What price loyalty!

by Khurshid Anwer

Gen Kayani in a moment of weakness did the unthinkable, criticize Rahman Malik. The president in the hearing of all shouted, “How dare you, don’t you know he is my right hand man for all shady deals. Now come and see how I single him out for high praise (despite the risk of spontaneous laughter).

Similarly Mian Nawaz Sharif was injudicious enough to criticize Babar Awan, of the Punjab Bank fame. Here again the president came to the rescue, “How dare you, don’t you know he is Faustus to my Devil, he has sold his soul to me. He will not let even his religious piety stand in his way in service to me. He will lie hands down on Surrey Palace***. He will lie hand down on Swiss Cases. He will lie hands up under oath. He is a man after my heart. I wish I could invite you to show you how I will single him out for high praise.

*** Babar Awan crowed not many years ago that the government has not been able to produce proof of corrupt money being involved in the purchase of Surrey Palace. Meaning thereby that the purchase was kosher. Now that NAB has denied the existence of the Surrey Palace, is Babar Awan prepared to say under oath that Surrey Palace was not bought at all, black money or white money.

However there was one notable exception in the praise department. Ambassador Raisani of Syria has been faithfully following in the footsteps of Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto and Zardari Bhutto in employing relatives in lucrative government jobs and paying them top dollar. Surely he is due for some praise. Since he is also coming in for a lot of stick for rank nepotism. Perhaps he will be compensated with another school to employ his remaining relatives, and cronies if he runs out of relatives.

Let us see when this game of Kramer Vs Kramer started. This was when Bhutto was trying to woo over the awam:

tu mera chand mein teri chandni hooo hoho hoho ho

nahin dil ka lagana koi dil-lagi, koi dil-lagi

Of course politics is a serious business.

A engineering college friend was appointed MD of Lahore Foundaries by Dr Mubashar Hasan, the then finance minister who had also been our professor at the engineering college.

Very soon, against his protests, he was forced to employ dozens upon dozens of jialas against non-existent vacancies. The Balance Sheet soon went into red:

There was nothing right on the left, and nothing left on the right.

He was then asked to fudge the figures because it was not be shown that Bhutto Saabs nationalization was playing havoc with the industry all over the country. There was an epidemic of sick industries.

My friend resigned, became a heart patient, left PPP and joined Muslim League.

This is for those who still think Bhutto did not destroy Pakistan’s industry.

SOS Save Our Soil

by Khurshid Anwer

We are a nation of fools. We don’t know what dams are, why they are built, where they are built. We don’t know what barrages are, why they are built, where they are built. And the politicians exploit our ignorance to scare us into buying our votes.

Dams are built high up in the mountain valleys so that when the river is dammed, the valley fills up forming a natural reservoir. The dam is filled up only during the monsoons when surplus water is available, without interfering with the normal flow of the river. The dam has power and irrigation tunnels, through which the reservoir level and the river flow is regulated. Now how to use the surplus water which has been stored. It cannot be allowed to run down the river unutilized. This is where barrages ply an important role.

Barrages are built in the planes where water is needed for irrigation. They erect a low level barrier to raise the level of the river so that water can flow by gravity into the irrigation canals. Barrages too have regulating gates. But since there are no reservoirs at the barrages, the canals take water directly from the rivers. It is at the barrages where the rivers get depleted and not at the dams. The barrages subtract and the dams add.

Why the public does not know even these simple facts is because of our irresponsible media, both print and electronic. A letter comes to the newspaper editor saying that such and such dam is drying up my river and will make my city a desert. The editor prints it. Another letter comes saying, without dams industrial and agricultural growth will not be possible. The Editor prints that also.

No attempt at investigating reporting to find out the truth. In the west newspapers vie with each other to be the first to give the correct picture to the reading public on matters of national importance.

The same with the electronic media. The anchor person listens to one participant and then the other without interjecting in any intelligent manner. Obviously he doesn’t have a clue as to the subject in hand. Should the channel not have its own resident expert sitting in to interact with the participants and unravel the complexities for the confused public. No wonder it is called the idiot box, the good that it is doing now.

Is it too much to ask the media to do their homework on a subject on which depends the very existence of the country.

Fools we are and fools we will remain, with the active help of the politicians, and thanks to the media, both print and electronic.

Pakistan Day special: Creative celebrations

By Saira Owais Adil
Saturday, 20 Mar, 2010 DAWN Young World

Monotonous, routine celebrations are held all over the country to mark the Pakistan Resolution Day on March 23. The schools, media and government organisations all follow strictly unchanged programmes. School children are dressed up in neat uniforms, polished shoes and appear tidy to perform on the same national songs as they have been doing for years.
March 23 is actually the day when the meaning of independence for the Muslims of the Subcontinent was clearly laid out to the world. Now after 70 years of the event, we, the young generation, today need our elders’ help in comprehending the ‘national’ thought that led to the whole process of independence! Children can only be expected to be ‘patriotic’ when they understand the meaning of ‘patriotism’.

Let’s make a different start this time and instead of performing at the school half-heartedly or bunking the functions altogether, try to give your school authorities some exciting suggestions. Ask your school head or teacher to organise different activities with the objective of creating a better understanding of the term “independence”.
Do something creative. Paint your own Pakistan – the way you think a perfect Pakistan would look like. Draw and paint what you like about your country and how you would like things to be. If you are better at words than the brush, write how you want things to be, portraying a ‘better Pakistan’ in your own way!
How about making a huge map of Pakistan for your class or to be displayed anywhere else in the school, and decorate it with smiles, colours and gestures of love – all that we are losing fast with each passing day.

And just mounting the national flag and placing the small flags on strings round the classroom is not enough. A flag drawing competition would be more exciting and full of fun. Rather than just painting and colouring the flag on a paper, you can try making it with different materials. Of course you can’t change its colour or design, just use various textures and materials, coloured green and white, to lend a beautiful touch to our national flag.

Instead of merely reciting the toughest of the national songs, request your teacher to make you understand what the poet is actually trying to say. In a casual set up, not that of the typical classroom teaching style, lectures given to make students become aware of the meaning of the different national songs, some information about the poet and the occasion when it was first written would go a long way in making everyone realise the significance of the words and remember it for a long time to come. By becoming aware of the true meaning of the words that are being sung, it will bring out feelings of national pride and patriotism and make any performance more powerful.

A competition of short poems and national songs can also be held where participants would have to write national songs or poems. This can also be done as a class exercise where everyone just pens down what is in their hearts about their beloved country.

Make posters, badges and cards in which you present your own idea of what being a citizen of a free nation means to you and share it with your friends and teachers. If you are going out somewhere with your friends or family to on this national holiday, order a combination of pistachio and vanilla flavours in ice cream. Now that’s a pretty patriotic combination!
This is our country and we all feel proud of it. So why not fuel up your passion and come up with imaginative ways to celebrate this day and pledge to do what we can to make it a better place to live.

Muslim women barred from flight to Pakistan after refusing full-body scan at Manchester Airport

 

BY Caitlin O'Connell
DAILY NEWS WRITER

Wednesday, March 3rd 2010, 5:13 PM

The full-body scanners in question render a detailed outline of the scanned invidividual's body. A fatwa issued in early February has forbidden Muslims from passing through the device.

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Following the issue of a fatwa last month forbidding Muslims from passing through controversial full-body scanners, two Muslim women at Manchester Airport in England became the first passengers to refuse a scan, the Daily Mail reports.
Although the Transportation Security Administration has said that going through the scanners is optional for all passengers, according to a report in the Detroit Free Press, the two women were barred from their flight to Pakistan in accordance with a directive from the English government.
The women were traveling together to Islamabad when they were selected at random by security officials to be screened with the full-body scanner. According to The Daily Mail, one of the women refused to pass through because of religious objections, while the other cited medical reasons.
Airport staff then informed the women that they would not be allowed to board the Pakistan International Airlines flight if they were not willing to be scanned. The women agreed to forfeit their tickets, valued at about $600 each, and leave the airport with their luggage.
An estimated 15,000 people already have passed through the scanners since they were introduced at Heathrow and Manchester airports on Feb. 5, including Muslim passengers. The women were the first to refuse to be scanned.
The machines render a detailed naked outline of the scanned individual’s body that the Transportation Security Administration says is immediately destroyed.
Full-body scanners have not only come under fire from Islamic scholars for violating the faith's teachings on modesty, but also from civil libertarians, who say the devices are analogous to a strip search.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/03/03/2010-03-03_muslim_women_barred_from_flight_to_pakistan_after_refusing_fullbody_scan.html#ixzz0hBkUlI4n

Afghan mullahs tackle maternal death rate by pushing birth control

 

The Associated Press

Wednesday, March 3rd 2010, 10:40 AM

Swarup/AP

Women stand outside an Afghan pharmacy. In order to combat maternal death rate, Afghan mullahs are promoting contraceptives and distributing condoms.

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Some mullahs in Afghanistan are distributing condoms. Others are quoting the Quran to encourage longer breaks between births. Health experts say contraception is starting to catch on in a country with the world's second highest maternal death rate.

Afghanistan has one of the world's highest fertility rates, averaging more than six babies per woman despite years of war and a severe lack of medical care. Awareness of, and access to, contraceptives remains low among many couples, with UNICEF estimating 10 percent of women use some form of birth control.

But use of the pill, condoms and injected forms of birth control rose to 27 percent over eight months in three rural areas — up to half the women in one area — once the benefits were explained one-on-one by health workers, according to the report published Monday in Bulletin, the World Health Organization's journal.

"The main take-home point is that for women who do not want to be pregnant now, it can be a double tragedy for her to die from a pregnancy she did not want — especially when we could have helped her," said lead author Dr. Douglas Huber, who conducted the study for U.S.-based nonprofit Management Sciences for Health. "The fastest, cheapest, easiest way to reduce maternal deaths in Afghanistan is with contraception."

Afghanistan's maternal death rate of 1,800 per 100,000 live births is topped only by Sierra Leone worldwide, according to UNICEF. The U.S. rate is 11 per 100,000 births.

Quotes from the Quran
Quotes were used from the Quran to promote breast-feeding for two years, while local religious leaders, or mullahs, joined community and health leaders to explain the importance of spacing out births to give moms and babies the best chance at good health.

In total, 37 mullahs endorsed using contraceptives as a way to increase the time between births, some delivering the message during Friday prayers. The mullahs' major concerns centered on safety and infertility, the report said.

"All the mullahs at the community level knew of these things that the Prophet Muhammad himself advised his followers," Huber said. "This was not a hard sell."

Islam, unlike Catholicism, does not fundamentally oppose birth control. Everything from vasectomies to abortions are supported in various parts of the Muslim world.

Many Afghan mullahs are very open about promoting family planning, said Farhad Javid, program director of Marie Stopes International, a British-based family planning organization in Kabul. He was not involved in the study, but said his organization has trained 3,500 religious leaders nationwide on the issue since 2003. It distributed more than 2 million condoms last year.

"In a couple of districts, mullahs were taking our condom stocks and selling them during (night) prayers because the clinics were not open after 4 o'clock," Javid said.

Involving husbands
During the study from 2005-2006 — which involved 3,700 families in three rural areas with different ethnic groups, including both Sunni and Shia Muslims — the Health Ministry collaborated with nonprofit organizations to spread the word that using birth control was 300 times safer than giving birth in Afghanistan. They also involved husbands in the project and sought to dispel beliefs that contraceptives have negative side effects, such as infertility.

Dr. Matthews Mathai, a maternal health expert at the World Health Organization in Geneva, cautioned that the program may be difficult to expand nationally due to high costs, intensive training and the country's continuing conflict. He also said some women may prefer to have large families, fearing child deaths.

"It's good to see there are results coming out of Afghanistan," said Mathai, who was not involved in the research. "Clearly, it takes the religious leaders and the men to get some change. It would be good if this could be replicated, but in the long run, it has to be sustainable."

The Health Ministry plans to expand the program nationally. Huber said USAID, the European Union and the World Bank are involved in the scale-up. The pilot study was funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2010/03/03/2010-03-03_afghan_mullahs_promote_birth_control_distribute_condoms.html#ixzz0hBl7eJKI

PIA announces new baggage requirements for USA

KARACHI: PIA has informed its passengers about the enhanced screening procedure for passengers traveling from USA to Pakistan implemented by Transport Security Administration (TSA) at JFK Airport in New York.

A PIA spokesman said that TSA has notified PIA about enhanced screening of Pakistani Passport Holders traveling from USA that the baggage of such passengers would go through a CTX machine, a x-ray machine for luggage that detect other unidentifiable objects as well, and the selected searches of passengers.

As of now, passengers are required to show a U.S Federal or State issued photo ID that contains Name, date of birth, gender, expiration date of ID and a tamper resistant feature in order to be allowed to go through the check point and onto their flight.

If a Pakistani passport is produced, the passenger, irrespective of age and gender will have to undergo selected screening.

He said often passengers carry baggage of different/ varying sizes which could not passed through the CTX scanning machines, resulting in manual checking of baggage by the authorities.

As the screening process consumes time, long queues are formed at the JFK airport.

PIA passengers were requested to carry baggage of the specified size/dimension with maximum length 39 inches, maximum height 19 inches, maximum width 25 inches and weight not exceeding 110 Lbs.

 

Any oversize baggage or carton will not be accepted by the airline i.e. PIA.

Passengers are advised further to reach JFK airport at least five hours prior to flight departure time as PIA check in counters will close 1 hour and 15 minutes before flight departure in order to maintain on time departures.

As a precautionary measure, PIA passengers traveling from Pakistan to USA are also requested to follow the new baggage instructions as same baggage rules would be applicable on their return journey. – APP

In Memoriam

Ambreen Nisar Husain
24.9.62 – 24.2.05

Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning's hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there. I did not die.

(mary elizabeth frye – 1932)

Sit with me a while
Hold my hand and share my pain,
For even the Heavens cried with me
that day a part of me died,

A part of my life that was so gentle,
thoughtful and caring;
Loving, sensitive and warm 
with a soft cheerful voice

A part that had from infancy become
the sunshine of all of our lives,
The Heavens cried that day a part of me died

The joyous chuckle, the radiant smile
The thoughtful furrowed brow,
The glaring eyes, the sea of emotions
that we shared;

Memories of that gentle voice are silent now
But the smile, the touch and the love
is all in my heart,  
to cherish till I depart

The Heavens cried when my Tu passed on.

-Ba (Zahid Husain)