As the victims of Pakistan’s worst-ever floods grow ever more desperate, the generosity of their fellow citizens is having unforeseen consequences in one aid camp. …
Courtesy: AlJazeera
via >> Globeistan
Daily Archives: 17/08/2010
Reinventing Pakistan – Dr Manzur Ejaz
From terrorism to floods, Pakistan is suffering because of a lack of collective consciousness and indifference to the basic rules of self-preservation. The ruling elite must learn to establish good governance if Pakistan is to survive
When my family purchased an acre of land in Virginia, we thought we could build any size of home we liked. What we soon discovered was that the county’s residential codes did not allow tampering with certain water drainage areas and thus we had limited options about where to build. Besides the drainage area, we were not permitted to cut the trees that were older than 50 years. Consequently, the architect was given a specific size and location with which to design the house. The county supervisors physically checked the implementation of building codes at every step of the design and construction. Now, it may rain for weeks but the water flows freely through the drain.
In Pakistan, lack of governance has led to people grabbing public or state-owned land and blocking the natural flow of water. Therefore, the damage from the floods will be far more catastrophic than anyone’s expectations. However, the government can avail this opportunity and recover the old drains or natural outflow systems while reconstruction takes place.
Read more >> WICHAAR
VALID POINTS BY QADIR MAGSI
Taliban Order Stoning Deaths
In Bold Display, Taliban Order Stoning Deaths
By ROD NORDLAND
KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban on Sunday ordered their first public executions by stoning since their fall from power nine years ago, killing a young couple who had eloped, according to Afghan officials and a witness. …
Read more >> New York Times
Home minster & DCO
Courtesy: SAMAA TV
>> Link
Kalabagh dam is not a flood-control project, it would have caused more flooding
KBD would have caused more flooding: expert* Former IRSA chief says dam is not a flood-control project
Kalabagh dam is not flood-control Project: ex-Chairman IRSA Gandapur
PESHAWAR: The Kalabagh Dam – had it been built – would have caused flooding rather than averting it, a former chairman of the Indus River System Authority (IRSA) said on Wednesday, while responding to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s recent statement about the dam.
“The dam’s effect on floods would have been contrary to what the prime minister claimed,” said Fatehullah Khan Gandapur, who headed IRSA from 1993 to 1998.
The KP leadership has criticised the PM’s statement, and Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain termed the project “a dead horse”. “Kalabagh dam is not a
flood-control project,” Gandapur said while talking to Daily Times on Wednesday. “It is a run-of-the-river project and its design has to be changed if we want to make it a flood-control project,” he said.
Kalabagh dam would have caused more flooding & it is not a flood-control Project: ex-Chairman IRSA
Gandapur said the dam’s construction would have caused reverse flow in the Kabul River, submerging Nowshera district and water-logging the entire Peshawar valley. “Consultants have called the dam’s design a failure,” he said.
Courtesy: Daily Times, August 12, 2010.
Flood situation in Sindh
On Shaping The History Of Pakistan
By Tahir Qazi, MD
The 14th of August 2010 marks 63rd birthday of Pakistan. On the first day of August, the Ambassador of Pakistan to the US confidently announced on CNN, “When I go back to being a professor, I will certainly teach history but right now, I’m working along with my colleagues in the US government and trying to shape history ….” The statement bears an awe inspiring elitism and intellectual arrogance.
The age of Twitter has distorted the Pakistani Ambassador’s sense of history and historic processes. Deluded into thinking that he is shaping history, he does not realize that Pakistan is bobbing in the ocean of history whose currents he does not and cannot control; to paraphrase famous remarks of German chancellor Bismark.
Nonetheless, the statement rings an odd truth about Pakistan that the history of Pakistan is mostly ‘Made in America’. Pakistani leaders have been trying to shape the history of their nation for a long time from Jeddah to London to Washington, virtually from everywhere but Pakistan.
Read more >> Countercurrents.org
Militants Overtake India as Top Threat
Pakistan Says Militants Surpass India as Threat
Fundamental Shift Could Affect Afghan War, Bilateral Talks
By TOM WRIGHT in Islamabad and SIOBHAN GORMAN in Washington
Pakistan’s main spy agency says homegrown Islamist militants have overtaken the Indian army as the greatest threat to national security, a finding with potential ramifications for relations between the two rival South Asian nations and for the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. …
Read more >> WALL STREET JOURNAL
Sindhi Americans Meet With President Obama
SAPAC Meets With President Obama
Milwaukee, WI- Delegates of the Sindhi-American community, including Sindhi American Political Action Committee (SAPAC) leadership, met today with President Barack Obama. Other politicians in attendance were Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI), and Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-WI). SAPAC Executive Director Munawar Laghari, SAPAC Vice-President Dr. Ikramulla Ahmadani, Board of Directors member Dr. Khalid Zaman and Advisory Board members Hanne and Michelle, along with other members of the Sindhi-American community, spoke directly with President Obama regarding US-PK policies.
President Obama was engaged in the conversation and appreciative to hear of the first-hand Sindh perspective regarding flood assistance and Pakistan governance. SAPAC is confident that this positive experience will be the first of many between Sindhi-Americans and US leadership.
August 16, 2010
Indus Asia Online Journal (Click here to go to home page) 