Indian Military ready to fight
China and Pakistan
at the same time
Shimla-based Indian Army Training Command, headed by Lt-General A S Lamba is getting ready for something Indian Military never was ready before. Indian Air Force, Navy, and Army is ready to face Pakistan and China at the same time.
India’s 1.13-million strong Military is now panning to handle two major war fronts at the same time. India considers Pakistan and China as part of the same camp. India knows the next war will be between India and “Pakistan +China.” India will get indirect support from America and Russia, but Indian Military will have to fight the two war at the same time.
Indian Military has been training for the mini giant war against two nuclear powered nations at the same time. China has used Pakistan for a long time to keep India busy. Now time has come for India to recognize a massive threat from China and Pakistan at the same time.
The plan is a full thrust assault into multiple anomies at the same time with massive Air Force superiority. If attacked by Pakistan and china at the same time, India will launch self-contained and highly-mobile `battle groups'', with Russian-origin T-90S tanks and upgraded T-72 M1 tanks at their core, adequately backed by far superior air cover and artillery fire assaults, for rapid thrusts into enemy territory within 96 hours.
India plans to end the war decisively within the first 96 hours forcing the other sides into a fast submission of ceasefire.
People’s Liberation Army is aware of the capacities of Indian Army and Air Force. It will be exactly opposite of 1962 war. That is why they are busy building massive infrastructure in the Indian border areas especially in Aksai Chin and Tibet.
he real war in that scenario will be between India and China while Pakistan will be used by China to create adequate disturbance for Indian Military.
That is the reason why Lt-General A S Lamba of Indian Army is so keen a massive thrust into Rawalpindi to quiet Pakistanis within 48 hours of the start of assault.
India’s biggest advantage is the its software capabilities in integrating signal intelligence with ground intelligence. India will use algorithmic seek and scan technology to counter the Chinese threats in the North and possible Pakistani nuclear threat in the West.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Pakistan: Flashback 2009
Suicide blasts, Zardari’s future dominated Pakistan
Unending suicide attacks that have claimed close to 1,000 lives and anti-Taliban military operations dominated Pakistan in 2009, a year that raised question marks over the future of President Asif Ali Zardari.In the last three months of the year alone, some 600 people, mostly civilians, died in a series of blasts that rocked a vast region, from the restive North West Frontier Province (NWFP) to the country’s commercial capital Karachi.
In the most horrendous of these bombings, 177 people, including a large number of women and children, were killed Oct 28 in a suicide attack at a crowded market in Peshawar, the NWFP capital.
No major Pakistani city was immune to the terrorist rampage.
In the last quarter of the year, some 260 people were slaughtered in Peshawar, around 90 in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, 75 in Dera Ismail Khan in NWFP and 72 in Lahore. The year ended with a ghastly bombing of a Muharram procession in Karachi that left at least 25 dead.
Analysts say there is a pattern to the heightened violence in the closing months of the year. It is seen to be linked to the military’s anti-Taliban operations in the South Waziristan region along the Afghanistan border.
The operations began in the NWFP in April. Within six months, the military had managed to push the militants into their strongholds in South Waziristan. With the armed forces turning to this region in October, the suicide attacks were seen as a last desperate bid to stave off the military assault. The government estimates that close to 2,500 guerrillas have been killed in the two operations.
Even as Pakistan struggled to cope with the wave of killings, President Zardari ended 2009 facing the very real possibility of being jailed in the new year on corruption charges following the repeal of an amnesty against graft.
Should that happen, it would greatly strengthen Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and also see the return of Pakistan’s main opposition party to the ruling federal coalition.
Zardari, who has been engaged in a bitter power struggle with the prime minister, found the ground swept away from under his feet when the Supreme Court Dec 16 invalidated the 2007 National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO). The ordinance had granted immunity from corruption charges to his slain wife and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and he himself besides hundreds of politicians and bureaucrats, enabling many to return home from exile.
Unending suicide attacks that have claimed close to 1,000 lives and anti-Taliban military operations dominated Pakistan in 2009, a year that raised question marks over the future of President Asif Ali Zardari.In the last three months of the year alone, some 600 people, mostly civilians, died in a series of blasts that rocked a vast region, from the restive North West Frontier Province (NWFP) to the country’s commercial capital Karachi.
In the most horrendous of these bombings, 177 people, including a large number of women and children, were killed Oct 28 in a suicide attack at a crowded market in Peshawar, the NWFP capital.
No major Pakistani city was immune to the terrorist rampage.
In the last quarter of the year, some 260 people were slaughtered in Peshawar, around 90 in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, 75 in Dera Ismail Khan in NWFP and 72 in Lahore. The year ended with a ghastly bombing of a Muharram procession in Karachi that left at least 25 dead.
Analysts say there is a pattern to the heightened violence in the closing months of the year. It is seen to be linked to the military’s anti-Taliban operations in the South Waziristan region along the Afghanistan border.
The operations began in the NWFP in April. Within six months, the military had managed to push the militants into their strongholds in South Waziristan. With the armed forces turning to this region in October, the suicide attacks were seen as a last desperate bid to stave off the military assault. The government estimates that close to 2,500 guerrillas have been killed in the two operations.
Even as Pakistan struggled to cope with the wave of killings, President Zardari ended 2009 facing the very real possibility of being jailed in the new year on corruption charges following the repeal of an amnesty against graft.
Should that happen, it would greatly strengthen Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and also see the return of Pakistan’s main opposition party to the ruling federal coalition.
Zardari, who has been engaged in a bitter power struggle with the prime minister, found the ground swept away from under his feet when the Supreme Court Dec 16 invalidated the 2007 National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO). The ordinance had granted immunity from corruption charges to his slain wife and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and he himself besides hundreds of politicians and bureaucrats, enabling many to return home from exile.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Muharram holidays marred by blasts in Pakistan
Suicide bomber kills 30 at Pakistan Ashura parade
A suicide bomber on Monday struck Pakistan's largest procession of Shiite Muslims on the holiest day in their calendar, killing 20 people and wounding dozens more, defying a major security clampdown.
The blast unleashed pandemonium in one of the biggest boulevards in the Pakistani financial capital Karachi, where angry mourners threw stones and opened fire into the air, sparking appeals from the authorities for calm.
Pakistan had deployed tens of thousands of police and paramilitary forces, fearing sectarian clashes or militant bombings would target the Shiite faithful who whip themselves to mourn the seventh-century killing of Imam Hussein.
"It was a suicide attack. He was walking with the procession and he blew himself up," Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik told private television, appealing on the Shiite community to suspend their commemorations.
Ambulances raced through the streets, ferrying the casualties to hospitals, where state television said medics declared a state of emergency.
In Karachi, the capital of Sindh, more than 50,000 Shiites had poured into the streets to march dressed in black, or beat their naked torsos with chains and slice their skin with knives.
Sectarian violence periodically flares in Pakistan between Shiites, who beat and whip themselves in religious fervour at Ashura, and the country's majority Sunnis, who oppose the public display of grief.
Security has plummeted over the last two and a half years in Pakistan, where militant attacks have killed more than 2,700 people since July 2007 and Washington has put the country on the frontline of its war on Al-Qaeda.
Shiites account for about 20 percent of Pakistan's mostly Sunni Muslim population of 167 million. More than 4,000 people have died in outbreaks of sectarian violence in Pakistan since the late 1980s.
Reciting elegies and hymns, participants carried black banners and marched behind replicas of Imam Hussein's tomb in Iraq, whipping their backs to commemorate his killing by armies of the caliph Yazid in 680.
A suicide bomber on Monday struck Pakistan's largest procession of Shiite Muslims on the holiest day in their calendar, killing 20 people and wounding dozens more, defying a major security clampdown.
The blast unleashed pandemonium in one of the biggest boulevards in the Pakistani financial capital Karachi, where angry mourners threw stones and opened fire into the air, sparking appeals from the authorities for calm.
Pakistan had deployed tens of thousands of police and paramilitary forces, fearing sectarian clashes or militant bombings would target the Shiite faithful who whip themselves to mourn the seventh-century killing of Imam Hussein.
"It was a suicide attack. He was walking with the procession and he blew himself up," Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik told private television, appealing on the Shiite community to suspend their commemorations.
Ambulances raced through the streets, ferrying the casualties to hospitals, where state television said medics declared a state of emergency.
In Karachi, the capital of Sindh, more than 50,000 Shiites had poured into the streets to march dressed in black, or beat their naked torsos with chains and slice their skin with knives.
Sectarian violence periodically flares in Pakistan between Shiites, who beat and whip themselves in religious fervour at Ashura, and the country's majority Sunnis, who oppose the public display of grief.
Security has plummeted over the last two and a half years in Pakistan, where militant attacks have killed more than 2,700 people since July 2007 and Washington has put the country on the frontline of its war on Al-Qaeda.
Shiites account for about 20 percent of Pakistan's mostly Sunni Muslim population of 167 million. More than 4,000 people have died in outbreaks of sectarian violence in Pakistan since the late 1980s.
Reciting elegies and hymns, participants carried black banners and marched behind replicas of Imam Hussein's tomb in Iraq, whipping their backs to commemorate his killing by armies of the caliph Yazid in 680.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Thousands of people, including top PPP leadership and workers have reached Garhi Khuda Bux village, Sindh to observe second death anniversary of their beloved leader and former prime minister Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Shaheed.The death anniversary on Sunday is being observed with simplicity in reverence to the Ashura of Muharram-ul-Haram, when Muslims mourn incident of Karbala.Thus, this year the nation is observing Karbala and Liaqat Bagh incidents together. Briefing about schedule of the ceremonies, a senior PPP leader told this news agency that recitation from the Holy Quran will be held in divisional headquarters of all the four provinces, besides Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu Kashmir and the federal capital.Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, his two sons and daughter were assassinated by the anti-democracy forces, however, their legacy still continues to rule the hearts and minds of hundreds and millions of people across the globe, especially Pakistan.
Ghalib 213th birth anniversary today
The 213th birth anniversary of one of the legendry poet of Urdu and Persian literature, ‘Asadullah Khan Ghalib’ is being observed by the diaspora community today 27th December.
Using a pen name of ‘Ghalib’ and ‘Asad’ (former pen-name), Mirza Assadullah Khan Ghalib was born on 27 December 1797 and died at the age of 72 on 15 February 1869, was a classical Urdu and Persian poet from India during British colonial rule.
Using a pen name of ‘Ghalib’ and ‘Asad’ (former pen-name), Mirza Assadullah Khan Ghalib was born on 27 December 1797 and died at the age of 72 on 15 February 1869, was a classical Urdu and Persian poet from India during British colonial rule.
During his lifetime the Mughals were eclipsed and displaced by the British and finally deposed following the defeat of the Indian rebellion of 1857, events that he wrote of.
Most notably, he wrote several ghazals during his life, which have since been interpreted and sung in many different ways by different people. He is considered, in South Asia, to be the one of the most popular and influential poets of the Urdu language. Ghalib today remains popular amongst Urdu speakers not only in India and Pakistan but also amongst diaspora communities around the world.
He never worked for a livelihood, lived on either state patronage, credit or the generosity of his friends. His fame came to him posthumously. He had himself remarked during his lifetime that although his age had ignored his greatness, it would be recognized by later generations.
Most notably, he wrote several ghazals during his life, which have since been interpreted and sung in many different ways by different people. He is considered, in South Asia, to be the one of the most popular and influential poets of the Urdu language. Ghalib today remains popular amongst Urdu speakers not only in India and Pakistan but also amongst diaspora communities around the world.
He never worked for a livelihood, lived on either state patronage, credit or the generosity of his friends. His fame came to him posthumously. He had himself remarked during his lifetime that although his age had ignored his greatness, it would be recognized by later generations.
Parveen Shakir's death anniversary observed
The 15th death anniversary of noted poetess Parveen Shakir observed on Saturday 26th December.
Parveen Shakir Trust organised Quran Khawani here on this occasion for the departed soul.
Prominent literary figures will also lay floral wreaths on the grave of late poetess.
It may be recalled that Parveen Shakir, 42, was killed in a road accident on December 26, in 1994.
Born on November 24, 1952 in Karachi, she was a noted Urdu poetess, teacher and a civil servant. She did her master in English Literature and Linguistics from Karachi University.
She was a professor at Karachi University and Trinity College, Connecticut, USA, for 9 years before joining the Civil Service, where she served in the Customs department. In 1986, she was appointed second secretary, CBR in Islamabad.
Parveen Shakir Trust organised Quran Khawani here on this occasion for the departed soul.
Prominent literary figures will also lay floral wreaths on the grave of late poetess.
It may be recalled that Parveen Shakir, 42, was killed in a road accident on December 26, in 1994.
Born on November 24, 1952 in Karachi, she was a noted Urdu poetess, teacher and a civil servant. She did her master in English Literature and Linguistics from Karachi University.
She was a professor at Karachi University and Trinity College, Connecticut, USA, for 9 years before joining the Civil Service, where she served in the Customs department. In 1986, she was appointed second secretary, CBR in Islamabad.
In 1990, she taught at Trinity College, Connecticut, USA, and then did her masters in public administration at Harvard University in 1991.
She married Naseer Ali, a doctor by profession, whom she later divorced. She is survived by her son, Syed Murad Ali. Her unique honour was that when she appeared in the Central Superior Services Examination in 1982 there was a question on her poetry in the Urdu examination.
Her poetry was a breath of fresh air in Urdu poetry. She used the first person feminine pronoun, which is rarely used in Urdu poetry even by female poets. The feminine perspective of love and the associated social problems were her theme. Critics compare her poetry to that of Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad.
Her first book, Khushboo, won the Adamjee Award. Later she was awarded the Pride of Performance.
Upon her death, the Parveen Shakir Trust was established by her close friend, Parveen Qadir Agha. The Parveen Shakir Trust organizes a yearly function and gives out the "Aks-e-Khushbo" award.
She married Naseer Ali, a doctor by profession, whom she later divorced. She is survived by her son, Syed Murad Ali. Her unique honour was that when she appeared in the Central Superior Services Examination in 1982 there was a question on her poetry in the Urdu examination.
Her poetry was a breath of fresh air in Urdu poetry. She used the first person feminine pronoun, which is rarely used in Urdu poetry even by female poets. The feminine perspective of love and the associated social problems were her theme. Critics compare her poetry to that of Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad.
Her first book, Khushboo, won the Adamjee Award. Later she was awarded the Pride of Performance.
Upon her death, the Parveen Shakir Trust was established by her close friend, Parveen Qadir Agha. The Parveen Shakir Trust organizes a yearly function and gives out the "Aks-e-Khushbo" award.
Musharraf denies writing off loans of influentials
Former president Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf has denied writing off loans of any affluent or influential individual.
However, answering questions on Facebook on Saturday, he said he had written off loans of those affected by natural disasters in Balochistan and Sindh in 2000, victims of the 2005 earthquake and the 2006 floods, and as part of an agriculture reforms package for the poor.
Musharraf also denied charges of handing over Pakistanis to the US or any other country for interrogation. He said those taken into custody by the US were captured in Afghanistan. “Our policy was clear: Pakistanis will be tried in Pakistan whereas foreigners will be handed over to their own countries first and in case of refusal (which was invariably the case), will be handed over to the US.”
To a question on his return to Pakistan, Musharraf said he would surely come back. “The timing, however, is of the essence,” he remarked.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Quran and Sunnah Propagation
O you who believe! Be careful of your duty to Allah, and be with the truthful(Qur'an: Chapter 9, Verse 119)
Misconceptions Explained
Dr. Shahid Athar M.D.
World renowned Sunni Scholar
In the interest of Islamic unity, I must deal with the questions rather than shun them. Please note that Imam Jafar (peace be upon him), founder of the Shia school of law, was the teacher of Imam Abu-Hanifa (peace be upon him).
Misconception #1: Shias have a different Quran. They add another 10 chapters to the original Quran.
Response: Not true. I have checked many times Quran kept in Shia homes and mosques. I still find it the same as the original Quran. More recently, I took care of an Iranian lady patient hospitalized here. I saw a copy of the Quran by her side. I borrowed it from her and browsed through cover-to-cover. In Arabic it was the same as our Quran. Of course, since I did not know the Persian language, I can't say much about the translation. It is a sin to even say that the Quran can be changed or added to by Shia when God protects it.
Misconception #2: Some Shia considers Ali as God.
Response: Not true. It is disbelief to even think of such a thing. During the time of Ali, some pagan groups called Gholat did consider Ali as Lord. When he found out, they were burned to death.
Misconception #3: Shias have different declarations of faith and they add to the call to prescribed prayer.
Response: The declaration to become a Muslim, as administered to non-Muslims, is the same. Some Shia add to themselves, "Ali is a friend of God (PBUH) or Ali is a spiritual leader of God," after the call to prescribed prayer, but not as part of the call to prescribed prayer.
Misconception #4: Shias do not perform Sunnah prayers. Sunnah prayers are non-obligatory prayers performed by Prophet Muhammad.
Response: Shias do perform non-obligatory prayers, 36 cycles per day in total, but call it Nawafil and not Sunnah.
Misconception #5: Some Shia believes the Angel Gabriel made a mistake and prophet hood was meant for Ali and not Muhammad (PBUH).
Response: Not true. No Shia thinks of such false claims. "Only demented minds think of such questions."
Misconception #6: Shias slander and ridicule the first three caliphs (Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman) and Prophet Muhammad's wife, Ayisha.
Response: Shia considers the first three caliphs as companions and administrators, but not spiritual leaders (Imams). Imam Jafar Sadiq, whose mother and grandmother came from the line of Abu Bakr, said of Abu Bakr, "He gave me birth twice." Ayisha is respected by Shias as the"Mother of Believers," as Ali respected her when he sent her back from
Misconception # 7: Shias combine all five prayers into one prayer in the evening.
Response: Not true. In Shia mosques, whether in
Misconception # 8: Shias do not pay zakat (poor-due).
Response: Not true. They not only pay 2.5% left over from savings as zakat, but also an additional 20% as Khums or general charity. However, they prefer to pay directly to the needy rather than corrupt Sunni government.
Misconception #9: Shias practice temporary marriages (Mutah).
Response: Mutah (temporary marriages) was allowed during the time of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and he himself practiced it. Ibn Zubayr was born out of the temporary marriage. Later on Caliph Umar prohibited it due to social reasons as the Islamic world was rapidly expanding. Shias discourage Mutah but do not consider it prohibited. Some do abuse this. As a temporary privilege during travel, it is better than adultery. For more details please click to see...
Misconception #10: They consider Imams infallible and above the Prophets.
Response: Not true. All prophets are born Prophet but as mentioned in Quran about Abraham that after passing the test, a prophet becomes a leader (Imam). Muhammad (PBUH) is the Prophet (Nabi), Messenger (Rasul) and leader (Imam). Imams are carriers of the message of Islam. Shias consider Ali only as an Imam and not prophet.
With the little knowledge I have, I have tried to do my best as a Sunni in defending my Shia brothers in Islam with the hope and prayer to God Almighty that He will "instill love in the heart of the believers" and bring us closer to each other so that we jointly can fight our common enemy, Satan and his followers.
May God forgive my mistakes in this article and this book (Amin).
"Knowledge is better than wealth because it protects you while you have to guard wealth. It decreases if you keep on spending it but the more you make use of knowledge, the more it increases. What you get through wealth disappears as soon as wealth disappears but what you achieve through knowledge will remain even after you."
Dr. Shahid Athar M.D. is Clinical Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Endocrinology, Indiana University School of Medicine Indianapolis, Indiana, and a writer on Islam.
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Thursday, December 24, 2009
‘Jinnah is the most misunderstood leader’
Political scientist and chairman Pakistan Study Centre, University of Karachi, Dr Syed Jaffar Ahmed believes that the Founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam, Mohammad Ali Jinnah was in some ways greater than Mustafa Kemal Attaturk but at the same time he was also the most misunderstood leader.“As a
student of contemporary world history, I would say Jinnah was the biggest Muslim leader in the 20th century. In certain respects I would put him ahead of Attaturk because he achieved his goal through political means while Attaturk had to rely on the army for the realisation of a republican Turkey,” he told The News on the eve of the birth anniversary of Jinnah.“I also consider Jinnah to be the most misunderstood leader Muslims ever produced,” he said.“He was someone who employed modern political ideas and creatively applied them to the Indian situation. He involved the modern concept of nations’ rights of self-determination for ensuring Indian Muslims legal and political rights but since he had to invoke the idea of Muslim separation and Muslim nationalism for this purpose, the Ulema and almost all Muslim religious groups of India opposed him because they thought religion did not constitute an adequate basis of nationalism,” he said.“They (religious groups), therefore, opposed the creation of Pakistan but once the country was established, they claimed a role for themselves in it on the assertion that in Pakistan’s creation the name of Islam was used,” he explained.“The authoritarian and undemocratic regimes of Pakistan, particularly the military juntas of Ayub, Yahya and Ziaul Haq used religious groups and deliberately distorted Pakistan’s actual perception of Pakistan. Jinnah never wanted the country to be a theocracy or so-called religious state in which the clergy and the puritans would have the veto powers in affairs of state craft. Jinnah wanted Pakistan to be a secular, modern state,” said Dr Ahmed.Dr Ahmed pointed out that in a speech in Chittagong after the creation of Pakistan; Jinnah also used the term “Islamic socialism” as the social ideal he would have liked to follow.“He believed in provincial autonomy and a genuine parliamentary system in which the executive should be answerable to the legislature. Never in the wildest of his dreams would have Jinnah believed that the country he was creating would see recurrence of military rule,” said Dr Ahmed.“While speaking to the officers of Quetta Cantonment he in fact referred to the oath of the military and asked the officers not to forget that they are servants of the State and were bound to follow the orders of the civilian government,” Dr Ahmed explained.“If Jinnah visits Pakistan today, he might not recognise it to be the country he once created,” he said.After the untimely death of Jinnah in 1948, the civil and military bureaucracy started asserting itself and ultimately grabbed power through demagogy and deceit.“The accelerated pace of promotion can be demonstrated by the fact that that the first Pakistan’s C-in-C of the Pakistan Army (Mohammad Ayub Khan) was promoted from the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel to that of General in a period of less than four years,” writes eminent defence analyst and scholar Dr Hasan Askari-Rizvi in his book “The Military and Politics in Pakistan”.“Pakistan had seven prime ministers and eight cabinets during 1947-58. They belonged to different political parties and bitterly criticized each other’s policies but all of them attached equal importance to the maintenance of strong armed forces,” according to Dr Hasan Askari-Rizvi.“Jinnah’s vision was to create a modern, democratic political system that derived ethical inspirations from the teachings and principles of Islam. He strongly believed in constitutionalism, civil and political rights, the rule of law and equal citizenship irrespective of religion, caste, region or gender,” Dr Hasan Askari-Rizvi told The News.“The military establishment undermined and subverted the democratic process and the clergy diverted the attention from the principles of Jinnah by working for a religious state rather than a democratic state. Gen Ziaul Haq was the first ruler of Pakistan who used state apparatus to implement orthodox vision of a political system that negated Jinnah’s notion of Pakistan,” he elaborated.
Political scientist and chairman Pakistan Study Centre, University of Karachi, Dr Syed Jaffar Ahmed believes that the Founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam, Mohammad Ali Jinnah was in some ways greater than Mustafa Kemal Attaturk but at the same time he was also the most misunderstood leader.“As a
student of contemporary world history, I would say Jinnah was the biggest Muslim leader in the 20th century. In certain respects I would put him ahead of Attaturk because he achieved his goal through political means while Attaturk had to rely on the army for the realisation of a republican Turkey,” he told The News on the eve of the birth anniversary of Jinnah.“I also consider Jinnah to be the most misunderstood leader Muslims ever produced,” he said.“He was someone who employed modern political ideas and creatively applied them to the Indian situation. He involved the modern concept of nations’ rights of self-determination for ensuring Indian Muslims legal and political rights but since he had to invoke the idea of Muslim separation and Muslim nationalism for this purpose, the Ulema and almost all Muslim religious groups of India opposed him because they thought religion did not constitute an adequate basis of nationalism,” he said.“They (religious groups), therefore, opposed the creation of Pakistan but once the country was established, they claimed a role for themselves in it on the assertion that in Pakistan’s creation the name of Islam was used,” he explained.“The authoritarian and undemocratic regimes of Pakistan, particularly the military juntas of Ayub, Yahya and Ziaul Haq used religious groups and deliberately distorted Pakistan’s actual perception of Pakistan. Jinnah never wanted the country to be a theocracy or so-called religious state in which the clergy and the puritans would have the veto powers in affairs of state craft. Jinnah wanted Pakistan to be a secular, modern state,” said Dr Ahmed.Dr Ahmed pointed out that in a speech in Chittagong after the creation of Pakistan; Jinnah also used the term “Islamic socialism” as the social ideal he would have liked to follow.“He believed in provincial autonomy and a genuine parliamentary system in which the executive should be answerable to the legislature. Never in the wildest of his dreams would have Jinnah believed that the country he was creating would see recurrence of military rule,” said Dr Ahmed.“While speaking to the officers of Quetta Cantonment he in fact referred to the oath of the military and asked the officers not to forget that they are servants of the State and were bound to follow the orders of the civilian government,” Dr Ahmed explained.“If Jinnah visits Pakistan today, he might not recognise it to be the country he once created,” he said.After the untimely death of Jinnah in 1948, the civil and military bureaucracy started asserting itself and ultimately grabbed power through demagogy and deceit.“The accelerated pace of promotion can be demonstrated by the fact that that the first Pakistan’s C-in-C of the Pakistan Army (Mohammad Ayub Khan) was promoted from the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel to that of General in a period of less than four years,” writes eminent defence analyst and scholar Dr Hasan Askari-Rizvi in his book “The Military and Politics in Pakistan”.“Pakistan had seven prime ministers and eight cabinets during 1947-58. They belonged to different political parties and bitterly criticized each other’s policies but all of them attached equal importance to the maintenance of strong armed forces,” according to Dr Hasan Askari-Rizvi.“Jinnah’s vision was to create a modern, democratic political system that derived ethical inspirations from the teachings and principles of Islam. He strongly believed in constitutionalism, civil and political rights, the rule of law and equal citizenship irrespective of religion, caste, region or gender,” Dr Hasan Askari-Rizvi told The News.“The military establishment undermined and subverted the democratic process and the clergy diverted the attention from the principles of Jinnah by working for a religious state rather than a democratic state. Gen Ziaul Haq was the first ruler of Pakistan who used state apparatus to implement orthodox vision of a political system that negated Jinnah’s notion of Pakistan,” he elaborated.Wednesday, December 23, 2009
| Pakistan may face new Jihad, this time on Internet The detention in Pakistan of Americans seeking to contact militants and join holy war through the Internet suggests the country may need more than security crackdowns to contain threats from an insurgency. The five men, students in their 20s from northern Virginia, were detained this week in the city of Sargodha in Punjab province, 190 km (120 miles) southeast of Islamabad, security officials said. The suspects were being investigated for possible links to a Pakistan-based group suspected of carrying out high-profile attacks and with links to the Taliban and al Qaeda. Laptops, cellphones and maps of Pakistani cities were seized from them. 'It's a very difficult job to dismantle such networks which operate through the Internet. Their mode of communication was the Internet and email. All five and their contacts were using the same password and just putting their messages in draft and weren't sending them,' said a Pakistani security official. 'It's very difficult to detect them. If the FBI could not detect these types of messages, how can we? It's not an easy job.' The possibility of having to track down militant networks on the Internet could not have come at a worse time for Pakistan. It is already struggling against militants who seem to carry out bombings at will, killing hundreds since October and raising questions over the stability of the nuclear-armed country. Islamabad also faces mounting pressure from Washington to root out militants that cross the border to attack US-led troops in Afghanistan. Radicalisation starts thousands of miles away from the strategic region. Some security officials say the Americans had intended to go fight in Afghanistan. Two were of Pakistani origin. Officials said one of the Americans was of Egyptian origin, one of Yemeni origin and another of Eritrean origin, illustrating how the Internet can spread militant networks across continents, undetected. If young men are leaning towards leaving behind the West to seek jihad, the Internet offers a variety of videos, made by some of the world's deadliest militant groups, to help them decide. Cost-free indoctrination by the Taliban and al Qaeda is readily available on sites such as You Tube, which one official said was used by the five Americans to try and contact militants. Videos romanticise what could be a violent future. Militants jump through fire rings, climb obstacles and open fire with assault rifles to train for 'martyrdom'. Video clips often lead to images of aircraft crashing into the World Trade Center. Militants will smile in the face of death, viewers are told. NEW RECRUITMENT STRATEGY The suspects were being investigated for links with the banned Jaish-e-Mohammad group. Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad has links with al Qaeda and the Taliban. It was suspected of involvement in attacks including the murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002 and an assassination attempt on former president Pervez Musharraf. Ahmed Rashid, author of a book on Pakistan called 'Descent Into Chaos' and an expert on the Taliban, said the case of the Americans pointed to a 'huge new development as far as terrorism is concerned'. 'Obviously al Qaeda, these groups, have determined that it's too dangerous for American citizens to attack America. They will be discovered too soon. So it's much easier that they come out here and use their bodies here,' he told Reuters. 'This is a new recruitment strategy. A few years ago these people would have been used as sleeper cells in the United States, or to lay low or to carry out terrorist attacks in the United States. They are not being used for that anymore.' Pakistani television stations showed photographs of the detained Americans. There were no hints of the fiery emotions which have driven others to blow themselves up at Pakistan's markets or police stations, and recently, near the country's strategic military headquarters, ringing alarm bells. Pervez Hoodhbhoy, a Pakistani nuclear physics professor and writer on social and political issues, has seen the fury that drives men to take up violent causes during his meetings with members of the Pakistani community in the United States. He says clamping down on militant networks on the Internet could be impossible for any government. But Hoodhbhoy emphasised that Pakistan's policy of trying to modernise religious schools, some of which are seen as breeding grounds for extremism, may make the job more difficult. 'The government put these computers and Internet into the madrasas as part of its reform package. The hope was that this would modernise the madrasas,' said Hoodhbhoy, who has been called a traitor by militants on the Internet and received death threats. 'In fact, it has given them means of networking with jihadist groups across the world.' |
MUSLIM WORLD: Barbie's 50th anniversary Islamic makeover
Yet again, the problem with this:- calling it “Islamic” and/ or “Islamic fashion” leads to a false image of what Islamic clothing is. There is no Islamic fashion or Islamic dress. This is another case of confusing religion with culture, and not allowing it to be de-linked. Burka, while traditional in certain regions of the world, is not something that symbolizes Islam, a religion that spreads around the globe and includes many elasticities. This is not to say that burqa should be dismissed. Rather, it is a cultural aspect of many societies, worn by many women out of choice rather than force. What I have a problem with is the labeling- by calling it “Islamic fashion” only enforces stereotypes of Muslim women to be one-dimentional.
Yet again, the problem with this:- calling it “Islamic” and/ or “Islamic fashion” leads to a false image of what Islamic clothing is. There is no Islamic fashion or Islamic dress. This is another case of confusing religion with culture, and not allowing it to be de-linked. Burka, while traditional in certain regions of the world, is not something that symbolizes Islam, a religion that spreads around the globe and includes many elasticities. This is not to say that burqa should be dismissed. Rather, it is a cultural aspect of many societies, worn by many women out of choice rather than force. What I have a problem with is the labeling- by calling it “Islamic fashion” only enforces stereotypes of Muslim women to be one-dimentional.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Pakistan unrest among top global humanitarian crises
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has termed the humanitarian crises triggered by clashes between Pakistan’s security forces and the militant groups in the North West Frontier Province and tribal areas as one of the top international issues during 2009. The MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, provides health facilities to the deserving across the globe on humanitarian basis. It mentioned Pakistan in its list of top 10 humanitarian crises during 2009. The list reflects MSF’s operational experience for the outgoing year, said Pascale Zintzen, communication advisor to MSF for Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has termed the humanitarian crises triggered by clashes between Pakistan’s security forces and the militant groups in the North West Frontier Province and tribal areas as one of the top international issues during 2009. The MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, provides health facilities to the deserving across the globe on humanitarian basis. It mentioned Pakistan in its list of top 10 humanitarian crises during 2009. The list reflects MSF’s operational experience for the outgoing year, said Pascale Zintzen, communication advisor to MSF for Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Taqwacore: The birth
of Punk Islam
It is not often that fictional books result in social transformations. Harvard graduate, writer, and Muslim convert Michael Muhammad Knight did just that with his controversial 2005 book, 'The Taqwacores'. Set in New York, the book is about a fictional group of Muslims all living together in a house which includes homosexuals, alcoholics, adulterers, a burqa-clad girl with a colourful tongue, and even a character that longs for the traditional practice of Islam in the house. By marrying the Islamic concept of taqwa – the individual’s spiritual connection with God – with the hardcore punk scene that reverberated across America in the 1970s, Knight coined the portmanteau term ‘Taqwacore.’
In modern-day America, the Muslim youth find it hard to reconcile their faith with the progressive and secular demands of American culture. But Knight also felt disillusioned with Islam after finding he wasn’t made to feel equal, accepted, or even welcome by fellow mainstream Sunnis who were only too happy to point out his flaws and tell him what he ought to do. 'The Taqwacores' was thus originally meant to be Knight’s swansong to Islam. But he soon discovered there could be no parting of ways: he could never walk away from Islam or, to be specific, his understanding and experience of Islam.
To read full article, click Here .
How Does the World’s 1.5 Billion Muslims Relate to Climate Change?
ne out of every 4 human beings on this planet is a Muslim. As such, are members of this planet’s largest religious group doing enough to combat the growing problems of global warming and climate change?
Much of the world’s known petroleum reserves are located in or off-shore from Muslim dominated countries in South Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East. Overgrazing and other environmentally damaging agricultural practices in many of these countries are resulting in “desertification,” a term that not only refers to the abuse of once fertile pasture land, causing it to become arid or desert-like, but also the expansion of existing deserts – especially in North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and in many parts of Asia as well.
Soon after the beginning of the just completed COP 15 climate change conference in Copenhagen, an article appeared in a Canadian Islamic web blog, Muslim Presence.com by the author, Dr. Hind Al-Abadleh , an assistant professor of Chemistry at Wilfrid Laurier University, and who teaches courses in Environmental Chemistry, dealing with the relationship between Islamic religious teaching and the preservation of the environment – particularly in regards to climate change. Professor Al-Abadleh asked the following question: “With all the science behind climate change, is there room for religion to say anything about it?”
Within the course of her article, Professor Al-Abadleh covered religious teachings that covered the relationship between mankind and natured noted that “one has to understand the type of knowledge that scientific studies are providing regarding the contribution of human activities to climate change, and the religious teachings that shed light on the relationship between humans and the natural world.”
As a scientist, Professor Al-Abadleh notes that many scientists believe that climate change is being caused by an over abundance of carbon dioxide that leads to the formation of “greenhouse gases” which are composed of natural gas and methane, ozone, chlorofluorocarbons and nitrous oxide which causes the extra warming, which raise temperatures and causes climate change.
She went on to say that while only about 4% of total CO2 amounts are caused by humans, the annual increase of these gases have resulted in increases in surface temperatures much higher than “natural” temperature increases which amount to only around 0.5 degrees C every 1,000 years.
The irresponsible manner in which humans are disturbing the natural aspect of climate patterns has a strong connection with religion, according to Prof. Al-Abadleh, and to back up her ideas, she notes passages from the Quran that relate to the responsibility that God (Allah) gave to Mankind in regards to taking care of the earth including perhaps the most noteworthy one: It is He (God) who has made you (people of Adam) the successors, stewards, vicegerents on the Earth”.
While the western world is largely responsible for much of the pollution and greenhouse gases that are said to be contributing to global warming, there is much that the Muslim world can do to lesson its contribution to greenhouse gases, especially countries like Malaysia and Indonesia, where more that 80% of natural rainforests have been destroyed; much of it by slash and burn land clearing methods to plant crops such as palm trees for making palm oil.
There is still much that the Muslim World can do, however, to show that its large portion of humanity can unite and help reverse the effects of global warming and climate change. The apparent disconcert by many Muslims was evident when one of our reporters met up with some OPEC delegates at the COP 15 conference in Copenhagen.
As a part of the world from whence half of all petroleum production comes from, the World Islamic Community should do more to heed the words written in it’s most holy religious work – the Quran: “Corruption has flourished on land and sea as a result of people’s actions and He will make them taste the consequences of some of their own actions so that they may turn back” (Quran 30:41).
Saturday, December 19, 2009
‘Dissident’ ulema rushed to hospital after eating halwa
ISLAMABAD: Nine clerics were hospitalised on Thursday after they ate ‘poisoned’ halwa. According to details, some clerics decided to boycott the Ulema and Mashaikh Conference, saying they did not endorse the government’s stance on terrorism, jihad, drone attacks and the Taliban. They had gathered at Abdul Ghafoor Haideri’s residence to discuss the conference. The guests were served the halwa when Ruet-e-Hilal Committee Chairman Mufti Muneebur Rehman reached Haideri’s residence to take the “dissidents” into confidence over the draft declaration. All of them immediately fell sick, however, Mufti Muneeb left the premises and fell unconscious when he reached the conference. Meanwhile, according to hospital sources, the clerics are said to be in stable condition.
Will There Always Be a Pakistan?
As another 30,000 U.S. troops get set to deploy to war, most everyone in the White House and the Pentagon knows that the success of their mission won’t only be determined in Afghanistan. The most important battle is in fact next door in Pakistan, a country that, even more than Afghanistan, risks not just failure but utter collapse. The nuclear neighbor has become a haven for Taliban and al Qaeda fighters, and its powerful military has been reluctant to take them on. Even when it has, its clumsy, heavy-handed tactics have displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians. All the while, the elected government of President Asif Ali Zardari has only grown weaker.
But here’s the really bad news. Pakistan’s military -- the lynchpin keeping the chaotic whole together -- isn’t getting stronger. It’s threatening to fracture from within. And today’s fractures may well turn into tomorrow’s chaos. Back in the mid-19th century, the British set out to create a secular, professional Indian army that would neutralize warring ethnic groups and tribes. Pakistan was part of India then, and its army remained secular after the partition in 1947. Officer clubs served liquor. Religion and ethnicity were not proper subjects of discussion. Muslim society was something that existed outside the military. Pakistan’s generals looked to standardized testing and merit-based promotion, drawing on modernity, not Islam, as a model for their professional army.
When Gen. Muhammed Zia ul-Haq overthrew Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1977, he had other ideas. Zia assumed the presidency in 1978 while still chief of staff of the Army -- a position from which he encouraged greater religiosity in Pakistan’s armed forces as part of his broader Islamization of the state. Suddenly, military leaders were keeping tabs on which sects of Islam their soldiers belonged to. Members of radical Deoband and Wahhabi sects infused the military education system. Drinking at military clubs was forbidden, with a predictably chilling effect on camaraderie. Prayers once thought optional were strongly encouraged.
Some of this was merely a product of the times; Zia’s opposition to the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan, for instance, was largely predicated on the religious fervor of the Afghan resistance. But Zia’s Islamizing policies within the Army were more deliberate. Whether motivated by piety or political calculation, he reopened the fissures within the contemporary Pakistani military that British colonial policy had never wholly succeeded in papering over. Indeed, when Zia died in a 1988 plane crash, the Islamization of the military and its most powerful spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), continued. By the time Pervez Musharraf tried to return the military to its more secular roots as Army chief of staff, the trend was already too strong to reverse.
In 1999, Musharraf removed from power Nawaz Sharif, who had been re-elected to a second term as prime minister. His coup reinforced Pakistan’s history as a military-run state, and 10 years later, the risk of a coup still looms. Meanwhile, the wave of officers who were recruited during Zia’s Islamizing years is moving into the leadership ranks. The youngest of them are now field-grade officers. Signs are emerging that this is far from a unified military, with widening splits between secular and religious officers as well as problems among different Islamic sects. With official encouragement, for example, some Sunni officers have decided to grow out their beards, while Shiite officers are markedly absent from Sunni-led prayers.
In Pakistan, all this means more than just a troubled fighting force. The Army is rightly seen as the country’s strongest institution -- the glue that holds the state together. Though not officially in power, the military has a strong hold over the civilian government and retains de facto veto power over much that gets done. If infighting weakens or shatters the military’s cohesion, the implications for the future of the state itself are dire.
First, such events would be great news to Islamists looking to get their hands on nuclear weapons. Pakistan’s nukes are even more likely to see action if a military officer seized power and invaded Indian-held Kashmir, the territory that both Islamabad and New Delhi claim as their own. Such aggression might lead to a nuclear exchange with India, the country’s long-time rival and fellow nuclear state. The fallout, both literal and political, would be felt deep into Central Asia; indeed much of the region would be destabilized. India’s economic progress would be set back significantly, perhaps by decades, and the nuclear threshold will have been crossed.
A less apocalyptic (though still very bad) outcome would be for Pakistan’s paranoia about India to reach fever pitch. Islamabad has long suspected that the rise of the Northern Alliance, the mostly Tajik and Uzbek coalition that helped eject the Taliban from Kabul, or another anti-Islamabad political group in Afghanistan could be a boost to New Delhi. (India is playing a nasty game of ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend,’ the Pakistani leadership reckons.) Pakistan is already backing a host of violent groups in Afghanistan, and further meddling could destabilize the surrounding Central Asian states.
Or, there is the prospect of ethnic, sectarian, and geographic implosion. Pakistan’s sense of nationhood is tenuous at best. In the military, Punjabis predominate in the enlisted ranks while Pashtuns and Mujahirs fill most officer posts. The few Sindhis and Baluchis who are national leaders (such as President Zardari, a Sindhi) are the exception rather than the rule. The North-West Frontier Province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the regions along the border with Afghanistan, resemble the worst drug-infested, gang-ridden parts of American cities -- except that the Pakistani authorities have largely abandoned any pretense at control. It’s a nebulous group of ungoverned spaces held together by a center that itself is now fragmenting. When that gives way, it could launch the kind of tribal bloodletting and ethnic or religious strife that strategic forecasts and white papers around the world routinely posit.
Meanwhile, the Army itself is under attack. Punjab-based jihadi groups, often referred to as the Punjabi Taliban, recently claimed responsibility for attacking the Army’s general headquarters in Rawalpindi, Pakistan’s equivalent of the Pentagon. Jihadi groups operating out of Punjab have traditionally focused on Kashmir and sectarian issues, so their willingness to target the center of Pakistan’s political gravity -- as well as its most important source of military leadership -- is unsettling.
In their coldest light, these attacks show the intensification and turning-inward of the struggle for the very character of the Pakistani state. The divisions pulling Pakistan apart at the seams are the same ones reflected in the military -- and neither set shows promising signs of resolution.
Pakistanis understand these dangers. When Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister, was assassinated in Rawalpindi two years ago, rioters in Sindh chanted Pakistan na khappay, or “Pakistan no longer exists.” Zardari, her husband, tried to quiet the crowd, telling them Pakistan khappay -- “Pakistan does exist.” He was right. For the moment.
But here’s the really bad news. Pakistan’s military -- the lynchpin keeping the chaotic whole together -- isn’t getting stronger. It’s threatening to fracture from within. And today’s fractures may well turn into tomorrow’s chaos. Back in the mid-19th century, the British set out to create a secular, professional Indian army that would neutralize warring ethnic groups and tribes. Pakistan was part of India then, and its army remained secular after the partition in 1947. Officer clubs served liquor. Religion and ethnicity were not proper subjects of discussion. Muslim society was something that existed outside the military. Pakistan’s generals looked to standardized testing and merit-based promotion, drawing on modernity, not Islam, as a model for their professional army.
When Gen. Muhammed Zia ul-Haq overthrew Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1977, he had other ideas. Zia assumed the presidency in 1978 while still chief of staff of the Army -- a position from which he encouraged greater religiosity in Pakistan’s armed forces as part of his broader Islamization of the state. Suddenly, military leaders were keeping tabs on which sects of Islam their soldiers belonged to. Members of radical Deoband and Wahhabi sects infused the military education system. Drinking at military clubs was forbidden, with a predictably chilling effect on camaraderie. Prayers once thought optional were strongly encouraged.
Some of this was merely a product of the times; Zia’s opposition to the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan, for instance, was largely predicated on the religious fervor of the Afghan resistance. But Zia’s Islamizing policies within the Army were more deliberate. Whether motivated by piety or political calculation, he reopened the fissures within the contemporary Pakistani military that British colonial policy had never wholly succeeded in papering over. Indeed, when Zia died in a 1988 plane crash, the Islamization of the military and its most powerful spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), continued. By the time Pervez Musharraf tried to return the military to its more secular roots as Army chief of staff, the trend was already too strong to reverse.
In 1999, Musharraf removed from power Nawaz Sharif, who had been re-elected to a second term as prime minister. His coup reinforced Pakistan’s history as a military-run state, and 10 years later, the risk of a coup still looms. Meanwhile, the wave of officers who were recruited during Zia’s Islamizing years is moving into the leadership ranks. The youngest of them are now field-grade officers. Signs are emerging that this is far from a unified military, with widening splits between secular and religious officers as well as problems among different Islamic sects. With official encouragement, for example, some Sunni officers have decided to grow out their beards, while Shiite officers are markedly absent from Sunni-led prayers.
In Pakistan, all this means more than just a troubled fighting force. The Army is rightly seen as the country’s strongest institution -- the glue that holds the state together. Though not officially in power, the military has a strong hold over the civilian government and retains de facto veto power over much that gets done. If infighting weakens or shatters the military’s cohesion, the implications for the future of the state itself are dire.
First, such events would be great news to Islamists looking to get their hands on nuclear weapons. Pakistan’s nukes are even more likely to see action if a military officer seized power and invaded Indian-held Kashmir, the territory that both Islamabad and New Delhi claim as their own. Such aggression might lead to a nuclear exchange with India, the country’s long-time rival and fellow nuclear state. The fallout, both literal and political, would be felt deep into Central Asia; indeed much of the region would be destabilized. India’s economic progress would be set back significantly, perhaps by decades, and the nuclear threshold will have been crossed.
A less apocalyptic (though still very bad) outcome would be for Pakistan’s paranoia about India to reach fever pitch. Islamabad has long suspected that the rise of the Northern Alliance, the mostly Tajik and Uzbek coalition that helped eject the Taliban from Kabul, or another anti-Islamabad political group in Afghanistan could be a boost to New Delhi. (India is playing a nasty game of ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend,’ the Pakistani leadership reckons.) Pakistan is already backing a host of violent groups in Afghanistan, and further meddling could destabilize the surrounding Central Asian states.
Or, there is the prospect of ethnic, sectarian, and geographic implosion. Pakistan’s sense of nationhood is tenuous at best. In the military, Punjabis predominate in the enlisted ranks while Pashtuns and Mujahirs fill most officer posts. The few Sindhis and Baluchis who are national leaders (such as President Zardari, a Sindhi) are the exception rather than the rule. The North-West Frontier Province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the regions along the border with Afghanistan, resemble the worst drug-infested, gang-ridden parts of American cities -- except that the Pakistani authorities have largely abandoned any pretense at control. It’s a nebulous group of ungoverned spaces held together by a center that itself is now fragmenting. When that gives way, it could launch the kind of tribal bloodletting and ethnic or religious strife that strategic forecasts and white papers around the world routinely posit.
Meanwhile, the Army itself is under attack. Punjab-based jihadi groups, often referred to as the Punjabi Taliban, recently claimed responsibility for attacking the Army’s general headquarters in Rawalpindi, Pakistan’s equivalent of the Pentagon. Jihadi groups operating out of Punjab have traditionally focused on Kashmir and sectarian issues, so their willingness to target the center of Pakistan’s political gravity -- as well as its most important source of military leadership -- is unsettling.
In their coldest light, these attacks show the intensification and turning-inward of the struggle for the very character of the Pakistani state. The divisions pulling Pakistan apart at the seams are the same ones reflected in the military -- and neither set shows promising signs of resolution.
Pakistanis understand these dangers. When Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister, was assassinated in Rawalpindi two years ago, rioters in Sindh chanted Pakistan na khappay, or “Pakistan no longer exists.” Zardari, her husband, tried to quiet the crowd, telling them Pakistan khappay -- “Pakistan does exist.” He was right. For the moment.
Friday, December 18, 2009
The Bubbling Cauldron...
The Supreme Court of Pakistan has done what it was expected to do---struck down the time and purpose serving National Reconciliation Ordnance as being contrary to the Constitution of Pakistan.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan has done what it was expected to do---struck down the time and purpose serving National Reconciliation Ordnance as being contrary to the Constitution of Pakistan. If the NRO had been enacted with the broader purpose of eventually being the forerunner to some kind of Grand National reconciliation it may not have met the same fate. If the government had had the vision to convert it into a measure for harmony, strengthening democracy and promoting political stability it may have survived. The NRO remained what it was---a bad precedent. The run up to the Supreme Court decision was seen by some as a conspiracy of sorts to derail democracy and some even saw it as an attempt bring back a military backed government. This never made sense. The military has a no interference policy that allows the dynamics of political situations to play out—they are keeping their hands off and out of politics. The Court’s decision stands out as a testimony to its complete freedom---hard won freedom. The idea that this decision came about because of prodding by some mysterious ‘establishment’ is preposterous. This was a unanimous decision by a 17 member bench of an independent court—a widely appreciated and welcomed first for Pakistan. With the NRO consigned to oblivion the situation of the court cases returns to the pre October5, 2007 situation. The Supreme Court has indicated that it does not want the ‘system’ derailed nor does it want indefinite court proceedings—in fact they want these cases to be decided ‘expeditiously’. The fact that the Supreme Court decision has been accepted by the government as fair and just and upholding of the law and constitution is good and possibly the reason why there has been no chaos. The hope on all sides is that justice will prevail and if there was political motivation behind the cases it will stand exposed. No one wants a witch hunt---certainly not the judiciary or the military.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan has done what it was expected to do---struck down the time and purpose serving National Reconciliation Ordnance as being contrary to the Constitution of Pakistan.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan has done what it was expected to do---struck down the time and purpose serving National Reconciliation Ordnance as being contrary to the Constitution of Pakistan. If the NRO had been enacted with the broader purpose of eventually being the forerunner to some kind of Grand National reconciliation it may not have met the same fate. If the government had had the vision to convert it into a measure for harmony, strengthening democracy and promoting political stability it may have survived. The NRO remained what it was---a bad precedent. The run up to the Supreme Court decision was seen by some as a conspiracy of sorts to derail democracy and some even saw it as an attempt bring back a military backed government. This never made sense. The military has a no interference policy that allows the dynamics of political situations to play out—they are keeping their hands off and out of politics. The Court’s decision stands out as a testimony to its complete freedom---hard won freedom. The idea that this decision came about because of prodding by some mysterious ‘establishment’ is preposterous. This was a unanimous decision by a 17 member bench of an independent court—a widely appreciated and welcomed first for Pakistan. With the NRO consigned to oblivion the situation of the court cases returns to the pre October5, 2007 situation. The Supreme Court has indicated that it does not want the ‘system’ derailed nor does it want indefinite court proceedings—in fact they want these cases to be decided ‘expeditiously’. The fact that the Supreme Court decision has been accepted by the government as fair and just and upholding of the law and constitution is good and possibly the reason why there has been no chaos. The hope on all sides is that justice will prevail and if there was political motivation behind the cases it will stand exposed. No one wants a witch hunt---certainly not the judiciary or the military.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Justice Served:Pakistan party demands Zardari resignation |
Pakistan's main opposition has urged President Asif Zardari to resign after the Supreme Court declared an amnesty against corruption charges illegal.
The controversial law granting senior politicians amnesty was brought in by ex-President Pervez Musharraf. The court's move opens the way to possible prosecution for Mr Zardari's political allies, although he is still protected by presidential immunity.
Mr Zardari faces several pending court cases against him in Pakistan.
Before taking office, he spent years in jail after being convicted on corruption charges he says were politically motivated.
BBC correspondents say that, despite the pressure on government figures to quit, there are no signs that this is likely to happen.
Pakistani newspapers have welcomed the Supreme Court's decision to annul the amnesty.
"Zardari: an accused president," a front page headline in The News said.
The law was introduced by Mr Musharraf in order to allow Mr Zardari's late wife, Benazir Bhutto, to return to the country and stand for office, with the aim of a possible power-sharing deal with Mr Musharraf.
She returned to Pakistan from abroad after the so-called National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) was signed into law, but was assassinated soon after.
The Supreme Court has called for all these cases to be re-opened, with hundreds of senior politicians and civilian bureaucrats now facing criminal and corruption charges.
Pakistan is often ranked among the most corrupt countries in the world by anti-graft campaigners.
According to a listing produced by global watchdog Transparency International, it came 40th out of 180 countries surveyed.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Fall of Dacca.
TODAY on December 16, 2009, the nation will observe bad memory of fall of Dacca, this year the day will be observed in such circumstances, when the country is confronted with all kinds of dangers at its borders of NWFP and Balochistan. The political leaders of the country are mounting pressure on the government to repeal the 17th amendment and they have demanded that this amendment should be repealed before the end of this year.
The last month of the present calendar year, December 2009 will prove very significant for the whole national politics, present political system and the future of Pakistan. The political analysts said that the Supreme Court of Pakistan is likely to announce its judgment over the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO). On the other hand, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has already announced that after returning from Germany, the federal cabinet will be reshuffled. Yesterday, US President Barack Obama has announced an increase of 30,000 US troops in Afghanistan before X-mas.
Memories of December 16
Author: Akhtar Payami Publication: Dawn, Karachi Date: December 16, 1997
"THE Seventh Fleet of the United States is about to touch our shores." "The Chinese troops are going to land in Dacca in a couple of hours."
These and similar other wild rumours continued to circulate throughout the December 15-16 night of 1971. Amidst fear, uncertainty and a grim sense of foreboding that had gripped the city since the beginning of the war, such rumours were widely believed by the people who had concentrated in Mohammadpur and Mirpur - the localities which were mainly inhabited by the migrants from India.
By then the small number of Sabre jets that we had in the capital city of East Pakistan had already been grounded. At around midnight every day, the Indian fighter planes would rein bombs on the Dacca airport making it unserviceable. During the day, half-hearted efforts would be made to repair the heavily damaged runways and the tarmac. The process was repeated almost every day. As there was no resistance whatsoever, the Indian bombers had free access to our unprotected sky. The myth that Dacca could be defended from Islamabad was exploded.
The reinforcement from West Pakistan through a long and circuitous sea route was not possible now. Neither men nor material could reach East Pakistan to provide the needed support and replenishment to the armed forces. The soldiers and the militia who had already arrived there found themselves in a state of confusion. Many of them had never been in East Pakistan before. They were not familiar with the riverine terrain and monsoon-dominated climate of the place. Neither did they know the roads or the localities. Sometimes they would stop their vehicles close to the Baitul Mukarram mosque and ask the passersby where the Dacca Stadium was.
Most puzzled were the militiamen wearing dark-green baggy uniform. Often they would stop someone on the road and ask him to recite kalima. When he did, they would rebuke him for learning the kalima by heart to hide his real religious identity of being a 'kafir.' At the time of being sent to the eastern wing, they were told that most inhabitants of East Pakistan were non- Muslims or that after the eruption of the civil war, the province had been taken over by the Hindus.
The truth was entirely different. Many Hindus who had been living in Dacca for ages had either been killed or had crossed over to India with the start of the military crackdown in March 1971. Their trade and business had been taken over by some unscrupulous elements who were identified as non-locals. the Kalachand sweetmeat shop, famous for its 'Rashogulla' and other delicacies, had been turned into a butcher's shop selling beef.
Not only the Hindus, but many respectable Bengali Muslims had abandoned the city, leaving behind their houses with all their belongings. Many of those houses were later looted with abandon, and in some cases, set on fire.
When a journalist, a few weeks before the fall of Dacca, asked some uniformed men in a Mohammadpur market what they would do if the supplies of food and other essentials stopped, their terse reply was: "Then we would rob the Bengalis." What those ill- informed men did not know was that very few well-off Bengalis were now left in the city who could be robbed. Those who could risk dodging the security forces and traversing difficult terrain had already crossed over to India. Others had moved to far-off villages in the interior to protect themselves against deadly possibilities.
As most of the regular and enlisted contractors had stopped supplying food and other articles to the cantonments, some enterprising 'non-locals', with the active support of some influential local people, had engaged themselves in doing the job. It was a dangerous undertaking for both. But for quite some time, they continued to offer this service to those who needed it most desperately. How and when this 'service' was stopped is not generally known.
So, this was the state of the city of Dacca on the eve of the final break-up of Pakistan.
Long before the day-break on December 16, there was an air of anxiety and concern. It was a bright sunny day. Winter had already set in. Suddenly someone came running to break the news that the Pakistan army had surrendered. When an anxious elderly person went out to ascertain the truth, he was beaten up by a mob of agitated youth. How could the brave army surrender? Only a few days back, General A.K. Niazi, chief of the Eastern Command, had declared publicly that the Indian troops could enter Dacca over his dead body.
And General Rao Farman Ali had advised a host of foreign correspondents in the lobby of Hotel Inter-Continental to read the history of Islamic ascension in the world. Holding a baton in his hand and pointing it to a large map of East Pakistan, he had stated categorically that there was no question of any advance of the Indian troops towards Dacca. He was replying to a foreign journalist who had bluntly asked him: 'Would you be able to hold on to Dacca for a couple of days more?'
Perhaps the journalist was much better informed. Dacca fell after two days.
There were reasons why foreign journalists were so adequately informed about the East Pakistan situation. While there was some semblance of an orderly life in Dacca during the day, nights were totally different and very daunting. Nobody would venture out after dusk. Even otherwise, curfew was in force for days together at a stretch. Night curfew remained in force for several weeks. When the enforcers of law retreated in the evening, the whole city would virtually come under the control of the armed young militants. They were the members of the 'Mukti Bahini.' They used to take out foreign correspondents from their hotel rooms for a tour of the city where they reigned supreme.
This state of uncertainty and confusion ended on the morning of December 16. The news that the Pakistan army had surrendered was finally confirmed. Instantly, Indian planes started dropping leaflets in Urdu urging the people to surrender their arms and ammunition at the nearest police stations. The leaflets, which dropped mainly in Urdu-speaking settlements, also reassured them of their safety by exonerating them of the excesses of the armed forces.
Within minutes a caravan of Indian soldiers travelling in open trucks started parading the main thoroughfares - from cantonment onward to Nawabpur Road. In a boisterous mood the troops were shouting victory slogans. The baffled residents of Mohammadpur helplessly watched their movement.
What immediately followed was something unbelievable. The whole township was surrounded by Mukti Bahini men who had taken up strategic positions after the Indian troops moved in. Armed with small, deadly weapons they were being commanded by Indian soldiers. Soon after loudspeakers blared out asking people to surrender their arms. In no time mounds of arms were deposited in front of many houses.
The angry members of the Mukti Bahini could have scorched the entire locality and staged a mayhem in Mohammadpur. Only a couple of days back many Bengali intellectuals had been killed in Dacca by the security forces in collaboration with the activists of a religious party. Among the dead were distinguished professionals, teachers, doctors, writers, poets, intellectuals and journalists. Their mutilated bodies were found close to a brick kiln in Mohammadpur. This had provoked the Mukti Bahini to resort to some revenge killing. But somehow sanity prevailed. There were sporadic cases of violence. But the situation, by and large, remained under control.
Opinion may vary on the role the Indian soldiers played in the aftermath of the fall of Dacca. But the truth is that their presence prevented a more horrifying bloodbath than what the residents of Mohammadpur and Mirpur had witnessed earlier.
In retrospect, those wrenching events of December 1971 seem like a chapter out of Kafka's book. Even with the distance of time and events, the memories of those dark and dismal happenings continue to fester like a throbbing wound. Those away from the scene of the trauma of 1971 or with an extraordinary gift of rationalization or induced amnesia might find it possible to desensitize the memories of the fall of Dacca. But this is one escape route which is not open to those who actually lived through the tragic denouement from minute to minute.
As the passage of time and changing circumstances do their erasing and healing job, the question still remains whether the political catastrophe of 1971 and the human tragedy that it entailed could have been avoided. Many think it could have been, if there were a political government in control in Islamabad to handle the drift of events in the then restive East Pakistan. Others believe that even with a military set-up calling the shots, things could have been different if power had been transferred on the basis of the outcome of the 1970 elections which had thrown up the Awami League as the party with a clear majority in the National Assembly.
However, no definitive conclusion is possible, except that perhaps a better option, in the given context, would have been to continue with the political negotiations going on in Dacca in the third week of March 1971, rather than bring the process to an abrupt end with a military crackdown which eventually led to the violent break-up of united Pakistan.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
2009: Roots of terrorism
Although there are still a couple of weeks to go before the new year, 2009 will go down in Pakistan’s exceptionally turbulent history as the country’s bloodiest year — bloodier than the time of ‘Operation Cleanup’ in the early 1990s in Karachi.
In developing an approach towards growing extremism and terrorism it is breeding, policymakers as well as the citizenry must first understand its complex causes. By focusing on just one aspect — the American pressure to go after the perpetrators of terrorist activities — the country will not be able to evolve a cogent response.
The Last Days Of United Pakistan
On December 16, 1971 the Pakistan army in Bangladesh unconditionally surrendered to the joint Indian and Bangladeshi forces. With the signing of the Instrument of Surrender, Bangladesh came into being and united Pakistan was at an end.
However, in Pakistan the state-controlled and censored media was in denial. The day after General Niazi of Pakistan had surrendered all 93,000 soldiers and paramilitary units under his command in Bangladesh and the guns had fallen silent in the East, the Dawn newspaper, published from Karachi, declared: "WAR TILL VICTORY". The story of the Pakistani surrender was contained in one sentence of an article entitled "Fighting ends in East Wing: PAF hits in West". The surrender was spun as follows:
Latest reports indicate that following an arrangement between the local commanders of India and Pakistan in the Eastern theatre, fighting has ceased in East Pakistan and Indian troops have entered Dacca.
While newspaper headlines around the world announced the surrender of the Pakistani army and the creation of Bangladesh, the Pakistani population were presented with an alternate reality. This alternate reality would continue for four more days until the collapse of the military regime of Yahya Khan. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the man who failed to win the prime ministership of a united Pakistan a year ago at the ballot box, would now take over as leader of the remaining wing of Pakistan.
Below are the front pages of the Dawn newspaper from December 4, 1971 to December 20, 1971. The headlines chronicle the unraveling of the false reality created by the military regime in the last days of united Pakistan. [Click the images for a PDF of the front page.]
December 4, 1971
India enters the war on December 3, 1971 to stop the genocide in Bangladesh.
Racist comments mar third Pakistan-New Zealand Test
NAPIER: The third test match between Pakistan and New Zealand was marred by racist comments when spectators seated in a corporate box called the Pakistan team members ‘Pakistani terrorists,’ the website Stuff.co.nz reported.
Mark Tremain, son of a Napier Member of Parliament, along with his 17 friends allegedly made the comments about the visiting side while seated in a corporate box at the McLean Park on the second day (December 12) of the match.
NAPIER: The third test match between Pakistan and New Zealand was marred by racist comments when spectators seated in a corporate box called the Pakistan team members ‘Pakistani terrorists,’ the website Stuff.co.nz reported.
Mark Tremain, son of a Napier Member of Parliament, along with his 17 friends allegedly made the comments about the visiting side while seated in a corporate box at the McLean Park on the second day (December 12) of the match.
According to the New Zealand based news website (http://www.stuff.co.nz/), the ground’s electronic scoreboard displayed the sign ‘no racist comments please’ shortly after the incident.
Tremain and his friends were reportedly drunk and were shouting abuses at the Pakistani team which also included racist slurs. Stewards present near the box heard the comments and informed on-ground officials who then asked the group to evacuate the box.
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