Daily Archives: 22/07/2010

Humor

Marriage!!

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>> After marriage, husband and wife become two sides of a coin; they just can’t face each other, but still they stay together. -Al Gore

>>By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you’ll be happy. If you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher. – Socrates

>> Woman inspires us to great things, and prevents us from achieving them. -Mike Tyson

>> I had some words with my wife, and she had some paragraphs with me. -Bill Clinton

>> “I don’t worry about terrorism. I was married for two years.” -Rudy Giuliani

“There’s a way of transferring funds that is even faster than electronic banking. It’s called wife.” – Michael Jordan

>> “I’ve had bad luck with all my wives. The first one left me and the second one didn’t.” -Donald Trump

Two secrets to keep your marriage brimming

1. Whenever you’re wrong, admit it, 2. Whenever you’re right, shut up. -Shaquille O’Neal

>> The most effective way to remember your wife’s birthday is to forget it once… – Kobe Bryant

>> My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met. – Alec Baldwin

>> A good wife always forgives her husband when she’s wrong. -Barack Obama

>> Marriage is the only war where one sleeps with the enemy. -Tommy Lee

>> First Guy (proudly): “My wife’s an angel!” Second Guy: “You’re lucky, mine’s still alive.” – Jimmy Kimmel

>> “First there’s the promise ring, then the engagement ring, then the wedding ring…soon after….comes Suffer…ing! -Jay Leno

Culture, Pakistan, Religion

Songs of the Saints, With Love, From Pakistan

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By JON PARELES

Hands waved overhead. Voices shouted lyrics and whooped with delight. Children were hoisted onto parents’ shoulders. In the tightly packed crowd a few dancers made room to jump. T-shirts were tossed to fans from the stage.

Yet in the songs that Abida Parveen was singing, saints were praised. They were Islamic saints, the poets and philosophers revered by Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam.

It was the first New York Sufi Music Festival, a free three-hour concert on Tuesday in Union Square, and it had music from the four provinces of Pakistan, including traditional faqirs who perform outside temples, Sufi rock and a kind of rapping from Baluchistan.

The concert was presented by a new organization called Pakistani Peace Builders, which was formed after the attempted bombing in Times Square by a Pakistani-American. The group seeks to counteract negative images of Pakistan by presenting a longtime Pakistani Islamic tradition that preaches love, peace and tolerance.

Sufism itself has been a target of Islamic fundamentalists; on July 1 suicide bombers attacked Pakistan’s most important Sufi shrine. Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations, Abdullah Hussain Haroon, spoke between sets on Tuesday. “What we’re here to do today,” he said, is “to be at peace with all of America.”

Read more >> THE NEW YORK TIMES

Pakistan, Punjab, Sindh

A proposal for federation

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Many recurrences of theft of Sindh’s share of irrigation water happened at various times due to Punjab’s jurisdiction over it.

– MOHAMMAD KHAN SIAL, KARACHI

This has been happening since long and against hue and cry by members of Parliament from Sindh who protested several times. Sindh never gets its due share of water in full when it is released by Punjab’s jurisdiction, mainly due to the following three reasons; (1) Seepage (2) Evaporation (3) Installation of hundreds of powerful illegal ‘water-lift machines’ installed on both banks of River Indus between Taunsa and Sindh’s border on a distance of about 80 kilometres. The water of Sindh is being stolen by landlords of Punjab obviously in connivance with officers of the Punjab Irrigation Department and WAPDA. In the past, a few Irrigation Officers from Sindh were deputed to the canals of Punjab to deter theft of the water meant for Sindh but their efforts were foiled or Punjabi Irrigation Officers bribed them.

In return for the ‘favours’ they received in Lahore, they were compelled to send fake figures of water flow to Sindh government from Punjab which were provided to them by the Punjab Irrigation Department. These figures were obviously unauthentic and fake. If the stake-holders of the federation want to resolve this problem on a permanent basis, I suggest the Indus River System Authority (IRSA) should be told to strictly ensure that Sindh’s share of irrigation water is delivered at Guddu in Sindh instead of Taunsa in Punjab. I hope the federal Ministry for Water & Power as well as IRSA would take this decision with consent of the all concerned to resolve the problem once for all.

Courtesy: The Nation, July 21, 2010

Balochistan, News, Pakistan, Politics

Target killing of Balochs

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Protest rally against the target killing of Baloch politician in London

Baloch Human Rights Council and World Sindhi Congress are jointly holding a peaceful protest rally in front of British prime minister official residence at 10 Downing Street, London on Sunday 25 July 2010 at 2 .00 to 4.00 pm against the Target Killing of prominent Baloch politician Habib Jalib by … proxy death squad. .. and … are committing heinous crimes against humanity in Balochistan. …

July 22, 2010

Pakistan, Politics, Punjab, Religion

… non-state actor terrorists in Punjab

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‘Data Darbar had to be destroyed because of Ibn Taymiyya’ – By Khaled Ahmed

The state of Pakistan has deployed its non-state actor terrorists in Punjab. Because of the unclear charter of power of the state agencies linked to the army, parts of Punjab are succumbing to the power of the terrorists. South Punjab is vulnerable to three terrorist organisations. The Punjab government is now paying crores of rupees supporting ‘charities’ of one of them that it has ‘nationalised’ . A new perspective of the Seraiki Movement is gradually coming to the fore, reflecting the political dominance of Sipah-e-Sahaba and its offshoot, the Jaish. No one from among the backers of the Movement – known traditionally to be secular – is willing to even speak of the presence of the jihadi-terrorist organisations. One reason is that most of them want to lean on them to win the elections; the other may be the simple fact of intimidation and the subliminal acknowledgement of state patronage to the terrorists. A Seraiki Province in the coming days will be exclusively the domain of Sipah-e-Sahaba and its friends. It will be for the first time that terrorists posing as Islamic warriors against India and against the Shias of Pakistan will possess an entire province and its resources under the new constitutional dispensation of real autonomy.

Read more >> newageislam

Politics, Religion

The worst poster boys for Islam

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by Nadeem F. Paracha

I received a number of emails on my last blog, Reform Now. Most of the people who wrote to me asked whether I could comment more on the list of reforms that I suggested in the second part of the blog.

Well, here is a sincere attempt.

I would like to acknowledge eminent scholars and authors such as Javed Ahmed Ghamidi, Ziauddin Sardar, Muhammad Akhund, Ali Shariati, Irshad Manji, Dr. Fazalur Rehman, Musa Al-Sadr, and Abdullah Chakralawi, whose published work helped me construct this modest attempt.

Read more >> blog.dawn

News, Pakistan, Politics, Sindh

AT activists protest against reopening of C-J canal

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HYDERABAD, July 21: Activists of the Awami Tehreek staged a sit-in for six hours on the National Highway at Hatri bypass here on Wednesday in protest against reopening of the Chashma-Jhelum link canal, release of water into Greater Thal canal, proposed construction of Bhasha-Diamar dam and tribal. A large number of men, women and children, raised slogans against what they called a theft of Indus water.

Speaking on the occasion, chief of the Awami Tahreek Rasool Bux Palijo said that Sindh was the creator of Pakistan but it was being pushed against the wall. He said Sindh was passing through the worst phase of its history and alleged that the government wanted to destroy the province.

The government was following an international conspiracy against the country, Mr Palijo said and added that rulers had always acted against the interests of the country under the dictates of foreign powers. He expressed solidarity with all the oppressed nations of the world. …

Read more >> DAWN

Economy, Pakistan, Sindh, Sindhi

Bhasha Dam?

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By Prof. Dr. Gul Agha

This is an unmitigated disaster for all. Although they are not likely to get credit at this stage, it is a bad decision which will make it easier for later regimes to do this. Mega-dams are unacceptable. The government is taking a harsh, anti-environmantal action. We must make it clear that we will not accept such an outrageous decisions selling out Indus river and Sindh rights. The Tarbela and Mangla to be dismantled so Indus can flow again.

Nov 13, 2008

Balochistan, Pakistan, Politics

A sad note on the brutal assassination of Habib Jalib Baloch

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Knight, not pawn: Habib Jalib Baloch —Dr Mohammad Taqi

More striking than Habib Jalib’s flowing long hair was his political maturity that was certainly beyond his years. This transition from a student politician to a statesman is rather rare in our part of the world

“Aiy haak ki may nagrin qawm e jis o gor int,

Aiy haak a pa maa taah e jatag shaklein zinday” — Mir Gul Khan Nasir.

“This soil has been our home, after death it has been our grave,

So, for evermore, I am this soil’s slave.”

In the parlance of nationalist movements in Pakistan, the motherland (watan) has often been described as the place where one’s home and grave are (kor and gor, respectively in Pashto, for example). The Baloch revolutionary poet Gul Khan Nasir’s above verse, however, took the concept to a new height. And in his death, on July 15, 2010, Comrade Habib Jalib Baloch immortalised the verse, the concept and the struggle that is befitting of this ideal.

Read more >> Daily Times

Pakistan, Sindh

International Rivers: Bhasha Dam Project

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Since Kalabagh Dam issue have been put to sleep [not to rest], here is a new crisis for Sindh, now you have to take on our “friends” in NWFP, besides Punjab.

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Diamer-Bhasha Dam

The new government of Pakistan is considering another big dam project. The Diamer-Bhasha Dam on the Indus River in northern Pakistan comes with an astounding price tag of over US$8.5 billion. The 200-square-kilomete r reservoir would flood 100 kilometers of the Karakoram highway, and the villages and farms of over 35,000 people would disappear. Tens of thousands of thousand-year old rock carvings would vanish. The project, after an eight-year construction period, would provide 4500 MW of electricity for the national grid, but it would not address the far more pressing issue that half of Pakistan’s population (around 80 million people) have no electricity access whatsoever. Diamer-Bhasha is a costly project that would only benefit industries and wealthy Pakistanis.

Continue reading International Rivers: Bhasha Dam Project →