Havaldar Alam Baig (Alum Bheg), stationed in Sialkot now in Pakistan, was shot out of a cannon and blown to pieces as punishment by the British colonial rulers of India in 1857. All that was left of him was his severed head that was taken to England by a British officer as a war trophy. A recently published book "The Skull of Alum Bheg: The Life and Death Of A Rebel In 1857" by Kim A. Wagner tells the tale of the brutality that this man and many others suffered at the hands of the British Raj in 1857.
Discovery of the Skull:
Wagner, a historian of Danish origin, describes the discovery of a human skull in early 1960s in The Lord Clyde, a pub in the eastern English coastal town of Walmer in Kent by the pub's new owner. It was hidden in some boxes and crates in the back of the building. It was missing its lower jaw, the few remaining teeth were loose, and it had the deep sepia hue of old age. Inside one of its eye-sockets was a neatly folded sheet of old paper, a handwritten note that briefly outlined the skull’s history as follows:
‘Skull of Havildar “Alum Bheg,” 46th Regt. Bengal N. Infantry who was blown away from a gun, amongst several others of his Regt. He was a principal leader in the mutiny of 1857 and of a most ruffianly disposition. He took possession (at the head of a small party) of the road leading to the fort, to which place all the Europeans were hurrying for safety. His party surprised and killed Dr. Graham shooting him in his buggy by the side of his daughter. His next victim was the Rev. Mr. Hunter, a missionary, who was flying with his wife and daughters in the same direction. He murdered Mr Hunter, and his wife and daughters after being brutally treated were butchered by the road side.
Alum Bheg was about 32 years of age; 5 feet 7 ½ inches high and by no means an ill looking native.
The skull was brought home by Captain (AR) Costello (late Capt. 7th Drag. Guards), who was on duty when Alum Bheg was executed.’
Wagner's Story:
Kim Wagner teaches British imperial history at Queen Mary College in London. His specialty subject is colonial Indian history.
“I received an email from a family who had a skull,” he told Marco Werman of PRI's the World recently, “and didn’t know really what to do with it".
Wagner's research indicates that Alam Baig was not “a principal leader” of the revolt, as claimed in the note found in his skull. “Alum Bheg was in many ways an insignificant soldier,” says Wagner. “Just one amongst thousands who served in the East India Company army, but who got entangled in the uprising of 1857.”
“At Sialkot, where Alum Bheg was, it wasn't as violent as was the case elsewhere,” explains Wagner. “But there was a Scottish missionary couple and a small baby who were waylaid and cut down. And that is one of the murders that Alum Bheg was alleged to have carried out.”
“As I found out in the process of researching the book,” Wagner says, “Alum Bheg was actually innocent but as far as the British were concerned it didn't matter much. Because all Indian soldiers — and in many instances, all Indian men in areas where the outbreak had happened — were considered to be guilty. With or without any evidence, really.”
Whitewashing History:
The brutal response to the 1857 rebellion against the colonial rule is just one of a series of brutalities in India that have been whitewashed by the British historians. Wagner's book is an exception to such history that has almost always been told from the British point of view.
It's only recently that scholars like American historian Audrey Truschke and Indian writer Shashi Tharoor have begun to challenge the British version of Indian history.
In his recently published book "Inglorious Empire: What the British did to India", Dr. Tharoor has argued that British Raj greatly impoverished India. He says that "Britain came to one of the richest countries in the world in the 18th century and reduced it, after two centuries of plunder, to one of the poorest". He told a British TV host that the Brits suffer from "historical amnesia". “The fact you don’t really teach colonial history in your schools... children doing A-Levels in history don’t learn a line of colonial history.
Colonial-era British historians deliberately distorted the history of Indian Muslim rule to vilify Muslim rulers as part of the British policy to divide and conquer India, says American history professor Audrey Truschke, in her recently published book "Aurangzeb: The Life and Legacy of India's Most Controversial King". These misrepresentations of Muslim rule made during the British Raj appear to have been accepted as fact not just by Islamophobic Hindu Nationalists but also by at least some of the secular Hindus in India and Muslim intellectuals in present day Pakistan, says the author. Aurangzeb was neither a saint nor a villain; he was a man of his time who should be judged by the norms of his times and compared with his contemporaries, the author adds.
Summary:
Havaldar Alam Baig (Alum Bheg), posted in Sialkot, was shot out of a cannon and blown to pieces as punishment by the British colonial rulers of India in 1857. All that was left of him was his severed head that was taken to England by a British officer as a war trophy. Kim Wagner's "The Skull of Alum Bheg: The Life and Death Of A Rebel In 1857" tells the tale of this atrocity committed by the British Raj in India. The brutal response to the 1857 rebellion against the colonial rule is just one of a series of brutalities in India that have been whitewashed by the British historians. Wagner's book is an exception to such history that has almost always been told from the British point of view.
Related Links:
Haq's Musings
Shashi Tharoor Argues the British Raj Destroyed India
Hindutva: The Legacy of the British Raj in India
Decolonizing Minds in Former British Colonies
Pakistan Day: Freeing the Colonized Minds
Alam vs Hoodbhoy
Inquiry Based Learning
Dr. Ata ur Rehman Defends Higher Education Reform
Pakistan's Rising College Enrollment Rates
Pakistan Beat BRICs in Highly Cited Research Papers
Launch of "Eating Grass: Pakistan's Nuclear Program"
Upwardly Mobile Pakistan
Impact of Industrial Revolution
Riaz Haq writes this data-driven blog to provide information, express his opinions and make comments on many topics. Subjects include personal activities, education, South Asia, South Asian community, regional and international affairs and US politics to financial markets. For investors interested in South Asia, Riaz has another blog called South Asia Investor at http://www.southasiainvestor.com and a YouTube video channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkrIDyFbC9N9evXYb9cA_gQ
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Saturday, February 24, 2018
Pakistani-American Astrophysicist Dr. Nergis Mavalvala in Silicon Valley
Pakistani-American Astrophysicist Dr. Nergis Mavalvala, MIT professor and member of Nobel Prize winner LIGO team, visited Pakistani-American Community Center (PACC) in Silicon Valley on February 24, 2018. She was invited by PACC founder Mr. Mohammad Asghar Aboobaker to talk about her inspirational work and meet with the community members, particularly Pakistani-American children in the Valley.
Who is Nergis?
Nergis was born in Lahore and raised in Karachi before coming to the United States in 1986. She completed her Ph.D. in Physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1997. She did her doctoral work under Dr. Rainer Weiss that included developing a prototype laser interferometer for detecting gravitational waves. Currently, she is Curtis and Kathleen Marble Professor of Astrophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she is also the Associate Head of the Department of Physics.
Gravitational Waves:
In her brief presentation attended by over 100 people including boys and girls, Nergis explained Albert Einstein's gravitational wave theory and described her work in confirming the theory by detecting gravitational waves in Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) project.
Gravitational waves are the disturbances in the fabric ("curvature") of spacetime generated by accelerated stars and propagate as waves outward from their source at the speed of light. She compared the gravitational waves with the curvature and the ripples produced in a trampoline when a heavy ball is placed in the middle and bounced on it.
All Stars Die:
Nergis explained that all stars, like the sun in our solar system, are born, grow and eventually die. Our sun too will die but she assured her audience that it won't happen for over a billion years. She described black holes as big stars whose light can not escape due to their massive gravity. Huge amounts of energy are released when these massive stars collide with each other and new ones are born.
Neutron stars are created when giant stars die in supernovas and their cores collapse, with the protons and electrons essentially melting into each other to form neutrons. Given the extremely small waves of about 1000 times smaller than a proton, the equipment required for detecting them must be extremely sensitive to tiny disturbances. LIGO equipment uses giant shock absorbers to eliminate extraneous perturbations that can alter the result.
Detected gravitational waves help scientists understand how large and how far away the colliding stars are, and allow them to recreate the moments before they collided. After such collisions, the measurements of optical light and electromagnetic waves fill in the blanks that gravitational waves can’t answer.
Origins of Gold:
In answer to my question about the events detected by LIGO team, Nergis said the gravitational waves generated by these neutron star collisions occurred over a billion years ago at a distance of a billion light years. From optical light and electromagnetic measurements after these collisions, the scientists were able to conclude that the resulting explosion from a neutron star merger produces heavy elements like gold, platinum, and uranium. These collisions occurred well after the Big Bang that is believed to have happened about 13.7 billion years ago. Detecting events that occurred closer to the Big Bang would take much more sensitive equipment than currently available to LIGO team.
Summary:
Pakistani-American Astrophysicist Dr. Nergis Mavalvala, MIT professor and member of Nobel Prize winner LIGO team, visited Pakistani-American Community Center (PACC) in Silicon Valley on February 24, 2018. She was invited by PACC founder Mr. Mohammad Asghar Aboobaker to talk about her work and meet with the community members. Mavalvala and her fellow team members of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) project have opened new vistas in human pursuit to solve the mysteries of our universe. The collision of stars they have detected occurred over a billion years ago. With their new equipment they hope to go back further closer to the Big Bang to learn more about the creation of our universe.
Related Links:
Haq's Musings
Why Do Stars Have Arabic Names?
Pakistani Scientists at CERN, Switzerland
12-Year-Old Pakistani Girl at World Economic Forum
Pakistani Woman Leads Gender Parity Program at World Economic Forum
Pakistani Students Win at International Genetic Engineering Competition
Pakistani Students Win First Place in Stanford Design Contest
Pakistan Beats BRICs in Highly Cited Research Papers
Pakistanis Make Up Silicon Valley's Largest Foreign-Born Muslim Group
Silicon Valley Pakistani-Americans
Pakistani-American Leads Silicon Valley's Top Incubator
Silicon Valley Pakistanis Enabling 2nd Machine Revolution
Karachi-born Triple Oscar Winning Graphics Artist
Pakistani-American Ashar Aziz's Fire-eye Goes Public
Two Pakistani-American Silicon Valley Techs Among Top 5 VC Deals
Pakistani-American's Game-Changing Vision
Riaz Haq (R) with Dr. Nergis Mavalvala |
Nergis was born in Lahore and raised in Karachi before coming to the United States in 1986. She completed her Ph.D. in Physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1997. She did her doctoral work under Dr. Rainer Weiss that included developing a prototype laser interferometer for detecting gravitational waves. Currently, she is Curtis and Kathleen Marble Professor of Astrophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she is also the Associate Head of the Department of Physics.
Gravitational Waves:
In her brief presentation attended by over 100 people including boys and girls, Nergis explained Albert Einstein's gravitational wave theory and described her work in confirming the theory by detecting gravitational waves in Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) project.
LIGO - A Gigantic Interferometer |
Gravitational waves are the disturbances in the fabric ("curvature") of spacetime generated by accelerated stars and propagate as waves outward from their source at the speed of light. She compared the gravitational waves with the curvature and the ripples produced in a trampoline when a heavy ball is placed in the middle and bounced on it.
All Stars Die:
Dr. Mavalvala at PACC. Photo Credit: Nasreen Aboobaker |
Detected gravitational waves help scientists understand how large and how far away the colliding stars are, and allow them to recreate the moments before they collided. After such collisions, the measurements of optical light and electromagnetic waves fill in the blanks that gravitational waves can’t answer.
Dr. Mavalvala at PACC. Photo Credit: Nasreen Aboobaker |
Origins of Gold:
In answer to my question about the events detected by LIGO team, Nergis said the gravitational waves generated by these neutron star collisions occurred over a billion years ago at a distance of a billion light years. From optical light and electromagnetic measurements after these collisions, the scientists were able to conclude that the resulting explosion from a neutron star merger produces heavy elements like gold, platinum, and uranium. These collisions occurred well after the Big Bang that is believed to have happened about 13.7 billion years ago. Detecting events that occurred closer to the Big Bang would take much more sensitive equipment than currently available to LIGO team.
Audience at PACC. Photo Credit: Nasreen Aboobaker |
Summary:
Pakistani-American Astrophysicist Dr. Nergis Mavalvala, MIT professor and member of Nobel Prize winner LIGO team, visited Pakistani-American Community Center (PACC) in Silicon Valley on February 24, 2018. She was invited by PACC founder Mr. Mohammad Asghar Aboobaker to talk about her work and meet with the community members. Mavalvala and her fellow team members of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) project have opened new vistas in human pursuit to solve the mysteries of our universe. The collision of stars they have detected occurred over a billion years ago. With their new equipment they hope to go back further closer to the Big Bang to learn more about the creation of our universe.
Related Links:
Haq's Musings
Why Do Stars Have Arabic Names?
Pakistani Scientists at CERN, Switzerland
12-Year-Old Pakistani Girl at World Economic Forum
Pakistani Woman Leads Gender Parity Program at World Economic Forum
Pakistani Students Win at International Genetic Engineering Competition
Pakistani Students Win First Place in Stanford Design Contest
Pakistan Beats BRICs in Highly Cited Research Papers
Pakistanis Make Up Silicon Valley's Largest Foreign-Born Muslim Group
Silicon Valley Pakistani-Americans
Pakistani-American Leads Silicon Valley's Top Incubator
Silicon Valley Pakistanis Enabling 2nd Machine Revolution
Karachi-born Triple Oscar Winning Graphics Artist
Pakistani-American Ashar Aziz's Fire-eye Goes Public
Two Pakistani-American Silicon Valley Techs Among Top 5 VC Deals
Pakistani-American's Game-Changing Vision
Friday, February 23, 2018
American Bid to Put Pakistan on FATF Watch-List Fails in Paris
Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the financial watchdog group for terror financing, has delayed any decision to put Pakistan on its watch list, according to its spokesperson Alexandra Wijmenga-Daniel. This move was sponsored by the United States and its European allies.
The FATF statement released after the meeting that ended on February 23, 2018 identified the following nations as being on its watch list: Ethiopia, Iraq, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Vanuatu and Yemen.
FATF Decision Delayed:
It appears that the American bid failed at this month's FATF meeting. Pakistan's Chinese allies and Muslim friends among the Gulf Arabs and Turkey prevailed at the February 18-23 meeting in Paris, France. If US persists and Pakistan is placed on the FATF "grey list" at the June meeting, how will it impact Pakistan economy and the geopolitics of the region? Will it be good or bad for American interests in Afghanistan and Pakistan? Will it help or hurt China?
Effect on Pakistan:
Pakistan's economy will be hurt if it goes on the FATF watch-list. It could increase support for radicals and strengthen the hands of anti-American extremists.
Being on the list will draw more scrutiny for all banking transactions involving Pakistani entities. This additional scrutiny may drive away some businesses and investors and hurt Pakistan's economy.
Risk-averse international banks, some of whom have already faced heavy fines by US regulators for transactions elsewhere, may decide to shy away from working with Pakistani banks. This will hurt Pakistan's international trade and worsen its current account deficits. It will increase the likelihood of debt default.
China, currently the biggest foreign investor in Pakistan, will continue to invest in the country. FATF decisions will have little impact on the execution of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Impact on the United States:
There's a history of the US ratcheting up pressure on Pakistan to do its bidding. The Obama administration in years 2012-15 helped put Pakistan on the FATF watch-list. President Obama also exerted other forms of pressure on Pakistan without results. Obama's tactics ended up further alienating Pakistanis and made Pakistan less cooperative with the United States. In 2011, Pakistan cut off US-NATO supply land routes through its territory to Afghanistan.
If history repeats itself and Pakistan does go back on the FATF watch-list under US pressure, the outcome this time is not likely to be any different than it was the last time. It will serve to further alienate Pakistan, and it will strengthen the hands of the hardliners. It will make any resolution of the difficult Afghan problem even more difficult.
China's Interests:
China will likely be the biggest beneficiary of the US effort to put Pakistan on the FATF watch list. The Chinese will have the biggest slice of Pakistan's rapidly growing middle class consumer market. Chinese investors, traders and businessmen will have little competition from the West in the world's sixth most populous nation. Geopolitically, the US influence will dramatically diminish in the region. America's hopes of a favorable outcome in Afghanistan will not materialize.
Summary:
American bid to put Pakistan on FATF terror financing watch-list failed in Paris. However, the Trump Administration's continuing efforts to do so may succeed at the June meeting. If that were to happen, it will turn out to be pyrrhic victory. Pakistan will be hurt in the short term but the US policy of all sticks and no carrots will prove to be counterproductive in the long run. Washington will lose whatever little political capital and influence it still has left in Pakistan. America's Afghan problem will become even more intractable without Pakistan's help. China will be the biggest beneficiary of America's folly.
Related Link:
Haq's Musings
Will Pakistan Yield to Trump's Pressure?
Checkered History of Pakistan-Afghan Ties
Pakistan Rising or Falling? Reality vs Perception
Steve Coll's Directorate S
CPEC Myths and Facts
CPEC Transforming Least Developed Regions of Pakistan
Pakistan-China-Russia vs India-Japan-US
Riaz Haq's Youtube Channel
The FATF statement released after the meeting that ended on February 23, 2018 identified the following nations as being on its watch list: Ethiopia, Iraq, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Vanuatu and Yemen.
FATF Decision Delayed:
It appears that the American bid failed at this month's FATF meeting. Pakistan's Chinese allies and Muslim friends among the Gulf Arabs and Turkey prevailed at the February 18-23 meeting in Paris, France. If US persists and Pakistan is placed on the FATF "grey list" at the June meeting, how will it impact Pakistan economy and the geopolitics of the region? Will it be good or bad for American interests in Afghanistan and Pakistan? Will it help or hurt China?
Effect on Pakistan:
Pakistan's economy will be hurt if it goes on the FATF watch-list. It could increase support for radicals and strengthen the hands of anti-American extremists.
Being on the list will draw more scrutiny for all banking transactions involving Pakistani entities. This additional scrutiny may drive away some businesses and investors and hurt Pakistan's economy.
Risk-averse international banks, some of whom have already faced heavy fines by US regulators for transactions elsewhere, may decide to shy away from working with Pakistani banks. This will hurt Pakistan's international trade and worsen its current account deficits. It will increase the likelihood of debt default.
China, currently the biggest foreign investor in Pakistan, will continue to invest in the country. FATF decisions will have little impact on the execution of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Impact on the United States:
There's a history of the US ratcheting up pressure on Pakistan to do its bidding. The Obama administration in years 2012-15 helped put Pakistan on the FATF watch-list. President Obama also exerted other forms of pressure on Pakistan without results. Obama's tactics ended up further alienating Pakistanis and made Pakistan less cooperative with the United States. In 2011, Pakistan cut off US-NATO supply land routes through its territory to Afghanistan.
If history repeats itself and Pakistan does go back on the FATF watch-list under US pressure, the outcome this time is not likely to be any different than it was the last time. It will serve to further alienate Pakistan, and it will strengthen the hands of the hardliners. It will make any resolution of the difficult Afghan problem even more difficult.
China's Interests:
China will likely be the biggest beneficiary of the US effort to put Pakistan on the FATF watch list. The Chinese will have the biggest slice of Pakistan's rapidly growing middle class consumer market. Chinese investors, traders and businessmen will have little competition from the West in the world's sixth most populous nation. Geopolitically, the US influence will dramatically diminish in the region. America's hopes of a favorable outcome in Afghanistan will not materialize.
Summary:
American bid to put Pakistan on FATF terror financing watch-list failed in Paris. However, the Trump Administration's continuing efforts to do so may succeed at the June meeting. If that were to happen, it will turn out to be pyrrhic victory. Pakistan will be hurt in the short term but the US policy of all sticks and no carrots will prove to be counterproductive in the long run. Washington will lose whatever little political capital and influence it still has left in Pakistan. America's Afghan problem will become even more intractable without Pakistan's help. China will be the biggest beneficiary of America's folly.
Related Link:
Haq's Musings
Will Pakistan Yield to Trump's Pressure?
Checkered History of Pakistan-Afghan Ties
Pakistan Rising or Falling? Reality vs Perception
Steve Coll's Directorate S
CPEC Myths and Facts
CPEC Transforming Least Developed Regions of Pakistan
Pakistan-China-Russia vs India-Japan-US
Riaz Haq's Youtube Channel
Thursday, February 22, 2018
Pakistan Lived Through the World's Second Deadliest Mass School Shooting
The recent mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida has brought back the horrible memory of the tragic mass shooting at Army Public School in Peshawar, Pakistan on December 16, 2014. The Peshawar school mass shooting claimed 149 lives, making it the world's second deadliest mass shooting at Beslan school in Russia where 334 people were killed.
The Parkland, Florida school shooting was the world's 10th worst with 17 dead. Five of the world's 10 worst mass shootings have occurred in the United States. The rest of them were one each in Russia, Pakistan, Kenya, Israel and the United Kingdom.
Peshawar School Shooting:
On the morning of December 16, 2014, six gunmen affiliated with the Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP) entered the Army Public School in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar and started shooting. All six were foreign nationals, included one Chechen, three Arabs and two Afghans.
By the time the Pakistani Army commandos arrived and killed the attackers, 149 people including 132 students, ranging in age between eight and eighteen years, lay dead.
The Peshawar attack galvanized the Pakistani people to take on the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other terrorist groups. The Pakistani military launched a nation-wide operation Zarb e Azb to bring about a dramatic reduction in terrorist violence in the country.
Parkland School Shooting:
On the afternoon of February 14, 2018, a lone gunman entered and started shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Seventeen people were killed and fourteen more were taken to hospitals, making it the world's 10th deadliest school massacre. The suspected, 19-year-old Nikolas Jacob Cruz, was arrested shortly afterward and confessed, according to the Broward County Sheriff's Office.
The suspect was a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. He had been expelled and was angry. He used an AR-15 assault rifle to quickly kill over a dozen of his fellow students.
AR-15 is easily available in the United States, It has become a weapon of choice for mass shootings in America. 2017 Las Vegas mass shooter who killed 58 people also used a modified AR-15 rifle.
Summary:
While school shootings have occurred in many countries around the world, no other country has seen as many and as frequently as those in the United States. New York Times analysis of the Gun Violence Archive found that there have been 239 school shootings since 2014, including those on college campuses, resulting in 138 deaths. The biggest reason accounting for it is the ease of access to the deadliest of assault weapons in America. Will the US Congress act this time in defiance of the gun lobby? Given the track record of US legislators after worse massacres than Parkland, I wouldn't hold my breath. However, the response of the students has been much stronger and more sustained than in the past. I hope that they succeed where others have failed.
Related Links:
Haq's Musings
Gun Violence, Islamophobia and Terrorism
Gun Violence in America
Peshawar School Attack
Is US Gun Lobby Empowering Terrorists?
Riaz Haq's Youtube Channel
Source: bkayy |
The Parkland, Florida school shooting was the world's 10th worst with 17 dead. Five of the world's 10 worst mass shootings have occurred in the United States. The rest of them were one each in Russia, Pakistan, Kenya, Israel and the United Kingdom.
Peshawar School Shooting:
On the morning of December 16, 2014, six gunmen affiliated with the Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP) entered the Army Public School in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar and started shooting. All six were foreign nationals, included one Chechen, three Arabs and two Afghans.
By the time the Pakistani Army commandos arrived and killed the attackers, 149 people including 132 students, ranging in age between eight and eighteen years, lay dead.
The Peshawar attack galvanized the Pakistani people to take on the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other terrorist groups. The Pakistani military launched a nation-wide operation Zarb e Azb to bring about a dramatic reduction in terrorist violence in the country.
Parkland School Shooting:
On the afternoon of February 14, 2018, a lone gunman entered and started shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Seventeen people were killed and fourteen more were taken to hospitals, making it the world's 10th deadliest school massacre. The suspected, 19-year-old Nikolas Jacob Cruz, was arrested shortly afterward and confessed, according to the Broward County Sheriff's Office.
The suspect was a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. He had been expelled and was angry. He used an AR-15 assault rifle to quickly kill over a dozen of his fellow students.
AR-15 is easily available in the United States, It has become a weapon of choice for mass shootings in America. 2017 Las Vegas mass shooter who killed 58 people also used a modified AR-15 rifle.
Summary:
While school shootings have occurred in many countries around the world, no other country has seen as many and as frequently as those in the United States. New York Times analysis of the Gun Violence Archive found that there have been 239 school shootings since 2014, including those on college campuses, resulting in 138 deaths. The biggest reason accounting for it is the ease of access to the deadliest of assault weapons in America. Will the US Congress act this time in defiance of the gun lobby? Given the track record of US legislators after worse massacres than Parkland, I wouldn't hold my breath. However, the response of the students has been much stronger and more sustained than in the past. I hope that they succeed where others have failed.
Related Links:
Haq's Musings
Gun Violence, Islamophobia and Terrorism
Gun Violence in America
Peshawar School Attack
Is US Gun Lobby Empowering Terrorists?
Riaz Haq's Youtube Channel
Tuesday, February 20, 2018
How Can Pakistan Reduce High Rates of Infant Mortality?
Of every 1,000 babies born in Pakistan, 45.6 die before the end of their first month – 1 in 22, the highest infant mortality rate in the world, according to a United Nations Children's Fund report titled "Every Child Alive: The urgent need to end newborn deaths". Pakistan’s newborn mortality rate has declined by less than one quarter, from 60 in 2000 to 46 in 2016, according to UNICEF.
Worst Countries:
Of the 2.6 million newborn dying each year worldwide, India tops with 24% share followed by Pakistan with 10%. Ten countries, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, India, Indonesia, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Pakistan and Tanzania account for more than half of the world’s newborn deaths, according to the report. Four of these 10 countries are in South Asia while the rest are in sub-Saharan Africa.
The percentage of mothers in Pakistan who gave birth in a health facility increased from 21 per cent to 48 per cent between 2001 and 2013, and the proportion of women giving birth with a skilled attendant more than doubled, from 23 per cent to 55 per cent over the same period. But despite these remarkable increases, largely the result of rapid urbanization and the proliferation of private sector providers not subject to satisfactory oversight, Pakistan’s very high newborn mortality rate fell by less than one quarter, from 60 in 2000 to 46 in 2016, according to UNICEF.
The report says that more than 80 per cent of newborn deaths can be prevented "with access to well-trained midwives, along with proven solutions like clean water, disinfectants, breastfeeding within the first hour, skin-to-skin contact and good nutrition."
Community-Based Health Care:
How can Pakistan increase the number of childbirths in the presence of skilled attendants? The best option appears to be a skilled midwives program along the lines of the Lady Health Workers (LHW) program that is considered effective in delivering health education and care to women in remote villages.
“It (LHW) is one of the best community-based health systems in the world,” said Dr. Donald Thea, a Boston University researcher, talking about Pakistan's Lady Health Workers Program. Thea is one of the authors of a recent Lancet study on child pneumonia treatment in Pakistan. He talked with the New York Times about the study.
Published in British medical journal "The Lancet", the study followed 1,857 children who were treated at home with oral amoxicillin for five days and 1,354 children in a control group who were given standard care: one dose of oral cotrimoxazole and instructions to go to the nearest hospital or clinic. The home-treated group had only a 9 percent treatment-failure rate, while the control group children failed to improve 18 percent of the time.
Community Midwives:
In response to the low levels of skilled birth attendance in rural Pakistan, the government has introduced a new cadre of community midwives (CMWs).
In 2008, Pakistan extended community-based health system with the introduction of an 18-month training program for community midwives. Then, in 2014, United Nations Population Fund – together with the Department of Health and Sindh Province’s Maternal, Newborn and Child Health program – launched a pilot effort to supplement the midwifery courses with hands-on training. Midwifery coaches visited the midwives’ clinics, offering guidance and mentorship, according to UNFPA. So far, over 300 midwives have benefitted from the coaching and mentorship program.
The Sindh UNFPA model needs to be scaled up across the country with the help of the federal and provincial governments in Pakistan.
Summary:
Pakistan is the riskiest country for newborns. Of every 1,000 babies born in Pakistan, 45.6 die before the end of their first month – 1 in 22, the highest infant mortality rate in the world, according to a United Nations Children's Fund report titled "Every Child Alive: The urgent need to end newborn deaths". Pakistan’s newborn mortality rate has declined by less than one quarter, from 60 in 2000 to 46 in 2016, according to UNICEF. The country's progress in reducing infant mortality rates has been very slow. There is an urgent need to improve the situation by by scaling up community-based midwife programs nation-wide.
Related Links:
Haq's Musings
Pakistan Lady Health Workers "Best in the World"
Premature Death Rates in Pakistan
Hardware (Infrastructure) Prioritized Over Software (Education/Health) in Pakistan
Disease Burdens in Pakistan
Human Development in Pakistan
Riaz Haq's Youtube Channel
Highest Contributors to Newborn Deaths Source: UNICEF |
Of the 2.6 million newborn dying each year worldwide, India tops with 24% share followed by Pakistan with 10%. Ten countries, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, India, Indonesia, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Pakistan and Tanzania account for more than half of the world’s newborn deaths, according to the report. Four of these 10 countries are in South Asia while the rest are in sub-Saharan Africa.
The percentage of mothers in Pakistan who gave birth in a health facility increased from 21 per cent to 48 per cent between 2001 and 2013, and the proportion of women giving birth with a skilled attendant more than doubled, from 23 per cent to 55 per cent over the same period. But despite these remarkable increases, largely the result of rapid urbanization and the proliferation of private sector providers not subject to satisfactory oversight, Pakistan’s very high newborn mortality rate fell by less than one quarter, from 60 in 2000 to 46 in 2016, according to UNICEF.
The report says that more than 80 per cent of newborn deaths can be prevented "with access to well-trained midwives, along with proven solutions like clean water, disinfectants, breastfeeding within the first hour, skin-to-skin contact and good nutrition."
Community-Based Health Care:
How can Pakistan increase the number of childbirths in the presence of skilled attendants? The best option appears to be a skilled midwives program along the lines of the Lady Health Workers (LHW) program that is considered effective in delivering health education and care to women in remote villages.
“It (LHW) is one of the best community-based health systems in the world,” said Dr. Donald Thea, a Boston University researcher, talking about Pakistan's Lady Health Workers Program. Thea is one of the authors of a recent Lancet study on child pneumonia treatment in Pakistan. He talked with the New York Times about the study.
Published in British medical journal "The Lancet", the study followed 1,857 children who were treated at home with oral amoxicillin for five days and 1,354 children in a control group who were given standard care: one dose of oral cotrimoxazole and instructions to go to the nearest hospital or clinic. The home-treated group had only a 9 percent treatment-failure rate, while the control group children failed to improve 18 percent of the time.
Community Midwives:
In response to the low levels of skilled birth attendance in rural Pakistan, the government has introduced a new cadre of community midwives (CMWs).
In 2008, Pakistan extended community-based health system with the introduction of an 18-month training program for community midwives. Then, in 2014, United Nations Population Fund – together with the Department of Health and Sindh Province’s Maternal, Newborn and Child Health program – launched a pilot effort to supplement the midwifery courses with hands-on training. Midwifery coaches visited the midwives’ clinics, offering guidance and mentorship, according to UNFPA. So far, over 300 midwives have benefitted from the coaching and mentorship program.
The Sindh UNFPA model needs to be scaled up across the country with the help of the federal and provincial governments in Pakistan.
Summary:
Pakistan is the riskiest country for newborns. Of every 1,000 babies born in Pakistan, 45.6 die before the end of their first month – 1 in 22, the highest infant mortality rate in the world, according to a United Nations Children's Fund report titled "Every Child Alive: The urgent need to end newborn deaths". Pakistan’s newborn mortality rate has declined by less than one quarter, from 60 in 2000 to 46 in 2016, according to UNICEF. The country's progress in reducing infant mortality rates has been very slow. There is an urgent need to improve the situation by by scaling up community-based midwife programs nation-wide.
Haq's Musings
Pakistan Lady Health Workers "Best in the World"
Premature Death Rates in Pakistan
Hardware (Infrastructure) Prioritized Over Software (Education/Health) in Pakistan
Disease Burdens in Pakistan
Human Development in Pakistan
Riaz Haq's Youtube Channel
Monday, February 19, 2018
Rapid Growth in China-Pakistan Scientific, Educational and Cultural Ties
Pakistan-China ties are rapidly growing well beyond the economy and the military with tens of thousands of Chinese and Pakistani citizens regularly traveling between the two countries.
More Pakistanis than ever are learning the Chinese language. China with its world class educational institutions is emerging as one of the top destinations for Pakistanis studying abroad. China-Pakistan relationship is becoming a truly multi-dimensional strategic relationship. This new phenomenon is the subject of a Pakistani spice company television commercial featuring a young Chinese woman in Lahore making the popular biryani dish using Shan masala.
China-Pakistan Institute:
Headed by Pakistani Senator Mushahid Hussain, Pakistan-China Institute (PCI) is a non-governmental, non-partisan and non-political think-tank. Its goal is to promote people to people ties between the two nations in defense and diplomacy, education and energy, economy and environment, and with a particular focus on youth and women. PCI is working to promote discussions and in depth analyses with multi-faceted initiatives including conferences, lectures, exchange of visits, journals, e-magazines and documentaries.
Chinese Language:
The Chinese language department at Islamabad's National University of Modern Languages (NUML) has been around for nearly half a century, according to Pakistan's Dawn newspaper. When it was first established in September 1970, there were only about 13 students who took the course.
In April 2005, Islamabad's Confucius Institute was established by The Office of Chinese Language Council International (Hanban), Beijing Language and Culture University, and NUML.
The interest and attendance of Chinese language courses at NUML has soared since the launch of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The year 2017 saw 460 Pakistani students attending the courses.
Pakistani Students in China:
There are 22,000 Pakistani students attending universities in China, making it the fastest growing destination for Pakistanis studying abroad.
The United Kingdom still remains the top source of international education for Pakistanis. 46,640 students, the largest number of Pakistani students receiving international education anywhere, are doing so at Pakistani universities in joint degree programs established with British universities, according to UK Council for International Student Affairs.
Globally, China has become a more attractive destination for foreign students. It now ranks third after the US and the UK. This year, it is likely to move up to the second spot.
China's Strides in Science and Technology:
Why is China becoming a fast growing destination for foreign students, including Pakistanis studying abroad? A story in India's "The Wire" online magazine has explained it in terms of the rapid rate of China's progress in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields as follows:
America's National Science Foundation and National Science Board have recently released their biennial science and engineering indicators which provide detailed figures on research and development (R&D), innovation and engineers. But its true message is in a different direction, “China has become,” concludes Robert J. Samuelson in a column, “or is in the verge of becoming – a scientific and technical superpower. This is not entirely unexpected given the size of the Chinese economy and its massive investments in R&D, even so, he says, “the actual numbers are breathtaking”.
1. China is the 2nd largest spender in R&D after the US, accounting for 21% of the world total which is $2 trillion. It has been going up 18% a year, as compared to 4% in the US. An OECD report says that China could overtake the US in R&D spending by 2020.
2. China has overtaken the US in terms of total number of science publications. Technical papers have increased dramatically, even if their impact, as judged by citation indices, may not be that high.
3. The US continues to produce more PhDs and attract more foreign students. But new international enrollment at US colleges was down for the first time in the decade in 2017. The Trump administration’s anti-immigration rhetoric and actions are scaring away students.
4. China has begun shifting from being an assembler of high-tech components, to a maker of super computers and aircraft and given the pattern of its investments in R&D and technology development, it is focusing on becoming the world leader in artificial intelligence (AI), quantum communications, quantum computing, biotechnology and electric vehicles.
Summary:
Pakistan-China ties are rapidly growing well beyond the economy and the military with tens of thousands of Chinese and Pakistani citizens regularly traveling between the two countries. More Pakistanis than ever are learning the Chinese language. China with its world class educational institutions is emerging as one of the top destinations for Pakistanis studying abroad. It is becoming a truly multi-dimensional relationship which will help Pakistan rise with China on the world stage.
Related Links:
Haq's Musings
China-Pakistan Strategic Ties
China-Pakistan Defense Tech Cooperation Irks West
Pakistan-Russia-China vs India-Japan-US
Pakistan Rising or Falling? Myth Vs Reality
Facts and Myths About China-Pakistan Economic Corridor
China Emerges as Top Destination for Pakistanis Studying Abroad
Sec Hagel: India Using Afghanistan to Launch Attacks in Pakistan
Ex Indian Spy Documents RAW's Successes Against Pakistan
Riaz Haq's Youtube Channel
More Pakistanis than ever are learning the Chinese language. China with its world class educational institutions is emerging as one of the top destinations for Pakistanis studying abroad. China-Pakistan relationship is becoming a truly multi-dimensional strategic relationship. This new phenomenon is the subject of a Pakistani spice company television commercial featuring a young Chinese woman in Lahore making the popular biryani dish using Shan masala.
China-Pakistan Institute:
Headed by Pakistani Senator Mushahid Hussain, Pakistan-China Institute (PCI) is a non-governmental, non-partisan and non-political think-tank. Its goal is to promote people to people ties between the two nations in defense and diplomacy, education and energy, economy and environment, and with a particular focus on youth and women. PCI is working to promote discussions and in depth analyses with multi-faceted initiatives including conferences, lectures, exchange of visits, journals, e-magazines and documentaries.
Chinese Language:
The Chinese language department at Islamabad's National University of Modern Languages (NUML) has been around for nearly half a century, according to Pakistan's Dawn newspaper. When it was first established in September 1970, there were only about 13 students who took the course.
In April 2005, Islamabad's Confucius Institute was established by The Office of Chinese Language Council International (Hanban), Beijing Language and Culture University, and NUML.
China's Research Spending. Source: Nature |
Pakistani Students in China:
There are 22,000 Pakistani students attending universities in China, making it the fastest growing destination for Pakistanis studying abroad.
The United Kingdom still remains the top source of international education for Pakistanis. 46,640 students, the largest number of Pakistani students receiving international education anywhere, are doing so at Pakistani universities in joint degree programs established with British universities, according to UK Council for International Student Affairs.
Globally, China has become a more attractive destination for foreign students. It now ranks third after the US and the UK. This year, it is likely to move up to the second spot.
Foreign Students in China. Source: China Power |
China's Strides in Science and Technology:
Why is China becoming a fast growing destination for foreign students, including Pakistanis studying abroad? A story in India's "The Wire" online magazine has explained it in terms of the rapid rate of China's progress in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields as follows:
America's National Science Foundation and National Science Board have recently released their biennial science and engineering indicators which provide detailed figures on research and development (R&D), innovation and engineers. But its true message is in a different direction, “China has become,” concludes Robert J. Samuelson in a column, “or is in the verge of becoming – a scientific and technical superpower. This is not entirely unexpected given the size of the Chinese economy and its massive investments in R&D, even so, he says, “the actual numbers are breathtaking”.
1. China is the 2nd largest spender in R&D after the US, accounting for 21% of the world total which is $2 trillion. It has been going up 18% a year, as compared to 4% in the US. An OECD report says that China could overtake the US in R&D spending by 2020.
2. China has overtaken the US in terms of total number of science publications. Technical papers have increased dramatically, even if their impact, as judged by citation indices, may not be that high.
3. The US continues to produce more PhDs and attract more foreign students. But new international enrollment at US colleges was down for the first time in the decade in 2017. The Trump administration’s anti-immigration rhetoric and actions are scaring away students.
4. China has begun shifting from being an assembler of high-tech components, to a maker of super computers and aircraft and given the pattern of its investments in R&D and technology development, it is focusing on becoming the world leader in artificial intelligence (AI), quantum communications, quantum computing, biotechnology and electric vehicles.
China-Pakistan Scientific Collaboration 2nd Strongest Among BRI Nations. Source: Nature |
Summary:
Pakistan-China ties are rapidly growing well beyond the economy and the military with tens of thousands of Chinese and Pakistani citizens regularly traveling between the two countries. More Pakistanis than ever are learning the Chinese language. China with its world class educational institutions is emerging as one of the top destinations for Pakistanis studying abroad. It is becoming a truly multi-dimensional relationship which will help Pakistan rise with China on the world stage.
Related Links:
Haq's Musings
China-Pakistan Strategic Ties
China-Pakistan Defense Tech Cooperation Irks West
Pakistan-Russia-China vs India-Japan-US
Pakistan Rising or Falling? Myth Vs Reality
Facts and Myths About China-Pakistan Economic Corridor
China Emerges as Top Destination for Pakistanis Studying Abroad
Sec Hagel: India Using Afghanistan to Launch Attacks in Pakistan
Ex Indian Spy Documents RAW's Successes Against Pakistan
Riaz Haq's Youtube Channel
Labels:
China,
CPEC,
Culture,
Education,
Pakistan,
Technology,
United States
Saturday, February 17, 2018
History of Pak-Afghan Ties; Afghan War End-Game; Asma Jahangir Tribute
Who was Asma Jahangir? What was her impact on Pakistani society? How did she influence political and legal discourse in Pakistan? How did she defend human rights and rule-of-law in Pakistan? Was she really a foreign agent? Was she serving Indian or western interests in Pakistan? How will she be remembered?
What is the history of Afghanistan-Pakistan relations? Did it begin only in 1980s with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan? Or the creation of the Taliban by Pakistan in the 1990s? Why did this relationship start off on the wrong foot back in 1947 when Pakistan was created? Why did Afghanistan cast the only vote opposing the admission to the United Nations of the newly independent state of Pakistan in 1947? What was the Pakhtoonistan movement and what was Afghanistan's and India's role in it? Are there fresh attempts by India to revive the Pakhtoonistan movement? How does this impact the situation in Afghanistan? Is there second Great Game being played, this time between India and Pakistan as pointed out by Steve Coll in his latest book "Directorate S"? How will this game end?
Viewpoint From Overseas host Misbah Azam discusses these questions with Ali H. Cemendtaur and Riaz Haq (www.riazhaq.com)
https://youtu.be/-5tmzbhmCqo
Related Link:
Haq's Musings
Asma Jahangir vs Imran Khan War of Words
Checkered History of Afghanistan-Pakistan Relations
Steve Coll's "Directorate S" Blames ISI in Afghanistan
India's Role in Afghanistan and Pakistan
Sec Hagel: India Using Afghanistan to Launch Attacks in Pakistan
Ex Indian Spy Documents RAW's Successes Against Pakistan
Riaz Haq's Youtube Channel
PakAlumni Social Network
What is the history of Afghanistan-Pakistan relations? Did it begin only in 1980s with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan? Or the creation of the Taliban by Pakistan in the 1990s? Why did this relationship start off on the wrong foot back in 1947 when Pakistan was created? Why did Afghanistan cast the only vote opposing the admission to the United Nations of the newly independent state of Pakistan in 1947? What was the Pakhtoonistan movement and what was Afghanistan's and India's role in it? Are there fresh attempts by India to revive the Pakhtoonistan movement? How does this impact the situation in Afghanistan? Is there second Great Game being played, this time between India and Pakistan as pointed out by Steve Coll in his latest book "Directorate S"? How will this game end?
Viewpoint From Overseas host Misbah Azam discusses these questions with Ali H. Cemendtaur and Riaz Haq (www.riazhaq.com)
https://youtu.be/-5tmzbhmCqo
Related Link:
Haq's Musings
Asma Jahangir vs Imran Khan War of Words
Checkered History of Afghanistan-Pakistan Relations
Steve Coll's "Directorate S" Blames ISI in Afghanistan
India's Role in Afghanistan and Pakistan
Sec Hagel: India Using Afghanistan to Launch Attacks in Pakistan
Ex Indian Spy Documents RAW's Successes Against Pakistan
Riaz Haq's Youtube Channel
PakAlumni Social Network
Thursday, February 15, 2018
Pakistan's Saadia Zahidi Leads World Economic Forum's Gender Parity Effort
Pakistan-born, Harvard-educated economist Ms. Saadia Zahidi, author of "50 Million Rising", is currently a member of the executive committee and the head of Education, Gender and Work at the World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland. She told Kai Ryssdal of APR Marketplace of her visit to a gas field in Pakistan with her geophysicist father where she met Nazia, a woman engineer who inspired her.
The "50 Million" in the title of her book refers to the 50 million Muslim women who have joined the work force over the last 15 years bringing the total number of working women in the Muslim world to about 155 million.
In her book, Saadia talks about her father being the first in his family to go to university. He believed in girls' education and career opportunities. She recalls him suggesting that "my sister could become a pilot because the Pakistan Air Force had just starting to train women. Another time he speculated that I could become a news anchor because Pakistan Television, the state-owned television network, had started recruiting more women". Here's an excerpt of her book:
"This shift has not been limited to Pakistan. A quiet but powerful tsunami of working women has swept across the Muslim world. In all, 155 million women work in the Muslim world today, and fifty million of them--a full third--have joined the work force since the turn of the millennium alone, a formidable migration from home to work in the span of less than a generation".
Saadia Zahidi has devoted parts of her book to her experiences in Pakistan where she visited a McDonald's restaurant and found many women working there. A woman also named Saadia working at McDonald's restaurant in Rawalpindi is featured in the book. Here's an excerpt:
"For young women like Saadia, seeing their efforts rewarded in the workplace, just as they were in school and university, can be eye-opening and thrilling and lead them to become even more motivated to work. The independent income is an almost unexpected bonus. I asked Saadia how she spends her earnings and whether she saves. She gives 30 percent of her income to her parents, she said, and the rest she spends as she pleases: mostly on gifts to her parents, sisters, and friends as well as on lunches and dinners out with friends and gadgets like her cell phone—all new luxuries for her. She said that she has no interest in saving because her parents take care of housing and food, just as she expects her husband will do after she marries. So her disposable income is wholly hers to spend, allowing her to contribute to the household budget while also buying luxuries that were previously unimaginable for her parents, without adding a burden to them."
Challenging the stereotypes about Muslim women, Saadia cites an interesting statistic: In Saudi Arabia, out of all of the women that could be going to university, 50 percent are. And that is higher than in China, in India, in Mexico, in Brazil.
I wrote a post titled "Working Women Seeding a Silent Revolution in Pakistan" in 2011. It's reproduced below in full:
While Fareed Zakaria, Nick Kristoff and other talking heads are still stuck on the old stereotypes of Muslim women, the status of women in Muslim societies is rapidly changing, and there is a silent social revolution taking place with rising number of women joining the workforce and moving up the corporate ladder in Pakistan.
"More of them(women) than ever are finding employment, doing everything from pumping gasoline and serving burgers at McDonald’s to running major corporations", says a report in the latest edition of Businessweek magazine.
Beyond company or government employment, there are a number of NGOs focused on encouraging self-employment and entrepreneurship among Pakistani women by offering skills training and microfinancing. Kashf Foundation led by a woman CEO and BRAC are among such NGOs. They all report that the success and repayment rate among female borrowers is significantly higher than among male borrowers.
In rural Sindh, the PPP-led government is empowering women by granting over 212,864 acres of government-owned agriculture land to landless peasants in the province. Over half of the farm land being given is prime nehri (land irrigated by canals) farm land, and the rest being barani or rain-dependent. About 70 percent of the 5,800 beneficiaries of this gift are women. Other provincial governments, especially the Punjab government have also announced land allotment for women, for which initial surveys are underway, according to ActionAid Pakistan.
Both the public and private sectors are recruiting women in Pakistan's workplaces ranging from Pakistani military, civil service, schools, hospitals, media, advertising, retail, fashion industry, publicly traded companies, banks, technology companies, multinational corporations and NGOs, etc.
Here are some statistics and data that confirm the growth and promotion of women in Pakistan's labor pool:
1. A number of women have moved up into the executive positions, among them Unilever Foods CEO Fariyha Subhani, Engro Fertilizer CFO Naz Khan, Maheen Rahman CEO of IGI Funds and Roshaneh Zafar Founder and CEO of Kashf Foundation.
2. Women now make up 4.6% of board members of Pakistani companies, a tad lower than the 4.7% average in emerging Asia, but higher than 1% in South Korea, 4.1% in India and Indonesia, and 4.2% in Malaysia, according to a February 2011 report on women in the boardrooms.
3. Female employment at KFC in Pakistan has risen 125 percent in the past five years, according to a report in the NY Times.
4. The number of women working at McDonald’s restaurants and the supermarket behemoth Makro has quadrupled since 2006.
5. There are now women taxi drivers in Pakistan. Best known among them is Zahida Kazmi described by the BBC as "clearly a respected presence on the streets of Islamabad".
6. Several women fly helicopters and fighter jets in the military and commercial airliners in the state-owned and private airlines in Pakistan.
Here are a few excerpts from the recent Businessweek story written by Naween Mangi:
About 22 percent of Pakistani females over the age of 10 now work, up from 14 percent a decade ago, government statistics show. Women now hold 78 of the 342 seats in the National Assembly, and in July, Hina Rabbani Khar, 34, became Pakistan’s first female Foreign Minister. “The cultural norms regarding women in the workplace have changed,” says Maheen Rahman, 34, chief executive officer at IGI Funds, which manages some $400 million in assets. Rahman says she plans to keep recruiting more women for her company.
Much of the progress has come because women stay in school longer. More than 42 percent of Pakistan’s 2.6 million high school students last year were girls, up from 30 percent 18 years ago. Women made up about 22 percent of the 68,000 students in Pakistani universities in 1993; today, 47 percent of Pakistan’s 1.1 million university students are women, according to the Higher Education Commission. Half of all MBA graduates hired by Habib Bank, Pakistan’s largest lender, are now women. “Parents are realizing how much better a lifestyle a family can have if girls work,” says Sima Kamil, 54, who oversees 1,400 branches as head of retail banking at Habib. “Every branch I visit has one or two girls from conservative backgrounds,” she says.
Some companies believe hiring women gives them a competitive advantage. Habib Bank says adding female tellers has helped improve customer service at the formerly state-owned lender because the men on staff don’t want to appear rude in front of women. And makers of household products say female staffers help them better understand the needs of their customers. “The buyers for almost all our product ranges are women,” says Fariyha Subhani, 46, CEO of Unilever Pakistan Foods, where 106 of the 872 employees are women. “Having women selling those products makes sense because they themselves are the consumers,” she says.
To attract more women, Unilever last year offered some employees the option to work from home, and the company has run an on-site day-care center since 2003. Engro, which has 100 women in management positions, last year introduced flexible working hours, a day-care center, and a support group where female employees can discuss challenges they encounter. “Today there is more of a focus at companies on diversity,” says Engro Fertilizer CFO Khan, 42. The next step, she says, is ensuring that “more women can reach senior management levels.”
The gender gap in South Asia remains wide, and women in Pakistan still face significant obstacles. But there is now a critical mass of working women at all levels showing the way to other Pakistani women.
I strongly believe that working women have a very positive and transformational impact on society by having fewer children, and by investing more time, money and energies for better nutrition, education and health care of their children. They spend 97 percent of their income and savings on their families, more than twice as much as men who spend only 40 percent on their families, according to Zainab Salbi, Founder, Women for Women International, who recently appeared on CNN's GPS with Fareed Zakaria.
Here's an interesting video titled "Redefining Identity" about Pakistan's young technologists, including women, posted by Lahore-based 5 Rivers Technologies:
Related Links:
Haq's Musings
Status of Women in Pakistan
Microfinancing in Pakistan
Gender Gap Worst in South Asia
Status of Women in India
Female Literacy Lags in South Asia
Land For Landless Women
Are Women Better Off in Pakistan Today?
Growing Insurgency in Swat
Religious Leaders Respond to Domestic Violence
Fighting Agents of Intolerance
A Woman Speaker: Another Token or Real Change
A Tale of Tribal Terror
Mukhtaran Mai-The Movie
World Economic Forum Survey of Gender Gap
Saadia Zahidi |
In her book, Saadia talks about her father being the first in his family to go to university. He believed in girls' education and career opportunities. She recalls him suggesting that "my sister could become a pilot because the Pakistan Air Force had just starting to train women. Another time he speculated that I could become a news anchor because Pakistan Television, the state-owned television network, had started recruiting more women". Here's an excerpt of her book:
"This shift has not been limited to Pakistan. A quiet but powerful tsunami of working women has swept across the Muslim world. In all, 155 million women work in the Muslim world today, and fifty million of them--a full third--have joined the work force since the turn of the millennium alone, a formidable migration from home to work in the span of less than a generation".
Saadia Zahidi has devoted parts of her book to her experiences in Pakistan where she visited a McDonald's restaurant and found many women working there. A woman also named Saadia working at McDonald's restaurant in Rawalpindi is featured in the book. Here's an excerpt:
"For young women like Saadia, seeing their efforts rewarded in the workplace, just as they were in school and university, can be eye-opening and thrilling and lead them to become even more motivated to work. The independent income is an almost unexpected bonus. I asked Saadia how she spends her earnings and whether she saves. She gives 30 percent of her income to her parents, she said, and the rest she spends as she pleases: mostly on gifts to her parents, sisters, and friends as well as on lunches and dinners out with friends and gadgets like her cell phone—all new luxuries for her. She said that she has no interest in saving because her parents take care of housing and food, just as she expects her husband will do after she marries. So her disposable income is wholly hers to spend, allowing her to contribute to the household budget while also buying luxuries that were previously unimaginable for her parents, without adding a burden to them."
Challenging the stereotypes about Muslim women, Saadia cites an interesting statistic: In Saudi Arabia, out of all of the women that could be going to university, 50 percent are. And that is higher than in China, in India, in Mexico, in Brazil.
While Fareed Zakaria, Nick Kristoff and other talking heads are still stuck on the old stereotypes of Muslim women, the status of women in Muslim societies is rapidly changing, and there is a silent social revolution taking place with rising number of women joining the workforce and moving up the corporate ladder in Pakistan.
"More of them(women) than ever are finding employment, doing everything from pumping gasoline and serving burgers at McDonald’s to running major corporations", says a report in the latest edition of Businessweek magazine.
Beyond company or government employment, there are a number of NGOs focused on encouraging self-employment and entrepreneurship among Pakistani women by offering skills training and microfinancing. Kashf Foundation led by a woman CEO and BRAC are among such NGOs. They all report that the success and repayment rate among female borrowers is significantly higher than among male borrowers.
In rural Sindh, the PPP-led government is empowering women by granting over 212,864 acres of government-owned agriculture land to landless peasants in the province. Over half of the farm land being given is prime nehri (land irrigated by canals) farm land, and the rest being barani or rain-dependent. About 70 percent of the 5,800 beneficiaries of this gift are women. Other provincial governments, especially the Punjab government have also announced land allotment for women, for which initial surveys are underway, according to ActionAid Pakistan.
Both the public and private sectors are recruiting women in Pakistan's workplaces ranging from Pakistani military, civil service, schools, hospitals, media, advertising, retail, fashion industry, publicly traded companies, banks, technology companies, multinational corporations and NGOs, etc.
Here are some statistics and data that confirm the growth and promotion of women in Pakistan's labor pool:
1. A number of women have moved up into the executive positions, among them Unilever Foods CEO Fariyha Subhani, Engro Fertilizer CFO Naz Khan, Maheen Rahman CEO of IGI Funds and Roshaneh Zafar Founder and CEO of Kashf Foundation.
2. Women now make up 4.6% of board members of Pakistani companies, a tad lower than the 4.7% average in emerging Asia, but higher than 1% in South Korea, 4.1% in India and Indonesia, and 4.2% in Malaysia, according to a February 2011 report on women in the boardrooms.
3. Female employment at KFC in Pakistan has risen 125 percent in the past five years, according to a report in the NY Times.
4. The number of women working at McDonald’s restaurants and the supermarket behemoth Makro has quadrupled since 2006.
5. There are now women taxi drivers in Pakistan. Best known among them is Zahida Kazmi described by the BBC as "clearly a respected presence on the streets of Islamabad".
6. Several women fly helicopters and fighter jets in the military and commercial airliners in the state-owned and private airlines in Pakistan.
Here are a few excerpts from the recent Businessweek story written by Naween Mangi:
About 22 percent of Pakistani females over the age of 10 now work, up from 14 percent a decade ago, government statistics show. Women now hold 78 of the 342 seats in the National Assembly, and in July, Hina Rabbani Khar, 34, became Pakistan’s first female Foreign Minister. “The cultural norms regarding women in the workplace have changed,” says Maheen Rahman, 34, chief executive officer at IGI Funds, which manages some $400 million in assets. Rahman says she plans to keep recruiting more women for her company.
Much of the progress has come because women stay in school longer. More than 42 percent of Pakistan’s 2.6 million high school students last year were girls, up from 30 percent 18 years ago. Women made up about 22 percent of the 68,000 students in Pakistani universities in 1993; today, 47 percent of Pakistan’s 1.1 million university students are women, according to the Higher Education Commission. Half of all MBA graduates hired by Habib Bank, Pakistan’s largest lender, are now women. “Parents are realizing how much better a lifestyle a family can have if girls work,” says Sima Kamil, 54, who oversees 1,400 branches as head of retail banking at Habib. “Every branch I visit has one or two girls from conservative backgrounds,” she says.
Some companies believe hiring women gives them a competitive advantage. Habib Bank says adding female tellers has helped improve customer service at the formerly state-owned lender because the men on staff don’t want to appear rude in front of women. And makers of household products say female staffers help them better understand the needs of their customers. “The buyers for almost all our product ranges are women,” says Fariyha Subhani, 46, CEO of Unilever Pakistan Foods, where 106 of the 872 employees are women. “Having women selling those products makes sense because they themselves are the consumers,” she says.
To attract more women, Unilever last year offered some employees the option to work from home, and the company has run an on-site day-care center since 2003. Engro, which has 100 women in management positions, last year introduced flexible working hours, a day-care center, and a support group where female employees can discuss challenges they encounter. “Today there is more of a focus at companies on diversity,” says Engro Fertilizer CFO Khan, 42. The next step, she says, is ensuring that “more women can reach senior management levels.”
The gender gap in South Asia remains wide, and women in Pakistan still face significant obstacles. But there is now a critical mass of working women at all levels showing the way to other Pakistani women.
I strongly believe that working women have a very positive and transformational impact on society by having fewer children, and by investing more time, money and energies for better nutrition, education and health care of their children. They spend 97 percent of their income and savings on their families, more than twice as much as men who spend only 40 percent on their families, according to Zainab Salbi, Founder, Women for Women International, who recently appeared on CNN's GPS with Fareed Zakaria.
Here's an interesting video titled "Redefining Identity" about Pakistan's young technologists, including women, posted by Lahore-based 5 Rivers Technologies:
Related Links:
Haq's Musings
Status of Women in Pakistan
Microfinancing in Pakistan
Gender Gap Worst in South Asia
Status of Women in India
Female Literacy Lags in South Asia
Land For Landless Women
Are Women Better Off in Pakistan Today?
Growing Insurgency in Swat
Religious Leaders Respond to Domestic Violence
Fighting Agents of Intolerance
A Woman Speaker: Another Token or Real Change
A Tale of Tribal Terror
Mukhtaran Mai-The Movie
World Economic Forum Survey of Gender Gap
Tuesday, February 13, 2018
The Checkered History of Pakistan-Afghanistan Relations
Afghanistan has been governed by secular Pashtun Nationalists and their Tajik and Uzbek allies for much of the 20th century. These Afghan rulers and their secular Pashtun allies on the eastern side of the border have been hostile toward Pakistan since 1947 when it became independent. Afghanistan's was the lone vote against the admission of the newly independent state of Pakistan to the United Nations. Since then, the anti-Pakistan campaign by Pashtun Nationalists on both sides of the Durand Line has received support from New Delhi.
India's Partition:
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, also known as the Frontier Gandhi, led the secular Pashtun Nationalists' opposition to the creation of Pakistan before 1947. Their efforts to stay with India failed when they lost a referendum and the majority of the voters of then Frontier Province chose to join Pakistan.
After the humiliating loss in the referendum, Abdul Ghaffar Khan, his son Abdul Wali Khan and their supporters decided to seek an independent nation of Pakhtoonistan. When Ghaffar Khan died, he was not buried in Pakistan. Instead, he was buried in the Afghan city of Jalalabad according to his will. His son Wali Khan then carried the movement forward.
Pakhtoonistan Movement:
After the creation of Pakistan, Ghaffar Khan and Wali Khan launched Pakhtoonistan movement that sought to create an independent state of Pakhtoonistan with the eventual goal of erasing the Durand Line to unify it with Afghanistan.
The central government in Pakistan responded by assimilating Pakhtoons in civil and military services from early 1950’s. By the end of 1960’s, the Pakhtoons were holding many top positions in the civil and military bureaucracy. At the time Pakistan was ruled by Ayub Khan, himself a non-Pashtu speaking Pakhtoon.
Both the Afghan and the Indian governments continued to back the Pakhtoonistan movement in 1960s and 70s.
In 1960, then Afghan Prime Minister Daoud Khan sent his troops across the Durand Line into the Bajaur Agency of Pakistan to press the Pashtunistan issue, but the Afghan forces were routed by Pakistani Tribals. During this period, the propaganda war from Afghanistan, carried on by radio, was relentless.
Daoud hosted Pakistani Pakhtoon Khan Abdul Wali Khan, Ajmal Khattak, Juma Khan Sufi. Daoud started training Pakhtun Zalmay and young Balochs and sent them across the border into Pakistan to start a militancy.
In 1961, Pakistan retaliated against Daoud's support to militias in areas along the Durand Line by closing its borders with Afghanistan, causing an economic crisis in Afghanistan.
India's Partition:
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, also known as the Frontier Gandhi, led the secular Pashtun Nationalists' opposition to the creation of Pakistan before 1947. Their efforts to stay with India failed when they lost a referendum and the majority of the voters of then Frontier Province chose to join Pakistan.
After the humiliating loss in the referendum, Abdul Ghaffar Khan, his son Abdul Wali Khan and their supporters decided to seek an independent nation of Pakhtoonistan. When Ghaffar Khan died, he was not buried in Pakistan. Instead, he was buried in the Afghan city of Jalalabad according to his will. His son Wali Khan then carried the movement forward.
Pakhtoonistan Movement:
After the creation of Pakistan, Ghaffar Khan and Wali Khan launched Pakhtoonistan movement that sought to create an independent state of Pakhtoonistan with the eventual goal of erasing the Durand Line to unify it with Afghanistan.
The central government in Pakistan responded by assimilating Pakhtoons in civil and military services from early 1950’s. By the end of 1960’s, the Pakhtoons were holding many top positions in the civil and military bureaucracy. At the time Pakistan was ruled by Ayub Khan, himself a non-Pashtu speaking Pakhtoon.
Both the Afghan and the Indian governments continued to back the Pakhtoonistan movement in 1960s and 70s.
In 1960, then Afghan Prime Minister Daoud Khan sent his troops across the Durand Line into the Bajaur Agency of Pakistan to press the Pashtunistan issue, but the Afghan forces were routed by Pakistani Tribals. During this period, the propaganda war from Afghanistan, carried on by radio, was relentless.
Daoud hosted Pakistani Pakhtoon Khan Abdul Wali Khan, Ajmal Khattak, Juma Khan Sufi. Daoud started training Pakhtun Zalmay and young Balochs and sent them across the border into Pakistan to start a militancy.
In 1961, Pakistan retaliated against Daoud's support to militias in areas along the Durand Line by closing its borders with Afghanistan, causing an economic crisis in Afghanistan.
On July 7, 1973, Daoud Khan toppled his cousin King Zahir Shah in a coup. This triggered a series of bloody coups ending in the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
A former RAW officer RK Yadav has, in his book "Mission RAW", confirmed that Indian intelligence officers met Khan Wali Abdul Wali Khan in Europe on several occasions to provide support and funding for the Pakhtoonistan movement.
In 1975, then Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto ordered Pakistan's intelligence agency to respond to Afghan provocations. Pakistan ISI trained Jalaluddin Haqqani, and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar as their Afghan proxies.
Soviet Invasion:
The Soviet troops rolled into Afghanistan in December, 1979 to assert control after several coups and counter-coups in the country. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United States responded to it by recruiting, training and arming a resistance force referred to as "Mujahideen". India supported the Soviet invasion and occupation in a United Nations vote in January, 1980.
Soviet troops were defeated and forced by the Mujahideen to withdraw after 9 years of occupation. The Americans also decided to leave the region with Afghanistan in complete chaos as various Mujahideen factions split along ethnic lines fought for control of Kabul.
Pakistan was the most affected as a result of Afghan war and instability. Millions of Afghan refugees poured across the border in Pakistan. Many were radicalized, trained and armed to fight. The "Kalashnikov Culture" spread across Pakistan causing instability.
The Taliban:
In 1990s, Pakistan supported the Taliban led by Mullah Omar to try to stabilize the situation. The Taliban defeated all other factions and warlords and took control of most of Afghanistan. The only part of Afghanistan that remained beyond their control was the Panjshir valley in northern Afghanistan that was controlled by Tajik warlord Ahmad Shah Massoud.
The Taliban hosted Al Qaeda and its leader Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan. The United States accused Al Qaeda of carrying out the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001. When the Taliban refused to hand over Bin Laden to Washington, President George W. Bush ordered the US military to invade Afghanistan to force the Taliban out of power.
US Invasion:
The US invasion of Afghanistan forced the Taliban out of power and drove them and Al Qaeda fighters across the border into Pakistan. Pakistani military arrested most of the Al Qaeda leadership and many of the Al Qaeda fighters and handed them over to the United States. Bin Laden was found and killed by the Americans in a raid in Abbotabad, Pakistan in 2011.
Indian intelligence agency RAW has established its presence in Afghanistan along the border with Pakistan since the US invasion and the installation of a Kabul government the includes pro-India members of the Tajik dominated Northern Alliance.
India's Covert War Against Pakistan:
Fomer US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said back in 2011 that "India has always used Afghanistan as a second front against Pakistan. India has over the years been financing problems in Pakistan". Secretary Hagel was speaking at Cameron University in Oklahoma. Direct and circumstantial evidence of India using Afghanistan to attack Pakistan has grown to the point that even Indian analysts and media are beginning to acknowledge it:
1. Bharat Karnad, a professor of national security studies at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, recently acknowledged India's use of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorist group against Pakistan in an Op Ed he wrote for Hindustan Times.
2. Indian journalist Praveen Swami said in a piece published in "Frontline": "Since 2013, India has secretly built up a covert action program against Pakistan."
3. India's former RAW officers, including one ex chief, have blamed Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav, arrested by Pakistan in 2016, for getting caught in Pakistan as a "result of unprofessionalism", according to a report in India's "The Quint" owned and operated by a joint venture of Bloomberg News and Quintillion Media. The report that appeared briefly on The Quint website has since been removed, apparently under pressure from the Indian government.
4. A story by Indian journalist Karan Thapar pointed out several flaws in the Indian narrative claiming that Kulbhushan Jadhav, arrested in Pakistan while engaging in India's covert war in Balochistan, was an innocent Indian businessman kidnapped from Chabahar by Pakistani agents. Writing for the Indian Express, Thapar debunked the entire official story from New Delhi.
ISI Bogeyman:
British Afghan war veteran Major Robert Gallimore says he saw no presence of Pakistan's intelligence service ISI in Afghanistan. The Afghan Army saw the " imagined nefarious hand" and "bogeyman" of Pakistan everywhere but he never saw it. He "saw not one piece of evidence" of it. It was all in their minds.
During his three tours of duty in Afghanistan, he could hear all the radio conversations going on but never heard any Pakistani accent. He did, however, see "buckets and buckets of money" and rising Indian influence in Afghan Army that blamed Pakistan for all their problems. Pakistan is their bogeyman.
The Afghan Army says they'll feel good when they can "invade Pakistan". They do not blame the British but the Pakistanis for Durand Line that they do not recognize.
Major Gallimore sees the emergence of an India-Pakistan 21st century "Great Game" similar to its British-Russian predecessor. Many Afghans support creation of Pashtunistan by annexing northern part of Pakistan into Afghanistan. They blame Pakistan for the Durand Line, not the British or their own leaders who agreed to it. As a result, Maj Gallimore warns that Afghanistan has become much more volatile and dangerous than ever before.
Summary:
The animosity of secular Pashtun Nationalists and their Tajik and Uzbek allies against Pakistan is not new. It didn't start with Pakistan's support of the Taliban in 1990s. Their hostility against Pakistan dates back to the creation of Pakistan. Afghanistan's was the lone vote against the admission of the newly independent state of Pakistan to the United Nations in 1947. Since then, the anti-Pakistan campaign by Pashtun Nationalists on both sides of the Durand Line has received support from New Delhi. A former RAW officer RK Yadav has, in his book "Mission RAW", confirmed that Indian intelligence officers met Khan Wali Abdul Wali Khan in Europe on several occasions to provide support and funding for the Pakhtoonistan movement.
Viewpoint From Overseas host Misbah Azam discusses this subject with Ali H. Cemendtaur and Riaz Haq (www.riazhaq.com)
https://youtu.be/-5tmzbhmCqo
Related Links:
Haq's Musings
What is the Haqqani Network?
Trump's Afghan Strategy: Will Pakistan Yield to US Pressure?
Why is India Sponsoring Terror in Pakistan?
Karan Thapar Debunks Indian Narrative of Kulbhushan Yadav
Coll's Directorate Demonizes Pakistan ISI
Gen Petraeus Debunks Charges of Pakistani Duplicity
Husain Haqqani vs Riaz Haq on India vs Pakistan
Impact of Trump's Top Picks on Pakistan
Husain Haqqani Advising Trump on Pakistan Policy?
Gall-Haqqani-Paul Narrative on Pakistan
India Ex RAW Officer Documents Success Against Pakistan
Robert Gates' Straight Talk on Pakistan
A former RAW officer RK Yadav has, in his book "Mission RAW", confirmed that Indian intelligence officers met Khan Wali Abdul Wali Khan in Europe on several occasions to provide support and funding for the Pakhtoonistan movement.
In 1975, then Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto ordered Pakistan's intelligence agency to respond to Afghan provocations. Pakistan ISI trained Jalaluddin Haqqani, and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar as their Afghan proxies.
Soviet Invasion:
The Soviet troops rolled into Afghanistan in December, 1979 to assert control after several coups and counter-coups in the country. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United States responded to it by recruiting, training and arming a resistance force referred to as "Mujahideen". India supported the Soviet invasion and occupation in a United Nations vote in January, 1980.
Soviet troops were defeated and forced by the Mujahideen to withdraw after 9 years of occupation. The Americans also decided to leave the region with Afghanistan in complete chaos as various Mujahideen factions split along ethnic lines fought for control of Kabul.
Pakistan was the most affected as a result of Afghan war and instability. Millions of Afghan refugees poured across the border in Pakistan. Many were radicalized, trained and armed to fight. The "Kalashnikov Culture" spread across Pakistan causing instability.
The Taliban:
In 1990s, Pakistan supported the Taliban led by Mullah Omar to try to stabilize the situation. The Taliban defeated all other factions and warlords and took control of most of Afghanistan. The only part of Afghanistan that remained beyond their control was the Panjshir valley in northern Afghanistan that was controlled by Tajik warlord Ahmad Shah Massoud.
The Taliban hosted Al Qaeda and its leader Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan. The United States accused Al Qaeda of carrying out the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001. When the Taliban refused to hand over Bin Laden to Washington, President George W. Bush ordered the US military to invade Afghanistan to force the Taliban out of power.
US Invasion:
The US invasion of Afghanistan forced the Taliban out of power and drove them and Al Qaeda fighters across the border into Pakistan. Pakistani military arrested most of the Al Qaeda leadership and many of the Al Qaeda fighters and handed them over to the United States. Bin Laden was found and killed by the Americans in a raid in Abbotabad, Pakistan in 2011.
Indian intelligence agency RAW has established its presence in Afghanistan along the border with Pakistan since the US invasion and the installation of a Kabul government the includes pro-India members of the Tajik dominated Northern Alliance.
India's Covert War Against Pakistan:
Fomer US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said back in 2011 that "India has always used Afghanistan as a second front against Pakistan. India has over the years been financing problems in Pakistan". Secretary Hagel was speaking at Cameron University in Oklahoma. Direct and circumstantial evidence of India using Afghanistan to attack Pakistan has grown to the point that even Indian analysts and media are beginning to acknowledge it:
1. Bharat Karnad, a professor of national security studies at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, recently acknowledged India's use of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorist group against Pakistan in an Op Ed he wrote for Hindustan Times.
2. Indian journalist Praveen Swami said in a piece published in "Frontline": "Since 2013, India has secretly built up a covert action program against Pakistan."
3. India's former RAW officers, including one ex chief, have blamed Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav, arrested by Pakistan in 2016, for getting caught in Pakistan as a "result of unprofessionalism", according to a report in India's "The Quint" owned and operated by a joint venture of Bloomberg News and Quintillion Media. The report that appeared briefly on The Quint website has since been removed, apparently under pressure from the Indian government.
4. A story by Indian journalist Karan Thapar pointed out several flaws in the Indian narrative claiming that Kulbhushan Jadhav, arrested in Pakistan while engaging in India's covert war in Balochistan, was an innocent Indian businessman kidnapped from Chabahar by Pakistani agents. Writing for the Indian Express, Thapar debunked the entire official story from New Delhi.
ISI Bogeyman:
British Afghan war veteran Major Robert Gallimore says he saw no presence of Pakistan's intelligence service ISI in Afghanistan. The Afghan Army saw the " imagined nefarious hand" and "bogeyman" of Pakistan everywhere but he never saw it. He "saw not one piece of evidence" of it. It was all in their minds.
During his three tours of duty in Afghanistan, he could hear all the radio conversations going on but never heard any Pakistani accent. He did, however, see "buckets and buckets of money" and rising Indian influence in Afghan Army that blamed Pakistan for all their problems. Pakistan is their bogeyman.
The Afghan Army says they'll feel good when they can "invade Pakistan". They do not blame the British but the Pakistanis for Durand Line that they do not recognize.
Major Gallimore sees the emergence of an India-Pakistan 21st century "Great Game" similar to its British-Russian predecessor. Many Afghans support creation of Pashtunistan by annexing northern part of Pakistan into Afghanistan. They blame Pakistan for the Durand Line, not the British or their own leaders who agreed to it. As a result, Maj Gallimore warns that Afghanistan has become much more volatile and dangerous than ever before.
Summary:
The animosity of secular Pashtun Nationalists and their Tajik and Uzbek allies against Pakistan is not new. It didn't start with Pakistan's support of the Taliban in 1990s. Their hostility against Pakistan dates back to the creation of Pakistan. Afghanistan's was the lone vote against the admission of the newly independent state of Pakistan to the United Nations in 1947. Since then, the anti-Pakistan campaign by Pashtun Nationalists on both sides of the Durand Line has received support from New Delhi. A former RAW officer RK Yadav has, in his book "Mission RAW", confirmed that Indian intelligence officers met Khan Wali Abdul Wali Khan in Europe on several occasions to provide support and funding for the Pakhtoonistan movement.
Viewpoint From Overseas host Misbah Azam discusses this subject with Ali H. Cemendtaur and Riaz Haq (www.riazhaq.com)
https://youtu.be/-5tmzbhmCqo
Related Links:
Haq's Musings
What is the Haqqani Network?
Trump's Afghan Strategy: Will Pakistan Yield to US Pressure?
Why is India Sponsoring Terror in Pakistan?
Karan Thapar Debunks Indian Narrative of Kulbhushan Yadav
Coll's Directorate Demonizes Pakistan ISI
Gen Petraeus Debunks Charges of Pakistani Duplicity
Husain Haqqani vs Riaz Haq on India vs Pakistan
Impact of Trump's Top Picks on Pakistan
Husain Haqqani Advising Trump on Pakistan Policy?
Gall-Haqqani-Paul Narrative on Pakistan
India Ex RAW Officer Documents Success Against Pakistan
Robert Gates' Straight Talk on Pakistan
Labels:
Afghanistan,
India,
Pakhtoonistan,
Pakistan,
Pashtuns,
Taliban
Saturday, February 10, 2018
Steve Coll's "Directorate S" Demonizes Pakistan ISI
"Directorate S: The C. I. A. and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, 2001-2016" by Steve Coll holds Pakistan ISI's Directorate S primarily responsible for America's longest war.
The author does acknowledge other factors such as Washington's policy failures, Kabul government's corruption, divisions and dysfunction, Indian intelligence RAW's role, etc. However, he plays down the significance of these other factors and pins the blame squarely on Pakistan ISI, particularly its Directorate S which the author describes as one of the ISI directorates "devoted to secret operations in support of the Taliban, Kashmiri guerrillas, and other violent Islamic radicals". The book sticks essentially to America's oft-repeated narrative of blaming Pakistan for US failure to win the war after 16 years of fighting.
Vital American Interests in Afghanistan:
Coll narrates top-level discussions during the successive administrations of President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama identified America's objectives/vital interests in the region are as follows:
1. Destroy Al Qaeda in the region
2. Ensure Pakistan's stability to keep nukes out of the hands of terrorists
Notably absent from these goals is the defeat/destruction of the Taliban.
While there was considerable success in achieving the first objective, the actions taken to achieve that success induced instability in Pakistan. It gave rise to Tehrik e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) which launched deadly attacks on the Pakistani state that killed tens of thousands of civilians and security personnel.
Efforts by the United States to negotiate with the Afghan Taliban went nowhere, partly due to strong opposition to such talks by Tajik faction of the Afghan government.
India-Pakistan Great Game in Afghanistan:
Author Steve Coll quotes Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, President Barack Obama's representative for the region, as explaining how critical India-Pakistan relationship is to solving Afghanistan. Holbrooke said, "There are three countries here--Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India--with vastly different stages of political, social, and economic development. They share a common strategic space. As has happened so many times in history, the weak state is the one that sucks in the others. That's the history of Afghanistan and now the Great Game is being played with different players. The India-Pakistan relationship is an absolutely critical driver".
India's Covert War Against Pakistan:
Coll acknowledges Indian intelligence agency RAW's role in Afghanistan saying that "it was not as if R.A.W. had dropped out of covert actions specifically designed to undermine Pakistani stability"..... efforts that run counter to America's vital interest/goal number 2 in the region.
However, the author underplays its importance. He fails to take notice of the mounting evidence that even some Indian analysts and media find hard to ignore. Here are some instances:
1. Bharat Karnad, a professor of national security studies at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, recently acknowledged India's use of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorist group against Pakistan in an Op Ed he wrote for Hindustan Times.
2. Indian journalist Praveen Swami said in a piece published in "Frontline": "Since 2013, India has secretly built up a covert action program against Pakistan."
3. India's former RAW officers, including one ex chief, have blamed Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav, arrested by Pakistan in 2016, for getting caught in Pakistan as a "result of unprofessionalism", according to a report in India's "The Quint" owned and operated by a joint venture of Bloomberg News and Quintillion Media. The report that appeared briefly on The Quint website has since been removed, apparently under pressure from the Indian government.
4. A story by Indian journalist Karan Thapar pointed out several flaws in the Indian narrative claiming that Kulbhushan Jadhav, arrested in Pakistan while engaging in India's covert war in Balochistan, was an innocent Indian businessman kidnapped from Chabahar by Pakistani agents. Writing for the Indian Express, Thapar debunked the entire official story from New Delhi.
Former US Defense Secretary Hagel:
Indian journalist claims that India's covert war against Pakistan started in 2013. However, former US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said back in 2011 that "India has always used Afghanistan as a second front against Pakistan. India has over the years been financing problems in Pakistan". Secretary Hagel was speaking at Cameron University in Oklahoma.
General David Petraeus's View:
General David Petraeus, former CIA director and commander of US troops in Afghanistan, has said there is no evidence of Pakistan playing a double game and supporting terrorists in Afghanistan.
Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London in 2016, he said "I looked very very hard then (as US commander in Afghanistan) and again as CIA director at the nature of the relationship between the various (militant) groups in FATA and Baluchistan and the Pakistan Army and the ISI and I was never convinced of what certain journalists have alleged (about ISI support of militant groups in FATA).... I have talked to them (journalists) asked them what their sources are and I have not been able to come to grips with that based on what I know from these different positions (as US commander and CIA director)".
Gen Petraeus did acknowledge that "there's communication between the ISI and various militant groups in FATA and Balochistan (Haqqanis, Taliban, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, etc) but some of it you'd do anyway as an intelligence service." He added that "there may be some degree of accommodation that is forced on them (Pakistanis) because of the limits of their (Pakistan's) forces."
Former CIA Officer Michael Scheuer's View of ISI:
To put unrelenting western and India media and analysts' attacks on the ISI in perspective, let's read some excerpts from an interview of ex CIA officer and chief Bin Laden hunter Michael Scheuer on ISI, and watch the following video:
1. ISI is like all other intelligence services--like the Australian service or the American service.
2. ISI works for the interest of their country, not to help other countries.
3. The idea that ISI is a rogue organization is very popular--and even the Pakistanis promote it---but having worked with ISI for the better part of 20 years, I know the ISI is very disciplined and very able intelligence agency.
4. Pakistanis can not leave the area (AfPak) when we (Americans) do. They have to try and stabilize Afghanistan with a favorable Islamic government so they can move their 100,000 troops from their western border to the eastern border with India which---whether we like it or not, they see as a bigger threat.
5. We (US) have created the mess in South Asia and the Pakistanis have to sort it out. Our (US) problems in Afghanistan are of our own making.
6. Al Qaeda has grown from just one platform (Afghanistan in 2001) to six platforms now.
Summary:
"Directorate S: The C. I. A. and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, 2001-2016" by Steve Coll holds Pakistan ISI's Directorate S primarily responsible for America's longest war. The author does acknowledge other factors such as Washington's policy failures, Kabul government's corruption, divisions and dysfunction, Indian intelligence RAW's role, etc. However, he plays down the significance of these other factors and pins the blame squarely on Pakistan ISI, particularly its Directorate S. Coll downplays all evidence pointing to India's covert war being waged against Pakistan from the Afghan soil. It is this war that is destabilizing both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Ignoring it will delay any resolution to the Afghan problem.
Here's a video of ex CIA Officer Michael Scheuer talking about ISI:
https://youtu.be/-ncg9ks-MQE
Related Links:
Haq's Musings
General Petraeus Debunks Allegations of Duplicity Against Pakistan
India's Ex Intelligence Officers Blame Kulbhushan Jadhav For Getting Caught
Karan Thapar Dismantles Official Indian Narrative on Kulbhushan Jadhav
Why is India Sponsoring Terror in Pakistan?
Indian Agent Kubhushan Yadav's Confession
Has Modi Stepped Up India's Covert War in Pakistan?
Ex India Spy Documents Successful RAW Ops in Pakistan
London Police Document Confirms MQM-RAW Connection Testimony
China-Pakistan Economic Corridor
Ajit Doval Lecture on "How to Tackle Pakistan"
The author does acknowledge other factors such as Washington's policy failures, Kabul government's corruption, divisions and dysfunction, Indian intelligence RAW's role, etc. However, he plays down the significance of these other factors and pins the blame squarely on Pakistan ISI, particularly its Directorate S which the author describes as one of the ISI directorates "devoted to secret operations in support of the Taliban, Kashmiri guerrillas, and other violent Islamic radicals". The book sticks essentially to America's oft-repeated narrative of blaming Pakistan for US failure to win the war after 16 years of fighting.
Vital American Interests in Afghanistan:
Coll narrates top-level discussions during the successive administrations of President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama identified America's objectives/vital interests in the region are as follows:
1. Destroy Al Qaeda in the region
2. Ensure Pakistan's stability to keep nukes out of the hands of terrorists
Notably absent from these goals is the defeat/destruction of the Taliban.
While there was considerable success in achieving the first objective, the actions taken to achieve that success induced instability in Pakistan. It gave rise to Tehrik e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) which launched deadly attacks on the Pakistani state that killed tens of thousands of civilians and security personnel.
Efforts by the United States to negotiate with the Afghan Taliban went nowhere, partly due to strong opposition to such talks by Tajik faction of the Afghan government.
India-Pakistan Great Game in Afghanistan:
Author Steve Coll quotes Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, President Barack Obama's representative for the region, as explaining how critical India-Pakistan relationship is to solving Afghanistan. Holbrooke said, "There are three countries here--Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India--with vastly different stages of political, social, and economic development. They share a common strategic space. As has happened so many times in history, the weak state is the one that sucks in the others. That's the history of Afghanistan and now the Great Game is being played with different players. The India-Pakistan relationship is an absolutely critical driver".
India's Covert War Against Pakistan:
Coll acknowledges Indian intelligence agency RAW's role in Afghanistan saying that "it was not as if R.A.W. had dropped out of covert actions specifically designed to undermine Pakistani stability"..... efforts that run counter to America's vital interest/goal number 2 in the region.
However, the author underplays its importance. He fails to take notice of the mounting evidence that even some Indian analysts and media find hard to ignore. Here are some instances:
1. Bharat Karnad, a professor of national security studies at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, recently acknowledged India's use of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorist group against Pakistan in an Op Ed he wrote for Hindustan Times.
2. Indian journalist Praveen Swami said in a piece published in "Frontline": "Since 2013, India has secretly built up a covert action program against Pakistan."
3. India's former RAW officers, including one ex chief, have blamed Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav, arrested by Pakistan in 2016, for getting caught in Pakistan as a "result of unprofessionalism", according to a report in India's "The Quint" owned and operated by a joint venture of Bloomberg News and Quintillion Media. The report that appeared briefly on The Quint website has since been removed, apparently under pressure from the Indian government.
4. A story by Indian journalist Karan Thapar pointed out several flaws in the Indian narrative claiming that Kulbhushan Jadhav, arrested in Pakistan while engaging in India's covert war in Balochistan, was an innocent Indian businessman kidnapped from Chabahar by Pakistani agents. Writing for the Indian Express, Thapar debunked the entire official story from New Delhi.
Former US Defense Secretary Hagel:
Indian journalist claims that India's covert war against Pakistan started in 2013. However, former US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said back in 2011 that "India has always used Afghanistan as a second front against Pakistan. India has over the years been financing problems in Pakistan". Secretary Hagel was speaking at Cameron University in Oklahoma.
General David Petraeus's View:
General David Petraeus, former CIA director and commander of US troops in Afghanistan, has said there is no evidence of Pakistan playing a double game and supporting terrorists in Afghanistan.
Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London in 2016, he said "I looked very very hard then (as US commander in Afghanistan) and again as CIA director at the nature of the relationship between the various (militant) groups in FATA and Baluchistan and the Pakistan Army and the ISI and I was never convinced of what certain journalists have alleged (about ISI support of militant groups in FATA).... I have talked to them (journalists) asked them what their sources are and I have not been able to come to grips with that based on what I know from these different positions (as US commander and CIA director)".
Gen Petraeus did acknowledge that "there's communication between the ISI and various militant groups in FATA and Balochistan (Haqqanis, Taliban, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, etc) but some of it you'd do anyway as an intelligence service." He added that "there may be some degree of accommodation that is forced on them (Pakistanis) because of the limits of their (Pakistan's) forces."
To put unrelenting western and India media and analysts' attacks on the ISI in perspective, let's read some excerpts from an interview of ex CIA officer and chief Bin Laden hunter Michael Scheuer on ISI, and watch the following video:
1. ISI is like all other intelligence services--like the Australian service or the American service.
2. ISI works for the interest of their country, not to help other countries.
3. The idea that ISI is a rogue organization is very popular--and even the Pakistanis promote it---but having worked with ISI for the better part of 20 years, I know the ISI is very disciplined and very able intelligence agency.
4. Pakistanis can not leave the area (AfPak) when we (Americans) do. They have to try and stabilize Afghanistan with a favorable Islamic government so they can move their 100,000 troops from their western border to the eastern border with India which---whether we like it or not, they see as a bigger threat.
5. We (US) have created the mess in South Asia and the Pakistanis have to sort it out. Our (US) problems in Afghanistan are of our own making.
6. Al Qaeda has grown from just one platform (Afghanistan in 2001) to six platforms now.
Summary:
"Directorate S: The C. I. A. and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, 2001-2016" by Steve Coll holds Pakistan ISI's Directorate S primarily responsible for America's longest war. The author does acknowledge other factors such as Washington's policy failures, Kabul government's corruption, divisions and dysfunction, Indian intelligence RAW's role, etc. However, he plays down the significance of these other factors and pins the blame squarely on Pakistan ISI, particularly its Directorate S. Coll downplays all evidence pointing to India's covert war being waged against Pakistan from the Afghan soil. It is this war that is destabilizing both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Ignoring it will delay any resolution to the Afghan problem.
Here's a video of ex CIA Officer Michael Scheuer talking about ISI:
https://youtu.be/-ncg9ks-MQE
Related Links:
Haq's Musings
General Petraeus Debunks Allegations of Duplicity Against Pakistan
India's Ex Intelligence Officers Blame Kulbhushan Jadhav For Getting Caught
Karan Thapar Dismantles Official Indian Narrative on Kulbhushan Jadhav
Why is India Sponsoring Terror in Pakistan?
Indian Agent Kubhushan Yadav's Confession
Has Modi Stepped Up India's Covert War in Pakistan?
Ex India Spy Documents Successful RAW Ops in Pakistan
London Police Document Confirms MQM-RAW Connection Testimony
China-Pakistan Economic Corridor
Ajit Doval Lecture on "How to Tackle Pakistan"
Labels:
Afghanistan,
India,
ISI,
Pakistan,
RAW,
Steve Coll
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