Google has celebrated Pakistan’s 65th Independence Day by putting up a new specially designed Doodle. The Doodle has Pakistan’s symbolic crescent & star, and the letter ‘L’ in the word ‘Google’ has been replaced by Minar-e-Pakistan.

To be honest, one would expect a little more creativity from Google, but it is not that bad for a start. In the past, Google has been criticised for ignoring Pakistani and Muslim occasions such as Eid among others.

Around five months have passed since the unfortunate crash of Airblue flight ED 202. Considering the way investigations related to such incidents take place in Pakistan, it is not surprising that no outcome whatsoever has yet surfaced regarding the cause of the incident. Even the small compensation of 5 million rupees has not yet been disbursed to the victims’ families, which again is not surprising.

Today’s (December 14, 2010) DAWN Newspaper features Shiekh Muhammad Anwar’s letter to the editor which, so to say, gives a step-by-step guide on how the families may be able to get their well-deserved compensation. A lawyer by profession, and having worked in both public and private sectors, S.M. Anwar is a veteran in the field of aviation law. The letter gives a more pragmatic approach to dealing with Airblue, who after all are a corporate entity, and do not seem to be interested in giving the families their due amounts.

The letter is a sympathetic response to the TV program “Sawal yeh hay” telecast on ARY NEWS on December 12, 2010. The compensation amount has been erroneously published as 50 million, which is actually 5 million rupees. We at Pakool did our part by re-publishing the article here, you can do yours by spreading it.

A forgotten tragedy?

AIRBLUE aircraft crashed on the Margalla Hills on July 28 and one has yet to hear what compensation, if any, has been given by Airblue to the heirs of the 152 people killed in the accident and what is the state of the aircraft investigation, as disclosed in a TV programme on Dec 12.

It was heart-rending to listen to touching complaints of some of the family members of the deceased who are running from pillar to post to get the high compensation of Rs50 million generously announced by the Airblue and not reneged so far.

They also criticised the government for not revealing the investigation report stated to be already finalised.

There was an outpouring of sympathy for the families of those killed in the worst disaster after it happened.

However, the compassionate feelings seemed to have cooled down and perhaps the airline is also having second thoughts about the amount of compensation announced by them.

The CAA or the federal government also appears in no mood to announce the fate of the accident investigation.

Everything seems to be on the back burner to the chagrin of the unfortunate families, some of them have gone or intend to go to court to get their claims.

As a student of air law and having sympathy with the families of the victims, I would like to suggest the following for consideration of the claimants:

a. Please get succession certificate through the district court concerned at the earliest, if not already done. No one is going to give you a penny without this certificate.

b. Send an attested copy of this certificate to Airblue to claim Rs50 million committed by them. Give them time to verify your claim.

c. Do not rush to courts for this purpose. If you do, the airline would simply hibernate, saying that the matter has become sub judice. Please do it only if you feel that you deserve higher compensation.

d. If you do not get any response from the airline within a reasonable time, then knock at the door of courts.

e. Do not distress yourself about the non-publication of the aircraft investigation report, the government has not done in the past and they are unlikely to do it now, the current hackneyed rules protect them.

S.M. ANWAR
Karachi

The letter can also be found here on DAWN’s official website.

“I have never played such a nerve-wrecking game in my life,” said Salman Akbar, the hero of the day and a veteran of 300 internationals.

“When the penalties began, my only thought was of my parents back home and I think it is their prayers which helped me and Pakistan win.

“This win will certainly boost our morale for the final.”

Pakistan Flood Map (16 August, 2010) (Source: OCHA)

Floodwaters continued rushing down the Indus River on August 10, 2010. The BBC reported that high waters had traveled more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles), from the northern reaches of the country to Pakistan’s breadbasket in Punjab Province, and on to Sindh Province. In Sindh, two million people had already evacuated.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured these images on August 10, 2010 (top), and almost exactly one year earlier, August 11, 2009 (bottom). The images show the lower Indus River, at the boundary of Punjab and Sindh Provinces. Both images use a combination of infrared and visible light to increase the contrast between water and land. Water appears in varying shades of blue. Vegetation is green, and bare ground is pinkish brown. Clouds range in color from pale blue-green to bright turquoise.

In 2009, the Indus appears as a thin river—a braided stream north of Sukkur (where a barrage affects water flow), and a very skinny meandering waterway south of that city. In 2010, the river has completely filled the river valley, merging the braided streams north of Sukkur, and pushing water over riverbanks in places. Northwest of the river valley, around the city of Sibi, standing water is evident on what appears to be normally arid ground. Pools of water also appear due east of Sibi, on the other side of the river.

On August 10, 2010, the Indus River is less swollen south of Sukkur than it is north of the city, but even compared to an image acquired on August 8, water levels downstream from Sukkur appear higher. Early in the day on August 9, the BBC reported, the recorded water flow through Sukkur Barrage was up to 1.4 million cubic feet per second (cusecs). The barrage is only designed to withstand a maximum of 900,000 cusecs.

According to Agence France-Presse, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs stated that the scale of destruction from Pakistan’s monsoon flooding in July and August of 2010 surpassed the devastation from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 northern Pakistan earthquake, and the 2010 Haiti earthquake combined.

Authorities in both India and Pakistan seem to be taking turns in embarrassing themselves and providing amusement for the general public. It all started when former PAF chief appeared in an advertisement published by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) in India. The ad published on the occasion National Girl Child Day carried photos of Sonia Gandhi, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, WCD Minister Krishna Tirath and Indian cricket heroes Kapil Dev and Virender Sehwag, and of course our very own, former PAF chief, Tanvir Ahmed.

Punjab Police of Pakistan decided to level the score by putting the insignia of Punjab Police of India in a public service advertisement (see below) published in various national newspapers. It is interesting to note here that the insignias do resemble a lot. Both feature “PP” (for Punjab Police) in somewhat similar font style, surrounded by a wreath against blue and red background. The major difference is that the India insignia has three lions on the top while the Pakistani insignia has a star instead. It seems that the composer of the ad searched ‘punjab police emblem’ on Google, and copy-pasted the Indian version without verifying.

One day later, Indian railways published an advertisement of their new Maharajas’ Express which shows Kolkata in the Bay of Bengal and Delhi in Pakistan. These blunders have one thing in common: For all three cases mentioned, the authorities were quick to pin the blame on the advertising agencies involved. Well what’s next? An advertisement by Indian Army recruiting cadets for Pakistan? You never know…

PCB has released more details about the upcoming Pakistan Day T20 Challenge Trophy. The entry to the event, which is sponsored by Cool & Cool, will be free.

The teams will comprise of the following players:

Pakistan Team
1. Salman Butt
2. Khalid Latif
3. Misbahul Haq
4. Shahid Afridi
5. Umar Akmal
6. Abdul Razzaq
7. Fawad Alam
8. Kamran Akmal
9. Muhammad Aamir
10. Umar Gul
11. Saeed Ajmal
12.Asad Shafiq

Pakistan-A Team
1. Imran Farhat
2. Shahzaib Hassan
3. Muhammad Hafeez (Captain)
4. Hassan Raza
5. Aamir Sajjad
6. Kamran Younis
7. Sarfraz Ahmad
8. Yasir Arafat
9. Mohammad Asif
10. Mohammad Sami
11. Abdul Rehman
12. Omair Khan

Pakistan U-19 Team
1. Azeem Ghuman (Captain)
2. Babar Azam
3. Ahmad Shahzad
4. Ehsan Ali
5. Ramiz Aziz
6. Hammad Azam
7. Mohammad Waqas
8. Sarmad Bhatti
9. Raza Hassan
10. Usman Qadir
11. Muhammad Naeem
12. Anoop Ravi
13. Shahzaib Ahmad

Pakistan ‘A’, Pakistan U-19 and Pakistan national team are set to meet in a Twenty20 tournament taking place on 23rd March, 2010. In tough times like these when no international cricket has taken place in the country for more than a year, this event will provide much needed entertainment for starved cricket lovers in Pakistan. PCB has chosen Lahore’s Qaddafi Stadium as the venue.

The Pakistan Day Twenty 20 Challenge Trophy will first see Pakistan ‘A’ and Pakistan U-19 teams battle out each other. The winners of this match will play Pakistan national team in the final of this 2-match contest. It promises to be an entertaining affair as the top 30 or so cricketers of the country will look to show off their talent. Both matches will be shown live on Geo Super.

It will be interesting to see which team U-19 hero Hammad Azam plays for. He’s already been included in the squad for upcoming T20 World Cup, but he may be asked to play for the young guns one last time.

South African cricketer Hashim Mahomed Amla is not only a great batsman, but also a role model for Muslims around the World. Castle, a liquor company, sponsors the South African cricket team. You can notice ‘Castle’ written on the shirts of all players, except one. Amla was granted special permission by Cricket South Africa and the sponsors because he refused to wear Castle’s logo as liquor is prohibited in Islam. Not only this, he has also decided not to pocket a cent from his match fee.

The entire South African squad can be seen wearing CASTLE on their shirts, except Hashim Amla (Second row standing, third from right)

Amla’s strong belief and commitment towards practicing his religion is commendable. In today’s World where many Muslims consider alcohol consumption a social necessity, Amla reminds us how easy it is to take a stand, but only if we’re willing to do so. Well done Hash!

Football boasts a Muslim ambassador of its own, Frederic Kanoute. Freddy plays for Spanish team Sevilla FC, which was sponsored by 888.com, an online gambling company, for a number of years. Gambling being against Islamic teachings, Kanoute refused to wear the shirt bearing 888.com’s name. Initially, the club had to allow him to wear a plain shirt. Later on, Kanoute agreed to wear 888.com’s logo on the condition that the company will give a certain amount of money to a charity of his choice.

Now lets take a look at the Asif Zardari, President of Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Some might argue this is personal choice to drink liquor or not, but he being representative of an Islamic country, could have avoided being seen like this in public:

Within few hours of the tragic suicide attacks at Lahore Cantt, Geo News released two amateur videos of the incident. One video shows moments just before the second blast, the other shows immediate aftermath of the blasts. The contents of the second video are quite graphic in nature. Among fire, smoke, and destroyed vehicles, injured (possibly dead) people can be seen lying on the floor as well. The cries of shocked citizens and commentary of the cameraman make the video even more objectionable.

The amateur cameraman can be blamed only a little for making the video. Instead of rescuing the injured, he opted to make the video on his cellphone only because he was aware of the prize waiting for him. Not only was his video, along with his name, shown continuously on Geo News, but the newscasters also interviewed this proud ‘Geo Dost’ live.

One wonders if free media is really what we need. Or at least till media in Pakistan realizes its responsibility, strict regulations should be imposed. Such graphic material only amplifies terror. So in a way, the media takes the work of terrorists to every household. And that’s not all, Pakistani news channels are also known for breaking news without verifying it. The culture of ‘We break news first!’ must be replaced by ‘We are most reliable’.