World Cup 2003 (Updated): (Cricket, of course!) Just saw the whole damn thing. The way they played it, they could have made General (R) Tauqeer Zia or WaqarAliSheikh the captain. The result would have been the same.

World Cup 2003 (Updated): (Cricket, of course!) Just saw the whole damn thing. The way they played it, they could have made General (R) Tauqeer Zia or WaqarAliSheikh the captain. The result would have been the same.

Mighty Lara is Back With a Bang !! Ras,

Just watched Pakistan bowl against Australia. Talent was there. Too bad it was Australian. You are right again. 1992 is remote.

World Cup 2003 (Updated): (Cricket, of course!) Just watched the Pakistani bowling. I agree with the author that they are spent force. The ball that waqar bowled to Symonds should have been directed to WaqarALiSheikh. Might have hit him and bore instant results.

Ciao

Living Abroad I just changed my mind to go abroad.

Mass Transit Just wanted to let you know that the statistics presented in the article were not arrived by carrying out statistical techniques. Since it is almost a year since I travelled in W-11, statistics are based on the events that i recalled easily.

An International Failure What should I say? I am at loss for words. Such a long article high on cliches and jingoistic language but short on history.

You have tried to show that the reason for the failure of Pakistan`s foreign policy is the Muslim values.

Let me inform you that Pakistan may have been estbalished on religious grounds but religion came into politics long after - late seventies when Zia Ul Haq came to power.

The constitutions may have the words ``Islamic Republic of Pakistan`` but there was nothing as such Islamic about them. Pakistan has been floundering in its foreign policy and number of other issues since its inception, but that has nothing to do with Islam or Islamic values.

If you read the history after 1947, the country was being run by beaurucrats, feudals and army men who were secular in their thinking (infidel by todays fundamentalist standards) running the country on secular footings. It is still being run by them but gradually after 50 years of failures, the religious zealots are promoting the Islamic values as a recipe for success and pushing for their incorporation in all spheres of life. The result might be a failure as with the case of Hudood Ordinance but that will not be due to the Islamic values.

Because values are not the cause of failure. Rather whether the systems in place can be adapted to the changing values determines the workability.

So please don`t blame the failures on Islamic values. Try to find out the real reasons, causes , read some history .

A Parable This reminds of the Mohajirs of Urban Sind(I am myself one if anybody thinks otherwise i.e., I am not a Punjabi,Pakhtoon,Sindhi,Baluchi,Siraiki etc. ).

After following Altaf Hussain blindly - Hamein Manzil nahin rahnuma chahiyea -(Translation- We don`t want destiny,just a leader to guide us to it). Well guess what, the leader got his destiny i.e. British nationality leaiving behind all the mohajirs who looked up to him for guidance without a destiny.

But they dream of their destiny and hope to achieve it someday, talk about achieveing it someday, blames the Punjabis for not letting them achieve till now.

Well what they have done for themsleves. They wasted 2 decades following blindly a leader who turned out otherwise - Taking the youth away from education, turning them into terrorists - A whole generation of Mohajirs (as they like to call themslves - personally i prefer myself to be called a Pakistani) has been destroyed.

Previously, 2 decades ago, mohajirs liked to call themselves most educated of the Pakistanis. Not anymore. The punjabis surpassed them a long time ago. Now what remains is not something that stands out. In the FPSC (Federal Public Service Commission) exam, the first guy from Karachi stood at 60th place. Now that is what happened to the most educated lot.

Regards

Vanguard

(In order of preference:

Muslim-Pakistani-Karachiite- ``Mohajir (Do I have to be)``

Hazrate’ Insaan and the Image of God What are you trying to prove? That we should not do anything and ask everything from God. Well God Himself has bestowed upon us this Universe with all its laws and a brain to us.

It does not matter whether we are inventing or discovering( to quote your religiously correct word) as long as we are advancing knowledge. And God himself asks us to increase our understanding of Universe.

This is the very reason used by fundamentalists (a wrong stereotype but a will take it up at some later time) to withold Muslims from progressing. In the times after British took over sub continent, Mullahs asked muslims to refrain from Education as they are the workshops of Devil (British) and a look what a loss it was for them. This was the very reason Muslims fell behind in all walks from politics to scientific. Thank God for Sir Syed Ahmed Khan that he instilled some sense into Muslims (for that he was branded a KAfir) by establishing Aligarh University.

Why can`t we Muslims just work hard and apply our mind. Whenever the time comes, we ask from God. We should ask from him as he is Omnipotent but we should also try ouirselves.

First Deserve than Desire.

Goodbye, Allah Rakhi Thank God

She had a sweet but a shrill voice. A few day of tribute on TV, Radio and Magazines and we will be rid of her. I was getting tired of her monopoly on PTV. But as she is dead, I will not mention amorous things about her. She is even mentioned in Hamood ur REhman Commission Report as one of the digressors. Her untimely death has been a blessing in disguise for the new generation.

The Islamist and Hindutva Politics: Identities of Outlook and Objectives A well researched article.

Don`t you think the Islamist problem lies in the silence of the masses (or the middle class.) Slowly they have come to accept everything from rising petrol prices to extremism.

You may be right that the government is held hostage by the Islamists but what about the masses themselves. IF nothing else they have sworn loyalties to political and ethnic parties. These islamists are just cashing-in on the inability of our masses to not-join-the-bandwagon.