Haq's Musings

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

Showing posts with label Harvard. Show all posts

Thursday, December 14, 2023

Pro-Israel Politicians and Donors Assault Academic Freedom in America

Widespread student protests on the US campuses against Israel's genocidal war in Gaza are being labeled antisemitic by pro-Israel politicians and donors. They have now joined forces to intimidate the leadership of top American universities. President Liz MaGill of the University of Pennsylvania has already been forced out. Leaders at Harvard and MIT are also under threat. The Pro-Israel Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Brandeis Center have called on 200 college presidents to investigate pro-Palestinian student groups. Faculty members and instructors at several public and private colleges have either been placed on leave or fired for comments about the conflict, according to Bloomberg columnist Noah Feldman. These actions are a direct assault on the academic freedom in America, with long term negative consequences for the world's most admired institutions of higher education.

Pro-Palestine Protest at UCLA. Source: Daily Bruin

Academic Freedom:

Academic freedom is about free exchange of ideas on campus by students and faculty. It is considered essential for learning. Limiting this freedom hurts pursuit of excellence which has helped American colleges and universities become the envy of the world. This freedom must be defended by all Americans to maintain the excellence of institutions of higher learning in America.

US Congress:

GOP politicians see these pro-Palestine protests on US campuses as a fundraising opportunity. Harvard alumna Rep. Elise M. Stefanik ’06 (R-N.Y.) aggressively questioned presidents of Harvard, Penn and MIT to score points with the Israel lobby. “At Harvard, does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard’s rules of bullying and harassment?” asked — to which Gay twice responded that “it depends on the context.”

GOP politicians like Stefanik are deliberately conflating slogans such as "From the River to the Sea, Free Palestine Free" with call for genocide of Jews. In fact, this chant is only about ending the long brutal Israeli Occupation of Gaza (along the Mediterranean Sea) and the West Bank (of the Jordan River).

Jewish Donors:

Several Jewish donors of major private sector universities have either cancelled their donations or threatened to do so over the Pro-Palestine protests. Investors Bill Ackman and Ross Stevens have been among the most vocal pro-Israel donors at Harvard and Penn. They both called for the ouster of the presidents of these universities over what they call "antisemitism" on campuses.

The aggressive behavior of Jewish donors is serving to reinforce the antisemitic stereotype of wealthy Jews. As former Labor Secretary Robert Reich put in a Guardian Op Ed: "As a Jew, I cannot help but worry, too, that the actions of these donors will fuel the very antisemitism they claim to oppose – based on the perilous stereotype of wealthy Jewish bankers controlling the world".

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion:

Some right-wing politicians and donors have attacked DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) programs as the cause of what they call "antisemitism" on campuses. These programs help bring in faculty and students from under-represented groups to colleges and universities that have traditionally been almost entirely white. They blame DEI because many new students from minority background tend to sympathize with Palestinians who they see as oppressed. Many of them see Israel as a "Western settler-colonialist oppressor par excellence", according to the Wall Street Journal.

Israel has long been seen as a settler colonial state . It was established by the displacement of the indigenous population of Palestinians and their replacement by Europeans, similar to places like America and Australia. This process of Israel's creation was endorsed by top British politicians like Winston Churchill.

“I do not admit that the dog in the manger has the final right to the manger,” former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill told the Peel Commission in 1937, “even though he may have lain there for a very long time.” He denied that “a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America, or the Black people of Australia,” by their replacement with “a higher grade race.”

Monday, October 2, 2023

Pakistani-Americans Rising Strength in Academia

Recent appointment of Karachi-born Irfan Siddiqui as Chairman of the Physics Department at the University of California at Berkeley highlights the growing numbers of Pakistani-Americans in the top ranks of the academia. Dr. Irfan Siddiqui is among the top US experts in quantum computing. He is also the head of Lawrence Livermore Quantum Computing Lab at UC Berkeley. He's also one of the architects of the United States Quantum Initiative backed by industry, academia and the federal government.

Pakistani-American Professor Dr. Irfan Siddiqui, Chairman of Physics Dept at UC Berkeley

In addition to Dr. Irfan Siddiqui, there are many other high-profile Pakistani-American academics. For example, astrophysicist Dr. Nergis Mavalvala is the Dean of the School of Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Dr. Asad Abidi is a professor of electrical engineering at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Economist Dr. Asim Khwaja is Director of the Center for International Development (CID) at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. Dr. Atif Rehman Mian is a professor of Economics, Public Policy, and Finance at Princeton University. Lina Khan was a professor at Columbia University Law School before she was named Chairperson of the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) by President Joseph R. Biden. Dr. Mark Humayun is a professor of ophthalmology, biomedical engineering, and integrative anatomical sciences at University of Southern California (USC). Dr. Mansoor Mohiuddin is professor of medicine and director of Cardiac Xenotransplantation Program at the University of Maryland. Dr. Adil Najam is a professor of International Relations and of Earth and Environment at Boston University. These are just a few of high-profile Pakistani-Americans currently teaching at top universities in the United States.

As of today, Wikipedia lists 39 professors of Pakistani origin and 171 professors of Indian origin teaching at US universities.

Dr. Nergis Mavalvala (L) and Riaz Haq

As of 2019, there were 35,000 Pakistan-born STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) workers in the United States, according to the American Immigration Council. They included information technologists, software developers, engineers and scientists. These figures do not include 12,454 medical doctors from Pakistan.

Foreign-Born STEM Workers in America. Source: American Immigration Council

Foreign-born workers make up a growing share of America's STEM workforce. As of 2019, foreign-born workers made up almost a quarter of all STEM workers in the country. This is a significant increase from 2000, when just 16.4% of the country’s STEM workforce was foreign-born. Between 2000 and 2019, the overall number of STEM workers in the United States increased by 44.5 percent, from 7.5 million to more than 10.8 million, according to American Immigration Council.

India and Pakistan Among Top 10 Countries Receiving US Immigrant Visas. Source: Visual Capitalist

India topped the top 10 list of foreign-born STEM workers with 721,000, followed by China (273,000), Mexico (119,000), Vietnam (100,000), Philippines (87,000), South Korea (64,000), Canada (56,000), Taiwan (53,000), Russia (45,000) and Pakistan (35,000). Enormous number of Indian STEM workers in the United States can at least partly be attributed to the fact that India's "body shops" have mastered the art of gaming the US temporary work visa system. Last year, Indian nationals sponsored by "body shops" like Cognizant, Infosys and TCS received 166,384 H1B visas for work in the United States. By comparison, only 1,107 Pakistanis were granted H1B visas in Fiscal Year 2022. In addition to H1B work visas, 9,300 Indian nationals and 7,200 Pakistani nationals received immigrant visas to settle in the United States as permanent residents in 2021.

Doctor Brain Drain. Source: Statista

In addition to 35,000 Pakistan-born STEM workers, there were 12,454 Pakistan-born and Pakistan-trained medical doctors practicing in the United States, making the South Asian nation the second largest source of medical doctors in America. Pakistan produced 157,102 STEM graduates last year, putting it among the world's top dozen or so countries. About 43,000 of these graduates are in information technology (IT).

H1B Visas Issued in Pakistan. Source: Visagrader.com

H1B Visas Issued in India. Source: Visagrader.com

Every year, applicants sponsored by Indian body shops claim the lion's share of H1B visas. In 2022, Indians received 166,384 new H1B visas, accounting for nearly three quarters of all such visas issued by the US government. The figures reported as India IT exports are in fact the wages earned by millions of Indian H1B workers in the United States.

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Harvard Scientist Debunks Hindu Nationalists "Racial Purity" Myth

Male ancestors of the vast majority of present-day South Asians (Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis) came from West Eurasia, Central Asia and Iran, according to the latest DNA research led by Harvard geneticist Dr. David Reich. Reich's team came to this conclusion after studying the Y-chromosomes of present-day Indians. Some Hindu Indian scientists have used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) samples, extracted from the bones of recently discovered ancient skeletal remains of a couple in Rakigarhi in Haryana, to claim the local indigenous origins of all Hindus. Y-chromosomes are passed from father to son while mitochondrial DNA is passed from mother to children. The Harvard team's findings thoroughly debunk Hindu Nationalists' "racial purity" myth similar to that promoted by White Supremacist racists in the West. Reich writes: "The Hindutva ideology that there was no major contribution to Indian culture from migrants from outside South Asia is undermined by the fact that approximately half of the ancestry of Indians today is derived from multiple waves of mass migration from Iran and the Eurasian steppe within the last five thousand years".

David Reich's "Who We Are"

Reich's Indian counterparts were highly resistant to the Harvard team findings of foreign origins of modern-day South Asians. Here's an excerpt from David Reich's "Who We Are and How We Got Here":

"Based on their own mitochondrial DNA studies, it was clear to them (Indians) that the great majority of mitochondrial DNA lineages present in India today had resided in the subcontinent for many tens of thousands of years.They did not want to be part of a study that suggested a major West Eurasian incursion into India without being absolutely certain as to how the whole-genome data could be reconciled with their mitochondrial DNA findings. They also implied that the suggestion of a migration from West Eurasia would be politically explosive. They did not explicitly say this, but it had obvious overtones of the idea that migration from outside India had a transformative effect on the (South Asian) subcontinent".

To see why the Indian researchers believed the acceptance of West Eurasian origins of present-day Hindus would be political explosive, it is important to understand the myth of racial purity that underlies the Hindu Nationalists' racist ideology. Here's an excerpt from a book by Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, leader of the Hindu Nationalist RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) :

"To keep up the purity of the Race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic races -- the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well-nigh impossible it is for races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindusthan to learn and profit by."

Based on DNA studies, Reich divides Indians into two major groups: Ancestral North Indians (ANI) and Ancestral South Indians (ASI). He finds that the ANI have much higher percentage of ancestral DNA from Central Asia and Iran than the ASI. He also finds links between ancestral DNA and castes in India. Here is an excerpt:

"Groups of traditionally higher social status in the Indian caste system typically have a higher proportion of ANI ancestry than those of traditionally lower social status, even within the same state of India where everyone speaks the same language. For example, Brahmins, the priestly caste, tend to have more ANI ancestry than the groups they live among, even those speaking the same language. Although there are groups in India that are exceptions to these patterns, including well-documented cases where whole groups have shifted social status, the findings are statistically clear, and suggest that the ANI-ASI mixture in ancient India occurred in the context of social stratification".

South Asian Ancestry. Source: Arain Gang

Could there have been out-of-India migration that might explain common genetic origins of Indians and West Eurasians? This is a possibility raised by Indian researchers in response to the inward migration of West Eurasians to India. Reich doubts it based on the absence of any ASI ancestry in West Eurasia. Here's how Reich responds to it:

"Although (Indian researchers) Singh and Thangaraj entertained the possibility of a migration out of India and into points as far west as Europe to explain the relatedness between the ANI and West Eurasian populations, I have always thought, based on the absence of any trace of ASI ancestry in the great majority of West Eurasians today and the extreme geographic position of India within the present-day distribution of peoples bearing West Eurasian–related ancestry, that the shared ancestry likely reflected ancient migrations into South Asia from the north or west".

1901 Indian Census of UP Muslims

Reich specifically refers to the racial purity myths of Nazis and Hindutva ideologues. Here's an excerpt of his book:

"The Nazi ideology of a “pure” Indo-European-speaking Aryan race with deep roots in Germany, traceable through artifacts of the Corded Ware culture, has been shattered by the finding that the people who used these artifacts came from a mass migration from the Russian steppe, a place that German nationalists would have despised as a source. The Hindutva ideology that there was no major contribution to Indian culture from migrants from outside South Asia is undermined by the fact that approximately half of the ancestry of Indians today is derived from multiple waves of mass migration from Iran and the Eurasian steppe within the last five thousand years. Similarly, the idea that the Tutsis in Rwanda and Burundi have ancestry from West Eurasian farmers that Hutus do not—an idea that has been incorporated into arguments for genocide—is nonsense. We now know that nearly every group living today is the product of repeated population mixtures that have occurred over thousands and tens of thousands of years. Mixing is in human nature, and no one population is—or could be—“pure.”"

Light Skin Gene Distribution. Source: PLOS Genetics

Genetic studies of common ancestral origins have also shown that populations of the Middle East, Central Asia, Pakistan and North India share a light skin gene (allele of SLC24A5) that occurs in Europe.

1901 India Census UP Hindu Population By Castes

Saturday, July 8, 2017

Harvard Kennedy School CID Projects Pakistan GDP Growth to Average 5.97% Till 2025

In its latest economic growth projections, Kennedy School's Center for International Development (CID) at Harvard University expects Pakistan's annual GDP growth to average 5.97% over the next 8 years, ranking it as the world's 6th fastest growing economy.

Growth Projections. Source: HKS CID Report

The Harvard growth projections are a bit more optimistic that other short, medium and long-term GDP growth forecasts for Pakistan offered by HSBC's 5% through 2050, IMF's 5.5% till 2020, World Bank's 5.8% until 2019 and The Economist EIU's 5.7% in 2017

Among the top 10 fastest growing economies, the CID projects Uganda to grow the fastest at 7.73%, followed by India 7.72%, Tanzania 6.66%, Senegal 6.49%, Madagascar 6.07%, Kenya 5.98%, Pakistan 5.97%, Indonesia 5.82%, Mali 5.75%, Turkey 5.64% and Philippines 5.43%.

Among Pakistan's other neighbors, China is forecast to grow at 4.41%, Sri Lanka at 3.77% and Bangladesh at 2.82%.

Pakistan 2017 PPP GDP $1.06 Trillion Source: IMF

CID also released new country rankings of the 2015 Economic Complexity Index (ECI), the measure that forms the basis for much of the growth projections. It ranks Pakistan at 99 for economic complexity.

Economic Coplexity. Source: HKS CID Report

The complexity of an economy is related to the multiplicity of useful knowledge embedded in it, according to OECD. Because individuals are limited in what they know, the only way societies can expand their knowledge base is by facilitating the interaction of individuals in increasingly complex networks in order to make products. We can measure economic complexity by the mix of these products that countries are able to make.

The countries that show the fastest declines in the complexity rankings in the decade ending in 2015 nearly all have had policy regimes that have been adversarial to the accumulation of productive knowhow, with the largest declines in Cuba (-50), Venezuela (-44), Zimbabwe (-23), Tajikistan (-22), Libya (-22), and Argentina (-18). Globally, the fastest risers in complexity in 2015 have been the Philippines, Malawi (+26 to 94th), Uganda (+24 to 77th), Vietnam (+24 to 64th), and Cambodia (+16 to 88th).

The ECI finds the most complex countries in the world, as measured by the average complexity of their export basket, remain Japan, Switzerland, Germany, South Korea, and Austria. Of the 40 most complex countries, the biggest risers in the rankings for the decade ending in 2015 have been the Philippines (ECI rank: up 28 positions to rank 32nd globally), Thailand (+11 to 25th), China (+10 to 23rd), Lithuania (+9 to 30th), and South Korea (+8 to 4th). Conversely, the biggest losers have been Canada (-9 to 33rd), Serbia, Belarus, Spain (-6 to 29th), and France (-6 to 16th).

US-based consulting firm Deloitte and Touche estimates that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects will create some 700,000 direct jobs during the period 2015–2030 and raise its GDP growth rate to 7.5%, adding 2.5 percentage points to the country's current GDP growth rate of 5%.

An additional 1.4 million indirect jobs will be added in supply-chain and service sectors to support the projects. An example of indirect jobs is the massive expansion in Pakistan's cement production that will increase annual production capacity from 45 million tons to 65 million tons, according to a tweet by Bloomberg's Faseeh Mangi. Other indirect jobs will be in sectors ranging from personal services to housing and transportation.

Improved security situation and rising investments, particularly the China Pakistan Economic Corridor or CPEC-related investments led by China, are helping accelerate the economic growth in the country. It is the fear of CPEC's success that appears to be driving a growing campaign of fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) waged by Pakistan's detractors in South Asia region and around the world.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Harvard's Pakistani-American Eases SMB Loans in Developing Economies

Pakistani-American Prof. Asim Khwaja and his doctoral student Bailey Klinger at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government observed that banks have money to lend, but even profitable small businesses in developing nations often cannot access it, choking growth.

Prof Asim Khwaja of Harvard's Kennedy School

Looking into the reasons, they found it was the lack of access to tools like credit agency reports and FICO credit scores which are common in developed economies. This discovery gave birth to Entrepreneurial Finance Lab to develop alternative tools for bankers to assess risks to lend money to small business owners. Their basic tool is a multiple-choice psychometric test. Here's how New York Times describes it:

The lab’s model asks questions that do not necessarily have a right answer; using an algorithm, it aims to predict whether an individual is likely to default based on how the answers relate to one another. For example, to assess their sense of personal control over outcomes — which tends to correlate with loan repayment — respondents might be asked to rate how much they agree or disagree with the statement: “I believe in the power of fate.” Another question on risk tolerance might ask them to choose between opposing responses with equal social desirability, such as: “I plan for every eventuality,” “I’m in between” or “Planning takes the fun out of life.” There are some unexpected findings: Optimism and self-confidence are good signs among seasoned entrepreneurs, but high levels in younger business owners do not bode well, statistically. And the math and reasoning questions meant to measure fluid intelligence can also assess integrity — of the loan officer. Too many correct answers can reveal that an applicant was coached.

Banks in 16 developing countries are now using EFL's psychometric test to lend money to owners small and medium size businesses. Bank financing of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is good for both the borrowers and the lenders as well as the national economy. It's a great source of revenue and income for the financial institutions. It helps small businesses grow and create jobs. In developed economies like the United States, SMEs create about half of all business activity and almost two-thirds of employment growth. In poor nations, such enterprises, on average, account for only about 17 percent of spending and one-third of new jobs.

Asim Khwaja is Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Here's his bio as posted on Harvard's Center For International Development website: "His areas of interest include economic development, finance, education, political economy, institutions, and contract theory/mechanism design. His research combines extensive fieldwork, rigorous empirical analysis, and microeconomic theory to answer questions that are motivated by and engage with policy. It has been published in the leading economics journals, such as the American Economic Review, and the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and has received coverage in numerous media outlets such as the Economist, NY Times, Washington Post, International Herald Tribune, Al-Jazeera, BBC, and CNN. His recent work ranges from understanding market failures in emerging financial markets to examining the private education market in low-income countries. He was selected as a Carnegie Scholar in 2009 to pursue research on how religious institutions impact individual beliefs. Khwaja received BS degrees in economics and in mathematics with computer science from MIT and a PhD in economics from Harvard. A Pakistani, UK, and US citizen, he was born in London, U.K., lived for eight years in Kano, Nigeria, the next eight in Lahore, Pakistan, and the last eighteen years in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He continues to enjoy interacting with people around the globe".

State of Bank of Pakistan's policies have catapulted Pakistan to the top of the list for microfinance in Asia. Pakistan ranks first in Asia and third in the world in Economist Intelligence Unit's overall microfinance business environment rankings. Similar support for SME sector loans can help stimulate the national economy, grow tax base and create much needed jobs to lift more people out of poverty. Tools like the EFL's psychometric test can be deployed as part of this effort to grow the SME sector.

Related Links:

Haq's Musings

Pakistan's Financial Services Sector

IBA's Entrepreneurship Report

Microfinance in Pakistan

Karachi Slum Girl at Harvard Business School

Pakistani-American Ashar Aziz's Fireeye Goes Public

Pakistani-American Shahid Khan Richest South Asian in America

Two Pakistani-American Silicon Valley Techs Among Top 5 VC Deals

Pakistani-American's Game-Changing Vision

Minorities Are Majority in Silicon Valley

US Promoting Venture Capital & Private Equity in Pakistan

Pakistani-American Population Growth Second Fastest Among Asian-Americans

Edible Arrangements: Pakistani-American's Success Story

Pakistani-American Elected Mayor

Upwardly Mobile Pakistan

Monday, November 24, 2008

Iftikhar Chaudhry Speaks to New York Bar

Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry is currently on a US visit for a speaking tour, including a visit to the Harvard Law School to receive their Medal of Freedom.

Here's the text of his Speech at the New York Bar Association
17 November 2008

It is a pleasure and an honor for me to be addressing the members of one of the largest Bar Associations in the world. I am extremely touched and moved by the honor that you have conferred upon me today. In actual fact this honor is being showered on the teeming millions of Pakistanis who have dared to stand for, , struggle for and dream for those values and principles which developed societies such as yours value , cherish and I am sure at times take for granted. I stand here as in solidarity of all those Pakistanis who continue to defy autocracy and repression and have risen against despotism, dictatorship, tyranny and injustice.

My learned friends, in an ideal world I should not be standing here today giving this speech. In an ideal world where all nations bow to the rule of law, for the Chief Justice of a Supreme Court to take a principled stand against subversion of the Constitution and to and to warn against the erosion of the Rule of Law and Independence of the Judiciary, should be the norm rather than the exception. It is extremely unfortunate for us as a nation to have to fight for and struggle for something which should be the birth right of every human being. Sir Winston Churchill's statement at the end of the war about his war torn country was a deliberated comment. He said that as long as the judiciary was independent and functioning then nothing was lost. And how true that observation was, because there is an irresistible bond between an independent judiciary and a nation's capacity to resist an adversary, whether internal or external.

In any war the most effective weapon is a population with enforceable rights. Such a nation has a stake in the system and will fight to protect it. The key word here is 'enforceable'. A nation who are promised rights, even if they are enshrined in a document as sacred as the Constitution, but are denied the enforcement of those rights, then for all practical purposes they remain deprived of those rights. A system that does not enforce and protect rights alienates the people. And what good is that judiciary that is remiss in guarding a Constitution given by the people to themselves? Without an independent judiciary people lose faith and commitment to their chosen Constitutional system. They become indifferent to its survival and soon
become apathetic, cynical and resigned. They then choose to follow those who challenge it, even those who oppose it with military force. And this then leads to the inevitable loss of crucial battles.

Ladies and gentlemen, no democracy can survive without an independent judiciary. No strong and stable Parliament can be constructed on the ruins of an independent judicial edifice. An independent judiciary is, in fact, the most significant protection available to Parliament. It covers the flanks of Parliament, resisting attacks from any adventurer in the wings. The entire argument that Parliament must prevail over justice and law is therefore flawed. There can be no democracy without law. Without an independent justice system even the best democratic system remains in jeopardy, and eventually degrades into lawlessness and anarchy.

My friends, we live in times of great peril and in times of great challenge to the human spirit of resilience. No battle in modern war or battles for peace can be won in lands that lack justice. Lack of justice produces economic and social inequities, which in turn churn out disaffected elements that will destroy the fabric of the one just world that is our shared goal. Only justice for all can beat terrorism and tyranny. Only an independent judiciary can checkmate extremism. Rule of law is the most effective obstacle to repression, oppression and all their offshoots. There is no doubt about the fact that Parliamentary sovereignty is sacred. But only the Constitution is supreme, and it is for the legitimately constituted courts to interpret the constitution. Parliament and Parliamentarians cannot be exempted from judicial scrutiny by installing a feeble and timid judiciary in the name of the sovereignty of Parliament. Both Parliament and the Executive must be restrained and kept within the boundaries of the rule of law.

My fellow jurists, permit me to emphasize one additional point. Just as an independent judiciary is vital to sustain democracy, the independence of the judiciary itself is dependent entirely on "independent judges". For a truly independent judiciary the judges must be independent and fearless. If judges are afraid of being arrested, of being manhandled, of being imprisoned along with their families, and that too because they had the courage to take a principled stand against a dictator and refused to be party to the mutilation of the Constitution, then we might as well forget about any judge ever being independent or fearless. If society turns a blind eye and condones the illegal acts of the dictator, then we might as well bury the hope of ever having free judges with free minds and a free conscience. Ladies and gentlemen, this is why Pakistan is going through a decisive and definitive moment in our history.

The Lawyers' Movement in Pakistan is a unique and historic struggle against all those forces which are trying to stifle the rule of law and are hacking away at the foundations of our judiciary. They are trying to suffocate and bury the concept of an independent judiciary once and for all, and once that happens then the very fabric of society is destroyed resulting in a domino effect, with all the other organs and pillars of the state falling one by one. This movement is being led by the young lawyers of Pakistan, who seek neither office nor power. For the last 18 months these champions of freedom have risked life and limb in the face of all odds. The lawyers' movement triggered a wave of patriotism and mixed emotions in the civil society of Pakistan – both of resentment against the forces working against the wellbeing of our beloved country, as well as the urge and desire to come out and do whatever they could within their capacity to assist the lawyers in achieving their goal. The media has also played a remarkable role, and in a country where nothing is free or independent, they have carved a place for themselves in history .There is no doubt about the fact that the media has attained the status of a fourth pillar of the state, and in the case of Pakistan, it has proved to be both powerful as well as bold and courageous.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am sure all of you are fully aware of the link between economic growth and an independent judiciary. Investment shies away from economies or countries that do not have an independent judiciary. There is a report in the June 5th 2008 edition of the Economist based on the findings of a commission on the legal empowerment of the poor released on 3rd June at the United Nations. It asserts that "one of the main reasons why so much of humanity remains mired in poverty is that it is outside the rule of law." Such economies are less productive and less attractive to capital. The term 'Legal Empowerment' is therefore likely to become a part of policy making vocabulary just as the term 'sustainable development has after it appeared in a similar report 3 decades ago. After all, what capital and investment, both domestic and foreign, primarily need is security. Inflation and rising prices are also part of the same phenomenon and revolve around the question of supply and demand. Without investment there can be no increase in production and opportunities of employment. Without increase in production, supplies cannot increase and meet the
demands of an increasing and more demanding population. Net employment decreases and unemployment goes up, resulting in more competition for the same number of jobs .As a result salaries and wages go down, purchasing power falls and prices go up because productive capacity and production does not rise. Inflation, unemployment and an increase in crimes are natural consequences. As the Economist says, it is now widely understood that a vibrant, independent and fearless mechanism for imparting justice is crucial to the health of the economy.

Ladies and gentlemen of the Bar, it is not the province of the courts to step into areas that are exclusively within the domain of the Executive or the Parliament. But, if these two institutions remain indifferent to the duties entrusted to them under the Constitution, or if they have acted contrary to the principles enshrined therein, or if their acts discriminate between the rich and the poor, or on religious, class, regional or ethnic grounds, then judges are called upon by the Constitution, their oath and their office to act. We do not seek to deprive any other Constitutional pillar of its authority or strength. In fact we seek to bolster and strengthen that authority. And above all, we owe it to the citizens of Pakistan to do our duty according to our original oath, the Constitution, the law and our conscience.

Parliament is no doubt supreme but the judiciary must be equally independent and authoritative. That is how the state and its institutions retain the confidence of the people. This is how nations develop and people prosper. People must not only have rights but MUST also have the means to enforce those rights. And that is only possible through an independent judiciary, comprising of independent judges. Nations with independent judges develop fast as they attract and maintain investment, whereas a weak and compliant judiciary may benefit some individuals, but it breaks the back
of the economy, the people and the country.

Finally, ladies and gentlemen, permit me to part with this ending note. In the months that remained incarcerated with my family at the house atop the Margalla Hills, I drew strength for the light that shined through the international brotherhood of all students and men and women of law who made common cause with the lawyers of Pakistan in shared ideal of establishing the supremacy of the Rule of Law. And to the American lawyers who attired themselves in black coats and marched on the streets of New York, Washington DC and many a towns and cities though out your land in support of the thousands of lawyers who marched thought the length and breadth of my land, I say thank you and remain certain that we shall overcome.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Hijabs at Harvard Gym

The Washington Post
It's a measure of America's multicultural journey over the past
half-century that we've gone from "God and Man at Yale" to Allah and
Woman at Harvard.
In a contretemps scarcely imaginable in William F. Buckley's day,
Harvard has closed one of its gyms to men for six hours a week so that
Muslim women can exercise comfortably. "Sharia at Harvard," warned
blogger Andrew Sullivan. A Harvard Crimson columnist blasted
"Harvard's misguided accommodationist policy."
Meanwhile, a separate controversy has flared over broadcasting the
Muslim call to prayer from the steps of Harvard's main library during
Islamic Awareness Week. Three graduate students, writing in the
Crimson, argued that the prayer sowed "seeds of division and
disrespect" by declaring that "there is no lord except God" and that
"Mohammad is the Messenger of God." Harvard, they wrote, "should not
grant license to any religious group, minority or otherwise, to use a
loudspeaker to declare false the profoundly important and personal
beliefs of others."
Buckley, who died last month, famously proclaimed that "I would rather
be governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston telephone directory
than by the 2,000 people on the faculty of Harvard University." Were
he still with us, he would no doubt be saying "I told you so," except
more polysyllabically. Leave it to the Ivy League to abandon its
cherished secularism -- in defense of Islam.
My reaction is more along the lines of: "Get a grip." It's reasonable
to set aside a few off-peak hours at one of Harvard's many gyms. It's
not offensive to have the call to prayer echoing across Harvard Yard,
any more than it is to ring church bells or erect a giant menorah
there.
I share the apprehensions stirred up by the more radical followers of
Islam, with their drive to restore the caliphate and subjugate women.
But I come to this issue as a member of another minority religion,
Judaism, whose adherents often seek flexibility from the majority
culture in order to practice their faith. As with Islam, my religion's
more observant believers endorse practices -- segregating the sexes at
prayer, excluding women from engaging in certain rituals -- that I
find disturbing, bordering on offensive. I have relatives who would
shrink from shaking my hand. Still, I would defend to the death their
right not to touch me.
Certainly, accommodation has its limits. Ten years ago, Orthodox
Jewish students at Yale sued -- unsuccessfully -- after the university
refused their requests to live off campus because, they claimed,
living in co-ed dorms would violate their religious principles. Muslim
students at Australian universities are demanding course schedules
that fit into their prayer times and separate, female-only dining
areas. In Britain, female Muslim medical students have objected to
being required to roll up their sleeves to scrub and to exposing their
forearms in the operating room. Fine with me if they need a place to
scrub in private, but your right to exercise your religion ends where
my safety begins.
A regime of reasonable accommodation inevitably entails difficult --
Talmudic, even -- line-drawing. That's not true of the claim that the
call to prayer offends because it proclaims publicly what other
religions are polite enough to keep private: the exclusive primacy of
their faith. Surely even Harvard students aren't so delicate that they
can't cope with hearing speech with which they disagree -- in a
language they don't understand.
All of this matters not because it's Harvard but because it
underscores that America is not immune from the tensions over Islamic
rights that have gripped Western Europe. In the Washington area
earlier this year, a Muslim runner was disqualified from a track meet
after officials decreed that her body-covering unitard violated the
rules.
There have been similar disputes over women seeking to wear
headscarves on the college basketball court or while walking the
police beat. More problematically, Muslim cabdrivers at the
Minneapolis airport sought unsuccessfully last year to be excused from
picking up passengers carrying alcohol.
The wisdom of the Framers ensures that some of the excesses of Europe
-- in both directions -- won't be replicated here. The French ban on
students wearing headscarves would not only be unimaginable in the
United States, it would also violate the Constitution's free-exercise
clause. The archbishop of Canterbury recently suggested that the
British legal system should incorporate aspects of sharia law; that,
too, would be unimaginable here and would violate the establishment
clause.
But the Constitution goes only so far to help American society
navigate the familiar issues raised by this unfamiliar religion.
Muslim women who enroll at Harvard and turn up in hijabs at its gyms
reflect a strand of Islam that society ought to encourage, the better
to compete with its more odious cousins.
Harvard authorities managed to get this one right -- Buckley's
preference for the Boston phone book notwithstanding.

Source: By Ruth Marcus, The Washington Post
Wednesday, March 26, 2008; Page A19