WikiLeaks: Pakistan, the world's nightmare

Many of the cables in the first lot of Wikileaks' expose of intricate and dodgy U.S foreign policy pertains to Pakistan, a country variously described as a "nightmare" and a "headache" for the international community. The cables do not paint a flattering picture of Islamabad or its rulers.

For instance, one cable has the Saudi King Abdullah speak contemptuously of President Zardari. He calls Zardari the greatest obstacle to that country's progress and is quoted as saying "When the head is rotten, it affects the whole body."

Another cable describes a "dangerous standoff" with Pakistan over nuclear fuel: In May 2009, U.S Ambassador to Islamabad Anne Patterson reported that Pakistan was refusing to schedule a visit by American technical experts because, as a Pakistani official said, "if the local media got word of the fuel removal, "they certainly would portray it as the United Statestaking Pakistan's nuclear weapons."

Implicit in the cable is the suggestion of a see-saw battle between Washington and Islamabad about Pakistan's nuclear assets and its safety.

Some of the cables highlight Israel's concern with where Pakistan is going. In one exchange, Mossad chief Meir Dagan and U.S counterterrorism honcho Frances Townsend share concerns about Pakistan's ability to withstand the challenge of Islamic radicals. Dagan characterizes a Pakistan ruled by radical Islamists with a nuclear arsenal at their disposal as his biggest nightmare. Al-Qaeda and other "Global Jihad" groups could not be relied upon to behave rationally once in possession of nuclear weapons, he says, as they do not care about the well being of states or their image in the media.

"We have to keep (President Pervez) Musharaf in power," he is quoted as saying.

In another exchange, Israel's President Ehud Barak describes Pakistan as his "private nightmare," suggesting the world might wake up one morning "with everything changed" following a potential Islamic extremist takeover. When asked if the use of force on Iran might backfire with moderate Muslims in Pakistan, thereby exacerbating the situation, Barak acknowledges Iran and Pakistan are interconnected, but disagreed with a causal chain.

Exchanges between the U.S and Turkey also show Pakistan's continuing fears about India's presence in Afghanistan. At a meeting with U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, William Burns, Turkish diplomat Rauf Engin Soysal, who then was the Turkey's Deputy Under-Secretary for Bilateral Political Affairs responsible for the Middle East, South Asia and Africa, discloses that Turkey had not invited India to the Afghan neighbors' summit in deference to Pak sensitivities.

"He (Soysal) said Turkey had not invited India to the neighbors summit in deference to Pakistani sensitivities; however, he claimed, Pakistan understands attempting to exclude India from the nascent South Asian regional structures would be a mistake," says the confidential State Department cable dated February 25, 2010.

While Pakistan's reservations to India's presence at the meeting was known, its assessment that excluding India from regional structures would be a mistake is a disclosure that will be well-received in New Delhi.

Pakistan: Society & Values.

GUJRANWALA: In the Kamonke police station chowki, near Gujranwala, three women who were forced to perform a ‘mujra’ by a police official moved the court to take action against the cops involved.
The women said that the police officials had forced them to remove their clothes and dance all night. The police allegedly also stole Rs 200,000 and mobile phone from the girls after they had returned from a wedding that same night.
In their application to the district and session judge, the three women said that Kamonke police sub inspector Munawar Shaheed Abid Farooq and constables’ Muhammad Shahid, Sajid and Muhammad Usman arrested them when they were returning from Riyasat’s wedding in the area and took them to a police chowki.
The police officials then forced the women to remove their clothes and dance to the song ‘Munni badnaam hui darling tere lie’ all night. When they refused they were tortured and the police threatened to nominate them in fake cases and also registered a case against them in the Saddar police station.
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I find this headline highly derogatory and inappropriate to the matter. Such a serious matter should not be put in a “spicy” way. What is the point in using terms “Dancing Girls” and ” munni badnam Hui” here…..perhaps women sexual harassment has become a norm in our Land of Pure…..now no one give a dam about it……Tribune should know that its not a “Tabloid” or smthing….its serious business…..

dear reporter please also illustrate by which case police has charged them with!!

police threatened to nominate them in fake cases and also registered a case against them in the Saddar police station.

this story is raising questions for critics that it might be a fire back on police when they were arrested. please give complete image.
sohail
23 hours ago
.What the hell is wrong with you guys!! Will you remove that disgusting headline already??

Dear Editor,

First and foremost, your report lacks everything a good report MUST have.
The title says” Dancing girls move court to take action against cops” but you do not mention anywhere that these were dancing girls. And even if they were dancing girls I do not think that they should be treated with such indignity and forced to face such humiliation.
Shame on the men who take advantage of their positions on people who cannot fight for themselves.
And shame on you for putting this humiliating episode in a Tabloid manner.

thank you.
AK

I fully agree with Umer Farooq that these news have been reported in inappropriate manner by Express News and Express Tribune. When these news were first aired on Express News, the song “Munni Badnaam Hui” was played in background, the news anchor read the headline in spicy way and the visuals only contained video of these three victim women sitting in park. Whoever the women were, a crime was committed against them and the Express News should have presented the news in such a way that sympathies are given to them. At least the visual should be about those “criminal” policemen or the police station building where this crime took place

Well who is the suspect , and for which crime. Girls because they danced or the police!

Abida Parveen’s condition stable after cardiac arrest

Folk diva Abida Parveen has been shifted to a private room from an intensive care unit of a hospital here on Sunday after her condition stabilised, doctors and relatives of the legendary singer said on Sunday.
The 56-year-old singer suffered a cardiac arrest after experiencing chest pains during a performance at an alumni function of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (Lums) on Saturday night. She was initially brought to the National Hospital in Defence and was later shifted to the Doctors Hospital where doctors recommended immediate angioplasty.

Wikileaks shatters
American diplomacy

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia urged the United States to attack Iran to destroy its nuclear programme, according to US documents revealed by WikiLeaks and published by several newspapers on Sunday.

A cable to Washington from the US embassy in Riyadh recorded the king’s “frequent exhortations to the US to attack Iran and so put an end to its nuclear weapons programme.”

The memo said that the king told the Americans to “cut off the head of the snake,” and said that working with the US to roll back Iranian influence in Iraq was “a strategic priority for the king and his government.”

The documents also show US Defence Secretary Robert Gates believed any military strike on Iran would only delay its pursuit of a nuclear weapon by one to three years.

WikiLeaks on Sunday released around 250,000 classified cables – some sent as recently as February this year – to several media outlets worldwide. The Guardian reported that the documents were allegedly downloaded by a US soldier and passed on to the website. WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange said the released documents addressed “every major issue in every country in the world”.

According to a review of the WikiLeaks documents published by the New York Times, the documents show Saudi donors remained chief financiers of militant groups like al Qaeda and that Chinese government operatives have waged a coordinated campaign of computer sabotage targeting the United States and its allies.

Among scores of other disclosures that are likely to cause uproar, the cables detail grave fears in Washington and London over the security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme, alleged links between the Russian government and organised crime and devastating criticism of the UK’s military operations in Afghanistan.

Global Espionage

The cables also reveal how the US uses its embassies as part of a global espionage network, with diplomats tasked to obtain not just information from the people they meet, but personal details, such as frequent flyer numbers, credit card details and even DNA material.

Classified “human intelligence directives” issued in the name of Hillary Clinton or her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, instruct officials to gather information on military installations, weapons markings, vehicle details of political leaders as well as iris scans, fingerprints and DNA.

The most controversial target was the leadership of the United Nations. That directive requested the specification of telecoms and IT systems used by top UN officials and their staff and details of “private VIP networks used for official communication, to include upgrades, security measures, passwords, personal encryption keys”.

Pakistan’s nuclear program

The cables reveals that since 2007, the United States has mounted a highly secret effort, so far unsuccessful, to remove highly enriched uranium from a Pakistani research reactor that American officials fear could be diverted for use in an illicit nuclear device.

In May 2009, Ambassador Anne W Patterson reported that Pakistan was refusing to schedule a visit by American technical experts because, as a Pakistani official said, “if the local media got word of the fuel removal, ‘they certainly would portray it as the United States taking Pakistan’s nuclear weapons,’ he argued.”

King Abdullah on Zardari

The cables also disclose frank comments behind closed doors. Dispatches from early this year, for instance, quote the aging monarch calling President Asif Ali Zardari the greatest obstacle to Pakistan’s progress. “When the head is rotten,” he said, “it affects the whole body,” reported the New York Times.

Damage control

The Pentagon immediately condemned WikiLeaks’ “reckless” dump of classified State Department documents and said it was taking steps to bolster security of US military networks.

The White House said the leak of the diplomatic cables could compromise private discussions with foreign governments and opposition leaders and may put at risk the lives of named individuals living “under oppressive regimes.”

The US government, which was informed in advance of the contents, has contacted governments around the world, including in Russia, Europe and the Middle East, to try to limit any damage. Sources familiar with the documents say they include corruption allegations against foreign leaders and governments.

WikiLeaks had reported earlier on Sunday that its website was under attack, but said later that media outlets would publish some of the classified documents it had released even if the group’s website crashed.

“El Pais, Le Monde, Speigel, Guardian & NYT will publish many US embassy cables tonight, even if WikiLeaks goes down,” the website said in a Twitter posting an hour after it tweeted that its site was under attack.

India, world brace for new WikiLeaks flood

American diplomats have warned India to prepare itself for potential embarrassment from the expected release by WikiLeaks of three million confidential U.S. diplomatic cables. The message was conveyed to the Indian embassy in Washington after a senior State Department official tried unsuccessfully to reach Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, who is travelling in Sri Lanka.

India is not the only country the U.S. has alerted. The documents which will go live on the Internet beginning in the next 24 to 48 hours consist of cables sent by American embassies around the world — but especially in India, Israel, Russia, Turkey, Canada and Britain — to the State Department in Washington. Since such cables are meant to be confidential, it is standard practice for the diplomats writing them to be candid and blunt in their assessments and sometimes even disrespectful to officials and leaders in their host countries. It is this aspect of the forthcoming leak which is particularly worrying U.S. diplomats. Some cables could also contain information about surreptitious activity by U.S. missions.

It is not clear what time period the cables cover but previous WikiLeaks disclosures have tended to range over the past five or six years. This is a period when the U.S. and India were locked in detailed and sometimes testy negotiations over nuclear commerce and defence cooperation.

The documents, said to be over seven times more than the recently leaked U.S. secret war logs from Iraq, have been reportedly taken from the Secret Protocol Router Network (SIPRNet) used to transmit classified information to the U.S. Defence and State Departments. WikiLeaks had earlier received a video from SIPRNet that showed three deliberate attacks by a U.S. Army helicopter in Iraq that killed two newspersons and children beside several civilians.

According to The Independent, the U.S. ambassador in London had informed the British government about some of the contents of the documents that are likely to be released. Similar meetings were also reported from Turkey, Israel, Canada, Denmark, Norway and Australia.

World leaders were warned last night by America that damaging secrets about their nations were about to be laid bare.

The documents include highly damaging and embarrassing communiques from U.S. embassies around the world, especially from London - revealing the truth behind the so-called 'special relationship' between the U.K. and the U.S.

The U.S. ambassador to London made an unprecedented personal visit to Downing Street to warn that whistleblower website WikiLeaks was about to publish secret assessments of what Washington really thinks of Britain.

The website is on the verge of revealing almost three million documents, including thousands of sensitive diplomatic cables sent to Washington from the American embassy in London.

The bombshell leak is thought to include U.S. assessments of former British prime minister Gordon Brown’s personality and his prospects of winning the General Election, and secret discussions on the return of the Lockerbie bomber to Libya.

Assessments of current Prime Minister David Cameron’s election chances and his private assurances to U.S. officials may also be included, Government sources believe.

They fear they will emerge on Sunday in co-ordinated releases in newspapers in Britain, Germany and America.

The British government is so worried that last night it issued a D-Notice, warning that publishing the secrets could compromise national security.

The website has previously released secret details of allied military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Revelations of American brutality in Iraq and Afghanistan created shockwaves, made WikiLeaks notorious and led to its founder Julian Assange - an Australian-born computer hacker - being vilified by governments around the world. He is now wanted for alleged rape in Sweden.

In total, around 2.7million confidential messages between the U.S. government and its embassies around the world are to be released.

Sky is no limit for Pakistani spacewoman

Namira Salim, set to become the first Pakistani female to travel into space, hopes her journey will encourage other Muslim women to reach for the stars.
Salim is one of 100 space tourists who will board

landmark commercial space flights being offered by Virgin Galactic, which plans to start operations.

Virgin Galactic is part of British entrepreneur and adventurer Richard Branson's Virgin Group.

"I'm hoping that when the flight happens I can break new ground for Muslim and Pakistani women to enter into fields considered out of bounds for them," Salim told Reuters.

In predominantly Muslim Pakistan, a country of 160 million people, women, especially in poor, rural areas are victims of violence and discrimination.


Salim, 35, was born in Karachi, but now lives in Dubai and the south of France. She is a poet and an artist.

"I am not a professional astronaut but since a young age have been fascinated by space and astronomy," she said.

She was selected last year from 44,000 candidates to become a member of the Virgin Galactic Founders Club. She said her spaceship was being built and training will start by year-end.

"It has had a simulation test. But it is a new technology with lot of commercial potential. We start our training later this year," she said.

Virgin Galactic's first space flight will briefly break into orbit before returning to earth. Salim said she eventually hoped to do a full orbital flight, just like an astronaut.

Biggest Asian Games ever close with a bang in Guangzhou

The 16th Asian Games officially closed on Saturday in the southern Chinese metropolis of Guangzhou with a rousing and colourful outdoor spectacular. Like the acclaimed curtain-raiser just over two weeks ago, the closing gala was held not inside a stadium but on a boat-shaped island in the middle of River, which meanders through the heart of China's third-largest city.
"The 16th Asian Games, which has been a huge success, comes to an end," said Olympic Council of Asia president Sheikh Ahmed Al Fahad Al Sabah.

"This edition of the Games has, without a doubt, been one of the most outstanding in the history of the event."

Pakistan regains Asian Games hockey gold
Pakistan win first Asiad hockey gold for 20 years

Ace drag flicker Sohail Abbas and veteran Rehan Butt helped Pakistan regain Asian Games field hockey gold after 20 years with a 2-0 victory over Malaysia in the final on Thursday.
Abbas netted a powerful push off 26th-minute short corner while Butt was brilliantly set up by Shafqat Rasool from the right side to place the ball off the second attempt in the 38th.

"With so many bad things happening in Pakistan, like terrorism and floods I think today we have given our countrymen something to smile," Abbas, 35, said.

Malaysian players had shaved their heads to ward off evil spirits in their first Asian Games final. But their penalty corner specialist Amin Rahim could not find the target off the three short corners.

Pakistan's last Asian Games gold came in 1990 at Beijing, and the win here was Pakistan's first major title since winning the World Cup in 1994.

"It's simply out of this world for me and I have no words to describe how much happy all of us are," said jubilant Pakistan captain Zeeshan Ashraf, 33, who stood firm in the defense.

The victory also secured Pakistan a spot at the 2012 London Olympics and Ashraf said that was the other target which was achieved by senior players.

"I think it's now the right time that more juniors should come into the team," he said. "Twenty years is a long gap and it would be jubilation everywhere in Pakistan."

Abbas said he had no intentions to quit and if he stayed fit he would be in London in two years.

"Age is no barrier for a hockey player, fitness is what that counts and who knows if I stay fit I will be there," he said.

Pakistan goalkeeper Salman Akbar threw his helmet and hockey stick in the air soon after the final hooter was blown as Pakistan players rushed and hugged each other.

They even raised their coach Michel van den Heuvel and manager former Olympian Khawaja Junaid on their shoulders and chanted slogans "Pakistan Zindabad (long live)" in unison.

They carried national flags in their hands and also approached a handful of fans at the Aoti Hockey Stadium stand to thank them for their support.

Malaysia's striker Faizal Saari was disappointed with his team's loss, but said it was good to have its first silver in 12 Asian Games after winning six bronze medals.

"We played disappointing game today and of course expectations were high back home after we defeated India in the semifinal," he said.

India bags bronze

Earlier, India clinched the bronze, defeating South Korea 1-0 on Tushar Khandker's field goal in the 39th minute.

The Indian men's hockey team lifted itself from the disappointment of missing a final berth and clinched the bronze medal after defeating four-time champions South Korea in the third-place playoff at the Asian Games here today.

India beat the 2002 and 2006 champions with a lone second half goal through Tushar Khandekar to end their campaign on a better note than four years ago in Doha where they ended up a poor fifth.

Having their dreams of winning the gold destroyed by the 3-4 defeat against Malaysia in the semifinals, the Rajpal Singh-led side outsmarted the fitter and faster Koreans.

This is the first time since 1990 at Beijing that the Koreans are going home without a medal. India's last bronze was in 1986 at Seoul. Today's was the second bronze for India since the start of the hockey competition in Tokyo in 1958.

Chief coach Jose Brasa viewed the victory as no consolation. “I am not happy. We played the best hockey in the tournament and deserved the gold” he added. About his contract, Brasa said he had not heard anything from the ministry yet.

Meanwhile Harendra Singh who resigned after the defeat against Malaysia said he was requested to continue till the conclusion of the Asian Games. He was in the team bench this afternoon.

Shock result as Afghanistan beats Pakistan to cricket final

Afghanistan has reached the cricket final of the Asian games, beating Pakistan by 22 runs on Thursday. The Afghan team will face Bangladesh on Friday.

Afghanistan batted first and scored 125 foreight wickets in their 20 overs That it did not look good enough as Pakistan got off to a flying start, scoring 30 runs in three overs.

But halfway through the innings, Afghanistan took control, and took Pakistan to 103 for seven.

Afghanistan’s cricket team has had a successful year. In February, it won the ICC WorldTwenty20 qualifier in Dubai. Only two years ago the team was in cricket's fifth division.

Early release of Guzaarish in Pakistan

irks Indian distributors
Indian distributors have expressed concern that Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Guzaarish, which has Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai in the lead roles, was screened in Pakistan two days ahead of its India release, a media report said.

Guzaarish was scheduled for release in both countries Nov 19, but Pakistani film exhibitors showed it Nov 17.

The Express Tribune reported on Thursday that the Indian distributors have expressed concern and questioned Pakistani exhibitors for releasing the film in Pakistan ahead of its release in India.
The issue was apparently not blown up as the film has done well at the Indian box office.
"Had Guzaarish not done well at the Indian box office, the release of more Indian films in Pakistan may have been jeopardised," a source said.

The Pakistani film exhibitors maintain that they released Guzaarish two days ahead of its release in India as they didn’t have any major film for Eid.
The Express Tribune quoted film exhibitor Jehanzeb Beg as saying the early release shouldn’t be a problem with Indian film exhibitors as they don’t have any legal right to object to the territorial release of a film in Pakistan.
Films in India, he said, are released on occasions like Diwali while Eid is the right occasion to release new films in Pakistan.
“Pakistani distributors had bought the rights and they spoke to the people concerned before releasing the film. Only the main distributor from whom Pakistani exhibitors have bought the distribution rights of the film can object to this, the exhibitors in Dubai or anywhere else have nothing to do with it. Additionally, a producer may have an issue with this situation but not the distributors,” he was quoted as saying.

The film was earlier planned to be released Nov 12 in both countries, but it got delayed for a week in India.
Pakistan Film Exhibitors Association chairman Zoraiz Lashari said that exhibitors had a film in hand so they decided to release it Nov 17.
He said: “This is one rare case that may never happen again. We had the film and we wanted to release it on Eid so we went ahead with it.”
An insider told the daily that major distributors of Indian films in Pakistan would now be warned against screening any Indian film before it's release in India.

Photo essay:
Pakistan’s golden girls come home

Blasphemy case : Zardari warned not to grant pardon

In an unprecedented move, top Deobandi and Barelvi clerics joined hands to warn President Asif Ali Zardari against granting a discretionary pardon to a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy, saying that the decision may trigger adverse reaction.




“I advise him (Zardari) not to take a hasty decision under foreign pressure,” Qari Hanif Jallundari, who represents the Deobandi school of thought, told.

Hanif’s Wafaqul Madaris Al Arabia (WMA) is an umbrella organisation which leads more than 12,000 seminaries across Pakistan, mostly in Punjab, where many people accused of blasphemy have usually lost lives at the hands of religious zealots. An organisation which wields control over Barelvi seminaries has also joined the Deobandis in a bid to change the president’s decision which, they think, he has already taken. The two sects have a long history of sharply differing with each other on almost every issue.

At the heart of the controversy is a Christian woman, Aasia Bibi who was sentenced to death by a sessions court in Sheikhupura district for blasphemy – a charge vehemently denied by the woman. The November 8 judgment revived a debate on whether such ‘controversial’ laws should continue or be reviewed.

Liberals, although a minority, believe such laws were enacted by former military ruler General Ziaul Haq in the 1980s to please the religious right, should be revoked to stop their misuse.

Both Qari Hanif and Sahibzada said they had a different perspective.

“Our point of view is…clear. Misuse is insufficient a justification for abolishing any law. Many laws are misused, even the country’s constitution, which is the mother of them all. Does this mean we will have to abolish all of these laws?” Jallundari said.

He advised Zardari to let the case reach him through proper channels – to the high court, then to the Supreme Court and then to the president. “Otherwise, it will be premature… and tantamount to putting (undue) pressure on the judiciary,” Qari said.

More pressure on Zardari for clemency

Federal Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti on Monday ratcheted up the pressure on President Asif Ali Zardari to pardon Aasia Bibi, the Christian mother of five who has been sentenced to death for blasphemy.

The case began in June 2009 when Bibi was asked to fetch water while out working in the fields. Women labourers objected, saying that as a non-Muslim, she should not touch the water bowl.

Bibi was later arrested by police and prosecuted after women complained that she made derogatory remarks about the Holy Prophet (pbuh).

“According to my own investigation, it was a personal dispute and she did not commit blasphemy; she is innocent and her case is baseless,” stated Shahbaz Bhatti.

He stated that President Zardari had commissioned him to investigate the case. “I will hopefully submit my report to the president on Wednesday and recommend to him to grant pardon to Aasia Bibi.”

Also, Punjab Governor Salman Taseer on Sunday became the first senior government official to appeal to Zardari for clemency after visiting Bibi in prison.

“We have forwarded her petition to President Asif Ali Zardari and it is with him,” Taseer said. “She is poor and belongs to a minority community and should be pardoned.”

The presidency, however, informed AFP on Monday that it had received no such petition.

Meanwhile, Pope Benedict XVI last week also called for Bibi’s release. Human rights activists have expressed concern over the matter.

Muslim Punks: Coming of Age

The low-budget 'The Taqwacores' uses Muslims who are hard-core punk rockers to present compelling ideas of how modern Muslims worship in the U.S.

Los Angeles Times

They are, to be sure, ideas that go unexplored in the Koran: Is it a sin to slam dance? Can a person wear his hair in a mohawk, smoke weed like Snoop Dogg and still call himself a devout Muslim under the eyes of God? The micro-budgeted feature "The Taqwacores" — which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, opened in New York last week and reaches theaters in Los Angeles on Friday — tackles such issues head-on.

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FOR THE RECORD:
"Taqwacores" review: The Nov. 11 Calendar section review of the film "The Taqwacores" said a character in the film, Yusef, was an Arab American. The character is a Pakistani American. —

An adaptation of Michael Muhammad Knight's self-published 2003 novel and directed by novice filmmaker Eyad Zahra, "The Taqwacores" encapsulates a shotgun marriage of two seemingly incompatible worldviews: "taqwa," an Arabic word that can be defined as "piety" (but also "God fearing"), and the anarcho-rebellion of hard-core punk.

"If you strip down what punk is really all about, it's questioning the standards of the status quo and society and really looking for the ultimate truth," said Zahra, 27. "And that's the same thing that religion does."

The movie follows a nerdy Arab American college student named Yusef (played by Bobby Naderi) who moves into a dilapidated Buffalo, N.Y., apartment populated by an array of broad punk archetypes who also are devout Muslims — "the boys who missed the Islamic center picnic and the girls who date behind their father's backs," as a character named Jehangir (Dominic Rains) puts it. Each of them navigates the middle ground between the mosque and the mosh pit in a different way.

There's a burka-clad Riot Grrrl who scribbles Patti Smith lyrics on her wall and puts forward the notion that a woman doesn't necessarily need to make her face visible to qualify as an outspoken feminist. Another electric guitar-playing skateboarder character tests the limits of his faith by chugging beer and declaring, "I'm not big on the 'Islam is one way' approach."

The Taqwacores generally reject specific tenets of Koranic dogma: that homosexuality is a sin, that masturbation amounts to "self-harm" and that a man is justified in beating his wife to discipline her.

Aasia Bibi seeks presidential pardon

A Christian woman sentenced to death on charges of blasphemy said on Saturday she had been wrongfully accused by neighbours due to a personal dispute, and appealed to the president to pardon her.

Aasia Bibi, mother of four, is the first woman to be sentenced to death under Pakistan’s blasphemy law which rights groups say is often exploited by religious extremists as well as ordinary Pakistanis to settle personal scores.

“I told police that I have not committed any blasphemy and this is a wrong accusation, but they did not listen to me,” Bibi told reporters after meeting with Salman Taseer, governor of the central Punjab province where she is imprisoned.

“I have small kids. I have wrongly been implicated in this false case,” she said in the prison, covered in a cloak that only revealed her eyes.

Taseer said he would take up Bibi’s case with President Asif Ali Zardari, who has the constitutional power to pardon her.

“Inshallah her appeal will be accepted,” Taseer said, adding that he had studied Bibi’s case and found that she had not committed any blasphemy.

“She is a helpless Christian woman. She can’t legally defend herself because she does not have resources. Implicating such helpless minorities in such cases amounts to ridiculing the constitution of Pakistan,” Taseer added.

On Friday, Zardari asked the ministry for minorities affairs to compile a report on Bibi’s case within three days after media suggested the accusations stemmed from a village dispute.

Bibi confirmed she had been involved in a dispute over livestock with her neighbours, but would not give any more details.

The 36-year-old farm worker was taken into custody by police in June last year and was convicted by a lower court on Nov. 8. She has been in prison since then, with her case drawing international media attention as well as appeals by human rights groups.

Bibi said her opponents physically abused her before taking her to court. “They slapped me…They tried to strangle me. Their women also pulled my hair,” she said in a choked voice.

According to media reports, the quarrel began when some women working on the same farm refused to drink water from a bowl used by Bibi, saying they would not drink or eat anything a non-Muslim has touched.

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Good Job Mr. Salman Taseer. Take up this case and inform in detail not only about this case but also about this law which is not giving good name to our country. The honorable President Mr. Asif Ali Zardari is a person with merciful heart and will surely look into this case with deep concern.

Thank you, Taseer. Courage is one thing lacking in our culture, he appears to be an exception. If you show weakness, the fundamentalists increase more pressure. I hope President Zardari pardons her. I will forgive AZ for many of his previous (alleged) sins, if he does.

The Great General Zia, Saviour of our Faith. This is one of the gifts to the Pakistani nation by General Zaiul Haq. He single handedly harmed generations of Pakistanis like no other person in the nation’s history.

Time to repeal the blasphemy law

n June 2008, Asiya Bibi, a Pakistani farm worker and mother of five, fetched water for others working on the farm. Many refused the water because Asiya was Christian. The situation got ugly. Reports indicate Asiya was harassed because of her religion and the matter turned violent. Asiya, alone in a hostile environment, naturally would have attempted to defend herself but was put in police custody for her protection against a crowd that was harming her.

However, that protection move turned into one that was to earn Asiya a death sentence. A case was filed against her under sections 295-B and C of the Pakistan Penal Code, claiming that Asiya was a blasphemer. Her family will appeal against the judgment in the Lahore High Court.

The Asiya case raises the fundamental question of how Pakistan’s minorities have been left unprotected since the passage of the blasphemy law. There may have been no hangings on account of the law but it has facilitated the spread of intolerance and populist rage against minorities, often leading to deaths. There is also a direct link between the Zia-ist state’s intolerance against minorities and the rise of criminal treatment of Ahmadis.

Cases have ranged from the Kasur case to the more recent Gojra case, from the mind-boggling row of cases between 1988-1992 against 80-year-old development guru Dr Akhtar Hameed Khan, to the case of the son of an alleged blasphemer, an illiterate brick kiln worker who was beaten to death by a frenzied mob.

Although doctor sahib faced prolonged mental torture, he was saved from the maddening rage that has sent to prison, and in some cases devoured, many innocent, poor and hence unprotected Pakistanis.

There is a long list, prepared by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, of unjust punishments handed down to Pakistani citizens whose fundamental rights the state is obliged to protect. Beyond punishments, minorities live in constant fear of being lethally blackmailed by those who want to settle other scores.

Yet most political parties have refrained from calling for the law’s repeal or improvement in its implementation mechanism. When, in the early 90s, I asked Nawaz Sharif sahib to criticise the hounding of Dr Khan, his response was a detailed recall of the story in which Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) went to ask after the health of a non-Muslim woman who repeatedly threw garbage over him. He condemned what was happening but said politics prevented him from doing so publicly. Later, General Musharraf, advised by other generals, reversed his announcement of changing the law’s implementation mechanism. Small crowds protested against it. Among politicians, very few exceptions include the PPP parliamentarian Sherry Rehman and, more recently, the ANP’s Bushra Gohar, who asked for its amendment and repeal.

Already sections of the judiciary have been critical of flawed judgements passed by lower courts in alleged blasphemy cases. Recently in July, Lahore High Court Chief Justice Khawaja Sharif quashed a blasphemy case against 60-year-old Zaibunnisa and ordered her release after almost 14 years in custody. According to the judgment, the “treatment meted out to the woman was an insult to humanity and the government and the civil organisations should be vigilant enough to help such people.” Surely the Bench should know the plethora of abuses that Pakistan’s minorities have suffered because of an evidently flawed law.

A message more appropriate, perhaps, would be to repeal the black law that grossly undermines the Constitution of Pakistan and indeed the teachings of Prophet Muhammad, one of the most tolerant and humane law-givers humankind has known. This environment of populist rage, fed by the distorted yet self-serving interpretation of religion principally by Zia and a populist mixing of religion and politics by a politically besieged Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, must be emphatically challenged. A collective effort to roll back these laws must come from parliament, the lawyers’ forums, the judiciary, civil society groups and the media.

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The Holy Prophet (saw) did not allow the destruction of Taif’s citizens who had stoned and abused him. He (saw) forgave the Jewish woman who gave him poisoned mutton, Hinda who had eaten the liver of the Prophet’s uncle was also forgiven. There numerous compassionate acts of the Holy Prophet (saw) negate the blasphemy laws without any doubt. These laws are the imagination of fickle minded and unsure mullas.

Excellent idea, so when do you think blasphemy law will be repealed? These laws have been in place for a good 25 years, there has to be a good reason why they continue to survive and I am guessing they have popular support among the clergy of Pakistan irrespective of sect.

There is neither a basis nor room in Islam, the religion of peace, for the blasphemy law. It is against the Quran and sunnah of the Holy Prophet (SAW), whom Allah Himself introduced in the Quran as rehmat-ul-lilalaleen (mercy for the universe). To justify the blasphemy law in itself is blasphemous.

The nation is on the path towards oblivion unless they rapidly change course. God always waylays the oppressors and tyrants. The state-certified Muslims should not fool themselves by imagining they are outside the reach of Allah’s lathi ..

Pakistan crush Bangladesh to win maiden cricket gold

Pakistan created history Friday in crushing Bangladesh by 10 wickets to win the first-ever Asian Games women’s cricket tournament.

The victory also handed Pakistan their first gold of these Games and prevented Bangladesh from claiming their country’s first ever.

Bangladesh’s total of 92 never looked enough as Pakistan openers Nida Rashid and Javeria Wadood made a positive start to their run chase, playing a full range of shots and looking to to score at every opportunity.

Bangladesh could not force a much-needed breakthrough as Nida raced to a half-century off just 41 balls.

The Pakistan pair reached their target with more than four overs to spare. Nida was 51 not out with Javeria unbeaten on 39.

Bangladesh scored freely in the early part of their innings, but Pakistan’s bowlers tied them down, forcing them to take risks, which led to wickets tumbling.

Captain Salma Khatun top-scored with 24, with Nida taking 3-16 and skipper Sana Mir 2-23.

Mir said that credit goes to the coach and the whole team while the Pakistani side’s manager said that the win was an Eid gift from his side to the nation.

Will Facebook sound death knell for email?

Email is dead, or will be dead. That's the underlying message of CEO Mark Zuckerberg as he unveiled Facebook's revamped messaging system in San Fracisco on Monday night. The popular networking service was supposed to launch a "Gmail killer" at the much-hyped event. But it was far from it. Nevertheless, the new avataar will raise network communication to a level that will shake the Gmails and Yahoos.

Zuckerberg himself painted the picture thus: "I don't expect people to wake up tomorrow and say, 'I'm going to shut down my Yahoo account or my Gmail account'...Maybe one day, six months, a year, two years out people will start to say this is how the future should work."

One of the biggest improvisations is that Facebook users will be able to communicate to non-Facebook users via Facebook using an @facebook.com ID. This is a possible threat to email services as now Facebook users will have to go to Hotmail or Yahoo or Gmail to communicate with non-Facebook users. So, at least theoretically, there's a possibility of a good number of Facebook users gradually making @facebook.com their default email ID.

Secondly, Zuckerberg foresees an era when email will not be the only means of communication between two people. A Pew study shows that text messaging is the most preferred means of communication for US teens, very few used email. He said 350 million members (out of over 500 million members) use Facebook's messaging system. So Facebook decided to take it a step ahead, by bringing emails, SMS, instant messages besides Facebook messages on one platform. Andrew Bosworth, a software engineer at Facebook, said, "People should share however they want to share...If you want to send me an email and I want to get it in a text message, that should work. So, all the communication -- whether it be via SMS, IM, email or Facebook messages -- will be in the user's 'Social Inbox'".

AOL, which is in the process of revamping its email, differed with this forecast of death of emails. Its senior vice-president of consumer products Brad Garlinghouse told the BBC that email remained one of the killer apps on the internet. But hours after the Facebook announcement, Google CEO Eric Schmidt at the Web 2.0 summit, welcomed the new competition. "More competition is always good because competition makes the market larger," he said. "It brings more people in. We are all served by having everybody in the world get online."

Kashmir issue remains part of agenda, says UN spokesman

The United Nations Security Council continues to be “seized of Kashmir issue” as it is part of its agenda item, a spokesman for the UN Secretary General said on Monday.

He termed news reports that Kashmir dispute was not part of UNSC agenda items “inaccurate”.

Responding to questions on reports published in Indian press, the spokesperson said on record “Some articles today on Kashmir are inaccurate”.

“The authors of these articles may have picked up the most recent addendum to the summary statement of matters of which the Security Council is seized, which publishes only the list of matters which have been considered in a formal meeting since 1 Jan 2007,” the statement said.

The spokesman noted: “They missed in that addendum a paragraph explaining that the full list appears in Add.9 of March 2010, which list continues

to include the agenda item under which the council has taken up Kashmir which, by a decision of the council, remains on the list for this year.”

The issue came up in the UN General Assembly on Monday, in the debate of the UNSC’s annual report. Pakistan called it an “inadvertent error”, but Indian officials managed to convince the Indian media that Pakistan was seeking yet another excuse to bring Kashmir into the UNSC. He said this was the norm and had been so for the past five years.

India will serve as non-permanent member of the UN Security Council from 2011 to 2012, and Pakistan expects to be a member of the Council from 2012.

Pakistan’s acting permanent repre

sentative to the UN, Amjad Hussain Sial’s pretension in the General Assembly last Thursday that “an inadvertent omission” in the annual report of the Security Council had left out Kashmir as “one of the oldest disputes on agenda of the Security Council” is a desperate attempt by Islamabad to revive the issue in the UN.

Pakistan sees its hope of once again internationalising the dispute through the UN fade rapidly as India prepares to join the Security Council for a two-year term next January and campaigns for a permanent seat in the council, a claim now endorsed by US President Barack Obama.

But by admitting in a General Assembly speech that the UN was no longer seized of the Kashmir issue, instead of lobbying quietly for its re-inclusion, Sial has alerted the world to Pakistan’s predicament and may have seriously damaged his country’s pet cause against India.

A thorough review of UN records by this reporter following Sial’s statement has revealed that throughout this new millennium the annual reports of the Security Council had never even once mentioned Kashmir by name.

A review of the secretary-general’s annual report on the work of the UN has also not cited the Kashmir dispute since 2005. In that last year when Kashmir figured in the report, it was only in the context of welcoming a resumption of bilateral dialogue between India and Pakistan, a reference that was favourable to New Delhi.

A European ambassador to the UN, echoing the near-unanimous view at the UN, told this reporter today that as an issue before the world body, Kashmir was “dead as a dodo”. Kofi Annan had admitted when he was secretary-general that Security Council resolutions on Kashmir “cannot be enforced and are not self-implementable”.

The latest Security Council report, the subject of Sial’s pretension, does not mention Kashmir by name even when a passing reference to the Indian state w

ould have been routine in the course of the council’s work. In a reflection of general weariness at the way Islamabad continues to revive this “dead dodo”, the report curiously used the euphemism “the India Pakistan question” when Kashmir actually cropped up in an obscure communication.

The mention of “the India Pakistan question” surfaced in a chapter on “Matters brought to the attention of the Security Council but not discussed at meetings of the Council during the period covered” in Part V of the 230-page annual report.

It was occasioned by a letter from Syria’s permanent representative to the UN, Bashar Jaafari, to secretary-general Ban Ki-moon merely conveying the final communiqué of an annual meeting of foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) in New York last year.

Although Syria is a friend of India’s, Jaafa

ri had to send the communication to Ban in his capacity as chair of the OIC group in New York. The communiqué called for implementation of UN resolutions on Kashmir, but it was quietly filed away by whoever received it here and no action was taken.

In New Delhi, the ministry of external affairs said “we condemn and reject” the OIC communiqué, adding that “the OIC has no locus standi in matters concerning India’s internal affairs.”

UN reports continue to mention the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) set up under UN resolutions, but notes that there were no resolutions about it in 2009-2010.

The Pakistani diplomat who spoke in the General Assembly last week may have had no option in the matter. It is the policy of the Asif Zardari government and the present leadership of the army in Rawalpindi to do everything possible to internationalise Kashmir. But at the UN at least, it is strategy that is failing, at least for now.

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The "India-Pakistan question", which is a euphemism for the Kashmir question, was last discussed in the UN Security Council in 1965 having been first raised in 1948. Since then the Security Council has not discussed the issue.

Earlier this week, the Pakistan envoy to the UN,Amjad Sial, opened the lid on what is probably the worst kept secret in the UNSC -- that Kashmir as an issue has not been raised in the Council for almost half a century, even during the worst of India-Pakistan relations.

The Pakistan envoy protested in the General Assembly earlier this week that the Kashmir issue was "missing" from the UNSC annual list, describing it as an "inadvertent error." Indian diplomats maintained that it was not inadvertent at all, but that the Kashmir issue was a "dead letter".

Later, UNSC spokesperson Farhan Haq clarified that the annual list submitted to the General Assembly only published issues discussed in the Council from January 1, 2007, and that the full list of issues that had ever been discussed by the Council was in an addendum published in March 2010. That list, Haq said, includes Kashmir, which means Kashmir remains a "live" issue in the UNSC, unlike the Indian interpretation that it was a "dead letter".

However, the addendum in question, posted on March 8, 2010, lists "items which were identified in document S/2010/10 as subject to deletion in 2010 because they had not been considered by the Council at a formal meeting during the three-year period from 1 January 2007 to 31 December 2009". According to UNSC's own rules, these items would be removed from the list in 2010. Which, say, Indian officials, is what was done.

In 2005, the then UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, declared that the "plebiscite" issue could not be enforced or self-implemented. But it was after Annan's remarks, made in the context of the resumption of the India-Pakistan dialogue in 2005, that the UNSC dropped the reference to the dispute. In the past five years there has been no such mention.

Facts about Kashmir and its people. 1. They started movement against Maharajah of Kashmir in 1931 to be free. 2.. When India and Pakistan got independence form Britain in 1947. 3. Maharajah of Kashmir wanted to wanted to be independent and signed stand still agreement with Pakistan. 4. The majority of border area of Kashmir wanted to join Pakistan and their was rebellion and they almost took Kashmir. 5. Maharajah of Kashmir sort help from India and they provided conditional help with the proviso that after the rebellion is contained the people should be given chance to decide their future with out any fear, favor, and failure to decide their future whether to join India, Pakistan, and be Independent. 6. The India troops now over two million rather than preserve %26 protect their freedom[s], became brutal occupiers and oppressors. 7. It was India that brought Kashmir Peoples issue before United Nations Security Council and pleaded, promised, pledged, and committed for the right of self determination for the people of Kashmir [Plebiscite]. 8. Their are several these resolutions pending before United nations Security Council. 9. In April 1952 the United Nations Security Council appointed our late Admiral Nimitz, as Plebiscite Administrator to the people of Kashmir their chance to decide their future without any fear, favor, and failure. 10. Mean while Pakistan joined SEATO and CENTO military alliance with USA and India backed out.