Barack Hussein Obama in June, 2009 while visiting Cairo revealed, “ I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect; and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles – principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.” Let me say from the out set that American administrations probably failed to implement their president’s idea of improving relations with Muslim World. Israel and Indian lobbies present in both houses of the congress whenever got chance have manipulated and triggered their anti-Muslim agenda. It is mentionable here that Jewish and Indian influence on western and American media is quite visible. New Delhi and Tel Aviv do provide money to the leading journalists of the world for defaming Muslims community and creating space between Christens and Muslim community too.
Every second writer of the international media is busy in cooking stories against Muslim world. The main themes of these stories keep on revolving around Islamic extremism, Nuke programme of Pakistan and Iran. In fact, the efforts of getting close to Islamic world made by Obama have been multiplied by zero by his own media, and intelligence agencies. Recently, on November 09, 2005 a United States based journalist Seymour Hersh prepared a report about Pakistan Nuke Programme and published in the latest issue of “The New Yorker magazine”. Summary of the report is that there is an agreement between Islamabad and Washington by which Pakistan would allow specially trained American units to provide added security for the Pakistani arsenals in case of any crisis. He also quoted various former and present high officials for providing sensitive information to him. Mr Hersh has constructed his story on the bases of assumptions with preconceived ideas against Pakistan Nukes. Former Army Chief General (Retired) Mirza Aslam Baig commented in a private electronic channel that Hersh report is a part of psychological warfare and malicious propaganda against our nuke programme which was launched by anti Pakistan lobby. It is worth mentioning here that Mr. Hersh is famous for crafting baseless stories by referring anonymous high officials, clipping and connecting unsubstantiated information. In 2005, Hersh too alleged that the US and Pakistan has concluded “Khan-for-Iran” agreement in which Washington will look the other way at Pakistan’s nuclear transgressions and not demand handing over of its nuclear A Q Khan, in return for Islamabad’s cooperation in neutralising Iran’s nuclear plans. At that time also, USA and Pakistan officials denied the report and called it a “rubbish” .He further claimed that USA was conducting covert operations in Iran to identify targets for possible strikes. However both the governments again dismissed his report.
American so-called ‘non-proliferation pundits yelp like dogs when talking about proliferation by Iran, North Korea and Pakistan but sound like mice when it comes to proliferation by Israel, India and USA. The Americans media deliberately quite over Tel Aviv and Indian nuclear weapons designs, fissile material, USA based companies’ Involvement in sensitive electronic spares smuggling to India, murder of nuke staff and disappearance of uranium loaded Indian ship. They have intentionally turned a blind eye to Indian’s activities in relation to nuke programme. Over the past decade, Russia has provided India with plutonium reactors and reprocessing technology which enable her in making ballistic and cruise missiles. These missiles have been deployed against China and Pakistan. Interestingly, KGB and CIA though remained dagger drawn with each other on the nuke issue but never tried to unearth the Indian-Israel nuke capability in detail. But after disintegration of USSR, India has fallen into American lap, which led to new cold war between Russia and USA. Russia, China, Pakistan and other regional countries have also genuinely shown concern over the recent US-Indo Nuclear Deal. Some how Pakistan always remained an important player of great game but presence of American troops in the region have further amplified the worries of regional countries. CIA and KGB with their allied intelligence agencies have too started their covert operation against each other. That is the reason that some American media also pointed out in the past that some KGB agents present in pentagon released American documents on internet. In May and June 2009 Indian famous nuke scientist Lokanathan Mahalingam and Mr. Ravi a staff member of Kaiga Atomic Power Station have been abducted and murdered mysteriously. Reportedly, the kidnapped scientist was having connection with Russia.
It is also a known fact that Indian nuke programme have been launched with help of former USSR. The American and western investigators’ journalists failed to found that whether CIA abducted him to obtain the information about Indian and Russian nuke capabilities or RAW picked him up on their master’s direction and threw his dead body in the river. Similarly American media never raised questions about 152 theft cases of uranium which were reported and registered with Indian police since 1984. Some of Western and American journalists are on the pay role of Indian intelligence and are being paid by Jew’s lobby to foment hateful propaganda against Muslim world. There is a perception that CIA has its own agenda and is working against Obam’s policies of reviving relations with Muslim world. American intelligence set up is supporting Indian, Israeli and Afghan intelligence agency in spreading terrorism in Pakistan. They are using local Taliban and providing them weapons, medical equipments, money and instruments. According to Indian and Pakistani leading newspapers “Triple III agency (Indo-Israel Intelligence Agency)” is involved in targeting military, sensitive and civilian insinuations.
In short, the news published in Washington Post and New Yorker magazine are a classic examples of propaganda against Pakistan Nukes Programme. The Jews paid media launched the stories when Obama is on Japan tour and going to visit Beijing soon. At this occasion, American media and New Delhi have tried to malign China in provision of Uranium to Pakistan. In fact, Indian government has made a made a hopeless attempt to divert global attention from her poor security arrangements at Nuke plants’ sites. She also totally failed in stopping nuke proliferation. I would like to suggest Seymour Hersh and his team to dig out the actual causes of murder of Indian senior nuclear scientist, nuke proliferation of India, connection between Berkeley Nucleonic Corporation and Bhaba Atomic Research Center, Israel Nuke capability, Indian brutality against Kashmiries, Maoist, Christians, Killing of innocent passengers of Samjota Express and Sikhs. Meaning, the yield of the thermonuclear explosions was actually much below expectations and the tests were perhaps more a fizzle. I would also like to suggest to Obama’s administration to have an eye on Indian and Jews lobby those are real hindrance in implementation of his policy of establishing good relation with Muslim world. He has to forgo with the former Bush Policy of keeping the forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, if wants to win the Muslim community of USA. Moreover this the only solution to stop reoccurrence of Texas firing cases. Probably reasons of firing on air base could be suppressing USA Muslim community on the name of war on terror. Concluding, World community and IAEA are also showing concern over the security of Indian nuke programme and asking India to sign NPT and CTBT for establishing permanent regional peace.
By
Lt Col Zaheerul Hassan (R)
The National Assembly on Thursday unanimously passed a landmark bill to regulate transplants of human organs in the country, making their sale and unauthorized transplant punishable with up to 10 years in prison.
The house suspended some rules to take up the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Bill immediately after the standing committee on health presented its report on the draft based on a Musharraf-era ordinance and adopted it without a debate to honour Pakistan’s iconic kidney transplant surgeon Dr Adeeb Rizvi, who had campaigned for framing such a law and was present in a visitors’ gallery to witness the proceedings.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Speaker Fehmida Mirza and members from all parliamentary groups made brief remarks after the vote to congratulate the house for adopting the important bill, which will become permanent law after its passage by the Senate, and to praise Dr Adeeb’s services in the field.
An identical bill introduced in the previous National Assembly on Aug 17, 2007 could not be taken up for a vote before the house ran out its tenure but it was saved in the form of an ordinance promulgated by then president Pervez Musharraf on Sept 4 the same year.
The ordinance is one of 37 Musharraf decrees which need parliament’s approval by Nov 28 to remain in the field after losing the cover of the former military president’s controversial Nov 3, 2007 emergency proclamation held unconstitutional by a Supreme Court ruling on July 31.
The bill provides for a regulatory mechanism, including a high-level federal monitoring authority and evaluation committees, for the removal, storage and transplantation of human organs and tissues for therapeutic purposes and prohibits the practice of their sale to foreigners which gave Pakistan the reputation of a virtual kidney bazaar where rich foreign patients could buy kidneys from poor people for transplantation at local kidney centers.
The new law will allow a voluntary organ or tissue donation by at least an 18-year-old living donor to any other ‘genetically and legally related’ person, who is a close relative such as a parent, son, daughter, sister, brother and spouse, with authorisation from an evaluation committee of specialists in the field helped by local notables to be set up for every medical institution and hospital where at least 25 transplants are carried out annually.
‘In case of non-availability of (such) a donor …, the evaluation committee may allow donation by a non ‘close blood relative’ after satisfying itself that such donation is voluntary,’ the bill says.
‘In the case of regenerative tissue, i.e. stem cells, there is no restriction of age between siblings,’ it further says.
The bill also provides for donation to be effective after death if a person aged at least 18 years, authorises any medical institution or hospital approved by a 10-member monitory authority headed by the health minister and including heads of organisations of the medical profession and specialists.
It says transplants and removal of human organs ‘shall only be carried out’ by recognised professionals after a written certification from an evaluation committee.
The bill prescribes an imprisonment for up to 10 years and a fine of up to one million rupees for those involved in the removal and human organs without the prescribed authority as well as their sale. Contravention of other provisions of the law will be punishable with up to three years of imprisonment or with a fine of up to Rs300,000, or with both. A medical practitioner convicted for unauthorised removal of human organs for transplant will also be liable to ‘appropriate action’ by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council, including removal from its register for three years for the first offence and permanently for the subsequent offence.
Earlier, Minister of State for Law and Justice Mohammad Afzal Sandhu introduced a bill seeking an amendment in the Code of Civil Procedure aimed at checking what its statement of objects and reasons called ‘frivolous litigation’ by enhancing the amount of compensatory costs to be awarded by a court to Rs100,000 from the existing Rs25,000.
Nadeem F. Paracha Article in Dawn News Title "From lashes to strokes"
| Entertainment, Featured Articles | 1 comments »The lingering Islamisation milieu put together by the Ziaul Haq dictatorship got a beating recently. In May this year, in an unprecedented move, the Federal Shariat Court declared that the consumption of alcohol in Islam was a (comparatively) lesser crime. The court duly overturned the punishment of applying 80 lashes to the seller and consumer of alcohol (with a whip) and replaced it with light ’strokes from a stick made from a palm tree leave.’
In her book, Islam, Its Laws & Society, Islamic law expert Jamila Hussain states that though the Quran ‘advises’ Muslims to stay away from wine (khamr), it does not outright forbid it like it does carrion meat, blood, pork, and idolatry. She also states that neither does the Holy Book prescribe any punishment for consuming alcohol.
In ‘Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History’, author Jack S. Blocker informs that the punishment of flogging for drunkenness was derived from the writings of ulema who constructed the four leading schools of jurisprudence in Sunni Islam – Hanafi, Shafi, Maliki and Hanabali – in the eighth and ninth centuries. The source of this punishment is not the Quran, but an hadith attributed to the first caliph of Islam, Abu Baker.
There are five verses in the Quran dealing with the subject of intoxicants:
Verse 67 of Surah 16 (The Bee) states: ‘And of the fruits of the date-palm, and grapes, from which you derive strong drink and good nourishment. Lo! therein is indeed a portent for people who have sense.’ (Marmaduke Pickthall translation). In this verse, the Quran recognises man’s custom of deriving intoxicating drinks from grapes and dates.
Verse 43 of Surah 4 (Women) states: ‘O ye who believe! Approach not prayers with a mind befogged (intoxicated)…’ (Yousuf Ali translation). In this Surah, the Quran asks Muslims not to arrive at the mosque when intoxicated.
Verse 219 of Surah 2 (The Cow) states: ‘They ask thee concerning wine and gambling. Say: In them is great sin, and some profit, for men; but the sin is greater than the profit.’ (Ahmad Ali translation). God then advises his subjects to avoid drinking and gambling, because even though there are benefits in both, the harms are more in number.
However, it is the fourth and fifth intoxicant-related verses that have created the biggest debates between conservative and liberal Islamic scholars.
Verse 90 of Surah 5 (The Table) states: ‘O believers, this wine and gambling, these idols, and these arrows you use for divination, are all acts of Satan; so keep away from them.’ Verse 91 of the same Surah adds: ‘Satan only wishes to create among you enmity and hatred through wine and gambling, and to divert you from the remembrance of God and prayer. Will you therefore not desist?’ (Ahmad Ali)
These are the verses most conservative scholars use to proclaim drinking as an ‘unpardonable sin’ (gunnah-e-kabeera), and justify the punishment of 40-to-80 lashes for its sale and usage, even though, clearly, there is no such punishment proscribed in these verses.
Most liberal Hanifi and secular Islamic scholars suggest that though the Quran has explicitly ‘advised’ Muslims to avoid drinking alcohol, its consumption is in not a ‘gunnah-e-kabeera’.
They use the following verse to press their point (5:3): ‘Forbidden to you is carrion and blood, and the flesh of the swine, and whatsoever has been killed in the name of some other than God, and whatever has been strangled, or killed by a blow or a fall, or by goring, or that which has been mauled by wild beasts unless slaughtered while still alive; and that which has been slaughtered at altars is forbidden, and also dividing the meat by casting lots with arrows. All this is sinful.’ (Ahmad Ali).
These scholars maintain that this verse visibly states the items that fall into the bracket of what is strictly forbidden (as food and drink) in Islam and that alcohol is not part of this list.
This is why most regions that follow the Hanifi school of jurisprudence (Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Bosnia, Albania), have traditionally been somewhat reluctant to prescribe the lashing punishment for drinking.
However, ironically, it was the secular government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (under pressure from fundamentalist opposition), that banned the sale of alcohol in Pakistan in 1977. Its consumption was then turned into a crime by Zia, punishable under his controversial Hudood Ordinances (80 lashes).
Zia’s move in this context gave birth to a thriving bootlegging mafia, also triggering the widespread usage of easily available addictive drugs such as heroin as an alternative. For example, till 1979, Pakistan literally had just a single reported case of heroin addiction, but by 1985, it had the second-largest population of heroin addicts!
Many scholars had accused Zia of corrupting Pakistan’s Hanifi tradition by adulterating it with chunks of ultra-conservative fiqh that was never part of the subcontinental Muslims’ religious landscape.
Though no Pakistani has been flogged for the offence of consuming alcohol since 1981, the Shariat Court’s verdict must have come as a serious blow to the architectural remnants of Zia’s skewed Islamisation process, and its convoluted notions of an Islamic state and pious citizens.
‘I have lost two crucial years of my career, first because of injury and then because of other problems, but now I want to focus on my game and take wickets and help my team win.’
The 26-year-old is part of Pakistan's Test squad for the three-match Test series against New Zealand which opens at Dunedin from November 24 -- he last played in a Test more than two years.
‘I am determined to put my recent past behind me. I have learnt my lessons and now fully geared up to play a leading role in the Test series against New Zealand and then in Australia,’ Asif told AFP.
Asif was recalled for the Champions Trophy in South Africa last month after a one-year ban imposed for a failed dope test in the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League expired.
He played just one match in the Champions Trophy and was not selected for the limited-over series against New Zealand because he was not allowed to tour the United Arab Emirates following his deportation last year.
The deportation followed his detention at Dubai airport for 19 days while returning from India after featuring in the IPL in 2008.
He was found in possession of opium but Dubai police deported him after they found the quantity of the drug was ‘insufficient’ to prosecute.
‘I have lost two crucial years of my career, first because of injury and then because of other problems, but now I want to focus on my game and take wickets and help my team win,’ said Asif.
Asif's last Test was against South Africa in Lahore in October 2007.
The bowler, who burst onto the scene in 2005, has been one of Pakistan cricket's most colourful characters.
He hit the headlines for the wrong reasons in 2006 when, along with controversial fellow paceman Shoaib Akhtar, he tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone.
Akhtar was banned for two years and Asif for one year, but the bans were overturned on appeal.
Asif said he particularly wants to perform in Australia, where the tourists head to after New Zealand.
‘I made my debut against Australia in 2005 but that Test was remembered for my batting rather than bowling, so I want to do well in Australia because if you perform against the world number one team you become a known player.’
Reema was born to Agha Akmal Khan Qizilbash and Syan in Multan, Pakistan. Completing high school from the Pakistan Convent, she was spotted by the Pakistani movie director Javed Fazil and was offered the leading role in Bulandi(1990), starring opposite Shaan.She is very gossip celebrity in lollywood and also produce films.
Pakistan Fashion Show defies Taliban with non-Islamic dress
| Fashion Show, Gossip Article | 0 comments »Sonya Battla, the first designer to show, presented a collection that she said celebrated strong women. She dismissed the fact that in more conservative parts of the country, her designs might get women driven out of town or stoned to death.
"I'm a very brave woman," said the 38-year-old designer. "I'm not going to be scared and no one's going to judge me."
Taliban militants have killed more than 300 in the past month in a bloody campaign of bombings and assassinations. Attacks on markets, universities, the army general headquarters in Rawalpindi and police stations in Lahore show the Taliban can reach seemingly ever corner of the country.
But the fashion world was determined to stage its shows.
"Life has to go on," said Samar Mehdi, 35, another young designer who studied fashion at Bristol University. "And this is a way to tell the people want our lives to stop that 'No, we won't let you.'"
The shows were held at the Marriott Hotel in Pakistan's financial capital under strict security. The event - originally scheduled for October - planned to introduce designers and models from abroad, but the fragile security situation has left organisers counting on local talent.