NEW WORLD ISSUES

Why Britain Wants to Drop the Census

The national census is like a giant group photo, showing us everything we might want to know about a country's population: who they are, what they do, where they live and how they live. The answers it provides are vital to historians, economists and academics — and to the running of a nation. So with Francis Maude, British Cabinet Office Minister and the man in charge of the census, revealing recently that the 2011 census will be the U.K.'s last, the soon-to-be uncounted might well ask, How will we know who we are?

Speaking to London's Daily Telegraph, Maude said that, in a decision likely to be ratified this week, the U.K. is getting rid of the 200-year-old head count because it's expensive, incomplete and out of date before it's even published. During its 10-year cycle, the U.K.'s 2011 census will have cost the taxpayer $730 million — twice as much as it did in 2001. In a country struggling with a $235 billion deficit, the census might be seen as a luxury. But, some say, it's an essential one.

In the U.K., census numbers direct public funding to local authorities: the population of a district directly impacts on how much money it gets to spend on the minutiae of life — trash collection, libraries, road repairs and so on. Census population numbers and densities influence immigration policy. They also determine where schools, hospitals and houses are built. Details about ethnicity and age allow the National Health Service to target specific types of health care to at-risk areas. And census figures are reported to Eurostat, the European statistics agency, which feeds numbers into Europe-wide funding and policy. In other words, the census rules how societies are shaped.

Posted by worldissues Wednesday, July 21, 2010 0 comments

Happy Face on the Grim War Realities

The first major conference of foreign governments on Afghan soil, held Tuesday, July 20, in Kabul, was intended to be a milestone on the road to achieving Western goals of withdrawing from a stable Afghanistan. But its message won't allay doubts over the exit strategy of the U.S. and its NATO partners. The half-day conference, attended by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, among others, featured familiar promises: Afghan security forces would eventually take over and allow NATO troops to go home; the Afghan government would do more to tackle corruption and deliver good governance. A new soft deadline was endorsed: President Karzai hopes his security forces will take charge of the country by 2014. The conference attendees also agreed that the proportion of foreign aid money channeled directly through the Afghan government (rather than through Western militaries and NGOs) would rise from 20% to 50%, although that proposal has raised corruption concerns among some Western diplomats.

But the increasingly perilous situation on the ground undercuts the conference's effort to convince skeptical Westerners that the war can be won in Afghanistan. Indeed, plans to begin the transfer of security control of some Afghan provinces from Western forces to Afghan troops by the end of this year were quietly dropped from Tuesday's talk out of concerns that local forces would not be ready. The Taliban know that NATO powers are under growing domestic political pressure to end what has already been America's longest war, and they see the Obama Administration's stated intention to begin drawing down U.S. troops next summer as a sign that NATO recognizes that it can't win the war. In response, NATO is hoping its soldiers can be replaced by Afghan security forces. "Maybe the insurgents think they can wait us out, but we will stay for as long as it takes to finish our job," said NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen in a commentary published Tuesday. That "job" was not defeating the Taliban but standing up an indigenous army to fight them. "Our training of Afghan soldiers and police is ahead of schedule," wrote Rasmussen, "and by next year there will be a 300,000-strong Afghan security force — and it can't be waited out."

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Pakistan's Fake Degree Scandals

Pakistan's parliamentarians, the humiliation is becoming something of a ritual. On the country's sensationalistic news channels, fresh faces fill the screen each day. Within seconds, the graphics appear — a red stamp over the portraits, emblazoned with two words: "fake degree." As the newscasters struggle to suppress smirks, they explain that these are the latest entries in an ever expanding list that could see parliamentarians not just lose their seats but also possibly face jail time. And the higher the number rises, some observers say, so does the prospect of a rebalancing of power in the legislature — and a change in government.

In June, the Supreme Court and a parliamentary committee asked the country's 1,170 parliamentarians to prove that they are bona fide university graduates. Strangely enough, the court is asking the legislators to comply with a law that is no longer on the books, struck down as unfair just before its unpopular author, former President General Pervez Musharraf, left office upon the election of a new government in 2008. (The law was inequitable, said the country's Attorney General at the time, because with adult literacy at only 55%, nearly half the country would be ineligible to run for office.) Nevertheless, the court wants to know if the current lawmakers, who ran for office while the law was in effect, abided by its rules. And that's the root of the current rancor — and condescending amusement.

Alleged violators of the defunct law range across the political spectrum. So far, the list of suspected fake-degree holders includes two senior Cabinet ministers and others close to President Asif Ali Zardari. In one of the cases, a provincial lawmaker from former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League–N claimed to have obtained a master's degree in 2002, graduated from college in 2006 and finished high school in 2007. He should be "disqualified for stupidity, not fraud," Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab, commented on Twitter. Another lawmaker claimed to have graduated from high school at the age of 10, prompting local wits to dub him "Doogie Howser, MNA [Member of the National Assembly]." And still another claimed to hold three degrees, each with a different surname.

The cynicism is not unwarranted. Musharraf's original law, even though it appeared to put education on a pedestal, was also a craftily disguised device used by the dictator to exclude some of his opponents. It accredited Musharraf's allies in the religious parties — many of whose madrasah experiences were somehow certified as being equivalent to a master's or even a Ph.D. — while disqualifying local politicians with years of experience earning the trust of their constituents.

Zardari's ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP) tried to make that point with Jamshed Dasti, of southern Punjab, whose complicated case came up for judgment shortly before the controversial ruling in June. Dasti had been hauled before the Supreme Court to be tested on claims that he completed a master's in Islamic studies. But when the judges asked Dasti to name the first 15 chapters of the Koran, no reply was forthcoming. "How about the first two?" one judge inquired. Dasti's silence endured. He was asked to resign and save himself the indignity of going to jail. But far from becoming a pariah, Dasti was elevated to the post of special adviser to the Prime Minister on livestock affairs. Within days, he was renamed as the PPP's candidate in a special election for his vacated seat. Development funds were lavished on his constituency as politicians were flown in to campaign for him.

So far, 37 degrees have been established as fake and 183 as real, with the diplomas of every single parliamentarian eventually being examined. If the roughly 20% ratio holds, says a senior member of the Higher Education Commission, "a government could lose its majority, be it the Punjab government or the federal government." If the ratio rises, there could be crisis that paves the way for a new general election. What remains unknown is what the Supreme Court will do with the results of the examination: Jail the offenders or throw them out of office? If the purge is substantial, new elections may have to be held.

While the PPP mulls the fate of its government, it can take comfort in the fact that its future leader, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, just graduated from Oxford with a degree in history. But at the age of 21, the only son of President Zardari and his slain wife Benazir will have to wait another four years before he is eligible to stand for public office

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Student recalls ordeal in Kyrgyzstan

Twenty-year-old Sumayya Solangi, who was among the more than 260 Pakistanis trapped in the violence-hit parts of Kyrgyzstan and later flown in to Islamabad by two special C-130 flights, returned to her Gulistan-i-Jauhar home after arrival here by train on Wednesday.

A large number of her relatives and media persons were at the Cantt Railways Station, where emotional scenes were witnessed as the first-year medical student hugged and kissed her mother, father and siblings one by one with tears of joy rolling down their faces after she got off the train from Rawalpindi.

“We saw death from such close quarters that most of us still wonder how we survived and got back home,” she told Dawn. “I had been in Osh for the last one year at the Medical Institute of the Osh State University with my two cousins who are final-year students. We were living in a rented apartment, which was attacked last week.”

Sumayya recalled “the horrible life experiences” that she underwent just last week, when the violence spread from the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek to Osh in the south and a mob attacked their apartment and tried to break into it.

“The marauders were in their dozens, carrying arms, sticks and iron rods,” she said. “But fortunately they couldn’t break open the door despite several attempts and turned to softer targets, sparing us. Then we contacted our Pakistani friends, who picked us up in the morning and we somehow reached another place, where some 13 students were already holed up.”

By that time, she said, some of her companions had come into contact with the Pakistani media using their contacts back in the country. Sumayya said that in the evening officials of the Pakistan embassy in Kyrgyzstan traced them, and arranged their safe return to the country, bringing an end to their 48-hour ordeal.

“But we were worried about our lives and those of our friends. There were also rumours about the deaths of our several local and foreign colleagues and we kept grieving for them the whole night. In the morning, the Kyrgyz forces came to escort us to a local government building, where foreigners were staying,” she said.

The Pakistani students spent another day in that facility, which was being guarded by Kyrgyz army personnel, Sumayya said, adding that the following morning they were driven to the Osh airport to be finally picked up by the two C-130s.

“We feel blessed by Allah that our daughter has returned safely,” said Habib-ur-Rahman Solangi, the father of Sumayya. “I was very much in doubt about the safe return of Pakistani students trapped in Kyrgyzstan, but I never shared these fears with my family. I knew if I showed any of my concerns, the whole family would lose hope.”

A government schoolteacher, Mr Solangi said the way the world had been facing violent episodes in one country after another, he would not like any of his children to go abroad for education.

“I am the father of four daughters and a son. Sumayya is the youngest of them. The way the government showed its support and did a remarkable job in bringing these children back, I hope it would also think about their future and adjust them in local medical institutions to allow them to pursue their studies,” he added.

Posted by worldissues Thursday, June 17, 2010 0 comments

Pakistan nuclear plants for peaceful use said China

In Beijing China said on that its civilian nuclear cooperation with Pakistan was for peaceful purposes, after the United States said it was seeking clarification from China on a deal to build two new reactors.

“I want to stress that the civilian nuclear cooperation between China and Pakistan is in line with each side's international obligations,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a news briefing in Beijing.

“It is for peaceful purposes, and is under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” he added without elaborating.

US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters on Tuesday that Washington had asked China for more details on the deal.

“We have asked China to clarify the details of its sale of additional nuclear reactors to Pakistan. This appears to extend beyond cooperation that was grandfathered when China was approved for membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group,” he said.

“We believe that such cooperation would require a specific exemption approved by consensus of the Nuclear Suppliers Group,” Crowley said.

The United States was expected to oppose the China-Pakistan deal next week at a meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

The 46-nation group controls trade in “dual-use” nuclear fuel, materials and technology to ensure they are applied only to civilian nuclear energy programmes and not diverted into clandestine nuclear weapons work.

The Washington Post reported that China had suggested that the sale was grandfathered from before it joined the NSG in 2004, because it was completing work on two earlier reactors for Pakistan at the time.

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CIA terminates contract with Blackwater

The US Central Intelligence Agency has cancelled a contract with a security company formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide that allowed the company to load bombs on CIA drones in Pakistan and Afghanistan, The New York Times reported late Friday.
Citing intelligence officials, the newspaper said the contract gave Blackwater employees an operational role in one of the CIA’s most significant covert programs, which has killed dozens of militants with Predator and Reaper drones.

The contract with the company, now called Xe Services, was canceled this year by CIA Director Leon Panetta, the report said.
CIA spokesman George Little said Panetta had ordered that the agency’s employees take over the jobs from Xe employees at the remote drone bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the paper noted.
Panetta had also ordered a review of all contracts with the company, according to the report
‘At this time, Blackwater is not involved in any CIA operations other than in a security or support role.

The disclosure about the terminated contract comes a day after The Times reported that Blackwater employees had joined CIA operatives in secret operations against suspected militants in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Posted by worldissues Saturday, December 12, 2009 1 comments

14 militants arrested in Khyber Agency

At least 10 militants have been killed and 14 others arrested in Khyber Agency on Saturday.

Recovered cache of arms and ammunitions from Shalobar area of Bara Tehsil were also shown to the media. The weapons included Indian guns and explosives from China among others.

A large quantity of IEDS, anti-aircraft guns and jihadi literature were also recovered from the possession of militants and wwere shown to the media.

According to the FC officials, ten militants were killed while 87 others were arrested during the operation in Khyber Agency in the last 24 hours.

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Pakistan as a security state

Over the years, several readers state asked me why Pakistan must fright an criticize as of India. They insinuate to facilitate as we are less than no threat from our eastern neighbour, our armed forces may possibly realignment extra of its troops to the Afghan border anywhere extreme fighting is vacant on, and anywhere our embattled units may perhaps do with reinforcements.

For the solve to this question, we requisite to write into the secret recesses of the Pakistani security establishment’s psyche. The younger generations on together sides of the border noticeably have no absolute realization of the resentment and slaughter that attended partition.

I was three when we indoors in Karachi commencing New Delhi, and the story of how our work out was attacked on the way is segment of the species lore. I allow a nebulous recollection of Liaquat Ali Khan’s legendary native tongue in which he critical his fist in India’s direction in a show of defiance. He was assassinated shortly thereafter, in 1951.

For just a brief moment, step hooked on the shoes of a major army police man surveying the strategic scenario as of his GHQ in Rawalpindi, shortly taking into account the birth of Pakistan. He sees a large, hostile neighbour to the east. East Pakistan is separated as of West Pakistan by over 1,000 miles of Indian territory. Hordes of refugees are flooding crossways the border. countless of the services possessions to facilitate were to be transferred to Pakistan have been blocked by India.

Soon subsequently partition, hostilities begin in Kashmir, confirming the establishment’s the pits fears more or less Indian intentions. by no means care with the purpose of taking into consideration the original do violence to launched by tribesmen keen on Kashmir to relief their Muslim brethren, it was the Pakistan defense force to facilitate played a chief role. In the thinker of on the whole Pakistanis at the time, this was a legitimate promotion to be the cause of Muslim-majority Kashmir interested in the fold.

equal as a child, I remember inquiry constant hearsay as regards how India sought to ‘undo’ partition, and was waiting for the new state to collapse. Newspapers were a lot full of statements by leaders on together sides of the border hurling threats and accusations at each other.

Against this setting of panic about and paranoia, it is painless to see why the Pakistani leadership reached to the West to sustain security. India had by now traditional close relations together with the Soviet Union, and plates had not in good health commencing decades of chaos caused by war and civil strife.

each magnificence has collateral concerns, and needs wealth to speak to them. The undertaking of the leadership is to work out how utter to be had income preference be not speaking between the imperative of guarding state frontiers, and the wants of the population. In a democracy, these competing burden on the exchequer are mediated done parliament. But at what time the armed seizes check of the state, it can dictate the size of the cake it requirements for itself.

In Pakistan, where we now boast all the outer trappings of democracy, the militia has completed yes indeed with the purpose of chosen governments are too weak to challenge it either on the question of reserve allocation, or concluded primary security-related policies. The new army-inspired furore on the Kerry-Lugar Act is an indication of the grip the generals have on real power.

done the years, the military came to perceive to facilitate not together as of outer threats, it also had to guard not in favor of internal weakness. In the eyes of the military establishment, the supporting group of pupils and the free system were equally sources of instability, and in this way had to be held in reserve below exact check. What it disastrous to see (and at a standstill does not) is with the intention of its own repetitive interventions experience done more to weaken the fabric of the state than any added factor.

By appropriate the self-appointed guardian of ‘Pakistan’s ideological frontiers,’ the mass took on a third role, and one for which it needed the cooperation of the Islamic parties.

This suited the mullahs perfectly, as it acceptable them to move forward their reactionary agenda in a Muslim people where they were regularly thumped at the polls. This marriage of convenience was sacred during the Afghan war while jihadis on or after around the world flocked to fight the godless Soviet Union.

Generations of litter officers at the armed forces conservatory at Kakul have been educated with the purpose of India is the eternal enemy; and that civilians are a basic evil who have to be endured, but never trusted. A part of this teaching is the notion with the intention of one Muslim soldier is match to 10 Hindus.

These are the officers now manning the highest positions of the defence forces. They are furthermore the ones who have an effect on Pakistan’s foreign relations, especially with nations upsetting our security.

In the 1990s, when India ready quick economic strides, it became fair to even our martial establishment to facilitate Pakistan may well no longer compete in terms of predictable armed forces power. While we matched India’s nuclear programme at crippling expense, we may perhaps not save up and our traditional foe in terminology of planes, tanks and men.

higher than all, we had vanished the technological verge with the purpose of American missiles had given us. existence of sanctions triggered by our nuclear programme lie in the wake of the anti-Americanism so as to infects our police man corps, and throughout them, much of our media.

In tidy to refurbish the military balance, our establishment turned to the army of jihadis raised to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. what time the Kashmiri uprising began spontaneously following rigged elections in the too late 1980s, Pakistan reacted by elementary instruction Kashmiri choice fighters, and then infiltrating Pakistani terrorists belonging to various jihadi outfits. India responded by sending in some host divisions. This apt our generals fine, as they had joined down sticky to partially a million Indian soldiers by carriage in just a few thousand jihadis.

In Afghanistan, Pakistan’s fend for of the Taliban in this episode held out the contract of a biddable government in Kabul. These policies were curved on their head by 9/11, when all forms of terrorism began to be viewed as abhorrence by the intercontinental community. The Americans, in particular, put huge pressure on Musharraf to halt his use of Islamic holy warriors as proxies.

But old way of life die hard. India is still seen as the honestly foe. Above all, Pakistan’s generals are convinced that preferably fairly than later, the Americans pray be required to pull out out because of flagging broadcast support, a good deal as they did beginning Vietnam. In this scenario, they are reliable India would be asked to tread in to make sure that the Taliban do not send back to Kabul.

Should this happen, Pakistan would be enclosed by Indian forces, and this is the self-assurance state’s worst nightmare.

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A Long War With an Uncertain Outcome

The week spent on Capitol Hill by Administration officials explaining President Obama's Afghan surge has produced much predictable politicking. Republicans tried in vain to coax Gen. Stanley McChrystal into admitting their claim that Obama had denied him the resources he needs to win; and Democrats tried in vain to prod Kabul Ambassador Karl Eikenberry to reiterate his argument against a troop surge. Everyone stayed on message, but in explaining how the strategy might work, Generals McChrystal and David Petraeus made clear that U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan is not likely to end any time soon, or to produce a "victory" in the sense that Americans have used the term since World War II.

By declaring an intention to begin drawing down U.S. troops in July 2011 as Afghan security forces begin to take charge, Obama's West Point speech was criticized for giving the Taliban reason to lie low and wait out the Americans. It also, some argued, did little to discourage U.S. allies from hedging their bets — Pakistan's continued coddling of the Afghan Taliban, and President Hamid Karzai's reliance on self-serving warlords.

But the congressional testimony of those who will implement Obama's strategy makes clear that July 2011 is only an aspirational deadline. The decisions on the timing and scale of any troop withdrawal will be entirely conditions-based, McChrystal made clear, and he won't hesitate to ask for more troops if he thinks the situation demands it. (He didn't think it would, he assured legislators.) Still, the idea that any significant drawdown will be possible in 18 months requires a leap of optimism, given the state-of-play on the ground.

Indeed, if the key to withdrawing U.S. troops is the readiness of Afghan forces to take over, President Karzai on Tuesday had some sobering news. With "maximum effort," he said in Kabul, his own army would "hopefully" be in a position to provide security for the country five years from now. And, he hastened to add, simple economics dictated that an Afghan army big enough to take over from the Americans would have to be paid for by Washington for another 15 to 20 years.
Discussing deadlines right now was pointless, Petraeus suggested on Wednesday. A year from now, he said, Washington will have a better idea of whether the strategy is working. In the interim, the CENTCOM chief warned, things will get worse before they get better, and nobody should expect rapid progress. "Success will require steadfast commitment and incur significant costs," McChrystal added. "The sober fact is that there are no silver bullets."

What "Winning" in Afghanistan Means

All the senior figures in the Administration, when asked, insist they're in Afghanistan to win. It was left to McChrystal to warn Congress not to expect 1945-style unconditional surrender by the Taliban. In fact, the Taliban may not even be defeated in the sense that Americans typically use the term — McChrystal himself preferred words such as "disrupt" or "degrade." The general clearly recognizes that the Taliban are part of the fabric of Afghan life, and are unlikely to be eliminated. Victory, he said at one point, "could be similar to politics, where you defeat the other party in an election but you don't wipe them out." At another point, he defined the goal of the mission as "to prevent [the Taliban] from doing what they want to do," i.e. sweeping back to power in Kabul.

Right now, as McChrystal has repeatedly made clear, the insurgents are actually winning. The urgency of sending reinforcements is to stop them from overrunning any population centers, to halt their momentum and ultimately to fight them to a standstill. That would give space for the development of Afghan governance and security forces, but it would also enhance prospects for some sort of political solution. Karzai has already reached out to the Taliban leadership through intermediaries in Saudi-brokered talks that have gone nowhere.

It's generally acknowledged by Western officials that the outcome in Afghanistan will require a political solution that integrates most of those currently fighting for the Taliban. Right now, however, the Taliban have no interest in seeking compromise because they believe they can regain control of Afghanistan on the battlefield. Only if they're fought to a standstill, goes the argument, and if Taliban commanders see more to gain and less to lose in some form of power sharing, might they be prepared to settle for less than restoring what they lost when the U.S. invaded in 2001.

Even getting to that point is an uncertain bet, and will involve much tough fighting. The Administration has always insisted that its goal is to prevent al-Qaeda from renewing its sanctuaries in Afghanistan, and it was notable that McChrystal emphasized the importance of capturing or killing Osama Bin Laden in defeating al-Qaeda. By setting up Bin Laden's elimination as a benchmark of success, McChrystal raises an intriguing possibility. The U.S. commander led the Special Operations unit that eliminated Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. If the war in Afghanistan is going to end on terms that are not an entirely comfortable fit with the American public's definition of "victory," eliminating the leader of al-Qaeda could be used to make up the difference.

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Need to take back Jinnah Pakistan.....

The detail is that Pakistan exists and has existed for 62 years — in what nature is fully a further matter. urging on that slash pray never cease, and they should not as it abortive at the start to withstand off in the real direction.

A authoritative argument has been finished by a few of the many who responded to stay fresh week’s row contrary to the refrain ‘bring nether Jinnah’s Pakistan’ — with the purpose of we should be looking and touching forwards fairly than retreating.

A contradict argument to this is to facilitate beginning before long when its birth the nation retreated 300 time insertion itself in mindset and religious-political intent back in the age of the Emperor Aurangzeb. (Had it elected to leave 400 time to the age of Akbar the awful it would have been on the pull up and courteous path.)

by way of the relatively recent coming on of the Taliban we say retreated equal additional in time, back to the 11th century and the Hashishi who well thought-out murder a devout due and who dreamed up in seventh heaven visions of paradise sooner than setting out to face martyrdom.

Having retreated and firmly embedded itself, if the terrain is put at the take-off point of Jinnah’s Pakistan we will take part in in piece of information advanced. here is no second day Mohammad Ali Jinnah to control us but we do have his lexis and his example to look to. The fact is that, for whatsoever reasons and through what on earth circumstances, Mr Jinnah managed to do pardon? few men give completed — he created a people and in doing so changed the stream of history. Professor Stanley Wolpert’s opens the preface to his book Jinnah of Pakistan along with this reminder.

All excessive men are controversial, so Jinnah, is substantially controversial equally in his own settle and particularly in the rural area out of which Pakistan was fixed (some 940,000 sq.km.). He learnt his politics on or after Dadabhoy Naoroji, Phirozshaw Mehta, Motilal Nehru, Gopal Gokhale and other men of substance.

His alleged motives for having done what he did show a discrepancy from the austere accusation of a grab for rule to the aura with the intention of he was caught in a sub- of his own making and counter to his private self-control the creation of Pakistan was strained upon him. My belief and so as to public by many is, intentional I'm sorry? we all know, to the Muslims of undivided India were a subject minority, Jinnah’s attachment was to facilitate in an self-reliant India they would become even more browbeaten and face even additional discrimination and therefore receive stumbling block as a society in building much of themselves.

Jinnah’s intent was to construct a homeland turning the minority addicted to a majority, not question to discrimination and challenges. He estimated the Muslims of his country to riot above themselves, to go in with the prevailing world, effort and prosper, in a terra firma open from bigotry, imbued with tolerance for their fellow human beings of no substance what did you say? creed or race. Such was his intent, of this I come up with no doubt. pardon? he subsequently had to work with after the birth of Pakistan caused him grief. His motive and intent being honourable, no blame can clip to him for where Pakistan find’s itself today.

He may enjoy failed, as all others did, to anticipate the horrors of partition, and the group migration and slaughter with the intention of took place, but three days prior to the birth of his territory he was quieten optimistic, he static had hopes with the purpose of he may well sway the hearts and minds of the men who would be the future law makers.

Apart on or after with the intention of most prominent of quotations from his Aug 11, 1947 tongue to the constituent assembly, once he made it in large quantities translucent that religion, caste or creed tolerate nil to do with the commerce of the state, a passage that nearly everyone fortuitously is quoted together with frequency in our push and media and in all books on paper about Jinnah, we must also bear in mind the language he beam nether in February 1935 to the fundamental Legislative school assembly when he told the members with the intention of “religion should not be allowable to befall addicted to politics … faith is merely a difficulty between man and God”.

A day later, he announced at a Muslim League meeting with the intention of the mistrust of constitutional safeguards for Muslims “was not a sacred question, but wholly a supporting problem”. All this was put paid to in stride 1949 by the men who followed him.

pardon? else did he discriminate these men to whom he was bequeathing a country? He told them that the first levy of a authority is to inflict and insist law and charge to look after the lives, properties and religious beliefs of the citizens. Not an awkward task, but one which successive governments come up with abortive to achieve. We are today paying heavily for their corruption and incompetence.

Jinnah came down brutal on inducement and corruption — he called them “a poison”. yet again he was thwarted. In his extremely lifetime the men who would start the country were devious and stealing, erroneously declaring properties owned in India so that they could grab come again? was absent abandoned by the Hindus who had fled. Dishonesty, join and shoplifting were quantity of Pakistan’s birth pangs and as well as the years they have blossomed exponentially.

The rot and ruin can only be retrieved if we have the will and skill to observe the words of the man who made us.

Posted by worldissues Sunday, November 8, 2009 0 comments

New Zealand's turnaround delights Vettori

The New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori believes his team’s conscious effort to improve in key areas helped them beat Pakistan and level their three-match series at 1-1.

They may have been beaten by 138-runs in the first match on Tuesday but the Black Caps hit back with a clinical performance in the second on Friday to win by 64 runs — a turnaround which delighted the New Zealand captain.

‘I think we wanted to improve on some key areas, made a conscious effort and it’s pleasing that we were able to turn around in a couple of days; now we must keep the pressure on Pakistan,’ said Vettori after the win.

The third and final match will be played on Monday.

New Zealand rode on a return-to-form century by Brendon McCullum (131) who added 126 for the second wicket with Martin Guptill (62) which built the foundation of an imposing total of 303-8 in 50 overs.

‘The partnership between McCullum and Guptill set up the victory for us, enabled us to achieve a 300-plus total and put pressure on Pakistan,’ said Vettori, who also identified Scott Styris’s three wickets in two overs as the turning point.

Pakistan got off to a solid start of 77 between Salman Butt (59) and Khalid Latif (45) and were 124-2 when Styris, bowling for the first time in nearly 13 months, grabbed three wickets off just 10 balls.

‘I was trying to get some quick overs,’ said Vettori of his decision to bowl Styris.

‘Those turned out to be the most influential overs. Scott came into the game to impress and did at a time when Pakistan were coming hard on us.’

Vettori praised his team’s fielding.

‘If you look at a couple of catches and Guptill’s run out of Butt then you realise that these can swing games your way,’ said Vettori.

Man-of-the-match McCullum said he wanted to prove his worth as opener.

‘There was some pressure on me coming into this match,’ said McCullum, who was relieved of vice-captaincy to improve his batting form.

‘Vice-captain or not, I am a senior player and wanted to prove my worth as an opener.’

McCullum, whose only one-day hundred (166) came against Ireland last year, said scoring his second was a big relief.

‘Probably I tried to be too aggressive at times, but this time I found the right tempo,’ said McCullum.

Pakistan coach Intikhab Alam blamed his team’s defeat on poor bowling and fielding.

‘We had a bad day,’ said Alam.

‘We probably gave away 30-40 extra runs and that made the difference. We must improve our fielding because New Zealand is one of the best fielding sides in the world, on a par with South Africa.’

Alam defended his decision to promote Shahid Afridi (no runs) and Kamran Akmal (four) to fourth and fifth in the batting order.

‘They were my decisions,’ admitted Alam. ‘Both batted well in the first match but didn’t click in the second.’

Posted by worldissues Saturday, November 7, 2009 0 comments

Highest cost of ‘ghairat’

The people like Imran Khan have been frothing at the mouth against the Kerry-Lugar act, insisting that we reject the $7.5bn, five-year aid package (extendable to 10 years). Our cricketing hero was holding forth on an Urdu channel the other evening, claiming that we could easily raise this amount by cutting expenditure and recovering money stashed abroad by corrupt elements.

According to him, we should not sell our ghairat so cheaply, and learn to stand on our own feet. But no such objections are ever raised when the IMF or the World Bank impose strict conditionalities on how their loans are to be spent. For years, we have accepted, often under duress, tough fiscal measures as part of these loan packages. And here we are, getting an outright grant of $1.5bn a year without any strings, and we are screaming like infants being forced to swallow a draught of bitter medicine.

Here’s sobering news for those who think it would be a simple matter to get this kind of money for the social sector: nearly 90 per cent of the non-development federal budget is spent on subsidies, defence and debt servicing, leaving around 10 per cent for administrative costs and the social sector. And if Imran Khan thinks crooks are going to queue up to return their ill-gotten wealth, he has a higher opinion of them than I do.

This is the kind of muddled, ill-informed thinking that marked our media’s interaction with Hillary Clinton recently. Watching the American secretary of state talking to some of the leading lights of our private TV networks, I was struck by how angry they all looked. Ms Clinton, on the other hand, was relaxed and articulate. She reminded me of a patient adult, gently chiding and cajoling a bunch of sulking teenagers.

One well-known anchor with an Urdu channel, his face contorted with rage, virtually shouted at her: ‘Do you know how many bases the United States has in this country?’ Smilingly, Ms Clinton countered: ‘Do you know how many billions of dollars the United States has given Pakistan?’And this is the bottom line. As both Ms Clinton and Senator John Kerry have said, if Pakistan doesn’t want the money, nobody is forcing it down our throats. But it seems that we want the money and keep our ghairat at the same time. For a country that has been surviving on external assistance for decades, the sudden realisation that we should stand on our own feet is odd.

Nawaz Sharif, rejecting the Kerry-Lugar act, asked how long we would go around with a begging bowl. I recall his ‘kashkol tor do’ (‘break the begging bowl’) campaign when he was in power in the 1990s. Thousands of ordinary Pakistanis (including my late mother, much to my chagrin) responded and sent personal savings to support this initiative. Nobody knows what happened to this money, but it certainly did not help in ending our aid dependency.

Interestingly, all those demanding that we reject the offer of American assistance are sleek and well-fed. In this entire long-winded debate, I have not heard anybody say one word about the illiteracy, poverty and disease the aid package is meant to reduce.

Critics have said that in the past, such initiatives did not make any difference, and things have not improved as a result of foreign aid. We forget that with our population growing as fast as it has in the past, we have created our own problems. The reality is that today, there are four times more Pakistanis than lived here in 1947. Without any foreign assistance, there would have been widespread starvation.

It is certainly true that huge amounts have been frittered away on useless projects, while much of this assistance has ended up in the personal accounts of politicians, bureaucrats and generals. Hence the American insistence on monitoring how money disbursed under the KLA is actually spent.

This entire bad-tempered discussion reveals the intensity of anti-Americanism that has been whipped up by a large section of the media. Virtually no anchor in Urdu chat shows challenges a panellist and asks him or her for proof for the most outlandish assertions. So widespread have these perceptions of American ill intentions become that a friend’s driver casually said the other day that the Americans were arming the Taliban. When I asked him why Washington would arm the foe that was killing US soldiers, he had no reply beyond ‘I read it in a newspaper.’

We have been so blinded by our rage against America that we forget that currently there is a clear convergence of interests between their goals and ours. Both countries want peace in Afghanistan and Pakistan; and both are fighting the forces of darkness. So while our approach and tactics may differ, we need to get along well enough to coordinate the fight more effectively.

In the real world, you do not have to love your allies to conduct a successful military campaign. In the Second World War, the Soviet Union fought with the US and Britain to defeat Hitler. Nazi Germany was the common foe, and the threat it posed brought the communists into the anti-fascist alliance. Clearly, there was no love lost between the USSR and the West, but common interests drew them together.

Critics of the act assert that this assistance is being offered in America’s self-interest, making it sound like an accusation that proves Washington’s bad faith. Actually, all countries act in their own self-interest. In this case, the American Congress and the administration are convinced that in order to stabilise Pakistan, it is necessary to address the many social and economic problems we are struggling with. And without a viable Pakistan, Afghanistan cannot be fixed. Hence the Kerry-Lugar act.

Who in Pakistan can possibly close his eyes to the reality of the situation we face today? Unless power generation is enhanced quickly, the economy will soon collapse completely. Parents are often forced to send their children to madressahs because there are not enough schools. Here they are often brainwashed into joining the terrorists who are threatening to destroy the state.

Large sums are needed to overcome these and other challenges. But money alone won’t solve these problems: political will and a consensus are needed. What we don’t need are mindless slogans of ‘go America go!’

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12 militants killed in South Waziristan clashes

The military said today that it had killed 12 Taliban militants as government troops pressed a major offensive in the South Waziristan tribal area bordering Afghanistan.

Some 30,000 troops backed by fighter jets and helicopter gunships launched a fierce air and ground offensive into the northwest region three weeks ago and the military has since claimed a series of successes.

It said troops on Friday penetrated into Makin, the hometown of slain Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud who was killed along with some of his family members in a missile strike fired by a US drone on August 5.

Security forces were also consolidating their positions at Sararogha and its surrounding heights in the rugged mountainous region, the military's media wing said in a statement.

‘In last 24 hours, 12 terrorists have been killed, and five soldiers including two officers were injured,’ the statement said.

The strategic town of Sararogha was a former operational base of Mehsud.

Security forces also captured a 30-feet long tunnel and ‘plenty of ammunition has been discovered and destroyed’, the statement said.

Pakistan, vowing to crush Tehrik-i-Taliban in the region, said so far 458 Taliban fighters and 42 troops had been killed in the offensive.

The casualty figures cannot be verified because communication lines are down and journalists and aid workers are barred from the area.

South Waziristan has been dubbed by Washington as the most dangerous place in the world because of an abundance of Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

The long-awaited assault on South Waziristan came after a spring offensive in the northwestern Swat valley. In July, the government declared the offensive a success but sporadic outbreaks of violence have continued in the valley.

The South Waziristan offensive has displaced more than 250,000 people and the United Nations has urged Pakistan to ensure safety and security of civilians during the operation.

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Can they ever work on it?

MINUS one lives. Pakistan’s favourite human pinata, Asif Ali Zardari, has been battered to within an inch of his presidential life; all that remains is for the end to be pencilled in and the orgy of ecstatic punditry to explode on your TV.
No? It ain’t over until it’s over? He may yet salvage his lame-duck presidency? Miracles do happen? Who are we kidding. President Zardari will either be plain ol’ Asif Zardari long before his term is officially set to end or he will be President Zardari sans the powers that attracted him to the office in the first place.

That the president’s free fall is largely of his own making is doubly satisfying to his enemies. But the rise and all-but-certain fall of Zardari raises the same troubling question that haunted the country in the ‘90s, the ‘70s and the ‘50s: can our politicians ever make it work?

There are so many cautionary tales, so few uplifting stories in this wretched place with its wretched politics and its wretched history. Zardari was never one of the good guys, but here’s the vexing thing about him: from a policy perspective, his government has got at least three major things right. On militancy, the economy and Pak-US relations – three foundational issues on which the medium-term future, at the very least, of the country itself rests – Zardari has made the right choices.

That a politician could pick the right course on major policy issues is reassuring to those who cling to the hope that democracy can, some day, one day, work here; that the same politician would also wantonly destroy his political capital overwhelms that tiny sliver of hope. One step forward, two steps back.

Not convinced of Zardari’s relative successes? It’s no coincidence that the internal consensus on the need to fight against militancy has come on the Zardari watch. Yes, his government has been ham-handed and inconsistent at times and has benefited from the rantings of Sufi Mohammad, the flogging video, the TTP’s foray into new areas and its relentless campaign of violence. But no one really doubts that Zardari would like to see the militants defeated. Unlike the dithering PML-N and the opposition of parties like the JI and Tehrik-i-Insaf, the government’s position is well known and it has nudged the country towards backing the fight against the militants.

On the economy, Zardari’s team has done no worse than many of its predecessors, and certainly better than the last phase of the Musharraf era. We can quibble over the details, but for a country that has for long been a ward of the IFIs, dependent on handouts from foreign governments and locked in a cycle of boom and bust, the Zardari era doesn’t look especially bad from a historical perspective.

On US-Pak relations, step back from the noise for a minute and ask yourself this: can we afford to have anything but friendly relations with a superpower that is billeted in our backyard? Again, Zardari has not calibrated the government’s policy towards the US as well as it could be, seemingly giving too much or voicing too little opposition when it is merited, but the general thrust of the policy has been correct.

So how has Zardari managed to turn such relative, emphasis on relative, successes into a situation where everyone is reaching for their keyboards to write his political obituary? In other words, what has he done wrong?

The facile answer is, the president should have avoided the mistakes he’s made. He should have restored the judges while he still could take credit for it. He shouldn’t have blundered into imposing governor’s rule in Punjab and trying to take over the government there when the numbers were against him. He should have realised the NRO was a ball chained to his ankle that his opponents, as well as some of his allies, could easily exploit.

But Zardari’s original sin, as it were, is something else: wanting to rule from the presidency. The bid to grab the presidency and lord it over the country and its politicians was a gamble that was never going to pay off. The irony is that Zardari regards it as his smartest move.

The presidency has historically been a poisoned chalice and Zardari grabbed it just as it had become the focal point of opposition. After Musharraf’s disastrous exit, the presidency needed to be aired out, cleared of the smoke and debris of intrigue and power games. Smart politics demanded that attention be deflected to other quarters, the prime minister’s seat, the cabinet, parliament.

Even for a people with a short collective memory, the Musharraf shadow was always going to cast a pall over the presidency for some time. By insisting on keeping it as a focal point, Zardari took the unnecessary risk of the people asking, how is this really different from the Musharraf days? And Zardari was always going to get nowhere in that debate.

Most, if not all, of Zardari’s problems flow from the fateful choice to become president. We can only guess at the reasons he opted to try and rule from there. Perhaps it was the presidential immunity from prosecution. Perhaps it was the physical security that the presidential palace offers. Perhaps the low level of public interaction expected of the occupant as compared to, say, the prime minister attracted a frightened Zardari. Perhaps it was just the irresistibility of absolute power and lording it over both the provinces and the centre thanks to the Musharrafian powers arrogated to the office.

We will never know for sure what Zardari’s reasons were, but we can see how bad an idea it was. A year into a five-year term, the death watch is on.

Some have bemoaned how on a day dozens of people were killed in Rawalpindi, the country was transfixed by Altaf Hussain cutting the president off at the knees over the NRO. But it wasn’t a case of misplaced priorities. Without political stability, it is difficult to have policies, let alone fight a war against a shadowy internal enemy.

And Monday showed us once again how political stability can be a chimera, vanishing in an instant and leaving the country rudderless. Tempting though it may be, there’s no point in blaming Zardari really. He’s only done what others have done before him and others will do after him.

Sixty-two years since its creation, the country still doesn’t have the answer to the question, can our politicians ever make it work?

Posted by worldissues Friday, November 6, 2009 0 comments

‘India must explain its conduct in sponsoring terrorism’

The Indian Foreign Secretary’s reported the remarks that the international community should put pressure on Pakistan ‘to implement its stated commitment to deal with terror groups,’ the Foreign Office Spokesman on Thursday stated that the international community is appreciative of Pakistan’s actions and commitment to fight terrorism.

She further said that the ‘terrorism is a regional and global issue,’, adding, ‘In fact, India must explain its own conduct in sponsoring and abetting terrorism and militancy in the region.’

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Iran tested sophisticated nuclear warhead...

The UN nuclear watchdog has asked Iran to give evidence that it has experimented with highly advanced nuclear warhead designs, a British newspaper reported Friday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) believes Iranian scientists may have tested components of the sophisticated technology, known as a ‘two-point implosion’ device, the Guardian reported.

This technology — whose existence is secret in the United States and Britain — would allow for the production of smaller and simpler warheads and reduce the diameter of a warhead and make it easier to put on a missile, it said.

The Guardian cited previously unpublished documentation in a dossier compiled by the IAEA, drawn in part from reports submitted by western intelligence agencies, and presented to Iran for response.

An unnamed European advisor on nuclear issues told the newspaper: ‘It is breathtaking that Iran could be working on this sort of material.’

Western powers have long feared that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, something it denies.

Iran and western powers are currently engaged in talks over how to procure nuclear fuel for an Iranian research reactor.

Under a UN-brokered proposal Iran would send its low-enriched uranium (LEU) abroad for conversion into fuel for the reactor. Iran says it would rather buy the fuel directly

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The 13 Indian fishermen arrested by Pakistani authorities....

The Pakistan's Maritime Security Agency said Friday it had arrested 13 Indian fishermen and seized three boats for illegally trawling in its waters in the Arabian Sea.

‘Our officials seized three Indian fishing boats, arrested 13 crew members 55 nautical miles inside our territorial waters and they have been handed over to the police,’ MSA spokesman Lieutenant Commander Shakeel Ahmed Khan said.

‘The arrested people seem to be fishermen, but they are still being interrogated by the relevant security organs to establish their exact identity and intent for operating in our waters,’ he said.

The South Asian rivals frequently seize each other's fishermen, accusing them of violating their respective zones in the Arabian Sea, before swapping hundreds of them in exchanges.

Authorities here estimate that more than 100 Pakistani fishermen are languishing in Indian jails while Indian authorities say nearly 500 Indian fishermen are in Pakistani prisons.

The relations between Delhi and Islamabad plummeted after 10 gunmen killed 166 people on a 60-hour rampage in Mumbai last November.

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30 killed in India bus crash

In India at least 30 people died on today in northern India when an overcrowded bus veered off a road and plunged into a gorge, police said.

The driver lost control of the bus while negotiating a turn in the Kangra valley in Himachal Pradesh state and the vehicle crashed into a river, police said.

‘The number of dead is 30 while 26 others have been injured,’ Rakesh Sharma, a senior government official, told.

The accident occurred 210 kilometres from Himachal Pradesh state capital Shimla.

According to Sharma the 32-seat bus was overloaded.

Police and locals were aiding in rescue efforts and the injured had been rushed to hospital in the hill town of Dharamshala.

India has a high annual road death toll, with accidents often caused by bad roads, overcrowding and poor vehicle maintenance.

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Today In Islamabad an army brigadier, driver injured in Islamabad gun-attack

A gunmen injured an army brigadier and his driver in Islamabad on Friday, as they opened fire on their vehicle, sources told DawnNews television.

Brigadier Sohail and his driver came under attack by unknown assailants in the I-8/4 sector of the capital, the television channel said.

SSP Islamabad Police Tahir Malik told DawnNews that both the brigadier and his driver have been shifted to a hospital and are now in stable condition.

‘We have collected a pistol from the site of the attack and are looking for further evidence,’ Malik said.

‘Unknown attackers were waiting for Brigadier Sohail to leave his house and opened fire at his vehicle as soon as it entered the main road,’ eye witnesses said.

A doctor at the capital’s Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences hospital said the victims were in a stable condition.

‘Two army officers, including one brigadier were injured when unknown gunmen opened fire on their vehicle,’ Doctor Nasir Ahmad told AFP.

‘Both have firearms injuries but both are stable,’ he added.

The attack was the 3rd targeting senior army commanders in the capital in around two weeks.

On October 22, a Pakistani brigadier on leave from a UN peacekeeping mission was shot dead in the capital Islamabad. There was a similar gun attack on another military jeep on October 27, but no one was wounded.

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In Wasington Mullen urges sustained relationship with Pakistan

In Washington Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman Joint Chiefs Staff has called for fostering a sustained US relationship with anti-terror ally Pakistan as he said Washington has obligation toward security of the region it abandoned two decades ago.

The top US military officer showed his appreciation for Pakistan’s response to the serious terrorist threat and said the Pakistani leadership, military and its people recongize the militant threat to their country.

Speaking at the National Press Club, he conceded the fact that Pakistan has deployed 30,000 troops to confront terrorists in their South Waziristan stronghold on the western Afghan border but also underlined the toughness of the challenge in the difficult mountainous terrain.

‘It’s a very tough fight; they are going into the heart of enemy territory right now. And I think it’s going to continue to be a very tough fight, but he (Army Chief Gen. Kayani) clearly, and the leadership, recognizes the seriousness of the situation.’

‘And if you just look at the bombings that have occurred in the last couple of weeks — and more and more Pakistani citizens who are getting killed — and I think they are responding in recognition of the seriousness of this extremist group.’

At the same time, Mullen said Pakistanis have concerns vis-a-vis India on the eastern border.

‘They’re still very concerned about India. That’s not going to go away overnight and we’re not going to wish that away.’

Mullen, who has made several trips to the region, said al-Qaeda militant leaders hiding along Pakistan-Afghanistan border pose a threat to the United States and its allies.

He said, although the terrorist threat has been rendered a little off balance, following recent anti-militant actions, the US and its allies should continue to pressure terrorists.

‘So we’ve got to ensure that we don’t lose focus there and we are able to, in my view, sustain this relationship with Pakistan. And when I go to Pakistan and Afghanistan, one of the first questions either asked or the question that is always on their lips is, are you leaving this time, are you going to abandon us again? Which we’ve done, so we’ve got — we’ve been there before and I think we’ve got obligations and responsibilities based on that before.

‘And in all that, there is a very, very significant threat to us, to the United States of America, which is sustaining itself there — albeit it’s a little bit off balance now. We’ve had some positive effects but I think we need to keep the pressure on.’

About Afghanistan, Mullen said the newly re-elected Afghan President Hamid Karzai must take significant measures to cut government corruption and establish its legitimacy.

‘We are extremely concerned about the level of corruption — it’s far too much endemic.’

Karzai, who sealed a victory this week after his opponent dropped out of a runoff election, ‘has got to take significant steps to eliminate corruption,’ Mullen said.

The chairman added that ‘it will be evident pretty quickly’ whether Karzai is serious about improving government legitimacy.

‘You have to have governance, not just in Kabul, ‘ but we also have to have it in provinces, in districts and the sub-districts,’ Mullen said. ‘The legitimacy really needs to be in the eyes of the Afghan people. That is, at best, in question and, at worst, doesn’t exist.’

The critique of the Afghan government comes as President Barack Obama and his advisors debate the US strategy in Afghanistan, which includes weighing a request from the top US commander there for additional troops. But Mullen said today that military success depends on improvements to the Afghan government.

‘If we don’t get a level of legitimacy and governance, then all the troops in the world aren’t going to make any difference,’ he said. Roughly 67,000 US forces and 42,000 allied troops are in Afghanistan.

Deliberations within the US national security apparatus about the way forward in Afghanistan are said to cover a spectrum of proposals ranging from deploying more troops to counter the insurgency to a narrower, scaled-down approach that targets terrorists.

Posted by worldissues Wednesday, November 4, 2009 0 comments

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