Joint Family System (nucleus family system) : merits and demerits.
Courtesy: Geo TV (Khabrnaak with Aftab Iqbal, 22 Jan. 2011)
via – ZemTV – You Tube Link
Monthly Archives: January 2011
DHA: authority within authority
PML-N to oppose DHA bill in parliament
“This draft is not only repugnant to basic tenant of the constitution but is also against the provincial autonomy, laws of Pakistan and international agreements,” said PML-N leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.
ISLAMABAD: The Defence Housing Authority (DHA) bill may not be enacted into law as the main opposition party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), has decided to vehemently oppose the bill whenever it comes to the parliament.
“Whenever this bill is tabled before the National Assembly, Muslim League (N) will play its historic role by opposing it,” said the N-League spokesman on Thursday. …
Read more : DAWN
LAHORE : From Lakshmi chowk to Nisbat Road
Courtesy: GoeTV (Choraha, 22 Jan. 2011)
via – ZemTV – You Tube Link
Karachi, Sindh : the shadows of violence & target killings
Sindh: People of Karachi join Asima Choudhry to discuss who is responsible of violence & target killings in Karachi? The language of the program is urdu (Hindi).
Watch other parts of program – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Courtesy: Dunya TV (Program “In Session” with Asma Choudhry, 22 January, 2011)
via→ ZemTV → You Tube Link
Waris Shah on Mullah gardi – Translation, Manzur Ejaz
[Mullah] Your beard is like a pious scholar and you act like a devil. You condemn [even] the travelers for nothing. …
Read more : Wichaar
Pakistan : Future Unrosy
Was Partition always going to be violent?
The Past and Future of Pakistan. By M.J. Akbar. Harper Collins India; 343 pages; 499 rupees
WHEN India and Pakistan began, in 1947, they shared many of the same peoples and a legal and administrative history going back five centuries. What explains their subsequent divergence, with India now broadly stable and prosperous and Pakistan crisis-ridden? According to M.J. Akbar, an erudite Indian journalist who is a Muslim, “The idea of India is stronger than the Indian; the idea of Pakistan is weaker than the Pakistani.”
India was founded as a secular democracy. Given its great diversity, it is hard to think how it could have been otherwise. Pakistan was created to be a homeland for India’s Muslims, an idea that was weak on two counts. First, because it implied a threat to Muslims, or Islam, in Hindu- majority India that in retrospect appears bogus. India’s 160m Muslims are free and no worse off than Pakistan’s 180m. Second, the Islamic rationale for Pakistan contained an ambiguity about the role of Islam in the new state, which has given rise to extremism. As Mr Akbar writes, “the germ of theocracy lay in Pakistan’s genes.”
No one would have been more appalled by this than Pakistan’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. A whisky-drinking anglophile, he envisaged Pakistan as an India-style democracy. Yet he also helped begin its descent by playing upon chauvinist Muslim fears for political gain. A stalwart of the independence movement, he had been a late convert to the cause of Pakistan, swayed to it only after the early collaboration between Hindu and Muslim freedom-fighters had broken down. …
Read more : The Economist
Al-Jazeera documentary about Balochs
India : General convicted
India army court convicts general over Sukhna land scam
An army court in India has found a senior officer guilty of involvement in an illegal land deal, officials say. Lt Gen PK Rath is the highest ranking serving officer ever to be convicted in a court martial in India. The court found him guilty on three counts but cleared him on four others. Sentencing is due on Sunday. …
Read more : BBC
The Pakistani society is hypocritical and it has double standards : Veena Malik didn’t do any corruption, or spread any terrorism, she even didn’t kill anyone and still she is a misfit to represent Pakistan, but the killer Mumtaz Quadri is fit to represent Pakistan!?
Pakistani Actress Slams Cleric for Criticism
Associated Press Writer Munir Ahmed contributed to this report.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — A Pakistani actress castigated for appearing to cuddle with an Indian actor on a reality show lashed out at a Muslim cleric who had criticized her during a widely watched television exchange this week.
The unusual outburst, punctuated by tears, came at a sensitive time in a country where Islamic fundamentalism is spreading and liberals are increasingly afraid to express their views.
“What is your problem with me? You tell me your problem!” an angry Veena Malik asked the Muslim scholar, who accused her of insulting Islam.
Earlier this month, a liberal Pakistani governor was shot dead for opposing the country’s harsh laws against blasphemy. In the aftermath, his killer was cheered as a hero among many in the public, shocking the country’s small liberal establishment.
Malik, 26, participated recently on Bigg Boss, an Indian version of “Big Brother.” Clips of the show on the Internet include ones in which she appears cozy with Indian actor Ashmit Patel. Those scenes, and her involvement with a show in Pakistan’s archrival India, prompted criticism online and on the air.
“You have insulted Pakistan and Islam,” Mufti Abdul Qawi accused her on the Express TV channel talk show via a television link. The exchange first aired Friday and then again Saturday.
A furious Malik shot back, saying Qawi targeted her because she is a woman, reminding him that the Quran admonishes men not to stare at a woman’s beauty beyond a first glance, and telling him there were bigger problems in Pakistan, including the alleged rape of children at mosques.
During the exchange, Qawi admitted he had not seen the clips of the show but had heard about it from others.
“What does your Islam say, mufti sir?” the actress asked. “You issue edicts on the basis of hearsay.”
Malik said she had read the Quran and she knew what lines not to cross as a Muslim as well as an entertainer in South Asia. She pointed out that she never kissed Patel, for instance.
“I am a Muslim woman, and I know my limits,” she said. The cleric seemed unable to respond to her flood of words.
Malik’s fierce outburst sparked a barrage of comments on Twitter. While some writers said they didn’t agree with her and one called her a “porn star,” others said she was brave for standing up to the Pakistani clerical establishment, especially when such an act can mean personal danger.
Wrote one supporter: “The only way to talk to these bloody clerics is to talk down to them. Veena Malik did just that, and how. Good for her!”
= – = – = – = – = – =
Courtesy: Express TV (Front Line with Kamran Shahid, guest Veena Malik, Jan. 21, 2011)
via – ZemTV – You Tube Link – 1, 2
The Past and Future of Pakistan
…. Pakistan is in danger of turning into a toxic ‘jelly state’, a quivering country that will neither collapse nor stabilize.
By M J Akbar
Any crisis breeds Cassandras, and there are enough floating around on the wide world of the web, predicting the disintegration, or worse, of Pakistan. They, however, underestimate the determination of those Pakistanis who want to save their nation from Maududi-Zia Islamists. Urban Pakistan – what might be called Jinnah’s Pakistan – proves a powerful counterweight to the fundamentalists, its will bolstered by domestic military muscle and America’s dollar power. …
Read more: The Times of India
The most dangerous Poem by Pash, Translation Manzur Ejaz
The most dangerous
To be robbed of your labor is not dangerous
Thrashing by the police is not dangerous
Treachery and the trickery of greed are not the most dangerous
To be wasted sleeping…..is bad
To be mesmerized by a deaf silence ….is bad
However, this is not the most dangerous
In the noise of deceptions
To be silenced while being right..Is really bad
Start reading in the light of a fire worm ….is too bad
To keep living while extremely anguished ….is also bad
But it is not the most dangerous thing
The most dangerous is
To remain filled with dead peace
Losing the edginess and tolerate everything
To get out of the home for work
And after work return home
The most dangerous is the death of dreams …
Read more : WICHAAR
Islamofascism is a reality: Pakistan is destined to drown in blood from civil war: Pervez Hoodbhoy
The War within Islam
Islamofascism is a reality: Pakistan is destined to drown in blood from civil war: Pervez Hoodbhoy
A New Age Islam reader sent the following letter to the editor:
Here is a letter sent by Pakistan’s foremost progressive intellectual and physicist Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy to a friend:
I am sharing with you some lines that I have just written for family and friends who are warning me:
Whatever one might think of Governor Salman Taseer’s politics, he was killed this Wednesday for what was certainly the best act of his life: trying to save the life of an illiterate, poor, peasant Christian woman.
But rose petals are being showered upon his murderer. He is being called a ghazi, lawyers are demonstrating spontaneously for his release, clerics refused to perform his funeral rites. Most shockingly, the interior minister – his political colleague and the ultimate coward – has said that he too would kill a blasphemer with his own hands.
Pakistan once had a violent, rabidly religious lunatic fringe. This fringe has morphed into a majority. The liberals are now the fringe. We are now a nation of butchers and primitive savages. Europe’s Dark Ages have descended upon us.
Sane people are being terrified into silence. After the assassination, FM-99 (Urdu) called me for an interview. The producer tearfully told me (offline) that she couldn’t find a single religious scholar ready to condemn Taseer’s murder. She said even ordinary people like me are in short supply.
I am deeply depressed today. So depressed that I can barely type these lines. …
Read more : http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamWarWithinIslam_1.aspx?ArticleID=3953
Pakistan : Fanaticism’s coup d’etat
Fanaticism’s coup d’etat
by Farooq Sulehria
It is not the murder of Salman Taseer that has shocked-and-scared urban majority in Pakistan into either an apparent silence or a plain indifference. It is not even the assassin’s maliciously triumphant smile that has left many speechless. It is ceaselessly mediatised threats and heartless puritan celebrations by a freemasonry of fiery anchorpersons, jingoist columnists and rejected bearded politicians that have created an atmosphere of fear-and-eerie-silence. For the first time, PPP’s fearless workers, the idiomatic Jiyalas, have been scared into political-hibernation. Even if thousands attended Taseer’s funeral and Jiyalas in Lahore initially took to streets in a defiant mood, chanting anti-mullah slogans, the PPP government capitulated, unsurprisingly. The PPP leadership has given up struggle since long. It keeps striking deals and wrap up shameless compromises. …
Read more : ViewPoint
Pakistan awaiting the clerical tsunami: Pervez Hoodbhoy
by Farooq Sulehria
Taseer’s assassin is a Barelvi Muslim belonging to the Dawat-e-Islami, and 500 clerics of this faith supported his action. Most of these mullahs are part of the Sunni Tehreek and are supposedly anti-Taliban moderates. Those who claim that Pakistan’s silent majority is fundamentally secular and tolerant may be clutching at straws …
Read more : ViewPoint
Affects of Climate Change on Human Life
by Jamil Hussain junejo
Climate change is not new phenomonem.Climate has always been changing, resulting into topographical and seasonal changes all around the world. Owing to climate change, once the coldest became hottest areas of the world.Similary, once the hottest became coldest areas of the world. Once the occeaosn became mainlands. Once the rivers became desearts. Therefore, Climate change itself is not entirely new and bad phenomenon. The matter that is worrying is that currently climate change has been happening abnormally owing to anti-environment activities of man posing potential threats to world. Therefore; my short discussion on climate change will be related with abnormal change of climate.
Pakistan : corruption – huge fraud & corruption in FBR – corruption.
Huge fraud and corruption in Federal Bureau of Revenue ( FBR) throught custom and national logistic departments.
Courtesy: Geo TV (Aaja Kamran Khan Ke Saath, 20 Jan. 2011)
via – ZemTV – You Tube Link
Report Says Militants in Daniel Pearl Killing Still at Large
Report Says Militants in Pearl Killing Still at Large
By JANE PERLEZ
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Nine years after an American reporter Daniel Pearl was captured and killed by operatives of Al Qaeda in Pakistan, more than a dozen of the militants involved in his murder remain at large, a testament to the lack of will by Pakistani authorities to prosecute the cases, according to a report released Thursday. …
Read more : THE NEW YORK TIMES
Islamic scholar attacks Pakistan’s blasphemy laws
- In the wake of Salmaan Taseer’s murder, Javed Ahmad Ghamidi declares Islamic councils are “telling lies to the people“
by Declan Walsh in Islamabad
A prominent Islamic scholar has launched a blistering attack on Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, warning that failure to repeal them will only strengthen religious extremists and their violent followers.
“The blasphemy laws have no justification in Islam. These ulema [council of clerics] are just telling lies to the people,” said Javed Ahmad Ghamidi, a reformist scholar and popular television preacher.
“But they have become stronger, because they have street power behind them, and the liberal forces are weak and divided. If it continues like this it could result in the destruction of Pakistan.”
Ghamidi, 59, is the only religious scholar to publicly oppose the blasphemy laws since the assassination of the Punjab governor, Salmaan Taseer, on 4 January. He speaks out at considerable personal risk.
Ghamidi spoke to the Guardian from Malaysia, where he fled with his wife and daughters last year after police foiled a plot to bomb their Lahore home. “It became impossible to live there,” he said.
Their fears were well founded: within months Taliban gunmen assassinated Dr Farooq Khan, a Ghamidi ally also famous for speaking out, at his clinic in the north-western city of Mardan.
The scholar’s troubles highlight the shrinking space for debate in Pakistan, where Taseer’s death has emboldened the religious right, prompting mass street rallies in favour of his killer, Mumtaz Qadri.
Liberal voices have been marginalised; many fear to speak out. Mainstream political parties have crumbled, led by the ruling Pakistan People’s party, which declared it will never amend the blasphemy law.
Sherry Rehman, a PPP parliamentarian who proposed changes to the legislation, was herself charged with blasphemy this week. Since Taseer’s death she has been confined to her Karachi home after numerous death threats, some issued publicly by clerics. …
Read more : Guardian.co.uk
Islamic Fundamentalism in Pakistan
By B. R. GOWANI, writer can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com
I read Professor M. Shahid Alam’s recent article “Pakistan: A political murder or war” (Counterpunch Weekend Edition January 14, 2011) His allegations of the United States role in Pakistan and the corrupt Pakistani establishment that have screwed up the country can’t be refuted. I have a problem, however, with his view on the blasphemy law. …
Read more : via Globeistan – COUNTER PUNCH
Sacked employees attack KESC office
KARACHI: Dismissed employees of the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) staged a protest in Karachi on Thursday against their lay-offs.
They attacked the KESC office near Defence Phase 4, demanding their immediate reinstatement. Angry employees damaged the office property and other KESC personnel. …
Read more : The Express Tribune
The dirty ‘S’ word in Pakistan: – Urooj Zia
Images aired earlier this month where lawyers and other citizens in Pakistan were seen garlanding and felicitating the murderer of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer might have made those involved look tasteless and crude, but their acts were far from shocking. All his faults aside, Taseer had stood up for a Christian woman who had been accused of blasphemy and sentenced to death by a district and sessions (lower) court. He was killed because he had referred to the blasphemy statutes as ‘black laws’ which are abused at will, and had called for reform. As such, Taseer was killed because he had stood up, albeit in a roundabout way, for secularism and basic humanity.
Secularism is an incredibly dirty word in the mainstream narrative of Pakistan. Over time, malevolent forces of obscurantism, bolstered by the deep state, have worked tirelessly towards transforming the connotations of the word in the national consciousness, until it came to represent, falsely of course, the absolute negation of spirituality. …
Read more : Kafila
TUNISIA: Revolution shows hollowness of Arab system in face of people power
By – Amr Hamzawy in Beirut
The citizens’ revolution in Tunisia that forced dictator Zine el Abidine ben Ali to flee the country provides many lessons for the Arab world. Regimes should keep the lessons in mind to avoid repeating Tunisia’s experience in their own countries, while citizens can draw inspiration in hopes of effecting democratic change. …
Read more : Los Angeles Times
Civilian and military atrocities on Baloch people
A Page from the Past – By Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur
Who was an active member of the Balochistan Resistance in the 70s. He recently returned to Pakistan after a 10-year long exile in Afghanistan.
In keeping with the Pakistani tradition of camouflaging history a vital chunk of the country’s past has been shrouded in mystery for over 20 years. This was the period of 1973-1977, when the Baloch rose in revolt against a state that had relentlessly oppressed them for decades and military operations against the Baloch people were at their peak. …
Read more : Baloch Voice
INDIA IS TRYING TO COMPETE WITH PAKISTAN IN CORRUPTION
In MP, babus sleep on bed of cash
by Suchandana Gupta
BHOPAL: In ‘bimaru’ Madhya Pradesh, bank lockers of bureaucrats and government officials are bursting with cash and gold. An IAS couple here owns 25 flats and 400 acres of land. A middle-ranking engineer’s wife owns three houses and has more than 10 kg gold in her bank locker. And wherever the income tax department conducts a raid, so much cash is unearthed that counting machines have to be brought in. ….
Read more : The Times of India
Read more : The Times of India
My Humble Homage to Shah Abdul Latif
“Dust of Their Earthly Remains, Abdul Latif affirms, Surely Esteemed”
By Dr. Ahmed H. Makhdoom, Singapore
Today, Wednesday 14th Safar 1432, which is 19th January 2011, is that day in the glorious, glittering and grand history of the nation of Sindh, when her most illustrious, worthy and noble son, Shah Abdul Latif of Bhitt, breathed his last. His sanctified and sacred soul eternally resting in the Garden of his Beloved and his earthly remains interned permanently in lap of venerable andb blessed mother Sindh, Bhittai, till today, 267 years after his passage into Eternity, remains an iconic and saintly figure.
FOUNDATIONS OF ISLAMIC STATE
On Pakistan and the Theory & Practice of the Islamic State: An Excerpt from the Munir Report of 1954
From REPORT of THE COURT OF INQUIRY constituted under PUNJAB ACT II OF 1954 to enquire into the PUNJAB DISTURBANCES OF 1953 “Munir Report”
“ISLAMIC STATE
It has been repeatedly said before us that implicit in the demand for Pakistan was the demand for an Islamic State. …
Read more : Work & Life of Dr Subroto Roy
Funny and Scary Story … might happen one day the way things are going!
Let’s fly Sunni – by Dr. Ahmed Asif
It was Sunday night. My father called me from Pakistan, unexpectedly. He sounded terrible on the phone. He called from the hospital. I’d not seen him in the longest time–I’m talking about twelve years. I’d met him last in Lahore in the year 2010, on the day the Governor of Punjab was shot dead by one of his own security guards. …
Read more : ViewPoint
Sacred murder – by Mohammad Nafees
The new faith and belief he derived from the speeches of two Maulanas had turned him against the oath he took before joining the Elite Force of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan that calls for protection of the country and its people one serves. The opponent of his belief was walking in front of him without knowing that his own protector was going to take his life for a cause that he considered supreme to the oath he once took. Driven by his most sacred belief, the security guard pulled up his gun and yelling Allah-o-Akbar emptied the burst of his gun twice with a feeling of bravery and satisfaction on accomplishing the task he had in his mind. The life that was the gift of the Creator was suddenly snatched by a person who believed to have been doing this job in the name of Allah the Creator. The Governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, was now lying dead and peaceful in a pool of blood. Next day, the whole nation was divided on the question: “Shall the act be mourned or glorified?”
The lawyers, who claim to be the upholders of the rule of law, came out in big number to glorify the assassinator and used methods that were tantamount to an act of jeopardizing the very legal process they are supposed to be upholding. Ulema, the preacher of a religion that teaches peace and considers killing of a human being as a killing of humanity, became jubilant on the death of a person as important as the Governor of Punjab because they, on their own, had declared him guilty of committing blasphemy. They called it justice and their jubilance was emanating from their sense of satisfaction derived from the successful execution of their wajbul qatal fatwa [religious decree that declares a person liable for execution] they issued against the Governor a few days before his assassination. …
Read more : ViewPoint
DHAKA RESOLUTION ON SALMAN TASEERs MURDER
A resolution was presented to condemn the murder of Salman Taseer Shaheed, during Peoples SAARC meeting/conference in Dhaka on January 18-19 th, 2011 . Resolution was unanimously adopted by the house.
RESOLUTION TO CONDEMN THE MURDER OF SALMAN TASEER
We the development practitioners, political workers, civil society leaders, representatives of social movements, peace and human rights activists, writers, journalists and concerned citizens of South Asia and the participants of Conference on ‘Envisioning New South Asia: People’s Perspectives, 18-19 January, 2011, Dhaka, Bangladesh condemn the brutal murder of Salman Taseer, governor of Punjab, Pakistan, by a religious extremist and demand that the culprit should be brought to justice immediately and the government of Pakistan and other states of South Asian region should stop using communalism and religious fundamentalism to persecute religious and ethnic minorities to divide and rule the peace loving progressive and secular peoples of the region. We express our solidarity with the family of Salman Taseer and with the current moment against religious extremism in Pakistan and in the region.
Music for Life : Beethoven for the Indus Valley
Another big humanitarian event being organized by George Mathew, a South Asian New Yorker. Hope you can attend. Below is our press release and a list of the South Asians involved with the concert.
Beethoven for the Indus (Sindhu) Valley. BEETHOVEN’S NINTH SYMPHONY at CARNEGIE HALL. FOR LIFE AND RENEWAL IN PAKISTAN AFTER THE 2010 FLOODS. Who: Music for Life International Inc. and American Pakistan Foundation,
George Mathew, Conductor, Glenn Dicterow, Concertmaster, Laquita Mitchell, Soprano, Margaret Lattimore, Mezzo-soprano, Sean Pannikar, Tenor, Morris, Robinson, Bass. What: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. When: January 31, 2011 at 8pm. Where: Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall. Tickets: Tickets are $35 – $199. For information or to purchase tickets, Carnegie Hall Box Office, or online at www.carnegiehall.org.
Pakistan : Turning villains into heroes
Turning villains into heroes
- The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) is the mother of religious terrorism in Pakistan. It is the only party that has ideologues, strategists and operators. The JI knows how to, directly or indirectly, use the religious parties to its advantage.
When killer Mumtaz Malik Qadri was shooting at Governor Salmaan Taseer (shaheed) his security colleagues remained mere spectators. After committing this act he was safely handed over to the police. After a few minutes, his confession statement was leaked to the media. Up until then the media was using the word “martyred” for Governor Taseer but after his confession statement was whipped up by everyone, suddenly the words “assassinated” and “killed” replaced martyred, and the killer was declared a “ghazi”. In no time the killer was being compared with Ilm Din who had been praised by Allama Mohammad Iqbal and defended by Mohammad Ali Jinnah in court. In short, the martyred was turned into a villain, and a killer into a ghazi.
You must be thinking how all this happened so quickly, as if the angels themselves were directing the TV channels. Divine inspiration cannot explain the turn of the media. However, this rhetoric can be attributed to organised groups — agencies or operators of political parties and terrorist groups — deputed to take care of the media. Such elements use all kinds of methods like threats and enticements to force the media to use their language. The Salmaan Taseer case shows very well how the planners quickly got hold of Qadri’s confession and put it all over the media.
Salmaan Taseer’s martyrdom reminds me of the early 1970 period of Punjab University (PU). Then the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT) was testing its initial model of Islamisation in PU, which was later implemented in the rest of the country by various religious and political parties. Incidentally, members of the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT) have penetrated many political parties, particularly the PML-N, MQM and some others. The etymology of religious terrorism is very different in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from Punjab where the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT’s) PU model is self-evident. This is one of the reasons why 90 percent of blasphemy cases have been registered in Punjab where the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT) are most powerful.
I vividly remember how the IJT used to plan before terrorising a student or a teacher. For example, a night before action they would prepare posters condemning the ‘Surkha ghunda gardi’ (terrorism of the Left). They would then assign people to go to the police station to file a report against the Left. It was rumoured in those days that the JI managed to have their chosen police officers employed in the Wahdat Colony police station, which covered the university’s jurisdiction. The next day, within minutes, after breaking the bones of some of its opposing students or insulting a teacher, they would put up these posters on every wall of the university. In no time, a police report would be filed and the police would be moved to arrest the victims. Sometimes press statements about the incidents were sent to the media even before the action. This is how methodically the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), through the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT), terrorised the left-liberal students and teachers.
Now review the chronology of events on the day Salmaan Taseer was martyred in this backdrop. You will see that it was all pre-planned. The planners knew how the governor was going to be gunned down, how the killer would be handed over to the police and how his confession statement was to reach the media. It seems that the planners had prepared teams to manipulate the media through threats or enticement. Without planning, media portrayal does not get reversed so quickly. …
Read more : WICHAAR
Powerful earthquake shook southwestern Pakistan
Quake shakes Pakistan, damage seems limited ISLAMABAD: By A powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.2 shook southwestern Pakistan early on Wednesday, jolting residents of cities as far apart as Delhi and Dubai, but the epicentre was far from major population centres. The US Geological Survey said the quake was more than 80 km (50 miles) underground, [...]
India plans Asian tidal power first
By Richard Black, Environment correspondent, BBC News
The Indian state of Gujurat is planning to host Asia’s first commercial-scale tidal power station.
The company Atlantis Resources is to install a 50MW tidal farm in the Gulf of Kutch on India’s west coast, with construction starting early in 2012.
The facility could be expanded to deliver more than 200MW.
The biggest operating tidal station in the world, La Rance in France, generates 240MW, while South Korea is planning several large facilities.
To claim the title of “Asia’s first”, the Indian project will have to outrun developments at Sihwa Lake, a South Korean tidal barrage under construction on the country’s west coast.
Atlantis’s recent feasibility study in Gujurat concluded that the state had good potential for tidal exploitation. …
Read more : BBC
Bhatta Mafia of Karachi – video.
Hal Kya Hai focuses on various genres of crime, corruption, bribery, mafia, kidnapping, hijacking, drug trafficking and other social evils that have become a part of social fabric of the society. After the story is introduced by exclusive and unique investigative footage that exposes the discrepancy hands on, a probe into the matter will be conducted by the anchor, Nida Sameer, who will connect with and question all stakeholders involved in the matter.
Courtesy: SAMAA TV ( Hal Kya Hai, 12 January, 2011)
Who will bell the cat?
Courtesy: SAMAA TV (News Beat with Meher Bokhari, 18 January, 2011)
via – ZemTV – YouTube Link
Religious intolerance in Pakistan
- The Blasphemy Law is Blasphemous itself.
