Despite of high claims of granting internal autonomy, a governor, to be appointed by the presdient, and the prime minister, himself, have been made the supreme authorities. The Gilgit – Baltistan Council would be chaired by the prime minister, who will not be elected by votes of the people of Gilgit – Baltistan, while an un-elected governor, to be appointed by the president, would act as vice – chairman of the council. This arrangement is being seen as a major ploy to control the elected representatives of Gilgit – Baltistan.

It is for the very first time, in history of the country, that a serving federal minister has been appointed governor of a political entity within Pakistan.

A new designation, called Chief Minister, has been created but the CM would not be authorized to form his cabinet. The governor would form a cabinet, albeit with “advise” of the chief minister. Also, the legislative assembly would not be able to elect the chief minister. He would be selected by the Gilgit – Baltistan Council.  This power mechanism  is also being seen as an explicit example of asserting real power players, in the future setup. It is being strongly felt that a powerful governor and a weak chief minister would overrun expectation of autonomy, at the grass roots, making the entire promise delusional and fraught with contradictions.

The Gilgit – Baltistan Legislative Assembly, not authorized to discuss a large number of vital issues related to governance of the region, would comprise of thirty eight members. Twenty four out of these thirty eight members would be elected directly from the districts, while seven females and an equal number of technocrats would also be part of the assembly. Two new seats have been added, one each for women and technocrats.

Some analysts are terming this a package for the region’s political elite, with no real benefit for the impoverished people of Gilgit – Baltistan. 

The creation of a separate election commission, increasing the number of judges of the Supreme Appellate Court from 3 to 5 and establishment of a separate public service commission, however, offer some promise for the region, which has now been formally named Gilgit – Baltistan. Nevertheless, these institutions will be of no real significance in the absence of broader rights and authorities of real decision making. 

Some quarters are seeing this move to rename a few positions in the region’s poltical setup and further complicate the heirarchies of democratic decision making, an attempt to divert attention from the issues raised over Diamer – Bhasha Dam, Bonji dam and other smaller dam projects that have been planned in the region.

Let’s remind the readers that Gilgit – Baltistan was a name suggested by the NALA, which has, now, been accepted by the federal cabinet.

Pakistan Blind Cricket team applied for the U.K visas through Gerry’s Visa Application Center Islamabad on 8th July 2009. “We requested British High Commission Islamabad and British Embassy Abu Dhabi several times to issue visas to Pakistan Blind Cricket Team, PBCC also provided them the Funds approval from Pakistan Cricket Board and N.O.C from the Government of Pakistan for the said tour but visas are still held in abeyance,” the association said.

As per the original schedule the Pakistan Blind Cricket team has to depart on Sunday but still the players are waiting for the visas.“If British High Commission may not issue visas until Monday then the tour will be called off,” a statement said.

The cancellation of the tour on one hand will cause huge financial loss to both PBCC and Blind Cricket England & Wales and on the other hand will create disappointment in the Blind Cricket players. We “are forced to think that, we, the visually challenged are the underprivileged part of the society whose fundamental rights of even playing cricket are being denied”. PBCC requested the Government of Pakistan to play their part and help us in getting our due right. NNI

The participants marched on the various roads and it was converted into a public meeting at Bhoun Chowk and it was addressed by Ms. Agnes Pervaiz, Slamat Gil, Sardar Maseeh and Fakhar Yousayab and there were of the view that Punjab Govt. have provided protection and security to the christian community at district Chakwal and they were thankful to CM Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif.

The speakers also thanked local MNA Ch. Ayaz Amir for its assurance for protection. The procession dispersed peacefully later on. NNI

Mian Shaukat Masud, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) said this while addressing the newly elected office bearers of Traders Welfare Association, Jinnah Super Market, Islamabad. He said traders should unite themselves on a common platform to fight for their collective cause because they can send a strong message to policy makers and influence government policies in their favour only with unity & strength. He said ICCI always supports the promulgation of a fair and balanced Rent Control Act in Islamabad to stem the rising trend of rent disputes.

Malik Rab Nawaz, newly elected President and Abdur Rehman Siddiqui, General Secretary of Traders Welfare Association, Jinnah Super Market, Islamabad said traders of Jinnah Super have posed their confidence in them and they will leave no stone unturned to come up to their expectations for resolution of their problems. They also expressed their cooperation with ICCI for promoting the interests of business community.

Ajmal Baloch, Organizing Secretary of Traders Action Committee, Islamabad said victory of Traders Group in Jinnah Super Market is the victory of principled politics and just cause. Khalid Javed, Chairman Founder Group, Munawar Mughal, former President ICCI and Malik Zubair Ahmed, Executive Member of SAARC Chamber also addressed the meeting. NNI

She said the consumers could get KESC temporary connections for religious congregations if they needed. She asked certain elements to refrain from using illegal kunda connection, especially for such gatherings as this overloads the power supply network and may cause fault on the system as well.

Giving out operational update, Ms. Ayesha Eirabie said that at 2 PM Wednesday, the total demand of the City stood at 2258 megawatts and utility was supplying as per city’s electricity demand and there was no loadshedding in the city. All the units including IPPs were running at full capacity. NNI

The Minister of State also called on Mr. Gurbanguli Berdimuhammedov, the President of Turkmenistan and discussed prospects of improving bilateral economic and political relations. He also held sideline meetings with Mr. Annaguly Deryaev, Minister for Oil and Gas Industry and Minerals Resources, and Mr. Ata Gulyiev Nokergvly Hoja Gulyevich, Minister for Commerce and Foreign Economic relations.

A protocol was signed wherein the two countries agreed to speed up the project for supply of Gas from Turkmenistan to Pakistan. In addition to this, the Turkmenistan Government also offered export of electricity to Pakistan.

Both governments decided to form working groups on Commerce & Trade and Food & Agriculture. The group on Commerce & Trade will discuss and finalize the list of goods and services for enhancing bilateral trade between the two countries.

It was also agreed that the business community of both countries will interact with each other to promote trade and investment and joint investment projects. There will be regular exchange of trade delegations and participation in fairs/exhibitions in each other’s countries.

Both countries also agreed to negotiate a transit trade agreement that will facilitate and expand trade volume between the two countries. The working group on food and agriculture will study and identify areas of cooperation between the two countries, including information sharing in agriculture research, seed productions research system, agriculture training, and livestock and fisheries.

The two countries also agreed to activate the forum of political consultations between the two Ministries of Foreign Affairs as well as the agreement on Science and Technology signed in 1994 and to convene the meeting of experts by the end of 2009.

The Turkmenistan Government also thanked the Government of Pakistan for its offer of facilities in the field of higher education, vocational training courses, WTO Rules and Agreements and short term training courses offered by the Government under Pakistan Technical Assistance Programme. NNI

Massa’s life was spared by his F1 helmet. The Schuberth manufactured RF1.7 helmet was impacted by a spring which had come off the back of Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn suspension and while the Ferrari driver suffered skull injury from the projectile that hit him just above the left eye, the helmet’s ability to withstand such an impact at more than 275 kph was not down to luck but due to its impressive design.

According to the doctors, Massa is recovering well and could walk out of the Budapest hospital, AEK, within 10 days.

Head trauma is the commonest cause of life threatening injury to F1 drivers so the FIA has spent a lot of effort in developing technology to reduce this danger.

The overall head protection system had two key elements that helped Massa get out of the crash alive – firstly the now obligatory HANS (Head And Neck Support) device, which rests on the driver’s shoulders and hooks onto the rear of the helmet to reduce the forward head movement during the frontal impact, and secondly the 8860 helmet regulation standard, by which all helmets in F1, and many other series, must now be measured. The design standard – FIA 8860-2004 – became mandatory just over five years ago and to ensure all helmets in F1 meet this standard, there are a variety of tests. The basic impact properties of the outer shell are assessed by hitting it into a variety of different shaped anvils (flat, hemispherical, edge and roll bar) with an impact energy of 225J and peak accelerations up to 300 times the force of gravity.

But Massa’s instance was more a concern for penetration from the spring, and to guard against this kind of issue the FIA uses a test in which a pointed striker, with a 60-degree angle and a weight of 4kg, is dropped from three metres on to the top of the helmet. The surface of the shell is also subjected to a Barcol hardness test which measures the resistance to penetration of a sharp steel point. Carbon fibre is one of the hardest materials, registering a ‘hardness’ of 60-70 out of 100 compared to normal plastic at 30-40 and glass fibre at 40-60. The RF1.7 helmet has multiple layers of carbon fibre and despite its low 1.35kg weight is strong enough to support a 55 tonne Chieftain tank.

Progress has been made, however, with much stronger visors as well as the hardness improvements mentioned above, but it seems this area still presents a significant challenge and it is one that will, no doubt, now be a refocusing of thought for helmet designers.

Before signing off, like all well wishers, I earnestly pray for one of the most competitive and passionate F1 drivers to recover and get back into the cockpit of Ferrari.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – On the evening of Tuesday, 26 September, 2006, Pakistani strongman Pervez Musharraf walked into the studio of Comedy Central’s ‘Daily Show’ with Jon Stewart, the first sitting president anywhere to dare do this political satire show. Stewart offered his guest some tea and cookies and played the perfect host by asking, “Is it good?” before springing a surprise: “Where’s Osama bin Laden?” I don’t know,” Musharraf replied, as the audience enjoyed the rare sight of a strong leader apparently cornered. “You know where he is?” Musharraf snapped back, “You lead on, we’ll follow you.” What Gen. Musharraf didn’t know then is that he really was being cornered. Some of the smiles that greeted him in Washington and back home gave no hint of the betrayal that awaited him.

As he completed the remaining part of his U.S. visit, his allies in Washington and elsewhere, as all evidence suggests now, were plotting his downfall. They had decided to take a page from the book of successful ‘color revolutions’ where western governments covertly used money, private media, student unions, NGOs and international pressure to stage coups, basically overthrowing individuals not fitting well with Washington’s agenda.

This recipe proved its success in former Yugoslavia, and more recently in Georgia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. In Pakistan, the target is a Pakistani president who refuses to play ball with the United States on Afghanistan, China, and Dr. A.Q.Khan. To get rid of him, an impressive operation is underway:

A carefully crafted media blitzkrieg launched early this year assailing the Pakistani president from all sides, questioning his power, his role in Washington’s war on terror and predicting his downfall. Money pumped into the country to pay for organized dissent. Willing activists assigned to mobilize and organize accessible social groups. A campaign waged on Internet where tens of mailing lists and ‘news agencies’ have sprung up from nowhere, all demonizing Musharraf and the Pakistani military.

European- and American-funded Pakistani NGOs taking a temporary leave from their real jobs to work as a makeshift anti-government mobilization machine. U.S. government agencies directly funding some private Pakistani television networks; the channels go into an open anti-government mode, cashing in on some manufactured and other real public grievances regarding inflation and corruption. Some of Musharraf’s shady and corrupt political allies feed this campaign, hoping to stay in power under a weakened president. All this groundwork completed and chips in place when the judicial crisis breaks out in March 2007. Even Pakistani politicians surprised at a well-greased and well-organized lawyers campaign, complete with flyers, rented cars and buses, excellent event-management and media outreach. Currently, students are being recruited and organized into a street movement.

The work is ongoing and urban Pakistani students are being cultivated, especially using popular Internet Web sites and ‘online hangouts’. The people behind this effort are mostly unknown and faceless, limiting themselves to organizing sporadic, small student gatherings in Lahore and Islamabad, complete with banners, placards and little babies with arm bands for maximum media effect. No major student association has announced yet that it is behind these student protests, which is a very Interesting fact glossed over by most journalists covering this story.

Only a few students from affluent schools have responded so far and it’s not because the Pakistani government’s countermeasures are effective. They’re not. The reason is that social activism attracts people from affluent backgrounds, closely reflecting a uniquely Pakistani phenomenon where local NGOs are mostly founded and run by rich, westernized Pakistanis.

All of this may appear to be spur-of-the-moment and Musharraf-specific. But it all really began almost three years ago, when, out of the blue and recycling old political arguments, Mr. Akbar Bugti launched an armed rebellion against the Pakistani state, surprising security analysts by using rockets and other military equipment that shouldn’t normally be available to a smalltime village thug. Since then, Islamabad sits on a pile of evidence that links Mr. Bugti’s campaign to money and ammunition and logistical support from Afghanistan, directly aided by the Indians and the Karzai administration, with the Americans turning a blind eye.

For reasons not clear to our analysts yet, Islamabad has kept quiet on Washington’s involvement with anti-Pakistan elements in Afghanistan. But Pakistan did send an indirect public message to the Americans recently.

“We have indications of Indian involvement with anti-state elements in Pakistan,”

declared the spokesman of the Pakistan Foreign Office in a regular briefing in October. The statement was terse and direct and the spokesman, Ms. Tasnim Aslam, quickly moved on to other issues.

This is how a Pakistani official explained Ms. Aslam’s statement: “What she was really saying is this: We know what the Indians are doing. They’ve sold the Americans on the idea that [the Indians] are an authority on Pakistan and can be helpful in Afghanistan. The Americans have bought the idea and are in on the plan, giving the Indians a free hand in Afghanistan.

What the Americans don’t know is that we, too, know the Indians very well. Better still, we know Afghanistan very well. You can’t beat us at our own game.” Mr. Bugti’s armed rebellion coincided with the Gwadar project entering its final stages. No coincidence here. Mr. Bugti’s real job was to scare the Chinese away and scuttle Chinese President Hu Jintao’s planned visit to Gwadar a few months later to formally launch the port city. Gwadar is the pinnacle of Sino-Pakistani strategic cooperation. It’s a modern port city that is supposed to link Central Asia, western China, and Pakistan with markets in Mideast and Africa.

It’s supposed to have roads stretching all the way to China. It’s no coincidence either that China has also earmarked millions of dollars to renovate the Karakoram Highway linking northern Pakistan to western China.

Some reports in the American media, however, have accused Pakistan and China of building a naval base in the guise of a commercial seaport directly overlooking international oil shipping lanes. The Indians and some other regional actors are also not comfortable with this project because they see it as commercial competition.

What Mr. Bugti’s regional and international supporters never expected is Pakistan moving firmly and strongly to nip his rebellion in the bud. Even Mr. Bugti himself probably never expected the Pakistani state to react in the way it did to his betrayal of the homeland. He was killed in a military operation where scores of his mercenaries surrendered to Pakistan army soldiers.

U.S. intelligence and their Indian advisors could not cultivate an immediate replacement for Mr. Bugti. So they moved to Plan B. They supported Abdullah Mehsud, a Pakistani Taliban fighter held for five years in Guantanamo Bay, and then handed over back to the Afghan government, only to return to his homeland, Pakistan, to kidnap two Chinese engineers working in Balochistan, one of whom was eventually killed during a rescue operation by the Pakistani government.

Islamabad could not tolerate this shadowy figure, which was creating a following among ordinary Pakistanis masquerading as a Taliban while in reality towing a vague agenda. He was rightly eliminated earlier this year by Pakistani security forces while secretly returning from Afghanistan after meeting his handlers there. Again, no surprises here.

SMELLING A RAT

This is where Pakistani political and military officials finally started smelling a rat. All of this was an indication of a bigger problem. There were growing indications that, ever since Islamabad joined Washington’s regional plans, Pakistan was gradually turning into a ‘besieged-nation’, heavily targeted by the American media while being subjected to strategic sabotage and espionage from Afghanistan.

Afghanistan, under America’s watch, has turned into a vast staging ground for sophisticated psychological and military operations to destabilize neighboring Pakistan. During the past three years, the heat has gradually been turned up against Pakistan and its military along Pakistan’s western regions:

• A shadowy group called the BLA, a Cold War relic, rose from the dead to restart a separatist war in southwestern Pakistan.
• Bugti’s death was a blow to neo-BLA, but the shadowy group’s backers didn’t repent. His grandson, Brahmdagh Bugti, is currently enjoying a safe shelter in the Afghan capital, Kabul, where he continues to operate and remote-control his assets in Pakistan.
• Saboteurs trained in Afghanistan have been inserted into Pakistan to aggravate extremist passions here, especially after the Red Mosque operation.
• Chinese citizens continue to be targeted by individuals pretending to be Islamists, when no known Islamic group has claimed responsibility.
• A succession of ‘religious rebels’ with suspicious foreign links has suddenly emerged in Pakistan over the past months claiming to be ‘Pakistani Taliban’. Some of the names include Abdul Rashid Ghazi, Baitullah Mehsud, and now the Maulana of Swat. Some of them have used and are using encrypted communication equipment far superior to what Pakistani military owns.
• Money and weapons have been fed into the religious movements and al Qaeda remnants in the tribal areas.

Exploiting the situation, assets within the Pakistani media started promoting the idea that the Pakistani military was killing its own people. The rest of the unsuspecting media quickly picked up this message. Some botched American and Pakistani military operations against Al Qaeda that caused civilian deaths accidentally fed this media campaign.

This was the perfect timing for the launch of Military, Inc.: Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy, a book authored by Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa Agha, a columnist for a Pakistani English-language paper and a correspondent for ‘Jane’s Defence Weekly’, a private intelligence service founded by experts close to the British intelligence.

TARGET: PAK MILITARY

The book was launched in Pakistan in early 2007 by Oxford Press. And, contrary to most reports, it is openly available in Islamabad’s biggest bookshops. The book portrays the Pakistani military as an institution that is eating up whatever little resources Pakistan has. Pakistani military’s successful financial management, creating alternate financial sources to spend on a vast military machine and build a conventional and nuclear near-match with a neighboring adversary five times larger – an impressive record for any nation by any standard was distorted in the book and reduced to a mere attempt by the military to control the nation’s economy in the same way it was controlling its politics.

The timing was interesting. After all, it was hard to defend a military in the eyes of its own proud people when the chief of the military is ruling the country, the army is fighting insurgents and extremists who claim to be defending Islam, grumpy politicians are out of business, and the military’s side businesses, meant to feed the nation’s military machine, are doing well compared to the shabby state of the nation’s civilian departments.

A closer look at Ms. Siddiqa, the author, revealed disturbing information to Pakistani officials. In the months before launching her book, she was a frequent visitor to India where, as a defense expert, she cultivated important contacts. On her return, she developed friendship with an Indian lady diplomat posted in Islamabad. Both of these activities travel to India and ties to Indian diplomats – are not a crime in Pakistan and don’t raise interest anymore. Pakistanis are hospitable and friendly people and these qualities have been amply displayed to the Indians during the four-year-old peace process.

What is interesting is that Ms. Siddiqa left her car in the house of the said Indian diplomat during one of her recent trips to London. And, according to a report, she stayed in London at a place owned by an individual linked to the Indian lady diplomat friend in Islamabad .The point here is this: Who assigned her to investigate the Pakistani Armed Forces and present a distorted image of a proud an efficient Pakistani institution?

From 1988 to 2001, Dr. Siddiqa worked in the Pakistan civil service, the Pakistani civil bureaucracy. Her responsibilities included dealing with Military Accounts, which come under the Pakistan Ministry of Defense. She had thirteen years of rich experience in dealing with the budgetary matters of the Pakistani military and people working in this area. Dr. Siddiqa received a year-long fellowship to research and writes a book in the United States. .

There are strong indications that some of her Indian contacts played a role in arranging financing for her book project through a paid fellowship. The final manuscript of her book was vetted at a publishing office in New Delhi. All of these details are insignificant if detached from the real issue at hand. And the issue is the deionization of the Pakistani

Military as an integral part of the media siege around Pakistan, with the American media leading the way in this campaign.

Some of the juicy details of this campaign include:

• The attempt by Dr. Siddiqa to pitch junior officers against senior officers in Pakistan Armed Forces by alleging discrimination in the distribution of benefits. Apart from being malicious and unfounded, her argument was carefully designed to generate frustration and demoralize Pakistani soldiers.
• The American media insisting on handing over Dr. A.Q. Khan to the United States so that a final conviction against the Pakistani military can be secured.
• Mrs. Benazir Bhutto demanding after returning to Pakistan that the ISI be restructured; and in a press conference during her house arrest in Lahore in November she went as far as asking Pakistan army officers to revolt against the army chief, a damning attempt at destroying a professional army from within.

Some of this appears to be eerily similar to the campaign waged against the Pakistani military in 1999, when, in July that year, an unsigned full page advertisement appeared in major American newspapers with the following headline: “A Modern Rogue Army with Its Finger on the Nuclear Button.”

Till this day, it is not clear who exactly paid for such an expensive newspaper full-page advertisement. But one thing is clear: the agenda behind that advertisement is back in action. Strangely, just a few days before Mrs. Bhutto’s statements about restructuring the ISI and her open call to army officers to stage a mutiny against their leadership, the American conservative magazine The Weekly Standard interviewed an American security expert who offered similar ideas: “A large number of ISI agents who are responsible for

Helping the Taliban and al Qaeda should be thrown in jail or killed.

What I think we should do in Pakistan is a parallel version of what Iran has run against US in Iraq: giving money [and] empowering actors. Some of this will involve working with some shady characters, but the alternative-sending U.S. forces into Pakistan for a sustained bombing campaign-is worse.” Steve Schippert, Weekly Standard, Nov. 2007. In addition to these media attacks, which security experts call ‘psychological operations’, the American media and politicians have intensified over the past year their campaign to prepare the international public opinion to accept a western intervention in Pakistan along the lines of Iraq and Afghanistan:

• Newsweek came up with an entire cover story with a single storyline: Pakistan is a more dangerous place than Iraq.
• Senior American politicians, Republican and Democrat, have argued that Pakistan is more dangerous than Iran and merits similar treatment. On 20 October, Senator Joe Biden told ABC News that Washington needs to put soldiers on the ground in Pakistan and invite the international community to join in. “We should be in there,” he said. “We should be supplying tens of millions of dollars to build new schools to compete with the madrassas. We should be in there building democratic institutions. We should be in there, and get the rest of the world in there, giving some structure to the emergence of, hopefully, the reemergence of a democratic process.”
• The International Crisis Group (ICG) has recommended gradual sanctions on Pakistan similar to those imposed on Iran, e.g. slapping travel bans on Pakistani military officers and seizing Pakistani military assets abroad.
• The process of painting Pakistan’s nuclear assets as pure evil lying around waiting for some do-gooder to come in and ’secure’ them has reached unprecedented levels, with the U.S. media again depicting Pakistan as a nation incapable of protecting its nuclear installations. On 22 October, Jane Harman from the U.S. House Intelligence panel gave the following statement: “I think the U.S. would be wise – and I trust we are
• Doing this – to have contingency plans [to seize Pakistan’s nuclear assets], especially because should [Musharraf] fall, there are nuclear weapons there.”
• The American media has now begun discussing the possibility of Pakistan breaking up and the possibility of new states of ‘Balochistan’ and ‘Pashtunistan’ being carved out of it. Interestingly, one of the first acts of the shady Maulana of Swat after capturing a few towns was to take down the Pakistani flag from the top of state buildings and replacing them with his own party flag.
• The ‘chatter’ about President Musharraf’s eminent fall has also increased dramatically in the mainly American media, which has been very generous in marketing theories about how Musharraf might “disappear” or be “removed” from the scene. According to some Pakistani analysts, this could be an attempt to prepare the public opinion for a possible assassination of the Pakistani president.
• Another worrying thing is how American officials are publicly signaling to the Pakistanis that Mrs. Benazir Bhutto has their backing as the next leader of the country. Such signals from Washington are not only a kiss of death for any public leader in Pakistan, but the Americans also know that their actions are inviting potential assassins to target Mrs. Bhutto. If she is killed in this way, there won’t be enough time to find the real culprit, but what’s certain is that unprecedented international pressure will be placed on Islamabad while everyone will use their local assets to create maximum internal chaos in the country.

A dress rehearsal of this scenario has already taken place in October when no less than he U.N. Security Council itself intervened to ask the international community to “assist” in the investigations into the assassination attempt on Mrs. Bhutto on 18 October. This generous move was sponsored by the U.S. and, interestingly, had no input from Pakistan which did not ask for help in investigations in the first place.

Some Pakistani security analysts privately say that American ‘chatter’ about Musharraf or Bhutto getting killed is a serious matter that can’t be easily dismissed. Getting Bhutto killed can generate the kind of pressure that could result in permanently putting the Pakistani military on a back foot, giving Washington enough room to push for installing a

New pliant leadership in Islamabad.

Having Musharraf killed isn’t a bad option either. The unknown Islamists can always be blamed and the military will not be able to put another soldier at the top, and circumstances will be created to ensure that either Mrs. Bhutto or someone like her is eased into power.

The Americans are very serious this time. They cannot let Pakistan get out of their hands. They have been kicked out of Uzbekistan last year, where they were maintaining bases. They are in trouble in Afghanistan and Iraq. Iran continues to be a mess for them and Russia and China are not making it any easier. Pakistan must be ’secured’ at all costs.

This is why most Pakistanis have never seen American diplomats in Pakistan active like this before. And it’s not just the current U.S. ambassador, who has added one more address to her other most-frequently-visited address in Karachi, Mrs. Bhutto’s house. The new address is the office of GEO, one of two news channels shut down by Islamabad for not signing the mandatory code-of-conduct. Thirty-eight other channels are operating and no one has censored the newspapers. But never mind this. The Americans have developed a ‘thing’ for GEO. No solace of course for ARY, the other banned channel.

Now there’s also one Bryan Hunt, the U.S. consul general in Lahore, who wears the national Pakistani dress, the long shirt and baggy trousers, and is moving around these days issuing tough warnings to Islamabad and to the Pakistani government and to President Musharraf to end emergency rule, resign as army chief and give Mrs. Bhutto access to power.

PAKISTAN ‘S OPTIONS

So what should Pakistan do in the face of such a structured campaign to bring Pakistan down on its knees and forcibly install a pro-Washington administration in Islamabad? There is increasing talk in Islamabad these days about Pakistan’s new tough stand in the face of this malicious campaign. As a starter, Islamabad blew the wind out of the visit of Mr. John Negroponte, the no. 2 man in the U.S. State Department, who came to Pakistan last week “to deliver a tough message” to the Pakistani president. Musharraf, to his credit, told him he won’t end emergency rule until all objectives are achieved.

These objectives include:

1. Cleaning up our northern and western parts of the country of all foreign operatives and their domestic pawns.
2. Ensuring that Washington’s plan for regime-change doesn’t succeed.
3. Purging the Pakistani media of all those elements that were willing or unwilling accomplices in the plan to destabilize the country. Musharraf has also told Washington publicly that “Pakistan is more important than democracy or the constitution.” This is a Bold position. This kind of boldness would have served Musharraf a lot had it come a little earlier. But even now, his media management team is unable to make the most out of it.

Washington will not stand by watching as its plan for regime change in Islamabad goes down the drain. In case the Americans insist on interfering in Pakistani affairs, Islamabad, according to my sources, is looking at some tough measures:

1. Cutting off oil supplies to U.S. military in Afghanistan. Pakistani officials are already enraged at how Afghanistan has turned into a staging ground for sabotage in Pakistan. If Islamabad continues to see Washington acting as a bully, Pakistani officials are seriously considering an announcement where Pakistan, for the first time since October 2001, will deny the United States use of Pakistani soil and air space to transport fuel to Afghanistan.
2. Reviewing Pakistan’s role in the war on terror. Islamabad needs to fight terrorists on its border with Afghanistan. But our methods need to be different to Washington’s when it comes to our domestic extremists. This is where Islamabad parts ways with Washington. Pakistani officials are considering the option of withdrawing from the war on terror while maintaining Pakistan’s own war against the terrorists along Afghanistan’s border.
3. Talks with the Taliban. Pakistan has no quarrel with Afghanistan’s Taliban. They are Kabul’s internal problem. But if reaching out to Afghan Taliban’s Mullah Omar can have a positive impact on rebellious Pakistani extremists, then this step should be taken. The South Koreans can talk to the Taliban. Karzai has also called for talks with them. It is time that Islamabad does the same.
4. The Americans have been telling everyone in the world that they have paid Pakistan $10 billion dollars over the past five years. They might think this gives them the right to decide Pakistan’s destiny. What they don’t tell the world is how Pakistan’s help secured for them their biggest footprint ever in energy-rich Central Asia.

If they forget, Islamabad can always remind them by giving them the same treatment that Uzbekistan did last year.

On the other hand, the country has seen 9% growth in its economy for the last six years; has held presidential and parliamentary elections in which the majority of the eligible voters participated in the process; thousands of schools have re-opened; and health-care services now reach around 80% of the population. U.S. President Barack Obama has made Afghanistan one of his top foreign-policy priorities, which has led to an alignment of the United States’ efforts from Iraq to Afghanistan. However, unless the indigenous capacity of the Afghan people is developed in a timely fashion and regional players adopt a responsible policy stance toward Kabul, President Obama’s Af-Pak strategy may not be enough to save Afghanistan. There are at least 10 lessons we should learn from Afghanistan’s recent experience.

–Half-hearted support. The international community did not provide Afghanistan the commitment that it deserved after the Sept. 11 attacks. Instead, there was a lackluster approach to everything, including the stability and development of the country. Mistakes were made which led to a decline in public support for the international intervention.

–Lack of institution building. From the outset, there was no interest in building Afghan institutions, so alliances were made with local commanders — the same elements that fostered the emergence of the Taliban. Many of these commanders brought back to power by the West only empowered themselves and isolated the rest of the population.

–Too few troops. The light footprint was not appropriate since Afghans expected much more from their international partners. The West, on the other hand, was frightened that Afghanistan could be become their “graveyard of empires.” Yet Afghans saw the international forces as peacekeepers rather than occupiers.

–Too Kabul-centric. The International Security Assistance Force, established by United Nations mandate, only operated in Kabul during the early phase of the transition, leaving a severe security vacuum that was rapidly filled by the commanders.

–Poor enforcement. The Disarmament Demobilization and Reintegration process was not taken seriously, even though there was a genuine effort by the Japanese who funded the program. Many commanders kept their heavy weapons and only turned in their old scrap.

–See no evil. Mafia-like structures were established, but everyone, including the international community, simply turned their heads the other way, which has led to corruption and the illicit drug trade spreading throughout the country.

–Failure to reconcile. The international community could not get its act together on reconciliation, even though there were several opportunities for dialogue with the opposition. Lakhdar Brahimi, the former special envoy of the U.N. secretary-general, states that this was the biggest mistake of his tenure.

–Too easy on Islamabad. The International Community and particularly the U.S. were deliberately blind toward Pakistan, while all along the terrorist sanctuaries and leadership straddled the Durand Line border. Two Taliban shuras, or councils, still operate from Pakistan and are even known as the Quetta Shura and the Peshawar Shura.

–Little financial support. Afghanistan received an extremely low level of aid per capita. The U.S. and its allies put 25 times more money (and 50 times more troops), on a per capita basis, into postconflict Kosovo. There should have been a serious commitment to rebuild Afghan society and infrastructure.

–Little inclusion. There was a failure to understand the politics of development. Afghans were not put in the driver’s seat or even consulted on local projects. Instead, major foreign companies received the bulk of the funding and clearly failed to deliver.

–In Baghdad’s shadow. Iraq became a big distraction; most of the resources and key personnel from the U.S. were taken from Afghanistan and sent to Iraq.

Some U.S. officials have described the conflict in Iraq as the war of choice and Afghanistan as the war of necessity. The facts on the ground prove this to be true. Al Qaeda was able to plan and finance the Sept. 11 attacks from Afghanistan. The Af-Pak region is also the original nesting ground for al Qaeda; it is where they established strong networks among themselves and where they built relations with local communities and certain state institutions. This region also has the kind of terrain and remoteness that makes it an ideal area for a group like al Qaeda to base itself. Although the U.S. has recently acknowledged the crucial importance of Afghanistan, the country had long been neglected by policy makers because of the war in Iraq. Afghans, meanwhile, had become hopeful about the international community’s engagement and looked forward to a partnership that would help bring stability to the country –instead, Afghanistan received international support that was inadequate to deal with the challenges of a nation recovering from more than 20 years of conflict. Hopefulness soon transformed into disillusionment.

This change in attitude of Afghans was a reflection of events on the ground. The U.S. was winning in Afghanistan for the first two years and the country was in relative peace; the Taliban had disbanded and was no longer an organized fighting force. But avoiding the realities that were forming in Afghanistan changed the situation dramatically. The vacuum in those initial years when Afghanistan was written off as a success story provided an opportunity for the militants to recruit, regroup and rearm themselves across the Durand Line and to conduct attacks against the Coalition Forces and the Afghan government.

With time and ample resources at their disposal, the militants are now putting up stiff resistance. The deteriorating situation in the country has reached a level that can no longer be ignored and Afghanistan once again sees itself at an important juncture. Afghans have welcomed the new Af-Pak strategy since it is seen as an attempt by the Americans to get things right.

The new Af-Pak strategy combines both Pakistan and Afghanistan as one policy unit. The Obama administration has realized that success in Afghanistan is not possible without dealing with the challenges of Pakistan, where militancy and extremism has taken root and where the rear-bases of many of the groups operating in Afghanistan are located. The main insurgent groups that are now fighting in Afghanistan — including the Taliban, the Haqqani Network, Hizb-i-Islami Gulbadin Hekmatyar (HIG), Tahreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and al Qaeda — are based out of Pakistan. Some of these groups are allegedly receiving support from official channels within the Pakistani establishment.

The central premise of President Obama’s Af-Pak Strategy is to deliver a deathblow to al Qaeda and other militants, and to make sure that both Afghanistan and Pakistan do not become safe havens for terrorists. This will only be achievable if Afghanistan and Pakistan cooperate with each other, especially on issues such as the increasingly volatile Af-Pak border, where the militants have a strong presence. Among Afghans and elements of the international community, there is increasing apprehension about state institutions in Pakistan and the role they play in regards to the militant safe-havens that exist within their country. The priority that the Obama administration has put on engaging Pakistan has been welcomed by Afghans as it indicates that U.S. policy makers understand the importance of this core issue.

Aside from the regional aspect of the new Af-Pak strategy, there is also an emphasis on developing institutions within Afghanistan to help stabilize the country. Building Afghan military and civilian capabilities is an important element of the new strategy. The emphasis on developing the security institutions of the country has been made clear by the Af-Pak plan and is vitally important to ensure long-term stability in Afghanistan; both the Afghans and the international community know that the presence of international forces in the country is neither sustainable nor ideal.

On the military front, there will be 4,000 extra troops to train the Afghan National Army and additional 17,000 troops to combat the militants, bringing the total number of U.S. troops to 68,000. These additional trainers will help the ANA grow into a much larger force — a boost from 70,000 troops to over 200,000 troops. The additional soldiers will be deployed to southern Afghanistan, which is the stronghold of the insurgents and has seen a serious spike in violence, as well as other areas where the insurgency has made strong in-roads, mostly in the east and certain areas surrounding the strategic center of Kabul. The idea behind this “mini surge” is to make sure the insurgents do not gain anymore footholds in the populace.

The additional troops would also protect the populace from coalition air raids. So far in the conflict, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Coalition Forces have relied heavily on air assets to make up for their low number of troops on the ground. Many times, air bombardment has led to civilian casualties, which insurgents have used as “political oxygen” to recruit family and tribal associates of the deceased.

The military surge will be accompanied by a civilian one as well. President Obama has announced that there will be an increase in civilians — agricultural specialists, engineers and lawyers among others — sent to Afghanistan to help develop the country’s economy and increase the capabilities of the Afghan government to deliver basic services to the people. The strategy also includes the appointment of an inspector-general who will oversee the implementation of these projects — something that has been a serious issue these past few years due to allegations of corruption and wasted aid money. A focus on the civilian aspect of the situation in Afghanistan cannot be underestimated. The illicit drug trade, dire economic conditions and corruption within the Afghan government are seen as crucial factors contributing to the rising insurgency in Afghanistan. There will also be a greater focus on development efforts in Pakistan, including $1.5 billion in development aid for the next five years.

Despite the potential of the Obama plan, some key challenges remain. There is a risk that “internationalizing” the efforts could have a negative impact on the new strategy. The surge of civilians in Afghanistan could undermine the Afghan government and hurt the process of developing local capacity, something that will be needed for Afghanistan’s long-term future. In the last seven years, $1.6 billion has been spent on technical assistance to help with development and other civilian efforts. This is a huge economic cost and it also shifts the focus from what is really needed — developing local institutions to deal with the challenges directly. If the new civilian surge in Afghanistan is a continuation of this process, this could have dire consequences for improving the capabilities of the Afghan government.

On the regional front, challenges also exist. First, the U.S. will offer economic aid to Pakistan for the next five years, but there is no guarantee that the country will respond sincerely. Given the past money that has been spent on Pakistan and the results that have come of it, it is important this aid have enforceable conditions. Second, the NATO alliance in Afghanistan is a “patchwork of actors” and many of them do not share the U.S. objectives.

The obstacles we face in Afghanistan are serious and ones that we cannot neglect or ignore. Many of the issues are a direct result of opportunities that were missed in the 2002-05 period when the current government was formed. Now the situation has taken a turn for the worse and those same issues that could have been dealt with easily will require more effort and commitment both from the Afghans and the international community. The road ahead is difficult but the alternative of continued instability and strife in this strategic geopolitical region is something that the international community cannot afford. Afghanistan has been abandoned before only to resurface as a much more challenging issue — this time could be no different. NNI

He expressed these views while talking to a delegation of Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists PFUJ here in his offices. The PFUJ delegation was led by its president Mr. Pervaiz Shaukat. Issues of constitution of 8th Wage Board Award , non-implementation of 7th Wage Board Award, non payment of salaries to newspaper employees other problems faced by journalist community were discussed.

The delegation thanked the Minister for issuing orders for the constitution of 8th Wage Board Award and appreciated him for his journalist friendly policies. The delegation also included Shams ul Islam Naz, secretary PFUJ, Shehryar. NNI

The over all electricity consumption is for Domestic 44%, Commercial 6%, Industrial 24 %, Agriculture 12 %, Bulk supply 14 % for over 18 million consumers. The peak electricity demand has been recorded up to about 16000 MW in the recent days. The major cause of this abrupt climb has been the rise in temperature and induction of about 60 million home appliances to the distribution system proliferating the electricity demand to almost 2000 MW, out of which the maximum electricity is consumed by the air conditioners and micro wave ovens.

To manage this situation, balancing of customers load by phases is being done, conversion of LT –HT lines is in progress and consumers are being educated for implementing energy discipline and make contributions for energy conservation. Grid system operations are being revamped and their technical audit has been planned for ensuring their operation worthiness. Power transformers are being replaced and ,on many grids , upgraded to cater for the increased load. Repair , maintenance and safety equipments and necessary vehicles have been provided to the field staff which has facilitated them to enhance their performance in dealing with power disruptions and break downs, expeditiously.

PEPCO load management system has been consistently working to control the power deficit. On 19 July 2009, the demand of electricity went up to 16390 Megawatt. The load of 2492 MW was managed to provide maximum relief to consumers. NNI

“The information and statistics on Public Health plays a significant role in decision making for managers at all levels. Besides, its is equally important for all stakeholders to help them make informed choice,” said Iftikhar Durrani, Project Director of TACMIL Health Project and Chief Executive Officer of the National Trust for Population Welfare ( NATPOW) in his inaugural address here at local hotel.

He said that the demographic Health Surveys 2006-07 (PDHS) and the National Health Surveys are meticulously conducted but never properly disseminated to the District-level Managers and communities. Meanwhile, there was disconnect between the government organizations, development partners and non-governmental organizations, he added. NGOs and Development Partners who provide funding for these expensive surveys and work in the communities are aware of the local health situation, but seldom share this information with general masses.

The Workshop was oganized by USAID TACMIL Health and NATPOW , and was attended by District Managers, EDOs and DPWOs participated from the selected Districts of Punjab and NWFP. Earlier, Dr. Zafar ullah Gill, Chief of Party, USAID TACMIL Health Project underlined the need for involvement of all community stakeholders in the sensitization process. He said that the present joint family system could best be exploited to create awareness on grass roots.

Mian Mozzam Shah, Director Gneral Program, Ministry of Population Welfare, in his concluding address deplored that relevant government authorities were still following old paradigms despite change on international level. “Policy makers, donors and other concerned officials are at fault as contemporary decline policy also focuses on education, environment and economics besides traditional reproductive health measures,” he said.

Mozzam Shah said there was gap between policy makers and implementers, therefore proper results could not be yielded for decline in maternal and infant mortality ratio in the country. NNI

To find out how the public feels about such kind of quota system in educational institutions, a Gilani Research Foundation survey was carried out by Gallup Pakistan. According to this survey more than half of all Pakistanis (54%) believe that merit should be the only criteria for entry in all types of educational institutes and all reserved seats should be abolished as it deprives well-deserving, but perhaps from poor or less influential families. Twenty four percent (24%) are in the favor of such quota system where as 22% are unsure.

A nationally representative sample of men and women from across the country were asked “Some people believe that quota system in educational institutions should be abolished as it deprives intelligent students of good education. Whereas others think that quota system is justified and correct. In your opinion should there be a quota system?” majority (54%) claimed it is improper and hence should be abolished where as 24% of the respondents favour such quota system in educational institutes. Twenty two percent (22%) were unsure.

The data reveals that in the country as a whole, a proportionately higher percentage of urbanites (29%) as compared to the ruralites (21%) are in the favour of quota system. However rural Sindh is an exception where a comparatively higher percentage of respondents (36%) believe the quota system is justified and should be implemented in educational institutions.

“Some people believe that quota system in educational institutions should be abolished as it deprives intelligent students of good education. Whereas others think that quota system is justified and correct. In your opinion should there be a quota system?”

The study was released by Gilani foundation and carried out by Gallup Pakistan, the Pakistani affiliate of Gallup International. The latest survey was carried out among a sample of 2577 men and women in rural and urban areas of all four provinces of the country, during July 2009. Error margin is estimated to be approximately + 2-3 per cent at 95% confidence level. NNI

For a moment, let’s overlook ANP’s usual rhetoric of racial victimization, its historical opposition to the creation of Pakistan and its socialist lineage, and focus on bud of its criticism; i.e. Pushtoon are paying through their blood for the Punjab hatched conspiracy of supporting the Americans against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Their rhetoric begs the question: what makes them think, Soviets didn’t had their eyes set on occupying Pakistan next?

Anyone cognizant of ANP’s habit of playing on both sides of fence (like the JUI-F) knows, had Soviets occupied Pakistan, ANP would have cried Bloody Mary over the spillage of Pushtoon blood, followed by signing a peace treaty with the Soviets; only to renounce it after a severe criticism. Then it would have blamed Ayub Khan’s government for the Soviet occupation, because Pakistan fought a war with India.

Ironically, both ANP and JUI-F who could have disrupted the Talibanization during its infancy, looked the other way and pretended everything was hunky-dory. Instead of dealing with the festering menace, both chose to concentrate on grabbing federal ministries and wasted their energies on inconsequential issues like renaming NWFP to Pushtoonkhawa. During their spare time or when Zardari asked, both bashed Punjabis. Of course, until the MQM and Sindhi Nationalists showed their true colors, Punjabis remained their punching bag.

Whether deliberately or otherwise both miserably failed to show the responsibility and leadership expected from them. Even when the monsters were knocking at their door they kept their heads buried in sand, or at best, chased federal ministries. When water ran over their heads, they ran pillar to post blaming any and everyone but themselves for their incompetence. For his part Musharraf with all of power and global support dealt with the Taliban with kids gloves.

Back to ANP’s current scapegoat; i.e. Zia-era support of Mujahideen against the angelic Soviets. Frankly, their rhetoric is plain and simple nonsense. The mistake wasn’t made when Pakistan joined CIA’s war; mistakes were made when every stakeholder disowned the Mujahideen immediately after the Soviets were defeated. Americans didn’t bother to say even goodbye, Saudis saw an opportunity to raise an unaccounted Sunni militia, Arab nations released their Jihadis into Afghan wilderness; and the Pakistanis occupied themselves with pulling legs of successive elected governments.

Instead of helping Afghanistan get back on its feet, whole world moved on to its business. Nobody bothered to rehabilitate the idly sitting army of Muslim fighters who were trained to fight guerilla warfare and nothing else. Not a single dime of financial aid was spent on social recovery projects, like building roads, hospitals or schools. Arab nations turned Afghanistan into a massive dumping ground for the banished, sort of Guantanamo prison on steroids. For example, Osama bin Laden was banished by the Saudis and Ayman al-Zawahiri was dumped in Afghanistan by the Egyptians. With no hope of returning to their native countries, the religiously charged extremists collaborated with the cash strapped locals to form their own style of government.

The dye was cast for the global terrorism. During the lost decade of 90s when Americans were basking in their sole superpower status and Pakistanis were experimenting with democracy, the forgotten religious zealists were looking for new enemies to fight. After beating the Northern-Alliance – raised and nurtured by the Indians, Iranians and Russians – the Taliban set their sights outwards to set the world straight according to their perverted vision. And rest is history.

No matter how hard we imagine: a problem sticks around till we fix it in reality too. The menace of Taliban is a manifestation of collective abandonment of people we used to fight our battles. Let the lesson be learned, never leave the battle ground without cleaning and restoring it first; or its ghosts will haunt, till the end of time. Why the architects of most productive Marshal Plan left the Afghans high and dry to fend for themselves is a trillion dollars question?

However, there is no sense in bickering over who should be blamed for the mess we created in Afghanistan. The responsibility to clean the mess falls upon whole civilized world. Sadly, there are no quick fixes to the problem. If today, we neutralize the Taliban leadership in concert with building roads, bridges, factories, electric power stations, hospitals, police stations, courts, city halls, airports, and most importantly, schools and universities, then hopefully 20 years latter, we could see the initial crop of civilized society in Afghanistan and Pakistani tribal belt.

If shifting blame could rescue the lost generation then there is no better party at the helm than the ANP. If it truly cares for the wellbeing of Pushtoon, then instead of hugging to the ministries tight and blaming whole world for their failures, it should start by bringing its leaders back to their constituencies. Then it should threaten to leave the Zardari coalition, unless the federal government guarantees unrestricted movement of the refugees throughout the Pakistan, including Karachi. Only opportunists take refuge behind racially loaded rhetoric.

Similar concerns were echoed by officials in Takhar, Sar-i-Pul, Baghlan and Badakhshan provinces, where thousands of houses have been damaged by floods and avalanches over the past six months. “Emergency shelter continues to be a primary gap in the response,” said OCHA’s flood situation report on 15 June.

The floods killed at least 66 people and affected over 21,000 families in the northern and northeastern provinces, according to reports by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Aid agencies and the Afghan government provided emergency assistance.

In some flood-affected provinces government officials said there were no funds which could be used to help people rebuild their homes. The only feasible solution, they said, was to distribute tents. However, even tents are not available for all.

“We even don’t have adequate tents to distribute to those in need…We only have 150 tents for 800 families,” Khairkhwa, the ARCS chairman in Balkh, said. According to an OCHA map of unmet needs in flood-affected areas, thousands of tents and/or temporary shelters are needed in a number of affected provinces.

ROADS STILL BLOCKED: Many flood-affected roads are impassable, meaning that aid cannot get through to people in some places, according to provincial authorities and OCHA. “Roads to six districts are still closed while people in those districts need aid,” said Sayed Nasir Hemat, ARCS’s head in the northeastern province of Badakhshan. The blocked roads had also meant people could not access health services in some cases, and had increased food prices, he said.

Assessments by OCHA and other agencies have identified an urgent need to clear roads in Faryab, Takhar, Baghlan and Samangan provinces. However, Ghulam Haider, an adviser to the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, said the government had allocated funds only for the reopening of roads blocked by snow and avalanches. There were insufficient funds to repair and reopen flood-damaged roads: “Repairing these roads requires millions of dollars,” he told IRIN. NNI

Broadband is considered as a key enabler for enhancing social and economic productivity of a country. Broadband is critical to the delivery of private sector services and applications in commerce, telecommunication and banking. Furthermore it is also indispensable for public sector services and applications in education, health, community and other key areas. Primary vision behind formulation of BSG was to establish a group of experts who could plan out essential suggestions for growth and proliferation of Broadband.

Key agenda of the second BSG meeting was to discuss the recently prepared first draft report of BSG. The report targets four major areas of broadband development along with necessary recommendations for improvement. The areas encompass Broadband Infrastructure & Next Generation Broadband, Broadband Policy & Regulation Framework, Content & Application Take-up and Rural Broadband Connectivity.

During his opening remarks Chairman PTA congratulated the members upon completion of an all-inclusive first draft report. He endorsed the efforts put in by BSG for coming up with a set of suggestions both for the regulator and the policy makers. Chairman highlighted his vision of enabling broadband growth in every sector of the country. He emphasized on future roadmap and desired the BSG members to work on some realistic subscribers targets for next two years. Chairman PTA also accentuated the importance of content and applications for proliferation of broadband services. He shared few of the latest initiatives up-taken by ICT Directorate at PTA regarding the growth of mobile-based ICT applications in the country.

BSG members discussed the first draft report and suggested necessary improvements required before releasing the final recommendations report. The members also appreciated PTA for providing a common platform to industry experts for joining their thoughts on improvement of broadband considered as a pivotal sector for enhancing productivity.

Federal Minister for Education, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani was the chief guest of the ceremony while Ms Sabah Rashid, Financial Management Specialist, World Bank and ACCA member was the keynote speaker.

The evening commenced with welcome remarks by Mr Haroon Jan, Head of Business Development, ACCA Pakistan. He congratulated the new members on their success and lauded the contribution of their employers including PTCL, Mobilink, UN, WHO, SECP, A.F Ferguson Chartered Accountant & Co., Auditor General of Pakistan, KPMG Taseer Hadi & Co, Ford Rhodes Sidat Hyder & Co, Citi Bank N.A., Wateen Telecom (Pvt) Ltd., Telenor Pakistan (pvt) Ltd and ZONG, for providing them training and development opportunities which enabled them to fulfill the practical experience requirement of ACCA Qualification. Mr Haroon Jan added that, “There has never been a more crucial time for accountants to continue to show their true value. Over the last 18 months, as a systemic banking collapse has evolved into significant worldwide recession in many countries, a range of presumptions about accounting, organisations and society will be questioned – and we believe that the role of the accountant will emerge into a golden age as a champion of sustainable value in business.”

While congratulating the new ACCA members, Mr Bijarani, Federal Minister for Education said that, “I must commend ACCA for adopting a forward thinking approach in designing its curriculum as it ensures that its members perform to the best of their academic and professional abilities and also demonstrate high standards of professionalism and ethics” He added, “As a professional accountancy body, ACCA Pakistan has not just worked to benefit the profession but I see its endeavours closely aligned to the business benefit ensuring that its members enjoy the elevated repute of this professional accountancy body”.

In her keynote address, , Ms Sabah Rashid, Financial Management Specialist, World Bank said that “I can assure you, from my experience, that in line with its commitment to lifelong engagement with members, you will always find ACCA’s policies and initiatives highly important and relevant to your professional needs and aspirations.”

Later, certificates were presented to the successful members by the honorable chief guest and Mr Haroon Jan, followed by a dinner.

Afterwards, the Zia regime gave the region a culture of war and terror and sectarianism. He pushed this beautiful area through ongoing sectarian clashes. From the time of Zia’s regime till now, thousands of people from both sides have lost their lives, many becoming homeless and disabled while in past the people had been living there with love, peace, affection and mutual understanding and respect since centuries.

Such black days ended when the golden days of Benazir Bhutto came. She as prime minister visited Parachinar, had women colleges opened and promised that she would improve the living standard of the people of this area. The unemployed were given jobs, roads were paved and extended, and a broadcasting station was opened and many more things were done. The words of Z.A Bhutto had repeated by her daughter there “I will make Parachinar a piece of heaven”.

Z.A Bhutto had opened Degree College for Men there and Benazir Bhutto had opened Degree College for Women there. Z.A Bhutto had opened Agency HQ hospital and Benazir upgraded it. For the elevation of poverty the unemployed were given job, sent abroad and for the upgrading of society schools and colleges had opened.

Benazir Bhutto was a true leader who had loved the people of Pakistan in very true meaning. She was above vested interests and had never played the politics of any specific region, language or province. For her all were same and of equal importance. Today when Pakistan is surrounding by multi problems and enemies are trying to declare Pakistan as a terrorist country but the slain leader Benazir brought a good image to Pakistan when UN conferred its top award on Benazir posthumously in recognition of her courageous struggle for restoration of democracy in Pakistan and for promoting human rights and fundamental freedoms. She was great messenger of democracy and peace. Benazir was determined regardless of the risks to her life to return as she believed Pakistan had a great future and she considered she had a major contribution to make in shaping a better future for her country. Today democracy is on its right track in Pakistan and a public government under the leadership of Asif Ali Zaradari is trying to its best to fulfill all the dreams of Z.A Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto Shaheed. These all are because of the sacrifices made by Benazir Bhutto for the restoration of democracy and for the well being of this country.
Benazir departed forever but she will live in our hearts forever.
May Allah rest her soul in piece..

When the British Raj was on its deathbed, its great champion Winston Churchill sneered that Indians would never be able to understand democracy. He thought that they would be a disaster and come running back to Mother England. I shall spare you the precise quotations; we don’t want you to get unnecessarily angry on a day when there is so much else to digest. He was not alone. In 1967, the Times of London, now the pipsqueak of a fading power rather than a thunderer of the Empire, wrote the obituary of Indian democracy. It survived.

However, there was a growing view that the 15th general election would leave behind just the kind of mess Churchill predicted.

The Indian voter has just proved once again that those who underestimate India do not understand India.

The most important result of this election is that the elimination of regional parties from national space has begun. This was the message in north, south, east and west where Congress expanded its space at the cost of both friends and foes. Chandrababu Naidu will survive to fight another election, but the votaries of Telangana have probably been marginalised out of reckoning. The Congress did better than Sharad Pawar, grew in Punjab, hammered the Left, aborted Mayawati’s national ambitions and checked Mulayam Singh Yadav. In fact, Mulayam Singh Yadav may face the humiliation of being the unwanted guest at the party for a second time, since the Congress can now afford to sniff at the support he offers. The two regional powers that triumphed, Nitish Kumar and Naveen Patnaik, won because of their individual qualities rather than because of the parties they lead. The Congress and the BJP, between them, will occupy two thirds of the seats in the next Lok Sabha. This is the real game-changer because the next general elections will be a straight contest between these two parties in most of India.

This election was a successful base camp for a much higher ascent. The true Congress summit is the achievement of a single-party majority in the Lok Sabha after the next general election. When this peak was outlined against a still bleak horizon during the Panchmarhi resolution years ago, it seemed a thrust too high, but its moment has come. Just as it did in this election, it will seek to grow at the expense of either ally or enemy. The Congress already had candidates in 14 seats in Tamil Nadu; the next time, it might contest all 39. It will pressurise Sharad Pawar to merge into the parent party or perish. Mamata Banerjee in Bengal might be more resistant, because she knows that she cannot dominate the Congress as much as she can her own party, and total power can be very alluring. But the Congress can live with a variation or two, as long as Mamata does not through self-inflicted wounds revive the Left in Bengal. In any case, there are great pickings elsewhere for the Congress.

It will of course hope to exploit the anti-incumbency factor in the BJP States in the North, particularly if the BJP goes into disarray after its second collapse from high expectations. The last time the Congress had a majority on its own was under Rajiv Gandhi.

The restoration will be in the hands of the son, Rahul Gandhi, who has earned his political legitimacy in this election. Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s role as leader of the party will ebb as the pace of transition speeds up. It is highly likely that at some point there may even be a transition in Government, with Dr Manmohan Singh making way for Rahul Gandhi. Dr Singh has already done more than anyone expected for the party, and he might prefer the comfort of retirement since he has had a serious heart attack.

Will the BJP, suffering from a second unexpected defeat, be able to resurrect its fortunes and face an aggressive Congress? Some things are apparent. It will need to choose the person who can lead the party into the next general election without much delay.

The BJP realised that development and governance were the decisive issues. But although its venerable leader L.K. Advani tried to define the party around modern needs, he was tripped by the rhetoric of those who thought that the country still wanted to hear the war cry of social conflict. The swivel moment of the campaign came when Varun Gandhi, in a flurry of immaturity, revived every toxic memory that Advani wanted the electorate to forget. He compounded the mistake by glorying in its aftermath. BJP leaders realised the danger. The Madhya Pradesh party publicly asked Varun Gandhi to remain in UP, and not bother about the neighbouring State. But the leadership merely distanced itself from the young man, when it should have disowned him.

This is the major lesson for the next leader of the party: India wants peace with prosperity because Indians realise that prosperity cannot come without peace. Narendra Modi may be a powerful and effective leader in Gujarat, but the stamp of one defect will always mar his future. He can be a successful number two at the national level, but will remain a divisive number one.

We have also just witnessed the last election of the older generation. Youth is not just arithmetic; you have to be young in your outlook, and be able to identify with the aspirations of those seeking a profitable place in the international economy, as much as the poor who feel that they are being marginalised in the domestic economy. It is difficult to span both edges of this challenge, but no one said that public life was easy.

Defeat can be a moment of transition, unless you succumb to despair.