Obama was Bin Laden’s top target, letters from Abbottabad reveal

US President Barack Obama boards Air Force One on his trip to the Middle East, June 2009. Until the end, bin Laden remained focused on attacking Americans and coming up with plots, however improbable, to kill US leaders.

WASHINGTON: In letters from his last hideout, Osama bin Laden fretted about dysfunction in his terrorist network and crumbling trust from Muslims he wished to incite against their government and the West.

A selection of documents seized in last year’s raid on bin Laden’s Pakistan hideout was posted online Thursday by the US Army’s Combating Terrorism Center.

One year after his death, OBL lives on

When Osama bin Laden was killed by US Navy SEAL team 6, on 2nd May, 2012, it was considered a “drama” by 66 per cent of Pakistanis.

Pakistanis in general are not willing to believe in facts and are more prone to trusting conspiracy theories because they provide a feasible explanation of events in a narrow frame of reference. It has been a whole year since the Abbottabad Operation that killed Osama bin Laden, and a majority of Pakistanis still do not believe it even happened, despite public announcements by al Qaeda themselves.

Almost Everyone Does This at The Dentist's Office - Why It's a Possible Recipe for Brain Cancer

By Dr. Mercola

A study in the journal Cancer shows that people who have had dental X-rays are more likely to develop a type of brain tumor called meningioma than those who have not.
According to CNN Health

"The meningioma patients had more than a two-fold increased likelihood of having ever experienced a dental X-ray test called a bitewing exam. Depending on the age at which the exams were done, those who'd had these exams on a yearly basis, or more often, were 1.4 to 1.9 times more likely to have had a meningioma.

The Man Who Would be King Despite a vague agenda and a playboy past, Imran Khan may be Pakistan’s next Prime Minister.

Sarah Caron for Newsweek

Stuffed into the driver’s seat of his silver Land Cruiser, Imran Khan, the cricket sensation turned Obama-like embodiment of Pakistan’s hope for change, careens wildly through the Punjab on the road from Mianwali to Islamabad, around livestock and colorful Mack trucks tricked out with trinkets. Khan owns the most recognizable face in Pakistan, but he is going too fast to be noticed by the people filling pickup beds and rickshaws, as he swerves into oncoming traffic and along the shoulder of the road. When darkness falls, two women from the wheat fields appear suddenly in his high beams. Khan finally flinches. He jams the breaks, cuts the wheel, and then squeezes his SUV between them with just inches to spare. He quickly collects himself. “You need good reflexes,” he says, smiling.

100 Women Who Matter

Illustration by Minhaj Ahmed Rafi

Entrepreneurs

Nasreen KasuriStarted a kindergarten group at her in-laws’ home in the ’70s. Today, her sprawling education empire has an impressive 211,323 full-time students, the Beaconhouse National University, and schools in eight other countries.

The Rebirth of Maryam Nawaz Sharif Our exclusive profile of the new face of Pakistan’s (currently) second largest political party, the former prime minister’s daughter.

 

Maryam Nawaz Sharif doesn’t like to admit it, but she’s her father’s favorite. When she speaks about him, she turns girly. “His legacy is beautiful,” says the 38-year-old. “Who would not want to step into those shoes?” Finally stepping into politics some months ago, it is Maryam Sharif, not her cousin Hamza or either of her brothers (who live abroad), who is now the presumed future leader of her father’s party, Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), the second largest bloc in the National Assembly and which governs the Punjab.

Who in the World is Mansoor Ijaz? The startling allegations leveled by the Pakistani-American businessman and citizen diplomat have already claimed their first casualty. Meet the man who blew the whistle on Memogate.

Seamus Murphy for Newsweek Pakistan

Musawer Mansoor Ijaz has always been willful. It was a trait that worried his late father, Mujaddid, a Virginia Tech physics professor. So one summer afternoon in 1976 at their mountain-perched home in rural Shawsville, Virginia, he organized a sort of intervention for the oldest of his five children, with some hefty help. “Abdus, can you please explain to this young man that being so headstrong is not good?” The professor’s friend, Dr. Abdus Salam, sized up the young Ijaz and smiled. “Do you remember how headstrong we were at that age? That’s how we got to where we are,” Salam told his friend, “so let him be.”

‘To Hell Where They Belong’

 

Editor’s Note: Gov. Salmaan Taseer was assassinated in Islamabad on Jan. 4‚ 2011. He was shot 40 times by one of his Elite Force guards outside Islamabad’s Kohsar Market. The self-confessed assassin, Mumtaz Qadri, was sentenced to death last year and has appealed his conviction. Here, we reproduce the unabridged version of Governor Taseer’s interview from our Nov. 15‚ 2010‚ issue, conducted by his daughter.

100 Women Who Shake Pakistan

They make up almost half of Pakistan's population of 180 million, but are rarely given the space and coverage they deserve. From Fatima Jinnah to Rana Liaquat Ali Khan to Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan has produced some very remarkable women. Today, they are bankers, businesswomen, activists, artists, sport stars. From a pool of almost 350 women, here's our list of the 100 women who matter most.

 

THE SHAKERS

 

Roshaneh ZafarInspired by Nobel laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus's work at Grameen Bank, Roshaneh Zafar, 42, ditched her World Bank career to set up Kashf Foundation, Pakistan's first microfinance institution, in 1996. She started with a $10,000 loan from the Grameen Trust, Rs. 100,000 of her own, and 15 clients. Today, Kashf has more than 306,000 clients, and has disbursed more than $202 million in small loans to poor women. Kashf made Forbes's list of the world's top microfinance institutions in 2007, and U.S. President Barack Obama acknowledged her work at the inaugural Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship last year. "The women I meet tell me, 'don't tell us about water sanitation projects, tell us how to earn a living," Zafar says. In setting up Kashf, she moved away from conventional development projects to help women finance their own empowerment.

 

Bilquis Edhi   One of Pakistan's most respected social workers, runs the Edhi Trust with her husband

 

Aafia SiddiquiNeuroscientist convicted by a U.S. court for attempted murder is the cause célèbre for Pakistan's Islamists

 

Aamna Taseer  In tragedy, she showed Pakistan what grace and dignity look like. Punjab's former first lady now runs her late husband's business empire

 

Sherry Rehman  Journalist turned politician turned conscience of the nation, she is the most important voice in a country gripped in darkness

 

Sultana Siddiqui   The director and producer also owns HUM TV, a popular women's cable channel

 

Bushra Aitzaz  Activist, businesswoman, and chief of the women's cricket board

 

Kiran BaluchSet highest test score record in women's cricket

 

Rubina Feroze Bhatti
Fights for the rights of women victimized by violence

 

Abida Parveen
Globally renowned Sufi vocalist with over 20 albums  

 

Um-e-Hassan
She shows us the Jamia Hafsa still lives
Um-e-Hassan, the wife of Lal Masjid's chief cleric, Maulana Abdul Aziz, came to national prominence four years ago as head of Jamia Hafsa, the mosque's seminary for women which was leading the charge to have Shariah laws imposed in Pakistan. The protests and actions of the burqa-clad students in Islamabad got the attention of the world—and the Army. At least 84 lives were lost when commandos finally stormed the Lal Masjid compound in July 2007. A native of Rawalpindi, Hassan cites the Prophet Mohammed (Peace Be Upon Him) and his wives Khadija and Ayesha as inspirations. She began religious instruction for women shortly after her marriage to Aziz in 1985. "Women are very important because they have the most influence on their children," she told Newsweek Pakistan. "For a good society, you need to work hard on the education of women." Hassan says she imparts a positive message to women in her lessons, "Women shouldn't think they have no role in society. They are wives, sisters, mothers, daughters." Hassan says she has never urged any of her followers toward violence, and that the reform of society is the responsibility of religious scholars operating with the authority of the state. One model, she says, is the Saudi religious police, the Mutaween. "When we see injustice and wrong in society," Hassan says, "it is our duty to at least point it out and tell people that this is wrong. This was our position back then, and this is our position now."

 

Carla Khan
Pro-squash player continues the Khan legacy

 

Ruth Pfau
Fights to eradicate leprosy in Pakistan

 

Nabila Maqsood
Stylish and smart, the fashionista has made a career out of making other people look hot

 

Bapsi Sidhwa
Doyenne of South Asian English lit is still going strong

 

Jehan Ara
Leading software development in Pakistan

 

Naseem Hameed
South Asia's fastest woman and endorsements' queen

 

Bunto Kazmi
Fashion designer shows modern sensibility with traditional styles

 

Shazia Marri
Energy czarina
Married at 14 and divorced by 16, Sindh's first ever minister for energy, oil, and gas doesn't show it, but she's had to overcome plenty of challenges. The poised and articulate Marri, 38, was roped into politics by Benazir Bhutto, and has electrified us.

 

Aasia Noreen
Her plight has inspired thousands to question controversial laws

 

Ameena Saiyid
The power behind Oxford University Press in Pakistan

 

Dr. Rufina Soomro  
Helps cancer patients feel normal with low-cost breast prosthetics

 

Dr. Feriha Peracha
Runs Sabaoon to deprogram children brainwashed by the Taliban

 

Jugnu Mohsin
Publisher of Pakistan's first independent weekly is also the country's most powerful humorist

 

Sajida Zulfiqar
Established successful  furniture business despite Taliban threat

 

Ayesha Jalal
Tufts professor is top South Asian history scholar

 

Nigar Ahmad
As a founder of Aurat Foundation, she has been key in getting women's voices heard

 

Asma Jahangir
Nothing scares dictators and demagogues more than this brave, rabble rousing, SCBAP president and human rights activist

 

Sara Suleri
Meatless Days author and Yale prof

 

Sana Mir
She raised the bar for cricket
The 25-year-old led the Pakistan women's cricket team that won gold at the Guangzhou Asian Games, and the hearts of a nation craving sporting success. "We will have this medal for the next 4 years, I want to enjoy that," she told Newsweek Pakistan. She is the top rated Pakistani player, and among the top 20 best bowlers in the world.

 

Nergis  Mavalvala
Astrophysicist imparts her knowledge to new crop at MIT

 

Shamshad Akhtar
The first woman to head the State Bank, Akhtar now runs the World Bank's MENA operations

 

Rukhsana Bangash 
Don't let her low-key demeanor mislead you, President Zardari's political secretary is the one who keeps things moving along

 

Shahnaz Wazir Ali  
The educator and philanthropist is also the architect of the Benazir Income Support Programme

 

Aseefa Bhutto Zardari
The youngest of Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari's children has been the face of the anti-polio campaign since she was born

 

Yasmin Rehman  
Key voice on the powerful Public Accounts Committee

 

Shafqat Sultana
President, First Women Bank

 

Fehmida Mirza  
The first woman speaker of Parliament in the Muslim world

 

Fauzia Gilani 
The industrious first lady is a political operator and a leading businesswoman

 

Asiya Nasir
Pakistan woke up to Asiya Nasir after her hard hitting speech in the National Assembly following the assassination on March 2 of minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti. Representing the orthodox Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl), the 39-year-old Christian M.P. left teaching to enter politics in 2002. We're glad she did.

 

Kulsoom Nawaz
The former first lady wowed us all by her courage after her husband's government was overthrown in a coup

 

Nasreen Kasuri
Her self-started education empire now sprawls continents

 

Shaista Wahidi
Replaces Nadia Khan as face of GEO TV and Pakistan's Oprah

 

Salima Hashmi 
Painter, curator, gallery owner, she is the face of modern Pakistani art

 

Samar Minallah 
Her video of a young woman being flogged in Swat turned public opinion firmly against the Taliban

 

Shazia Sikandar  
The New York-based modern miniature artist has shown at every major gallery worth in its salt

 

Shirin Tahir-Kheli
The former adviser to George W. Bush got Pakistan and India talking again

 

Sonya Jehan 
Telecom's most attractive mascot

 

Souriya Anwar 
Founder of and indefatigable spirit behind Pakistan's SOS Villages

 

Syeda Hina Babar Ali
When she's not busy running Packages, one of Pakistan's largest business groups, she's writing poetry

 

Nafis Sadik
Internationally renowned, her efforts as the U.N. special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Asia have helped stem the disease in the region

 

Ghulam Sugra
The Sindhi activist has gained new popularity after recieving the International Women of Courage Award from Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama

 

Madeeha Gauhar 
The Lahore-based writer opened an outlet for human rights activisim when she launched Ajoka Theatre under Gen. Zia

 

Maj. Gen. Shahida Malik
Pakistan's first woman to make a two-star general marked a new era in women's rights

 

Maria Toor Pakay
The squash wunderkind is making Pakistan proud

 

Nighat Said Khan
One of the founding members of Women's Action Forum, she doubles as a talented filmmaker

 

Mukhtar Mai
She turned a horrible tragedy into a triumph of the human spirit. Gang raped in 2002 at the orders of a tribal jirga, Mai, 39, has fought a long and tough battle to get those who assaulted her convicted. Along the way, she founded a school and authored the best-selling In the Name of Honour. Today, Mai, who is herself illiterate, is working to ensure every girl in her village gets an education.

 

Rubab Raza 
Only 13 when she qualified for the Summer Olympics in 2004, Rubab has a bright career ahead of her

 

Hina Tahir
Pakistan's first female fighter pilot

 

Sabiha Sumar
The award-winning Independent filmmaker has dedicated herself to social change through film

 

Saima Mohsin 
Freelance journalist who often reports on Pakistan for PBS and ITV

 

Salma Maqbool
Co-founder of Pakistan Foundation Fighting Blindness has made it her mission to ensure no one else suffers her affliction

 

Samina Qureshi
The award-winning author has toured the world, bringing the beauty of Pakistan with her

 

Zubaida Tariq 
Food and homemaking guru

 

Reema
Lollywood actress reinvents herself as savvy talk-show host

 

Kishwar Naheed   
Veteran columnist still going strong after four decades

 

Juggan Kazim   
Ubiquitous cherub-faced model and actress

 

Mehrbano Sethi
With her Luscious Cosmetics, the Estée Lauder of Pakistan

 

Marvi Memon  
Parliamentarian and twitter queen

 

Sanam Marvi 
Folk and sufi singer sets her own tone

 

Huma Abedin 
Aide to Hillary Clinton is Pakistani on her mother's side

 

Sania Mirza 
Tennis pro has been welcomed by Pakistanis as their own

 

Seema Aziz
CARE Foundation founder proves that philanthropy can make a difference

 

Shandana Khan
The Rural Support Program Network CEO focuses on the grassroots

 

Shazia Ahmed 
Leader of the first four female fighter pilots trained by Pakistan's Air Force

 

Reshma
Legendary folk singer

 

Samina Ghurki  
The only PPP leader with a safe National Assembly seat from Lahore 

 

Nafisa Shah
She was among 1,000 women nominated for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize. Encouraged to enter politics by the late Benazir Bhutto she excelled as the mayor of Sindh's Khairpur district and is currently a Pakistan Peoples Party member of the National Assembly.

 

 

Faryal Talpur
The first sister is running the day-to-day of the country's largest party

 

Tehmina Daultana  
PMLN pol has nerves of steel, and a sense of humor 

 

Tina Sani
No one can put Faiz's verse to song quite like her

 

Meera Lollywood siren lives in the headlines and in our hearts

 

Samia Raheel Qazi 
Heads the women's wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, the largest religio-political party

 

Zareen Khalid 
Pakistan's original event planner

 

Spenta Kandawalla
The U.S. Secretary of State's former classmate is a business mogul in her own right

 

Farhat Hashmi
She established Al-Huda International in 1994. Since then, Hashmi has been the favored proselytizer of the ladies-who-lunch crowd in Lahore, Islamabad, and Karachi. She has a Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from the University of Glasgow—and in converting women to Al-Huda's brand of Islamic conservatism. "I just translate the word of God," she told filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy in an interview. So if people have a problem with her, she said, "they have a problem with God."

 

Tahera Hasan
Founding member of KaraFilm Festival maintains a healthy law practice for entertainment industry

 

Farzana Bari 
Human rights campaigner

 

Bano Qudsia
Novelist and playwright was awarded the Hilal-e-Imtiaz in 2010

 

Maryam Bibi
Since founding Khwendo Kor, which means "sister's home", a nongovernmental organization, in 1993, she's been struggling for funding. "Big donors like big projects," she told Newsweek Pakistan. They don't seem to find her organization's sharply focused work with internally-displaced women and children headline worthy. But, luckily, Bibi is trucking along just fine. "It is the poorest of the poor women who inspire me to keep working."

 

Nahid Siddiqui  
Kathak dancer introduced her skill to universities across the world 

 

Nazish Ataullah
Printmaker and social activist

 

Tehmina Durrani
Author and activist

 

Samina Ahmed 
South Asia project director at International Crisis Group

 

Samina Khan
Sungi head is working on several development projects

 

Ronak Lakhani 
Tech wiz also runs the Special Olympics

 

Nusrat Jamil
Author, rights activist and dynamo

 

Marriana Karim
Raises funds for several charities and runs a kidney center

 

Madiha Sattar
Journalist

 

Selina Rashid 
Founder of Lotus PR

 

Veena Malik
Spark and Provocateur
She says she is 27. Veena Malik, the actor, comedienne, and cultural lightning rod, says and does a lot of things that prompt a double take and require suspension of disbelief. Pakistanis remember her from such hits as "cricketer Muhammad Asif stole my heart—and my money!"; "Meera should watch her back"; and, of course, last year's Bigg Boss on Indian television that had Pakistan—and India—aghast, more because of her desperate determination to hog the spotlight rather than anything real saucy or salacious. For the finale, after she was voted out of the Bigg Boss house, Malik appeared on Frontline with Kamran Shahid in Pakistan taking on a mullah in a highly scripted, and spirited, performance that had Pakistan's pathetic Internet liberals hailing her as their new hero. The debate surrounding Malik's TV antics have served to further confirm the poverty of the liberal elite and the hypocrisy of the religious right. It has also shown Malik to be a savvy entertainer in this age of guns and Gaga. "I'm not one of those you can malign and get away with it," Malik told Newsweek Pakistan. "If people think they can because I'm a woman, they're mistaken." Malik was last seen on India's World Cup-related show, Bigg Toss. Veena, vidi, vici, indeed.

Islam & modern sensibility

‘COMPATIBLE’ means something that is capable of existing or performing in a harmonious, agreeable and congenial combination with something else. Muslims today are confused about the compatibility of their religion with modern values and trends.

The confusion has been further aided by the intolerant and stubborn attitude and behaviour of some Muslims that has cast a shadow on the essence of their religion. The situation has encouraged anti-Islamic forces to point their guns at Islam and tell the world that it is an outdated and impractical way of life.

The state of Muslims, good, bad or indifferent, is one thing and success or failure of Islam quite another. The truths represented by Islam are as old as creation itself. These truthful values began forging their way gradually on their onward march. Different people in different periods of history owned them and reaped a happy and hefty harvest.

Islam as an ideology and way of life (deen) is an ongoing organic process that will keep on germinating with fresh fruits, but for a new crop, properly guided efforts based on modern knowledge and in line with Quranic values are necessary. This paradigm is missing in the Muslims of today.

Lack of knowledge and years of indoctrination have led to religious intolerance and bigotry, something that Islam vehemently opposes. Islam is definitely compatible with the ongoing process of time if its core values of justice, tolerance, morality, honesty and accountability are promoted and practised. Islam in the modern perspective should not be judged by institutions
that encourage fanaticism but by its insistence on the higher ideals of human dignity and equality.

If Muslims shun internecine antagonism and devote their energies to the system laid down in the Quran, no new laws are needed. According to Sarojini Naidu (address to Young Men Muslims Association, Madras, 1917), “Islam is the first religion that preached and practised democracy, for in the mosque the democracy of Islam is practised five times every day.”

The new world order which no one understands has pitched the West and non-Muslim powers against the so-called barbarian Muslims. The underdeveloped Muslim countries with a large population are confused about the new concepts of the modern age like progress, freedom, democracy, development and gender equality. They have started feeling that perhaps Islam is not compatible with these new thinking tools.

The Islamic values are definitely not aligned to support the corporate culture whose motto is maximisation of wealth at all cost. The Quran points out that its teachings are for all times and that God has created man and has set up the balance in order that we may not transgress this balance. It asks us to establish weight with justice and not fall short in balance (55:1-9).

Plundering the resources of the world and depriving others lead to an imbalance that is being perpetrated by the developed countries on the poor and underdeveloped countries of the world in the name of peace and prosperity.

The Quran is against such practices as they disturb man’s happy relationship with nature. Here too we see Islam’s prescription
for a happy world order. This problem and confusion lie in defining modern values and their utility. They may be beneficial to those who have canonised these values and trends. At the same time, they are confusing and illogical to those who have
suffered as passive recipients of western economic colonialism now reigning supreme.

Islam negates the annihilation of the weak. Even the West’s reliance on pure reason is now termed waywardness by many scholars, and has been a complete mess. Scientific knowledge has increased the quality and span of life, but to what use? There are more suicides now than ever before. It is not a matter of Islam being compatible with modern trends, but going a step further, modern trends have to prove their compatibility with their own values and only then a true realisation of Islamic values will come to the fore.

The West itself is so confused with its own new age metaphysics that many there are talking of the impending end of the world.

How can they question or blame Islam for ills of the modern times when they themselves are locked between free will and determinism and have slipped into a moral dark age?

Can Islam be modernised? This is the question that confuses people all over the world. The answer to this needs a valid re-interpretation of Islam as a potential force to harmonise society. The traditional practices of cultural Islam and the true teachings of the divine message have to be treated differently. The embargo on freedom of thought and control on violent suppression of free thinking must go.

The following dictates of the Quran are conducive to a better future for all times: Muslims will conduct their affairs through mutual consultation (42:38) and equal human dignity (17:70). They will establish justice in the land (5:8). They will stop mischief on earth because God does not like mischief (2:205). They will work for the unity of mankind (2:213). Their main objective is to work for the welfare of mankind (3:110), gender equality (4:32), superiority by character only (49:13), rule of
law and not of individuals (3:79), and freedom of religion (22:40) and expression (2:42).

The western powers are adamant in propagating every un-Islamic act of ignorant Muslims as Islamic and are not willing to let Muslim intellectuals and scholars present the true Quranic Islam lest their own followers change loyalties and follow these universal values.

Islam & modern sensibility

‘COMPATIBLE’ means something that is capable of existing or performing in a harmonious, agreeable and congenial combination with something else. Muslims today are confused about the compatibility of their religion with modern values and trends.

The confusion has been further aided by the intolerant and stubborn attitude and behaviour of some Muslims that has cast a shadow on the essence of their religion. The situation has encouraged anti-Islamic forces to point their guns at Islam and tell the world that it is an outdated and impractical way of life.

The state of Muslims, good, bad or indifferent, is one thing and success or failure of Islam quite another. The truths represented by Islam are as old as creation itself. These truthful values began forging their way gradually on their onward march. Different people in different periods of history owned them and reaped a happy and hefty harvest.

Islam as an ideology and way of life (deen) is an ongoing organic process that will keep on germinating with fresh fruits, but for a new crop, properly guided efforts based on modern knowledge and in line with Quranic values are necessary. This paradigm is missing in the Muslims of today.

Lack of knowledge and years of indoctrination have led to religious intolerance and bigotry, something that Islam vehemently opposes. Islam is definitely compatible with the ongoing process of time if its core values of justice, tolerance, morality, honesty and accountability are promoted and practised. Islam in the modern perspective should not be judged by institutions
that encourage fanaticism but by its insistence on the higher ideals of human dignity and equality.

If Muslims shun internecine antagonism and devote their energies to the system laid down in the Quran, no new laws are needed. According to Sarojini Naidu (address to Young Men Muslims Association, Madras, 1917), “Islam is the first religion that preached and practised democracy, for in the mosque the democracy of Islam is practised five times every day.”

The new world order which no one understands has pitched the West and non-Muslim powers against the so-called barbarian Muslims. The underdeveloped Muslim countries with a large population are confused about the new concepts of the modern age like progress, freedom, democracy, development and gender equality. They have started feeling that perhaps Islam is not compatible with these new thinking tools.

The Islamic values are definitely not aligned to support the corporate culture whose motto is maximisation of wealth at all cost. The Quran points out that its teachings are for all times and that God has created man and has set up the balance in order that we may not transgress this balance. It asks us to establish weight with justice and not fall short in balance (55:1-9).

Plundering the resources of the world and depriving others lead to an imbalance that is being perpetrated by the developed countries on the poor and underdeveloped countries of the world in the name of peace and prosperity.

The Quran is against such practices as they disturb man’s happy relationship with nature. Here too we see Islam’s prescription
for a happy world order. This problem and confusion lie in defining modern values and their utility. They may be beneficial to those who have canonised these values and trends. At the same time, they are confusing and illogical to those who have
suffered as passive recipients of western economic colonialism now reigning supreme.

Islam negates the annihilation of the weak. Even the West’s reliance on pure reason is now termed waywardness by many scholars, and has been a complete mess. Scientific knowledge has increased the quality and span of life, but to what use? There are more suicides now than ever before. It is not a matter of Islam being compatible with modern trends, but going a step further, modern trends have to prove their compatibility with their own values and only then a true realisation of Islamic values will come to the fore.

The West itself is so confused with its own new age metaphysics that many there are talking of the impending end of the world.

How can they question or blame Islam for ills of the modern times when they themselves are locked between free will and determinism and have slipped into a moral dark age?

Can Islam be modernised? This is the question that confuses people all over the world. The answer to this needs a valid re-interpretation of Islam as a potential force to harmonise society. The traditional practices of cultural Islam and the true teachings of the divine message have to be treated differently. The embargo on freedom of thought and control on violent suppression of free thinking must go.

The following dictates of the Quran are conducive to a better future for all times: Muslims will conduct their affairs through mutual consultation (42:38) and equal human dignity (17:70). They will establish justice in the land (5:8). They will stop mischief on earth because God does not like mischief (2:205). They will work for the unity of mankind (2:213). Their main objective is to work for the welfare of mankind (3:110), gender equality (4:32), superiority by character only (49:13), rule of
law and not of individuals (3:79), and freedom of religion (22:40) and expression (2:42).

The western powers are adamant in propagating every un-Islamic act of ignorant Muslims as Islamic and are not willing to let Muslim intellectuals and scholars present the true Quranic Islam lest their own followers change loyalties and follow these universal values.

A dangerous request

THE Libyan rebel leader who wants foreign forces on his soil perhaps doesn’t realise the implications of what he is asking for. Talking to journalists on Tuesday, the Misrata-based leader pleaded for British and French forces to help the rebels in their fight against Col Qadhafi. Obviously, the Misrata leadership is desperate, because the Benghazi-based Transitional National Council is fighting its own battle and is unable to help the beleaguered Misrata pocket against the well-armed Qadhafi loyalists, who are using rockets and air power against the enemy. This is causing heavy civilian casualties, too, with the overall death toll from the civil war being 10,000 killed and over 55,000 injured. It is bad for him but good in the long run for his country that European powers do not seem willing to send their troops to Libya. While Paris has rejected the very idea of French soldiers taking part in the fighting, London has offered to send military ‘advisers’, who will be helping neither in arming and training the rebels nor in planning. That makes one wonder what the advisers will be there for. Meanwhile, Nato has continued its bombing runs.

Nuri Abdullah Abdullati, the Misrata rebel, said he was appealing for foreign troops on “humanitarian and Islamic principles” so that the slaughter could stop. He should know that the Arab League has already developed reservations about Nato strikes because of heavy civilian casualties, and the Organisation of Islamic Conference has not stirred itself while a massacre goes on in a member-country. A foreign military presence in an oil-rich country in the midst of a civil war will further complicate the Libyan situation, and Mr Qadhafi and his dynasty could well be the gainer. And even if the rebels win, the new regime will always have the stigma of being installed by foreign powers.

A dangerous request

THE Libyan rebel leader who wants foreign forces on his soil perhaps doesn’t realise the implications of what he is asking for. Talking to journalists on Tuesday, the Misrata-based leader pleaded for British and French forces to help the rebels in their fight against Col Qadhafi. Obviously, the Misrata leadership is desperate, because the Benghazi-based Transitional National Council is fighting its own battle and is unable to help the beleaguered Misrata pocket against the well-armed Qadhafi loyalists, who are using rockets and air power against the enemy. This is causing heavy civilian casualties, too, with the overall death toll from the civil war being 10,000 killed and over 55,000 injured. It is bad for him but good in the long run for his country that European powers do not seem willing to send their troops to Libya. While Paris has rejected the very idea of French soldiers taking part in the fighting, London has offered to send military ‘advisers’, who will be helping neither in arming and training the rebels nor in planning. That makes one wonder what the advisers will be there for. Meanwhile, Nato has continued its bombing runs.

Nuri Abdullah Abdullati, the Misrata rebel, said he was appealing for foreign troops on “humanitarian and Islamic principles” so that the slaughter could stop. He should know that the Arab League has already developed reservations about Nato strikes because of heavy civilian casualties, and the Organisation of Islamic Conference has not stirred itself while a massacre goes on in a member-country. A foreign military presence in an oil-rich country in the midst of a civil war will further complicate the Libyan situation, and Mr Qadhafi and his dynasty could well be the gainer. And even if the rebels win, the new regime will always have the stigma of being installed by foreign powers.

A few good men

THOSE who believe on either side of the India-Pakistan equation that Kashmir is a Muslim entity are sadly missing out on the contribution of Kashmiri Pandits to the limitless enrichment of the subcontinent’s secular culture, chiefly of the Urdu language and the aadaab-imajaalis, social etiquette, that came with it.
Recent interventions by the Indian Supreme Court’s Justice Markandey Katju in a spate of landmark cases have triggered happy memories of some of his legendary Kashmiri compatriots. Recently, Justice Katju used a couplet by Faiz Ahmed Faiz to successfully encourage the Pakistan government to free an Indian prisoner who was languishing there for years. I believe he has been urged by fellow Indians to help secure the release of an aging Pakistani virologist lodged in Ajmer jail.
This week, Justice Katju played the historian. “Hum Babar ki aulad nahin, hum log baahar ki auladein hain,” he declared in an address at Delhi’s India Islamic Cultural Centre. He was discussing the scurrilous rewriting of Indian history by right-wing nationalists.
Simply translated, he was urging religious revivalists to acknowledge that far from being progenies of this or that Muslim ruler, as right-wingers allege, Indian Muslims, together with most other Indians are in fact offspring of waves of migrants. This claim is unlikely to go down well with India’s revanchist ideologues.
Justice Katju said mythmaking against Muslim rulers was a post-1857 British project. It had been internalised in India over the years. Mahmud of Ghazni’s destruction of the Somnath temple was stressed but not the fact that Tipu Sultan gave an annual grant to 156 Hindu temples.
He buttressed his arguments with examples quoted from D.N. Pande’s History in the Service of Imperialism and said Indians were held together by a common SanskritUrdu culture, which guaranteed that India would always remain secular.
Dr Pande discovered the truth about Tipu Sultan in 1928 while verifying a contention — made in a history textbook authored by Dr Har Prashad Shastri, the then head of the Sanskrit Department in Calcutta University — that during Tipu’s rule 3,000 Brahmins had committed suicide to escape conversion to Islam. The only authentication Dr Shastri could provide was that the reference was contained in the Mysore Gazetteer. But the Gazetteer contained no such reference.
I should not be surprised if for his reasoned views Hindutva cohorts will hate the judge. Even less popular will be his verdict of Tuesday in which he ordered the government to be brutal if that was the only way to deal with the centuries-old tradition of honour killing of young boys and girls. Kangaroo courts across the country threaten their young ones against marrying outside their communities.
Justice Katju easily kindles memories of another Kashmiri legend of the 1960s from the Allahabad High Court. Justice Anand Narain Mullah was a major Urdu poet of Lucknow and, like many of his fellow Brahmins from Kashmir, a witty raconteur.
In one of his humorous couplets, Justice Mullah threw a well-aimed barb at fellow leftist poets whom he found too drunk to be able to trudge the revolutionary march they canvassed support for. If I err in recalling the exact verse, readers may please correct me.
Hangama-i-surkh inquilab humney suna to tha magar Jaam-o-suboo ke paas paas daar-o-rasan se door door (I had heard of the revolutionary ferment of the Left/With a cup of cheer, far from the noose, they did rest) One of Justice Mullah’s verses caused a menacing controversy when he became a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council. Self-proclaimed nationalists bayed for his blood for alleged perfidy. It seems they mistakenly or perhaps zealously regarded a verse as insulting to Indian martyrs. It goes thus:
Khoon-i-shaheed se bhi hai qeemat mein kuchh siwa Fankaar ke qalam ki siyahi ki ek boond. (A drop of ink is dearer on the poet’s quill/Than all the blood that martyrs are made to spill) Few Kashmiris of any hue have moved me as spontaneously as the late Hriday Nath Wanchoo. I met the genial communist turned human rights activist in Srinagar at the height of brutal violence in Kashmir in early 1990s. A bronze bust of Lenin, the only one I have seen in Kashmir, glistened under a dim lamp in his cluttered study. There he shared with me his thoughts for a Kashmir free of Indian military occupation.
To make the point, he had unsuccessfully filed a petition in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court to assert his right as a Kashmiri to travel freely across the Line of Control. A couple of months after the meeting, the soft-spoken Wanchoo was murdered. The finger of suspicion was pointed at Muslim extremists though some of his sympathis ers fear the government had a role. Wanchoo’s grandson, Amit, is a much-liked doctor. Popular also as a musician, he lives in Kashmir to keep his grandfather’s spirit alive.
How can votaries of a Muslim Kashmir overlook the contribution of Ratan Nath Sarshar or Braj Narain Chakbast to the romance of the Urdu novel and poetry respectively? However, the train of thought triggered by Justice Markandey Katju’s far-reaching fulminations would be incomplete without reference to Jawaharlal Nehru. He is controversial no doubt and largely responsible for alienating Mohammad Ali Jinnah from the mainstream of the Congress-led national movement. However, it would be preposterous to call Nehru communal.
Who else but he could quote the acerbic Alberuni so faithfully as Nehru did in Discovery of India? The 11thcentury chronicler was never at ease with the Muslim plunder of Hindu temples. But he also wrote of Indians: “They are haughty, foolishly vain, self-contained and stolid. They believe there is no country like theirs, no nation like theirs, no science like theirs, no religion like theirs.” How did Nehru respond to the criticism? He described Alberuni’s views as “probably a correct enough description of the temper of the people”.

If the Kashmiris manage to keep their secular Kashmiriyat despite the enormous pressure by Hindu and Muslim extremists to cave in, it would be in no small measure due to the periodic interventions of a few good men who refused to relent under duress. ¦ Dawn’s The writer is correspondent in Delhi.

A few good men

THOSE who believe on either side of the India-Pakistan equation that Kashmir is a Muslim entity are sadly missing out on the contribution of Kashmiri Pandits to the limitless enrichment of the subcontinent’s secular culture, chiefly of the Urdu language and the aadaab-imajaalis, social etiquette, that came with it.
Recent interventions by the Indian Supreme Court’s Justice Markandey Katju in a spate of landmark cases have triggered happy memories of some of his legendary Kashmiri compatriots. Recently, Justice Katju used a couplet by Faiz Ahmed Faiz to successfully encourage the Pakistan government to free an Indian prisoner who was languishing there for years. I believe he has been urged by fellow Indians to help secure the release of an aging Pakistani virologist lodged in Ajmer jail.
This week, Justice Katju played the historian. “Hum Babar ki aulad nahin, hum log baahar ki auladein hain,” he declared in an address at Delhi’s India Islamic Cultural Centre. He was discussing the scurrilous rewriting of Indian history by right-wing nationalists.
Simply translated, he was urging religious revivalists to acknowledge that far from being progenies of this or that Muslim ruler, as right-wingers allege, Indian Muslims, together with most other Indians are in fact offspring of waves of migrants. This claim is unlikely to go down well with India’s revanchist ideologues.
Justice Katju said mythmaking against Muslim rulers was a post-1857 British project. It had been internalised in India over the years. Mahmud of Ghazni’s destruction of the Somnath temple was stressed but not the fact that Tipu Sultan gave an annual grant to 156 Hindu temples.
He buttressed his arguments with examples quoted from D.N. Pande’s History in the Service of Imperialism and said Indians were held together by a common SanskritUrdu culture, which guaranteed that India would always remain secular.
Dr Pande discovered the truth about Tipu Sultan in 1928 while verifying a contention — made in a history textbook authored by Dr Har Prashad Shastri, the then head of the Sanskrit Department in Calcutta University — that during Tipu’s rule 3,000 Brahmins had committed suicide to escape conversion to Islam. The only authentication Dr Shastri could provide was that the reference was contained in the Mysore Gazetteer. But the Gazetteer contained no such reference.
I should not be surprised if for his reasoned views Hindutva cohorts will hate the judge. Even less popular will be his verdict of Tuesday in which he ordered the government to be brutal if that was the only way to deal with the centuries-old tradition of honour killing of young boys and girls. Kangaroo courts across the country threaten their young ones against marrying outside their communities.
Justice Katju easily kindles memories of another Kashmiri legend of the 1960s from the Allahabad High Court. Justice Anand Narain Mullah was a major Urdu poet of Lucknow and, like many of his fellow Brahmins from Kashmir, a witty raconteur.
In one of his humorous couplets, Justice Mullah threw a well-aimed barb at fellow leftist poets whom he found too drunk to be able to trudge the revolutionary march they canvassed support for. If I err in recalling the exact verse, readers may please correct me.
Hangama-i-surkh inquilab humney suna to tha magar Jaam-o-suboo ke paas paas daar-o-rasan se door door (I had heard of the revolutionary ferment of the Left/With a cup of cheer, far from the noose, they did rest) One of Justice Mullah’s verses caused a menacing controversy when he became a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council. Self-proclaimed nationalists bayed for his blood for alleged perfidy. It seems they mistakenly or perhaps zealously regarded a verse as insulting to Indian martyrs. It goes thus:
Khoon-i-shaheed se bhi hai qeemat mein kuchh siwa Fankaar ke qalam ki siyahi ki ek boond. (A drop of ink is dearer on the poet’s quill/Than all the blood that martyrs are made to spill) Few Kashmiris of any hue have moved me as spontaneously as the late Hriday Nath Wanchoo. I met the genial communist turned human rights activist in Srinagar at the height of brutal violence in Kashmir in early 1990s. A bronze bust of Lenin, the only one I have seen in Kashmir, glistened under a dim lamp in his cluttered study. There he shared with me his thoughts for a Kashmir free of Indian military occupation.
To make the point, he had unsuccessfully filed a petition in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court to assert his right as a Kashmiri to travel freely across the Line of Control. A couple of months after the meeting, the soft-spoken Wanchoo was murdered. The finger of suspicion was pointed at Muslim extremists though some of his sympathis ers fear the government had a role. Wanchoo’s grandson, Amit, is a much-liked doctor. Popular also as a musician, he lives in Kashmir to keep his grandfather’s spirit alive.
How can votaries of a Muslim Kashmir overlook the contribution of Ratan Nath Sarshar or Braj Narain Chakbast to the romance of the Urdu novel and poetry respectively? However, the train of thought triggered by Justice Markandey Katju’s far-reaching fulminations would be incomplete without reference to Jawaharlal Nehru. He is controversial no doubt and largely responsible for alienating Mohammad Ali Jinnah from the mainstream of the Congress-led national movement. However, it would be preposterous to call Nehru communal.
Who else but he could quote the acerbic Alberuni so faithfully as Nehru did in Discovery of India? The 11thcentury chronicler was never at ease with the Muslim plunder of Hindu temples. But he also wrote of Indians: “They are haughty, foolishly vain, self-contained and stolid. They believe there is no country like theirs, no nation like theirs, no science like theirs, no religion like theirs.” How did Nehru respond to the criticism? He described Alberuni’s views as “probably a correct enough description of the temper of the people”.

If the Kashmiris manage to keep their secular Kashmiriyat despite the enormous pressure by Hindu and Muslim extremists to cave in, it would be in no small measure due to the periodic interventions of a few good men who refused to relent under duress. ¦ Dawn’s The writer is correspondent in Delhi.

Afraid of devolution?

WONDERS never cease. In the second decade of the 21st centu ry, the transfer of power to the units of a federation has been made controversial! Efforts are being made to help the centre retain the privileges that right fully belong to the provinces.

No student of politics will deny that Pakistan broke up in 1971 largely as a result of the policies designed to make the centre strong at the expense of provincial rights and aspirations. Nor can anyone forget that the failure to restore to the provinces what has always been due to them poses the greatest threat to the state’s integrity today.

We are also familiar with the argu ments employed while calling for mak ing the hands of one ruler or another strong. It was said the country faced so many threats that a centrally organised security edifice alone could preserve its integrity. The centre alone had the mental and physical wherewithal to achieve economic progress. In an Islamic state there could be only one centre of power and Pakistan had a special reason to crush centrifugal forces and fissi parous tendencies which were being fanned by the enemies of the state — democrats, secularists, advocates of the nationalities’ rights, separatists, et al.

For six decades, the politics of Pakistan revolved around the federal question. Any stratagem that could prevent the state from becoming a federation was in order — the fiction of parity, the abolition of provinces in the western part of the original state, the imposition of martial law and the state’s declaration of war against the majority nationality and the smallest nationality both. No wonder almost all democratic movements in the country have had their origins in the federating units’ struggle for self-government.The central demand was that the centre should keep only three or four subjects such as foreign affairs, external security, currency and communications. All other subjects — internal security, local government, planning, education and social welfare — were to be restored to the provinces.

It is in this context that one should examine the national consensus on redesigning the polity by meeting some of the main demands of the federating units. The endorsement of the 18th Amendment by all shades of opinion in parliament is nothing short of a miracle. It not only marks a giant stride towards realising the promise of the 1973 consti tution, in several respects it surpasses the 1973 consensus.

The 18th Amendment act may not be a perfect piece of constitutional legislation but the transfer of subjects from the centre to the provinces is not one of its blemishes. Indeed, that is the point of the highest merit in the whole scheme. Unfortunately, the amendment has not received from the people, especially civil society organisations that bear the heavy responsibility of guiding them, the attention it deserves, and the factors contributing to this situation need to be considered.

First, the process of demonising the politicians begun by the praetorian rulers in 1958 continues to this day. Although the politicians’ contribution to their fall from grace has not been insignificant they have been sinned against more than they have sinned. Some of the mud flung at them has rubbed off on parliament, and the people have developed a bias against it and against anything it does. Additionally, the professional critics of the government believe they must run down the 18th Amendment as part of a strategy to demolish it.

Secondly, the debate on a single article included in the amendment has overshadowed the nearly 100 other points of the reform. At the same time, the point on which the amendment could be criticised has been ignored — that it has bypassed the provinces’ right to judicial autonomy and ignored the plea for making the high courts the final courts in a large number of matters.

Thirdly, all those who claim to speak for the people have not adequately explained to them the link between a democratic constitution and their rights — to life, liberty, security, employment, development and peace. Most of them are wallowing in the belief that they have nothing to do with constitutional amendments because they are up to their nose in the battle to keep hunger and disease away from their doorsteps.

Fourthly, the provinces are considered tenants of the central rentier state and not its co-equal coordinates by Dicey’s definition.

These factors lend the voices of the denigrators of the scheme of devolution acceptability in the public they do not deserve on merit.

The most important argument against the devolution plan is that the provincial authorities do not have the capacity to discharge their added responsibilities. There is an element of truth in this contention just as it was there in the British argument for denying the South Asian people independence. The argument is as invalid today as it was 70 or 100 years ago. Besides, the provinces cannot acquire the capacity for administering their affairs unless they are assigned this task. To say that devolution may wait till the provinces acquire the required capacity amounts to blocking their rights for ever.

Those who rely on this argument also miss the fact that fair governance is impossible until power is devolved from the provinces to local government institutions. The latter too are hit by the same argument. Any delay in the transfer of power to the provinces will also delay the empowerment of local bodies and communities.

Another argument is that there are matters of rights, equality and uniformity in development that can only be dealt with at the central level. This plea is valid only to the extent that citizens in all parts of a federation should have equal rights but the argument that the federating units cannot guarantee this is a presumption not backed by evidence and it also amounts to condemning the provincial communities unheard.

Besides, within the framework of an equality paradigm, different provinces have a right to address their social development with reference to their cultures and social sensibility. Those opposing devolution can invite the charge of ignoring Pakistan’s cultural and social diversity and the demands of a pluralist outlook.Nobody is mentioning the fact that those who have lorded over the people because of their grip over the levers of power at the centre and their beneficiaries have a vested interest in declaring that the heavens will fall if the provincial kamdars get a share of power. No surprise there. After all, the Raj and the regimes of Ayub and Ziaul Haq still have their defenders.

This is not to deny that like any major initiative devolution poses some teething problems but these problems do not cancel out the principle of democratic self-rule, which is the best form of governance known to humankind. These problems can be, and should be, solved through a sober dialogue. Nobody should be afraid of devolution; what we should be afraid of is the intrigue of vested interests to preserve a centralised state whose failure is choking the whole nation. ¦

Afraid of devolution?

WONDERS never cease. In the second decade of the 21st centu ry, the transfer of power to the units of a federation has been made controversial! Efforts are being made to help the centre retain the privileges that right fully belong to the provinces.

No student of politics will deny that Pakistan broke up in 1971 largely as a result of the policies designed to make the centre strong at the expense of provincial rights and aspirations. Nor can anyone forget that the failure to restore to the provinces what has always been due to them poses the greatest threat to the state’s integrity today.

We are also familiar with the argu ments employed while calling for mak ing the hands of one ruler or another strong. It was said the country faced so many threats that a centrally organised security edifice alone could preserve its integrity. The centre alone had the mental and physical wherewithal to achieve economic progress. In an Islamic state there could be only one centre of power and Pakistan had a special reason to crush centrifugal forces and fissi parous tendencies which were being fanned by the enemies of the state — democrats, secularists, advocates of the nationalities’ rights, separatists, et al.

For six decades, the politics of Pakistan revolved around the federal question. Any stratagem that could prevent the state from becoming a federation was in order — the fiction of parity, the abolition of provinces in the western part of the original state, the imposition of martial law and the state’s declaration of war against the majority nationality and the smallest nationality both. No wonder almost all democratic movements in the country have had their origins in the federating units’ struggle for self-government.The central demand was that the centre should keep only three or four subjects such as foreign affairs, external security, currency and communications. All other subjects — internal security, local government, planning, education and social welfare — were to be restored to the provinces.

It is in this context that one should examine the national consensus on redesigning the polity by meeting some of the main demands of the federating units. The endorsement of the 18th Amendment by all shades of opinion in parliament is nothing short of a miracle. It not only marks a giant stride towards realising the promise of the 1973 consti tution, in several respects it surpasses the 1973 consensus.

The 18th Amendment act may not be a perfect piece of constitutional legislation but the transfer of subjects from the centre to the provinces is not one of its blemishes. Indeed, that is the point of the highest merit in the whole scheme. Unfortunately, the amendment has not received from the people, especially civil society organisations that bear the heavy responsibility of guiding them, the attention it deserves, and the factors contributing to this situation need to be considered.

First, the process of demonising the politicians begun by the praetorian rulers in 1958 continues to this day. Although the politicians’ contribution to their fall from grace has not been insignificant they have been sinned against more than they have sinned. Some of the mud flung at them has rubbed off on parliament, and the people have developed a bias against it and against anything it does. Additionally, the professional critics of the government believe they must run down the 18th Amendment as part of a strategy to demolish it.

Secondly, the debate on a single article included in the amendment has overshadowed the nearly 100 other points of the reform. At the same time, the point on which the amendment could be criticised has been ignored — that it has bypassed the provinces’ right to judicial autonomy and ignored the plea for making the high courts the final courts in a large number of matters.

Thirdly, all those who claim to speak for the people have not adequately explained to them the link between a democratic constitution and their rights — to life, liberty, security, employment, development and peace. Most of them are wallowing in the belief that they have nothing to do with constitutional amendments because they are up to their nose in the battle to keep hunger and disease away from their doorsteps.

Fourthly, the provinces are considered tenants of the central rentier state and not its co-equal coordinates by Dicey’s definition.

These factors lend the voices of the denigrators of the scheme of devolution acceptability in the public they do not deserve on merit.

The most important argument against the devolution plan is that the provincial authorities do not have the capacity to discharge their added responsibilities. There is an element of truth in this contention just as it was there in the British argument for denying the South Asian people independence. The argument is as invalid today as it was 70 or 100 years ago. Besides, the provinces cannot acquire the capacity for administering their affairs unless they are assigned this task. To say that devolution may wait till the provinces acquire the required capacity amounts to blocking their rights for ever.

Those who rely on this argument also miss the fact that fair governance is impossible until power is devolved from the provinces to local government institutions. The latter too are hit by the same argument. Any delay in the transfer of power to the provinces will also delay the empowerment of local bodies and communities.

Another argument is that there are matters of rights, equality and uniformity in development that can only be dealt with at the central level. This plea is valid only to the extent that citizens in all parts of a federation should have equal rights but the argument that the federating units cannot guarantee this is a presumption not backed by evidence and it also amounts to condemning the provincial communities unheard.

Besides, within the framework of an equality paradigm, different provinces have a right to address their social development with reference to their cultures and social sensibility. Those opposing devolution can invite the charge of ignoring Pakistan’s cultural and social diversity and the demands of a pluralist outlook.Nobody is mentioning the fact that those who have lorded over the people because of their grip over the levers of power at the centre and their beneficiaries have a vested interest in declaring that the heavens will fall if the provincial kamdars get a share of power. No surprise there. After all, the Raj and the regimes of Ayub and Ziaul Haq still have their defenders.

This is not to deny that like any major initiative devolution poses some teething problems but these problems do not cancel out the principle of democratic self-rule, which is the best form of governance known to humankind. These problems can be, and should be, solved through a sober dialogue. Nobody should be afraid of devolution; what we should be afraid of is the intrigue of vested interests to preserve a centralised state whose failure is choking the whole nation. ¦

Arms licences

THERE was a time when newspapers would map the journey of a gun to the individual holding it. This type of rudimentary reporting has since gone out of demand. In fact, today the occasional police references to the origins of a grenade thrown here and a bullet fired there are dismissed as remnants of an investigation routine that lags behind the dangerous times we live in. Arms are now a part as well as a way of life.

In this context, the government`s apparent need to use arms licences as an instrument to please its insecure friends is appalling. A Dawn report says that, despite a ban since January 2010, arms licences continue to be issued, providing the proud weapon-holders with a power symbol they cannot do without. Some 7,000 applications for licences sent by the interior ministry are pending with Nadra, and a senior Nadra official has confirmed the receipt of additional individual applications that are recommended by the prime minister, who has already allowed the issuance of 300 arms licences during the period the ban has been in place. The beneficiaries of his favour include retired, senior servicemen and prominent politicians and bureaucrats.

The government is estimated to have issued some 10,000 arms licences since 2008 in a country where legal arms are but a small fraction of a large heap of weapons. The news item in Dawn is bound by formalities to make a distinction between licences issued for non-prohibited and prohibited bores, whereas theoretically the ban is for all licences issued since the beginning of 2010 to be placed in the category of the prohibited. If this were not enough, the report shows the spokesman of a party which had in January filed a (now withdrawn) deweaponisation bill in the Senate defending his right to have a legal weapon — to combat the holders of illegal gadgets of destruction. His party had backed the bill in the Senate with figures of thousands of deaths caused by `illegal weapons` between 2006 and 2009. The government had found the bill rather unnecessary given there were already so many laws to deal with the issue of the spread of weapons in the country. Those who had thought that this official recognition would perhaps lead to an effective invoking of the relevant legal provisions for a fight against weaponisation must be disappointed. The government appears too obsessed with old power symbols and the security of a privileged few to be bothered about the dangers that brandished guns, both legal and illegal, pose to the people at large.

Arms licences

THERE was a time when newspapers would map the journey of a gun to the individual holding it. This type of rudimentary reporting has since gone out of demand. In fact, today the occasional police references to the origins of a grenade thrown here and a bullet fired there are dismissed as remnants of an investigation routine that lags behind the dangerous times we live in. Arms are now a part as well as a way of life.

In this context, the government`s apparent need to use arms licences as an instrument to please its insecure friends is appalling. A Dawn report says that, despite a ban since January 2010, arms licences continue to be issued, providing the proud weapon-holders with a power symbol they cannot do without. Some 7,000 applications for licences sent by the interior ministry are pending with Nadra, and a senior Nadra official has confirmed the receipt of additional individual applications that are recommended by the prime minister, who has already allowed the issuance of 300 arms licences during the period the ban has been in place. The beneficiaries of his favour include retired, senior servicemen and prominent politicians and bureaucrats.

The government is estimated to have issued some 10,000 arms licences since 2008 in a country where legal arms are but a small fraction of a large heap of weapons. The news item in Dawn is bound by formalities to make a distinction between licences issued for non-prohibited and prohibited bores, whereas theoretically the ban is for all licences issued since the beginning of 2010 to be placed in the category of the prohibited. If this were not enough, the report shows the spokesman of a party which had in January filed a (now withdrawn) deweaponisation bill in the Senate defending his right to have a legal weapon — to combat the holders of illegal gadgets of destruction. His party had backed the bill in the Senate with figures of thousands of deaths caused by `illegal weapons` between 2006 and 2009. The government had found the bill rather unnecessary given there were already so many laws to deal with the issue of the spread of weapons in the country. Those who had thought that this official recognition would perhaps lead to an effective invoking of the relevant legal provisions for a fight against weaponisation must be disappointed. The government appears too obsessed with old power symbols and the security of a privileged few to be bothered about the dangers that brandished guns, both legal and illegal, pose to the people at large.