Mehsud’s Murder

The fact that a coyote court in USA indicts someone does not make a premeditated murder a legitimate execution. It remains an assassination ordered by the US president. Even a mass-murderer deserves a fair trial.

It seems that American policies in this part of the world are based on an upside-down perception of realities. Neither the Afghan Taliban nor the TTP are militant cults anymore. Thanks to sustained conflict with extremist Christians and Hindus both have become popular movements. The TTP has more than 50 constituencies and it now has a stable pyramidal structure. Killing its top man will hardly make any more difference than the murder of a US president makes to that country. It was the realization of this fact that prompted the Pakistani leadership to treat them with some respect and negotiate peace with them.

The problems that the world is faced with today arise from a single cause that the political, economic and military leaderships of the USA are not on the same page. The thoughtful political leader ship is a hostage of the rash military and the economy is too dependent on military production and support. Even oil prices are being maintained at unacceptable levels throughout the world to keep the US shale business viable. The mystery of the standoff between the presidency and the house on budget is not over and horror may be yet to come.

The American addiction to bloodshed and arson cannot be justified in terms of sustained pursuit of retribution. If that were so, why do they expect the Japanese to forget Hiroshima and Nagasaki or the Palestinians to forget Sabra and Shatilla? Believe me when ever colonial rule is discussed in the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent, someone always reminds the audience of the Jalianwala Bagh massacre by the British as history and not as a mission for revenge.

One thing is obvious: the Americans are not reliable friends. The question now faced by the Pakistani leadership is whether it is preferable to have them as friends or enemies?

Paradise Found

http://whall.org/blog/2007/07/08/stuff-you-dont-want-to-misc-4/

Scientists had surmised that the Earth and the Moon had condensed from hot gases that had spilled off the Sun, but recent discoveries haves shown that the compositions of the Earth and the Moon differ from the Sun suggesting that the two were formed at some remote spot in space and launched in orbit around the Sun.  It is possible that the Earth was targeted to be inclined at a quarter of a right angle to its orbital plane, but actually it turned out to be 23.4 degrees i.e. one degree more, or that the year was meant to be exactly 360 days and not 365 and a quarter as it actually is or that the lunar cycle was meant to be exactly thirty days but it strayed a little to twenty nine and a half or so. A 30 day lunar month and a 360 day year would seemingly have been a perfect combination; the phase of the moon would indicate the date and the 12 constellations would show the month and if we looked keenly enough in the sky we might find a way to count the years as well. But since we cannot change it we have no choice but to accept it as God’s wisdom. However, we can change the course of rivers, harness the winds, seed clouds for rain and defy gravity by flying machines to our advantage as God has given us authority over the material universe – and we must advise and help others in finding the right way of life. Similarly, disease, natural disasters and evils exist not because those were intended by God but as a consequence of the imperfections of the creations; and God has set in motion a process of evolution and guidance of human beings for the rectification of these defects and for improvement in the quality of His creations. Adam failed the first test he was put to and Satan rebelled on the first command he did not like. The merciful God surely would not have built maladies, perversions and disasters into His perfect plan of creation.

 

Even more important is the fact that all the tangible knowledge of Physics, chemistry, biology, electronics, mechanics and much of mathematics that is or will ever be written in books is already at work in the human body and in the environment around us. Birds can fly because they are aerodynamically designed by God and they are born with the knowledge of aerodynamics so that they may glide or propel themselves in air and take off and land safely. Man is not discovering Science, but only learning to express what is already inherent in him, and so is woman. The rest is speculation.

God has repeatedly indicated that one day He will destroy this imperfect world and create a new perfect world (Paradise) where only noble souls will reside. It will perhaps be a world free of diseases, parasites, germs, bacteria, viruses of predator animals; the lunar cycle would be exactly 30 days and the year exactly 360 days; there will be no earthquakes, floods, tsunamis or tornados.    

In the building of the new world, obviously the knowledge and techniques developed by human beings over centuries would also be utilized. Some examples are the technique of placing satellites in exact orbits, disease free high-yield crops etc. and technologies yet to be developed such as the control of volcanic activity. And before the doomsday arrives, there may be the next evolution of human beings who may have two hearts and two pancreases with a much improved central nervous system.

Irritating Cricket in Dubai

The pathetic performance of the Pakistani cricket team against South Africa in the 2^nd test at Dubai is certain to attract great ire from the public. After the impressive victory in the first test it was thought that the right prescription has been found which makes the later debacle even bitterer.

I had an opportunity of watching the first day’s game of the fateful test match. The South African team was visibly motivated, focused and enthusiastic; whereas the Pakistani batsmen seemed distracted and cagey.

It seems that due to some psychological handicap the Pakistani cricketers and perhaps other teams also are unable to respond to opposition’s enthusiasm with equal enthusiasm and vigor. They seem to get cowed down. It is strange that the team management is unable to recognize this weakness and devise means to motivate the players before the game.

Maybe it is a national trait. The inability to motivate the nation is quite apparent in our political leaders and that is why people welcome military dictators who make motivational speeches after overthrowing political governments.

In my professional career I have found that motivation is the best management tool and it can transform mediocrity into brilliance.

Talking to Taliban

 

They are all willing to talk. The American government is trying to talk to the Afghan Taliban to establish peace in Afghanistan and avoid attacks on their retreating forces. The Pakistan government is trying to talk to The Pakistani Taliban to end the insurgency and regular killings of innocent civilians. If all those concerned had opened their mouths a few years earlier many innocent lives would have been saved. In fact if the Americans would have tried to negotiate with the Al-Qaida instead of firing Tomahawks on them from aircraft carriers near Pakistani shores, 9/11 could have been avoided.

So what will happen if the negotiations between the Americans and the Taliban succeed? The American and other NATO troops will get safe exit from Afghanistan, the Taliban will participate in the next elections and once again there will be the rule of Mullah Omar in Afghanistan.

 

The post-2014 situation in Afghanistan would hardly be any different from the pre-9/11 situation except for two changes:

a)      There will be no Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaida in Afghanistan.

b)      There will be a massive Indian presence and trade which was non-existent in the pre-9/11 era.

So what was the real objective of the whole exercise that cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives and who was behind all this?

 

Most Powerful Militaries In The World

 Compiled from MSN News Slide Show.

1.    USA: Defense Budget: $689,591,000,000
                Active Military Personnel: 1,477,896
2.    Russia: Defense Budget: $64,000,000,000
                   Active Military Personnel: 1,200,000  
3.    China: Defense Budget: $129,272,000,000
                  Active Military Personnel: 2,285,000
4.    India: Defense Budget: $44,282,000,000
                 Active Military Personnel: 1,325,000.
5.    UK:  Defense Budget: $57,875,170,000
               Active Military Personnel: 224,500
6.    France: Defense Budget: $58,244,000,000
                    Active Military Personnel: 362,485
7.    Germany: Defense Budget: $43,478,000,000
                        Active Military Personnel: 148,996
8.    South Korea: Defense Budget: $28,280,000,000
                             Active Military Personnel: 653,000
9.    Italy: Defense Budget: $31,946,000,000
                Active Military Personnel: 293,202.
10.  Brazil: Defense Budget: $31,576,000,000
                  Active Military Personnel: 371,199
11.  Turkey: Defense Budget: 18,687,000,000
                    Active Military Personnel:612,920
12.  Pakistan: Defense Budget: 5,685,000,000
                      Active Military Personnel:617,920
13.  Israel: Defense Budget: 15,209,000,000
                  Active Military Personnel:187,000
14.  Egypt: Defense Budget: 4,107,000,000
                   Active Military Personnel:489,000
15.  Indonesia: Defense Budget: 5,220,000,000
                         Active Military Personnel:438,000 

Point to note is that the defense budget of USA alone is more than the combined budget of the remaining 14 countries. I wonder who pays for the US forces stationed in the countries defeated/captured/liberated etc. during the second World War and in recent years. On the face of it one would think that either the US intends to attack and conquer all countries of the world or it is afraid that as a consequence of its guilt all other countries may someday unite and attack it.

.......

 

Deaf Justice?

MSN NEWS

Posted : 2013/09/17 10:52 am

Court ruling fires British debate on Muslim veils

 

(Reuters) - A British judge ruled on Monday that a Muslim woman could not give evidence at her trial wearing a full-face veil, sparking debate about whether Britain should follow other European countries and ban Islamic veils in schools and public places.

But in a significant ruling on Monday, a Muslim woman, who argued that removing her veil in court breached her human rights, was told she could not wear it when giving evidence.

"ELEPHANT IN THE COURTROOM"

"The niqab has become the elephant in the courtroom," said Judge Peter Murphy, who also made the compromise that she could wear her veil at all other times during a trial later this year over accusations she had intimidated a witness in another case.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons and who only started wearing a niqab in May 2012, had argued it was against her beliefs to uncover her face in front of men who were not members of her close family.

But Murphy said it would "drive a coach and horses through the way in which justice has been administered in the courts of England and Wales for centuries" if jurors could not observe her reactions.

"No tradition or practice, whether religious or otherwise, can claim to occupy such a privileged position that the rule of law, open justice and the adversarial trial process are sacrificed to accommodate it," he said.

"That is not a discrimination against religion. It is a matter of upholding the rule of law in a democratic society."

Murphy, whose ruling will serve as a precedent, said he hoped parliament or a higher court would provide a definitive verdict "sooner rather than later", while the woman's lawyer said it was too early to say whether she would appeal.

The above clippings from MSN news are shattering for someone who believed that courts of justice relied on material evidence and content of the statements of the witnesses. But unfortunately, judge Murphy in his cliché riddled exhortations seems to give the impression that British justice relies too heavily on facial expressions and nuances. I wonder what sort of training judges and jurists receive before being entrusted with venerable positions.

Without insinuating anything it seems that there is also room for suspicion that some judges or members of jury who may have a weak hearing might be relying on lip-reading in the pursuit of their duties. In such a case, indeed, their right to lip-read comes into direct conflict with a witness’s right to practice personal privacy in her own way. But an order to strip the niqab is hardly any different from an order to strip any other piece of clothing, although it seems to make sense if there is no other way of establishing an individual’s identity. There seems to be no such issue in this case.

This leads to the obvious question whether or not judges and members of jury need to be periodically certified to have soundness of vision and hearing assuming that their reasoning is guaranteed. At the moment I am reading a book called “Blind Spot” by Mahzarin R. Banaji and Anthony G. Greenwald (Publisher Delacorte Press) which lists a number of simple tests for establishing an individual’s hidden biases. It would be a good idea if judges and jurists all over the world took these tests voluntarily and made allowances for the results they achieve.

 

A Letter to the Prime Minister

 

Mr. Muhammad  Nawaz Sharif,

Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

Your Excellency,

I was much impressed with your address to the nation and the initiatives mentioned therein. I am sure that your team of capable senior executives and experts must have worked out detailed plans taking into account all the possible and selecting the best options. I do not claim to be wiser than your team, but consider it my national duty to point out the following points that come to my mind just in case something may have escaped their meticulous attention.

1.       Chinese Mega-projects: In finalizing the various ambitious megaprojects with the Chinese government such as the highways, railways, mass-transit, power and other projects we should ensure that Pakistani consultants, engineers and contractors get a substantial participation at all stages of the projects. This will help our local talent to acquire the technical know-how and continue similar work in all areas in Pakistan in future independently while maintaining the same quality. This will also help in the future maintenance of the projects. You may be aware that a major reason not being able to fully utilize the installed power capacity in Pakistan is that the power plants are dependent on foreign experts for annual maintenance and breakdown services. I would also suggest that our Chinese friends be persuaded to carry out as much manufacturing, fabrication and assembly of the hardware in Pakistan as possible.

 

2.       Negotiations with Taliban: This topic has been discussed extensively in press, television and drawing rooms, but there seems to be no agreement on the strategy. I think that we should try to persuade the Taliban that we share their dream of establishing an ideal Islamic state in Pakistan based on Shariah as good as or even better than in Saudi Arabia. This has been possible for the Saudis because they have great economic power due to which they can resist external pressures. If we try to implement Shariah fully at this stage, we may face the same fate as Afghanistan. So the Taliban should give us 10 years to develop our economic and military strength to such a level that we may be able to resist external pressures successfully. In the life of nations 10 years is not a long time. The Taliban may be allowed to keep their weapons, but they should be under oath not to use them against Pakistanis. They should also agree to suspend their overseas military operations and concentrate on dawah. Meanwhile, GOP should offer large numbers of scholarships to youth from Waziristan to study in schools, colleges and universities. Road works and other development projects should also be started in Waziristan.

3.       Law & order in Karachi: The only effective way of maintaining law and order in a city or town is frequent police patrol of roads and lanes. This is how the Americans changed the face of New York and Chicago which were worse than Karachi in the 1960s. Unfortunately over the past decade or so police patrols seem to have completely disappeared from the roads and lanes of Karachi. All the police and other security machinery is totally committed to guard and escort duties for ministers, high officials, foreign missions and VIP visitors. An expensive camera surveillance system for the entire city was installed but it seems to have stopped working. Perhaps a special federal security police may be formed which could be deployed for frequent and effective patrolling of the roads and lanes of troubled cities and towns and should be sufficiently disciplined and controlled so that it does not indulge in harassment of or extortion from the citizens.

Yoyr sincerely,

Muhammad Nasim

mnasim_99@ yahoo.com

Note: I would have sent this directly to the PM, but could not find his email address.

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.