Picture:Nokia_Afredi(khyberwatch.com)
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Saturday, December 29, 2007
The Making of a Murder in Pakistan
Saturday, December 29, 2007
The making of a murder in Pakistan By Hassan Abbas
Zaman, Turkey, December 29, 2007
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the first Muslim woman to lead a Muslim country, is a serious blow to Pakistan’s prospects for democracy and, indeed, its viability as a state.
As chaos and confusion set in, we should not lose sight of President Pervez Musharraf’s partial responsibility for this turn of events. At the very least, he cannot be absolved from his government’s failure to provide Bhutto with adequate security.
Instead, Bhutto had to pay with her life for courageously challenging extremists of all stripes -- from al-Qaeda and Taliban to the country’s religious political parties and military hardliners.
As heir to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the legendary democratic leader who was hanged by Gen. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq’s government in 1979, Benazir emerged as a symbol of resistance at a young age -- but languished in jails and exile in the 1980s. Z. A. Bhutto’s legacy was empowerment of the impoverished and defense of ordinary people’s rights amid feudalistic politics and military rule. Rather than bowing to the military junta, he embraced the gallows.
Hours before his hanging, Benazir was allowed to see her father for the last time, writing in her autobiography: “I told him on my oath in his death cell, I would carry on his work.” She largely lived up to the promise.
Her first stint as prime minister (1988-90) was brief and disorganized. Lt. Gen. Hamid Gul, the former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief, confirmed that he sponsored an alliance of right-wing political parties to stop her from getting a parliamentary majority. Information about Pakistan’s nuclear program and ISI operations in Afghanistan were out of her domain.
Her second term in office (1993-96) was longer and better, but her government again fell early, owing to charges of mismanagement and corruption. In reality, machinations by the intelligence agencies also played a part. The military had developed an entrenched distrust of her, given her position as a popularly supported pro-Western leader who wanted peace with India.
After almost a decade in self-imposed exile, Bhuto’s return to Pakistan in October gave her a fresh political start. Pakistan had changed, as military dictatorship and religious extremism in the north played havoc with the fabric of society. A tentative arrangement with Musharraf, together with Western support -- particularly from the United Kingdom and the United States -- eased her return, which hundreds of thousands of people welcomed, though terrorists greeted her with a string of suicide bombings.
Bhutto’s contacts with Musharraf’s military government drew criticism, but she remained adamant that a return to democracy was possible only through a transition in which Musharraf would give up his military post, become a civilian head of state, and conduct free and fair elections.
To the dismay of some democratic forces, Bhutto stayed the course even after Musharraf imposed emergency rule on Nov. 3 and removed the country’s top judges to ensure his re-election. Indeed, she even persuaded other important political leaders to participate in the planned Jan. 8 election, which she viewed as an opportunity to challenge religious extremist forces in the public square. She seized that opportunity by bravely traveling throughout the country, despite serious threats to her life, arguing for a democratic and pluralistic Pakistan.
One can understand why religious extremists like Al-Qaeda and Taliban would target her, and the government claims that it is impossible to defend against a suicide attack. But Bhutto was reportedly killed by a sharp shooter before the terrorist blew himself up. So in the eyes of Pakistan’s people and especially of Bhutto’s supporters, the intelligence services, either alone or in collaboration with extremists, finally decided to eliminate her.
Whether or not the government was involved, the fact remains that Pakistan has lost a desperately needed leader. With Pakistan’s future in the balance, the West’s help and support will be crucial, but that means recognizing that Musharraf is not the only leader who can resolve Pakistan’s myriad problems and manage the war on terror. On the contrary, by nurturing the current environment of instability and uncertainty, Musharraf himself must be regarded as one of Pakistan’s biggest problems.
Hassan Abbas served in the administrations of both Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and President Pervez Musharraf. He is now a research fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and is the author of “Pakistan’s Drift into Extremism: Allah, the Army and America’s War on Terror.” © Project Syndicate 2007
Also See:
http://watandost.blogspot.com/
Picture at the top: From Los Angeles Times
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Benazir Bhutto assassinated
Pakistan's former PM Benazir Bhutto assassinated in Rawalpindi after rally
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
U.S. Aid Plan for Tribal Areas: Can it work?
U.S. Aid Plan for Tribal Areas in Pakistan Is Threatened
By JANE PERLEZ, New York Times, December 25, 2007
source:Hassan Abbas Blog
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Weeks before it is to begin, an ambitious American aid plan to counter militancy in Pakistan’s tribal areas is threatened by important unresolved questions about who will monitor the money and whether it could fall into the wrong hands, according to American and Pakistani officials and analysts familiar with the plan.
The disputes have left many skeptical that the $750 million five-year plan can succeed in competing for the allegiance of an estimated 400,000 young tribesmen in the restive tribal region, a mountainous swath of territory left destitute by British colonialists and ignored by successive Pakistani governments. Today, the Taliban, Al Qaeda and other foreign militants use the area as a base to fuel violence and instability in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan and to plot terrorist attacks abroad.
Critics of the aid plan say the region is rife with corruption, and even Pakistan’s own government has limited reach there. But the risk of leaving it isolated and undeveloped is greater than ever. This month, Bush administration officials acknowledged they were reviewing their Afghan war plans top to bottom.
The civilian aid program would provide jobs and schooling, build 600 miles of roads and improve literacy in an area where almost no women can read. It adds to the more than $1 billion in American military aid to Pakistan annually — much of which does not make its way to frontline Pakistani units, some American officials now acknowledge. The tribal area for which this new money is intended remains so unsafe that no senior American official has visited in the last nine months.
“My sense is they are ready to start, but who is going to be responsible for management?” said Representative John F. Tierney, Democrat of Massachusetts, who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and is one of several members of Congress who have begun pushing the State Department for details of how the civilian aid will be monitored. They said they had not received satisfactory answers. The importance of the issue, they said, was underlined by the scores of investigations into corruption connected with vast amounts of money and equipment for reconstruction and strengthening Iraq’s Army and police forces that cannot be accounted for.
“We’re not quite certain about it,” Mr. Tierney said. “I have concerns that it not be a repeat of situations in Iraq.”
In fact, wary of corruption and hamstrung by local hostility, American officials say that as in Iraq they will rely heavily on private contractors to administer the development aid, a decision that could eat up as much as half the budget. Other proposals, like training a civilian conservation corps., have yet to gain traction.
The new program is meant to start slowly, with the first portion of the overall program out to bid at $350 million. Among the handful of companies invited to bid are DynCorp International and Creative Associates International, Inc., both of which won substantial contracts in Iraq. How effective they will be in the tribal areas is equally uncertain.
Unlike Iraq or Afghanistan, where large numbers of American soldiers are on the ground to offer some protection to aid projects, Pakistani authorities tightly control access to the tribal areas. The Pakistani military has suffered hundreds of casualties trying to subdue the area in the last few years, and heavy fighting has flared again in recent weeks.
The region remains so dangerous that it is virtually off-limits even to American military officials and civilians who would oversee the programs. Pakistani authorities have ruled out using foreign nonprofit groups, known as NGOs as shorthand for nongovernmental organizations. But neither do they approve the American choice of private contractors. They would like the money to go through them.
“We are living in times when NGOs are considered to be all out to convert tribesmen,” Javed Iqbal, until recently the additional chief secretary of Federally Administered Tribal Areas, as the region is formally called. The title is a holdover from the British era.
“To deal with the tribesmen you have to understand the tribes. You cannot ask a woman how frequently does she take contraception — which was one of the questions on an NGO questionnaire. The first reaction is going to box you in the face, and then tell you to get lost.”
But Mr. Iqbal said he was convinced the for-profit companies would take a disproportionate amount of the program money. “Forty-eight percent of the program money goes to consultants,” he said.
Rick Barton, a former official at the United States Agency for International Development, or Usaid, who now works on Pakistan issues at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said the estimate was in the ballpark.
Development firms commonly charge between 25 percent to 50 percent of a program’s entire cost, depending on the scope and difficulty of the task, he said. And the task is indeed difficult.
The region of 3.2 million people has no industry, virtually no work and no hope. Young men aged 18 to 25, who are the target of the program, find offers of 300 rupees a day from the Taliban — about $5 — attractive.
The men, almost entirely of the Pashtun tribe, have little in common with the rest of Pakistan. Their Pashtun brethren live in the southern part of Afghanistan, astride a border that is extremely porous, allowing extremists to move easily back and forth.
“They are going to find pockets of opportunities,” Mr. Barton said. “But will it be a lot of nice things that won’t add up to much? Probably.”
The hostility to Westerners has become so intense in and around the tribal areas that an Austrian refugee worker said she was barred in early December from walking through a refugee camp on the outskirts of Peshawar that she had regularly visited for the last six years.
Westerners, she said, are believed to be implicated in what Pakistanis see as an American foreign policy that is anti-Muslim and harms Pakistani interests.
“I offered to cover myself in a burka, and to wear their kinds of sandals,” said the aid worker, Mechtild Petritsch, who works with the Frontier Primary Health Campaign. “But they said I would be discovered because I walk like a foreigner.”
Nor has the new director of Usaid in Islamabad, Anne Aarnes, been able to visit the tribal areas. It was nine months ago when the deputy chief of mission at the United States Embassy, Peter Bodde, went to Khyber, one of the seven divisions of the tribal areas, to address the local Chamber of Commerce. A planned visit by the new United States ambassador, Anne Patterson, was canceled last month because of sectarian violence in the area.
“This is an extremely difficult undertaking in an extremely difficult part of the world,” said a senior American official at the United States Embassy in Islamabad after the presentation of an embassy Power Point slide show attended by nearly a dozen embassy officials. “Something like this hasn’t been tried on this scale in this part of the world.”
The presentation listed the range of programs involving Usaid, the narcotics section of the State Department, and to a small extent the Pentagon. Besides providing jobs, schooling, and roads the American plan also calls for improving the “capacity” of the local Pakistani authorities so that the government becomes a more viable and friendly force in everyday lives.
That is an extremely challenging ambition because the government’s representatives, known as political agents, run their areas with an iron fist and are almost uniformly corrupt, Pakistani and American officials assert.
Moreover, the power of Islamic religious leaders in the region has grown in part because the authority of political agents has been undercut by President Pervez Musharraf, who viewed them as competition, Pakistani officials said.
Now the Americans are trying to build up the political agents again and use the development projects to improve relations between them and local communities.
Concerns about corruption are so severe, however, that the first grants will be held to only about $25,000 each, to finance small infrastructure projects like repairing water wells and small sewage plants.
In an illustration of the challenges facing even modest programs, experts point to the three-year-old plan by Usaid to repair 60 run-down schools. Because of deteriorating security, even local contractors were too scared to work in some places. Only 35 schools have been completed, Usaid officials said. Some of them remain bereft of teachers. Several are known as “ghost schools” because they are used for businesses or some other purpose.
One successful school in the Mohmand tribal district demonstrates both the need and the potential for success, however. Enrollment there had shot up from 21 to 217 students, according to an American official who sent a Pakistani employee to scout the situation.
Because the United States is viewed with such opprobrium, it will not be identified on any of the aid, preventing any possible flow of goodwill. The aid will instead be presented as Pakistani. That, said a senior United States Embassy official, would help the Pakistanis feel like owners of the effort.
“This is about teaching them how to get smart about how to run the country and win people’s support,” the official said.
Asked what he thought of the American goal to improve the “capacity” of the administration of which he is one of the most senior members, Mr. Iqbal, the Pakistani official, who was educated at college in the United States, replied: “Bunkum.”
To complicate matters further for the Americans, Mr. Iqbal, who had been their main interlocutor on the program and who by current standards is quite understanding of the American goals, resigned in early December for an unrelated reason. American officials said his departure represented a setback for them.
From their side, the American consultants often display a high degree of skepticism about the Pakistanis. An official for DynCorp in Pakistan, who did not want to be identified for fear of being fired, suggested a solution to curbing possible corruption that his company used in Afghanistan but which probably would not go down well in the tribal areas of Pakistan.
“We built compounds in Afghanistan with the provincial governor,” he said. “That worked pretty good. You’ve got to co-locate with the government officials. We get pushed back, but you make it happen. They don’t like it because it means they can’t steal.”
Also See: U.S. Officials See Waste in Pakistan Aid - NYT - Dec 24, 2007
By JANE PERLEZ, New York Times, December 25, 2007
source:Hassan Abbas Blog
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Weeks before it is to begin, an ambitious American aid plan to counter militancy in Pakistan’s tribal areas is threatened by important unresolved questions about who will monitor the money and whether it could fall into the wrong hands, according to American and Pakistani officials and analysts familiar with the plan.
The disputes have left many skeptical that the $750 million five-year plan can succeed in competing for the allegiance of an estimated 400,000 young tribesmen in the restive tribal region, a mountainous swath of territory left destitute by British colonialists and ignored by successive Pakistani governments. Today, the Taliban, Al Qaeda and other foreign militants use the area as a base to fuel violence and instability in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan and to plot terrorist attacks abroad.
Critics of the aid plan say the region is rife with corruption, and even Pakistan’s own government has limited reach there. But the risk of leaving it isolated and undeveloped is greater than ever. This month, Bush administration officials acknowledged they were reviewing their Afghan war plans top to bottom.
The civilian aid program would provide jobs and schooling, build 600 miles of roads and improve literacy in an area where almost no women can read. It adds to the more than $1 billion in American military aid to Pakistan annually — much of which does not make its way to frontline Pakistani units, some American officials now acknowledge. The tribal area for which this new money is intended remains so unsafe that no senior American official has visited in the last nine months.
“My sense is they are ready to start, but who is going to be responsible for management?” said Representative John F. Tierney, Democrat of Massachusetts, who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and is one of several members of Congress who have begun pushing the State Department for details of how the civilian aid will be monitored. They said they had not received satisfactory answers. The importance of the issue, they said, was underlined by the scores of investigations into corruption connected with vast amounts of money and equipment for reconstruction and strengthening Iraq’s Army and police forces that cannot be accounted for.
“We’re not quite certain about it,” Mr. Tierney said. “I have concerns that it not be a repeat of situations in Iraq.”
In fact, wary of corruption and hamstrung by local hostility, American officials say that as in Iraq they will rely heavily on private contractors to administer the development aid, a decision that could eat up as much as half the budget. Other proposals, like training a civilian conservation corps., have yet to gain traction.
The new program is meant to start slowly, with the first portion of the overall program out to bid at $350 million. Among the handful of companies invited to bid are DynCorp International and Creative Associates International, Inc., both of which won substantial contracts in Iraq. How effective they will be in the tribal areas is equally uncertain.
Unlike Iraq or Afghanistan, where large numbers of American soldiers are on the ground to offer some protection to aid projects, Pakistani authorities tightly control access to the tribal areas. The Pakistani military has suffered hundreds of casualties trying to subdue the area in the last few years, and heavy fighting has flared again in recent weeks.
The region remains so dangerous that it is virtually off-limits even to American military officials and civilians who would oversee the programs. Pakistani authorities have ruled out using foreign nonprofit groups, known as NGOs as shorthand for nongovernmental organizations. But neither do they approve the American choice of private contractors. They would like the money to go through them.
“We are living in times when NGOs are considered to be all out to convert tribesmen,” Javed Iqbal, until recently the additional chief secretary of Federally Administered Tribal Areas, as the region is formally called. The title is a holdover from the British era.
“To deal with the tribesmen you have to understand the tribes. You cannot ask a woman how frequently does she take contraception — which was one of the questions on an NGO questionnaire. The first reaction is going to box you in the face, and then tell you to get lost.”
But Mr. Iqbal said he was convinced the for-profit companies would take a disproportionate amount of the program money. “Forty-eight percent of the program money goes to consultants,” he said.
Rick Barton, a former official at the United States Agency for International Development, or Usaid, who now works on Pakistan issues at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said the estimate was in the ballpark.
Development firms commonly charge between 25 percent to 50 percent of a program’s entire cost, depending on the scope and difficulty of the task, he said. And the task is indeed difficult.
The region of 3.2 million people has no industry, virtually no work and no hope. Young men aged 18 to 25, who are the target of the program, find offers of 300 rupees a day from the Taliban — about $5 — attractive.
The men, almost entirely of the Pashtun tribe, have little in common with the rest of Pakistan. Their Pashtun brethren live in the southern part of Afghanistan, astride a border that is extremely porous, allowing extremists to move easily back and forth.
“They are going to find pockets of opportunities,” Mr. Barton said. “But will it be a lot of nice things that won’t add up to much? Probably.”
The hostility to Westerners has become so intense in and around the tribal areas that an Austrian refugee worker said she was barred in early December from walking through a refugee camp on the outskirts of Peshawar that she had regularly visited for the last six years.
Westerners, she said, are believed to be implicated in what Pakistanis see as an American foreign policy that is anti-Muslim and harms Pakistani interests.
“I offered to cover myself in a burka, and to wear their kinds of sandals,” said the aid worker, Mechtild Petritsch, who works with the Frontier Primary Health Campaign. “But they said I would be discovered because I walk like a foreigner.”
Nor has the new director of Usaid in Islamabad, Anne Aarnes, been able to visit the tribal areas. It was nine months ago when the deputy chief of mission at the United States Embassy, Peter Bodde, went to Khyber, one of the seven divisions of the tribal areas, to address the local Chamber of Commerce. A planned visit by the new United States ambassador, Anne Patterson, was canceled last month because of sectarian violence in the area.
“This is an extremely difficult undertaking in an extremely difficult part of the world,” said a senior American official at the United States Embassy in Islamabad after the presentation of an embassy Power Point slide show attended by nearly a dozen embassy officials. “Something like this hasn’t been tried on this scale in this part of the world.”
The presentation listed the range of programs involving Usaid, the narcotics section of the State Department, and to a small extent the Pentagon. Besides providing jobs, schooling, and roads the American plan also calls for improving the “capacity” of the local Pakistani authorities so that the government becomes a more viable and friendly force in everyday lives.
That is an extremely challenging ambition because the government’s representatives, known as political agents, run their areas with an iron fist and are almost uniformly corrupt, Pakistani and American officials assert.
Moreover, the power of Islamic religious leaders in the region has grown in part because the authority of political agents has been undercut by President Pervez Musharraf, who viewed them as competition, Pakistani officials said.
Now the Americans are trying to build up the political agents again and use the development projects to improve relations between them and local communities.
Concerns about corruption are so severe, however, that the first grants will be held to only about $25,000 each, to finance small infrastructure projects like repairing water wells and small sewage plants.
In an illustration of the challenges facing even modest programs, experts point to the three-year-old plan by Usaid to repair 60 run-down schools. Because of deteriorating security, even local contractors were too scared to work in some places. Only 35 schools have been completed, Usaid officials said. Some of them remain bereft of teachers. Several are known as “ghost schools” because they are used for businesses or some other purpose.
One successful school in the Mohmand tribal district demonstrates both the need and the potential for success, however. Enrollment there had shot up from 21 to 217 students, according to an American official who sent a Pakistani employee to scout the situation.
Because the United States is viewed with such opprobrium, it will not be identified on any of the aid, preventing any possible flow of goodwill. The aid will instead be presented as Pakistani. That, said a senior United States Embassy official, would help the Pakistanis feel like owners of the effort.
“This is about teaching them how to get smart about how to run the country and win people’s support,” the official said.
Asked what he thought of the American goal to improve the “capacity” of the administration of which he is one of the most senior members, Mr. Iqbal, the Pakistani official, who was educated at college in the United States, replied: “Bunkum.”
To complicate matters further for the Americans, Mr. Iqbal, who had been their main interlocutor on the program and who by current standards is quite understanding of the American goals, resigned in early December for an unrelated reason. American officials said his departure represented a setback for them.
From their side, the American consultants often display a high degree of skepticism about the Pakistanis. An official for DynCorp in Pakistan, who did not want to be identified for fear of being fired, suggested a solution to curbing possible corruption that his company used in Afghanistan but which probably would not go down well in the tribal areas of Pakistan.
“We built compounds in Afghanistan with the provincial governor,” he said. “That worked pretty good. You’ve got to co-locate with the government officials. We get pushed back, but you make it happen. They don’t like it because it means they can’t steal.”
Also See: U.S. Officials See Waste in Pakistan Aid - NYT - Dec 24, 2007
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Akhtar de Mubarak sha / Eid Mubarak
May Allah the almighty bless your home with happiness ,
your heart with devotion and your soul with purity.
We wish these blessings to be with you today and for ever.
your heart with devotion and your soul with purity.
We wish these blessings to be with you today and for ever.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
PkMAP's Stance on FATA?
This interesting topic caught me in a forum (khyberwatch.com).
"PMAP's Stance on F.A.T.A?
Most of the Forum members are Nationalist pukhtun...
Here are some of the views:
DawezayMohmand
PkMAP's Stance on FATA?
Could someone enlighten us on the stance of PkMAP on the status of FATA, please?
I heard they call FATA as semi/partially-occupied territory of Pakhtunkhwa which is really rediculous. If anarchy, lack of education and other facilities, carrying guns and direct rule under Islamabad is partial independence then I feel pity for their stance on FATA. Our nationalist parties and leaders are very much occupied with the traditional style of leadership where they believe that their kamees parthog and tsaadar will attract people to them. They have failed to give the Pakhtuns the true essence of their identity.
__________________
-------------------------------------------
Naeem
it wants the status-quo ...
FATA people don't even have the most fundamental human right i.e. to participate in the political process...One cannot agree with PMAP stance in this regard...
------------------------------------------------------
sakhi_arsalakhan
Having watched the political system in Fata closely over the years,my time-tested conclusion has been that the elected public representatives remain dormant under the all powerful institution of political administration.I've seen tribal MNAs and senators humiliated by low staff of political administration. The MNAs and senators belonging to Fata have been cheap instrument in the hands of the establishment.They have never found the courage to oppose the sitting government, always enjoying the comforts of the treasury benches.Any body thinking Fata as semi_independent Pakhtunkhwa, is living in a fool's paradise. Fata is a two-pronged slave territory of the Pakhtuns, where British Black Laws and totalitarianism to paralize the bravest muscles of the Pakhtuns, still persist.They need to be emancipated from the system where " the Agent of the President" ( The Governor) and his stooges, the Political Agents, play a formidable role.The leash of the "Centre" needs to be broken which keeps tha Fata tied to Islamabad instead of Peshawar. And ---the first step to achieve this is to amalgamate it in Shomali Pakhtunkhwa ( NWFP) and to have its representatives in the provincial assembly.This will trigger poitical activism in this "No Go" area, which in turn will take it to the main Pakhtun political stream.
_________________
MandoKhail
I thought we are facing Punjabi agents in taliban cloths in Middle Pushtoonkhwa who are working alongside punjabi army to snacth the limited but legal autonomy of our ppl,but here i can see another hidden group..nice to meet you guys..weldone!..Don't dare to write LAR AW BAR YAW AFGHAN as you guys are working against the liberty of poor ppl and you are openly recognising durand line...hey guy's what about South Pushtoonkhwa and Pushtoon living there?Leave them like that you don't need them coz they are speaking SHA instead of KHA, if they were speaking KHA then you would have considered them Pushtoon's and worth to talk about.
My calculation was 100% correct.ISI and Taliban are not that leathal if we compare it with fake nationalists.
Do what you can do and let us do what we are doing..People will decide who is right and who is wrong.
No more comments.Thank you.
___________________________________________
DawezayMohmand
Mandokhail saib, I must accept that you are not an easy person to talk to (sorry). You are really proving that you are a bad-mouthed bully who will swear at others if the latter don't agree to either yours or your MASHAR's stance.
You are calling it 'limited and legal autonomy'; in what context? Legal as per Paki Laws or the black British imperialist laws? If you believe that the so-called 'legal and limited autonomy' will bear any implications for the acceptance of the unholy Durand Line then Sakhi Arsala Khan saib has rightly remarked that you are living in a fool's paradise.
And this liberty of the poor people that you seem to be so proud of is not going to change the lot of the FATA people. They are in fact as much Pakis as are you. The worst they even don't understand your 'nationalist' politics. You want to make them scapegoats for your mashar's silly stance! I am myself from the FATA and I know what is it like living in FATA. The Pakhtuns of FATA are more connected with Punjab and Islamabad than they are with Peshawar and the rest of Pakhtunkhwa, they are politically illiterate and being part of either Pakistan or Afghanistan does not really matter to them. Your mashar is swearing in the Paki parliament that he is the 'loyal servant of the mumlikat-i-khudadaad' and for the FATA Pakhtuns he is maintaining the stance of carrying guns and keeping away from any kind of development?!
And your stupid comments about 'kha' and 'sha', you probably don't know that there are more dialects with 'sha' in Northern Pakhtunkhwa than there are in the Southern Pakhtunkhwa...think a little before you write anything man!
People will only decide once your mashar stops sitting with the right wing fascists and starts going to the people.
__________________
Mandokhail
No comments-I Don't feel easy to talk to those who are wearing nationalist cloths but inside they are something else.Fake ppl with fake nationalism.
I know what i am and i know how to deal hypocrate's, if truth on face hurts then i am sorry i can't lie,now you have free hand whatever you write for me.
Weldone ISI but it will not work thats for sure.
_________________________________________________
Dawezay Mohmand
If you had anything to write then you would have definitely written it but you don't have any answers. Please stop your bullying and stop calling others as ISI agents when you cannot defend your arguments.
___________________________________
Naeem.
Here is a document explaining why is there a resistence to FATA integration withe the rest of Pashtun areas...the documents says, it is feared that with tribal loyalties diluted, Pashtun nationalism will stregnthen...
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/pakist...i13nov1970.htm
One can only say that PMAP stance on FATA is illogical and against the interests of Pashtuns...FATA is a big hurdle in the way of Pashtun nation-building and those who support the FATA status are intentionally or unintentionally working against Pashtun interests.
this second declassified US embassy secret document more clearly mentions reasons for resistance to FATA integration...
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/pakist...er2dec1962.jpg
_____________________________________________
Mandokhail
Which status are you talking about? the present one or the one written below?
All 7 agencies from South Waziristan to Bajaur should be merged in to a single semi-autonomous province,
with a name of their true national identity, such as Pakhtunkhwa/ Pakhtunistan/ Afghania.
They must have their own elected council and parliament.
That parlaiment will be free to trade and make any releation with any country they want.
Political agent will be a just envoy,not a king.
Pakhto should be their official language.
Look at our position today! Your assembly can't change your province name, you can't stop punjab to steal your water by Ghazi barotha,you can't get your electicity royality,will they be under supreme court?or high court? what is the status of HC n SC? not more then ruber stamp..you can't change the taxation on tobbaco from fedral to provincial matter, then how do you expact more from punjabi's and willing to give all reserved land in to thier hands? if you support this idea then why you are creating thread regarding durand line and why you are asking questions about that as you are yourself supporting the idea of recognising durand line.
Taliban was created in Meyanzanai Pushtoonkhwa to pave way to pakistani armed forces to go in to the area and built cantonements for the sake of integration of all that land in to pakistan, now what is the diffrence b/w you,talib and ISI? all three have one common agenda..am i right?
any one who supports the idea of integretion of Meyanzanai Pushtoonkhwa in to pakistan is infact enemy of Pushtoon's interests,Pushtoon's freedom and enemy of people of Meyanzanai Pushtoonkhwa.They are giving these ppl and this land in to a hands of exploiters.Simple is that.
__________________
Naeem
The contrary may also be true...that is those opposing FATA merger into the rest of Pashtun areas are advertently or inadvertently working against broader Pashtun integration....Now it is the time that we get ourselves out of this tribal mindset...People living in medieval state cannot give you a nation bound by a formal law and modern concept of a civic society....
____________________________________
Mandokhail
Then live like the way you are living..no need of re-naming,,no need of lar aw bar bogus slogans..go and dig Bacha khan baba grave and get him back,,ask Afghanistan to recognise durand line and tell them you are happy to live like a slaves of Punjabi's.....don't make fool of them as they have already paid a big price..
We believe what we can do and we will do it.Our ppl will decide not confused so called nationalists.
I had a enough political debates here..i am in no mood of any further useless discussion.
Have good time you all.
__________________
Naeem
yara Mandokhela wrora bakhana ghwaram, ...yara khafa na shai, munga ronra yu, pa manz ka khu ba da bas mas razi, yara please khafa na shai, yaw zal bya darna bakhana ghwaru yar..
This is absolutely radiculous and nonsensical stance that no sane person would agree with.
"PMAP's Stance on F.A.T.A?
Most of the Forum members are Nationalist pukhtun...
Here are some of the views:
DawezayMohmand
PkMAP's Stance on FATA?
Could someone enlighten us on the stance of PkMAP on the status of FATA, please?
I heard they call FATA as semi/partially-occupied territory of Pakhtunkhwa which is really rediculous. If anarchy, lack of education and other facilities, carrying guns and direct rule under Islamabad is partial independence then I feel pity for their stance on FATA. Our nationalist parties and leaders are very much occupied with the traditional style of leadership where they believe that their kamees parthog and tsaadar will attract people to them. They have failed to give the Pakhtuns the true essence of their identity.
__________________
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Naeem
it wants the status-quo ...
FATA people don't even have the most fundamental human right i.e. to participate in the political process...One cannot agree with PMAP stance in this regard...
------------------------------------------------------
sakhi_arsalakhan
Having watched the political system in Fata closely over the years,my time-tested conclusion has been that the elected public representatives remain dormant under the all powerful institution of political administration.I've seen tribal MNAs and senators humiliated by low staff of political administration. The MNAs and senators belonging to Fata have been cheap instrument in the hands of the establishment.They have never found the courage to oppose the sitting government, always enjoying the comforts of the treasury benches.Any body thinking Fata as semi_independent Pakhtunkhwa, is living in a fool's paradise. Fata is a two-pronged slave territory of the Pakhtuns, where British Black Laws and totalitarianism to paralize the bravest muscles of the Pakhtuns, still persist.They need to be emancipated from the system where " the Agent of the President" ( The Governor) and his stooges, the Political Agents, play a formidable role.The leash of the "Centre" needs to be broken which keeps tha Fata tied to Islamabad instead of Peshawar. And ---the first step to achieve this is to amalgamate it in Shomali Pakhtunkhwa ( NWFP) and to have its representatives in the provincial assembly.This will trigger poitical activism in this "No Go" area, which in turn will take it to the main Pakhtun political stream.
_________________
MandoKhail
I thought we are facing Punjabi agents in taliban cloths in Middle Pushtoonkhwa who are working alongside punjabi army to snacth the limited but legal autonomy of our ppl,but here i can see another hidden group..nice to meet you guys..weldone!..Don't dare to write LAR AW BAR YAW AFGHAN as you guys are working against the liberty of poor ppl and you are openly recognising durand line...hey guy's what about South Pushtoonkhwa and Pushtoon living there?Leave them like that you don't need them coz they are speaking SHA instead of KHA, if they were speaking KHA then you would have considered them Pushtoon's and worth to talk about.
My calculation was 100% correct.ISI and Taliban are not that leathal if we compare it with fake nationalists.
Do what you can do and let us do what we are doing..People will decide who is right and who is wrong.
No more comments.Thank you.
___________________________________________
DawezayMohmand
Mandokhail saib, I must accept that you are not an easy person to talk to (sorry). You are really proving that you are a bad-mouthed bully who will swear at others if the latter don't agree to either yours or your MASHAR's stance.
You are calling it 'limited and legal autonomy'; in what context? Legal as per Paki Laws or the black British imperialist laws? If you believe that the so-called 'legal and limited autonomy' will bear any implications for the acceptance of the unholy Durand Line then Sakhi Arsala Khan saib has rightly remarked that you are living in a fool's paradise.
And this liberty of the poor people that you seem to be so proud of is not going to change the lot of the FATA people. They are in fact as much Pakis as are you. The worst they even don't understand your 'nationalist' politics. You want to make them scapegoats for your mashar's silly stance! I am myself from the FATA and I know what is it like living in FATA. The Pakhtuns of FATA are more connected with Punjab and Islamabad than they are with Peshawar and the rest of Pakhtunkhwa, they are politically illiterate and being part of either Pakistan or Afghanistan does not really matter to them. Your mashar is swearing in the Paki parliament that he is the 'loyal servant of the mumlikat-i-khudadaad' and for the FATA Pakhtuns he is maintaining the stance of carrying guns and keeping away from any kind of development?!
And your stupid comments about 'kha' and 'sha', you probably don't know that there are more dialects with 'sha' in Northern Pakhtunkhwa than there are in the Southern Pakhtunkhwa...think a little before you write anything man!
People will only decide once your mashar stops sitting with the right wing fascists and starts going to the people.
__________________
Mandokhail
No comments-I Don't feel easy to talk to those who are wearing nationalist cloths but inside they are something else.Fake ppl with fake nationalism.
I know what i am and i know how to deal hypocrate's, if truth on face hurts then i am sorry i can't lie,now you have free hand whatever you write for me.
Weldone ISI but it will not work thats for sure.
_________________________________________________
Dawezay Mohmand
If you had anything to write then you would have definitely written it but you don't have any answers. Please stop your bullying and stop calling others as ISI agents when you cannot defend your arguments.
___________________________________
Naeem.
Here is a document explaining why is there a resistence to FATA integration withe the rest of Pashtun areas...the documents says, it is feared that with tribal loyalties diluted, Pashtun nationalism will stregnthen...
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/pakist...i13nov1970.htm
One can only say that PMAP stance on FATA is illogical and against the interests of Pashtuns...FATA is a big hurdle in the way of Pashtun nation-building and those who support the FATA status are intentionally or unintentionally working against Pashtun interests.
this second declassified US embassy secret document more clearly mentions reasons for resistance to FATA integration...
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/pakist...er2dec1962.jpg
_____________________________________________
Mandokhail
Which status are you talking about? the present one or the one written below?
All 7 agencies from South Waziristan to Bajaur should be merged in to a single semi-autonomous province,
with a name of their true national identity, such as Pakhtunkhwa/ Pakhtunistan/ Afghania.
They must have their own elected council and parliament.
That parlaiment will be free to trade and make any releation with any country they want.
Political agent will be a just envoy,not a king.
Pakhto should be their official language.
Look at our position today! Your assembly can't change your province name, you can't stop punjab to steal your water by Ghazi barotha,you can't get your electicity royality,will they be under supreme court?or high court? what is the status of HC n SC? not more then ruber stamp..you can't change the taxation on tobbaco from fedral to provincial matter, then how do you expact more from punjabi's and willing to give all reserved land in to thier hands? if you support this idea then why you are creating thread regarding durand line and why you are asking questions about that as you are yourself supporting the idea of recognising durand line.
Taliban was created in Meyanzanai Pushtoonkhwa to pave way to pakistani armed forces to go in to the area and built cantonements for the sake of integration of all that land in to pakistan, now what is the diffrence b/w you,talib and ISI? all three have one common agenda..am i right?
any one who supports the idea of integretion of Meyanzanai Pushtoonkhwa in to pakistan is infact enemy of Pushtoon's interests,Pushtoon's freedom and enemy of people of Meyanzanai Pushtoonkhwa.They are giving these ppl and this land in to a hands of exploiters.Simple is that.
__________________
Naeem
The contrary may also be true...that is those opposing FATA merger into the rest of Pashtun areas are advertently or inadvertently working against broader Pashtun integration....Now it is the time that we get ourselves out of this tribal mindset...People living in medieval state cannot give you a nation bound by a formal law and modern concept of a civic society....
____________________________________
Mandokhail
Then live like the way you are living..no need of re-naming,,no need of lar aw bar bogus slogans..go and dig Bacha khan baba grave and get him back,,ask Afghanistan to recognise durand line and tell them you are happy to live like a slaves of Punjabi's.....don't make fool of them as they have already paid a big price..
We believe what we can do and we will do it.Our ppl will decide not confused so called nationalists.
I had a enough political debates here..i am in no mood of any further useless discussion.
Have good time you all.
__________________
Naeem
yara Mandokhela wrora bakhana ghwaram, ...yara khafa na shai, munga ronra yu, pa manz ka khu ba da bas mas razi, yara please khafa na shai, yaw zal bya darna bakhana ghwaru yar..
This is absolutely radiculous and nonsensical stance that no sane person would agree with.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Profile:Fasi Zaka
The Saturday Post.
Fasi zaka
Admittedly, we knew little about Fasi Zaka when he was first nominated for a Rendezvous by our friend Sameer. As we set out to study why Fasi Zaka is such a famous name in Pakistan, we discovered one of the top talk show hosts, op-ed writers, and a persona that is fast becoming one of the most listened to (not just 'heard'), people on radio, TV, and the press.
Fasi hosts "On The Fringe" for MTV Pakistan, "The Fasi Zaka Show" for FM91, and writes for Aurora, The Friday Times, Instep, and The News. On top of it, he works full time as the "Head of Ideas" at Adcom for the advertising of the Swedish cellular company Telenor.
While there is much to be learned from and about Fasi, here is a start with an exclusive Rendezvous. Pay heed, for he may well become the strongest public opinion maker in the not too distant future!
1. Give us a brief introduction of yourself, where you grew up, education, family, etc.
I grew up in Peshawar, but am from Charsadda and am a Pakhtun. My paternal family is into politics and bureaucracy (my grandfather was a senator in the 80s). My maternal family comes primarily from an agricultural background of farmers. I was schooled in Peshawar, went to Peshawar University, before getting elected as a Rhodes Scholar to Oxford University.
2. You went to Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar; why did you choose TV as a career over more traditional careers?
TV is not my career, media is. I work full time as the Head of Ideas at Adcom for the advertising of Telenor (a Scandinavian multinational cellular firm in Pakistan), and previously was an academic specializing in advertising and marketing at the University of Peshawar. I do radio as well for FM91 on a program called The Fasi Zaka Show, which is an anarchic call-in show, which has become more successful than anything else I have done.
3. Tell us about your show, “On the fringe”; what is this show about and how long have you been hosting it?
On The Fringe has now been on television for nearly three years; it’s the only show MTV Pakistan kept as it was when they came to Pakistan and took over the helm of Indus Music. OTF is an interview based program that targets popular culture. It is based on Guerilla Filming techniques on a single camera and is a collaboration with my cousin Zeeshan Parwez, a gifted media polymath. The aim of the program has always been to use absurd Pythonesque humor, bring back social reality into the vapidity of consumer culture and very aggressive interviewing of pop stars. It’s a political show that masks itself as entertainment. The name On The Fringe is a reference to how me and my cousin felt as people on the periphery of the mainstream and aimed to give others a voice, especially unsigned bands. Although, ironically, I seem to have mainstreamed in the process. We tend to take up issues of minority rights in the program, the erosion of civilian institutions giving way to the military, how corporatism is running wild and somehow manage to bring humor into this context..
4. You also script the show; where do you get your inspiration for topics you choose for each show?
I am a voracious reader and have multiple interests. It seems to become a smorgasbord of topics that I can choose from in an adlib manner. The jokes we script and do in post production are primarily a process of me and Zeeshan feeding off one another. My intellectual grounding is in postmodernism, which usually reflects in the script by asking questions that usually get nationalistic and stock responses, and then slowly exposing the shallowness of the opinion by presenting multiple perspectives.
5. How has the experience of working on television been for you and what are some of the challenges that you came across?
I have enjoyed it, TV opened avenues for me that I wanted more, like getting published and finding a space on radio. But, the flip side is the sudden public persona one develops in which people feel very close to you, and when they discover your opinions on things they feel personally betrayed. It’s the extreme adulation and virulent hatred I find disturbing.
6. You are also a writer – what do you write about and for what publication(s)?
I write for Aurora on Branding and Branding Strategy, for The Friday Times I write the “Man Friday” Column, for Instep I write “His Bigness” and for The News my opinion editorial column is called “The Pakistan Report Card.
7. What changes have you seen in the Pakistani media in the last 5 years and what do you see in the future?
The media is exploding; there are new outlets every so often. The growth has been marked by the inability of the market to keep pace by providing talent, so it’s stretching thin those who have the ability to deliver. Quality has gone down, and in other areas it has given chances to the untested that are helping in changing the aesthetic of convention in the country; which is a good thing! But part of the boom is attributed to the introduction of consumer credit in the country; the moment it’s time for people to pay off their debt, the economy will contract. The future will have a media shakedown where only the best channels will remain in business once the downturn in the economic cycle curtails advertising spending.
8. Finally, any message for your fans reading this interview?
Difficult question, don’t really have fans in the traditional sense, just people who agree with the thinking. If I were to formulate something half coherent, I think I would just like to suggest for everyone to believe that people around the world, no matter how deceivingly appearing different, are much the same under the skin.
Fasi zaka
Admittedly, we knew little about Fasi Zaka when he was first nominated for a Rendezvous by our friend Sameer. As we set out to study why Fasi Zaka is such a famous name in Pakistan, we discovered one of the top talk show hosts, op-ed writers, and a persona that is fast becoming one of the most listened to (not just 'heard'), people on radio, TV, and the press.
Fasi hosts "On The Fringe" for MTV Pakistan, "The Fasi Zaka Show" for FM91, and writes for Aurora, The Friday Times, Instep, and The News. On top of it, he works full time as the "Head of Ideas" at Adcom for the advertising of the Swedish cellular company Telenor.
While there is much to be learned from and about Fasi, here is a start with an exclusive Rendezvous. Pay heed, for he may well become the strongest public opinion maker in the not too distant future!
1. Give us a brief introduction of yourself, where you grew up, education, family, etc.
I grew up in Peshawar, but am from Charsadda and am a Pakhtun. My paternal family is into politics and bureaucracy (my grandfather was a senator in the 80s). My maternal family comes primarily from an agricultural background of farmers. I was schooled in Peshawar, went to Peshawar University, before getting elected as a Rhodes Scholar to Oxford University.
2. You went to Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar; why did you choose TV as a career over more traditional careers?
TV is not my career, media is. I work full time as the Head of Ideas at Adcom for the advertising of Telenor (a Scandinavian multinational cellular firm in Pakistan), and previously was an academic specializing in advertising and marketing at the University of Peshawar. I do radio as well for FM91 on a program called The Fasi Zaka Show, which is an anarchic call-in show, which has become more successful than anything else I have done.
3. Tell us about your show, “On the fringe”; what is this show about and how long have you been hosting it?
On The Fringe has now been on television for nearly three years; it’s the only show MTV Pakistan kept as it was when they came to Pakistan and took over the helm of Indus Music. OTF is an interview based program that targets popular culture. It is based on Guerilla Filming techniques on a single camera and is a collaboration with my cousin Zeeshan Parwez, a gifted media polymath. The aim of the program has always been to use absurd Pythonesque humor, bring back social reality into the vapidity of consumer culture and very aggressive interviewing of pop stars. It’s a political show that masks itself as entertainment. The name On The Fringe is a reference to how me and my cousin felt as people on the periphery of the mainstream and aimed to give others a voice, especially unsigned bands. Although, ironically, I seem to have mainstreamed in the process. We tend to take up issues of minority rights in the program, the erosion of civilian institutions giving way to the military, how corporatism is running wild and somehow manage to bring humor into this context..
4. You also script the show; where do you get your inspiration for topics you choose for each show?
I am a voracious reader and have multiple interests. It seems to become a smorgasbord of topics that I can choose from in an adlib manner. The jokes we script and do in post production are primarily a process of me and Zeeshan feeding off one another. My intellectual grounding is in postmodernism, which usually reflects in the script by asking questions that usually get nationalistic and stock responses, and then slowly exposing the shallowness of the opinion by presenting multiple perspectives.
5. How has the experience of working on television been for you and what are some of the challenges that you came across?
I have enjoyed it, TV opened avenues for me that I wanted more, like getting published and finding a space on radio. But, the flip side is the sudden public persona one develops in which people feel very close to you, and when they discover your opinions on things they feel personally betrayed. It’s the extreme adulation and virulent hatred I find disturbing.
6. You are also a writer – what do you write about and for what publication(s)?
I write for Aurora on Branding and Branding Strategy, for The Friday Times I write the “Man Friday” Column, for Instep I write “His Bigness” and for The News my opinion editorial column is called “The Pakistan Report Card.
7. What changes have you seen in the Pakistani media in the last 5 years and what do you see in the future?
The media is exploding; there are new outlets every so often. The growth has been marked by the inability of the market to keep pace by providing talent, so it’s stretching thin those who have the ability to deliver. Quality has gone down, and in other areas it has given chances to the untested that are helping in changing the aesthetic of convention in the country; which is a good thing! But part of the boom is attributed to the introduction of consumer credit in the country; the moment it’s time for people to pay off their debt, the economy will contract. The future will have a media shakedown where only the best channels will remain in business once the downturn in the economic cycle curtails advertising spending.
8. Finally, any message for your fans reading this interview?
Difficult question, don’t really have fans in the traditional sense, just people who agree with the thinking. If I were to formulate something half coherent, I think I would just like to suggest for everyone to believe that people around the world, no matter how deceivingly appearing different, are much the same under the skin.
Profile:Fasi Zaka
The Saturday Post.
Fasi zaka
Admittedly, we knew little about Fasi Zaka when he was first nominated for a Rendezvous by our friend Sameer. As we set out to study why Fasi Zaka is such a famous name in Pakistan, we discovered one of the top talk show hosts, op-ed writers, and a persona that is fast becoming one of the most listened to (not just 'heard'), people on radio, TV, and the press.
Fasi hosts "On The Fringe" for MTV Pakistan, "The Fasi Zaka Show" for FM91, and writes for Aurora, The Friday Times, Instep, and The News. On top of it, he works full time as the "Head of Ideas" at Adcom for the advertising of the Swedish cellular company Telenor.
While there is much to be learned from and about Fasi, here is a start with an exclusive Rendezvous. Pay heed, for he may well become the strongest public opinion maker in the not too distant future!
1. Give us a brief introduction of yourself, where you grew up, education, family, etc.
I grew up in Peshawar, but am from Charsadda and am a Pakhtun. My paternal family is into politics and bureaucracy (my grandfather was a senator in the 80s). My maternal family comes primarily from an agricultural background of farmers. I was schooled in Peshawar, went to Peshawar University, before getting elected as a Rhodes Scholar to Oxford University.
2. You went to Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar; why did you choose TV as a career over more traditional careers?
TV is not my career, media is. I work full time as the Head of Ideas at Adcom for the advertising of Telenor (a Scandinavian multinational cellular firm in Pakistan), and previously was an academic specializing in advertising and marketing at the University of Peshawar. I do radio as well for FM91 on a program called The Fasi Zaka Show, which is an anarchic call-in show, which has become more successful than anything else I have done.
3. Tell us about your show, “On the fringe”; what is this show about and how long have you been hosting it?
On The Fringe has now been on television for nearly three years; it’s the only show MTV Pakistan kept as it was when they came to Pakistan and took over the helm of Indus Music. OTF is an interview based program that targets popular culture. It is based on Guerilla Filming techniques on a single camera and is a collaboration with my cousin Zeeshan Parwez, a gifted media polymath. The aim of the program has always been to use absurd Pythonesque humor, bring back social reality into the vapidity of consumer culture and very aggressive interviewing of pop stars. It’s a political show that masks itself as entertainment. The name On The Fringe is a reference to how me and my cousin felt as people on the periphery of the mainstream and aimed to give others a voice, especially unsigned bands. Although, ironically, I seem to have mainstreamed in the process. We tend to take up issues of minority rights in the program, the erosion of civilian institutions giving way to the military, how corporatism is running wild and somehow manage to bring humor into this context..
4. You also script the show; where do you get your inspiration for topics you choose for each show?
I am a voracious reader and have multiple interests. It seems to become a smorgasbord of topics that I can choose from in an adlib manner. The jokes we script and do in post production are primarily a process of me and Zeeshan feeding off one another. My intellectual grounding is in postmodernism, which usually reflects in the script by asking questions that usually get nationalistic and stock responses, and then slowly exposing the shallowness of the opinion by presenting multiple perspectives.
5. How has the experience of working on television been for you and what are some of the challenges that you came across?
I have enjoyed it, TV opened avenues for me that I wanted more, like getting published and finding a space on radio. But, the flip side is the sudden public persona one develops in which people feel very close to you, and when they discover your opinions on things they feel personally betrayed. It’s the extreme adulation and virulent hatred I find disturbing.
6. You are also a writer – what do you write about and for what publication(s)?
I write for Aurora on Branding and Branding Strategy, for The Friday Times I write the “Man Friday” Column, for Instep I write “His Bigness” and for The News my opinion editorial column is called “The Pakistan Report Card.
7. What changes have you seen in the Pakistani media in the last 5 years and what do you see in the future?
The media is exploding; there are new outlets every so often. The growth has been marked by the inability of the market to keep pace by providing talent, so it’s stretching thin those who have the ability to deliver. Quality has gone down, and in other areas it has given chances to the untested that are helping in changing the aesthetic of convention in the country; which is a good thing! But part of the boom is attributed to the introduction of consumer credit in the country; the moment it’s time for people to pay off their debt, the economy will contract. The future will have a media shakedown where only the best channels will remain in business once the downturn in the economic cycle curtails advertising spending.
8. Finally, any message for your fans reading this interview?
Difficult question, don’t really have fans in the traditional sense, just people who agree with the thinking. If I were to formulate something half coherent, I think I would just like to suggest for everyone to believe that people around the world, no matter how deceivingly appearing different, are much the same under the skin.
Fasi zaka
Admittedly, we knew little about Fasi Zaka when he was first nominated for a Rendezvous by our friend Sameer. As we set out to study why Fasi Zaka is such a famous name in Pakistan, we discovered one of the top talk show hosts, op-ed writers, and a persona that is fast becoming one of the most listened to (not just 'heard'), people on radio, TV, and the press.
Fasi hosts "On The Fringe" for MTV Pakistan, "The Fasi Zaka Show" for FM91, and writes for Aurora, The Friday Times, Instep, and The News. On top of it, he works full time as the "Head of Ideas" at Adcom for the advertising of the Swedish cellular company Telenor.
While there is much to be learned from and about Fasi, here is a start with an exclusive Rendezvous. Pay heed, for he may well become the strongest public opinion maker in the not too distant future!
1. Give us a brief introduction of yourself, where you grew up, education, family, etc.
I grew up in Peshawar, but am from Charsadda and am a Pakhtun. My paternal family is into politics and bureaucracy (my grandfather was a senator in the 80s). My maternal family comes primarily from an agricultural background of farmers. I was schooled in Peshawar, went to Peshawar University, before getting elected as a Rhodes Scholar to Oxford University.
2. You went to Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar; why did you choose TV as a career over more traditional careers?
TV is not my career, media is. I work full time as the Head of Ideas at Adcom for the advertising of Telenor (a Scandinavian multinational cellular firm in Pakistan), and previously was an academic specializing in advertising and marketing at the University of Peshawar. I do radio as well for FM91 on a program called The Fasi Zaka Show, which is an anarchic call-in show, which has become more successful than anything else I have done.
3. Tell us about your show, “On the fringe”; what is this show about and how long have you been hosting it?
On The Fringe has now been on television for nearly three years; it’s the only show MTV Pakistan kept as it was when they came to Pakistan and took over the helm of Indus Music. OTF is an interview based program that targets popular culture. It is based on Guerilla Filming techniques on a single camera and is a collaboration with my cousin Zeeshan Parwez, a gifted media polymath. The aim of the program has always been to use absurd Pythonesque humor, bring back social reality into the vapidity of consumer culture and very aggressive interviewing of pop stars. It’s a political show that masks itself as entertainment. The name On The Fringe is a reference to how me and my cousin felt as people on the periphery of the mainstream and aimed to give others a voice, especially unsigned bands. Although, ironically, I seem to have mainstreamed in the process. We tend to take up issues of minority rights in the program, the erosion of civilian institutions giving way to the military, how corporatism is running wild and somehow manage to bring humor into this context..
4. You also script the show; where do you get your inspiration for topics you choose for each show?
I am a voracious reader and have multiple interests. It seems to become a smorgasbord of topics that I can choose from in an adlib manner. The jokes we script and do in post production are primarily a process of me and Zeeshan feeding off one another. My intellectual grounding is in postmodernism, which usually reflects in the script by asking questions that usually get nationalistic and stock responses, and then slowly exposing the shallowness of the opinion by presenting multiple perspectives.
5. How has the experience of working on television been for you and what are some of the challenges that you came across?
I have enjoyed it, TV opened avenues for me that I wanted more, like getting published and finding a space on radio. But, the flip side is the sudden public persona one develops in which people feel very close to you, and when they discover your opinions on things they feel personally betrayed. It’s the extreme adulation and virulent hatred I find disturbing.
6. You are also a writer – what do you write about and for what publication(s)?
I write for Aurora on Branding and Branding Strategy, for The Friday Times I write the “Man Friday” Column, for Instep I write “His Bigness” and for The News my opinion editorial column is called “The Pakistan Report Card.
7. What changes have you seen in the Pakistani media in the last 5 years and what do you see in the future?
The media is exploding; there are new outlets every so often. The growth has been marked by the inability of the market to keep pace by providing talent, so it’s stretching thin those who have the ability to deliver. Quality has gone down, and in other areas it has given chances to the untested that are helping in changing the aesthetic of convention in the country; which is a good thing! But part of the boom is attributed to the introduction of consumer credit in the country; the moment it’s time for people to pay off their debt, the economy will contract. The future will have a media shakedown where only the best channels will remain in business once the downturn in the economic cycle curtails advertising spending.
8. Finally, any message for your fans reading this interview?
Difficult question, don’t really have fans in the traditional sense, just people who agree with the thinking. If I were to formulate something half coherent, I think I would just like to suggest for everyone to believe that people around the world, no matter how deceivingly appearing different, are much the same under the skin.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Sorry Islamia College Peshawar, you are no more unique
Sorry Islamia College Peshawar, you are no more unique
Saturday, 15 December 2007
Prof. Yaseen Iqbal
Islamia College Peshawar was established in 1913 as a unique institution to educate the people of the province. These were the times when modern education used to be considered a great sin by the clergy; however, the founders of this unique institution were also unique and were so sincere with the people of this land that they laid down the foundation stone of this College at the hands of Haji Sahib of Turangzai who was leading the holy war (Jihad) against the British rulers. Even the British, being sympathetic with this institution or the people of the region didn’t block the way of Haji Sahib because they knew that without Haji Sahib’s involvement this institution will be a complete failure.
Well done, Islamia College Peshawar! You produced great graduates and stood unique for the last 95 years at undergraduate level but unfortunately when I look at you today, I cannot compare you with Government College Lahore of nearly the same age. Government College Lahore was not fortunate enough to have the blessing of Haji Sahib of Turangzai, nor Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum Khan was there to water its plants, no generous Pakhtuns gave it hundreds of acres of their lands and probably no Muhammad Ali Jinnah gave his one third of property to GC Lahore but still this great college produced Nobel Laureate like Abdus Salam. Yes, Government College Lahore you are unique but unfortunately Islamia College Peshawar could not be unique. It is at the same level as it was 95 years but education needs of the day have changed too much. Yesterday, we needed education but today we need research and that as well compatible with our modern-day needs. Let me shed some light on the reasons why Islamia College Peshawar could not be made unique instead of its enormous financial resources and blessings:
1) Let’s presume that may be the people of this land are not interested in making there institutions unique. If this is true, then why these people send their kids to various institutions in spite of their poverty and very limited resources? They split their only living home into two, sell the one half to educate their kids and live in the other half. This clearly proves that the people of this land are not fools but sensible 21st century human beings with all the five senses in place but unfortunately helpless to ask for their due rights and hence suffer whatever comes on their poor heads. After complete disappointment from their institutions, a considerable number of our youth prefers admissions in other provinces or has migrated to the outside world and doing odd jobs with the hope for a better life. It must be noted that this is not the solution and a person thrown out by his/her own society can never earn respect from others.
2) The second reason could be the lack of vision of our leaders and literate and privileged class to design and run our institutions consistent with our needs and available human and natural resources to optimise their utilisation. This vision cannot only create jobs for the people but can play a pivotal role in improving the economy of the land as well. In order to explain this let us have a look at the world around us and learn from them the manner in which they developed their societies.
In the modern world, the living standards, honour and dignity of both the individual and society are judged in terms of ranking in the field of science & technology and the resultant economy. Countries of the world are categorised, in fact, into “Developed”, “Developing” and “Under-developed”. The masses of the under-developed nations don’t have the skills, resources or ability to utilise their resources and their leaders lack a clear vision to develop their societies. On the other hand, the developed nations have developed their institutions to exploit their manpower, natural and technical resources. They have the vision to manipulate their present and future needs and the needs of their fellow beings and nations. Their leaders have the wisdom to design and run their institutions to exploit their resources. This clearly means that for economic survival and development, a nation must have a) the vision: to foresee their present and future needs; b) the knowledge to manage her natural/mineral resources; and c) the technical capability to design and produce affordable products. Keeping the above requirements in mind, one can easily understand the causes of poverty in the under-developed and developing nations, and the reasons for prosperity in the developed world.
USA was a leading member of the G7 countries (now G8) but when realised that it must give special preference to dedicated research in specific hot areas of applied sciences: consequently, the U.S. National Science Foundation established Materials Research Science & Engineering Centres. The goal of these centres was to develop the areas of science & technology exponentially which could directly transform scientific ideas into visible market and accelerate the economic growth and benefit the society. Today, the Pennsylvania State University alone has 24 such centres. Similar examples, either in one form or the other, can be observed all over the world such as China, India, UK and Japan.
The resources we have are not ordinary but extraordinary and are called the mineral wealth. The importance of these resources can be judged from the fact that various eras marking the developmental stages of human history such as Stone Age, Bronze Age and Steel Age are defined in terms of the materials used or developed during those periods. Today, it has become extremely difficult, if not impossible, to draw solid lines among various disciplines of science and engineering as semiconductors, physics, chemistry, polymers, cement, metals, ceramics, composites, biomaterials and tissue engineering are studied and investigated under the one roof of the Materials Science. Broadly speaking, the engineering of materials deals with the designing of chemical compositions and controlled processing to tailor materials with desired properties.
Keeping in view the mineral resources of Pakistan, given proper attention, the field of Materials Science certainly seems to have a bright future not only for the people of NWFP and Pakistan but for the surrounding regions as well.
The upgradation of Islamia College Peshawar to University Level were really good news for all of us but do we need to repeat what we already have? If we are interested in developing another photocopying machine of teachers, then we have enough of it. A postgraduate degree can be awarded by any postgraduate college or a couple of rooms with a few master degree holders as faculty members. Islamia College has been unique at undergraduate level and must be unique at postgraduate level. As it led the province in undergraduate education, it is expected to play a similar at postgraduate level. It should not be an ordinary university but a unique institution.
The new Islamia College University should be able to address the issues in hand and make our education compatible with our needs and available resources. Every government is shouting big slogans of the richness of our land in mineral resources but none has established a single institution to systematically and scientifically characterise and optimise the utilisation of these resources. The establishment of an Institute of Materials or a Materials University instead of an ordinary degree-awarding body or a photocopying machine of teachers would have been a really great step towards the prosperity of the region. This institute or university would have systematically characterised the explored minerals and initiated intensive research on engineering of the available materials into useful products to optimise their utilisation. Such developments would have automatically attracted industry because without a strong academia-industry linkage, the development of science & technology has little impact on the society. Unfortunately, I don’t see anyone interested in such activities.
A strong linkage between the Academia and Industry of a country is the key to optimise the utilisation of natural, mineral and technical resources. It is the only way to transform the mineral resources into world-class products in accordance with national and international consumer needs through materialisation of the innovative ideas and research findings of the academia. This university-industry linkage is missing, particularly in this part of the country. Joblessness, non-technical approach to technical issues, poor industry and lack of technical manpower are some of the consequences of this missing linkage. A highly technical institution would have been a key to impress our industry to share mutual knowledge and expertise.
Our mineral resources are second to none, our manpower is talented and hardworking but the problem is the lack of coordination and synchronisation of these resources and availability of sophisticated laboratories to suit the needs of research and modern-day industry. A world class Materials Research Institution is the only way out.
The Way Out
It is an established fact that the introduction and consequent development of the field of Materials Science has already changed the pace of industry and economy in the developed world. Obviously, today, the future of our industry and academia will become ever more dependent upon the quality of our research and ability to innovate. At present, we urgently need Materials Research Institutes in NWFP and it must be brought to the level to act as world-class institute on a priority basis. The basic setup should include material processing kits, phase and micro-structural analysis equipment and property measurement kits. This institution needs to be appropriately staffed and equipped with facilities consistent with our industrial needs. The staff diversity in terms of scientists/engineers in the relevant disciplines, are urgently required.
As evident from the preceding description, our mineral resources need proper characterisation to optimise their utilisation. Our manpower needs proper technical training to process the raw minerals and utilise them in the production of compatible products. All this will need the development of S&T on a priority basis. Unfortunately, we don’t have Materials Research Centres/Institutes which have processing, phase, micro-structural analysis and property-measurement laboratories in Pakistan and such an institution will be unique and will make Islamia University unique.
We need to be more practical with clear target-seeking strategies. The file culture needs to be replaced with trust-based alternatives where quick decisions can be made. A national campaign is required to stimulate both our academia and industry to look for improved ways of working together to ensure that the training of our graduates and research scholars meets the challenges of the 21st century such as innovation in industrial and academic sectors, and addressing of the issues regarding the conservation of energy, environment and health. We are not the only nation undergoing this conflicting experience but most of the nations including Europe and USA went through these experiences and we must learn from their technological history, realise the problem in the real sense and step forward before it is too late.
The upgradation of Islamia College Peshawar to university provided us with a golden opportunity to make our education in accordance with our needs. I was to present the same proposal to the governor and chief minister NWFP but my keynote talk was excluded from the schedule at the 11th hour, on the plea that the governor will be short of time and it is not possible. This is enough for me to believe that every sincere effort is discouraged in this land. I hope the people involved will realise the situation and will not allow the unique Islamia College Peshawar to lose its uniqueness.
(Dr. Yaseen Iqbal has been involved in promoting a research culture and the field of Materials Science in Pakistan for the last couple of years. Recently, he organised a One-Day Seminar entitled “Where Academia & Industry Meet 2007” under the HEC University-Industry-Interaction Project with the collaboration of GIKI (Swabi) and UET, Peshawar. He has given several invited talks on various aspects of Materials in UK. Dr. Iqbal did his Masters in Physics from Gomal University in 1987 and PhD in Engineering Materials from the University of Sheffield (UK) in 1997. Before joining HEC as a Foreign Professor, Dr. Iqbal had been working at the University of Sheffield. His research areas of interest include Electro-Ceramics, Glass-Ceramics, Vitreous Ceramics and Ultra Low Loss Soft Magnetic Alloys. He has published several articles in world class peer reviewed international journals of applied and engineering sciences. Having a keen interest in applied research, he has worked on several projects for UK Electro- & Vitreous-Ceramics industries)
Saturday, 15 December 2007
Prof. Yaseen Iqbal
Islamia College Peshawar was established in 1913 as a unique institution to educate the people of the province. These were the times when modern education used to be considered a great sin by the clergy; however, the founders of this unique institution were also unique and were so sincere with the people of this land that they laid down the foundation stone of this College at the hands of Haji Sahib of Turangzai who was leading the holy war (Jihad) against the British rulers. Even the British, being sympathetic with this institution or the people of the region didn’t block the way of Haji Sahib because they knew that without Haji Sahib’s involvement this institution will be a complete failure.
Well done, Islamia College Peshawar! You produced great graduates and stood unique for the last 95 years at undergraduate level but unfortunately when I look at you today, I cannot compare you with Government College Lahore of nearly the same age. Government College Lahore was not fortunate enough to have the blessing of Haji Sahib of Turangzai, nor Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum Khan was there to water its plants, no generous Pakhtuns gave it hundreds of acres of their lands and probably no Muhammad Ali Jinnah gave his one third of property to GC Lahore but still this great college produced Nobel Laureate like Abdus Salam. Yes, Government College Lahore you are unique but unfortunately Islamia College Peshawar could not be unique. It is at the same level as it was 95 years but education needs of the day have changed too much. Yesterday, we needed education but today we need research and that as well compatible with our modern-day needs. Let me shed some light on the reasons why Islamia College Peshawar could not be made unique instead of its enormous financial resources and blessings:
1) Let’s presume that may be the people of this land are not interested in making there institutions unique. If this is true, then why these people send their kids to various institutions in spite of their poverty and very limited resources? They split their only living home into two, sell the one half to educate their kids and live in the other half. This clearly proves that the people of this land are not fools but sensible 21st century human beings with all the five senses in place but unfortunately helpless to ask for their due rights and hence suffer whatever comes on their poor heads. After complete disappointment from their institutions, a considerable number of our youth prefers admissions in other provinces or has migrated to the outside world and doing odd jobs with the hope for a better life. It must be noted that this is not the solution and a person thrown out by his/her own society can never earn respect from others.
2) The second reason could be the lack of vision of our leaders and literate and privileged class to design and run our institutions consistent with our needs and available human and natural resources to optimise their utilisation. This vision cannot only create jobs for the people but can play a pivotal role in improving the economy of the land as well. In order to explain this let us have a look at the world around us and learn from them the manner in which they developed their societies.
In the modern world, the living standards, honour and dignity of both the individual and society are judged in terms of ranking in the field of science & technology and the resultant economy. Countries of the world are categorised, in fact, into “Developed”, “Developing” and “Under-developed”. The masses of the under-developed nations don’t have the skills, resources or ability to utilise their resources and their leaders lack a clear vision to develop their societies. On the other hand, the developed nations have developed their institutions to exploit their manpower, natural and technical resources. They have the vision to manipulate their present and future needs and the needs of their fellow beings and nations. Their leaders have the wisdom to design and run their institutions to exploit their resources. This clearly means that for economic survival and development, a nation must have a) the vision: to foresee their present and future needs; b) the knowledge to manage her natural/mineral resources; and c) the technical capability to design and produce affordable products. Keeping the above requirements in mind, one can easily understand the causes of poverty in the under-developed and developing nations, and the reasons for prosperity in the developed world.
USA was a leading member of the G7 countries (now G8) but when realised that it must give special preference to dedicated research in specific hot areas of applied sciences: consequently, the U.S. National Science Foundation established Materials Research Science & Engineering Centres. The goal of these centres was to develop the areas of science & technology exponentially which could directly transform scientific ideas into visible market and accelerate the economic growth and benefit the society. Today, the Pennsylvania State University alone has 24 such centres. Similar examples, either in one form or the other, can be observed all over the world such as China, India, UK and Japan.
The resources we have are not ordinary but extraordinary and are called the mineral wealth. The importance of these resources can be judged from the fact that various eras marking the developmental stages of human history such as Stone Age, Bronze Age and Steel Age are defined in terms of the materials used or developed during those periods. Today, it has become extremely difficult, if not impossible, to draw solid lines among various disciplines of science and engineering as semiconductors, physics, chemistry, polymers, cement, metals, ceramics, composites, biomaterials and tissue engineering are studied and investigated under the one roof of the Materials Science. Broadly speaking, the engineering of materials deals with the designing of chemical compositions and controlled processing to tailor materials with desired properties.
Keeping in view the mineral resources of Pakistan, given proper attention, the field of Materials Science certainly seems to have a bright future not only for the people of NWFP and Pakistan but for the surrounding regions as well.
The upgradation of Islamia College Peshawar to University Level were really good news for all of us but do we need to repeat what we already have? If we are interested in developing another photocopying machine of teachers, then we have enough of it. A postgraduate degree can be awarded by any postgraduate college or a couple of rooms with a few master degree holders as faculty members. Islamia College has been unique at undergraduate level and must be unique at postgraduate level. As it led the province in undergraduate education, it is expected to play a similar at postgraduate level. It should not be an ordinary university but a unique institution.
The new Islamia College University should be able to address the issues in hand and make our education compatible with our needs and available resources. Every government is shouting big slogans of the richness of our land in mineral resources but none has established a single institution to systematically and scientifically characterise and optimise the utilisation of these resources. The establishment of an Institute of Materials or a Materials University instead of an ordinary degree-awarding body or a photocopying machine of teachers would have been a really great step towards the prosperity of the region. This institute or university would have systematically characterised the explored minerals and initiated intensive research on engineering of the available materials into useful products to optimise their utilisation. Such developments would have automatically attracted industry because without a strong academia-industry linkage, the development of science & technology has little impact on the society. Unfortunately, I don’t see anyone interested in such activities.
A strong linkage between the Academia and Industry of a country is the key to optimise the utilisation of natural, mineral and technical resources. It is the only way to transform the mineral resources into world-class products in accordance with national and international consumer needs through materialisation of the innovative ideas and research findings of the academia. This university-industry linkage is missing, particularly in this part of the country. Joblessness, non-technical approach to technical issues, poor industry and lack of technical manpower are some of the consequences of this missing linkage. A highly technical institution would have been a key to impress our industry to share mutual knowledge and expertise.
Our mineral resources are second to none, our manpower is talented and hardworking but the problem is the lack of coordination and synchronisation of these resources and availability of sophisticated laboratories to suit the needs of research and modern-day industry. A world class Materials Research Institution is the only way out.
The Way Out
It is an established fact that the introduction and consequent development of the field of Materials Science has already changed the pace of industry and economy in the developed world. Obviously, today, the future of our industry and academia will become ever more dependent upon the quality of our research and ability to innovate. At present, we urgently need Materials Research Institutes in NWFP and it must be brought to the level to act as world-class institute on a priority basis. The basic setup should include material processing kits, phase and micro-structural analysis equipment and property measurement kits. This institution needs to be appropriately staffed and equipped with facilities consistent with our industrial needs. The staff diversity in terms of scientists/engineers in the relevant disciplines, are urgently required.
As evident from the preceding description, our mineral resources need proper characterisation to optimise their utilisation. Our manpower needs proper technical training to process the raw minerals and utilise them in the production of compatible products. All this will need the development of S&T on a priority basis. Unfortunately, we don’t have Materials Research Centres/Institutes which have processing, phase, micro-structural analysis and property-measurement laboratories in Pakistan and such an institution will be unique and will make Islamia University unique.
We need to be more practical with clear target-seeking strategies. The file culture needs to be replaced with trust-based alternatives where quick decisions can be made. A national campaign is required to stimulate both our academia and industry to look for improved ways of working together to ensure that the training of our graduates and research scholars meets the challenges of the 21st century such as innovation in industrial and academic sectors, and addressing of the issues regarding the conservation of energy, environment and health. We are not the only nation undergoing this conflicting experience but most of the nations including Europe and USA went through these experiences and we must learn from their technological history, realise the problem in the real sense and step forward before it is too late.
The upgradation of Islamia College Peshawar to university provided us with a golden opportunity to make our education in accordance with our needs. I was to present the same proposal to the governor and chief minister NWFP but my keynote talk was excluded from the schedule at the 11th hour, on the plea that the governor will be short of time and it is not possible. This is enough for me to believe that every sincere effort is discouraged in this land. I hope the people involved will realise the situation and will not allow the unique Islamia College Peshawar to lose its uniqueness.
(Dr. Yaseen Iqbal has been involved in promoting a research culture and the field of Materials Science in Pakistan for the last couple of years. Recently, he organised a One-Day Seminar entitled “Where Academia & Industry Meet 2007” under the HEC University-Industry-Interaction Project with the collaboration of GIKI (Swabi) and UET, Peshawar. He has given several invited talks on various aspects of Materials in UK. Dr. Iqbal did his Masters in Physics from Gomal University in 1987 and PhD in Engineering Materials from the University of Sheffield (UK) in 1997. Before joining HEC as a Foreign Professor, Dr. Iqbal had been working at the University of Sheffield. His research areas of interest include Electro-Ceramics, Glass-Ceramics, Vitreous Ceramics and Ultra Low Loss Soft Magnetic Alloys. He has published several articles in world class peer reviewed international journals of applied and engineering sciences. Having a keen interest in applied research, he has worked on several projects for UK Electro- & Vitreous-Ceramics industries)
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Pushtoon's Insulte At Youtube
Sha Chaaray! /Salamoona/Hiya!
Dear Friends!
As you are reading my writing and you are sitting behind computer then i am sure you must be watching youtube for entertainment,there, when ever you write Pashto Pukhto Afghan Pushtoon Pukhtoon Afghanistan Pushtoonistan Pukhtoonistan it gives you hundreds of videos,beside videos you are looking for there are some vidoes which are there to hurt our feelings,to insulte us,i know as a pure Afghan/Pushtoon/Pukhtoon it really hurts and it makes our blood boiling and our temp high,hold on guys!, instead of getting pissedoff and making our mood off why don't we declare a war on such videos? why don't we work to remove such videos from youtube? ok..let's do this..how to do that?
Youtube has a policy if there is any meterial based on abuse,insulte of any ethnicity,culture,creed,langauge then they will remove that video..so for us it is very simple work to do but it will be good for millions pushtoon browsing youtube for songs and other videos releated to us.
When you are playing a video in you tube beneath the video screen you have
four options like this
Share -----Favorite------Add to Playlists------Flag
Here what you need to do is if you find any video insulting us then click on Flag...it will open a small window..where you will be asked for reasons..brows the reasons and select Hateful & Abusive contents then click on Flag it..This video will be removed as early as possible..
So girls and guys let's start our war on youtube..plz forward this messge/link to any one you know to get more people involved..
Thank you.
MandoKhail.
Dear Friends!
As you are reading my writing and you are sitting behind computer then i am sure you must be watching youtube for entertainment,there, when ever you write Pashto Pukhto Afghan Pushtoon Pukhtoon Afghanistan Pushtoonistan Pukhtoonistan it gives you hundreds of videos,beside videos you are looking for there are some vidoes which are there to hurt our feelings,to insulte us,i know as a pure Afghan/Pushtoon/Pukhtoon it really hurts and it makes our blood boiling and our temp high,hold on guys!, instead of getting pissedoff and making our mood off why don't we declare a war on such videos? why don't we work to remove such videos from youtube? ok..let's do this..how to do that?
Youtube has a policy if there is any meterial based on abuse,insulte of any ethnicity,culture,creed,langauge then they will remove that video..so for us it is very simple work to do but it will be good for millions pushtoon browsing youtube for songs and other videos releated to us.
When you are playing a video in you tube beneath the video screen you have
four options like this
Share -----Favorite------Add to Playlists------Flag
Here what you need to do is if you find any video insulting us then click on Flag...it will open a small window..where you will be asked for reasons..brows the reasons and select Hateful & Abusive contents then click on Flag it..This video will be removed as early as possible..
So girls and guys let's start our war on youtube..plz forward this messge/link to any one you know to get more people involved..
Thank you.
MandoKhail.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Fareed Sehrayee Saib Passes away!
Sehrayee Saib Passes away!
A selfless and dedicated soldier of Pashto language Farid Sehrayee passed away yesterday (08/11/07) in Prhaango, Charsadda. Sehrayee saib was the main person who gathered most of Pashto words for Pashto dictionary ‘Daryaab’ that was complied by Qalandar Momand under the auspices of Pashto Dictionary Project. It was Farid Sehrayee who actually gathered the wood from the trees for which he travelled far and wide and collected original Pashto vocabulary.
Born and living in Charsadda, this precious son of the Soil silently led Pashtuns’ march towards their lost memories. I am to correct my opening sentence and rank Sehrayee saib as the Silent General of the march rather than a soldier.
Rest in peace!
(Zakir Hussain)
------------------------------
Dawezay Momand (kw)
A selfless and dedicated soldier of Pashto language Farid Sehrayee passed away yesterday (08/11/07) in Prhaango, Charsadda. Sehrayee saib was the main person who gathered most of Pashto words for Pashto dictionary ‘Daryaab’ that was complied by Qalandar Momand under the auspices of Pashto Dictionary Project. It was Farid Sehrayee who actually gathered the wood from the trees for which he travelled far and wide and collected original Pashto vocabulary.
Born and living in Charsadda, this precious son of the Soil silently led Pashtuns’ march towards their lost memories. I am to correct my opening sentence and rank Sehrayee saib as the Silent General of the march rather than a soldier.
Rest in peace!
(Zakir Hussain)
------------------------------
Dawezay Momand (kw)
Friday, December 07, 2007
A plan for Pashto-language schools in Kabul
Politicians Argue Over Language of Schooling in Kabul
A plan for Pashto-language schools in Kabul reveals deep rifts in Afghan society.
By Wahidullah Amani in Kabul (ARR No. 274, 21-Nov-07)
Education Minister Hanif Atmar at the opening of a school in Kabul.
National unity has always been a difficult concept in Afghanistan, a country with a bewildering array of ethnic and tribal groups, and language often serves as the lightening rod for controversy. The issue recently resurfaced with a government plan to dramatically increase the number of Pashto-language schools in Kabul, the predominantly Dari-speaking capital.
While some politicians applauded the education ministry’s initiative, it has prompted a strong backlash from others.
During a roundtable discussion on Tolo TV, Kabul member of parliament Najibullah Kabuli went as far as calling the initiative a “crime”, and accused Education Minister Hanif Atmar of seeking to sow disunity among schoolchildren.
Education ministry spokesman Zahoor Afghan defended the proposal, pointing to Article 43 of the Afghan constitution which requires the state to provide classes in local languages in the areas where they are spoken.
“The real criminals are those who robbed and killed people and then forced their way into parliament using the power of the gun,” he told IWPR, before adding that Pashtun parents in Kabul were asking for opportunities for their children to study in their own tongue.
Another Kabul parliamentarian, Malalai Shinwari, supports the proposal.
“This is the children’s right, and I hope the government will give them this right,” she said. “A child can learn better in its own language than in any other.”
Aqel Khan, a year ten pupil at the Rahman Babahi High School, said he couldn’t agree more. Before transferring to a Pashto-language school, he attended classes where Dari was the teaching medium.
“When lectures were given in Dari, I couldn’t understand them,” he said. “Here I can learn and remember things easily, as I am studying in my native language.”
Shinwari accused opponents of the plan of acting out of political motives.
“They are fanatically opposed to Pashto and want to impose their own language on others,” she claimed.
But Sayed Shafiq, a legislator from Herat, a Dari-speaking area, said he fears separating children according to language will deepen the divisions in Afghan society.
“When one pupil goes to one class and a second to another, it creates disunity,” he said. “And from my point of view, it is a blow to Afghanistan’s image.”
At an October 31 press conference, Education Minister Atmar told reporters that providing classes in different languages is not new to Afghanistan.
“This issue has not resulted in disunity over the past 70 years, so why would it do so now?” he asked.
Dari and Pashto are by far the most widespread languages in Afghanistan, and very roughly speaking prevail in the north and south, respectively. Kabul parliamentary Fawzia Nasiryar pointed out that many other languages are spoken throughout Afghanistan, for instance Uzbek and Turkmen. If Kabul’s Pashtuns have access to education in their language, other linguistic minorities should be granted the same right, she argued.
“This action by the education minister is a tribal action,” she claimed. “If it isn’t tribal, why hasn’t he built schools for other languages? The minister is taking such action only for the sake of his tribe.”
Ministry spokesman Afghan defended the cabinet’s decision to create separate schools for Pashtuns, who are by far the largest group in Kabul using a language other than Dari in daily life.
There are about 200,000 Pashtun students in the city, according to ministry statistics. Of those, only 20,000 actually study in Pashto. Just five out of Kabul’s 175 schools are Pashto-only, while nine more provide classes in both Pashto and Dari.
Herat parliamentarian Ahmad Behzad applauded the initiative. “Both Dari and Pashto are our formal languages,” he pointed out. “People from all over Afghanistan live in the capital. Some pupils are unable to study in Dari, yet education in one’s native language is one of the pillars of the constitution.”
The education ministry’s contentious new plan is not the first time language and ethnicity have sparked controversy. During the 2003 Loya Jirga or national assembly, Pashtun and Dari-speaking Tajik representatives clashed over which language should have primacy in the constitution. Eventually both Dari and Pashto were recognised.
The language used for Afghanistan’s national anthem further inflamed tensions. The words are currently in Pashto, but some politicians have threatened not to stand when it is being played.
Wahidullah Amani is IWPR’s lead trainer and reporter in Kabul.
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Urgent and Important-Sign "Save NWFP Petition"
Please sign the "Save NWFP Petition" and forward it to as many friends as you can!
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/...-pakistan.html
Tatara.
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/...-pakistan.html
Tatara.
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