TTP spokesman EhsnaullahEhsan,hadsaid on Feb 3^rdthat if Nawaz Sharif (PML-N), MaulanaFazal-ur-Rehman(JUI-F) and Ameer Syed MunawarHasan(JI) will act as guarantors for the peace talks, they would be willing to negotiate.Ehsanullah asserted that in the past they have offered talks to the PPP government but instead of negotiating they captured and imprisoned their negotiating-team. He further alleged that the Army, who is at the back of the power, has made the political governments break truces with the TTP in the past; therefore TTP does not trust the Army and wants the Army to put these 3 gentlemen between them for negotiations.

But as 2 weeks passed by and there was no substantial response from these 3 gentlemen, the ANP has called in a grand ‘moot’ of 24 political and religio-political parties, and representatives of the Supreme Court Bar Association and the Pakistan Bar Council, including the PML-N and JUI-F.

Let’s analysis the whole story as it was building, in the onset, this strange phenomenonof ‘talking to the enemy’ had again put the common man of this country in a confounding situation. Why does there have to be an arbitrator between a criminal gang and the state; what makes Nawaz, Fazal and M. Hasan the privileged arbitrators; and how does a gang responsible for the killing of thousands of innocent civilians, get to present a ‘package’ for negotiation! What is going on in this country?

In any normal social arbitration, we are accustomed to seek arbitration of either someone who will play neutral to both parties, or someone who will be on our side. But for a proven criminal gang to choose an arbitrator from its priority clearly puts the Nawaz-Fazal-MHasan trio in an awkward situation; is this trio neutral to both the state and the criminal gang; or is the trio covertly on the side of the criminal TTP gang.

Perhaps it would be right to investigate as to what terms/package the TTP wanted to achieve through this negotiation. Is it not that the TTP, in the wake of the 2014 NATO withdrawal scenario, wanted a free-ticket to any possible safe-haven that would ensure their lives and livelihoods. Once the war was over and both Pakistan and Afghanistan had their borders secured, it would not be possible for a vagabond entitylike the TTP to exist, which relies on its escapability for most its proceedings and a porous border for most of its supplies.So where would the TTP mercenaries go, once the US/NATO fiasco is over, many speculations are in the air. Some say they will disperse into several fractions dissolving themselves in the local communities; some rumor that they may re-organize for the Kashmir Jehad, seeping between the porous LoC; and others say that most of these mercenaries, who are foreigners, will return to where they came from.

But the TTP negotiator Ehsanullah was talking in a different tone; he was not talking like a criminal-on-the-run would be talking, he was talking like a man of honor is talking to a criminal state-government and Army. So what did he demand, it is possible that he wanted to demands respect and re-induction of his men into the very society they have been killing and terrorizing for over a decade, on the pretext that they were the ones on the heavenly path of Jehad all this time.

Again let’s try to figure out how the Nawaz-Fazal-MHasan trio fitted in this situation. Did the TTP trust them to provide their desired safe-haven within or outside the country to them?Did the TTP consider this trio to be their guarantee for safety against the Army or the unwilling government? Did the TTP expect the trio to make a kind of an NRO for them; absolution from all guilt prior to date? Where does that make the trio stand?

This would have been the last thing the weary nation of an 18crore distressed, frustrated and exhausted nation would want to come to: do our political parties have covert relations with the most heinous non-state murderous entities!!

God-Forbid No! But this is exactly the kind of question which is raised in the minds, both in case of their silence or in case they would have agreed to arbitrate. But they made a better move, a political move, which they expertise in; they moved in with a greater alliance called in by the ANP.

In the meantime the government had said that they will think of negotiating only if the TTP proclaims a 1 month cease-fire from its side. In this pretext, the conference called by the ANP’s ended up with rhetorical declarations like: ‘militancy and violence is not a problem of any one party… it is the entire country’s problem’,‘…Continued democratic and political process and its sustainability will help in dealing with the problem in the long run’, ‘…(they thank) the efforts of the grand Qabailijirga for the restoration of peace in Fata’, ‘The APC prays for martyrs who have lost their lives because of terrorism, and express their condolence with their families’, ‘(they want to) adopt a collective strategy to overcome the problem of terrorism’, ‘…no formal agenda has been set for the conference and it would take into consideration the proposals and suggestions…’.

The TTP rightly said that ‘this seems like and election stunt’, as there was nothing conclusive in this declaration, no question that might have been in the minds of the Taliban was answered.

Therefore it can be safely concluded that the government has shunned away its responsibility of resolving the Taliban issues using their delay-tactic and the grand alliance of all our mandated representatives have played their diplomatic card, so the TTP can safely roam around as the king of the jungle, as all politicians act foxy, trailing behind each other.

Perhaps a grand moot should be called by all, just to decide who is who in this game, who are the bad guys and who the good ones, who is the thief and who is the police; or are we secular to all evil.

PKKH Editorial

Quetta has been blasted again with the weapon of massacre, agony and dissent, the air of the country is heavy with regret again and the hearts are dumbstruck in disbelief and hopelessness. O our Hazara community! who has selected you, flesh and blood, heart and soul, to serve their purpose of dividing this nation and eroding its integrity; who has made human sacrifice to the gods of ‘opportunity’ and ‘power’ in the vogue again; who are the priests of this barbaric ritual and who are the gods they serve?

And look at those who have meted their purpose with the purpose of the killers; those who blame the religion, its intolerance, it extremism for being the cause of this brutality, they play an amazingly simple stunt of clownery to amuse their audience; they blame religion, the basis of all morality, to be the killer of morality, and they add to the purpose of those who have been employed to destabilize and defunct this nation, by snatching its very will to survive, and by plunging it into the guilt of deficiency and corruption.

The strategy of the killers is obvious; mark the weakest and neglected of all communities of the country; attack and kill repeatedly; so that the guilt factor of the suffering of a minority can be distributed over the majority; so the nation can be divided on the lines of sectarianism; thus maligning and having targeted their belief-system; with an additive of international condemnation for an act against humanity and calls of being a failed state. So many purposes are fulfill in killing a poor and defenseless community, not a big price to pay for international hegemony, when the rule of the game is ‘you’ll be at the top as long as others lack the will to stand’.

The very small community of liberal thinkers residing within our community is as usual not wasting this occasion to purport their mal-ideology upon the thought system of the community. They are calling it #ShiaGenocide; they seem to attack sectarianism, but they practically incite it; they seem to attack the extremist element but they practically prove to be most extreme against the moderate religion we believe in.

Therefore the work of little organizations such as the PKKH itself becomes manifold and complex, are we to boast the morale of a distressed people, are we to re-define morality, are we to re-unite the contentious sectors of the society, are we to count down the increasing list of our enemies or are we to save our belief.

let us start with at least calling this event a #MuslimKilling instead of a #ShiaGenocide, let us start by calling the #Hazara our brothers, and raising our voices in unity with them not in disuniting the nation; let us begin by stretching our arms for their help, in a time when they desperately need it; let us not fall for those who are here to cash in on every incident of grief, to serve their vested interests.

We must also consider at this time the extremist TTP element is on the run at this point and is trying to find space to negotiate with the state of Pakistan. At this time it is an organization, whose chief is in bad health and whose command has dwindled, and whose cadres are disintegrating, at such a time this weakness becomes the source of creation of several offshoots, which are immature, and can prove more lethal and easier to be bought as hired guns for those who may want to exploit the fault lines of Pakistan.

LeJ, the old rotten entity, has now a new face the same offshoots are now exploiting the bloody past of LeJ and using it for their heinous crimes in the present. A fault line, which haunted Pakistan in 80s and 90s as well, is being used this time for exploitation in Baluchistan. Paid mercenaries have no ideology, thus in the present scenario the offshoots of the TTP, will be mixing with those of the LeJ, the BLA and the BRA in their purpose of killing, looting and spreading chaos in the society. The BLA and BRA have proven this in the past, despite of having the great differences ideologically; they become the compounded threat for our society.

Let us defeat our enemy at the ideological front first, let us bounce back as one entity, one community and one nation, as #Pakistan. Let us give the message to the people of Khawarijs, their masters and their beneficiaries that attack on any community in Pakistan is an attack on Pakistan.

Let us remind ourselves, that we chose to be the Pakistanis, and they chose to kill us and divide us in different communities. Our choice is as oppose to that; to remain the same entity, with one same identity; they anguish us and attack our institutions and our integrity; we fight back with unity in one entity: Pakistan and one religion: Islam.

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PKKH Exclusive | by Aneela Shahzad

Loads and loads have been written for and against evolution; the conclusion for this essay will be that the case of evolution is built more on political and anti-religion grounds than on grounds of science.
It is true that when Darwin was eagerly awaiting the discovery of the missing links between one species and another, he also considered them the missing links that would strengthen the belief in God on scientific lines. But those who espoused to further the idea of evolution and put their life’s works in it, did that for the opposite reasons; they did not think that many more links and a more elaborate system would call for a more omniscient God, instead they thought they would be able to get rid of any God at all.
One would not have any problem if God wanted to bring forth man out of the seeds of the monkeys, if one thinks that God is simply omnipotent, He can do what He wills; but the problem is, He just didn’t do it that way! And it’s not just the Quran or the other scriptures giving ultimate evidence of how He didn’t, but it is also our sense and our scientific way of thinking that is hindering us.

This essay will not be dealing with facts related to evolution in any elaborate way, rather it would be impressed upon the reader how evolution is a misfit in our logical way of thinking; how the stubborn insistence to make evolution a part of our belief when the evidence is not complete, seems to be the only track out, for a civilization weary of carrying their God on the cross, and the cross on their neck-laces, for so long; where embracing ‘no God’ is less disgraceful than embracing a God full of faults.

The theory of evolution has been proven by many, not to hold enough validation to be upheld as a law, still this theory holds so true to the common sense of the western thought that nothing else could be more true; the facts that natural sciences have as yet been unable to give substantial evidence for the possibility of abiogenesis to occur; no case of mutation in DNA has been recorded that accounts for an increase in the information it holds; millions of transitional forms that should have been embedded in successive layers of soil as the hit and trail method of genetic material would be expected to go through gradually in millions of years have not been found, yet the scientific community of the west is willful in putting its faith in the ‘chance’ that all the required evidence will someday originate.

If the tree of evolution stands on such flimsy grounds, what are the fruits it bears, that make it such a favorite? Is it a golden rule like E=mc2 that stretches existing sciences onto new frontiers? Is it a key that has opened new avenues in technological advances or has it been the bases of many other discoveries? Or has it only been a bone of contention between those who want to pursue the truth for the sake of truth in the scientific community, and those who want science to prove their ideas true at any cost. Has it not served as a divisor of the scientific community into genuine thinkers and crooks?

Evolutionists are people who believe that the theory of evolution is so true that even if they have to misquote science for it or twist the findings of scientific experiments and inquiries, it is alright, just for the sake of humanity. The same humanity that has been defying the existence of God anyways, by refuting the prophets, by maligning the scriptures and by inflicting the evilest possible atrocities upon fellow humans in the name of God, so that eventually God became the most cruel, insensitive and the most illogical entity ever. When all things that associate with God had been used by the church and the church had been used by the despots, to drain humanity of all its riches, all its moral wealth and brought it to the point where the word religion equals to the word barbarism and the church and the bible signify the disgust and hatred of the common people, that was the time of the coming of the ‘cult of the evolutionist’. The evolutionists were the bridge between irrational belief and common sense; they were the saviors of the humanity living north of the hemisphere, from a total moral death; humanity that had yet been saved by Jesus having hanged himself on the cross; who had died to let his followers be free to sin till eternity, now wanted to kill him again to become gods on their own. Now, eventually, they can do some good, eventually they can use their commonsense and decide for themselves that ‘this is good’ and ‘I am going to do it now’.

The evolutionist gave his people the courage to nullify the need of God in their thought system, therefore to acquire atheism; when he told them repeatedly that you were not made by God, in the form of a clay doll, with life inspired into it, but you actually genetically reformed into this species through constant mutations in the species of the monkeys; not trying to explain why so many kinds of monkeys are still hanging peacefully on the trees, when the species should have been swarming with mutant deformities, in such a short time of conversion like maybe, from a 100 thousand to 60 thousand years ago; when all the forms found in trees show hardly any mutation from the healthy forms they are in. Well, then, if we have been derived from monkeys, which had been derived from dinosaurs, which had been derived from whales, which had been derived from shrimps, which had been derived from nascent DNA, which had been derived from practically a thunderbolt that stroke a puddle of elementary things that was clueless of its near conversion into life and neither did anyone else know anything about that; then the position of God is regressed to such a remoteness, that neither does He need to know much about you nor do you need Him to interfere in your life. If at all, He exists, you could imagine Him to be a whole fabric of events, unfolding itself in time, changing faces all the time, in search of its own perfection, in the passage of which all events that go by are dispensable experimental results and the only thing that can be said to be truly godly, is what passes successfully from one stage to the other, i.e., survive. So all is good that helps you survive, helps you grab more resources in the competitive world of depleting resources and be ahead of the rest of humanity, physically, technically and in scientific connivance.

The dependence of evolution on ‘chance’ and the ‘hit and trail’ method of nature, converts God into a self-indulged experimenter, or more so, into ‘the force of nature’ or into a way that matter manifests itself, as one imagines the whole universe to be that self-indulged something with the urge of changing and becoming; under this hypothesis it is fit for man, who considers himself to be at the most advanced state of matter, to experiment as an individual; therefore, the more a person is to enhance his individuality, live himself to the fullest, the more he will experience his oneness with the ultimate truth of all existence. In this house of ‘hit and trail’, nothing is ultimate, nothing is good or bad, all is embraced as material for reactions, all results are cherished as data-bank that would lead to new experimentation. There is no place for shame, disgust and piety, these are the anti-matter that stop man from progress, from change; they tend towards integration when nature’s way is to disintegrate, they tend towards conservation and distribution when nature’s way is origination, change and snatching.

The evolutionist draws a brutal picture of nature, void of empathy, and invites humanity to make the ways of nature its own ways. Nature acts in a progressive way, with no written plan to follow, it just allows all or the maximum possibilities to occur; and of all the possibilities that have come into existence, it mercilessly discards and insensitively lets buried down the sequence of events whatever it finds unfit to be. Empathy did not bring us here, only our beauty in the eyes of the blind universal force and our physical and intellectual superiority have earned us the right to be, the god of change will not save us from extinction, just because he loves us, but our worth as the best will save us, we will be there as long as we manage to keep at the top of the food-chain.

Therefore competition and materialism become the vogue of the day, having pity on others will only lessen our chance to survive, empathy was made to aid our success; but to our disaster, we have made it a machine to hinder our progress, to irrationally associate shame to so many traits that could actually help us and to trap ourselves to do for God’s sakes, what He would never have done for us. So redefine empathy, weigh the matters again and see what gives you pleasure, comfort and survival; what gives you the best of life and lets you live it to the fullest, that is empathy; it is what feels good, what gives you the assurance of life and control.

The evolutionist is also taking away the future of humanity as such, even if you are at the top of the food chain now, you won’t be for long; because the universal driving force has always worked on the principle of ‘change’ and it’s not going to stop now, the old species will eventually give way to the new ones, either you will change or something else will change into something better than you. So what is the future of humanity on this earth at best, a change into another form, a mutant form, slowly transforming into a totally new form. But this time, man can have a hand in his own evolution, he is such a possessor of intelligence that nature can allow him to act to that extent; already theories are being put forth how man will transform into a superman by implanting high-tech chips in his brain, making him capable to see more, do more, hence become much more powerful than what he is now. When such a species will evolve within mankind, how will it deal with its own degraded unchanged form? Will it strive to save it or will it haste to it near annihilation? Will the common man not become for them, what chimps are for us today?
As the future of man becomes bleak in this world, so does his future in the heavens, readied for him by his God, as he was His prized creation, pops off into thin air, as he is not a prized creation after all, he is just an intermediate, dispensable mutation.

Politicians, who are always at the top of the food-chain, espouse such a theory, they believe in it; the moral of this theory suits their moral of the ‘survival of the fittest’ well. It helps them make humanity understand that they are the have-nots because they are incapable, less intelligent and it is their fate, because they mutated this way, to be subservient to the higher mutants, just like all lower forms are subservient to their higher in nature. They invite humanity to ‘take it if they can’ when covertly they make sure that they will be never allowed to; because they are too human to sense their cunning; too human to greed as much as they can greed, ready to kill and rob for power; the lowly human will keep sticking to bare survival, in their run for survival in this catastrophic hell of ‘change’.

Evolution has served science but little, it has only been an exercise for mind to wrestle in the dark, to find possibility where there is none; many a times scientists have gone into deceitful situations but they haste back on the very sign of doubt; but evolution has struck some of our scientists as opium, they will not come out of this black-hole, no matter how many ropes you throw in.

However, this theory is fit in another way, it has partaken in the evolution of human thought. Humanity, that has always believed in the interference of a supernatural and worshipped it in one form or another, however irrationally, yet has kept answering this natural inclination of his inner-self. Only now, with the help of the evolutionist, has mankind been able to mutate out of this subjectively inner voice; this thought, this idea has bared man from his long-cherished trait of nobility.

Behold, only the super-humans, will have these mutations, they will bear the appendages of change, they will hold the reins of power, they will ready themselves with gadgets implanted into their bodies and brains, they will make sure that they have no pity in their hearts; while the rest of the extinct-able humanity will, keeping to their dear gods, ready themselves for their mass-sacrifice for Superman.

Aneela Shahzad is an editor at PKKH.tv and can be contacted via info@pakistankakhudahafiz.com,  and you can also find her at Aneela Shahzad’s Blog.

PKKH Exclusive | by Mhummad Umer Toor

Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy (PH), a believer in the dictum of “Science for its own sake,” has to come to pass unqualified judgements on the poetry and message of Iqbal – as if PH was dean of literature & philosophy at Al-Azhar University. He has reduced Iqbal’s rigorous and universal poetic work to mere sensational sentimentalism. He has degraded Iqbal by equating him to an emotional awami poet, who continues to misguide many in the Dr’s opinion. If anything lacks an intellectual judgement, then that is Dr PH’s (mis)understanding of why Pakistan breathes and sees things from Iqbalian lungs and eyes. Perhaps repelled by deeply Islamic and anti-modernist message of Iqbal, he is doing so to vent his frustration. Why is he frustrated? Majority of Muslims seem to have rejected the pseudo-liberal, secular-fundamentalist interpretations of Islam by the likes of Dr Pervez in the favor of holistic understanding of Iqbal, who critiqued modernity at the deepest level both in verse and prose. (We would concede the argument that at some important levels Iqbal too was an Islamic modernist – but nothing of the sorts of PH & co.)

• PH begins by saying, “In the battle for Pakistan’s soul, Sir Syed’s rational approach ultimately lost out and the Allama’s call on emotive reasoning won. Iqbal said what people wanted to hear — and his genius lay in crafting it with beautifully chosen words. Unfortunately, his prescriptions for reconstructing society cannot help us in digging ourselves out of a hole. Iqbal’s politics, routed through his soul-stirring poetry, is the real reason why he is Pakistan’s supreme icon today.”

Routed through his intellectual public lectures and writings addressed to the political and intellectual elite, Iqbal’s message makes him not only a “supreme icon” but a spiritual and intellectual guide as well. Moreover, Iqbal’s poetry is not divorced from his serious thought and philosophy expressed in English or Persian. Content is more or less same both in prose and poetry; underlying thoughts and worldview are consistent; but expressions are different. Poetry cannot allow itself to be formally logical; philosophy cannot afford to be informal. PH has confused content with manifestation. He misunderstands nature of poetry, and denies its relation with philosophical and metaphysical truth. What’s more, allegation that Iqbal said what people wanted to hear is saying that Iqbal was dishonest and only wanted to please people. How can anyone verify that? One can only reject it given Iqbal’s admonitions and criticisms of 20th century Muslim in his poetry (compare Shikwa and Jawab-e-Shikwa).

PH’s (mis)reading of Iqbal’s poetry is superficial and rejectable. To call his poetry, which clarifies one’s vision of reality and calls one to action, as “emotive” is a serious intellectual blunder, if not outright dishonesty. By calling it emotive he seems to imply that Iqbal’s poetry is irrational and fundamentalist. What else can be the implication? Certainly Iqbal’s poetry is an illumination, a direct intellection that speaks to the qalb, a source of intelligence as per Qur’an. One might call it the nur of Allah by which a momin sees and understands things – a way of knowledge & understanding that a haughty, modern physicist is most likely to deny. (He said that every verse descends on him in final form – showing directness, an aspect of revelation.) Iqbal’s poetry was a meta-logical crystallization of what he had learned directly from Qur’an, this is even truer for his philosophical Persian poetic works: at least this is how Iqbal described his own works!

Sir Sayyed’s 19th century apologetic essays have, however, been hailed as beacon of light for centuries to as per PH. The ghosts of 19th century Muslim modernism have been invoked in PH’s article: submission to Western imperialism & Eurocentrism, rebellion against the revealed religious doctrines & view of nature & reality, surrender to wholesale materialism, etc. This is what Sir Sayyed preached, with all due respect to him as a Muslim leader and educator. Sir Sayyed was under pressure vis-a-vis modern Western thought and civilization as per Iqbal. He did not have the tools to respond to its intellectual challenges (lacking training in philosophy and science, for instance). His writings – no wonder simplistic – had tinges of inferiority complex. We might say that the greatest gift of the efforts of Sir Sayyed to Islamic world was Iqbal, who outgrew his predecessor. Iqbal understood the shortcomings of Sir Sayyed, namely, his submission to the dogmatic claims of 19th century science, modern philosophy and an attitude of West-worship. But, Iqbal always paid huge salutations to SS’s efforts and viewpoints. In that sense, Sir Sayyed and Iqbal emerge out as winners in my mind.

• “Sir Syed accepted the Holy Quran as divinely revealed … He proposed a radical reinterpretation of the Holy Quran to make it compatible with science and modernity … Among other matters this involved understanding miracles, which science cannot accept as factual. Sir Syed therefore explained the Great Flood, as well as various miracles of Jesus, to be purely allegorical and symbolic.”

Like most modernized Muslims, PH suffers from the plague of scientism, which takes science as an ideology. For many 19th century Muslims, “modern science had become god, unconsciously – and not the God of Islam.” The attempt was to make Quran look compatible with science to prove Quran’s credibility! “That was a major disease worse than cholera that entered Muslim world,” deplores physicist-philosopher Dr Nasr. Today things are better we believe. A young muslim scientist today is more likely to believe in unseen realities than a diffident graduate of Sir Sayyed’s institution. PH has not, however, reformed himself (nor the modern science which still has its mechanistic & positivist moorings intact).

The impulse to interpret Qur’an according to dominant scientific view is an old one. For instance, in old days, it was believed that bees produced honey not in their stomach but in the glands of their legs. Qur’an says that Allah produces honey in bees’ batoon, which literally means stomach. To conform Qur’an to the scientific view of his time, Al-Razi said that one meaning of batoon was also gland of bees legs. Today, we know that the literal meaning (i.e., stomach) is correct!

This is not to suggest that the cold scientific interpretations are unjustifiable; they do show us that there’s nothing illogical or irrational about Qur’an. However, to deny angels, miracles or higher realities which cannot be confirmed in a physics laboratory is an illegitimate attitude; because, this is beyond the vocation of science as such. As Bertrand Russell told the young MIT scientist, Dr Nasr, that “Physics doesn’t concern itself with the nature of reality of things per se but with mathematical structures related to pointer readings.”

• PH considers the prescriptions of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan more practical and vivid than Iqbal’s.

Iqbal’s metaphysical and practical poetry on one hand and his “serious” English works on the other hand do not qualify for PH’s recommendation as useful and clear guides for Muslims. Just because Iqbal didn’t write “2+2 = 4” kind of essays for public?

Iqbal, unlike Sir Sayyed, was at the frontier of intellectual efforts of his time, and at the same time involved in many projects: social, political, and educational – although he was not a man of action in the sense Sir Sayyed was. He had read many texts of Einstein and on higher physics, such as theory of relativity, as well. This allowed him to critique classical physics under which 19th century man was spell-bound. And, if we are to believe that the change comes at the highest level – intellectual, philosophical and spiritual – then Iqbal was that change agent par excellence. PH’s dull and simplistic notion of Iqbal’s “impracticality” and “vagueness” is neither justifiable nor wise. Intellectual matters are inherently complex; whereas, operational procedures or policy recommendations are not. By the way, who ‘clearly’ dreamed of Pakistan (as it is today, geographically)?

• PH sees Sir Syed as a man of rationale who tried to bring back Muslims from “backwardness.” Iqbal, in his opinion, hardly offered any clear solutions to end the suffering of Muslims.

Backwardness is a western ‘innovation of misguidance’ to pass value-judgements on other civilizations which have not ‘developed along purely material lines’. The idol of ‘indefinite economic progress is what the moderns worship, and everyone in the world is made to prostrate before it. PH’s sentimental call for revision of Islam is no exception. Most, if not all, of the mental efforts of moderns are not invested in purely intellectual pursuits but in increasing GDP, inventing luxurious items, performing academic acrobats by saying new things and making ‘smart bombs to kill dumb Muslims’. It is precisely to save themselves from western domination that Orientals have to build the machine – and not to be part of a League of the ‘Civilized’ ‘Developed’ of West. For the Oriental, spirit, contemplation and harmony with nature is Real; and destruction of nature, pursuit of self-interest and greed Unreal.

Talking of material poverty, Iqbal was deeply concerned with it. He said that poverty can lead to spiritual death of people. This is why he was so interested in economics. Economic vision of Iqbal was concrete and insightful for his time, and even relevant today philosophically. He wrote for the first time an up-to-date standard economics textbook in Urdu; spent years figuring out plans to tackle poverty as per shari’ah laws; and raised his voice at highest level for exploited under-privileged ones. Perhaps, PH needs some understanding of economic works & ideas of Iqbal.
In short, the real problem is that PH doesn’t know what he knows not. His appreciation of Iqbal’s poetry is not accurate; rather his criticism of it seems more sentimental than even poetry can be! PH’s worldview is based on the ideas of modernism, eurocentrism, materialism, and scientism – and it is from this platform that he attacks Iqbal; whereas Iqbal dismantles the very platform! Lastly, accusations on a poet-philosopher of being impractical and not clear are self-contradictory. No wonder why Iqbal and his mentor Sir Sayyed must win; and PH may lose, unreformed.

Muhammad Umer Toor is a wanna-be philosopher in distant future. Based in Lahore, with a BSc in Business, he blogs at www.toorumer.blogspot.com.  He can be reached at i.umer.toor@gmail.com

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PKKH Editorial

Protest against the Saturday Quetta massacre has proceeded throughout the country for 3 days, with boxes of the dead laid in the open, questioning morality from a deep trench. The air is filled with remorse, grief and skepticism, and the mourning is vigil in the hearts that cohere with the human element and connect the death of a distant brother with that of one very close to them, some time ago. But for those who cannot look at it except for body-count and agenda-stirring, there is no connection only point-scoring.

Coming to connection;the human community, however defected it may seem to be, is assembled from the onset on the sharing of a worldview between a group of people, uniting them in the subconscious as one people, wherein they will keep finding the connection in all variations, wherein individuals proceed in their livelihoods in a collective air of security and unity; for if this air is snatched away and filled in with fear and insecurity, and the very worldview that unites this people is maligned and put to question, that is a time when society is being prepared for disintegration.

And now seems to be the time, as proponents of dissent anddivide are at their full force to create all sorts of negativity that could possibly debase the force that keeps us united. The mainstream news channels are playing their part in enhancing the Shia Sunni divide, they who never tire from raising the slogans of ‘democracy’, are now feeding the minds for armed intervention in Quetta, an onslaught of writings is being launched in all mainstream newspapers that never miss joining the most heinous of all acts somehow with Islam. Here is their basic web: Islam glorifies Jehad, which inevitably creates extremist ideology, which originate in the form of terror organizations, who want to impose the “true” Islam, which is an extremist religion, therefore a “moderate” Islam has to be defined, keeping in view the Liberal stance, which will takes us to modernism and progress, so that the ‘extremist element’ are destroyed by changing our worldview, while we should be accepting the fact that it is not possible to eliminate the terrorists with bullet or talk, as they are an inbred and recurringphenomenon of any Islamic society, because it not that the terrorist are between the Muslims but in reality the Muslims are terrorist.

This is totally opposed to the consensus of the majority which still upholds the unity it casts from a worldview, it dearly believes in, i.e. ‘Islam’. A worldview which can only be upheld, starting with ‘Islam is the moderate’ worldview, it preaches love for all, it fights against those who destruct unity, it give out the light of knowledge, progress and the highest morals, therefore it cannot inbreed terrorism, terrorism has to be an external element, it has to countered with battle, policing and deterrence, terrorism cannot be moderated or rehabilitated within our borders, it has to be distinctly identified and exterminated, it cannot be called Muslim. Islam and the Muslims have to stay in this country and the terrorist and those who use their acts to malign us have to go.

How do they work with skepticism? Skepticism is cultured by a simple technique: like in the scientific community when a matter of interest comes to light, several theories are floated to explain it, but care is taken that these theories be effectively countered by experimentation and rigorous analysis, so that soon most theories are thrown into trash and only the best fewremain, out of which one or two will be winning the consensus of the scientific community, thereby clearing confusion and maintaining a fair amount of belief on Science as a whole. But if several theories just remain in the air with no analysis and no discarding, what will happen is that there will be an air of confusion, leading to disbelief on the very authenticity of science itself.

So if we are to float, inside our society, 20 theories proposing how, where and when Islam is wrong, impractical or even harmful, in the name of freedom of speech and expression, and there is no system or authority to discard or eliminate any of these theories, an air of confusion will be built, whereby questions will be raised both ‘against’ and ‘for’ such theories, in an utterly indecisive people. So it ends up as a total win win for the Liberals, who need not feel any burden of proof, but all they need to do is incite doubt, more and more into the society, so that in time there will be a change of heart and Islam will be facing a democratically equal rival in the very ground it was previously cherished as the only and the pure choice.

Does the freedom of speech and expression give to a certain rebellious sector of the society, the power to malign and de-construct the belief system and high-morality, which they have taken centuries to conserve? Does a minority, who loves vulgarity, nudity and blasphemy, have equal right on the national information grid as those who love modesty, God-fearing and an infallible worldview.Do the Liberal, change agents, have the right to thief us from our belief in the all-power, merciful, all-hearing and seeing Allah, whom we love so dearly from the roots of our hearts, Who is pure, and so is the unity that is derived from Him and which returns to Him.

No they are not equal, there can be no law that allows equal opportunity to ‘destruction’;and it is no justice to give equal vote to modesty and vulgarity; to those who unite and those who divide, to those who mourn terror and those who bank on it. It is not equal to call TTP, BLA, LeJ and the likes as Muslim, Pakistani terrorist organizations, eliminating the possibility of the thought that each one of them is backed by intelligence agencies of enemy countries, and that they are really another names for RAW, MOSSAD, CIA and the likes.

Here at PKKH, we intensely feel the attack of variant theories on our subjective integrity, aimed to move our collective thought from belief to skepticism. We have been divided to be ruled upon before, but as the Imperialistsbecome more technical, they aim to divide us now from our very root; with no boots on ground but only foot-prints of their ghostly presence. They bomb us from remote control, and they use our bodies as human shields to protect and enhance their ‘interests’. We are firm that those who are at wars with our faith in the battle of words and those who explode our bodies with bombs, are one and aide of each other.

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PKKH Exclusive | by Dr. A. A. Siddiqui

This is in response to the article “No Time to Surrender”, posted on the Tribune , published on 15th February, 2013. In this article, the writer has displayed the emblematic liberal mindset while discussing the matter of negotiating with the Pakistani Taliban.

The problem with the mainstream newspaper narrative, such as this, is that in their analysis of the possibility of negotiations with the TTP is, the main attack goes on religion; religion that has sadly turned out to be such a dilemma, so that it continues to scare people more than… maybe, death through fire, cancer, poverty, dengue, measles, and spurious cough medicine?

Why is religion such a problem? When people believed in it to the extent, such that it was the basis of the partition of the sub-continent, giving birth to a new nation, why then, in the later years, has it transformed into the center of contradiction?

How can we benefit as a nation if the cause of our foundation is now feared the most, and that the Islamic ideology is now being intermixed and turned impure by the induction of several contradictory versions today. But in spite of all this, Islam is not the reason to every single problem in the world, let alone of our country.

An irresponsible government that does not qualify as a just or competent one by any standard of the world is running our country, to a media that survives on lies, and manipulative dramas, to doctors who call out protests after killing a hundred people with fake cough medicines, to homeless kids being raped on the streets, and mothers finally feeding their hungry children with poison; before I feel the need to point out all of those 99 problems, I find it necessary to explain how the opinion of this writer depicts the ‘fear of surrender to the TTP’s extremist version of Islam’, and at the same time concealing his convenience over the current belief in this inhumane version of extreme political corruption that has taken over like pests over a cornfield.

The writer says: “What do the TTP want? The short answer is that the TTP want power; that they want to do in Pakistan what the Taliban did in Afghanistan. The slightly longer answer is that they seek a Pakistan in which the only law is their interpretation of the Sharia, in which music, dancing and all forms of joy are banned, in which women are effectively enslaved, in which Shias are wajib ul qatal and in which the penalty for dissent is death.”

If we consider most political parties today, we see that they all want power; seeking a Pakistan as a means of earning black money, on a swift spree, where the masses die in a greater number as to that shown on the media. But this triggers less panic for our so-called progressive minded lot because the parties do not have any interpretation of the Shariah let alone an intention to impose an Islamic rule in the country.

Nevertheless it is a fact that the ideology of the TTP does not resonate with the exact Shariah rules but unfortunately, this ‘fact’ is not enough to remove the fear that our ruling class bears from the real form of an Islamic Ideology to rule the country; therefore maligning Islam becomes the goal of both the TTP or the current govt.

There wouldn’t have been any need of negotiating with an extremist group upon their version of Islam if the real version of Islam was known, and if today, the Islamic Scholars were considered as actual scholars and worth referring to, instead of being mocked at with offensive terms like Mullahs and regarded as hay brained miswak chewing illiterate baboons.

It is ironic how Islam; that brought rights for oppressed women, is now labeled as oppressive and its laws are considered extreme on the mainstream media. With books like My Feudal Lord gaining more coverage than A Case of Exploding Mangoes, just because it yells out that distorted version of the typical Muslim husband, it does not surprise me that the TTP are considered as cannibals and the ever rising powerful bureaucrats are just native tribal chiefs. You don’t mess with them.

My purpose here is not to justify the atrocities of the TTP, but to point out that their presence has been caused by the incompetent system of our government. The problem isn’t their rule, but our ignorance of the tool; Islam, that they abuse to achieve their false influence.

The reason that false Islamic organizations with equally misinterpreted laws and ethics are materializing under a rule of anarchy, is because we ourselves have let our ground of faith go barren. What grow now are weeds in the form of these fallacious groups of extremists and terrorists, meant only to suck the nourishment out of this land.

Instead of debating over negotiations being fruitful or not, the cause of their creation needs to be addressed on a wider scale. The Pakistani constitution (that covers important aspects of the Shariah related to everything and not just women) is deliberately thrown at the backs and the rulers are let to witness the violations being committed without any litigation. As we chose to live lives our way, a greater majority of the people would rather suffer under a tyrant where illegal is legal, rather than live under an acceptable Islamic rule that runs on strict Shariah.

Today, the businessmen and transport authorities would obey a call for strike but protest if a simple rule of pausing trade at Namaz timings is imposed. They would rather have millions of dollars thrown to build the world’s largest buildings than to use the same money for building respectable hospitals and schools for the people. Can we look into countering poverty and illiteracy side by side while dealing with terrorist organizations?

Let’s be honest; that if a life of slavery is to be preferred we’d rather negotiate and surrender to our current lifestyle of ruins than surrender to the Supreme Power that runs the world.

Dr.A.A. Siddiqui, pharmacist/ freelance writer; interests: religion/human psychology; blogs at: http://wwe.deadpoetsanctuary.wordpress.com/

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PKKH Exclusive | Mahwish Qureshi

Torture, extrajudicial executions, disappearances, willful destruction of property and forced displacement are features of daily routine in a Valley which is always metaphorically referred as “Heaven on Earth’’

The Crimes of the Indian occupation forces, numbering more than half a million, against the people of Kashmir have reached genocidal proportions, and present the worst example of state-sponsored terrorism. The sufferings of the Kashmiri people have reached a tremendous intensity and magnitude. However, India, which takes great pride in being the world’s largest democracy, refuses to notice the voice of these innocent people. The people of Jammu and Kashmir were assured by no less an authority than the UN Security Council for an exercise of their right to decide their future under conditions free from intimidation and coercion. But the peaceful movements of the Kashmiri people for the realization of this right and the respect for their fundamental human rights are always crushed with brute force.

India has always been trying to keep the Kashmir crisis out of the international spotlight with the use of aggressive diplomacy. That is why Kashmir remains today as one of the highly militarized regions in the world with more than half a million Indian security forces, amidst charges of widespread human rights violations including, torture, arbitrary killings, rape and involuntary disappearances. India’s policy is not to genuinely investigate or accuse the armed forces for human rights violations. On the contrary, alleged perpetrators of crimes are awarded, rewarded and promoted.

Indian authorities are not willing to consider talking with the Kashmiri people on political grounds. For them, only bullet is the right way of dealing with them. Successive Indian governments have tried to ignore the dynamics of the freedom movement of Kashmiris to maintain their alien rule.

Despite the employment of various procedures of massacre and harassment in the Indian occupied Kashmir, the Kashmiri people have shown by whatever little knowledge we have been getting from this remote war-zone that the struggle of freedom in these people has always remained and continues, towards the goal of getting their genuine right of self-determination. India could not suppress the freedom movement in the past; neither can it do so in future.

The Kashmiris are determined to not bow before the dictatorial rule of India and they will endure their struggle for acquiring their right to self-determination till logical conclusion.

Youth, the future of Kashmir who has been stereotyped as violent, rebellious, and discontented but never an attempt has been made to explore deep into the reason for this ‘image’. This youth has been facing persistent suppression of their voices and has witness bloodshed and turmoil, since childhood, which splatters their mindset. Below are some excerpts from the words of some Kashmiri youth, giving the outside world an idea how their fiery souls burn in a conscious fire of intellectual self-recognition.

They say, “Youth is that spark which needs no ignition”. Youth is a powerful resource which can either construct or destruct the whole nation. Kashmiri youth has realized the varying dynamics at the global level that is why they are shaping their struggle accordingly.

“I am free but my thoughts aren’t. I am free but my aspirations aren’t. I am free but my views aren’t. I am a Kashmiri and that’s my only crime “. This is the Profile introduction of a youngster from Kashmir, using his social media tools for keeping the fire of freedom alive and burning, and when youth around the world are chit chatting fun time humor on their tweets, here is a youth of Kashmir with a totally different mindset.

A twenty years old Engineering student from Kashmir expresses his feelings and concerns about his homeland in these words:
“Being from Kashmir, I feel foreign occupation should end as soon as possible for the sake of Mutual Coexistence. Our Fight is not for a particular Religion or Particular group of People But against the Occupation of our Land, our Dreams and our Aspirations. While the situation of Palestine and Syria is discussed globally, no one remembers us as Media is also not allowed to report the facts About Kashmir.

The capital city of Kashmir which is considered as calm and Green zone for tourists has Indian paramilitary bunkers every half Kilometer in full riot gear ready to shoot. Millions of Muslim civilians in Kashmir have been killed brutally by Indian Army and no one was brought to Justice. It fills us with much vengeance towards Indian system, Indian Government Policies alienated us Long back despite of their claim that we are their own People. The fact is they Love our Land, Not us!

The Unarmed protestors are also shot with bullets. The Draconian Laws imposed gives Indian army a license to Kill, Torture, Rape anyone whenever they want – Therefore we are left with no other option but Resistance.

Dialogues have failed as always, India wants to maintain Status Quo and for this they are even ready to turn Kashmir into a Graveyard. There can be no recompilation keeping in view what they did to us, till the dawn of freedom or the movement is taken to its Logical end. We need volunteers who could support us.”

The Kashmiri youth, has proven through it connection via frequency waves, that they are the most passionate and the most sensible of youth of the world and indeed their thought canvas is refined and mature beyond ordinary youth.
They share Real- life videos depicting Indian brutalities in Kashmir instead of Romantic songs. Their fan pages at Facebook are dedicated to their national heroes — who were martyred for the struggle of freedom, they make online petitions for their demands of justice, showing their maturity towards peaceful democratic methods. When on Twitter, World trends include the hash-tags like #JustinBieberismyhero#MyfavouriteMovie  #ThingsILovetodo , we find Kashmir youth engaged in tweeting trends like #KashmirSiege and  #FreeKashmir
Here are some Tweets from Kashmir:

IbneBattuta ‏@Ibnebattuta

No idea or mind could be ever barricaded or curfewed.

KashirKot® ‏@KashirKot

Weeping and mourning is also banned in #Kashmir. Anyone in tears is called Separatist. #KashmirNow

SarmatMisgér ‏@Sarmatspeaks

An Average Kashmiri born in 80’s or 90’s have spent 1.5 to 3 years of their life under Curfew. #KashmirSiege #OpenPrison .

IbneBattuta ‏@Ibnebattuta

Nothing can be more contemptuously insulting than the ruler forcing curfew & censorship & blaming common people for it.

MirzaWaheed ‏@MirzaWaheed

The media gag in #Kashmir is undemocratic, immoral and illegal. Shame on India and its craven clients.

Sameer Bhat ‏@sameerft

#KashmirSiege: So when is the world’s largest democracy planning to restore our freedom of expression, movement, ideas and mourning? #Freedom

Rehan ‏@rcayed

Call me a terrorist when I’m rescuing my nation. I’m happy being a ‘Terrorist’, you ignorant!

Malik Waris @Maesto ‏@warisplz

If u see a #Kashmiri sleeping don’t wake him maybe he is dreaming of Freedom. Dreaming of freedom not yet illegal in #Kashmir

Danyal Bashir @KoshurX

#Kashmir an occupied Muslim country where a Muslim has to take permission From Kafir to offer Prayer & he isn’t allowed even then.

iKashmir ® ‏@icashmir

I am #Kashmir &i have been satisfying collective conscience of #India since 1947.

AalaW ‏@Aalaw_

Occupying forces entered into the residential houses and beat the inmates in baramulla

Jamat ‘ud’ Da’wah ‏@JuD_Official

Martyrdom of #AfzalGuru is Judicial Terrorism by a state that has been involved in state terrorism since 65 years.#Kashmir will never forget.

The violent history of Kashmir, with its disastrous record of terrorism and bloodshed is often mentioned by Kashmiri youth, who are deeply touched by the turmoil in their land. A Kashmir-based journalist writes an open letter to a Govt. Official after his suggestions that Kashmiris must forget the past and the time is ripe to move forward. Following are his words:

“Must I forget my father’s burnt legs, sliced forehead, ironed and bruised body, the result of torture in one of your army’s interrogation centers? Must I forget the sight of your soldiers beating up my brother on his way back from school; tearing up his bag and books? Must I forget the nightmare of my own torture while I was just a teenager? They, your sentinels in uniforms, beat me up and passed electric current through my body. Why? I have no idea to this day.

I can’t forget – Nor must I, for forgetting is a luxury that oppressed people can’t afford.”

In short, from strikes to stone pelting, from Graffiti to social media, the youth of Kashmir is using every means to send their message to the outer, insensitive world. Amidst the murderous sway of ignoble circumstances inflicted upon them by their tyrants, they have shown their human-instincts by using technology in a very positive way — for a purpose worth striving for.
With the passion of the panther’s pace and heaven kissing determination, big causes are fought. The youth of Kashmir has every quality to fight their case diligently. The day is not far when the winds of liberty and freedom will strike every door in Kashmir and the long-awaited dreams of Kashmiris will come true – InshaAllah

Mahwish Qureshi is a Peace & Political Activist with a strong belief of Socio- constructivism through the mirror of Islamic System. She is currently working in the field of Training & development and can be reached at missterriouss@gmail.com . She tweets@Ms_Terrious

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PKKH Exclusive | by Aneela Shahzad

Elders have said ‘as you sow, so shall you reap’; changes in the global scenario are swift but the human mind has only this much capacity to assimilate from all things that are happening around him; just like each time the earth has traversed ~40,000km around its axis, man says just another day has passed.

Likewise as man slumbers in his immediate calm, great waves of change are altering the course of the global scenario all the time, but man reckons them only when they have reached the threshold of his door. The Afghans, hardened by the terrain and cut off from modernity, would have had no clue, what fate was being planned for them in the think-tanks of the West, as they wrote their plan, prior 9/11, to occupy and devour this unalarmed people in the name of a un-called-for democracy. Nor would they be apprehensive of the possibility that India, having no connection with them via ground or water or culture, was to become their self-assumed savior, landing its troops, its intelligence and its technical funds on their ground.

But are the so-called Superpowers, aided with elaborate think-tanks and those who boast of their civility and culture pre-cautioned with what awaits for them in the near future, do things go on according to what they had planned? The truth is that the surges of change in the global scenarios carry manifolds of immeasurable aspects in their flux, many of which may not even have been identified as yet. Therefore as things unfold to the bare human eye, most of the time the most civilized and composed are the ones left in the deepest astoundment.

All wars are started with strategies to win and are lost because those strategies were faulty; plans are made for moving-in but there are seldom any plans for moving-out. If the aspects that would lead to failure were determinable aforehand, they would have been countered, thus failure would not have happened in the first place; but circumstances, evolving in time, most of the time prove unpredictable and counter-planning.

Therefore with a full decade behind them and not a single parameter which measures in success, the US/NATO and their partner-in-crime India are indeed showing all signs of bafflement and fear in their act of retreat. It is fear that forces one to act irrationally and it is fear that one hides under his erratic and incoherent behavior.

India in more on the hit-and–trial version, it has shown in time that its foreign policy is not based on long-term stability measures, confidence building or conflict resolution, like an aiming-to-be regional power, one sober with prudence and abreast with secular diplomacy,  should be behaving. Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka; India poses to have great ties with each of them once they are ready to its intervention in their internal politics and foreign policy, otherwise ‘big-brother’ India is unhappy.

In the aftermaths of the 1971 war, when India had successfully launched its military and political intervention in Bangladesh, it also occupied two areas of Bangladesh, Padua, part of Sylhet Division and the South Talpatti Island, which it is keeping to this day. India has occupied Kalapani a river source area belonging to Nepal, since its 1962 China war and another of its territory by the name Susta. India has occupied the Narcondam islands belonging to Burma. India lays claim on Kachativu Island belonging to Sri Lanka. India disputes with China over major areas of Aksai Chin, the Trans-Karakoram Track, Arunachal Pradesh and the Depsang Plains and it disputes over the Sir Creek, the Siachin Glacier, the Saltoro Mountains and the state of Kashmir with Pakistan.

Moreover India has border tensions with most of its neighbors on migrant-crossing and terror-outfit-harboring; most of the time separatist groups of India take hiding in the closest neighbor, bringing terror on both sides. Tamil separatists are one example that has raged havoc in Sri Lanka for decades. Most of the smaller neighbors to its east consider India to be playing ‘big brother’ over them and comply in most matters due to shortcomings.  Bhutan and India have a Treaty of wherein Bhutan agrees to let India “guide” its foreign policy and that both nations would consult each other closely on foreign and defense affairs. Therefore it can be clearly seen that India harbors an interventional, hegemonic foreign policy as opposed to an internal, progressive, secular policy it boasts of.

With such a political mindset, when a most poorest and over-populace country is not concerned with the welfare of its people but feeds at the extremist Hinduvta policy of a greater India, when it was already greater than easily manageable, makes India stand on slippery grounds. This we see when we find an India having grave matters of mal-nutrition, under-growth and acute poverty in its wider population, yet it jumps across another country to become an acclaimed largest humanitarian aid provider to Afghanistan. What is the need for that? What is the need for playing regional, when dozens of separatist’s movements are lurching upon its fate inside it. It is evident that the lofty Hinduvta mentality likes to play on a grander chess-board, a trans-borders one, but the irony is that in this big-game, human rights, human society and even the very human existence is forsaken, populations are given into the hands of terror and genocide is permitted.

But the dilemma of this type of approach is that many a time when the game is inverted the rooks and the bishops all become falling pawns and the king is left alone, tumbling in its square. And tumbling is what India has shown, right from the onset of the 2014 withdrawal plan announcement. The very confident India, of its grand strategy of engulfing Afghanistan by its connivance under the US umbrella of ‘no-morals-only-interests’, that one day when the US will return the Afghans would proclaim them as their saviors. But no! India wasn’t thinking that the US was going to leave them alone on the throne, with no NATO and only the Afghans around, they would be torn to the bones before it was noon, and no one would even get the news from this remote highland of the world.

So the Indians began shaking; not finding any option that would spare them the disgrace of absconding Afghanistan, where they previously declared to be aiding humanity and building infra-structure, an aid that never reached a people and infrastructure that is still on papers after 10 years. Absconding from Afghanistan, the so-called burial place of empires is a matter of shame in the international community indeed, and India seems to have resorted to the Chaos Theory as its last resort. The Chaos Theory tells us that an extremely minor or even immeasurable difference in the history of two events can lead to highly variant paths in their future; it also tells us that apparent chaos or abrupt happenings in the present time must be part of some ordered sequence from the past, only the sequence has not yet been defined. Therefore the proponents of chaos theory tend to find sequences in chaotic happenings and aim to use chaos as a catalytic approach to achieve an end.

So, when you observe increase of bombing and massacre of innocent Pakistani civilians, claimed by LeJ and TTP or any other ghostly entity, trained, financed and harbored by the cross border RAW facilities, dressed as Indian consulates; do consider that ‘somebody’ is believing that some ‘end’ may be speedily achieved through this chaos, no matter if human life is lost or people put to injury and terror.

And when you observe enhanced cross-fires and unprovoked intrusions from the Indian side and Pakistani officials trying their hardest to pacify the situation and the Aman Ki Asha playing its usual flute of love, and its delegation to India being utterly disgraced and the Indian PM Manmohan Singh saying ‘it cannot be business as usual’; then just try to scent ‘India Chauvinism’ in the air, that believes in abrupt arousal of schism to cash upon the opponent’s assumed inferiority.

And when you see a Pakistan furthering its inclinations towards granting the MFN status to India, allowing a long list of Indian produce to enter Pakistan and an India announcing to build dozens of dams upon its water source; and a Pakistan cherishing all Indian film and TV crap as the very gods of culture and lending a third of its air-time to it and an India plotting and executing large scale death in all it province, with special emphasis to destabilizing Baluchistan with a daily dose of chaos; then please consider that schizophrenia can be a national ailment too.

But the real fear-factor is exposed in the Kashmir scenario, when the apprehensions upon the 2014 withdrawal, cast fear of unpredictable outcomes of the chaos it has been inciting for years, into the spines of India. Where will the terrorist it has been abetting for terrorizing Pakistan go when the two brotherly nations of Pak and Afghan would have secured their borders? What if Pakistan is able to divert them towards the Kashmir Jehad. What if those terrorist are captured and they declare their connection with the RAW and the likes. And the rising intifada among the Kashmiri youth, their persistent presence in the streets and the social media, serves as a constant cause of panic for India’s shaking feet in Kashmir. So what is the right way to act for India: chaos! Out of the blue one day, India announces that it has hanged Afzal Guru, inciting widespread protest and anxiety among the Kashmiris; India takes this as a false flag to tighten its clutches upon the civil life of Kashmir; some say it was an election stunt: does election of the democratic republic of India sell on presenting human sacrifice to the gods of the vote-bank; are these democratic values? No, but surely the underlying rule here is ‘more the chaos, more the good will be brought to India’.

So as India shivers in its own unfulfilled greed for hegemony, and as its prospects dwindle in its projected economy, its own national stability and its possible grab of more land and water; not only are its dreams of out-growth shattered, but neighbors like China have good plans to contain India inside its real worth too, as China turns India’s attention to the waters above its head and below its feet.

Aneela Shahzad is an editor at PKKH.tv and can be contacted via info@pakistankakhudahafiz.com,  and you can also find her at Aneela Shahzad’s Blog.

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PKKH Editorial

US Senator and Secretary of Defense Nominee Chuck Hagel has said in 2011 that “India for some time has always used Afghanistan as a second front, and India has over the years financed problems for Pakistan on that side of the border,”

Hagel’s comments have sent waves of chargin and unrest in the Indian state and civil community. Though Hagel has been critical upon several US policy matters before, but the release of such a statement when he is going to be elected Secretary of Defense and at a sensitive time when the 2014 withdrawal is at hand, and when India is already buried in the quick-sand of squander and anxiety, and that too from a friend that used to call it, ‘it’s lynchpin’ and its ‘beloved beholder of democratic values’, is a matter of shame indeed.

One can reckon Hagel to be a straight forward, man-of-courage, by observing his opinion on other matters too, where he has been criticizing the role of the US government to be anti-democratic and dangerous for the American people.

On Israel Hagel said, ‘Israel is on its way to becoming an apartheid state’ during an April 9, 2010, appearance at Rutgers University. He also accused Israel of violating UN resolutions, called for US-designated terrorist organization Hamas to be included in any peace negotiations, and described Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a ‘radical’ in the same speech.

On Iran too, Hagel has been quiet blunt, he said ‘Iran supports terrorists, they support Hezbollah, they’ve got their tentacles wrapped around every problem in the Middle East that is anti-Israel, anti- the United States. Those are realities. Those are facts’.

So what is the real implication of such a statement from Hagel about India at such a time? Is it just a forgo-able statement that will down under the layers of time; or is it something that has nothing to do with the US foreign policy and India should not be alarmed; or is it the bitter lesson India had to learn!

It had been a bitter lesson for many Empires that had hastened their armor up to Afghanistan, but those who refuse to learn from history, fall not only into defeat but also into embarrassment. The British, the Russian, the American and now also the Indian, have proven themselves unworthy by letting themselves be beaten in the barren terrain of the ragged Afghans.

But it is more than bitter; it is venomous: to be boosted up with dreams of regional supremacy, economic expansion and a chance of getting to entrap an arch rival from all sides and on top of that to be placed on a high-table of applaud in the global community; as the best friend of the US, its Lynchpin, its democratic equal; and then all of a sudden to be thrown down as a cause of all troubles, a sponsor of terror from the beginning!

Pakistan has learned bitter lessons before, Pakistan had been voicing its grievance with the United States at several fronts, reminding it of its betrayal with Pakistan after the Afghan-Russia war, reminding it of its betrayal in using Pakistan’s resources and routes for its WoT and dis-acknowledging it as an ally in all practical ways. The sensible community of Pakistan has always known that ‘America is nobody’s friend’, the US foreign policy based on one golden rule, ‘never take a second thought in ditching an un-useful friend, because time is precious’.

And so it has happened, the US was running out of time; it needed to secure its own retreat; it had lost the war and has to kneel down to the wishes of those whom it was calling the ‘terrorist’ and the ‘abettors of terrorist’ before; it cannot ask the Afghans to let them leave safely and let India rule in their stead; but rather what they have to do now is call ‘bad’ whatever the Taliban’s call ‘bad’. So the Americans, who were calling the Pakistanis, ‘harborers’ and ‘exporters’ of terror around the world, are going to call India just that; this may be a joke for some, but for poor India it would be like sweeping the grounds from right under their feet.

But the irony of the matter is that India has been terrorizing our tribal areas and our cities, playing their Holi with the blood of our innocent civilians. The truth is that the imperialist avarice has been allowed too long to desecrate the nobility of humanity; India has gone too far in its hatred for Pakistan, it has made the killing of Muslims legitimate upon itself in and across its borders. Let justice be brought to India, and let the un-lettered Afghans make their own lists of repayments, as India is left alone, with no NATO, no US friendship and only the bare-foot Afghans all around.

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PKKH Exclusive | by Dr. Aaminah Siddique

“To question your government is not unpatriotic — to not question your government is unpatriotic.”

These words were not said by Malcom X., or Thomas Jefferson, or Michael Moore. These words belong to a US Politician, currently in office. The 24th United States secretary of defense, Chuck Hagel, is a known critic of the Bush Administration.  In spite of being a Republican, he was constantly known to condemn the war in Iraq, and the US’ silence upon the unrest in Lebanon. He said:

“ I took an oath of office to the Constitution, I didn’t take an oath of office to my party or my president.”

Now after the fall of the Bush administration, the recent assignment of Chuck Hagel to the US Department of Defense has caused a stir; particularly about the US relations with India.

“The controversial comments mark a departure from established United States policy in the region and could increase tensions between the Obama administration and India should the Senate confirm Hagel on Tuesday, according to experts.” – writes Adam Kredo.

A downright straightforward politician, Chuck Hagel did not miss the dual statement policy and India’s habit of blaming Pakistan for every single terrorist episode in the country. What came as a rather shocking statement was Hagel claiming India to be “financing all the problems in Pakistan via Afghanistan”. Hagel declared that India has been using Afghanistan as a “second-front” to carry out its ill intended operations within Pakistan.

But the most alarming fact is that these words were spoken, in 2011, at the Oklahoma State University. Interestingly, they were kept hidden, until the US office decided to bring Chuck Hagel to the Defense Office, as Secretary of Defense.

India has rather a habit of holding Pakistan responsible for all terrorism in its cities, so much so, that it grabs even the most feeble of clues and throws them at the media; only to get embarrassed due to their lack of intelligence (literally) when the truth comes out.

And now, not only is the Indian government liable for the terrorist activities within their country, but has also been held responsible for the terrorism in Pakistan.

“India for some time has always used Afghanistan as a second front and India has over the years financed problems for Pakistan on that side of the border.”

This statement coming from a US official, would support all those facts that the government of Pakistan has in store, that prove involvement of the Indian government in a shameful act of denouncing another country to destroy its economy and infrastructure and give it a bad name in the globe.

In 2009, the then Interior Advisor, Rehman Malik gave out a statement in a closed door press conference; of containing hard facts of Indian Involvement in recent terror attacks in the country. He claimed that the terrorists were in fact being trained in India and Afghanistan and sent to the Pakistani borders to carry out terrorist activities.

The terrorist attacks in Mumbai in 2008 led the Indian media to confirm the involvement of the Pakistani Intelligence, claiming the terrorist Ajmal Kasab to be of Pakistani origin; not to mention, this “solid” statement came within hours of the incident. Later investigation led to confirm that the mastermind of the terrorist team that was involved in the attacks was not the ISI, but Abu Jandal, who was actually, Indian.

His statements were evidently met with annoyance and an uproar that caused the issue to get buried; followed by increased terrorist attacks within the country.

This statement by Chuck Hagel is a major breakthrough and is no less an awakening call for those liberal minds who go for a false display of “Aman ki Asha” that breeds hate under it’s pretty white flag. A false flag that shows it’s true colors when Pakistani sportsmen are served acid to drink and it’s women are deprived of a proper hotel and are forced to stay in the stadium overnight, these are just a few stark examples of India’s animosity towards Pakistan, that speak for themselves.

But alas, our media, continues to feed the masses with the catchy colors of Bollywood, never even forcing a food for thought process, or boycotting their deceptive programmes.

Such incompetency is a disgraceful and despicable act, and is one of the bases that have given air to the fire.

These immature attempts by the Indian government, at a time of terror are pathetic to say the least, and now that the word is out, it is hopeful that the US would not mind taking serious notice of Senator Chuck Hagel’s words and call for an investigation to pull the weed out with the roots.

Dr. Aaminah Siddique, pharmacist/ freelance writer; interests: religion/human psychology; blogs at http://wwe.deadpoetsanctuary.wordpress.com/

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PKKH Exclusive | by M Umer Toor and Hira Shameem

India has always been against the idea of Pakistan, be its expression mild or sharp. Given the innate nature a Hindu India, a section of these people always remained extreme against Muslims, never allowing to give them equal part in their society nor treating them on equal-human basis; although we hope that things will get better. When Pakistan was carved out in the map of the subcontinent, the Hindus went to extreme measures halting the partition and openly rejected the creation of a separate country based on Muslim/Islamic identity (see Stanely Wolpert’s Jinnah of Pakistan; Khalid b Saeed’s Pakistan: The Formative Phase 1857-1958). Mahatma Gandhi, with all due respect, did accept Pakistan as a reality but never accepted its legitimacy in his mind. Therefore, the roots of anti-Pakistan mentality – no matter how fair or unfair India is in its practical relations with us – is not limited to post-independence era, but goes far back into the pre-independence era as well.

With tireless and honest efforts of Muslim leaders and with the blessing of Allah, Pakistan was created in the face of many hardships. But India could never digest the creation of Pakistan and always made false hurdles in the way of her progress.

Let’s talk about the situation in 2013. Very recently, an Indian supreme court judge, Justice Markandey Katju, said that ‘principally Pakistan is not a real country at all. Its imaginative foundations in mind doesn’t even come to parallel the realness of India’, as he defines the golden principle of the game, he says:

“First of all let me tell you one thing Pakistan is no country. It’s a fake country, it’s an artificially created country by the British who had the policy of divide and rule by starting this bogus two-nation theory that Hindus and Muslims have two separate nations.”

This comes from a guy who criticized Indian Gujrati government for its anti-Muslim attitude in a Pakistani daily. As for the conspiracy theory that ‘Britisher’s gave birth to Pakistan’, we wish to know if what he says is grounded in documented facts; although he didn’t mention any references to historical documents. On the contrary, Pakistanis have always believed in the two-nation theory since the 1850s and it culminated in the clear-cut ‘dream’ of Iqbal. Talking to the young Jew convert to Islam, M Asad, Iqbal told him that he was foreseeing “a future Islamic state” in Indian sub-continent, and urged Asad to abandon his travelling plans and to sit, study and work for that future state. We do not see any involvement of the British there and even if the British allegedly supported the two-nation theory, Muslims could not afford to reject it. Because, it was ours before it was of anyone else’s.

We might be charged with over-exaggerating a statement from a single highly-placed professional. But, we have reasonable grounds to believe that this statement of a SC justice is not a singular event. Take the example of LK Advani, who had praised the Quaid-e-Azam, yet he has never been able to reconcile with the very event of partition, describing it as too “painful.”

This translates into the practical policy action from India’s side: ally with Pakistan’s enemies and create problems for it. Pakistan cannot be absolved from the blame of self and mutual-destruction; but neither can India be.

It all boils to a perpetual situation where India always tries to pull back Pakistan from its development (and Pakistan allows it to do so). But much more worrying and blatant an opposition is India’s maneuvering in Afghanistan with which it doesn’t even share its borders! One of their latest stunts has been pulled in the on-going Afghanistan war. India triggered insurgency in Afghanistan creating difficulties for Pakistan on the borders; hurdling peace-steps taken between the Afghanistan and Pakistan governments; India wanting to become the proxy ruler of Afghanistan for its Friend the USA, and wanting to realize its dream of being a regional power, and most of all to be able to destabilize Pakistan to the greatest extent. Where are the roots of this irrational hatred? Primarily, we believe it lies in its embedded opposition to the two-nation theory.

This policy continues from India’s side and has been manifested in its role in Afghanistan. Let us quote the buzz-quote of the week:

“India for some time has always used Afghanistan as a second front, and India has over the years financed problems for Pakistan on that side of the border,” Hagel says in the speech. “And you can carry that into many dimensions, the point being [that] the tense, fragmented relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan has been there for many, many years.”

This is an open proof for what India has been denying for decades.

Pakistanis do not wish seduce themselves with irrational hatred of India. They do not wish to live in a delusional state of having a “need” for an enemy to motivate its people. But, Indian opposition is a reality we have to confront; the moment we forget it, we wreck the foundations of Pakistan. And, at the same time, this does not stop us from having a peaceful time with India on earth. This is an impasse which we too want to resolve at the deepest levels, as we simply cannot dream of annihilating India, whereas Justice Katju lives the fantasy of annihilating the very idea of Pakistan.

In the end, all we want to do is to repeat the facts to the memory of the nation. Intellectually and even practically, India does not accept the creation of Pakistan as a legitimate, justified event. It is anti-Two-Nation-Theory, a notion prevalent in its national thought; embedded in this mentality is the seed of mutual destruction, from which even Pakistan cannot be free of blame, as dissent inevitably begets dissent. Frankly, we do not have any clue for a quick fix to end this impasse; it is a matter of perception, which can change in one moment, or not change for millions of years.

Muhammad Umer Toor is a wanna-be philosopher in distant future. Based in Lahore, with a BSc in Business, he blogs atwww.toorumer.blogspot.com.  He can be reached at i.umer.toor@gmail.com

Hira Shamim is a thinker and writer working towards a positive change in Pakistan. She has a multidisciplinary degree in psychology, Islamic studies, etc.

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After Sushil Kumar Shinde Exposes Indian Home-grown Terror, US Defense Secretary, Chuck Hagel Reveals India’s Role in Financing Terror in Pakistan

PKKH Exclusive | by M Zainulabedeen Ameer

Currently scrambling to save its face, India claims that the ‘reality’ of its position in Afghanistan is not being described accurately. India’s desperate and hopeless arguments against US Secretary Chuck Hagel’s recent revelations are lying open for the world to see. Pakistan has long claimed that India has been funding terrorism in Pakistan while operating from Afghanistan, but these arguments were not given due attention. Now, Pakistan’s claims are being revisited with greater attention, and Hagel’s statements send yet another major blow to Indian leaders.

Just last month, Indian Home Minister, SushilKumar Shinde, admitted that Saffron Terror groups of the RSS and BJP were responsible for various attacks on Indian soil, such as the Malagaon blasts, Makkah Masjid attacks and the Samjhauta Express carnage. After Hagel naming India as ‘financier of terrorism in Pakistan’, Indian authorities are even more frantic, but it is high time for the world to wake up to this real mischief maker in the South Asian region.

India has been recipient to global attention on many fronts, and its supposed role in developing Afghan infrastructure has been lauded. However, it’s quite uncertain how much it has really achieved in this regard when in fact it has been siphoning off billions for terrorism campaigns in Pakistan. In recent years, when the Pakistani military had carried out massive operations against the Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) in the porous tribal belt, it was soon discovered that this group apparently had a totally different ideology to that of the Afghan Taliban. The TTP turned out to be mercenaries, fulfilling the goals of Pakistan’s eastern enemy. While operating against them, the Pakistani army found support-material and large caches of Indian-made weapons in their hideouts, thus, explaining why the war with this enemy within Pakistan had no end to it. While US-made weapons were also discovered during these operations, all fingers pointed towards those sitting in Afghanistan, as India had been suspected of dispatching consignment after consignment to the TTP.

Today, while India is being exposed for its clandestine evils, matters have gotten even more complicated; along with handling the TTP that has wreaked havoc across Pakistan, there are terror groups fueling sectarian violence, and they have achieved much success with mass killings of Shias en route to shrines through Baluchistan. The whole objective of the exercise is apparently to defame Pakistan and label it as intolerant towards Shias.

On the media front, naive liberals blame certain sects for Shia killings, which is a rather unfortunate tirade of ignorance that fuels more misunderstanding among the masses. However, one has to also understand that there has been a history of assassinations on the streets and within Imam Bargahs, such as those that took place during the mid-1990s in Karachi. Such spates of killings are recalled easily, thus, making it easy for one to point fingers at old enemies. While Lashkar-e-Jangvi (LeJ), akin to the notorious TTP, claims responsibility of various acts of terror, there matter in the forefront is far more complex. And let’s not forget the ullema and students on the opposite side of the shias who are being assassinated in Karachi – ‘genocide of Sunni ullema’ if you will. Regardless of who kills who, the fact is that daily assassinations on this scale are unprecedented, and were never a problem before India planted itself on our western border. While Pakistan has cried foul for years, no one bothered to consider the possibility of India as a financier of terror. However, there is now admittance from foreign officials regarding the evil doings of India, which will help to prove Pakistan’s point.

For years India blamed Pakistanis and Indian Muslims for terrorist attacks on its soil, but now the world has begun to see how home-grown Saffron Terror groups are carrying out false flags. Similarly, the same Indian state apparatus has been orchestrating attacks in Pakistan from Afghanistan, and now the world stands witness to these nefarious activities as well. And then there is the case of Kashmir where India has violated UN resolutions and continues its military campaign of mass murder and rape, making the region highly volatile. Due attention must be paid in order to rein-in Indian terrorism from all angles in the South Asian region before it is too late.

M. Zainulabedin Ameer is an Independent Research Analyst who tweets @zain1430

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PKKH Exclusvie | by Atiq Durrani

Indian Finance Minister P.Chidambaram presented the much anticipated budget for the coming recent years (2013-2014) on Thursday. P.Chidambaram described the budget plan totaling $309 billion that is 16% greater than the last year (2012-2013).

Although India has allocated Rs. 2.03 trillion for defence, much more compared to the defence budget of Pakistan but still it will be appreciated by the neighbouring countries because the defence budget is increased only by 5%, compared to 17% the previous year.

Indian government decided to cut the defence budget by Rs.14, 000 crore because of the fiscal crises due to the slow growth of the Indian economy in recent years. Indian Defence Ministry officials said that the budget cut will affect the acquisitions of the new weapon systems that have been either put on hold or delayed.

Indian Army Chief, Vijay Kumar Singh described ‘Alarming’ state of military and warned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, not to neglect the modernization of the army by a letter written in March 2012. Reduction of the defence budget is also criticized by the defence analysts in India, it is said that defence budget is already a matter of serious concern because India is having potential security threats from its neighboring countries for which the up gradation of the weapon system is required but the gigantic reduction in the defence budget will aggravate the problems.

If we try to find these so called potential security threats and study the relations of India with its neighboring countries we can easily find that most of the problems of India with its neighboring countries are self-generated by India only.

Starting with Pakistan, Pakistan and China are the two neighbors that reject India’s domination; because of this India have worst relations with both China and Pakistan. In 1971 India played a major role in the separation of East Pakistan. Today India wants to repeat that in Baluchistan by supporting insurgency in Baluchistan through its consulates along Afghanistan-Baluchistan border and its agents operating inside Balochistan.  At the same time India is illegally occupying Sir Creek, the Siachin Glacier, the Saltoro Mountains and the state of Kashmir.

India also doesn’t have best relations with China.  India went on war with china in 1962 over a border dispute. India provokes China by hoisting the Dalai Lama off and on to keep the issue of Tibet alive. India is having disputes with China over areas of Aksai Chin and India also aligned itself with America to contain China.

Although India does not share its border with Afghanistan but India used its consulates in Afghanistan for exporting terror to Pakistan in the name of infrastructure development. The growing Indian influence in Afghanistan is a matter of concern for Pakistan. Recently President Barack Obama’s Defence Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel has said; what Pakistani leaders and media are saying from long time that India has ‘for many years’ sponsored terrorist activities against Pakistan in Afghanistan.

India has supported the insurgency against the state in Sri Lanka by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Jaffna for decades. India is also having a dispute on Katchatheevu island, given to Sri Lanka by India in 1974; in 2001 Tamil Government called to return the island but Sri Lanka neglected this request.

Nepal is a landlocked country and entirely dependent on the Indian ports for sea cargo but India has always denied Nepal right of transit. India illegally occupied the areas of Kalapani and Susta that belong to Nepal. In 1985 it armed and trained Ramraja P. Singh in India to conduct various terrorist activities in Nepal where several innocent civilian were killed. Similarly India has illegally occupied the areas of Padua, part of Sylhet Division and the South Talpatti Island from Bangladesh in 1971.

Now just go through these figures published by the human rights groups and the Punjab judiciary to know the internal security situation of India, Indian government has killed almost 94,000 Kashmiri Muslims since 1988, about 250,000 Sikhs since 1984, more than 200,000 Christians in Nagaland since 1947 and thousands of other Indians like Assamese, Tamils, Manipuris, Dalits etc. Naxalite are active in 180 districts and 10 states of India, these figures clearly show how India deals with its people.

Spending money on defense and creating problems for neighbors is not a solution to any of the social problems of India. India is not only denying the basic needs of its people but it is also destabilizing the strategic balance in the region and dragging the neighboring countries in arms race started by India.

Indian government is busy in improving military might but socially the Indian state has all the social indicators of a failed state. According to the latest figures released by the Government of India, a woman is raped in India every 20 minutes. Indian’s capital New Delhi is known as rape capital now. According to latest data of the Union Home Ministry, India stands third in the world when it comes to rape cases, ahead of India are only the United States and South Africa. Despite the increase in sexual violence the number of convictions is falling in Bharat. India is rated 3rd in world poor but has the world’s 9th largest defence budget. In 2012, India’s defense budget stood at Rs 193,407 crore (US$ 38.58 billion). In 2011 India was the world’s 7th largest defense spender. Approximately 1/3 of India’s GDP is spent on defense every year.

According to Mr. Prem Sagar the defense and economic expert of India, 0.9 billion people of India earn only Rs.20 per day, of which 0.5 billion people earn Rs.10 only, of which 250 million earn Rs.5 and 50 million Indians don’t earn anything. The number of people living in slums in India has more than doubled in the past two decades and now exceeds the entire population of Britain; the Indian Government has announced. The number of people living in slums was projected to rise to 93 million in 2011 or 7.75 percent of the total population. India’s 500,000 villages don’t have water and only 26% of the slum population has access to safe drinking water. More than 122 million households have no toilets and 33% lack access to latrines, over 50% of the population (638 million) defecates in the open. India is ranked 3rd among the countries with the most number of HIV-infected. India has the world’s highest number of diabetic cases and expected hypertensive individuals in 2025 will be 214 million.

Neighboring countries of India will appreciate the reduction in the defense budget of India. This will not only help India to concentrate on its internal social problem but will also encourage the neighboring countries to reduce their military expenditure and concentrate on the development projects of the country.

India always ignored its people and concentrated on occupying land of other countries, sponsoring insurgencies, creating economic and political problems for its neighboring countries but India can play the role of soft power in the region by solving its problems with neighboring countries like China, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Nepal through dialogue and try to improve bilateral relations with them so that India can not only focus on curbing down poverty, illiteracy, population explosion, health problems and corruption itself but also help the neighboring countries in doing so. This will not only bring peace in the region but India along with its neighbors will be able to spend most of their budget on the welfare of their people and on development projects.

Atiq Durrani is an IT professional and student of Mass Communication. Can be reached at atiq.pkkh@gmail.com and tweets at @SunnyDurrani738

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PKKH Editorial

Today the whole of Pakistan, specially the city of Karachi, is in mourning again, after a powerful bomb blast in Abbas Town. This high intensity blast in Karachi on Sunday, 3rd March, has claimed at least 45 lives and injured more than 150. The explosion took place at the time of Maghrib prayers between two apartment blocks at the entrance to Abbas Town.

According to the report, the terrorists had detonated a remote-controlled bomb in the highly populated area of Abbas Town, Abul Hassan Ispahani Road. Reports also say that the explosives laden vehicle was parked at the main entrance of the town where there were buildings on both sides which collapsed after the blast.

The blast left a four-foot deep crater, with a 10-feet circumference. An area of around 700 meters had been affected due to the blast.

Law enforcement agencies and government rescuers reached the spot after the attack, while residents of the area and rescuers of different private welfare organizations shifted the victims to different hospitals on their own.

Karachi – Pakistan’s biggest city and commercial capital – has been a victim of a long series of violence. There is hardly any crime that is not prevalent in Karachi. Extortion, kidnapping for ransom, thefts, sectarian and ethnic killings, bomb blasts and what not, all sort of crimes have become common in Karachi. There have been 11 bomb blasts in Karachi from January 1 to March 2013.

Ethnic and sectarian violence is also not new to this city. Almost daily, various incidents of indiscriminate firing by unknown assassins, and in-pitched gun battles between unidentified rivals take place in Karachi. The problem is not that difficult to comprehend: the violence, anywhere in Pakistan is directly linked to those whose benefit lies in destabilizing Pakistan by creating not only ethnic tension but all sorts of chaos.

Pakistan has been at war against terrorism and no other country has suffered as many losses as Pakistan in the war against terror. These heinous crimes that have exponentially risen since the WOT, have an external and an internal context. Internally this has to be seen in the overall situation of prevailing security situation in Pakistan where 40,000 innocent citizens have lost their lives in the fight against terrorism. In the given situation, all anti Pakistan forces have joined hands to tarnish Pakistan. The current Government of Pakistan has failed to come up with concrete solution to this flourishing terrorism. It has failed to protect lives living in their protected forts. But externally we are being subject to disunity and de-stability as a nation.

The facade of effectiveness of this so-called democratic government has long been gone due to the utter mismanagement and pure negligence and now people are not sure on what to do and whom to rely upon in this time of distress.

If we are torn apart with distinctions of Sunni, Shia or Wahabi, we will lose the meaning of our very creation and the creation of this country. We should not forget why Pakistan was created in the first place. It was created so that people could live here freely while practicing their religion with dignity.

Condemnation to this sectarian violence is not enough Government institutions need to take further steps. Yesterday it was Hazaras and Shias, today it is the Sunnis and tomorrow it can be anyone. Pakistan needs to take constructive and solid steps to confront terrorism.

The nation of Pakistan needs to stand together in these times of national crisis, irrespective of sectarian barriers – Every human’s life hold equal importance. Instead of promoting these unfortunate incidents as ‘Shia- Genocide’ or ‘Sunni-Genocide’, nation needs to talk about national loss. Because Together we stand — Divided we fall.

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PKKH Editorial

So it’s time for Shehzad Roy to cash-in his fine reputation of being a sensitive, forward looking, philanthropist, and GeoTV certainly has its own repute for selling out liberal values in a fashion that the core value of Islam are to be necessarily undermined.

For Shehzad Roy to present our nation as a donkey producing nation and worthless in all other criteria, is in itself an education of inferiority to the masses; it is unacceptable and shocking.

It is very important for us to make it clear at this point, where exactly the difference between Islam and Liberalism lies. We as Muslims believe that the prime values upon which civilization can sustain, like equality, justice, freedom, altruism, inquiry and all other good things are originated in Islam. Islam is not conservative for vile things or maintaining a status quo over whatever wrong has entered our religion, Islam conserves only the highest morals. Like with all religions, much has entered our religion by way of stagnancy in the thought-process and by way of accepting ideas from the external when we were weak from inside. Therefore to be progressive and forward looking, what the Muslims have to do is to revert to the light-giving source of Islam; the Quran and the Sunnah, not forsake it.

But for those immature minds, who have been trained in the same imported thinking as upheld in elite English institutions; it is easy to be dazzled by the flickers that come from the West. Shehzad Roy has asserted in his program ‘Chal Parha’ that religion is wrongly being taught in all subjects other than Islamiat, like Urdu, English, Science and Social Studies, and he seems to pose that he knows it all. But perhaps he has not seem the syllabus being taught in all our elite English school, that are using imported textbooks, wherein myths of dragons and legendary figures of Europe are being taught in Social Studies; Darwinism (a disproven theory, portrayed as a basic law) is being taught in Science; and Liberal ideas are being taught in English and Urdu; is all this not religion and culturing of a particular mindset? Perhaps Roy should make it clear what code of ethics he wants to replace for the Islamic code of ethics.

Roy says our syllabus is too much filled with stories of Islamic victors; yes he is right in saying that more about the scientific achievements of great Muslim scientists should be embedded in our syllabus, but his supposition that by telling a kid about the strength of our ancestors will make the kid a terrorist, is wrong.

We are not for war, but at a time when terror is being ‘financed’ into our country, when we have been encircled strategically, economically and psychologically by several actors from outside our state, it is not a time to preach passiveness and self-remorse but a time to boost the declining morale of our people. People like Shehzad Roy may have the privilege to live in a bubble of self-deceit from where they are unable to see that NATO is starting a new war front every month in a new country; all of a sudden the whole world has become breeding grounds of Terrorism and the US/NATO alliance is there to fight it with all its machines and drones; is that not ‘War’ for Roy, or is there a selective moral, which Roy believes in, wherein war is good when done by western entities.

In a clip from the program, Roy asks a principal of an elite English school about the revision of syllabus/curriculum of their school and the Lady boldly asserts that the British revise their curriculum every year and we change every year according to the ‘Change’ they prescribe for us; that is the only way we will meet the global challenges, she says. Perhaps the Lady is unaware that by inducing ‘Change’ based on liberal and secular ideologies, their institution is not preparing our youth for facing the global challenges but for accepting mental slavery, that also with a copy-cat pride and belittled self-identity.

What is needed in earnest is to alert and train the citizens of the country against the harboring of terror elements in their midst. What is needed is a campaign against vulgarity being spread through all channels of information; does that not alarm the likes of Roy as means of polluting the thought system of our youth. What is needed is the revival of our identity with our past and a pride upon the fact that we are of pious and modest origins, not a plunge into the guilt that Muslims have been killers all along.

And of all things! What is required foremost is to get rid of the sins inherent in the British-based schooling system, which we blindly accepted as our own; a system that kills the intellect, at every possibility of its birth, in all our school-going children. Our Education ministry needs to research upon the old-Madrassa schooling that produced scholars and practitioners who drove the reins of the subcontinent for centuries. Yes we need to make sensitive, thinking and assertive people for our strong future, but not by cutting away from the roots of Islam, instead only by removing the weeds of false ideology and west-worship, that we have let to accumulate as parasite around our fruits.

PKKH Editorial

Bangladesh has now witnessed several months of constant protests striking up due to the government’s current scheme of digging up graves from the 1971 war against Pakistan. This dormant virus of hate has now surfaced and is causing turmoil in the country, encircling innocent religious scholars in a false cloak of hypocrisy and extremism.

Prominent leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami are being sentenced to death on a check-list basis, without any reasonable evidence. Abdul Razzaq, the defense attorney to the JI has called it a “witch-hunt” and a “Political vendetta.”

The government on the other hand, calls it a necessity to bring the criminals of the 1971 war crimes to justice. Ironically, they chose perhaps the most influential party in the country for this trial, and failed to provide satisfactory evidence to back their motive.

The Jamaat leaders are being linked to the Al-Badr group that was supposedly involved in war crimes and was dissolved the same year Bangladesh won independence.

However, it is reasonable to question why, 40 years after the War crimes took place, is the government finally deciding to take action? Apparently, the International Crimes Tribunal (Act) was founded in the 1973 for the purpose, and was meant for:

“providing the substantive law, definition of crimes, procedures to follow, provisions of evidence, constitution of the Tribunal, obligation of the Judges to be independent and to ensure fair trial standards, including the rights of the accused, rules to monitor investigations and interrogations, supervising arrest and viability of continued detention, rules to protect the witnesses and victims, rules regarding appeal after conviction, and the rule making authority of the judges etc.”

But, it wasn’t until 37 years later, that the The War Crimes Fact Finding Committee, which had been given the task of examining and finding evidence, finalized their report in 2008 and handed a list of 1600 names to the ICT. The government, in 2009, finally decided to bring to trial, the names that were stated in the list.

In this case, it is the right of the people to demand evidence such as is causing the state to take harsh actions against their leaders; a right that in spite of remonstrations across the country, the government has failed to deliver.

In 2012, The Economist published a report that leaked out a conversation between Chief Justice Muhammad NizamulHaq and Ahmed Ziauddin. According to the Wall Street Journal, the e-mails and Skype calls showed that Ziauddin was playing an important part in the proceedings and that considerable pressure was being exerted by the Bangladeshi government to secure a quick verdict. Using the judiciary forcibly for this purpose is not only an act of extremism in itself, but also speaks of the dual policy buried beneath the demand of selective justice by the state.

Now using the army to suppress protests, the present condition is going haywire in the country, killing several and disabling the running system.

In this process, the government’s real face is being unveiled as its actions speak of defaming not only religious organizations, but at the same time taking the unwise approach of forcing the masses to bow down to a precedence towards a secular stance in national ideology.

PKKH Editorial

“He Died of the bullet wounds in his chest and head”

Tahir Ahmad Sofi : A resident of old town Baramulla, pursuing his Master’s degree in Physical Education- was killed by Indian army on 04th March 2013, while protesting against the death of ‘Mudasir Ahmad Malla’.The protest was to demand an impartial probe into the death of Mudassir late last week, as his body bore marks of violence.

Dr.Mudassir Malla, a research scholar, was found hanging in a hostel room, in the English and Foreign Languages University of Hyderabad (India). He had been released just two days before, after being arrested for taking part in anti Afzal hanging demonstration. Reports say that one of his professors and some other university-fellows were annoyed with him for taking part in activities to condemn the hanging of Afzal Guru.

The valley of Kashmir has been on the edge since the hanging of Mohammad Afzal Guru. Unprovoked killing of 24 years old Tahir Sofi of Baramulla, following the mysterious death of  Dr. Mudassir Malla  in Hyderabad city of India shows how easy it is for Indians to kill innocent Kashmiris anywhere, anytime.

Spree of killing continues in Indian Occupied Kashmir, these vicious cycles keep on repeating, blowing the myths around the world’s largest hypocrite nation, the so called ‘democracy’ known as India. Each vicious cycle reminds the world of the brutal oppression of Kashmir going on since decades.

Gross Human rights violation in the form of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, rapes and mass-graves stand tall as the epitaphs spreading across this beautiful occupied land. To add salt to the wounds of Kashmiris, the perpetrators of the crimes enjoy impunity under the blanket of black laws. No closure to crimes against humanity, gives ample fuel to infuriate any sane soul.

Each scream and each wail coming out of this beautiful vale reminds the whole world about its quest for freedom. The resilience this oppressed nation has shown over the decades is commendable.

What adds to the agony is the silence of the global community even after being a witness to the crimes executed by India over the people of Kashmir. When will the conscience of the world rise? When will any champion state of human rights stand up and speak out for the innocent and the voiceless? Time has come to show the mirror to India who claims to be the epitome of so-called democracy.

Imagine a hypocrite nation pumping billions of dollars, to sustain its tyrant army, amidst a people who have never and will never accept it, just to keep its unlawful hegemony over a territory since decades. Every innocent killed by Indian atrocity leaves a promising mark on the forehead of detestable India that India will never be able to win the hearts and minds of the Kashmiris.

If India considers itself a Democratic state, it has no right to suppress the internationally recognized freedom struggle of Kashmir. PKKH aims to express its deepest condolences for the distress suffered at every loss of life by the Kashmiris; we give the message to our Kashmiri brethren that Pakistan stands behind Kashmir, inshaAllah.

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PKKH Exclusiev| By Muhammad Umer Toor

“People who have no hold over their process of thinking are likely to be ruined by liberty of thought. If
thought is immature, liberty of thought becomes a method of converting men into animals”
- Iqbal, Stray Reflections

This article is in response to an episode of Chal Parha by singer & a self-declared-education- reformer Shehzad Roy (SR), wherein he has called for – in a most fundamentalist way – eliminating or minimizing even mention of Islam from non-theological subjects without providing any reasons about non-applicability of Islam in all aspects of life. This is not the solitary attempt of the media; especially GeoTV’s has been constantly campaigning, to change the very basis of Pakistan and the mindset of its people, which can be powerfully altered through mass media: it aims to change the Islamic worldview in its education system. I will start not by directly addressing the objections raised by Roy on certain fundamental aspects of the curriculum but by discussing underlying assumptions of the champions of secularism. But let me say on the outset that we are not defending the pathetic state of education, books and instruction in public and private schools of Pakistan.

Section 1. Contents of Shehzad Roy’s Opinions

Let us summarize the main points of Shehzad Roy’s episode on education that was aired on 2 March 2013 on GeoTV in the segment, Chal Parh-a (giving a sense that education is being imparted in a mindless way in the country).

A. Of a Dumb Practice: Making non-Muslims go mindlessly through Islamic text

The program showed a classroom where a class of Christian students was reciting hamd-o-naat
in the Urdu book. Later officials were inquired, who said: We write these books for 98% of
Muslim population and cannot afford to replace them for 2% of non-Muslims. (This argument was not discussed; however, it was scrapped again and again in the rest of the video.) The fact is that in British schools students are made to chant Christian prayers against their will, whether Muslim or Hindu. But, since UK is doing this – wherein as of year 2000 the number of mosque- going population was greater than the Church-going! – This practice might be labeled as promoting religious harmony and pluralism by the likes of GeoTV.

B. Call for divorcing all other subjects from Islamic worldview

While interviewing Talat Hussain & Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman, he got a stance of only rejecting compulsory Islamiyat education for non-Muslim, while he, Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy & some other educationists asserted with full force to remove, or keep to minimum, even the mentioning of Islam from textbooks of subjects than Islamiyat. There were no reasons provided as to why Islam should be taken out of sphere of life; to me, this is a philosophical and practical blunder. I believe that the underlying idea is that of separation of world of God (religion) from the world of Caesar (discussed in detail in section 2).

From talking about the right of belief for minorities – Roy generalized it into the full-blown
secular dogma: Islam is only worth a single theological subject and has nothing to do with other aspects of life and education.

C. Undermining Legacy of Islamic warriors & ‘Question of Violence’

SR continues, “In early classes, students are only taught about warring figures. Idea is ingrained in minds that only fighting men are heroes. Scientists (etc) are not portrayed as heroes.” SR also said to the effect:  mention of such historical warriors’ leads to violence, animosity, universal hatred of non-Muslims, and intolerance.

This is a most astonishing kind of inductive logic, which is neither valid nor sound. In our textbooks, wherever the stories of Islamic warriors are given they are accompanied by mentions if their high morals, such as justice and love for their non-Muslim subjects, therefore it is baseless it think that such stories would incite the urge to kill and hate purposely. As opposed to this however, numerous studies worldwide have shown how much indiscriminate violence and deaths result from watching violent TV and films. I wonder how much aggression can result after reading a literary exposition of a warrior’s life compared to actual increase in aggression in adulthood due to ‘early exposure to TV violence’.

Since  it is only human to seek justice and peace inside and outside, that sublime emotion has been  exploited by SR to toe the American agenda of emasculating Muslims, consciously or unconsciously. All this shows a deeply-embedded intellectual mistake in addressing the question of violence (see this article, ‘Islam & Question of Violence’ for a clear exposition).

Iqbal was once told that a new school will be named after him; he refused and advised them to name it after Tipu Sultan to inspire students to act rather to just contemplate on knowledge. To be happy has two requisites: to be given hikma, and then to act upon it. A wholesome warrior in old times was not a specialized fighting robot, but most likely aimed to be insan-e-Kamil. In the times when professional guilds were at the center of medieval economies, all the working men worked for 11 months and participated in jihad for 1 month, which gelled them. Success of Israel as a military force can also be attributed to the unification of civilian and military roles.

Pseudo-liberals of Pakistan abhor the mention of word violence, and accuse religious scholars
to be spreading it, in doing so they forget the fact it is necessary to maintain peace stability and
order by waging war against the elements that promote it in the first place. War, policing and
law has to be used against the unjust, to secure civil life of the peaceful majority.

There is no better way than to do this than by inspiring people through warrior-figures be them fictional characters like Batman or historical figures of Tipu Sultan, Sheikh Abdul Qadir of Algeria, or Sultan Ayubi, who are not just symbols of war but primarily of independence, courage, kindness, morality and justice. Curiously, SR seemingly doesn’t have any problems with cartoon characters of Superman, Spiderman, Ben 10 etc., probably because they do not invoke the name of God. Nonetheless, these characters use as much violence required against the criminals as Muslim historic figures used against their enemies, if not more. (It is easier to kill the criminal without collateral damage in fiction than in reality.)

Importance of power

Iqbal says, “Vision without power does bring moral elevation but cannot give a lasting culture.”
If SR’s prescriptions are to be followed, we can justifiably forecast that the ‘pen which is not dipped in blood’ will lead to enslavement. Iqbal said: “Why hast thou made me born in this country, the inhabitant of which is satisfied with being a slave.” This was the policy of Britishers, their policy was to divide and numb-down. Mirza Ghulam Qadyani, the false- prophet, called for end of jihad and at that time Iqbal severely criticized him. Roy’s message belongs to that line of thinking. The agenda is to make Muslims Amerikan/West-lovers who are already under unprecedented foreign occupation; who are already enslaved by American debt (whoever does not give in to America’s proposals is assassinated, overthrown or militarily intervened, see Confessions of Economic Hitman); although one can hardly emphasize enough the need for equilibrium between knowledge and action.

Anti-Indianism? Another blatant generalization made through various “experts” was the rhetoric of hatred of India in Pakistan. Following questions were routed by SR & his panel of ‘intellectuals’: Do

Pakistanis have hatred of Indian people or of their govt’s atrocities in Kashmir? Hatred of Indian culture and history (which is apparently being absorbed daily through TV & films) or hatred of financing of terror through Afghanistan? None of such troubling realities were observed. Self- hatred of SR and his panel declared that Pakistanis live and thrive on anti-India rhetoric (I don’t see it, do you?); as if we have no purpose in our life than to hate and harm Indians. Please watch this video how children are really indoctrinated in India.

We all belong to warrior races in Pakistan. It is in our blood to attain “peace within and to war with forces of disruption and instability outside”. Pacifism is a philosophically impossible dogma. Let’s not forget that the duty of army is to avoid war. Moreover, this campaign enjoins with the campaign of maligning jihad to emasculate Muslims. It is perhaps a sense of inferiority complex that makes such westernized minds to advocate surrender of arms before West, which has spilled more blood than anyone else in history.

Section 2. ‘Knowledge and the Sacred: Secularization of Life & Education in West

Dr. Muhmmad Rafiuddin, in his book First Principles Of Education, states:

“Every ideology has its own system of education which is designed to foster the love of that ideology in the growing generations of the community of its lovers and to create in them that special type of knowledge, skills, habits and attitudes which is relevant to that ideology and which they need in order to be able to love and serve the ideology wholeheartedly. Every ideology has, moreover, its own philosophers of education who, by their reasoning, justify their own ideology as the only true and sound basis of education and every ideology has its own practical educators who exert themselves to put into practice the educational thought of its philosophers. It is clear, therefore, that the educational system of one ideological community can never serve properly the educational needs of another community.”

What SR is asking does not fit – as per democratic principles, hence constitution of Pakistan -
the needs and aspirations of Pakistani people.

Islamic Worldview & Education

Islamic point of view of knowledge is as follows: It is necessary to gain mastery in major fields of knowledge for a nation to excel in the world. However, this is not sufficient at all for ultimate success. It is sufficient to know Allah (primarily by knowing ourselves) to be successful in both worlds. And, creating Sacred sciences and arts, by integrating worldly knowledge with Sacred principles, is more than necessary to lead a meaningful, harmonious and a satisfactory life on earth and in the hereafter (see Heart of Islam by Dr SH Nasr). This is more or less the Islamic

point of view – a view which we believe is shared by all authentic religions. Education is at the center of actualizing this reality.

Results of Secularization of World

It is well known that Europe through a historical process got disenchanted with religion, and reduced intellect and life to this world alone (see Religion & the Order of Nature, by Dr S H Nasr to study the change at the intellectual level; & ‘The Origins of Western Social Sciences’ by Dr Asad to study the ‘disenchantment’ process).  What are the results? To sum it up:

‎”We live among ruins in a World in which ‘god is dead’ as Nietzsche stated. The ideals of today are comfort, expediency, surface knowledge, disregard for one’s ancestral heritage and traditions, catering to
the lowest standards of taste and intelligence, apotheosis of the pathetic, hoarding of material objects and possessions, disrespect for all that is inherently higher and better — in other words a complete inversion of true values and ideals, the raising of the victory flag of ignorance and the banner of degeneracy. In such a time, social decadence is so widespread that it appears as a natural component of all political institutions. The crises that dominate the daily lives of our societies are part of a secret occult war to
remove the support of spiritual and traditional values in order to turn man into a passive instrument of dark powers.”

This is – put very mildly – the kind of world that secular modern education has produced. Because the secular worldview remains undecided about Principles (and hence ultimate values), and in fact declares values as non-scientific, it has legalized and accepted the most immoral of activities: hoarding, selfishness, usury, betting & derivatives, homosexuality, desecration of sacred histories & figures, environmental crises, etc. Therefore, as Dr Nasr once said, no knowledge is abstract or value-free. Every knowledge has a worldview attached to it. So if Roy asks for totally eliminating Islam from all subjects except Islamiyat he is practically arguing
for educating as per secular worldview which rejects Revelation as a code of life in most comprehensive way. Islam is against compartmentalization of life, and life and education must be regulated according to Sacred Principles and laws.Hence, we can conclude that self-glorifying, USAID- and foreign-funded culprits are using the unimaginable power of media to change minds promoting the worldview of pseudo-liberal, secular fundamentalism in Pakistan.

Section 3. Changing Pakistanis for Amerika’s Sake

GeoTV, with its ill-guided episode by fancy-boy Roy on Islamic components in the curriculum, has confirmed their slanted agenda to change Pakistan as per the whims of Amerikano establishment. It is carrying out Holbrooke’s agenda to ‘change Pakistan’ to integrate Pakistanis with American interests (what else?) - the way Europe was financed to stop Communism with the Marshall Plan. Holbrooke raised $5 bn to change Pakistan – to make us think and act in the way they like; and Quran warns us that these kuffar would never like us, unless we change and mimic them. To say the least, purpose of this is stop Pakistan from becoming independent, as Noam Chomsky says, “It’s not radical Islam that worries the US — it’s independence.”

Conclusion

We refuse – intellectually – the effort of GeoTV to make a ‘Man-made Man’ out of every Pakistani student. In fact, its real effort to change Pakistan as per Amerikan vision is even more degrading than a man free from Allah and all norms – and United States of America bids them good luck (and no doubt blesses them in strange ways).

All in all, “policy recommendations” for education by the singer, who gained a lot of fame through a song based on a religious poem of Iqbal dressed as a warrior on horseback (there wasa lot of justified violence therein too), are fundamentalist, non-argumentative, philosophically antithetical to Islamic world view to which Pakistani subscribe through constitution, based onsophistry and 100% in line with Amerikano agenda to change or Amerikanize Pakistan.

Muhammad Umer Toor is a wanna-be philosopher in distant future. Based in Lahore, with a BSc in Business, he blogs atwww.toorumer.blogspot.com.  He can be reached at i.umer.toor@gmail.com

PKKH Editorial

At least 40 persons including six cops were injured in clashes that erupted at numerous places across the valley on Thursday. Curfew remained clamped in several areas as the valley witnessed another spontaneous shutdown against the killing of a Baramulla youth. (Source)

Kashmir has not been stable since the unlawful hanging of Afzal Guru on 9^th of February, it had remained under complete siege for more than 10 days with a complete halt in work and businesses, and restriction on entering the markets even for bare necessities such as food or medicine; for so many days the streets and hearts of the Kashmiri people had stumbled in the dark of fear, hunger and hopelessness.

But the siege never really ended, off and on curfew has been restored at different places; the Kashmiris who want to protest against all kinds of suffering inflicted upon them, and against the arrest, persecution and killing of their loved ones, and against the seizure of the remains of their martyrs, were not allowed to; they were repulsed.

Every day from that day on, has been a day of protests, clashes, injuries and arrests; every day the Vale of Kashmir sees a battle between batons, bullets, bombs on one side and bare human flesh on the other side, upon its blemished chest. With more clashes are more deaths and with more deaths are more protests and the vicious cycle of  ruthless tyranny goes on day and night while the richer, more civilized world celebrates its prosperity and serenity, with deliberate oblivion to the cries of humanity in a close part of the global village.

The Kashmiris were protesting against the mysterious death of Muddasir Ahmad Mallah, who was allegedly tortured to death under custody, on the 2cd of Feb., when in the ongoing protests the Indian Army shot down another youth, Tahir Sofi, on the 4^th.  Curfew has been restored in most parts of Kashmir, but continuous protests does not give a scene of death silence this time; it is showing the scene of pitch battle.

It is being reported that youth in the hundreds have been taking out to the streets in different areas all over Kashmir and the Indians have used all means including barbed wires, tear smoke shells, pepper gas bombs and firing squads to repel or disperse the raging youth, who are with nothing but stones in their hands. Reports say that the CRPF personnel have attacked civilian homes, automobiles and even the Kashmir University, smashing window panes and beating and abusing whoever they find. Many have been taken into arrest and many have been injured by bullets, batons and injurious gases.

This is the Kashmir for which India says it is its own, this is the Kashmir that the Pakistanis are being asked to forsake, this is the Kashmir whose file in lying dormant in the trash-cans of the United Nations. Is this the way humanity should answer the unlawful slaughter of its own kind? Will the whole humanity never come to the rescue of the Kashmiris? Will the Pakistani also not answer their brethren then? OR is India digging a grave for itself by heightening it atrocities? Is India already inciting resistance and turning it into violent one by taking such measures? India calls it Terrorism; perhaps the Kashmiris will define it as a Jehad against India.

What course of action does the world suggest for the suppressed ones? We ask the World!

PKKH Exclusive | by Ayesha Akhtar

International Women’s Day (IWD), originally known as International Working Women Day is observed on 8^th March every year to show respect, appreciation and love towards women and to commemorate their ongoing struggle, economic, social and political achievements. The UN theme for International Women’s Day 2013 is “A promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women” while International Women’s Day 2013 has declared the year’s theme as “The Gender Agenda: Gaining Momentum”.

Despite of living in 21^st century, the women of today are still suffering from disrespect and harassment. The waves of feminist revolution which has dragged the women towards earning a living is taking its toll in other ways as well, empowering women economically but depriving them from other basic rights.

Are Women Really Empowered and Saved?

Women have got an important role in maintaining the equilibrium of the society. This balance has to be maintained for the proper functioning of society. Despite massive awareness campaigns about human rights through different organizations, women are still the prime victim of all criminal activities in one or the other way. The countries where women are considered to be the most empowered top all chart on such crimes. After their massive ‘struggle’ of feminism and by cashing the catching and appealing slogan of ‘Empowering Women’, the world still has to hide itself in shame when it comes to the gender discrimination, not limited to any one culture, ethnicity or country.

Since the 18^th century’s first feminist movement, up till now, with every passing year, women are more abused, more harassed and more exploited. Today, HR orgs see women as empowered figures in many cultures, but in reality, she is merely presented as a sex commodity, resulting in more violent crimes such as rapes.

Let us take figures from UN itself and see whether, today world is a safer place for an ‘empowered commodity’ or women still suffer the plight it was suffering in the rotten history of dark ages.
A glimpse of worldwide women sufferings:

• 1 in 3 women have been beaten or sexually abused in her lifetime. Usually the abuser is a member of her own family or someone known to her.
• Boys who witness their fathers’ violence are 10 times more likely to engage in spouse abuse in later adulthood
• In some parts of the world a girl is more likely to be raped than to learn how to read
• Every year, 60 million girls are sexually assaulted at, or on their way to, school
• Women and girls are 80% (640.000) of the estimated 800,000 people trafficked across national borders annually with the majority (505,600) trafficked for sexual exploitation.
• At least 60 million girls are ‘missing’ from various populations – mostly in Asia – as a result of infanticide, neglect or sex-selected abortions.
• Up to 5% of women report being physically abused while pregnant. 50% of physically abused Indian women report violence during pregnancy.
• Between 100 and 140 million women and girls alive today have been subjected to Female Genital Mutilation. In six African countries over 80% of women have been subject to this practice.
• Over 60 million girls worldwide are child brides: 31.3 million in South Asia, 14.1 million in Sub-Sahara Africa. Violence and abuse characterize married life for many of these girls. (Source: UNRIC)

These are merely those ‘official’ figures that were collected by a body of UN. Apart from these reported crimes against women in general.
If we go through the figures of Rapes alone, we will be seeing a horrific picture of violence against women.

• In January 2013, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), Office for National Statistics (ONS), and Home office released its first ever joint official statistics on sexual violence, according to which, approximately, 80000 women are raped on average in England every year, Over 400,000 women are sexually assaulted each year, 1 in 5 women (aged 16-59) has experienced some form of sexual violence since the age of 16.
• In India reported cases of rapes vary from 22000 to 15423 over the time period in 2010-2012. In 2012, again there was a spike in rapes of women in India. In Dehli alone a spike of 17% was observed officially. In famous rape of Dehli caught the spot light last year which brought people’s attention to world’s biggest democracy.
• In United States of America, an average of 207,754 cases of rapes was recorded over a time period of 2000-2007.

Let us take some figures of those countries, who claim to be most vigilant and aware in respect of women and who claim to empower women.

A Feminist Revolution, or Talking about Rights of Women, What is the Solution?

One of the prime requirements of the society in regard is that to understand an important issue that empowering women and freeing them from disrespect is not about being depriving them of the modesty in any way. The freedom should be from injustice and ought not to be by depriving them from the modesty and clothes.

Islam being a natural and balanced religion has stressed a lot upon the rights of women, has given the women their due status from which they were being deprived since centuries. As a matter of fact, Islam is the only religion in which the rights of women are emphasized a lot along with their duties. Women in every role have been considered important, be it as a mother, daughter, wife or sister; her part in the society has been immense. For her role as a mother, she is considered as a way to Jannah. Being a daughter, she is a blessing because according to one of the Hadith her up-bringing can protect one from the hellfire.

Role of women in a family system is of much more importance. Bringing her status equal to men and her part in maintaining a family has to be acknowledged. Educating the women is also a part of empowering them. There has been no discrimination regarding this in our religion and women are considered to be at par with men, acquiring education has been made compulsory for both.

At many other instances, both men and women are mentioned side by side in Quran signifying their equality as mentioned in the Surah Ahzaab verse 35 and Surah Ale-Imran verse 195.

West and the media, which have commercialized the women by using her for advertisement and making her existence a commercial commodity, this needs to be condemned strongly. Women are not the object to be equated with the commodities rather they should be given their due respect.

Educated women are synonymous with the educated and the generators of great nations. Empowering our women with education and enlightening them means nurturing an enlightened and strong nation because our mothers are our teachers in our cradle. Need of the hour is to liberate their thoughts, not their hormones.

The feminist revolution, which has empowered women socially and economically, has thrown to oblivion the fact that respect and love do not come with economic empowerment but with the ethical upbringing of the society. Need of the hour is to take into regard what Allah and His Prophet has ordained us regarding the rights and duties of the women. Let’s start considering the housewife as a full-day faithful employee, let’s return modesty to her work-place environment, let’s make them equal to our men in every opportunity to acquire their natural aspirations and finally let’s acknowledge whatever they are doing for nurturing our nation.

It is time for the world to revert to the Islamic solution for the real empowerment of the Woman; the power that comes from recognizing her natural inclinations and aspirations. It is time to throw the burdens of a false Western solution via feminism, that has done no good to her, to her children nor her family but only served to deprive and destroy them.

Ayesha Akhtar is a doctor in making, she is also a researcher and have in depth knowledge of Islamic creeds. She tweets @a4ambitious and can also be reached through her blog Doctoricious.wordpress.com

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