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The
Queen is Dead
Columnist
FAZAL HABIB CURMALLY dwells on the politics of Dynasties,
Sardars and Nawabs, and hopes that a new group of
thinking Pakistani politicians will emerge to serve
this country, instead of themselves.
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“Because it is recognized at
this moment of crisis the party needed a close association
with my mother through a blood line——”
Bilalwal Bhutto-Zardari - London 8th January 2008.
Pakistan is essentially an agricultural country. Bulk
of Pakistan’s population live by exploiting
the land capable of agriculture, in other words anything
that is based on land holding. This way of life has
been transplanted into the urban centers because when
Pakistan was created, it had a very small but not
powerful urban population, that was both vocal and
wielded a modicum of power. With population migrations,
they were soon outnumbered and disappeared into the
background. An interesting example is the city of
Karachi which had a population of around 250,000 at
the time of Partition. In 1936 Karachi boasted of
30 odd automobiles. The city’s claim to fame
was that it was the western most port in British India.....more
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 Bemoaning
Benazir
Columnist
Dr S M RAHMAN mourns the loss of Ms Benazir Bhutto
and takes a brief look at former military rulers of
Pakistan.
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Benazir was not an ordinary mortal. Both in life
as well as her death, she maintained the grace and
dignity and demonstrated to what heights humans can
rise to leave a legacy, which lends pride to a nation.
The fact that she is rated the second woman only to
Hillary Clinton, the prospective female leader of
the most powerful nation of the world – USA
- is itself a great recognition to her well-rounded
qualities. That she was the first Muslim woman to
become the Prime Minister of a country is again a
great achievement. She was elected twice as the popular
leader of Pakistan, and had she not been eliminated,
through dastardly death, she was bound to emerge as
the leader of crisis to extricate the nation from
the lingering shadow of dictatorial rule that has
sapped the morale of the people and created a climate
of diffidence that perhaps the country’s political
culture is beyond repair. Her return to Pakistan and
the massive crowd that came to welcome her is a testimony
to the rekindling of the hope that some flickering
light is still there and the sixty years’ excruciating
national trauma will at least recede to bring into
focus that Pakistan will actualize into what it was
destined to be, as per vision of the founder of the
nation. I am reminded of a couplet of Faiz:.....more
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Nuclear
weapons’ safety
Columnist Gp Capt (Retd) SM HALI illustrates the long
list of US nuclear accidents since 1944.
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Pakistan’s
nuclear weapons program has been suspect ever since
its inception. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s resolve
to go nuclear after the Indian atomic tests at Pokhran
in 1974 was shrouded in secrecy but the baton passed
from one government to another despite their diverse
political dispositions. Pakistan was forced to cross
the nuclear threshold in 1998 in tit for tat tests,
forced by Indian saber rattling after their own
tests. The west however, has alternately been critical
of Pakistan’s nuclear program or chosen to
look the other way, depending on Pakistan’s
efficacy to the plans of the west in the region.
In the early eighties, USA turned a blind eye to
Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program to solicit
its support to check the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s fortunes waned with the Soviet
retreat, and the infamous Pressler Amendment was
slapped on Pakistan in 1991. After 9/11, when the
USA needed Pakistan’s support to launch an
invasion of Afghanistan, all was forgiven and forgotten.With
the war against terror in Afghanistan going awry,
the pressure against Pakistan began to mount. The
Al-Qaeda and Taliban seeking recluse close to the
Pak-Afghan border and the political turmoil in Pakistan
caused the west to mount pressure on Pakistan’s
nuclear weapons’ programme. In the last nine
months, disapproval has been heard from western
leadership along with US Presidential candidates
and the western media being outright critical, expressing
fears and painting doomsday scenario of Pakistan’s
nuclear weapons falling in the hands of religious
fanatics........more
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Security
of Pakistan's Nuclear Assets
Contributing Editor Air Marshal
(Retd) AYAZ AHMED KHAN allays international apprehensions
about Pakistan's nuclear assets falling into wrong
hands.
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US
media has been publishing doomsday scenarios about
Pakistan’s nuclear assets falling into the hands
of terrorists. It is said that “Pakistan’s
military enjoys the strongest ties with the US government,
but the partnership is suffering as anti-military
and anti-American sentiment in Pakistan fuels an Islamic
insurgency that continues to capture new territory.”
What kind of territory? Newsweek issue of October
29, 227 with a picture of Taliban on the front page,
chanting anti-American slogans, and a caption that,
“The most dangerous nation in the world isn’t
Iraq, its Pakistan”, has sent jitters across
America, Europe and rest of the developed world. The
world is worried about Pakistan’s nuclear weapons
falling into the hands of Al-Qaeda, Taliban terrorists
or extremist Mullahs. An article by Peter Wonacott
in the Wall Street Journal dated Thursday November
29, 2007 titled “Inside Pakistan’s Drive
to Guard its Atom Bombs”, should be of very
special interest to the reading public, politicians,
rulers and military officers, because, it brushes
aside doubts about Pakistan’s ability to safe-guard
its nuclear assets, while cynically observing that
Pakistan’s nuclear scientists grow long beards,
pray five times a day, and sympathize and vote for
Islamic parties and politicians....more
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Terrorism:
Beyond Condemnation!
Columnist
Brig (Retd) AFTAB AHMAD KHAN.
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Terrorism
has become an uncontrollable threat, weakening
the foundations of this country. The cowardly
act of assassination of Benazir Bhutto is the
latest heinous work. Although all leaders and
media condemn acts of terrorism, especially
suicide bombings, but there is a need to do
something more than mere condemnation. The main
motivational factor to prepare the suicide bomber
is the brainwashing of simple people through
religious indoctrination. The ordinary ignorant
Muslims are prepared to be martyrs in Jihad
that is claimed to be conducted for the cause
of Allah. There are many questions which need
to be emphasized by the scholars through the
media, especially the print and electronic media,
in the language of potential suicide bombers
(Pushto, Punjabi, Urdu) like What is Jihad?
What is the cause of Allah? Who is competent
to organize and declare Jihad? How it is to
be conducted? What are the rules laid down by
Qur’an and Hadith for conduct of Jihad?
What is the role of government of an Islamic
Republic in this regards?.......more
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Pakistani
Democratization
Is Turkey A Model?
Columnist
MUZAFFAR K AWAN looks at Turkey as a model for democratization
in Pakistan.
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Democratic core
values, ideological openness, freedom of conscience,
compassion even for those who are different (pluralism),
as well as the capacity to tolerate those who remain
intolerant: these pillars of the modern social order
will not stand unless exactly equivalent pillars are
erected to reform- and thus secure-the institutions
of traditional faith. Faith and social order are inseparable-that
should come as no surprise to anyone who shares a
common belief that the Creator is inseparable from
his creation. True Islamic faith is certainly compatible
with democratic values. The Muslim reformers have
a great resource in the Islamic tradition of Covivencia
that even for the West, was the very incubator of
tolerance— both political as well as religious.
The classical Islamic notion of justice (‘adala)
as a hierarchical order implemented by a ruler in
order to avoid social chaos overlaps with modern liberal
rights-based conceptions of justice. In my own characterization,
modern culture is a rights-based culture, whereas
pre-modern or religious culture was duty- or obligation-based.
It does not mean that these two are totally at loggerheads,
but the emphasis is different. Modern man is seen
as freed from the bondage of religion, and as having
exiled God to the remote heavens; but he is very close
to a morally deterring kind of egoism. In the religious
atmosphere, we are supposed to be more humble and
conscious of our obligations. Now can duty- and rights-based
views be reconciled?.......more
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Political
Developments
of Pakistan (1999-2007)
Columnist
Taqueer H Taki Sirgana takes a critical look of political
developments in the country since Oct 1999.
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To understand the
internal dynamics of Pakistani politics one should
have some insight on the archive of political developments
during General Musharraf’s period of rule
both as a military and a civilian (ruler). By reading
the upcoming paragraphs one can easily smell the
taste of political surprises. Surprise is a familiar
phenomena in the history of statecraft, and the
constant companion of the statesman. In the fluid
and dangerous realm of contemporary world affairs,
military governments are more concerned than ever
about their vulnerability to surprise. Their rate
of return on these outlays is less than ideal; ‘Generals’
periodically find themselves caught in situations
they did not adequately anticipate, where the consequences
of having failed to do so are quite nasty. Since
the last eight years of military rule in Pakistan,
it seems appropriate that the political surprises
would be a prominent target of analysis and research,
regardless of when, why, and how it occurs.......more
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Global
food prices and its
socio-economic implications
for Pakistan
Columnist
SHAZIA MEHMOOD KHAN underlines the implications of
the rising prices of food items.
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The price of food,
the basic necessity of life, is on the rise. Alarm
is growing about rising food prices throughout the
world and Pakistan is not an exemption. In Europe
and America food accounts for only about one-tenth
of the consumer-price index which is constantly
on the rise. Inflation in food prices in emerging
markets nearly doubled in 2006 to 11%; meat and
egg prices in China have gone up by almost 50%.
In the case of Pakistan inflation remained almost
double digit. The United Nations’ Food and
Agricultural Organization (December 2007) says the
global cost of imported food will rise to $745 billion
in the current fiscal year, the highest level on
record. Food prices have led to 18 percent rise
in China, 13 percent in Indonesia, 11.5 percent
in Pakistan, and 10 percent or more in Latin America
The price of wheat, maize, corn and other commodities
that make up the world’s basic foodstuffs
is seriously hurting the poorest people in the poorest
countries the most. It is estimated that throughout
the world, food costs increased by more than 50%
over the past five years. According to World Food
Organization (December 2007) the food prices may
increase by another 35% in the next two years. Countries
around the world will have to pay 21 percent more
for imported food this year than they did a year
ago......more
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