Pakistan says will not tolerate incursions

Zeeshan Haider, Reuters Published: Saturday, September 20, 2008 ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan will not tolerate any infringement of its sovereignty or territory in the name of the fight against militancy and it must root out terrorism, President Asif Ali Zardari said on Saturday. Zardari won a presidential election this month to replace firm U.S. ally Pervez Musharraf who stepped down in August under threat of impeachment. Zardari is close to the United States and had earlier vowed to maintain nuclear-armed Pakistan's commitment to the U.S.-led campaign against militancy, even though it is deeply unpopular with many Pakistanis. Supporters of Pakistani Islamist party Jammatullama-e-Islam chant anti-U.S. slogans to condemn strikes in Pakistani tribal areas along the Afghanistan border, during a protest in Peshawar September 18, 2008. REUTERS/Ali ImamView Larger Image View Larger Image Supporters of Pakistani Islamist party Jammatullama-e-Islam chant anti-U.S. slogans to condemn strikes in Pakistani tribal areas along the Afghanistan border, during a protest in Peshawar September 18, 2008. REUTERS/Ali Imam Email to a friendEmail to a friendPrinter friendlyPrinter friendly Font: * * * * * * * * AddThis Social Bookmark Button The United States and Afghanistan say al Qaeda and Taliban militants operate out of sanctuaries in remote ethnic Pashtun lands on the Pakistani side of the Afghan border. Frustrated by an intensifying Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, the United States has stepped up attacks on militants in Pakistan with six missile attacks by pilotless drones and a helicopter-borne ground assault this month. The U.S. attacks have infuriated many in Pakistan, which is also battling militants, and the army has vowed to stand up to aggression across the border. But a senior Pakistani official told Reuters earlier the latest missile strike, which killed five militants on Wednesday, was the result of better U.S.-Pakistani intelligence sharing. Zardari, the widower of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, did not refer directly to the U.S. strikes but said territorial infringements would not be tolerated. "We will not tolerate the violation of our sovereignty and territorial integrity by any power in the name of combating terrorism," Zardari said in his first address to a joint sitting of parliament. At the same time, Pakistan must stop militants from using its territory for attacks on other countries, he said. "I ask of the government that it should be firm in its resolve to not allow the use of its soil for carrying out terrorist activities against any foreign country," Zardari said. India accuses Pakistan of arming, abetting and sending insurgents across the border into Indian-controlled Kashmir, where militants have been fighting security forces since 1989. Pakistan says it only offers political support to what it calls a legitimate freedom struggle by the mostly Muslim people of Kashmir. "We must root out terrorism and extremism wherever and whenever they may rear their ugly heads," Zardari said. (Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by David Fox)

Pakistan sẽ đánh khủng bố đến cùng

Thủ tướng Pakistan xác nhận với báo giới rằng đại sứ Czech tại Pakistan nằm trong số những người thiệt mạng trong vụ xe tải đánh bom tại khách sạn Marriott ở Islamabad thứ Bảy (20/9). Đại sứ Ivo Zdarek, là một trong năm mươi người được nói tới là thiệt mạng, và người ta tin số người chết sẽ còn gia tăng. 250 người khác bị thương. Các nhóm tìm kiếm nạn nhân hiện đang tìm thi thể và người sống sót trong đống đổ nát của khách sạn. Đám tang dành cho người chết hiện đang bắt đầu tại Islamabad. Cho đến nay người ta không rõ ai là người tổ chức vụ đánh bom. Tuy nhiên phái viên BBC nói rằng nhiều người chỉ tay về phía các chiến đấu quân Taleban, nhóm người mà quân đội Pakistan hiện đang giao tranh tại miền Tây Bắc nước này. Phát biểu trước quốc dân đồng bào sau vụ đánh bom, tổng thống Zardari nói khủng bố hiện nguy hiểm như căn bệnh ung thư đối với quốc gia, và chính phủ ông sẽ tìm mọi cách để loại trừ. Và người đứng đầu bộ phận anh ninh quốc nội, , Rehman Malik, nói chính quyền Pakistan sẽ chiến đấu cho tới tên khủng bố cuối cùng, theo lời ông, rời khỏi Pakistan. Tổng thống Bush nói Hoa Kỳ sẵn sàng giúp Pakistan tìm kẻ chủ mưu đánh bom và đưa chúng ra xét xử trước công lý. Ông Bush là người luôn thúc giục Pakistan cần hành động nhiều hơn để loại trừ các chiến đấu quân gần biên giới Afghanistan. Trong khi đó lãnh đạo Pakistan tin rằng việc lính Mỹ tràn qua biên giới để săn lùng quân Taleban càng làm cho tình hình an ninh trong nước tồi tệ hơn. ‘Một tấn thuốc nổ’ Vụ đánh bom tại khách sạn Marriott để lại một hố sâu khoảng sáu mét. Chủ khách sạn cho biết một chiếc xe tải đã nổ tung khi lực lượng bảo vệ đang kiểm tra an ninh tại cửa ra vào. Tổng thống Mỹ Bush đã lên án vụ tấn công và hứa sẽ trợ giúp Pakistan. Ông Bush nói vụ đánh bom cũng gợi lại “những mối đe dọa hiện thời mà Pakistan và Mỹ cũng như tất cả các nước chống lại chủ nghĩa cực đoan bạo lực đang phải đối mặt”. Người đứng đầu Nhà Trắng nói sẽ “trợ giúp Pakistan đối đầu với mối đe dọa này, và đưa những kẻ tấn công ra trước công lý”. Vụ nổ đã phá hủy toàn bộ mặt tiền của khách sạn và làm sụp đổ trần của phòng tiệc. Nhân viên khách sạn chạy tìm chỗ ẩn nấp Các nhân chứng kể lại cảnh kinh hoàng khi các thi thể dính đầy máu được đưa ra khỏi đống đổ nát, trong khi khách và nhân viên khách sạn chạy tìm nơi ẩn nấp khỏi các mảnh kính vỡ. Phóng viên BBC Barbara Plett tại hiện trường vụ nổ cho biết lực lượng cấp cứu không thể lên tới tầng trên của khách sạn, nơi nhiều người vẫn còn bị mắc kẹt. Trong một bài phát biểu trên truyền hình, Tổng thống Zardari nói ông sẽ không bị chùn bước trước cuộc chiến chống chủ nghĩa cực đoan. “Chủ nghĩa khủng bố là căn bệnh ung thư ở Pakistan, và với sự quyết tâm và sự soi sáng của Thánh thần, chúng ta sẽ đưa đất nước vượt qua căn bệnh này”. “Tôi cam kết rằng hành động của những kẻ hèn nhát này sẽ không làm giảm quyết tâm của chúng ta”. Người ta cho rằng hơn một tấn thuốc nổ đã được sử dụng trong vụ tấn công này, và cảnh sát cảnh báo khách sạn có thể đổ sụp. Các nhà phân tích nói rằng vụ tấn công được coi là nghiêm trọng nhất ở thủ đô Pakistan cho tới nay, gây quan ngại về sự ổn định của nước này trong khi đang phải đối mặt với phong trào Hồi giáo đang gia tăng. An ninh dày đặc Một khu vực lớn của khách sạn 315 giường vẫn còn bốc cháy năm giờ sau vụ nổ. Chủ nghĩa khủng bố là căn bệnh ung thư ở Pakistan, và với sự quyết tâm và sự soi sáng của Thánh thần, chúng ta sẽ đưa đất nước vượt qua căn bệnh này Tổng thống Pakistan Ít nhất 100 người bị thương trong vụ tấn công, trong đó có công dân các nước Anh, Ảrập Saudi, Đức, Moroco, Afghanistan và Mỹ. Có tin cho hay ít nhất 200 người có mặt trong nhà hàng của khách sạn khi vụ nổ xảy ra lúc 15h GMT. Marriott là khách sạn sang trọng nhất ở thủ đô Islamabad, và được người nước ngoài và tầng lớp thượng lưu của Pakistan yêu thích. Khách sạn nằm gần các tòa nhà chính phủ và các cơ quan đại diện ngoại giao, nên an ninh được tăng cường nghiêm ngặt. Cả khách và các phương tiện vận chuyển đều bị kiểm tra. Marriott trước đây từng là mục tiêu của các chiến binh. Năm ngoái một kẻ đánh bom tự sát đã tự kết liễu bản thân và một người khác trong vụ tấn công vào khách sạn. Pakistan là một đồng minh chính của Mỹ trong ‘cuộc chiến chống khủng bố’, nhưng quan hệ đôi bên dường như trở nên căng thẳng quanh cách thức tiến hành. Vụ tấn công diễn ra chỉ vài giờ sau khi Tổng thống mới được bầu Zardari phát biểu trước quốc hội lần đầu tiên, với tuyên bố sẽ không để khủng bố và các thế lực chống lại lực lượng này vi phạm lãnh thổ

PAKISTAN: WAZIRISTAN, SOLDIERS SHOOT AT 2 US HELICOPTERS

(AGI) - Miranshah, 22 Sept – There has been yet another raid by US forces in Pakistan, and once again Islamabad governmental troops have reacted, this time by opening fire on two US assault helicopters which had gone into North Waziristan, one of the turbulent, semi-autonomous tribal areas along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan over which the central government in Pakistan has power in name only. The incident was reported by local authorities, who said that the shots from the ground by the governmental troops forced the two US aircraft to turn around and go back into Afghanistan. On Saturday, in making a speech before the National Parliament in a plenary session, the newly-sworn-in president Asif Ali Zardari warned that no tolerance would be shown towards “violations of our sovereignty and territorial integrity”, while at the same time reiterating his commitment in the “fight against terrorism and extremism.” Growing military operations in the United States along the border have given rise to the rage of protests from a state which has traditionally been one of the Washington’s closest Asian allies.

Dinner plans save Pakistan's rulers from hotel bomb attack

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's president, prime minister and other Cabinet members were supposed to have been at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad when a massive truck bomb detonated outside, killing 57 and injuring 266, Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Monday. A truck burns at the gate to the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad before a larger, deadly explosion Saturday. A truck burns at the gate to the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad before a larger, deadly explosion Saturday. Click to view previous image 1 of 4 Click to view next image Malik said their planned dinner was changed at the last minute, although did not say how far in advance it had been planned. The Speaker of the House, Fahmida Mirza, had planned the event for ministers, the president, their guests and various foreign dignitaries. But at the last minute, President Asif Ali Zardari asked that the event be transferred to the Prime Minister's compound, Malik told reporters during a handover service for Czech Ambassador Ivo Zdarek, who died in the blast. On Sunday Malik called the massive blast "the biggest attack, volume-wise" in Pakistan in seven years, based on the quantity -- 600kg -- and type of explosives used. Two American military personnel who worked for the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad were among those killed, the U.S. military said. A Lithuanian Pakistan was also among the fatalities, police superintendent Sheikh Zubair told CNN Sunday. The injured included 11 foreigners, Malik said. No arrests have been made in connection with the attack. But Malik said suspicion is falling on militants in Pakistan's tribal regions. "I am not in a position to tell you who has done it, but (in) all the previous investigations, all the roads have gone to South Waziristan," he said Sunday. South Waziristan is one of seven agencies of Pakistan's tribal areas where Taliban and al Qaeda militants are active. But Amir Mohammad, an aide to leader of the Pakistani Taliban Baitullah Mehsud, said he shared the country's grief and was not involved, The Associated Press reported. Saturday's massive blast left a nearly 60-foot-wide (18 meters) crater, which was 24 feet (7m) deep, Malik said. It also caused a natural gas leak that set the top floor of the five-story, 258-room hotel on fire, police said. The blaze quickly engulfed the entire structure. Don't Miss * Hotel destroyed in Islamabad blast * Pakistani president tells foreign troops to keep out * 6 killed in Pakistan suicide bombing * Blast kills 3 students at school in Pakistan The blast occurred about 7:50 p.m., after the breaking of the fast during the holy month of Ramadan, Malik said. Trees were felled by the explosion, which occurred hours after newly elected President Asif Ali Zardari addressed a joint session of Parliament and promised to root out terrorism. At a news conference in Islamabad on Sunday, Pakistani authorities released security video of the blast, showing a small explosion inside the truck before the larger, deadly explosion. In the video, a large truck crashes into the security gate, sending one security officer scurrying for safety. Then, as security guards approach the truck, the top of the vehicle explodes and the security guards flee. Video Watch guards scatter after an explosion » A small cloud of smoke appears above the truck, which is engulfed in flames minutes later. One of the security guards tries to put out the fire with a hand-held extinguisher, to no avail. The guards then walk away, and the camera freezes on the burning truck. Video Watch the truck bomb caught on tape » Pakistani officials said the blast apparently disrupted electricity to the area, causing the closed-circuit television camera to malfunction. The Marriott, a Western brand-name hotel, has been the site of attacks in the past. Malik said authorities had received a threat against the parliament two days ago. "We had taken all security measures," he said. "There was heavy security in the city." Located near the diplomatic section of the city and heavily guarded by police and military, the hotel is popular among tourists and had been packed Saturday night. See where the attack occurred » British Airways temporarily suspended its flights to Islamabad Sunday as a result of the security situation, according to an airline spokeswoman who did not want to be named. A Sunday night flight was canceled, and the airline is reviewing its operations for later in the week. British Airways operates at least three flights a week to the Pakistani capital out of London's Heathrow Airport. advertisement • Militants kidnapped an Afghan diplomat and killed his driver in

Al-Qaeda blamed as suicide bomber kills 53 at the Marriott hotel, Islamabad

Rescuers picked their way yesterday through the smouldering ruins of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad, looking for more bodies after a huge bomb devastated the building in one of Pakistan’s worst terrorist attacks. The death toll last night stood at 53, with 266 wounded, after a bomber blew up a lorry containing 600kg of explosive on Saturday evening. The body of Ivo Zdarek, the Czech Ambassador, was among those pulled from the rubble. Mr Zdarek, 47, moved to Islamabad only in August. Two Americans, said to be US Defence Department employees, were also killed in the blast but their identities were not revealed. The Danish intelligence agency said last night that one of its agents, a security advisor, was missing after the attack and was presumed dead. The bombing happened after dusk on Saturday, when hundreds of people were dining in several restaurants inside the hotel. Closed-circuit TV footage showed the driver of the lorry ramming into the security gates but failing to breach a second barrier. Related Links * Desperation becomes real threat to Pakistan * Barrier held back Islamabad truck bomber - CCTV * Hotel bomb shows al-Qaeda's deadly new reach Multimedia * Islamabad bombing Rehman Malik, an Interior Ministry official, said that the attacker intended to drive into the lobby of the hotel and had apparently tried to convince the guards to lower the second barrier. When they would not, he blew himself up in the lorry’s cabin. The guards then tried to put out the fire in the lorry, and it was several minutes before the second, enormous blast devastated the Marriott. Abdur Rehman, 45, who was on security duty, said: “The bomber fired several shots in the air when we tried to stop him, scaring us all away. Then after a few minutes the truck exploded with a massive blast, setting the building on fire.” Mohammed Latif, who was in the hotel car park, said: “The entire area was engulfed in thick smoke and pieces of glass and debris was flying all over. People, many of them stained in blood, came rushing out from a side gate.” Akbar Khan, a World Bank employee, was dining with friends at one of the hotel’s restaurants when he heard a thud, and then a huge blast. “I saw people scaling 12ft walls at the back of the hotel to save their lives,” Mr Khan, whose head and arms were injured, said. Rescue teams searched the blackened building room by room but were hampered by fires still burning some areas 24 hours after the explosion. “There could be some charred bodies inside,” a senior official said. At least two Britons were among the hundreds wounded in the attack, which had the luxury hotel in the capital’s high-security zone in flames for several hours, destroying the five-storey building. Both were discharged from hospital after treatment for minor injuries. At the entrance to the Marriott, a favourite venue for foreigners, journalists and wealthy Pakistanis, a crater 50ft wide and 20ft deep bore witness to the power of the explosion. Many of the victims were killed or injured by the intense heat of the blast, which also burst gas pipelines. “Bodies were charred beyond recognition,” a rescue worker said. Doctors at the city’s main hospital said that, with dozens of wounded in a critical condition, the death toll could rise. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but investigators said that it bore the hallmarks of an al-Qaeda operation. “The purpose was to destabilise democracy,” Yousuf Raza Gilani, the Prime Minister, said. He added that Chechen, Uzbek or Arab militants operating from the border areas could have been involved. Mr Gilani said that the bomber had attacked the Marriott only after tight security prevented him from reaching the Parliament building or the Prime Minister’s office, which are a few hundred yards from the hotel. The explosion took place just two hours after President Zardari had made his first address to Parliament, calling for terrorism to be rooted out. Mr Gilani, Mr Zardari, the chief of army staff and MPs were at a state dinner half a mile away when the bomb went off. The Interior Minister suggested that Tehrik e-Taleban e-Pakistan (TTP), an militant group suspected to be linked to al-Qaeda , was involved in the attack.

‘Karachi becoming transmission line of polio’

Saturday, September 20, 2008 By our correspondent Karachi Karachi is now becoming a transmission line of polio in the country apart from Fata, according to Minister for Health, Dr Sagheer Ahmed. “Yes, it is true that Karachi has become the transmission line of spreading polio,” he said while talking to journalists after addressing a press conference on Friday. He said that it was also true that polio virus transmitted from Karachi had infected a child in Sheikhupura, Punjab. However, he said, the polio virus that had migrated from Afghanistan was infecting children in the province of Sindh. He said that around 81 rounds of polio had taken place in Sindh, which was high as compared to other provinces. 644 dengue fever cases reported this year: Around 644 suspected dengue fever cases have been reported so far in the city in the last one year, according a spokesman of the Sindh health department. In a statement issued on Friday, the spokesman said that out of which 180 were confirmed cases of dengue fever. Around 16 new suspected dengue fever patients were reported in hospitals during the last 24 hours.

Mirza slaps Rs500m defamation suit on Arbab

Saturday, September 20, 2008 By our correspondent Karachi Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Ali Mirza has sued former Chief Minister Sindh Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim for making baseless allegations against him in print and electronic media. Filing a Rs500 million defamation lawsuit in the Sindh High Court, Mirza stated that the defendant issued baseless statements in the print and electronic media against him which had seriously damaged his reputation as he is a provincial minister and a respectable politician. Plaintiff’s counsel Bashir Ahmed Khan said that the defendant had been a member of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on or around 2002, but he was not given a party ticket in the 2002 general election and the same was given to Dr Fahmida Mirza, wife of the plaintiff, adding, the defendant left the ranks of PPP and joined the rival PML(Q) for his own benefit. He submitted that, after the defendant became the chief minister Sindh, several raids were conducted at his residences in Karachi and Badin on the instructions of the defendant to harass him and create terror among his family members. After the February 18 elections, he said, the defendant started feeling insecure due to his past dealing with his opponents, including the plaintiff, and issued a volley of baseless allegations against him. The counsel said that the defendant had alleged that his client wanted to kill him and he had paid thousands of US dollars to assassins and this statement was widely published in the media to defame the plaintiff. He said that the plaintiff’s wife is also the Speaker of National Assembly and is having to face such unwanted allegations and defamatory remarks, thus causing their family non-pecuniary and pecuniary loss. The counsel said that baseless allegations issued by the defendant to the media were without cogent proof and only aimed at defaming and causing detrimental effect to the plaintiff for which the defendant was personally liable. The court was prayed to issue a decree in the sum of Rs500 million and restrain the defendant from issuing any statement against the plaintiff in the media. Judgment reserved: Judicial Magistrate Khawaja Ashraf Hussain has reserved judgment in a robbery case of 100 tola gold from a shop of ARY Jeweler at Mansfield Street on April 29 till the next hearing. A police team of special investigation branch of the Jamshed Quarters police station arrested two accused Salahuddin and Umer Naseem on August 24 from the Sachal area for their alleged involvement in the robbery. SSP South submitted an application through Investigation Officer (IO), Agha Mashooq Ali, requesting that both the accused be released as the investigation branch did not recover gold from their possession. During the investigation it was disclosed that the gold was theft by one, Mohammed Deedar Hussain, who was working in the ARY jeweler shop.

Zindagi Trust’s efforts lauded

Saturday, September 20, 2008 Karachi Sindh Minister for Information Shazia Marri has said that public-private partnership was pivotal in the effort to further improving the education sector. She said this on her visit to the SMB Fatima Jinnah Government Girls Secondary School here Friday, which is being managed by the Zindagi Trust. Chairman of the Trust, Shehzad Roy, was also present. She said that education was the core sector for development and prosperity of any nation and country. The private sector joining hands with the government could work miracles, as has been done in the case of this school. Marri said that the transformation of this school from an ordinary government institution to a well-equipped and wisely managed school is remarkable. She assured the Zindagi Trust that the government would provide all possible assistance. President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani will also be informed about this successful project and will be requested to help and encourage such endeavours.

"Pakistan must control tribal areas”, Hadly

WASHINGTON: As Pakistani leaders stand united against U.S. strikes in the tribal areas, Senior Bush administration official Stephan Hadly said Pakistan is not yet equipped to combat its militant threat. National security adviser to President Stephen Hadley declined to comment on American counterterrorism efforts in Pakistan but said Washington was trying to help Pakistan's government address the threat. Speaking to the media, he insisted the problem could only be overcome when Pakistan's writ was firmly established in the tribal areas, and that the United States works very closely with Pakistan authorities. President Zardari is scheduled to meet with U.S. President Bush on the 23rd, and the issue of cross-border strikes is sure to be very high on the agenda.

Health

96% Mumbaikars vote to stub out smoking in public. MUMBAI: When the ban on smoking at work and public places comes into effect on October 2, there won't be any protests here. The city's residents, along with those in Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai, have voted in a survey to indicate that they are overwhelmingly in favour of the Centre's plan to introduce smoke-free zones. The four-city survey conducted, between August 9 and 24, by Healis Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health found that 92% of those surveyed were in favour of smoke-free India. In Mumbai, 96% of the respondents supported the legislation. "People have clearly stated that they are against smoking in all public places and workplaces, including restaurants and bars," said Dr P C Gupta at a press conference on Thursday. The survey also found that Indians viewed second-hand smoke as a health risk. "Nine out of ten surveyed knew that exposure to second-hand smoke is a serious (84%) or moderate (14%) health hazard for the non-smoker," he added. Health experts are enthused with the survey's findings, given the fact that support for anti-smoking measures has only increased in cities\countries that banned smoking a few years ago. "When California banned smoking in 1998, overall community approval for the move was 65.2%. Two years later, the rate of approval had increased to 72.6%," said Dr S Shastri, head of preventive oncology at Tata Memorial Hospital, quoting a study published in the Journal of Public Health. Asked if the legislation would be successful, Dr Gupta said, "There is overall support for the notification. Moreover, the Centre is launching a public campaign. Each city has a local programme targeting schools, workplaces, etc."

Health

Still no measures to control dengue spread By By Our Correspondent 9/19/2008 LAHORE PUNJAB health authorities and city district governments have failed to make necessary arrangements to control possible outbreak of dengue fever as mosquito breeding season begins. Experts say that dengue fever is expected to strike in the current season due to frequent inter-provincial movement of people. As Eid draws near, many people are expected to arrive in the province from Karachi and other parts of Sindh where several dengue fever cases have been reported. Pakistan Medical Society (PMS) chairman Dr Masood Akhter Sheikh told The News that dengue hemorrhagic, which was a more dangerous form of the disease, was expected to strike. He said that this year’s fresh cases of acute dengue fever would be confirmed as Immunoglobulin-M, whereas the previous chronic cases of dengue fever would be identified as Immunoglobulin-G. He said that it would be extremely dangerous if a patient was confirmed with dengue hemorrhagic with both Immunoglobulin-G and Immunoglobulin-M. Last year more than 250 patients were confirmed suffering form dengue fever and they lost immunity against the disease, he said. Dr Salman Kazmi, a representative of Young Doctors’ Association, said that mobile teams must be formed to conduct regular fumigation and anti-insecticide sprays to kill mosquitoes and stop breeding. He said Rafiq Khan, a 68-year-old resident of Johar Town, had been tested positive of dengue fever during initial investigation at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and this was later confirmed by clinical reports of his blood sample at central laboratory of Institute of Public Health (IPH). He said the Punjab Health Department must set up quarantines or isolated wards to provide effective treatment to dengue fever patients besides preventing other patients from contracting the disease. “Necessary medicines and other arrangements such as clinical tests for dengue fever within hospitals or at central laboratory of Institute of Public Health must be completed,” he said. Punjab Health DG Dr Aslam Chaudhry and Lahore EDO (health) Dr Nasir Khan were not available for comments. Meanwhile, briefing local school children on prevention of mosquito borne diseases at a seminar, Dr Masood said people need not panic as dengue fever was almost 100 per cent self-limiting disease, which did not need sophisticated treatment. The seminar was held under the auspices of the Pakistan Medical Society in collaboration with Mother and Child Trust on Thursday. Dr Masood claimed that there was hardly any mortality associated with the fever. He also suggested that anti-mosquito sprays should be carried out inside houses rather than in streets. He said the mosquito spreading dengue bred in fresh water so one had to be conscious that water tanks were clean and money plants or any other discarded container were empty. He stressed that checking open vases, discarded containers or old tyres in which water could accumulate was imperative as mosquitoes thrived in them. He stressed that simple measures could prevent the spread of dengue fever such as using a mosquito repellent when mosquitoes were likely to attack and clearing water pools in and around houses. He said habitually, mosquito bit early in the morning and at sunset. He said the disease was predominantly urban as rural setting did not favour its spread, he said. This disease infected 50 million people worldwide each year as its symptoms were similar to common cold/flu. He said the disease was not confined to Pakistan alone but was endemic in more than 100 countries. He said it was scare of the disease rather than the disease itself that had created panic among citizens. Dengue fever was caused by the bite of a female mosquito of the genre Aedes Aegypti. This mosquito carried dengue virus in its active form, he said. He said dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) was most the dangerous of all dengue forms but its prevalence was less than one per cent of the total dengue fever cases. The Dengue Shock Syndrome (DSS) was very rare, he said. Mortality in DHF and DSS is less than 10 to 20 per cent on case to case basis out of all DHF and DSS patients, he said. If a patient afflicted with DHF or DSS was given blood or blood products in addition to fluid replacement in time, it could even reduce mortality. This morbidity and mortality is even less than that of malaria in this region, he said. Many people had exploited dengue fever and this practice could easily be stopped by community education and dispelling fears associated with the disease, he said. “Mass awareness campaign about the dengue fever can stop its reoccurrence,” he said. Dr Iram, the president of Mother and Child Trust, said neonates and children should be given extra care as they were at a higher risk than adults. She said symptoms of dengue fever were flu, coughing and fever which could be mistaken for common cold. She said human immune system was capable of fighting dengue virus and no medical attention was required to treat it in majority of cases. She said there was a possibility that a patient could be affected both with common cold and dengue fever at the same time. She said that dengue patients sometimes did not exhibit any symptom. Dr Israr Asif and Dr Fauzia also spoke at the seminar.

Sports News

Bangladesh's ICL exodus giving PCB the jitters KARACHI: The mass exodus of Bangladeshi players to the Indian Cricket League is giving jitters to the PCB, which is keeping a close tab on leading Pakistani cricketers to prevent them from joining the rebel Twenty20 series. The Pakistan Cricket Board was, till recently, not too concerned about the ICL as it believed that the players who wanted to join the rebel league were already with it and no other would dare follow suit fearing a life ban. But after the exodus of 13 Bangladeshi players, many of whom are current members of the national team, the PCB has been shaken out of its complacency. "Even when unconfirmed reports came out that Mohammad Yousuf was considering joining the ICL at the cost of his international career, the board officials were not so worried as they thought that the ICL has done the damage it could have to Pakistan cricket by signing on nearly 16 players," one source said. "But it is now a matter of serious concern as some reports claim that the ICL might be on the verge of signing some more players from Pakistan to give their league a more competitive feel." "They have also made it clear to Yousuf that he will be banned immediately like the other rebels if he tries to enter into any new agreement with the ICL which is not recognised by any Test playing nation," the source added. "No such thing is going to happen and all these reports are rubbish. If I wanted to play in the ICL I would not have dropped their contract in the first instance," Yousuf said. Yousuf is currently entangled in a legal battle with the ICL. Reports said that Yousuf has been in touch with ICL stalwarts in Pakistan, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Moin Khan asking them to barter out an out of court settlement with ICL. But Yousuf strongly denied this and said he would be going to Mumbai in November to plead his case before the arbitrator.

Sports News

Rain enables SNGPL to win Nissar Trophy By by our correspondent 9/19/2008 DELHI: Overnight rain ruled out any play on the fourth and final day of the annual Mohammad Nissar Trophy match, and Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) became the first team from Pakistan in three attempts to claim the title, by virtue of a first innings lead over Delhi here at the Feroz Shah Kotla on Thursday. After they faced a 132 runs first innings deficit, Delhi had hit back strongly in their second outing as they ran up a total of 516 for four wickets. This gave them a big lead of 384 runs, but interruptions by rain, bad light and a total washout on the last day meant that SNGPL took full advantage of the situation that arose. Delhi’s poor batting performance on the first day on Monday proved to be their undoing, after they had been dismissed for just 134 runs. SNGPL pace bowler Imran Ali from Lahore had impeccable bowling figures of six wickets for 52 runs that included a hat-trick. SNGPL then almost doubled that score with their reply of 266 all out. Skipper Virender Sehwag simply relished watching the grand 385-run second-wicket partnership between century-makers Aakash Chopra (182) and Virat Kohli (197) and appeared to have ignored plans to make a timely declaration. As a result, much time was consumed on the third day especially and, in case of more rain — which did actually arrive, SNGPL were the expected winners on first innings result. Delhi would have had to bowl the visitors out if they wanted the match to tilt their way. Rain had left the outfield and playing area soggy and the umpires finally called off play at 1.30 pm yesterday after inspecting the conditions on three occasions. The two previous editions of the Mohammad Nissar Trophy, instituted in 2006 as an annual encounter between the national cricket champions of India and Pakistan, had been won by Indian teams — Uttar Pradesh in 2006 and Mumbai in 2007. Scores: Delhi 134 (V Kohli 52, M Manhas 49; Imran ASli 6-52) and 516-4 (A Chopra 182, V Kohli 197). SNGPL 266 (Umar Akmal 58, Khurram Shahzad 66). Match drawn, but SNGPL won on first innings lead.

Ruheena’s ‘Treasures of Islamic Art’ on display at NAG ISLAMABAD: An exhibition of Islamic calligraphic works by Ruheena Malik opened at National Art Gallery (NAG) on Thursday. As many as 50 calligraphic pieces including wooden objects, frames, boxes, candle stands and paintings are on display. Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sherry Rehman inaugurated the exhibition titled ‘Treasures of Islamic Art’. Rehman while acknowledging the talent of Malik said the government was committed to showcase the soft image of Pakistan abroad through its rich cultural values. Malik, a Karachi-based artist, has focused on reviving the traditional art of calligraphy. With the combination of dull and bright colours to capture the attention of art lovers, Malik has artistically preferred dazzling crimson and purple to revive the spirit of Mughal era. She has used gold and semi-precious stones in her works to make them more valuable. Writing with the fluency of a ‘khataat’, Malik has composed Quranic verses with the sensibility of an artist. Fusing the craft of writing with the art of design, she has glorified the written words as an object of beauty. Legible and free from bizarre stylization, her scripts resembled the established forms of Islamic calligraphy like ‘Kufic’, ‘Naskhi’, ‘Thulth’ or ‘Nastaleek’. Born of mixed parentage, Malik spent quite a time in Europe and returned to Pakistan in 1996. Not only the much read ‘Kalima,’ ‘Quls’ and ‘Darood Sharif’, but also lengthy passages of ‘Surah-e-Rehman,’ ‘Surah-e-Baqara’ and ‘Surah-e-Yaseen’ had been dealt wonderfully with balance and accurate writing by the artist without diverting from the original form. She has used the medium and techniques of wood carving in relief, coloured inks and gold on paper with antiques frame over 100 years old, and calligraphy with brush on paper. Talking to Daily Times, Malik said she had produced contemporary compositions of Quranic verses, making elaborate use of seals, stamps, dividers, ascenders, ornamental panels and other embellished patterns to illuminate the pages with a specific palette centered on shades of red, blue and gold. “A novel feature of my recent works is the melding of art and craft. The intricate patterns are stressing well on minute details through vibrant colours, linking past to the present,” she said. Enhancing the beauty of calligraphy with intricate work, Malik has framed her calligraphies in pieces of antique woodcraft. Foraged from the ‘havelis’ in interior Sindh, exquisitely carved, chiseled and engraved doors, panels, pillars and beams case her ornamental writings further enrich and gave a deeper dimension to the text. Another step towards embellishment of the script was the engraving of her calligraphy designs on old chests, tabletops, ‘rehals’, candle-stands, mirror frames and other such articles of house decor. She has brought forth her own interpretation of reverential awe she has for the written word. Malik has held exhibitions of her works in Karachi, Lahore and abroad in the French capital, Paris, while this was her first solo exhibition in Islamabad. Her works also featured in the grand calligraphy exhibition ‘Kalam’ at Mohatta palace Museum some years ago. The exhibition will remain open till September 30.

Entertainment News

The Last Lear is my best performance: Shefali Shah She is a powerhouse of talent and one of the few actresses who can hold her own when pitted against the messiahs of acting! She is Shefali Shah, who made her debut with the smash hit Rangeela. Even though her role was small, she was noticed. But what really set the ball rolling was her powerful award-winning performance in Satya. The good news is that she is back with yet another cracker of a performance in The Last Lear. We caught up with her for an exclusive tête-à-tête. Here are excerpts from it: After your intense act in Subhash Ghai's Black & White, you are now seen in yet another 'different' film, The Last Lear. Tell us something about it. The Last Lear is based on a play that Utpal Duttji had done a long time ago. It's about this ageing Shakespearean actor who quits theatre [in spite of being completely in love with theatre] because of a personal, emotional reason. After many years, a young director convinces him to act in a film. How he goes about acting in the film and how it changes his life is what The Last Lear depicts. What is your role in the film? I play the character of Vandana. I am paired opposite Amitji in the film, but I am not married to him. Vandana can be a temptress, a seductress and is a complete woman according to me. She is a very impulsive person because she goes to watch a play and falls head over heels in love with this man whom she sees on stage. He is much older than her in age, but without bothering about what the society would say or think, she just goes ahead and decides to live with him. Images: The Last Lear--Decoding the film The whole relationship is very interesting and unique because a lot of it is unspoken and unsaid. They do share a lot of passion, but there is no name or word ever used to describe the relationship that they share. You and Amitabh Bachchan worked earlier in Waqt. How was it working again with him? Do you both have many scenes together? We don't have that many scenes together, but working with Amitji is always an honour and a complete pleasure. He is an incredible actor and a very nice person. Even though we have few scenes together, it's very important that the relation between us is depicted well because till the end of the film you keep wondering what relationship do Vandana and Harry [Mr Bachchan's character] share. Is she his daughter? Or is she his wife? There is an element of intrigue to my character and to our relation in the film. The chemistry is more relatable because whatever is seen is understood, it's not spoken about much. How did you bag the role? Actually Amitji called me for this role. He said, "Rituda is making this film and I want you to do this role." Post that Rituda also called me and he narrated the script. When I read the script, I thought Vandana's role was the finest written roles in the film and said yes immediately. The Last Lear is a film in English. How different is it working for an English film apart for the obvious linguistic differences? Honestly it isn't because English is the language we almost think in these days. Besides, I have done films in English like 15 Park Avenue, Monsoon Wedding, Gandhi My Father and now The Last Lear. In fact, I have done more films in English than Hindi. Also, there couldn't have been another language for this film because it's very difficult to translate Shakespeare in any other language. The essence should be retained and I am glad it has been. You said the film is about this ageing Shakespearean actor. So what references do we get to see of Shakespeare in the film? See the role that Amitji plays is that of Harry, a Shakespearean actor. His biggest dream in his life is to play King Lear. So yes the Shakespearean element has a very strong pertinence to the film. What's with the title The Last Lear? I guess it's about him being the Last Lear even though not actually getting to play that. And his dream and vision and desire is to play that one part which he doesn't play in his life. This is your first time with Rituparno Ghosh.… How was the experience? Incredible! The Last Lear has been one of my most creative and rewarding films. The entire process has been extremely enriching. We just met once before the shoot for the narration and the second time we met was to discuss Vandana's character. He gave me his point of view and asked for my inputs. We just spoke about her likes, her dislikes, her passion, her love, her fears and her hatred elements. We just worked on building her career. Once I went on the sets… he didn't stop me even once. In fact, after shooting for two- three days, I wondered if he was doing fine. Hence, I went and asked him "Rituda you are not saying a word when I do a shoot. I am clueless as to how I am doing!" He said "You are bang on… if you were not in sync I would have told you." For me The Last Lear is my best performance. I have grown as an actor after doing this film. It's been a turning point in my career as a performer and I hope people feel that way too. The film is extremely dear to me. The Last Lear also has some talented actors like Arjun Rampal, Preity Zinta and Divya Dutta. How has it been? Lovely. They are great people to work with and are immensely talented. I think all of us have pushed ourselves as far as this film is concerned. Every performance is a revelation. The film has been appreciated by people in the festival circuit. Do you think it will find mass appeal? I personally feel that a film cannot suffice everybody's requirements. Certain films have a certain kind of audience. Whoever understands this kind of cinema is going to appreciate and love it. It's like world cinema. But to expect a rickshaw guy to understand it and enjoy it is a little too far-fetched. It's not a film which you can ignore. People will either love it or they will be critical about it, but it will certain be a topic for discussion in the days to come. Many people who have seen the film believe it is Bachchan's best till date. Do you feel the same considering his repertoire of films? Mr Bachchan is brilliant in whatever he does. I don't know if this is his best considering his vast repertoire of amazing performances. I wouldn't want to undermine his other performances considering the fact that everything he has done is so rich, but I can say that you have probably not seen him do a role like this. Watching him perform Shakespeare is another high altogether. Your husband's film Singh is Kinng is the biggest grosser this year. How do you feel? I am so excited [laughs]. We are still reeling under it. In fact, just a couple of days back, one of my friends went to watch Singh is Kinng and said that the theatre was 80 per cent full. I guess for a film which is in its fifth week, this is simply amazing. A lot of people feel you are choosy when it comes to picking up your roles. Is that true? Yes, I am very choosy. When I get offered a role, what I look at is the fact that it has to be something which really pushes me as an actor to give my best. The kind of work I have done, somehow knowingly or unknowingly, I have always picked special work. I may not have 50 films to boast of in my career, but the 5 films that I have are probably something which a regular heroine would not have done in her entire career. So, I am enjoying the way my career is going and I love acting a lot. At the end of the day that's what matters I guess, not the number of roles I do. Films like The Last Lear are special and I would rather wait for a while to get a chance to be a part of such special films. So how long do fans have to wait to you see in action after The Last Lear? What's in store after this? Well, I would love to do 10 films a year [laughs], but it really depends on what I am offered. I am starting to shoot another film around November-December this year. It's a very sweet, simple love story about a man and a woman who come from two completely different backgrounds and land up spending one day together. It's being directed by Barnali Shukla [a first time director] and is produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah. Finally, what is the USP of The Last Lear? The film has an incredible cast, it's directed by the super-talented Rituparno Ghosh and, lastly, my character of Vandana is one of the finest and most intriguing roles that I have ever done.

World News

Zimbabwe Power-Sharing Deal Deadlocks On Monday, before presidents, prime ministers and a king who had gathered from across southern Africa, Mr. Mugabe agreed to a deal that requires him to relinquish some of his powers for the first time in 28 years in office. But he and Mr. Tsvangirai had yet to agree on how to divide the ministries. “We hope a resolution to the impasse will be found soon,” said an opposition spokesman, Nelson Chamisa. “There is no way Mugabe can keep all the key ministries.” Patrick Chinamasa, one of Mr. Mugabe’s negotiators, said that the effort to divide the ministries had been “laborious” and that the negotiating teams had been asked to seek a resolution. Mr. Mugabe is to leave Friday for the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York. The power-sharing agreement gives Mr. Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party 15 ministries, compared with 16 for the combined opposition. That means many of Mr. Mugabe’s loyalists will lose positions of power and substantial perks. With a fierce contest going on within ZANU-PF over who will eventually succeed him, Mr. Mugabe, who is 84, faces the tricky task of placating the warring factions in his own party. He met this week with the party’s politburo and faced irate charges from one of his vice presidents, Joseph Msika, that he had given too much authority to Mr. Tsvangirai, according to two senior politburo members who were present. Under the deal signed Monday, Mr. Tsvangirai, as prime minister, is to devise and carry out government policies as head of a council of the 31 ministers, though Mr. Mugabe, as president, is to retain the final word. Before, Mr. Msika and the other vice president, Joyce Mujuru, had the responsibilities now delegated to Mr. Tsvangirai, 56, a charismatic former trade union leader who has built a formidable political base as Mr. Mugabe’s persistent rival. “Msika was shaking with rage,” said one of the politburo members, speaking on condition of anonymity because the deliberations were secret. “He told the meeting that Mugabe sold out. His main bitterness was that he and Mujuru no longer wield power as vice presidents.” Politburo members loyal to a former army general, Solomon Mujuru, accused Mr. Mugabe of planning to give most of the choice ministerial appointments to allies of a rival, Emerson Mnangagwa, who led the bloody campaign to intimidate the opposition after Mr. Tsvangirai outpolled Mr. Mugabe in March in the first round of elections. Mr. Mugabe is not only seeking control of the army and the police force, but also of finance, foreign affairs, information, mines, land, agriculture and justice, an opposition official said. Those portfolios would leave him in charge of the ruined economy and the decision on whether to prosecute members of his government implicated in human rights violations. Mr. Tsvangirai has assured Mr. Mugabe and the men in charge of the military and the police that they will not face criminal charges, a step that the opposition felt was necessary to avoid a possible coup. The opposition sees control of at least one arm of the state security services as essential to restoring the rule of law. Andrew Chadwick, who has worked as a political consultant to the opposition, said civil servants would be able to act independently if the police were no longer Mr. Mugabe’s enforcers. “If people get the courage to speak out, knowing that if they get beaten they can go to the police, I can see them really beginning to turn their backs on ZANU-PF,” he said. The deal and dividing control of the major ministries is part of what he called “a process to change the whole power structure of the country and the way it’s governed.”

World News

Livni narrowly wins Israeli party poll She still faces bumpy path to forming a coalition government September 19, 2008 Edition 1 Alastair Macdonald and Adam Entous Tzipi Livni has narrowly been elected leader of Israel's ruling party, and has vowed to start work immediately on forming a new coalition that will let her succeed the scandal-hit Ehud Olmert as prime minister. After a tense night of counting following exit polls that showed the foreign minister cruising to a big win, the final margin over Shaul Mofaz, a former general who is now transport minister, was just one percentage point - or a mere 431 votes. The final result was a huge relief to Livni, a 50-year-old commercial lawyer and one-time Mossad intelligence agent, who had confidently declared victory many hours earlier to her supporters within the centrist Kadima party. She still faces a bumpy path to becoming prime minister - a role only once before held by a woman, when the redoubtable Golda Meir led Israel in the violent years of the early 1970s. Olmert, who could be indicted for corruption, plans to resign in the coming days but stay on as caretaker until Livni can form her own government - a process that may take weeks. Party spokesperson Shmuel Dahan put the final result at 43,1% for Livni to 42,0% for Mofaz - a huge swing from the 10- to 12-point margins shown in exit polls after just over half the party's 74 000 members had cast ballots on Wednesday. "The national mission … is to create stability quickly," Livni told reporters outside her Tel Aviv home at dawn, after an anxious night of waiting for the count. "On the level of government in Israel, we have to deal with difficult threats." She made no direct mention of the peace negotiations she has been heading with the Palestinians for the past year. Chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qurie welcomed the choice of Livni, saying he believed she would "pursue peace moves with us". Allies said Livni was likely to pursue similar approaches to the Palestinians as under the Olmert government, though indirect talks with Syria may slow as Livni, who has been less involved in that process, waits for a new US president in the new year. She was yesterday due to meet Olmert and Ehud Barak, the defence minister, whose Labour party is the second member of the outgoing coalition. Officials said this was a routine meeting of cabinet members on security affairs. Talks were also expected with Mofaz and the two other losing candidates in the Kadima race, Israeli media said. Dubbed "Mrs Clean" in the media, the often dour foreign minister is seen by some as the antithesis of Olmert, a glad-handing veteran politician who hit trouble when an American businessman testified to giving him envelopes stuffed with cash. But the daughter of Zionist guerrilla fighters of the 1940s will require a combative spirit and political flair to live up to some supporters' hopes that she can be a new Golda Meir. Columnists in major Israeli newspapers noted that only 20 000 Israelis, or 0,5% of the electorate, had voted Livni in. - Reuters

World News

Obama Mocks McCain's Call to Fire SEC Chairman Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama promised fresh ideas Thursday to calm America's financial meltdown and help struggling families avoid mortgage foreclosure, saying "this is not a time for fear, it's not a time for panic." Obama also heaped criticism and sarcasm on Republican rival John McCain and mocked his promise to fire the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission if elected. "I think that's all fine and good but here's what I think," Obama said. "In the next 47 days you can fire the whole trickle-down, on-your-own, look-the-other way crowd in Washington who has led us down this disastrous path. "Don't just get rid of one guy. Get rid of this administration," he said. "Get rid of this philosophy. Get rid of the do-nothing approach to our economic problem and put somebody in there who's going to fight for you." Obama came up with yet another way to poke fun at McCain for his comment Monday that the fundamentals of the economy were strong. "This comment was so out of touch that even George Bush's White House couldn't agree with it when they were asked about it. They had to distance themselves from John McCain." President Bush has used the same language many times but his press secretary would not repeat the line Wednesday in the face of historic financial turbulence. With the economy rocketing to the front of the campaign agenda, Obama said he would unveil new proposals Friday in Florida. Senior members of his economic team were flying to Miami to meet with Obama before his announcement. Obama also had telephone discussions Thursday about the financial markets with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Fed chief Paul Volcker and former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers. Summers and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin were among those expected in Florida for Friday's meeting. Billionaire investor Warren Buffett and former Bush administration Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill were to participate by telephone, along with O'Neill and others.

Pakistan not informed about US attack: Quresh

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Thursday US didn’t inform Paksitan about fresh attack inside Pakistan’s territory on Thursday. Addressing the media in Foreign Office, Foreign Minister Qureshi said all countries should respect each other sovereignty. Admiral Mullen had assured us that Pakistan’s sovereignty would be respected, however, US launched fresh attack inside Pakistan on Thursday. The cross border violations will not benefit US on long-term basis, he noted. Qureshi noted there was lack of coordination between US government and military. He said there was also communication gap between allied and US forces in Afghanistan. He said government and army were united in their stand.

Bush to meet Zardari on 23rd

Misc SectionMarker Weekly SectionMarker Weekly SectionMarker Pakistan's Internet Magazine Herald Archive, Search Weather Previous Story DAWN - the Internet Edition Next Story September 19, 2008 Friday Ramazan 18, 1429 Bush to meet Zardari on 23rd By Masood Haider UNITED NATIONS, Sept 18: US President George W. Bush is expected to meet President Asif Ali Zardari on Sept 23 at a traditional reception he would host for the visiting heads of states and leaders of delegations attending the UN General Assembly session. Mr Zardari will proceed to the reception immediately after his arrival in New York on Monday evening. Zardari, who will lead the Pakistani delegation to the UN session, is expected to have a one-to-one meeting with President Bush at the White House camp office in New York on Tuesday. Mr Zardari’s first meeting with the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as Pakistan’s president is scheduled for Wednesday. During his five-day stay, Mr Zardari will address the UN General Assembly (on Sept 25) and hold bilateral meetings with several heads of state and delegations, including Afghan President Hamid Karzai and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

PML-N involved in ‘horse-trading’, alleges PML-Q Punjab president

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League Quaid (PML-Q) Punjab President Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi strongly criticised the arrest of PML-Q workers at a press conference at this residence on Thursday, and appealed to the chief justice of pakistan to take notice of it. He also alleged that the PML-N was involved in horse-trading. He claimed that the Gujrat police, on the instructions of the current chief minister, were busy in a crackdown against PML-Q workers. He said that the arrest of more than 175 PML-Q workers was a reaction of the PML-N after the successful meeting of the PML-Q’s parliamentary party. Fearing the success of the PML-Q, the government had started state terrorism, he claimed. He also claimed that the PML-Q workers had been sent to torture cells and were not being allowed to meet their familes. He said that an FIR against those workers had been sealed, while the arrest of many workers was not even shown on the record. He said that the party had information that such practices against the PML-Q had started in other districts as well. He appealed to the CJP to take suo motu action. Sharif brothers: He said that the district administration and police officials should be aware that the Sharif brothers had never been loyal to their friends and workers, and were instead using them for personal benefits. He claimed that the days of the Sharif brothers were numbered. He also warned that the PML-Q would hold those officials accountable who were helping the PML-N in horse-trading. The best example of horse-trading was the iftar in which the PML-N claimed to have defected 22 PML-Q members, he added. He also said that all the zone heads of the PML-Q had been asked to prepare lists of those DCOs and DPOs who were committing these injustices in compliance with the illegal directions of the government. staff report

China's tainted formula shows risks of dairy boom

SHANGHAI, China: A generation ago, when today's new Chinese parents were infants, milk powder was so scarce that it was one of the top items requested from travelers visiting from overseas. Dairy products now line supermarket shelves, and analysts say the boom has overwhelmed regulators. The discovery this week of an industrial chemical in baby formula is just one symptom, they say, of unbridled growth in the dairy industry, where poor hygiene reigns and safety standards often go unenforced. Authorities have ordered testing of all dairy products and vowed to upgrade quality standards after four Chinese babies died and more than 6,200 fell ill from drinking formula containing melamine. The melamine scandal "reflects chaos in the dairy products market and loopholes in supervision and administration," said a government Web site's summary of a Cabinet meeting held late Wednesday that was chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao. "The dairy industry has just been developing too quickly. Dairy producers know how to make innovative new milk products, but they've ignored the issue of quality of the raw materials," said Lao Bing, manager of the Shanghai-based consultancy Mingtai Dairy Industry Sales Fund. Today in Asia - Pacific Cornered by war and drought, Afghans fear a harsh, hungry winter Mayor in China fired in baby formula scandal U.S. did not warn of impending missile strike, Pakistan says Click here... As was true in several other recent cases, the problems with baby formula crept in at the lowest rung of the production chain, often the weakest link for Chinese industries. "Everything on the raw materials side just depends on the milk producers themselves. They set their own standards," Lao said. The infant formula scandal is the second in recent years. In 2004, at least 12 Chinese babies died and more than 200 suffered malnutrition after being fed phony formula containing little or no nutrition. The latest incident has also raised doubts about the effectiveness of improved food and drug safety standards put in place after earlier scares over bogus or contaminated products. Investigators say raw milk suppliers, in hopes of clearing more profit, watered down their milk to increase volume and then added the industrial chemical melamine, which is high in nitrogen and artificially appears to boost protein content. Melamine is an industrial chemical used in plastics, as a binding agent, flame retardant and sometimes in fertilizer. Some of the infants that consumed formula tainted with the chemical developed kidney stones or kidney failure. Most Chinese milk powder factories lack the equipment needed to detect such chemicals, said Chen Lianfang, a senior dairy analyst at Beijing Orient Agribusiness Consultant Co. Few factories and farms adhere to health safety regulations, and even if they did, China's national quality standards on hygiene were set in the 1980s and are woefully out of date, Chen said. "Milk that meets those (outdated) standards would be considered substandard in any other country and just be thrown out," he said. Milk production has grown fourfold over the past decade to more than 33 million tons a year, as farmers rushed into dairy operations. The country has about 15 million milk cows, according to the government-affiliated China Dairy Industry Association, and is the world's third-biggest producer of milk. Supermarkets offer an array of milk products promising to maximize health through better nutrition. Families, both affluent city dwellers and poor farmers, have meanwhile shifted en masse to bottle feeding, often viewing breast-feeding as inconvenient and old-fashioned. But about 80 percent of all milk production is by small farmers who lack modern equipment or knowledge of dairy technology. Forage is scarce, feed is of poor quality and sanitary conditions on farms questionable, industry reports say. "In China, the raw milk suppliers are mainly farmers lacking scientific skills. Some of them raise cattle just like they would pigs," said Beijing Orient's Chen. "You can imagine that if the initial source is tainted, how about the final products?" Industry experts say the country needs more advanced testing equipment, stricter and more detailed regulations and better technology — including basic hygiene. So far, officials have attributed all the illnesses linked to melamine-tainted formula to products from Sanlu Group Co., a manufacturer based in northern China's Hebei province. But health ministry officials said a national investigation found melamine in products from about one in five dairy companies, including China's two biggest milk producers: Mengniu Dairy, China's biggest milk company, and rival Yili Industrial Co. Lao of Mingtai Dairy Industry Sales Fund. "This is a grave lesson for the entire Chinese dairy industry," said Lao, of Mingtai Dairy Industry Sales Fund.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Says

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The country's foreign minister Thursday said the U.S. hadn't informed Pakistan before it launched a missile attack from pilotless drones at a suspected militant hideout in Pakistan's border region.The strikes provoked anger in Pakistan and criticism of the government that it was taking too soft a stance on heightened U.S. military action targeting the border region with Afghanistan. Earlier, Pakistani officials had said the U.S. had informed Pakistan before the strike. After the foreign minister's remarks Thursday, a senior government official reaffirmed that there had been an understanding between the U.S. and Pakistan that the strikes would take place. "The foreign minister's statement is aimed at calming down the public outcry," this official said. There's growing public anger within Pakistan against what is perceived as the government's military cooperation with the U.S. Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the attack had come after a clear commitment by U.S. officials to respect Pakistan's sovereignty. He said the strikes indicated "there is some sort of an institutional disconnect on their side, and if so, they will have to sort it out." Two U.S. drones carried out four missile attacks in the South Waziristan tribal region Wednesday night, hours after Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, assured Pakistani leaders that the U.S. would respect Pakistan's sovereignty. A spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad couldn't be reached to comment.

Hurricane Ike destroys 49 U.S. oil-producing platforms

WASHINGTON: At least 49 offshore oil platforms, all with production of fewer than 1,000 barrels a day, were destroyed by Hurricane Ike as it raced across the Gulf of Mexico, and some may not be rebuilt, the Interior Department said Thursday. It said in the latest hurricane damage assessment that the platforms altogether accounted for 13,000 barrels of oil and 84million cubic feet of natural gas a day. There are more than 3,800production platforms in the Gulf producing 1.3 million barrels of oil and 7 billion cubic feet of gas each day. Most remain shut down. The report by Interior's Minerals Management Service said the agency was conducting helicopter flyovers of the Gulf waters to investigate unconfirmed reports of oil spills and oil sheens, but that it was too early to issue any definitive findings. �There are no reports of oil impacting the shoreline or affecting birds and wildlife from releases in the Gulf of Mexico federal waters,'' said the agency. The agency also said five gas-transmission pipeline systems sustained damage, although the extent of damage is not yet known. It earlier had reported four oil-drilling rigs had been destroyed and another damaged. Meanwhile, the Energy Department reported that as of mid afternoon Thursday, 12 of 31 refineries in Texas and Louisiana, with a total production capacity of 3 million barrels a day, remained shut down as a result of the hurricane that swept through the region on Sept.13. A number of the others are operating at reduced runs. More than 2.3 million electricity customers in six states as faraway as Pennsylvania remain without power as a result of the hurricane and its aftermath of heavy rain, said the department. Of those, 1.6 million customers are in Texas. The Energy Department said 10 of 39 natural gas processing facilities also were still closed as a result of the Hurricane Ike and Hurricane Gustav which hit two weeks earlier, giving the Gulf's energy infrastructure a glancing blow. The Gulf region accounts for 25 percent of the country's domestic oil production, or about 1.3 million barrels a day, and 15 percent of its natural gas supplies, or about 7 billion cubic feet of gas a day.

Pakistan says not informed of U.S. missile strike

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The United States did not inform Pakistan about a missile strike on militants hours after the top U.S. military officer said the United States would respect Pakistan's sovereignty, Pakistan's foreign minister said. The United States, frustrated by an intensifying Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, has stepped up attacks on militants in Pakistan with six missile attacks by pilotless drones and a helicopter-borne ground assault this month. U.S. officials say Taliban and al Qaeda-linked fighters use ethnic Pashtun tribal regions on the Pakistani side of the border as a springboard for attacks into Afghanistan. But the U.S. attacks have infuriated many in Pakistan, which is also battling al Qaeda and Taliban militants, and the army has vowed to stand up to aggression across the border. The latest missile strike, on the Pakistani side of the Afghan border on Wednesday evening, killed five militants, and was the result of better U.S.-Pakistani intelligence sharing, a senior Pakistani official with knowledge of the operation told Reuters earlier. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said Pakistani intelligence had been notified of the attack by the United States, but did not say whether it was before or after the missiles struck. "There was intimation at the intelligence level," he said. But Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told a briefing on Thursday the United States had not warned Pakistan about the attack in advance. "We were not informed," Qureshi said. Hours before the strike, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, assured army commander General Ashfaq Kayani and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani that the United States would respect Pakistan's sovereignty. "If having said that, there was an attack later in the night, that means there is some sort of institutional disconnect on their side," Qureshi said. Such attacks would not improve the situation and were unproductive, he said. The military says U.S. attacks could spark an uprising among Pashtuns in the northwest. Residents of South and North Waziristan said drones flew overhead again on Thursday but there were no missile strikes. "BIG CONCERN" The Wednesday evening attack in South Waziristan was on a container loaded with ammunition. Four missiles were fired at a tented camp, Pakistani officials said. Pakistan's new government has promised support for the U.S.-led campaign against Islamist militancy even though the campaign is deeply unpopular with many Pakistanis. The anger over the incursions and tension with the United States, Pakistan's biggest donor, compounded worry on Pakistan's financial markets, dealers said. The rupee was traded at a record low of 77.72 rupees to the dollar and closed at 77.65/75 because of the global financial crisis and concern about U.S. tension, dealers said. Under former president Pervez Musharraf there was an agreement that the United States could fire missiles at militant targets as long as it informed Pakistan in advance. But there was believed to have been no agreement on incursions by U.S. ground troops, as happened on September 3 in the South Waziristan region. "It is a big concern to us ... why are the rules of engagement not being respected," Qureshi said. U.S. President George W. Bush approved the September 3 assault in South Waziristan without Islamabad's permission as part of a presidential order on covert operations, officials and sources familiar with the matter in Washington said. But officials and analysts said the Bush administration was unlikely to use commando raids as a common tactic because of the risk to U.S. policy in the region. In the northwestern town of Dir, two suicide bombers blew themselves up when residents confronted them. No one else was hurt, police said. Pakistani troops have been fighting militants for weeks in the nearly regions of Bajaur and Swat. (Additional reporting by Haji Mujtaba; Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

Pakistan's dilemma in FATA

Tuesday, September 16, 2008 Khalid Aziz The recent US ground and air attacks on Waziristan have forced the Pakistani military to condemn these unilateral actions. The prime minister was more taciturn and called these attacks a violation of sovereignty. He cautioned that since the US is an ally of Pakistan, matters ought to be resolved peacefully. For the last couple of months, research by US think tanks and leaks in the US press indicate a degree of confusion and concern emerging from the dismantling of Musharraf's control over Pakistan. Gen Musharraf and the US had established a rapport after 2001 following the tragic circumstances of 9/11. A lot of water has since flowed under the proverbial bridge. But what was this understanding? A review of accounts by those who participated in these historic events sheds some light. Evidently, Gen Mahmud of the ISI, who was visiting the US on 9/11, gave Pakistan's commitment of support to the US even before he had consulted Gen Musharraf. Richard Armitage, the US deputy secretary of state at the time, has denied that Pakistan was threatened with being "bombed into the Stone Age," a phrase as cited by Musharraf in his book In the Line of Fire. Apparently there was US pressure but no threats for Pakistan to join the war on terrorism. Musharraf used this story to browbeat the Pakistani corps commanders into falling in line and adopting his prescription for cooperation with the US. It was a model which was quickly accepted by the Pakistan military and the US. The following were the main features of the Musharraf design. First, it broke the militants into three neat categories: the Afghan militants, the Pakistani militants who supported the Afghans and the transnational Islamist fighters which included Al Qaeda. Pakistan hit the foreigners the most; it kid-gloved the others. This classification suited Pakistan's geostrategic view that it should have supporters amongst the Afghans as insurance. Second, Musharraf ignored the need to obtain legal cover for his actions from his manipulated assemblies, twice. It is my opinion that had Musharraf developed a legal process for shaping the difficult issue of handing over "terrorists" to US custody, he may have avoided the delicate issue of "missing persons." It was absence of a legal framework in this matter which forced Musharraf to fire the chief justice of Pakistan, who had questioned the policy in this regard. Thirdly, Musharraf's failure to have a Pakistan-US treaty on how to handle the war and to identify the dos and don'ts in FATA meant that there was a risk in the approach. These omissions finally cost Musharraf his presidency and also embarrassed his supporters in the US. I think that the US was cleverly manipulated to agree to this poor practice. The biggest tactical failure was Pakistan's inability to correctly gauge the long-term implication of Pakistan military's intervention in FATA in September 2002. Given the fiercely independent nature of Waziristan's tribes, it was only a matter of time before they clashed with the government – this was inevitable. Herbert Edwardes, the first British officer who came into contact with the Wazirs in 1847, described them to be the most powerful and feared of all the Pukhtun tribes. "His hand is against every man and every man's hand is against him…" It is extremely unfortunate that the Pakistani military junta completely ignored the importance of the tribal character in its calculations. So it is not surprising that in his nine years' rule Gen Musharraf did not even once visited the Wazirs and Mahsuds in Waziristan. This failure indicated to the Wazirs that the leadership lacked the will to deal with them. The denouncement with the Wazir occurred when a new military commander having little background of tribal character, ordered retaliation against them in Kalusha on March 18, 2004, for their giving sanctuary to foreigners. It is a historic event because it was on this fateful date that an innocent general devoid of knowledge about local customs challenged the Wazirs. The fire lit by that mistake has turned into a full-fledged insurgency in FATA, which has now expanded to the NWFP. The matter of sanctuary is much debated. Sanctuary means protection from harm offered to anyone who has either been received as a guest under melmastia or during nanawatai. Melmastia means to provide hospitality along with protection. While nanawatai is the provision of protection to a putative offender against whom revenge (badal) is mandatory. These social customs are a religion for the Pukhtun. The Kalusha action purported to challenge melmastia offered by the Wazirs to foreign Uzbek and Arab guests. It ought to have been handled differently. When the Pakistan military met Wazir resistance it adopted the artifice of tribal agreements in Shakai, Sararogha and, later, in Miramshah to douse the flames of insurrection. These agreements for the first time showed that all was not well in the Pakistan-US alliance. Pakistani unilateral agreements offended the US and it used Predator diplomacy when the agreements were bombed into extinction. However, each time it resulted in collateral deaths which led to retaliation by the tribes. The failure of the Pakistani state to be the arbiter of matters in its own jurisdiction coupled with increasing collateral deaths incensed the tribes. Today, large stretches of FATA and parts of the NWFP are in the midst of insurrection. The Pakistan military is fighting its own people and the militants are better organised and stronger than they were before the battle of Kalusha. Gen Shahid Aziz, the former chief of the general staff and director of military operations, critiqued Musharraf's Machiavellian handling of the war and, by implication, Pakistan-US relations, when he said that Gen Musharraf never disclosed the total picture to the powerful corps commanders who were responsible for conducting the war. Musharraf simultaneously implemented a secret strategy by trying to protect the Afghan assets through the ISI. All the above factors were weighing with the US military which became diplomatically disoriented when the twin issues of the missing persons and a new leadership emerged in Pakistan after the February elections. As Musharraf's power declined and a new set of managers emerged, like Gen Kayani in the military and Asif Zardari in politics, the US policy became skewed. Since the Pakistan-US engagement was not institutionalised through law or based upon an agreement, matters became fluid and the US has reacted in Waziristan. The US is laying a new strategy for the region, where the battle zone in eastern Afghanistan and FATA are now merged into one. The separation of militants into categories is no longer valid. Pakistan's advisor for interior has indicated that it is no longer correct to state that the militants are divided into three categories (as Gen Musharraf used to say) but are one. Secondly, the US is keen to end the powerful role of the ISI which was accused of being complicit in the bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul in July this year. Prime Minister Gillani ordered the placing of the ISI under the Interior Ministry. This order was quickly countermanded in reaction to the military's displeasure. In the absence of Gen Musharraf, whom the US trusted implicitly, the US leadership is now convinced that for winning the war it is essential to bring changes in Pakistan, which will involve intelligence reform as well as more freedom for US troops to operate in FATA. The latter is a high-risk policy. These are matters which need to be addressed through negotiation and not emotionalism. It will be a most important test for the new government in handling a nervous ally as well as placating the Pakistani people who are brought up on the narrative of sovereignty. They feel deeply hurt.

Karachi's Dark Ages

Tuesday, September 16, 2008 Aasim Sajjad Akhtar When Karachi was struck by yet another long episode of unannounced loadshedding and power outages over the weekend, the abuse directed towards those in power for yet again failing the people reverberated around Pakistan. On this occasion of course a large part of the country was plunged into darkness alongside Karachi and the government was quick to make the typical announcement that a 'high-level inquiry' would be launched into the causes of the nationwide power breakdown. Karachiites, however, know better than to expect any changes to come from whatever inquiry takes place. Probably sooner than later another blackout of epic proportions will hit the city and paralyse its social, economic and political life. It is telling that even amongst those that are aware of the fact that the severe problems in the planning and operation of the Karachi Electricity Supply Corporation (KESC) explain the city's long-standing power crisis, the focus of the invective continues to be the 'state'. KESC was indeed once a government agency but it has now been five years since it was sold to the private sector. Perhaps many of those who choose to criticize the sitting government even though it has no effective role in power supply to Karachi do so because they do not want to admit that the magic wand of privatization has not produced peace and prosperity. In fact, privatization has exacerbated Karachi's chronic power crisis. Many will know that the Saudi company Al Jomaih that originally bought KESC packed it off to another Arab firm some months ago having made no meaningful attempt to redress the structural flaws in the company's operations. Those of us who opposed privatization on principle to begin with were well aware that whoever bought KESC was not about to spend billions of rupees on revamping its infrastructure and instead wanted to cash in on the company's fixed assets. This is exactly what happened: Al Jomaih sold the real estate owned by KESC, recovering what it had invested in buying the company and more. It also wantonly issued more electricity meters across the city to generate more revenue for itself thereby adding to the supply shortfall. When there was no more easy money to be had, Al Jomaih promptly sold out. The new owners have yet to take over the company but it is already common knowledge that they have no experience in the power sector. One might argue that it would be unfair to expect too much of the new owners given that they have been burdened with numerous problems. But it is not too early to say that the new owners will be just as oblivious to the need of the city's population – and particularly the working-class majority – as Al Jomaih. It can never be reiterated enough that the logic of the private sector is not need, but profit. And the massive investment that is required to rehabilitate KESC does not guarantee the kinds of easy and quick returns that the private sector wants. Thus rather than blaming the state, Karachiites, and particularly those who have the requisite information, should blame the private sector. The state, to the extent that it even resembles a coherent entity, comes in for far too much abuse already. While it deserves a certain amount of this abuse, especially when it comes to its liberal use of coercive force, it is only fair that it be acknowledged that the state no longer has as much control over the economy or delivery of services as it once did. The ideologues of neo-liberal rollback, both within the country and outside of it, have ensured as much. In effect then, Karachi's people – and the city is in many ways a microcosm of the rest of the country – need more of the state, and not less. To clarify, we need more of a well-functioning public sector, and it is true that the KESC before privatization was hardly a people-friendly organization. Neither is WAPDA or railways for that matter. But this hardly means that the solution lies in selling off these public-sector enterprises to a callous and short-sighted private sector which has no intention of addressing people's needs, or at best meets only those needs that do not impede the imperative of profit-making. Karachi's elite has a crucial role to play in working towards a more people-friendly state, but sadly it is unlikely to play this role. This is because, as hinted above, the elite is firmly committed to state rollback and fully enamoured of the invisible hand of capitalism. In related vein, the elite has no real commitment to the public realm, as is evidenced by the fact that Defence and Clifton are littered with generators that permit the rich and famous to maintain their indulgent lifestyles even when the rest of the city is blacked out. This is the same elite that decries the lack of 'civic sense' of the common hordes. It is a reflection of just how alienated the elite is from the rest of society that it can rant about a lack of 'civic sense' in society and yet willingly close itself off into bourgeois ghettos in which there is full license to live like a parasite. The almost predictable blackouts that befall Pakistan's biggest city are indeed a manifestation of the deeply troubled times that we are living through, but not only because they subject the majority of Karachiites to great strife. In the depths of Karachi's darkness one uncovers a deeply divided society, one in which the rich and poor not only live worlds apart but have radically different visions of a better future. Needless to say, working people in Pakistan have also developed a deep contempt for the state because it does not ensure their security, meet their basic needs, or represent a cohesive national identity. But yet they do not have the luxury to substitute the state with private providers as the elite do. This is why if things are to get better we must all own this state and transform it so that it can serve all of us. Hurling abuse at it when it is not even at fault simply compounds the problem.

The people vs expats, aunties and urbanites

Tuesday, September 16, 2008 Mosharraf Zaidi If a functional democracy that produces popular and electorally legitimate government is too much for Pakistan's uber-smart expat and urban elite, then they had better close their eyes. They ain't seen nothing yet. When the PPP is done with the national exchequer things will seem a lot more like 1996 than they have since 1996. That's got nothing to do with corruption, and everything to do with a political system that is dependent on patronage and rewards its agents through a complex but indisputable spoils system. The trouble is that the naïve coffee-table class that reads and writes in the English language press is so uncontrollably narcissistic that it fails to recognise the inherent legitimacy of a spoils system in a country where there are over 40 million people below the official poverty line, and another 80 million that probably cannot afford to eat most of the food advertised in this newspaper. Desktop activism, and "auntie" politics has not achieved anything of note in Pakistan's young history, yet having a desktop and being an "auntie" seem to have become qualifications to determine the fate of Pakistan's 172 million people. This is sheer arrogance of a magnitude for which there are no words. Moreover, this is a kind of arrogance for which there is little evidence of justification. It is inexplicable why freshly minted Harvard and Cambridge graduates think they are smarter than illiterate, fifth-grade dropouts from villages across Sindh and southern Punjab. After all, it is the villagers that rule Pakistan, their representatives and leaders in the highest offices in the land. What have the expats, aunties and urbanites got? Not much, except a few YouTube clips of a washed up politician reading poetry. There can be no questioning the courage of the chief justice of the Supreme Court, Mr Iftikhar Chaudhry. He is, and will be remembered as, among the most fearless public officials Pakistan has produced. His courage empowered and enabled not only sixty other judges to do what was right, but forced other institutions to think about their role in Pakistan's steady slide. The military, the bureaucracy and the political elite, all have tried in varying degrees to either discredit the lawyers' movement, or to co-opt it. This, more than anything else, should be the lens through which Pakistan's lawyers should view their historical success. They have moved mountains on the back of the courage of one judge, and the efforts of thousands of lawyers. No matter how genuinely spectacular this spasm of integrity was, and it was truly spectacular, the lawyers' movement was never going to transform Pakistani politics. This is not because the judges weren't doing the right thing. They were. This is not because the lawyers weren't sincere. They really were. This is not because the PPP has a lot to lose by reinstating Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. It does. The real reason the lawyers movement will not, can not, and should not be transformational in Pakistani politics is that the lawyers movement is outside the bounds of power politics in Pakistan. It is driven by appeals to the higher senses of educated and discerning Pakistanis who feel strongly about rule of law, and the way things should be. It is almost exclusively urban in character and, most importantly, its leadership is compromised by its own dissonance. From the judges that have eventually succumbed to the pressure to take new oaths, to Aitzaz Ahsan's political banishment to no-man's land—the movement has been torn asunder by its own internal inadequacies. Again, this is not to suggest that the movement was anything but heroic. It was, but it has run its course, and it has delivered what it could. It has forever expanded the imagination of Pakistan's educated urban dwellers about what is possible if there is real commitment. Where the lawyers' movement left off needed to be where something else picked up. This should have happened immediately after the restoration of the judiciary, and well before its illegal dissolution by the declaration of emergency in November 2007. What should that something else have been? Political action. It needn't have been the lawyers', but it needed to be some political force that demonstrated the reach of the movement, beyond the street, and into the voting booth. The fact is that Pakistan's discerning and self-righteous urbanites simply don't have the stomach for that kind of action. Ghinwa Bhutto does. She was there at an election booth on Feb 18, going toe-to-toe with an old-school PPP heavy, Mr Nisar Khuhro. The Khuhros and Bhuttos have stomach aplenty. So do the Daultanas, which is why both aunt (Tehmina for PML-N) and nephew (Azeem for PPP) are members of the assembly from Vehari. So do the Khars, the Chaudhrys, the Jamalis, the Qureshis, the Bilours, the Gilanis and all the others whom Pakistan's English-language elite love to hate. They call them the feudals, which is convenient but bogus. Land fragmentation since the 1990s has meant that it is now probably more profitable to be a real-estate agent for DHA than it is to be a "feudal lord." Moreover, it is not just the rural elite that demonstrate the panache to deal with the challenges of electoral politics in Pakistan. In Karachi, Pakistan's most cosmopolitan and most important city, the MQM has been politically untouchable now for an entire generation. The MQM has the stomach for the kind of action that enables it to make important decision on behalf of millions of Karachiites. Even beyond Karachi, there is a vibrant culture of political action in Pakistan's cities. It is this culture that the PML-N has wagered its political future on. It is a great bet. Pakistan's cities are exploding with the potential for industrial growth, the current economic downturn notwithstanding. The PML-N's only weakness is that those cities are all in the Punjab. That is hardly the point, though. The point is that whether it is the rural, or the urban, the feudal or the industrial, there is an existing political spectrum within which Pakistan's game of power politics is played. The two outliers in the political spectrum equation are the "religious" parties, and the military, which for reasons of brute strength and history, also have important political voices. Where are the aspirations of the high-minded, urbane and sophisticated Pakistani articulated in this spectrum? Quite simply put: nowhere. That is sad and tragic, and perhaps should be lamented on a daily basis. But it is not grounds for de-legitimising a very vast, well established and legally robust system of give and take between political actors. The fact that English-speaking urban Pakistanis care for Pakistan does not qualify them to decide on what is best for Pakistan, above the opinion of Pakistanis who may not have degrees and laptops, but who have the presence of mind to vote when elections are held. Those same Pakistanis may not have phones that support GPS and Google Earth, but they know where their representatives live. That's a lot more potent political information than what's available on a Pakistani expat's Blackberry. This really is the crux of Pakistan's challenge. The current political dispensation, this spoils system that is giving so many urbanites so much heartache, can continue unchallenged. If it does, Pakistan is guaranteed to remain a global backwater. No amount of promoting Pakistan's ridiculously titled and pathetically pursued "soft-image" can change that. The biggest enablers and patrons of the "soft-image" exercises were the same expats, aunties and urbanites who are now so wildly offended by a Zardari presidency and a political dispensation that has left them out in the cold. Challenging the existing political spectrum is not a task for the mild-mannered, and easily offended doyens of the lawyers' movement, or their middleclass-mindset urban supporters. It is a tough and gritty intergenerational challenge which will cost blood, sweat and tears. The PPP's ascent to the Presidency or the PML-N's not-so-distant future rise to power has been earned through exiles, jail terms and the deaths of political workers. So far the best that expats, aunties and urbanites have to offer are a few indignant op-eds about Mr Zardari's presidency. This is not simply inadequate, it is pathetic. Until we (the expats, aunties and urbanites) do better, Pakistan is better left in the hands of those whom the people have elected.

Blind man's bluff

Tuesday, September 16, 2008 The hopes that our political parties could lead the way to a bright new future in which new traditions of democracy are set have quickly receded. Such optimism had bloomed briefly after PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif paid a cordial courtesy call on newly-elected president Asif Ali Zardari and amidst the exchange of smiles and warm handshakes promised to play the role of a 'constructive' opposition. Zardari's instructions to the Punjab governor immediately after the visit, asking him to refrain from attacks on the PML-N, seemed to fit in with the same rules of civility. But almost instantly, the nightmarish visions from the 1990s, when political players engaged in the ugly games of numbers to bring each other down and conducted under underhand campaigns towards the same end have been resurrected. The indications are that a game for power is on in earnest in Punjab. The PML-Q is being persuaded to join hands with the PPP to topple the Shahbaz Sharif government. Though no one yet knows what the precise dimensions of this game are, it seems the carrot of the post of chief minister is being offered to Moonis Elahi, the son of former chief minister Pervaiz Ellahi, to persuade the party to align itself with the ruling coalition. The politics of dynasty continues, from one party to the other. Sons inherit political parties like heirlooms, husbands take over from wives and brothers are appointed to key posts. Other than the issue of merit, there is also that of democracy. The people of Punjab, like those elsewhere in the country, gave a resounding verdict against the PML-Q. Moonis Ellahi himself was soundly defeated in Lahore. To place a chief minister from the vanquished group once more in power amounts to a demeaning slap in the face for people proving to them that their votes mean nothing. As the game of blind man's bluff continues, with the PML-N warning of conspiracies against its government, there is also conjecture the PML-Q may join the government in the centre. The unprecedented resignation of Pervaiz Ellahi as leader of the opposition in the National Assembly is being read as one indication of this. The future of the constitutional amendment package, prepared by the PPP, too hangs in the balance. The PML-N is ready to back an end to Article 58 (2) B, but not if this is presented as part of a deal that includes the judicial issue. Without the PML-N, the majority needed for an abolition of the amendment seems unlikely. Pakistan then once more stands on the crossroads. Its political parties seem to be tempted towards vying for short-term gains. Many of us fear longer-term disaster and a return to the unsavoury politics of deal-making that marked the last decade of democratic rule in the country, doing so much to discredit it and indeed paving the way for a dictator to come charging in.