OVERBURDENED STUDENTS

By:Dr Faisal Bari Tests, tests, exams, and more tests

Whenever I visit a friend’s house, who has four school-going children, I always find, apart from the summer holidays period, inevitably, that all of his children have either just finished giving tests or examinations, are preparing for them, or are in the middle of them. And given there are four children, one of them is always in the middle of tests, and so the household is always ensuring that at least that child, and in general all the children, are always preparing for these tests and keep up with their studies.

I asked the children how many tests/examinations they got. They reported that they had term finals and midterms, and in addition monthly assessments as well as weekly ones. And then sometimes they would get surprise tests as well. So with 6-8 subjects to contend with for every student, it means every week they had some exam or test to worry about. And a lot of teachers took tests at the start of the week giving students the weekend for preparation. Which means the weekends are usually spent studying for more than one test coming up. I checked with some other children in other ‘good’ private schools too, and the pattern was similar.

The story of homework assignments is in addition to the test/examination issue. But it does add to the time children have to spend studying every evening. Again with 6-8 subjects, and no coordination between teachers on homework assignments, students get homework for every subject almost every day.

Parents and schools want good results from students, and clearly quality of education is linked to effort as well, but what is an appropriate level of effort that we want our students to make? Should they be spending all or almost all of their time away from school studying, and should this continue all the time? One can understand more work in key years and at key times, like closer to finals and so on, but such an effort cannot and should not be expected all the time. This will not lead to better quality.

Children, like adults, need time to internalise what they read. They need to play, mentally and physically, with what they learn so that they can make it a part of their conceptual framework. If children are always cramming for exams and working on their homework, when do they get time to reflect on and play with what they are learning and internalise the material? And if they do not do this, they will develop a tendency to cram and will make rather poor students, and more importantly, will end up going through the education system and even getting all the certificates and degrees, but without having the ability to use what they have learnt.

I was surprised to find that many students use ‘study guides’ even at O-Level or A-Level stages. How can this be good? The students feel they have to cram as quickly as possible, but if they are not taking the time to read their textbooks and original sources that have been put in their syllabi, they are shortchanging their learning process.

I have seen this in many students already. If you ask them to define or explain something they will rattle off the definitions and explanations immediately. But, at least in the case of economics, I can tell which books have they usually studied from because they use the same words that are in their books. If you ask them to explain, in their own words, what they have said, many of them are stumped and confused. Furthermore, if you ask them to give an example, from their life or from around them, to illustrate the principle they are talking of, many of them cannot do that. This is tragic. If children are not able to connect what they are learning with their lives while in schools, what are we teaching them and how are we teaching them?

Are private schools, and almost all of the top private ones seem to be quite similar in their approach to education, pushing students too much to cram and reproduce rather than study, understand, and reflect on what they have studied? And are they also over-testing the students and giving them too much homework? The world is competitive and we have to prepare our youth well, but we should not take things to the point where the preparation we give them kills their creativity and hampers their development and competitiveness. This would be counterproductive at so many levels.

A connected issue, but one that I have been asked to raise by a number of parents, is about the physical load we put our children under. One of my friends tells me that his child, in grade one, weighs less than how much his school bag weighs. The school bag has six text books and six notebooks apart from stationary, lunch box and so on. The child drags this bag to school everyday and drags it back in the afternoon. In higher grades the bags might not outweigh the children but they do remain very heavy. This is another indicator of the load on children, quite literally. Why can’t schools, who can afford it, have lockers for children, or desks that have a drawer in them where children can leave some of the books/notebooks they do not need to bring home on any particular day? But if they have class periods for each subject everyday and get homework for all subjects too, and have tests happening too frequently as well, it will not be possible to leave the books home or at school overnight. The connection with workload is clear.

Educational quality should be a concern for everyone: the parents, the school, and the society. There is an ‘optimal’ way of doing things and we should know that time spent on a task and developing understanding of the task is not linearly related: quality of education does not keep improving as we put more and more pressure on children. At some point additional effort can lead to reduced understanding. In some schools, as a pedagogic tool, it seems there is just too much pressure on students. The parents, feeling that this is good, are going along with it. But it is counterproductive. It is forcing children to take sub-optimal routes such as cramming and/or resorting to study guides and so on. Parents and school administrations need to look into the issue in more detail.

From Pakistan Today, Pakistan, Tuesday 3rd January, 2012

Of economic justice

By: Asghar Ali Engineer

JUSTICE is one of the central values in Islam, and any economic system not based on justice is unacceptable. The Quran emphasises distributive justice and lends unqualified support to weaker sections of society, whom it calls mustadifun; it condemns the arrogant ruling classes (mustakbirun) that suppress the weaker sections.

I was inspired to write this piece by the recent Occupy Wall Street protests in America for economic justice, which also spread to Europe. They have raised the slogan, ‘We are 99 per cent’, and leaders of the movement say that just one per cent of Americans have concentrated all the wealth in their own hands, depriving 99 per cent of their rights. People wearing badges with the slogan gather at Wall Street in New York and financial hubs in Europe.

In America, a fortress of capitalism, profit is the only sacred word and distributive justice a dirty one. Freedom there is
considered a fundamental value but it is hardly inclusive of freedom to be a socialist, much less communist. It is from this milieu that this movement has started demanding distributive justice and opposing the concentration of wealth in a few hands.

It is interesting to compare the present-day economic situation with what was happening in Makkah before Islam. As a centre of international trade and finance, Makkah was where tribal chiefs had formed a monopoly over trade to accumulate wealth, neglecting all morality and the weaker sections of society. Much like in our own times, when globalisation and economic liberalisation have allowed a few people to accumulate wealth, in pre-Islamic Makkah polarisation between the rich and the poor had increased, leading to social tensions. These were explosive, as very vividly described in the Quran.

Surah 104 points to ‘one who accumulates wealth and counts it again and again and thinks that this wealth will make him eternal. But surely he will be thrown into hutumah.’ What is hutumah? ‘It is burning fire which will engulf the heart…’ In another Makkan surah, the Quran says, ‘Don’t you see the man who belies Deen? It is this man who pushes away the orphans and does not induce people to feed the poor, and deprives people of their small needs’ (107).

Pre-Islamic Makkah was a centre of world trade as most international caravans laden with luxury goods passed through that city. The tribal chiefs, who first acted as guides for crossing the vast desert between Makkah and the Roman Empire, became expert traders. They were greedy for more and more wealth and sought more and more profit.This obsession with profit-making kept them so engaged that in Surah 102 the Quran says, ‘Your riches have made you quite negligent of your studies till you visit your graves’. While this dominant section of Makkan tribal chiefs was becoming super rich, the poor, the
orphans, the widows and the slaves were totally neglected and exploited to accumulate more riches. The victims of the traders’ greed were leading lives of abject poverty and deprivation. Nothing moved the rich whereas there was earlier no concept of the poor in a more equitable tribal society.

It was against this background that such verses were revealed in the Quran. Justice, moreover, is so central in Quranic ethics that Allah’s name is Adil and the Quran says, ‘Do Justice, it is closest to piety’ (5:8). The complete absence of distributive justice and concentration of wealth in pre-Islamic Makkah can be compared with what is happening in America. Wealth has become so concentrated in the hands of one per cent that 99 per cent are feeling the heat, losing jobs and fearing starvation — in America, where people had forgotten what a life of poverty was.

It is under these circumstances that this movement has started and people are protesting on Wall Street and at other such financial hubs. Of course the western media is not too interested in such movements, which expose the weakness of capitalism. Only occasionally are a few compelled to write about it, without making it too visible in the print or electronic media.

Compared to this state of affairs, pre-Islamic Makkah had no democracy nor awareness about one’s rights; neither did it have a democratic system in place, and so the only way to make people aware of their rights was through divine revelation. Hence the Quran, an instrument of divine revelation through Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), was revealed. It condemned the concentration of wealth in a few hands and large-scale deprivation of people. The cited Quranic verses created awareness among the faithful about distributive justice.

The Quran is in favour of leading a need-based life and opposes all greed or a luxurious lifestyle. It clearly enjoins to give away what is left with one after fulfilling one’s needs (the Quran calls it afw). However, Muslims, except the followers of the Prophet (PBUH) during his lifetime and a few thereafter, never practised it. Many companions of the Prophet (PBUH) considered it sinful to drink water in a gold or silver vessel. But such scruples were short-lived in Muslim history.

If Muslims had taken the Quranic verses seriously and put them into practice they would have been the role model for the world for introducing a distributive justice system and a conflict-free world; a world without wars and bloodshed, a peaceful world where everyone would have felt secure, a living paradise on earth. But capitalism, in order to make the lives of a few plentiful and wasteful, has made it a living hell for many today.

The writer is an Islamic scholar who also heads The Centre for Study of Society & Secularism, Mumbai

Source: http://www.dawn.com/2012/01/06/of-economic-justice.html

Sindhi women publicly announce free-will marriages: DAWN News

Young women from the province frequently publish announcements in Sindhi newspapers declaring their intention to marry of their own free will. – Photo by Dawn

HYDERABAD: Honour killings and forced marriages in Sindh receive wide attention in the national media. What is less well-known is that young women from the province frequently publish announcements in Sindhi newspapers declaring their intention to marry of their own free will.

As a way of fending off allegations that they have been kidnapped or have committed adultery, it is a bold move by these women but is known to few people beyond the readership of these regional papers.

Shabana Khatoon, 23, of Bhango Behan in Khairpur district, declares in widely circulated Sindhi daily Kawish that her parents wanted to sell her to an older man for marriage. Ms Khatoon’s announcement is a summary of an attested affidavit she had a lawyer prepare for her and explains that she decided to run away and marry another man,

Raymond Davis charged in parking spot fightym

Fayr Pharreyaa Gayaa! 

Caught Again. In this Jan. 28, 2011, file photo, Pakistani security officials escort Raymond Allen Davis, center, to a local court in Lahore, Pakistan

HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colorado: A CIA contractor freed by Pakistani authorities after the families of two men he killed in a shootout agreed to accept a $2.34 million “blood money” payment was charged Saturday after authorities said he got into a fight over a shopping center parking spot.

Deputies responding to an altercation between two men outside an Einstein Bagel in Highlands Ranch, south of Denver, took Raymond Davis into custody Saturday morning, said Sheriff’s Lt. Glenn Peitzmeier. He was charged with third-degree assault and disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors.

Further details on his arrest, which was first reported by KMGH-TV Channel 7 in Denver, were not immediately available.

Peitzmeier said the victim, who was not identified, refused medical treatment at the scene. Davis was freed from the jail after posting bond, Peitzmeier said.

In January, Davis said he shot two Pakistani men who tried to rob him in Lahore. The case enraged many in the country, where anti-American sentiment runs high.

The US insisted Davis had immunity from prosecution, but he was not released until March 16 under a deal that compensated the victims’ families, who agreed to accept ”blood money” under Islamic tradition. Pakistan’s security agencies came under intense domestic criticism for freeing him.

The agreement, nearly seven weeks after the shootings, ended the dispute that had strained ties between the United States and Pakistan.

Source: http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/02/raymond-davis-charged-in-parking-spot-fight.html

Dawn: Lying liars and the lies they tell By Cyril Almeida

By: Cyril Almeida

If the US is the 800-pound gorilla that stamps on itself, Pakistan is like a python which thinks it’s crushing its prey but is really asphyxiating itself.

For a couple of days after Mullen’s Haqqanis-are-a-veritable-arm-of-the-ISI allegation last week, it looked like the Americans had finally achieved the improbable: synchronising their tough talk against Pakistan.

In the wake of the Kabul embassy attack, it even made sense why the improbable had materialised: a psychological red line had been crossed by the Afghan militants and the US needed to snarl and snap until the war settled back into a low-level attritional framework.

But the improbable — getting a diverse American foreign and military policy cohort to speak as one, especially when it comes to Pakistan — is actually more like the impossible. Within days, the ‘full-court press’ has started to look like the bench press of a 99-pound weakling.

Mullen didn’t really mean what he said, the Americans began to suggest, the evidence is more like intelligence, it doesn’t really go that far. Yes, the mood is very emotional in DC and in Pakistan, but there’s still work to be done so let’s focus on that, they’ve been saying.

It’s not quite kiss-and-make-up, more an awkward one-armed hug.

The relationship will continue, intelligence cooperation over the capture of yet another Al Qaeda No 3 will be interspersed with spasmodic events like WikiLeaks, Raymond Davis, the OBL raid and the Mullen allegations.

Pressure will mount, pressure will subside, there’ll be paroxysms at times of unhappiness, circumspection at times of measured success and the ungainly and clumsy contraption that is the American policymaking apparatus will continue to make life for itself even more difficult when it comes to Pakistan.

As for the Pakistani side, expect more of the same, i.e. the same

Qadri gets death sentence in Salman Taseer’s murderMum

Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri: Murderer of Salman Taseer, Governor Punjab

ISLAMABAD: An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) awarded death penalty to Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri on Saturday, DawnNews reported.
Mr Taseer was assassinated by his security guard and personnel of Punjab Elite Force, Mumtaz Qadri, on January 4, 2011 at Kohsar Market in Islamabad.
“The court has awarded my client with death. The court announced the death sentence for him,” Shujaur Rehman, one of Qadri’s lawyers, told AFP by telephone.
Judge Pervez Ali Shah announced the verdict at the court behind closed doors in the high-security Adiyala prison in Rawalpindi, the lawyer said.
Dozens of people rallied outside the prison where the verdict was announced, chanting slogans in support of Qadri, an AFP photographer said.
Qadri had earlier confessed in court that he had killed Punjab governor Salman Taseer for his ‘blasphemous’ statements.


Source: http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/01/atc-awards-death-penalty-mumtaz-qadri.html

France's burqa ban: women are 'effectively under house arrest': Angelique writes at the Gaurdian UK

• 
• • Angelique Chrisafis
  • guardian.co.uk, Monday 19 September 2011 21

Hind Ahmas walks into a brasserie in the north Paris suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois. Jaws drop, shoulders tighten and a look of disgust ripples across the faces of haggard men sipping coffee at the bar.

"Hang on, what's all this? Isn't that banned?" splutters the outraged waiter behind the bar, waving a wine bottle at her niqab. Ahmas stands firm, clutches her handbag with black-gloved hands and says: "Call the police then." But she decides there's no point fighting. We cross the road to a cafe where she's a regular. No one bats an eyelid; the boss certainly doesn't want to lose her custom. Ahmas is breaking the law by ordering an espresso and sitting in a booth in the window. But these days she is breaking the law by stepping outside her own front door.

Hind Ahmas, one of two French women facing a fine for wearing the niqab in a town near Paris

In April, France introduced a law against covering your face in public.Muslim women in full-face veils, or niqab, are now banned from any public activity including walking down the street, taking a bus, going to the shops or collecting their children from school. French politicians in favour of the ban said they were acting to protect the "gender equality" and "dignity" of women. But five months after the law was introduced, the result is a mixture of confusion and apathy. Muslim groups report a worrying increase in discrimination

Terror, tradition and good taste

By Irfan Hussain: OpEd Dawn News

THE suicide bomber who murdered Burhanuddin Rabbani, head of the Afghan High Peace Council, concealed an explosive in his turban. This is not the first time the traditional head gear has been used to hide a bomb.

Similarly, terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan have carried weapons under burkas that they have used to slaughter innocent people. They were safe in the knowledge that they would not be stopped and searched by male security staff in deeply conservative societies. And, of course, it would be an insult to ask a Pakhtun to take off his turban.

These attitudes and traditions present formidable security challenges. We all remember how Maulana Abdul Aziz tried to escape arrest during the Lal Masjid episode by donning a burka. In India, robbers wore this all-concealing garb to hide their guns in a daring hold-up in a jewellery shop.

Security forces have been unable to come up with an answer to this troubling problem. There simply are not enough policewomen available to search every burka-clad woman in public places, and it would be anathema for male cops to demand that burkas be removed. So lives will continue to be lost at the altar of tradition.

In Europe, the burka and the niqab have become the focus of another kind of scrutiny. The French law barring these garments from public spaces has been hugely controversial. Widely supported by the majority, it has nevertheless divided opinion among feminists and liberals.

In a long recent article in the Guardian exploring the impact of the law, Angelique Chrisafis spoke to a number of women who continue to wear the full-face veil, despite the legal and social problems it poses. One of them, Hind Ahmas, said that on one occasion, she was attacked by a man and a woman on the street who told her “to go back to Afghanistan”. She was also punched in front of her three-year old daughter. The journalist quotes Ahmas about how the law has changed her life.

“In my head, I have to prepare for war every time

Several countries in touch with Haqqanis: Kayani

ISLAMABAD: Reacting to US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen’s outburst, Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has not only rejected his allegations of using the Haqqani network for waging a proxy war in Afghanistan but also pointed out that several countries were engaged with the militant group.

Pakistan's Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani (R) listens to US Admiral Mike Mullen at the start of the NATO MC conference in Seville, Spain on September 16, 2011

A rejoinder issued by the ISPR on Friday quoted Gen Kayani as having said that Admiral Mullen’s statement was “very unfortunate and not based on facts”.

But significantly embedded within the brief rejoinder was an unspoken acknowledgment that Haqqanis were crucial for reconciliation in Afghanistan and, therefore, a number of countries, including Pakistan, maintained contact with them.

“Admiral Mullen knows fully well which countries are in contact with the Haqqanis. Singling out Pakistan is neither fair nor productive,” the army chief said.

A military official disclosed in a background conversation that the United States and a number of European countries had been talking to the Haqqanis for reconciliation. During some recent contacts, he said, Pakistan had made it clear to the US that its engagement with the Haqqani network should not be misconstrued as one meant to undermine American interests in Afghanistan.

“We worked with them for positive objectives which could have been useful for all stakeholders in the Afghan end-game,” he stressed.

Gen Kayani, the ISPR handout said, found Admiral Mullen’s diatribe disturbing because his prolonged meeting with the latter in Spain last week was “rather constructive”.

The military official said there was nothing of this sort (finger pointing) in their meeting held on the sidelines of a Nato conference, rather they had deliberated on the way forward in their soured ties, constraints in relationship, withdrawal of coalition forces from Afghanistan and the role of various stakeholders.

Contrary to his assertion, a US official, speaking to Dawn from Washington, claimed that what was now being publicly said had been conveyed personally to Gen Kayani in Seville (Spain).

The US has been accusing Pakistan for long of supporting the Haqqani network and been exerting pressure on the government and army to act against the group.

Arundhati Roy: 'The Press Decides Which Revolutions To Report'

The celebrated dissenter on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, mass uprisings in the Arab world, the Anna Hazare movement, her old comrades-in arm like Medha Patkar and Prashant Bhushan, Maoism, writing and much else.

Arundhati Roy

Rajesh Joshi: The 10th anniversary of September the 11th attacks on the US is upon us. What do you think has changed in the world, or hasn’t changed, in these years?

Arundhati Roy: Plenty has changed. The numbers of wars that are being fought has been expanded and the rhetoric that allows those wars —that are essentially a battle for resources —is now disguised in the rhetoric of the war on terror, and has become more acceptable in some ways and yet more transparent in other ways.

Perhaps the most dangerous thing that has happened is that increasingly we are seeing that these wars can’t be won. They can be initiated. But they can’t be won. Like the war in Vietnam was not won. The war in Iraq has not been won. The war in Afghanistan has not been won. The war on Libya will not be won. There is this initial pattern where you claim victory and then these occupation forces get mired in a kind of slow war of attrition. That’s also partially responsible for the global economy slowly coming apart.

The other difficulty is that the more the weapons of conventional warfare become nuclear —and all this kind of air bombing and so on —the more it becomes clear to people who are fighting occupations that you can’t win a conventional war. So, ironically the accumulation of conventional weaponry is leading to different kinds of terrorism and suicide bombings and a sort of desperate resort to extremely violent resistances. Violent, ideologically as well, because you have to really motivate people to want to go and blow themselves up. So, [it's a ] very, very dangerous time.

You have been very critical of the war on terror, especially the US policy. Would you have preferred a Saddam Hussain or a Taliban regime in Afghanistan?

Well, it does look as if the Taliban regime is going to return in Afghanistan in some form or shape. And

On Terrorism: Articles by the legendary Eqbal Ahmed

A Presentation at the University of Colorado, Boulder

October 12, 1998 

In the 1930s and 1940s, the Jewish underground in Palestine was described 

as "terrorist." Then new things happened. By 1942, the Holocaust was occurring, 

and a certain liberal sympathy with the Jewish people had built up in the 

Western world. 

At that point, the terrorists of Palestine, who were Zionists, suddenly started 

to be described, by 1944-45, as "freedom fighters." At least two Israeli Prime 

Ministers, including Menachem Begin, have actually, you can find in the books 

and posters with their pictures, saying "Terrorists, Reward This Much." The 

highest reward I have noted so far was 100,000 British pounds on the head of 

Menachem Begin, the terrorist. 

Then from 1969 to 1990 the PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organization, occupied 

the center stage as the terrorist organization. Yasir Arafat has been described 

repeatedly by the great sage of American journalism, William Safire of the New 

York Times, as the "Chief of Terrorism." That's Yasir Arafat. Now, on September 

29, 1998, I was rather amused to notice a picture of Yasir Arafat to the right 

of President Bill Clinton. To his left is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin 

Netanyahu. Clinton is looking towards Arafat and Arafat is looking literally 

like a meek mouse. Just a few years earlier he used to appear with this very 

menacing look around him, with a gun appearing menacing from his belt. You 

remember those pictures, and you remember the next one.

G8 pledges billions for Arab uprising

MARSEILLE (France), Sept 10: Arab states that ousted their dictators got a financial shot in the arm on Saturday with promises of tens of billion of dollars to help their rocky transformation into modern democracies.G8 rich nations and institutions including the World Bank, the IMF, regional banks and the Arab Monetary Fund pledged nearly $80 billion in aid and loans over the next two years, doubling the amount promised earlier this year. French Finance Minister Francois Baroin announced the massive increase at a Group of Eight finance ministers' meeting in Marseille. The money is earmarked to support reform and help new governments weather shortterm economic instability in the wake of popular uprisings that began in Tunisia and toppled its strongman leader before spreading to Egypt and Libya. “We are facing an historical transformational moment, and while there are downsides, there is enormous enthusiasm,” International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde told reporters here. Jordan and Morocco, which have not faced popular revolutions but whose kings have promised steps towards deeper democracy, joined the socalled Deauville Partnership after the initial members Egypt and Tunisia. Representatives from the four states were in Marseille on Saturday to explain to donors and lenders how they planned to relaunch their economies and to hear what help they can expect from the world's major economic powers. Officials from Libya's new government — whose fighters have taken control of most of their country but are still battling remnants of strongman Muammar Qadhafi's forces — were also in the southern French city as observers. Libya is not yet a formal member of the Deauville Parternship — named after the French town that hosted the G8 meeting in May — but has been promised it will be added to the list soon.—AFP

Trade policy sets export target at $26 billion

Trade policy sets export target at $26 billion

Approving the recommendations of Trade Policy 2011-12, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Saturday directed the commerce ministry to realise the immense potential for regional trade in order to enhance the country’s exports.

The trade policy aims at achieving an ambitious export target of $26 billion for the fiscal year besides seeking better market access by addressing tariff and non-tariff issues.The policy proposals would now be presented to the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) for final approval.

After a presentation by commerce ministry officials, Mr Gilani said the government would soon hold a conference of ambassadors and trade officers with a view to giving them the task of pursuing ‘trade diplomacy’ for increasing exports.

The presentation was attended, among others, by Commerce Minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Planning Commission deputy chairman Dr Nadeem-ul-Haq and secretaries of finance and commerce divisions.

Commerce Secretary Zafar Mahmood briefed the meeting on the free trade agreements (FTAs) that had been concluded with Sri Lanka, China and Malaysia and the preferential trade agreements (PTAs) with Mauritius and Iran and Saarc Free Trade Area (SAFTA).

He said negotiations were in progress on the second phase of Pakistan-China trade agreement, Pakistan-Singapore FTA, Pakistan-Indonesia PTA, Pakistan-Turkey PTA, Pakistan-Sri Lanka Comprehensive Economic Partnership, Pakistan-GCC FTA, PakistanMauritius FTA, D-8, OIC PTA and ECO Trade Agreement (ECOTA).

“Other initiatives for greater market access in Asia Pacific are also continuing,” the commerce secretary said. He was hopeful about the success of the current trade policy despite the global economic situation, market access problems, energy deficiency in the country, the poor law and order situation and the scourge of terrorism.

From theatre in Karachi to numbers in Senate

The upper house of parliament is slated to get 54 new members, giving the PPP an opportunity to significantly increase its present tally of 27 seats and perhaps even grab a majority in what will be a 104-member Senate from next year

WHILE the political theatre in Sindh and verbal sparring between the PPP and PML-N supremos are grabbing the headlines, behind the political scenes attention is quietly turning towards the battle for the Senate in March.

The upper house of parliament is slated to get 54 new members (re-election to 50 general, technocrat/ulema and women seats and four new, post-18th Amendment minority seats), giving the PPP an opportunity to significantly increase its present tally of 27 seats and perhaps even grab a majority in what will be a 104-member Senate from next year.

But the possibility is generating speculation that the PPP’s otherwise inexorable march towards a dominant position in Senate may be scuttled somehow.

Could the PML-N, with only a handful of Senate seats from Punjab at present, delay the Senate election and force early general election so that new provincial and national assemblies, more favourable towards the N-League, elect the next Senate cohort?Will the security establishment, ever wary of politicians consolidating power, countenance one half of parliament dominated by the PPP, perhaps the first step towards a kind of one-party state as its rivals flounder? Are the internecine warfare and ferocious mud-slinging in Karachi part of surreptitious efforts to forestall Senate elections?

What is clear is that part of the reason for the speculation building around the Senate elections is the upper chamber’s chequered history. “This is the first time since the ’70s, other than military dispensations, that the same assemblies will elect both halves of the Senate,” remarked Nayyar Hussain Bukhari, the PPP senator who is Leader of the House.

Mr Bukhari noted that the first Benazir Bhutto government was felled before Senate elections could take place, while her second government was only able to preside over Senate elections in 1994 before being ousted in 1996.

Perhaps the most notorious example of intervention ahead of a Senate election came during Nawaz Sharif’s second, ‘heavy mandate’ term. With the capture of the Senate only months away (the election was scheduled for March 2000) Sharif was on the threshold of forcing through controversial religiously hued legislative and constitutional changes when the Musharraf coup in late 1999 wrapped up the entire elected set-up.

PPP: game, set … match?

Now, what is at stake next March are institutional and psychological advantages for the PPP.

“Understandably, our political opponents would not like to see the PPP increase its strength in the Senate to cripple our ability to legislate,”

(Tragic Incident) Slain Salman Taseer’s son kidnapped: DAWN NEWS

LAHORE: Footage of closed-circuit television (CCTV) appeared to be their best lead as police searched on Friday for Shahbaz Taseer, son of slain Punjab governor Salman Taseer, who was kidnapped in the morning near his company’s head office.

Shahbaz Taseer was driving towards the offices of the First Capital Group off M.M. Alam Road in Gulberg when he was intercepted in what had the hallmarks of a well-coordinated abduction plan.

The abductors who, according to witnesses, used a Prado jeep and a motorcycle, bundled the young Taseer into the four-wheeler and rushed away unimpeded.

Later, a gun supposed to have been thrown away by the abductors was found near a plaza not far from Firdous Market and police said his captors had probably driven Taseer towards the Defence Housing Authority.

A high alert was declared, internal routes and highways were sealed amid calls for swift action by both the federal and Punjab governments.

The Federal Investigation Agency joined the Punjab police in their search for Shahbaz Taseer, yet, as precious minutes passed, his whereabouts remained untraced.The police could not identify the motive behind the crime and nobody had claimed responsibility till late on Friday.

This was the second high-profile abduction within a few kilometres of each other in Lahore over the past two weeks. An American aid worker abducted on Aug 13 remains untraced.

Fahad Rasheed Butt, a police driver assigned security duty with Shahbaz Taseer’s mother, Amena Taseer, informed the Rescue 15 about the abduction at around 10.45am after he was alerted by the staff at the First Capital.

Some eyewitnesses had reportedly told the staffers that unknown men had taken away at gunpoint the occupant of the now abandoned car.

Model Town SP (Investigation) Shoaib Khurram told reporters there were four abductors.

As they took away Shahbaz Taseer, they left his cellphones and laptop and some papers that he had on him behind.

It appeared that there was a 25-minute gap between the abduction and when the police were informed about it.

Footage from a CCTV installed close to Shahbaz Taseer’s offices, which was later aired by a television channel, showed him approaching the spot from where he was kidnapped at around 10.19am. It captured Shahbaz Taseer’s sports car turning a corner and entering the street where his offices are located.

The camera was focussed on that particular spot and the scene of the crime was out of its scope. But it did show another vehicle coming close on the heels of the Taseer car and then hastily backing off. These images created an impression as if the abductors had been waiting for him.

Police said Shahbaz Taseer left his home in Cavalry Grounds for his office in his sports car on Friday morning. He was not accompanied by any of the two Elite Force guards he had been provided. One of the guards was quoted as saying that Shahbaz Taseer

Two arrested in Imran Farooq murder case: DAWN News

ISLAMABAD: Two men were arrested at Karachi airport a few days ago in connection with the killing of MQM leader Imran Farooq in London in September last year.

The suspects are said to be affiliated to a political party.

Officials privy to details told this correspondent that the arrested men had travelled to UK on student visa, stabbed Dr Farooq to death and then flown to Sri Lanka.

They were apprehended soon after they came out of the airport in Karachi after having travelled from Colombo.

It is learnt that they were arrested on a tip from British intelligence and other sources.

Their names have not been disclosed but the sources said that the president, prime minister and security establishment had been informed about the matter.

The sources said the arrests were made by personnel of the country`s elite intelligence agency with the help of photographs and videos provided by the British authorities.

The arrested persons have been kept in Karachi and investigation is in progress.

The accused had flown to London in August 2010 and the murder took place on September 16.

London`s Metropolitan Police and Scotland Yard had launched an investigation and arrested a suspect who was released later for lack of evidence.

Dr Farooq had co-founded the All Pakistan Mohajir Students Organisation (APMSO), the parent organisation of Muttahida Qaumi Movement, with Altaf Hussain. He was deputy convener of the party, technically next to the MQM chief.

But he left the party in 2009 after developing differences over organisational matters.

As the tiger awakens: Mohsin Hafeez on Chinese Power over and Stakes in the US Economy

TOO much of a good thing is bad. So is the case with the kind of democracy espoused by the political structure in America these days. The recent debt ceiling debate in the power corridors of Capitol Hill smacked of the worst kind of politics one has witnessed in the history of the developed world.

The Tea Party thought it fit to bring the country to the brink of the most disastrous scenario that was averted at the eleventh hour. The looming threat of the largest economy failing to keep its obligations was just as unfathomable to us here as it was spooky to the rest of the world. Notwithstanding the deal, and more because of the process that preceded the ‘signed, sealed and delivered’ moment, the debt rating of the US was lowered a notch to AA+ from its premium AAA rating.

In the last over 50 years, the debt limit has been raised at an average frequency of one and a half times every year, without as much as an eyelid being batted. Why it had to unravel the worst form of political showdown in the process this time is beyond comprehension and it does not hold up the high values of the greatest nation on earth, of American exceptionalism.

The US has borrowed with reckless abandon over the last several years.

The bubble finally burst in 2007, bringing with it the Great Recession. Even the brightest minds in the country missed the depth of the issue. Those who got it were snubbed, being labelled as ‘Keynesian’ as if it were a dirty word not fit for public utterance. The stimulus during the first few months of the Obama administration was cut down to size, with the result that it became only a half-baked effort. The Federal Reserve kept lowering the interest rates, and then deployed the silver bullet in the way of buying in billions, a combination of mortgage-backed and other US treasuries, to keep the interest rates from rising.

China is the largest creditor of the US, with about $1.3tr in US treasuries and agency securities. The Chinese found the US to be a safe haven, and holding US treasuries in large amounts also helped them mai ntain a tight relationship between the yuan and the US dollar. With the economic structure of China moving towards consumption, partially to cater to the rising middle class, at the expense of savings,

Pakistan origin woman shot dead in US

BOONTON (New Jersey), Aug 17: 

A young couple of Pakistani descent was fired upon while walking their son in a stroller on a quiet street in New Jersey. The woman died, and her husband, a Harvard PhD student, was wounded.

Authorities said on Wednesday that the incident on Tuesday night was not random. The 3-year-old child remained unhurt.

Nazish Noorani and her husband, Kashif Pervaiz, were walking the few blocks from her sister’s home to her father’s house in this small suburban town when gunfire erupted on a dark street, authorities said.

Case for privatisation: By Shahid Kardar in Dawn Op-ed

IN an earlier column in this newspaper this writer had made a case for rearranging the politico-economic building blocks of the Pakistani state.

The article had argued for an early closure or privatisation of either management or ownership of not just the commercial entities in the public sector but also those mandated to provide ostensibly social services like education.

The latter plea was driven by concerns about the fiscal burden of these resource guzzlers on already strained government budgets and how they were becoming a potential source of systemic risk for the financial sector. This article will present the case for speedy privatisation, not on some theoretical principles but on the basis of irrefutable evidence to support its adoption as a key element of policy and structural reform.

One particularly bad example of privatisation, the KESC (a subject that requires a separate treatment and discussion), is repeatedly brought up not just by vested groups but also the general public to oppose the divestment of a host of poorly managed, loss-making enterprises.

This perception persists and continues to find supporters despite overwhelming information on outcomes following privatisation or the opening up of economic sectors like telecom, banking, etc that were hitherto closed to private entities. An array of stakeholders has latched on to this outlier example (the KESC), contrary to all available proof of the immense contribution of privatisation towards bolstering Pakistan’s economy.To start with, take the case of the banks. The lessons learnt from the recent experience with the Bank of Punjab and that of banks like MCB, Habib, UBL and Allied (the last three with huge holes at the time of their privatisation) until their privatisation began in the early 1990s should be a sobering reminder on the need to protect the interests of depositors and to maintain the soundness and stability of the banking system

Devolution the saviour – I

By Tanwir Naqvi in Dawn Op-Ed
The writer was the founding chairman of the National Reconstruction Bureau and pioneered the reconstruction of the institutions of state during the period 2000-2002.

A TUMULTUOUS month ago, Sindh was pushed back a century and a half to a system of bureaucratic rule through antiquated laws that the British had used for ruling their colonies for two centuries.

The motive of Sindh’s politico-bureaucratic elite for taking this regressive action obviously was to facilitate and perpetuate arbitrary rule over their own people. The Police Act 1861 remaining intact makes it evident that this remains the motive, despite the misleading impression being given that by disbanding the divisions and their commissioners the local government system under the SLGO has replaced the so-called commissionerate system introduced a month ago. This makes it imperative for people to acquire a clear awareness of what had necessitated its replacement a decade ago with the Police Order 2002 and its integration with the Local Government Ordinances 2001.

The colonial system was built around extreme centralisation of authority under six separate laws in one officer who had four titles — collector (of land revenue), district magistrate, deputy commissioner, and controller of local governments — and the concentration of 10 management functions spread across the political, administrative and criminal justice spectrum of governance.

The system’s colonial character was founded on the empowerment of a single officer, the district magistrate, with administrative authority along with the judicial authority to even hold trials in his criminal court, thus making him the arraigner and the prosecution, as well as the judge and the jury in his court. The 1973 constitution did away with this anti-people monstrosity, but allowed five years for the judicial function to be withdrawn from the executive magistracy.

However, it took nearly three decades to get implemented through the Local Government Ordinances 2001 and the Police Order 2002. Violations of the constitution inherent in restoring this executive magistracy, partially or wholly today, pose a stark challenge to our independent judiciary.

The police, headed by the superintendent of police of the district, functioned under the Police Act 1861 for performing three core functions: maintenance of public order; investigation of crime; and prosecution of criminals in courts of law. The ethos of the police under this law was not of policing the district as a service to the people; instead, the police was meant for protecting the colonial state and pro-state people against opponents of the state. Selective justice through tyrannical behaviour was thus inherent to the system.

The Police Rules 1934 placed the police under the ‘general supervision and control’ of the district magistrate. Yet when police excess called for judicial enquiry, the provincial government deputed the district magistrate to conduct it, despite the latter being a party to it as the boss of the police. This, in essence, is the conflict-of-interest ridden