which visualised an April 30 deadline for the restoration of the judges, extended it to May 12 and later appeared to be going back on it again. If he had agreed to stick to the Murree Declaration the nation would have been spared several unsavoury developments — like the PML-N’s withdrawal from the federal cabinet while the budget-making was on and the lawyers’ long march. The PML-N’s priority all along had been the judges’ restoration, which in its opinion would make President Pervez Musharraf go. It seems Mr Zardari feels that getting rid of the president is easier than restoring the judges.

Now that the grand coalition looks determined to go ahead with Musharraf’s impeachment all sides need to keep in mind the overriding need for ending the agony that has gripped the nation since March 9 last year when Chief Justice Iftikhar was made non-functional. Unfortunately, it is Pakistan that has been non-functional for 17 months, the ‘who will go to Beijing’ controversy itself announcing to the whole world the kind of ludicrous politics that exists in the country. The lawyers are unhappy with Thursday’s announcement, because they wonder what would be their fate if the impeachment move fails. Besides, sections of the people still doubt that the grand coalition will finally clinch it.

The constitution does provide for impeachment, but the procedure has not been spelt out. The National Assembly speaker has to make rules for what is going to be the first — and an unfortunate — constitutional move in Pakistan’s chequered political history. We thus hope that the speaker will make the rules at the earliest.

On Friday, the Senate saw angry exchanges because the opposition expressed the fear that there could be horse-trading to buy votes. To pre-empt the sale and purchase of lawmakers, it is essential that the vote for the impeachment be by a show of hands or division rather than by secret ballot. The president has resolved to fight rather than seek an honourable exit, and there are reports he is being advised recourse to the Supreme Court. This could prove to be a harrowing development, and the crisis could drag on indefinitely, the ultimate sufferer being the people. The onus is on the coalition partners to take the impeachment process to its culmination as quickly as possible. Pakistan has virtually come to a halt, and the nation feels as if there is no government. Dawn Editorial, August 10

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Impeachment vs Restoration

2008-08-09T21:00:00.001+06:00

Rise of Pakistan

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delayin tactics

2008-08-09T10:39:00.004+06:00

I am unhappy with the decision made by the ruling coalition... impeaching and sending mush home is not the solution... they shld had restored the judges... n then decide whatever they want to... the argument tht restoring judges will result in conflict with presidency is invalid... i mean its strange to assume tht mush will hit back if we restore judges but will remain silent n will not hit back if we directly attack him... come on nawaz n zardari... haven't u seen this guy before???? he has couped twice n each time makin an accuse tht there were conspiracies being hatched against me, so for the 'greater good' of the nation n country i took unconstitutional steps...

mr. nawaz the goal is not achieved... u could not stay firm on ur principle stand... do not call this decision a success... u have been fooled once again i guess :) mush will stay there, rather will become even more powerful... n judges issue will b buried :(

u shld had left the coalition on the basis of all the delaying tactics played by zardari n co. ... now mush can refer to the 'neutralized judiciary' for help, n they'll certainly help him... he is their boss... he appointed them for the 'greater good' of the nation n the state... how can they betray their 'constitutional' boss who is not eligible to b president by any law :) ...

in my opinion mush is in a position to handle this impeachment thing successfully n he'll stay there... only an independent judiciary could have punished him for his wrong doings...

Gumnaam Qabrein...

2008-08-04T19:42:00.001+06:00

Jang Group Online

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Movement in decisive phase: Iftikhar

2008-07-28T12:53:00.001+06:00

BAHAWALPUR, July 27: Deposed chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry said here on Sunday the lawyers’ movement had mustered support at the global level and a number of international bar associations had joined the campaign.

Addressing a lawyers’ convention held under the auspices of the local high court bar association, he said the issue had been ‘internationalised’ and with the masses behind the deposed judges, the movement had reached a decisive juncture. “The people know that only an independent judiciary can guarantee good governance and help solve economic problems,” he said.

The convention was scheduled to be held at 7pm on Saturday, but the motorcade of the chief justice and other judges took 15 hours to reach here from Multan, making brief stopovers in Shujaabad, Jalalpur Peerwala and Lodhran.

Justice Iftikhar praised high court judge Justice Jawad S. Khwaja and civil judge Saeed Khursheed Ahmad for taking a principled stand and quitting their jobs. He said Bahawalpur and Multan bars should confer the title of ‘Farzand-i-Bahawalpur or -Multan’ on Saeed Khursheed. Mr Khursheed, who was posted in Bahawalpur as a civil judge, was the first member of the subordinate judiciary to resign in protest.

Supreme Court Bar Association president Aitzaz Ahsan warned that if the judges were not reinstated by Aug 14, lawyers might decide to launch a civil disobedience movement. He urged Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to fulfill his promise and reinstate the judges.

Movement in decisive phase: Iftikhar -DAWN - Top Stories; July 28, 2008

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American Aims + Revealing Secrets (Part 2)

2008-07-15T12:57:00.001+06:00

Nawa-i-waqt

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Faraar Policy!

2008-07-14T23:57:00.003+06:00


		Source:http://nawaiwaqt.com.pk/urdu/daily/july-2008/14/idarati1.php#1

Revealing Secrets: Mush n AQ Khan

2008-07-14T23:52:00.005+06:00

Source:http://nawaiwaqt.com.pk/urdu/daily/july-2008/14/idarati1.php#1

Did Feb 18, 2008 change anything???

2008-07-14T23:17:00.001+06:00

Nawa-i-waqt

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Where r the leaders???

2008-07-14T23:06:00.001+06:00

Nawa-i-waqt

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Clear orders about not supporting those who betray trust... will our govt. listen to it by any chance?????

2008-07-05T19:20:00.001+06:00

^An-Nisa
¹⁰⁵ We have sent down to thee the Book in truth, that thou mightest judge between men, as guided by Allah. so be not (used) as an advocate by those who betray their trust;

¹⁰⁶ But seek the forgiveness of Allah. for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.

¹⁰⁷ Contend not on behalf of such as betray their own souls; for Allah loveth not one given to perfidy and crime:

¹⁰⁸ They may hide (Their crimes) from men, but they cannot hide (Them) from Allah, seeing that He is in their midst when they plot by night, in words that He cannot approve: And Allah Doth compass round all that they do.

¹⁰⁹ Ah! These are the sort of men on whose behalf ye may contend in this world; but who will contend with Allah on their behalf on the Day of Judgment, or who will carry their affairs through?

¹¹⁰ If any one does evil or wrongs his own soul but afterwards seeks Allah's forgiveness, he will find Allah Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.

¹¹¹ And if any one earns sin. he earns it against His own soul: for Allah is full of knowledge and wisdom.

¹¹² But if any one earns a fault or a sin and throws it on to one that is innocent, He carries (on himself) (Both) a falsehood and a flagrant sin.

The Holy Qur'an/An-Nisa - Wikisource

by when will v keep supporting USA on its war on terror????
read 109 and be afraid of the day the ayat is talkin abt...
there is still time, lets return to Allah... read 110... plz return...

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Clear orders about not supporting those who betray trust... will our govt. listen to it by any chance?????

2008-07-05T18:01:00.001+06:00

^An-Nisa
¹⁰⁵ We have sent down to thee the Book in truth, that thou mightest judge between men, as guided by Allah. so be not (used) as an advocate by those who betray their trust;

¹⁰⁶ But seek the forgiveness of Allah. for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.

¹⁰⁷ Contend not on behalf of such as betray their own souls; for Allah loveth not one given to perfidy and crime:

¹⁰⁸ They may hide (Their crimes) from men, but they cannot hide (Them) from Allah, seeing that He is in their midst when they plot by night, in words that He cannot approve: And Allah Doth compass round all that they do.

¹⁰⁹ Ah! These are the sort of men on whose behalf ye may contend in this world; but who will contend with Allah on their behalf on the Day of Judgment, or who will carry their affairs through?

¹¹⁰ If any one does evil or wrongs his own soul but afterwards seeks Allah's forgiveness, he will find Allah Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.

¹¹¹ And if any one earns sin. he earns it against His own soul: for Allah is full of knowledge and wisdom.

¹¹² But if any one earns a fault or a sin and throws it on to one that is innocent, He carries (on himself) (Both) a falsehood and a flagrant sin.

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Importance of 'Shamsheer-o-Sin'a Awwal'

2008-07-05T17:52:00.001+06:00

^An-Nisa
¹⁰² When thou (O Messenger. art with them, and standest to lead them in prayer, Let one party of them stand up (in prayer) with thee, Taking their arms with them: When they finish their prostrations, let them Take their position in the rear. And let the other party come up which hath not yet prayed - and let them pray with thee, Taking all precaution, and bearing arms: the Unbelievers wish, if ye were negligent of your arms and your baggage, to assault you in a single rush. But there is no blame on you if ye put away your arms because of the inconvenience of rain or because ye are ill; but take (every) precaution for yourselves. For the Unbelievers Allah hath prepared a humiliating punishment.

¹⁰³ When ye pass (Congregational) prayers, celebrate Allah's praises, standing, sitting down, or lying down on your sides; but when ye are free from danger, set up Regular Prayers: For such prayers are enjoined on believers at stated times.

¹⁰⁴ And slacken not in following up the enemy: If ye are suffering hardships, they are suffering similar hardships; but ye have Hope from Allah, while they have none. And Allah is full of knowledge and wisdom.

¹⁰⁵ We have sent down to thee the Book in truth, that thou mightest judge between men, as guided by Allah. so be not (used) as an advocate by those who betray their trust;

¹⁰⁶ But seek the forgiveness of Allah. for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.

The Holy Qur'an/An-Nisa - Wikisource

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Those who killed Laal Masjid's innocent students, plz read 4:93

2008-07-05T17:47:00.001+06:00

^An-Nisa
⁹² Never should a believer kill a believer; but (If it so happens) by mistake, (Compensation is due): If one (so) kills a believer, it is ordained that he should free a believing slave, and pay compensation to the deceased's family, unless they remit it freely. If the deceased belonged to a people at war with you, and he was a believer, the freeing of a believing slave (Is enough). If he belonged to a people with whom ye have treaty of Mutual alliance, compensation should be paid to his family, and a believing slave be freed. For those who find this beyond their means, (is prescribed) a fast for two months running: by way of repentance to Allah. for Allah hath all knowledge and all wisdom.

⁹³ If a man kills a believer intentionally, his recompense is Hell, to abide therein (For ever): And the wrath and the curse of Allah are upon him, and a dreadful penalty is prepared for him.
a muslim is ordered not to take any action (even) against munafiqeen if they join a group who is friends with u... see ayat 90 for example:
⁸⁸ Why should ye be divided into two parties about the Hypocrites? Allah hath upset them for their (evil) deeds. Would ye guide those whom Allah hath thrown out of the Way? For those whom Allah hath thrown out of the Way, never shalt thou find the Way.

⁸⁹ They but wish that ye should reject Faith, as they do, and thus be on the same footing (as they): But take not friends from their ranks until they flee in the way of Allah (From what is forbidden). But if they turn renegades, seize them and slay them wherever ye find them; and (in any case) take no friends or helpers from their ranks;-

⁹⁰ Except those who join a group between whom and you there is a treaty (of peace), or those who approach you with hearts restraining them from fighting you as well as fighting their own people. If Allah had pleased, He could have given them power over you, and they would have fought you: Therefore if they withdraw from you but fight you not, and (instead) send you (Guarantees of) peace, then Allah Hath opened no way for you (to war against them).

when a munafiq cannot be killed if he/she is with our friends, then how can we justify attackin a group of students -who is inside our country and sitting in a masjid which comes in jurisdiction of the state and does not have ample resources to plot treason- just for keeping some (so called) foreigners with them????

The Holy Qur'an/An-Nisa - Wikisource

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Take not for friends unbelievers rather than believers.The Holy Qur'an/An-Nisa

2008-07-05T17:24:00.001+06:00

^An-Nisa
139 Yea, to those who take for friends unbelievers rather than believers: is it honour they seek among them? Nay,- all honour is with Allah.
¹⁴⁰ Already has He sent you Word in the Book, that when ye hear the signs of Allah held in defiance and ridicule, ye are not to sit with them unless they turn to a different theme: if ye did, ye would be like them. For Allah will collect the hypocrites and those who defy faith - all in Hell:-
¹⁴⁴ O ye who believe! Take not for friends unbelievers rather than believers: Do ye wish to offer Allah an open proof against yourselves?

¹⁴⁵ The Hypocrites will be in the lowest depths of the Fire: no helper wilt thou find for them;-

¹⁴⁶ Except for those who repent, mend (their lives) hold fast to Allah, and purify their religion as in Allah's sight: if so they will be (numbered) with the believers. And soon will Allah grant to the believers a reward of immense value.

¹⁴⁷ What can Allah gain by your punishment, if ye are grateful and ye believe? Nay, it is Allah that recogniseth (all good), and knoweth all things.

The Holy Qur'an/An-Nisa - Wikisource

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Afghan opium trade

2008-07-02T22:12:00.001+06:00

Afghan opium tradeHAMID Karzai of Kabul may have his concerns, some of them valid, about Pakistan’s role in combating militancy. That said, he is doing little to tackle a major insurgency-related problem that is entirely Afghan in nature. His country saw a record poppy harvest in 2007 that accounted for as much as 92 per cent of global opium production. Worth an estimated $4bn in the international market, Afghanistan’s opium output last year was equivalent to 53 per cent of the country’s licit GDP and another ‘shockingly high’ harvest is expected in 2008, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. True, more than 80 per cent of Afghanistan’s opium is supplied by the Taliban-controlled southern provinces but surely parts of his own country ought to fall under Mr Karzai’s jurisdiction. While the military might of the Taliban may be a factor, Kabul’s hesitancy in cracking down on opium production is also influenced by the systemic corruption plaguing the country. If drug lords sit in parliament, as many allege, is it likely that Mr Karzai will allow meaningful and decisive action against people whose support he needs to stay in power? But then this is just one of many areas where Mr Karzai’s rhetoric, if not vitriol, doesn’t quite match his actions on the ground.

Besides lining the pockets of tribal chiefs and politicians of criminal bent, the Afghan drug trade is fuelling the very insurgency that the country’s government and Nato troops are attempting to quell. By taxing poppy farmers and extorting protection money from operators of morphine and heroin laboratories, the Taliban are estimated to have earned more than $100m last year from Afghanistan’s thriving opium trade. The connection between insurgency and drug trafficking is well established not only in Mr Karzai’s country but across the world, Colombia and its narco-fuelled Farc rebels being a prime example. The Afghan president needs to sever the opium lifeline that feeds home-grown militants and has turned over a million of his people — nearly 3.5 per cent of the country’s population — into heroin addicts with little hope of recovery. He would be doing the rest of the world a favour too, particularly neighbours like Pakistan and Iran. Heroin addiction not only destroys individual lives, it shatters families and perpetuates poverty. It also fuels crime and contributes to the spread of potentially fatal diseases that are transmitted through sexual contact or sharing of needles. Afghanistan, with its monopoly on opium production, needs to get its act together, for its own benefit as well as that of others.

DAWN - Editorial; June 30, 2008

Opium trade was significantly cut short in taliban era (See an excerpt at the end of this post), but still bush etc. blamed them for making profit with a prohibited crop... what is their supported govt. doin now???? y cannt they reduce the production???? How come they r makin profit of all this but still are noble ppl????

Another factor that should not be overlooked is opium. During the Taliban era, opium planting was forbidden. But Aghanistan has a long history as an opium producer. The rise of the Taliban was in some way a blessing in disguise for the Vienna-based U.N. body that has been fighting for a drug-free world. In the last five years, opium production and drug trafficking from Afghanistan have been greatly reduced.

But the fall of the Taliban has given opium farmers opportunities to replant the “heavenly drug.” A farmer from Nangahar, Katib, had intended to plant his field with wheat, but has changed his mind, since the profit from opium is 15 times that of wheat.

It is no secret that opium fields are money fountains for high commanders and warlords as well. Harvest time is known to warlords as a time to fight for expanded opium territory.

http://www.worldpress.org/asia/0202tempo.htm

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Nasty jolts to the economy

2008-06-10T17:03:00.002+06:00

By Shahid Javed Burki

PAKISTAN�S economy received several nasty jolts in the last several months. Some were delivered by the developments over which the country�s policymakers did not have any control. These included the inexorable increase in the price of oil which has affected all oil-importing countries including Pakistan.

There has also been an increase in the price of agricultural commodities Pakistan must import to meet domestic demand. These include wheat and oil seeds.

There were other jolts to the economy for which policymakers must take full responsibility. These include the shortage in the generation of electric power which has resulted in load-shedding that is taking a heavy toll in terms of both lost output and great discomfort to the citizens. Most affected by this shortage are the less well-to-do segments of society who cannot afford to buy alternate sources of electric supply such as portable generators.

These shortages should have been estimated by the previous administration and appropriate investments should have been made. Instead, for eight years, Pakistan did not make investments in electric power generation while the demand for electricity continued to increase at nearly seven per cent a year. This has left the country with a demand-supply gap estimated by the government at 4,000 megawatts.

Compounding these problems were the decisions taken by Islamabad to spend carelessly in order to help the party in power in the elections of Feb 2008. Public expenditure was allowed to increase way beyond the resources available to the government by way of tax and other revenues. The result was a ballooning of fiscal deficit estimated at 9.5 per cent of GDP by Ishaq Dar who was the minister of finance in the first coalition government to take office after the elections.

A significant part of this deficit was financed by borrowing from the central bank which added to the inflationary pressures already present in the economy. This produced price increases without precedence in Pakistan�s history. Once again it is the poor and the not-so-well-off segments of society that are suffering. Unless help arrives soon, Pakistan may begin to see political and social pressures building up. Considering the weak state of institutional development in the country, it would be hard to contain these strains.

The new set of political leaders, who have come to power, is being advised to adopt adjustment measures to deal with the pressures under which the economy is labouring these days. The prescriptions being offered are the usual ones: contain government expenditures by cutting spending on both current and development parts of the government budget, raise resources by expanding the tax base, provide relief to the poor by giving them cash transfers and by creating jobs for them by starting rural and urban works programmes, take advantage of the fall in the value of the rupee by encouraging exports, and make non-essential imports more costly.

In a report released by the new Lahore-based Institute of Public Policy that I chair, the government was also advised to transfer greater authority to the provinces and to the institutions of local government. This will help with the process of adjustment since it would bring economic governance closer to the people. We also advised the government to make sure that the design of adjustment policies ensured that future growth was not compromised. This was done in the 1999-2002 period when, following the advice of the International Monetary Fund, the then administration applied hard breaks to the economy.

This, as indicated above, is the standard advice given to most governments dealing with difficult economic situations. Pakistan, however, needs to do much more than follow the standard prescription. It needs to adopt an approach and develop a strategy that lessens the grip on the economy of several powerful vested interests. Over time, the Pakistani economic elite has increased its influence on the making of public policy.

The extent to which this has happened is clearly shown by some simple calculations. The latest World Development Indicators published by the World Bank provide estimates for all countries of the share in national income of various segments of the population. In Pakistan, the top 10 per cent of the population claims 26.3 per cent of the total national income while that of the bottom 10 per cent is only four per cent. This is one of the sharpest differences in the developing world: the rich receive 6.8 times the amount of national income that accrues to the poor.

However, a comparison of the shares in national income does not fully reflect the amount of real inequality between different classes of people. The rich have much better access to public services than the poor; the state generally looks after their interests much more than it does for the poor.

What makes these income differences even more problematic is that they are widening as a consequence of the growth model followed by the Musharraf government which favoured the rich. The sectors that flourished under President Musharraf did little for the poor while they provided large amounts of incomes and asset appreciation for the rich. The recent price increases in food commodities have added further insult to the injury inflicted by the pursuit of the growth model.The poor�s real income will decline significantly if food and fuel prices are allowed to eat into their disposable incomes. Not only is the price increase hurting the poor, the latter are also being affected by the various shortages that have appeared in the economy against which the rich can protect themselves but the poor are left to fend for themselves.

In fact, the rich have succeeded in creating large cocoons around themselves, thus isolating themselves from the less fortunate citizenry. They have built gated communities, protected by private security companies; they send their children to expensive private schools that provide education of reasonable standards; they go out over the weekends to shop in the malls of Dubai and go for summer vacations to various watering spots in Europe.While one should not grudge this lifestyle, it cannot be sustained in the midst of great and growing poverty. And it must not be sustained at the expense of the poor. Public policy must address this problem to ensure not only sustained economic growth but also social and political stability.

DAWN - Editorial; June 10, 2008

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And, who invented daylight saving?

2008-06-10T16:16:00.002+06:00

By Salman Rashid

JOHNNY Hart's absolutely hilarious comic strip �BC� has the kid ant asking the dad ant who invented daylight saving. Dad ant tells the kid that it was Edison, but not Thomas as is commonly believed. It was his brother Mason, the inventor of the Mason Jar, who did it.

Every day, so dad ant tells the kid, Mason would go to his workshop, blow a jar as they used to blow glass jars in the old days and set it out in the sun to dry before capping it.

Little did old Mason realise that his jars were filling up with daylight and when he capped them, he got a jar full of daylight. Since blowing glass jars was his business, he soon had a whole great bunch of them all duly filled with daylight. Then one day the expected happened: just about sunset, one of the jars, perhaps too overfilled with daylight, blew the top. And, presto! the world had an extra hour of daylight.

Satisfied, kid ant turns around while dad ant nonchalantly spits out his wad of tobacco and says to himself, �This home schooling could turn out to be a lot more fun than I thought.� This, I suspect, is the sentence with a little variation that some bureaucrat in Islamabad, having high-fived his lesser crony, said.

With the variation the bureaucrat�s sentence would be something like, �Could you believe these moronic politicians would fall for this one so soon again? Making them look like fools is going to be a lot more fun than we thought.�

As the late great Peter Ustinov once said that he suspected there was a room in the foreign office where they taught future diplomats to stammer, so too do I suspect there are several rooms in every department in the Islamabad secretariat where sinister characters concoct such imbecile ideas to be inflicted upon us poor masses via our unthinking herds of politicians. It might work for the West with its high literacy to put their clocks forward by an hour every spring and back every autumn, but in a country of just about 10 per cent actually literate people, it does not.

Go back 19 years and you first find this absurd idea almost being inflicted upon us by the first PPP government. It was the winter of 1989-90 when out of the blue came the announcement that Pakistani clocks were being set ahead � yes, ahead � in a few days� time.

The nation immediately went into turmoil. Thank heavens we only had PTV to tell us how our lives were going to be revolutionised by this one hour of jiggery-pokery. Had private channels been then inflicted on us as now, they would have gone into overdrive screaming about how the Zionist-Hindu lobby had launched the final solution for the unmaking of Pakistan.

Good sense prevailed and the idiotic idea was killed before it could actually be put into practice. Years stumbled by and then we had The Man Who Would Refuse To Ever Know His End Is Come. One summer (was it 2002 or the year after?) it was announced that like most of the western world, we too were to put our clocks ahead by one hour.

Those very same bureaucrats, having sold their crazy idea to generalissimo-politico, were once again sniggering up their sleeves. They could hardly believe that the person who thought he was the smartest thing ever to happen to this sorry land was so easy to fool.

Shortly after we began revelling in the extra hour of General daylight, the people of Sibi being particularly enamoured of it especially when temperatures there hit 52 Celsius, I went cycling around rural Punjab. As I waited for my cup of tea at a village teashop, an elderly woman came along to ask the man what time it was. He told her and she looked a little uncertain as she turned to go. Then she stopped and asked if this was the �real� 10 o�clock or Musharraf�s 10 o�clock.

This woman of rural Punjab, like all those of her kind sprinkled across the villages of the entire country, was a real Pakistani: simple, with little or no education, whose daily timetable was guided less by clocks, more by the rising and setting of the sun.

When she needed to milk her buffalo, she did not give a fig about what the clock said. She milked it when the stars above still blazed and the horizon had just a touch of colour. Summer or winter, it was the sun that set the pace for her chores of the day, the same way it did for those millions of other real Pakistanis.

The foolishness was permitted to persist for a full six months because generalissimo did not want to admit he had made a very foolish mistake. Reversion to Pakistan Standard Time was greeted with a great sigh of relief. Speaking of PST, here�s another gem which shows why we should not indulge in this gimmickry that suits only 100 per cent literate nations. Radio Pakistan and PTV announcers would tell you what o�clock it was Pakistan Standard Time. No one told those morons that the time we were going by was not PST but summer time.

If you have kept your eyes open and watched the pattern of life in Pakistan, you will know that it was the introduction of satellite TV that turned our lives around. Until then, ordinary folks would watch the nine o�clock news on PTV and hit the sack. Then came �The Bold and the Beautiful�, and people who could not understand a word of English stayed awake all night watching the same inanity again and again and again. And so it was since the onset of the Nutty Nineties that our lives were no longer guided by the sun.

Now when the government told the traders to do business on Sunday instead of Friday in order to stagger businesses and offices, the traders duly thumbed their noses at the government. They also told it to go to hell about closing at 9 pm. Why, it was their business and they had every right to carry on until whenever they wished, they are now on record as having said. They have every right to go home about midnight and watch Indian soap operas until the muezzin calls them to their first duty of the day. Saving electricity be damned.

Frankly, if you ask me, I say why settle for just one hour of daylight saving. We can have as many Mason Jars of daylight as we want if we set our clocks forward by, say, five or even 10 hours. Maybe even a few years. Why not claim to be living in the year 2199? Imagine the daylight and the electricity we will save by eliminating the intervening years. No half measures, I say, go the whole hog.

The writer is the author of several travel books.

odysseus@beaconet.net

DAWN - Editorial; June 09, 2008

An interesting piece of writing :)

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Mukhtar on drone attacks in tribal areas

2008-06-06T12:35:00.001+06:00

United States (US) troops are not violating the sanctity of Pakistani borders as “they use pilotless drones to hit Al-Qaeda hideouts in Pakistani tribal areas, according to Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar.

The minister, apparently justifying the unmanned drone attacks, told a press conference on Thursday the US had claimed to have killed senior Al-Qaeda operatives in Damadola. A drone attack on the village on May 14 claimed 12 lives, who, according to locals, were children and women, while security forces in Afghanistan claimed top Al-Qaeda militants were killed in the fourth attack on the village.

Mr Mukhtar said the government lodged protest if the US violated the borders. He said Al Qaeda operatives should not use Pakistani territory for their militancy.

The minister said that Pakistan Muslim League-N Nawaz Sharif and other coalition partners were evaluating the constitutional package. He said President Pervez Musharraf should fulfill his promise of quitting the Presidency as the PML-Q had lost the elections.

He said the government was working to improve conventional deterrence against its enemies and the armed forces were doing well within the restricted funds provided to them.

About an inquiry into the Kargil issue, he said that the interview of Lt-Gen Jamshed Kiayni (retd), broadcast on a television channel, was not good because he had served with President Musharraf and enjoyed benefits under his command.

Mukhtar on drone attacks in tribal areas -DAWN - National; June 06, 2008

:(... great justifications

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PML-N hits out at decision to scrap Kalabagh project

2008-06-03T14:58:00.002+06:00

Several legislators belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League-N have expressed concern over Pakistan People’s Party’s decision to abandon the Kalabagh dam project without taking their party into confidence, although it was part of the ruling coalition.

At a parliamentary party meeting held here on Monday, the legislators are also reported to have objected to the PPP decision of appointing Salman Taseer as the Punjab governor.

They'll do similar things in future... guys wake up n leave the coalition... NOW!
...
PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif said the party was sitting with the treasury to protect the PPP from horse-trading and it would support or oppose on merit all government’s decisions, including the federal budget, in parliament.

He directed the MNAs to support the lawyers’ long march on June 10 to press their demand for reinstatement of the deposed judges.

He briefed the party MNAs on salient features of the proposed constitution amendment package prepared by the PPP.

He reiterated that the PML-N wanted the judges to be reinstated in accordance with the Murree Declaration.

APP adds: PML-N spokesman Siddiqul Farooq told a TV channel that the party would endorse all those clauses in the package which reflected the mandate given by the people in the elections.

He said the PML-N was against indemnifying the actions taken on Nov 3, 2007, because the people of the country had given a clear mandate to undo those steps.

Indemnity to the steps would mean maintaining the status quo, while the people wanted a change in the system, he said.

He said it was the responsibility of the leadership of the coalition parties to respect the mandate of the people in letter and in spirit.

Replying to a question, he said the PML-N, despite having reservations about the PCO judges, had agreed to accommodate them in the interest of the coalition. He said the five judges of the Supreme Court who were part of the pre-Nov 3 judiciary and who had taken oath under the Provisional Constitution Order should return to their previous position while the newly-inducted judges should work as ad hoc judges.

He said regularisation of the ad hoc judges could be considered by the judicial commission envisaged in the Charter of Democracy.

The spokesman said there would be no problem in getting the constitutional package approved in parliament if it was in line with the mandate given by the people. A consensus package could be approved by both the houses within a week, he said.

PML-N leaders Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Khwaja Mohammad Asif and Ahsan Iqbal and legal experts Khwaja Haris and Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim are members of the party’s committee led by Raja Zafarul Haq that will study the draft of the package.

PML-N hits out at decision to scrap Kalabagh project -DAWN - Top Stories; June 03, 2008

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Attack or Way of Expressing ???

2008-06-02T21:16:00.003+06:00

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen vehemently condemned a suicide bombing on his country's embassy in Pakistan on Monday, describing the attack as “cowardly” and unjustifiable.

- DAWN - Latest Stories; June 02, 2008

I wonder if we can put such an attack in the category of freedom of expression??? cannt we say that this was the way of the bomber to express his anger or he did this for his satisfaction may be... why dont we think out of box???

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Article inserted in constitution by Musharraf

2008-06-02T21:03:00.002+06:00

The following is the text of Article 270AAA inserted in the Constitution by President Pervez Musharraf last year.
In the Constitution, after Article 270AA, the following new Article shall be added, namely:- “270AAA. Validation and affirmation of laws etc. (1) The proclamation of Emergency of 3rd November, 2007, all President’s Orders, Ordinances, Chief of Army Staff Orders, including the Provisional Constitution order No.1 2007, the Oath of Office (Judges) Order, 2007, the amendments made in the constitution through the Constitution (Amendment) Order, 2007 and all other laws made between the 3rd day of November, 2007 and the date on which the Proclamation of Emergency of the 3rd Day of November, 2007, is revoked (both days inclusive), are accordingly affirmed, adopted and declared to have been validly made by the competent authority and notwithstanding anything contained in the Constitution shall not be called in question in any court or forum on any ground whatsoever.

“(2) All orders made, proceedings taken, appointments made, including secondments and deputations, and acts done by any authority, or by any person, which were made, taken or done, or purported to have been made, taken or done, on or after the 3rd day of November, 2007 in exercise of the powers derived from any Proclamation, Provisional Constitution Order No. 1 of 2007, President’s orders, ordinances, enactments, including amendments in the Constitution, notifications, rules, orders, bye-laws, or in execution of or in compliance with any orders made or sentences passed by any authority in the exercise or purported exercise of powers as aforesaid, shall, notwithstanding anything contained in the Constitution or any judgment of any court, be deemed to be and always to have been validly made, taken or done and shall not be called in question in any court or forum on any ground whatsoever.

“(3) All proclamations, President’s orders, ordinances, Chief of Army Staff Orders, laws, regulations, enactments, including amendments in the Constitution, notifications, rules, orders or bye-laws in force immediately before the date on which the Proclamation of Emergency of the 3rd day of November, 2007 is revoked, shall continue in force until altered, repealed or amended by the competent authority.

“Explanation.- In this clause, “competent authority” means,- (a) in respect of President’s orders, ordinances, Chief of Army Staff Orders and enactments, including amendments in the Constitution, the appropriate Legislature; and (b) in respect of notifications, rules, orders and bye- laws, the authority in which the power to make, alter, repeal or amend the same vests under the law.

“(4) No prosecution or any other legal proceedings, including but not limited to suits, constitutional petitions or complaints, shall, notwithstanding anything contained in the Constitution or any other law for the time being in force, lie in any court, forum or authority against any person or authority on account of or in respect of issuance of the legal instruments referred to in clause (1) and on account of or in respect of any action taken by the Chief of Army Staff, the President or any other in exercise or purported exercise of the powers referred to in clause (2).

“(5) For purpose of clauses (1), (2) and (4) all orders made, proceeding taken, appointments made, including secondments and deputation, acts done or purporting to by made, taken or done by any authority or person shall be deemed to have been made, taken in good faith and for the purpose intended to be served thereby.”

Rise of Pakistan: Article inserted by Musharraf

This article could have been in simpler language if they'd have used the word 'Musharraf' in in place of the bold text in the post. For example the text in clause 4 would look like "... on account of or in respect of any action taken by musharraf in execise or purported..." See, the govt. itself has complicated the text. Such simplifications could have been easier to understand and implement. Those would also have told ppl tht mush is undoubtedly the sole king of a 'sovereign' state. Oh it could even be further simplified by using the following text: "Any thing done by Musharraf in Pakistan since the time he has been living in pakistan has been done validly and notwithstanding anything contained in the Constitution shall not be called in question in any court or forum on any ground whatsoever. Musharraf always does everything in a good faith, whether he does it as a president, or a chief of army staff or in any other role." Be it the 1999 govt. take over or 2007 coup, he did not do anything for himself, it was infact in greater interest of the country. For example removing 60 judges who oppose a single spoiled child is for the greater good of the country. Obviously almost 70% of the judiciary can be wrong but absolute mush cannot be. It is written in the constitution article 270AAA that he does every such thing it in good faith. May Allah bless him and show him the right path. And if he cannot be blessed, then Allah may bless us by removin him from presidency.

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Israeli Terror

2008-05-29T20:17:00.001+05:00

Dozens of Palestinians were arrested before dawn Thursday in an Israeli military incursion in the northern Gaza Strip, witnesses said. Israeli troops used loudspeakers to order residents of the Beit Hanun area aged 16 to 60 to gather in a square, and then took away about 60 of them, a witness said. The Palestinian Ramattan news agency said one of its cameramen was among those arrested. Witnesses said armoured military bulldozers destroyed farmland during the incursion. Meanwhile, a 29-year-old Palestinian civilian died of his wounds Thursday, one day after he was hit by Israeli gunfire in southern Gaza, the head of Gaza emergency services said.

- DAWN - Latest Stories; May 29, 2008

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Nuclear scientist Dr. A. Q. Khan criticizes Musharraf

2008-05-29T20:12:00.003+05:00

Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the detained architect of Pakistan's nuclear program, rebuked Pervez Musharraf on Thursday, saying the country has “gone to the dogs” in the last 10 years. Speaking by phone from his Islamabad residence, he told Dawn News television that the test had proved skeptics in the west wrong that “we were not capable of doing anything.” Yet hopes Pakistan could then make progress in economic development after becoming “self-sufficient” in national defence had not been realized, he said. “This has not happened. The last 10 years, the country has gone to the dogs,” Khan said. “People are hungry. You see the (rising) prices and all.” Asked if he blamed Musharraf for the nation's problems, Khan said: “The team leader is to be responsible for the failure of the team but all those who were with him did not assert themselves and (did not) do a proper job.” He was of the view that the new government should be given time to cope with Pakistan's many problems. Dr. Khan told Dawn News that the restrictions on his movements had not been relaxed although he was allowed out of his house to visit the Academy of Sciences this month to mourn a former colleague. Khan said he was free to use the phone but soldiers still guard his house and “only a very few people have been allowed to come and see me.” He also said his health had deteriorated because of his detention, adding that he had suffered many illnesses including deep vein thrombosis and prostate cancer - for which he underwent surgery last year. AFP adds: Asked about Pakistan’s nuclear test, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan said most of the facts about it were widely known, but there would be further revelations. When asked what was yet to be revealed, he said: “They will be out, there are some things -- they will be out in time, when and appropriate time is there,” adding that there were certain subjects he could not talk about because of the “national interest.”

- DAWN - Latest Stories; May 29, 2008

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’نہ استعفےکا فیصلہ کیا،نہ ایساارادہ ہے‘ main koi ghairatmand hoon???

2008-05-29T19:28:00.002+05:00

ایوان صدر کے ترجمان میجر جنرل (ر) راشد قریشی نے کہا ہے کہ صدر پرویز مشرف نے نہ تو اپنے عہدے سے استعفیٰ دینے کا فیصلہ کیا ہے اور نہ ہی وہ ایسا کوئی ارادہ رکھتے ہیں۔

جمعرات کو بی بی سی سے بات کرتے ہوئے انہوں نے کہا کہ صدر کے حکومتِ پاکستان سے اچھے تعلقات ہیں اور وہ قائم رہیں گے۔

انہوں نے بعض اخبارات میں شائع ہونے والی ان خبروں کو من گھڑت اور بے بنیاد قرار دیا جن میں کہا گیا ہے گزشتہ شب آرمی چیف سے ملاقات کے بعد صدر نے مستعفی ہونےکا فیصلہ کیا ہے اور کسی بھی وقت اس کا اعلان متوقع ہے۔

سابق وزیراعظم میاں نواز شریف کی جانب سے صدر پرویز مشرف کو ہٹانے اور ان پر غداری کا مقدمہ چلانے کے بیان پر راشد قریشی نے کہا کہ ان کا بیان تبصرے کے لائق ہی نہیں ہے۔

hahaha More entertainment on BBC :)

Asif supports move to oust Musharraf, claims Nawaz (but zardari to phir mukar jaye ga)

2008-05-29T17:06:00.002+05:00

PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif said here on Wednesday that there was no justification for providing a safe exit to Pervez Musharraf and claimed that PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari had agreed with him to remove the former army chief from the presidency.

He said that Musharraf must be held accountable for abrogating the Constitution.

He announced that he would join the lawyers’ march if the pre-emergency judiciary was not restored.

Speaking at a function held here to mark the 10th anniversary of first nuclear tests, Mr Sharif said that during a meeting with him in Islamabad on Tuesday, Mr Zardari had agreed to work with him to oust Pervez Musharraf.

Urging the masses to be prepared for a decision greater than the one they had given on Feb 18, the PML-N leader said that had his party got a clear mandate he would have overthrown Musharraf the following day.

The former prime minister, who was ousted in a military coup on Oct 12, 1999, said he had forgiven Musharraf for the mistreatment and torture he had suffered at his (Musharraf’s) hands.

But, he said, he would not absolve Musharraf from the charges of devastating the country by selling it to foreign powers, carrying out what he called the Lal Masjid massacre, incarcerating nuclear scientist Dr A.Q. Khan and superior court judges and handing over innocent Pakistanis to American agencies in return for dollars.

“I have told Mr Zardari that I will ride the lawyers’ bus for Islamabad if the deposed judges are not reinstated,” Mr Sharif added.

He said his party had quit ministries for the sake of its principled stand on the judges’ issue and it was ready to go even further.

Urging the masses to be ready for a movement for deciding the fate of the country, he said that people had to prove that “they are a living nation”.

The fate of the country should be decided in Islamabad, and not in Washington or anywhere else, he added.

He said India had recognised Pakistan as an independent and sovereign nation when Islamabad detonated the nuclear devices. But, he regretted that an army dictator had pushed the country towards destabilisation, carried out massacre from Karachi to Khyber and given the nation the gift of suicide attacks and lawlessness.

Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Sirdar Zulfikar Khosa, Khwaja Saad Rafiq and other PML-N leaders spoke on the occasion.

Asif supports move to oust Musharraf, claims Nawaz: ‘No justification for providing safe exit’ -DAWN - Top Stories; May 29, 2008

we look forward to see u in the lawyers' bus Mr. Sharif... this act will pull crowds i m sure...

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Pakistan marks ‘decade of N-responsibility’

2008-05-29T16:39:00.002+05:00

Pakistan hailed the 10th anniversary of its first nuclear tests on Wednesday, saying it marked a decade of “responsibility and restraint” by the Muslim world’s only atomic power.

The foreign ministry issued a statement marking the anniversary of the detonations on May 28, 1998, which were carried out in response to nuclear tests by India.

“It was a historic day in the nation’s quest for security,” it said of the tests.

“Pakistan has taken its responsibilities as a nuclear weapon state seriously. We have not relented in our pursuit for creating a peaceful global and regional environment,” it added.

Pakistan marks ‘decade of N-responsibility’ -DAWN - Top Stories; May 29, 2008

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Israel can have nuclear weapons, others cannt :)

2008-05-27T16:57:00.004+05:00

’اسرائیل کے پاس 150 ایٹم بم ہیں‘

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/regional/story/2008/05/080527_carear_israel_fz.shtml

امریکہ کے سابق صدر جمی کارٹر نے کہا اسرائیل کے اسلح خانوں میں کم از کم ڈیڑھ سو کے قریب جوہری ہتھیار یا ایٹم بم موجود ہیں۔

جمی کارٹر نے اسرائیل کے جوہری پروگرام کے بارے میں یہ دعوی ایران کے جوہری پروگرام کے بارے میں کیئے گئے ایک سوال کے جواب میں کیا۔

اسرائیل کے بارے میں عام خیال یہی ہے کہ اس کے پاس متعدد جوہری ہتھیار موجود ہیں تاہم اسرائیل اس بارے میں خاموشی کی پالیسی پر کاربند ہے اور امریکہ بھی اسرائیل کے جوہری پروگرام پر لب کشائی کرنے سے باز رہتا ہے۔

BibTeX and bibliography styles

2008-04-24T19:57:00.002+05:00

A few bibliographic styles are:
1: ieeetr
2: unsrt
3: IEEE
4: ama
5: cj
6: nar
7: nature
8: phjcp
9: is-unsrt 10: plain
11: abbrv
12: acm
13: siam
14: jbact
15: amsplain
16: finplain
17: IEEEannot
18: is-abbrv 19: is-plain
20: annotation
21: plainyr
22: decsci
23: jtbnew
24: neuron
25: cell
26: jas99
27: abbrvnat 28: ametsoc
29: apalike
30: jqt1999
31: plainnat
32: jtb
33: humanbio
34: these
35: chicagoa
36: development 37: unsrtnat
38: amsalpha
39: alpha
40: annotate
41: is-alpha
42: wmaainf
43: alphanum
44: apasoft

If any of these styles is not found in latex they can be downloaded from http://www.tug.org/tex-archive/biblio/bibtex/contrib/. Each file will be of .bst extension. In order to use the style 'nar', you must have the file 'nar.bst' in your LaTeX directory, or in your current working directory, or anywhere where it is visible to LaTeX.

to see how are these styles rendered (i.e. how does a certain bib style look like?), please visit the following: http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~kjt/software/latex/showbst.html

Adapted from BibTeX and bibliography styles

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MQM's stance will not affect Suddle...

2008-04-15T18:26:00.001+05:00

پاکستان میں صوبہ سندھ کی پولیس کے نئے سربراہ ڈاکٹر شعیب سڈل نے کہا ہے کہ متحدہ قومی موومنٹ کی طرف سے ان کی تعیناتی پر تحفظات سے فرق نہیں پڑتا اور وہ صوبے میں امن وامان برقرار رکھنے کے لیے ہر ممکن اقدام کریں گے۔

ان کا کہنا ہے کہ قانون کی خلاف ورزی کرنے والوں کے خلاف سخت اقدامات کریں گے خواہ ان کا تعلق صو بے کی کسی بھی سیاسی جماعت سے ہو۔

بی بی سی سے گفتگو کرتے ہوئے شعیب سڈل نے کہا کہ وہ ایک سرکاری ملازم ہیں اور انہیں اس بات سے کوئی سروکار نہیں کہ متحدہ قومی موومنٹ کی قیادت نے پیپلز پارٹی اور ایم کیو ایم کے درمیان مفاہمت کے مذاکرات میں ناکامی کی ایک وجہ ان کی بطور آئی جی سندھ تعیناتی کو بتایا ہے۔

ایم کیو ایم نے الزام عائد کیا تھا کہ پیپلز پارٹی کے سابق دور حکومت میں ڈاکٹر شعیب سڈل نے، جو اُس وقت ڈی آئی جی کراچی تھے، ایم کیو ایم کے سینکڑوں کارکنوں کو ماورائے عدالت قتل کیا تھا اور متاثرہ خاندانوں میں ان کی بطور آئی جی سندھ تعیناتی پر تشویش کی لہر دوڑ گئی ہے۔

قومی اسمبلی میں ایم کیو ایم کے پارلیمانی لیڈر ڈاکٹرفاروق ستار نے اتوار کے روز ایک پریس کانفرنس میں کہا تھا کہ پیپلز پارٹی کے ساتھ جو مذاکرات ہو رہے تھے اُن میں ایم کیو ایم نے یہ مطالبہ بھی کیا تھا کہ شعیب سڈل کو بطور آئی جی سندھ تعینات نہ کیا جائے۔

آئی جی سندھ نے ان الزامات کو مسترد کرتے ہوئے کہا کہ ایم کیوایم کی حکومت پانچ سال تک صوبے میں اور مرکز میں برسراقتدار رہی ہے اور اس دوران وہ ایک بھی ایسا ثبوت سامنے نہیں لاسکی جس سے یہ ثابت ہوتا ہو کہ وہ بطور ڈی آئی جی کراچی، ایم کیو ایم کے کارکنوں کی ہلاکت کے ذمہ دار ہیں۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ اگر ان کے کہنے پر ایم کیو ایم کے کسی کارکن کی موت واقع ہوئی ہے تو اسے سامنے لائیں

Full Story۔

MQM’s power-sharing talks with PPP fail: Suddle’s appointment as IG opposed

2008-04-14T15:09:00.002+05:00

Dr Sattar said the MQM had serious reservations over the appointment of Dr Shoaib Suddle as the Sindh police chief. Dr Suddle, according to him, was responsible for extra-judicial killings of scores of workers of his party. “When we conveyed our reservations to PPP leaders in Saturday’s meeting, they replied that he was their hero.”He said that under such circumstances the MQM felt that the PPP was not serious in holding dialogue for reconciliation and the coordination committee had decided that the party’s lawmakers would sit in the opposition.

He urged all MQM workers, including elected representatives, to keep an eye on the situation and inform the masses about it.In reply to a question, he denied that MQM’s demand for more ministries in the Sindh cabinet had resulted in the failure of the talks.

Full Story on MQM’s power-sharing talks with PPP fail: Suddle’s appointment as IG opposed -DAWN - Top Stories; April 14, 2008

but mqm agreed to adopt forgive n forget policy see the following

Muttahidda Qaumi Movement(MQM) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) announced on Wednesday that both parties have forgiven each other and promised to save Pakistan for the future generation. Full story: The Nation
... above excerpt from the nation tells us tht mqm has forgot past and have forgiven ppp... then y do they have doubts abt intentions of ppp? if they doubt ppp's intentions then on the same grounds others can doubt mqm being non-serious n insincere while accepting the forgive n forget policy if they r sincere n serious in this policy then y do they object on appointment of suddle?

Secondly Shoiab Suddle is alleged to have played role in supression of mqm or extra judicial killings of mqm workers... then, Ishrat-ul-Ibad, the governer sindh has also been allegedly involved in many crimes including killings... there r no legal proofs presented in the courts against either of them... how come mqm has reservations on appointment of a person allegedly involved in killing but is happy with a governer who has also been alleged to have killed many innocents... for your reference i m putting a few excerpts from different places:

Who is this “Sindh Governor”? He is the Governor of Sindh Province in Pakistan. Karachi the port city is Capital of this Sindh Province. The name of Governor is Ishratul Abad. In official record he is absconder of justice from Karachi but he is invisible for the Police of Province which Police is under him. He is involved in more than 50 criminal cases as per the above magazine. Leave those criminal cases aside one can say those are political victimization. Take only one and last month’s case to understand the man. A London daily (telegraph) last month reported that UK peoples money was being misspent. The daily gave example that while one Ishratul Abad was drawing a big monthly social allowance with other facilities being an asylum seeker from UK treasury, he was living a posh life as Governor of Sindh in Pakistan More...

President General Pervez Musharraf has designated Mutahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Dr Ishratul Ibad as Governor Sindh. All cases against the MQM’s nominee for the Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad have been withdrawn, the Nation reported. It may be mentioned that there were dozens of cases including of murder, dacoity and kidnapping against Dr Ibad. One of the cases against him was of abducting a military officer.
The nomination of the Muttahidda leader Dr Ishrat-ul-Ibad as Sindh Governor was assailed in the Sindh High Court. Petitioner Sohail Hameed Advocate has also prayed the court to restrain Dr Ishratul Ibad from performing his responsibilities as Sindh Governor, as according to him, his appointment is in violation of Article 2A of the Constitution. President and prime minister of Pakistan and Dr Ishara-tul-Ibad have been cited as respondents in the petition.Eagle Enterprises

as mqm can say allegations to koi bhi laga sakta hai... so can someone else say on mqm's stand against appointment of suddle...

when law n order situation went wrong after BB's assassination, IG was changed at tht time too (see The News), so its normal to make such changes in police, why is mqm makin it an issue?

earlier IG could not respond to events like april 09, 2008 then y wont the sittin govt. change the person... previously appointed IG was appointed by caretaker govt. n was found incapable of doin wht is needed... so a change to avoid events like april 09 is much needed...

MQM never does wrong. Always others are responsible for wrong doings:
Farooq Sattar accused the PPP leadership of maintaining a non-serious attitude and put all the onus of the failure of talks on the PPP. "We had several rounds of talks with the PPP leadership, but they always gave a cold shoulder and the negotiations on their part were greatly non-serious," Sattar said. Full Story

Mr. Farooq Sattar, ppp came to nine zero to extend a hand of friendship, n u r sayin tht they r givin a cold shoulder, come on give logical stmts... will we ever listen to a stmt like "yes we admit we were responsible for the failure or deadlock etc.... and we seek apology for tht" from mqm? mqm always blames others for everythin... mqm guys r angels it seems

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