Thoughts for Today

1. Democracy is the ability of a larger group of stupid people to overwhelm a smaller group of geniuses and warriors without violence.

 

2. The simplest way to solving the current political crisis in Pakistan is to remove all obstacles from the roads leading to and within Islamabad and wait for a week. If the crowd starts swelling to a million, the government should quit. If there is no significant change, the marchers should return.

Pakistan Politics Today

1. Mr. Nawaz Sharif has made hardly 15 appearances in houses of Parliament during the last 15 months.  A parliamentary system cannot function in this way.
2. Mr. Sharif has been busy making economic deals all over the world about which the parliament is in total darkness.
3. Nobody doubts Mr. Sharif’s sincerity or capability to do good to the nation by extra-parliamentary means.
4. The Senate had to pass a resolution demanding PM to attend its sessions, but to no avail.
5. Many of PMLN lawmakers may be disappointed in this situation but they cannot speak their minds due to the gag on them put by 18^th amendment.
6. In his election campaign Mr. Sharif had claimed that the power crisis was due to bad management of resources by People’s party and he would fix things in six months. Power management has grown worse in the last 15 months. The billion rupees spent on the reviving the abandoned Nandipur project have proven a waste.
7. The subsidized interest loan scheme for youth has proven a failure.
8. The 100 billion rupee gift to daughter Marium for buying toys has failed to make an impact.
9. Adhocism is back in the administrative and financial functions. Family and friends of the leader to whom the party is dedicated are having a good time. The ruling party has to expand its base.
10. Ever since the days of British Raj, elections in the subcontinent have been a conjuring match. The party that can throw more dust in the eyes of the electorate wins. The older generation that has compromised with the system only wants to make the dust transparent as in the case of western democracies. The new generation wants to get rid of the dust.
11. It is obvious that there was major rigging in the last elections although everyone accepted it in good faith.  Mr. Imran Khan has claimed that large numbers of ballot papers were printed by private printers on nonstandard paper which were used in bogus voting whose thumb impressions cannot be verified. The ballot boxes in the custody of the Election commission may have been tampered with during the last 15 months. So there is no point in ballot verification now.
12. PM and Chief Minister Punjab have to take responsibility for the Model Town massacre of 17^th June in which 14 people were killed and more than 80 shot at chest level by police. The incident report recorded by Police does not mention any citizen casualties. Obviously it was a plot and a cover-up.  Nobody in government expressed any sympathy with those killed and wounded in the incident.
13. Mr. Tahirul Qadri has only recently descended on Pakistan after migration to Canada and a long stay there. He has a wide spread network of madressahs and orphanages and a few hundred thousand spiritual followers in Pakistan and other countries. He seems to have formed an alliance with Sunni Tehrik and Shia-led MWM, both opposed to the pro-Taliban religious organizations. It seems that he is trying to make the imposition of Martial law imperative and since the army would be reluctant to form alliance with either PMLN or PPP, he might get a chance to become their civilian lackey. The army needs to give him a clear cut message that he is chasing an illusion unless………..
14. It is a very complicated situation, but it can be resolved without bloodshed and in a reasonably short time by careful planning and systematic execution. God bless us all.

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Nawaz Shareef will make a good president of Pakistan. He should grab this opportunity with both hands.
Shahbaz Shareef has been working too hard for too long and needs a long vacation.


We need similar laws in Pakistan.
Indiana State Passes Law to Legalize Shooting Police
topinfopost.com

The butchers of MODEL TOWN MASSACRE to be chained in an abattoir.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/749520/model-town-clashes-sessions-court-orders-cases-be-registered-against-pm-punjab-cm/

The secret of China's progress and prosperity is that Chairman Mao never went on a foreign trip. Just stuck close to his people and inspired them to work honestly.


After being figuratively kicked, punched and spat on, PM Nawaz Shareef has offered to form a judicial commission to investigate irregularities in 2013 general elections. This action may be at odds with the constitution and there is no guarantee that there will be no state intervention in the performance of the commission. The most important thing is to get one's priorities right according to one's position.

Improved Relativity

 

The following are the missing postulates of the Theory of Relativity:

1. Relative motion is the vector difference of absolute motions.
2. Relative motion is impossible without the existence of absolute motion.
3. The observed value of relative motion of the same object is different for different observers; each being convinced that he is right.
4. The observation of absolute motion requires the recognition of a fixed and unchanging point of reference.
5. The observation of relative motion is geocentric i.e. the observer assumes himself to be the point of reference and discounts his own absolute motion from all others.

Gaza

I wonder if the president and lawmakers of USA have seen the following pictures and videos (links) of Palestinian children affected by the recent Israeli military action in Gaza shared on the Facebook. Is there a need for a comment?

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152512254081083&set=vb.590956082&type=2&theater

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152132810451104&set=vb.207242941103&type=2&theater

The Faithful Unite

 

The initiative taken by Pope Francis to hold a multi-religious prayer gathering with Palestinian and Israeli Christians, Muslims and Jews in the courtyard of the Vatican palace is commendable.

The action is apparently in the perspective of peace and harmony in the region but it has global ramifications.

 China and India have both grown into world military powers and if the current trend continues, in a decade or two both may acquire super-power status dwarfing the existing powers.

China is a communist country and although the Chinese leaders have not shown the same contempt for religion as their defunct Soviet Union counterparts, one can hardly expect them to do any good to the adherents of the Biblio-Quranic faiths.

Although the Indians claim to be secular and followers of the slain nonviolent Mahatma Gandhi, the recent upsurge in “hindutwa” or Aryanism leading up to the election of Mr. Modi as prime minister does raise an alarm. Deadly religious violence against Christians and Muslims is a regular occurrence and is often backed by extremist Hindu political outfits. Given the right factors, Indian Aryanism may quickly grow into a monstrosity exceeding German Nazism of the 20th century. Let us not forget that the swastika originated in India and is still a common symbol in Hindu shrines.

Historically, India was ruled by Christians during the century preceding its independence in 1947 and by Muslims for nearly four centuries preceding that. Although none of the reigns was tyrannical, biased historians can easily distort facts to raise mass hysteria.

Historic revenge is a strange phenomenon. It remains in the subconscious of nations and may show up centuries or even millennia later. The sudden resurgence of black slavery in North America during the last few centuries may be linked to the Exodus of Israel from Egypt. They were held in servitude by the Negro Pharaohs and the tales of their persecution are harrowing.  It is possible that buying African slaves and treating them badly was an act of misplaced historic revenge.

If the faithful people of the world do not unite in peace now, they may get exterminated by the newly emerging pagan super-powers in the long run.

To read manuscript of my book “What and Why I Believe” click on link below:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/53723169/What%20and%20Why%20I%20Believe-2.pdf

Feedback will be welcome.

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/news/detail/articolo/francis-34578/

Clarion Call - 1

In the 20^th century the key to success in business, politics, law and other professions was to dazzle everyone and smother the brightness of the opposition. It could be called the century of illusions and it has landed the world in the mess that we are faced with. In the 21^st century let us base success on sustained brilliance and only positive thinking. We have already wasted thirteen and a half years, so we have to work swiftly to make up for the lost time.

Some time ago I read a story about how five hundred participants of a seminar were asked to sign their names each on a balloon and throw them in a room; then everyone was asked to find the balloon with his name on it. Everyone rushed in and burst most of the balloons. One or two lucky ones got the right balloon.  The exercise was repeated with people going in one by one and picking up the nearest balloon and finding its owner and giving it to him. It worked and everyone got his balloon.

In real life assets and ideas do not have names of the people who deserve them written on them. But with a little commonsense we can tell whether what we have is necessarily useful to us or not. If not, it should not be too difficult to find someone who needs it. All you need to do is to post it somewhere or send emails to those who you think would be glad to receive it.

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Democracy’s Backdoor

There is news that the government of Pakistan has sought permission of the supreme court of Pakistan to re-appropriate Rs. 12.5 billion of development funds of the current budget to finance cost over-runs or accelerated expenditures of some projects. Whereas it shows the ineptness of the budget makers, it also shows the immaturity of the lawmakers.

In its judgment in December, 2013 in the case of dishing out 47 billion rupees to friends and family by the then prime minister of the other party, the SC had held that discretionary funds of the prime minister were unconstitutional and allocation and disbursement of development funds should be done in accordance with articles 80-84 of the constitution and according to established rules.

It is strange that the government of Mr. Nawaz Sharif prefers to have the supreme court do the work of the parliament. Why can’t the government introduce a supplementary bill to amend the allocations of the budget for the current year? If there is some hitch, it should move a constitutional amendment to make it possible.

It is a pity that both democratic governments and military dictators in Pakistan give the judiciary the status of a super-dictator when they need to get their own ill actions justified and then try to cut it to size.

I hope that this time the Supreme Court of Pakistan will not allow itself to be deceived and misused.

Crime and Punishment

Legislation, whether it is the word of an autocrat or the act of a parliament, is basically a manipulation of rights. A law requiring every citizen to pay ten percent of his income as tax, effectively takes away the right of each citizen to spend ten percent of his income according to his will and transfers it to government agencies. A person who is sentenced to five years imprisonment essentially loses his right of free movement and free speech for that period. The concept of democracy derived from ancient Greek literature and developed mostly in Europe concedes the unlimited authority of sovereign kings to bodies of elected lawmakers, leaving the electors just as subservient as before. And if someone commits a crime or is suspected of involvement in one, he or she immediately forfeits all his or her rights except the one to remain silent, if it is a right at all. Indeed, a total dismissal of right-manipulation would amount to social stagnation which has been obviated by the evolution of constitutional democracy which guarantees certain basic rights for individuals, subject to periodic amendments.

The Qur'an provides believers and nonbelievers alike with certain non-negotiable rights. These non-negotiable rights cannot be compared with constitutional rights as state constitutions are liable to amendment by some procedure or the other, while Qur'anic rights are permanent and inviolable in a true and absolute sense. The rulers are not permitted to legislate in contravention of these rights and if they do so they lose their mandate to rule. Even if the violation of these rights is not redressed in this world, the Qur'an promises that justice will be done on the Day of Judgment. However, in Islam also there are transient or situational rights. If a woman dies childless, her husband and brothers get shares in her legacy. But if she is succeeded by children then the brothers get nothing.

The notable non-negotiable rights which affect the social penal system are, inter alia, those relating to freedom of movement, retribution, compensation and pardon.

In Islamic jurisprudence, the State is responsible for apprehending criminals and exacting retribution or compensation on behalf of the aggrieved party or instituting punishment on behalf of God, but the right of retribution or pardon rests solely with the aggrieved party. The State is also responsible for ensuring that an innocent person is not punished or blamed. The emphasis on freedom of movement is so great that if one studies carefully the Qur'anic injunctions on crime and punishment it becomes apparent that imprisonment is not really an acceptable mode of punishment in Islam. The underlying philosophy can be summed up by saying: If people commit crimes, you may whip them, cut off their limbs, even take away their lives, but do not deprive them of their freedom. And this principle is consistently maintained in all its exhortations. These punishments, to a naïve observer may appear to be quite inhuman. But then the fact is that they were not instituted by a human at all. They were ordained by a Being that created all living beings, and has the eventual declared intention of destroying them. However, historic records indicate quite clearly that the implementation of these punitive measures invariably results in dramatic reduction of crime rate and thus the net measure of grief experienced by a community is reduced to a negligible amount. Moreover, the rules of evidence and conviction are so thorough, and the risk involved in reckless adjudication is so alarming that the possibility of irreversible damage to innocent individuals becomes minimal. Theoretically, in the Islamic system of justice it is not only the witnesses that are under oath to tell the truth, nothing but the truth; the judges are also under oath to do justice, nothing but justice. And the lawyers are also under oath to pursue facts and nothing but facts in the conduct of proceedings, and not to present false evidence or make false allegations. Perhaps, it would be a good idea if the latter oaths are also visibly and audibly taken in courtrooms at each session. Furthermore, until a minute before the administration of punishment, the culprit has the opportunity of regretting his conduct and offering compensation or begging mercy from the victim or the aggrieved party. If the criminal is arrogant enough to give a limb rather than own up a proven crime and make reparations for it then his undoing is by his own choice. Basically, every crime stems from its perpetrator having contempt for his victim and its effect can only be reversed by restoring the self-respect of the victim or the aggrieved party.

Most sociologists agree that in civilized communities, crime is not an entirely individual responsibility. In some way or the other, the whole community has to take a certain amount of blame. If only every individual in a community exercised his responsibilities to others, and took good care of those in need of attention -- physical, financial, material or psychological, then there would simply not be any crimes. Perhaps the best way of making the members of a community aware of their negligence is to subject them to the unsavory spectacle of public executions and other implementations of the ordained punishment. In this way it is not the state or government, but every member of the entire community that shares the guilt and agony of the punishment; and becomes aware or the need for action to eliminate the causes of crime. Open trial and open punishment is the ideal way to prevent the possibility of injustice or sadistic manipulation in prisons. Although it is a fact that the Qur'an allows the use of extreme forms of punishment with incisive physical and social impact, it is not necessary that these must be practiced thoughtlessly and indiscriminately or whimsically to satisfy the sadistic tendencies of certain individuals or to create political intimidation. Instead, the Qur'anic injunctions on punishment should be regarded as legislative limits; for example, the maximum punishment for theft can be the loss of a limb and not the loss of life under any circumstances. At the same time, it makes sense that in a community where police or an equivalent security arrangement does not exist, someone who catches a thief red handed would be well advised to chop off his hand if one does not want to be shot in the back as soon as the unrepentant robber gets an opportunity.

Law and morality are so closely intertwined in Islam that any attempt to separate the two strains the social fabric and produces violent reactions. Islamic logic also differs from Greek logic as it places ethical restraints on the length to which an argument can be extended. The holy Qur’an repeatedly admonishes against exceeding the limits (hudood) established by Allah e.g. killing someone for an act of theft for which the maximum punishment is the loss of a limb.

For purposes of the application of `Hudud' i.e. Qur'anic limiting punishments, guilt has to be proven by the sworn testimony of up to as many as four trustworthy eyewitnesses. The testimony of criminals or accomplices or circumstantial evidence does not suffice for conviction and someone who perjures himself may be barred from appearing as a witness for life. Moreover, even if a criminal escapes punishment, he knows exactly what he deserves, and each time he sees or hears about a public implementation of ordained punishments, his conscience is jolted. Similarly, in the Islamic system the criminal finds it extremely risky to conceal a crime by committing another, or to intimidate others by boasting about his crimes since there is no mercy after confession. The system appears to be designed to eliminate crimes and not criminals by putting everyone even slightly suspect of bad behavior into prison. Nor does it try to bring peace and tranquility to society by eliminating the victims by elaborate security arrangements for those who can afford it and ignoring the screams for help by those who can't. In psychological terms, the Qur'anic penal code and concept of divine punishment and reward lead people to associate crime with pain and humiliation both on an individual and collective scale while, at the same time, linking comfort and honor with acts of piety. The idea seems to be that initially the punishments would help to reform the society and the effect would be sustained by the promised rewards.

To tell the truth, the Islamic system of extreme punishments, in order to be effective, requires a certain amount of true Biblical heritage in the form of total commitment, strong sense of attachment, and spiritual significance of association. The underlying motivations can hardly be grasped by someone who has been educated in an insurance based culture where one turns a blind eye to the burglar so that one may buy with the insurance claim the latest model of the article being stolen. Hence, not surprisingly, many Muslim scholars regard insurance as being averse to the spirit of Islam. However, it is equally true that in communities where economic fortunes of large numbers of people are associated with the prevention and aftereffects of crime or accident, Insurance seems to be the only institution other than public representatives which has a genuine motive to check the rate of increase in crimes and accidents -- albeit only to the extent that insurance itself does not become superfluous.

The real conflict between Islamic and secular legal perceptions seems to lie in their treatment of rules of conduct. In the secular system criminal laws and rules of conduct are more or less clearly segregated; the breaking of law results in the suspension of basic rights and institution of prescribed punishment whereas a violation of rules of conduct can only be penalized by social pressures which don't seem to be effective in modern industrial cultures. In Islam, the distinctions between enforceable law and rules of conduct have become quite faint due to various scholarly edicts or "fatwa" pronounced over the centuries. Much dissent and discord has also been caused by scholarly legislation in not only Islam but also other religions. Fortunately in Islam the superior law exists in the Qur'an and rules of conduct can be formulated by popular or representative legislation. In doing so, the verses preceding and following the definitive verses should also be consulted for guidance. One example is given below:

5:38. And (as for) the man who steals and the woman who steals, cut off their hands as a punishment for what they have earned, an exemplary punishment from Allah; and Allah is Mighty, Wise.

5:39. But whoever repents after his iniquity and reforms (himself),  then surely Allah will turn to him (mercifully); surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.

5:40. Do you not know that Allah-- His is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth; He chastises whom He pleases; and forgives whom He pleases and Allah has power over all things.

The interesting question that needs to be pondered is what happens if a community of Muslims decides unanimously or by majority vote to structured punishments for crimes within the limits ordained by Allah. Surely, Allah is merciful and forgiving.