“Pakistan - An example for the Arab world”

Hussain Haqqani, former advisor to Benazir Bhutto, interviewed by Daniele Castellani Perelli

“The people of Pakistan have always wanted democracy. They have voted for a female prime minister, even though she had been denigrated by the mullahs and by our own military. Pakistan can show the way to the world by creating a Muslim democracy; it can be a model for other Islamic countries like the Arab countries. The only question is: will the Pakistani military and its American backers let it become a democracy?”

In this interview, Hussain Haqqani, former advisor to Benazir Bhutto and now Director of the Centre for International Relations and Professor at Boston University, expresses his wary optimism for the future of his country:

Some weeks ago The Economist wrote that Pakistan is the world’s most dangerous place.

Pakistan is a very uncertain country, because it does not follow a rule of law, it does not have predictable changes of government, and at the same time it has nuclear weapons. It is the most uncertain and unstable of all countries with nuclear weapons. This creates the feeling in the world that it is a dangerous country. So I think the most important thing to understand is that Pakistan is not yet as dangerous as it could become if its government is not restored constitutionally.

Has Pakistan been described correctly or with prejudices by the international media?

There are many prejudices about Pakistan and many other countries, but I think that the international media does not grasp the nature of the problem. It only looks at the many branches; it does not go down to the root. The root of the problem in Pakistan is that instead of unifying the nation through the Constitution and the law, the country has been unified through military and international aid. And if people could understand the real problem in Pakistan, then there would be less prejudice about Pakistan. Let me give you an example. Everybody talks about Pakistan’s politicians being corrupt, but you come from Italy and in Italy you have many allegations of corruption. But the army does not take over. Should the military take over because there is corruption among politicians? That is not the case. In Pakistan’s case, there is no understanding of the process of what is going on, instead there is only this constant commentary about events, and I think that the events make Pakistan look worse than if Pakistani were engaged and the international community said: “We want you to have a process”.

Pakistan had a female prime minister and the media was free until a few months ago. Does Pakistan show that Islam and democracy can be compatible?

The people of Pakistan have always wanted democracy. The people of Pakistan voted for a female prime minister, even though she had been denigrated by the mullahs and by our own military. And yet she remained popular. So I think Pakistan can show the way to the world by creating a Muslim democracy. The only question is: will the Pakistani military and its American backers let it become a democracy? Pakistan can be a model for other Islamic countries like the Arab countries.

And what kind of Islam is the Pakistani Islam?

Historically the Islam practiced in Pakistan was always very diverse and pluralistic. It was more colourful through the cultural influence of Persia and India. Now of course Pakistan has also been subjected to Wahabi Islam, which is more puritanical, coming from Saudi Arabia. The original diverse and pluralist Pakistani Islam is the softest side of Islam.

So it is better if the Arab countries become like Pakistan rather than Pakistan be “arabized”.

Absolutely, I think the Arab countries need to be like India and Pakistan and the Muslims of India and Pakistan.Are Muslim fundamentalists popular in Pakistan? The fundamentalists in Pakistan have never been popular; they have never got more than 4-5 per cent of the total votes. In 2002 they got 11 per cent of the votes because fewer people voted, but their absolute numbers have not increased. Their real power comes from weapons, money and organization.

Mr. Barack Obama does not exclude American attacks against Al Qaeda targets inside Pakistan. Would you welcome these operations or not?

I do not think that Pakistanis would like any foreign forces on their soil and that Pakistanis have to take care of the terrorist menace themselves. Because if Pakistanis do not take care of the terrorist menace, then the temptation for people outside to try and get involved will increase. So the responsibility of making sure that foreigners do not think about attacking Pakistan lies with Pakistanis.

Obama Seeks Destabilization of Pakistan

The other day,Barack Obama said he would consider sending American troops into northeast Pakistan if he became President. The reason for that is because the Pakistani government has little control over that area and thus it has become a new sanctuary for terror training camps.
The Pakistani government has it’s hands tied because they do not want to risk destabilizing their country, and after all, that’s the US government’s job! It would be fine to just go in there and kill some insurgents, only lose a few of our guys and only kill a few innocent people and then things would just go back to normal. But that would not be the case.

The Pakistani government treads a fine line between being an ally of the US and having their nation toppled by radicals. Considering that the majority of Pakistani’s do not have a favorable opinion of the US government, to say the least, they will doubtfully like having our guys storm through their borders and start shooting up the joint.
And guess who has nuclear weapons? Pakistan. And guess who else has them? Their arch enemy India. If Pakistan’s government were to be toppled by radicals that would spell huge problems for the US, the region and the world.

This hypothetical comment by Obama, 16 months before he probably does not become President, was not a wise decision

US soldier suicides the highest on record

WASHINGTON: The US Army have said that 115 soldiers on active duty committed suicide in 2007, the most in one year since the service began keeping records in 1980. Nearly a thousand soldiers attempted suicide. The spike came in a year that saw the highest US casualties in Iraq and increased levels of violence in Afghanistan, but officials said the trend has continued into 2008.

Musharraf denies resignation rumours

May 30, 2008 at 6:13 AM EDT

ISLAMABAD — Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf dismissed mounting speculation he is preparing to resign while his political opponents and media on Friday clamored for his departure.
A late-night meeting this week between Mr. Musharraf and his successor as army chief fuelled rumours that the long-time U.S. ally in its war on terror could resign.
Pakistan's new civilian government wants to strip the president of key powers and some in the coalition are seeking his impeachment.

Plane kept ready for Musharraf’s exit: Report

Friday, 30 May , 2008, 12:57Last Updated: Friday, 30 May , 2008, 13:06

Islamabad: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is on the verge of quitting with a special aircraft being positioned to fly him out and Senate chair Muhammadmian Soomro being asked to cut short his foreign tour and return home, a newspaper report said Friday.

Soomro, who was the caretaker prime minister in the run up to general elections this year, will be sworn in as interim president when Musharraf steps down.
But Musharraf, on his part, dismissed reports about his resignation, terming them a malicious campaign to create unrest in the country.
Quoting highly placed sources, The News said that a special wide-bodied Airbus A-310 aircraft has been parked at the Chaklala airbase in the garrison town of Rawalpindi adjacent to the national capital.
"It will take special passengers to a close neighbouring country. Packing at an important house in Rawalpindi is in full swing as the modalities have also been finalised for the exit of the significant family," The News said.

When China Met Africa

It seemed a perfect match: A growing country looking for markets and influence meets a continent with plenty of resources but few investors.

Now that China has moved in, though, its African partners are beginning to resent their aggressive new patron. What happens when the world’s most ambitious developing power meets the poverty, corruption, and fragility of Africa? China is just beginning to find out.
Ni hao, ni hao.” I had been walking along a street in Brazzaville only 10 minutes when a merry band of Congolese kids interrupted their ballplaying to greet me. In Africa, white visitors usually hear greetings like “hello, mista” or “hey, whitey,” but these smiling kids lined along the street have expanded their repertoire. They yell “hello” in Chinese, and then they start up their game again. To them, all foreigners are Chinese. And there’s good reason for that.
In Brazzaville, everything new appears to have come from China: the stadium, the airport, the televisions, the roads, the apartment buildings, the fake Nikes, the telephones, even the aphrodisiacs. Walking through this poor capital city in West Africa, a visitor could be forgiven for assuming he was in some colonial Chinese outpost.
No one knows more about China’s reach in Congo than Claude Alphonse N’Silou, the Congolese minister for construction and housing. In fact, in Brazzaville, the Chinese are building more than a thousand units of housing designed by...

Islamic Extremism: Common Concern for Muslim and Western Publics

Support for Terror Wanes Among Muslim Publics

Navigate this report

Summary of FindingsAbout the Pew Global Attitudes Project

I. How Muslims and Westerners See Each Other

II. How Non-Muslim Publics View Muslims

III. How Muslims See Themselves and Islam's Role

IV. How Muslims View Relations with the World

Large majorities of Muslims in most predominantly Muslim countries surveyed think that it is very important that Islam play a more important and influential role in the world than that religion now does. In Morocco, 84% of Muslims subscribe to this view, as do 73% in Jordan, 70% in Pakistan and 64% in Indonesia. Even in Lebanon and Turkey, where fewer among the Muslim population place high importance on a larger global role for Islam, pluralities in both countries do so.
While many Muslims continue to see serious threats to Islam, in most predominantly Muslim countries surveyed those fears are declining. Concern remains very widespread in Jordan and Morocco where 82% and 72%, respectively, of the publics see Islam as facing serious threats. However, those levels are down significantly from the 97% and 79% levels recorded in May 2003. Similar declines in perceived threat since 2003 are found in Lebanon (down to 65% among Muslims from 73%), Pakistan (52% down from 64%) and Indonesia (46% down from 59%). Only in Turkey has concern among Muslims about threats to Islam increased since 2003, from 50% to 58% now.

Support for Islamic Terrorism

Support for acts of terrorism in defense of Islam has declined dramatically among Muslims in most predominantly Muslim countries surveyed, although support has risen in Jordan. And while support for suicide bombings against Americans and other Westerners in Iraq remains at higher levels, it too has declined substantially among Muslim publics in all four countries with trend comparisons available, including Jordan.
In Turkey support for suicide bombing and other forms of violence against civilian targets in order to defend Islam from its enemies was already low compared to other majority-Muslim publics and has remained stable with just 14% of the public saying such actions are often or sometimes justified. In Indonesia only 15% now see terrorism as justified at least sometimes, down from 27% in summer 2002. In Pakistan, 25% now take that view, also a substantial decline from the 41% level to which support had risen in March 2004, while in Morocco support has fallen dramatically, from 40% to 13% over the last year.
In Lebanon, nearly four-in-ten Muslims (Christians and other religious groups were not asked this question) still regard acts of terrorism as often or sometimes justified, including 26% who see such acts as often justified. However, this is a sharp decline from 2002 when 73% thought these acts were often or sometimes justified. Moreover, when asked about suicide bombing against civilian targets in their own country, only 25% of Lebanese Muslims saw such violence as even sometimes justified.
Only in Jordan does a majority (57%) now say that suicide bombings and other attacks on civilians are sometimes or often justified and, unlike in other Muslim countries, that support has increased from 43% in 2002. However, as in Lebanon (but no other country), support for terrorist acts plummets when the question is confined to violence within Jordan itself, with less than one percent of respondents saying such acts are often justified and only 30% saying they are sometimes justified.
Having declined to relatively low levels in most predominantly Muslim countries surveyed, support for suicide bombing and other forms of violence against civilian targets shows little demographic variation. In Jordan, where support for terrorist tactics remains relatively high, income is the only significant factor, with those in the top income levels less likely to say that such acts are often or sometimes justified (45% in the top third of incomes say so compared with 67% of those with middle incomes and 59% in the lowest income range).

Muslim publics are somewhat more inclined to support suicide bombings when carried out against Americans and other Westerners in Iraq, although here, too, the proportions considering such actions justifiable have declined over the last year.
Only in Morocco does a majority still find such bombings justifiable, although that percentage is down substantially from March 2004. In both Jordan and Lebanon, nearly half of Muslims support suicide bombings against Westerners in Iraq, but in Jordan such support has declined from 70% a year ago. In Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan, fewer than three-in-ten now see such attacks as justifiable. In Morocco, Pakistan and Turkey, men are significantly more likely than women to find such actions justifiable.
As is the case with views of terrorist acts within their own country, higher-income people in Jordan are less likely to condone similar acts against Americans and their Western allies in Iraq, with only 41% in the highest bracket saying such suicide bombings are justifiable compared with 56% with middle incomes and 50% with the lowest incomes. And on this question, a nearly identical pattern is seen in Lebanon and in Turkey.

Osama bin Laden

The Muslim publics surveyed hold mixed views of Osama bin Laden. In Lebanon, only 2% report even some confidence in the Al Qaeda leader and in Turkey only 7% do so. In Morocco, just 26% now say they have a lot or some confidence in bin Laden, down from 49% two years ago.

In Indonesia, the public is now about evenly split with 35% saying they place at least some confidence in bin Laden and 37% saying they have little or none, a major loss of confidence from the 58% to 36% split recorded in May 2003. Among Indonesians, confidence in the Al Qaeda leader is lower among older citizens but is higher among the more affluent. Among those ages 18-34, 39% express a lot or some confidence in bin Laden compared with less than a third of those 35 and over. However, while only 32% of people in the bottom income tier have confidence in bin Laden, 37% of middle-income and 42% of higher-income people do so.
In only two countries, Pakistan and Jordan, has support for the Al Qaeda leader increased. In Pakistan, slightly more than half now place a lot or some confidence in bin Laden, an increase from the 45% who said so in 2003. Among Pakistanis, gender is a significant dividing line with nearly two-in-three men (65%) reporting a lot or some confidence in bin Laden, compared with 36% of women.
In Jordan, support for bin Laden has risen slightly, although the percentage saying they have a lot of confidence in him has declined to 25% from 38% in May 2003. In Jordan, both age and income patterns are the reverse of those in Indonesia: Confidence in bin Laden rises among older age groups – 56% of those under age 35 trust bin Laden compared with 64% of their older countrymen – and falls (as does support for terrorism generally) among higher income groups – 67% of the lowest-income Jordanians have confidence in bin Laden, compared with 63% of those with middle incomes and 47% of the highest income group.
In Turkey and Lebanon, the numbers expressing any degree of confidence in bin Laden are too low to reveal any significant demographic variations.

Redefine the US-Pakistan partnership
The need to redefine the American relationship with Pakistan - a nuclear-armed, front-line state in the war on terror - has never been greater. Now there is considerable opportunity to do so. US Senate Democrats issued a letter to President George W. Bush last month urging him to "embark on a new relationship with Pakistan based on cooperation.

One Way to Pakistan

Women in Pakistan have been relegated to a low order where their evidence in a court of law does not count as much as that of a male. When raped, the onus is on the woman to produce four eye witnesses; otherwise the rape victim gets the book thrown at her for committing adultery.
Schools for girls in the North West Frontier Area are being asked to close down and many have been blown up. With women covered from head to toe in burkahs, accidental exposure of an ankle in public arouses men. The police wink at honor killings. All this is in the back ground of terrorist schools proliferating and all major terrorist attacks on the USA and Europe pointing to Pakistan.
The Hudood laws discriminate against non-Muslims which makes non-Muslim women vulnerable to abduction to satiate the lust of the wealthy and powerful. Most of these men have their full quota of four wives and yet want more. One Way to Pakistan by Harold Bergsma, an American, fictionalizes in a chilling way the aspect of women being devoured into harems and kept as sex slaves.
The story is gripping and the characters come alive in their rawest form as the author is well versed with the culture, language, customs and language of the various ethic groups within Pakistan. The dialogue in the novel is peppered with Urdu words adding credibility to the plot. The characters are caught up and brutally ground and pulverized as they try to survive the maelstrom of daily terrorist threats and the clash between imperialism and fundamentalism.
Harold Bergsma was born in India and studied in Woodstock school, Mussoorie. He worked in the North West Fontier Area (details).
Even for those in neighboring countries like India, the novel is educative of what is happening in Pakistan. For Westerners it will be a revelation. For women visiting Pakistan for the first time, it is more than a must read – they are warned to read it.

Summit seeks world cluster bomb ban

Representatives from more than 100 countries have gathered at a conference in Dublin, Ireland's capital, in an attempt to agree a global ban on the use of cluster bombs.
However, China, Pakistan, India, Israel, Russia and the United States, all major producers and stockpilers of cluster bombs, are not taking part in the 12-day conference.

How America set Bhutto up for the kill

Funded her enemies and (oh yes) gave Pakistan the bomb... all for very good reasons dontcha know
Blaming America first has become a safe bet in recent years.
The problem with blaming other countries is that we can't fix them. Try as we might we bomb the wrong people, make devils' bargains, create new enemies and bring misery to friends........ more: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/19504/26/

Analysis by Don Williams a contributing editor at MWC is a widely published columnist, short story writer, and the founding editor and publisher of New Millennium Writings, an annual literary anthology...

Use Of Mobile Phones By Women Forbidden In Islam

The ulema in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province have declared that use of mobile phones by women is haram, or forbidden in Islam. The Urdu-language newspaper Roznama Khabrain reported that the imam of Jama Masjid Hazrat Umar Farooq made the announcement during his Friday sermon. Jama Masjid Hazrat Umar Farooq is situated in the Hashtnagri police district of Peshawar. According to the report, the Imam said the religious scholars of the province have agreed by consensus that women cannot use mobile phones. He also said that men are permitted to receive and make calls but mobile phones cannot be used for non-shari’a purposes. Source: Roznama Khabrain, Pakistan, May 3, 2008

From

cricket to

London bombs

Published: 22 May 2008
A BRITISH Muslim accused of conspiring with the 7/7 bombers told yesterday how he played cricket with one terrorist just hours before the attacks.
Waheed Ali, 25, met "best friend" Shehzad Tanweer, 22, the night before Tanweer killed seven people at Aldgate.
Ali, who went to Pakistan with the bombers, said his pal had changed before the strikes on July 7 2005 that killed 52.
Ali, of Tower Hamlets, East London, Mohammed Shakil, 31, and Sadeer Saleem, 27, both of Leeds, West Yorks, are said to have scouted London targets.
All deny conspiracy to cause explosions at Kingston Crown Court. Trial continues.

Bollywood Starlet Accused of Sex with Aussie Soldiers in Afghanistan

A Bollywood starlet who made her name going beyond the call of duty in Who Dares Wins, an Australian TV stunt show, has been accused of having sex with soldiers while on a tour to entertain troops in Afghanistan.
Tania Zaetta was named in a confidential briefing paper to Australia’s Defense Minister as having slept with special forces soldiers last month at a military base in Tarin Kowt, the capital of Oruzgan province. Pictures and a video were said to have been taken.

Mush an 'old friend': Top Pak model

Weeks after a Pakistani beauty queen said she would love to date President Pervez Musharraf, another top model has claimed that she and the former military ruler are "old friends". Maria Mateen, who has bagged many beauty awards, said she had no desire to date Musharraf as they were "already good friends". Mateen said when she started her modelling career, her association with Pakistan was appreciated everywhere and she earned the country a good name after representing it twice at international beauty pageants. Denying reports that she wanted to date Musharraf, Mateen told a local TV channel that she didn't have to because she and Musharraf are "already good friends". Last month, reigning Miss Pakistan World Mahleej Sarkari kicked up a controversy by saying she "loved" Musharraf and wanted to "date" him. Sarkari said she would love to date Musharraf if he asked her out.

Pakistan: World media

Benazir Bhutto's assassination

BBC, why this CENSORSHIP?

There are many theories about why Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. The most prominent was that she was just about to reveal how Pervez Musharaff, the president of Pakistan, had organised to steal the up-coming election.There is one theory however which implicates the Western Powers and its complicit media rather than Musharaff.In an interview on 2nd November 2007 with Sir David Frost aired on the Al Jazeera TV network, Benazir Bhutto, almost as an aside of something well known, states that one of the persons implicated in trying to assassinate her was the MAN WHO MURDERED Osama bin Laden.

Not a single major western media source picked up this statement and ran with it.Of this were true, then the entire “War on Terror” of which Osama bin Laden is the centrepiece just evaporates and the whole Western attack on Afghanistan and Iraq just is meaningless.What the hell is the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation _ NATO, doing outside its sphere of influence?

The entire western political spin has been about Osama bin Laden. And here is Benazir Bhutto stating in an interview with the world’s most renowned interviewer, Sir David Frost, that Osama is no more - and not one major news service picks it up.BBC even went to the extent of editing this out of what they aired!Why?

Labels: BBC, Benazir, Bhutto, David, Frost, interview, murdered, Osama bin Laden

Mainline:Pakistan & energy politics

Geostrategy Feeds America's Oil Addiction

The large players in oil - Saudi Arabia, Canada, Kuwait, UAE, Libya and Nigeria - are playing in toe with the US and British Administrations. The problems lie with the Soviet Union, Iraq, Iran and, Venezuela.

United Arab Emirates, is the best possible pointer of what lies ahead for the US Dollar.

With no end in sight for America's oil addiction, it is imperative for the neoconservative agenda that the US controls the trade of oil and natural gas to maintain Dollar Power.
The Oil Bourses run by the US in New York and the British in London have allowed the US to print unlimited amounts of the US Dollar and the British to hold on to their emotional Pound Sterling and stay outside of the Euro currency zone.
Any threat to Dollar or the Pound Sterling would cause an upheaval so enormous that the US Depression of the Twenties and Thirties would look like a children's Happy Holiday party.
Woe betide any country that shows up to be resource rich. The economic hitmen would soon be around to start their play. Control, per se, of resource has not been enough in their game.
The large players in oil - Saudi Arabia, Canada, Kuwait, UAE, Libya and Nigeria - are playing in toe with the US and British Administrations. The problems lie with the Soviet Union, Iraq, Iran and, Venezuela.



Oil Reserves by Country, 2005 Rank Country Proven Reserves (billion barrels) 1. Saudi Arabia 261.9 2. Canada 178.8 3. Iran 125.8 4. Iraq 115.0 5. Kuwait 101.5* 6. United Arab Emirates 97.8 7. Venezuela 77.2 8. Russia 60.0 9. Libya 39.0 10. Nigeria 35.3 * Leaked internal records reveal that Kuwait's reserves are actually less than 50 billion barrels .


In the case of natural gas, the situation is worse, as the Soviet Union, Iran, Venezuela and Iraq lie outside of the control of the US/British "axis of evil".
Natural Gas Reserves by Country, 2006 Rank Country Proven Reserves (trillion cu. m.) 1. Russia 47.57 2. Iran 26.62 3. Qatar 25.77 4. Saudi Arabia 6.65 5. United Arab Emirates 6.01 6. United States 5.35 7. Nigeria 4.98 8. Algeria 4.55 9. Venezuela 4.28 10. Iraq 3.12
With the oil rich former states of the Soviet Union now controlled by puppets of the US, the next in line for destabilisation were Iraq, Iran and Venezuela.


Target One was Afghanistan. The ways and means to get the oil and natural gas economically out of the land-locked Caspian Sea region to the international market, making Afghanistan the first target of the neocon agenda. This has been played out.
However, the pipeline scenario to take the products out of the region is still a major headache. A puppet government in Afghanistan permitting the permanent residence of US and British (NATO) forces is essential in this strategy.

What did the innocent people of Afghanistan do to be bombed to oblivion? What logical reason could there be for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), having its presence in Afghanistan? Should NATO now be renamed as the Arabian Sea Treaty Organisation?

The attack on Afghanistan had nothing to do with 9/11, Osama bin Laden or the Taliban.


Target Two was Iraq. Despite the catastrophe, chaos has been established, and Iraqi oil is firmly in the control of the US corporations.

As Colin Powell's former Chief of Staff, Lawrence Wilkerson, said on the PBS Program NOW, the pre-war intelligence in Iraq was a "hoax on the American people". The US was quite happy with sanctions in place on Iraq as the Oil-For-Food programme netted huge profits for many US corporations.


Target Three was Iran. This destabilisation process is now in play.
The intention has been to invade Iran. To do that there has to be provocation.

Iran broadened its oil and natural gas goals away from US controlled markets as demand burgeoned in China and India. Iran has also been talking about starting the Iranian Oil Bourse. Further, there is the deal between Iran and energy starved nuclear power India, for the former to supply natural gas directly to the latter via a pipeline through Pakistan.



Target Four is Venezuela. This act has been in play for a few years, but the massive grassroots support for President Hugo Chavez, not only in Venezuela, but also in Latin and South America is proving problematic for the US neocon agenda. However, the end game is approaching.



The Indian Government is bending over backwards, as a result of corporate pressure, to keep relations cordial between the US and India and protect the huge inflow of outsourcing business from the US. The Indian urbanisation boom, at the expense of the America middle class, is essential to keep Indian growth rate at the eight to ten percent level.
Many major Indian corporations are benefiting greatly from the mismanagement of the American economy by the Bush administration. They are anxious to keep this US Administration group in power at any cost.



The nations involved - Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan - are sitting on about 10 percent of the earth's potential oil reserves. Proven reserves are between 16-32 billion barrels of oil. About 100-300 billion barrels are not yet proven.



Route for Natural Gas Pipeline from Iran to India (click on the image above to see a larger map in a new window) The pipeline was to have run through Afghanistan, into Pakistan and across to Delhi, with a feeder from the Multan-Delhi pipe direct to Dabhol. The gas pipeline across Pakistan was to have a spur to the seaport of Gwadar to ship the raw materials to the proposed Dabhol terminal.
A pipeline through Iran would have been the most economical solution. The shorter distance and the well developed oil production and exporting capabilities were plus points. But the U.S. had to control Iran before this option could be considered, hence the inclusion of Iran in the "axis of evil".
Politically speaking, Americans wanted to see the oil distributed away from the volatile Middle East, which already controls the bulk of the world's supply. Hence, the unprovoked attack on the nation of Afghanistan, with American creation Osama bin Laden providing the ideal foil!

The proposed 2,600-kilometer gas pipeline from Iran to India would cost $7.6 billion and would carry natural gas from Iran, through Pakistan, to India. Strained relations between India and Pakistan prevented negotiations progressing during the last decade. With the current thaw, the proposal gained new momentum.
India needs the Iranian gas. India produces only half the natural gas it needs and imports 70 percent of its crude oil. India must tap new energy sources to sustain the eight to nine percent growth.


Pakistan favoured the project as it would generate $1 billion annually in transit fees. Each year, Iran could ship five million tons of natural gas to India over the next 25 years. These shipments would be worth approximately $22 billion dollars.
With this, and with the exploding demand by China for Iranian energy, the Iranians were confident they could start their own Oil Bourse. No US or European players were needed in either of these markets. That was too much for the US Administration. The US Dollar is tied to energy resource capitalisation.
There are two important aspects to the Dollar Security. The first is the transportation and the super profits to be gained out of controlling the international trade of oil and natural gas. The second is the enormous national debt of the US and the way it is financed - in worthless paper, which the US can produce by the shiploads - the US Dollar and Treasury Bills (T-Bills).
The first step of the US administration was to try to destroy this Iranian-India deal by lifting the sanctions on India to supply technology for furthering nuclear power generation in India. When this did not stop the deal, then came the more direct attack on the deal with a threat to India to stop talking natural gas supplies - or else.
This deal would provide the much needed finances for Iran to establish its independence of the Oil Bourses in London and New York, which would be a huge tragedy for the American economy. Without control of the Oil Bourse, the American Dollar could lose its power on the world stage.
All the talk about Energy Security, which was the prime subject of the recent G8 summit in Moscow, was aimed primarily at maintaining the dollar at the centre of the oil bourse.
Swiss banking giant UBS AG has announced it is no longer doing business with Iran due to "the company's economic and risk analysis of the situation in that country."
Iran is under increasing international pressure over its nuclear program and mindful of the freezing of its U.S. assets after the 1979 seizure of the American Embassy in Tehran. The nation has an estimated $50 billion in European banks and Iran's Central Bank governor said over the weekend that it will move its reserves quickly if it deems it necessary to do so.There are several issues at stake with the huge budget deficit that the US has run up. The only way that the US can continue this policy is to prop up the US Dollar by printing more notes and issuing more T-Bills. This can only be done so long as the US has ensured that other countries keep their end of the bargain by accepting the dollar as the preferred currency of trade and by investing in T-Bills.
Any doubt in either could cause the US Dollar edifice to tumble like a pack of cards. At this stage, selling of the family jewels is the only alternative available to prop up the US Dollar. Hence such deals as the takeover of the sea ports by all those who hold the US currency and T-bills, immaterial of the security of the US!
As Scott Ritter, the now "discredited" former US member of the UN Weapons Inspection Team said recently, the attack on Iran is imminent after a dramatic speech at the UN by interim Bush appointee, US Ambassador, John Bolton. Asked how he knew, Ritter replied that he had got the information from the horse's mouth, the speech writer!
That Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P & O), the British firm that owned several ports in the US, decided to cash in and get out by disposing US ports to an energy-rich country, United Arab Emirates, is the best possible pointer of what lies ahead for the US Dollar.
http://jmpolitics.blogspot.com/

Point of view

Wars are won by destroying the enemy's will to fight. A nation is never really beaten until it sells its women.

The French sold their women to the German occupiers in 1940, and the Germans and Japanese sold their women to the Americans after World War II. The women of the former Soviet Union are still selling themselves in huge numbers. Hundreds of thousands of female Ukrainian "tourists" entered Germany after the then-foreign minister Joschka Fischer loosened visa standards in 1999. That helps explain why Ukraine has the world's fastest rate of population decline. On a smaller scale, trafficking in Iranian women explains Iran's predicament.

The Jews have lived long enough to be defeated more often than any other people. After Spain expelled them in 1492, the Jews sold their women so widely that the character of the Jewish prostitute figured prominently in 16th-century literature, notably in one of the earliest novels, La Lozana Andaluza (1528), a story of refugee Spanish-Jewish whores in Rome. After Russian pogroms drove Jews out of the Pale of Settlement in the late 19th century, Jewish women became the raw material of the white-slave traffic, supplying Argentina as well as Western Europe. Jewish prostitutes are almost unknown today, a measure of the revival of the Jewish nation.

One does not have to destroy an opponent's military forces to defeat him. Russia collapsed without a single shot fired when Mikhail Gorbachev and his generals understood that they could not compete with Ronald Reagan's United States. The Islamic world also has been defeated, by a globalized economy in which the US dominates the top, and China blocks entry at the bottom. As the most urbane people of Western Asia, the Persians grasped the hopelessness of circumstances quicker than their Arab neighbors.

What is it that persuades women to employ their bodies as an instrument of commerce, rather than as a way of achieving motherhood? It is not just poverty, for poor women bear children everywhere. In the case of Muslim world, deracination and cultural despair impel millions of individual women to eschew motherhood. Prostitution is a form of psychic suicide; writ large, it is a manifestation of the national death-wish, the hideous recognition that the world no longer requires Ukrainians or Moldovans.

Islamism (or what George W Bush has called "Islamo-fascism") responds to the crisis of faith. As I wrote on November 8, 2005: The crisis of modernization first of all is a crisis of faith, and the attenuation of religious faith is the root cause of the birth-rate bust in the modern world. Traditional society is everywhere fragile, not only in the Islamic world; by definition it is bounded by values and expectations handed down from the past, to which individuals must submit. Once the bands of tradition are broken and each individual may choose for herself what sort of family to raise, religious faith becomes the decisive motivation for bringing children into the world ... The collapse of traditional society has brought about a collapse of birth rates across cultures. Cultures that fail to reproduce themselves by definition are failed cultures, for the simple reason that they will cease to exist before many generations have passed. That is why the Islamists - Muslims who seek a new theocracy - display a sense of extreme urgency. They are not conservative Muslims, for they reject Muslim society as it exists as corrupt and decadent. They are revolutionaries who want to create a new kind of totalitarian theocracy that orders every detail of human life.

Nothing is more threadbare than the claim of Islamists to defend Muslim womanhood. Islamist radicals (like the penny-a-marriage mullahs of Iran) are the world's most prolific pimps. The same networks that move female flesh across borders also provide illegal passage for jihadis, and the proceeds of human trafficking often support Islamist terrorists. From Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur to Sarajevo to Tirana, the criminals who trade in women overlap with jihadist networks. Prostitutes serve the terror network in a number of capacities, including suicide bombing. The going rate for a Muslim woman who can pass for a European to carry a suicide bomb currently is more than US$100,000. The Persian prostitute is the camp follower of the jihadi, joined to him in a pact of national suicide.

Crisis of Faith in the Muslim World, Part 2: The Islamist response Asia Times Online.

Pakistan: Hungry neighbor

Pakistan allows 50,000 metric ton wheat export to Afghanistan

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has agreed to allow the export of 50,000 metric tons of wheat to Afghanistan.In a telephonic call from Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the Prime Minister approved export of wheat to Afghanistan as a special gesture for the brotherly country facing problems of wheat supply.Gilani expressed the confidence that relations between the two countries would continue to grow stronger. Issues of mutual and regional interests were also discussed during the meeting.

Russia's turning Muslim, says mufti

US Fear of Future Muslim Russia

Russia's leading Muslim cleric has alarmed Orthodox Church leaders and nationalists by claiming the country has 23million Muslims, 3 million more than previously believed. According to the last census, three years ago, about 14.5 million of Russia's 144 million people were ethnic Muslims. Religious leaders have put the number at nearer 20 million.

Russia is home to an estimated 3 million to 4 million Muslim migrants from the former Soviet states -- about 2 million Azeris, a million Kazakhs and several hundred thousand Uzbeks, Tajiks and Kyrgyz. Some Russians are also converting to Islam, according to Sheik Farid Asadullin, of the Moscow Council of Muftis.

"Russians, Ukrainians and Belarussians, mostly young and intelligent, see in Islam an answer to their questions," he said.

Aleksei Malashenko, a local expert on Islam, said: "The real problem is the crisis of the Russian population, not the increase of the Muslim population. And the church is not as powerful or significant for Russians as Islam is for Muslims. This doesn't mean Russia will be a Muslim society in several years, although maybe in half a century we'll see something surprising."

Blank fear is rising in the Islam-hating US about the rapidly changing face of Russia after a government expert on Russian nationalities recently predicted that Russia could have a Muslim majority within the next 30 years.
The city of Moscow has swelled to 10.4 million people, and one-fifth are Muslims. The Russian capital has the biggest Muslim population of any city in Europe.
Russia is the only major industrial nation that is losing population. Its people are succumbing to one of the world's fastest-growing AIDS epidemics, resurgent tuberculosis, rampant cardiovascular disease, alcohol and drug abuse, smoking, suicide and the lethal effects of unchecked industrial pollution.

In addition, abortions outpaced births last year by more than 100,000. An estimated 10 million Russians of reproductive age are sterile because of botched abortions or poor health. The public health-care system is collapsing. And many parents in more prosperous urban areas say they cannot afford homes big enough for the number of children they would like to have.
The country has lost the equivalent of a city of 700,000 people every year since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, only partially offset by an influx of people from other former Soviet republics.

Sergei Mironov, chairman of the Upper House of the Russian Parliament, said last year that the population would fall to 52 million by 2080 if the trend did not change.
"There will no longer be a great Russia," he said. "It will be torn apart piece by piece and finally cease to exist."
There are serious questions about whether Russia will be able to hold on to its Far East lands along the border with China over the next century or field an army, let alone a workforce to support ill and elderly people.
US experts fear that a politically weak and physically unhealthy Russia could destabilise Europe, making it harder to fight so-called "terrorism" (i.e. Islam) and possibly opening the gates to a regional pandemic, The West Australian writes.

Model Muslims:

Can Islam and a fashion career mix?

BEFORE she became famous as the young woman arrested in Bali for possession of ecstasy, Michelle Leslie was one of thousands of young Australian girls trying to make it as a model. As part of her job, she posed in bikinis and underwear, and she once was photographed astride a motorbike baring her bottom.

Roslan, who was born and reared in Singapore, says her religion is important, but Muslim society in Singapore is not as strict. "There are a few models who are Muslim," she says. Roslan follows Muslim teaching, she fasts at Ramadan and prays at the mosque, "although not five times a day".
After her arrest Leslie adopted a more modest wardrobe. At one court appearance she wore a sarong over her head; at another, she adopted the full, black burka, the garment worn by the most devout (and the most oppressed) women in the Muslim world. Leslie's spokesman, Sean Mulcahy, says she converted to Islam at a private ceremony at a friend's house a year before she was arrested.
Yet Muslim commentators, including Australian Federation of Islamic Councils head Ameer Ali, say Leslie can't be Muslim and a model. "There's an Islamic code of dressing [that] says women must be modest," Ali says. "You can't go cat-walking with a semi-naked body. That is not allowed in Islam." But Leslie is not the world's only Muslim model; there are thousands working with the sanction of their parents and communities.
Source: [The Australian]

'Quranic fish' is recovered in Kenya

MOMBASA -- A fish with markings that resembled a Quranic text has been found by Kenyan officials after vanishing from the fisheries office where it was stored. The tuna fish, which had provoked intense interest from Muslims, had apparently been stolen by people posing as National Museum officials.
The fish was found at the shop where it had first come to public attention. The fish was being studied to find out if the Arabic inscription "You are the best provider" was natural or a hoax.
Sceptics say the writing was the work of someone who caught the fish and then threw it back into the sea. But others say this would be impossible, and local imams are said to have been talking in the mosques about the fish.
Source: [BBC]
Continue reading "'Quranic fish' is recovered in Kenya "

Pakistani Muslim mom wins Nickelodeon's 'Funniest mom' in USA

Rubi Nicholas's mouthful of a life became her comedy routine. She's a Pakistani Muslim with a Greek Orthodox, stay-at-home husband who converted to Islam. They live in a Denver suburb with their daughters. They fit in just fine. "Except," she says in her stand-up routine, "every time my daughter leaves her Barbie Jeep in someone else's driveway they call the bomb squad."
Ms. Nicholas's comic cocktail of culture clashes and motherhood has earned her the title of "Funniest Mom in America." The 36-year-old mother of two was chosen last night during the broadcast of the finale of a five-part reality series on Nickelodeon's Nick at Nite programming block, called "Nick at Nite's Search for the Funniest Mom in America 2."
As part of their victories, both Ms. Nicholas and last year's winner, Darlene Westgor, are $50,000 richer and talking with network executives about their own shows. "The modern mother, more than anyone, needs to keep a sense of humor," Ms. Nicholas said in a telephone interview, referring to all the books and television shows that take on the push-pull of career vs. domesticity, or the desire of families to swap mothers.
Source: [NY Times]

http://unite.blogcatalog.com/

Pakistan & India exchange proposals on JK, cross-CBMs

Islamabad, May 20: India and Pakistan today exchanged several proposals on Kashmir and cross Line of Control (LoC) Confidence-Building Measures (CBMs), including improving trade, and expressed determination to take effective action against terrorism.The two countries also came close to arriving at certain agreements, including on Sir Creek and Siachen, saying these two issues were solvable. The issues were discussed at the meeting between the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries here who reviewed the earlier four rounds of the Composite Dialogue Process (CDP) and prepared ground for the fifth round.

Fine Art of Blogging: Pakistan Blog Directory

Fine Art of Blogging: Pakistan Blog Directory

Renowned artist Iqbal Mehdi passed away in Rawalpindi on Monday 19th May after suffering from heart and liver diseases. His body was shifted from Rawalpindi to Karachi .

Mehdi belonged to Amroha, also the native place of John Eilia and Sadiqqeen. He migrated from Amroha in 1958 and later called his brother to Pakistan. His parents stayed behind in India. Mehdi faced hardships in the beginning because of meager resources. He joined Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Sabt Hasan’s magazine, “Lail wo Nehar,” and with the passage of time started winning appreciation for his paintings.“Iqbal Mehdi was not only my friend but my brother. He lived with me in my home and I, myself, settled the arrangements of his marriage. He did illustrations for my magazine, “Sab Rang,” and no amount was fixed between us. He remained with “Sab Rang” till 1974. He was a great man and we both saw the ups and downs of life together from his homes in Kharadar and North Nazimabad. He got married in 1970,” said Mehdi’s close friend, Shakeel Adilzada.

Globalization: Economics

The World Food Crisis

The only surprising thing about the global food crisis is the notion that anyone finds it surprising.

So they finally figured out, after all these years of pushing globalization and genetically modified [GM] seeds, that instead of feeding the world we've created a food system that leaves more people hungry. If they'd listened to farmers instead of corporations, they would've known this was going to happen.

The global movement of peasant and farm organizations that has been warning for years that "solutions" promoted by agribusiness conglomerates were designed to maximize corporate profits, not help farmers or feed people.The food shortages, suddenly front-page news, are not new. Hundreds of millions of people were starving and malnourished last year; the only change is that as the scope of the crisis has grown, it has become more difficult to "manage" the hunger that a failed food system accepts rather than feeds.

The only smart short-term response is to throw money at the problem. George W. Bush's release of $200 million in emergency aid to the UN's World Food Program was appropriate, but Washington must do more.

Pakistan: Dance - Yesterday & Today

‘Hamara Karachi Festival’ concert wins citizens’ hearts

A colourful musical concert under ‘Hamara Karachi Festival- 2008’ held at the sea beach here won the hearts of the citizens, who had rallied round in large numbers and enjoyed the musical soiree par excellence and declared it a treat indeed.This musical concert was a part of the string of ‘Hamara Karachi’ functions and celebrations under the aegis of ‘Hamara Karach’ Foundation, which have overtaken the city from May 10. Rahim Shah, Salim Javed, Naeem Abbas Rufi, Shazia Khusk and several other artists entertained the mammoth audience including young, old, women and children, who enjoyed to their hearts’ content the superb skills and talents of our city vocalists besides the singular performance of the renowned Band ‘Heart Beat’ coming from Britain.

Pakistan's Major Financials

Pakistani workers remit record $602m in March

Pakistani workers remitted a record amount of $602.21 million in March, 2008 against $520.24 million in the same month of the last year, showing a jump of $81.97 million or 15.76 per cent.The previous highest amount remitted in a single month by Pakistani workers was recorded in October 2007, when an amount of $580.24 million was received in the country.The inflow of remittances into Pakistan from almost all countries of the world increased last month, as compared to March 2007. According to the break up, remittances from USA, Saudi Arabia, UAE, GCC countries (including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman), UK and EU countries amounted to $151.95 million, $120.11 million, $111.74 million, $85.44 million, $41.98 million and $15.01 million respectively. While the corresponding receipts from the respective countries during March 2007, were $142.72 million, $92.69 million, $82.29 million, $70.43 million, $37.75 million and $12.88 million. Remittances received from Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japan and other countries during March, 2008 amounted to $75.84 million as compared to $81.13 million during March, 2007.Remittances sent home by overseas Pakistanis continues to show a rising trend, as an amount of $4,728.37 million was received in the first nine months i.e., July 2007-March 2008 of the current fiscal year, showing an increase of $791.60 million or 20.11 per cent over the same period of the last fiscal year. The amount of $4,728.37 million includes $2.15 million received through encashment, profit earned on Foreign Exchange Bearer Certificates (FEBCs) and Foreign Currency Bearer Certificates (FCBCs).The monthly average of remittances for the period July-March, 2007-08 comes out to $525.37 million, as compared to $437.42 million during the same corresponding period of the last fiscal year, registering an increase of 20.11 per cent.The inflow of remittances in the July-March, 2007-08 period from USA, Saudi Arabia, UAE, GCC countries (including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman), UK and EU countries amounted to $1,312.34 million, $881.95 million, $793.62 million, $704.27 million, $334.85 million and $131.13 million, respectively. As opposed to the inflow in the July-March, 2006-07 period which was $1,034.69 million, $733.48 million, $595.98 million, $538.29 million, $319.25 million and $110.38 million, respectively. Remittances received from Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japan and other countries during the first nine months of the current fiscal year amounted to $568.06 million as against $602.80 million in the same period last year.

Pakistan: Economy

Cement exports may rise as shortage persists in region

Cement exports from the country are still lucrative due to the commodity’s high demand and shortage in the region, especially in India and the UAE, placing Pakistan in a favourable position to further increase its exports, a report says.
According to latest data, cement sales increased by 24 per cent in 10 months (July-April) of fiscal year 2008. This growth has been primarily due to a 142 per cent jump in exports during the period.At present, neighboring India and the United Arab Emirates are the key export markets for Pakistani cement because of an unprecedented increase in their construction activities, brokerage house JS Research reported.
Indian authorities have been desperately trying to reduce local cement prices to ease rising inflation. For this purpose, they have in the past six months imported around 300,000 tons of cement from Pakistan and are planning to double it to 600,000 tons by June. Currently, India is facing a shortage of around 5 to 6 million tons per annum.
Cement demand in the UAE is likely to stay higher with an expected 23.5 per cent growth in construction activities this year. Moreover, with cement shortage of around 2.5 to 3.5 million tons in the UAE and export ban in major exporting countries like Egypt and India, Pakistan is poised to reap the benefits of regional shortages. Besides, the shortage of limestone in the Middle East is expected to keep cement production under pressure in the region.
Along with cement, clinker demand is rising in the UAE. As clinker price free on board (fob) from Pakistan is low at $64 to $66 per ton, it is quite cheap for the UAE importers.Cement prices in India have slightly come down after the government imposed a ban on exports. Prices, which averaged 243 to 247 Indian rupees per bag (Pak Rs374-380 per bag), have now eased by 3 to 7 Indian rupees (Pak Rs5-10) to Rs238 per bag (Pak Rs367 per bag).

Africa: US Dollar is still strong somewhere!

New $500,000,000 Note "For Your Convenience."

Zimbabwe's central bank has issued a new half billion dollar note as it tackles cash shortfalls due to the country's rampant inflation. The new note follows on the heels of a quarter billion dollar note released ten days ago.

With Zimbabwe's inflation rate running at a staggering 165,000 per cent in the wake of it's poll crisis, this is the fourth new high denomination note to be issued this year. No new inflation figures have been seen since February.

"Introducing the new 500,000,000 bearer cheque for your convenience," a full page Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe advertisement in the state daily newspaper reads. The new note is worth about $US2.45 and Pakistan Rupees 166.

The inflation rate in Zimbabwe reached 165,000 percent in February, the highest in the world. Since then no new inflation rates have been released.

Interesting to note that at the time of independence in 1980 the rates of Zimbabwe's currency were even higher than the US Dollars.

The new note, which should be enough to buy two loaves of bread, comes only ten days after the introduction of a quarter-of-a-billion note. The ongoing economic crisis in the southern African nation has lead to great food shortages with 80 percent of the people living beneath the poverty threshold.

Zimbabwe has just about the worst-performing economy in the world.

In Zimbabwe's case, the near-5,000% annual rate of inflation means that a loaf of bread bought today is about 50 times more expensive - in cash terms - than it was a year ago.

Remarks: Great! It's good to see the US Dollar is still strong somewhere!

Shining India: Food warning for Indian children

Food warning for Indian children

India has the worst indicators of child malnutrition in South Asia:Unicef

More than 1.5m children in India are at risk of becoming malnourished because of rising global food prices, the UN children's charity, Unicef, says.
It warns that food inflation could be devastating for vulnerable women and children right across South Asia.

The region already has the largest number of malnourished children in the world and levels could get even worse.
Even before the current crisis almost half of all Indian children showed signs of stunted growth, Unicef says.

According to Unicef's latest State of the World's Children's report, India has the worst indicators of child malnutrition in South Asia: 48% of under fives in India are stunted, compared to 43% in Bangladesh and 37% in Pakistan.

Meanwhile 30% of babies in India are born underweight, compared to 22% in Bangladesh and 19% in Pakistan. Unicef calculates that 40% of all underweight babies in the world are Indian.
Put all that in hard numbers and the figures are stark. Fifty million Indian under fives are affected by malnutrition. Rising food prices, Unicef says mean 1.5 to 1.8 million more children in India alone could end up malnourished.

Three hundred million Indians live on less than $1 a day, according to the UN.
Poor families who cannot afford rising food prices are having to save money where they can, and that also means spending less on healthcare and education.

My gut says at some point people will say enough is enough. If they can't feed themselves and their children it could be too much.

Dajjal: The Dark Messiah

A single eyed child born recently.

Is Dajjal Here?

In a Hadith narrated by Imran ibn Hussain radiyallahu anhum, the Prophet (peace & blessings be upon him) said, ‘Since the birth of Adam till the advent of Qiyaamah (Judgement Day) there is no fitnah (tribulation) much greater than that of Dajjal.’

(Muslim)In anyone’s book, Dajjal is the embodiment of evil. A wise man once said, ‘Know your enemies and keep them close to you. By knowing them, you know your weakness, thus neutralising their potency.’ There are many Hadith which describe Dajjal’s appearance, his height and his powers.

Those who obey the Dark Messiah will enter his Paradise (and thus enter Hell), and those who denounce him will enter his Hell (and so shall in reality be entering Paradise). He will travel by means of a gigantic mule, at impossible speeds. He will cause droughts and famine upon those who reject him. But the remembrance of the true Lord will satiate them.

‘Anti Christ in Christian Theology, the opponent of Christ. The appearance of the Anti Christ is believed to signal the Second Coming, at which Christ would conquer his opponent. The concept may stem from the idea of conflict between light and darkness, which is present in Persian, Babylon and Jewish literature and which influences early Christian Theology.’
(Hutchinsons Encyclopaedia)

Pakistan: Advertising

Coke launches Pakistan ad in India

The 30-second commercial, created for consumers in Pakistan and West Asia, is being aired in India during the DLF IPL Twenty20 matches. Taking the ‘Jashn Mana Le’ tagline of Coke across the border, leading soft-drink company Coca-Cola India is using a 30-second Pakistani Coke television commercial in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 matches. This will be a first for Coca-Cola India where a television commercial created by Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) Lahore for consumers in Pakistan and West Asian countries is also airing on the Indian telly-screens, but with a changed tagline.

Giving the rationale behind airing this commercial on Indian television screens, a Coke executive said: “The influence of cricket and Bollywood has crossed borders and has had an overwhelming impact on complex subjects like India-Pakistan relations. We felt that ads could also contribute to the positive feel generated by IPL cricket and cinema.”
Coca-Cola is one of the six associate sponsors of IPL and is estimated to shell out Rs 20-23 crore on IPL alone.

“Several Pakistani companies related to telecom, soaps, juices, butter etc shoot their television commercials in India but none of them have been used on Indian television. Therefore, this Pakistani Coke campaign may set a precedence for more international commercials to make a debut on the Indian telly-screens,” an advertising industry source said.

HSY Pakistan

HSY is an extremely popular South Asian fashion label started by Pakistani designer Hassan Sheheryar Yaseen in 2000. HSY currently houses its flagship studio in Lahore, with complimenting stores in Karachi, Manchester, Houston and Dubai. Future stores are planned to open in New York City and Toronto. HSY has certainly made his mark abroad now since his impressive beginnings in Pakistan. Current clientele include royal families in the Middle East, social elites in South Asia, and more recently, social elite from United States and Europe.

Hassan Shereryar has said that he wants the world to know that Pakistan is a moderate and progressive country. His clothing lines are progressive, tasteful but not daring.