Pakistan - News and Discussion 6

06-07-2006, 11:47 PM

Nareshji,

I think even Pakis had no clue about per capita income. I am not sure which formula they are using for $652. Paki mathematics is Mashallah!!!

For next ten years India should expect worst encounters with Pakistan. These water and food hungry fundoo Pakis will be crawling towards India. And stupid âsecular Indian politiciansâ are not preparing Indians but worse they are trying to divide India.

**acharya** · 06-08-2006, 12:43 AM

QUOTE(Naresh @ Jun 6 2006, 06:14 PM)Acharya Ji,

1. Please give a Link to your quoted Articles. Thanks in advance.

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All the articles are from http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/

Naresh · 06-08-2006, 02:12 AM

QUOTE(Mudy @ Jun 7 2006, 11:47 PM)Nareshji,

I think even Pakis had no clue about per capita income. I am not sure which formula they are using for $652. Paki mathematics is Mashallah!!!

For next ten years India should expect worst encounters with Pakistan. These water and food hungry fundoo Pakis will be crawling towards India. And stupid âsecular Indian politiciansâ are not preparing Indians but worse they are trying to divide India.
[right][snapback]52250[/snapback][/right]

Mudy Ji :

Pakis being Pakis have been declaring their GDP for Pakistani F Y 2005 with figures ranging from GDP being USD 109 Billion to USD 148 Billion and correspondingly the Per Capita Income from USD 652 to USD 847 in all cases INSHAHALLAH.

As regards the Pakis crawling into India - this is going on since 1947 and still the stupid "Secular Hindu Politicians" do not realise that the Indian Population Density is Twice that of Pakistan and as such India must do its utmost to ensure that there are no more immigrants - Legal or Illegal.

I hope they open their Eyes and Minds before it is too late.

Cheers <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' />

Naresh · 06-08-2006, 02:15 AM

QUOTE(acharya @ Jun 8 2006, 12:43 AM)All the articles are from http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/
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acharya Ji :

It is requested that you give the Link to each Individual Article and not to the Newspaper so as to obviate the need to search for the Article.

Cheers <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' />

Naresh · 06-08-2006, 03:57 PM

Harnai-Sibi train track blown up again

Cheers <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' />

06-08-2006, 11:37 PM

ME and Iran will affect Pakistan, says Musharraf
* President says terrorism threatens Pakistanâs economy

Why they want to support terrorist orgainsation?
Pakistan pledges $3m to Hamas government
Only $3m.

06-08-2006, 11:41 PM

QUOTEWhereâs all the money going? 
Sir: Not surprisingly, our officials are boasting healthy economic indicators once again. What is surprising, however, is that they lack creativity when it comes to our economy. For instance, according to Pakistanâs Economic Survey for 2005-06, the countryâs economy grew by an amazing 6.6 percent in financial year 2005-06. This means the state fell only slightly short of its seven percent target and only because of the impact of record high global oil prices but obviously through no fault of its own. Does this amazing growth ring any bells? How about the 6.8 percent growth during Field Marshal Ayub Khanâs military rule in the 1960s? Or how about the supposed 6.5 percent growth during General Zia ul Haqâs rule in the 1980s?

It isnât a coincidence that the growth rates recorded during army rule in Pakistan have been much higher than those witnessed by civilian governments. However, it is important to remember that the large amounts of foreign aid by the west to Pakistan account for much of the economic boom during the rules of Field Marshal Ayub Khan, General Zia ul Haq and President General Pervez Musharraf. So, given that our country hasnât effectively reduced poverty or improved health and education in the country, one may well ask: whereâs all the money going? The answer is simple: into loan repayments and into our military apparatus, leaving precious little for the benefit of taxpayers.

Further, there is another disclaimer associated with this growth. As Ahmed Faruqui says in his article âEconomic growth under military ruleâ (Daily Times, June 4): âForecasts of economic growth in the eight percent range are unsustainable, given Pakistanâs low rates of savings and investment, its dependence on drought-and-pest sensitive agriculture and its exposure to high oil prices... If the military wants to find a justification for its intervention in politics, it should look beyond the sphere of economics.â
FAISAL FAROOQ
Multan
link

**acharya** · 06-09-2006, 05:10 AM

Columnist Abdul Qadir Hasan wrote in Jang (April 6, 2006) that Mughal king Akbar was a great favourite of the Hindus because he was secular and had invented his own heretic religion. Now a film Mughal-e-Azam was being imported into Pakistan. It was made by a Muslim director in which Muslims have acted, but it is aimed against the ideology of Pakistan.

The rulers are secular and want to spread secularism in Pakistan. The conspiracy is to take Pakistanis away from their Islamic values. The film is supposed to be imported for commercial reasons along with some other Indian films, but the real objective is to undermine Pakistanâs religion. Akbar will be shown as the best king because he was secular but in fact Akbar became apostate through his invention of deen-e-ilahi, which was now to be introduced through the film.

What about the secularisation coming from the video and the cable TV and countless American films and serials? This is worse than deen-e-ilahi. This is Mr Hasanâs most unthinking column.

Historian Safdar Mehmood wrote in Jang (April 11, 2006) that he had noticed the following defects in the civic behaviour of Pakistanis. On the road we tend to stare at others. If we are driving we have the tendency to curse other drivers. We donât care if our honking of the horn insults others. We begin driving faster when we see someone trying to overtake us correctly.

We simply canât stand someone opposing us in argument and succeeding. When we give our argument we tend to be loud and aggressive. These are signs of an intolerant society.

We have much in common with Third World societies but the defects mentioned above are specific to us in their intensity. They are very âMuslimâ defects.

**acharya** · 06-09-2006, 05:39 AM

<img src='http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/images/2006/06/09/20060609_a4.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />

With the monument to Pakistan in the background, a boy sleeps in an abandoned pipe near Azadi Chowk. Abid Nawaz

06-09-2006, 10:17 AM

Gem from Urdu Press - TFT
QUOTEâKanjarsâ from âKanjaristanâ
Sarerahe stated in Nawa-e-Waqt that actors and actresses from India were like kanjars (profession of prostitution) who had come to Pakistan to erase its frontiers under the flag of Musharraf and were calling all kinds of new names to Pakistan. Sanjay Khan would soon be Ganjay Khan who should stay in India and make it Kanjaristan and leave Pakistan alone. India was sending its beauties to Pakistan along with their batmen and Pakistan was throwing away its shamsheer (sword) and presenting its zan (woman) to the Hindus. <!--emo& Big Grin

--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' />Â It was thus becoming a real shamsheer-zan (swordsman).

Feroz Khan on âfratricidal Pakistanâ
Daily Nawa-e-Waqt reported that during a reception in Lahore Indian actor / producer Feroz Khan had said, âWhat kind of Pakistan have you created in which Muslims are killing Muslims while my India is secular and we are living peacefully there.â Mahesh Bhatt, another film producer, commented on the incident by saying that Feroz Khan was drunk when he said that

Ban entry of these Indians!
Columnist Abdul Qadir Hasan said in Jang that Indians who came over to Pakistan these days could not hide their grief at the existence of a frontier between India and Pakistan. An Indian Muslim film actor recently abused Pakistan and praised his secular India while ignoring the genocide of Muslims in Gujarat and elsewhere. Pakistan cannot become ashiq-mashooq (lover and beloved) with India for the sake of secularism and roshan khayali, and has to maintain some kind of courtesy of address with its neighbours and Indians canât be allowed to come as guests and insult Pakistan. These Indians should be banned entry (dakhla band) into Pakistan.

NWFP the kidnapping province
According to Khabrain the NWFP in general and Malakand in particular had become target of abductions and kidnappings. In one month a total of 9,000 people were abducted including a judge and a provincial minister. <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' />Â One child was abducted, raped and ransomed for Rs 5 lakh but was later found dead. Most of the abductees were picked up for ransom.

Voluntary veil is not Islamic
Taking offence at President Musharrafâs idea of voluntary veil (that a woman who chooses to go unveiled cannot be coerced into wearing one) Hafiz Saeed said in Nawa-e-Waqt that this was the thinking of one individual and had nothing to do with Islam. He said this was encouragement to obscenity in society. He said Islam did not allow women to go out unveiled

America about to get rid of Musharraf!
Quoted in Nawa-e-Waqt ex-army chief Aslam Beg said that America had decided to get rid of the Musharraf government. A woman, Ms Bhutto, was able to defy America and defend the nuclear programme but a man in the person of Musharraf had kowtowed and accepted to keep AQ Khan in confinement by diverting the pressure on to the scientist. He said Ms Bhutto had threatened India with a nuclear strike through foreign minister Yaqub Khan which had scared India. Musharraf had no clue what was happening in Pakistan. The Americans will destroy Pakistan but will keep Balochistan in hand <!--emo& Big Grin

--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' />

06-09-2006, 10:22 AM

QUOTEMusharrafâs return to âjihadi optionâ? 
Khaled Ahmedâs : A n a l y s i sÂ
TFT.comÂ Â
General Pervez Musharraf brought Pakistan out of its Dark Age of death and destruction by rolling back Pakistanâs 20 year old jihad. He banned the jihadi organisations - once nurtured carefully by the ISI - to win back space for Pakistan in the international polity. But there was a measure of ambiguity in his approach that made many think that he could be merely hiding jihad under the bushel for the time being, to be brought out to threaten the world once again. The time probably has come to threaten the world a la? General Hameed Gul, Pakistanâs de facto ruling strategist, who is once again parading his trigger-happy vision on the TV channels.

In its May 2006 issue monthly Herald published a report by Azmat Abbas that the government had allowed Sipah Sahaba to reinstate itself on the condition that it would no longer indulge in militancy (sic!), violence of the verbal or active sort. The Sipah, now renamed Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan (MIP), held its first post-ban meeting in Islamabad on 6 April 2006 under the surveillance of the agencies. This rally was the outcome of an understanding reached between Sipah and the government in March 2006. But when the party convened with a gathering of 5,000 people it became a show of strength of the old sectarian terrorist Sipah. The government allowed Brigadier (Retd) Zaheerul Islam Abbasi â the officer who failed narrowly to stage a military-religious coup in 1995 but is now running his own extremist organisation â to harangue the gathering.

Sipah Sahaba rides again? The meeting chanted anti-Shia slogans and vowed to avenge the deaths of their leaders Haq Nawaz Jhangvi and Maulana Azam Tariq at the hands of the Shia. Literature of anti-Shia exhortation was distributed as well as videos depicting beheadings of American soldiers in Iraq. MIP leader Dr Khadim Hussain Dhillon said his party had held its gathering with the governmentâs permission after he had protested the governmentâs according of normal protocol to Allama Sajid Naqvi the leader of the banned Tehrik Jafaria while Naqvi was a member of the MMA.

The intelligence officers looking after the Sipah told Herald that the gathering was the outcome of a long drawn out process of negotiation with the banned organisation. This also involved a reconciliation between the Sipah and the Shia organisation. Arrested leaders, like the fanatically anti-Shia Maulana Muhammad Ludhianvi, were to be released and in return the rabid Shia leader of Sipah Muhammad, Allama Ghulam Raza Naqvi would be released and sent to Gilgit where he would head a seminary. The Shia of Gilgit were making preparation to celebrate his entry there. The government went ahead and further made peace with the anti-Shia activists, members of the dreaded Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. (Rustam Khan Muawiya, Asghar Muawiya and Ghulam Farid were let off at the Sindh High court. Member of MMA, Shia leader Allama Hassan Turabi was attacked in Karachi the very next day in which he narrowly escaped death. He issued a statement connecting the attack with the release of the Lashkar members.)

Lashkar-e-Tayba revived? Earlier on 2 May 2006, the State Department in Washington named Pakistanâs Jamaat al-Dawa and its affiliated Idara Khidmat-e-Khalq as âterrorist organisations that pose a threat to the United Statesâ. Everybody knew that Jamaat al-Dawa was earlier the dreaded Lashkar-e-Tayba banned by a UN Committee as a terrorist organisation. The Idara Khidmat-e-Khalq had been active in the relief and reconstruction work in the Azad Kashmir areas affected by the October 2005 earthquake in Pakistan. It now developed that the Idara could not be used to rescue the bad image the Jamaat al-Dawa had garnered for itself over the recent years. Its leader Hafiz Said had constantly condemned the policies of the government in general and President Musharraf in particular, and had used all kinds of dire threats.

For some puzzling reason, President Musharraf has been soft on Jamaat al-Dawa. Some say because the son of an important personality in Islamabad is a member of the outfit, but why allow its firebrand leader Hafiz Said to constantly badmouth him? All the other dreaded jihadi outfits banned either by the UN or put on the terrorist list the United States have duly changed their names and are operating quietly without shooting off their mouths. At one point this year President Musharraf actually called in all the police chiefs of the country and asked them to catch hold of the old jihadi outfits on the UN terrorist list now operating under changed names; but nothing happened. The attitude of the president has been most puzzling, especially after the fact that he had nearly gotten himself killed at the hands of the fanatic activists of these very jihadi militias.

Lashkar/Dawa becomes popular? Then Islamabad literally issued an edict defying the Washington categorisation of Jamaat al-Dawa. The Foreign Office was made to say that Pakistan had no plans to act against the two Islamic charities listed by the United States last week as terrorist organisations. Its stance was however correct. âWe are not required, and we do not put any entities on the terrorist lists, if action is taken under the domestic US lawâ, it said, âHowever, if the UN Security Councilâs sanctions committee were to designate any organisation (as a terrorist group), then it becomes a legal obligation to take actionâ.

The Foreign Office statement was followed on 6 May 2006 by demonstrations in which hundreds of residents demonstrated against the US in Garhi Habibullah and Balakot, NWFP, where the banned organisations are still running tent villages and hospitals for locals âwhere 90 percent of the non-government organisations (NGOs) are wrapping up their camps after finishing relief projectsâ. The press noted that Jamaat al Dawa had become popular in the earthquake-hit region and its activists had become âheroic iconsâ for the local population. The Jamaat al-Dawa was even more popular in Azad Kashmir where its relief work was much aided by the fact that it had been active there as a jihadi militia under the tutelage of the ISI. As reported in Dawn , on 10 May 2006, hundreds of people staged a rally in Muzaffarabad, Azad Kashmir, to condemn the United Statesâ ban on the Jamaat al-Dawa: âDown with America, down with Bushâ, the demonstrators shouted. According to daily Jang (29 May 2006) a sessions judge in Peshawar, after hearing the famous Al Qaeda and Sipah Sahaba lawyer Javed Ibrahim Paracha, ordered that a group of Egyptian mujahideen languishing in jail, be released, be treated at Al Khidmat Hospital, and then handed over to Mr Paracha pending their deportation to Egypt.

Christians and Hindus love Lashkar/Dawa? Then on 17 May 2006, more than one hundred Hindus and Christians from different parts of Sindh staged a demonstration in front of the press clubs of Hyderabad and Karachi âagainst the United Statesâ recent move to include the Jamaat al-Dawa on its list of âterroristâ organisationsâ. The next day however the Christians in Punjab rebelled against the orchestrated pro-Dawa protest. A leading Christian organisation in Punjab, National Commission of Justice and Peace (NCJP), condemned the pro-Jamaat al-Dawa rallies by Christians and Hindus in Sindh, particularly haris of Thar, saying that it was an âestablishment-sponsoredâ ploy to glorify the jihadi militia. The statement was bold because it was made in the city where Jamaat al-Dawa is headquartered.

If there was an effort afoot to return to the âjihadi optionâ through the reinstatement of Sipah Sahaba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, it was already greatly undermined by the Nishtar Park massacre of the Barelvis on 11 April 2006. It soon became apparent that it was not a Shia-Sunni sectarian incident but a Sunni-Sunni one. As put in Urdu, it was not an act of terrorism based on fiqh but on maslak , and this is how it began to be described on the TV channels. Monthly Urdu journal Naya Zamana in its issue of May 2006, wrote that during the Afghan war against the Soviet Union, Saudi Arabia had funded a number of organisations to carry out its Wahhabi project in the region, and one of these organisations was Lashkar-e-Tayba, then headquartered in Muridke Lahore, as Markaz Dawat wal Irshad. The project was of spreading âpure Islamâ not only in Afghanistan but in Pakistan too as a bulwark against the emergence of a Shia state in Iran. The intent of Imam Khomeini to export the Shia revolution to the rest of the Islamic world was in parallel to the Saudi ambition of spreading the Wahhabi model.

After Shia-Sunni terror, it is Sunni-Sunni terror: According to Naya Zamana , the publications of Jamaat al-Dawa/Lashkar-e-Tayba and Sipah Sahaba (Khilafat-e-Rashida) criticised and condemned the Shias together with the Barelvis. The Barelvis were dubbed a moderate version of Shiism and both were together dubbed a version of Judaism. After General Zia, this Wahhabi Islam was used in Kashmir too and the state itself became more and permeated with this hardline faith. It was in the face of this Wahhabi dominance that Sunni Tehreek was defensively created to protect the interests of the Barelvis with force. As observed by Naya Zamana , when JUP chief Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani attended a rare gathering of the Barelvis in Lahore in those days he made a speech in which he declared that âthere were one lakh kalashnikovs in the Muridke headquarters of Lashkar-e-Tayba which will not be used in Kashmir but against the Barelvis in Pakistanâ.

Wahhabism and Deobandism are characterised by an opposition to popular culture and it literary and festive forms and is finally also opposed to democracy in favour of khilafat. They are hostile to the mystical batinya traditions of Waris Shah, Shah Husain, Mian Mir, Data Sahib, Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya, Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, Hazrat Zakariya Multani, etc. Wahhabism easily apostatises those that don not follow its strict order; and after someone is declared outside the pale of Islam his property is thought to be rightfully owned by the Wahhabis through looting and confiscation. It is on this principle that Barelvi mosques were taken from them. In the case of Jamaat Dawa or Lashkar-e-Tayba, this extended to taking Barelvi girls into forcible marriage after abduction and the looting of banks in the tradition of an early Companion, Abu Jandal, who funded jihad in this fashion. (After Hafiz Saidâs faction fell foul of the Ahle Hadith party of Prof Sajid Mir, one Qari Hanif issued a series of audio tapes in which he accused Hafiz Said chief of Jamaat al-Dawa of looting banks in Gujranwala and abducting Barelvi girls.)

Viability of jihad option: President Musharrafâs attitude towards Jamaat al-Dawa has puzzled almost everyone who has watched Pakistan. Now some critics connect it to the on-going âpeace processâ with India where he expects India to match Pakistanâs âflexibilityâ on Kashmirâ: If India fails to deliver, Pakistan will take out the Lashkar-e-Tayba card and start playing it again . This option becomes pointed because Hafiz Said is a wanted man in India. According to Frontline (5 Nov 2005) on December 22, 2000, âLashkar-e-Tayba (LeT) claimed responsibility for the Red Fort attack in which three Army personnel lost their lives. The main accused in the case, Mohammed Arif alias Ashfaq, a Pakistani national and a member of the LeT, used his mobile phone to convey to BBC correspondents in New Delhi and Srinagar his organisationâs responsibility immediately after the shootout. This, apart from the other pieces of evidence pointing to the LeTâs involvement in the attack, was the basis of the trial courtâs conclusion that the LeT planned and carried out the assaultâ. 

The truth is that jihad is no longer an option. It is not an option even if only for brandishing under the nose of the world community. It gains nothing for Pakistan in regard to the Kashmir dispute; but it will certainly force the countryâs civil society into making another painful shift to adjust to Hafiz Saidâs parallel government. Even if the fiat has come from Saudi Arabia, it is not in the best interest of Pakistan.

06-09-2006, 10:26 AM

QUOTEPakistanâs Mullah takeover 
Khalid Hasan : private viewÂ
Â Â TFT
It is a sign of these times of âenlightened moderationâ that in this country of 150 million people, there is only one, just one, truly liberal magazine, a small monthly published in Urdu from Lahore without any advertising support whatever, its sole backers being its loyal readers, at home and abroad.

This brave little venture, the monthly Naya Zamana , was started seven years ago by Muhammad Shoaib Adil, whom I have never met but whose heroic commitment to liberal values in our increasingly Deobandi, mullah-infested land I greatly admire. One would have thought that a journal like this would derive its readership from the larger cities, but that is not the case at all, which does not say much for Pakistanâs larger cities. Almost all its contributors reside in small, often far-flung towns. Its correspondents, who, there can be little doubt, work for it out of love not money (since it has none), are mostly based in places like Gilgit, Dera Ghazi Khan, Rahim Yar Khan, Khanpur, Laiyah, Dinga Gujrat, Mianwali, Pattoki, Loralai, Sargodha, Rajanpur, Kharan and Qila Saifullah. Recently, the editor circulated a letter saying he had been unable to interest advertisers and in order to survive, he would need either a sizeable number of his readers to become life members by making a one-time payment of Rs 10,000 or to use their influence to get the struggling publication some advertising.

In its May issue, an analysis of mullah-propelled extremism by Amir Hussaini recalls that early on in Zia-ul-Haqâs draconian rule, an organised movement led by Ehsan Ali Zaheer against the Shia community and the followers of the moderate Barelvi school was launched with official connivance. Poisonous literature, much of it produced in Saudi Arabia, was circulated all over Pakistan. After Zaheer was killed by a bomb in a public meeting he was addressing, his place was taken by an unknown mullah by the name of Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, a diehard Deobandi who founded the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi. His sole target was the Shia community and within a month there was hardly a wall in the country that did not carry the slogan â Kafir kafir Shia kafir, jo na manay wo bhi kafir â (All Shias are infidels, as are those who do not believe it). The movementâs wrath was directed in equal measure at the Barelvis who were declared to be outside the pale of Islam because of the reverence they paid to saints and the fact that they celebrated Eid-i-Milad and were given to devotional music. The Sipah was also active in the so-called Afghanistan âjihad.â Once the war was over, its armed cadres descended on Pakistan, spreading their poisonous message from end to end. These forces operated with the connivance, if not the support and encouragement, of the regime. This is the dragon harvest that now infests Pakistanâs soil and which the state is unwilling, if not unable, to cut down.

It is difficult to believe and depressing to think that the Pakistan of today is the same country where in 1954, a great declaration of liberal and secular thought was produced by two distinguished judges in the aftermath of the first organised assault on the stateâs secular structure by the mullahs. The document was the Report of the Court of Inquiry into the Punjab Disturbances of 1953. It is something everyone needs to read today. Gen Musharraf, instead of harping on the empty slogan of âenlightened moderationâ every third day, should have the Munir Report, as it has come to be called over the years, become part of school and college courses, as well as made compulsory reading in every madrassa from Peshawar to Karachi. Between Justice Muhammad Munir, the president, and Justice MR Kayani, member, the two man-Court produced a document of such brilliant reasoning and intellectual clarity that it needs to be circulated in all Islamic lands which are dogged by bigotry and ignorance and where hostages are slaughtered and innocent people bombed in the name of Islam.

The mullahs, barring some exceptions, were dead set against Pakistan, since they considered a nation state un-Islamic. They made their first attempt to take over the new country when they set Punjab on fire by inciting riots against the Ahmediyya community. The two judges, discussing the question of the establishment of a state based on religion wrote, âNo one who has given serious thought to the introduction of a religious state in Pakistan has failed to notice the tremendous difficulties with which any such scheme must be confronted.â They quoted from Allama Iqbalâs 1930 address to the Muslim League: âNor should the Hindus fear that the creation of autonomous Muslim states will mean the introduction of a kind of religious rule in such states. The principle that each group is entitled to free development on its own lines in not inspired by any feeling of narrow communalism.â 

Munir and Kayani â the report was drafted by Kayani â argued that since a demand is being made to declare all Ahmedis non-Muslims, those who are making this demand must know who a Muslim is. They wrote, âWhat is Islam and who is a momin or a Muslim? We put this question to the ulema. . . but we cannot refrain from saying here that it was a matter of infinite regret to us that the ulema whose first duty should be to have settled views on this subject, were hopelessly disagreed among themselves.â The Court asked the leading Islamic scholars and theologians of the day to âgive the irreducible minimum conditions which a person must satisfy to be entitled to be called a Muslim.â No two divines agreed as to who a Muslim is, leading the Court to observe, âKeeping in view the several definitions given by the ulema, need we make any comment except that no two learned divines are agreed on this fundamental. If we attempt our own definition as each learned divine has done and that definition differs from that given by all others, we unanimously go out of the fold of Islam, and if we adopt the definition given by any one of the ulema, we remain Muslims according to the view of that alim but kafirs according to the definition of everyone else.â

Munir and Kayani also condemned the authors of the Objectives Resolution for having âmisused the words sovereign and democracy when they recited that the Constitution to be framed was for a sovereign state in which principles of democracy as enunciated by Islam shall be fully observed.â The two judges observed, âAn Islamic state, however, cannot in this sense be sovereign because it will not be competent to abrogate, repeal or do away with any law in the Quran and Sunnah. Absolute restriction on the legislative power of a state is a restriction on the sovereignty of the people of that state and if the origin of this restriction lies elsewhere than in the will of the people, then to the extent of that restriction the sovereignty of the states and its people is necessarily taken away.â

The Court asked Maulana Abul Ala Maudoodi, âWill you permit Hindus to base their Constitution on the basis of their own religion?â Maudoodi replied, âCertainly. I should have no objection even if the Muslims of India are treated as shudras and malishes and Manuâs laws are applied to them, depriving them of all share in the government and the rights of a citizen.â The two judges wrote, âNothing but a bold reorientation of Islam to separate the vital from the lifeless can preserve it as a world idea and convert the Musalman into a citizen of the present and the future world from the archaic incongruity that he is today.â

That was 1954. Is there a judge in the Pakistan of 2006 who even dares whisper what his illustrious predecessors declared in open court for the world to hear?

06-09-2006, 10:57 PM

QUOTEThreats trigger security beef-up in Islamabad
By DPA
http://www.dailyindia.com/show/32830.php/T...up_in_Islamabad
Islamabad, June 9 (DPA) Security has been beefed up in Pakistan's capital following intelligence reports of possible terrorist threats to foreigners, a senior police official said Friday.

There were indications that terrorists may be planning attacks on Chinese nationals.

The English-language Dawn newspaper quoted an official as saying that Chinese nationals have been asked to move in groups and take security precautions in Islamabad.
............

**acharya** · 06-10-2006, 11:19 AM

Saturday, June 10, 2006
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?p...0-6-2006_pg11_1

Mistrust still clouding the peace process: Sinha

By Zulfiqar Ghuman

ISLAMABAD: Yashwant Sinha, a former Indian foreign minister, said on Friday that mistrust still persists between Pakistan and India, despite the ongoing composite dialogue. He ruled out inclusion of a third party in bilateral talks to resolve disputes, including the Kashmir issue.

Sinha, who is in Pakistan to deliver lectures on budget making, said most of the time he went about speaking on Indo-Pak relations and the ongoing peace process. Addressing a luncheon reception organized by the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA), he said: âThough the composite dialogue between the two countries is going on for quite sometime, I have to admit with a heavy heart that mistrust still persists between them.â

He praised SAFMAâs efforts to bridge the gap between peoples of the two countries. He said India still had apprehensions about its security. âIndia faces a cross-border terrorism threat, which needed to be dealt with to remove our apprehensions,â he said.On the prospects of Kashmirisâ involvement in bilateral dialogue, he said there was no place for any third party, be it a country or a group, in bilateral talks according to the January 6, 2004, joint statement of the two countries.

He said had the ground was not strengthened by âquite diplomacyâ, the two governments could not have achieved what they did in January 2004. âBoth governments have indeed come a long way over the last few years, especially after Islamabad Declaration,â he said. âThough this declaration contained only 17 smart sentences, it reflected the level of understanding between the two countries in an unparalleled manner. Peoples of the two countries now should stand firmly behind their governments for positive outcome of peace process,â he said.

He said his party (BJP) was committed to peace process. âBJP has no problem with being in opposition because this is a dialogue between two nations, not parties or individuals. Congress government take up the strings from where we left off,â he said. Sinha is his fourth visit to Pakistan. He said he enjoyed being in Pakistan every time and stressed that people-to-people contact should go on in a positive and hate-free atmosphere. He said continuity of a process of people-to-people contacts resulted in a âsizeableâ achievements in the peace process, which had kept both governments engaged in the dialogue.

He agreed with a questioner that pace of the peace process was slow and asked for not setting deadline for settlement of certain issues. âSetting deadlines is not advisable because failure in resolving certain issues in the given deadline could result in disappointment among the people,â he said. Undoubtedly, the âcertain issuesâ point to the Kashmir issue.

Sinha said the Kashmir issue was discussed in the dialogue but all issues should not be linked with the resolution Kashmir. âIf we reached a settlement on Siachin and Sir Creek issues, should we keep the decision pending until resolution of the Kashmir dispute?â he questioned.

He said there was no such agreement or document, which had stated that Kashmir was the core issue between the two nations. âI know people in Pakistan call it a core issue, while it is just one of many issues for Indians. This (Pakistani) mindset could be counter productive,â he said. âI have met a lot of (Pakistani) MPs belonging to different parties and have not seen anything wrong with peace process, rather they all wanted early solution of problems. A young minister told me that he does not carry the history baggage all the time like the old generation. This new scenario will help forget our past experiences in coming 15 years,â he said.

He said India was aware of its role of big brother, being a big country, and was ready to give more and expect less in return but the âbottom lineâ would remain security concerns. âWe have already signed FTAs with Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan and offered the same status as to Pakistan and Bangladesh,â he said.

**acharya** · 06-10-2006, 11:25 AM

I have often felt that loudness has perhaps become a part of our national character. Most of us play music loudly, we keep the volume of the TV high, our youngsters play music in their cars loudly so that the entire bazaar can hear. Most members of our orchestras play their pieces at a steadily high volume and avoid soft modulations fearing that the sound of their particular instruments will be lost in the collective presentation.

And, of course, the recordists justify keeping the volume of the speakers high with the excuse that people sitting at the back would not be able to hear the performers. I am writing this because I sincerely feel this predilection should be controlled, for music is a delicate thing and human sensitivity demands that it should have a soothing effect on the listener rather than agitate their already agitated mind.

**acharya** · 06-10-2006, 11:26 AM

<img src='http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/images/2006/06/10/20060610_a4.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />

An elderly man makes a basket from twigs in disregard of the scorching heat. Online

Naresh · 06-10-2006, 02:06 PM

[center]Kashmir problem[/center]

I FULLY support the main idea behind the solution proposed by Nasir Siddique (June 6) and Tariq Shaikh (June 8) to the Kashmir problem. However, there is a caveat: most of our rivers flow from Kashmir. If we just let go of it, it would make it harder for us to manage our water resources and meet our needs.

The best solution is to accept the status quo. After all, despite our best efforts we have not been able to change the status quo since 1948. We tried a military solution in 1965. We tried to force India to the negotiating table by sending our troops into Kargil in 1999. And since 1989 we have been supporting the insurgency in Kashmir. All these efforts on our part have little served our purpose.

Looking into the future, given the political and economic clout that India enjoys in the world today and the obvious signs that it will only grow over time, there is no hope that if we continue with our present Kashmir policy, we are going to make any progress on the issue.

Our present Kashmir policy is a failure because despite sticking to it for the last 58 years, we have gained nothing.

The best strategy for us is to unilaterally declare LoC the international border, make Azad Kashmir our fifth province, reduce the size of our army and focus on building our nation. It is a brave solution and will take a lot of courage to implement.

AAMIR RAFIQUE HASHMI
Toronto, Canada

Cheers <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' />

Naresh · 06-10-2006, 02:17 PM

Defence spending and development

QUOTEThe implications of the defence strategy may now be considered. Minimum deterrence requires Pakistan to support a military force equal to at least one third of India, when the size of Pakistanâs economy is about one seventh of India. (Figures for the size of GDP in 2004 reported by World Bank are $691 billion for India, $96 billion for Pakistan). Clearly, the defence burden on the Pakistan economy is twice as much than on the Indian economy. As a corollary, India has more resources, as a proportion of GDP for socio-economic development, compared to Pakistan. India already has an edge over Pakistan in economic and social indicators and this will tend to widen in the long run.

International comparisons also show that the defence spending in Pakistan is much higher than the average. The low income group of countries to which we belong spends only 2.2 per cent of GDP on the military as compared to nearly five per cent by Pakistan. The claim made by the prime minister that defence requires only 3.7 per cent of GDP is grossly misleading as the recent reduction in the defence budget has been secured by transferring military pensions which account for 25 per cent of the defence budget to the general account. A computation of military spending, in accordance with internationally accepted conventions, would show that the ratio of military spending to GDP is near five per cent.

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Naresh · 06-11-2006, 03:48 AM

First it was dumped like A Used Condom

Then it was dumped like Used Toilet Paper

Now it is being treaded like A Pariah Dog

US cuts down aid to Pakistan

WASHINGTON (Online) â The United Statesâ foreign aid to Pakistan has been reduced from the current fiscal year by 250 million dollars to 300 million dollars owing to Islamabadâs failure âto do enoughââ to improve democracy and human rights.

According to the appropriations bill that was passed yesterday by the House of Representatives by a 373-34 vote, the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) funds for Pakistan for 2007 were also dropped to 200 million dollars, with a decrease of 100 million dollars from the current fiscal.

The bill specifically cited the ââincreasing lack of respect for human rights, especially womenâs rights, and the lack of progress for improving democratic governance and the rule of law,ââ as chief reasons for reducing Pakistanâs funds.

The House of Representatives also voted Friday to spend $21.3 billion on foreign aid but cut money President Bush wanted for Iraq, Afghanistan and a programme that rewards countries moving toward democracy and good government.

Rep. Jim Kolbe, chairman of the foreign aid spending subcommittee, said he had to slice $2.4 billion from the presidentâs request to free money for pressing needs at home.

âI am proud of this bill, but I can also honestly say it has probably been the most difficult one I have put together,â he said.

The Bush administration said it has serious concerns that lawmakers did not provide enough money to meet its foreign policy and humanitarian goals.

Our correspondent from Islamabad adds: 'Absolutely baseless' were the remarks when the reaction of the Foreign Office spokesperson was sought on a report from Washington that the United States has cut down aid to Pakistan due to its poor human rights record.

Reacting sharply, Ms Tasnim Aslam said as the budget procedure in the United States was going on and the administration had proposed overall cuts, the Congress had suggested reduction in the expenditures, which is not Pakistan-specific only.

She recalled last year also the Congress had cut the overall budget but the US administration fulfilled the gap by providing 701 million dollars to Pakistan by allocating the sum from some other sources.

This time the spokesperson was not sure what the US administration would do the same, but she expressed
optimism that the subsequent procedure would be followed.

Cheers <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' />

**acharya** · 06-11-2006, 04:37 AM

UPDATED: 19:09, June 10, 2006
Hu Jintao, Musharraf congratulate special column marking diplomatic ties
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Chinese President Hu Jintao and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf have recently sent congratulations to a special column of Beijing Review which marks the 55th anniversary of diplomatic ties of the two countries.

Beijing Review, established in 1958, is the sole English news weekly of China. It is circulated in more than one hundred countries and regions.

It issued a special column on Thursday with in-depth reports about China-Pakistan traditional friendship and the two countries' efforts in promoting regional peace, stability and prosperity.

Hu said "all-weather friendship" and "all-round cooperation" is vivid depiction of China-Pakistan relations as well as development direction of bilateral ties.

He hopes Beijing Review would continue to contribute to strengthening China-Pakistan mutual-beneficial cooperation and the traditional friendship between the two peoples.

Musharraf said Pakistan-China friendship is "higher than the highest mountain" and "deeper than the deepest sea". He also expressed the hope that the weekly could make its due contribution to promoting friendship between the two governments and two peoples.

Source: Xinhua

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