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campaign Taal
Matol policy Criminal
neglect RIPPLE EFFECT
campaign Started by the family of Air Commodore Rizwanullah Khan after his tragic and untimely death, the Rizwan Scholars memorial trust seeks to provide financial help to deserving students who are seeking to attain higher education By Gibran Peshimam It was a foggy and tragic
February morning in 2003 when a Fokker containing 14 members of the Meanwhile, a few hundred miles away, in the small village of Chakesar, Shangla District, located in the same province, an 18-year-old boy, Nurul Hayat, was drawing up his ambitious plans of becoming a neurosurgeon. He was unaware of the crash of the Fokker, and, perhaps more importantly, the impact that it would have on his life a few years down the road. As the debris of that
fallen Fokker continued to burn mercilessly in the foggy hills outside Kohat,
a Five years on, Nurul Hayat, dressed in a neat white Shalwar Kameez, now fully aware of that fateful February day, sits across the table from me. We are at the residence of the late Air Commodore Rizwanullah Khan, one of the passengers on that ill-fated Fokker. Having travelled to Islamabad, the upright, soft-spoken yet confident young man tells me of his aspirations to join the ranks of the 90-odd neurosurgeons in Pakistan. He tells me of his admiration for Dr Khaliq-uz-Zaman, a well-known neurosurgeon and professor at Islamabad's Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, and how he one day aims to emulate his skill and success. The young man from the village of Chakesar, whose house was greatly damaged by the 2005 Earthquake, is now a final year student at the Ayub Medical College in Abottabad. He is one of 125 young men and women who can call themselves "Rizwan Scholars." Started by the family of
Air Commodore Rizwanullah Khan after his tragic and untimely death, the The relatively small organisation does not have an immaculate infrastructure or a list of ostentatious achievements to boast of; it does not hold large balls or charity events attended by the glitterati of our nation; yet there is a palpable pride in the work that it is doing; because what it is doing is nation-building by facilitating the further education of those who have achieved academic excellence. It is unique in that it focuses solely on tertiary education, believing that the future of this nation lies not in the hands of citizens who can merely read and write. No. It lies in the hands of professionals who excel in their field. It helps students like Nurual Hayat in the pursuit of their dreams, so that in this pursuit he will hopefully pull along with him the hopes of an entire nation. As our conversation continues, he tells me of the poor health facilities available in his village and its surrounding areas and how he intends on changing that once he has an established career. "My village is very proud of me," he beams, his smile containing a strikingly indelible form of enthusiasm. He is a sharp-witted and intelligent young man, having scored 732 marks in his Matriculation and 906 in his Intermediate. However, even the 23-year-old's commendable academic ability is dwarfed by his evident drive and ambition. He is one of those young confident men who you know can succeed, who can achieve so much if given the necessary help; if the required avenues are opened up for him. He and others like him will be Pakistan's future. They will pick this country up upon their broad shoulders and lift it out of the morass that it finds itself in today. Students like him should get all the help they can get. It is an investment in our own future. These are students who, though not dirt poor, are still in need of assistance in their struggle to complete their higher education. While there may be many non-profit organisations running to help those in dire straits, there are few that actually help those stuck in the middle rung of the ladder. Those who cannot, and, in fact, will not, narrate tales of starving families or living in slums to convince organisations to give them the help they need; that extra push that will help them over the wall, they are lost amid the tales of sorry lives and decrepit homes. But they are too proud to ask for charity. They ask you not to pity them. They ask you to recognise their merit and, above all, just what they embody -- the future. In a nation so used to running on charity, where asking for help is an everyday occurrence, to see this sort of daring pride and unflinching self-respect in our youth should give us hope. With medical books being as expensive as they are, Hayat cannot afford to purchase all the relevant texts. Yet he gets by through borrowing books from the college's library. He will not complain, only find ways to move forward, to take another step in the direction of his dreams. These are bright minds. That, however, does not mean that they have not faced their share of adversity. There is Faizan Waheed, 22, currently studying at UET Taxila, in his final year of electrical engineering. He lost his father six years ago, and with him the main bread earner. There is Bushra Aslam, 23, studying chartered accountancy in ICAP Islamabad. Her father, a diabetic, had to have his legs amputated, leaving the family without a proper income. But they do not use these tragedies to get their financial assistance. They use their merit, their drive. Rizwan Scholars has already helped 16 MBBS graduates complete their education, and dozens of others complete their electronic engineering degrees, their finance degrees and their chemical engineering degrees. They come from all parts of the country, not only the urban centres. They come from Tando Allahyar, from Jhelum, from across the forgotten parts of this nation. Such is the thirst for higher education that currently, the organisation can only cater to ten percent of its total applicants; but it strives to do much more. All it has done thus far in its five years was done not with the help of large foreign donor agencies, such as JICA, USAID and CIDA. It was done with help of the small donations of everyday Pakistanis like you and me. Pakistanis who believe that the future of this nation lies in the hands of a properly and professionally educated youth. Pakistanis who believe that is not enough for our children to be literate, to be able to read and write, but to ensure that they get higher education. So that their dreams are not limited to decent livelihoods, but trespass fearlessly into the realm of raw ambition to reach for the stars. So that our talented yet less-privileged youth aspire not only to live a more comfortable life in terms in terms of their financial standing but to become the next Dr Abdus Salam, the next Pervez Hoodbhoy, or, in the case of the young MBBS student from the village of Chakesar, the next Dr Khaliq-uz-Zaman. The trust may have started in memory of a fallen Pakistani, but, five years on, it stands to keep alive the expectations of a rising Pakistan; to do its small part in search for a better tomorrow; to be the wind beneath their wings.
By Shoaib Hashmi For some reason, men
through history have been obsessed with knowing the future, although a little Only now some scientific types have begun to suspect that the area of Delphi is a volcanic region and it is possible that the Oracle was built over a volcanic fissure where some kind of natural gas emanated breathing which the lady went into a trance, although that still does not say why she should get into contact with Apollo and start giving his vision of the future to whoever came to ask. Now the thing is that we Lahoris are not the people to let time pass us by and be left behind, and we have been as obsessed with the future as the next man. And I am going to go even further and tell you we are not even going to let time catch up on us unaware! You see, although people everywhere have always been concerned about the future, trying to get a peek into the impenetrable; but as they said everyone talks about it and no one does anything about it. Well no more! As of now Lahore has its very own, and probably the first in the world, Academy for the Occult Sciences! And not just that it has already passed out its first batch of graduates, fifty budding Nostradamuses to go out into the world and I guess prophesy away! In case you are going to be sceptical, they teach a solid eighteen courses, including all that I could think of and a few that I couldn't, and it is run by the Pakistan Astrological Council. Much later there was Nostradamus who spewed more gibberish, this time in poetry. And it is only now, five hundred years later that we are discovering he was prophesying, because what was then the future is already the past and we know all about it and can see he was rather good at it, or something! But it is in the Orient that the science of the future really flourished. The Jewish people have this whole thing of the 'Kabbala' and the Hindus can decipher your whole future if you can just tell them the exact time and date of your birth. And then there are the ancient sciences of reading the future in the stars, or the lines of the palm or the knots in the skull. The school called 'Future Horizon' in Lahore teaches all of these and a few more. There is 'Aromatherapy' and also 'Colour' and 'Sound' therapies whose names tell all. Along with Numerology and reading Runes and Tarot Cards they also teach you 'Clairvoyance' and something called 'Clairaudience!' There are state-of-the-art research facilities in all the disciplines which include not only Yoga and Hypnotism but also Magnetism which is getting really scientific. The only spanner in the works is the fee for each course which is hefty, but it is the price you pay for plumbing the 'Hidden Depths!' The passing students have been all praise for the school saying they studied the occult to find solutions to problems without any help.Yippee! Recent unrest in Indian-held Kashmir is once again putting Pakistan's foreign policy to test By Nadeem Iqbal The recent spate of
protests and killing of scores of peacefully protesting Kashmiris by Indian At a time when there has been a renewed uprising in the Kashmir valley against Indian rule and the Kashmiri leadership has rejuvenated the pro-independence movement, political support from Pakistan remains lackluster, mainly because the six-months-old government has still not settled down. Unlike the uprising against India in 1989 that was widely seen as Pakistan-sponsored and culminated into Kargil, the present episode is local and spontaneous and may snowball into pressurising India into seeking a practical solution. The latest crisis in Kashmir was triggered by the Indian-held Kashmir government's move in May 2008 to hand over land to a Hindu shrine trust. It was resisted by Kashmiris, who launched protests in June 2008, saying that the plan was aimed at changing the demographics of the Muslim-majority region. The allocation of land was reversed which angered the local Hindu minority. Hindus then launched their own massive protests, forcing authorities to allow Hindu pilgrims temporary use of land near the shrine. The Hindus also economically blockaded the Muslim areas. But the Muslim demonstrations have turned the controversy into an anti-India movement. Since then over four dozen protesters have been shot dead by Indian soldiers while 1000 others have been injured. In his maiden press conference, President Asif Ali Zardari instead of spelling out Pakistan's position talked of giving "good news" on the Kashmir dispute to the nation. Without elaborating any policy shift from the 'out-of-box' approach of General Musharraf, he said that all the major parties are being taken onboard on the Kashmir issue. There are reports that Zardari has retained Musharraf's confidante Tariq Aziz to continue with the quiet diplomacy with the Indian security advisor. The Pakistan foreign office has denied any change in the Kashmir policy saying that Pakistan is committed to the continuation of peace process since it is important for the stability and economic development of 1.5 billion people of the region. A foreign office spokesperson said that Pakistan hosted the meeting of the Working Group on Cross LoC Measures on July 18, 2008, and a number of steps were agreed upon which were adopted by the Foreign Secretaries meeting in New Delhi on July 21, 2008. "These include increase in the frequency of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad and Poonch-Rawlakot bus service from fortnightly to weekly, introducing triple entry travel permits, expeditious processing of travel requests in emergency cases and transfer of application forms through e-mails. The objective is to enable the divided Kashmiri families to meet and bring relief to the lives of the Kashmiri people." On Cross LoC trade, the spokesperson said that a delegation from AJK Chambers of Commerce will visit Srinagar soon. At the meeting of the Working Group, Pakistan provided a composite list of commodities to be traded. India provided two separate lists for import and export which are currently being studied by the Ministry of Commerce. However, the Kashmiri leaders are weary of the slow and ineffective confidence building measures (CBMs) and want more and effective CBMs such as permission for self driven vehicles and individuals. However, amidst the ongoing crisis in the valley new realities are settling in, such as there has been a clear demarcation of the disputed region between Muslim and Indian dominated districts. There are dangers of the region turning into a religious flashpoint as Hindu fundamentalists are looking for another issue like the Babri mosque incident and there are reports of their demanding trifurcation of Jammu & Kashmir, making Jammu a separate state and Ladakh a Union territory. Of the six districts of Jammu, two and a half have a Hindu majority. A similar fear is emerging from the other side, as Kashmiri leadership has warned India that if it continues with killing peaceful protesters, the movement may again fall into the hands of militants. Mir Waiz Umer Farooq and two other top leaders, Syed Ali Geelani and Yasin Malik, have already been placed under house arrest. In a recent interview Farooq said: "Today we had the issue of land that became the focal point of our freedom movement. Tomorrow we may have something else. Unless and until the basic issue (of Kashmir's future) is addressed, you cannot say that the Kashmir issue is dead or that people have forgotten what happened in the past." Clearly dismayed over the India-Pakistan talks or between Kashmiris and India, he said the time has come to resolve the issue either through tripartite dialogue or a United Nations-supervised referendum giving people the choice of independence, staying with India or joining Pakistan. "These are the only two mechanisms which we believe are workable in the present situation," he added. But the question is: if the two governments in India and Pakistan have the capacity to tread such a path with a visible political fallout. Since both the governments have lost their respective coalition partner and are struggling to consolidate their positions. Holding elections in the valley is another issue, as the current assembly is going to complete its term by the end of November. On Sept 9, there was a complete strike when the Indian election commission visited Srinagar to have discussions for holding or not holding elections. While the right-wing fundamentalist Indian parties are demanding elections on time, others, particularly pro-Pakistan leaders, are opposing the elections. It would be of interest to see what specific position the government of Pakistan develops on the current Kashmir situation and if it pro-actively follows this or only passively pronounces it. A comparative study of forensic departments in Sindh and Punjab Investigators all over the
world use forensic science to help ascertain many facts about a crime, The forensics falls under the Home Department in each province and the department is funded by the provincial government. However, there is a huge discrepancy between all four provinces in the facilities provided. Until now, Punjab has been the only province that has taken solid steps and effort to establish a proper system of forensics. Sindh and Balochistan both have to rely upon a single department stationed in Karachi. According to the system followed throughout the world, forensics is divided into branches which deal with different aspects of the crime case. This includes the chemical branch (which works on drug identification, poison testing or toxicology, and any trace evidence, including tapes, ropes, fibres, pieces of glass, etc). The criminalistics branch works in areas of a toolmark or a firearm, other trace evidence which is found on the scene of crime like fingerprints, footwear impressions, etc. There is also forensic imaging, document testing which means testing documents for forgery, ink and handwriting analysis, and DNA analysis. In a crime case, a postmortem may also be conducted in case of death, and the cause and time of death is ascertained. Sometimes, a body needs to be exhumed in order to follow an older crime case and to re-ascertain the cause of death. This is done through examination of the victim's bones, teeth and hair. In Pakistan, this is done by the medico-legal officers (MLOs). Locally, there is hardly any organised team of forensic experts, and only MLOs cover this function. But they do not work with the police. In fact after a medico-legal check up, or a postmortem, the MLOs hand the victim over to the police, where their role ends, unless they are required to appear in court. Sources in the forensic field of the Sindh/Balochistan department tell TNS that no incentives are being given by the provincial government for any kind of development. Crime investigation often suffers because of a delay in the chemical testing stage which is an initial and very important stage in investigation. Medico-legal sources within Karachi's hospitals give inside information, that the chemical examiner's laboratory holds many samples from cases that occurred months ago, but still the chemical results have not been obtained either by the police involved, nor have many of the tests been conducted. As far as expertise is concerned, forensic experts in Karachi complain that the Punjab Government has given far more incentives to their forensic experts and the field of forensics. "There is a very slight development in the field of forensics in Pakistan, but if we compare handling of the crime cases in Sindh and Punjab, there is definitely a huge difference," says Dr Farhat Mirza, Associate Professor of Karachi's well-known Dow Medical College, which is affiliated with the Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK). "There are not many medical students who opt for forensics, mainly because they know they won't be paid well and at the same time, the teachers too lack interest and motivation because they are paid much less." Dr Farhat gives the example of a mere Rs15,000 being paid to a professor in Sindh's top medical colleges, while in Punjab, professors are paid double the amount. Significantly Sindh and Balochistan there is only one forensic centre and chemical examination lab, which is in Karachi, a city which is itself ridden with crime. Understandably, this overburdens the system of crime investigation. MLOs in Karachi's state-run hospitals have given up on the system and also condemn their pay scales. On the contrary, there is an organised pay structure in the Punjab medico-legal system. There is an initial fee for postmortems, as well as fee for medico-legal reports amounting to Rs 200 which is paid by the party. However, no MLO in Karachi is officially paid for an ML report. "No wonder it is an inefficient system," says Capt. Dr Ghulam Shabbir, Police Surgeon, Punjab. "We have now proposed a higher fee structure so that the MLOs have more incentive and with the new government in Punjab, I think this will soon follow." On Sept 11, 2008, the Chief Minister of Punjab announced that the forensic department will be officially separated from the medico-legal department, and this would also call for more development within the forensic system of Punjab. "As far as the important forensic procedures are concerned, which are not being followed in Pakistan, that is the chief concern of the police, because they are also involved with investigation," adds Dr Shabbir. Superintendent (SP) of Investigation, Karachi South Zone, Inspector Niaz Ahmed Khoso says it becomes very difficult to work with so many cases lined up only for chemical testing, while so many other procedures, which are adopted globally in the forensics system, are not even thought of in Pakistan. "Unfortunately we have been taxed from two sides. First, the forensics department has to take care of two provinces, while Karachi is a city which has a lot of its own problems. Secondly, the forensics lab is extremely backward in its procedures and equipment." Khoso feels that, because of this, crime investigation automatically slows down. Funds are a major issue, he says, even though the Musharraf government did give extra financial backing for police, but more is needed. "Take DNA analysis and sampling. There are two major DNA laboratories in Pakistan, and both are in Punjab. One in Lahore and one in Islamabad," says Khoso. "Each time we have to send in a sample for DNA testing to Lahore or Islamabad and it the fee costs around Rs10,000 to Rs15,000 for each sample. Suppose there are more samples which ought to be sent in one case, it is a ridiculous amount of money that has to be spent upon this. A lab in Karachi would do this without the cost of transportation at least." Ironically, Lahore's Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Investigations' wing, Zulfiqar Hameed shares a similar complaint. He says that even though the forensics is being developed, it is still not at the required standard. "We have labs that lack facilities, and then we have officers who do not have the equipment to handle the scene of crime. So it is not completely as if the blame lies with the police." In June 2008, the Punjab government had approved a project of Rs90.208 million for the establishment of a Forensic Science Agency (FSA). Interestingly, the federal government had also approved a project to establish forensic science laboratories (FSLs) in every provincial headquarter three years ago, a project worth Rs1.356 billion, for which Japan had extended Rs52 million as foreign-exchange components (FEC). In Sindh, Balochistan and even NWFP, no signs of this are visible. "Our laboratory lacks facilities, but since I have come in, I have tried to revamp the system and create more incentives for our experts. For example, we have district boards, which comprise a medical superintendent, a surgeon, and a chemical examiner. Our five boards are in Rawalpindi, Bahawalpur, Faisalabad, Multan and the head office is in Lahore," says Hameed. In total there are about 35 MLOs only at the district level. In Punjab there are 35 training medical boards, but none in Sindh. "With the rising crime rate, this has to be taken into serious consideration," says Police Surgeon, Karachi, Dr Hamid Ali Paryar. "The forensics department is certainly not taken as seriously in Sindh and Balochistan as it is in Punjab. No incentives are given to anyone in the field of forensics. There is lack of training, low pay scale, and on top of all that there is danger, blackmail and threats. At the moment for instance we are short of 22 MLOs but no one wants to enter the field." The MLOs in Karachi hospitals occasionally receive serious threats concerning what they write in the ML reports. Some are bribed by relatives, others are pressured into writing down whatever the relatives want them to write, especially if a death occurs. Besides, MLOs have to appear in courts for related cases, and sometimes have to travel to Balochistan for court appearances. This becomes increasingly difficult for them as their work is disturbed. Dr Paryar says there are only meetings held which result in no practical action. Instead, he says, the state-run medical hospitals should be improved so that the function of the forensics experts (medico-legal officers, both male and female) is increased. "If only the government takes this field seriously, we could receive more funds and more personnel. Routine crime cases would be solved within a shorter time frame and the crime graph could drop because of this." Shafqat Abbasi, Special Secretary Health, Sindh, could not be contacted for comments as to why there was a lack of funds in Sindh's forensics compared to Punjab.
Burn notice Over half a dozen
violations of Pakistani airspace took place by US missiles in the past couple
of Just a day prior to the attack, the chief of the Pakistan Air Force was asked by reporters on the sharp rise in such attacks by unmanned US drones and he said that the PAF could only act if the government gave it the orders to do so. Clearly, this means that the government has some kind of written or perhaps unwritten agreement with the Americans and/or NATO on allowing such attacks. That can be the only plausible reaction because why else would the PAF not be scrambling its jets from the nearby Peshawar airfield and intercepting the drones. Credence to this also comes from the fact that the drones don't fly over Pakistani territory only when they need to carry out an attack but in fact on any given day apparently at least one drone is flying over the region -- usually for reconnaissance. Also, the question of some level of complicity or tacit approval by the Pakistan government needs to be raised because of the issue of intelligence -- who is providing the Americans with such up-to-date intelligence to allow them to launch the attacks as they have in the last couple of weeks. For instance, according to the reasonably accurate blog, The Long War Journal, at least five of the attacks were carried out against structures that were part of the Haqqani network in Waziristan, the idea clearly being to send a strong signal to him. The matter gets slightly more complicated, though, when one considers the widely reported piece of information that Haqqani is believed by the Americans to be an "asset" for the Pakistani intelligence agencies and that his son, Sirajuddin Haqqani, has recently admitted to carrying out several deadly suicide attacks inside Afghanistan, including the one on Kabul's Serena hotel. While the Pakistani media tended to focus on the women and children who were killed in the Sept. 8 attack, most foreign sources of news also noted that the dead included around nine or so foreigners, thought to be al Qaeda operatives. One Pakistani newspaper reported that the dead included Arabs and Azerbaijanis but did not back this up with any substantiation. The Long War Journal quoted Pakistani sources (which is believed to be close to the US military because its owner, Bill Roggio, claims to have regularly embedded with US forces in Iraq) as saying that a "swarm" of predators launched ten missiles on the compound and the seminary which was under the control of Sirajuddin Haqqani. The blog said that the Haqqani network runs a "parallel government" in North Waziristan and that their area of influence and operation was eastern Afghanistan. It says that on March 12 this year the US military publicly acknowledged firing missiles from Afghanistan towards structures operated by the Haqqani network and that the casualties at that time had included Chechens. Just to get an idea of the sharp and sudden increase in such attacks from across the border inside Pakistan, in 2006 and 2007 combined, there were 10 such cross-border strikes. This year -- and there are around four months left -- there have been 14 such strikes and five since Aug 31. According to the blog, six safe houses have been hit in North Waziristan, six in South Waziristan, and two in Bajaur agency. The attack on the Haqqani compound was followed a couple of days later on the night between Sept 9 and 10 by retaliatory action from the Haqqani network on military bases in Miramshah. According to Geo TV and The Long War Journal (which quoted an unnamed US intelligence official) several dozen Taliban fighters launched these attacks in revenge for the deaths of Haqqani's immediate family members, including two of his three wives. Clearly the fact that the attack on the Haqqani compound happened on the event of Asif Ali Zardari assuming the presidency, and the upsurge in attacks in general occurred during the week leading to his election, the question arises whether some kind of tacit arrangement between the Americans and the PPP-led dispensation has been agreed upon. Of course, there are some who will accuse the PPP of selling out to the Americans -- a whispering campaign of sorts by the self-righteous, guided in all probability by some invisible hands, seems to have already been initiated saying that the remark by the new president on the Kashmir issue suggests that some sell-out could well be in the offing (by sellout the hawks usually mean acceptance of the Line of Control as the international border). In this context, one may well ask whether some kind of 'burn notice' has indeed been issued by the Pakistanis with regard to Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqqani and his network. A burn notice, according to its Wikipedia entry, is an official statement by one intelligence agency to other agencies that an individual or group affiliated with it or working for it may have become unreliable. It usually means that the intelligence agency issuing the 'burn notice', is in effect burning its boats with the asset in question and that the latter can no longer rely on the agency for protection and/or security. The
writer is Editorial Pages Editor of The News. Email:
omarq@cyber.net.pk
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Pakistan Air Force, including the top brass of the service, went down in the
mountainous region near Kohat, claiming the lives of all on board. The
tragedy was said to be one of the largest losses in terms of potential and
competence in the history of the armed forces of Pakistan. Many will remember
distinctly that the day after the tragedy was announced to be a day of
national mourning. As the Pakistan flag flew at half-mast on that sad day,
fluttering solemnity against the cool and somber February breeze, you could
feel that a chunk of possibility had been cruelly robbed from the nation's
future.
few of the nation's best minds may have breathed their last; but in the death
of one of them would rise a legacy of hope; hope that would serve as fuel for
the young flames of aspiration scattered across the country.
memorial trust seeks to provide financial help to deserving students who are
seeking to attain higher education.
thought will tell you all that is required is a little patience and the
future will come right round. But no, no one has the patience, since the
ancient Greeks who spent months and millions of drachmas to get to Delphi
where the Pythoness -- or Typhoness -- went into a trance and spewed out a
lot of gibberish which was supposed to contain the future -- if you could
uncode it!
security forces is being widely seen as an expression of mistrust by
Kashmiris over the ongoing composite dialogue between India and Pakistan.
eventually reaching the conclusion on empirical evidence. Pakistan,
specifically the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan, still fall far behind in
this area.
weeks, and this dozen include a full-fledged assault by US special forces on
an alleged militant compound in South Waziristan in which several people were
killed, including some foreigners. The attack by a US drone on a compound in
North Waziristan on what some newspapers said was Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqqani's
house and seminary killed at least 22 people. According to one report, over a
dozen of Haqqani's close relatives, including eight of his grand-children,
wife, sister-in-law and sister were killed in the missile attack.