My sincere wishes and prayers are there for all those who appeared. God bless them!

The result can be checked at the link below:

The CSS 2009 Result

Source: The CEP Forum

Images Courtesy : Muhammad Ali Jinnah

In this book, Prof. Fields has tried to offer his understanding of Human Rights. To him, the said book is more a discourse on the subject that leads to a solid definition of Human Rights. In this context, he writes, “It would defeat the purpose of both this chapter and the entire book to a priori define human rights”. Moreover, through out the text, he appears following the pattern of presenting theories of prominent social scientists from history, patching in his own understanding of those concepts and theories, building his ideas and coming to conclusion. This leaves the text very interesting and offers us a unique understanding of the subject; Prof. Fields calls it the ‘Holistic Conception’ of Human Rights.

The Holistic View of Human Rights presented by Prof. Fields stands out unique on the ground that it rejects making one single value or the concept, the foundation of Human Rights. In this regard, the author writes, “I offer a different way of thinking about Human Rights from those discussed; one that rejects making a single value or concept the foundation of human rights. This is what I call a ‘Holistic’ way”. In pursuit of presenting his Holistic Conception of Human Rights, he has given a series of eleven propositions and they are meant to offer ground work for understanding of Human Rights in new light. Consequently, the concept of Human Rights appears expanding to a newer level. To Prof. Clinton of Baylor University, the most important of these propositions is that the humans have a right to whatever is necessary for their full development as persons—physical, intellectual, emotional, and social. Further, as we go down the line with these propositions, we come across the fact that this approach to subject tends to encompass those elements as well that influence the Human Rights and were never considered significant previously. In this regard, Prof. Fields has the argument that his view would strip human rights of all cross-cultural relevance.

The idea presented by Prof. Fields appears expanding the mandate of human rights and includes many a new actors. Say for instance, as mentioned by Prof. Clinton of Baylor University, “defining human rights by the test of “social recognition” expands them beyond what might be accepted as coming from divine gift in any one religious tradition, or what has been agreed to under positive international law. Enlarging the list of potential human rights violators beyond the governments of states, to include other individuals not acting under color of official authority and other kinds of organizations, such as paramilitary groups, increases the number of occasions on which those adversely affected may make human rights claims. Including economic and social rights in addition to civil and political rights makes it possible to consider many forms of deprivation through domination beyond the ones identified in the liberal tradition that Fields finds inadequate”. Hence, this holistic approach finds its way as something very essential for the recent times when social and cultural dynamics are changing and past traditions are inadequate to cater the needs of modern times. Here, it is worthy of mention that this stand point has serious problems too and one need to take them into account.

Though, the holistic conception of human rights has offered a new horizon that brings an entire new batch of issues under the umbrella of the said subject but, it carries with it practical problems for governance. In this regard, Prof. Clinton thinks that ‘If every political dispute becomes defined as a deprivation of the human rights of one or more of the (individual or collective) parties, the role of bargaining and compromise would seem likely to shrink. Human rights are not to be trifled with, or to be a made a matter of more or less depending on the power and skill of one of the parties to the bargain. They are too important, too foundational, to be treated as interests; as Fields notes, they form both rights and duties. Still, not every dispute turns on the human rights of those involved. Some are honest differences of opinion. Others, particularly in the political realm, are contests over power. Some are the results of misunderstandings. It is the task of politics, and especially that form of politics known as diplomacy, to reach some accommodation between the contending parties that does as little damage as possible to the bargaining realm –the network of norms, customs, and understandings that legitimizes and even encourages bargaining instead of warfare over international disputes’. Consequently, things will rather end up in chaos. It is here, one finds the theoretical weaknesses in the concept presented by Prof. Fields.

When we look at the mandate of human rights in the light of holistic view of Prof. Fields, we find it too broad to stick to it practically. Apart from this, the other problem with the said definition of human rights is its illimitability. Prof. Clinton in this context says, “There is almost nothing that, under certain circumstances and in some measure, might not contribute to the human development of some persons. To make all of these goods human rights is to make human rights co-extensive with all of human activity. Instead of serving as a common floor, above which particular political systems may make further provision in the form of constitutional and legal rights, and individuals may through effort secure for themselves yet more extensive contractual rights, human rights become the whole”. Once, definition of human rights is over stretched to such a level, it losses its clarity and meaning and ‘and is deprived of usefulness in distinguishing the phenomenon it describes from other aspects of the subject under study’.

In the last, it can be established that the attempt by Prof. Fields to define the human rights and his holistic approach is at par. Since every concept carries some weaknesses so is the case with the concept presented by the author in this book. In the words of Prof. Stephen Eric Bronner of Rutgers University, “A. Belden Fields has performed a remarkable feat: he has shown us in this book that there is still something to be learned about human rights. Sensitive, provocative, and eminently readable, it offers a new perspective on an old idea that will undoubtedly prove beneficial for anyone interested in developing a progressive politics for our time”.

So, I am tired and just back after an incidence that offered me insight of system around. Previously, I had clues to how system works in Pakistan but this incidence was an eye opener and it offered me a chance to some very basic lesson of my life in Pakistan. I think, this experience will go a long way with me and I will keep referring back to it when and if needed.

To sum it up, I would say, staying silent is essential but how to remain silent is a big question mark for people who are extrovert. I think, by now, you might have started guessing, so keep guessing and don’t ask me to what happened because I am tired.

Sean Maguire: So if I asked you about art, you’d probably give me the skinny on every art book ever written. Michelangelo, you know a lot about him. Life’s work, political aspirations, him and the pope, sexual orientations, the whole works, right? But I’ll bet you can’t tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You’ve never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling; seen that.

If I ask you about women, you’d probably give me a syllabus about your personal favorites. You may have even been laid a few times. But you can’t tell me what it feels like to wake up next to a woman and feel truly happy. You’re a tough kid.

And I’d ask you about war, you’d probably throw Shakespeare at me, right, “once more unto the breach dear friends.” But you’ve never been near one. You’ve never held your best friend’s head in your lap, watch him gasp his last breath looking to you for help.

I’d ask you about love, you’d probably quote me a sonnet. But you’ve never looked at a woman and been totally vulnerable. Known someone that could level you with her eyes, feeling like God put an angel on earth just for you. Who could rescue you from the depths of hell. And you wouldn’t know what it’s like to be her angel, to have that love for her, be there forever, through anything, through cancer. And you wouldn’t know about sleeping sitting up in the hospital room for two months, holding her hand, because the doctors could see in your eyes, that the terms “visiting hours” don’t apply to you. You don’t know about real loss, ’cause it only occurs when you’ve loved something more than you love yourself. And I doubt you’ve ever dared to love anybody that much. And look at you… I don’t see an intelligent, confident man… I see a cocky, scared shitless kid. But you’re a genius Will. No one denies that. No one could possibly understand the depths of you. But you presume to know everything about me because you saw a painting of mine, and you ripped my fucking life apart.

Here you are with the video in case you want to have a look at the performance of the two. Robin Williams correspondence to his image of a great actor.

The detailed Result of Competitive Examination 2008 (CSS) can be found at ‘The Competitive Exams Forum’.

It is further declared by the FPSC that the among 684 final qualifiers 527 are male and 157 are females. Total pass percentage is 16.1 per cent and tt is far more than the last year when only around 5 per cent candidates were declared qualified in CSS 2007 finally.

I use to think to what makes them so special and different from all. According to some music critics, it was their style, they way they clad and they way they sung. It made every one and anyone feel like associating with them. They were near to bone and flesh of their times and times to come. Yep; our times.

Apart from all this, the message they gave us was of love and peace. This makes them achieve the distinction. At the moment, when I am trying to pay them the tribute, I am not able to find appropriate words.  This is the power of their voice and the impact the carry. Therefore, I would like to put it in the words of Derek Taylor who wrote in his book:

I have never seen anything like it. Nor heard any noise to approximate the ceaseless, frantic, hysterical scream which met the Beatles when they took the stage after what seemed a hundred years of earlier acts. All very good, all marking time, because no one had come for anything other than the Beatles…

Then the theatre went wild. First aid men and police – men in the stalls, women mainly in the balcony – taut and anxious, patrolled the aisles, one to every three rows.

Many girls fainted. Thirty were gently carried out, protesting in their hysteria, forlorn and wretched in an unrequited love for four lads who might have lived next door.

The stalls were like a nightmare March Fair. No one could remain seated. Clutching each other, hurling jelly babies at the stage, beating their brows, the youth of Britain’s second city surrendered themselves totally.”

And he is absolutely right. Lets take this song from them, ‘Don’t let me Down’. Well, I feel mesmerized. Look at the Lyrics:

Don’t let me down, don’t let me down.
Don’t let me down, don’t let me down.

Nobody ever loved me like she does,
Ooh she does, yeah she does.
And if somebody ever loved me like she does,
Ohh she does, yeah she does.

Don’t let me down, don’t let me down.
Don’t let me down, don’t let me down.

I’m in love for the first time.
Don’t you know it’s gonna last.
It’s a love that lasts forever,
It’s a love that has no past.

Don’t let me down, please, don’t let me down.
Don’t let me down, don’t let me down.

And from the first time that she really done me,
Ooh she done me, she done me good.
I guess nobody ever really done me,
Ooh she done me, she done me good.

Don’t let me down, don’t let me down.
Don’t let me down, don’t let me down.

I would say that, they were simply Splendid. Want to have a feel to what they were like. Here you go with their great work in following Video:

The FPSC notification no. F2-2/2009 CE stated that the CE are postponed and the new date for commencement of the CSS 2009 examination is Saturday April 25, 2009. Further, it is being notified that the reasons of postponement are administrative.

With this, the aspirants are having few more days to study but to many this delay in papers is not good since they will have to wait for 1 and a half month more.

So friends, I am back….

This is with reference to your investigative report published in ‘The News’ on November 25, 2008, on jacked-up marks, from 640 t0 661 by re-assessing of answer sheets, of Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar’s daughter in FSc Pre-medical exams, which lead to her admission to a private medical college, controversially.

First, I would like to appreciate you, in special, and the whole team of ‘The News Investigation Cell’, in general, for unearthing this story to highlight academic corruption and dacoity by the high-ups of the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Islamabad. No doubt, this was an excellent piece of investigative work, which not only posed threat to all the corrupt high officials and influential lot of this country, but also set an example and paved way for investigative journalism in the native soil in one or the other way. Now from today, all such people would think one thousand times at least before committing this type of corrupt and ill practices whatsoever.

Secondly, I would like to ask you, Mr Ansar Abbasi, as to how re-assessing of answer books, raise in marks and admission of Farah Hameed Dogar, the daughter of the Chief Justice of Pakistan, to a private medical college on a seat reserved for judges ‘became a mass denial of rights of thousands of students throughout the country’. In fact this jacked-up result hasn’t denied the right of even a single student, or only one, if it has done so, as had Farah not been awarded this set of 21 marks, that seat would have been remained either vacant because this was the seat reserved for judges’ kin, or any other, but only one, daughter or son of any other retired or serving judge would have been given admission to that medical college. So, it will not be unfair to mention here that you exaggerated the facts to create sensationalism and hit your ‘target’ unethically and hence justified those allegations leveled against the media that journalists and anchorpersons create sensationalism in the country by exaggerating the things and distorting the facts altogether. True, the CJ Dogar’s daughter has been given marks illegally, but this was not ‘mass denial of rights of thousands of students’ as you mentioned in your report in anyway in fact.

Secondly, I would like to ask you, Mr Ansar Abbasi, that tens of reporters work under the ‘Editor Reporting’ and the ‘Chief Reporter’ in ‘The News’, but credit of every story does not go to ‘Editor Reporting’ or ‘Chief Reporter’, rather it goes to the reporter who goes out in the field to collect facts and data. But, it is surprising to see that credit of every investigative story by ‘The News Investigation’ goes lonely to you in the byline of the story, despite this fact that scores of journalists work in the ‘Investigation Cell’ of the newspaper and work to unearth stories published. Is not this mass denial of right of scores of journalists by you, the top journalist, in real sense? Yes, it is.

Thirdly, I would suggest you, the noted journalist, to give due coverage to stories demanding abolishment of reserved seats in medical colleges. Had you launched campaign against reserved seats and quota system in medical colleges well in time with such a full strength, as you did in this case, this would have been proved very helpful and advantageous to scores of students regarding admission to medical colleges.

Fourthly, but not finally, I would like to give a few tips to you, Mr Ansar Abbasi, to unearth other stories and facts, which would bring real face of media, the so-called ‘eyes and ears’ of this society before nation. You should investigate as to which group of newspapers purchased land and plazas for their offices for how much money and what was the actual land value at those places at that time. Moreover, you should also investigate which group of newspapers paid how much money as monthly utility bills of their offices in different cities and paid how much income tax yearly for last 30 years. Furthermore, probe into the matter as to which politicians and businessmen pay monthly utility bills of which journalists on ‘give and take’ basis.

Finally, the principled and praiseworthy journalist! You should also report as to how much money press clubs and lands for press clubs in each and every city in every nook and corner of this homeland was acquired right from the day of Independence.

All these stories will be real eye-openers for everyone of us, including journalists, as well.

But I’m sure; you, the honest and truthful reporter, will not touch these stories in the ‘larger interest of the nation’.

Samia,

Kharian Cantt.

Disclaimer: This Letter is neither the representative of Silence’s nor of Dr. Farrukh Malik’s stand on the matter under question.