Welcome President Mamnoon

 

Pakistan's President-elect Mamnoon Hussain hails from Karachi and enjoys good reputation from his stint as governor of Sindh in the previous PML(N) government in the nineties. His election would provide a regional balance in the pillars of power.

However, his election was not without incident. With its characteristic ineptness and without reading all the relevant clauses of the constitution, the ECP first announced the presidential election for the first week of September, then brought it back to 6th August without looking at the Islamic calendar. When it was pointed out that with 20 seats vacant for by-elections and a large number of the pious parliamentarians either in Makkah or meditating in their local mosques on the 27th of Ramadan (6th August) the turn out would be very poor and the date could be shifted to 30th July, the ECP refused to change the date.

The ruling party took the matter to the Supreme court where the ECP had no argument in favor of its decision. The simple solution would have been to allow postal ballot facility to the lawmakers who would not be able to attend the assembly sessions on 6th August. (I even sent an email to the CEC with this suggestion.) In the Supreme court it was decided that the election would be held on 30th July, 2013.

This greatly distressed the PPP who had been claiming that they would persuade all opposition members to vote for their candidate  and win the election . Meanwhile PTI of Imran Khan decided to field its own candidate and the MQM showed leaning towards the ruling party candidate. So PPP decided to boycott the presidential polls as their candidate was not willing to vie for second or third place.

In the end Mr. Mamnoon Hussain won by 432 votes to 77 for PTI's Retired justice Wajihuddin.

One good thing about the expedited election is that it made horse-trading and transfer of funds impossible in the short time allowed for canvassing over a weekend and this could be the first election of any kind in Pakistan which was free from corrupt practices.

To silence his critics, Mr. Mamnoon Hussain on being elected promptly resigned from his PML(N) membership and became a neutral figure -- something that Mr. Zardari of PPP had failed to do.

 

Happy Birthday Malala

The unusual ceremony at UN headquarters on the 16th birthday of Malala Yusufzai has created ripples in many minds. People are wondering why the western world has shown so much sympathy to Malala while ignoring the screams of pain and cries of help by millions other young girls suffering at the hands of many different types of tormentors. The following video link which I have just watched is an example:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151535774803097

To start with, Malala became famous in the West because she was the child star of a NYT documentary "Class Dismissed" about Pak Army operation in Swat. The link is given below:
http://www.nytimes.com/video/2009/02/22/world/asia/1194838044017/class-dismissed-in-swat-valley.html
Whether the film maker had links with CIA or there were other factors is another matter.

The 16th birthday has special significance in the life of a western girl becase it gives her three significant rights:

1. The right to quit further education after the compulsory 16 years.
2. The right to work full time for full pay without being called child labour.
3. The right to sleep with any man of her choice without getting married.

Obviously Mala would not be very enthusiastic about the first right as she seems committed to further education.

If it was the launch of her working and earning career then starting at the UN General assembly which is the top of the world one wonders whicg way it will go? There seems no "UP" after that.

As for the third right, it would certainly be highly objectionable for a Muslim girl and if her benefactors have any ideas in that direction, they may be disappointed.

If the British and US diplomats are trying to use her to provoke the Taliban, it is a bad move as it will bring misery to the helpless thousands of Malalas in northern Pakistan and further geopardize any chance of negociated peace.

The Pakistani permanent representative at UN was conspicuous by his absence from the party. Was he invited to introduce Malala?
Another question is from where did the shawl of Benazir come, and what was the object of projecting it?
 

Terror in India

In my following 2 blogs written at the time of the events I had doubted the genuinness of the purported terrorist attacks on the Indian Parliament in 2001 and the Mumbai Tajmahal hotel in 2008:

http://www.naseemmahnavi.blogspot.com/2005/06/i-wrote.html  see post dated 14/12/2001
http://www.naseemmahnavi.blogspot.com/2008/12/return-of-mugambo.html

In today's Dawn on page 14 there is a news item titled "India party wants commission on Delhi, Mumbai attacks"
As I searched the web I found the following link:

http://news.oneindia.in/2013/07/16/india-govt-accused-of-hatching-26-11-parl-terror-attack-1260557.html
 which gave the details as:

New Delhi, July 16: Congress-led UPA government and rest of the country might have received one of the most shocking news in recent past. IPS officer Satish Chandra Verma allegedly had claimed that the central government had hatched the infamous Parliament and 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks in 2001 and 2008 respectively.The new controversy regarding Verma's remark surfaced when former home ministry official RVS Mani sent a letter to his senior in Urban Development Ministry.

Read more at: http://news.oneindia.in/2013/07/16/india-govt-accused-of-hatching-26-11-parl-terror-attack-1260557.html

Those interested in the topic may follow the links.