Osama ka Drama!!!!

For God sake people,Osama bin Laden is Dead! - Whether he died in a US-led operation in Abbottabad(1st May 2011) or he died long before(assumed by many), the fact remains the same that *HE IS DEAD*. Now. move on! but we won't because we just love to believe in Conspiracy theories. The International Community is severely rebuking Pakistan but we are busy asking silly question like this "Is Osama really dead?". Come on! Use your brains, DNA report has been released proving his death plus Al-Qaeda admitted his death but we are still thinking that he ain't dead, Simply WOW! Another stunning  and shocking news was that, funeral prayers(Gayaban-e-Namaz-e-Janaza) were offered in khi for OBL!!! What a foolish act! Prayers for a  person who was the Most Wanted Terrorist and who was responsible for killing thousands of innocent in 9/11 attacks. Just because of this man, USA waged war in Afghanistan and millions of Muslim suffered! This depicts high irrationality which is a threat to the survival of the Nation. Now coming towards the hottest topic nowadays .. The Bin Laden Death! To be realistic and honest its a mark of shame that he was found hiding in Pakistan just some distance away from PMA Kakul.  

Reportedly, US carried out an operation without informing the Pakistani Authorities which is an attack on the sovereignty of our beloved motherland. But wait! Hasn't our Government already sold the sovereignty since the first ever drone strike in Northern Areas???? Its not a big deal if American forces carried out an operation within the borders of our motherland as our government highly depends on their Aid. The big deal is that we are in hot water now as Osama has yet again stigmatized Pakistan and Pakistanis. All eyes are on us! We are being severely questioned and criticized regarding the presence of OBL in Pakistan. Its a national shame that World's Most Wanted Terrorist was found here in Pak. Right now, what we really need to do is to carry out a nation-wide operation eliminating every possible suspect of terrorism. 

Please work for the prosperity of Pakistan not for defamation!  - Peace

Let's have 3 cups of Tea :)

I have this habit of reading news whenever i access internet and since last two days a phrase was catching my attention and that phrase was Three Cups of Tea. At first i thought it would be some medical research on tea consumption and that's why i never clicked on it but finally curiosity forced me to Google it. Contrary to what i had assumed about that phrase, i found out that it is basically a title of  a New York Times bestselling book written by Mountaineer turned Humanitarian Mr.Greg Mortenson. 

The complete title of the book is  (original hardcover title) Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations ... One School at a Time). By the name its obvious that this book is all about combating extremism and spreading education. It is a non-fictional memoir of Greg Motenson. An American came to Pakistan, to climb the second highest Mountain K-2 to honor the memory of his deceased sister. After more than 70 days on the mountain, Mortenson and three other climbers had their ascent interrupted by the need to complete a 75-hour life-saving rescue of a fifth climber. But unfortunately he was stranded during his descent   and reached Korphe (a village in northeastern Pakistan) where he was treated very well by the Chief of the Village. He was moved by the the drastic condition of the people and village. He promised to build  a school in that village and went back in order to raise funds for his mission. Luckily, he managed to have Jean Hoerni for this noble task who donated $12,000 and co-founded Central Asia Institute.

Till now, Non-Profit Organization(CAI) is responsible for remarkable achievements mentioned below:

• 170 schools in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan
• 687 fully or partially supported teachers
• Education for over 58,000 students, including 44,000 girls
• Ongoing education for victims of the 2005 Kashmir Earthquake. The quake killed 74,000 people, including 18,000 students, and displaced 2.8 million refugees. CAI has rebuilt or re-established 16 schools destroyed in the earthquake.

Mortenson has done a remarkable job by founding CAI despite the severe hardships(threats from extremists, long periods of separation from his family, and being kidnapped by Taliban sympathizers) he faced. His mission to eliminate extremism by spreading education is highly effective,suitable and pragmatic. His view that girls should be educated because educated girls remain in the community and pass their enhanced knowledge to the next generation is correct and should be adopted in our society. He was awarded Sitara-e-Imtiaz(Pakistan’s highest civilian award) on 23rd March 2009. 

In the end, i would like to say that if an American brother can analyze and try to eliminate our very own problem then why can't we???? At-least donate *some amount* to his foundation. Its my plea to award this man a Nobel Peace Prize!

P.S.; The title of the Book is derived from this great proverb  "The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family..."

Peace!

May Education R.I.P

May Education Rest in Peace in Pakistan! The Government has decided to tear Higher Education Commission and to prevent the masses to get educated. The following article by Mr.Attaur Rahman( former federal minister of science & technology and a former chairman of the Higher Education Commission) comprehensively describes the role of HEC in the prosperity of Pakistan but by devolving HEC, Government  has depicted high incompetency.

"There is an impending disaster looming in front of us (something also mentioned in a recent editorial in this newspaper on the matter of devolving the functions of the Higher Education Commission [HEC] to the provinces). What has been decided by the cabinet (on the recommendation of a parliamentary committee on devolution headed by Raza Rabbani) is to tear higher education to shreds and hand over the pieces to the provinces.

What has not been realized by our policymakers is that the process of socio-economic development takes place through central strategic planning, which is intimately connected to a country’s higher education and science and technology programmes. The minimum quality requirements and the numbers of engineers, scientists, doctors, economists and social scientists needed for nation-building have to be determined through careful central planning regarding human resource requirements in various sectors. A multiplicity of standards and regulations would be disastrous. That is why the world over, including in India, higher education planning and funding is done centrally, even though universities are located in the provinces.

All the vice-chancellors of public sector universities, on November 27, 2010, therefore, unanimously resolved that the status quo of the HEC should be maintained since it has performed exceptionally well and is completely protected under the 18th Amendment. Pakistan’s highest level science body, the Pakistan Academy of Sciences (whose members have included such luminaries as the late professors Abdus Salam and Salimuzzaman Siddiqui, and whose present members include Dr A Q Khan, Dr Ishfaq Ahmed and Dr Samar Mubarak Mand, and of which I am now the president) held a press conference in Islamabad recently, protesting in the strongest possible terms, the fragmentation of HEC. A strongly worded article protesting the dismantling of the HEC, by Dr AQ Khan, was published in The News of March 29, 2009. All this fell on deaf ears. The motivation behind the shredding is “to teach the HEC a lesson”. This, he wrote, was for upholding the principles of merit, not bowing to political pressures and, particularly, for refusing to verify forged degrees of a large number of parliamentarians as being legal.

Pakistan made remarkable progress during 2001-2008 in higher education. There was a 600 per cent increase in scientific publications in international journals and a 1,000 per cent increase in citations in this period. Today, several of our universities are ranked among the top 500. The University of Karachi was ranked at 223 in the world, NUST at 260 in the world and Quaid-i-Azam University at 270 in the world, in the field of natural sciences. This is no ordinary achievement after decades of stagnation. The World Bank, USAID and the British Council published comprehensive reports on the higher education sector, applauding it and calling it “a silent revolution”.

Pakistan won several prestigious international awards for the revolutionary changes in the higher education sector brought about by the Higher Education Commission. These include the TWAS (Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, Italy) Award for Institutional Development in October 2009 and the Austrian high civil award “Grosse Goldene Ehrenzeischen am Bande” (2007), conferred on me as chairman of the Higher Education Commission.

An eminent educational expert, Professor Wolfgang Voelter of Tubingen University, paid glowing tributes to the Higher Education Commission in an article in a Pakistani newspaper on November 28, 2008 under the heading “The Golden Period”. I quote: “A miracle happened. The scenario of education, science and technology in Pakistan changed dramatically as never before in the history of Pakistan. The chairperson of the Senate Standing Committee on Education recently announced it as ‘Pakistan’s golden period in higher education’.” Professor Michael Rode, former chairman of the United Nations Commission on Science, Technology and Development wrote, and I quote: “The progress made was breathtaking and has put Pakistan ahead of comparable countries in numerous aspects.” The world’s leading and oldest scientific society, Royal Society (London) recently published a booklet entitled “A New Golden Age”, considering Pakistan to be the best practice model to be followed by other developing countries.

India became deeply concerned at these developments. In an article entitled “Pak Threat to Indian Science” published in the leading daily newspaper Hindustan Times, India, on July 23, 2006, Neha Mehta reported that Professor C N R Rao, (Chairman of the Indian prime minister’s scientific advisory council) made a presentation to his boss and expressed serious concerns at the remarkable progress made by Pakistan in the higher education and science sectors. The article wrote that “Pakistan may soon join China in giving India serious competition in science”. The Indian leadership need not be concerned since we are ourselves hell-bent on destroying our nation by undermining the development and progress of higher education, science and technology and then being doomed to perpetual slavery.

The HEC was created as an autonomous federal regulatory institution with the prime minister of Pakistan as its controlling authority. The composition of the commission reflects a balanced federal structure with representation from each province, as well as the secretary education and secretary science and technology, together with eminent academic and research experts. All powers and functions of the HEC defined under its legislation are covered and protected in the provisions of the 18th Amendment. But, alas, who cares about what is legal and what is not.

Lower level education has been a complete mess, because of half-witted plans and lack of a national commitment towards education. Some of our leaders have now come up with this strategy to destroy the higher education sector as well. My plea to the government is: Please stop this suicidal madness. Something good happened in Pakistan after some 55 years of neglect. Let us not destroy this wonderful initiative.

I hope that the president, prime minister and the army chief will intervene to stop this madness before it is too late. If ever there was a case for the chief justice of the Supreme Court to take suo motu action on, this is it."

Published in The Express Tribune, April 5^th,  2011.

And Govt Keep Fooling Us!

Sky-rocketing fuel price is yet another deadly bomb fired on the helpless nation from the canons of OGRA (The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority) and the Federal Government. Nation should not be surprised or raged with fury as we can't or shouldn't expect anything else. To defend this increment, Government published an ad in express tribune showing the prices of petrol in UK,India,Germany and Japan in comparison with petrol prices in Pakistan lol :-D.

In India petrol price is Rs.110.12, In UK Rs.178.39, In Germany Rs.173.45 and In Japan Rs.143.66. All prices are in Pakistani Rupee which clearly shows that how devalued our currency is. The increasing Imports and decreasing exports have devalued our currency and the Government is trying to fool the nation by showing that it is offering petrol in cheap prices while the big economies like Japan,UK and Germany are not. 60.3% of Pakistani population earn less than U.S $2/day and our Govt is comparing fuel prices. What a shame!

To me its just a very foolish way to defend the increment in fuel prices. If the current situation prevails then "Petrol"would be soon regarded as one of the most valuable liquid. The most effective thing against petrol hike can only be a complete boycott of petrol until Govt decreases the price. Be united and at-least raise your voices! 

Peace

Good that Pak Lost!

 

The title of the post may rage fury among the cricket lovers but i have some rational reasons to say that Pakistan lost the match for good.

Reason #1 : 1 person killed and 45 injured because of aerial firing at the fall of every Indian Wicket and on the boundary by Pakistani Batsman. Just imagine "if" Pakistan would have won the match then how many would be dead just because of heavy aerial firing across Pakistan.

Reason #2 : So many Islamic smses piled up in my cell's inbox for the victory of Pakistan as if its an holy war not a match of Cricket! Never conjoin Religion with Sports.

Reason #3: Media of both States projected this match as if its a war between two nations rather than a cricket match. Hate mongering was at its peak and Indian media was doing so. 

Reason #4: Our economy is aid-driven and despite working day and night to improve it we demand public holiday on such events which lead to the loss of billions of Rupess! Next time, Government  should not approve a Public Holiday! 

Rumor has it that our Prime Minister accepted a huge sum of money to pressurize Pak team to lose but to me its just a very foolish way to ignore defeat as no-one has any proof. We are responsible for our own defeat.  Our fielding was pathetic and our batting order couldn't stay on the pitch to chase the target and that's why we lost the match! But, we should not rebuke our team's effort as our team was regarded as "underdogs" for this World Cup but still we managed to top in our Group and we defeated Australia - the Ex Champions!

We reacted as "Nation" for 30 days but now we are again divided! If we ca unite for Cricket then we should also unite against the brutalities in our Motherland! Our brothers and Sisters are living without shelter and food but we can't get united for them, People dying because of rising inflation but we can't get united for them!  Please think about it!

There are many other reason as well but i decided to highlight few of the main reasons. Cricket is just a sports and we all should take it as a sports. Our team will Insha Allah win the Cup next time but please let Cricket be a sport.