Huqooq ul Ibad in Ramadan; Abbottabad Commission Report; UK Probe of Altaf Hussain

Weekly Round-up: Imams need to emphasize Huqooq-ul-Ibad along with Huqooq-ul-Allah in the Holy month of Ramadan, Leaked Abbottabad Commission report holds Pakistani military and civilian leadership responsible for multiple failures leading up to Bin Laden raid in Abbottabad, BBC documentary lays bare Altaf Husain's and MQM's illegal activities in Karachi and London.

1. Huqooq ul Ebad in Ramadan:

It seems to me that there is an urgent need to bring Huqooq ul Allah (Duties to God) in better balance with Huqooq ul Ibad (Duties to humans and all of Allah's creation). And Ramadan is an ideal time for the imams (prayer leaders) and khatibs (preachers) and popular televangelists to give equal time to both in their sermons, TV shows and speeches to the faithful attending the mosques or watching TV.

The Muslim preachers must take this opportunity to tell the worshipers that Allah will not forgive any wrongs done by them to their fellow human beings; such wrongs can only be forgiven by those who are wronged.

The imams and the televangelists must emphasize to their large Ramadan audiences that the Holy Quran equates " unjust killing of one person" with "the killing the entire humanity". It commands respect for life.

 2.  Abbottabad Commission Report:

On Monday, al-Jazeera published 336 pages of the Abbottabad Commission report  which had so far been kept from the public eye.  There is some speculation that the leak was orchestrated by the new government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to make his predecessors and the military look bad.

The leaked findings of the Abbottabad Commission report  are highly critical of the conduct of the Pakistani military brass, military and civil intelligence agencies, corrupt bureaucrats and the top leadership in the years leading up to the US Navy Seals' raid on the Bin Laden Compound.

The report details how Usama Bin Laden who topped American FBI's Most Wanted List lived in various parts of North West Pakistan from 2002 to 2011. He avoided detection by various disguises including shaving off his beard and wearing cowboy hats. When caught in Swat for speeding, he was able to settle the matter by bribing the policeman, a common experience in Pakistan. He also bribed a land department official ("patwari") to acquire land and build his home in Abbotabad with fake IDs. The construction of a third story was illegal but went unchallenged. No property tax was paid, and at one point, the heavily occupied house was even declared uninhabited.

The report lays bare the culture of corruption and blatant lies that permeates many aspects of life in Pakistan.  The report does not rule out the possibility that Bin Laden enjoyed the support of some officials to conceal his presence in Pakistan, but it says that there was no conclusive proof of such support.

3.  Expanding Probe of  MQM Chief Altaf Hussain:

A BBC documentary on expanding British police investigation into allegations against MQM leader Altaf Husain was aired on July 11, 2013. He lives in London and runs his party remotely through regular speeches and telephonic orders to the political and militant wings of his party in Karachi.

The documentary features former members of MQM who accuse Altaf Hussain of ordering hits against his opponents. The documentary reveals the recovery of over 400,000 British pounds in searches of Altaf Husain's homes in London.

It seems that British government's support of MQM has so far stemmed from its policy of supporting forces strongly opposed to Al Qaeda and Taliban in Pakistan. It also appears that the UK officials have known about MQM's use of extortion, murder and torture in Karachi but they have chosen to look away until the brutal murder of Dr. Imran Farooq, a former top leader of MQM, on a London street. The British police suspect that Dr. Farooq's killing was ordered personally by Altaf Husain from his London residence.

Even if the British prosecutors do find substantial evidence to charge and convict Altaf Hussain, it's still possible that they will not pursue the charges. Their decision will be based on how valuable Altaf Husain and MQM are in supporting their over-riding priority to curtail the influence of Taliban and Al Qaeda in Pakistan and its spill-over into the UK.

Here's the weekly show of Viewpoint From Overseas:



Respecting Rights in Ramadan; Abbottabad Commission Report; BBC Documentary on Altaf Hussain from WBT TV on Vimeo.

Related Links:

Haq's Musings

Rights in Ramadan

Culture of Corruption in Pakistan

Gangster Politicians of Pakistan

Gangs of Karachi

Does Sharif Have an Anti-Terror Policy?

Why is Democracy Failing in Pakistan?

Viewpoint From Overseas-Vimeo 

Viewpoint From Overseas-Youtube

Can Bin Laden Raid Ignite Twitter Revolution in Pakistan?

Live tweets of the Abbottabad raid have brought instant fame to Pakistani blogger Sohaib Athar, and shined new light on the role of Facebook, Twitter and other social media in the country.

Dramatic expansion of the nation's middle class in the last decade has spawned telecom and media revolutions in Pakistan. Number of radio stations, television channels, mobile phone subscribers and Internet users have all experienced unprecedented growth since the turn of the century.



The level of Internet penetration is Pakistan is still low. In a population of 177 million, only 18.5 million (10.4 percent) are connected to the Internet, though government officials quote a slightly higher figure of 20 million. Although it's twice that of India's Internet penetration of about 5%, Pakistan's penetration percentage is less than those in Tunisia (33.4 percent) and Egypt (21.1 percent). However, Internet use in Pakistan is growing at a rapid rate, particularly in urban centers where 40% of the population lives, which are also home to the middle class which often forms the backbone of mass-scale uprisings. Mobile Internet use shot up 161 percent in 2010 alone.

Pakistan figures prominently in the population of users of Facebook and Twitter, two of the most popular social networking sites.

In terms of Facebook users in Asia, South Korea saw the largest increase of 65%, between March 01 2010 and June 01 2010. Other countries with double-digit growth rate are Thailand with 28.3%, India 27.7%, Japan 21%, Pakistan 12.9%, Malaysia 12.3%, and Vietnam 10.4%. Compared to figures extracted in March 2010, total Facebook users in Indonesia and Taiwan have shown decline, according to Grey Review.

According to Alexa, Twitter.com is the number twelve website in the world. It also ranks at number twelve in the United States. Outside the United States, Twitter is the eighth largest website in South Africa. The United Kingdom, Pakistan, and the Philippines all have Twitter as their tenth largest website, according to The Next Web.

Pakistan saw the beginnings of online civil and political activism in 2008-2009 when the lawyers, according to Woodrow Wilson Center's scholar Huma Yusuf, "used chat forums, YouTube videos, Twitter feeds, and blogs to organize the Long March, publicize its various events and routes, and ensure that citizen reporting live from the march itself can be widely circulated to counter the government-influenced coverage of the protest on mainstream media outlets (such as state-owned radio and private news channels relying on government-issue licenses".

With Pakistan's youth bulge and rapid growth in online user population, it is natural to ask if an Egyptian or Tunisian style youth-led revolution is on the horizon in the South Asian nation? Can the current disgust with the the failed political, military and intelligence establishment catalyze a mass youth uprising against the established order?

Here's a video titled "I Am Pakistan":



Related Link:

Haq's Musings

Pakistan's 50Mbps Broadband Rollout

Daily Carnage and Intelligence Failures in Pakistan

Pakistani Online Social Network

Telecom and Media Revolution in Pakistan

Middle Class Growth in Pakistan

Geo Sports Ban Amidst Youth Bulge

US Mining Twitter Feed Urdu Content

Obama's Success With Social Media

Obama on Urdu Poetry, Cricket, Daal, Keema

Case Against Wikileaks' Assange

PakAlumni-Pakistani Social Network

Media and Telecom Revolution in Pakistan

Pakistan's Telecom Boom

Pakistan Tops Text Message Growth

WiMax Rollout in Pakistan