Bollywood shows solidarity for My Name is Khan

'We are ashamed Shah Rukh Khan was born in India'

In a display of solidarity among film fraternity, Bollywood actors thronged theatres in Mumbai to watch Shah Rukh Khan starrer 'My Name is Khan', despite threats from the Shiv Sena.

Agitated over Shah Rukh Khan's remarks that he would wish to see Pakistani players participate in the IPL season 3, Shiv Sena activists had torn down film's posters and vandalized theatres in the run-up to the film's release.

Sena leadership has opposed Pakistani players participation owing to anger over the November 2008 terror attacks, suspected to have been carried out by ten Pakistani gunmen.

Fox Star Studios has bought the distribution rights for My Name Is Khan, in what is said to be the biggest distribution deal in Bollywood.

Trade analysts say there are at least 1.2 billion rupees riding on the film and if the western Mumbai-Maharashtra circuit is affected, it would affect almost 25 percent of the film's cinema revenues.

Fox Star Studios is content with its distribution deal for filmmaker Karan Johar’s new release. Its plans of releasing as many as 500 prints of the film in more than 65 countries worldwide are unprecedented for a Bollywood project. In the US and Canada it opens in 121 theatres on Friday which is on the lavish end of what Bollywood films open on.

With Shah Rukh Khan refusing to apologise for criticising the exclusion of Pakistani players from IPL, Shiv Sena has dared him to come back to Mumbai and make a similar statement.

Party spokesperson and editor of Sena mouthpiece Saamna, Sanjay Raut, said: “Shah Rukh Khan has said he will not apologise, but he has said that in the US. Let him come and say this in Mumbai,” an Indian television channel reported.

“We are ashamed that Shah Rukh was born in India,” Raut added.

The Khan-Kajol film is likely to draw South Asians into theatres in droves over the Valentine’s Day long weekend from 13-15 February. Monday is a President’s Day holiday in the US so MNIK is likely to earn strong box-office receipts.

Indian Aqua bomb:

Draught & floods imposed on Pakistan: Indus Water Treaty violations- state terror

India’s Water Terrorism against Pakistan
Since the 9/11 tragedy, international community has been taking war against terrorism seriously, while there are also other forms of bloodless wars, being waged in the world and the same are like terrorism. In these terms, India has been practising water terrorism against Pakistan.
In a bid to solace Islamabad’s concerns, while speaking in diplomatic language, Indus Water Commissioner of India G. Ranganathan who recently visited Pakistan revealed, “India had been affected as much as Pakistan due to water shortage in the Indus”. He denied, saying: “Indian decision to build dams on rivers has led to water shortage in Pakistan”, while rejecting Islamabad’s concerns regarding water-theft by New Delhi including violation of the Indus Water Treaty
Apart from other permanent issues including the thorny dispute of Kashmir which has always been used by India to malign and pressurise Pakistan, water of rivers has become a matter of life and death for every Pakistani as New Delhi has continuously been employing it as a tool of terrorism to blackmail Pakistan.
In the recent past, Indian decision to construct two hydro-electric projects on River Neelam which is called Krishanganga in Indian dialect is a new violation of the Indus Basin Water Treaty of 1960. The World Bank, itself, is the mediator and signatory for the treaty. After the partition, owing to war-like situation, New Delhi deliberately stopped the flow of Pakistan’s rivers which originate from the Indian-held Kashmir. Even at that time, Indian rulers had used water as a tool of terrorism against Pakistan. However, due to Indian illogical stand, Islamabad sought the help of international arbitration. The Indus Basin Treaty allocates waters of three western rivers of Indus, Jhelum and Chenab to Pakistan, while India has rights over eastern rivers of Ravi, Sutlej and Beas.

Nevertheless, apart from intermittent violations of the Indus Water Treaty by construction of the Krishanganga project over Neelam River, New Delhi, in fact, has been using water as a tool to pressurise Islamabad with a view to getting leverage in the composite dialogue especially regarding Indian-held Kashmir where a new phase of protests has started.
Indian diplomacy of water terrorism could also be judged from a latest development. Reports suggest that India has secretly offered technical assistance to the Afghan government in order to construct a dam over Kabul River which is a main water contributor to Indus River.
By applying such a shrewd diplomacy of using water as another instrument of terrorism against Pakistan, New Delhi intends to fulfil a number of nefarious designs. India wants to keep her control on Kashmir which is located in the Indus River basin area, and which contributes to the flow of all the major rivers, entering Pakistan. It is determined to bring about political, economic and social problems of grave nature in Pakistan.
As regards the Indian clandestine aims, in this respect, a report, published in the “New Scientist” in 2005 pointed out a number of issues in relation to Pakistan by writing: “Violation of the Indus Basin Treaty could lead to widespread famine, and further inflame the ongoing conflict over Kashmir. Pakistan relies on the Indus river and its tributaries for almost half of its irrigation supplies, and to generate up to half of its electricity. Pakistan also fears that India would use various dams as a coercive tool by causing floods in Pakistan through sudden release of dam waters.”
In this context, China Daily News Group wrote in 2005: “Another added complication is that in building a dam upstream of Pakistan, India will possess the ability to flood or starve Pakistan at will. This ability was witnessed in July of 2004 when India, without warning, released water into the Chenab river, flooding large portions of Pakistan. The history of conflict between these two nations makes it possible for New Delhi to use nature as a real weapon against Islamabad.”
According to an estimate, unlike India, Pakistan is highly dependent on agriculture, which in turn is dependent on water. Of the 79.6 million hectares of land that makeup Pakistan, 20 million are available for agriculture. Of those 20 million hectares, 16 million are dependent on irrigation. So, almost 80% of Pakistan’s agriculture is dependent on irrigation.
It is notable that many of Pakistan’s industries are agro-based such as the textiles industry. Besides, 80% of Pakistan’s food needs are fulfilled domestically. Thus an interruption of water supply would have broad-ranging effects. For example, when the country suffered a drought from 1998 to 2001, there were violent riots in Karachi.
It is of particular attention that half of Pakistan’s energy comes from hydroelectricity, and at present, our country has been facing a severe crisis of loadshedding which is the result of power-shortage in the country. During the last summer, people in a number of cities like Karachi, Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad etc. lodged violent protests against the loadshedding, culminating into loss of property and life.

Media Propagate 'Hope for Peace' in South Asia

The 'Times of India' and the Pakistani 'Jang' group have come up with a peace initiative between India and Pakistan - a first time the media have taken such a step. The two South Asian neighbours India and Pakistan have been at loggerheads since the partition of the subcontinent in 1947. The conflict over Kashmir and militant attacks have fuelled animosity between them for a long time.

Despite the criticism regarding the media-led peace initiative 'Aman ki Asha', Facebook, the social networking site, records more than 8,000 followers on the project's page. This goes to show that a growing number of young people in India and Pakistan sincerely want the media to make a positive contribution towards achieving a relaxation of tensions between the two countries.

For the past 2 years the Jang Group and Geo have been working on a project of great national interest; one that we hope will help usher in an era of peace and prosperity in the country and indeed, in the region. And one that hopefully all Pakistanis can be proud of.

The Jang Group has entered into an agreement with the Times of India Group, the largest media group of India, to campaign for peace between the two countries. This huge initiative by the two largest media groups of India and Pakistan – appropriately called Aman Ki Asha – will advocate the many benefits of peace while also discussing core and non-core issues that have resulted in a state of hostilities and mistrust between the two countries for the past 60 years. Both groups have agreed to honestly and forcefully articulate issues such as Kashmir dispute, the water dispute, issues relating to terrorism and all other obstacles to peace. At the same time, Aman Ki Asha will promote the economic, educational and cultural benefits that an honorable and durable peace between the two neighbors will bring.

Pakistani Artist Brings Unique Artworks to Dubai
Strong bold colors and sharp contrasts are the most striking facets of Faiza Shaikh’s collection of works on display at Capital Club on December 9, 2009. The London-based pakistani artist, whose works have been featured in a number of prestigious shows including shows at the BAFTA Awards and the World Bank, already has a dedicated following in Dubai.

Her art has a philosophical aspect to it as she takes couplets or excerpts from scriptures and translates them onto canvas. Her signature work is recognized by the use of gold and silver leaf scripted with the philosophical message. Bright and bold colors and strokes combine with the words to create a wildly positive energy in her work. The result is that the canvas takes on the appearance of lustrous silk.

Faiza Shaikh
Faiza Shaikh was introduced to art at a very early age and her passion grew, first at at Fielden Park Art School in Manchester and after that, at South Trafford College for textile designing and finally at St Martins college in London. With this knowledge of technique and history of art, Faiza decided to make her own mark in the art world. She has participated in a number of acclaimed group shows and has had numerous solo shows around the world too.

Pakistan’s Naseem becomes fastest woman in South Asia

Pakistan’s Naseem Hamid created history on Monday by becoming the fastest woman of the region when she won the 100-metre sprint gold medal at the South Asian Games.

The 22-year-old from Pakistan clocked 11.81seconds, 0.12seconds ahead of Sri Lanka’s Pramila Priyadarshani, to bag her first gold medal before a strong crowd at Bangabandhu National Stadium.

Wearing national green tights, she led the field among the eight runners after her easy qualification for the finals.

“I had forgotten the world for six months and trained really very, very hard under my coach Maqsood Ahmed to achieve this,” Naseem Hamid said.

“It is a great moment for me to have brought glory to the country in my event after the poor showing by our national cricket team and especially since our athletics standards have been poor of late,” she added.

“I hope my performance will inspire the young athletes to become professionals.”

Both 100-metre results turned out to be upsets as Shehan Saearuwan of Sri Lanka toppled India’s Abdul Najeeb Qureshi who had previously won the 200-metre event.

Meanwhile, for Naseem Hamid to win the 100-metre sprint was a historic moment as no Pakistani woman had achieved this feat in 26-year history of the regional games.

Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) Chief Lt.Gen (Rtd) Syed Arif Hasan congratulated Naseem for her historic performance and announced a one-lakh-rupee (Rs.100,000) cash prize for her remarkable achievement.

Shut Up'? Pakistan President's Outburst Scrubbed From 'Net

When President Asif Ali Zardari says “Shut up,” he apparently means it.

A few weeks ago, a short video of Pakistan’s unpopular, democratically elected president began playing on endless loop on the dozen private channels here. In the clip, he is giving a speech in Urdu to a crowd that apparently wasn’t listening to him too closely (not uncommon in Pakistan). As he speaks, you can hear background chitchat from the inattentive audience. Well, he could hear that same chitchat too, so at one point he looked down at someone and yelled, in English, ”Shut Up!”

All the local television anchors had a good laugh featuring the video, as did those at home -- some of whom created remixes of Zardari’s outburst (see HERE, HERE and HERE) and posted them to YouTube.

“Such behavior is embarrassing for any politician, but especially for the president of a country,” wrote Adil Najam of All Things Pakistan, amoderate blog that promises to “talk about [Pakistan’s] problems constructively.”

Which brings us to the evening of Sunday, Feb. 7. At about 9:30 p.m., according to the Pakistan Twitterverse, YouTube suddenly disappeared from Pakistani Internet Service Providers.

About an hour later, it seems that all was fixed -- with one very blatant exception. The dozen or so YouTube videos featuring Zardari’s explosion in loop were still restricted. You could search for them, but you couldn’t watch them (see screen grab).

RBS put on sale yet again

Soneri Bank enters race to buy RBS Pakistan

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Pakistan has been again put on sale, RBS Group announced on Thursday. RBS Group has re-invited the bids for the potential sale of its 99.37 percent ownership interest in RBS Pakistan”, a notice sent to Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) stated. RBS announced that its is in the process of identifying potential bidders for the proposed sale and declared that subject to obtaining requisite regulatory approvals, such potential bidders may be invited to and may conduct due diligence on RBS Pakistan. The deal between MCB Pakistan and RBS in this regard lapsed some days back due to delay in regulatory subjects.

Pakistan's Soneri Bank says eyes RBS Pakistan

Pakistan's Soneri Bank (SBL) (SONA.KA: said on Monday it is interested in buying the local operations of Royal Bank of Scotland.

Pakistan's MCB Bank (MCB) had agreed last August to buy virtually all of RBS Pakistan shares for about $87 million, but the deal collapsed last month after MCB failed to get regulatory approval.

Soneri has a market value of around $72 million and, according to its website, operates 154 branches nationwide.

Last week, Egypt's No.1 bank EFG-Hermes expressed interest in buying RBS Pakistan, and Pakistan's Faysal Bank last month also expressed interest.

The planned Pakistan sale of RBS is part of moves by part-nationalised RBS to sell assets globally as it tries to exit some three dozen countries and focus on its mainly British core businesses.

Getting real about nuclear terrorism

In May 1998, surprise nuclear tests by India and Pakistan transformed regional strategic calculations and added a dangerous new dimension to tensions between the two long-time rivals.

According to Taylor Branch, writing in The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President, Indian officials who spoke with then US President Bill Clinton were fully aware of the potential devastation a clash between the two nations could lead to, calculating that a doomsday nuclear volley would kill 300 to 500 million Indians while annihilating all 120 million Pakistanis (although the Pakistani side insisted its rugged mountain terrain would shield more survivors than the exposed plains of India).

Regardless of the accuracy of these numbers, and although the two countries’ military strategies differ (India’s is based on conventional superiority, while Pakistan tends to emphasise nuclear deterrence to cancel out this advantage) one thing is clear: the threat of nuclear terrorism looms large over both.

Bringing India into the non-proliferation regime will be crucial if Pakistan is also to be drawn in – moves that would both help reduce the risk of nuclear conflict as well as the risk of nuclear materials falling into the wrong hands.

India and Pakistan made a good start in the field of nuclear cooperation when they signed an agreement in 1989 not to attack each other’s nuclear facilities. And in a more recent positive sign, in November 2008, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari stated Pakistan was willing to commit to a no-first-use policy for its nuclear weapons – a policy he said he could secure backing from parliament for. However, only four days after the suggestion, terrorists struck Mumbai, killing 176 people and stirring up tensions between the two countries.

Pakistan’s refusal to join the nuclear proliferation regime is also linked to India’s rejection of the same system. Both countries are not bound by the conditions reached after the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was agreed, such as the 1997 Additional Protocol, to strengthen the non-proliferation regime. As a consequence, the continued exclusion of Pakistan and India from the non-proliferation regime is actually intensifying the nuclear arms race in South Asia.

Bringing India into the regime will mean addressing its objections to becoming part of the arrangement: it believes that the non-proliferation regime is discriminatory as it is rooted in the NPT, which only gives nuclear weapons status to five countries. The US has already taken a significant step toward accepting India through the Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement, the framework for which was agreed in 2005. Here, the US defended the exception for India because of its impeccable record in non-proliferation. But the move upset Pakistan, which argued the exceptional treatment for India risked triggering an arms race.

It seems clear then that granting both countries de-facto nuclear weapons state status through suitable amendments to the NPT would be the best way of curbing the on-going arms race and reducing the threat of nuclear terrorism by making it easier for the International Atomic Energy Agency to hold the nuclear infrastructures of both countries to the highest scrutiny.

Many nations may baulk at such a move. But the stakes are too high to sideline pragmatism as the guiding basis for policy.

Luv Puri is a Fulbright Fellow at New York University.

Anti-Americanism on the rise in Pakistan

Pakistan — For weeks now, the Pakistani media have portrayed America, its military and defense contractors in the darkest of lights, all part of an apparent campaign of anti-American vilification that is sweeping the country and, according to some, is putting American lives at risk.
Pakistanis are reacting to what many here see as an “imperial” American presence, echoing Iraq and Afghanistan, with Washington dictating to the Pakistani military and the government. Polls show that Pakistanis regard the U.S., formally a close ally and the country’s biggest donor, as a hostile power.
U.S. officials have either denied the allegations or moved to blunt the criticism, but suspicions remain and relations between the two countries are getting more strained.
The lively Pakistani media has been filled with stories of under-cover American agents operating in the country, tales of a huge contingent of U.S. Marines planned to be stationed at the embassy, and reports of Blackwater private security personnel running amuck. Armed Americans have supposedly harassed and terrified residents and police officers in Islamabad and Peshawar, according to local press reports.
Much of the hysteria was based on a near $1 billion plan, revealed by McClatchy in May and confirmed by U.S. officials, to massively increase the size of the American embassy in Islamabad, which brought home to Pakistanis that the United States plans an extensive and long-term presence in the country.
The American mission in Islamabad was forced to put on three briefings for Pakistani journalists in August trying to dampen the highly charged stories, which could undermine US-Pakistani relations just as Washington is preparing to finalize a tripling of civilian aid to Islamabad, to $1.5 billion a year. Over this last weekend, an embassy spokesman had to deny suddenly renewed stories that the U.S. was behind the mysterious death of former military dictator General Zia ul Haq back in 1988.
Pakistan is a key priority for the United States because of its nuclear weapons and its potential usefulness in taking on al Qaida within its borders and ending the safe haven for the Afghan Taliban.
“I think this recent brouhaha over the embassy expansion has been difficult to beat back,” said Anne Patterson, the U.S. ambassador, in an interview Thursday. “I can’t really understand what’s behind this because what we’re doing is actually quite straightforward. We’ve tried to explain it carefully to the press, but it just seems to be taken over by conspiracy theories.”
Briefing Pakistani journalists last month, Patterson told them that there were only nine Marines stationed to guard the embassy in Islamabad and that, even after the expansion, their number would be no more than 15 to 20. Press reports had put the figure at 350 to 1,000 Marines. She also stated categorically “Blackwater is not operating in Pakistan”. But the stories refused to go away.
Patterson said she wrote last week to the owner of Pakistan’s biggest media group, Jang, to protest about the content of two talk shows on its Geo TV channel, hosted by star anchors Hamid Mir and Kamran Khan, and a newspaper column of influential analyst Shireen Mazari in The News, a daily, complaining that they were “wildly incorrect” and had compromised the security of Americans.
There are 250 American citizens posted at the Islamabad mission on longer-term contracts, plus another 200 on shorter assignments, the embassy said. The present embassy compound can accommodate only a fraction of them. According to independent estimates, there are some 200 private houses for U.S. officials, on regular streets located throughout upscale districts of Islamabad.
Pakistani press and bloggers also targeted Craig Davis, an American aid worker, insisting that he’s an undercover secret agent. Davis, a contractor to the USAID development arm of the government, is based in the volatile northwestern city of Peshawar, and now appears to be at risk. Last year, another American USAID contractor in Peshawar, Stephen Vance, was gunned down just outside his home.
“In one or two cases these commentators have identified very specific embassy employees as CIA or Blackwater, and that very much puts the employee at danger. In at least one case we’re going to have to evacuate the employee,” said Patterson, without identifying the individual involved. “What particularly scared us about him is that Stephen Vance, who was the other AID Chief of Party in Peshawar, was of course assassinated a few months ago. So there is a track record here that’s sort of alarming.”
In recent days, shows on two popular private television channels, Geo and Dunya, which broadcast in the local Urdu language, put up pictures of homes in Islamabad which they claimed were occupied by CIA, FBI, or employees of the controversial Blackwater company of private security contractors, now called Xe Services. Some of the houses were identified with their full address. It is believed that several of the homes weren’t occupied by Americans but others were. According to the U.S embassy, bloggers are now calling on people to “kill” the occupants of these houses.
A survey last month for international broadcaster al Jazeera by Gallup Pakistan found that 59 percent of Pakistanis felt the greatest threat to the country was the United States. A separate survey in August by the Pew Research Center, an independent pollster based in Washington, recorded that 64 percent of the Pakistani public regards the U.S. “as an enemy” and only 9 percent believe it to be a partner.
“The Ugly American of the sixties is back in Pakistan and this time with a vengeance,” said Mazari, the defense analyst whose newspaper column was the subject of the American complaint. “It’s an alliance (U.S.-Pakistan) that’s been forced on the country by its corrupt leadership. It’s delivering chaos. We should distance ourselves. You can’t just hand over the country.”
While the anti-US sentiment appears genuine, it is uncertain whether the current storm, and the particular stories that it thrived on, was orchestrated by a pressure group or even an arm of the state. In the past, Pakistan’s notorious Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency, part of the military, has very effectively used the press to push its agenda.
The U.S. provided over $11billion in aid to Pakistan since 2001. Yet in recent days, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has complained that too much of the promised new enhanced U.S. aid package would be eaten up in American administrative costs, while President Asif Zardari demanded that multi-billion dollar civilian and military aid money, currently stuck in Congress, be speeded up.
The Pakistani government has repeatedly stated that joining the U.S. “war on terror” has cost the nation an estimated $34 billion and ministers frequently lambast the U.S. for trespassing on Pakistani territory with use of spy planes to target suspected militants — an emotive tacit for the Pakistani population.
Ambassador Patterson said that “the (Pakistani) government could be more helpful” in combating the anti-American controversies, which took on a new fever pitch since the beginning of August.
The weak Islamabad government appears unable to come to the defense of its ally and even tried to score some popularity points by joining the U.S.-baiting.
A widely believed conspiracy contends that America is deliberately destabilizing Pakistan, to bring down a “strong Muslim country”, and ultimately seize its nuclear weapons. Pakistanis, especially its military establishment, also are distrustful of U.S. motives in Afghanistan, seeing it as part of a strategy for regional domination. Further Pakistanis are appalled that the regime of Hamid Karzai in Kabul is close to archenemy India.
“Part of the reason why we can’t fight terrorism is because the terrorists have adopted what I’d call anti-U.S. imperialist discourse, which makes them more popular,” said Ayesha Siddiqa, an analyst and author of Military Inc.
Many also blame the U.S. for “imposing” a president on the country, Zardari, who is deeply disliked and who last year succeeded an unpopular U.S.-backed military dictator. So democrats resent American interference in Pakistani politics, while conservatives distrust American aims in Afghanistan.
“You used to find this anti-Americanism among supporters of religious groups and Right-wing groups,” said Ahmed Quraishi, a newspaper columnist and the leading anti-American blogger. “But over the past two to three years, young, educated Pakistanis, people you’d normally expect to be pro-American modernists, and middle class people, are increasingly inclined to anti-Americanism. That’s the new phenomenon.”
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the usa is fighting a pseudo war in pakistan..basically striking at will at targets..this is making even moderates turn to anti-usa views..pakistan is a real powder keg with its nukes and dont expect the usa to take its eyes off of there any time soon

Obama's silent war shocks Pakistan
The latest Taliban bombing has uncovered America's low-profile funding of the Pakistan military
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To many Pakistanis the most shocking aspect of the latest Taliban bombing was not the death toll, or the injuries inflicted on survivors, but the question that it raised: what was a team of American soldiers doing in a tense corner of North West Frontier province?
In a way, the attack tugged the veil from a multi-faceted military assistance programme that, while not secret, is rarely publicised – by either side.
President Obama's public aid to ­Pakistan is transparent: $1.5bn a year for the next five years, mainly to boost the civilian government. But behind the scenes the US is engaged in other ways. Over the past decade it has given over $12bn in cash directly to the ­military to subsidise the costs of fighting the Taliban and al-Qaida. The programme to train the Frontier Corps, which the killed ­soldiers were involved with, is ­estimated to be worth $400m more over several years.
Generously provisioned counter-narcotics programmes operate along the Afghan border, funding everything from wells to schools. In Islamabad military contractors – usually retired army personnel – are paid to advise the army, discreetly working out of suburban houses. All this is hugely sensitive. Public opinion in Pakistan is overwhelmingly hostile to American "interference".
Last year a media furore erupted over the role of the contractor Blackwater, which vocal right-wing commentators believed was part of a covert plot to steal the country's nuclear weapons.
The Taliban played on that fear yesterday with a spokesman describing the bomb as "revenge for the blasts carried out by Blackwater in Pakistan".
The critics are backed by public opinion. A survey last October found that 80% of Pakistanis rejected American assistance in fighting the Taliban.