Resolve K-issue according to UNSC resolutions: KAC


Washington, Apr 1: Kashmiri American Council, Executive Director, Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, today said its Board of Directors had again reiterated that there must be an early, just and durable resolution to the J&K dispute in accordance with the United Nations Security Council resolutions and according to the aspirations of the people of State.

 In a statement, Dr Fai said, the Board in its 3-days meeting agreed to 18-points "policy statement" to be pursued during the year 2011.
 

"The Board clarified that Kashmiris should be given the right of self-determination to decide their future by a free vote. Until now this assurance has not been honored; noted with satisfaction the reiteration of President Obama that Kashmir is a longstanding dispute between India and Pakistan and its resolution is in the interests of the region; remains convinced that the people of J&K constitute the principle stakeholders and should be an integral component of the ongoing peace process. Therefore, the talks must be tripartite between all parties concerned: i.e., the Governments of India & Pakistan and the legitimate leadership of the people of J&K; reiterated that durable peace and development of harmonious relations and friendly cooperation between India and Pakistan would serve the vital interests of the peoples of both nations, enabling them to devote their energies for a better future; calls for an intensive and comprehensive inter and intra Kashmiri dialogue outside sub-continent between different opinions and regions of the State; resolves that all internally and externally displaced people of J&K since 1947 including Kashmiri Pandits, should be facilitated to return to their homes in safety and dignity."
 

The Board, he said recommended steps need to be taken by the Government of India to make the peace process meaningful. The steps include: Immediate and complete cessation of military and paramilitary actions; gradual withdrawal of the military presence from the towns and villages; dismantling of bunkers, watch towers and barricades; release of political prisoners languishing in jails, interrogation centers; annulling of various special repressive laws, like Armed Forces Special Powers Act, DAA and Public Safety Act; and restoring the right of peaceful association, assembly and demonstrations.
 

Dr Fai said the Board proposed an appointment of a special envoy on Kashmir by the United Nations or the European Parliament or President Obama which, according to it would hasten the process of peace and stability in South Asia.

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April 1, 2011

Pakistani Team Lost Purposely

By Saeed Qureshi

Pakistan's cricket team could have easily won the semi final against India but purposely lost because of the backdoor intrigues. There was no need to garland a captain who knew that the team has brought slur to Pakistan and utter depression and desopondecy to millions cricket fans from Pakistan and elsewhere, infused with a bubbling spirit of nationalism. This was the fifth consecutive defeat of the Pakistani cricket team at the hands of the Indian team in World Cup matches. What an odious shame? 

It was categorically easy to chase the meager 260 runs scored by Indian team, all the more when national honor was at stake. There have been visible flaws and deliberate lapses committed by the Pakistani players that turned the tide in favor of the Indian team.

I would start building up my argument in support my contention by quoting the arch intriguer Rehman Malik's sudden telephone calls to the captain of the Pakistani team Shahid Khan Afridi.  His statement issued, before the departure of the team for India, was pregnant with a hidden threat that implied that it would be better to lose than win. Later while our team was in India he talked three times on phone to Shahid Afridi which the captain labeled as untimely.

Mr. Malik's this uncalled for statement made while the team was still in Pakistan, was nationally condemned as ominous and perceived as a kind of spanner to dampen the spirits of the team. Mr. Malik has earned for himself the role of a person who never means what he says. But in this case he was dam serious of hurling a veiled threat to the Pakistani team.

His statement might have two underlying objectives. He meant, "Look we are going to have uniquely crucial parleys with the Indian leadership and we would like to keep the Indians and their government in good humor. If we win the game we lose the positive results that could accrue from the meeting."

Secondly, he might have conveyed that, "you are going to play on the Indian soil and in case you win you could become the target by flared up and enraged Indians." It should be recalled that  on march 3, 2009, the Sri Lankan cricket team was attacked in Pakistan by the terrorists and that was the most appalling event in sports history after the Palestinians massacred the  Jewish team in 1972 world Olympics held in Germany.

Let us now focus on the technical contours of the game. Kamran Akmal was as dysfunctional as he has been in previous matches reinforcing the suspicion that he has compromised his game ethics for some ulterior motives that are already well known. It is reported that despite Afridi's reluctance to include him in the team, he was overruled by the Chairman of the PCB and therefore was imposed upon the team. And look how disappointingly he played and kept his honor and that of the country at stake and finally trampled at the play ground.

There is no harm in assessing that Misbahul Haq was goaded in advance to go slow and waste the precious overs by not hitting even the most pliable ball. If there is any mechanism to verify this apprehension, the truth will come out. Why Abdul Razzaq, otherwise a brilliant and aggressive player put up a very poor and gloomy performance both in balling and batting. There couldn't be any earthly reason the way he was sluggish and looked clumsy in performing in his dual role.

And there are comments that the power play which could have turned the match in favor of the Pakistani team was not sought at the outset of the Afridi's stepping into the arena. When it was solicited it was too late and the damage had already been done.

 Imran Khan an accomplished cricketer who has the distinction of being the skipper of the team that won the first ever world cup in 1992, argues that with the "worst kind of fielding that the Pakistani team displayed, no team could have won."

Distastefully the politicians, the bookies, the gamblers and intentional stake holders have infiltrated into the world of sports and it is they who write the script, choreograph the games especially the cricket and decide who should win and which side should lose.  But the only team whose players have remained as an easy prey to the trappings of the huge money was mostly Pakistani. Recently, three of Pakistan's ace players have been awarded fines and bans imposed on their playing for long periods of time. The charges against them are as crystal clear as the 1000 watt bulb lighted in the small dark cubicle.

So with this backlog of bad reputation there is very little benefit of doubt that can be given to the Pakistani team that played in Mohali Punjab and brought for Pakistan a disgrace and shame that in minuscule proportion is equal to the surrender of Pakistan's valiant army in Palton Maidan in December 16, 1971 to the Indian army.

Now defeat is defeat and it is most of the times humiliating. There is no pride attached to defeat as the circles and various lobbies are trying to portray it as such. Pakistan cricket team's defeat at the hands of a traditional rival India for the fifth time is not matter to rejoice or self complimenting. It is to lament and grieve. If a defeat unites the nation as being interpreted, then no difference or distance is left between sanity and delusion.

Waiting for four years to avenge this defeat? Is anyone among the crowd of self consolers to presage with absolute certainly that Pakistan would be winning then? Our money loving players will again fall prey to the irresistible monetary temptations and thus the hope and expectations pinned on the next world cup in 2015, would fall apart again.

It is the present that matters. In a similar situation, Mirza Ghalib the eternal poet said in sheer despondency, "Kaun Jeeta Hay Teri Zulf Kay Sar Honay Tak".  It nearest rendering in English is, "Who can claim to live until the time of surmounting your lock ( tuft of beloved's hair)."  Nevertheless, May God bless our gullible nation eternally with his bounties and blessings.

The writer is a senior journalist and a former diplomat

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A great deal of ruin in a nation

Why Islam took a violent and intolerant turn in Pakistan, and where it might lead

Mar 31st 2011 | ISLAMABAD AND LAHORE | from the print edition




 

"TYPICAL Blackwater operative," says a senior military officer, gesturing towards a muscular Westerner with a shaven head and tattoos, striding through the lobby of Islamabad's Marriott Hotel. Pakistanis believe their country is thick with Americans working for private security companies contracted to the Central Intelligence Agency; and indeed, the physique of some of the guests at the Marriott hardly suggests desk-bound jobs.

 

Pakistan is not a country for those of a nervous disposition. Even the Marriott lacks the comforting familiarity of the standard international hotel, for the place was blown up in 2008 by a lorry loaded with explosives. The main entrance is no longer accessible from the road; guards check under the bonnets of approaching cars, and guests are dropped off at a screening centre a long walk away.

 

 

Some 30,000 people have been killed in the past four years in terrorism, sectarianism and army attacks on the terrorists. The number of attacks in Pakistan's heartland is on the rise, and Pakistani terrorists have gone global in their ambitions. This year there have been unprecedented displays of fundamentalist religious and anti-Western feeling. All this might be expected in Somalia or Yemen, but not in a country of great sophistication which boasts an elite educated at Oxbridge and the Ivy League, which produces brilliant novelists, artists and scientists, and is armed with nuclear weapons.

 

Related topics

Demonstrations in support of the murderer of Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, in January, startled and horrified Pakistan's liberals. Mr Taseer was killed by his guard, Malik Mumtaz Qadri, who objected to his boss's campaign to reform the country's strict blasphemy law. Some suggest that the demonstrations were whipped up by the opposition to frighten the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) government, since Mr Taseer was a member of the party. Others say the army encouraged them, because it likes to remind the Americans of the seriousness of the fundamentalist threat. But conversations with Lahoris playing Sunday cricket in the park beside the Badshahi mosque suggest that the demonstrations expressed the feelings of many. "We are all angry about these things," says Gul Sher, a goldsmith, of Mr Taseer's campaign to reform the law on blasphemy. "God gave Qadri the courage to do something about it."

 

 

Pakistani liberals have always taken comfort from the fundamentalists' poor showing in elections and the tolerant, Sufi version of Islam traditionally prevalent in rural Pakistan. But polling by the Pew Research Centre suggests that Pakistanis take a hard line on religious matters these days (see chart 1). It may be that they always did, and that the elite failed to notice. It may be that urbanisation and the growing influence of hard-line Wahhabi-style Islam have widened the gap between the liberal elite and the rest. "The Pakistani elites have lived in a kind of cocoon," says Salman Raja, a Lahore lawyer. "They go to Aitchison College [in Lahore]. They go abroad to university…A lot of us are asking ourselves whether this country has changed while our backs were turned."

The response to another death suggests that the hostility towards Mr Taseer may not have been only about religion. Two months later Shahbaz Bhatti, the minister for minorities, was murdered for the same reason. Yet his killing did not trigger jubilation. Mr Taseer's offence may have been compounded by the widespread perception that he, like most of the elite, was Westernised. His mother was British, he held parties at his house, and he posted photos on the internet of his children doing normal Western teenage things—swimming and laughing with the opposite sex—that caused a scandal in Pakistan.

The West in general, and America in particular, are unpopular. It was not always thus. Before the Soviet Union left Afghanistan, around a third of Pakistanis regarded Americans as untrustworthy. Since then, a fairly stable two-thirds have done so. The latest poll on the matter (see chart 1) suggests that Pakistanis see America as more of a threat to their country than India or the Pakistani Taliban. It was carried out in 2009, but anecdotal evidence confirms that the views have not changed. "America is behind all of our troubles," says Mohammed Shafiq, a street-hawker. That may be because America is thought to have embroiled Pakistan in a war which has caused the surge in terrorism; or because many Pakistanis, including senior army officers, genuinely believe that the bombings are being carried out by America in order to destabilise Pakistan, after which it will grab its nuclear weapons.

Four horsemen

From the complex web of factors that have fostered intolerance and violence in Pakistan, it is possible to disentangle four main strands. The first is Pakistan's strategic position. Big powers have long competed for control of the area between Russia and the Arabian Gulf, and the unresolved tensions with India have dogged the country since its birth in 1947. Nor has Pakistan tried to keep out of its neighbours' affairs. It was America's enthusiastic ally in the war to eject the Soviet Union from Afghanistan in the 1980s, which it sold to its people as a jihad. "We used religion as an instrument of change and we are still paying the price," says General Mahmud Ali Durrani, former national security adviser and ambassador to Washington. Pakistan helped create the Taliban in the 1990s to try to exert some control over Afghanistan. And with much trepidation on the part of its leaders, and reluctance on the part of its people, it has supported America in its war against the Taliban over the past decade.

By trying to destabilise India, Pakistan has undermined its own stability. "When the Soviets went away," says a senior military officer, "we had a very large number of battle-hardened people with nothing to do. They were redirected towards India. The ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence, the main military-intelligence agency] was controlling them…20:20 hindsight is very good, but this decision was perhaps wrong." According to the officer, after al-Qaeda's attacks against America on September 11th 2001 the army decided to wind down the policy. "We started taking them out. But many of them said, 'Nothing doing.' They had contact with people in the Afghan jihad, and they joined those people again." Because the Pakistanis were helping the Americans in their fight against the Afghan Taliban, the Pakistani jihadis turned their fury on the government.

The second strand is the unresolved question of Islam's role in the nation. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan's founder, made it clear that he thought Pakistan should be a country for Muslims, not an Islamic country. But since then, according to General Durrani, "Every government that has failed to deliver has used Islam as a crutch." Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, for example, though fond of a drink himself, banned alcohol. Zia ul Haq, his successor, tried to legitimise his military coup by pledging to Islamise the country.

The relationship between religion and the state is not an abstruse question of political philosophy. A treatise on the Pakistani constitution published in 2009 by Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's number two (who is believed to be in North Waziristan), argues that the Pakistani state is illegitimate and must be destroyed. This tract is widely read in the madrassas from which the terrorist groups draw their recruits. Its popularity exercises Qazi Hussein Ahmed, the grand old man of the Jamaat-e-Islami, the most fundamentalist of the political parties, for the Jamaat works within the state, not against it. He argues that Pakistan's failure to adopt an Islamist constitution "has given the Taliban and such extremist elements a pretext: they say the government will not bow to demands made by democratic means, so they are resorting to violent means."

The third strand is the uselessness of the government. Democracy in Pakistan has been subverted by patronage. Parliament is dominated by the big landowning families, who think their job is to provide for the tribes and clans who vote for them. Except for the Jamaat-e-Islami, parties have nothing to do with ideology. The two main ones are family assets—the Bhuttos own the PPP, and the Sharifs (Nawaz Sharif, the former and probably future prime minister, and his brother Shahbaz, chief minister of Punjab) own the Pakistan Muslim League (N). The consequence is dire political leadership of the sort shown by Asif Ali Zardari, who is president only because he married into the Bhutto dynasty. When Pakistan desperately needed a courageous political gesture in response to the murders of the governor and minister, the president failed even to attend their funerals.

Pakistan's rotten governance shows up in its growth rates (see chart 2). In a decade during which most of Asia has leapt ahead, Pakistan has lagged behind. Female literacy, crucial as both an indicator of development and a determinant of future prosperity, is stuck at 40%. In India, which was at a similar level 20 years ago, the figure is now over half. In East Asia it is more like nine out of ten.

Given the government's failings, it is hardly surprising if Pakistanis take a dim view of democracy. In a recent Pew poll of seven Muslim countries they were the least enthusiastic, with 42% regarding it as the best form of government—though, since the country has spent longer under military than under democratic rule, the army is at least as culpable.

The armed forces' dominance is the fourth strand. Tensions with India mean that the army has always absorbed a disproportionate share of the government's budget. Being so well-resourced, the army is one of the few institutions in the country that works well. So when civilian politicians get them into a hole, Pakistanis look to the military men to dig them out again. They usually oblige.

Terrorism is strengthening the army further. In 2009 it drove terrorists out of Swat and South Waziristan, and it is now running those areas. Last year its budget allocation leapt by 17%. Nor are the demands on the armed forces likely to shrink. Although overall numbers of attacks are down from a peak in 2009, they have spread from the tribal areas and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), along the border with Afghanistan, to the heartland. Last year saw an uptick in attacks on government, military and economic targets in Punjab and Karachi, the capital of Sindh province. Since then, security has been stepped up; and with the usual targets—international hotels, government buildings and military installations—surrounded by armed men and concrete barriers, terrorists are increasingly attacking soft targets where civilians congregate, such as mosques and markets.

Exporting terror

Pakistani terrorism has also gone global. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP, or Pakistani Taliban), announced when it was formed in 2007 that it aimed to attack the Pakistani state, impose sharia law on the country and resist NATO forces in Afghanistan. But last year Qari Mehsud, now dead but thought to be a cousin of the leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, who was in charge of the group's suicide squad, announced that American cities would be targeted in revenge for drone attacks in tribal areas. That policy was apparently taken up by Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistan-born naturalised American who tried to blow up New York's Times Square last year.

Pakistan's new face?

That prompted an increase in American pressure on the army to attack terrorists in North Waziristan. The army is resisting. The Americans suspect that it wants to protect Afghan Taliban there. The Pakistani army says it is just overstretched.

"We are still in South Waziristan," insists a senior security officer. "We are holding the area. We are starting a resettlement process, building roads and dams. We need to keep the settled areas free of terrorists. It is not a matter of intent that we are not going into North Waziristan. It is a matter of capacity."

The growth in terrorism in Punjab poses another problem for the army. "What we see in the border areas is an insurgency," says the officer. "The military is there to do counter-insurgency. What you see in the cities is terrorism. This is the job of the law-enforcement agencies." But the police and the courts are not doing their job. One suspected terrorist, for instance, a founder member of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, was charged with 70 murders, almost all of them Shias. He was found not guilty of any of them for lack of evidence. In 2009 the ISI kidnapped 11 suspected terrorists from a jail in Punjab, because it feared that the courts were about to set them free.

So where does this lead? Not to a terrorist march on the capital. Excitable Western headlines a couple of years ago saying that the Taliban were "60 miles from Islamabad" were misleading: first because the terrorists are not an army on the march, and second because they are not going to take control of densely populated, industrialised, urban Punjab the way they took control of parts of the wild, mountainous frontier areas and KPK.

Yet even though they will not overthrow the Pakistani state, the combination of a small number of terrorists and a great deal of intolerance is changing it. Liberals, Christians, Ahmadis and Shias are nervous. People are beginning to watch their words in public. The rich among those target groups are talking about going abroad. The country is already very different from the one Jinnah aspired to build.

The future would look brighter if there were much resistance to the extremists from political leaders. But, because of either fear or opportunism, there isn't. The failure of virtually the entire political establishment to stand up for Mr Taseer suggests fear; the electioneering tour that the law minister of Punjab took with a leader of Sipah-e-Sahaba last year suggests opportunism. "The Punjab government is hobnobbing with the terrorists," says the security officer. "This is part of the problem." A state increasingly under the influence of extremists is not a pleasant idea.

It may come out all right. After all, Pakistan has been in decline for many years, and has not tumbled into the abyss. But countries tend to crumble slowly.

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Dear All Media

To save our country our future our education system and do needful to stop our enemies those who working against our education system HEC can do more to bring our Education system on International standards and our leaders cut off the budget why  they must  focus more on it rather then discourage.

Kindly do need full for betterment of our country

Thanks with best regards
Manzoor Ali



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AOA

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VIEW: Democracy and addressing public issues —Nizamuddin Nizamani

Inflation, price hike, electricity load shedding and the extreme energy
crisis all seem to be worsening day by day but, unfortunately, the media is
too busy with cricket and a debate over the legitimacy of the release of
Raymond Davis, utterly ignoring issues faced by the poor masses

As part of the volatile political scenario in Pakistan of late, we have
witnessed a growing number of protests by the masses, especially by specific
organisations, demanding the implementation of different promises and
pledges committed by the coalition government in Islamabad in general and
Sindh in particular.

The protesters have been demanding an increase in minimum wages, as
announced by the federal government, e.g. for the lady health workers (LHV),
implementation of agreed negotiations for the Sindh Professors and
Lecturers' Association (SPLA) and an increase in wages for the lower staff
of the education department. These protests have, unfortunately, been
responded to with violence, baton charging, tear gas and mass arrests. The
provincial governments in Sindh and Punjab are crushing every agitation and
registering cases against the peaceful protesters under the Terrorism Act.
They might be afraid of the revolutions being led by the people in the Arab
world. Hunger strikes in front of the press clubs in big cities are the
order of the day. Bankers associations and the families of missing persons
dominate the screen. However, all that hue and cry seems to be falling on
deaf ears.

The SPLA demands a time scale at par with other provinces as negotiated
and agreed to by the Chief Secretary of Sindh, Mr Ghulam Ali Pasha, and Ms
Sharmila Farooqi, who was then the advisor to the chief minister of Sindh,
on November 11, 2010. However, the government reportedly backed out. The
SPLA was compelled to press for the demand peacefully but the government
crushed their protests with water guns, injured senior male and female
professors, arrested 36 professors and vengefully transferred 412 professors
to far-flung areas. The lower staff in the education department met with a
similar fate. The teaching community blames the minister for education who
they cite as being stubborn and involved in malpractices. The teachers'
demands seem to be parked at the Secretariat due to the wrangling between
the secretary and minister for education.

Lady health workers demanding minimum wages were brutally treated and
baton charged, and 180 of them were arrested. Surprisingly, one coach full
of lady health workers and their innocent children was hijacked by police on
March 25 and directly taken to Sukkur Central Jail instead of some women's
police station.

On the other hand, the law and order situation has become abysmal in the
interior as well as urban centres. The writ of the state seems to be
nowhere. Only during March, 190 people fell victim to the latest wave of
target killings in Karachi. In Balochistan, target-killing victims are
common people, the central command of Baloch nationalist parties and young
students, specifically from the Balochistan National Party, which is the
Mengal group. The people's government has shocked people by adopting the
violent and oppressive tactics they themselves suffered during dictatorial
regimes.

Inflation, price hike, electricity load shedding and the extreme energy
crisis all seem to be worsening day by day but, unfortunately, the media is
too busy with cricket and a debate over the legitimacy of the release of
Raymond Davis, utterly ignoring issues faced by the poor masses. Despite
having a few major and macro political achievements like the NFC Award, end
of the 17th Amendment and introduction of the 18th Amendment, the people's
government seems to have failed in delivering on micro-economic issues.

The PPP leadership used to complain that, in the past, they were not given
enough time to deliver on their promises and were ousted after the
completion of just two years. In the beginning of their current tenure, they
kept imploring the people to wait and allow some time to the government for
sustainable development. What should the public expect after the completion
of three years of their current tenure?

Dr Marvin Weinbaum, Scholar-in-Residence at the Middle East Institute, a
think-tank based in Washington, and an expert on Pakistan, opines that the
coalition government in Pakistan is not addressing public issues. This
supports the arguments of the pro-military school of thought, which says
that democracy in Pakistan cannot deliver and that the naïve politicians
waste time and resources either by internecine conflicts or fall prey to the
artful bureaucracy. He does not believe in the negotiations made among
coalition partners to continue with the process until and unless they
address the overriding issues, as without this the whole process seems
worthless. He bemoans that, apart from Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah,
there has been no collectively acceptable leadership in Pakistan. For a
brief period, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto appeared as a leader but, after him, our
leaders have a limited pocket following; as a whole, the Pakistani public
seems leaderless. He argues that the people reaching the power corridors in
Pakistan, from Ayub Khan to Yahya, Zulfikar Bhutto to Generals Zia and
Musharraf, all start believing that they are indispensable. He warns of grim
consequences in case democracy fails to deliver. He does not support any
rapid change being invoked by some sectors, impressed by the political
upheavals in the Middle East. He says that because of different
circumstances, the situation can very easily be hijacked by illiberal
elements in Pakistan. He recommends choosing competent people who enjoy the
support of the masses, and that they be made accountable to the same public.

Three years are enough proof and the public craves the fulfilment of the
thousands of promises and rosy pictures that were presented to them during
the election process.

We need to support the democratic process, we need to make it accountable
and address the macro and micro issues of public relevance for the literal
survival of the citizenry. A namesake democracy breeds only new generations
of dictators who might already be waiting in the wings.

The writer holds a master's degree in social sciences and is a
professional trainer, researcher and peace activist. He may be contacted at
nizambaloch@gmail.com

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