Baithak Desi Apr 12: Prejudging Judiciary, Rafia Zakaria, Resztoration, Bhandara, Aitezaz, Plagiarism at PU, Baisakhi, Bangladesh, Pakistani Hindus..
This is a typical news item of late : Islamabad, April 11: Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has warned that dictatorship was threatening the country’s newly restored democratic set-up. Mr Gilani told the first regular session of the National Assembly that he had ordered an investigation and had sent his top security minister to Karachi to supervise the initial probe. Mr Gilani said, "The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government will not allow the sacrifices by Benazir Bhutto and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (late PPP leaders) for democracy to go waste." The Prime Minister condemned the incidents of manhandling of Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, Dr Sher Afgan Niazi and violence in Karachi and announced a thorough investigation to bring the culprits to justice. He said that the incidents were a conspiracy against democracy. The PM said it was very important to expose those behind these incidents. "We have taken note of the conspiracy and Rehman Malik is in Karachi to personally supervise the situation," he said. Dictatorship threatening democracy, says Gilani - Shafqat Ali
I have highlighted in bold some lines. These and similar thoughts are echoed by PPP and PML-N and their allied party leaders.
Do you notice the irony?
The investigations are ordered. Hopefully once they are over, they will be presented to the government. At that stage the government will decide if their is enough evidence to warrant a trial and bring the alleged culprits to justice.
But, in this and other recless statements these leaders show how their mind works. They have already decided who the culprit it before any trial. Such scant respect for justice. And judiciary!
Continuing with lawyers Rafia Zakaria writes: The lawyers are increasingly becoming an embattled minority fighting for an institution that is meant to rise above politics and guarantee Pakistani citizens some predictability and accountability. The politicians, these leaders of a new democratic order, perhaps see the emergence of a truly independent judiciary as an unwelcome check on their own power. And finally, the Pakistani people, long wearied by grand promises and weak returns, are struggling to shake off the disenchantment brought on by the devolved tactics of a movement increasingly marred by frustration and defined by the very disorder it was supposed to eliminate.
Translated simply, the Pakistani Lawyers are turning out to be no different than the other fragments of the society - the politicians, the intelligentsia and the media. This deflates the optimism shown by the lawyer led movement of yesteryear. And bodes ill for the ambitions of Iftikhar Chaudhry, Aitezaz Ahsan and company.
ISLAMABAD: With the introduction of "The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2008" in the National Assembly on Friday, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has tactically made restoration of the deposed judges through a simple resolution in the Parliament, as announced in the Murree Declaration impossible. The introduction of the Bill in the Parliament to repeal the amendments in PEMRA Ordinance 2002 by PPP-led government means that the government has indirectly accepted all the acts of President Musharraf taken after November 3 in the garb of emergency as constitutional, over which the main coalition partner PML-N has always a different stance. Restoration of judges - PPP tacitly closes NA resolution option Tahir Niaz
Prime Minister Gilani declares, "We don't want to tell lies and (will) take our people into confidence," and proceeds to inform us that a Truth and Reconciliation Commission is to be formed. One only hopes that our good-hearted prime minister knows what he is talking about? Let's give him the benefit of the doubt. The first task of the Truth Commission must be to determine the truth and assess responsibility for the break-up of the Quaid's Pakistan in December 1971. Let all the archives in Pakistan and Bangladesh be opened to public scrutiny. And let the Truth Commission also enquire into the Balochistan depredations, right from the time ZA Bhutto declared war on the Baloch in the 1970s to the present day. As a member of the last Assembly, I had moved a resolution in 2005 and 2006 calling for a "Truth and Reconciliation Commission," on the model of Archbishop Desmond Tutu's Commission in South Africa, to determine the causes for the break-up of United Pakistan in the light of new material available since the publication of the Hamood-ur-Rehman Report. It was laughed out of court. It was held inadmissible by the Speaker. A Faustian bargain - M P Bhandara
In the editorial Talking in riddles the Nations says: It is time important issues were discussed threadbare to formulate a common stand rather than being pushed under the rug. Attempts to please everyone at a time of increasing polarisation have no chance of succeeding. These could in fact be suicidal when everyone is speaking about conspiracies being afoot to destabilise the elected government. There is a need on the part of the top leadership of the four-party coalition to urgently iron out their differences on vital issues facing them.
ANP and JUI together have less seats than MQM. Is that obvious or a riddle for the Nation?
***
AND these are pretty serious allegations. Will Mr. Aiteza Ahsan or his apologists explain this?
Islamabad, April 11: Five Pakistani academics have been dismissed by the Punjab University for plagiarising a nuclear research paper from the findings of a prestigious Geneva-based scientific institute. The dismissal of the lecturers from the university’s Centre for High Energy Physics has shocked academia across the country. The head of the centre, Mr Fazl-e-Azeem, was sacked along with his colleagues Rashid Ahmad, Sohail Afzal Tahir, M Alam Saeed and Maqsood Ahmed. The orders for their dismissal were recently issued by Punjab governor Khalid Maqbool. Scholars copy N-research paper
One of my favourite tales recounts a time when Nanak Dev, the first guru and founder of Sikhism, taking a bath in the river Ganges, saw pilgrims throwing water towards the sun. When asked, the pilgrims said they were offering it to their ancestors. On hearing this Guru Nanak started throwing water in the opposite direction, saying he was sending water to his farm in Punjab. "How will water reach your crops when it's so far away?" they asked. "If your water can reach your ancestors, why can't mine reach my fields a short distance away?" he was said to have replied. To say Guru Nanak detested rituals would possibly be an understatement: his life was dedicated to imploring people to think outside their religious traditions and focus instead on doing good deeds. For example, he spoke out against the Hindu caste system. I usually remember the foregoing tale around this time of the year thanks to Vaisakhi, the biggest festival in the Sikh calendar. It takes place almost every year on April 13, preceded a week earlier by a huge nagar kirtan (street procession) through Southall, west London. The paradox is that Vaisakhi is rich with symbolism and ritual. In 1699 the 10th and last guru, Gobind Singh, chose this day to hold a massive open-air ceremony where he called upon five followers in succession to give up their lives for him. After taking each into a tent and apparently cutting off their heads, he then emerged with all five and named them the five beloved ones - Panj Pyare. Sikhs were hence bestowed with a baptism ceremony that meant adopting the 5 Ks - kesh (uncut hair), kangha (a comb), kachera (undergarments), kara (a steel bangle) and kirpan (a sword). Happy Baisakhi - Sunny Handal
About 100 people have been injured in the Bangladesh capital during violent clashes between police and religious hardliners over equal rights for women. The road in front of Dhaka's main mosque became a battleground on Friday as about 5,000 men fought with the police, who responded with tear gas and batons. The three-hour skirmish was initiated by activists belonging to the Committee to Resist Anti-Quran Laws, a coalition of Islamic parties. The protests were against a women's development policy adopted in March by the government, advocating equal property rights for women. Dozens were injured in similar clashes on Thursday. Muslim clerics and parties have warned of nationwide demonstrations, saying they will not tolerate any laws that contradict Sharia, or the Islamic Bangladesh protest turns violent
Hindus in Pakistan have suffered grievously since the founding of the nation in 1947. Recently, in the southern province of Sindh, a Hindu man was accused of blasphemy andbeaten to death by his co-workers. This comes at the heels of the abduction and dismemberment of a Hindu engineer. A little while earlier, the military removed 70 Hindu families from lands where they had been living since the 19th century. To this day the temples that Pakistanis destroyed in 1992 in response to the destruction of the Babri mosque in India have not been restored. Protecting Pakistan's Hindus
I have highlighted in bold some lines. These and similar thoughts are echoed by PPP and PML-N and their allied party leaders.
Do you notice the irony?
The investigations are ordered. Hopefully once they are over, they will be presented to the government. At that stage the government will decide if their is enough evidence to warrant a trial and bring the alleged culprits to justice.
But, in this and other recless statements these leaders show how their mind works. They have already decided who the culprit it before any trial. Such scant respect for justice. And judiciary!
Continuing with lawyers Rafia Zakaria writes: The lawyers are increasingly becoming an embattled minority fighting for an institution that is meant to rise above politics and guarantee Pakistani citizens some predictability and accountability. The politicians, these leaders of a new democratic order, perhaps see the emergence of a truly independent judiciary as an unwelcome check on their own power. And finally, the Pakistani people, long wearied by grand promises and weak returns, are struggling to shake off the disenchantment brought on by the devolved tactics of a movement increasingly marred by frustration and defined by the very disorder it was supposed to eliminate.
Translated simply, the Pakistani Lawyers are turning out to be no different than the other fragments of the society - the politicians, the intelligentsia and the media. This deflates the optimism shown by the lawyer led movement of yesteryear. And bodes ill for the ambitions of Iftikhar Chaudhry, Aitezaz Ahsan and company.
ISLAMABAD: With the introduction of "The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2008" in the National Assembly on Friday, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has tactically made restoration of the deposed judges through a simple resolution in the Parliament, as announced in the Murree Declaration impossible. The introduction of the Bill in the Parliament to repeal the amendments in PEMRA Ordinance 2002 by PPP-led government means that the government has indirectly accepted all the acts of President Musharraf taken after November 3 in the garb of emergency as constitutional, over which the main coalition partner PML-N has always a different stance. Restoration of judges - PPP tacitly closes NA resolution option Tahir Niaz
Prime Minister Gilani declares, "We don't want to tell lies and (will) take our people into confidence," and proceeds to inform us that a Truth and Reconciliation Commission is to be formed. One only hopes that our good-hearted prime minister knows what he is talking about? Let's give him the benefit of the doubt. The first task of the Truth Commission must be to determine the truth and assess responsibility for the break-up of the Quaid's Pakistan in December 1971. Let all the archives in Pakistan and Bangladesh be opened to public scrutiny. And let the Truth Commission also enquire into the Balochistan depredations, right from the time ZA Bhutto declared war on the Baloch in the 1970s to the present day. As a member of the last Assembly, I had moved a resolution in 2005 and 2006 calling for a "Truth and Reconciliation Commission," on the model of Archbishop Desmond Tutu's Commission in South Africa, to determine the causes for the break-up of United Pakistan in the light of new material available since the publication of the Hamood-ur-Rehman Report. It was laughed out of court. It was held inadmissible by the Speaker. A Faustian bargain - M P Bhandara
In the editorial Talking in riddles the Nations says: It is time important issues were discussed threadbare to formulate a common stand rather than being pushed under the rug. Attempts to please everyone at a time of increasing polarisation have no chance of succeeding. These could in fact be suicidal when everyone is speaking about conspiracies being afoot to destabilise the elected government. There is a need on the part of the top leadership of the four-party coalition to urgently iron out their differences on vital issues facing them.
ANP and JUI together have less seats than MQM. Is that obvious or a riddle for the Nation?
***
AND these are pretty serious allegations. Will Mr. Aiteza Ahsan or his apologists explain this?
Islamabad, April 11: Five Pakistani academics have been dismissed by the Punjab University for plagiarising a nuclear research paper from the findings of a prestigious Geneva-based scientific institute. The dismissal of the lecturers from the university’s Centre for High Energy Physics has shocked academia across the country. The head of the centre, Mr Fazl-e-Azeem, was sacked along with his colleagues Rashid Ahmad, Sohail Afzal Tahir, M Alam Saeed and Maqsood Ahmed. The orders for their dismissal were recently issued by Punjab governor Khalid Maqbool. Scholars copy N-research paper
One of my favourite tales recounts a time when Nanak Dev, the first guru and founder of Sikhism, taking a bath in the river Ganges, saw pilgrims throwing water towards the sun. When asked, the pilgrims said they were offering it to their ancestors. On hearing this Guru Nanak started throwing water in the opposite direction, saying he was sending water to his farm in Punjab. "How will water reach your crops when it's so far away?" they asked. "If your water can reach your ancestors, why can't mine reach my fields a short distance away?" he was said to have replied. To say Guru Nanak detested rituals would possibly be an understatement: his life was dedicated to imploring people to think outside their religious traditions and focus instead on doing good deeds. For example, he spoke out against the Hindu caste system. I usually remember the foregoing tale around this time of the year thanks to Vaisakhi, the biggest festival in the Sikh calendar. It takes place almost every year on April 13, preceded a week earlier by a huge nagar kirtan (street procession) through Southall, west London. The paradox is that Vaisakhi is rich with symbolism and ritual. In 1699 the 10th and last guru, Gobind Singh, chose this day to hold a massive open-air ceremony where he called upon five followers in succession to give up their lives for him. After taking each into a tent and apparently cutting off their heads, he then emerged with all five and named them the five beloved ones - Panj Pyare. Sikhs were hence bestowed with a baptism ceremony that meant adopting the 5 Ks - kesh (uncut hair), kangha (a comb), kachera (undergarments), kara (a steel bangle) and kirpan (a sword). Happy Baisakhi - Sunny Handal
About 100 people have been injured in the Bangladesh capital during violent clashes between police and religious hardliners over equal rights for women. The road in front of Dhaka's main mosque became a battleground on Friday as about 5,000 men fought with the police, who responded with tear gas and batons. The three-hour skirmish was initiated by activists belonging to the Committee to Resist Anti-Quran Laws, a coalition of Islamic parties. The protests were against a women's development policy adopted in March by the government, advocating equal property rights for women. Dozens were injured in similar clashes on Thursday. Muslim clerics and parties have warned of nationwide demonstrations, saying they will not tolerate any laws that contradict Sharia, or the Islamic Bangladesh protest turns violent
Hindus in Pakistan have suffered grievously since the founding of the nation in 1947. Recently, in the southern province of Sindh, a Hindu man was accused of blasphemy andbeaten to death by his co-workers. This comes at the heels of the abduction and dismemberment of a Hindu engineer. A little while earlier, the military removed 70 Hindu families from lands where they had been living since the 19th century. To this day the temples that Pakistanis destroyed in 1992 in response to the destruction of the Babri mosque in India have not been restored. Protecting Pakistan's Hindus
LAHORE: About 3,100 Sikh pilgrims arrived at Wagah by trains on Friday to participate in Baisakhi festival, the birth of Khalsa. The main religious function at Gurdwara Panja Sahib will be ‘Arambah Paath Sahib’ today (Saturday) at 8am. ‘Madah Ka Bhog’ on April 13 at 8am and ‘Bhog Akhand Paath Sahib’ on April 14 at 8am. From April 15 to April 17 pilgrims will stay at Gurdwara Janam Asthan Nankana Sahib and on April 16 will visit Gurdwara Sacha Sauda. From April 17 to April 20, pilgrims will stay at Gurdwara Dera Sahib at Lahore and on April 18 will visit Gurdwara Rorri Sahib Eminabad (Gujranwala). On April 20 pilgrims will leave Pakistan in the morning for India. abdul manan/photo by afp
posted by temporal at 4/13/2008
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