Charges Framed-PM Willfully Flouted Orders: Supreme Court

NADEEM MALIK

PM Willfully Flouted Orders: Supreme Court
’وزیرِ اعظم یوسف رضا گیلانی نے جان بوجھ کر عدالتی احکامات پر عملدرآمد نہیں کیا۔ ‘
ان کا کہنا تھا کہ سپریم کورٹ نے اپنے فیصلے میں کہا تھا کہ این آر او کے تحت زیرِ التوا مقدمات پر عمل درآمد شروع کروانے کے لیے سوئس حکام کو خط لکھیں۔ جبکہ وزیرِ اعظم نے ایسا نہیں کیا۔ عدالتِ عظمٰی کا کہنا ہے کہ وزیرِ اعظم آئینی طور پر عدالت کے احکامات ماننے کے لیے پابند تھے۔ تاہم وزیرِ اعظم گیلانی نے فردِ جرم کی صحت سے انکار کرتے ہوئے اسے چیلنج کر دیا ہے۔

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NADEEM MALIK Senate Elections Almost Secured For PPP: For All Practical Purposes, Supreme Court Proceedings postponed till Last Week of February, So PPP’s 42 Seat on March 2 Senate Elections are Guaranteed. Prime Minister Gilani can Opt to Resign after the Senate Vote and either a New PPP Prime Minister or uncement of General Elections would make the Contempt Court Irrelevant. Aitzaz Ahsan and Babar Awan are Going to Get the PPP Senate Tickets.

NADEEM MALIK

Charges Framed against Prime Minister Gilani

NADEEM MALIK

Prime Minister Gilani in Supreme Court to Face Contempt Charges

NADEEM MALIK

Pundits are still puzzling out the prime minister’s motivations for risking his job for Zardari, who has dismal popularity ratings and a long rap sheet of kickback, shakedown and other corruption allegations. Some see the 59-year-old prime minister finally shedding his unassuming personality and coming into his own.
-Another theory holds that Gilani wants to go out as a selfless political martyr who showed his unflagging party fealty to the very end. Such sacrifice would leave a dynastic legacy for his children, who also are involved in politics.
-Then there’s another option, according to party insiders: Zardari could pardon Gilani immediately after he’s convicted. (Washington Post)

NADEEM MALIK

A Perfect Setting for PPP Before the Next General Elections:
According to the Constitution the Speaker of the National Assembly – Dr Fehmida Mirza – would become the Acting Prime Minister, in case PM Gilani loses his job. But the moment the President nominates a new Prime Minister, there would be problems. The PPP does not enjoy majority in the National Assembly; it needs the votes of its coalitio…n partners – ANP, MQM and PML(Q) – to elect a new Prime Minister. (Usman Khalid)
Name of Khurshid Shah is also doing the rounds, as son of ‘South Punjab’ would become Sayasi Shaheed and Sindhi PM would assume the office to face the music, a perfect setting for ruling PPP before the next General Elections. The timing of the court orders and strategy of the government to delay it at least till the Senate Elections, would allow the PPP to get ready for the final showdown.
There is hardly anything like governance, rule of law, basic service delivery, and there are many negatives like loadshedding, gas shortages, price hike, job losses and economic difficulties, but Shahadat is still something that PPP would be able to sell in Sindh and South Punjab.See More

NADEEM MALIK

Asked if he would rather resign for the sake of the president, Gilani said if convicted of contempt, he would automatically lose office, so there was no need for him to quit.
“There’s no need to step down,” he said. “If I’m convicted, then I’m not supposed to be a member of the parliament.”
President Asif Ali Zardari: “There had been a lot of cases against him, and they were all politically motivated,” Gilani said, referring to Zardari.
“He has got immunity. And he has not got immunity only in Pakistan, he has transnational immunity, even all over the world.”

NADEEM MALIK asked: YOUR OPINION: PM CONTEMPT OF COURT CASE

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NADEEM MALIK

To Step Down if Convicted: Gilani
“If I am convicted, then there is no need for me to even be a member of the parliament.”

NADEEM MALIK

At last, Supreme Court Takes Assertive Role in Missing Persons’ Case. I Wish the Court Becomes Champion to Protect Human Rights of 180 Million Hapless Pakistanis

NADEEM MALIK

Appeal Dismissed

NADEEM MALIK

The Supreme Court should have the power to get its decisions implemented otherwise there is no point to take up so many issues and put everything on hold. Impartial, Transparent and Timely Decisions. No Favours. No Fears. Cost of Delay is Loss of Pakistan.

Nadeem Malik’s Photos
The Supreme Court should have the power to get its decisions implemented otherwi…se there is no point to take up so many issues and put everything on hold. Impartial, Transparent and Timely Decisions. No Favours. No Fears. Cost of Delay is Loss of Pakistan.See More
By: Nadeem Malik

NADEEM MALIK

سنہ دو ہزار آٹھ سے سنہ دو ہزار گیارہ تک واشنگٹن میں پاکستانی سفارتخانے نے باون ہزار سے زائد امریکیوں کو ویزے جاری کیے۔

BBC Urdu – پاکستان – تین برس میں باون ہزار امریکیوں کو ویزے جاری
www.bbc.co.ukسنہ دو ہزار آٹھ سے سنہ دو ہزار گیارہ تک واشنگٹن میں پاکستانی سفارتخانے نے باون ہزار سے زائد امریکیوں کو ویزے جاری کیے۔

Filed under: CURRENT AFFAIRS

Our Sindhi nationalists are simply not aware of the world trends. They have not idea how powerful and strong the social media has become in today’s world!

In contrast, the Baloch political activists are now quite alert and actively use it to propagate their message to the world through the use of the social media — blogs, social networks, microblogs, etc.

The proof that the world hears them speak is that BBC has now covered the political activists’efforts on Twitter and blogs. According to the reports, in the backdrop of the biased and selective (under-)reporting of the mainstream Pakistani media, it’s the blogs and micro-blogs (Twitter) which have been the source of information for the world on the brutality of the Pakistani state in Balochistan, that is, their kill-and-dump policy against the Baloch nationalists and freedom fighters.

بلوچستان کی حقیقت کون بتائے گا

امریکہ میں بلوچستان پر بحث، پاکستان کو تشویش

Twitter is quite a powerful tool in online activism right now- (who can forget the Arab Spring?) Thanks to Twitter that it’s now possible to ping United Nations (@UN), Barack Obama (@BarackObama), The White House (@whitehouse), Amnesty International (@amnesty), Human Rights Watch (@hrw) — you name it! They are the ones influencing the world affairs.. and they should be contacted frequently.

Or you can also ping Pentagon Press Secretary at @PentagonPresSec. You can even directly pass your comments to Congressman Brad Sherman (@BradSherman), who recently spoke in favor of the US speaking to the Sindhi and Baloch nations (Watch the video).

Although there are some Sindhi nationalists’accounts on Twitter (Like @jssfjsmm, @jssfmediacell, @JssfJsqm, Raja Dahir, Sindhi Xafar but their presence is not quite frequent; whereas, Twitter means continuous pinging the world about your and your issues.

Our Baloch activists have continuously been asking the Sindhi nationalists to be awake and alert on Twitter like them. And I receive tweets like the following frequently:

@AamirRaz Be known, we support you.

—
TheBaloch (@BalaachMarri) January 15, 2012

Amid military operations and sufferings, Baloch pay rich tribute to Saeen GM Syed, icon of Sindhudesh's independence identity.

—
TheBaloch (@BalaachMarri) January 16, 2012

@AamirRaz Bro our sindhi Brothers must be active like their Baloch brothers in their struggle for freedom in Balochistan, love&success 4us

—
Archen Baloch (@ArchenBaloch) February 10, 2012

@BradSherman is aiming 2 promote both d causes of Sindh, Balochistan. @AamirRaz wud b happy 2 hear that. There's a bipartisan support 2 B&S

—
Ratan (@Rattan888) February 08, 2012

@AamirRaz Adda Sindhi dostan kay twitter join karan laye motivate karo. @RajaDahir

—
فیض بلوچ (@FaizBaluch) January 10, 2012

@AamirRaz Ji koshish karo.Twitter asan laye naimat ka'n wadeek aye. @RajaDahir

—
فیض بلوچ (@FaizBaluch) January 10, 2012

However, this blog is not about teaching you how to use Twitter.. rather, it’s more for forcing you to start using it for your sociopolitical activism. It’s just to motivate the Sindhi nationalists to start using the power of the social media as an effective tool for lobbying in this age and time.

Keep tweeting — the world is listening!

[You can follow me on Twitter at @AamirRaz.]

Tagged: Arab Spring, Facebook, Nationalism, Social Activism, Twitter

As I write these words, demonstrations are unfolding in the public squares of Syrian cities and towns, as they have done every Friday for the last eleven months, since the people of Dir’a first took to the streets to manifest their discontent at the indignities imposed upon them by the Asad regime.

Grainy scenes of crowds heaving, swaying, chanting slogans, singing revolutionary songs flash across the screens of Arab satellite channels, scenes of jubilant defiance and anger.

And, as I write, the violent repression of these protests continues. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and al-Jazeera (in Arabic) report that 25 individuals have been killed already in the besieged city of Homs and the countryside of Damascus. Another 83 died yesterday across Syria, according to the Observatory, while the Local Coordination Councils put the figure higher still, at 126 – 107 of them in Homs alone.

Overnight, army tanks entered the Insha’at neighbourhood of Homs, prompting fears of a broader ground assault, to follow the week-long artillery campaign on the city, which activists estimate has led to the loss of more than 400 lives.

Reports emerging from the city testify to the use of long-range shells and mortar to pound the residential neighbourhoods of Bab ‘Amru, al-Khalidiyya, al-Insha’at, and Bayyada, and to a worsening humanitarian situation. Human Rights Watch reports that hospitals are unable to cope with the number of casualties, while Al-Jazeera’s Beirut correspondent Rula al-Amin reports that medical supplies and food are running dangerously low (see links above).

There is no doubt that armed contingents of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) are present in several neighbourhoods of Homs. However, these deserters number no more than a few hundred or thousand men – a stark reminder of the deep asymmetries of power between these dissident forces and the Syrian regime, which has insistently claimed that it is faced an uprising by ‘armed bands’ (‘isabat), while using to the fullest its military superiority.

In other places, including the coastal cities of Banias and Latakia, in the ‘Alawi heartlands, and the Damascus suburbs of Duma and Daraya, troops have deployed to prevent demonstrators from congregating after Friday prayers.

Meanwhile, several car explosions went off in the northern city of Aleppo, killing 25 and injuring more than 175 according to Syrian state television, which has blamed the attacks on “armed terrorist gangs”.

The General Council for the Syrian Revolution, for its part, has accused the regime of plotting the attacks to foment unrest. This claim was echoed by an activist in the city itself who, citing ‘suspicious activity by security personnel’ in the moments before the explosion, told the BBC that “we hold the Syrian regime entirely responsible for this action”.

Further confusion has arisen from the conflicting claims of different contingents within the FSA. While one officer reportedly told Al-Jazeera’s Beirut correspondent Rula al-Amin that the FSA was responsible for the attacks, the Syrian National Council has issued a statement from the FSA in which it categorically denies any role in the attacks.

This latest blast will only increase the virulent controversy in the blogosphere between supporters of the regime, who see in them confirmation of government claims that the protests of the past year are born of a ‘terrorist’ ‘conspiracy’, and its opponents, who believe that they are one more cynical act of official violence, designed to keep the populations of first Damascus, and now Aleppo, quiescent.

Syria, it is clear, has entered a vicious spiral of violence. The spectre of instability, which the Baathist regimes of Hafiz and Bashar al-Asad have long boasted of holding at bay while neighbouring Lebanon and Iraq were consumed by internecine strife, is now at the door.

Many within the country, of course, had already resigned themselves to protracted unrest before the failure of the UN Security Council to reach agreement on a Draft Resolution supporting the Arab League’s efforts to secure a negotiated transition of power in Syria on the Yemeni model.

However, it does seem that the decision of Russia and China to veto this Draft Resolution has galvanized both the regime and the opposition to ramp up their activities.

While the regime has seen this veto as a license to continue in its repression, the continuing division of the international community on the vexed question of Syria has only added to the intransigence of many activists; despairing at their enforced isolation, they have become more obdurate still in their desire not to give in.

Thus, in a video message circulated on social networks on 6 February, the Humsi activist Khalid Abu Salah allied a call for assistance with a message of resilience. After appealing to ‘every noble human being to save us here in Baba ‘Amr, to save the children and the women in Baba ‘Amr’, he turns away from the camera for a brief moment, as gunfire resounds outside, and the clip seems to draw to an end.

Then, turning back, he addresses words of defiance to the Syrian president: ‘Ya Bashar, don’t think we’re going to surrender, if you killed all of us we wouldn’t surrender … if you killed all of us we wouldn’t surrender’.

Khalid Abu Salah’s “Appeal to the Free World”

There is no doubt whom Syrian opposition activists blame for the lack of support they receive. While the Local Coordination Committees have in the past berated the general inaction of the international community, naming one of their Friday demonstrations, in a sharp rejoinder to the international community, ‘Your silence is killing us’, they have chosen to call this Friday ‘Russia is killing our children’.

Russia has responded in kind to this deliberately emotive message. In a statement issued earlier today, its Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Ryabkov, accused the West of being “accomplices in the process of inflaming the crisis”, and insisted that the opposition’s refusal to enter into talks with the regime of Bashar al-Asad meant that it “bears full responsibility for improving the situation”.

It is clear that Russia feels stung by what it regards as a deliberate manipulation of the Security Council to prosecute regime change in Libya, and many critics of intervention have echoed its claims that any international action in Syria would be ruinous.

In a particularly caustic piece, the Columbia professor Joseph Massad has claimed that intervention of one kind or another would only serve what he calls ‘American imperialism in the Middle East’, berating the ‘exile opposition’ for having ‘hijacked the popular uprising against the Asad dynasty’.

But such claims overlook two crucial factors.

The first is that there exists no stark divide between opponents of the regime within the country and those in the Syrian mahjar, or diaspora. Opposition activists certainly disagree on key issues – not least that of international intervention – but the schism does not run along geographical lines.

The Syrian National Council itself, despite repeated assertions to the contrary, is not simply an exilic organization with few ties to those within Syria. While its figurehead, Barhun Ghaliun, has long been settled in France, other members of its executive committee, like Samir Nachar, have only very recently left Syria.

In a note posted on its Facebook page a few weeks before the official announcement of its formation on 1 October 2011, the SNC itself claimed that while 60% of its members were abroad, another 40% remained within Syria itself.

Moreover, it is clear that the SNC, far from the pipe-dream of ambitious émigré schemers, developed from reformist trends within Syria in the early to mid-2000s, such as the Damascus Declaration of 2005.

The second is that Russia and China, by blocking the proposed resolution, have themselves intervened in this internal conflict. Though some have justified their claims by pointing to the need to respect the sovereignty of the Syrian state, the notion that the West is, alone, contemplating intervention is harder to countenance.

To intervene, one need not put troops on the ground, send fighter planes or frigates – though, of course, Russia has already done so, having despatched a naval flotilla led by the aircraft carrier Kuznetsov to its own naval base in Tartus in November 2011, in a show of support for the regime of Bashar al-Asad…

Kenya’s military had one of its biggest victories this past weekend when two of its helicopter gunships attacked an al Shabaab convoy in Southern Somalia, killing more than 100 militant fighters, according to Kenyan Military spokesman Emmanuel Chirchir. This comes after the January 21 announcement that Kenya’s military incursion passed the halfway point in its “battle to crush the al Qaeda-linked insurgency in southern Somalia.”

This conflict has raged on for months. Many hope that the Kenyan offensive in the South and the African Union (AU) force in Mogadishu will quell the violence and stabilize Somalia after years of death and destruction.

Al Shabaab announced a ‘tactical withdrawal’ from the Somalia capital in August after an offensive by AU and government forces.

The main players on the Kenyan side have to be the Americans and the French. In October, the US revealed that it has sold military equipment and offered logistical support and training, although this has been taking place for sometime now. The US is also supporting the AU mission in Somalia (AMISOM), providing drones, body armor and night vision capability.

This equipment has been put to good use. In Late January, an alleged al-Qaeda member from London was killed in a missile attack on his car from an American drone on the outskirts of Mogadishu.

France, like Washington, is also providing logistical support to Kenyan forces. Col Thierry Burkhard said in late 2011 that French planes would transport military equipment to Kenyan soldiers near the Somali border. However, he denied Kenyan military claims that a French warship had shelled a Somali town.

With the help of both the French and the US, the Kenyan military is definitely no Mickey Mouse fighting unit. The Kenyan Air Force is well-armed with F-5 Tiger Attack jets, MD-500 and Chinese-made Harbin Z-9 helicopters.

In early January, F5 air strikes killed at least 60 Al-Shabaab militants in southern Somalia. The combination of air strikes by the jets and attack helicopters has helped pave the way for the Kenyan army and their tanks and armored personnel carriers to advance. This includes Vickers Mk3s, T72s, Humvees and the South African Puma M26.

Al Shabaab, or the ‘Youth’ in Arabic, has been using guerilla tactics to thwart the Kenyan firepower and they have been successful. Besides utilizing the typical terrorist group arsenal of AK-47’s, RPGs and hand grenades, they have become masters of the Improvised Explosive Device or IED.
A typical example of how Al Shabaab uses the IED is as follows: “when they need to target a suicide attack to its opponents, first they arrange a single person to carry out this attack as to be the suicide man, they put on his body a number of explosive belts and then they dress the person with the uniform of a TFG military soldier, which they are capable to find. They then load the vehicle with the explosive materials mostly containing eminent flammable items, and they also pack with the vehicle mixture of gun powder, car batteries, acids, a number of mobile phones, and sometimes a missile is put inside the vehicle to cause destructive power to the entire vehicle.”

Al Shabaab does have allies. First and foremost are their Yemeni counterparts, who recently shipped two boats loaded with military logistics, light weapons, Kalashnikovs and ammunition, and hand grenades. It is also believed to have the support of Eritrea, but this is something that the Eritrean government denies.

Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me. This old saying might not ring true for Al Shabaab or does it? It is believed that al-Shabaab is losing political support in Somalia due to the famine and its preventing humanitarian aid from reaching those who desperately need it. There are also accusations of internal divisions within the al-Qaeda faction.

In retaliation, al-Shabaab is using a similar campaign of propaganda with the use of social media like twitter. They joined in December (@HSMPress) and now have over 10,000 followers. The Kenyan Defence Force joined about a month earlier, in November (see KDF spokesman Emmanuel Chirchir @MajorEChirchir who has over 21,000 followers). Al-Shabaab trys to persuade the Somalian people by saying Kenyan troops are violating the sovereignty of their country and that they are the main line of defense against the hostile foreign invaders.

The BBC’s East Africa correspondent Will Ross says it is increasingly hard to know who is telling the truth in what is a hard-fought propaganda war (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15559584). And this will not change over the coming months.

Photo 1- Courtesy of Reuters (Al Shabaab militants parade new recruits after arriving in Mogadishu October 21, 2010, from their training camp south of the capital of Somalia). Available at: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/235664/20111021/at-least-10-peacekeepers-killed-in-somalia-battle.htm
Photo 2- Courtesy of Daryl Chapman, Bauhinia Photography (Z9 Helicopter, taken on July 6th, 2010). Available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/darylchapman/4768078868/

Good news: Conditions in Somalia have improved enough for the UN to declare an end to the 8-month famine.  Bad news: The food security situation remains perilous for Somalis.

The declaration of the end of drought conditions is good news, but it brings the risk that the international community will see it as the end of the crisis gripping the people in the Horn of Africa.  One resident of a refugee camp in Mogadishu explained, “‘The famine is almost over but we are desperately dependent on the food aid… If they stop it we will be back to [famine conditions] again. Our children are now better than before, but we ask the United Nations still to help us.’”

Mark Bowden, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia explained,

“We mustn’t give the impression that we’ve solved the problem…What we’ve done is actually reduced the very high levels of mortality and malnutrition which caused so much suffering. And we are now in the position to make even further progress to help people get back to normal lives. But we’ve still quite a long way from a return to normal and secure situations.”

On the ground, nearly 31% of Somalia’s population, or 2.3 million, are still in need of humanitarian assistance.  In the Horn of Africa region, 9.5 million people are expected to need ongoing humanitarian assistance.  Jose Graziano da Silva reminded the public of the continued danger in Somalia by saying  the crisis “‘…can only be resolved with a combination of rains and continued, coordinated, long-term actions that build up the resilience of local populations and link relief with development.’”

Another factor which may be helping with is the weakening of the al-Shabab militant group in Somalia.  BBC reports that while it has been pushed back by foreign forces,  al-Shabab’s deleterious effect on food security is evident in moves like preventing the International Committee for the Red Cross from carrying out its aid mission.

Image credit: Mohamed Abdiwahab/AFP/Getty Images/NPR

Is the Earth Getting Lighter?:

Taking into account human spacecraft going up and cloaked alien ships coming down, is the Earth gaining or losing mass? The BBC asked Cambridge University scientists to account for all of the material leaving and arriving on Earth:

But overall, Dr Smith has calculated that the Earth – including the sea and the atmosphere – is losing mass. He points to a handful of reasons.

For instance, the Earth’s core is like a giant nuclear reactor that is gradually losing energy over time, and that loss in energy translates into a loss of mass.

But this is a tiny amount – he estimates no more than 16 tonnes a year.

And what about launching rockets and satellites into space, like Phobos-Grunt? Dr Smith discounts this as most of it will fall back down to Earth again.

But there is something else that is making the planet lose mass. Gases such as hydrogen are so light, they are escaping from the atmosphere.

Smith concluded that the Earth loses 50,000 metric tonnes each year.

Link -via @BrainPicker | Photo: NASA

Slacktivists! Gah!

Ah, Slacktivists.

You know who I’m talking about. The Facebook users who ‘like’ every page calling for “Da Peaze in da Pakistan” and “We da true Pakis” and then blog angrily about how angry they are whilst tweeting under a pseudonym name like “Pakiz4Ever”. If I get another, “If you want peace and love in #Pakistan, RT this,” I will go Hulk on someone.

This phenomenon has risen as social media platforms have become increasingly more popular. The Express Tribune recently revealed some interesting statistics related to Pakistan and its presence on Facebook. According to the news outlet, over 6 million Pakistanis now use Facebook, making us #26 out of 213 countries that use the platform in the world. Given that internet penetration is just over 10%, Facebook usage is still relatively small (only 32.86% of the total online population), but the demographics are still significant (18-24 years, English-speaking, educated, “liberal”). Meanwhile, the use of Twitter has also increased significantly, though those numbers are harder to come by (one source noted it was over two million).

While I sometimes look upon Slacktivists with disdain & dripping snark (especially for those who do little more than ‘Like’ a page and feel like they are changing the world), there have been two recent cases for how social media activism can make a dent.

The Maya Khan Episode. Social Media: 1 | Vigil-Aunties: 0

For those of you living under a rock, blissfully unaware of Samaa Television‘s Maya Khan and the subsequent uproar, here is the breakdown. On Monday, Samaa TV fired newscaster Khan “after she led a self-styled moral crusade against dating couples that set off a furious public outcry,” reported the NY Times. These “vigil-aunties” (So p-unny! Ha! Ha!) essentially paraded around a park in Karachi, to ‘expose’ young unmarried couples on camera, even demanding to see a marriage certificate. After the show was broadcast on January 17th, “members of the liberal elite vented their fury on social websites at what they said was intrusion. Pakistan’s English-language media also took up the cause,” reported BBC News‘ Nosheen Abbas. Despite (two) public apologies by Maya Khan, the network dismissed her and her team and terminated the show. CNBC Pakistan (which owns Samaa) head Zafar Siddiqi said the company didn’t “absolve such behavior irrespective of ratings the show was getting.”

The Thori Si Bewafai Episode. Social Media: 1 | A Plus: 0

I first learned about the Thori Si Bewafai (A Little Unfaithfulness) show from Rabayl’s blog Obama Says Do More, in which she wrote about a reality television show on A Plus, a small entertainment channel, which claimed to use hidden cameras to intrude into real people’s personal lives and expose their alleged infidelities. Hosted by Shamoon Abbasi, the show is reminiscent of the ridiculously trashy American reality show, Cheaters. According to an online petition written by the newly created Citizens for Free & Responsible Media (CFRM),

The host of the show Shamoon Abbasi recently announced on his facebook page, that ‘Thori si bewafai’ is actually reenactments and involves paid actors. If in fact, Shamoon Abbassi’s statements are true, then the synopsis on your website and the programme itself, is a clear misrepresentation of the real nature of the show. But even if the programme is based on reenactments, the content of the show is dangerous; it encourages vigilantism and can lead to hate crimes.

Following the online petition and pressure, Abbasi quit the show, stating in a Facebook note, “I would like to clarify one last thing that myself was not comfortable doing this show in the first place and I AM QUITTING IT FOR THE SAKE OF THE PEOPLE WHO WERE OFFENDED BY THE SHOW!! I apologize to any one who I may have offended.”

The show is now off the air. Another win for social media activism?

Yay and…ye-ay. While both the Maya Khan and the Thora si Bewafai debacles were examples of how social media can be used to pressure mainstream media outlets, it is more a means to an end than an end itself. Journalist Beena Sarwar noted that this campaign incorporated a multi-pronged strategy in which social media wasn’t the only tool used to put pressure on these outlets. According to Beena,

Zafar Siddiqi from CNBC Pakistan responded promptly and positively to an email endorsed by several signatories that included some known names. His response may also have been due to other actions that were being taken: a copy of the petition signed by over 5,000 people was sent to him. Many people also sms’d him and called the Samaa offices at numbers publicised by some activists, who also posted links to the Pemra feedback form that people used to post complaints to. The Chairman Pemra said in an interview that Pemra had received over 350 complaints about that particular show. In addition, there was a threat of legal action against Samaa TV and several activists had begun contacting corporations to lobby them to withdraw commercials from such shows (both actions were stopped after Mr Siddiqi’s second email responding positively to media consumers’ complaints, but both remain real possibilities for future campaigns).

Firings and getting shows that encourage intolerance and vigilantism off-air are a short-term fix, but they ultimately don’t solve the greater issue – the need for independent checks and balances on the media. While Pakistan’s electronic media boom has been an important phenomenon, there also needs to be measures to curb that rein, so that it remains (relatively) responsible. Sahar Habib Ghazi wrote recently for Dawn, “My appeal is that we cannot lose steam with the [Maya Khan] parks episode. We have to continue to build pressure for all news channels to realize that they cannot afford to sacrifice ethical standards for ratings and money.”

For those of us who crowed that Maya Khan was a victory for social media, remember that pressure via platforms may help achieve one-off victories, but they do not cut to the root of the problem. Social media activism, while a tool, can’t achieve that end – it’s too simplistic, too microscopic. As long as you are aware of that limitation, then we’re cool. But if you ask me to RT for Peace, I’ll go Hulk.

Filed under: Op-Eds

As Reported by The BBC

The Taliban in Afghanistan are being directly assisted by Pakistani security services, according to a secret Nato report seen by the BBC.
The leaked report, derived from thousands of interrogations, claims the Taliban remain defiant and have wide support among the Afghan people. It alleges that Pakistan knows the locations of senior Taliban leaders.

A BBC correspondent says the report is painful reading for international forces and the Afghan government. Pakistan has strenuously denied any links with the Taliban on previous occasions.

“We have long been concerned about ties between elements of the ISI and some extremist networks,” said US Pentagon spokesman Captain John Kirby, adding that the US Defence Department had not seen the report.

The BBC’s Quentin Sommerville in Kabul says the report – on the state of the Taliban – fully exposes for the first time the relationship between the Pakistani intelligence service (ISI) and the Taliban.

The report is based on material from 27,000 interrogations with more than 4,000 captured Taliban, al-Qaeda and other foreign fighters and civilians.
It notes: “Pakistan’s manipulation of the Taliban senior leadership continues unabatedly”. It says that Pakistan is aware of the locations of senior Taliban leaders.

The report states: “As this document is derived directly from insurgents it should be considered informational and not necessarily analytical.”
Despite Nato’s strategy to secure the country with Afghan forces, the secret document details widespread collaboration between the insurgents and Afghan police and military.

Lt Col Jimmie Cummings, a spokesman for Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Afghanistan, said the document was “a classified internal document that is not meant to be released to the public”.

“It is a matter of policy that documents that are classified are not discussed under any circumstances,” he said.
The report also depicts the depth of continuing support among the Afghan population for the Taliban, our correspondent says.
It paints a picture of al-Qaeda’s influence diminishing but the Taliban’s influence increasing, he adds.

In a damning conclusion, the document says that in the last year there has been unprecedented interest, even from members of the Afghan government, in joining the Taliban cause. It adds: “Afghan civilians frequently prefer Taliban governance over the Afghan government, usually as a result of government corruption.”

The report has evidence that the Taliban are purposely hastening Nato’s withdrawal by deliberately reducing their attacks in some areas and then initiating a comprehensive hearts-and-minds campaign.

It says that in areas where Isaf has withdrawn, Taliban influence has increased, often with little or no resistance from government security forces. And in many cases, with the active help of the Afghan police and army.

When foreign soldiers leave, Afghan security forces are expected to take control. However according to the report, rifles, pistols and heavy weapons have been sold by Afghan security forces in bazaars in Pakistan.

Filed under: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Pakistan Army, Pakistani Taliban, Pakistanis, Taliban Tagged: Afghanistan, BBC, Hamid Karzai, Islamabad, Kabul, NATO, Pakistan, Pakistan Army, Taliban

As the company struggles to compete with competition such as Apple, Google or Microsoft,  it’s investors demand a strategic change that would give them a good return for what they have been investing in Research in Motion (RIM).

Blackberry makers, Research In Motion (RIM) say that there co-chief executives Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie have stepped down due to this struggle that company is constantly enduring against its latest competition such as Google Android, Apple iPhone, Apple iPad or Microsoft Windows Phone.

Mr. Mike Lazaridis, who founded RIM in 1984, is going to become the Vice Chairman of RIM while Mr. Jim Balsillie would be sitting in the board of directors and will have no operational role.

Thorsten Heins, who came into RIM from Siemens Communications in 2007 became chief operating officer of RIM in August, 2011 (according to the company), will now be replacing Mr. Lazaridis and Mr. Balsillie starting from Monday.

via BBC News

These last couple weeks I have been watching numerous movies on British politics. Coincidence or calculations? Yesterday night, it was Tinker, Tailor, Sailor, Spy, the night before Page Eight (which by the way is one of my favorite spy movies), tonight most likely the Iron Lady. Prior to this triple hat, I did see the Queen, The Special Relationship, Ghost Writer, the King Speech and the Deal among many others. So I cannot help myself thinking: why has Britain always shape imagination? Is there such thing as a British myth? And, what kind of power will Britain be in the 21st century?

All these movies – and I am missing a lot of them – prove that Britain’s soft power – or the power of attraction as defined by Joseph Nye – is more than ever alive and powerful. British cinema and music, such as Coldplay, are still doing very well and truly influence the artistic world to a certain extent. But has British soft power been an overall success? Not really, British soft power is also progressively eroding with the considerable cuts of the British diplomatic services, one of the most powerful in the world, by almost 20 percent. The Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO), diplomatic corps, has seen a reduction of its staff from 4,300 to 3,900, which will affect the influence of Britain in less relevant and strategic regions as well as the gathering of information. Furthermore, many radio programs of the BBC have already been cancelled. These moves will undeniably hurt British soft power in the long run. Looking at the domestic politics of Britain, the economic crisis has been pretty violent and led to the appointment of Mr. Cameron, a conservative, to Downing Street. Mr. Cameron’s job and approach have been to cut public programs in order to lower the overall budget deficit, an obsession among conservatives. The budget cuts have been considerable across the board, even the military did not escape it.

Talking of the military, defender of hard power, critics have claimed that defense budget cuts have been made without a clear overall strategy. Many believe that these defense cuts will affect the type of power Britain will be in the 21st century. Some have argued that the defense cuts of “the annual $58 billion Ministry of Defense budget might have to be cut by almost a quarter.” The Franco-British treaty of 2010 illustrates the new approach of cooperation in the very opaque world of military and defense. A year later, France and Britain sought to protect Libyan civilians from their leader Colonel Qaddafi. Both European military powerhouses knew that without NATO they would not be able to act and sustain their military strategies without the intervention of the US. Even though the mission was described as a success and a possible template for future missions, it did show that France and Britain cannot finance military operations at regional and international scales. Furthermore, these defense cuts have sent a wrong message across the pond. The American fear that it could affect the role of Britain in the Afghan counter-insurgency. Britain is the second largest force in Afghanistan after the US. Former US Secretary of Defense, Mr. Gates, expressed his concerns back in June 2011 about the large defense cuts taking place in Europe and their impacts on the relevance of NATO. Robert Gates declared that “If current trends in the decline of European defense capabilities are not halted and reversed, future U.S. political leaders — those for whom the Cold War was not the formative experience that it was for me — may not consider the return on America’s investment in NATO worth the cost.” Following the cuts, Defense Minister, Liam Fox declared in order to reassure his American counterpart, “We would be able to maintain a moderate deployable force for a considerable length of time, if required,” Mr. Fox added. “Maybe not exactly at the level we have now, but at still a respectable and useful level.” This remains to be seen.

So is Britain a Great Power? I would answer yes and no. No, Britain has never fully recovered from the crisis of 1929. At the time, Britain was a hegemon with overwhelming military, financial and economic power. The famous say “the sun never sets on the British Empire” illustrated the power and influence of the British empire around the globe as well as its exceptional nature. Since then, Britain has remained a very relevant power in the world thanks to its strategic positioning on many issues; historical heritage; membership of the EU and NATO; and its ‘special relationship.’ Multilateral institutions, such as the EU, NATO, the UN, the IMF, G-20, wherein Britain holds powerful seat and/or important shares can allow Britain to remain influential in the high sphere of politics and international security.

However, British power is undeniably declining as illustrated by the domestic turmoil such as the 2011 summer riots, the problem of radicalization among the communities of immigrants, and the erosion of the welfare state. Domestic signs as well as revision of ambition downwards are clear symbol of the decline of British power. The dispute with European counterparts on the protection of the British financial sector, the famous City, which has contributed to maintaining the world status of Britain, is considerable. The shift of power of the financial system will progressively move to Asia and impact the financial power of Britain. Following the election, Mr. Cameron declared in an interview:
What does it mean to be British in the 21st century? This is still a great country. Being British is being part of a successful multi-racial country that has traditional beliefs in liberty, supporting the underdog, and having a role that punches above our weight in the world. All those things still matter. We’re going to have a tough time for a couple of years. We’ll come through it, and we’ll be even stronger.

The decline of a great power of such preeminent power has already started and has had a considerable effect on the moral of the country. Let’s face it, movies will always be around in order to remind us how powerful Britain used to be.