Discussion on whether Kerry-Lugar Bill and NRO will be discussed in the Parliament or not. Guests:

Imran Khan (PTI), Rasool Baksh Palejo (Sindhi nationalist leader) , Tasneem Qureshi (PPP) and Hussain Haqqani (Pak Amb to USA)

To reinvigorate the breast cancer awareness campaign, the Ministry of Health is considering to reinitiate the National Breast Cancer Screening Project, which was earlier shelved owing to the lack of political will on the part of the authorities concerned.

The project started in the year 2006 hit snags despite availability of the required amount, as in the absence of an able experienced programme manager the Ministry failed to properly implement the programme.

The PC- 1 of this programme, worth Rs 400 million, was prepared and in the first year Rs 100 million were allocated for the said programme.

Ironically, in the past, despite allocation of the considerable amount the Ministry failed to utilise the money, which was due to the Ministry’s failure to appoint a national programme manager or programme director who could run it on war footing.

Recently, the Ministry has appointed Dr Zafar-ul-Haq Lodhi as programme manager of this project. In the presence of a head, it is being anticipated that the programme would manage to achieve its desired targets in an effective manner.

Dr Lodhi had served the Ministry in different capacities and before assuming the charge as head of this project, he was working as deputy director international health.

At a time when breast cancer has become one of the fastest growing national health concerns, in the country, the programme appeared to be a ray of hope for hundreds of thousands of women suffering from this disease.

Pakistan has the highest rate of breast cancer for any Asian population as every year 83,000 women are diagnosed and 40,000 women killed by this disease because very little information is available in Pakistan and only cases at a very advanced stage are reported. With early diagnosis, a patient’s chance of surviving breast cancer is higher than 90 percent.

According to the health experts, in Pakistan 75 percent of breast cancer patients may die in five years if no treatment is given to them and rest of the 25 percent would die in the next five years.

The treatment of this disease in Pakistan ranged from no treatment to quick mutilate resection – making breast cancer a major cause of morbidity and mortality among women in the country.

Five public sector hospitals of the five major cities including, Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar, were selected to get the state-of-the-art facilities of screening and diagnostics facilities

According to a Ministry official, the programme had two major components including, Screening and diagnostic. Mobile units were another important feature of this programme. These units were meant to reach women living in rural areas for mammography, as health experts believe that screening gives positive survival chances to thousands of women by detecting breast caner in the earliest possible stage.

“The idea behind establishing these centres within the public sector hospitals was to ensure that patients do not face problems, because if a separate hospital was established then every female that would go for screening would be considered a cancer patient”, the official further maintained.

It is worth mentioning here that breast cancer is the only easily detectable cancer in its initial stages and has various treatment options.

Due to social and cultural constraints, breast cancer always remained neglected in Pakistan at all levels and the said programme was launched in order to address these concerns.

{Source: The Nation}

Seasoned actor and director Syed Kamal died on Thursday at a private hospital in Karachi. He was 79.

His funeral prayer was held at Sultan Masjid in the Defence Housing Society, and he was buried at the Gizri graveyard.

He leaves behind his wife, a son and three daughters.

Kamal, a heart patient, fell at his home about a month back and was bedridden since. He died at 11am on Thursday due to cardiac arrest.

Soyem will be held on Saturday between Asr and Maghrib at 69/II, 14th Lane, Khayaban-i-Badr, Phase 7, DHA.

Kamal grew to prominence in the ‘60s and ruled over Pakistan’s film industry till ‘70s. He also performed in various television plays. He was called ‘Raj Kapoor of Pakistan’ because of his striking resemblance to the top Indian actor.

Kamal acted in many memorable films, including Tauba, Thandi Sarak, Sawera, Apna Paraya, Road to Swat, Insan Aur Gadha, Behen Bhai, Jut Kuriyan Tau Darda, Aisa Bhi Hota Hai and Ashiana.

He also directed a number of films, including Shehnai, Yahan Say Wahan Tak, Doosri Maan, Meray Bacchay Meri Aankhein, Dard-i-Dil and Aaliya.

The Zia era saw cinema houses being demolished and converted into malls and residential blocks.

‘In such a situation, while others avoided venturing into Urdu films, Syed Kamal took a bold step and produced Yahan Say Wahan Tak, inspired by an English novel,’ according to Mushtaq Gazdar’s book Pakistan Cinema 1947-1997. The film starred Waheed Murad, Mumtaz and Kamal himself.

Kamal was also a member of the MQM’s cultural wing committee. MQM leader Altaf Hussain expressed sorrow over his death.

The governor and the chief minister of Sindh have also condoled the actor’s death.

The president of Hum TV, Sultana Siddiqui, who is closely associated with the bereaved family, said the fact that Kamal belonged to a respectable family had encouraged others to join the film industry.

Film writer Pervaiz Kaleem said that Kamal was a good actor and a noble soul, adding that with his death a chapter of the film industry had closed.

Director Aslam Dar termed Kamal one of the popular actors of the country who was a thorough professional and always performed with great devotion.

Ghulam Mohyuddin said Kamal was an actor of great abilities.

Babra Sharif said Kamal was her senior and his acting had a lot to offer in terms of versatility. He played various roles very successfully.

Deeba said Kamal was a legend who gave his life to the film industry. She said he was a courteous man and had his own style of acting.

Actor Habib said his memorable movie with Kamal was Ashyana in which the late artiste performed superbly.

{Source: Dawn}

By Ayaz Amir

The Kerry-Lugar bill, just passed by the US Congress and expected to be signed soon by President Obama, leaves an odd taste in the mouth. After wading through its tortuous prose, Pakistan seems less an ally than a rogue state straight out of the pages of science fiction.

A convicted rapist out on parole would be required to give fewer assurances of good conduct for the future than Pakistan is required to give in order to receive assistance under this legislation.

And for this the Pakistani nation is expected to go down on its knees and thank the US for its unbounded munificence. If this is American friendship, hostility sounds like a better option.

For many Pakistanis Hussain Haqqani is less our man in Washington than our suspect in Washington. To think he stood guardian of our interests when this package was being put together. Pakistan is not tough enough to afford his services. He would be doing everyone a favour, except of course himself, if he returned to his teaching job in Boston.

This bill implies — nay, explicitly states — that Pakistan has been a nuclear proliferator; and that parts of its territory are safe havens for terrorist networks. Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad are listed as such groups. Quetta and Muridke are listed as bases of terrorist operations.

Kerry-Lugar requires the US President to “develop a comprehensive interagency regional security strategy to eliminate terrorist threats and close safe havens in Pakistan, including by working with the government of Pakistan — to best implement effective counterinsurgency and counterterrorism efforts in and near the border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, including the FATA, the NWFP, parts of Balochistan and parts of Punjab.”

Doesn’t this language suggest that the US President is also president of FATA, the NWFP, parts of Balochistan and parts of Punjab? This is not wounded sovereignty but ceded sovereignty. And for what? A few pieces of silver.

US military spending in Afghanistan every year is close to 60 billion dollars. Kerry-Lugar foresees 1.5 billion dollars a year to us, for five years. This is being hailed as a strategic partnership. Sounds more like the cheapest rent-a-nation contract in modern history.

This at a time when the Pakistan army is doing a better job of fighting terrorism in Pakistan than ISAF forces are doing in fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. Pakistani casualties in this struggle far exceed anything suffered by the US. While the US is thinking of getting out of Afghanistan — and American generals are openly saying that at current troop levels the fight against the Taliban is un-winnable — the Pakistan army, in a remarkable turnaround, is rediscovering a new (and welcome) resolve against terrorism.

Pakistan should be commended for this achievement. Instead it is being asked to blacken its face and be grateful for doing so. Have the geniuses who make up the government of Pakistan read this bill? Has the Foreign Office studied it?

The US Secretary of State is furthermore required to certify that Pakistan has made progress on matters such as “ceasing support, including by any elements within the Pakistan military or its intelligence agency, to extremist and terrorist groups, particularly to any group that has conducted attacks against United States or coalition forces in Afghanistan, or against the territory or people of neighbouring countries.”

These are unexceptionable aims. Pakistan should have nothing to do with supporting terrorist networks. But all this was in the past and if it is the past we are revisiting would it not be appropriate for the US Congress to offer a word of apology for the US’s own role in the 1980s in making heroes out of the ‘mujahideen’ — the precursors of the Taliban and from whose midst was born Al Qaeda?

Afghanistan’s present troubles can be traced to the US decision in 1989 to wash its hands off Afghanistan after Soviet forces left. Already there is no shortage of signs pointing to US weariness with the present Afghan war. Shouldn’t the secretary of state also certify that the US again will not cut-and-run from Afghanistan?

This is less an assistance programme than a treaty of surrender. The Simla Accord signed after our defeat at the hands of India in 1971 did not reflect such depths of humiliation. Yet President Asif Zardari and our man in Washington are hailing this exercise as a diplomatic triumph. If this is a triumph, the word disaster would have to be redefined.

Yes, President Zardari is an elected president. Yet that doesn’t stop him from being a clueless figure. He may be a great one for cutting business deals. But he is out of his depth in international waters. That in itself would be no great disability — no president, Pakistani or American, being required to be a Nobel laureate — provided he had good advisers. That precisely is where the rub lies. The people closest to Zardari don’t make up for his weaknesses. They rather duplicate and magnify them.

It is a safe bet that President Zardari has not read Kerry-Lugar and never will. It is a taxing document and the prose is not easy. But he is a victim of his own insecurities -the reputation which dogs him — and it is these insecurities which make him a pawn in others’ hands.

Gen Pervez Musharraf post-Sep 2001 succumbed to American diktat and pressure at the sound of Colin Powell’s telephone call. Powell was the civilized face of the Bush administration, the least threatening person in what came close to being a diabolical cabal. Yet it was Powell — not Dick Cheney or Donald Rumsfeld — before whom Pakistan’s commando-general crumbled.

Musharraf at least had the excuse that the US was in a fearful mood and ruin threatened Pakistan if it did not go along with American wishes. Zardari has no such excuse. Pakistan, after the army’s success in Swat and the cordon thrown around Waziristan, is now on a firmer wicket — the mists of equivocation and vacillation having long since evaporated. But Kerry-Lugar makes it appear as if Pakistan has nothing to hold on to and is ever so grateful for any crumbs thrown in its direction. Zardari and company are agreeing to its terms in the full possession of their insecure senses.

But, say official hailers, Kerry-Lugar triples civilian aid to Pakistan. They are right but on terms and conditions that amount to a ten-fold increase in national humiliation. Pakistan needs all the assistance it can get. It needs to be close friends with the US. After all, fighting Talibanism is testing all our resources — and our resolve. But we don’t have to walk through filth and slime to get such assistance.

By fighting terrorism we do no favour to the US. Talibanism and Al Qaeda are anathema to our founding principles. Iqbal was one of the greatest theoreticians of modern Islam — whose interpretation of religion outraged traditional mullahs. Jinnah was a modernist who would not have understood what Osama bin Laden or Mullah Omar stand for.

Standing up to Talibanism terrorism means safeguarding the idea of Pakistan. This is a chance to reinvent ourselves as a nation, to go back to first principles. But Kerry-Lugar, insofar as it reads like a charter of dictation, demeans and diminishes the struggle we are engaged in.

It suggests that Pakistan is a recalcitrant partner, needing to be disciplined and cajoled. It makes it sound as if we are being led unwillingly to the water and would not do what we are doing but for the silver pieces offered us by the US Congress.

It makes us look criminal, in our eyes and in the eyes of the world. It is a certificate of juvenility and if we had any self-respect we would have nothing to do with it. No need to act emotionally. All that is required is a polite no thank you to America. Far from landing us in any trouble it will raise our stock worldwide. And if we remain firm in our resolve to fight terrorism, it is the world which will beat a path to our door.

But for this we need something better than the pathetic team at the helm which is merely adding to our woes. Will Prime Minister Gilani have someone read the small print of Kerry-Lugar to him? Will the National Assembly wake up? And will the PML-N get its act together? Coming days are crucial.

Email Writer: [email protected]

{Source: The News}

KARACHI: Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has announced 45 players for training camp for the U18 Boys Asia Cup to be held in Myanmar from November 12 to 24.

The camp will be held from October 5 at the National Hockey Stadium, Lahore. National Selection Committee has selected the players from recently held Junior Super Hockey League at Karachi.

Olympian Khawaja Muhammad Junaid will be the chief coach, while Olympian Kamran Ashraf and Olympian Anjum Saeed will be the assistant coaches. Asad Abbas Shah and International Ajmal Khan will assist the team management.

The announced 45 players are Naghman Ahmad, Muhammad Rizwan, Muhammad Toseeq, Ayub Ali, Ali Hussain Faraz and Adnan Shakoor (Faisalabad), Abdullah, Arslan, Bilal Mehmood, Faisal, Aqeel (GK) and Usman (Islamabad), Kashif Shah, Adnan latif, Muhammad Aleem, Muhammad Bilal, Javed, Sheharyar and Sufiyan (GK) (Lahore), Dawood Khalid, Muhammad Umair, Muhammad Adnan, Waseem Abbas, Ali Raza, Agha Abid (GK) and Imran Hussain (Sialkot), Waqar, Atif Zahoor, Muhammad Qurba (GK) and Usman Rafiq (Abbottabad), Muhammad Bashir, Sajjad Ahmad (GK) and Fahad Khan (Peshawar), Safeer Hussain, Sajid Abbas (GK), Modat, Muhammad Mushtaq and Khurram (Multan), Mehdi Abbas and Waseem Haider (Quetta), Nasir Ali (GK) and Yasir Ali (Larkana), Sarfraz Ahmad, Muhammad Ali and Kamran Sharif (Karachi).

{Source: The News}

Supreme Court of Pakistan on Thursday directed all the concerned authorities to ensure the sale of sugar at Rs 40/kg throughout the country in compliance with the court’s verdict, reports ARY NEWS.

The SC bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry ordered the authorities to ensure the sale of sugar at specified price in all the four provinces till the settlement of the petitions being heard by the court on the issue.

The bench also suggested setting up an independent commission to specify the sugar prices in the country. The bench directed all the stakeholders, including the representatives of Sugar Mills Association, Attorney General and the Advocate General of all the four provinces, to mull over the suggestion and submit their response Friday.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court threw out Thursday an appeal filed by the sugar dealers against the Lahore High Court’s verdict of fixing sugar prices at Rs 40/kg. Additionally the apex court slapped a fine on the dealers association for pretending to be a registered body.

The Supreme Court observed that as the sugar dealers association is not a registered body its appeal is unacceptable.

{Source: ARY News}

By Ayesha Siddiqa

A FEW months ago, I met a three-member team from a UK-based think tank called Quilliam. Based in London, the organisation claims to be the first counter-terrorism think tank in the world.

It was started by two young Muslims, Ed Hussain and Maajid Nawaz, who were formerly part of the Islamist organisation Hizbut Tahrir (HT). They are now dedicated to weaning Muslim youth away from global jihad and towards peace.

It was interesting listening to Maajid Nawaz who had come to Pakistan to talk about his experience as a member of HT. He said he used to visit Pakistan to recruit people in the military and in government for the global jihad. It was during a period of incarceration that Nawaz said he saw the light and decided to wean people away from jihad.

Luckily for the two men, the British government was able to provide funding to set up Quilliam. Now they both go around the world with a missionary zeal to spread another kind of message. Their aim is also to bridge the gap between the Muslim world and the West.

The Quilliam team’s trip to Pakistan was aimed at visiting universities where Maajid Nawaz spoke to students about how he was wrong in supporting global jihad. Earlier, the organisation had funded a conference of the vice-chancellors of various Pakistani universities to convince them of the project that Nawaz later undertook.

The organisation is certainly an interesting idea. But it might not take off in the Muslim world because of its inherent shortcomings. To start with, the think tank has no input from within the Muslim world, which makes it a foreign concept. The problem is that a foreign idea tends to attract negative attention. Quilliam seems to represent the foreign frustration at the lack of an alternative discourse in the Muslim world. It has tried to start the discourse by providing these former HT members with a forum.

However, the lack of real contacts inside the Muslim world turns this into a venture without depth. For instance, in their eagerness to establish contacts and work amongst the youth, Quilliam has partnered organisations in Pakistan with little or no credibility. Another noticeable flaw is that since it is unable to get respectable names from the Muslim world on board, the organisation will not be able to achieve much to please its donors. Besides the two names mentioned earlier, there is no significant name on Quilliam’s team that would generate positive attention.

It would be foolhardy to pretend that there is no scope of an alternative debate of ideas in the Muslim world or people are not capable of doing that. Quilliam could, in fact, build itself as a neutral forum to develop ideas across the Muslim world or even between the Muslim world and the West. Surely, a well-funded organisation can make better use of its resources than just telling the HT story.

At a conceptual level there are two issues worth considering. First, an alternative discourse to curb violence will have to see that rebellion within the Muslim world is partly (if not entirely) driven by a post-colonial discourse, especially where the Muslim population is faced with brutality and is struggling for survival.

People in such places cannot be dissuaded from fighting militarily until and unless

there is also a new discourse on the other side regarding the solution of the problem. More importantly, in many places the post-colonial discourse dovetails into an anti-imperialist debate. The problem is that religion becomes a tool that people don’t want to abandon because of the absence of an alternative ideology or set of ideas.

Second, it goes without saying that there is a real need for a new discourse within the Muslim world on numerous issues starting from the concept of the state, war and peace to social norms and economic life. Historically, the Muslim world was progressive due to the independence of academic institutions when it came to arriving at new concepts. Even in the recent past institutions like Al Azhar in Egypt were to be taken note of for encouraging new ideas.

However, it is also a fact that the formulation of ideas in the Muslim world has stopped or taken a peculiar direction as far as political thought is concerned. The bulk of the interpretation of religious texts has been driven by the post-colonial ethos of societies and thinkers.

At this juncture, there is an urgent need in the Muslim world to think anew about a lot of issues, not to appease the West, but to contribute to the internal political discourse. Issues such as the link between religion and politics in an Islamic state or war and conflict involving a Muslim state, or the position of non-Muslims in an Islamic state are matters which require a rethink.

It is not that finding a new direction is not possible. For instance, there have been Muslim scholars in the past such as Abd Al-Razik at Al Azhar who came up with revolutionary ideas regarding the political character of a Muslim state, especially in the context of the link between religion and politics. Though his ideas in the 1930s were not pursued as they were considered too revolutionary, there are newer thinkers who have contributed fresh input to the concept of an Islamic state.

It is unfortunate that most of this discussion is taking place outside the Muslim world by Muslim scholars. It needs to be brought into and made part of the mainstream. Perhaps organisations such as Quilliam could become a forum for the exchange of ideas, rather than just doing what many might regard as a foreign conspiracy. But then, one is also forced to wonder why, despite the riches of the Muslim world, we are unable to create a forum that would allow Muslims to talk amongst themselves and voice new ideas.

Of course Muslim states in the Middle East and the Gulf fund research initiatives at foreign universities such as the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. However, it is important to bring new ideas and discussion to the heart of the Muslim world if a change is to be brought about or if the social and political development of Muslims is the goal. Until new ideas are generated and discussed, Muslims can hardly hope to flourish or progress.

- The writer is an independent strategic and political analyst. [email protected]

{Source: Dawn}

Every night, Shah Muhammad dreams of paying back a loan and freeing himself from the employ of a Pakistan brick kiln owner, but instead his debt mushrooms with each day that passes.

Muhammad, 68, has a large family, yet no matter how hard they toil in the scorching sun and dirt of Pakistan’s Punjab province, he cannot keep up with the medical bills, food costs and other expenses.

‘I start work before dawn and stop when the sun disappears… only to wait for another day to make bricks I pledged to make against the loan I took,’ said Muhammad, who initially borrowed 200,000 rupees two years ago.

He is among perhaps several million Pakistanis under bonded labour: poor families who accept cash advances from landlords, but in return are expected to work, often for no wages, from morning till nightfall.

Human beings treated like commodities, the bonded labourer can then be sold on to another employer in what activists decry as modern-day slavery.

Bare-chested and wearing just a cotton sarong around his waist, Muhammad sweats as he moves fast to prepare the bricks, his bones visible in his thin, clay-caked body.

Muhammad said that under the initial terms of his loan, he was told he would get 450 rupees for every 1,000 bricks he crafted, making about 900 rupees a day at the kiln five kilometres from Islamabad.

But his boss backtracked on his initial offer and now pays 350 rupees for 1,000 bricks, with 100 rupees disappearing to pay off the snowballing loan, with more money borrowed for health care, family weddings and funerals.

‘This is my life… work, work and work until I die. And when I will die my son will have to work for his whole life to pay his and my loans,’ he told AFP.

Families trapped in the bonded agreement all work together, the men and women preparing the clay and making bricks while the children gather them and ferry the building materials in the hazardous kiln area.

A study by the Bonded Labour Liberation Front Pakistan (BLLFP) – a group of charities working to help the labourers – estimates 4.5 million brick kiln workers are victims of this illegal custom.

There are no official statistics, but other researchers say the total number in bonded labour is around 2.6 million, with 1.8 million in agriculture.

The government passed a law in 1992 outlawing bonded labour, but there is little sign of the law being honoured. In the feudal Pakistani countryside, landlords enjoy immense political clout and financial strength.

‘Any kiln owner engaging laborers in a bonded agreement will face a minimum of two years punishment or 50,000 rupees fine, but it has never been imposed on any violator,’ said Syeda Ghulam Fatima, the chairperson of BLLFP.

Pakistan’s government says laws regarding kiln labourers are under review.

‘We are working to improve the legislation and will assess the ways of implementation once we complete this process, which is expected in six months,’said federal Labour Minister Syed Khurshid Shah.

Some bonded labourers manage to escape, with help of activists or police.

In southern Sindh province, a community of freed labourers live in a settlement known as Himatabad, which means Courage Town.

‘We call it Himatabad because it needs a lot of courage to free oneself from influential landlords,’ said Lalee, a former bonded labourer turned activist.

‘Starting a new life is itself a gigantic task.’

Lalee escaped the clutches of a landowner in 1987, when she was 24, and has since battled to free others, allowing them to start afresh in the vast arable land that surrounds Himatabad.

‘I have dedicated my life to get the lives of my fellow peasants better,’said Lalee, an illiterate and low-caste Hindu woman.

But for the handful of success stories like Lalee, there are countless others still toiling for a pittance and others separated from their families.

‘Some of them got freed, but most are still enslaved,’ said Lalee.

Lacho, a middle-aged woman, was rescued from debt bondage about three years ago, but her husband disappeared in an earlier bid for freedom.

‘One night we tried to escape but the armed men caught us and mercilessly tortured us and then separated my husband Lalio from us,’ she said.

Manoo Bheel said his mother, wife, two daughters, two sons and a brother were kidnapped by a landlord a decade ago, and he has not seen them since, despite taking his case to the courts.

‘I’ll continue my struggle till our family is reunited,’ he said.

{Source: AFP}