Who says countries are permanent?

By Ayaz Amir

Islamabad diary

We should know this more than others. The Pakistan of 1947 is not the Pakistan which exists today, one half of it having broken away to form another country. I served in Moscow in the seventies and nothing seemed more solid or permanent than the Soviet Union, a mighty power which cast a shadow far and wide. Who could have thought that in a few years’ time it would fracture, leaving a trail of small, independent republics behind?

Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall was two countries. Now it is back to being one. Czechoslovakia was one country then. Now it is two. In the UK, of all places, the Scots, or a goodly part of them, are demanding independence. A referendum is set to decide this question in 2014.

After the fall of the Soviet Union it seemed as if American pre-eminence was an assured thing, lasting for the next hundred years. Bright-eyed scholars announced not just the closing of an era but the end of history. As hubris goes, this had few equals. There were other Americans who said that reality would be what America wanted it to be. Yet American power has declined before our eyes, nothing more contributing to this than the wars President Bush ventured upon in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Clash of civilisations was another phrase current just ten years. Something of the sort has happened but not in a way that the US could have intended. Wouldn’t the Taliban, wouldn’t Al-Qaeda, define their struggle as a clash of civilisations?

Ten years ago in a Jamaat-ud-Dawaah mosque in Chakwal (not far from my house) I heard one of their leaders talking of America’s eventual but sure defeat in Afghanistan. I thought his rhetoric too fanciful then. It sounds much closer to home now.

I have just read a longish review of Norman Davies’ ‘Vanished Kingdoms: The Rise and Fall of States and Nations’. This book should be required reading for anyone concerned about the future of Pakistan. For the lesson it emphasises is that history does not promise progress. All it promises is change. Nothing is fixed, all is movement, nations rising and falling, the old disappearing to make way for the new, the new in turn becoming the old and morphing into something else – the philosophy of Heraclitus and Hegel, even of Marx.

“Pakistan Army, ISI must shut up shop if they can’t protect people”: Altaf Hussain’s bold stance on Shia genocide

Minorities under attack: Altaf lines up police, agencies, clerics, judges, army and… fires

By Saba Imtiaz

Karachi: In an impassioned speech that included critiques of clerics and the judiciary, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain asked the Pakistan Army, Inter-Services Intelligence and other agencies to shut up shop if they could not “protect people”.

“Leave them,” Hussain said before turning to his audience, “You have a right to defend yourself by any means.”

Altaf’s speech at an interfaith conference organised by his party in Karachi came after a series of statements by him and other party leaders on the increase in the number of attacks on Shias throughout Pakistan. Several clerics from Karachi as well as other cities of Pakistan such as Quetta, Lahore and Chakwal, were in attendance.

Ancient Jain temples in Tharparker

Temples too discriminated!

By Kapil Dev

You may dislike President Asif Ali Zaradari for his political smartness for he had outwitted many of his opponents and for his failure to deliver to masses. But you may not dislike him for his love for environment. The reason may be he himself held portfolio of Environment Minister in Benazir Bhutto’s first government or his instinctive love for environment.

On Monday, President Asif Ali Zardari expressed concern over the damage to the centuries-old Kataas Raj temple near Choa Saidan Shah, Chakwal, due to the environmental degradation caused by the construction of industrial complexes around the temple and asked for a report from the relevant ministry.

Similar reports were also published some time ago regarding dilapidated conditions of temples in Sindh, particularly ancient Jain temples in Tharparker and an attempt to demolish a Hindu temple in Choorio, Nangarparker, by a Granite lease owner. But the Presidency did not move to instruct authorities for protection.

On Kataas Raj temple located in a small village of Punjab, the President called for a report after taking note of a media report that the building of industrial complexes around the Kataas Raj temple had destroyed its pristine beauty and threatened the natural water pond with complete extinction.

The report was published in Dawn Newspaper on April 22 under the headline “Holy pond at Kataas Raj dying up” and reported by Nabeel Anwar Dhakku.

The natural pond had been in existence for thousands of years attracting pilgrims from far and wide in the South Asian subcontinent. Since ages water flowed from the pond to downstream villages of Wahoola, Tatral and Dulmial without any drop in the pond level that was constantly replenished by the spring waters underneath. However, the industrial units constructed near the site had sucked up groundwater and diverted the flow of the springs resulting in the drying up the pond, the report said. ….

Read more » The Sindh Journal

Osama biggest martyr, Zardari biggest traitor, says JI chief

LAHORE – Jamaat-e-Islami chief Munawar Hasan has described Osama bin Laden as the greatest martyr and President Asif Ali Zardari as the biggest traitor.

Addressing a public meeting at a Chakwal village on Sunday, Hasan said bin Laden had refused to obey the Satan upon which the US was so much upset and ashamed that it could not release any photograph or video of his after his “martyrdom”.

Hasan said Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, who had challenged the Supreme Court’s dignity should have been handcuffed and chained because not only had he violated his oath but had also committed contempt by refusing to write to the Swiss Banks only to save Zardari.

He impressed upon the chief justice to not be impressed by the holders of the highest offices and treat all equally. “Whosoever challenged the dignity of the court should be handed down deterrent punishment,” he said, adding that had people like Babar Awan and Rehman Malik been jailed for contempt, the prime minister could not have the courage to disobey the court orders.

Hasan said the nation was in the grip of “beasts” as a gang of exploiters was ruling the country under the garb of democracy while the common man was unable to make both ends meet. He said the nation should realise that the corrupt could not control corruption and the masses would have to rise against the oppressive political system.

The JI chief said Zardari had showered praises on Gilani whose only achievement was to hide Zardari’s corruption.

He said parliament that was keen to restore NATO supplies to facilitate the enemy in the killing of innocent Pakistanis was not the representative of this nation.

Despite parliament’s decision, the rulers had continued NATO supplies by lying to the nation.

Hasan accused the rulers of following US policy on Balochistan, and said if Balochistan was to be retained as a part of the country, the Baloch should not be pushed to the wall.

He said the PPP leadership would also have to account for the MQM’s crimes.

Courtesy: Pakistan Today

http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2012/03/18/news/national/osama-biggest-martyr-zardari-biggest-traitor-says-ji-chief/