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criticism Help
Educate Pakistan Taal
Matol issue Time to play RIPPLE EFFECT
A list of some new but controversial appointments... By Nadeem Iqbal The ruling Pakistan
People's Party has been facing the worst credibility crisis of its history.
Apart from the widely-held perception about its 'pragmatic' rather than
'moral' stand on the judges issue, a whispering campaign is doing the rounds
about Mr Asif Ali Zardari and his coterie of friends having Some of the recent appointments, believed to have been made only on the personal request of Asif Zardari, have especially come under fire. Following is a list of some of these newly appointed people, their backgrounds and how they have come to attain their present position. Dr Asim Hussain, who was appointed as Chairman National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB), may not have a clue about district governments but he is credited with brokering a deal with MQM leader Altaf Hussain -- according to which MQM decided to remain neutral during the PPP-led campaign for Musharraf's impeachment. Dr Asim enjoyed strong ties with MQM and hence with the previous government. On March 23, 2005 the then President General(r) Musharraf conferred the award of Sitara-i-Imtiaz on Dr Asim Hussain. Interestingly, Hussain is
the honorary chairman of NRB and does not draw any salary but uses his Dr Asim, it seems, is not too keen to place his profile on the website of NRB but it is not clear if it is on his instructions that the profiles of previous chairmen have also disappeared. What is known about Dr Asim is that he is the grandson of Dr Sir Ziauddin Ahmed of Aligarh Muslim University, Chairman of the Ziauddin Hospital Trust and Chancellor Ziauddin Medical University. Another powerful advisor,
whose profile was not officially released along with other ministers at the
time of induction, is Rehman Malik. A beneficiary of the controversial NRO,
the interior ministry website only carries his picture in which he is staring
at the persons browsing the site. A former FIA chief under Benazir Bhutto,
whose service was terminated by Nawaz Sharif on charges of corruption, Malik
left the country for UK. Rehman's present rise to power is associated with a
sprawling house in a posh London locality where he resided and which also
served as a PPP international secretariat. He Salman Faruqui is a top bureaucrat of bygone days who has been resuscitated by Zardari. Once considered the bureaucrat of 21st century, he was credited with suggesting the ideas of Yellow cabs and the Motorway to Nawaz Sharif and that of flopped Awami Markaz to Benazir Bhutto. He left for the US on self-exile amidst charges of corruption after the dismissal of the Benazir government in 1996 and only returned to Pakistan after the controversial NRO came into operation. He has since been appointed as deputy chairman Planning Commission of Pakistan on contract in MP-1 grade. There are reports that he has again proposed the idea of introducing a metro transport system. His critics think that Salman Faruqui's theory is that a government must initiate projects that have a higher visibility like motorway. The MP-1 grade of the
federal government has huge lucrative benefits. Dr Shahid Masood Managing It is rumoured that the main reason for Dr Shahid getting these unprecedented benefits is because he is related to a PPP leader in London. What does Dr Shahid promise to deliver as MD PTV? The MD's message on the PTV website say: "PTV will soon be unveiling before you a new upgraded logo, which is a modern extension of its classical look. The lines are a little cleaner, the colour a little bolder, but the essence of heritage remains unchanged." This is the same trick the former PTV MD played while giving PTV a "new look" which was to just change some of the graphics and music of Khabarnama. Another close friend of
Zardari who made a comeback in politics is Zulfikar Mirza, spouse of National Anwar Majid is another person who has been in the limelight. Majid is dubbed as the de facto in charge of banking and the financial sector. Shaukat Tareen, a leading banker, who is known for receiving Rs one million salary during Nawaz Sharif's government and a close relative of Majid, heads the economic team. Senior bankers and officials of financial institutions complain about the arbitrariness which has become the hallmark of this government. Many eyebrows were raised when recently the MDs of several joint corporations like the Pak-Libya, Pak-Kuwait and Pak-Iran were changed arbitrarily by the finance ministry. Interestingly, at present, one does not come across names believed to be close to Mr Zardari from past years like Javed Pasha, who was given licenses to set up the FM-100 radio station and the television channel Shaheen Pay TV (SPTV) during the last PPP government, but left for London to set up similar businesses there when Nawaz Sharif's accountability supremo Saifur Rehman set his eyes on him. Another distinction goes to Tahir Niazi of the new city house project fame in Islamabad in which many people lost money. He also left the country and may soon be making a comeback.
Help
Educate Pakistan By Gibran Peshimam "Door duniya ka mere dam se andhera ho jaaye Har jagah mere chamakane se ujaala ho jaaye." (May the world's darkness disappear through the life of mine May every place light up with the sparkling light of mine) Education does not merely
mean teaching children how to read and write. It also means imparting The state of education in Pakistan may well be the most widely-discussed social problem in the country; yet the fact remains that it continues to be starved of its due status. Education has long been cited as the most potent weapon in the pursuit of a better tomorrow; the ultimate buttress on which this beleaguered nation of 160 million can prop up its dream of a brighter collective future. Yet, for decades now,
efforts to proliferate education have remained confined to the realm of Education is not a privilege. It is a right; a right that has been denied to millions due to little other than financial circumstance. They are born into a condition that is no fault of theirs. Today, millions of deserving underprivileged children in the slums of Pakistan's urban centres and in the far-flung villages of the county's rural areas are deprived of the right to education, the right to strive to build a better future for themselves not because they are not capable, but because they cannot afford it. Whether it is a child that has never sat in a classroom, or one that has given up the pursuit of higher education simply because he does not have the means to finance his aspirations, each story is a telling tragedy. With each deserving child that is deprived of this individual right, Pakistan, as a country, gives up a part of the dream for an improved tomorrow. This is where
education-related philanthropy can help. This is where each concerned
Pakistani can It was through the generosity of Pakistanis that the CARE Foundation was able to erect that first school in the flood-devastated Iqbal Town in Sheikhupura district, and the very same generosity that helped it adopt over a hundred more. It was through the charity of the nation that TCF put up no less than three schools in an impoverished slum of Machar Colony, Karachi, and that very same charity that allowed it to give hundreds of children a fair chance to improve their lot. It was open-hearted contributions that allowed Rizwan Scholars to help deserving children remain in school and that very same open-heartedness that helps it provide scholarships to capable young minds so that their pursuit of higher education is not cut short by financial constraints. To salute the commendable efforts of these organisations and to highlight the need for continued support in the endeavour to build a better future for our children and our nation, The News, over the course of Ramzan, will put the spotlight on the heart-warming achievements of each of the three. We will show our readers that Iqbal's lamp of knowledge (Ilm Ki Shamma) is still alive; that there is hope yet for a better tomorrow; hope yet to make a meaningful change. By Shoaib Hashmi I have no idea why it is
called the "bottom" of the garden, but it is the farthest end of
the garden Right at the bottom of it are at least three trees in the garden; near where the roots shoot off into the ground, there are mushrooms! Actually horticulture has never been a forte so I am not sure if they are mushrooms or toadstools, and even if I saw the two together I wouldn't know which was which. But I have to know because the grandchildren have been threatening to eat them. And I know that some of them are poisonous! The kids know from the fact that oodles of the edible type are available at the supermarket, and mushrooms in a omelette are a delicacy and a sign of being cultured. And yet there is the lore that a certain type of them are highly toxic and it is obvious from the name "toadstool" -- who wants to eat something associated with a toad; the local name for them is worse being associated with a flatus! (In case you do not know that one it comes from flatulence). Which is why eating them is an acquired habit from the West. There is no such local habit. They found them because kids have a habit of mucking around at the bottom of the garden, where the compost heap is, and finding all sorts of queer flora and fauna there. In my childhood the compost heap was known to be the abode of "the little people" which made it infinitely fascinating -- I distinctly remember seeing, out of the corners of the eyes, at least six episodes in which I saw little people, about six inches tall, who disappeared as soon as we turned to look at them directly. They were called Bonas, or among the more sophisticated Balishtias. The Balisht is the local word for a hand-span, or the distance from the end of the pinkie to the end of the thumb with the hand spread. That makes it about eight inches for a delicate female hand to ten inches for a male hand, and that was the normal stature of a Balishtia. If you threw away an old glove in the compost heap they immediately took it away underground to make a pair of trousers out of the four fingers and a night cap out of the thumb; and that was how they were pictured in all the story books, with a long cap, and mostly seated on a mushroom which was just the right size. No wonder we were fascinated, and the story of some being poisonous had to be drilled into us, to stop us mucking about in the compost. And yet they killed themselves making it the most mysterious and fascinating place. In English lore it was the abode of fairies. And any kid with an Irish grandparent will swear by the seven leprechauns he saw there as an infant. Leprechauns and also poisoned mushrooms, that's messing with our young minds! Dr Aafia Siddiqui's story is another harrowing consequence of the 'war on terror' By Shahzada Irfan Ahmed The name of Dr Aafia
Siddiqui, a neurological scientist, missing since March 30, 2003, emerged on
the Dr Aafia who was produced in a New York court in injured state (with a visible bullet mark on her body) had remained missing for almost five years. The US authorities claim that she had tried to grab a shot gun of an investigator and shoot him. A bullet was fired at her in retaliation, they add. The last time Dr Aafia was seen -- before resurfacing in Ghazni -- in Karachi along with her three children in March 2003. All her children have also been missing since then. US officials have recently hinted at the likely presence of her eldest child in Afghanistan but expressed their inability to locate the remaining two. In the face of all this hue and cry, the US authorities are not willing to accept that Dr Aafia was in their custody prior to her arrest made last month. The US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne W. Patterson has even been called a 'diplomatic liar' by Human Rights Watch (HRW) for saying that Dr. Aafia was not in custody of the US before July 17, 2008. Her claim that Dr Aafia received prompt medical attention has also been challenged by the global rights body. Similarly, many other human rights and media organisations are bent upon proving that she had been arrested in Karachi back in 2003 and was since then in the custody of US authorities in Afghanistan. These organisations have been referring her to as 'Prisoner 650' who was in terrible medical condition within a US prison located in Afghanistan. Just two weeks prior to the arrest, Dr Aafia's plight was highlighted by a British journalist, Yvonne Ridley, who held a press conference in Islamabad on the issue. Ridley identified Dr Aafia as 'Prisoner No. 650', being held in solitary confinement at the detention centre attached to the US air base at Bagram. Ridley believes Dr Aafia had been held in isolation by the Americans in their Bagram detention centre in Afghanistan, for over four years. "I call her the 'grey lady' because she is almost a ghost, a spectre whose cries and screams continues to haunt those who heard her," she said at the press conference. Ridley says the case came to her attention when she read the book The Enemy Combatant by a former Guantanamo detainee, Moazzam Beg. Ridley says one of the four Arabs who escaped from the Bagram cell in July 2005 had told a television channel that he had heard a woman's cries and screams in the prison but never seen her. Dr Aafia studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US, for about 10 years and did her PhD in genetics before returning to Pakistan in 2002. There are assertions made by US officials that she got married to a nephew of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and that she had facilitated transfer of money for al-Qaeda operatives. These charges have been strongly denied by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) which is fighting vehemently for her release. So far her relatives have not divulged any information about her husband nor has he appeared on the scene to give any statement. It is alleged that her marriage with Khalid Sheikh's nephew was her second one. Before that she had been living with her husband, Amjad Khan, and two children, in the US for several years but their marriage had fell apart a week before the birth of their third child. HRCP also contends that there is enough evidence indicating that Dr Aafia was initially picked up by intelligence agencies in Pakistan and therefore it is not only the government of the United States but also the government of Pakistan that must be made accountable for this crime. The information collected by HRCP at that particular time was that in March 2003 Dr Aafia, along with her three children, left her mother's house in a taxi on her way to the Karachi airport and was picked up by an intelligence agency. What she was accused of when picked up has not been made public. Strangely, the only charge against her is an alleged assault against her captors while in custody, says a press statement issued by HRCP chairperson Asma Jehangir. The statement adds that the parents of Siddiqui were also contacted, who were under severe threat from the intelligence agencies, warned not to speak either to the press or any human rights organisation. "At one point, office bearers of the HRCP contacted the family of Dr Aafia Siddiqui and arranged to meet but at the last minute they expressed their inability to see them despite the fact that the meeting was arranged at their request," the statement adds. Ejaz Ahmad Chaudhry, Central Vice President Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), tells TNS that the issue of Dr Aafia was brought to the notice of PTI chief Imran Khan by British journalist Yvonne Ridley during his visit to UK. Ridley who was arrested by the Taliban in Afghanistan had converted to Islam before her release, he says. Ejaz says Ridley told Imran that she knew about a Muslim woman who was being tortured physically and mentally and even raped at the US-managed Bagram Airbase. After this, Imran facilitated her visit to Islamabad and arranged a press conference attended by a large number of Pakistani journalists, he says adding that the PTI is holding protests all over the country and pressurising the government of Pakistan to take up the issue seriously. Ejaz says PTI's stance is that the government of Pakistan should be made accountable for handing over one of its citizens to Americans without following any legal procedure. In case Dr Aafia was picked up by some foreign intelligence agency the responsibility again lies with the Pakistani government for allowing that to happen. He says PTI in collaboration with Aamna Masood Janjua and Dr Fauzia Siddiqui, sister of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, is holding a series of seminars and lectures on the issue, all over the country. He goes on to say that though Dr Aafia has been awarded consular access she is neither being allowed to meet her relatives nor get medical treatment. The US needs to be pressurised in every possible way to allow basic human rights to her, he adds. Gaming has become a serious sport and Pakistan's local gaming community is not far behind By Wali Hassan Like many other countries
Pakistan also has its own gaming community. We play them at home, In Pakistan there isn't much one can do that is enjoyable. Bowling is boring and mini golfing isn't something one would want to do everyday, the cinema does not play quality movies and there isn't any well made sports ground where one can go and play. The only well maintained sports grounds are for clubs members or are part of school property. The truth is whenever the 'new' thing comes to Pakistan, its only a matter of months before people find it boring or that it stops improving itself. So what can one do in Pakistan that is not boring, enjoyable and where one could interact with others? The answer is simple, gaming cafes. Pakgamers.com is the first Pakistani game site which was created to bring the Pakistani gamers community together. Here gamers can share and discuss ideas, find information about the gaming industry, and bring different gaming group (e.g. RPG gamers, FPS gamers, etc) from all over Pakistan together so they can meet other gamers who share the same joy of playing games. Gamers can find out about new games and about the availability of the latest hardware in the Pakistan market. The site also provides information about local tournaments and gives advertising space where local gaming cafe owners can advertise their cafes It also provides news, reviews, previews, trailers, and cheats which are provided by Pakistani gamers. The creators of this web site hopes that this site would make Pakistani gamers more interested in the gaming industry and hopes to inspire many more who are interested in working in this field. In the gamers community, there are different groups for different types of gamers, RPG (Role playing games) gamers, Racing gamers, First person shooters gamers, simulator gamers, action adventure gamers, sports gamers, to even miscellaneous type gamers, the list goes on it. Then people can choose between local and internet game play where gamers can play against each other in gaming cafes or against gamers online. The gaming community has grown into a lucrative sport where people create teams and play against other teams for fame and money. The people who make up the gaming community in Pakistan are proud of being a part of it. They know what is happening in the gaming world and always keep themselves up to date with the latest news for every console, may it be PS2,PS3, WIL, X-BOX/360.etc. Many gamers believe that If sponsors in Pakistan spend money and arrange tournaments, they can find the best players from all over Pakistan and who can then makeup an official Pakistani team for the WCG (world cyber games). The potential for gaming is limitless, we can someday create world class gamers and earn the respect we need to the international gaming communities and also game designers that would one day create Pakistan's very own gaming brand. With this hopefully we might be able to host our very own WCG matches in Pakistan. The investments will one day bring profits to the gaming community in Pakistan and Pakistan itself. By Omar R. Quraishi It's not often that you read a book written locally and which tells you something that you didn't already know, which doesn't contain rehashed or -- even worse -- plagiarised ideas of others. In this regards, two books that I have read in recent years -- written by Pakistanis living in Pakistan, on Pakistan -- have been particularly noteworthy. The first was Who Owns Pakistan by a veteran journalist and correspondent of the Japanese-owned Kyodo News Agency in Pakistan, Shahidur Rahman, which gives an excellent background, complete with examples from the 1980s and 1990s, of how the rich and powerful in the country have colluded with each other to become ever more rich and powerful. The other, and more recent, book was Dr Ayesha Siddiqa's Military Inc. which through some solid research confirmed the view -- held by many -- that the military of Pakistan was also perhaps the largest (or at least among the largest) entity of the country. From guarding to our frontiers and borders, to guarding our ideology, the men in khaki also make cereals, sell mineral water, run a bank, provide security guards and are possibly the biggest players in the Pakistani real estate market. Of course, there are some private individuals in the last sector as well, some who of late have made big names thanks to articles in some well-known international publications, but all of this would not be possible were it not the help extended by them to the men in khaki. The real estate business is also perhaps one which brings the military a very bad name -- after all where in the world do their armed forces involve themselves in selling plots on a commercial basis. It may be all right to take some -- the operative word being 'some' -- government land and develop it for the benefit for serving and retired soldiers. If that was the only thing that the defence housing authorities did that would be fine -- however to take the best prime land in the country and to then offer it to officers -- serving and retired -- at a fraction of the market price, is bound to create resentment among ordinary citizens. After all, such concessions on this large a scale and practically in every major city and town of the country are not available to the civilian population and hence it is understandable if there is some resentment on this matter. A good example in this regards comes by looking at the recent advert campaign in major newspaper by the Defence Housing Authority of Islamabad. Plots for five and eight marlas were advertised and the offer was open to the general public as well. However, after reading various letters published on the matter and through other correspondence certain facts emerged. For instance, for the first time, the ratio of plots to serving/retired armed forces personnel vis-a-vis civilians was lower. In fact, seventy percent of the plots, it was said, would be for civilians while the other category would get a mere thirty percent. As one letter-writer -- a former army officer himself -- rightly pointed out, if the idea of the DHAs was to develop land and sell it at affordable rates to armed forces personnel (as some kind of due compensation for the fact that they spent their lives being employed for the cause of the nation) then it was lost because how else would one explain that 70 percent of the plots were set aside for civilians. This perception is also reinforced by the fact the civilians pay far higher rates -- several times multiplied -- for a plot compared to what the armed forces personnel (serving or retired) pay and hence the aim seems to be not to further the welfare of these people but rather commercial profit. That the military should not be involving itself in something like this should be clear, not least because such activities tend to lower the image of the military in the minds of the general public (of course, this and that it every now so often throws an elected government!). For instance, the principle why the military should not be into real estate development aside, the whole process adopted by the DHA of Islamabad was bureaucratic and seemed as if it was designed to not allow as many people as possible to apply for the scheme. People were asking why couldn't they just download the forms from the DHA's website to which the reply came that a fee was being charged for the forms. But surely, the fee could have been paid when the form was submitted. Furthermore, the processing fees of Rs 5,000 and Rs 8,000 respectively for five and eight marla plots were said to be non-refundable. One can understand processing charges but these figures seem steep when compared to the fees rates charged from Pakistanis by western embassies (and one can understand that these may be high because of high overhead costs and the exchange rate issue). This again made many people think that on this alone, and given that there would be many applicants, the DHA would stand to make millions. Ideally, if an applicant's name did not come in the ballot, the DHA should refund this fee as well. To make matters worse, the forms ran out and then an announcement came that forms would no longer be available -- this more than a week before the deadline! Why was this done? Clearly, they should have been available for the whole duration before the deadline and if their numbers were limited the adverts should have carried this provision prominently. If reports that many real estate agents bought them in bulk are to be believed then this announcement of the forms no longer being available would have quite possibly driven up the price of a form from a hundred rupees to several thousand. Indeed, one letter-writer from Rawalpindi wrote of precisely this: that when he went to the bank from where the forms were advertised as being available, he could fine none, but that right outside the bank premises, they were being sold for Rs2,500! As bad as it is that one's own military should be involved in developing real estate, the way that the DHA has ran this scheme is not at all good for the image of the military. But then the institution of any country is only going to be as good, or bad, as its surrounding society in general. The
writer is Editorial Pages Editor of The News. Email:
omarq@cyber.net
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become the heirs of former President Pervez Musharraf and his advisors -- as
a group that wields real power. While Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and
his cabinet have only replaced Shaukat Aziz and his cabinet to run the
mundane affairs of the country, the campaign suggests.
official protocol to carry out other assignments. He is also heading a
special committee to work out modalities of Economic Co-ordination
Committee's decisions on oil marketing companies profits/margins, deemed
duty, etc. with a view to formulating a strategy aimed at effectively
tackling the price hike.
is believed to have brokered the deal between President Pervez Musharraf and
former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, and later between Musharraf and Zardari.
If media reports are anything to go by, he also has been a beneficiary of the
Oil for Food Programme in Iraq during Saddam Hussain's rule.
Director PTV is another MP1-grade officer. Information Minister Sherry Rehman
told the Senate that Dr Shahid Masood was being paid Rs 850,000 as monthly
salary, a chauffer-driven 1600 CC car with unlimited petrol for private and
official use. Daily allowance would be in line with MP-1, Shifting Allowance
Rs 200,000 one time only, entertainment allowance on actual basis, medical,
bonus as paid to other staff every year, mobile phone without any limit, one
residential land line phone with Rs 10,000 per month ceiling, one fax at
residence, security guards at residence round the clock, one month basic
salary as gratuity, ten percent of the basic salary as provident fund, Rs
50,000 yearly increase. The contract period will be for five years and in
case of early termination of contract, a notice of six months will be
required from either side or gross salary in lieu thereof.
Assembly Speaker Dr. Fehmida Mirza. Son of a former higher court judge and
chairman Federal Public Service Commission, Mirza vanished soon after the
dismissal of Benazir Bhutto's government. Instead, his wife got elected from
Badin and is widely respected because of her conduct in the National Assembly
first as member and now as speaker. The NRO gave Zulfikar Mirza a new
political life as a powerful home minister Sindh.
knowledge; developing their abilities; giving them hope; and providing them
the possibility to take charge of their own lives. To educate a Pakistani
child is to invest in Pakistan's future.
rhetoric while this nation's dream of a better tomorrow remains shackled by
an inertia that is allowing the malaise of despair amongst tens of millions
of under-privileged Pakistanis to grow into overbearing helplessness. You can
see this helplessness in the face of each child that is starved of education.
stand up and make a telling difference by supporting the efforts of
non-profit organisations such as the CARE Foundation, the Citizens Foundation
(TCF) and Rizwan Scholars, which are keeping the dreams of thousands of
children alive every day. This is where financial disadvantage can be stopped
from being an impediment to deserving and talented children across Pakistan.
where it goes out of control and turns into a wilderness. This is where the
gardener has his own domain where he stores his implements and the mown grass
and the twigs where they are supposed to turn into compost which is the best
khaad when he is not diddling you out of money for urea and Vilayatee khaad.
It is most interesting this time of the year, towards the end of the monsoon
when everything is soaked and all kinds of stuff is growing.
national and international scene after the announcement of her arrest by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Aug 4, 2008. A frail young woman,
with hardly any energy left to even move, Dr Aafia has been charged with a
murder attempt and assault on US officers and employees in Ghazni,
Afghanistan, on July 17, 2008. FBI also claims of having recovered documents
about preparing chemical weapons and potential target sites inside the US
from her.
online, and at local cafes. We play them for fun, for the competition, for
fame and for money, it fulfills our lives.