Pakistan - The Way Forward

The unfriendly neighbourhood terrorist

By naming Pakistan as a terrorist haven, the US has repeated president Clinton’s warning of impending isolation

May 01,2000



The US State Department has, according to a report in the New York Times, identified Afghanistan and Pakistan as the new foci of international terrorism, after the seven states already identified as states that sponsor terrorism. This amounts to reiteration of the warning that president Clinton delivered in person to Islamabad during his recent visit: move away from the Kashmir conflict or face international isolation.

The US report says that terrorism has shifted further eastward from the Middle East towards Afghanistan and Pakistan. Further, the content of the terrorist cause has shifted from the political to the religious and quasi-religious. It clearly says that several terrorist organisations working to ‘free’ Kashmir from Indian control work out of Pakistan or receive help from Islamabad.

This is not exactly news, as far as India is concerned. The Indian government has been saying this all along. Pakistan-sponsored terrorism is not a debating point for India: Indian lives are regularly lost as a result of such terrorism. What the Americans fail to appreciate is that it is not just in Kashmir that the Pakistan-sponsored terrorists are active. Indian reports indicate that terrorism is spread in India by, apart from organisations such as the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen that are active in Kashmir, the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI.

ISI is active wherever there is discontent in India. It seeks to channel such discontent into violence. As a result, not just separatist outfits but also organisations that had been based purely on agrarian radicalism of the Maoist variety have reportedly developed contacts with ISI. It, of course, is a different matter that it brings no credit to India to acknowledge that extreme inequality of a kind that can lend support to violent radicalism persists in the Indian countryside.

India has to tackle the terrorist threat it faces primarily on its own. At the same time, any international pressure on Pakistan to stop its sponsorship of terror certainly helps. Of course, it will take more than international pressure for Islamabad to change its policy towards India. What it would take for Pakistan to move away from its current anti-India course is a new vision of itself.

Currently, the Pakistani elite view their nation as the bulwark against Hindu oppression of the Muslims of South Asia. This flows from the two-nation theory that led to the founding of Pakistan, the notion that Hindus and Muslims are two nations that cannot coexist in a single state. The fact that East Pakistan broke away, with India’s help, to form Bangladesh has not persuaded Pakistan to redefine its perception of itself. It is the ideology of being a nation that defends Islam in South Asia that binds the Pathans, Sindhis, Punjabis, Baluchis, etc together as Pakistan.

If Pakistan were to accept that India is not an enemy of Islam that needs to be bled to disintegration, it will simultaneously kill the ideology that holds the country together, unless a different national ideology can be found, one in tune with the dynamics of contemporary history. This was the essence of president Clinton’s appeal to Pakistan. Pakistan has to stop dreaming of re-writing its boundaries in blood, he had said, and make good the emerging opportunities that transcend borders in a globalising world.

Clearly, such an ideological task cannot be performed by the US naming Pakistan as a country that harbours terrorists. However, it might help the ordinary people of Pakistan see through the misguided polices of their elite, and prepare the ground for re-inventing their national ideology.

T K Arun

such prolific and profound statements...ay hai.

yer nuts...

sit back and objectify yourself for a second...(uhh, sitting in England you said..?)

a benign autocrat with a steady hand able to make swift decisions...

you`ve offered no solutions..you have only rehashed old problems...actaully, you`ve done worse, you speak from a priviledged background making blanket statements filled with good will and cheer but nothing else.

i am not saying one must feel guilty for a priveledged background..all im saying is do something with it. if you feel so strongly about the issue as to sit and philosophy jharofy, let`s see a working solution.

ahh..but is one possible?

give me your working definition of an activist..talking about issues, bringing them into the limelight..go to any dinner party with desi professionals..you`ll have all everyone tsk tsking away at the state of the country..and what comes out of it? mebbe some biryani to take home...

the social evils you plan to don a red cape and fly around to save us from are what exactly? corruption? you want to make the land of the pure, pure...a scary scary thought. more repression..woohoo!

rizvi.

Here we go again for another round of finger pointing and blmae game. Who shares more blame for the current quagmire Pakistan is in: politicians, military junta, bureaucracy or people at large?

It is almost conceded that there has always been rampant corruption amongst leaders, politicians and bureaucrats. But wait a minute! Aren`t we missing something? Didn`t Afghanistan fiasco, Taliban, proliferation of jehadi and/ or sectarian organizations, Kashmir, Kargill and nuclear policy played more significant role in fomenting the current crisis than 2-3% of the annual budget chewed up by the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats? And who had the total control over policies in these ``strategic`` areas? Is it not true that both BB and NS could not touch these sacred cows with even ten feet rod? The corruption of Gawalmandi can not be held responsible for Pakistan becoming the hotbed of fundamentalist terrorism, Taliban mania, Kargil crisis and Kashmir situation etc. etc.

Yes it is a crime not to pay your share of the taxes but it is also a crime to burn away the precious little tax collection on the barren peaks of kargil.

If Pakistan is better served under an autocrat, why he/ she has to me a military general, technician, politician or a mullah? Why a benevolent autocrat has to be a Muslim or even a Pakistani? Why not Lee Kwan Yew or Li Pung or some other experienced benevolent autocrat? Let`s beg lee Kwan Yew to run Pakistan on contract basis for a period of 5 years. He definitely knows lot more than PM about running a country. Sir, the point is that either it must be according to the norms of any civilized society, as a nation in the community of nations--or law of the jungle. You appear to be opting for the latter.

Declarin democracy as un-workable ... you are in essence demeaning our religions and our ethics. I believe that Democracy is inherent in Islam and we can prove it. As a matter of fact I am doing a Poli Sci paper on this.

-Yasser Hamdani

Rehan,

It is so refreshing to see a positive article about Pakistan. We all dream of the benevolent dictators, the one who imprisoned the hijacker for life, recovered the zillions of tax arrears through acountability mechanisms, collected the due import duty from the bara market operators, reduced the military spending by delegating to jihadists and at last after having done all the good things with nothing more left to do, took the pickenese for a long walk accross the arabian sea.

I completely agree with your vision and I hope that Bilal Musharaff takes over from his father.

Regards and best wishes for more of your activities.

jay

the author, like many before him and many after him, says

``Is Democracy the Solution – The so-called democracy which infact was an elected dictatorship and which had turned into a Mob rule! ``

To that Thomas Jefferson answers:

The only cure for the ills of freedom is more freedom.

And Sir Winston Churchill replies:

Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all others tried.

Democracy is not a western concept. Democracy is common sense. And common sense is not a western concept either. It was with us for thousands of years untill with the help of yahood-o-hunood sazish those westeners stole it from us. I think common sense was locked in that kooh-e-noor that those english people stole from us. Thats the reason why we don`t have any sense left. Or perhaps it was locked in Quran and those godless, filthy western kafirs understood it before we did. You ask what the solution for Pakistan is. Well let me give you one. Let us move Pakistan from Southasia to align it with the US west coast. So that it no longer remain in the eastern world and enjoy democracy and other ``western`` concepts. Second solution is lets make Pakistan a quasi-monarchytheocommidemotyranny. All the problems will vanish once this systems gets its hold. I am ready to make a difference for my country. I am the way forward. I have tabled my thoughts and I want to do jihad. If any one is with my in this crusade then e-mail me at fanbaba@hotmail.com

This gives some idea of the higher education system in india, the management of corruption, which some pakistanis were interested in.

One lakh to appear for CET

DH News Service

BANGALORE, May 1

A record number of 1,00,139 candidates will be taking up the Common Entrance Test (CET) 2000 commencing tomorrow at 239 centres throughout the state.

The aspirants will be competing for more than 20,000 engineering seats in 70 plus engineering colleges in the State. More than 1,700 medical and 1,600 dental seats are also in the offing this year. Of these 50 per cent are free seats and 50 per cent are payment seats. Fifteen per cent of the payment seats are reserved for non-Karnataka candidates. The government is also contemplating increasing the number of IT related engineering seats from present 6,500 to 8,000.

On May 2, the mathematics paper will be held between 10 am and 11.20 am, the biology paper will commence at 2.30 pm on the same day and end at 3.50 pm.

The physics and chemistry papers are scheduled for the next day.

Already thousands of non- Karnataka candidates have started arriving in Bangalore and in other districts to take up the test. As many as 54,566 Karnataka candidates have applied for the test. Of the 239 examination centres, 111 are in Bangalore and 128 centres have been set up outside Bangalore.

More than 49,000 students will be taking the examination in Bangalore alone followed by Mysore with around 6,000.

Meanwhile, a huge crowd mostly comprising non-Karnataka students gathered at the CET Cell premises this morning. While most of them had come to the cell just to clear their doubts about test, some said they had not received their admission tickets.

Arrangements have been made to issue duplicate admission tickets to those who have not received them. If there are any corrections to to be made in the hall tickets that too will be done immediately.

Some candidates had come to the cell just to ask for directions to their examination centres CET officials told Deccan Herald.

More than 20 officials have been deputed round-the-clock at the cell to solve any grievances from the students. ``As we had given route map to the CET Cell in the brochures, many outside students thought it fit to visit the premises once,`` the officials said.

They said all arrangements for the smooth conduct of the test had been completed. And the on-going evaluation boycott by pre- university college teachers would not affect the schedule.

The CET results are likely to be announced on June 8. This year, the candidates have to mark the right answers on the objective type OMR answer sheets using blue or black ball point pen. The candidates will be allowed to carry home a replica of the filled answer sheet after the test. The invigilator diary will also have a photostat copy of the candidates signature and photograph scanned from the application form. This will help in cross verification and curbing impersonation.

From this year a candidate or a parent can inspect the answer scripts and all other related documents of any other candidate whose performance is suspected by paying a prescribed fee.

With just a few more hours for the all important test, last minute preparations from students were in full swing. Old question papers were referred to, mock tests held, answers discussed even as the examination tension mounted by the minute. Tests were conducted by coaching centres and the many new education portals on the internet also tried to help out the students by offering various packages, including tests, questions banks and lecture notes.

Skinning a live goat is the usual test for madrassa entry in pakistan.

Not much is left to say after sameerBJ and Zehra`s response....just a question:

Have you ever lived in Pakistan yourself?

Perhaps, based on what you wrote, you should have titled your piece: ``Pakistan, The Way Backward.``

As someone else pointed out, the cure to democracy is indeed much more of it.

The problem is that your country has never given itself the opportunity to nurture democracy. Between your army and your political establishment, you have done your utmost, rather successfully, to consistently squish democracy.

If democracy is so alien a concept for your nexk of the woods, why does it seem to work in other parts of South Asia? But then, Pakistan isn`t really part of South Asia, right?

You are no different sociologically and ethnically from these countries where democracy, however flawed it is, continues to grow and flourish.

Are you afraid that is is an infectious condition?

Cheers

what a strange article!

[...``If a part of your body is infected you don’t simply cut it off and throw it away- No - you try and cure it - you try and fight the infection...``]

if i remember correctly, the ce, in his very first address to the nation, said that he had simply cut off one limb (the constitution) to save the body (pakistan). quite the opposite of what you recommend. and yet the ce is your hero.

first you make the case that the military can weed out the corruption and jail the politicians and do all the right things and then you turn around and say -

[...``Its YOU who have to take charge, take ownership, before things go wrong again...``]

Re: ylh # 4

[`` ... you are in essence demeaning our religions and our ethics. I believe that Democracy is inherent in Islam and we can prove it...``]

Yar, kuch Khuda ka khof karo! Why do you have to drag Islam into this discussion? This is a secular subject. Why do you insist on attributing incorrectly to Islam in order to make it suit your modern-day liking? Please stop this disinformation.

Where, for goodness` sake, do you come up with the this fiction that ``democracy is `inherent` in Islam``? Which Islam are you talking about? When has there ever been democracy (unless you want to redefine `democracy`) in Islamic history. Even among the `khulfa-e-rashideen` three out of four were murdered without leaving any clear system of a smooth transfer of power. Where did you get your inaccurate and fanciful information from?

Please refrain from bringing Islam into subjects where you will only make it look bad because of your misguided over zealousness.

This is not an attack of an enemy. This is just a plea of a well wisher.

...SR

It`s time for Infiltration .........

Pakistanis get the greatest ``rutba`` there is shahadat.

With the snow melting in Kashmir thousands of Jihadis (mujahideens) from various parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan would be infiltrating into Kashmir to fight against India. With the support of Pakistan army these militants would be crossing the Indian border and staging the next KARGIL.

Already nearly 5000 have sneaked in Indian administered Kashmir. Many would be coming from Peshawar, Murdike, Multan, Larkana, Sialkot, Karachi, Sukkur and converging to Muzaffarabad in Azad Kashmir. From there they would be sneaking in Indian territory.

http://www.time.com/time/daily/0,2960,44100-101000501,00.html

Why Cuba?

The Politics Behind the U.S`s Terror-Nation List

Why terrorist-packed Pakistan doesn`t make the roster while relatively calm Cuba is branded as a pariah

The United States` biannual list of countries alleged to sponsor terrorism is as much a practice in politics as it is in practicalities. The State Department`s ``Patterns in Global Terrorism`` document released Monday emphasizes that most terrorist activity today emanates from groups independent of any state that can`t easily be reined in by pressure on a government. Nonetheless, though the report focuses particularly on the upsurge in terrorist activity in Afghanistan and Pakistan — and uses the mention as a means to pressure those countries — it stops short of adding them to the official list of countries supporting terrorism.

For now the list of ``official`` sponsors of terrorism remains static — Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea and Sudan — although in many cases ``qualifying`` for the list (and the harsh sanctions that come with it) is somewhat of a stretch. ``North Korea may have a couple of old-time Japanese Red Army terrorists from the `70s still kicking around there, but it`s not considered an active sponsor of terrorism,`` says TIME Washington correspondent Massimo Calabresi. ``But the U.S. is actively using North Korea`s presence on that list as a bargaining chip in negotiations to get Pyongyang to back off on proliferating its missile systems.`` The State Department report suggests that North Korea might eventually be taken off the list, in light of its ``positive statements condemning terrorism in all its forms`` — although most other countries on the list would likely be more than happy to endorse the same statements. While Cuba may be a retirement home for a handful of former Black Panthers and Latin American urban terrorists of the `70s, it`s not generally regarded as an active sponsor of terrorist activities, and its continued presence on the list may be primarily designed to placate its critics in the U.S.

Pakistan, on the other hand, is an immediate problem area. It plays host to at least one group designated a terrorist organization by the State Department (the Kashmiri Harkat al Mujahedeen, implicated in last December`s Indian Airlines hijacking) and has refused to close the organization down despite pressure from Washington. But adding Pakistan to the list would mean closing the door on an already unstable nuclear power, and that remains an unlikely scenario. While castigating its record on terrorism, State Department counterterrorism coordinator Michael A. Sheehan made clear that Pakistan ``is a friendly state that is trying to tackle the problem.`` Washington would simply like Pakistan to try a little harder.

Surya Sharma turns Peter Joseph, but still doesn`t feel safe in Lahore

LAHORE, MAY 2: Name: Peter Joseph. Father`s name: Shyam Sunder Sharma. Children: Monica and John. No, it is not some Anglo-Indian family living in Lahore`s Kashmiri Gate. Peter Joseph`s name till December 6, 1992, was Surya Prakash Sharma. He changed it when his brother Nand Kishore and cousin Ram Narain were killed in Lahore in the aftermath of the demolition of the Babri Masjid.

``I did not convert to Christianity. I just changed my name and it saved my life,`` he says, sitting in his small house in a lane in Kashmiri Gate. He refuses to be photographed. ``I`m very superstitious. It is like challenging fate,`` he says, holding his three-year-old daughter Monica close to him. He did not have the courage of giving Hindu names to his children, and then changed his wife Meera`s name to Mariam.

``I saw my brothers being killed in front of me. Many people in this area, mostly Hindus, have adopted Christian names to protect themselves,`` he adds. There is not even a single temple left in entire Lahore.

There was one Jain temple near Lakshmi chowk and another big one at Shalmi Chowk near Anarkali bazaar but both of them were burnt down after the Babri Masjid demolition. Some smaller ones in Krishna Nagar and Shyam Nagar in Chubhurjhi area where also destroyed, recall the 100-odd Hindus, now mostly living in Kashmiri Gate and Andhroon Bhati Gate.

``We are scared of even putting an idol of Ramchandraji or Krishanji in our houses. Most Hindus have converted to Christianity but we still offer our prayers to Hindu deities,`` says Frank (real name Harish Chandra). Most of the people refer to these Hindus-Christians as Balmikis in the area. Though Thapar Street, Bhatia Street, Bahamant Street and Sehgal Street remain, there is hardly any Hindu there. ``There used to be thousands of Hindus living in Lahore. But after December 6 (1992), most ran away to either Karachi or Kota in Peshawar. There are very few left now,`` says Septuagenarian Ram Pal, who has dared to retain his original name. ``This was the name given to me by my mother and I will be known by the same till I die,`` he says.

Though Christians too complain of ``problems and harassment,`` they are relatively better off. ``There are almost one lakh Christians in Lahore but they don`t really like to mingle much with the majority. We prefer to stay within our community,`` says Francis Louis, a science teacher in Don Bosco School in Lahore.

As if living as a minority in Pakistan is not bad enough, he says, teaching is even worse. Though Don Bosco is a Christian-run school, 70 per cent of the students are Muslims.

``There was a big furore in the school when I tried teaching the students about reproduction. The students went and complained to their parents who came and protested to the principal. I was almost thrown out of the school,`` he says. Louis had to apologise to the parents and assure them that he won`t teach them that subject in future.

``Now I just read what is in the book and cloak it in harmless and often meaningless language,`` he says.

Thomas D`Souza, who organises AIDS awareness programmes in schools and colleges, has to face hostility and ire every day. ``But we have to do our job. My assistant Franklin was beaten up by some students in Lahore University two days ago and has vowed to give up. I am trying to convince him but he is too scared,`` he adds.

The handful of Sikhs in Lahore are limited to the Dera Baba Gurdwara near Lahore Fort. ``There are three other Gurdwaras in Lahore but this is the only functional one,`` explains Harpal Singh, a kar sevak in the gurdwara which houses Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s Samadhi. ``Here, there are two dozen-odd Sikhs. We do the ``paath`` and read the Gurbani everyday even if there is nobody to listen. We will keep this Gurdwara alive,`` he adds.

`` So the way forward is YOU the way forward is us the young generation, who are sincerely concerned about the well being of our country, our identity and most of all our existence as Pakistanis ``

Mr Rehan Babar calls for a reform Jehad are probably well intentioned, but it gets lost in all the other similar calls - Most articles on National problems of Pakistan follow this pattern:

(Not All Articles of course)

1) A description of the problem 50 -80% of the length of the article. Many times the Genesis of the problem will be traced to baba Adam (Indus Valley, Islam, The Raj, `47, `71 ...).

2) 10 - 40% of the article would somehow connect/compare to the rest of the world.

3)Having given the back grounders, the balance 10-20% of the article will arrive at conclusions and will probably give ``Urgent`` calls to rectify the problem and hand out global solutions or grand orders -

``The military government should immediately arrest the miscreants...``

``Smuggling should be stopped..``

``The people must unite against...``

``The Americans must be told...``,

(Sounds familiar?)

I read hazar such articles, but what is missing is movement. There is nothing remotely resembling a mass movement or a peoples` activity taking place in the society to take up the suggested ideas.

So what is happening here?

Are these the calls of the alarmists and nothing is really wrong? Are all these writers completely detached from the ground? Is the public as a whole not interested in these calls for reform? Are people scared?

Is the general public just plain stupid? Is what the writer fantasizing about the peoples` aspiration for a Pakistan different from reality? It can`t be that leaders are missing we have so potentials, right here at the Chowk.

I don`t know, I might be a bit disillusioned here, but I am used to people forming rallies, marches, pickets, paper submissions, civil disobedience,...

Is the ``intelligentsia`` not intelligent enough to communicate with the masses? What IS the disconnect between these writers` articles and the ground?

Jay #: 8

`` Skinning a live goat is the usual test for madrassa entry in Pakistan.``

Is this a fact ? I thought small kids less than 10, joined these schools.

Regards,

Vicky