Pakistan does not deserve David Cameron’s insults

by Con Coughlin Con Coughlin, the Telegraph’s executive foreign editor, is a world-renowned expert on the Middle East and Islamic terrorism. He is the author of several critically acclaimed books. His new book, Khomeini’s Ghost, is published by Macmillan.   By Con Coughlin World Last updated: July 29th, 2010 An army helicopter overflies Pakistani soldiers in the upper Swat Valley last year (Photo: AP) What is this? Open season on Pakistan? Ok, so the Pakistanis can be immensely frustrating to deal with, and have not always, as the recent Wikileaks documents have shown, been the most reliable of allies. But that was then, when the country languished under the dictatorship of General Pervez Musharraf, who was reluctant to act against the Taliban. But following the country’s return to democracy, Pakistan has become a valued and effective ally in the war on terror, and has suffered immeasurably more casualties than Nato as its military has gone head-to-head with the Taliban in the lawless tribal territory to the north of the country. For this reason David Cameron should be praising Pakistan’s contribution, rather than castigating Islamabad as he has done during his visit to neighbouring India. Mr Cameron might revel in his “Cameron direct” approach, but he risks alienating a great many of this country’s important allies unless he learns to balance his plain speaking with some good old-fashioned common sense. It is a long time since a serving British prime minister has managed to cause two major diplomatic incidents during an overseas jaunt, but Mr Cameron has managed precisely that during this week’s visit to Turkey and India. His comment about the Gaza “prison” provoked an outraged response from the Israeli Embassy in London, while his patronising treatment of Pakistan has now elicited a similar response from the Pakistani High Commission. No doubt Mr Cameron and his advisors think that this policy will pay dividends because, at the very least, it is generating lots of headlines and helping to raise Mr Cameron’s international profile. But at what price? This country’s overwhelming national security issue to resolve the Afghan conflict, and I fail to see how our prospects in the war will be improved by causing serious offence to one of our major allies in the war.

Sad Commentary!

Sadly, This is so Pakistani!!!

FAKE DEGREES

by Pervez Hoodbhoy

Sunday, 25 July, 2010

Currently on a short visit to the University of Maryland, I am taking this opportunity to inform readers about the impression created overseas by the fake degree scandal in Pakistan. Major newspapers here, including the New York Times, have carried stories of the scores of counterfeit degrees possessed by Pakistani parliamentarians. The US media has underscored the unwillingness of the government and society to punish this scandalous behavior. Also reported is that the Sindh government has attempted to intimidate and threaten the chairman of the Higher Education Commission, who had been charged with verifying the degrees.

With outright cheaters and crooks sitting in parliament under government protection, it is no surprise that most people here – Pakistanis, Americans, and Indians – feel that Pakistan is headed nowhere. Expatriate Pakistanis, who live in a society that places a premium on personal honesty, are hanging their heads in shame. They have no explanation for why their country has fallen so low. If a state cannot enforce even minimal ethical rules, and if it can live in equanimity with corruption that is starkly visible, then it rightly deserves to be called a failed state. No foreigner is going to think of Pakistan as anything other than a Somalia or Nigeria, lawless and corrupt nations with which we seem to be competing with.

Fortunately, there do seem to be people of conscience in Pakistan who will not let the scandal die and the country sink yet further. It is also fortunate that the HEC, with which I have had strong differences in the past, is apparently holding up against political pressures. One wishes that these forces for good could prevail. I am sad, however, to see some well-respected columnists argue that the fake degree issue is being used to derail democracy and prepare the ground for army rule. This is a specious argument that, carried to its logical conclusion, will allow the grossest and ugliest of crimes to go unpunished.

Filmi duet of the ‘Jaalee Digri’ (degree)

 

Appropriate to our present day situation relating to the ‘Jaalee Digri (degree) Syndrome that is ravaging our Law makers, they should all be jilted by the voters and replaced by the runners up of the election provided their digri is not jaalee! Click on the link below to enjoy this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad5XY8gEIO8&feature=PlayList&p=0B9EFC45C94BDEFC&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=28

Age old Games, will they ever end?

by Khurshid Anwer

Trust PPP to hand over important ministries to turncoats like Qureshi at the cost of the country. However, this is not the first time India has stonewalled on Kashmir. Kennedy once said that every time he mentioned Kashmir to Nehru, the latter would start gazing at his shoes and would not raise his head until the subject had been changed. Musharraf of course played into India’s hands by first climbing up at Kargil and the climbing down at Khatmandu. It would be pertinent to recall the attempts made by Ayub Khan to get Nehru to agree to a compromise on Kashmir.

A G Noorani in his column ‘Lesson’s of Murree’ in the Nation of June 17, talks about an important period in the Ayub Khan era which he says has been neglected by the historians. Chronicles of India-Pakistan relations take little note of the summit conference between Pandit Nehru and Ayub Khan on Sep 11, 1960.

Ayub Khan met Nehru twice, once at Palam Airport in new Delhi in 1959, and a second time at Murree in 1960. In 1964 Sheikh Abdullah persuaded them to meet for a third time but soon after that Nehru breathed his last.

Nehru made no effort to conceal his dislike for the head of state of a neighbouring country, an imperial self indulgence in which Indira Ghandi also reveled, in both cases at the expense of India’s national interests.

(Benazir Bhutto also reveled in her disdain for her political opponents – being ‘born to rule’)

India’s high commissioner to Pakistan Rajeshwar Dayal has recorded in his memoirs the excellent rapport he had with Ayub khan from the time they were together at Mathura where he was district manager, “The sole Indian officer, in charge of a small unit of the service corps was a young Indian captain, Mohammad Ayub Khan – – – – -, almost every evening he would be at our house”.

Ayub Khan did not pull rank when as head of state he received his old friends credentials as India’s high commissioner in Nov 1858, “all protocol forgotten and smiling profusely”.

(Talk about protocol, Dr Mobashar Hasan and others could not walk in to see Bhutto without first being announced – “has my comrade of one years struggle forgotten my name or my face” wondered Mubashir)

Rajeshwar Dayal performed brilliantly, battling against a paranoid krishna Menon and a Commonwealth Secretary, M J Desai, who had an almost pathological aversion to Pakistan, a trait that persists in some to this day.

The initiative for the first meeting had come from Manzur Qadir. Pandit Nehru and Ayub khan issued a press statement at Palam airport. Speaking to the press, Ayub khan had said, “There is need for reappraisal, for forgetting and forgiving, and for a more realistic, rational and sensible relationship with each other”. This was the language of one who wished to shed old baggage.

This brings us to the Nehruvian style of diplomacy of no negotiations. Nehru would state his position and ask for its acceptance. He offered status quo, a non-starter. Why would Pakistan accept in a bargain what it already had.

For the signing of the Indus Water Treaty in 1960, Ayub Khan said he would welcome a personal visit by Prime minister Nehru, alternately he would be glad to go to Delhi himself. Ayub Khan felt that Pandit Nehru was at the zenith of his power and popularity in India and any decision taken by him would be unquestionably accepted. While he in Pakistan also had the necessary authority to ensure acceptance.

Dayal briefed Nehru that all that Ayub khan expected at that stage was that the process of discussions on Kashmir be initiated without any preconditions. He was too much of a realist to expect early results and he realised that the process would be long drawn. “I placed these thoughts in some detail before the prime minister , just before I was to take up the stewardship of the United Nations Mission in the Congo”.

The upshot was that Nehru agreed to accompany Ayub khan to the cool heights of Murree. Dayals appointment to head the UN mission in Congo at this moment was most unfortunate. If Ayub khan persisted despite a keen perception of Nehru’s dislike of him, it was because he sought earnestly to settle Kashmir and get on with the job at home.

Dayal writes in his memoirs, “I found Ayub khan straight forward and cooperative. Quick in grasping the essentials of a problem and once convinced, quick in decision. He betrayed not a trace of religious bigotry or narrow-mindedness, and whenever he mentioned prime minister Nehru, he always did so in terms of respect". It was such a man whom Nehru had slighted.

Dayal writes that when he met Ayub khan in London at the conference of the commonwealth heads of government, “He upbraided me for leaving my post in Pakistan at such a critical juncture, remarking sarcastically that Pandit Nehru seemed to think that Congo was more important to India than Pakistan. He soundly blamed krishna Menon and M J Desai for their evil counsel and the Prime minister for listening to them”.

The talks in Murree between Pandit Nehru an Ayub khan proved to be an unmitigated disaster. Ayub khan told Dayal that when ever he tried to open a conversation about Kashmir, Nehru simply stared out of the window and shut up like a clam. From that time the relations between the two countries which had been built up brick by brick, suddenly collapsed in rubble.

The Indian version according to Nehru was, “The President began by laying stress on the importance and urgency of a full settlement of all our problems – – – – – – – – -. I replied that in dealing with kashmir we had to take a realistic view of the situation, not to do so would land us in greater difficulties. It would be most unfortunate for us to take a step which might create numerous upsets and emotional upheavals – – – – – “. that is, accept the status quo and make the ceasefire line an international boundary.

(What Nehru could not get from Ayub Khan, Indira Ghandi got from Bhutto. Would she have released 900 prisoner’s of war without getting Kashmir conceded as a bilateral issue and getting the Cease Fire Line changed to Line of Control. Bhutto signed away Kashmir at Shimla in return for showing that he had not returned empty handed).

Rebuffed by Nehru repeatedly, from 1960 to 1963, Ayub khan became more receptive to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s advice to settle the matter by recourse to force. On May 12, 1965, Bhutto wrote a letter to the president advocating this course. It began with the foolish assumption: “India is at present in no position to risk a general war of unlimited duration”. India proved the assumption wrong,

Enter the Islamic Feminists, POWER to the Women

by Mohammed Wajihuddin,

Times of India

Jul 10, 2010

Last week, Lucknow-based feminist Shaista Ambar was on television again. This time she was siding with the three daughters-in-law – Nishat, Hina and Arshi – who had beaten up some maulvis at Sultanul Madaris, the city’s famous Shia madrassa which also houses a Sharia court. The maulvis had given talaqnamas (divorce documents) to the women’s husbands without consulting them when they tried to get justice against the advances of their father-in-law.

Incensed, Ambar batted for the brave women whom the clergy predictably attacked for taking the law into their hands. "The maulvis should have spoken to the women before they wrote the talaqnama. The patriarchal, misogynist clergy will have to mend its ways or women know how to avenge injustice," Ambar told TOI-Crest in between giving interviews to news channels.

Ambar belongs to a small but increasingly influential group of Islamic feminists in India. They may not be as powerful as the senior maulvis who head leading Islamic seminaries or run Muslim Personal Law Boards and Sharia courts, both Shia and Sunni. But this band of non-conformist women is silently and successfully ushering in change.

They may not equal the audacity of the bra-burning feminists of several decades ago, but they’ve hit hard at the patriarchal and misogynist elements in Muslim society. And their guiding sources are the Quran and Hadith (the Prophet’s traditions). Ambar, who founded the Muslim Women’s Personal Law Board in 2005, saved the marriages of hundreds of Muslim couples in Muradabad (UP) village a couple of years ago.

A maulvi belonging to the Deobandi sect had led the namaz-e-janaza (funeral prayer) of a man from the Barelvi sect. Calling it a sin, another maulvi of the sect issued a fatwa that all those who had attended the funeral prayer under the imamat (leadership) of the Deobandi imam needed to remarry, as their wives had become haram (illegal) for them. "This diktat threatened not just to throw the marital lives of several dozen Muslims into disarray, but also inflame a sectarian strife in western UP," says Ambar, who quelled the crisis by opposing the fatwa. She cited the example of holy mosques in Mecca and Medina where lakhs worship behind Deobandi imams. Ambar was also among those who opposed the recent Darul Uloom fatwa that called women’s earnings illegal. India’s Islamic feminists are bucking trends courageously and cannily.

In August 2008, Planning Commission member Sayeda Hameed created history by becoming the first woman qazi when she solemnised a nikah ceremony in Lucknow – that of activist Naesh Hasan and PhD scholar Imran Naeem. "Naesh told me that she would remain unmarried if I didn’t act as the qazi. I had to give in to her demands," recalls Hameed, who drew flak from a section of clerics who said there was no precedent of a woman acting as a qazi. "I asked them to show me a verse in the Quran or a Hadith which prevented a woman from becoming a qazi. If it was not forbidden by Allah and His Prophet, who were the maulvis to oppose it?" she asks. After they couldn’t come out with a convincing reason, some maulvis spread the lie that Hameed had not covered her head while she chanted Quranic verses during the nikah. This was a lie, claims Hameed, fabricated to malign her.

The Islamic feminist movement is not confined to occasional acts of rebellion by contrarian "progressives" . There are some feminists who are respected by even senior clerics and regularly invited to their meetings. Mumbaibased Uzma Naheed is one such. Coming from the family of the clerics that founded the famous Darul Uloom Deoband (UP) in the mid-18th century, Naheed is a member of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIIMPLB) and heads Iqra International Women Alliance (IIWA), an NGO committed to empowering Muslim women. A few yeas ago, she drafted a model nikahnama which had, among other provisions, a right to talaq-e-tafweez (delegated talaq) which allowed women a right to put certain conditions in the nikahnma. If the husband failed to meet those conditions – like not taking another wife till the first wife was alive – the woman could divorce him. Many members privately appreciated Naheed’s revolutionary nikahnama, but are yet to implement it.

Unlike most Muslim women who are expected to remain veiled when they meet strangers, Naheed doesn’t use a face veil, though she covers her head with a scarf.

"Initially, some ulema were uncomfortable with my being unveiled. Now they have accepted me," she says.

Another feminist is Zeenat Shaukat Ali, who teaches Islamic Studies at Mumbai’s St Xavier’s College and has made "freeing Muslim women from the clutches of the clergy" her life’s mission. Thirteen years ago, Ali created a stir among educated Muslims with her critically acclaimed book Marriage and Divorce in Islam (1997). "The book’s main argument is that since Allah made male and female as complementary to each other, there is no reason to treat women as inferior to men," says Ali, who adds that her feminism is not about male-bashing , but about sharing space with them.

The academic has organised several multi-faith programmes, including a cricket match featuring maulvis, Hindu pandits, Christian, Zoroastrian and Sikh priests as players. Her Art for Peace project had similar multireligious participation where the participants were asked to paint on a theme of peace. "Many of the maulvis had never picked up a brush before," she recalls.

Fiery woman activist Daud Sharifa’s aim is to build a mosque exclusively for women. Since mosques are binding forces for practising Muslims, there has been a movement to allow women to worship there, and a few mosques in India, like the Tajul Madaris in Bhopal, do allow women worshippers, though segregated by a wall or a curtain. But an exclusive mosque for women was unheard of in India till Sharifa took up the issue a few years ago.

Having seen the discrimination against Muslim women at the hands of the local jamaat in Tamil Nadu, Sharifa launched a movement for women’s empowerment not financially but spiritually too. She is building India’s first mosque exclusively for women in Pudukkottai, around 300 km from Chennai. "It will serve not just as a place of worship but even as a cultural centre where women can air their views and discuss their problems," explains Sharifa whom the local maulvis vehemently opposed, but failed to stop.

This bunch of Islamic feminists is fighting for a better future for sisters in distress. Ask the three women in Lucknow who, after bashing up the corrupt maulvis, found Shaista Ambar as a shield against the threats, both verbal and physical.

This bunch of Islamic feminists is fighting for a better future for sisters in distress. Ask the three women in Lucknow who, after bashing up the corrupt maulvis, found Shaista Ambar as a shield against the threats, both verbal and physical.

Spreading wings: Islamic feminism is a decade and a half old. In the 1990s Iranian, Egyptian, Turkish, Moroccan, South African, American, feminists and religious scholars, among others, found they were all simultaneously working on reinterpretations of women’s rights under Islam. It is now well on its way to becoming a robust international movement with more and more women pushing for a progressive Islamic discourse to promote gender equality.

ELECTRICITY GAME BY OUR LEADERS IN PAKISTAN

Lifted from source

Dear Pakistani’s Read & Think!!!!! Dear Pakistanis! Read, Think & understand the game International Powers are playing with us with the help of! Electricity produced in Pakistan is from three main sources. 1). Hydral 2). Thermal (Gas/Steam/Furnace Oil) 3). Nuclear There are four major power producers in country which include Water & Power Development Authority (WAPDA), Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC), Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC). Below is the break-up of the installed capacity of each of these power producers (as of June-2008). 1. WAPDA a. WAPDA Hydal Terbela                                                            3478  MW      Mangla                                                             1000  MW      Ghazi-Brotha                                                     1450  MW        Warsak                                                              243  MW      Chashma                                                            184  MW      Dargai                                                                  20  MW      Rasul                                                                    22  MW      Shadi-Waal                                                           18  MW      NandiPur                                                               14  MW      Kurram Garhi                                                           4  MW      Renala                                                                    1  MW      Chitral                                                                     1  MW   Jagran (AK)                                                            30  MW Total Hydal                                        ==>       6461 MW b. WAPDA Thermal    Gas Turbine Power Station, Shadra                             59  MW    Steam Power Station, Faisalabad                              132  MW      Gas Turbine Power Station, Faisalabad                      244  MW      Gas Power Station, Multan                                        195  MW      Thermal Power Station, Muzaffargarh                      1350  MW      Thermal Power Station, Guddu          1655  MW      Gas Turbine Power Station, Kotri                               174  MW      Thermal Power Station, Jamshoro                             850  MW      Thermal Power Station, Larkana                                150  MW      Thermal Power Station, Quetta                                   35  MW        Gas Turbine Power Station, Panjgur                            39  MW   Thermal Power Station, Pasni                                     17  MW Total Thermal                                     ==>        4811  MW WAPDA’s Total Hydal + Thermal capacity is  ==>      11272 MW. 2. Karachi Electric Supply Company    Thermal Power Station, Korengi                               316  MW      Gas Turbine Power Station, Korengi                            80  MW      Gas Turbine Power Station, SITE                              100  MW   Thermal Power Station, Bin Qasim                          1260  MW Total (KESC)                                        ==>      1756  MW 3. Independent Power Producers (IPPs) Hub Power Project                                                     1292 MW   AES Lalpir Ltd, Mahmood Kot MuzaffarGarh                    362 MW   AES Pak Gen, Mahmood Kot MuzaffarGarh                      365 MW   Altern Energy Ltd, Attock                                                 29 MW   Fauji KabirWala Power Company, Khanewal                    157 MW   Gul Ahmad Energy Ltd, Korengi                                      136 MW   Habibullah Coastal Power Ltd                                         140 MW   Japan Power Generation, Lahore                                    120 MW   Koh-e-Noor Energy Ltd, Lahore                                       131 MW   Liberty Power Limited, Ghotki                                         232 MW   Rousch Power, Khaniwal                                                412 MW     Saba Power Company, Sheikhpura                                 114 MW Southern Electric Power Company Ltd, Raiwind                135 MW   Tapal Energy Limited, Karachi                                        126 MW   Uch Power Ltd, Dera Murad Jamali, Nasirabad                 586 MW   Attock Gen Ltd, Morgah Rawalpindi                                 165 MW   Atlas Power, Sheikhpura                                                225 MW Engro Energy Ltd, Karachi                                            —– MW   Kot Addu Power Company Limited (Privitized)                1638 MW Total  (IPPs)                                              ===>   6365 MW 4. Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission KANUPP                                                                     137  MW   CHASNUPP-1                                                              325  MW Total (Nuclear)                                          ===>   462  MW Hydal Electricity generated by WAPDA varies between two extremities i.e. between minimum of 2414 MW and maximum of 6761 MW depending upon the river flow through the whole year. Total Power Generation Capacity of Pakistan (including all sources) is 19855 MW and the electricity demand (as of today 20-04-2010) is 14500 MW and PEPCO is merely generating 10000 MW. So it is obvious that these 15-20 hrs power shutdowns in most parts of the country are not because of the lack of generation capacity but only because of IMF / World Bank policies imposed on our nation by Govt. The Power Generation companies are not buying Furnace Oil from PSO by saying they don’t have money to do that but we are all paying for Electricity that is generated from Furnace Oil. This is the reason that top refineries like PRL are operating at 40% capacities. IMF / World bank has imposed to reduce budget deficit by importing less crude oil. But due to this fact all our industries are under severe crisis. None of our political party who are in Assembly is ready to speak on it because every one is blessed by US / IMF / World Bank. Dear Pakistani’s, This is a time to show your social activism your power and strength. It is your silence which is deafening and your couldn’t care less attitude which makes the people in power more powerful evasive and secure in their Air conditioned offices. PLEASE STAND UP AND BE COUNTED:  Please don’t stop this e-mail and forward it to as many people as possible. Thanks WE WANT ELECTRICITY IN PAKISTAN. Electricity now is @11 Rs. per unit, and it will increase after every two months as directed by (American) IMF policies. Also CHINA offers to Pakistan Electricity for just Rs.200 Monthly Bill and Unlimited Usage of Electricity but our government is not taking the offer seriously. This is because there will be neither kick backs nor any commissions to be pocketed by the strong mafia of politicians and bureaucrats. These people are there because of your votes. Let them serve you rather than rule you…… NOW THIS IS OUR TIME TO SHOW THE GOVERNMENT YOUR STRENGTH. PLEASE SPREAD THIS MESSAGE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN, BECAUSE OF THIS MESSAGE MANY PEOPLE WOULD COME TO KNOW ABOUT THE TRUTH

Kings and Queens of democracy

by Jalees Hazir   

Nation July 04.

Hiding behind a veil of convoluted democracy, President Zardari and his courtesans would like to impose a feudal order on the State of Pakistan. The veil is too flimsy though, and it hides nothing. In fact, as the issue of fake degrees becomes bigger, and the statements of PPP leaders on the subject become more and more absurd, the divide between the democratic aspirations of an awakened nation and the fossilised mindset of the ruling party is becoming more obvious by the day.

Chanting hypocritical mantras of democracy, the PPP leadership has consistently shown a contempt for law since it assumed power. It has tried to create an impression that democracy is like a title intrinsically glued to their persons and party regardless of their undemocratic actions. The PPP would like the people of Pakistan to put aside every value that underlines the concept of democracy, and swallow every bitter pill of the many trespasses of its leadership in its name. The question is: Can there be democracy without the rule of law?

Clearly, there is no sense in electing a Parliament if the laws it makes are of no value and those entrusted with their implementation flout them. Do the rich and poor people of Pakistan pay for the salaries and perks of the law-makers just to see them look pretty in the cushy sofas of the assemblies? Does the PPP think that it can polish up its democratic credentials by evoking the memory of its slain leaders and the sacrifices of its workers? Does it think that it could confuse the nation by lying through its teeth and propagating an untagged paranoia about dangers to democracy? Fortunately, its trickery is not working.

Rule of law is the biggest hurdle in the way of PPP’s feudal agenda. The party’s government that now shamelessly claims the credit for the restoration of an independent judiciary took the step only when it was left with no other option. After beating about the bush for months, its puppet Prime Minister announced the restoration once it became clear that the hectic illegal efforts of its Interior Ministry and the barricades it had erected could not stop the flood of citizens marching to their citadels. Does the PPP think that the people of Pakistan have forgotten how the President broke written agreements and, along with his cunning legal team, argued for the continuation of the Dogar court? The televised address in the early hours of the morning was a vindication of the power of the people against democracy-spouting impostors who acted upon the popular demand only to save their government and skins.

So why was the PPP government so allergic to the notion of restoring an independent judiciary? For the same reason that a despotic wadera is allergic to allowing anyone who could check his unbridled authority to do as he pleases in his fiefdom. And it is this mindset that the PPP must discard before it can even begin to lay any claims to democracy. After all, the most important aspect of democracy is the rule of law and you cannot run a democracy on the whims of individuals who have nothing but contempt for it. The first step towards democracy is to accept the supremacy of law and constitution and to agree to play by the rules. Of course, the rules, the laws, and even the constitution, could be changed through democratic means. But that is very different from subverting them.

The conduct of the government since the restoration speaks much louder than its hollow pronouncements championing democracy and feigning a respect for law. As its Law Minister with a dubious doctorate goes around the country in a chartered airplane distributing funds among the lawyers community in the most controversial manner, and other PPP ministers parrot the presidential line about fake degrees, the pseudo-democratic government’s fight against the independence of judiciary has come out in the open. The malicious term of judicial dictatorship is being thrown around. The ill-advised political statement of the Lahore High Court Chief Justice is being used to malign an entire institution that is seen as attempting to keep a check on the illegal affairs of the government. Obviously, the PPP has not been cured of its allergy to an independent judiciary and it has chosen to fight it with retrogressive feudal rhetoric and tactics.

In its attempt to retain and strengthen the feudal character of its government, the PPP has pitted a perverse concept of democracy against the rule of law. Posing as the custodian of democracy, it paints any effort to check illegalities and moral or financial corruption of its leaders as a conspiracy against democracy. Their logic is simple: PPP equals democracy. And because it has crowned itself thus, its leaders are not answerable for their misdeeds, be it forgery or robbery, corruption or murder. The kings and queens of democracy are above the law and the people of Pakistan should behave like loyal unquestioning subjects paying homage to their greatness and sacrifices, believing every lie they tell, and waiting obediently for the next elections when the baton will be passed on to the princes and princesses of democracy.

A rude shock awaits the entire royalty of democracy whose only interest seems to be guarding their seat till 2013. The veil they hide behind is too flimsy, and the people of Pakistan are not blind. They can see the yawning chasm between the words and deeds of these democracy-spouting impostors who consider power and leadership an inherited right to be exploited for personal interests rather than a duty to serve those in whose name they govern. The people are not deaf. They can hear the hollowness of their arguments and the insincere tone of their high-pitched voices that seek to cover up their crimes. And most importantly, the people of Pakistan are neither dumb nor stupid. They are not fooled by this democratic drama and know that they do not have to wait for 2013 to speak.

To everyone that uses the road

Hello everybody,

Yesterday the 5th of july a youngster in a 7 series BMW almost killed himself and me in my car! I tried to pull him over to put some sense in his head, but he would not budge, to cut a long story short I finally got him in a spot where he had no choice but to stop and listen, he was young under 18 I suspect had no license on him, said it was at home, said his father is Sardar Asif (??!!)

But I read him the riot act he  could only keep repeating the word sorry! I made him listen to what he had not been taught at home, that his life and those other road users lives were very valuable and that it was because of individuals like him that people died or were maimed each day of the year on our roads! Please make sure you do not neglect your responsibility to your children, your fellow road users and to yourself.

Yu know what each of us MUST do to put things right and the hard work starts at home.

This needs to be watched by everyone who has the keys to a vehicle ….and to young people BEFORE they get their drivers
license. This is perhaps one of the most INTENSE commercials that I’ve ever seen and well made.
I think Australia should be complemented on having the guts to "tell it like it is" and get this campaign out to
all of its licensed drivers and to air it on TV…it is very moving and very life like…it has a very strong impact.
Not easy to watch…but necessary to watch.

Just press on the DUI !!! link below
DUI !!!
Thanks ,