India and Pakistan revived their stalled talks on nuclear CBMs on June 19, 2004, after a hiatus of almost four years and four months. These talks were held in accordance with the agreement reached between the Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan on February 18, 2004. The officials of both states discussed both pending issues and new developments in the subcontinent's strategic environment on June 19 and 20, 2004.The main objective of these talks was to build mutual trust that would reduce the nuclear related risks in South Asia. They discussed the possible ways and means for establishing and sustaining strategic stability, responsible stewardship, confidence building measures, crisis management and risk reduction measures in their hostile strategic environment.

The following study is an attempt to analyze the issues on which both sides agreed and also to discuss the implications of these agreements on the strategic environment of the sub-continent.

Nuclear Enigma & CBMs

The May 1998 nuclear tests have dramatically changed the South Asian strategic environment. Since then, the nuclear weapons have occupied center-stage in both India and Pakistan defence and security debates. The centrality of nuclear weapons in strategic discourse of India and Pakistan has brought a shift in the strategic thinking in the region and led many observers to believe that the South Asia is the most dangerous place on earth1. This assertion seems correct due to the risk of nuclear catastrophe. Its is generally viewed that an escalation from freedom movement in the Indian held Kashmir to conventional war and to nuclear exchanges is a plausibility. Chris Gange argued that “the risk of an accident leading to nuclear war would be particularly great in South Asia, where there would be almost no time to distinguish between a deliberate launch, an accident, or a false alarm”.2 In addition loose nuke or fissile materials falling into the wrong hands, command and control structures' problems, etc pose severe challenges to India and Pakistan securities. It seems that South Asia is exposed to nuclear Armageddon and Nuclear terrorism. Who is to blame for continued tensions between the two neighbours? There is enough literature available on this issue. The immediate problem is that how can the threat of nuclear catastrophe be avoided? In other words how to deal with nuclear weapons in the sub-continent?....more
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“Ask for my loyalty and I will give you my honesty.
Ask for my honesty and you will have my loyalty.”
Colonel John Boyd

Background Changing Nature of Warfare

Warfare over the centuries was waged to conquer and rule over other nations/races. The pattern changed after WWII and since the middle of the 20th century warfare as a means of empire building has become a thing of the past. Modern warfare is concerned more with political outcomes than with seizing and holding grounds. The imperative to take and hold territories almost as an end in itself was valid for the majority of the pre-21st century warfare and the concept retains considerable force even today but it is no longer the only key to success. While seizing and holding grounds might still be the primary objective of many military actions, the political objectives of modern conflicts are more about protecting or projecting nations' vital interests than with expanding a state's frontiers.

Before the advent of air power in the beginning of the last century, the nature and pattern of warfare had been comprehensively studied and documented for over two millennia. Air power offered a new dimension to the nature of warfare but its full potential was not immediately obvious. By the end of the 20th century, air power had become the dominant force in the modern battlefield and the challenges to harness its fundamental characteristics remains the subject of significant evolution to this day. Air power now holds the key to success or failure of modern military campaigns.....more
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“Pakistan Army's restructuring plan has been criticised by some local media circles”. Thus complained Major General Shaukat Sultan, Director General Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) at an elaborate briefing for Senior Media Personnel from all over the country at the Artillery Officers Mess, Rawalpindi to present them a detailed overview of the ongoing Wana operations to flush out the Al-Qaeda operatives from the region.

The DG ISPR is right. Quite a few local dailies interpreted the restructuring plan only as a move to withdraw the soldiers serving as batmen from the Army officers and JCOs, replacing them by a special cadre of civilians called Non-Combatant Bearers, enrolled for the purpose. However, most of the Indian media, on the other hand has been downright contemptuous in its analysis, quoting Defence sources. Some of them are reproduced below.

The Indian Express in its 29 April 2004 issue remarked: “Lt. Gen (retd.) Vijay Oberoi, former Vice Chief of Army Staff, feels that 'a large part of Pakistan Army is presently employed in the civil sector which Musharraf is trying to settle permanently.' Oberoi is quick to point out that a significant chunk of the Pakistan military machine is designated as para-military: 'They have the Mujahid battalions and the Rangers which are actually under their Defence ministry. Even during the Kargil War, Pakistan used the Northern Light Infantry which was then not a regular.' The original author of Indian Army's new war doctrine (Cold Start), Oberoi says Pakistan will not be in a position to reduce its combat troops. 'All operations on its borders are manpower-intensive.' While Defence officials in Islamabad maintained that the restructuring plan was aimed at maintaining minimum conventional and nuclear deterrence against India, Oberoi rules out Pakistan's nuclear stance as anything more than deterrence. Agrees Air Marshal (Retd.) Vinod Patney, former Vice Chief of Air Staff: 'Nuclear weapons are more as a threat or deterrence. But the nature of warfare has changed and downsizing and modernisation are essentially two sides of the same coin.'.....more
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Pakistan will be facing serious challenges regarding quality and quantity of water if the issue is not taken on an urgent basis. Hyderabad was one of the worst examples where water contamination claimed precious human lives, 50 dead and about 300 seriously affected, the activists feared occurrence of many such examples in future if the quality of drinking water was not taken seriously. water shortages in Sindh alone has destroyed 5,000 lakes, left one million unemployed and forced 100,000 families to migrate to other areas. And our lives and our economies are likely to bear serious brunts, if necessary steps are not taken in time. Water is a serious problem not only for Pakistan, but for the world also.

We all study in our school books that water covers three fourth of the earth, and this gives us an impression of the abundance of the water availability. We also see that water is continually being recycled through rain and evaporation and none of it leaves the planet's atmosphere, making us think of some kind of unending storage. Whereas, the total quantity of water on earth may remain the same, the portion which is fit for use by human beings is reducing everyday, leaving the future availability of potable water to unknown figures, a situation which might turn out to be more devastating than the threat of nuclear wars.

We can render water unusable for ourselves and for the planet. The growing scarcity of potable water stems from a variety of causes. Per capita water consumption is doubling every 20 years, more than twice the rate of human population growth, which itself is exploding. Technology and sanitation systems, particularly those in the wealthy industrialised nations, have encouraged people to use far more water than they need. Yet even with this increase in personal water use, households and municipalities account for only 10 percent of water use. Industry claims 20 to 25 percent of the world's fresh water supplies, and its demands are dramatically increasing. Many of the world's fastest growing industries are water intensive. For example.....more
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Protecting the life, honour, property and provision of law and order is the primary responsibility of the state. A responsibility in which this Government like all others before it has miserably failed. Creation of a people friendly efficient and corruption free police force capable of enforcing the writ of the state, strengthening rule of law and restoring the badly shattered confidence, faith and trust of the public in the criminal justice system has to be top priority of the government. The problems affecting the police are administratively multi-dimensional, institutional and political. The roots of the decay lie in the faulty infrastructure, poor quality of the intake. poor training, lack of modern equipment, lack of facilities, poor working conditions and absolutely unrealistically meagre wages. Police Order 2002 was drafted with great hue and cry and later promulgated on 14th August 2002. It was proclaimed by the drafters and the government as nothing less than a modern day Magna Charter that would transform the police in this country from a nineteenth century colonial law enforcement force into a modern day people friendly and efficient police force that would be answerable only to the law of land. It was supposed to safeguard the interests of the people instead of vested interests. The Police Order 2002 was an attempt to introduce a modern police system and contained a variety of people friendly provisions to check the arbitrary and whimsical authority of the executive and political interference and measures that ensured de-politicisation of police, effective oversight by the civil society, professionalism with de-concentration of powers at key operational levels and a credible accountability of police was not allowed to be implemented as the provinces dragged their feet and delayed the process . To make matters worse the inept, decrepit, doddering and capricious. Federal Government was not only unable to ensure its implementation but in order to appease and strengthen various power groups and vested interests of the inept ruling elite it buckled to their demands and have now proposed such amendments that the Police Order 2002 is hardly recognizable as it has been systematically subverted, corrupted, manipulated and weakened and destroyed by the very people at the helm of affairs who had introduced it. All these changes have been made naturally to the police subservient to the executive and the politicians. The Order stands compromised, as it has lost all impartial and independent system of accountability. According to the press reports the following amendments stand approved but are yet to be incorporated in the Police Order:....more
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The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) came into being on 25 September 1969 in the wake of Zionist attack on Al-Aqsa Mosque, perpetrated on 21 August 1969. After the attack the leaders of the Muslim countries gathered in Rabat, Morocco and unanimously decided to forge a platform from where they could speak with one voice in order to safeguard the interests of the Muslim world. The OIC was initially formed with a single point agenda - to liberate Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa from the Zionist occupation, but gradually it was transformed into a political alliance, meant to tackle the challenges facing the Muslim world. The critics are, nevertheless, unanimous on the point that the OIC has miserably failed to address all issues, the Muslim world is confronted with, including Palestine and Kashmir.

I had the opportunity to participate, as an observer, in a symposium, organised by the Centre for Strategic Research, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Turkey, few days ago. The symposium was primarily a show the think-tank of the member states, which had gathered to finalise recommendations, ahead of OIC Foreign Ministers summit, held in Istanbul from June 14-16. There I had the chance to study, in depth, the working and worth of the OIC and its future role in the resolution of the outstanding issues.

The OIC, in my view, has not yet taken a start as a dynamic, vibrant and effective outfit, as envisaged in its charter. The organisation has completed 34 years of its existence but it has failed to be a panacea for all problems Muslim world is facing these days. The reasons of failure of OIC are multi-faceted, leadership and identity crises being at the top. If one simply compares the preamble of the UN charter with that of OIC, it will become evident that OIC is there to serve only the interests of the governments and states and people have no say in its affairs. The preamble of the UN charters begins with the phrases “We the peoples of the United Nations”, while the preamble of the OIC reads, ”We the representatives of the following states”......more
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The difference between humans and other animals is only of consciousness. Humans are conscious beings while the animals live only by instinct. The equation, therefore, signifies that the intrinsic value of a human being corresponds to the level of consciousness acquired. The entire malady of the so-called third world people resides in the low level of awareness prevalent among these people. Those countries with the Third World label who accorded the right priority to the field of education at the right point of time have left their malady far behind. The South East Asian countries are a case in point. It is so deplorable to admit that, since our independence, there has been deterioration rather than any forward movement in achieving the goal of quality education or the literacy index of the people of Pakistan. To ascertain the causes of our inertia in so vital a field of national interest and to identify the areas where we have gone wrong, we have to first trace the definition, history and philosophy of education and then look for the measures to bring our education endeavour on track.

The definition of education as stipulated in encyclopedia is: “The field of inquiry, speculation and application in which philosophical methods are applied to the study of a problem, topic or issue is education. Characteristic of these methods is the attempt to think as accurately, clearly, coherently, and systemically as possible.

Education can be thought of as the transmission of the values and accumulated knowledge of a society. In this sense, it is equivalent to what social scientists term socialization or enculturation. Children-whether conceived among New Guinea tribes people, the Renaissance Florentines, or the middle classes of Manhattan-are born without culture. Education is designed to guide them in learning a culture, moulding their behaviour in the ways of adulthood, and directing them toward their eventual role in society.....more
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The Objectives Resolution passed by the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan in March, 1949, was made a substantive part of the Constitution of Pakistan by P.O (Presidential Order). No.14 of 1985, Art.2 and Sch.item 2 (with effect from March 2, 1985). It apart from having many highly laudable, far reaching and significantly democratic clauses has the following article as well:

Wherein the Muslims shall be enabled to order their lives in the individual and collective spheres in accordance with the teachings and requirements of Islam as set out in the Holy Quran and the Sunnah; which has been grossly misconstrued and has somewhat changed the complexion of the type of the constitution and consequently the type of the government that should govern the country. Though it has been many a time amply clarified that, “No law repugnant to Qura'n and Sunnah will be incorporated by the parliament”, yet it stays short of satisfying the religious parties' leaders (fundamentalists and obscurantist) who insist that, “Only Qura'n and Sunnah will be implemented in Pakistan”. Not only that, on the top of it they also insist upon their interpretation of the Qura'nic injunctions and Sunnah on discussable matters. They invariably, come up with the argument that Pakistan was created in the name of Islam and for the enforcement of Islamic Shariat.

An effort is, therefore, made here to give the correct perspective for the creation of Pakistan and what kind of Islamic values and socio-economic systems its founding fathers had visualised.

Pakistan was NOT created for Islam, but for the Muslims of the Sub-continent. Islam was never in danger in the pre-partitioned India. As a matter of fact Islam was (and probably still is) in Deoband, Breilley, Lucknow (for the Shia) and Qadian (for Ahmedis). Akora, Okara, Mansoora, Karachi, Satellite Town Rawalpindi, Rabwah (Chanab Nagar), not any one of them has not been able to attain the stature of their pre-partitioned alma-maters.....more
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“The true test of civilisation is, not the census, nor the size of the cities, nor the crops, but the kind of man that the country; turns out.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson on Civilisation.

There is no doubt that the grotesque photographs of Abu Ghraib prison have caused outrage throughout the world. The world seems to be 'shocked' by the American behaviour with the Iraqi prisoners. Is it so shocking? Why have people forgotten history? Don't they know what are the foundations of American culture and civilisation? Doesn't the world know that America is a country in which the fantasies and practice of violence are seen as good entertainment or fun? Have the Americans for the first time humiliated and degraded humanity? The answer is simply 'NO'.

Lets go back to the 16th century. This was the time when the British sent all the criminals, murderers and looters to the newly found continent called America. What these criminals did to the Red Indians isn't hidden from anyone. Not only was their land including the goldmines taken away but they were humiliated in every way. This was the very first act of human degradation and abuse in a continent which later came to be known as America. There was still more to come in the shape of African slave trading. The Africans were loaded like animals in ships from African ports to be sold and traded for life in America. The scars of these years are still afresh among the Afro-Americans.

When these British criminal immigrants acquired power they revolted against the British Empire to gain independence. The war of independence resulted in a lot of bloodshed and loss of human lives, with the result that the United States of America came into existence. Today, the so-called 'liberators', 'custodians of democracy' and 'upholders of rule of law' are the product of a continent which owes its very existence to human bloodshed, torture, slave trading, looting, human corruption, violence, plundering, rape, murder and lawlessness.

What does President Bush mean when he stated that, ' the Iraqi prison abuse was the wrongdoing of a few.'? Does he mean that those 'few' weren't part and parcel of the system he comes from? Or was he trying to play down the extent of wrongdoing? Whatever the President meant, one thing has become clear that those 'few' were a product of a very 'sick' society. The claim that the abuse was 'un-American' does little to mitigate the damage that it has done as it perfectly plays to stereotypes of morally decadent Americans. It has been proven that the Bush administration knew of these improprieties months ago. Why wasn't anything done about them?....more
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Introduction

On the 1st of May 2004, ten countries entered the European Union, bringing the number of its members to 25, the population of the bloc to over 450 million and its economy to $11.6 trillion1. However, the Union had much humbler beginnings when in 1951, the European Coal and Steel Community was created with Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg as its members. The European Coal and Steel Community later became the European Economic Community and in 1973 accepted Britain, Denmark and Ireland as its members. In 1981, Greece and in 1986 Portugal and Spain entered the EEC. In 1991, through the Maastricht treaty, the EEC was transformed into the European Union. In 1993, the Treaty on European Union came into effect and the EU was officially established. Finally, Austria, Finland and Sweden became European Union members in 1995. In May 2004, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and the Slovak Republic became members in the largest enlargement in the European Union's history.

The EU's eastward expansion began in December 1991 when the EU signed Europe Agreements with Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Negotiations for the entry of Hungary, Poland, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Cyprus into the EU began in March 1998. In December 1999, at the Helsinki summit, the EU also started membership negotiations with Romania, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Malta. The Nice Treaty, signed in February 2001, created a framework for the enlargement of the EU. In December 2002, after the ratification of the treaty of Nice by all 15 EU members, ten states were officially invited to join the EU at the Copenhagen summit. On the 16th of April 2003, the leaders of the EU member and candidate states signed the accession treaty at Athens. The treaty was then ratified by the parliaments of all 25 states and by the European Parliament. After receiving parliamentary approval, the treaty was put before the people in national referenda in all acceding states with the exception of Cyprus.....more
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The subject of violence is a familiar topic to the Pakistani public today, as it is to the Palestinian, Iraqi, Afghani, or American public. A greater preoccupation with violence may be observed throughout the world. There is apprehension regarding the overall rate of crime, including those offences, which involve personal violence. Moreover, the public is generally unhappy with the criminal justice system and law enforcement agencies (the 'government' in popular parlance). It is indeed a fact that violence at domestic as well as at international level is increasing at a rate that defies logic. Something is amiss - the right attitude and the proper perspective.

Let us be honest. We habitually blame 'government' every time a thing goes wrong. It is a word that has been ignorantly semantically modified to include almost every institution, all activity that goes on around us. If we have more accidents, it is the negligence of government. If we have episodes of sectarian or ethnic killings, only the government is responsible. In addition, if terrorists who thwart our peace, even that is because of government's inefficiency. It hardly needs to be pointed out that in most of the cases we are ourselves responsible. This cannot go on any longer. We must either accept that we are not being true to what the situation demands, or wait for this ceaseless plague to prosper to such proportions that we shall find it difficult to control the menace.

For the sake of simplicity, let us call all the events that involve crime a violence of some sort, sometimes against individuals, and sometimes against society. Crimes are acts that pose a threat to society; criminals people who commit such acts. All acts of violence are perpetrated by those who, like cunning economists, calculate the advantages accruing from it. While they may be excellent economists, they are certainly bad human beings. A person commits a crime as a rational economic choice. If the gains through criminal activity exceed the gains through other resources, he will commit the criminal act. Increasing the cost of criminal activity by making apprehension and conviction more likely can significantly decrease its rate.....more
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