Pakistan Link - February 6, 2015

Pakistan Link

VOL. 25/6 - 17 Rabi ‘u-thani 1436 H PAGE 6

Political Dynasties, PTI and Shah Mehmood Elections No Substitute for Plebiscite in Indian Kashmir

The Largest Circulated Pakistani-American Newspaper in North America

Friday, February 6, 2015

PAGE 12

PAGE 11

Malala amongst Most Admired Women

Mohammad Sarwar Resigns as Punjab Governor

Resolve to Defeat Terrorism & Sectarianism

Islamabad: On the eve of Kashmir

solidarity day, Pakistan Wednesday reiterated that any amount of elections cannot be a substitute for plebiscite under the auspices of the UN as he raised concerns over brutalities committed by Delhi-led forces in Indian Kashmir.

A foreign office statement said that foreign secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry briefed Islamabad-based Ambassadors of countries who are part of the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC).

He pointed out the large number of Kashmiris killed, the women who had been widowed and dishonored, and the children who had been orphaned in the gross human rights violations carried out by Indian forces.

Explaining Indian efforts to manipulate elections in the disputed state, Chaudhry pointed to the policies of the BJP-led government aimed at changing the demographic makeup of Jammu and Kashmir.

He accused India of settling non-state subjects in Indian

KASHMIR, P29

Chinese FM Coming to Discuss President’s Visit

VISIT, P29

For news, updated round the clock, visit

www.PakistanLink.com PTI Decides to Force Govt. to Form Judicial Commission Islamabad: Pakistan Tehreek-e-

With COAS General Raheel Sharif in the chair, Corps Commanders meet at the General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi

Rawalpindi: The 176th Corps

Commanders Conference on Tuesday expressed its resolve to defeat terrorism, extremism and sectarianism. It also approved the mechanism for the working of military courts.

Presided over by the army chief

Gen Raheel Sharif the conference reviewed the measures for the most effective implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) in concert with federal and provincial governments. The plan aims to eliminate terrorism, extremism and sectarian-

ism without any discrimination. It was drafted in the wake of the Peshawar Army Public school attack.

Apart from discussing matters of professional interest, the participants undertook a

COMMANDERS, P29

Obama Seeks $1Bn from Congress for Aid to Pakistan

Islamabad: Chinese Foreign Minis-

ter Wang Yi will be arriving in Islamabad on February 9th on a two-day official visit to finalize details of the upcoming visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping, a top government source told Dawn.com.

The Chinese president is scheduled to visit the country from 22nd March this year.

Foreign Minister Yi would meet with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at the PM House and Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz at the Foreign Ministry.

A diplomatic source had told Dawn that the Chinese president is expected to attend the Pakistan Day parade as chief guest.

Both China and Pakistan are working out details of the Chinese president’s visit through diplomatic channels.

Chinese authorities have been assured about maximum security during Jinping’s upcoming

US & Canada $1.00

The budgetary proposals, released on Monday afternoon after US President Barack Obama sent his 2016 budget to Congress, shows a more than six-fold increase in foreign military financing (FMF) to Pakistan from $42.2 million in 2014-15 to $265m in 2015-16

Washington, DC: The Obama administration has asked the US Congress to provide more than $1 billion in civilian

and military aid to Pakistan, including a six-fold increase in foreign military financing.

The budget proposal

describes Pakistan as a “strategically important nation” and says that the proposed US assistance will strengthen its mili-

tary in the fight against extremism, will increase safety of nuclear installations, and will accelerate economic development.

It also says that continued US engagement with Pakistan will help bring stability to Afghanistan and will promote better relations between Islamabad and New Delhi.

The budgetary proposals, released on Monday afternoon after US President Barack Obama sent his 2016 budget to Congress, shows a more than six-fold increase in foreign military financing (FMF) to Pakistan from $42.2 million in 2014-15 to $265m in 2015-16.

The FMF AID, P29

Periodical postage paid at Newport Beach, CA and additional mailing offices

Insaf on Tuesday formally decided to take part in the upcoming Senate polls, besides taking to roads and paralyzing Lahore to put pressure on the government for the formation of a judicial commission to probe the 2013 polls.

Sources privy to the PTI’s core committee meeting, which was held with Chairman Imran Khan in the chair, told The News that the party leadership and workers would soon be on the roads against the government.

“Basically, the focus was on two issues during the meeting: to relaunch the drive against the government after the forensic report on NA-122 had proved rigging and participation in the Senate elections,” sources disclosed.

PTI’s Shoaib Siddiqui gave a presentation on the rigging in NA122 and the forensic report thereon.

The core committee reiterated its resolve not to compromise on its demand on the proposed judicial commission and return to the PTI, P29

Ties with India Not at the Cost of China or Pakistan Washington, DC: Denying suggestions that the US-India partnership was intended as a counterweight to China, a senior US official said its sole intent was “to build India up” working on common core values.

“I would fundamentally point to the fact that this is a US-India effort and it’s not necessarily to counterweight anyone,” Phil Reiner, White House’s senior director for South Asian Affairs, told foreign media at a round table Tuesday on Obama’s India trip.

“I don’t think either the US or India has an interest in any kind of confrontation or much less any sort of intent to contain China” he said.

“That’s not the intent,” Reiner said.

“The intent here is to work together... to work off of the core values that we have to build India up.”

“And this is something that we’re very much interested in doing, and it’s in both of our interests to do so,” he said. “I would not TIES, P29

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Journey of Recovery

E

ducation is supposed to be the be-all answer to everything. But that isn’t always necessarily so. If education doesn’t instill confidence, defiance, and grit, it doesn’t make much of a difference. Sometimes, the educated elite in Pakistan appears the least sanguine about the nation’s prospects.

Scanning the media gives a quick idea of how steeped in despair, despondency, and defeatism are many educated elites and their even more educated progeny.

Taunts and epithets are hurled at their own countrymen, the founding of the nation is questioned, and sweeping generalizations are made about conditions becoming incorrigible. There is too much venting about victimhood and too little introspection. Admittedly, the recurrence of potential inciting events cements despair.

Top university education is not enough. It is about exposing more people to a wider world. Ironically, today, more people are more insular, more isolated, and more excluded from the wider world because they are more exposed to more of the same. Attacking the symptoms while ignoring the core cause lets loose the underlying ailment free to metastasize.

50 years ago, Pakistan stood as one during the September ‘65

n By Dr Shahid Athar

I

Indiana

do oppose terrorism but should I apologize for my faith? After the tragedy of September 11, 2001, and its aftermath, from wars on Iraq and Afghanistan and barbaric acts of terrorism in Mumbai, Boston, Peshawar and Paris, attacking Islam and Muslims has become a fashionable sport for radio talk shows, television’s selfproclaimed “experts on Islam,” and paid columnists. Anti-Islam writers and speakers are clones of Steve Emersion and Daniel Pipes.

Islam is being portrayed as a religion promoting violence and terrorism. The FBI reports that there is a marked increase in hate crimes against Muslims and Arabs since September 11th 2001.

The perception of Islam has changed from ignorance to pure islamophobia. A PEW research study conducted in 2013 reveals that the number of Americans who felt that Islam encourages violence went up from 22% in 2002 to 42% eleven years later.

This alarming rise is not only due to deplorable acts of Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram and ISIS but the unyielding slanderous drive of hate mongers and Islam bashers. Many Muslims seem to be apologetic. Some Muslim youth are turning away from Islam and becoming more secular.

But did anyone apologize for the faith of Tim McVeigh or the terrorist involved in the Newtown Elementary School massacre?

Karen Armstrong, who has written many books and articles on Islam,

War. I was in Dacca then, about to fly to Lahore to rejoin classes in FC College, when war erupted, severing inter-wing flights over Indian airspace. Stranded in Dacca, I had considerable interaction with Ben-

Pakistan had fought its much bigger neighbor to a standstill. This was attested to by no less a person than the now-90-plus Arnaud de Borchgrave – founding editor of The Washington Times whose

NBC-TV anchor Chuck Todd, in a January 25 “Meet the Press” conversation with basketball legend, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, stated that “Islamophobia is on the rise in America.” A few super-wealthy lobbyists -- who control the agenda both at home and abroad – have put America on a downward spiral. They have successfully elevated their narrow interests over public interest. Small men can make a big nation small gali people and saw firsthand their spirit. Lest it be forgotten, the foundations of the Muslim League were laid in Dacca in 1906.

The Bengalis took pride that

mother, he told me, was Rawalpindi-born -- through his Newsweek dispatches.

Because the lessons of 1971 have not been comprehensively

Should I Apologize for My Faith? poses the piercing and incisive question: “If Islam is so bad, as projected by the media, how come it is still growing so fast in the West?”(Time Magazine 9-17-01, The true peaceful face of Islam). People should be running away from something so bad, not joining it. So, I ask this question: “Where is the sword of Islam now?”

Islam is a religion of peace but Muslims have not been left in peace for a long time. Karen Armstrong also noted that “Islam is not addicted to war and jihad is not a pillar of Islam”.

All of the 30 or so battles in the life of Prophet Mohammed were defensive wars imposed on Muslims by the unbelievers. However, atrocities of the past do not justify Muslims to become terrorists. Terrorism is a plague and must be treated as such and fought to be eliminated from the face of the earth.

The verses of the Qur’an (i.e.

4:90) which appear to promote violence should be taken in the context of revelation. Karen Armstrong states that these verses were revealed to the Prophet Mohammad, asking him not to give up against the terrorists of that time who were persecuting Muslims. Verses that appear promoting revenge and violence can also be found in other scriptures including the Bible (i.e. Deuteronomy 7:1-2, Numbers 31:17-18 and Deuteronomy 20:10-17.)

The attacks on Islam and the Prophet Mohammad that started 1446 years ago will continue. The hate mongers of the past and present will become history but the names of Mohammad, Moses and Jesus (peace be upon them) will continue to be remembered and respected until the end of this world. Muslims nei-

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ther asked nor bribed Michael Hart, the author of the book “The Most Influential Men in the History of Mankind”, to put Mohammad as the number one among the most influential. Muslims should disregard incitement to hate and concentrate on peaceful co-existence. Cal Thomas asked that moderate Muslims should “clean up the mess created by fundamentalists” and Amotz As-El, a former chief editor of Jerusalem Post, wrote that “American Muslims can counter radicals”. True, but I urge the radicals in other faiths to do the same in their ranks.

Late Pope John Paul II tried to make peace between Christians and Muslims. On October 28, 1965, the Second Vatican Council stated: “Over the centuries, many quarrels and dissentions have risen between Christians and Muslims. The sacred council now pleads with all to forgive the past and urge that a sincere effort be made to achieve mutual understanding for the benefit of all men.

Let them together persevere and promote peace, social justice and moral values.”(Nostra Acetate 3). While addressing the Catholic community of Ankara, Turkey on November 29, 1979, Pope John Paul 11 said, “My brothers, when I think of this spiritual heritage (Islam) and the value it has for man and for society, its capacity of offering, particularly in the young, guidance for life, the filling gap left by materialism and giving a reliable foundation to social and judicial organizations, I wonder if it is not urgent, especially today when Christians and Muslims have entered a new period of history to recognize and develop the spiritual bonds that unite us in order to persevere and

OPINION registered, many of the fault-lines riven apart by factionalism, provincialism, and sectarianism remain a festering divide.

But the journey of recovery is never too late, as long as the human spirit is unbroken. Cuba demonstrated that. After 55 years of steadfast leadership, it eventually compelled America to reach out and implicitly acknowledge the folly of its policy of exclusion and isolation right in its own backyard.

25 years ago, Nelson Mandela was released from jail. The uncomfortable truth is that Mandela’s African National Congress was dubbed as a terrorist organization in mainstream Western circles.

Mandela’s determination to resist, against all odds, led to the tumbling of the walls of apartheid. Today, in South Africa’s 15-man World Cup Cricket squad, more than 25 percent are Muslims.

It is grit that sustains the journey through a long dark tunnel and shows the pathway to light.

The US is still to recover from 9/11.

NBC-TV anchor Chuck Todd, in a January 25 “Meet the Press” conversation with basketball legend, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, stated that “Islamophobia is on the rise in America.”

A few super-wealthy lobbyists -- who control the agenda both at home and abroad – have put America on a downward spiral. They have successfully elevated their narrow interests over public interest.

Small men can make a big nation small. promote together for the benefit of all men, peace, liberty, social justice and moral values as the council calls upon us to do”.

Pope Francis said recently in Philippines that freedom of speech does not include freedom to belittle and hurt people of other faiths. The Holy Qur’an specifically forbids Muslims to belittle deity of other faith: “Do not revile (abuse) their God, and give them a permission to revile Allah out of ignorance (6:108).” The moderate Muslims respect and will listen to moderate Christians, Karen Armstrong or Pope Francis but not the Islam bashers. You can never get someone’s cooperation by attacking his faith, scripture or prophet. If one keeps on scratching the wounds, they will never heal. In their fight against terrorism, moderate Muslims seek all the help they can get. Evil flourishes when good people do nothing to oppose it. Help us reclaim our hijacked religion. Blessed are the peace makers. (Dr Athar is a physician and author of “Healing the Wounds of September 11, 2001”, Authorhouse) .

Vi e w s and opinions expressed by authors and contributors in articles, letters, opinion pieces, reports, advertisements, etc appearing in Pakistan Link and Urdu Link are their own.

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OPINION

P6 – PAKISTAN LINK – FEBRUARY 6, 2015 n By Syed Kamran Hashmi

E

Westfield, IN

ven if you disagree with Imran Khan on his position against the drone strikes, his policy to appease Taliban, or his protest to destabilize the democratic system on the dubious claims of election rigging, you still have to agree with him that without bringing fundamental reforms within the political system, Pakistan can never excel. He emphasizes on two important points: ensure free and fair intra-party elections on regular intervals and introduce a transparent system for their fundraising and campaign expenditures.

If followed, these measures will transform our family-ruled political parties where the leadership is bequeathed from one generation to another, into legitimate democratic organizations in which middle class workers would get a reliable platform to show their mantle, to rise at the national level, and to take control of our destiny. Sure, in the beginning these changes would shake up the system, but after a few cycles the process would mature to guarantee long-term political stability in the country. If ignored though, we would always jump from a sugar crisis to a petrol crisis to an electricity crisis like the unpredictable strides of a power ball that has hit the floor to bounce back and forth indefinitely.

At present, both the major political parties - the Pakistan Peoples

Political Dynasties, PTI and Shah Mehmood Qureshi Party(PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) - have kept power within the tight grip of two families, the Bhuttos and the Sharifs, without sharing it with members outside the clan.

Could you imagine anyone to become the Prime Minister of Pakistan other than Mian Nawaz Sharif once ‘his’ party had won the 2013 elections? Or the Chief Minister (CM) of Punjab except Shahbaz Sharif despite his poor governance model for the last eight years?

In case, if they cannot take the job themselves like it happened in 2008 after the elections when Dost Muhammad Khosa was sworn in as the temporary CM of Punjab, they (Sharif Brothers) still never relinquish control. Using the sitting executive like a puppet, Shahbaz Sharif called all the shots from his parallel headquarters for months and made the administrative decisions till he acquired the office. Asif Ali Zardari also reserved the top spot for himself as the President of Pakistan guaranteeing its constitutional protection. Meanwhile, he ran his own mini yet more powerful Prime Minister Secretariat in Islamabad even when Yousaf Raza Gillani held the official post.

The story does not end here.

Passing the throne down from Zulifqar Ali Bhutto to Benzair to Asif Ali Zardari, the grandson now takes over the party today as its new chairperson and will continue to lead it forever. In the same way, sooner or later, Hamza Shahbaz or Maryam Nawaz Sharif will preside

F m

over the PML-N without having a real contest in the party from any non-Sharif opponent.

Local political forces follow the same pattern. For instance, Maulana Fazl ur Rehman leads the Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUIF) after his father, Maulana Mufit Mehmood.

And after Ghaffar Khan, his son, Wali Khan, followed by his son Isfund Yar Wali , have perched on the driving seat of the Awami National Party successively.

Keeping that in mind, we must give credit to Imran and his supporters, as rude and as opprobrious they are, to bring this important yet ignored issue to the limelight.

If the problem stays unsolved, he fears that Pakistan will continue to struggle as an underdeveloped and poor nation ruled by a set of military dictators, who usurp power

H

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through their position in the Army, alternating with the civilian dictators who consider people’s vote as part of their personal fortune.

Having said that, how about the religious and spiritual dynasties who also get political benefits from their position? Do they pose any less danger for the stability of Pakistan than their political counterparts?

Did Imran look at the curriculum vitae of his party’s Vice Chairman, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the most influential leader of Southern Punjab and the current Sajjada Nasheen of the Mauselum of Shah Rukn e Alam and the Shrine of Hazrat Bahahuddin Zakariya, the one who gathers big political rallies through his devotees from Multan to Larkana?

We have heard the Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek e Instaf (PTI)

criticizing Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari, slamming their corrupt practices and self-centered policies.

Most of us tend to agree with the Chairman on his stance. However, I have never heard him utter a single word against those who abuse people’s religious sentiments to get not only their votes but also their money and sometimes their lifetime belongings. Does Imran consider that exploitation to be a service to the nation or to Islam since he and his party benefits from that support in Punjab?

We fall in with his view that without accountability Pakistan cannot move forward, not in the 21st century as a proud nation. But why does he keep quiet on the accountability of his own Vice Chairman? Have you not seen the pictures of Shah Mehmood blessing a woman who has put her head on his feet while offering him money that he is graciously accepting? How does that blessing help the woman or her family when she is being stripped of her only possession in the name of spirituality?

I am not objecting on people’s faith, it is between them and their God. Yet it pains us when we people take advantage of the simplicity and ignorance of the common people. Can such an individual, whose family has been in power for decades and has never done anything significant to improve the condition of his constituency, lead Pakistan and bring the change that our country so badly needs? Does Imran not ask his own second in command about the dynasty that his family has created in the name of religion?

OPINION n By Dr Mohammad Taqi

“

Florida

Propaganda is a soft weapon; hold it in your hands too long, and it will move about like a snake, and strike the other way” — French writer Jean Anouilh.

In the wake of the brutal terrorist attack on the Army Public School (APS), Peshawar, last month, the Pakistani civilian and military leadership made emphatic proclamations that the country would no longer distinguish between the so-called bad jihadists/Taliban that perpetrate such heinous attacks inside Pakistan or the ‘good’ ones, who have unleashed havoc in the neighboring countries.

The APS attack, with close to 150 casualties — mostly children — was so dreadful that even skeptics thought that perhaps the country’s policymakers were serious this time. Following the announcement of the National Action Plan (NAP) it was expected that there would be a crackdown on the already proscribed terrorist outfits and more would be added to the blacklist. The Haqqani terrorist network and Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) are two jihadist groups that were rumored to have been banned.

The officials’ sophistry about proscribing the two outfits, however, indicates that the good/bad jihadist distinction is alive and these groups have not been banned after all.

I had pointed out in this column after the APS attack that, in the way the blame for the tragedy was being deflected towards India and Afghanistan, there would be no introspection, making the much-needed

FEBRUARY 6, 2015 – PAKISTAN LINK – P7

The Curious Case of Banned Outfits course correction impossible. Security establishment-friendly elements in both the conventional and social media have ranted nonstop that the Indian intelligence agency RAW orchestrated the APS attack by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) via Afghanistan. Where serious reflection was in order, black propaganda was unleashed against India and Afghanistan by televangelists and analysts alike. Crude videos were stitched together from several unrelated news reports and launched on the internet blaming a former RAW chief, Mr Vikram Sood, for, among other things, the hijacking of Indian airliner IC 814 in 1999 that was taken to Taliban-controlled Kandahar, Afghanistan. Interestingly, this was the same hijacking that got the Jaish-eMuhammad (JeM) leader, Maulana Masood Azhar, freed from an Indian prison in exchange for the passengers. If RAW runs the TTP, why did the Pakistani civilian and military officials sign scores of agreements with it? If RAW sprang Maulana Azhar from Indian custody, why does he remain at large in Pakistan today?

Irony seems to be totally lost on the conspiracy mongers.

It is not just that wild conspiracy theories are being spun about the elusive ‘foreign’ hand but an active image-building campaign is underway to cushion the JuD and its leadership against the action that the US, India and the UN have been demanding.

This past weekend, a seasoned journalist, Mr Mazhar Abbas, wrote an article, ‘Is Hafiz Saeed a threat to the US?’ in an English newspaper, in which he notes: “The Americans per-

haps know about Hafiz Saeed from the Indian perspective but what they don’t know is something they need to know. He is among those religious leaders of Pakistan who consider groups like the Islamic State (IS) and al Qaeda a danger to the cause of ‘Tableegh’. Thus, to ban him or his group JuD, may go in favor of the terrorists’ narratives and may not help the war against terrorism.” The article is replete with historical inaccuracies and, quite frankly, is economical with the truth about the JuD right from its

The inevitable result of such smokescreens as Mr Mazhar Abbas and a coterie of television anchors are throwing up will be the evaporation of the national resolve and consensus against terrorism name change to its transnational jihadist activities.

Mr Mazhar Abbas acknowledges that the outfit was originally founded as the Markaz Dawa-walIrshad (MDI) and changed its name to JuD but fails to say they did this so as to skirt the ban in the wake of the December 2001 attack on the Indian parliament, which was launched by the MDI’s subsidiary Lashkar-eTayyaba (LeT). Mr Abbas portrays

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the JuD as a charity and missionary organization, which did not indulge in armed jihadism within or outside Pakistan. Relying on primary source information, the two foremost experts on the JuD/LeT Mr Arif Jamal and Professor Stephen Tankel have extensively chronicled in their books the links between the JuD/LeT and al Qaeda. Professor Tankel accurately observes in his book, Storming the World Stage: The Story of Lashkare-Tayyaba, that al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah, who was captured in March 2002 from a JuD safe house in Faisalabad, was a dual recruiter for al Qaeda and the LeT. In his book, Call For Transnational Jihad: Lashkar-eTayyaba 1985-2014, Arif Jamal has noted that Hafiz Saeed fought alongside Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and the two became so tight that bin Laden even gave his jeep to Saeed.

Similarly, the LeT’s operational chief, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, is said to be a brother-in-law of a bin Laden lieutenant, Abdur Rehman al-Sareehi, and gained his first battlefield experience under the Jalaluddin Haqqani network in Afghanistan. Arif Jamal has extensively documented JuD/ LeT’s transnational jihadist activities in the Philippines, India, Chechnya, Bosnia and the US. The JuD certainly has the desire, if not the means, to pose a direct threat to the US. The doctrinal orientation of the JuD, al Qaeda and IS remains orthodox Salafi (known as Ahl-e-Hadith in the subcontinent). One of the founders of the MDI/JuD, Pir Badiuddin Rashidi, was directly associated with the Saudi Salafi Juhayman al-Utaybi’s Ikhwan, who laid the infamous

siege to the Holy Ka’aba in November 1979. IS also traces its doctrinal origins to al-Utaybi and, in fact, his letters are part of the terrorist group’s core curriculum. The point is that all so-called bad Taliban — from Kashmir to Kabul — were ‘good’ Taliban at some point and did their handlers’ bidding. They are, however, deeply indoctrinated zealots who pursue their own ideological agenda. The jihadists’ handlers and the writers who sing paeans to the JuD’s charity work can try to neatly box the jihadists under different labels but there always comes a time when these fanatics buck their masters. Dozens of jihadist groups have done it before and many more will do it in the future, as their ultimate aim remains a primitive caliphate, not a modern society, whether under democracy or dictatorship.

The curious case of banning the JuD and the Haqqani network shows that the delusional thinking about ‘benign’ jihadism remains rampant not just in the security establishment but also afflicts the political class and the intelligentsia. When clarity is needed to act decisively against jihadist terror, the game plan apparently is to further cloud the already murky waters. The inevitable result of such smokescreens as Mr Mazhar Abbas and a coterie of television anchors are throwing up will be the evaporation of the national resolve and consensus against terrorism. There should be little doubt that, just like the hardcore jihadists boomeranged on Pakistan, this soft but highly poisonous propaganda snake will also turn and strike the other way.

(The writer can be reached at mazdaki@me.com and he tweets @ mazdaki)

OPINION

P8 – PAKISTAN LINK – FEBRUARY 6, 2015 n By Mohammad Ashraf Chaudhry

“

Pittsburg, CA

There comes a time in the affairs of men when you must take the bull by the tail and face the situation”. - W. C. Fields

Nations and people make mistakes due to two factors. They either misjudge things by over-estimating or underestimating themselves; or they just remain paralyzed, like a Wildebeest due to their own self-conceived fears, and weaknesses. A Wildebeest is not a small or a weak animal. It is only a little shorter than a cow. As one gamekeeper explained, it is a strange animal. It runs like other animals when chased by a predator, but it is so dumb that it soon loses sight of what had inspired it to run, and then it stops right next to the predator in a most meditative and appreciative mood, completely forgetting that it is the same predator that had frightened him to run a few minutes ago.

Half a dozen political parties that favored talks with the Taliban possessed that kind of Wildebeest mentality. They did so not because they were optimistic enough to find some medicinal vaccine out of the poisonous weeds; they like the Wildebeest were habitual of forgetting “Why they had started talks in the first place?” Ask any GD Pilot in the Pakistan Air Force and he would tell you one thing: “Anything is better than crashing”. Not so with the Pakistani politicians for whom often crashing remains the only option. Since rising upward toward a peak, toward a positive, constructive, life-affirming

Pakistan’s Crucible: The Peshawar School Massacre - Part I

goal requires effort, sacrifice and initiative, leaders in Pakistan often opt for moving toward a pit, toward an inauthentic, life-destroying negative goal by following some negative, intellectually sterile role-models, as would say, Danny Cox in his book, ”There Are No Limits.”

The result has been obvious.

One disaster succeeded another bigger disaster, till a whole-sale, massacre took place at an army public school in Peshawar on December 16, 2014. Nobody resigned; nobody was asked to resign and nobody felt that he should have resigned. Lovers of “talks” with the hard-core murderers, both inside and outside the government, conveniently adjusted and shifted their gears; softened their narratives, and stayed where they had been, wrapped in their usual state of cozy “heedlessness”, keeping alive and fresh their inherent sympathies for those whose cause they had so shamelessly espoused all along. The Taliban have had a history of targeting the country’s pupils, says the Economist of December 20, 2014. “In the four years to 2013, when their writ ran large, they destroyed over 1,000 schools and colleges in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa”. Ahmed Rashid, an analyst of the Taliban, says “the massacre in Peshawar was symbolic of hatred for everything that Malala stands for”.

Malala was shot in 2012. An unhappy retired army officer is right when he says, “I am not sure if Pakistan was created in the name of religion, but it is surely being destroyed in the name

of religion.”

William C. Chittick says, “Forgetfulness and heedlessness are fundamental faults because they negate TAWHID. To forget God is to forget oneself… the Qur’an alludes to this perspective in the verse 59:19, ‘Be not as those who forgot God, and so He caused them to forget themselves.

Those - they are the transgressors.’

The irony is that the transgressors are 100 per cent sure that all the rest except them are the transgressors.

A five year old child gets molested in a mosque in Lahore on Thursday, and on Friday hundreds of believers come for the Friday prayers, most of them inquiring first, “Who will deliver the Khutba?, What time the Jumma prayer shall take place?”

Hardly anyone heeded what a tragedy

had taken place a night before.

But not so with the army. One feels tempted to salute the army chief, General Raheel Sharif, who understood fully well that “Enough is enough”. He moved fast and determinedly, leaving little room for the politicians who master in the art of peeling off the onion of a problem to such an extent that at the end nothing of the problem is left in hand except confusion and disillusionment, and embarrassment. Again like the Wildebeest, completely forgetting what for all the four All Party Conferences had been held, the politicians appear just being ready to come out of their borrowed garbs of unity.

Elbert Hubbard once made a timeless observation when he said, ”Even a dead fish can go down

stream; it takes a live one to go against the current.” The lovers of “talks” wanted to build better tomorrows by repeating the dismal yesterdays. Grave-diggers like butchers have one rule: they do not cry; their eyes never get wet. Tears run counter to their profession. Taj Muhammad, the head grave-digger at the famous Rahman Baba Graveyard in Peshawar, says, “I have buried bodies of the deceased of different ages, sizes and weights; Those small bodies I’ve been burying since yesterday felt much heavier than any of the big ones I’ve buried before”. Taj Muhammad says he buried the 105 victims of the Mina Bazaar bombing in 2009; and about 50 of the Khyber Bazaar bombing, but “Tuesday’s bodies were hard to take…I couldn’t control my tears. I cannot explain, but I wept. I know it was against the rules of our profession but it was the moment to break the rules.” Did the politicians, the media and the custodians of law, the lawyers, remain even 10% moved like Taj Muhammad did?

Hamid Mir ran a program on the fall of Pakistan in 1971 highlighting how the Pakistan army fumbled under a dictator; the country’s parliamentarian were seen shedding crocodile tears at the time of the passing of the 21st Amendment. Veterans like Senator Rabbani were heard saying under sobs, “I wish I had not seen this day”; young Bilawal was heard saying, “Today the Parliament lost its nose by consenting to vote in favor of the military courts”. PTI, and the Jamaat e Islami, as expected, played safe by not taking part in the voting.

The yoked unity of the country’s leadership even at such a juncture CRUCIBLE, P9

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OPINION

FEBRUARY 6, 2015 – PAKISTAN LINK – P9

Why Are the Pakistanis so Worked up on Obama’s Indian Safari?

n By Karamatullah K. Ghori

T

Toronto, Canada

he ironies are in spades and quite jarring for Pakistani minds not nuanced sufficiently to see shades of grey.

Barack Obama has, apparently and not too subtly, given the short shrift to one of the oldest ‘allies’ of US in favour of a country which, for much of its existence, has been aloof from it, if not openly hostile.

It is, after all, a fact of history that Pakistan has been tied up to the American apronstrings since the early 1950s when the then Eisenhower administration had taken fancy to Pakistan’s smart and elegant soldiers. The two armies—of US and Pakistan— haven’t looked back, ever since, although on the political level the two allies’ relationship has gone through many a roller-coaster.

What has, perhaps, incensed and annoyed the Pakistanis most is that Obama is openly courting an Indian leader—the two, Modi and Obama, hugged each other like bosom buddies in full limelight of the world media—who’d been a pariah to US until not too long ago. Such was the American allergy to a chauvinist and brazenly communalist leader like Narendra Modi that he was refused to set foot on American soil.

So, what really explains the sea-change in American attitude toward Modi and the country he leads? And why shouldn’t the black-andwhite-only seeing Pakistanis be more pragmatic and realistic about the radical turn in relations between the world’s two leading democracies?

For one, US is a global power—and an imperialist power, at that. Pakistanis ought to understand history’s gospel truth that imperialist powers are ruthless and cold-blooded.

For Western expansionist powers—of which US is the latest and most powerful exponent—the template is the Roman Empire that ruled over its vast possessions with absolute cruelty, if not barbarity.

So, Barack Obama could be least concerned that Pakistani feathers would be ruffled by his disdain for Pakistani sensitivities and unabashed courting of India.

Pakistanis would also be doing themselves a favour by reminding themselves of Lord Palmerstone’s old dictum: ‘There are no permanent enemies or permanent friends’ for a country in inter-state relations; only a country’s interests are permanent. That dictum sums up the place of morality or fair-play in international and interstate relations.

India is a huge market to US. Its consumerfetish middle class outnumbers the entire population of US. India is also the world’s number one importer of weapons, and US with its bulging arms industries has the answer to India’s hunger for weapons and demons of war. Under the BJP philosophy of a revanchist India powerful enough to flex its muscles and project its power far beyond its shores, there couldn’t be a more salubrious and welcome ambience for US to beCRUCIBLE FROM P8

of Pakistan’s history, has already started showing signs of fissure and dissent. It is true, you cannot expect a turtle to act like a race-horse.

The Title of this article is borrowed from Arthur Miller’s famous play, “The Crucible”. A crucible is defined as a ‘severe test’ that tests a nation’s soul. Any event, or any defining moment in a nation’s life that awakens it from its slumber, and that becomes its tipping point, a means of unraveling the naked truths about its true character; its true essence is called a Nation’s Crucible. The massacre of 145 people, including 132 school children at Peshawar hopefully can be construed as Pakistan’s Crucible. This scribe believes that Pakistan shall no more be the same; its politicians may like it or not. It would now emerge as a better and a

come India’s principal supplier of ordnance. It’s like a match made in heavens.

Obama may think he can do business with a Modi ready to take India on a trajectory of perceived greatness endemic to the BJP philosophy of Hindutva. It doesn’t matter to Obama that Modi has hands soiled with the blood of thousands of Gujrati Muslims. With billions of dollars at stake, Obama isn’t going to be put off by Modi’s tainted and sordid past. It’s pragmatism all the way. And that’s how an imperialist power bent on putting its cachet on everything associated with power has behaved in the annals of recorded history of mankind. Morality has no place in the almanac of raw power.

Whether it’s filling India’s arsenal with state-of-the-art hi-tech weapons or providing it

sent alarm bells ringing in the American corporate world, which has Congress in hog since long. The bottom line for them is to not let Russia monopolise the Indian market.

So Obama is doing what any pragmatist leader in his place would do. Pakistanis may think he’s ignoring or shunning them but that doesn’t change the calculus of power driving Obama and his tilt towards India. It’s not, necessarily at the expense of Pakistan.

Taking a non-cynical view of a development that has agitated most minds in Pakistan on a purely sentimental note, it should be a wake-up call for Pakistan why Obama hasn’t deemed it his call to visit an ally which has rendered greater services to the cause of fighting terrorism than any other US ally. A toll of 50,000-plus lives paid

The Pakistanis are afflicted by the same syndrome of self-projection that has become the bane of politics in Pakistan. The so-called social activists on behalf of Pakistan in US are busy-bodies seeking self-recognition for their input. The end-all of much of their social activity is to have themselves photographed with this or that senator or congressman and not much more than that. That photograph, in a glitzy frame, adorns their drawing room and becomes their ticket to fame. That’s about the sum total of their ‘lobbying’ for the mother country with nuclear power reactors—ostensibly for civilian use—it’s a win-win case for the US corporate world. A lame duck Obama, with his horns locked with a doggedly hawkish and revisionist US Congress would be hard put to even think of putting principles before worldly gains.

Obama didn’t have to look far for incentives to get into the race to cater to India’s huge shopping list for nuclear reactors to generate power.

US opened its technology and nuclear industry to India back in 2008 when George W. Bush waived aside all reservations to give India access to civilian nuclear technology. But caveats built into that agreement have stood in the way of US corporations reaping a rich harvest in India.

Meanwhile, India, not prepared to wait for US regulations to cut through the thicket, went to Russia for 12 nuclear power reactors, which

stronger Pakistan. It is not just hoped; it is believed that no more its people shall allow the politicians to confuse them any further on the issue of who is a “good” Taliban and who is a “bad” Taliban? It will not be easy for the spineless leaders to wipe out the blood of these 132 school children even if the water of seven seas is made available to them. And if they try to do so, the army and the people would not let them to do so.

Professor J. Rufus Fears in his wonderful lectures titled “The Wisdom of History” raises a fundamental question, “Can we separate private morality from public morality?”

George Washington, the Founding Father of America, and Quaid-iAzam, the Founding Father of Pakistan, at least believed that one could not do so. Fears gives reasons: The Romans fell because citizens had be-

in the cause is no mean sacrifice.

And yet the Pakistanis have become a nation of naysayers—a people in perpetual denial of the realities making up their political landscape. But they must accept the reality no matter how unsavory it is. And the reality is that Pakistan has a horrible, really messy, problem of terrorism gone berserk.

That we’ve, belatedly, accepted the presence of the hydra-headed monster of terrorism in our midst is still commendable. The National Action Plan (NAP), now in force, is expected to pave the way for a concerted civil and military grand plan to combat the scourge of terrorism at all levels in the country.

But these baby steps are a little too late to convince the outside world, including the US, that Pakistan is a safe place for a US President.

come so corrupt that they were willing to become slaves of a despot. True, old Republicans of Rome could never have accepted Caesar’s dictatorship.

Same formula applies to the people of Pakistan. As says Naseer ud Din Shah in “Khuda ki Liay- In The name of God” film, “Muslims are always in search of ‘Halal’ meat with ‘Haram’ money in their wallets”. Halal has to be ‘Tayyab’ too, says the Qur’an. In Islam there is no such thing as private morality and public morality.

Another question Fears asks is, “Can an immoral ruler be a good king?” In Modern times it is believed that private morality is a private matter; it has nothing to do with leadership qualities. But actually it does.

Personal whims and desires do impact the quality of leadership. The Roman Empire went bankrupt by concentrating on the Middle East.

www.PakistanLink.com

They aren’t prepared—at least for the moment— to lower the risk factor that goes with Pakistan’s classification of one of the most dangerous places on the planet as far as basic norms of security are concerned.

Add to it the lackadaisical performance—a non-performance, in fact—of the political leadership of Nawaz Sharif & Co. For a brief spell of time, immediately after the blood-bath of innocent school children at Peshawar Army School, they’d given semblance of jogging into action.

However, much of that ersatz energy seems to have fizzled out, already. They are nearly back to their laid-back style of governance in which no one is accountable and none is ready to accept responsibility. The petrol crisis of a week ago was best illustrative of Nawaz Sharif ’s utter failure to understand the causes of this horrendous cycle of shortages in basic commodities of life, much less come to grips with them.

The civilian government’s paralysis is best epitomised in a nearly dysfunctional Foreign Office which, under Nawaz, has been lurching like a rudderless ship. The absence of a Foreign Minister has seriously handicapped its performance.

But the odd situation is worse compounded by the in-fighting for upper hand between the two contenders for PM’s favours who are said to be into a turf war at the FO. But whatever other evil fallout of this turf war, Pakistan’s diplomatic projections abroad are going unattended by default.

The Pakistani diaspora in North America is, rightly, unhappy at the cold shoulder given to Pakistan in the US administration despite its massive efforts to contain the tide of terrorism.

However, this diaspora ought to make an introspection of its own tentative efforts in the crucial department of lobbying. It goes without saying that lobbying moves the levers of power in the US administration and, much more, in Congress.

That’s where the Pakistani diaspora is found so short and wanting, compared to the professional calibre and capabilities of the Indian diaspora in the US. The Pakistanis are afflicted by the same syndrome of self-projection that has become the bane of politics in Pakistan. The so-called social activists on behalf of Pakistan in US are busy-bodies seeking self-recognition for their input. The end-all of much of their social activity is to have themselves photographed with this or that senator or congressman and not much more than that. That photograph, in a glitzy frame, adorns their drawing room and becomes their ticket to fame. That’s about the sum total of their ‘lobbying’ for the mother country.

This feudal instinct will have to be restrained if they really mean to become movers and shakers in the real sense of the term for Pakistan.

That Obama shunned Pakistan and chose to openly court India should become a reality check for Pakistanis, both at home and abroad. However, bemoaning the insult alone wouldn’t change the equation in favour of Pakistan. It would take nothing short of a massive, all round, effort on more than one front will be needed to turn the fortunes and make Pakistan a palatable place for world leaders. It will not be easy.

K_K_ghori@hotmail.com (The author is a former ambassador and career diplomat)

It just wore down its army at the expense of its economy. In recent times, the USSR repeated the same mistake.

The Founding Fathers of America faced a moral issue at the time of Independence: they could abolish slavery in the six States, or they could write the Constitution first. Slaves were major contributors to the fledging agro-economy of the country.

They retained the curse of slavery, but wrote the Constitution. The Modern mind may look at the issue from a different angle, but they did what they deemed better then.

Plutarch notes Marc Antony could have been the master of the world, but instead of consolidating his powers, he stayed focused on a love affair with Cleopatra. The Turks in Constantine -Ople (and they admit it) overspent on the construction of mosques - the Blue Mosque, the Su-

laimania Mosque, and the Palace on the Bosporus, and then almost went bankrupt. The last Sultan borrowed money from the West, and spent it on the construction of a palace just to impress the West. So the conclusion is: “Know your priorities, and set them in the right way”.

Knowing ones priorities is like knowing one’s gifts; knowing ones limits. This leads to using ones powers justly. Metros and mega projects or fixing the broken windows first, got Mian Nawaz Sharif in the hole that he is in. Bio-history shows that Napoleon lost to Duke Wellington at Waterloo, more due to his skin itching and hemorrhoids than due to his poor strategy. So it is very important for the People of Pakistan to know what medicines their leadership takes; and what kind of diet they consume. (Continued next week)

OPINION

P10 – PAKISTAN LINK – FEBRUARY 6, 2015

n By Dr Amineh Hoti

T

he importance of ideas that shape us during childhood must not be overlooked in a serious discussion on culture and ideas. We live in a society that is largely dependent on and shaped by culture – especially popular culture.

What children – the future citizens of nations – experience matters. Therefore, it is worth examining what children are exposed to, why and how.

Disney is a household name now – every parent and child will know characters of every cartoon figure from Ariel to Jasmine. There is no better place than Copenhagen, Denmark, to explore who the Little Mermaid, now called ‘Ariel’, is and how she was created. Ariel is a fictional character from a fairytale written by Hans Christian Anderson who lived in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark where I visited for research. It is a story of love and self-sacrifice.

The statue of the Little Mermaid, unveiled in 1913 in Copenhagen, is an iconic symbol and major tourist destination that depicts the main character of this fairy tale published a hundred and seventy-eight years ago. Our team of Journey into Europe stood before the bronze icon while Professor Akbar S Ahmed addressed the world on camera regarding Islam and Muslims in Denmark. He made a point to mention the cartoons of the Prophet of Islam (PBUH) published here in 2005.

Disney was inspired by the story of the Little Mermaid, but anima-

The Little Mermaid tion director Ron Clements thought the ending of the original story was too tragic, and so he changed it to make Ariel the rebellious youngest mer-princess in line with a modern day feminist context. In Disney’s happy ending, Ariel marries Prince Eric. Disney’s paint lab produced the blue-green color of Ariel’s fin and this hue is named “Ariel” after the character. Even her hair was disputed – some argued for blonde, others for red, the latter eventually got the vote as it matched the fin’s color. Today, Ariel is a household name, yet it is also important to look into the original ending specifically to understand its meaning for humanity in today’s world which is full of moral and ethical challenges for us human beings.

Anderson’s original Little Mermaid is a mer-princess who lives in the depths of the sea with her grandmother and her five sisters, each born one year apart. Anderson intended the story to have fable-like qualities which gave a strong moral message to young people. The youngest sister is fascinated by the stories told by her older sisters about the world above water (as a merperson is only allowed to visit the surface at the age of 15). Upon her turn, she sees a handsome Prince in a ship and falls in love at first sight.

The Little Mermaid saves the Prince from drowning when a storm hits the ship and delivers him to shore near a temple, without the Prince knowing who his rescuer truly is.

The Prince thinks that a young girl from the temple saved him.

With the Prince in mind, the Little Mermaid asks her grandmother if humans can live forever and if they can breathe under water.

The grandmother warns that they have shorter lives than mer-people (300 years). The difference is that when mer-people die they become sea foam and do not exist any more.

But human souls are eternal and live in Heaven. The attraction of an eter-

marries her. The Little Mermaid is heartbroken and in despair – she had given up everything for him who, as human nature is, does not focus on what is precious and right in front of him but chases after something else. Her sisters try to

In the light of the heartbreaking Peshawar massacre a strong and clear message must be formed. Letting children have the freedom to use their imagination and to live both physically and mentally free is letting them live fully as God intended us to live nal soul and her deep love draws her to sacrifice her most precious gift – her beautiful voice – in exchange for human legs, even though her legs prick like knives and the potion the Sea Witch gives her feels like a sword.

Only true love’s kiss and marriage with the Prince can save her when his soul flows into hers. She meets the prince – the Little Mermaid’s beauty mesmerizes him but he is in love with the girl who he thinks saved him at the Temple and

rescue her by giving the Little Mermaid a knife from the Sea Witch in exchange for their long hair to kill the Prince, which will free the Little Mermaid. Yet when she sees her love with his new bride, she cannot bring herself to take another life even though it pains her physically and mentally. She decides nobly that his happiness is her happiness.

At dawn, she throws herself into the sea and her body dissolves into foam. She has made the ultimate sacrifice of her own life in order to

save another. By this good deed, she earns a soul and rises up into the kingdom of God in Heaven.

Our team of Journey into Europe – Professor Akbar Ahmed, Zeenat Ahmed, Frankie Martin, Harrison Aikins, and myself – stood by the bronze statue of the Little Mermaid looking wistfully into the sea just off the land of Copenhagen.

Her story is a strong message for men and women, young and old – of great bravery, courage, and profound love in very hard times. Stories can help us see the world in an empathetic way and make us strong with God’s own virtues of wisdom and compassion.

In the light of the heartbreaking Peshawar massacre a strong and clear message must be formed. Letting children have the freedom to use their imagination and to live both physically and mentally free is letting them live fully as God intended us to live. Letting the younger generation live fully, must also be inextricably interlinked with respect for young children. It is important to see them as individuals, and not simply as a part of ourselves/their parents as we culturally have the habit to do in South Asia. The values of this story will continue to guide humankind on dealing with others’ decisions with respect and humility. Now more than ever in our increasingly fractured world we need to spark off the imagination of young minds and encourage them respectfully towards higher ideas of humanity through creativity, open mindedness and learning.

(Dr Amineh Hoti is the only female academic in the project Journey into Europe. For more details, please see journeyintoeurope.com)

Obama’s Arctic Decisions May Be the Climate’s Turning Point n By Mark Trahant

T

results suggest that, globally, a third of oil reserves, half of gas reserves and over 80 per cent of current coal reserves should remain unused from 2010 to 2050 in order to meet the target.”

Anchorage, Alaska

his is the Climate Moment.

A possible turning point.

Consider the massive storm that resulted in a state of emergency throughout much of New England with temperatures in the teens, gusty winds, and snow measured by the foot not the inch.

We know from the science that climate change will make storms more severe and more common.

It’s also the moment when the Obama administration stepped up to preserve the environment — as well as protect Alaska Native communities — by limiting future oil and gas development in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and along the Coastal Plain.

A White House blog put it this way: “This far northern region is known as “The Sacred Place Where Life Begins” to Alaska Native communities. The Refuge sustains the most diverse array of wildlife in the entire Arctic — home not only to the Porcupine caribou, but to polar bears, gray wolves, and muskoxen.

Bird species from the Coastal Plain migrate to all 50 states of the country — meaning that no matter where you live, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is part of your landscape.”

But pretty much all of official Alaska saw this issue differently. On Capitol Hill, Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski said the administration has “effectively declared war on Alaska. That’s my view of it.”

“It’s a one-two-three kick to the gut of Alaska’s economy,” she said, adding that the governor told the Secretary of Interior that Alaska has a budget hole of about $3.5 billion — a problem that will be made worse without more oil production.

And this is an odd time for Alaska. The state budgeted for oil to be selling at more than a hundred dollars a barrel — and now the price is less than half that. This is a state that an oil and gas trade group brags that 92 percent of the state’s revenues come from that single industry.

So Alaska has had a grand old

time with its oil money. Instead of a personal income tax, Alaskans receive their version of a tribal per capita every year. In fact Alaska ranks second lowest in the country in overall taxes (Wyoming is first) but that figure is skewed because nearly all of the money comes from corporate taxes. There is no income tax or sales tax.

Perhaps this serious budget shortage might actually force Alaska citizens to contribute to their state and pay taxes the way, oh, 49 other states and the District of Columbia do.

www.PakistanLink.com

But let’s talk climate. Neither the White House nor the Interior Department cited climate change as their reason for limiting development in Alaska.

Then again, a new analysis published in Nature in January said that more fossil fuels will have to be left in the ground in order to prevent further damage from climate change. The piece said that known reserves of coal, oil and gas, including the Canadian tar sands, all Arctic oil and gas, cannot be developed and still keep temperatures under current limits. The authors wrote: “Our

That means no new Arctic oil and gas developments. No more tar sands. And, by extension, no Keystone XL pipeline.

What’s interesting about the research is how specific it is about developing Arctic resources.

The authors, Christophe McGlade and Paul Ekins from University College in London, estimate “100 billion barrels of oil (including natural gas liquids) and 5 trillion cubic meters of gas in fields within the Arctic Circle that are not being produced as of 2010.”

That production alone could tip the globe and warm more than is considered safe. “The results indicate to us that all Arctic resources should be classified as unburnable. To conclude, these results demonstrate that a stark transformation in our understanding of fossil fuel availability is necessary. Although there have previously been fears over the scarcity of fossil fuels in a climateconstrained world this is no longer a relevant concern: large portions of the reserve base and an even greater proportion of the resource base should not be produced if the temperature rise is to remain below 2 degrees” above pre-industrial levels.

The president’s action is not CLIMATE, P29

PAKISTAN

FEBRUARY 6, 2015 – PAKISTAN LINK – P11

Stalled Negotiations: Obama Pushes Modi to Re-Engage with Pakistan

Islamabad: Away from the media glare and the pageantry of his highprofile visit, US President Barack Obama asked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to resume the stalled peace process with neighboring Pakistan during their recent meeting.

A senior official familiar with the development told The Express Tribune on Sunday that Washington has informed through diplomatic channels that Obama “privately encouraged and pushed” Modi to review his approach towards Pakistan.

The US president told Modi that despite ongoing tensions, India must remain engaged with Pakistan.

The official, who requested not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, said Modi was informed that Pakistan had taken ‘serious steps’ in recent months to eradicate terrorism.

Obama particularly referred to the Pakistan government’s efforts to ensure that Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, the alleged mastermind of the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, remains incarcerated.

The official said that the US intervention at the highest level raised the possibility of resumption of talks between the two nuclear-armed neighbors. A diplomatic source claimed that the moribund talks might resume in March.

The US State Department also indicated that Washington was ‘consistently’ encouraging both Islamabad and New Delhi for dialogue.

“We consistently encourage dialogue between India and Pakistan.

And obviously, the scope and scale of the process there is up to those coun-

Mohammad Sarwar was appointed to the largely ceremonial position in 2013

President Obama and Prime Minister Modi of India

tries to determine,” State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters in Washington last week. However, she refused to comment when pressed whether President Obama had raised the issue with the Indian leadership during his New Delhi trip.

The American reluctance to publicly acknowledge its ‘intervention’ is attributed to the fact that India does not want to be seen taking ‘dictation’ from outside due to domestic compulsions.

International relations expert Dr Ishtiaq Ahmed believes the United States, as a global power, can influence India’s policy vis-a-vis Pakistan.

“In fact the deepening relationship between the US and India is not something really bad for Pakistan,” said Ishtiaq, who is a Jinnah Fellow at the Oxford University London.

He added that India’s ‘dependency’ on the United States, be it de-

fense or nuclear areas, means Americans will have more ‘leverage’ over the administration in New Delhi.

The process of negotiations between Islamabad and New Delhi has remained suspended despite a promising start when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attended the swearingin ceremony of Indian Prime Minister Modi in May last year.

The two neighbors were set to hold foreign secretary level talks in August last year but the Modi government cancelled the meeting at the last moment as a protest over Pakistan high commissioner’s meeting with Kashmiri separatists.

Prospects of normalization of ties dimmed because of frequent skirmishes between Pakistani and Indian troops along the Line of Control (LoC) and working boundary.

The two countries accused each other of initiating the hostilities.

Army Public School Fear of Taliban Backlash: Some Tribal Survivors Leave Elders Unwilling to Accept Badge of Honor on ‘Healing Trip’

Islamabad: Some elders are unwill-

ing to accept lungies, or traditional souvenirs, from the government due to threats from militants since the launch of the ongoing military operations in the tribal regions, says Abdul Qadir Baloch, the Minister for States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON).

Replying to a question in the Senate on Friday, Baloch said the federal government has conferred some 8,000 ‘lungies’ on tribal elders over the past five years in recognition of their services for maintaining peace in their respective tribal agencies.

“As a symbol of honor, we are conferring these ‘lungies’ in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) for the services and sacrifices rendered by the tribal people,” he added.

“This is a wrong impression that many elders and Maliks in Fata are refusing to accept these ‘lungies’ because they are either supporting the Taliban or militants,” the minister said. He claimed that these elders were not coming forward for fear of a Taliban backlash.

However, the traditional souvenirs have come at a price for its recipients as according to Fata Senator Saleh Shah, about 1,400 such ‘mashran’ (elders) have been gunned down by the Taliban. “The government must recognize their sacrifices as well,” he said.

Baloch said the government has all respect for those who rendered

Peshawar: A group of students

sacrifices for the country. He added that the recipients of ‘lungies’ were selected on the recommendations of the political agents, or top administrators in tribal agencies.

Senator Hidayat Ullah objected that the government has increased the price of ‘lungies’ and tribal elders were reluctant to purchase these souvenirs. But Baloch argued that the government has increased the price from Rs25 to Rs50 in 2014 which is a nominal increase.

The government had granted 750 lungies between 2009 and 2010; 3,200 in 2012, 375 in 2013 and 2,100 in 2014. These lungies had been distributed in 13 regions, including Bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber, Kurram, Orakzai, North and South Waziristan agencies and Frontier Regions Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu, Tank, Lakki and DI Khan.

Former Glasgow MP Resigns as Punjab Governor

and teachers who survived a Taliban massacre at an army-run school left on Monday for a trip to China aimed at healing the mental scars of their ordeal.

Heavily-armed militants stormed the Army Public School in Peshawar in December, killing 150 people, most of them children.

The carnage horrified the world and left many survivors badly traumatiZed. Now 10 students and two teachers who escaped the bloodshed have been sent on a 10-day trip to help them recover.

“The basic aim of the visit is to divert the attention of the survivors,” from the nightmare, a security official told AFP. An official at the Army Public School confirmed the visit and told AFP that “more survivors will be sent in coming days to other countries”.

Both the officials spoke on condition of anonymity.

The officials said the decision was taken after psychiatrists suggested that survivors need longterm therapy and mental health counseling.

The security official in Peshawar said the parents of children killed in the attack would be sent on pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in the coming days.

www.PakistanLink.com

Lahore: The governor of Punjab province resigned on Thursday, saying the country’s political system had failed ordinary people and served “only the elite class”.

Mohammad Sarwar, who served as a Labor MP and renounced his British citizenship to take the role in Punjab, was appointed to the largely ceremonial position in 2013.

At the time he told the Telegraph he hoped to work with Gordon Brown, the former prime minister and UN education envoy, to boost literacy and bring seven million Pakistani children into the country’s school system.

The 62-year-old’s resignation speech in Lahore voiced disappointment at progress in the province.

“I am resigning because the system has failed to deliver to the masses,” Mr Sarwar said. “The system is serving only the elite class and the common man is deprived of justice, rights and prosperity.”

His resignation came two days after he criticized the government for failing to persuade US President Barack Obama to visit.

Mr Sarwar called Pakistan’s inability to secure a visit from Mr Obama – who last week made his second tour of arch-rival India – a “diplomatic failure”.

His son Anas Sarwar, who succeeded him as Glasgow Central MP, said it was a “sad day for Pakistan”.

Mohammad Sarwar told the Telegraph he had been thwarted in his campaign to help people recover their homes from corrupt landowners and was dismayed over the treatment of religious minorities in the country.

“They don’t feel safe, people attack and kill them”, he said.

Punjab is the main power base of the centre-right Pakistan Muslim League-N (PMLN) party of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, which appointed Mr Sarwar.

Lahore: Punjab’s former governor

the country and devolving power.

“Things will improve with the devolution of power. The power should not be limited to five per cent of the total population,” he said.

According to him, every third Pakistani is a victim of the land mafia and the government must look into this problem. He said he stood for democracy where even a common man’s son could get the same opportunities and rights as the elite.

Sarwar Plans to Take Part in Active Politics

Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar has said he will neither re-apply for the British citizenship nor join Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.

“I am not buying one-way ticket to London. I will return and take part in active politics and work for the people of Pakistan in an independent capacity,” he said while talking to reporters here on Sunday.

Chaudhry Sarwar resigned last week because of his failure to achieve the goals he had set for himself while assuming office on Aug 5, 2013.

He complained about rising crime graph, helplessness of victims before oppressors and the power of land mafia which were “more influential than the governor”.

He said that rumors about his joining the PTI were baseless and that he had no such plans. “I did not even join the PML-N. I have good relations with leaders of all political parties.”

He described the rumor that his resignation had anything to do with the so-called ‘London plan’ (of Imran Khan and Dr Tahirul Qadri) as rubbish.

He said the people of Pakistan were brave but oppressed. “I am wondering why the rulers visit Europe but never introduce its system here for the betterment of the people.”

He stressed the need for holding local government elections in

Army Chief Meets US RSM Commander Rawalpindi:

General John F. Campbell, Commander Resolute Support Mission and United States Forces - Afghanistan called on Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif on Monday at General Headquarters, said an ISPR press release.

During the meeting, matters of mutual interest and regional security with particular emphasis on coordination along Pak-Afghan border were discussed.

Campbell had last met the COAS in December when he and Afghan National Army (ANA) General Sher Mohammad Karimi had reaffirmed their commitment to eliminate sanctuaries of Pakistani militants on Afghan soil.

PAKISTAN

P12 – PAKISTAN LINK – FEBRUARY 6, 2015

Imambara Bomb Attack Kills at least 60 in Shikarpur

The bomb exploded as worshippers attended Friday prayers in the town of Shikarpur

Shikarpur: A bomb blast

at an imambara in southern Pakistan has killed at least 60 people and wounded dozens more, officials said, in the deadliest sectarian attack to hit the country in more than a year.

The bomb exploded as worshippers attended Friday prayers in the town of Shikarpur in Sindh province, about 470 kilometres north of Karachi.

Pakistan has suffered a rising tide of sectarian violence in recent years, most of it perpetrated by hardline Sunni Muslim groups against minority

Shiite Muslims, who make up about 20 per cent of the population.

Sindh health minister Jam Mehtab Daher said “the death toll from the attack has increased to 61”.

“There are 54 dead bodies in Shikarpur hospital. Seven others died in Sukkur and Larkana hospitals,” he said.

Witness Zahid Noon said hundreds of people had rushed to the scene to try to dig out survivors trapped under the roof of the imambargah, which collapsed in the blast.

Television footage of the aftermath showed

chaotic rescue scenes as people piled the wounded into cars, motorbikes and rickshaws to take them for treatment.

“The area is spattered with blood and flesh and it smells of burnt meat, people are screaming at each other... it is chaos,” Mr Noon said.

“A huge contingency of police and rangers is present here and ambulances from the nearby towns have started to arrive.”

Abdul Quddus, a senior police official in Shikarpur, said the initial investigation suggested it

Malala amongst Most Admired Women after Angelina Jolie

London: World’s youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai is the second most-admired-woman, the first being Hollywood’s leading lady and philanthropist Angelina Jolie, according to the YouGov UK poll.

The poll in which 25,000 people from 23 countries took part saw Jolie, Malala and former US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton among the leading women and Bill Gates, US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping as the most admired men.

The 17-year-old Malala is the youngest person on the list which includes Queen Elizabeth, Indian politician, Sonia Gandhi, US First Lady Michelle Obama, singer Taylor Swift, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and actors Julia Roberts, Emma Watson, Jennifer Lawrence among oth-

ers.

The survey was conducted by asking about 30,000 people to name the man or woman, they admired most and the list was later compiled, reported Arab News.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi stood six in the list which also includes the likes of former US Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, footballer Christiano Ronaldo, actor Jackie Chan, theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking and Hollywood actor George Clooney.

While his wife topped the list, actor Brad Pitt made it to number 13.

Malala, who recently was on the list of 500 most influential people in Britain 2015 was 15 when a Taliban gunman shot her in the head as she travelled on a school bus in response to her campaign for girls’ education.

may have been a suicide blast.

An official with a national Shiite organisation, Rahat Kazmi, said up to 400 people were worshipping in the mosque when the blast struck.

It was the bloodiest single sectarian attack in Pakistan since January 22 last year, when 24 Shiite pilgrims returning from Iran were killed when their bus was bombed in southwestern Baluchistan province.

Friday’s attack came as prime minister Nawaz Sharif visited Karachi, the capital of Sindh province, to discuss the law and order situation in the city.

Anti-Shiite attacks have been increasing in recent years in Karachi and also in the southwestern city of Quetta, the northwestern area of Parachinar and the far northeastern town of Gilgit.

Around 1,000 Shiites have been killed in the past two years in Pakistan, a heavy toll, with many of the attacks claimed by the hardline Sunni group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ).

Pakistan has stepped up its fight against militants in the past month, following a Taliban massacre at a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Saudi Royal to Hunt ‘Protected’ Birds

Quetta: Pakistani authorities are final-

izing arrangements for a Saudi prince to visit its southwestern desert region to hunt the Houbara bustard, a bird supposedly protected by law, officials said Monday.

An advance party has already reached the Yak Much desert in the province of Baluchistan along with falcons which will be used to catch the bustard, officials said.

Saudi Prince Fahd bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz is expected to join the group in coming days. He led a hunting party to Baluchistan last year that officials said killed more than 2,000 bustards.

The birds are listed as “vulnerable” and declining in numbers by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s “Red List” of threatened species.

Hunting them is banned in Pakistan.

But authorities issue special permits to wealthy visitors from Arab countries. Permit holders are in theory restricted to hunting a maximum of 100 of the protected birds over 10 days, but only in certain areas.

Saifullah Zehri, district forest officer for wildlife in Chagai district of which Yak Much is a part, told AFP the advance party arrived on Sunday in a C-130 transport plane.

“They were fully equipped and had all the material which is required for bird hunting,” Zehri said.

Arab sheikhs are known as enthusiastic hunters, travelling to Pakistan each year to hunt the bird using the traditional Arabian method. They arrive by private jets from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

www.PakistanLink.com

MQM Asks Govt. to Hold Census without Delay

Islamabad: A Muttahida Qaumi

Movement’s resolution urging the government to immediately conduct a population census in the country is on the agenda of the Senate’s sitting to be held on Monday.

“This House recommends that the government should take immediate steps to conduct 6th housing and population census in the country,” says the resolution submitted by retired Colonel Tahir Hussain Mashhadi of the MQM. Talking to Dawn on Sunday, Mr Mashhadi said he had moved the resolution to remind the government of its constitutional and legal responsibility to conduct the population and housing census every 10 years.

Since the last census was held in 1998 a fresh census was due in 2008, he added.

The senator alleged that the census was being delayed on political grounds as the ruling elite wanted to retain maximum powers and resources in its hands.

“The ruling elite, including MNAs and senators, want to retain development funds and resources in their own hands and do not want to devolve them to provinces or local bodies,” he said.

The MQM senator said that those who did not want to hold local bodies’ elections in the country were actually reluctant to hold census as they knew that after the census they would have to go for new delimitation of constituencies and would have to give share in resources and development funds to local governments.

Giving an example, he said, the population of Karachi had now crossed 20.5 million, but the city still has 10 seats reserved in the National Assembly.

“Karachi’s seats in the assembly will be doubled after the census,” he

claimed.

Terming it an important and complicated matter, the MQM leader said it was necessary for a government to have exact information about the population and number of houses to ensure good governance and to take adequate measures for development of areas and welfare of people.

“How can a government make plans for development if it does not have any idea of the population of an area? How can it expand the tax-base without having an accurate data?” he asked.

On the other hand, Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal, when contacted, blamed some provinces for delay in holding the census.

He said the federal government wanted to have census, but the process was delayed after Balochistan and Sindh raised some reservations about it. He said the matter was now pending a decision before the Council of Common Interests (CCI).

The minister said that during the last meeting of the CCI he had suggested that like India, Pakistan should also freeze delimitations and resources distribution for at least 20 or 25 years and census should only be held for allocation of development funds and projects. He was of the view that the census should be delinked from political issues and it should only be a development issue.

He, however, expressed the hope that the issue would be resolved at the next CCI meeting which was due in the current month.

The Election Commission of Pakistan has sent a summary to the prime minister, informing him that the census is essential for carrying out delimitation of constituencies for the national and provincial assemblies before the next general elections.

Dr Shakil Afridi’s Family Seeks Immediate ‘Evacuation’ Washington, DC: The wife and children of Dr Shakil Afridi were seeking immediate evacuation from Pakistan, Fox News reported on Sunday.

Dr Afridi, who helped the United States locate Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, has been jailed in Peshawar for his alleged links to various terrorist groups.

In a report based on interviews with friends and relatives of Dr Afridi, the US news channel claimed that his wife and children were “in increasing fear for their lives and should be evacuated from Pakistan immediately.”

The 51-year old physician is considered a hero in the United States for his role in the May 2011 SEAL Team 6 raid that killed the Al Qaeda leader.

The report claimed that Dr Afridi was still in isolation in a Pakistani jail and his bid for a review of his 2012 conviction for “terrorism links” has been stalled since last March.

Dr Afridi’s wife and his two sons and a daughter had left their native province and were now hiding in Punjab. They feared for their lives because the Taliban and other terrorist groups had vowed to avenge Bin Laden’s killing, the report said.

“I am sorry to say that (the) US government is doing nothing for

him,” Qamar Nadeem Afridi, the doctor’s lawyer and also a cousin, told Fox News.

Both the White House and the US State Department have publicly urged Pakistan to release Dr Afridi but his lawyer said that the US government had done little to help his family.

Qamar Nadeem said that Dr Afridi’s brother Jamil and his friends were bearing most of the doctor’s legal and other expenses.

PAKISTAN

FEBRUARY 6, 2015 – PAKISTAN LINK – P13

PTI Confident about Prospects in Upper House Polls

Military Courts: Provinces Identify over 1,300 Hardcore Terrorists

Peshawar: After Pakistan Tehreek-e-

Insaf ’s (PTI) formal announcement of participation in Senate polls from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), the party is remarkably confident about its standing in the race.

On Friday, Imran Khan said the party would contest the elections from only this province, and will not take it lightly if any of the PTI candidates were involved in buying a seat in the upper house. Insiders had said while the chief minister was all for the PTI’s participation, Azam Khan Swati and a few others were less than keen.

“We know how many seats we are going to win in the polls and are very clear about that,” PTI K-P General Secretary Khalid Masood told The Express Tribune. However, Masood was in favor of an understanding if the opposition and ruling alliance manage to reach one. He said such a move would make the elections an easy process.

However, he said, seat adjustment was not the ruling party’s problem, but that of the opposition.

“We already know our potential and any understanding will be good for the opposition parties.” Masood said he was unaware of any meeting between the K-P chief minister and opposition parties to discuss possible seat adjustment. “I don’t know of any such contact,” he said.

Polls for 12 Senate seats from the province will take place next month.

PTI is expected to win at least five of them with 56 members in the assembly.

Mutual benefits: Overall, political parties from the treasury and opposition benches of K-P Assembly seem willing to come to an understanding for the upcoming Senate elections.

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUIF), which is the largest opposition party, also expressed its willingness to reach an understanding. JUI-F Spokesperson Haji Abdul Jalil Jan said his

The Senate in session

party was in favor of an agreement over the Senate polls. “We will fully support such an initiative that will make all political parties happy,” he said. However, PTI will chalk out its future course of action for the Upper House elections in the party’s provincial general council meeting on Monday.

PPP’s stance: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) lawmaker Nighat Orakzai said opposition parties were united on this issue and eager to reach an agreement.

Seemingly advocating for one Senate berth for each party, she said the PPP was willing to sacrifice to accommodate all.

She said both the government and opposition parties were in contact with each other; however, she was unsure if an agreement could be reached with the PTI. Orakzai stated both coalition partners of the ruling party, Awami Jamhori Ittehad Pakistan (AJIP) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), were demanding a seat each from the government and it was unlikely the PTI would accommodate both the opposition and treasury parties.

“I do not think any broad-based understanding will emerge,” she said.

Nighat added the PPP will plan its

Imran Demands NA Speaker’s Suspension Islamabad: Pakistan Tehreek-i-

Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan in a meeting with Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) retired Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza Khan on Monday demanded that National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq be suspended till investigation into the alleged rigging in the NA-122 constituency is completed.

Imran told reporters after the meeting that his party had also requested that the CEC form two tasks force to look into giving overseas Pakistanis the right to vote as well as the possibility to introduce an electronic voting system for the next general elections.

The meeting took place two days after an election tribunal in Lahore turned down Imran’s plea for action against an inquiry commission that inspected the record of election in NA-122. The PTI chief had sought re-inspection of the records of certain polling stations in the constituency.

Disposing off the application, tribunal member Kazim Ali Malik had said that at this stage it was premature for the PTI leader to seek reinspection. The tribunal has set Feb 7 as the next date for hearing.

Provincial Home Derpartments have started sending cases to the Interior Ministry

strategy in a meeting in Karachi on Monday) with the Party Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari in the chair.

Horse-trading: Orakzai urged the PTI-led government to stop ‘horsetrading’. Such practices are nothing new in Senate elections. Some of the more notable instances included that of a former K-P chief minister, the late Mir Afzal Khan, who contested Senate polls in 1989 and emerged victorious, allegedly by making investments.

In 1991, there was record investment made by several influential and wealthy candidates before senate elections. Among them Commander (retd) Khalilur Rahman, an independent candidate, was prominent. His candidature was proposed and seconded by Akram Khan Durrani and Maulana Asmatullah, the only two of JUI-F members in the K-P Assembly at the time.

K-P only: The PTI will only field candidates for Senate seats from K-P as their lawmakers resigned from the other provinces in a show of protest against alleged election rigging. However, analysts observed that despite allegations of poll rigging in K-P as well, the ruling party decided its MPAs would not resign from their seats in the province.

Amitabh to Commentate in India-Pakistan Match Mumbai: Ardent cricket fan and

Imran Khan had alleged that the commission had not followed its terms of reference and that it had committed breach of trust by giving statements to media.

Retired sessions judge Ghulam Hussain Awan was appointed by the tribunal to inspect the record. The result of the election remained unchanged after the process.

After an audit of a number of polling stations in NA-122 constituency, both the ruling PML-N and the PTI have been making contradictory claims.

veteran Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan will be commentating during the much talked about India- Pakistan match in World Cup 2015 on Feb 15, a report published in Cricket Country said.

Cricket fans who anxiously await the most exciting event of the year can expect a true gala as Bachchan’s voice resonates in the cricket stadium in Adelaide, Australia.

Bachchan, who is to commentate for Star Sports, as reported by Times of India, is expected to share the mike with the likes of Shoaib Akhtar, Kapil Dev and Harsha Bhogle.

His new movie Shamitabh is scheduled to release on Feb 6.

Bachchan expressed excitement about this new venture with the remark: “This country’s emotions are ruled by two things — cricket and cinema. For me, it’s an exciting time on both fronts. My movie is releasing on February 6 and then, I have the privilege of making my commentary debut.”

Bachchan who is known to be a devout cricket fan has appeared alongside top Indian cricketers in past commercials.

www.PakistanLink.com

Islamabad: Provincial authorities

have identified cases of more than 1,350 terrorists, likely to be sent to the military courts by the end of this month, the officials tracking progress on the National Action Plan (NAP) against terrorism said on Sunday.

A senior official at the National Counter-Terrorism Authority (Nacta) said home departments, after vetting suspected terrorists, have started sending their cases to the interior ministry – the final authority to decide whether a case will be sent to the military courts or the courts established under the Protection of Pakistan Act (PPA).

“The current week is a decisive one as we, after taking Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ’s consent, will start sending cases to the military courts,” the official said.

Punjab has identified more than 450 cases of terrorists, according to provincial Home Minister Col (retd) Shuja Khanzada. All the cases which may fall under the first category will be referred to the military courts soon, he added.

“We are on the path of swift execution of the NAP – 147 new cases have been filed against ‘jetblack terrorists’. They all were active members of banned outfits,” he told The Express Tribune.

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) home department has identified 423 cases to be sent to the interior ministry by February 15, a senior official said. Of these, 91 cases involve ‘jet black terrorists’, he added.

Balochistan Home Secretary Akbar Khan Durrani told The Express Tribune that the provincial home department has identified 53 cases of ‘jet-black terrorists’ to be sent to the military courts through the interior ministry.

He said new legislation – on arm licenses, hate material and protection of civilians – is also on the cards in the provincial assembly.

The security forces have arrested over 1,400 suspects in more than 200 raids last month. Another top official at the Balochistan home department added that 135 cases of terrorists have been identified so far.

Sindh has identified more than 341 cases of militants, of which 194 are likely to be sent to the military courts through the interior ministry, a senior official of the provincial home department said.

The army has already established nine military courts, which also began operating under the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Branch of the Pakistan Army, he added. “The army has established its Lawfare Directorate and appointed

JAG’s a new director general, Major General Muhammad Irshad, a necessary step towards execution of the NAP.” Last month, the army had announced establishment of three military courts each in K-P and Punjab, two in Sindh and one in Balochistan.

Additionally, the JAG has started taking up cases of around 3,000 suspected ‘jet-black terrorists’ arrested during the military operations in Swat and South and North Waziristan agencies, a senior government functionary told The Express Tribune.

Colonel (retd) Inam-ur-Rahim, who has served in the JAG Directorate, said that a military court is usually presided over by a colonel or a major while an appellate court is usually headed by a brigadier or a major general.

“If a military court awards death sentence to an accused, then his/her case is sent to the chief of the army staff for confirmation,” he explained. “Under Clause 24 of the Army Act, 1952, any accused (armed person and civilian) enjoys the right of defense as Article 10 of the Constitution gives this right to every citizen.”

MQM Dismisses Rabita Committee Heads

Karachi: The Muttahida Qaumi

Movement (MQM)’s policy-making body (Rabita committee) witnessed a pivotal change on Monday when the heads of the committee in both Pakistan and London were dismissed.

Party sources said Rabita Committee in-charge in Pakistan Qamar Mansoor was removed after workers complained about his attitude numerous times.

“He had slapped a few workers, and often used abusive language with parliamentarians,” said a leader requesting anonymity.

Meanwhile, Irshad Hussain, who was heading the Rabita Committee in London, has also been removed.

The dismissed party officials were appointed in December 2014, when Altaf Hussain had suspended the entire Rabita Committtee over their ‘unacceptable’ reaction to the killing of party leader, Bao Mohammad Anwar in Sialkot.

Currently, senior leader Mustafa Azizabadi has been given the charge of Rabita Committee in London whereas in Pakistan the committee will be headed by three joint in-charges, Amir Khan, Dr Nusrat and Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui.

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FEBRUARY 6, 2015 – PAKISTAN LINK – P15

Military Parade in Full Glory on Pakistan Day

Islamabad: After a gap of seven years a joint military parade of Pakistan’s armed forces will take place on Pakistan Day, sources said on Monday,.

“The decision has been made to hold a joint military services parade on March 23,” a top military source told Dawn on the condition of anonymity.

The parade will be organized by joint staff headquarters in Rawalpindi, which oversees the three armed forces of Pakistan. The venue for the parade is yet to be finalized, with two vast compounds shortlisted as potential sites.

The last military parade took place on March 23, 2008 during the tenure of Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf as a civilian president.

A diplomatic source told Dawn that Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to attend the Pakistan Day parade as chief guest.

Both China and Pakistan are working out details of the Chinese president’s visit through diplomatic channels.

Chinese authorities have been assured about maximum security during Jinping’s upcoming visit.

Contingents of the Pakistan army, navy and air force are expected to arrive in Islamabad soon for parade rehearsals, with stringent security measures in place.

Last year, the military parade was cancelled for the sixth time in a row due to security reasons. “The joint military parade has been cancelled due to security reason and deployment of troops at western bor-

ders engaged in the war against terrorism,” the defense source had said in 2014.

The decision to resume the military parade after seven years appears to be a manifestation of the military’s show of strength in the wake of the shocking attack on the Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar last year, which left 150 people dead, including 132 schoolchildren.

The tragedy shook the country’s conscience, with the government and military convening a Multi-Party Conference (MPC) which formed the National Action Plan (NAP).

Soon after, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced the lifting of the six-year moratorium on the death penalty in terrorism cases, which has since resulted in over 20 executions. Political parties also resolved, in an emergency meeting, to create special courts overseen by military officials.

Army chief General Raheel Sharif has vowed to continue the fight against militants until they are completely eliminated from the country, with heightened military offensives in North Waziristan, where operation Zarb-i-Azb is already underway to flush out local and foreign militants.

Another show of the army’s resolve to show strength and resilience in the wake of the APS attack in Peshawar was the decision to re-open the Army Public School despite fears and uncertainty regarding security in the province. COAS Raheel Sharif also attended a commemorative service on the re-opening.

Pakistan Conducts Flight Test of Ra’ad

In Pakistan, March 23 is venerated because it is likened to a national holiday, with some military processions that honor the day.

However, the day’s true greatness is more universal as it demonstrates the ideology of the independence movement; justice for the masses through constitutional measures ranging from electoral safeguards to guaranteed representation in state institutions.

It was on this day that the Muslim League declared its demand for a separate homeland to safeguard the sanctity of the rights of the 30 million Muslims in British India.

The Lahore Resolution of March 23-24, known as the Pakistan Resolution, represented a watershed in modern Indian history.

The resolution was adopted on March 24, but the first critical step towards its adoption was taken on March 23. The date came to be ingrained in Muslim consciousness over the years as the one on which they had proclaimed their separate nationhood status in India’s body politic which was till then generally considered a uninational polity.

Rawalpindi: Pakistan on Monday conducted a successful flight test of the indigenously developed Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM) “Ra’ad”, said an Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) press release.

The Ra’ad missile, with a range of 350 km, enables Pakistan to achieve ‘strategic standoff capability’ on land and at sea.

“Cruise Technology” is extremely complex and has been developed by only a few countries in the world. The state of the art Ra’ad Cruise Missile with stealth capabilities is a low altitude, terrain hugging missile with high maneuverability; can deliver nuclear and conventional warheads with pin point accuracy.

Director General Strategic Plans Division, Lieutenant Gen-

eral Zubair Mahmood Hayat, while congratulating the scientists and engineers on achieving yet another milestone of historic significance, termed it a major step towards strengthening Pakistan’s full spectrum credible minimum deterrence capability. Pakistan’s strategic pursuits are aimed at achieving strategic stability in the region, he said.

He appreciated the technical prowess, dedication and commitment of scientists who contributed whole-heartedly to make this launch a success.

The successful launch has been commended by President Mamnoon Hussain and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who have congratulated the scientists and engineers on their outstanding achievement.

Job opportunity at the Consulate General of Pakistan, Los Angeles Position: Consular Assistant Job Description: Duties involve office job as well as outside activities as per requirement at odd hours during the weekend.

Qualific Qualification: (i) Graduate degree (ii) Proficiency in use of Microsoft Office and Excel. Good linguistic and inter personnel skills.

Apply along with resume and copy of legal status document and color photograph.

Two references may be provided.

Address: 10700 Santa Monica Blvd.

Suite 211, Los Angeles CA-90025 E-mail: apstocg@gmail.com Fax: 310-441-9256 Preference will be given to those candidates who reside in close proximity to the Consulate.

Last date for receiving the application is Febr uar y 05, 2015. www.PakistanLink.com

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2015 Cricket World Cup Watch Live on Pay-Per-View

DATE

Friday, February 13, 2015 Friday, February 13, 2015 Saturday, February 14, 2015 Saturday, February 14, 2015 Sunday, February 15, 2015 Monday, February 16, 2015 Tuesday, February 17, 2015 Wednesday, February 18, 2015 Thursday, February 19, 2015 Friday, February 20, 2015 Friday, February 20, 2015 Saturday, February 21, 2015 Saturday, February 21, 2015 Sunday, February 22, 2015 Monday, February 23, 2015 Tuesday, February 24, 2015 Wednesday, February 25, 2015 Wednesday, February 25, 2015 Thursday, February 26, 2015 Friday, February 27, 2015 Friday, February 27, 2015 Saturday, February 28, 2015 Saturday, February 28, 2015 Monday, March 02, 2015 Tuesday, March 03, 2015 Tuesday, March 03, 2015 Wednesday, March 04, 2015 Thursday, March 05, 2015 Friday, March 06, 2015 Friday, March 06, 2015 Saturday, March 07, 2015 Saturday, March 07, 2015 Sunday, March 08, 2015 Monday, March 09, 2015 Tuesday, March 10, 2015 Wednesday, March 11, 2015 Thursday, March 12, 2015 Thursday, March 12, 2015 Friday, March 13, 2015 Friday, March 13, 2015 Saturday, March 14, 2015 Saturday, March 14, 2015 Tuesday, March 17, 2015 Wednesday, March 18, 2015 Thursday, March 19, 2015 Friday, March 20, 2015 Monday, March 23, 2015 Thursday, March 26, 2015 Saturday, March 28, 2015

TIME (PST)

14:00 19:30 17:00 19:30 14:00 14:00 19:30 14:00 17:00 14:00 19:30 14:00 19:30 14:00 19:30 19:30 14:00 19:30 19:30 17:00 22:30 14:00 19:30 19:30 17:00 22:30 14:00 22:30 17:00 19:30 14:00 18:30 19:30 17:00 19:30 17:00 17:00 19:30 17:00 19:30 14:00 19:30 19:30 19:30 19:30 17:00 17:00 19:30 19:30

MATCH DETAILS

New Zealand vs Sri Lanka, 1st Match, Pool A Australia vs England, 2nd Match, Pool A South Africa vs Zimbabwe, 3rd Match, Pool B India vs Pakistan, 4th Match, Pool B Ireland vs West Indies, 5th Match, Pool B New Zealand vs Scotland, 6th Match, Pool A Bangladesh vs Afghanistan, 7th Match, Pool A United Arab Emirates vs Zimbabwe, 8th Match, Pool B New Zealand vs England, 9th Match, Pool A Pakistan vs West Indies, 10th Match, Pool B Australia vs Bangladesh, 11th Match, Pool A Afghanistan vs Sri Lanka, 12th Match, Pool A India vs South Africa, 13th Match, Pool B England vs Scotland, 14th Match, Pool A West Indies vs Zimbabwe, 15th Match, Pool B Ireland vs United Arab Emirates, 16th Match, Pool B Afghanistan vs Scotland, 17th Match, Pool A Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka, 18th Match, Pool A South Africa vs West Indies, 19th Match, Pool B New Zealand vs Australia, 20th Match, Pool A India vs United Arab Emirates, 21st Match, Pool B England vs Sri Lanka, 22nd Match, Pool A Pakistan vs Zimbabwe, 23rd Match, Pool B Ireland vs South Africa, 24th Match, Pool B Pakistan vs United Arab Emirates, 25th Match, Pool B Australia vs Afghanistan, 26th Match, Pool A Bangladesh vs Scotland, 27th Match, Pool A India vs West Indies, 28th Match, Pool B Pakistan vs South Africa, 29th Match, Pool B Ireland vs Zimbabwe, 30th Match, Pool B New Zealand vs Afghanistan, 31st Match, Pool A Australia vs Sri Lanka, 32nd Match, Pool A England vs Bangladesh, 33rd Match, Pool A India vs Ireland, 34th Match, Pool B Sri Lanka vs Scotland, 35th Match, Pool A South Africa vs United Arab Emirates, 36th Match, Pool B New Zealand vs Bangladesh, 37th Match, Pool A Afghanistan vs England, 38th Match, Pool A India vs Zimbabwe, 39th Match, Pool B Australia vs Scotland, 40th Match, Pool A West Indies vs United Arab Emirates, 41st Match, Pool B Ireland vs Pakistan, 42nd Match, Pool B TBC vs TBC, 1st Quarter-Final (A1 v B4) TBC vs TBC, 2nd Quarter-Final (A2 v B3) TBC vs TBC, 3rd Quarter-Final (A3 v B2) TBC vs TBC, 4th Quarter-Final (A4 v B1) TBC vs TBC, 1st Semi-Final TBC vs TBC, 2nd Semi-Final TBC vs TBC, Final

Contact Us For All Your Residential & Commercial Real Estate Needs This is not intended as a solicitation if your property is currently listed with another broker. Rodeo Realty. Atif CalBRE License #01938390. Haris CalBRE License #01945807.

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WOMEN

P18 – PAKISTAN LINK – FEBRUARY 6, 2015

WOMENS WORLD

By Sadaf Jabeen

S

aira Rizwan has been designing clothes since 2007 and in a short span of time her label has made its presence felt in the fashion industry. Saira creates a diverse array of designs for modern women ranging from traditional, contemporary to fusion designs and are insync with the on-going trends. The collections range from pret, readyto-wear lawn, formals and bridals.

The brand made its fashion week debut in October 2011 at Bridal Couture Week (BCW) in Lahore with the collection titled 'Jehan'.

Since then Saira has participated in six major fashion events of the country. In 2012 Saira opened her flagship store and bridal studio in Lahore. At TBCW, held in December 2014, Saira Rizwan showed an interesting colour palette comprising dark hues and pastels tones. This week Saira shares her experiences and beauty secrets with our readers...

You! What is your design philosophy?

Saira Rizwan: Not overdoing it. I believe in keeping my clothes simple yet stylish.

You! What type of clothes do you design for women?

S.R: I have a couture collection as well as pret/luxury pret.

FEBRUARY 6, 2015 - PAKISTAN LINK

You! Why do you think women should wear designer clothes?

S.R: Basically going for designer clothes saves women from the hassle of going to the market, searching for the material, getting it stitched etc.

And nowadays women like to be associated with a brand.

You! What are the difficulties faced by designers in getting their work done?

S.R: Managing the labour is the most difficult task in our profession.

You! What are the high points of being a designer?

S.R: It really gives you an adrenaline rush when you randomly see someone wearing your outfit. It feels good when people appreciate your designs from all over the place.

You! And what may be the low points?

S.R: I think there are none.

You! What are the latest trends in winter?

S.R: Capes are very in this season. A must have for all fashionistas.

You! Do you think there is potential for new designers in our fashion industry?

S.R: Yes, if they are hardworking and persistent.

You! What are you currently working on?

S.R: These days I am working on my upcoming luxury pret collection and lawn.

You! What are your future plans?

S.R: I definitely plan to open up an apprenticeship and more outlets in Karachi and Islamabad soon.

You! What is your philosophy of life?

S.R: Live in the moment and do what you love.

You! Do you think it is important for designers to participate in fashion weeks and why?

S.R: Yes it is! Participating in fashion shows gives you an opportunity to showcase your ideas and gives you an extra mileage.

Beauty corner You! What is one cosmetic you cannot do without?

S.R: Kajal You! When stepping out, do you wear makeup all the time?

S.R: I mostly wear blush and mascara You! When it comes to cosmetics, which brand do you usually use?

S.R: MAC You! Your make-up bag consists of...

S.R: Blush-on, mascara, kajal, lipstick and sun block You! Do you go to salon regularly for your facials?

S.R: Yes

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You! Your favourite local stylist or beautician?

S.R: Nabila You! Your favourite international stylist or beautician?

S.R: Path Mcgrath You! Your preferred spa or salon?

S.R: Nabila's You! Your favourite perfume?

S.R: Si by Armani You! Do you use anti-ageing

creams?

S.R: No You! Do you believe in treatments like Botox?

S.R: No You! Your beauty regimen...

S.R: Apply moisturizer before going to bed and sun block during the daytime You! What is beauty to you?

S.R: To me beauty is all about being happy and comfortable in your own skin.

COMMUNITY

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FEBRUARY 6, 2015 – PAKISTAN LINK – P19

Friday, February 6, 2015

VOL. 25/6 PAGE 21

Pakistan at Center Stage in New York City

17 Rabi ‘u-thani 1436 H

PAGE PAGE 29 17

egum PAGE 24

Afraid to Admit You Don’t Understand Social Media?

Sohail Gives Pakistan the Needed Hope

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Folsom California Seerah Program Focuses on the Greatest of Mankind

These annual events have become a regular addition to our social calendar in the Sacramento region and are held around the birthday of the Prophet (PBUH) which fell during early January this year

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n By Ras H. Siddiqui

he Muslim Community of Folsom (MCF) hosted one of three prominent Seerah programs held in the greater Sacramento area recently. All of them attracted hundreds of people who religiously gathered to honor the legacy of our Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), a man through whom the message of Islam was brought into this world, and a religion which now has over 1.5 billion followers.

These annual events have become a regular addition to our social calendar in the Sacramento region and are held around the birthday of the Prophet (which fell during early January this year). Seerah Programs biographically travel through or highlight the Prophet’s life which has been captured via both the written and oral traditions of Muslim thought and preserved over several hundred years.

Holding these events also shows the love that the Messenger (PBUH) of Islam evokes amongst its followers.

The program in Folsom was hosted by Imam Aamir Nazir. I was unable to attend the entire event and missed the beginning, but it was reportedly started with a memorable recitation from the Holy Qur’an by Qari Zakaria Elmakkaoui and a “Naat” by Hafiz Tulaib which followed was also very inspiring.

Imam Askia Mohammed spoke first. It has been good to see him active here recently. It is too bad that I missed his delivery. I have known him for close to 20 years ever since Dr Agha Saeed of the AMA introduced us. Imam Askia spoke of the rainbow of race and ethnicity which people that have followed Islam are today and have been since the very beginning.

And amongst them who can forget Bilal (RA) and his call to prayer during the time of the Prophet and soon

after when it moved Muslims to tears.

Next up, Imam M. A. Azeez was as eloquent as ever in his speech.

Starting his thought process from the struggles of an immigrant from Pakistan who eventually found success in the world of architecture, Imam Azeez went on to discuss in detail the role model that the Prophet (PBUH) is for all of us. He described him as the most extraordinary “ordinary” person one could ever find in history, one whose life has been documented in very minute detail. Muhammad (SAW) lived his life in an exemplary manner which remains a standard for all of us to study and follow. Imam Azeez said that we get angry about criticism of the Prophet coming from certain quarters. Our reaction is often “How dare they?” he said. He added that instead of expressing anger, we need to do what Muhammad (SAW) did. His instrument of change was his ability to live with people (including

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antagonistic ones). How the Prophet handled rumor mongering was given as one example. Involvement, empathy and time spent with others were his way. Spending time with people rather than judging them. Imam Azeez said that the approach to take with other people, your neighbors who might have misguided ideas about the Messenger of Allah is not to get worked up and send them all kinds of information via email, Facebook etc. The best approach according to Imam Azeez was, “Invite them over for dinner.” Be an example of a good neighbor and you have done your Dawa work. The dishonor on the Prophet (SAW) is primarily caused by us. By our attitudes, by our anger, he said. Cast all that aside and do what the Nabi (SAW) did, he said.

Mufti Mudassir Owais from Fremont next beautifully articulated the Prophet’s life in the Urdu language. An English translation was

provided by Imam Kashif Ahmed.

Mufti Mudassir concentrated on the life lead by the Prophet (SAW) and what he would want to see in our own households today. Respect for one’s mother, parents, kindness to all especially women all fell into this domain.

Showing mercy to everyone was also highlighted.

After a short presentation by our “future generation” (two community kids) the formalities soon came to an end and dinner was served. And as one left the venue it was good to reflect on “Muhammad (SAW) The Greatest of Mankind” theme for this event. One can add that we all came out of this Seerah event with a good feeling that the compassion and kindness shown by the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) during his life should be shared by Muslims with people outside the faith who are getting the wrong impression about us by the violence practiced by a few misguided groups.

COMMUNITY

P20 – PAKISTAN LINK – FEBRUARY 6, 2015

First Women-Only Mosque in America n By Dr Aslam Abdullah

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Los Vegas, Nevada

hey were really upset that M. Hasna Maznavi and Sana Muttalib together with other women were set to organize the first mosque for Muslim women in America. They did not know either of them personally, but they were upset because they viewed this a bida, an innovation. Some called it a deviation and some termed it a Western conspiracy to destroy Islam within. They all claimed to be pious and they considered themselves knowledgeable in religion and matters pertaining to the role and status of women in their faith.

The idea of starting up a women’s mosque is creating waves in Southern California and the discussion has already begun about its relevance and usefulness. The women’s mosque of America defines its objective in the following words: “The Women’s Mosque of America seeks to uplift the Muslim community by empowering women and girls through more direct access to Islamic scholarship and leadership opportunities. The Women’s Mosque of America will provide a safe space for women to feel welcome, respected, and actively engaged within the Muslim Ummah. It will complement existing mosques, offering opportunities for women to grow, learn, and gain inspiration to spread throughout their respective communities.

“Starting in early 2015, the Women’s Mosque of America will provide women-led Friday jumma’a services for women and children (including boys 12 and under) once a month in Southern California. In addition, the Women’s Mosque of America plans to provide programming, events, and classes open to both men and women that will aim to increase community access to female Muslim scholars and female perspectives on Islamic knowledge and spirituality.”

But this does not convince skeptics as they call such a move an innovation and deviation. Well if it is bida or deviation, then it was the Prophet of Islam and messenger of Allah, who himself introduced this

Fundraiser for Stranded Pakistanis on March 1

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fundraising event is being organized by Friends of Humanity USA for stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh on Sunday, March 1, at 6 pm at the Guest House Hotel, 12500 Firestone Blvd., Norwalk, CA 90650.

Mr Ehtesham Nezami will be the keynote speaker. The host committee comprises Dr Atiq Siddiqui, Shams Hasan and Nayyar Alam. For more information please call 630 205 6786.

For tickets call: 714 225 5086 562 676 7351 562 416 5095 The ecvent has been sponsored

by Mezban Biryani Palace, Madina Islamic Center and Mezban Pizza and Burger.

some six years after five daily prayers were made obligatory in the 15th year of his mission and in the second year after the construction of what is now known as Msjid Quba and Masjid Nabavi. Based on the statements of Prophet Muhammad, it can be asserted that the women’s mosque was the third masjid in Medina.

It is reported in Masnad Abu Dawood, a book of ahadith (statement and actions of the Prophet) included in the six most authentic books on the subject by Sunni scholars of the subject that the Prophet gave one of his companions, Umm Waraqah, the permission to stay in Medina to lead prayers for her family and domestic helpers, men included, when she had gone to him offering nursing services to Muslims in the forthcoming Battle of Badr Umm Waraqah was a single woman and she stayed single until her death. She was very wealthy and resourceful. She was one of the scribes of the Qur’an as well as an avid student of the holy scripture.

Her knowledge of the Qur’an coupled with her piety was well known to the Prophet and his companions.

She never married as she devoted her life to the study of the Qur’an.

She recited the Qur’an beautifully and had memorized it.

It is reported that one day she came to the Prophet seeking permission to start a mosque in her home with proper facilities to have a call to the prayer as well as regular five daily prayers for her family, friends, and other relatives. The prophet blessed her and gave her the permission to lead the prayers. Thus she became the first known Imam in a mosque that she started in her home.

It is reported that Umma Waraqah continued leading the prayers during the Caliphate of the first and second Caliphs of Islam. Not much details are available about the activities carried out in her home-turned mosque. What is known is that she donated the entire property to the service of Islam.

There is no statement of the Prophet that prevents women from organizing their own mosques or leading five daily prayers or running their own religious institutions. If the prophet advised a few Muslim women to pray in the darkest corner

of their homes, it was meant to advise those who had asked him based on their circumstances as this statement cannot be seen as a general principle because he is reported to have said: “Don’t prevent women from coming to the masajid” even if you like them to pray at home. The presence of women in mosque is a wellestablished practice in Islam. Some people suggest that if women want to come to the mosque, they should accompany their husbands. This excludes unmarried women who do not have a male member to take care of them. In fact, the divine commandment to establish mosques is applicable to both men and women as both have been advised by the Creator to establish prayer.

This is a welcome sign that Muslim women who had been marginalized in Muslim theological discourses for centuries are asserting themselves and carving a place for others who are still treated as second class citizens in none other than the house of Allah There is no statement of the Prophet that says that women cannot give khutbah. The prophet spelled out the rights and duties that everyone should observe while visiting mosques and they are similar for both in essence. It is sometimes suggested that women should not come to the mosque wearing perfume.

However, there is a statement of the Prophet suggesting that he was extremely fond of perfume and he encouraged people to wear perfume in public places including houses of worship. This statement does not exclude women. How can one deny women from following this sunna of the Prophet? Those who say that fragrance wearing women would distract men from worshiping perhaps lose the essence of the faith and place undue importance to the notion of male superiority.

Islam is a faith not created to favor

men or women and focuses only on the level of iman (faith) of either of them only. If some men are unable to control their carnal desires, then they have to work on their thoughts and actions rather than denying religious equality to others. To say that women do not have desires and feelings is defying the laws of the Creator. Moreover, we should realize that in our world today men could also be an equal source of temptation for men.

Early Muslims understood the religious role of women in running their own mosques and in several countries, women have set up their own mosques.

Such mosques can be found particularly in the Chinese provinces of Henan, Shanxi and Hebel.

Some countries beyond China also have women-only mosques, but they are rare.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dyanasty, Hui Chinese women had begun to form their own mosques. For religious reasons, the Hui Muslim communities started to cultivate more theological learning among the women.

As a result, women graduates served as Imams of women’s mosques.

By the 20th century, there were separate places of worship as women-only mosques in China and other places of the world including Uzbekistan, Maldives, Sudan, Amsterdam and Berlin. There were women-only mosques in Afghanistan, Lebanon and Somalia until recently, but they were closed down under the pressure of certain religious groups. There is nothing in Islam’s holy scriptures that prevents a woman from organizing mosques for women.

In fact, this is a welcome sign that Muslim women who had been marginalized in Muslim theological discourses for centuries are asserting themselves and carving a place for others who are still treated as second class citizens in none other than the house of Allah. The majority of women in the Muslim world is not allowed to visit mosques. In places where they are allowed, there is no proper arrangements for them.

In the houses of God, they are often treated worse than Rosa Park, the African American hero of the civil

Consulate General’s Community Hall to Be Inaugurated in February

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he Consulate General of Pakistan at Los Angeles is pleased to announce the creation of a multi-purpose community hall within the premises of the Consulate General.

This facility shall be available for use for community related events, such as business meetings, art exhibitions, film screenings, association meetings, receptions, community gatherings, etc.

The facility, along with required seating arrangements, will be provided by the Consul General free of charge, subject to availability and prior coordination with the Consulate. The Consul General Mr. Hamid Asghar Khan is hosting a reception to formally inaugurate the community hall in February 2015. Congressman Ed Royce, Chairman of the Congressional Foreign Affairs Committee, has consented to be chief guest for the occasion.

The inaugural shall take place at the Consulate General of Pakistan, Los Angeles. rights movement, who refused to go to the backseat because white men and women did not allow blacks to occupy front rows. Unfortunately, this has been justified in the name of the Prophet and perpetuated continuously. It is a move that those Muslim men who believe in the divine wisdom in creating both men and women with dignity and equality should wholeheartedly support.

Additionally, they should participate in the efforts to have a physical site owned by Muslims to serve Muslim women and others through the services led and run by women. In fact, the project should be a national project and in every state of America there should be a women’s mosque where they can produce their own scholars and speakers.

We are willing to accept the idea of a woman exclusive city, a women exclusive university or a gym or a swimming pool or a departmental store. Why cannot we reconcile with the idea of women running their own religious institutions, including mosques?

Indigenous Leaders Call for Driving Test in Their Own Language n By Araceli Martínez Ortega Translated by Elena Shore

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eaders of the Mixtec community of Oxnard, Calif. are asking the Department of Motor Vehicles to offer the written driving test in indigenous languages so they can get licenses under California’s AB60. The law, which went into effect in January, allows Californians to apply for a driver’s license regardless of their immigration status. But indigenous Mexicans fear that the language barrier could stand in their way.

“We want people to be able to take the written exam with audio in Mixtec and other indigenous languages,” said Arcenio J. Lopez, director of the Mixteco/Indigenous Community Organizing Project (MICOP).

Otherwise, he said, even if people do their best, they will fail the written test because they are monolingual in their native language.

“Some people feel hopeless because they don’t know how to read or write, either in Spanish or English; some say they are going to try it, and others are questioning whether they should do it,” he said. “DMV employees in Oxnard have said they should learn English, but that could take time,” he explained.

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He recalled that at a meeting in September, they had understood that the audio exam would be available in Mixtec and Triqui.

According to a 2010 study of indigenous farmworkers, rural California is home to at least 165,000 indigenous Mexican immigrants, of which about 120,000 are farmworkers. An

estimated 80 percent of farmworkers in strawberry fields are Mixtec speakers.

For farmworkers, getting a driver’s license under AB60 is crucial because they depend on private vehicles to get to fields in remote areas that aren’t accessible by bus.

“The Mexican indigenous community should have the same rights as other communities to be able to take the exam in their own language,” said Juvenal Solano, a community organizer with MICOP. The exams will be offered in an audio format in 15 languages, including Hmong, Punjabi and Armenian. “We want this opportunity for those who speak Mixtec, Triqui and other languages.”

Mixtecs make up the largest indigenous community in California, followed by Triquis. Both groups originate from the Mexican state of Oaxaca. The third most populous indigenous group are the Purepechas from the Mexican state of Michoacán.

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FEBRUARY 6, 2015 – PAKISTAN LINK – P21

Pakistan at Center Stage in New York City

n By Hassan Majeed

he American-Pakistani playwright, actor and novelist, Ayad Akhtar, has two plays showing in New York during this busy tourist season. The Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Disgraced, and the powerful ,The Invisible Hand, explore complex relations between religion, social and political values and the global financial system.

Both plays also depict common threads in the complicated US-Pakistani connection, with a strong emphasis on Islam.

Yet, the two plays have different situations and the plots are completely separate.

I happened to watch both productions recently.

Disgraced is the story of a hardworking corporate lawyer, Amir Kapoor, who is born in a Muslim family that immigrated to the US from Pakistan. Amir retains a Hindu identity to rise in the corporate world. His wife Emily, an Islamophile, shows extensive interest in Islamic art, culture and history while Amir is critical of his Islamic heritage.

The show starts with a scene in which Amir – standing in a $600 crisp white charvet shirt and boxers showing his bare thighs and legs, and drinking pricey single-malt whisky – models for a sketch by his artist wife. Emily asks Amir to help a local Imam who is in prison for charges of supporting terrorism. Amir is reluctant and shows no interest in anything related to Muslims’ rights.

Eventually though, pressured by his wife and a ‘radicalized’ cousin, he relents, which leads to a disastrous situation where he accidentally becomes a target of Islamophobia and loses his job as well as his wife.

In one of the play’s most dramatic moments, a dinner with another couple (an African-American lawyer and her Jewish husband) turns volatile when radical Islam is criticized...

In summary, the play highlights issues of identify that American Muslims face and how religious profiling impacts social and professional lives; in the multicultural NYC, people from different racial and religious backgrounds appear to be in harmony but beneath the surface lie deep and dark layers of hatred, prejudice, and racism mixed with

Screengrab from Ayad Ahktar’s play “The Invisible Hand” at the New York Theater Workshop

himself raises the money on the internet by playing the futures market in Pakistani commodities.

“Cutting off my head is not going to accomplish anything,” says Nick, promising the militants that he could earn the money with his investment banking experience.

In another ironic moment he also says, ”Forbes, will put me on front page, if they know about this.”

The main protagonist of the unnamed terrorist group is a British Muslim, Bashir, who came to Pakistan to join the radical forces. There is an interplay of tension between the ranks of the terrorists when Nick is able to raise over $7 million in a matter of days.

Ayad Akhtar

Aasif Mandvi and Omar Maskati in a scene from Ayad Akhtar’s play ‘Disgraced’ at the Lincoln Center, New York

Visitors view Pakistani artist Imran Qureshi’s creation, painted on the rooftop of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, during a preview of the annual Met’s Roof Garden Commission in New York

religious profiling.

Soon after seeing Disgraced, I was able to attend another Ayad Akhtar play, The Invisible Hand in an off-Broadway production. I was only too happy to be watching the play with my friend Raza Rumi, a good friend of Ayad.

This passionate play employs a minimalist set but big money in the virtual sense. The plot revolves around Nick, an American captive of Islamic radicals who has been working for Citibank in Pakistan.

The terrorists demand an exorbitant $10 million ransom and the captive

The money finances the terrorist organization as Bashir, the head of the terrorist militia, and the guards are all seduced by the easy money. Bashir, who has a common British accent, is a fast learner and in matter of a few weeks, organizes suicide attacks which lead to enormous gains in the stock market.

The symbols of drones and the American dollar remind the viewer that the war is less about religion and more about money and power.

Enemies of America, who criticize her for its capitalist financial system, are also lured into making money at the expense of civilian lives.

In a very abrupt ending, the play shows a soft corner for militants, actually making them seem a bit kindhearted, by freeing the highly prized American citizen.

Over the past few years, different art forms emanating from Pakistan have made their mark in New York and the larger international market. Terrorism and radical Islam seem to be the most prevalent (selling) themes in these expressions.

Novels like The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Home Boy, among others, narrate stories of young, conflicted Pakistani Muslims in Ameri-

ca, just like the character in Akhtar’s Disgraced.

Artist Imran Qureshi’s 2012 installation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC also commented on the wave of terrorism in Pakistan.

Not to undermine the quality of the art being produced, but I feel it is a legitimate question to raise whether artists and writers should move beyond the newsy and stereotypical theme of terrorism?

There is much more to Pakistan and the region.

Earlier, A British Subject, an off-Broadway show presented in 2009 focused on the justice system of Pakistan and showed the lives of ordinary people in Rawalpindi.

More recently, a group of eminent Pakistani artists such as Ali Kazim, Noor Ali and Irfan Hassan presented their work at the Leila Heller Gallery in NYC, evoking a rich range of themes on the everyday realities of life in Pakistan.

In Toronto, the Aga Khan Foundation has recently opened a museum of Islamic art with contemporary and ancient Islamic art pieces. This is a welcome development since it presents the layers of our rich heritage and present life.

None of this can take away from Ayad Akhtar’s achievement. Born in New York and raised in Milwaukee, Ayad graduated from Brown University with a theatre major and a Master’s of Arts from Columbia University. He deserves full credit for putting Pakistan into the mainstream theatre and bringing out the complexities of Islamophobia, racial and religious profiling, and the need to accept that all human beings matter.

For any playwright to be showcased simultaneously at two theatres in NYC, with its extremely rigorous standards for theatrical productions, means his talent and skill have been acknowledged as amongst the best in America.

All the same, I think it is time to showcase the many trends in the performing arts, as well as the time to present a more rounded image of Pakistan to art-loving New Yorkers.

Very soon, the global market might become tired of the clichéd emphasis on radical Islam and Pakistan’s terrorism problem.

(The author is working as a child and adolescent psychiatry fellow at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, NY. He is a marathon runner and his interests include art, culture, gender, human rights, mental health, and education. )

After Muslims’ Treatment at Capitol, Abbott Calls for ‘Civil Discourse’ Austin, TX:

More state officials spoke out Friday against the reception given to Muslims who gathered at the Texas Capitol, including Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who said the state must have “civil discourse.”

On Thursday, when hundreds of Texas Muslims visited the Capitol to meet lawmakers and learn about political engagement, a freshman Texas lawmaker instructed her staff to ask Muslims who came to her office to declare their allegiance to America.

Outside, a small group of protesters urged Muslims to “go home,” and one grabbed a microphone from a speaker to condemn Islam’s prophet, Muhammad.

Abbott did not specifically men-

tion either incident. After delivering a speech to a convention of the Texas Veterans of Foreign Wars, he told reporters that he wanted to see more decorum.

“We must have civil, open debate of hotly contested issues in this state,” Abbott said. “Texas values are strong enough that we can have a civil discourse about issues like this.”

A group of El Paso lawmakers was more direct in criticizing Rep. Molly White, R-Belton, for her instructions to her staff. They called her stance “misguided” and said that, as representatives of a border community, they found it “especially troubling to see Americans mistreated because they look or act or believe differently than the majority might.”

“While a handful of private citizens and one misguided state representative sought headlines with hate, their views are not ours and do not reflect those of the Texas Legislature as a whole,” the six Democratic House members said in a written statement.

White, who was not in the Capitol during the Muslims’ visits, publicized her plans on Facebook. She wrote that she had set out an Israeli flag in her office and left instructions for her staff if Muslims stopped by.

“We will see how long they stay in my office,” White posted. - Marissa Barnett , AP. Another report ‘Texas lawmaker under fire for Facebook post on Muslim Capitol Day” by Dylan Stableford states:

www.PakistanLink.com

A newly elected Texas state lawmaker is under fire for a divisive Facebook post asking Muslim visitors attending an event at the state capitol in Austin to pledge allegiance to the United States.

The event, Texas Muslim Capitol Day, was organized by the Texas chapter of the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations.

“Today is Texas Muslim Capital [sic] Day in Austin,” Molly White, a House Republican, wrote on her Facebook page Thursday. “The House is in recess until Monday. Most Members including myself are back in District. I did leave an Israeli flag on the reception desk in my office with instructions to staff to ask representatives from the Muslim community

to renounce Islamic terrorist groups and publicly announce allegiance to America and our laws. We will see how long they stay in my office.”

The post followed a similar Facebook message that was posted along with a report from the “Right Wing News” website about a Dallas community creating a voluntary sharia court to dispense Islamic justice.

“Remember, in the Koran, it is ok to lie for the purpose of advancing Islam,” she wrote. “Texans must never allow fringe groups of people to come here so that they can advance their own culture instead of becoming an American and assimilating into the American way of life. That, I can assure is not the intent of most Muslims who move to America.” ...

COMMENTARY

P22 – PAKISTAN LINK – FEBRUARY 6, 2015 n By Taj Siddiqui

L

Pembroke Pines, Florida

ast week we were invited to our friend’s home, Abdul and his wife Katharine. We have known them for over 30 years. Our children grew up together. During the dinner, their daughter Salma asked me, “Uncle I want to marry a boy in my college. His name is Mike. My father tells me that I am not allowed to marry him because he is an infidel”.

Instead of answering her, I politely told her that it is too early for her to get married, and besides there are many good Muslim boys in our community. She looked at me as if I had told her a big lie and left the dinner table in a bad mood. That night I came home very depressed, had horrible nightmares, running from infidels who were tightening their circle around me with their traps and long ropes.

Next morning I woke up late and missed Fajar Salat, not feeling good with upset stomach. I rushed to the bathroom and sat on the toilet seat. I heard a voice saying “No, no, you can’t use me; I am the invention of an infidel.” I looked around and saw nobody. The voice came again, in clear English. “I was designed and developed by infidels. Why are you benefiting from their findings, their inventions”? I said “I have an upset stomach, where do I go for relief?” The toilet replied, “This is not my problem. You should have thought about it years and years ago.

You deserve to live back in the rural society where one can go out of the village for relief. And while we are on this rosy subject, even the female sanitary napkins and baby diapers come from infidels.”

I got more depressed and ran out of the bathroom. Being depressed is my most favorite activity. So, please don’t start getting depressed with me.

The whole day went by like that. It was horrible and miserable. The indoor plumbing in the shower refused to operate. My cell was playing dead. The landline was also down, as the telephone was invented by an infidel. Mr Computer changed my password and will not let me log-in. The appliances, stove,

n By Jahanzaib Haque

C

Karachi, Pakistan

onversations around the rebirth, reinvention, resuscitation and yes, possible demise of print abound, even in Pakistan, despite the fact that from 20092013, Asia and Latin America have seen growth in print audiences – just over six percent for both regions, according to the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers 2014 survey.

The reason this discussion has reached Pakistan is because of the wave of terror and confusion crossing over from newsrooms in North America, Australia and Europe where print circulation has plummeted by 10 to 23% and continues to decline.

For much of the world, advertising in print is declining faster than circulation. Many legacy papers and magazines are gone.

Thousands of print media folk are out of jobs. The entire industry is looking to the online space for a solution, while those working online are holding up sad little rate cards that sell millions of ad impressions and clicks for fractions of pennies.

This is worrying, even for largely cocooned Pakistan, because a decline in print seems inevitable. Since the boom of the 2000s, electronic media is something the public understands and is totally in sync with. The internet is no longer perceived as ‘for entertainment purposes only’. Social media is so trendy that the current Director General ISPR runs official military updates on Twitter first, email second, and print a distant third, if at all.

Given these fast paced changes, will Asia and Latin America see the same decline the rest of the world is going through? How soon? How fast? The conversation has begun its drift from “Pakistan is different. We’ll always read newspapers here,” to “What do we do, just in case?”

Thankfully, by the time this decline in print begins to register at alarming levels locally, a number of solutions may be at hand, courtesy the crisis elsewhere.

Print expertise for digital domains On the editorial front, every discussion about print versus the ‘evil internet’ comes down to the level of professionalism, seriousness, credibility, depth and all things wonderful that decades of legacy bring to print – and all of that is largely true – for now.

The internet, especially for Pakistan, is still new territory. On the news front, the best journalists have come from, or still are, in print (Urdu and English). In general, the best content is in print.

TV is largely a sham, a scam, a breeding ground for vacuous drivel. Yes it has the eyeballs, but when the issue of quality comes up, the answer is generally print. Every fresh media grad knows they have two main choices: join a TV channel for money and fame, or join print to build a serious career.

Unfortunately, the people who read print are in decline. As outlined in Open Society Foundation’s report, Mapping Digital Media: Pakistan: “While there are no reliable figures on print circulation, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) found that the average daily sale of all Pakistani daily newspapers fell from 9.9 million in 2007 to 6.1 million in 2008, reaching less than four percent of the population.” Even if you ignore the decline, those numbers are terrible and the outlook for magazines is just as bad.

This problem has a solution however. Those in the print

refrigerator, micro-wave, washer, dryer, etc. refused to obey my commands. The air-conditioner won’t let me touch the dial. My big screen TV, the surround sound system, the blue ray DVD player, nothing was working. And then the lights went off. There was no electricity in my house. We should have at least tried to convert Mr. Benjamin. My T-shirt and jeans started itching as I was wearing the dress code of infidels. In a panicky state I ran out of my house to go to McDonald’s. When I tried to start my car, it began to laugh at me. Sir, the automobile was invented by an infidel. You guys should not have disposed of your camels and horses.

In this crazy state of mind someone took me to the

hospital. The doctor told me that the medicines are refusing to have any effect on my purified body as they were discovered by infidels. The apparatus and machines in hospital were all invented by infidels. I asked him what was my problem. Your problem, Sir, is that you think you are the best, superior to the rest of the humanity. Then I got mad at him. What do you mean, off-course, I am the best. I eat Halal food, offer Salat, pay Zakat, observe fasting, recite Qur’an daily, I did several Hajj and perform Umrah every year. I did everything they advised me to do. What else do you want from me? He said, sir, I have news for you. You may not go to Umrah any more, as the airplane was invented by

Converging towards Integration

industry must expand into, and adopt the online space as their own. It’s a natural transition. The primary content on the internet is words and images, something those in print know everything about. While previously there was a big technical learning curve to publishing content online, the tools and websites of today can (literally) be run by children. There are no excuses for skipping out on this switchover; only bad attitudes and/or being unwilling to learn, stand in the way.

Across the globe, people in print are finding themselves either transitioning onto the web by default as their organizations expand in the digital space, or for the more driven of the pack,

On the news front, the best journalists have come from, or still are, in print (Urdu and English). In general, the best content is in print. TV is largely a sham, a scam, a breeding ground for vacuous drivel. Yes it has the eyeballs, but when the issue of quality comes up, the answer is generally print new job offers are at hand from digital domains, desperately seeking quality staff, particularly TV channels launching websites that are – apart from the live-stream and video clips – print in nature.

The pay and prestige may not be as great for transitioning print folk, but it’s not complete rubbish either, and roles are expanding to allow for serious work.

Even in Pakistan, online staff have quickly gone from ‘IT guy’, ‘copy-paster’ and ‘content uploader’ to ‘online journalist’, ‘multimedia editor’ and ‘blogger’, thanks mostly to the large audiences local sites are now catering to. This convergence works because the payoff is so transparent. Reporters are getting calls about how their stories are read and received online. Print editors are concerned about the comments coming in on articles and what content is being shared on social media. With such concern comes ownership, and with time, print organizations will become online organizations.

Not everyone will crossover though. The payoff online is

www.PakistanLink.com

the infidels. I told the doctor to leave and started watching TV to divert my mind. The news was on. Over 190,000 Syrians were killed during the four-year crises. Muslims being killed by other Muslims. Three millions displaced. Who are you, Yazidi, Alavi, Shia, Sunni? Let us get rid of you. How about the innocent small children in Peshawar? Who killed them, the infidels? No, no, this honor goes to the Muslims. At least this is one field where we left the infidels behind. The problem with the Muslim world is very clear, written all over the skies, in bold letters. No unity and no leadership. I started crying.

There are about 1.6 billion Muslims, every fifth human being is a Muslim. Although the first ever university in the world was founded in Morocco in 859 by a Muslim woman Fatima, today there are no more than 600 universities in 57 Muslim countries. Not one is in the top-100. The United States alone has close to 6,000 universities, 8 in the top-10. Literacy rate in the Christian world stands at nearly 90 per cent, whereas in the Muslim world it is close to 40 percent. We spend 0.2 per cent of GDP on research and development, while the Christian world spends 25 times more. When we were busy building Taj Mahal, they were establishing Harvard. Printing press was banned and printing of books did not begin in the Islamic world until the 19th century, four hundred years after it began in the Christian world. The major discoveries by Muslims that have impacted the modern civilization can be counted on our fingers. Muslims have received only 12 Nobel Prizes, compared to 170 awarded to Jews, mostly in economics, medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Literature and a few Nobel Peace Prizes. For every Jew there are one hundred Muslims. I am getting more depressed.

That evening I came home, depressed and sad. I know I need someone to lift my spirit. Someone who knows me, who I am. I saw my wife cooking in the kitchen. So I rushed to her. Oh beautiful, oh the princess of my dreams, oh the object of my love, oh the mother of my children, tell me how good I am. She looked at me with her fiery eyes. She looked at this pathetic moron and checked me out from head to toe. Then in a firm assertive voice she very calmly said, “Good for nothing”. largely in terms of audience size, big data, two-way dialogue with readers, content shelf life, a wide-open space for all forms of content – everything but large sums of cash to sustain the whole print caboodle. Which leads to…

New revenue streams for new media Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon is not completely mad in his purchase of The Washington Post. From all his public statements, he is not in this just for political clout either.

What Bezos and others see is the enormous monetary potential that exists in the sale of quality content online. The only thing missing right now are new systems and new models for selling content, something journalists (and their associated marketing departments) are notoriously bad at, but technologists excel in (given that techies created the very medium these sales need to be made in).

Pay wall. Paid subscription. The website visitor and online community as a sellable commodity. ‘Free’ content in exchange for tiny bits of personal data. E-book stores. Paid mobile apps. Free mobile apps with in-app purchases. Sponsor content. Sponsored content (yes, there is a difference). ‘Free’ immersive, interactive web ‘experiences’ with ads that engage, ads that target intelligently.

The question is not whether online content will ever have an Amazon, iTunes, Android App Store moment; it’s more of when, and by whom, and how many print media folk will have died of starvation by then. The new revenue streams outside of the banner ad will eventually emerge, and with them…

Digital first, print second Print publishers – yes, even in Pakistan – are beginning to wake up and smell the online revolution that, in many ways big and small, puts digital first, print a distant second.

What this literally translates to is the (painful) restructuring of organizations through convergence, ditching and deleting all things (and staff) that no longer fit into this new world, and putting the web at the center of everything – often literally, with floor plans that have digital desks at the center and print at the end of the line. In this world, print becomes the backwards-engineered, value-added by-product of online content; more niche, far cheaper (production costs are now web-centric), perhaps offered free to subscribers, perhaps sold extremely expensively, sustained by advertising in its traditional form. This may sound like fantasy in Pakistan, but media site Politico, music reviews site Pitchfork and technology blog Pando, are successfully running print editions and supplements on this model.

So does Pakistan’s print industry have anything to worry about? Not really. We are running 10 to 20 years behind the rest of the world, and while that unfortunately means we do not get to define the future, at least it cushions us from the dangers that come with being out front. At the end of the day, there will be no shame in borrowing working models from abroad. Indeed, there are more important things to worry about.

To quote Susan Glasser, editor of Politico Magazine, “If you define your publication by the platform on which you publish, you pretty quickly risk irrelevance… I would rather think about it in terms of the audience, content and mission of the publication.”

(Jahanzaib Haque is Editor, dawn.com at the Dawn Media Group. - Dawn)

COMMENTARY n By Dr Syed Amir

O

Bethesda, MD

ver two centuries have elapsed since Sultan Fateh Ali Khan, popularly known as Tipu Sultan, was defeated by the forces of East India Company in the fourth AngloMysore war in 1799 in Seringapatam.

The Sultan had mounted a heroic resistance, but was overwhelmed by combined British and native forces and died fighting gallantly on the battlefield. Arthur Wellesley, the British General who commanded the forces against Tipu Sultan, was the younger brother of thethen Governor General, Richard Wellesley, but was a little-known military commander.

However, some sixteen years later as the Duke of Wellington, he excelled and became a legendary figure, following his decisive victory over Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte of France in 1815 at Waterloo in present-day Belgium.

Tipu Sultan has long been a controversial figure in Indian history, often reviled by some for his presumed religious zealotry and bigoted policies directed at a majority non-Muslim population.

Various treatises on his rule by Indian and some British historians, however, are highly discordant in their accounts of his policies and practices. Some historiographers are effusive in their praise of his religious pluralism, and ecumenical practices, finding little or no fault in his treatment of non-Muslims.

Others disparage him for their mistreatment, accusing him of ignominious acts, such as destruction of Hindu and Christian places of worship. He is said to have been fired with the desire to establish an Islamic state in the whole of India, soliciting help in his mission from King Zaman Shah of Afghanistan (1796) and Ottoman Sultan Salim III (1784).

In support of their contention, his detractors cite Sultan’s orders in 1788 to his Governor of Calicut to

n By Sebastian Christ

W

hen thousands of “patriotic Europeans” took to the streets once again in Dresden to protest “the Islamisation of the West,” their actions were the result not only of resentment and fear, but also of ignorance.

Luckily for us, our central European culture has benefited from Islamic influences for thousands of years.

If, on Monday evening in Dresden, one of the speakers adjusts his glasses, he probably doesn’t know he’s holding an invention from the Arab world. If one of the protesters starts singing right-wing songs, then he might be accompanying them on an instrument with Arabic origins – the guitar. And, on their placards, the supposedly horrifying figures about immigration will be written in Arabic numerals.

Here, the Huffington Post Germany presents eight things we owe to great Muslim civilizations.

1. The numeral system Many Westerners, Germans in particular, are proud of their feats of technology and engineering. But

FEBRUARY 6, 2015 – PAKISTAN LINK – P23

Tipu Sultan: Two Centuries Later

forcibly convert 200 Brahmins to Islam. Similarly, some 70,000 Coorgis or Kodavas, as they are called in the present-day Karnataka state, on his orders were converted to Islam. However, most historians find these figures widely exaggerated, although they concede that there may be some truth in them.

A devout Muslim, Sultan, his critics argue, was unable to generate loyalty even among his personal staff, as showcased by the conduct of his two Diwans, Mir Sadiq and a Hindu Brahmin, Purnaiya, both of whom betrayed him during the final battle. Much like the accusation of his mistreatment of Hindus, there are reports of persecution of Christians as well, with the destruction of 27 Catholic churches, and forced conversion of Europeans imprisoned in his palace.

Contrary to these claims, a substantial body of evidence attests to Tipu Sultan’s benevolence and religious tolerance. Mahmood Khan Banglori in his sympathetic biography, Saltanat e Khudad, published some two decades ago, has cited specific examples where the Sultan extended generous financial assistance to temples, establishing trusts and endowments for their benefit. He is reported to have bestowed over 30 grant deeds, besides generous gifts of jewelry, gold and silver, upon various temples.

He is believed to have been partic-

ularly solicitous of and deferential to Hindu priests and Sadhus.

A fervent believer in astrology, he frequently consulted Hindu astrologers, invoking their blessings and interventions to avert ominous events. Importantly, Hindus served in highly visible and powerful positions in his administration, functioning as treasurer, minister of police and the Sultan’s person-

Regardless of the validity of the various historic documents, it is certain that Tipu Sultan was one of the most gifted and insightful Muslim rulers of South India who was endowed with unrivaled military acumen. al representatives at the Mughal court. Evidence of his open-mindedness is also provided, according to some historians, by the two magnificent Hindu temples that stood next to his royal palace in the capital city of Seringapatam.

Tipu Sultan’s life and reign are principally remembered for his resistance to East India Company’s

imperial designs on India. However, less recognized is his singular foresight in developing a network of international relations to enlist the assistance of foreign powers in his struggle against the British.

The French were his natural allies as they were vying with the British for a foothold in India. The Sultan had previously established some diplomatic contacts with King Louis XVI of France in 1788, hoping to receive military equipment, supplies and manpower from his Government. Before any help could materialize, the monarchy was overthrown in the French revolution of 1789. New contacts and fresh correspondence was initiated when Napoleon Bonaparte came to power. Napoleon had grand designs of his own as he launched in 1798 his ill-fated invasion of Egypt, which was at the time nominally a province of the Ottoman Empire.

He wanted to use Egypt as a base to advance his agenda, join up with the forces of Tipu Sultan and drive out the British from India. However, after initial successes, Napoleon was forced to flee Egypt and his armies were defeated by the joint British-Ottoman forces.

Of late, there has been renewed Interest in India in the reevaluation of the life and legacy of Tipu Sultan, following the bicentennial anniversary of his death.

There are signs that his reputation

8 Great Inventions by Muslims where would engineers be without numbers? The numeral system of 1 to 9 which we use today dates back to the “House of Wisdom” in Baghdad. It is thought that our numeral system was invented there in the ninth century AD. The numerals became known to Europe in the twelfth century, when British Arabist Robert of Chester translated the writings of Arab scholar Al-Khwarizmi. Al-Khwarizmi, for whom algorithms are named, is known as the developer of modern algebra -- yet another invention from the Muslim world.

2. The toothbrush Islam was the one of the first world religions to place particular emphasis on bodily hygiene. The Qur’an includes instructions for ritual washing. It is no wonder, therefore, that dental hygiene also grew in popularity as Islam did. Admittedly, the ancient Egyptians are thought to have chewed on twigs from the “toothbrush tree.”

However, the twigs, also known as “miswak”, only became known to a wider public when the Prophet

Mohammed regularly used them to brush his teeth. While there is no mention of miswak twigs in the Qur’an, they are mentioned many times in writings by Muslim scholars.

3. Marching bands Military marching bands date back to the Ottoman Mehterhane.

These were bands which played during the entire battle and only ceased their music-making when the army retreated or the battle was over.

During the wars with the Ottoman Empire, the bands are thought to have made a considerable impression on European soldiers – after which they adapted the principle for their own use.

4. The guitar The guitar, as we know it today, has its origins in the Arabic oud – a lute with a bent neck. During the Middle Ages, it found its way to Muslim Spain, where it was referred to as “qitara” in the Arabic of Andalusia.

It is said that a music teacher brought one to the court of the Umayyad ruler Abdel Rahman II in

www.PakistanLink.com

the ninth century. The modern guitar developed as a result of many influences, but the Arabic lute was its most important predecessor.

5. Magnifying glass/glasses Not only did the Arab world revolutionize mathematics – it also revolutionized optics. The scholar Alhazen (Abu al-Hasan) from Basra was the first person to describe how the eye works.

He carried out experiments with reflective materials and proved that the eye does not sense the environment with “sight rays,” as scientists had believed up until then.

He also discovered that curved glass surfaces can be used for magnification.

His glass “reading stones” were the first magnifying glasses. It was from these that glasses were later developed. Furthermore, Alhazen wrote important scholarly texts on astronomy and meteorology.

6. Coffee Coffee is the best known of the Muslim world’s exports. While it originated in Ethiopia, it soon found its way over the Red Sea to the Ara-

may be on the verge of partial rehabilitation. Last year, the Aligarh Muslim University held a seminar on his life and accomplishments, and the vice chancellor, Lt General (Retd) Zameer Uddin Shah, announced plans to name the Center for Strategic Studies after him to mark his 214th death anniversary.

Much like the sorry fate that befell the family of the mighty Mughal rulers of India after the decline and extinction of the empire in 1857, descendents of Tipu Sultan are reportedly languishing in poverty and neglect in the poor neighborhood of Kolkata where their ancestors had been deported to. The present Indian state of Kanataka that incorporates the former Mysore kingdom has decided to restore some royal privileges to the Sultan’s descendents.

Unlike in India, one of Sultan’s direct descendent, Princess Noor Inayat Khan, his great, great, great, granddaughter achieved international fame for volunteering to fight the Nazi occupation of Europe during the Second World War. While, serving as an intelligence agent for the allied forces, she was captured by the Germans, sent to a concentration camp where she was tortured and executed in September 1944. In keeping with the traditions of his grandfather, she bravely withstood the torture, never revealing any military secrets to the Germans. She was posthumously awarded the George Cross in 1949, the highest civilian honor of the British Government.

Today, two centuries later, it is difficult to delineate the truth of various conflicting reports related to Tipu Sultan’s reign and his treatment of non-Muslim subjects.

Many of these narratives are burdened with partisan baggage, lacking objectivity. The early reports are especially suspect, as they were provided by the British Generals who had participated in battles against the Sultan and who had a natural dislike of him. Regardless of the validity of the various historic documents, it is certain that Tipu Sultan was one of the most gifted and insightful Muslim rulers of South India who was endowed with unrivaled military acumen. bian peninsula, where it grew in popularity.

It is thought that an Ottoman merchant brought the bean-based beverage to London in the 17th century. Venice gained its first coffee house in 1645, while Germany got to know the drink following the retreat of the Turks from Austria in 1683. Legend has it that the Sultan’s soldiers left sackloads of coffee behind.

7. Hospitals The first modern hospital with nurses and a training centre was in Cairo. In the Ahmed Ibn Tulun hospital (named for the founder of the Tulunid dynasty), which was established in the year 872, all patients received free health care – a Muslim tradition which was institutionalized with the advent of the hospital.

Slightly more basic hospitals had existed prior to this in Baghdad.

But it was the Cairo model which would later serve as the template for hospitals all around the globe.

8. Surgery The Andalusian-born doctor Albucasis (Abu al-Kasim) was one of the most significant medical figures of the Middle Ages. In INVENTIONS, P29

COMMENTARY

P24 – PAKISTAN LINK – FEBRUARY 6, 2015

O

The Lone Star

n By Ibrahim Sajid Malick

n January 7, 2015, when terrorists slaughtered 12 journalists at the Paris offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, my mind wandered off to Paris, Texas — a town often referred to as “the second largest Paris in the world.”

Why? Because the mayor of Paris, Texas — a conservative Christian town — is a Pakistani-American Muslim man named Dr Arjumand Hashmi.

A seemingly apolitical student when he was in Dow Medical College in 1980s, he is best known in Pakistan for being the cardiologist of former president, Pervez Musharaf. He grew up admiring Mohammad Ali Jinnah, but after making America his home, he quickly found new role models: George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

For the local Parisian of Texas, Dr Hashmi is just their mayor, and of course, their cardiologist. But as the maddening violence of Paris, France reverberated around the globe, I wondered how the people of Paris, Texas, who had elected a Muslim mayor, have reacted to the violence.

Why did you choose to run for public office?

A number of reasons. Like many other residents, I was not satisfied with the performance of the local council. We were losing jobs, and the local leadership was not appropriately addressing the attrition. In 2010, Sara Lee had shut down their production and 700 people had lost their jobs. In a town of 25,000, that’s big. Besides economy, there was a general decay that was obvious from the appearance of this town. Our infrastructure was old and falling apart. I had lived here and had a successful practice. I felt a sense of obligation. I owed it to the community, so I offered to serve.

What type of obstacles did you have to overcome?

I am a Pakistan-born immigrant living in Texas, and people were concerned about my intentions. Some even asked if I would build a mosque or implement Sharia.

But the great thing about America is that people here are willing to listen. You can reason with them. For example, I explained to my fellow citizens that just like we don’t

For the local Parisian of Texas, Dr Hashmi is just their mayor, and of course, their cardiologist. But as the maddening violence of Paris, France reverberated around the globe, I wondered how the people of Paris, Texas, who had elected a Muslim mayor, have reacted to the violence build churches with public funds, we cannot build mosques with public funds either.

I told them that I lived in America because I love this political system. This system is working so why would I want to change it? I also explained that if I wanted to live in a country with Sharia, I would migrate to Saudi Arabia. We adopted this country and nobody forced us to come here. I follow my religion, I say my prayers, but we live in the very same town. This is our town.

Why are there are a limited number of Pakistani-Americans engaged in public service?

Normally Pakistanis stay occupied within their groups. We are active in our communities and participate in activities such as the Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent of North America (APPNA). We are interested and engaged in the politics of Pakistan. We are all working for our own personal financial growth. So our priorities are different.

But I believe the main reason [Paki-

stani-Americans] don’t run for office is a fear of failure. They do not want to lose an election.

They do not want to step out of their comfort zone. But it needs to change. This is our country, this is our community. We must participate in politics, ensure positive change for posterity.

My wife and I have raised our kids to be socially responsible. They are encouraged to participate in local politics. Of course, they need to pursue academic and professional studies, but that should not preclude them from being part of public service.

Do you think being a cardiologist helped your electability?

I am sure it helped. Because I have a practice in town, people already knew me.

But as a health care provider, I had a different relationship with the constituency. Patients came to me for assistance. But when I was campaigning, I was going to them seeking their support. Different dynamics.

What have you managed to achieve for

Paris, Texas?

My goal and campaign promise were to empower individuals, increase people’s participation in local government, and practice an open-door policy. My administration has been open and completely transparent.

People were welcome to every council meeting even when it meant opposition to my point of view. I wanted to create the environment of inclusion. Under my admin, the local fire department was able to procure state-of-the-art fire trucks. We also secured a bond of $45 million to modernize our water and sewerage system.

I am proud to say that under my administration we were able deliver on our election promise of health, safety and quality of life.

Texas is at the centre of the debate on hydro-fracking. Where do you stand on environmental issues such as fracking and Keystone XL that can potentially go through your town?

I am for green energy; wind, water and solar.

Does that put you at odd with conservative Republicans? What will you do if Keystone XL pipeline has to go through your town?

I will study the health impact and also economic benefits. There has to be a balance. I will make sure that the citizens of this town are involved in any decision.

If you were the mayor of Paris, France how would you have responded to the recent massacre? Do you support freedom of speech unconditionally?

Well, I am not the mayor of Paris, so it is hard for me to respond. But the ruthless and senseless murder is extremely sad and must be condemned unconditionally.

When Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) took over Makkah, he pardoned everyone. I don’t know at what point these extremists took over Islam. This is extremely distressing, and it is very sad that moderate Muslims are being held hostage by these fundamentalists.

So are you saying that you completely support freedom of expression and not the concept of blasphemy? Do you support the 1st Amendment in its entirety?

Yes, absolutely. I support the 1st Amendment. No doubt. - Dawn

Afraid to Admit That You Don’t Understand Social Media?

I

n By Marsha Friedman

talk to a lot of business owners and authors who don’t “get” social media.

A year or two ago when I’d speak with them, most were quick to say they didn’t understand it and didn’t need to.

Today what I hear is: “I know I’m supposed to be doing that, so I have a Facebook account.” Or, “Yeah, I’ve got my teenaged nephew taking care of that.”

Unfortunately, simply posting occasional announcements about upcoming sales or telling people why they should use your service or read your book is not social media marketing and it’s not helping you. In fact, if that’s all you’re doing, it could be hurting you.

What’s worse, you’re not taking advantage of what could become the most powerful tool in your marketing arsenal. Why? Social media is the world’s biggest cocktail party and everyone’s there – including your competitors and your potential customers.

I first heard the cocktail party analogy from marketing guru David Meerman Scott, who used it in his best-seller, The New Rules of Marketing & PR, published in 2007. It immediately clarified for me why social media networks are marketing gold.

Imagine walking into a net-

working party at a hotel. People are roaming around, engaging with folks they know and being introduced to those they don’t know. They’re talking about the economy, the weather, the price of milk.

You get into a nice chat with someone and he asks what you do for a living. If it were me, I’d say, “I’ve got a national PR company that specializes in publicity.” The person might say, “Wow, I’ve got a friend interested in that. Let me introduce you!”

The friend may or may not be present at this cocktail party.

But if that same conversation happened on a social network like Facebook, that friend and dozens more would be so close by. They may actually be “listening” to your conversation. That’s what makes social media so much more valuable as a marketing tool. You can be exposed to thousands more potential customers than you would through traditional networking channels.

How does that happen? Social media users stay connected by “following” one another.

If I’m following you, I can see your conversations. Post something clever and I might share it with my followers, who may also share it with their followers.

Before you know it, you and your brilliance may be exposed to hundreds of thousands of strangers.

Some of them will become your fol-

lowers and, voila! You have a growing audience.

But it won’t happen if you don’t have a plan and don’t apply cocktail party rules of etiquette. What works on social media – and what doesn’t – are the same things that work (and don’t) when you’re networking at that hotel conference room party: • Go in with a plan. If you’re going to a party to network, you have goals. Maybe you want to find prospective clients or get people interested in your upcoming project. You identify your target demographics and learn which influencers will be at the party, such as the local media, politicians and celebrities. On social media, the world’s biggest cocktail party, making the right moves gets a bit more complicated and involves

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some strategizing. (My company now offers customized strategy plans that can be easily implemented by casual or newbie social media users.)

• Don’t stand in the middle of the room saying the same thing over and over. Repeatedly posting the same thing, like “Come in for our big sale tomorrow” or “We won Business of the Year!” is like going to a party and saying the same thing over and over. People will run from you. Instead, engage in conversations on a variety of topics. They can be related to your business or book, but in a tangential way. Someone who sells jewelry, for instance, might share a great trick for cleaning rings.

• Be genuine and show some personality. At a party, you smile, ask people questions about themselves,

maybe tell some jokes, if that’s your personality and the personality you want your brand to reflect. People are drawn to people, not things, so let your humanity shine. But don’t try to be something you’re not. Other users will quickly figure it out and you – and your brand – will lose their trust.

Social media is a great way to build awareness of your brand, cultivate prospective customers and establish yourself as an authority. It has tremendous value for anyone with marketing needs, and it’s really not intimidating once you jump in.

Plus, it’s a whole lot more fun than an old-fashioned networking cocktail party!

About Marsha Friedman: Marsha Friedman is a public relations expert with 25 years’ experience developing publicity strategies for celebrities, corporations and media newcomers alike. Using the proprietary system she created as founder and CEO of EMSI Public Relations, (www.emsincorporated.com), an award-winning national agency, she secures thousands of top-tier media placements annually for her clients.

The former senior vice president for marketing at the American Economic Council, Marsha is a sought-after advisor on PR issues and strategies.

She shares her knowledge in her Amazon best-selling book, Celebritize Yourself , and as a popular speaker at organizations around the country.

SPORTS SPORTS

FEBRUARY6, 6, 2015 2015 –-PAKISTAN LINKLINK – P25 FEBRUARY PAKISTAN

Williamson, Taylor Power New Zealand to Massive Win

NAPIER: The New Zealand players pose with the series trophy, New Zealand v Pakistan, 2nd ODI.

NAPIER: On a perfect batting strip at McLean Park, centuries from Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor powered New Zealand to 369, a total that proved well out of Pakistan's reach despite the platform laid by their openers. The asking rate kept climbing on Pakistan, and their middle and lower order fell away to give New Zealand a 115-run win with close to seven overs left to play.

Ahmed Shehzad and Mohammad Hafeez put on 111 for the first wicket, and while their scoring rate was below the required rate, they set Pakistan up for an all-or-nothing effort in the last 20 overs. At the 30-over mark, they were two down and needed 203 with Hafeez still at the crease on 80.

Pakistan took the batting

Powerplay at that point, and Hafeez swung the first ball from Grant Elliott over the square leg boundary. Looking for a repeat the next ball, however, he holed out off a slower ball. In came Shahid Afridi, promoted up the order, but he fell for 11 and Umar Akmal followed in the next over. There could only be one result thereafter.

Batting first after winning the toss, Brendon McCullum provided the innings thrust at the start, and Martin Guptill and Williamson kept that momentum going with a 128-run second-wicket stand before Taylor added the final flourish. New Zealand scored 116 in their last 10 overs, during which time Taylor smashed 73 in 36 balls.

After swinging in vain at a couple of slower full-tosses outside off from

Bilawal Bhatti in the final over, Taylor was on 92 with two balls remaining. He sent the penultimate ball of the innings soaring into the crowd beyond deep extra cover, and finished with a thick outside edge to the third man boundary. Taylor's unbeaten 102 was New Zealand's 100th ODI century.

While Taylor's innings included plenty of his trademark clubs over the leg side, Williamson's was full of nimble footwork and pretty strokes. For all that, it was no less brutal in its pace, and his century came up in 80 balls.

Guptill looked on course for a hundred as well, and was distraught after getting himself out, launching a full-toss from the part-time legspinner Shehzad straight into long-off's hands. J

Junaid Khan out of World Cup

LARHOE: Pakistan fast bowler Junaid Khan has been ruled out of the World Cup after failing a fitness test.

Junaid had already pulled out of the ongoing ODI series against New Zealand due to a thigh injury sustained in training and despite undergoing a rigorous rehabilitation programme at the National Cricket

Academy in Lahore, he is believed to have failed his test marginally.

Pakistan will announce a replacement in their 15-man squad.

Junaid had originally sustained a "Grade-3 osteochondral" fracture in his knee last October, ruling him out of Pakistan's entire international winter season in the UAE, against

Australia and New Zealand. He recovered from that injury to make the World Cup squad, but had a fall while bowling in the nets during training at the Gaddafi Stadium on January 15 and was sent to Pakistan's medical staff with pain in his right thigh and elbow.

Initial tests reported a Grade-1 injury, which Junaid was expected to recover from in a couple of weeks, with the PCB's doctors recommending that he take thorough rest and avoid travelling. However, Junaid went on a long journey by car last month to his home-town Swabi, which is believed to have aggravated his injury.

The PCB's medical panel concurred that he had not recovered sufficiently from "the traction injury of the nerve in the posterior right thigh" and recommended recuperation at the NCA. Junaid was subsequently withdrawn from the New Zealand tour and Bilawal Bhatti was picked as his replacement for the two-match series. J

Despite Suspension Ajmal Remains Atop ICC Rankings

DUBAI: Pakistani off spinner Saeed Ajmal remains atop the ICC rankings for ODI bowlers besides being suspended for his bowling action five months ago.

Ajmal remains 14 points ahead of Sunil Narine who will also not be part of West Indies squad for the upcoming World Cup. Another of Pakistan's bowlers Mohammad Hafeez who has been suspended by the ICC from bowling due to his action is number eight in the rankings.

The top positions for the ICC rankings for ODI batsmen are occupied by South Africa's AB De Vlliers and Hashim Amla. Pakistan's Misbah-ul-Haq is the only Pakistani batsmen to rank in the top 15.

In the ratings for all-rounders, Mohammad Hafeez is ranked number two and Shahid Afridi is ranked number five.

The ICC ODI rankings also list

Australia as the top team for the World Cup. J

BCB Won't Share Tour Profits With PCB

DHAKA: BCB president Nazmul Hassan has said that Bangladesh could pay part of the tour costs to the PCB for their bilateral series in April but the host board won't share profits.

He indicated that the BCB could end the impasse between the two boards by sending a representative team to Pakistan.

According to the present FTP, Bangladesh are supposed to host Pakistan for two Tests, three ODIs and a T20 between April 10 and May 7.

However, the PCB is yet to hand the BCB an assurance on the tour because the latter hasn't confirmed if it will share tour profits and send Bangladesh U19, A or women's teams to Pakistan.

The two boards held talks in Dubai last month on the sidelines of the ICC meeting but there is room for further discussions on the issue.

In the last four years, PCB and BCB relations have been embroiled as Bangladesh repeatedly pulled out from touring Pakistan, citing safety and security concerns. During the Zaka Ashraf regime, the PCB had barred its cricketers from featuring in the Bangladesh Premier League and the Dhaka Premier League.

Hassan, speaking at his residence in Dhaka, said that he was recently informed by the board that it had paid the PCB a certain amount of money when Pakistan last toured Bangladesh in 2011, so paying them again would not be unique but putting conditions to touring isn't considered acceptable by the BCB. "I have heard that we had paid them the last time they came on tour," Hassan said. "This is completely new information to me. I only heard it day before yesterday. The amount was not half of the match fee but we had given

them some money. So there is precedence. I will have to find out what it is, but the amount was not significant. I will seek more information about it today. If they say just pay our plane fare, then it is a different issue. But match fee or profit sharing is out of the question. It is BCB's own fund, we can't share it with others.

"We will keep discussing with PCB and we will reach a decision. We don't want to make our relations poor with Pakistan, nor do we want their cricket to suffer but we must ensure our players' safety. But I don't accept that there will be conditions to go or to not go on a tour. I don't think the BCB will agree to any conditions."

According to Hassan, the PCB has put pressure on the BCB previously for not touring Pakistan in 2012.

Bangladesh had confirmed in an ICC meeting that they would be the first team to tour Pakistan since the 2009 Lahore attack, but backed out soon due to a writ petition in the High Court.

Last year, however, Bangladesh women's football and handball teams toured Pakistan to participate in regional tournaments. Hassan said that while sending the senior men's team was not on their minds, they will look at security arrangements to send an age-group team or the women's team.

He also revealed that the PCB had created more pressure on the BCB by saying Pakistan wouldn't come to play the Asia Cup in 2014 but was forced to after then ACC chairman N Srinivasan indicated that Afghanistan would replace Pakistan in the tournament. At the time the PCB had said it had security concerns following a diplomatic row between the two countries in December 2013. J

Lehmann 'Sick of' Clarke's Fitness Speculation SYDNEY: Australia's coach Darren Lehmann has declared he is "sick of" speculation around the fitness and leadership of Michael Clarke and insists he wants the Test and ODI captain in harness for the World Cup, the tour of the West Indies and the Ashes in England.

However, Lehmann also added

that the team could not afford Clarke's injury problems to persist much longer, and spoke hopefully that he may even be fit for Australia's World Cup opener against England in Melbourne on February 14.

Persistent talk that Clarke remains at a distance from some elements of the Australian team's lead-

ership has refused to die down despite the protests of Clarke himself. But Lehmann offered his strongest public support of the injured captain for some time, the day after Clarke said he would be happy to play on in the future as a batsman under the burgeoning leadership of Steven Smith. J

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Nazmul Hassan: "If they say just pay our plane fare, then it is a different issue. But match fee or profit sharing is out of the question."

COMMENTARY

P26 – PAKISTAN LINK – FEBRUARY 6, 2015

Asset Allocation: A Foundation for Your Investments n By Saghir Aslam Rawalpindi, Pakistan (The following information is provided solely to educate the Muslim community about investing and financial planning. It is hoped that the Ummah will benefit from this effort through greater financial empowerment, enabling the community to live in security and dignity and fulfill their religious and moral obligations towards charitable activities) Forget baseball, basketball, football, and other sports and events: these days the great American pastime is investing. During weddings, Ameen’s, Aqiqa’s, and our other social get togethers; our Brothers are talking about investing. Sixty percent of all U.S. households now own stock directly or through mutual funds, trusts, and retirement accounts. This number in 1960 was under ten percent. Avid investing fans that we are, we can’t seem to get enough information from enough sources. Yet a recent survey found that nearly a third of investors rely on friends and family for investing advice Investing is not a game or a contest. It can be a means to reach your financial goals. That could be a problem. Would you rely on friends and family to diagnose a medical problem,

or to build your house? With all the attention paid to the stock market, and all the well-meaning advice we receive, it’s easy to lose sight of why we invest in the first place.

Investing is not a game or contest. It can be a means to reach your financial goals. If you intend to reach your goals, you need to approach investing with a well constructed plan.

You need to avoid jumping from one “hot” mutual fund to another. One of the best planning tools is called asset allocation.

Spread the Wealth, Reduce the Risk Asset allocation is a process for building an investment portfolio based on your financial goals and your tolerance for risk. It can help you create a solid, steady, long-term portfolio, while reducing the impact of market volatility on your holdings.

The basic premise of asset allocation is to diversify your holdings among the three main asset classes – stocks, real estate and cash. By doing so, you may increase your chances of getting good results, because different parts of the market do well at different times, for different reasons and for unpredictable amounts of time. You also may decrease your risk, essentially because all the asset classes are unlikely to decline at the same time. The fancy term for this is low-correlation of asset classes. In plainer terms: asset allocation means not putting all your eggs in one basket.

The finer points of asset allocation stem from the work of Nobel Prize winning economists who measured the relationship of investment risk to return. Most importantly, their research showed that a well-diversified portfolio could accommodate some higher risk investments – with potentially increased return – without necessarily increasing the overall portfolio’s risk level.

The economists’ work established the “efficient frontier” concept. Simply put, this states that for any particular level of risk an investor might accept, there are many possible portfolios of stocks, real estate and other investments. However, only one portfolio would have the best-expected rate of return for that level of risk. When viewed collectively, these “optional” portfolios – matching bests possible return with each degree of risk.

(Saghir A. Aslam only explains strategies and formulas that he has been using. He is merely providing information, and NO ADVICE is given.

Mr Aslam does not endorse or recommend any broker, brokerage firm, or any investment at all, nor does he suggest that anyone will earn a profit when or if they purchase stocks, bonds or any other investments. All stocks or investment vehicles mentioned are for illustrative purposes only. Mr Aslam is not an attorney, accountant, real estate broker, stockbroker, investment advisor, or certified financial planner. Mr Aslam does not have anything for sale.)

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Pakistan’s Democracy Is Living on Borrowed Time n By Farhan Bokhari

A

s millions of Pakistanis desperately searched for petrol across the south Asian country in the past week, Pakistan’s political landscape was becoming nothing comical yet again.

The all too powerful accountant-turnedfinance minister Ishaq Dar, a close confidante and relative of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, kicked off a telling salvo when he pronounced that the visibly acute shortages were caused by a conspiracy.

As if Dar’s claim wasn’t fit enough to become the butt of ongoing jokes, petroleum minister Shahid Khaqan Abbassi simply added to the confusion on Friday by holding Pakistan’s media responsible for causing a hype and provoking the worst petroleum shortage in the country’s history. Ironically, this latest crisis came at a time when the world is flush with cheap oil.

Therefore, it must speak volumes over the failure of Sharif ’s ruling structure to take charge of the Islamic world’s only country armed with nuclear weapons and oversee a period of increasing stability.

Welcome once again to another case of the multifaceted turmoil that engulfs Pakistan. Though ruling politicians eagerly washed their hands off any responsibility for the petrol crisis, their take was nothing short of an outright façade.

This latest crisis must also raise deeply troubling questions over the future of Pakistan’s democracy, more than six years after General Pervez Musharraf, the last military ruler, stepped down to pave the way for a return to civilian rule. While civilian politicians have arrived, their ability to tackle the multiple challenges faced by Pakistan and give the country a new direction remains in doubt.

To the extent that evidence is available, the latest crisis has yet again revealed Sharif ’s determination to shield his ministers from responsibility. Though five officials down the line were suspended as the crisis unfolded, the regime is yet to accept

political responsibility at a sufficiently high level. Given the magnitude of the crisis, it’s clear that the turmoil could have easily been avoided. Pakistan’s media, now in the regime’s firing line, reported months ago that the country’s main oil importing company was in serious financial turmoil. Eventually, the operations of the state-owned Pakistan State Oil (PSO), the oil importing company, came to a grinding halt when it failed to finance further oil imports. Consequently, Pakistanis have suffered acutely Indeed, another energy crisis now appears to be staring Pakistan in the face, with recent reports of coming shortages of furnace oil, which are likely to further jeopardize Pakistan’s already strained ability to generate enough electricity. In an energystarved country where some areas are already without electricity for 12 to 15 hours every day, a grim outlook for electricity supply is likely to just aggravate further.

Meanwhile, for Sharif, the petrol crisis should have been an eye opener. But clearly, it has only been just the contrary. The prime minister may be hoping for the turmoil to tide over as petrol supplies improve and Pakistanis return to business as usual. And yet, that may not necessarily prove to be the case. The failure to hold ministers accountable for their respective portfolios, raises some compelling questions over the country’s future. When Sharif took charge in a historic political transition in 2013, the event was widely celebrated as the coming of age of Pakistan’s democracy given that it was the first time ever that a democratically-elected government completed its tenure and handed power to another through the ballot box. And yet, subsequent events have cast doubts over the coming of age expectations.

Two areas have brutally undermined Sharif ’s credentials. First, his failure to move decisively in carving out a new framework for national security has only come at the cost of more Pakistanis who were targeted in terrorist attacks. Rather than give a clear go ahead to escalate the fight against Taliban militants, Sharif chose to ignore his

skeptics and preferred to seek a reconciliation with the militants.

Consequently, the element of surprise was lost as the prime minister, stricken by a visible sense of complacency, presided over meeting after meeting to discuss a half-baked peace process, which never took off. In the meantime, Taliban militants gained precious time to organize themselves against the Pakistan army. A fullyblown army campaign was finally launched in summer 2014 after a Taliban attack on Pakistan’s biggest international airport in Karachi, highlighted the rapidly building threat. In December 2014, a Taliban attack on a school in Peshawar resulted in about 150 lives being lost, most of them being schoolchildren. Equally important however, the attack clearly showed the fast-growing capacity of the Taliban to strike inside Pakistan’s urban areas, marking a substantial escalation in the country’s internal conflict.

At the same time, Sharif and his compatriots have clearly failed in managing Pakistan’s worsening economic challenge.

The fuel shortages of the past week have only highlighted this gap. However, there are no visible signs of precious lessons having been learnt from this latest catastrophe.

Behind another sorry week for Pakistan’s mass population, lies a longish tale of official complacency. In its 18 months since coming to power, Sharif ’s government has pursued one mega project after another, centered mostly around Pakistan’s travel communication networks. Projects worth billions of rupees devoted to fancy bus, train and road links have driven such initiatives, though a large chunk of Pakistanis live in abject poverty.

Meanwhile, this period has coincided with clear signs of a collapse of Pakistan’s agricultural economy — a sector that serves as the lifeline for almost 60 per cent of the country’s population. Isn’t it time for Pakistanis across the grassroots to reach a logical conclusion — that Pakistan’s democratic journey is being squandered with a combination of growing insecurity and rising economic malaise.

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RELIGION

FEBRUARY 6, 2015 – PAKISTAN LINK – P27

Prophet Muhammad: Allah’s Mercy to the Worlds and Favor to the Faithful

Gems from the Holy Qur’an

n By Dr Muzammil H. Siddiqi

W

e sent you not except as a mercy for the worlds.

(Al-Anbiya’ 21:107) Allah did confer a great favor on the Believers when He sent among them a Messenger from among themselves, rehearsing unto them the Signs of Allah, sanctifying them, and instructing them in Scripture and Wisdom, while before that, they had been in manifest error. (Al ‘Imran 3:164) Prophet Muhammad – peace and blessings of Allah be upon him - was the “Rahmah of Allah” to the worlds. Rahmah is mercy and grace. Whatever exists in this world exists by the mercy of Allah; but one of the greatest signs of Allah’s mercy is His Last and Final Prophet Muhammad. Through Prophet Muhammad Allah completed His mercy to the whole world.

Before him the Prophets used to come only to their own people; but Prophet Muhammad brought Allah’s love and mercy to all people and to all creation.

In a Hadith the Prophet explained in this way: Narrated by Abu Musa alAsh’ari: The Prophet told us some of his names. He said, “I am Muhammad, Ahmad, alMuqaffa (the Final One), alHashir (the one who gathers humanity), Nabi al-Tawbah (the Prophet of Repentance) and Nabi al-Rahmah (the Prophet of Mercy).” (Muslim 4344) Besides being “the Mercy of Allah to the Worlds,” the Prophet was also “the Favor of Allah” (Mann Allah). However, the favor is to the faithful only because they are the ones who will benefit from his teachings, his message and mission and take the lead in spreading Allah’s mercy.

Allah says that the Prophet is from among them (min anfusihim), meaning that he is from among the human beings.

Imam Qurtubi says that there are several meanings in this

From the translation by Muhammad Asad (Leopold Weiss) (Recently, a media talk show host, well known for his anti-Muslim bias, saw it fit to make scornful remarks against the Qur’an on TV. In these columns, selections from this Holy Book will be published, so that unacquainted readers of the Pakistan Link may be able to judge for themselves.)

favor of Allah: One of them is that he is from amongst them.

That is his being from the human race is a favor to human race and his being from among the humans make it easy for the human to follow him. Was he from among the angels or some extra-terrestrial creatures, it would have been very difficult for them to take him and his example seriously. In some readings of the Qur’an, it is read “min anfasihim” not “min anfusihim” and the meaning is that he was the most “nafis” (precious and valuable) among the human beings.

Prophet Muhammad is the favor of Allah to the faithful for the following reasons: 1. He recites the ayat of Allah to them 2. He purifies them 3. He teaches them the Book and Wisdom 1. He recites to them the Ayat of Allah: Allah revealed to him His Book, the Qur’an and he recites the Ayat of this Book to them. He gives them the Book as it was given to him from Allah. He is not only to

deliver the book to them, but he is also to show them how to read this book. He is to make sure that the book is recited in the right way without any mistakes or errors. He makes sure that the book is preserved not

After the departure of the Prophet from this world, it is the responsibility of his Ummah to benefit from this favor and then spread his mercy and grace to the worlds only in the written but also in the spoken form.

2. He purifies them: Tazkiyah is both: purification and growth. Prophet Muhammad purifies the believers from sin, corruption, bad habits and customs.

He purifies them individually and collectively.

He purifies their societies: their cultures, their economic dealings, their political structures.

He purifies every aspect of their life. He makes them grow to become better human be-

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ings. They are the deputies of Allah (khalifah) on this earth; he brings them up to their potential. He upgrades their human level and makes them pride of humanity. Before him they were living in error and sin; he changed their condition. The humanity saw that suddenly the people who had no history and had no place among the nations of the world, they became the pride to the world.

3. He teaches them the book and wisdom: Prophet Muhammad did not only deliver the Qur’an to the believers; he also taught them the Qur’an. He explained the words of Allah and told them the teachings of the Qur’an and the way to follow those teachings. He did this through his Sunnah: his words and his personal example. Without Sunnah one cannot understand the Qur’an as it ought to be understood. The Sunnah is the Companion of the Qur’an.

Some people explain “hikmah” as the Sunnah while others have taken “hikmah” as wisdom in the general sense of the word.

Prophet Muhammad gave both the practical explanation of the Qur’an and he also gave us deeper meaning and wisdom of Allah’s words and commands.

By knowing the wisdom of the Qur’an we can interpret the Qur’an in all situations and in all times. The Prophet was not only to give us textual meanings, but he also gave us the understanding of the text in its proper context and its application in different times and places. This is the basic role of the Sunnah and Hadith.

It is important that we as Muslims benefit from Allah’s favor and then make Allah’s Mercy available to all people. After the departure of the Prophet from this world, it is the responsibility of his Ummah to benefit from this favor and then spread his mercy and grace to the worlds.

About the translator: Muhammad Asad, Leopold Weiss, was born of Jewish parents in Livow, Austria (later Poland) in 1900, and at the age of 22 made his first visit to the Middle East. He later became an outstanding foreign correspondent for the Franfurter Zeitung, and after his conversion to Islam travelled and worked throughout the Muslim world, from North Africa to as far East as Afghanistan, India and Pakistan. After years of devoted study he became one of the leading Muslim scholars of our age. His translation of the Holy Qur’an is one of the most lucid and well-referenced works in this category.

Chapter 22, Verses 16 - 18 And thus have We bestowed from in high this [divine writ] in the shape of clear messages: for [thus it is] that God guides him who wills [to be guided].

Verily, as for those who have attained to faith [in this divine writ], and those who follow the Jewish faith, and the Sabians, and the Christians, and the Magians, [on the one hand,] and those who are bent on ascribing divinity to aught but God, [on the other,] verily, God will decide between them on Resurrection Day: for, behold, God is witness unto everything.

Art thou not aware that before God prostrate themselves all [things and beings] that are in the heavens and all that are on earth – the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the mountains, and the trees, and the beasts?

And many human beings [submit to God consciously], whereas many [others, having defied Him,] will inevitably have to suffer [in the life to come]; and he whom God shall scorn [on Resurrection Day] will have none who could bestow honor on him: for, verily, God does what he wills.

Chapter 22, Verses 30 – 31 All this [is ordained by God]: and if one honors God’s sacred commandments, it will redound to his own good in the Sustainer’s sight.

And all [kinds of] cattle have been made lawful to you [for sacrifice and food], save what is mentioned to you [as forbidden].

Shun, then, [all that God has forbidden and, most of all,] the loathsome evil of idolatrous beliefs and practices; and shun every word that is untrue, [inclining] towards God, [and] turning away from all that is false, without ascribing divine qualities to aught besides Him: for he who ascribes divinity to aught but God is like one who is hurtling down from the skies – whereupon the birds carry him off, or the wind blows him away onto a far-off place.

CLASSIFIED & MATRIMONIAL

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PAKISTAN INVENTIONS FROM P23

the more than 30 volumes he wrote, the tenth-century Arab scholar described how important a positive patient-doctor relationship is, and argued for the same standard of medical care for all, regardless of social class.

He also invented methods for surgically treating diseases of the urethra, the ear and the esophagus, and was the first person to describe an ectopic pregnancy. So great was his influence that he was still being quoted by leading European physicians in the 16th century. His ideas shaped modern surgery.

This piece originally appeared on HuffPost Germany and was translated into English.

CLIMATE FROM P10

final. Congress would have to do that. But this action means the Interior Department can manage the lands as if Congress had acted.

(Congress could reverse Interior, but remember in the Senate that means finding 60 votes. That’s not likely to happen.)

Is this the Climate Moment?

The turning point? There is a lot of work ahead, but the Obama administration is acting as if the answers are a “yes.”

(Mark Trahant holds the Atwood Chair at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He is an independent journalist and a member of The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. New America Media) KASHMIR FROM P1

Kashmir, thereby manipulating the Muslim majority into a minority, and dividing the population on ethnic, communal and religious lines.

Kashmir Solidarity Day is observed on February 5 on the status of the issue and plight of Kashmiri Muslims in Indian Kashmir.

The foreign secretary stressed that the peace in the region would remain elusive till the Kashmir dispute is resolved in accordance with the UN Resolutions that call for a free and fair plebiscite to determine the wishes of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

He also expressed appreciation in regard to consistent support from the OIC and the secretary general to the Kashmir cause.

Highlighting the efforts of OIC, he noted with satisfaction how the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir, consisting of Azerbaijan, Niger, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, meets regularly and adopts resolutions affirming OIC’s continued support to the Kashmiris.

Chaudhry noted the secretary general’s emphasis on an early and peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute.

The ambassadors were told that Kashmiris had welcomed the recent mandate given to OIC Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) to monitor human rights violations in Indian Kashmir.

The foreign secretary emphasized that OIC, as a body of 57 countries with 1/5th of the world’s population and many trillion dollars GDP, could influence India to fulfill its obligations under UN resolutions, de-militarize Indian Kashmir and refrain from blatant human rights violations.

The OIC ambassadors, while noting the points made by Chaudhry, participated in the discussion focusing on the Kashmir issue, Pakistan-India relations and other developments in the region.

FEBRUARY 6, 2015 – PAKISTAN LINK – P29 COMMANDERS FROM P1

comprehensive review of the internal and external security situation in the country, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.

The conference reviewed the Operation Zarb-i-Azb, launched in North Waziristan by the Pakistan Army in the wake of the brazen attack on the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi. It also reviewed the progress on Operation Khyber-1 that aims to clear out militants strongholds in the tribal region of Khyber.

The army’s top brass reviewed the security situation on the western borders, the Line of Control (LoC) and the Working Boundary.

The ISPR sources said that the army chief informed the commanders of his recent visits to the UK and China. Commanders of Peshawar and Quetta corps briefed the conference on their recent visits to Afghanistan.

The conference discussed the scenarios developing after the return of Nato forces from Afghanistan and intelligence sharing with that country. Training of police and other law enforcers by the army throughout the country also came under discussion. It also discussed the US president’s visit to India, the nuclear deal between India and the US and its impact on the region. The conference was held at the General Headquarters (GHQ).

PTI FROM P1

assemblies in the given situation.

The forum decided to form a parliamentary board to receive applications for award of ticket for the Senate seats and hold scrutiny of the expected candidates. It was also decided that Imran himself would conduct interviews of the potential candidates prior to finalizing names.

The committee made it clear that all the candidates would be from the Khyber Paktunkhwa. “Basic yardstick of selection of candidates will be their services to the party and community and personal conduct.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf secretary general will organize the parliamentary board, headed by Imran,” the sources revealed.

The reasons for selection and rejection of a candidate would be recorded in writing and presented to the party chairman and hence the entire process would be under a mechanism of check and balance and this record would be presented before the central executive committee in its first meeting after finalizing its members.

The meeting noted that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf could bag five Senate seats and its ally Jamaate-Islami one in the Senate elections.

The forum strongly condemned the Shikarpur carnage and called it a failure of the government to protect life and honor of the citizens.

Talking to media persons, Imran said that efforts must be made to check horse-trading and elimination of use of money in the Senate polls and hence ensure the sanctity of the vote. He said the sit-in was the first attack on the government and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf would continue attacking the rulers like Mehmood Ghaznvi till the time they get justice with regard to the general election.

VISIT FROM P1

visit. “We are in the middle of a process to finalise the drafts of various agreements to be signed during the visit of the Chinese president,” Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal told Dawn.com at Parliament House.

He made it clear that at no cost would the visit by the President Xi Jinping be postponed this time. He accused certain political elements of trying to disrupt the launching of Pakistan-China economic corridor.

The Chinese president would formally open this corridor from a location not be disclosed due to security concerns, a source said.

“The visit by the Chinese president is extraordinary because of two reasons, first due to the visit by US President Barack Obama to India last month and second due to long awaited joint services military parade on 23rd March in Islamabad which would be graced by the Chinese president,” Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed told Dawn.com.

AID FROM P1

program provides grants and loans to help countries purchase weapons and defense equipment produced in the United States as well as in acquiring defense services and military training.

The Obama administration also proposed $334.9m for economic support fund and $143.1m for counter-terrorism and nonproliferation efforts.

The US State Department noted that Pakistan was at the heart of the US counter-terrorism strategy, the peace process in Afghanistan, nuclear non-proliferation efforts, and economic integration in South and Central Asia.

It argued that the proposed increase in foreign military funding to Pakistan was essential to country’s efforts to increase stability in its western border region and ensure overall stability within its own borders.

Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Heather Higginbottom told a briefing that while the budget proposals maintained “a robust investment in our Pakistan assistance”, overall there was a small reduction of about 10 per cent over the last year.

This reduction was “based on what we think the needs are and what we assess the capabilities are”, she said.

ASSURANCE: The US budget for the next fiscal year, released on Monday, includes assurance that Washington will continue to assist Pakistan’s efforts for countering terrorism.

“For Pakistan, the budget demonstrates our commitment to fostering stability and prosperity, and provides security assistance that promotes counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency c ap a b i l i t i e s ,” said a statement issued with the budget.

“The budget continues to support public engagement and partnership programs in Pakistan and maintains staffing in order to support these critical US priorities,” it added.

The statement issued by the US State Department assured Islamabad and Kabul

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that the budget for the next US fiscal year “reinforces our commitment to Afghanistan and Pakistan”.

The US fiscal year begins on Oct 1 of the current year and ends on Sept 30 of the next calendar year.

The $3.99 trillion US budget includes $561 billion in defense outlays. There is a discretionary funding of $50.3bn for the State Department and the US Agency for International Development. Funds for countering terrorist activities and helping development in Afghanistan and Pakistan come from these two sources.

The defense budget includes funds for confrontation with Russia over its incursion in Ukraine and the US-led fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. It also reserves $14bn for cyber-security measures.

The State Department noted that Afghanistan now had “a new reform-minded” government, which encouraged Washington to continue its security, economic and civilian programs in that country.

TIES FROM P1

necessarily put that forward, though, as a counterweight to China per se.”

Both US and India, Reiner said, were “very much interested in working off of those fundamental values and establishing systems that basically work off of established rules and norms in the international sphere to avoid conflict, to avoid any situation where there may be perceived bullying.”

Discounting a New York Times report that the first issue that Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed as soon as they met was China, he said “there was many things that we spoke about.”

“Coming in the door, I think the primary thing that was talked about was the fact that we had just reached agreement on these two seminal documents - on the Delhi declaration and on the joint strategic vision,” Reiner said.

China was simply “an element” in the discussion about the region and “as we engage in the region and as countries grow and continue to expand their economic domain, that this is done within the rules and international norms that exist today,” he said.

“The China conversation is just as important as the full spectrum of conversations that we’re having about East Asia and the Indian Ocean writ large and the connectivity that remains there,” he said.

Sohail Gives Pakistan Mountain of Muscle

Karachi: From throwing rocks down mountains and training by swimming across rivers and streams in Pakistan´s troubled north-west, unheralded pace bowler Sohail Khan has come a long way.

The 30-year-old was a surprise inclusion in Pakistan´s 15-man squad for the World Cup as he was not considered amongst the favourites until the morning of the announcement.

But former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif described Khan as “gate crashing” his way into contention after a string of impressive performances in domestic cricket.

“He has gate-crashed into the World Cup squad,” said Latif, credited for grooming the raw talent of Khan in his domestic team, Port Qasim.

“His recent performances forced the selectors to give him a chance and I am confident he will make his mark in the World Cup.” Khan took 64 wickets in Pakistan´s domestic season last year and got ten wickets in a one-day event -- an impressive show which forced him into the World Cup squad at the expense of unfit Umar Gul. But it hasn´t been an easy ride for the well-built Khan. As a youngster, dreaming of making a name for himself, Khan used to throw stones down the hills in Malakand agency -- the mountainous tribal area in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province -- to build muscle to bowl fast.

Playing for Sui Southern Gas Corporation, Khan took an astonishing 65 wickets in his debut first-class season in 2007, with eight five-wicket hauls.

If that was not enough he recorded the best match figures in a first-class game in Pakistan with 16-189, which broke the long-standing record of Fazal Mahmood who once took 15-76.

That was enough to give Khan a place in the national team in the oneday series against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh at home in 2008.

It seemed he would be lost to the game, but Khan´s hard work finally paid off.

ENTERTAINMENT

ENTERTAINMENT P30 – PAKISTAN LINK &– LIFESTYLE FEBRUARY 6, 2015

FEBRUARY 6, 2015 - PAKISTAN LINK

A

R

omance is in the air in Jackson Heights and in good old desi fashion, marriage is not far behind. From proposals, one accompanied by a ring and the other in veiled sub-text, the cast of Jackson Heights seems to be enveloped in a romantic haze right in time for Valentine's Day. With each character's story moving along and each of their motivations established, it becomes easier to dive into the narrative. You can see why director Mehreen Jabbar and writer Vasay Chaudhry took their own sweet time to establish the characters.

Perhaps mixing in plot progression with these revelations could have helped alleviate the drag factor which weighed the drama down initially.

The first of the couples struck by Cupid's arrow in a late stage teenage romance - complete with blinkers and statements such as "I am going out with Jamshed", is Michelle (Marina Khan). She continues on the gullible track headed towards more heartache and devastation falling for each of Jamshed's (Adeel Husain) carefully spun stories.

Her own Tanhaiyaan-inspired back story - with a property hungry chacha and tense marriage - lacked emotional angst and served merely as an outline instead of solid foundation for her steely manner in general, and lack of

trust in desi men in particular.

Jamshed, who has manipulated his way into her heart, head and managerial job, continues to pile on the guilt while playing the victim card. In his own twisted way, he constantly paints himself as the wronged party. That chip

ctor and national hearthrob Fawad Khan on Saturday night became the first Pakistani to win the prestigious Filmfare award in the Best Male Debut category.

The 60th Filmfare Awards were held to honour the best films of 2014 from the Hindi-language film industry at the Yash Raj Studio in Mumbai.

Fawad Afzal Khan won the Best Male Debut Award for his work in Khoobsurat.

Other nominations in this category were Tahir Raj Bhasin (Mardaani), Tiger Shroff (Heropanti), Sharib Hashimi (Filmistaan) and Freddy Daruwala (Holiday).

Fawad received the award from Sonam Kapoor and Jhataleka Malhotra.

On receiving the award Fawad thanked Anil Kapoor, Rhea Kapoor (Producer), his co-star Sonam Kapoor, Disney Productions and the entire team of Khoobsurat and also spoke about his experience on working on the project.

Fawad further thanked his fans and said "You guys are the instrument of my success. It is beautiful to get love from people in India and Pakistan."

Fawad wore a grey Dior suit with a pin striped waist coat to complete his royal look that he is famous for and was accompanied by his wife on the red carpet.

He has recently won Best Actor

at the Lux Style Awards in Karachi, Best Debut at the Masala Awards, Dubai and Fresh Face of the Year at Hello India Awards in Mumbai.

His Bollywood debut had raked in a whopping Rs30 million within three days of its release.

While Fawad has brought a second Filmfare for Pakistan, renowned pop star Nazia Hasan was the first Pakistani to be awarded the Black Lady in 1981 for her song 'Aap Jaisa Koi' in the category 'Best Female Playback Singer'.

that he had on his shoulder has wormed its way into his brain and ballooned to dangerous proportions. He is getting too big for his breeches and pulling antics such as kicking out paying customers, getting Adnan fired, countering the wait staff and present-

ing the bill to Rizwan.

That evil grin however, was not needed. His role would have been stronger, if the audience was left guessing about his manipulations.

Rizwan (Adnan Jaffer), is back in New York and surprised at the devel-

oping relationship between Michelle and Jamshed. Though he can see right through Jamshed, he is still willing to make an effort as he is rightly cautious and concerned for Michelle.

The complicated relationship developing between Salma (Aamina Sheikh) and Bhatti sahib (Nauman Ijaz) has to be the highlight of these last few episodes. From the revelation of Salma's past, Sikander's (Ali Kazmi) erring ways, Bhatti sahib's tussled feelings and Kathy's (Monsoon Bissell) need for control, there is the quiet blossoming of more than a friendship between Salma and Bhatti.

From coming clean about her marital problems and explaining away her situation with "mayoosi gunna hai" to finding the courage within herself to tell off Tai ji and Sikander, Salma has been through a steep growth curve. For Bhatti sahib too, his own realization of his love for Salma and trading his sham of a marriage for something real, he finally (half) admitted his true feelings.

Their scene in the salon was sweet and full of quiet questions and sub-text.

Though if she was threading his eyebrows rather than his cheek, it might have worked better not to mention had the potential to be a tongue-in-cheek (rather than thread-on-cheek) take at the perfectly arched eyebrows of our male stars these days.

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