Anonymity for Sexual Assault Victims #6 by jamesmaxwell & #5 by kamath

Pakistan has its share of problems as most other countries. The state of Utopia only exists in thoughts. Whereas menaces of the feifdoms of Sardars, Feudal Lords do exist , they are limited to certain areas and fighting a loosing battel against the forces of jusice and equaltity.

The fact is that average common person in Pakistan has more freedom of expression and control over his life than most countries in the region (afghanistan, bangladesh, nepal, Iran , China) and almost all countries in Africa and Middle East.

It is a positive indicator that a large number of patrioic Pakistanis recognize the problems an initiate open debates.


The share of Pakistani forces in UN Peace keeping operations has not been surpassed by any other country. They are the most sought after troops in International environments under multinational commands, a tribute to their professionalism.

It is nation and country which is maturing and strutting here and there. Just in the recent past the reaction of the whole Nation to the victims of the Earthquake was nothing but superbly commenable.

While dooms day predictors may be howling aloud, there is no dearth of capable, dedicated, patriotic and honest people in this country.

Anonymity for Sexual Assault Victims Re: # 2 bjkumar,

I understand your point; and you know what: I agee with you in principle;

However had you any idea of the extent of the power of the Baluchi Sardars and the way their absolute rule in their States within the States flourished under democratic Governments , your views could have been different.

Personaly it will be one of the happiest days of my life when the country will be rid of these killers.

Anonymity for Sexual Assault Victims
The circumstances of the Sui case, which has been quoted, were atypical and, in my opinion, not a suitable example to relate with the general media senstivity or insenstivity.

The whole affair at Sui was meticulously planned and executed by the Feudals. The Baluch Sardars, for whom women are nothing but a commodity and who routinely molest young girls and treat them as private property became the vigil ante. They suddenly turned out to be the protector of the honour of women. The immense wealth, influence and violent reaction was used to interpolate the media frenzy to create a political commotion. Misinformtion was injected and by intent the whole affair was designed to turn into a popular political movement Led by the Most Pious and Righteous Sardars against a rogue and characterless suppressive army. The main aim was to remove the Army their empires, roll back of planning of Cantonments in their areas and thus perpetuation of their Sardaris and continuation of receipt of Crores of Ruppees and Stipends for the hiring of private armies at Government expense. In short this is a resolute effort by the sardars who have hijacked all the resources of the province and receive billions of ruppees.

The victim in this case was not only the Doctor, but that poor young captain (and the Army as a whole) whose name was unjustly maligned. The whole conspiracy was part of grand scheme to discredit the Army as we have witnessed from the subsequent events. Had it not been for the fool proof DNA evidence , the poor chap would have been behind bars.

The Musharraf may be deserving all the discredit for suppression and dictatorship; but in this particular instance all human rights and democratic forces should give him full backing for taking this menace head on and trying to get rid of these devils once and for all. Any other civilian democratic government would have too content with pumping more money into the coffers of these scounderals and offering them the Governership of the province.

If all ends well, the ultimate winner will be the province of Baluchistan and the poor unfortunate people. Many of whom have grown up having no other concept of their existence except to be fiercely loyal to their Sardars at all costs (more like pet dogs). Their brains were never allowed to grow beyond this concept.

The Modernity Conspiracy Re: # 61 Khalid_ahmad

I am total agreement with you.

Its classic example of USA Bad, West Bad, Technology Bad, Capatilism Bad , conspiracy Syndrome; ever so prevalent in pseudo intellectuals.

these guys have found an easy answer to every ill of third world;

Another Life in Danger in Pakistan Re: # 48 HP

I have only narrated hard facts and figures about the makeup of so called Punjabi Army.

Your reaction is typical of a bigot liberal reactionary , who can not tolerate anything which does not fit in his frame of mind. Please grow up to be more mature.

Another Life in Danger in Pakistan Re: # 47 Netizen

Its not a guess. Just Plain Statistics.

I must calrify that the Perentage of Sikhs in the Fighting Arms (Infantry, Armour and Artillery) is 40%. However Overall the percentage of Sikhs in the entire Indian Army is around 10%.

Even in the British Indian Army the overwelming mjority of soldiers were drawn from Punjab (Both Sikhs and Muslims).

Another Life in Danger in Pakistan Re: # 41 Aquarius;

I had started the list with the native Chiefs as the issue was preponderance of the Punjabi influence on the Army.

General Sir Douglas Gracey was the second Chief and commanded the Pak Army from 148-1951. I must say he was an extremely professional and capable soldier who is respected for his services to the Pakistani Army and nation.

General Tikka was definitely not a Pathan. He belonged to a village in Tehsil Kahuta, Rawalpindi District in Punjab and had his initial education in that village.

Another Life in Danger in Pakistan Re: # 23 Bjkumar;

There is a continuous stream of misinformation about composition of the Pak Army in these pages. The nationalist (so called) ,for their own ulterior motive, take pleasure in calling it Punjabi Army.

In Pakistan Army the chief of the Army Staff (COAS) is one person who is not only responsible to shape the policies, doctrines on functioning of the instituion, but holds all executive powers on recruitment, promotions, inductions etc. In essence the COAS signifies the character of the Army. Happily this character has been national and instituional and not regional. The COAS`s of the allegedly Punjabi Army, have been as follows:-

Field Marshal Ayub Ayub Khan NWFP 1951- 1958
General Musa Khan Baluchistan 1958- 1966
General Yahya Khan NWFP 1966-1971
General Gul Hassan: NWFP 1971-1972
General Tikka Khan : Punjab 1972-1976
General Zia Ul Haq : Punjab 1976-1988 (immigrant from east punjab india)
Generl Aslam Beg: Sindh 1988-1991 (immigrant from UP India)
General Asif Nawaz Punjab 1991-1993
General Abdul Wahid Kakar Baluchistan 1993-1996
General Jehangir Karamat Punjab 1996-1998
General Pervez Musharraf Sindh 1998- to date (Immigrant from UP India)

The majority of the Lower ranks in Pakistan Army is from Punjab and NWFP due to following social and historical reasons.:-

1. Population of Punjab is 65 percent of the Nation.
2. The six districts of Punjab and NWFP have been historicaly the recrutement grounds for centuries and people from these areas have a tradion of serving in the Army in the footsteps of their forefathers.
3. The Agricutural Lands in these six districts are non irrigated and marginal. Over the period of time the sodiering has become the livelihood of the majority of the people from these districts.

We have another Punjabi Army across the border. The 40% of the fighting arms of Indian Army consists of Sikh Punjabis ( who are only 3% of the population). Interestingly the reasons for this great imbalances in the demographic makeup of the Indian Army are also historic and social (similar to Pakistan Army) and do not represent any political or regional prefrences in the recruitement. The present Chief of the Army Staff India is a Punjabi as well are majority of Generals.

Strangely no one in India calls their Army a Punjabi Army;

Another Life in Danger in Pakistan Mr Narejo;

I want to put the records straight about the murders committed by Arashd Jameel.

Major Arshad Jameel committed the crime . His motives were personal ; He belonged to that area and used his positon as an Army officer to settle scores, on behalf of someone else. There were a number of civilians from Tando Bahawal area who were accomplices of the Major. Initialy the major succeeded in covering his crime by misguiding the higher headquarters that he had killed know dacoits.

However as soon as the truth was known to the the command, the accountability system in the army which is swift and impartial came into action.

Fifteen army personnel were court-martialled in the case in which nine members of a family were murdered in cold blood in a land dispute at Tando Bahawal in the limits of Husri police station, Jamshoro, Hyderabad. Major Arshad Jamil Awan, the main accused, was awarded death sentence and hanged on 24 oct 1996. The remaining convicts, all from lower ranks, were awarded life imprisonment and to date they are in prison.

Internaly, the Army also severly punished all the officers in the chain of command, who had any kind of authority on Major Arshad. It is a known fact that all these officers which included many Major Generals,Brigadiers and Colonels were sent home unceremoniously.

The crime had nothing to with the Anti Dacoit operations, which the Army was conducting in Sind province at that time on the request of the civilian government of Benazir Bhutto. It was not a pattern the Army was following. It was purely the case of a criminal person who used his official position to commit a crime. He was appropriately dealt and rightly executed.

I do not know what happened to the civilian accused in the case, which were unfortunately being delat by the Civilian courts.


I wonder about the motives of Mr Narejo in spreading false information about the Army. He should have enough moral courage to concede the truth in this case.

Internet Relationships – Blessing or Curse? Since Dr Khalid Sohail is a practicing psychotherapist, I expected his article to have a little more polished professional approach towards the subject.

I think the writer has done a flimsy job of mixing human psychology with a wonderful modren technology. Internet chat or email is one of the numerous applications of Internet.

Extra marital or freindly relations developed by communicating through phone are no different than one developed through Internet. Internet is only a vehicle, rather a set of standards, for the Intercommunication of computers.

Perhaps the Dr wanted to write about the explosion of friendships and personal realtions after the open availability of Internet communications to all and sundry. In a closed society where opposite sex have little chance to meet and flirt excpet through clandestine methods, it did precipitate a boom.

The cause of social problems from relationships developed throgh widely available Internet is not the INTERNET. The Dr would have done a better job, if he had pointed to readers the real causes , symptoms and cures of the problems he narrated in his writing.

Please do not Blame Internet for the deficiencies of your culture or tomorrow some MMA like zealist will ban its use completely (The Internet Cafe have already been forced to close by Vigil Ante Mullahs in many NWFP areas).

My Hero! Your Hero! Our Hero! Whose Hero? the Afghan Minsiter must be out of his mind. He has no sense of history and this moron should be forgiven for oozing out such funny ideas.

Does he know that their are more people, descending from Areas comprising the present Afghanistan, living in Pakistan than Afghanistan itself.

Does he knows that their are more Pashtuns living in Pakistan than whole of Afghanistan.

At some point in history the true heros (not local heros) and relics rise above the subtelities of national and ethnic bonds and become a mankind heritage. Does any one care what was the nationality of Newton, Archimedous or Aristotle.

Indeed the Afghanistan has a history of freaks ruling that unfortuncate land. The persent minister is no different than the rascals who blew up the Bamiyan Buddhas (another mankind heritage) and declared that it was their property and they could do anything with it.

Varanasi Explodes Re: # 231 Raw Dust
``just like christians, buddhists or parsis in india - muslims did no special service by sticking to their motherland ``

Agreed- but please add ``Neither did they do any crime by sticking to their motherland``.

Varanasi Explodes Re: # 192 antihypochrist, #190 Jang, #189 Raw Dust


antihypochrist,
``I expect them to show their severe disapproval towards Islamic intolerance in India here, and elsewhere``

Please try to grasp the basic fact that Intolerance and Bigotry do not have a religion. There is no animal called `Islamic Intolerance` or `Hindu Deception` or `Christian generosity`.

The millions who flee at time of partition, and indeed from both sides of the border, were not ecnomic migrants. Comparing them with the later rush to Gulf is an insult to the history.

There was no welcome party for them at the destination. Most of them fled abruptly leaving everything behind. It was not the love for the new country but the fear of life, a natural human survival instinct. Wherever the lives and property were not threatend, the migration was scrace, Hyderabad, Malir Kotla Punjab in India and Sindh in Pakistan for instance.

The greatest loosers in this demographic transformation appear to be the muslims who did not move. Can you blame them for continuing to live in their own houses in thier own country ? Is it fair to decalare that since they did not expect life any better at new place, therefore they stayed ? Those who stayed firmly believed they could live a harmonious life in the multicultural, multiracial and diverse india.

Raw Dust;
Is it even a legitimate rational question to the Indian Muslims to ask them what did they gain or loose and what sacrifice or reward they missed by moving or staying from/to their own home ?

Those who fled , probably, had no other choice. And those who stayed considered themselve, at least at that time, lucky that they had a choice.

The secular India should not play a blame game with the 140-150 million of its own citizens, who did not migrate but continued to live in the Land of their forefathers.

I have an authentic news which I found quite amusing. The President of India Abu kalam had migrated to Pakistan (Karachi) in early fifities, a little know fact. However he could not find a suitable job and decided to return. One of the lucky fellows who had the choice.

Varanasi Explodes Re: # 110 to antihypochrist

I would suggest that you do some serious study of major religions. The thoughtless comments on faith related issues can only be due to reactionary syndromes.

The basis of frustartions and problems of the large muslim community in India is not their faith but integration into the main stream of Indian Life. It is an irony that after 60 years, rather than getting the credit for sticking with their motherland, the Indian Muslims are blamed by the majority for partition of sub-continent and treated with suspicion.

Varanasi Explodes Re: # 69

It is unfortunate that a very small minority of radicals and misguided psychos, who happen to be muslims, have become to epitomize the religion of Islam. The fact is that vast majority of populace in muslim countries is peace loving and believes in the greatest respect for life and property for all every human. The victims of these hate mongers terrorist criminals have been more often the Muslims themselves than any other community.

When the entire muslim community is blamed for such acts, it only strengthens the agenda of criminals. The masses have been victims themselves, and have nothing to do with these crimes.

Varanasi Explodes I express my deepest sympathies to the victims of this carnage. The perpetuator of such henious crimes do not are senseless criminals who will get punished in this life and hereafter. I do not think any religion, let alone Islam, ever promotes or justify such deplorable actions. The vast majority of Muslims in Pakistan can feel the pain and dileema of the victims and pray for them. Our hearts go out for the innocent people who have been ruthlessly harmed.