Just to clear the misunderstanding for Pakis , these guys are not NS 'actors' but real Cowboys playing Pindians. Next ..John Snow wrote:Black water guys are just non state actors, Pakis better get used to them
Quaid proposed and had his 14 points resolution passed by the All India Muslim League 1928. When demand for separate electorate was accepted by the British Government in the Government of India Act of 1935, two nation theory was in place. 1937 election were held on the basis of separate electorate.
For the record I note the 14 points
The Fourteen Points
1.The form of the future constitution should be federal with the residuary powers vested in the provinces.
2.A uniform measure of autonomy shall be granted to all provinces.
3.All legislatures in the country and other elected bodies shall be constituted on the definite principle of adequate and effective representation of minorities in every province without reducing the majority in any province to a minority or even equality.
4.In the Central Legislature, Muslim representation shall not be less than one third.
5.Representation of communal groups shall continue to be by means of separate electorate as at present, provided it shall be open to any community at any time to abandon its separate electorate in favor of a joint electorate.
6.Any territorial distribution that might at any time be necessary shall not in any way affect the Muslim majority in the Punjab, Bengal and the North West Frontier Province.
7.Full religious liberty, i.e. liberty of belief, worship and observance, propaganda, association and education, shall be guaranteed to all communities.
8.No bill or any resolution or any part thereof shall be passed in any legislature or any other elected body if three-fourth of the members of any community in that particular body oppose such a bill resolution or part thereof on the ground that it would be injurious to the interests of that community or in the alternative, such other method is devised as may be found feasible and practicable to deal with such cases.
9.Sindh should be separated from the Bombay Presidency.
10.Reforms should be introduced in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Baluchistan on the same footing as in the other provinces.
11.Provision should be made in the constitution giving Muslims an adequate share, along with the other Indians, in all the services of the state and in local self-governing bodies having due regard to the requirements of efficiency.
12.The constitution should embody adequate safeguards for the protection of Muslim culture and for the protection and promotion of Muslim education, language, religion, personal laws and Muslim charitable institution and for their due share in the grants-in-aid given by the state and by local self-governing bodies.
13.No cabinet, either central or provincial, should be formed without there being a proportion of at least one-third Muslim ministers.
14.No change shall be made in the constitution by the Central Legislature except with the concurrence of the State's contribution of the Indian Federation.
Interesting read.Our politicians are busy investing in infrastructure in their larger cities. It is their belief that it is infrastructure like roads and underpasses that will provide people the mobility they need to exploit their potential, that it is things like road infrastructure, five-star hotels, fast-food chains and airports that convinces foreign investment that Pakistan is a viable home for their money. But our politicians they have not considered any of the environmental and development challenges facing us. For example, last week, the Government of Punjab announced it was going to be “e-governed” by next year. I’m all for the efficiency of e-government and I’m sure e-government initiatives will bring transparency and speed to bureaucratic inefficiency, but clearly no one has given thought to the energy crisis. How is anything going to be e-governed when there’s no electricity?
Early signs of a negative trendThe first month of the current fiscal year seems to have been quite problematic so far as the financial position of the government is concerned. Tax collections at Rs 74.1 billion, during July 2009, by the government, according to the data of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), fell short of the target of Rs 78 billion by Rs 3.9 billion. { A 5 percent shorfall }
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While tax collections during July, 2009 have been rather poor, borrowings from banks for budgetary support have increased enormously. According to the data released by the State Bank, the Federal Government borrowed Rs 121.74 billion for budgetary support from the banking system during the first three weeks of July, 2009 as compared to Rs 58.24 billion in the corresponding period last year.
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As we have seen in the past, a shortfall in tax collection in the initial months are unlikely to be made up in the remaining part of the year with the result that the attainment of the annual target will not be possible.
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Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Authority is reported to have arrested one more suspect on Tuesday. According to Daily Times, the FIA’s Special Investigations Unit arrested Jamil Ahmed of Battagram in the North-West Frontier Province.
His name is said to have come up during interrogation of the other five suspects, who include the Lashkar-e-Taiba operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and a communication expert of the group, Zarar Shah.
In addition, the FIA is looking for 13 proclaimed offenders in the case.
The Foreign Ministry spokesperson said the two sides were working out dates for a meeting between the Foreign Secretaries as agreed upon at Sharm-al-Shaikh. The Foreign Secretaries would then report to the Foreign Ministers, who are expected to meet on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in September.
“We hope there will be a movement towards a sustained dialogue, towards resuming the composite dialogue,” the spokesperson said.
Would be interesting to look at the list (majority from the PA). Gilani may feel isolated as he is the one office-bearer closer to the the PA.The Parliament will pass a resolution to this effect soon, a minister has said. "The National Assembly, while passing the resolution, will also have to distinguish whether only Pervez Musharraf was responsible for committing this act of high treason or others who abetted him were also responsible," Minister of State for Law Afzal Sindhu has said.
The News reported that except for a few top leaders of the ruling Pakistan People's Party and two or three federal ministers, an overwhelming majority of the party wants the "merciless trial of the military dictator who twice abrogated and breached the constitution".
Senior officials say the demand for such acid tests is simplistic and runs counter to the policy of flexible containment New Delhi has followed since November 2008. The government, they say, has been careful not to tie itself down to a narrow metric for measuring the degree to which Pakistan is taking action against terrorist groups operating from its soil. This ambiguity allows India the option to keep pressing Pakistan to do more than it has done at any point in time while keeping a window open for calibrated normalisation when it is clear that Islamabad may be unwilling or unable to neutralise all or some of its assets.
SSridhar wrote:Indian policy with Pakistan is 'flexible containment'
From the link above:SSridhar wrote:Indian policy with Pakistan is 'flexible containment'
The sham trial run by the paki govt should have opened the eyes of the GoI. Even Daniel Pearl's murderer Omar Sheik, though successfully prosecuted, is still avoiding the gallows with his appeal pending. And the case only got this far because the FBI interrogated him and provided all evidence. If India thinks that the Saeed will be prosecuted, it is living in la-la land. And the pakis have shown that they don't mind sacrificing minnows for their broader objective. The way that only the al-quida number #3 is always captured ( who actually is #10-11) and never the main actors is lost on the Indian govt. If they believe that prosecuting couple of mid-level jihadis like Lakhvi and Shah ( and putting them under house arrest) is going to put the fear of God in the LeT, how naive can they be? And with ISI being the patron of LeT, does GoI really believe that LeT have been hanged out to dry?Even if Islamabad fails to deliver on the Saeed front, the Indian side believes the proper and sustained prosecution of the LeT’s Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi and Zarrar Shah would ultimately affect the ability of Saeed and all Pakistan-based terrorist handlers to run operations. Effective immunity and the presumption of official patronage have been the primary drivers behind the ability of jihadi organisations to recruit cadres. If that immunity were to disappear, even if for LeT foot soldiers, a crack in the terrorist infrastructure would have been effected.
What has pressing Pakistan to do more done so far? Why did the mumbai attacks take place even when the composite dialog was going on, and trade across both IB and LoC was brisk?Senior officials say the demand for such acid tests is simplistic and runs counter to the policy of flexible containment New Delhi has followed since November 2008. The government, they say, has been careful not to tie itself down to a narrow metric for measuring the degree to which Pakistan is taking action against terrorist groups operating from its soil. This ambiguity allows India the option to keep pressing Pakistan to do more than it has done at any point in time while keeping a window open for calibrated normalisation when it is clear that Islamabad may be unwilling or unable to neutralise all or some of its assets.
'The Dawn' [not Dawn] is probably run by the same team lead by some guy called Moin Ansari churning out pages after pages of trash on Rupee News website - same writing style with terms and references of calling India BharatiNRao wrote:Absolute waste of time. It has pictures of other subs but title "arihant". Very, very badly researched article. Not even worth reading.
and a final part about what Pakistan should do in response. And suddenly he realizes that Pakistan can't do a matching response - so time is spent reassuring himself that Pakistan need not match India.India is a big threat!! and a final part about what Pakistan should do in response.
shiv wrote:A leaky Soviet era tub called Arihant
So what is that list of pretty much all paki commentators (excluding jalebi and trainee memon, sadly) being branded traitors on the right of that webpage in the "fifth column"?shiv wrote:A leaky Soviet era tub called Arihant
“A committee ... will discuss the laws detrimental to religious harmony to sort out how they could be improved,” Gilani told a gathering.
He did not specify which ones, but his announcement suggests the government may seek to change blasphemy laws.
Those who consider changing the Blasphemy Law are themselves considered blasphemers in the Land of the Pure and so Gilani should be very careful. eh?? how is Gojra problem related to Blasphemy Law??SSridhar wrote:Gilani hints at review of Blasphemy Law
Interior Minister Rehman Malik has told the National Assembly that a total of 25 organisations stood banned by Pakistan because of “their involvement in terrorist activities”. The statement was filed in an answer to a query in the house, but the TV channels picked up the details as some kind of grand disclosure. It hit the front pages of some of the national dailies on Thursday too.
Some organisations like Sipah-e-Sahaba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi are familiar on the list but many like Khairun Nisa International Trust are not. In fact if there is a national quiz on the subject most Pakistanis will not be able to recognise them as organisations proclaimed as terrorist by their country. Al Akhtar Trust, and Al Rasheed Trust, banned on December 10, 2008 in the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1267, may well be taken by most as good religious charities that are still serving the IDPs in the NWFP. Mr Malik has promised stern action, etc, against the 25 organisations named in his communication to the National Assembly, but he may find this stern action difficult to implement when the citizens are not even aware of the ban.
Indeed, most of them are considered kosher by the public at large. The complaint the international community has against Pakistan is that it takes no convincing action against the banned organisations and in fact lets them function as normal organisations in its civil society. One doubts if the average police officer in Pakistan can tick off the 25 banned organisations in a general list as outfits that he is required to move against.
India’s intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), is behind the recent terrorist activities in Punjab, Lahore Commissioner Khusro Pervez said, adding various American and Western organisations were trying to create “an Islamic brigade” in Pakistan, a private TV reported on Thursday.
At a meeting of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he said about 21 organisations had been identified whose members were receiving training in neighbouring countries. He said the recent incidents in Gojra, Sheikhupura and the attack on the Rescue 15 building in Lahore had been carried out by the Indian spy agency and other foreign agencies. He said it seemed RAW was trying to avenge its failure in Indian-held Kashmir.
Hmm..... thats it then end of "taliban". Pakis can start to redeploy to eastern border. Unkil and his allies can pull out of A'stan. It is all pissfull onlee.IndraD wrote:Baitullah Mehsud killed
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/daw ... lik--bi-09
Its not yet yet 'confirmed' in Rehman Malik's own words. Lets not jump the gun yet. It could be one of those 4 look alikes that Saddam used to move around with, just to throw the khans out of track.IndraD wrote:Baitullah Mehsud killed
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/daw ... lik--bi-09
Baitullah,ISLAMABAD: Baitullah Mehsud, the chief of the Pakistani Taliban, has been killed, a close aide to the militant leader said on Friday, adding that a meeting was being held to "choose his successor".
He died with his wife on Wednesday in north-western Pakistan in a suspected US missile attack that also killed half a dozen of his security guards, said the warlord's aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Mehsud's funeral was performed on Wednesday afternoon and his body was later buried in Margosa village, the Taliban leader said.
"Right now, a meeting of our 'shura' (an advisory council of Mehsud's group) is being held in Sararogha to choose his successor," the aide said.
The Taliban were expected to announce Mehsud's death after Friday prayers together with the announcement of his successor. Among those being considered are his spokesman Hakimullah, Azmatullah and Wali Ur Rehman.
Pakistan interior minister Rehman Malik said initial reports said Mehsud has been killed with his wife, a brother-in-law and seven bodyguards.
The missile strike, believed to have been carried out by a US unmanned 'drone' aircraft, struck the house of one of Mehsud's two fathers-in-law in South Waziristan, a tribal region near the Afghan border and a known hub of al-Qaida and Taliban militants.
The strike came as Pakistani security forces were gearing up for a major offensive against Mehsud, who is blamed for dozens of terrorist attacks across the country and had been declared Pakistan's enemy number one.
However, they might be disappointed to know that Pakistan is not about to collapse. It may not have the capacity to fight and faces countless challenges but the national security community can think of many ways to stay alive, at least to fight their rival . . . .One wonders what it would take for strategists in India to realise that the troubled Pakistan has nine lives and will always be there.
SSridhar wrote:Banning terrorists, Pakistani style
Indeed, most of them are considered kosher by the public at large. The complaint the international community has against Pakistan is that it takes no convincing action against the banned organisations and in fact lets them function as normal organisations in its civil society.
SSridhar wrote:Peace with India - Ayesha SiddiqaHowever, they might be disappointed to know that Pakistan is not about to collapse. It may not have the capacity to fight and faces countless challenges but the national security community can think of many ways to stay alive, at least to fight their rival . . . .One wonders what it would take for strategists in India to realise that the troubled Pakistan has nine lives and will always be there.
RayC sir,RayC wrote:Movements wax and wane.
They require nurturing by interested parties.
The Taliban movement too would die a natural death, but for the ideological and financial assistance of the Saudis.
It would go the same way as the LTTE!=
The message of the conference reads: “We, the people of Punjab, stand united to defend the integrity of our motherland Punjab. Our destiny and mission is people’s enlightened and intact Punjab that speaks the language of Bullah and Fareed and adheres to their intellect because only the path of Sufism can uproot darkness, intolerance, injustice, tyranny, extremism and all kinds of exploitation and terrorism.”
I WAS asked the other day at Amritsar whether the lighting of candles on the night of August 14-15 at the Wagah border had lessened the distance between India and Pakistan. {He took the question seriously at face value. Didn't understand the sarcasm
My reply was that the mood of the people, although still biased, had changed, but not to the extent I expected when a dozen of us lit candles at the border for the first time 15 years ago. I was conscious then that it would take time to dispel the darkness that decades of hatred had caused.
Yet I thought that people in both countries would assert themselves in favour of peace when the rulers were keeping them quiet in the name of patriotism or religion. For the first time since independence, some 40 people from Pakistan appeared on the other side of the border at midnight last August and exchanged candles with us, shaking hands amidst slogans like ‘India-Pakistan dosti zindabad’.
I must explain that the lighting of candles is a movement to awaken the people on both sides to their common culture, history and geography so that they don’t grow apart. It is a search for peace, an effort to change outlooks. I can see more and more people renouncing violence and ruling out war. The change is slow but steady.
Last year’s attack on Mumbai, however reprehensible, did not create the war hysteria that the attack on parliament did in 2001. At that time, the forces of the two countries stayed on the border in an eyeball-to-eyeball formation for 11 months. Another positive sign is that Pakistan has admitted that the perpetrators of the Mumbai carnage are its nationals. {Pakistan did not admit for a very long time even when there was a hell of a lot of evidence. It was only the fact that the Americans and other nationals were also killed that forced the Pakistanis to admit their own terrorists were involved in planning and execution. From the way they have handled the case so far, we know that they have no real intention of punishing the guilty. They are just delaying prosecution underone pretext or the other. Soon, there will be a bigger event and 26/11 will be forgotten like we have forgotten so many other similar tragedies before like starting with the 1993 Mumbai serial blast, the Red Fort Attack, J&K Assembly attack, Parliament attack, Mumbai 7/11 commuter train attack, Akshardham attack, Kandahar hijack, May 2008 Jaipur blasts, July 2008 serial blasts at Bangalore, Surat, New Delhi & Ahmedabad etc. The Nadimarg, Chattisinghpura, Kaluchak, Vaishnodevi, Wandhama and Kulhand attacks have even been forgotten. We may have prosecuted some Indians in these cases but Pakistan remains untouched. Kuldip Nayar should light candles at Wagah and kiss whatever anatomy of the Pakistanis to be kissed, only when Pakistan admits to all these terror attacks and prosecutes or hands over the terrorists to India.} Such an admission is difficult when the record of the two countries is only a sum total of accusations and counter-accusations.
I am not suggesting that Pakistan has changed its policy. Gen Kayani puts the threat from the Taliban and that from India at par. Yet when President Asif Zardari rules out danger from India, it indicates some rethinking. {How naive of Mr. Kuldip Nayar to believe that Zardari, of all people, commands powers in policy making vis-a-vis India.}
The Supreme Court’s judgment terming Gen Musharraf’s Nov 3 emergency as illegal is a major development and in line with the fresh air of freedom blowing in Pakistan. {Haven't you seen similar fresh air in the past too Mr. Nayar ? We saw one in c. 1972, then in c. 1989 only to be rudely brought back to reality later at an 'appropriate time'}The fact that the army has refrained from comment encourages me to believe that the military is beginning to respect the limits to which the armed forces can go in a democratic polity. {Don't you know Mr. Nayar that the 1973 Constitution makes it high treason for the military to usurp power and yet there have been two coups after that lasting a total of 20 years with no even a little finger being raised ?} At this time, the tendency of Indian thinkers and experts to run down Pakistan and heap all the blame on it does not help. Even a bit of change across the border is huge because it gives good tidings of a much-awaited spring.
However, the effusive Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani continues to blunder by indicating that he had the upper hand at Sharm el Sheikh where he signed the joint statement with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Gilani is helping only the BJP and the hawks who have not accepted the statement either in letter or in spirit. He is provoking New Delhi to take a stiff stand.
Take the mention of Balochistan. Manmohan Singh has told Pakistan to place the evidence on the table. America’s indication that there is no evidence of an India hand in Balochistan should have silenced the critics. But they are bent on defaming Manmohan Singh who has acted on the principle of transparency.
Next week India and Pakistan will be celebrating their 62nd year of independence. Both should use the occasion for some introspection in order to find out in where ties are headed. Both are relentlessly going towards a point where, even if there is no conflict, there will be no settlement.
Those in India who are engaged in a sterile debate over the word ‘link’ should stop their carping because of the militants’ attack this week in Srinagar which killed two security men. The attack proves beyond doubt that the first task before the two countries is to deal with terrorism. The Mumbai attacks are only one aspect. Until Islamabad does not go after terrorist organisations like the Lashkar-i-Taiba which focuses on India from safe havens in Pakistan, the root cause of terrorism cannot be exterminated. Then the manner in which the Pakistan administration is dealing with the case of Hafiz Saeed is not helping to restart the composite dialogue.
How I wish Pakistan could start thinking afresh on India. When I accompanied former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on his bus trip to Lahore, I could see how determined he was to begin a new chapter to cultivate good relations with Pakistan. We had not reached the border when he called me and showed the message he had received about the killing of Hindus by militants at Doda. But he decided to complete the mission. This can be judged from what he wrote in the visitors’ book at the Minar-i-Pakistan: India’s stability and integrity depended on the stability and integrity of Pakistan.
The effort which some of us have been making for the last 15 years by lighting candles on the Wagah border is towards that end. People in both countries should light a candle outside their homes on the night of Aug 14-15 to demonstrate their commitment to friendship between the two nations. {BS}
Leaders in Pakistan have in Manmohan Singh a person who is determined to travel whatever distance is required to make up with Pakistan. He is thinking of a common market for the South Asian countries. Islamabad should not try to score points while interpreting the joint statement. He should be strengthened. He is a man on a mission.
KARACHI: Schools in the city feel threatened, as conservative elements have started a negative propaganda against the inclusion of some chapters of biology and civic education in the curriculum of elementary classes particularly regarding the reproduction process.
The administration of private schools, some of which are associated with foreign education systems like the Cambridge system, fear that some ‘elements’ in the society have turned against them for providing modern education and insist that they are trying to create hatred for them among the masses and the government machinery.
Conservatives in different parts of the city are convincing parents to stop sending their children to private schools where ‘sex education’ is being taught.
The ‘Mullahs’ and their affiliates in their sermons allege that these schools are trying to guide the children towards the wrong path. They have some arguments in support of their claims. “Look at the ‘Science Book - 5A’ published by Marshall Cavendish Education,” the conservatives said. The book referred to by these people include chapters on ‘Reproduction in Animals’ in which two children are shown talking about the process in detail.
Unlike Jamil however, there are others who have reservations. “Such topics lead children towards $ex,” said Zain-ul Abidin, whose children are studying in a local public school.
“That time is long gone when one would tell children that they were thrown from the sky or picked them from the seaside. With such answers you cannot satisfy children,” Jan said.