Birmingham (UK), Calgary (Canada), Houston (USA) and Washington DC (USA) celebrated Sindhiat

– Khalid Hashmani

Let us convey our gratitude to those who celebrated Sindhi culture and Sindhi identity in Birmingham (UK), Calgary (Canada), Houston (USA, and Washington DC (USA). Two more get-togethers (New York on Nov. 26 and Washington DC on Dec. 5) are still planned Sindhi Culture Celebration Day festivities of overseas Sindhis to create awareness about Sindhi culture of peace and heritage.

Courtesy » Sindhi e-lists/ e-groups, 24th Nov 2011.

A U.S.-Pakistan Reset

A charismatic envoy’s sudden downfall is the chance for Washington to move from engagement with Islamabad to containment.

BY SADANAND DHUME

It’s not every day that an ambassador’s departure from office makes international headlines. But then Husain Haqqani, who resigned Tuesday after serving for more than three years as Pakistan’s envoy to Washington, was no garden-variety diplomat. He managed to be unapologetically pro-American, while representing one of the most anti-American places in the world.

The extraordinary circumstances of Mr. Haqqani’s departure reveal much about Pakistan’s precarious politics. He was forced to step down, reportedly under pressure from the country’s notorious intelligence agencies, amid unconfirmed allegations that he secretly sought U.S. assistance to weaken the grip of the military. His exit should …

Read more » The Wall Street Journal

Mehar Bukhari on Memogate

The language of the talk show is urdu (Hindi).

Courtesy » Duniya TV (Crossfire with Mehar Bukhari – 24th November 2011)

via » ZemTv » YouTube

Tribune Take: Sherry, in line with the establishment

By Mahawish Rezvi

In today’s episode of the Tribune Take we look at the latest appointment of Sherry Rehman as Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States.

Muhammad Ziauddin, executive editor The Express Tribune, says Rehman is a consensus candidate, one that is approved by ‘the powers that be’ in Pakistan; the executive, the establishment and the United States of America.

The appointment comes after Husain Haqqani was asked to resign by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani in the wake of the Memogate scandal.

Ziauddin says although Rehman is an experienced journalist who has received her political training by former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, she will be the inexperienced one amidst the powerful women in DC, namely US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and Indian ambassador Nirupama Rao. However, back home he says the establishment should be pleased with Rehman’s representation of Pakistan.

Read more » The Express Tribune

Trumpeting j’accuse? – By Shahab Usto

If President Zardari is forced out for his alleged ‘ineptness’ or ‘collusiveness’ with Ambassador Haqqani’s alleged ‘memo’, then there will be questions about those who are accused of being ‘inept’ or ‘collusive’ in the Osama bin Laden case.

Why must every scandal cause a section of the media to conclude that the democratic edifice is about to cave in? Why is news no more reported but presented with juicy blandishments? Why are political and institutional rivals ever so prone to trumpeting ‘j’accuse’, forgetting their own acts of omission and commission? And why do the grave social and economic problems of the common man not arouse such rage and fury in the media as does the clash of interests among powerful individuals and institutions; after all, more than six million flood-affected IDPs are helplessly confronted with the onset of a harrowing winter in Sindh. …..

Read more » Daily Times

ISI memogate

Pakistan: Between Memo And Military

By Mohammad Taqi

Excerpt;

Was it the alleged memo or was it the consistent advocacy of civilian supremacy, first as a scholar and then as an envoy, which earned Haqqani the junta’s wrath and cost him his job?

“In the foreseeable future, Islam will remain a factor in Pakistan’s politics. Musharraf and his likely successors from the ranks of the military, promising reform, will continue to seek U.S. economic and military assistance; yet the power of such promises is tempered by the strong links between Pakistan’s military-intelligence apparatus and extremist Islamists”.

Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military— Husain Haqqani

As Ambassador Husain Haqqani landed in a Pakistan caught between the notorious memo and an army posturing for a kill, one felt that there was more to the Memogate than meets the eye. Was it the alleged memo or was it the consistent advocacy of civilian supremacy, first as a scholar and then as an envoy, which earned Haqqani the junta’s wrath and cost him his job? ….

…. Post Script: Ms Sherry Rehman has just been appointed as the new Pakistani ambassador to the US. Her known views on Afghanistan mirror that of the Pakistan Army, especially regarding giving a prominent role to Siraj Haqqani network and Mullah Omar in any future Afghan settlement. The military establishment has clearly prevailed over Asif Zardari in this round. What remains to be seen is whether he will still be around for next .

To read complete article » OUT LOOK » Daily Times (DT)

Jamaat Leader Gave Fatwa Authorising raping Hindu women

Sayedee gave fatwa ‘legalising war booty including women’

The chief prosecutor on Monday told the International Crimes Tribunal that accused Delwar Hossain Sayedee during the liberation war had pronounced ‘fatwa’ (Islamic religious edict) legalising war booty, including goods, chattels and women, captured from the ‘enemies’ terming those ‘mal-e-ganimat (war boaty),’ reports UNB.

Closing the opening statement, chief prosecutor Golam Arif Tipu said accused Sayedee as an armed Razakar commander was a party to it.

People saw Sayedee wearing white panjabi tucked with his lungi like loin cloth carrying on his head and hands the war booty of goods and chattels, the chief prosecutor said, adding that the war booty were dumped in his father-in-law’s house.

About the captured women during the war of Liberation especially of the Hindu community, the chief prosecutor said the women war booty were kept reserved to be sexually enjoyed by the Pakistan occupation forces at Parerhat makeshift camp in Pirojpur.

At one stage, Sayedee had developed illicit relationship with a young girl, Bhanu Saha, daughter of Bipod Saha at Parerhat and regularly went to her house to have sex with her under duress, the chief prosecutor said.

The chief prosecutor further stated that ravished Bhanu left for India from her motherland and never returned to Bangladesh. Later, Bhanu got married there and now leads a family life, he added.

The chief prosecutor also stated that after the emergence of Bangladesh, Sayedee, had gone into hiding for long and reappeared at his locality after one-and-half-decades in 1986. Later, Sayedee started lecturing on religious subjects as ‘fake’ maulana, he said.

Earlier, the chief prosecutor, in a nutshell, gave horrendous descriptions of atrocities perpetrated by the Pakistan Army and its cohorts killing innocent freedom-loving people, including then Pirojpur Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Fayezur Rahman Ahmed, father of writer-brothers Humayun Ahmed and Zafar Iqbal, SDO-in charge Abdur Razzaq and district magistrate Saif Mizanur Rahman. They were captured from their workplaces and later gunned down. Their bodies were thrown into the Baleshwar River.

Sayedee had also helped recruit Razakars, an auxiliary force of the occupation army, and invited the army by establishing makeshift camps in Pirojpur for committing crimes against humanity, the chief prosecutor mentioned.

Nayeb-e-ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami Sayedee (71), was charged with crimes against humanity, including genocide, rape, arson attacks, looting, and forcibly converting Hindus into Muslims during the liberation war in collaboration with the Pakistani occupation forces. The charges fall under section 3 (2) and its sub-sections of the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973.

The recording of evidence of the prosecution witnesses before the tribunal will start on December 7.

Courtesy » The Financial Express

http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/more.php?news_id=156854&date=2011-11-22