VIOLENCE on university campuses may be an age-old phenomenon in Pakistan but of late it seems to be taking place with disturbing regularity. Much of the violence has centred on universities in Punjab, though other campuses elsewhere have not been immune. The Islami Jamiat Tulaba has drawn plenty of flak — and rightly so — for its strong-arm tactics on campus. Yet it is only one among many student groups responsible for disturbing campus life and further degrading the moribund academic standards in our universities. Matters are aggravated and become more worrisome when members of the faculty or university administration get involved in student politics or try to settle scores by backing opposing student organisations.

A tussle among faculty members at Bahawalpur’s Islamia University appears to be one of the factors that triggered violence between two student groups in February. The brawl between a group with religious affiliations and another student outfit left several peo....... Read more

The sordid details of the Bank of Punjab (BoP) scam and its former president Hamesh Khan’s arrest and deportation to Pakistan from the US have, among other things, exposed the culture of corruption rampant in Pakistani society. The PML-N and PML-Q have been at each other’s throats since the whole saga unfolded. Mr Khan himself is a very shady character, thus it is pertinent that NAB thoroughly investigate him and bring him to task. The involvement of the Chaudhrys in the BoP-Harris Steel Mills scandal involving Rs 9 billion cannot be ruled out since they were in power back then, but Mr Khan’s revelations about the Sharifs should not be taken lightly either. Why did the Sharifs want an ‘unsecured loan’ worth millions of rupees? If a common man requests such a loan, he would be laughed out of the bank. The alleged demand by the Sharifs points to a pattern, that of politicians securing such loans easily. Such practices are not just limited to the civilians; military dictators ar....... Read more

IF you want numbers and statistics, read the Carnegie Endowment reports or the Foreign Policy Institute’s Failed State Index. Pakistanis have had an indication of these stark facts for ages. Using 12 indicators of state cohesion and performance, the 2009 Index shows Pakistan ranked as the 10th ‘most’ failed state of the world — with Somalia, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Chad, Congo, Iraq, Afghanistan, Guinea and Central African Republic ranked worse.

The almost complete breakdown of governance and state machinery has made life for all but the most privileged a daily ordeal. But still there is a way out of this quagmire if people demand with vigour a few essentials from the state and themselves!

‘Unity, faith, discipline’, ‘Roti, kapra, makan’ and ‘Pakistan ka matlab kya’ — such slogans play with public sentiments but have failed to move people. A disillusioned people must naturally want to move beyond this. What then are the principles, actions and tools that ar....... Read more

By Josy Joseph in The Times of India

New Delhi: Kashmiri terrorists and refugees from Jammu and Kashmir in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir have both received a pay hike. According to latest inputs from various intelligence agencies, Pakistani authorities are now offering terrorists coming to fight in J&K a monthly salary in the range of Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000. This is a huge jump from the average pay of Rs 5,000 they were getting earlier.

The reason for this benevolence is obvious. There has been a drastic drop in violence levels in J&K and militancy needs a revival if the separatist agenda has to continue to grab global attention. The number of terrorists in J&K is now hovering around 700, an all-time low since militancy erupted in the state in the late 1980s.

The desperation among terror groups is also visible in the return of Furqan, one of the senior most Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives who had been the group’s launch commander based in PoK f....... Read more

More disturbing evidence that the Taliban have established a foothold in certain parts of southern Punjab has come to light following the lodging of an FIR in Jhang against a former district head of the banned Jaish-e-Muhammad. This is the first-ever FIR of its nature in Punjab and reflects a belated but welcome official admission of a serious problem that can no longer be wished away. The FIR, lodged under the Anti-Terrorist Act, suggests that the town, long a hotbed of sectarianism and home to banned outfits such as the Sipah-e-Sahaba, is now a major recruitment ground for the ‘Punjabi Taliban’ fighting in the north and a stepping stone for the group to spread its influence in other districts further to the south and east. Dr Imran, the man named in the FIR, is accused of running the network of the Tehrik-e-Taliban in the area, launching fund-raising drives and sheltering wanted Taliban leaders. Parts of southern Punjab certainly are a fertile breeding ground for militanc....... Read more

SOMEHOW for all the signs that there could be no escape from implementing the NRO verdict, the government keeps prevaricating. The Prime Minister who, being the chief executive is duty bound to ensure that the court orders are carried out, is the main government functionary trying to find grounds for the futility of doing so. Speaking to the office-bearers of the Lahore Press Club, who called on him on Sunday, he seemed to advise the Supreme Court to summon the NRO architect, meaning thereby General Musharraf, without realising that the judgement already puts him in the dock for transgressing the limits of Article 6 of the Constitution. It would be interesting to recall that it was the PPP government that sent him abroad after giving him a grand guard of honour.
Mr Gilani had better ask his Law Minister to approach the apex court to summon Musharraf before it. He should also keep in mind that the beneficiaries of the bad law cannot be left out of the loop of accountability. Besid....... Read more

The writer is an accountant living in Dublin

This refers the article by Mr Imran Khan published in The News (May 14) in response to my article previously published on these pages. It occurs to me that Mr Khan has totally misunderstood the issue by picking up the thread from the wrong end. The issue is not confined to ethnic labelling only. The primary issue is that of stripping the people of Hazara of their identity by calling them “Punjabiyan”. While I strongly believe that Punjabis are equally respectable as anyone else on this planet, I know for a fact that the reference “Punjabiyan” is made in the Pashto-speaking areas quite often in a contemptuous way. This attitude of people in the Pashto-speaking areas is particularly painful for those from Hazara who are of Pukhtun origin. For them, it is difficult to accept when the people of their own race try to outcast them for the wounds caused by your own people always leave dirty scars. It was particularl....... Read more

(An authoritative account of how Pakistan’s A.Q. Khan helped spread nuclear terrorism unhindered for decades)  Review by Bob Drogin in The Los Angeles Times, May 11

Nuclear weapons, which largely faded from front pages after the Cold War, are back in the news. President Obama endorsed a new national security strategy, and earlier this year he signed an ambitious arms control treaty with Russia, further easing fears of global Armageddon. But Obama also led an unprecedented summit of world leaders to warn of an increasingly urgent threat — nuclear terrorism.

Much of this perilous state of affairs can be traced to the villainous deeds of Abdul Qadeer Khan. A.Q. Khan, as he is known, is the self-described father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb and the self-confessed mastermind of a criminal network that seemingly sold nuclear weapons technology like it was aluminum siding. The proof: Nearly every nation that has tried to build or obtain a nuclear de....... Read more

The writer is a graduate of Boston University.
Pakistan-India relations since independence have revolved around mutual distrust, uncertainty, disappointments, tensions and fear of conflict.

We should seriously think as to why it`s so, especially when both countries gained independence from a single colonial power through a political process, negotiated between the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League. While we often hear people from both sides say, had the two countries been one, we would have been a force to reckon with, both in might and economy, I wonder why India and Pakistan can`t draw strength from each other as friendly and stable neighbours, sharing a common past, heritage and civilisation.

Bilateral disputes between them remain unresolved, their cooperation bounded by severe limitations. India thinks Pakistan is an irritant impeding India`s emergence as a key player in the world economy and Pakistan feels that India has been tryin....... Read more

The writer is an economist working in Islamabad
This is in response to Mr Kashif Jahangiri’s article ‘The real Hazara problem’ which appeared in The News on May 6, 2010. The incidents of discrimination that Mr Jahangiri has mentioned in his article must be condemned; discrimination – be it ethnic or religious – is wrong. But to generalise the entire Pukhtun community on the basis of wrong behaviour shown by a few individuals is also wrong, just like it is unfair to brand all the Muslims as terrorists based on the actions of a few.

According to the hypothesis proposed by Mr Jahangiri, the current movement for the province of Hazara is a reaction to the “contempt” doled out to Hazarewals by Pukhtuns. I disagree with Mr Jahangiri and my disagreement is based on two reasons. First, this ethnic labelling is not unique to Pukhtuns and Hazarewals, and also, it is not one-sided. Second, the intensity of this “contempt....... Read more