Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Who else will speak up for the Muslim Community Center in New York?

http://www.groundzerodialogue.org/
Who Else Will Speak Up?
New York Times Editorial, August 31, 2010

The hate-filled signs carried recently by protesters trying to halt plans to build an Islamic center and mosque in Lower Manhattan were chilling. We were cheered to see people willing to challenge their taunts and champion tolerance and the First Amendment. But opportunistic politicians are continuing to foment this noxious anger. It is a dangerous pursuit.

Already New Yorkers have seen a troubled young man slash a Muslim taxi driver with a knife. A zealot in Florida is threatening to burn a stack of Korans on the anniversary of Sept. 11. Where does this end?

The country needs strong and sane voices to push back against the hatred and irrational fears. President Obama made a passionate defense of the mosque, but only once. Most Democratic politicians are ducking. So far, the leader with the courage to make the case repeatedly is Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

He has said firmly that the developers have a right to build and that New York needs a powerful memorial to those who died, surrounded by a living city. He has rejected efforts to move the mosque, noting that for opponents no distance will be far enough. At a Ramadan iftar dinner last week, Mr. Bloomberg declared that “Islam did not attack the World Trade Center — Al Qaeda did.”

Later, the mayor invited the wounded taxi driver, Ahmed Sharif, to City Hall. Then he went on “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” to remind non-New Yorkers that “there’s already another mosque down there within four blocks of the World Trade Center. There’s porno places; there’s fast-food places. It’s a vibrant community. It’s New York.” Surely, Mr. Bloomberg isn’t the only politician left out there with courage and good sense.

Related:
Sen. Orrin Hatch: ‘I’d Be The First To Stand Up For Their Rights’ To Build A Mosque Near Ground Zero - Thinkprogress.com
Maddow: Islamic Center Opponents Could Be Stoking Anti-Muslim Attacks - Huffington Post
Ground Zero Muslim center may get public financing - Reuters

Saturday, August 28, 2010

For Flood Relief: Support Imran Khan Foundation


To Donate, Click here



The Imran Khan Foundation is a nonprofit corporation and a registered tax-exempt public charity under section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service.

Our EIN # is 20-3770042

Your contribution today to The Imran Khan Foundation is tax deductible in the US to the full extent as permitted by law

For other channels to support flood relief, click here, here and here
Preparing Your Relief Contribution for Flood Victims: Some Helpful Tips - Pakistaniat.com
Amid Floods, Bigger Tests Loom for Pakistan's Government - Asia Society

Friday, August 27, 2010

Militants on the move in Pakistan?

Militants on the move in Pakistan?
By Farhana Qazi, AfPak Channel, Foreign Policy, August 27, 2010

Militants in Pakistan have a limited track record of providing aid to refugees in times of crisis. Amid the country's most recent human tragedy, its flood disaster, militant groups or affiliates are allegedly offering social services and relief in affected areas, generating concern that aid will translate into long-term support for these organizations. But while no substantial evidence exists to suggest that militants will seize control in Pakistan, fear inside Washington among experts and policymakers suggest that terrorists' might seize the country's tribal areas-a concern that would turn back the clock on U.S.-Pakistani counter-terrorism efforts.
For complete article, click here
Related:
US aid chief warned of threat at Pakistan camp - Reuters
Pakistan floods: Pakistani Taliban threats don't deter foreign aid workers - Chreistian Science Monitor
Can Pakistan learn from Katrina? - Express Tribune Blog

Pakistan, Drowning in Neglect

Graph Source: New York Times - aug 27, 2010

Pakistan, Drowning in Neglect
Ali Sethi, New York Times, August 25, 2010

THE old man was sitting on his string bed. But it was upside down; its finely rounded legs were pointing to the sky, and the knotted ropes strung across its wooden frame were wet. Underneath it were several plastic drums — once used for storing diesel fuel — that had been emptied out and tied to it for buoyancy. The makeshift raft was bobbing up and down, and the man sitting on it had his legs in the yellow-brown water, which stretched around him for miles and miles like a strange sea, the tops of faraway trees sticking out of it like little islands.

“Hold it like that for five more minutes!” cried the cameraman.
I had accompanied a TV crew to this submerged village in the western Pakistani province of Baluchistan. The floodwater had dissolved the villagers’ mud houses, turned the rice fields they tilled into a lake and the road above into an embankment.

The villagers acted quickly: they set up temporary homes along the embankment, with two upright string beds for walls and a third thrown atop them like a roof. But the slits between the strings exposed the makeshift roofs, so the villagers filled these with the twisting branches of the ak plant, a kind of milkweed the women had plucked from the banks of a nearby canal. The plant’s tendrils now hung from their ceilings like flimsy chandeliers, with bees and flies dancing around the rotting bulbs.

“As you can see,” said the young reporter with the microphone in his hand, frowning at the camera in the harsh afternoon light, “these people have been living like this for three whole weeks.” His testimony was sent via satellite to the channel’s headquarters some 500 miles to the northeast in Lahore, and was airing live in the big cities and towns of Pakistan.

For complete article, click here
Related:
Pakistan Flood Sets Back Infrastructure by Years - NYT
Hassan Abbas Discusses Pakistan Flooding: Taking Stock - Bloomberg Radio
U.S. businesses urge trade help for flooded Pakistan - Reuters
One million flee south Pakistan - Aljazeera
Pakistan's Growing Pains - Asia Society Blog

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

'Institutional radicalisation of public schools'

VIEW: Institutional radicalisation of public schools
Ali K Chishti, Daily Times, August 25, 2010

There are millions of ‘non-state actors’ whose handlers could prod them into doing anything by evoking emotions through misquoting Quranic verses

“Hindu pundits were jealous of Al-Beruni” (Social Studies, Class VIII, Punjab Textbook Board, page 82). Another textbook reads, “The Hindus who had always been opportunists” (Social Studies, Class VI, Punjab Textbook Board, page 141). Still another reads, “The Hindus had always been an enemy of Islam.” (Urdu, Class V, Punjab Textbook Board, page 108). An e-mail I got from a Pakistani Hindu friend asked me what did they do to deserve this treatment. I had no answers. It is probably a classical example of our state’s deterioration because of its relentless pursuit of a destructive foreign policy agenda, and also abdicating its role in education to the jihadi organisations. Worse, whatever little education the state provides is not much better than what is being provided by the madrassas or by a school system like Al-Dawa (run by Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT)) in terms of producing enlightened citizens. One, therefore, does not need a very active imagination to figure out the direction in which the country is headed. In fact, schools like those run by Jamaat-ud-Dawa (a new name for LeT), which received Punjab government’s funding of Rs 30million, systematically replaced the mainstream curriculum. Now Allah instead of anar (pomegranate) is used to teach the sound of the Urdu alphabet letter alif; bandooq (gun) instead of bakri (goat) for bey and jihad instead of jahaz (ship) for jeem. These jehadi public schools manufacturing Kasabs and Shezad Tanvirs who, when asked about their identity, class themselves as Muslims first and Pakistani afterwards. There are millions of ‘non-state actors’ whose handlers could prod them into doing anything by evoking emotions through misquoting Quranic verses.

For complete article, click here

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Mulla Omar's new constitution

Mulla Omar's new constitution

S Iftikhar Murshed
The News, August 22, 2010

The Quran exhorts Muslims: "O you who have attained to faith! Why do you say one thing and do another? Most loathsome is it in the sight of God that you say what you do not do!" The timeless implications of this passage from the Holy Scripture is also relevant in the context of the promises made in the new constitution promulgated by Mulla Omar who professes to be the supreme leader of the Afghan Taliban.

The Aug 3, 2010 issue of the Quetta-based newspaper, Azadi, carried details of the 35-page document which contains 14 chapters and 85 clauses. Omar's constitution emphasises that jihad should be strictly in accordance with God's command and the sunnah (Traditions) and every mujahid should win a place in the hearts of the people. Three days later, Afghan police discovered the bodies of 10 unarmed medical aid workers who were killed in the northern province of Badakshan. Six of the slain men and women were foreign volunteers who had travelled half way across the globe to provide medical care to impoverished Afghan villagers. The Taliban proudly claimed responsibility.

Another clause in the new constitution cites the sharia and enjoins humane treatment of captured Afghan and foreign troops. It emphasises that the "cutting of ears, noses and lips is strictly forbidden." Despite this, the mutilated remains of two US marines taken prisoner in Logar province by the Taliban on July 23, 2010 were recovered five days later by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.

The constitution stipulates that alleged informers and spies should not even be arrested unless they are first made aware of Islamic teachings, warned and given the opportunity to repent. Yet a few weeks earlier, a 7-year-old boy was hung on charges of spying. In July this year international media outlets reported that Mulla Omar had ordered his troops to kill or capture Afghan civilians, including women, who cooperate with ISAF.

There have been scores of similar incidents in the guise of jihad. Afghanistan bleeds but Pakistan bleeds no less. More people have died in Pakistan because of terrorist acts, perpetrated by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its supporters, in 2009 than in Afghanistan. Statistics compiled by the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies reveal that 3,021 people were killed and 7,334 were injured in 2,586 terrorist attacks which included 87 suicide bombings. The tally for Afghanistan, according to a UN report, was 2,412 civilian deaths.

For complete article, click here

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Help Pakistan before its too late

Click here to support IRC
Editorial: Some Help for Pakistan
New York Times, August 20, 2010
 
Pakistan needs more help now and will need much more in the weeks and months ahead. This week the world — finally — began waking up to the devastation wrought by monsoon flooding that has already affected 20 million people.

The United States and the United Nations deserve credit for raising the alarm and twisting arms. At a special General Assembly session Thursday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton pledged to increase American aid by $60 million, to $150 million, and she pressed other nations to do their share. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced that donors had so far contributed $230 million, or about 60 percent of the United Nations’ appeal for disaster relief — up from less than 50 percent a few days earlier.




The rest needs to be sent, swiftly. The European Union has increased its pledge to about $90 million, but needs to do more. So do Islamic nations. Saudi Arabia has pledged more than $110 million, mostly in donated goods, and Sudan and the Qatar Red Crescent are airlifting relief supplies. But other countries are writing meager checks. Given the disaster’s scale, the $10 million from Kuwait and the $5 million promised Friday by the United Arab Emirates hardly even qualify as symbolic.

China, Pakistan’s longtime ally and the world’s second-largest economy, has pledged about $9 million in supplies and cash, a pittance. Pakistan’s longtime rival India — $5 million — needs to fully step up, too, and Pakistan needs to accept India’s help.

There is no time to waste: The floodwaters are moving and the monsoon season will not end for weeks.

In 20 percent of Pakistan, the very web of society — people, homes, crops, livestock, roads, bridges — has been swept away. When the immediate crisis ebbs, all that will remain will be hunger, stagnant water, disease and the threat of chaos, which extremist groups will gladly exploit.

One group of especially vulnerable survivors is Afghan refugees; more than 1.5 million were driven across the border by the war into now flood-stricken areas. The Pakistani government must give them the same support and protection as Pakistani citizens.

Depending on what happens, this disaster could strengthen or severely weaken Pakistan’s dangerously weak civilian government. It could also improve this country’s standing among Pakistanis or make them even more skeptical or hostile. We are not sure which way this will go. We are sure that nothing good will happen — for Pakistan’s people or for the fight against extremists — unless the world rallies to Pakistan’s aid.

Related:
Floodwaters threaten city of half-million in Pakistan - By the CNN Wire Staff, August 21, 2010
Babies suffer in Pakistan flood disaster camps - CNN
IMF to review 'massive challenge' of flood-hit Pakistan - BBC
Experience Isn’t Enough in Pakistan’s Punjab Flood Plain - NYT
Pakistan floods are a 'slow-motion tsunami' - Ban Ki-moon - Guardian
Why Doesn't the World Care About Pakistanis? - Mosharraf Zaidi, Foreign Policy
 
To do your part in helping the Pakistani people displaced because of the recent flash flooding, click here and here

'Burn Quran Day' an outrage to Muslims

'Burn Quran Day' an outrage to Muslims
By Akbar Ahmed, Special to CNN, August 20, 2010

Editor's note: Akbar Ahmed is professor and Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University in Washington. He is author of "Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam," Brookings Press 2010.

(CNN) -- In less than a month, Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center in Florida plans to host "Burn a Quran Day" to mark the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

The pastor, author of the book "Islam is of the Devil," is using the burning to urge American Christians to "stand up" to what he describes as a monolithic Muslim threat. A Facebook page for the event has accrued thousands of "likes" and Jones has said people have been mailing him Qurans to burn.

As a Muslim scholar, an adherent of one of the Abrahamic faiths -- Judaism, Christianity and Islam -- and as someone committed to interfaith understanding, I urge Jones to cancel this event. Not only are the actions of Jones contrary to the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, but they are also against the ideals of the American Founding Fathers.
The planned burning has already caused alarm in the Muslim world, with the pre-eminent Sunni university, Al-Azhar in Cairo, Egypt, condemning it as "stirring up hate and discrimination."

At a recent dinner in Washington, a host for one of Pakistan's top TV channels confided in me that he "didn't dare" report the story because if he did, "not a single American would be safe in Pakistan." He and the cameraman were quivering with anger as they asked me to explain why Americans hated Islam.

I tried my best to explain this was not the case, but Jones' burning will have great symbolic significance to a Muslim world already feeling under attack by the United States. It will cause undue harm to U.S. relations with the Muslim world and particularly the war effort.

For complete article, click here

Monday, August 16, 2010

Pakistan Flood Update: Political Will, International Image and Capacity Issues


Political forces join hands in disaster management
The News, August 17, 2010

ISLAMABAD: The top political leadership of the country joined hands on Saturday to cope with the worst ever floods in the country and agreed on setting up a body to raise funds for the rehabilitation of flood victims.
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and Pakistam Muslim League-N (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif, while addressing a joint press conference after a meeting here at the PM House, expressed deep shock and grief over the wide scale devastation that displaced around 20 million people and caused losses of billions.

The two leaders expressed the resolve to work together for the rehabilitation of the flood-affected people. Prime Minister Gilani said he also telephoned Asfandyar Wali of Awami National Party (ANP) and would continue to contact other leaders to gain their support for a national cause.

"The calamity demands of us that all political parties rise above their differences to jointly cope with the disaster," Gilani said.

He said the government has decided to set up a body to transparently collect and disburse the funds amongst the provinces judiciously, as per the damage assessment.

The prime minister said the members and details of the new body would be announced in a few days and would have the credibility and trust of the entire nation.

Gilani said the members of the new body have not yet been finalized, but amongst those on the list could be Rana Baghwan Das, Fakharuddin G Ibrahim, Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid etc.

For complete article, click here
Related:
Millions of Pakistan children at risk of flood diseases - BBC
Poor image hurts Pakistan funds appeal - Sydney Morning Herald
India ready to give more aid but Pak silent - Times of India
Last Chance for Pakistan by Ahmed Rashid - New York Review of Books
Floods in Pakistan - institutional failures - Express Tribune

For sending aid to Pakistan for flood affectees, consider the organizations linked here and here

Friday, August 13, 2010

Zero tolerance and Cordoba House By Basharat Peer

Zero tolerance and Cordoba House
By Basharat Peer, Financial Times, August 13 2010

On the evening of July 27, a mild sun shone on the elegant and imposing New York City Hall building in Manhattan. Commuters headed underground to subways departing for outer boroughs and bedroom suburbs. In a dance studio adjacent to City Hall, a Korean-American boy practised physics-defying moves with a Mexican-American girl. A short flight of stairs up, a few hundred people had gathered in an auditorium for a public meeting of the Lower Manhattan Community Board. The meeting was supposed to be one of the city’s regular exercises in local representation, where people can raise with board members issues that concern them. Citizens spoke about walking tours, extending bus routes, hospitals … and then a man from the audience shouted: “What about the mosque!” In an instant the auditorium was charged with angry shouts of “No mosque! No mosque at Ground Zero!”

A shrill debate about religious freedom, limits of tolerance and the meaning of 9/11 has been raging for the past two months in the US around the plans of a New York imam, Abdul Faisal Rauf, and a developer, Sharif Gamal, to build a 13-floor Islamic centre with a prayer space, three blocks from Ground Zero. Supporters say the Cordoba House project will be a venue for reconciliation between Islam and the west, delivering a powerful rebuttal to the al-Qaeda terrorists who attacked the trade towers; opponents call it an offence to the memory of those who died in 2001. New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, a group named 9/11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, and several interfaith leaders from New York churches and synagogues are among those who want to see the centre built. Lined up against them are the leaders of Tea Party Express, Republicans such as Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich, rightwing bloggers and some families of 9/11 victims.
At the public meeting, the crowd continued to chant, “No mosque at Ground Zero!” as a speaker, Helen Friedman, took to the podium and held up a card: “Unmask the Mosque!” She described herself as belonging to a group called Americans for a Safe Israel and, to more cheers and claps, said: “This mosque is a Trojan horse. Remember that too came as a gift. We are letting the enemy inside the gates!” Friedman was followed by New York State Senator Daniel Squadron, who concentrated on other local issues. Then someone asked him what he thought about the Islamic centre. “We are an open, diverse community – and no community shall be prohibited from being in lower Manhattan,” he replied. He was jeered.

For complete article, click here
Related:
Islamophobia and the 'Ground Zero Mosque' Debate - TIME
NBC, CBS refuse ground zero mosque ad - POLITICO
Fareed Zakaria's Letter to the ADL - Newsweek
Ground Zero mosque plans 'fuelling anti-Muslim protests across US' - Guardian
Ground Zero Mosque and NYU Co-Host Start of Ramadan - DNAinfo

Updates:
Obama throws support behind controversial Islamic center - CNN

What explains the tight-fisted response to the Pakistan floods

What explains the tight-fisted response to the Pakistan floods
The steady drip of negative 'terror'-obsessed media coverage has done Pakistanis a great disservice
Catriona Luke guardian.co.uk, Friday 13 August 2010

Compare and contrast: within days of the 2004 tsunami, £100m had poured into Oxfam, the Red Cross and other charities, and by February 2005 when the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) closed its appeal, the total stood at £300m. The Haiti earthquake appeal closed with donations of £101m. The DEC total for the Pakistan floods appeal has just reached £10m.
The reasons for this disparity aren't complex. There has been a slow steady drip of negative media coverage of Pakistan since the 1980s, and if it lessened a little in the 90s as civilian governments went in and out of administration, it became inevitably tougher with the return of a military government, 9/11, the "growth" of Islamic extremist organisations in Pakistan, and the ins and outs of apparent ISI-sponsored terrorism in both Mumbai and Afghanistan. At home, Pakistan's image has been affected by debates about burqas, the bombings in London in 2005 and the country's perennial linguistic association with "terror".

British readers and viewers know little of Pakistan and – with the exception of writers such as the Guardian's Declan Walsh and Saeed Shah, as well as Aleem Maqbool, who has given sensitive coverage for the BBC in Islamabad, and exemplary analysis and comment on the BBC World Service by Owen Bennett-Jones and Lyse Doucet – reporting of the country is poor and superficial.

For complete article, click here

Pakistan Flood Situation Update: Impact and Consequences

Pakistan says won't divert forces from militant fight
By Zeeshan Haider, Reuters, August 13, 2010

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's army is playing the leading role in rescue efforts after the worst floods in decades, but it will not divert forces from the battle against Islamist militants, military officials said on Friday.

The floods, the country's most severe natural disaster, began two weeks ago and have killed more than 1,600 people, forced 2 million from their homes and disrupting the lives of about 14 million people, or 8 percent of the population.

The army has deployed about 60,000 troops for rescue and relief operations out of a force of about 550,000 soldiers.

Soldiers in helicopters and boats have plucked numerous survivors from the water that has inundated the Indus river basin. Army engineers are rebuilding broken bridges and washed-out roads while other units have set up relief camps.

But there has been worry, especially in the United States, that the Pakistani military would have to withdraw some of its 140,000 soldiers fighting militants in ethnic Pashtun lands in the northwest, along the Afghan border, to help with the floods.

For complete article, click here
Related:
Pakistan floods: Two 'major peaks' due on Indus river - BBC
US increases aid to flood-ravaged Pakistan - AFP
China Offers New Aid To Flood-Hit Pakistan - BERNAMA
David Cameron blunder on Pakistan floods - Mirror, UK
Poor response to Pakistan aid appeals frustrates charities - The Independent
Flood-hit Pakistan cancels Independence Day events - BBC

Sunday, August 08, 2010

Nigar Nazar: Pakistan's First Lady Cartoonist deserves wider international recognition and support for her admirable work

Interview: Nigar Nazar CEO, Gogi Studios
By Siham Basir, Newsline,  28 June 2010

“I believe Gogi teaches you to laugh at yourself in the worst of situations” -  Nigar Nazar, CEO, Gogi Studios

Gogi is Nigar Nazar’s mouthpiece. A cartoon character, Gogi sounds off on every domestic issue under the sun.

Born in the ’70s from Nazar’s pen, the ageless Gogi has done the rounds of newspapers, magazines and TV channels in Pakistan and abroad. Nazar describes her as the symbol of the enlightened, energetic and adventurous Pakistani woman who refuses to kowtow to authority and finds humour in the most trying of situations – not unlike her creator, Nigar Nazar, the first woman cartoonist of Pakistan and CEO of Gogi Studios.

Q: What inspired you to address issues like social hypocrisy through an unconventional medium like Gogi, a cartoon character?
A: I read a lot of comics in my school days – and I still enjoy reading comic strips in newspapers. I’ve always felt that the art of cartoons is an appealing and powerful medium, and when used tactfully, it can bring about a change in our social fabric.

Q: What role do you believe Gogi plays in your readers’ lives?

A: When she was appearing in newspapers, many women could relate to her. She was a source of amusement to her readers.
I believe Gogi teaches you to laugh at yourself in the worst of situations. And we all need to do that.

Q: Who are the majority of Gogi’s followers?

A: I have been occupied with projects and storybooks for children for the past few years, so for the time being my readers are children. It’s nice to see the impact of these books on young children, especially the book on environment called The Garbage Monster. Children in public schools will soon be receiving schoolbags with eight fun books/comic books authored by me. They will be attending workshops in which they will be entertained with animated Gogi cartoon spots, live cartoons and tips on drawing cartoons. They will also receive sketchbooks and art supplies from Gogi Studios for this purpose.

Q: Have you ever been attacked for your cartoons?

A: Not really, but the sad part is that I haven’t received any encouragement either. For instance, the owners of the print media would rather use syndicated foreign comics instead of giving local cartoonists a chance.

For complete interview, click here

Related - More about Nigar Nazar:
Detailed bio of Nigar Nazar - wikipedia
Gogi comics - http://www.gogicomics.com.main.html/
Cartoon workshop for children - Dawn
Pakistan: First Female Cartoonist - discussionspk.com
Students learn about social issues through cartoons - The News

UPDATES:
Nigar Nazar, Pakistan's First Lady Cartoonist - A Blast from the past - Arto' craft

"Criticism of Zardari in Pakistan hides a political game": BBC

Criticism of Zardari in Pakistan hides a political game
By M Ilyas Khan
BBC News, August 7, 2010, Islamabad
 
The Pakistani media's criticism of President Asif Ali Zardari over his visit to the United Kingdom has been unprecedented. Newspapers and television news have criticised him for being absent when Pakistan was struck by the worst floods in living memory.

While the president has been out of the country, more than 1,500 people have been killed and scores of villages have been swept away.

Over four million people have been displaced. They now face hunger and disease.

In the initial days of the disaster the government failed to provide any response, and now the politicians are being heavily criticised for it.

In contrast, the media repeatedly drove home the point that, while the army's response was also inadequate given the scale of the disaster, at least the soldiers were out there.

The absent president has been criticised by the international media for his apparent indifference. But in Pakistan, the media's scorn has a deeper meaning and motive. It hints at tensions between the country's civilian democracy and the powerful military establishment.

For complete article, click here

Somewhat relevant:
Pakistan floods: army steps into breach as anger grows at Zardari - Guardian
Pakistan Aid Places U.S. in the Midst of a Divide - NYT (Oct 12, 2009)
Zardari's Katrina By Fatima Bhutto - Foreign Policy
Days of rogue spies are over: Zardari - Daily Times

The man on the Gujranwala omnibus will define Pakistan?

Mr Cameron doesn't understand Pakistan.
Sadly, he is not alone. We see the extremes, but ignore those in the middle and our blinkered thinking is not only stupid, but dangerous

Jason Burke The Observer, Sunday 8 August 2010
 
A week before her death, travelling through the same lowland towns of the North-West Frontier province of Pakistan that are now half-buried under mud, Benazir Bhutto said to me: "Pakistan has changed Mr Burke, Pakistan has changed. And I need to learn about it once more."

Bhutto had returned to her native land three months earlier and after an eight-year exile, a comeback in large measure due to arm-twisting by the Bush administration's top officials and the British Foreign Office. With characteristic brio, she had thrown herself into campaigning for scheduled elections. Her comments came after she had halted her armoured vehicle to plunge into a market in the scruffy town of Pabbi to buy oranges. "I need to know the price of vegetables," she had told me as we got back into her vehicle. "I need to know about my people."

Bhutto's death, at the hands of a 16-year-old suicide bomber, marked the moment that Pakistan returned to the limelight after several years overshadowed by Iraq and terrorism in Europe and the UK. Since then, it has barely left centre stage. Home to al-Qaida, much of the Afghan Taliban, an astonishing range of indigenous militants, beset by economic and environmental disaster, Pakistan is one of the victims and the villains of the ongoing multidimensional conflict that is the legacy of the 9/11 attacks and the now defunct war on terror. The Wikileaks on the Pakistani security establishment's support for the Afghan Taliban, David Cameron's statement in India that the state must stop sponsoring terrorism overseas and now the visit of Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto's widower and president of Pakistan since August 2008, who arrived in the UK last week, have focused attention on Pakistan again.

Pakistan is usually viewed through three prisms. The first is that of the Orientalists. Experts, officials, spooks and diplomats still frequently cite Winston Churchill or even Kipling as a useful guide to the North-West Frontier. This is roughly equivalent to using Emile Zola to learn about modern France, Joyce about Ireland or Dickens about today's East End. There has probably been deeper and faster social change in Pakistan in recent decades than in the UK. If you think Thatcherism changed Britain, imagine what the roughly contemporaneous rule of General Zia-ul-Haq did to Pakistan. Or the coming of mass broadcast media and telephones to the smallest rural settlement, where high levels of illiteracy still persist, in the last decade.

For complete article, click here

Flood Situation in Pakistan worsens


Pakistan floods 'hit 14m people'
BBC, 6 August 2010
BBC's Adam Mynott: 'It's a catastrophe... and that's no overstatement'

The worst floods in Pakistan's history have hit at least 14 million people, officials say. Twelve million are affected in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces, while a further two million are affected in Sindh. In Indian-administered Kashmir, at least 113 people died in mudslides.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that a charity connected to a group with alleged al-Qaeda links has been providing flood relief.

Flooding has submerged whole villages in the past week, killing at least 1,600 people, according to the UN.

And the worst floods to hit the region in 80 years could get worse, as it is only midway through monsoon season.

According to the federal flood commission, 1.4m acres (557,000 hectares) of crop land has been flooded across the country and more than 10,000 cows have perished.

A UN official, Manuel Bessler, told the BBC that with crops swept away by floodwaters, some Pakistanis could be forced to rely on food aid to get through the winter.

For complete article, click here

Related:
Up to 12 million people affected as Pakistan floods move south - Guardian
Floods send foods prices soaring in Pakistan - AP
Hillary expresses solidarity with Pakistan - Daily Times
Pakistan troops rescue thousands as river banks burst - Reuters
Pakistan PM calls for help as fresh rains hamper aid - AFP
Anger Grows As Pakistan Flood Victims Struggle Amid Massive Devastation - Radio Liberty

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Pakistan Police loses another courageous officer to terrorists

High-Ranking Pakistan Police Official Assassinated
By ISMAIL KHAN, New York Times, August 4, 2010
(Pictures credit: AP and GEO TV)

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A suicide bomber clad with 20 pounds of explosives assassinated the prominent leader of a Pakistani security force and three other people on Wednesday afternoon at a busy intersection here in northwest Pakistan, security officials said.



A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack against the principal victim, Safwat Ghayur, the commander of Pakistan’s Frontier Constabulary, a force controlled by the Interior Ministry that has carried out campaigns against militants in Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal areas.

A car carrying Mr. Ghayur, 50, had just left the force’s headquarters and was stopped at a traffic signal when a young suicide bomber ran up to the car and detonated his explosives, Mr. Ghayur’s driver told journalists at the city’s main hospital.

The driver, Shakirullah Khan, who suffered minor injuries, said he ran to the passenger side to try to rescue Mr. Ghayur, but “the car was engulfed in flames and I couldn’t save him.”

Shafqat Malik, leader of the bomb disposal squad, said the bomber had been carrying 20 pounds of explosives loaded with ball bearings.
Eleven people were wounded in the attack, which came as residents in much of northwestern Pakistan are struggling to recover from severe floods that killed at least 800 people, devastated livestock and displaced as many as 1.4 million.

Azam Tariq, the spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, which is formally known as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, told the Dawn newspaper that militants would continue to strike at law enforcement agencies and leaders of the ruling Pashtun Awami National Party.
“They are on our hit list,” Mr. Tariq said in a telephone interview from an undisclosed location. “We shall show no leniency.”

For complete article, click here
Related:
FC Chief, 4 personnel killed in Peshawar suicide attack - The News
Chief of Frontier Constabulary killed in suicide attack - Dawn
Safwat Ghayur’s assassination  - The News
A hero who died with his boots on By Ismail Khan - Dawn

The West must engage, not demonize, Turkey

The West must engage, not demonize, Turkey
In Washington and European capitals, it will be tempting to conclude that Turkey is already “lost,” that it is fated to become a rising theocracy that will work against rather than for international order. This would be a grave mistake.

By Daniel M. Kliman, Joshua W. Walker, Christian Science Monitor, August 3, 2010
A hundred years ago, debate raged in Europe over how to exploit the Ottoman Empire’s decline. Today, the Turkish question is turned on its head: How can the West manage an ascendant Turkey?

It can start by understanding Turkey’s position in the world. Turkey is a member of a select geopolitical club: rising democracies. This club encompasses not only Turkey, but also India, Brazil, Indonesia, and South Africa. Their emergence is a crucial – but untold – development of the 21st century.
Rising democracies

Rising democracies offer the West an opportunity to perpetuate the international order founded in the wake of the Second World War. This order enshrines principles such as freedom of the seas, the moral superiority of democracy, and the primacy of free trade. But with economic malaise in Europe and Japan, and looming fiscal constraints in the United States, new partners are needed to sustain this order. The only possible partners are the rising democracies.

Current tensions between the West and one of them – Turkey – should therefore cause concern. Although US and European relations with India, Brazil, Indonesia, and South Africa remain works-in-progress, recent developments with Turkey have few parallels elsewhere.

Turkey’s fiery rhetoric following an Israeli raid on the Gaza-bound ship Mavi Marmara in May and its decision in June to vote against additional United Nations sanctions on Iran have led the West to question Ankara’s future course. Moreover, far from subsiding, areas of disagreement appear ready to flare up at any moment. Flashpoints include the role of Hamas in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and how to respond to Iran’s nuclear program.

In European capitals and Washington, it will be tempting to conclude that Turkey is already “lost,” that it is inevitably fated to become a rising theocracy that will work against rather than for international order.

This would be a grave mistake.

For complete article, click here

Tuesday, August 03, 2010

Karachi is burning again

45 die in revenge attacks in Pakistan's Karachi
By ASHRAF KHAN (AP) – August 3, 2010

KARACHI, Pakistan — Gunmen killed at least 45 people in Pakistan's largest city after the assassination of a prominent lawmaker set off a cycle of revenge attacks, officials said Tuesday. Dozens of vehicles and shops were set ablaze as security forces struggled to regain control of Karachi.
Schools were closed and most business ground to a halt Tuesday in the southern city of more than 16 million, Pakistan's main commercial hub. While a thriving trading center, Karachi has a history of political, ethnic and religious violence and has long been a hide-out for al-Qaida and Taliban militants.

The latest unrest came after Raza Haider, a provincial lawmaker, was shot dead along with his bodyguard in a mosque while preparing to offer prayers Monday in Nazimabad area.

Haider was a member of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the political party that runs the city and represents mainly descendants of Urdu-speaking migrants from India who settled in Pakistan when it was created in 1947.
The MQM's main rival is the Awami National Party, a secular nationalist party whose main power center is Pakistan's northwest and whose base is the ethnic Pashtun community living in Karachi.

Within hours of Haider's assassination, gangs torched buildings in Karachi and gunfire erupted in several parts of the city. Many of the dead were killed in targeted, execution-style attacks, authorities said. An investigation had been ordered into who was behind the attacks.

Independent analysts say followers of all political parties in Karachi are heavily involved in criminal activities such as protection rackets and illegal land dealings. In certain neighborhoods, armed men linked to political parties stand guard at checkpoints.

For complete article, click here

Related:
Karachi burns in wave of violence - Dawn
45 killed in street violence after Karachi official is assassinated - Los Angeles Times

Monday, August 02, 2010

In Pakistan, Echoes of American Betrayal

In Pakistan, Echoes of American Betrayal
By MOHAMMED HANIF, New York Times, July 31, 2010

PAKISTAN’S premier intelligence agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, has been accused of many bad things in its own country. It has been held responsible for rigging elections, sponsoring violent sectarian groups and running torture chambers for political dissidents. More recently, it has been accused of abducting Pakistanis and handing them over to the United States for cash.

But last week — after thousands of classified United States Army documents were released by WikiLeaks, and American and British officials and pundits accused the ISI of double-dealing in Afghanistan — the Pakistani news media were very vocal in their defense of their spies. On talk show after talk show, the ISI’s accusers in the West were criticized for short-sightedness and shifting the blame to Pakistan for their doomed campaign in Afghanistan.

Suddenly, the distinction between the state and the state within the state was blurred. It is our ISI that is being accused, we felt. How, we wondered, can the Americans have fallen for raw intelligence provided by paid informants and, in many cases, Afghan intelligence? And why shouldn’t Pakistan, asked the pundits, keep its options open for a post-American Afghanistan?

More generally, the WikiLeaks fallout brought back ugly memories, reminding Pakistanis what happens whenever we get involved with the Americans. In fact, one person at the center of the document dump is our primary object lesson for staying away from America’s foreign adventures.

For complete article, click here

Pakistan Floods - Donations and Relief

To find links for sending donations & relief goods, visit Beena Sarwar's Blog or click here

Updates:
China pays condolences over Pakistan floods - Xinhua
US pledges US$10m flood aid - Straits Times
Officials fear disease outbreak in flood-hit Pakistan - CNN
Pakistan floods 'kill 800' people and affect a million - BBC
UAE orders urgent aid for flood-hit Pakistan - Khaleej Times
Militants see opportunity in disaster - Asia Times

Lack of foresight
Dawn Editorial; 02 Aug, 2010

Floods have caused damage and devastation across the country in recent days, but perhaps nowhere more so than in northern Pakistan. Nowshera, Charsadda, Swat, Shangla, the information coming in from such districts is very grim. There is already speculation that the death toll will rise further and that may well be the case as the water recedes and the presently inaccessible areas are scoured. At this point, what the state is capable of doing on short notice is being attempted, from rescuing the stranded people to providing food and water. Inevitably, shortcomings in the state’s response have become apparent and the chorus of criticism is growing.

The area of devastation, though, is large and in many parts the rescue and emergency teams are still not able to operate, so perhaps at this point it is best to reserve final judgment. Nevertheless, there are some things that can be pointed out. For one, several of the nearly three dozen helicopters tasked with rescue and emergency efforts are being diverted to ferry around the media reporting on the crisis. To be sure, the public across the country needs to be kept informed of events in the area, but operating in an under-resourced environment requires using everything, not least helicopters, as efficiently as possible.

The other matter is that weak spot across the country: preparation. Nearly two months ago, a committee was formed in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial assembly to prepare for the summer rains and potential flooding by removing encroachments along the riverbanks that have made the width of the riverbeds very narrow, particularly in urban centres like Peshawar. Predictably, nothing came of that. Then there is the issue of an early flood warning system. Presently, because of their importance, there are such systems in place for Mangla and Tarbela. But experts have been pleading for such systems in places like Kohat and Swat, arguing that water flows from Pakistani and Afghan sources can be estimated in advance and the information passed on to vulnerable areas. Once again, the pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Floods can cause devastation in even the most developed parts of the world, but the loss of life on a large scale is usually avoided precisely because of preparation. If nothing else, emergency supplies and relief boats could have been positioned in the most vulnerable areas in the weeks running up to the present crisis.

Sunday, August 01, 2010

US attempt to steal N-secrets was foiled in 1994-5: Former DG ISI

‘US attempt to steal N-secrets was foiled’
The News, August 01, 2010

ISLAMABAD: Former DG ISI Lieutenant General Javed Ashraf Qazi has disclosed that Pakistan had foiled an attempt of a CIA official to steal documents of Pakistan N-secrets with the help of a Pakistani military officer.
Talking to a private TV channel here on Saturday, the former ISI head said that in 1994-95 secret agencies had foiled a theft attempt of Pakistan’s nuclear secrets and arrested several CIA officials as well as a major.

Qazi said he was informed about such a case at that time when he was working as DG ISI. He said that the CIA officials and Pakistan Army major were immediately arrested in a covert operation. He said the major was court martialled while the CIA agents were deported from the country.

The former ISI chief said that Western secret agencies have a double standard about Pakistan. On the one side, they appreciate Pakistan’s role and on the other hand defame the ISI on the international level. He alleged that in the name of cooperation, Western secret agencies are trying to steal nuclear secrets.