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Showing posts from January, 2012

Pakistan-Myanmar Relations

Defence and Diplomacy By Raja G Mujtaba Asif Ali Zardari paid a state visit to Myanmar from 22 nd  Jan to 24 th  Jan 2012, perhaps the first by any head of the state. This visit may not be ringing bells anywhere but certainly can develop into much fruitful economic, cultural, educational and tourism relationship. During this visit, new avenues were explored to further strengthen and cement the ties. I am a strong promoter of people to people relationship, Myanmar has a strong potential to interact in a diversified way at all these levels. Presently, the trade volume between the two countries is very low, it’s not worth mentioning in any statistics with its volume as low as 24 million dollars. Burma is rich in natural resources, known for its teak wood. Pakistan will have to overcome it energy crisis on war footings, only then it would be in a position to boost its exports to Myanmar. After the disintegration of Pakistan it never lost contact with Myanmar, it developed som

The Ten Pillars of Justice

By Humayun Gauhar I talked of seven pillars or cornerstones of justice last Sunday but left out three of the most important for want of space. These are: due process, presumption of innocence, and absence of emotion, making ten pillars in all. Due process is a fundamental right that includes the right to defence, the right to call witnesses in one’s defence, the right to cross-examine witnesses and the right of appeal. As officers of the court lawyers should know. Yet, amazingly, lawyers, not rabble rousers, screamed at Aitizaz Ahsan for taking the prime minister’s case and Asma Jehangir of Hussain Haqqani. Don’t they have the right to defend themselves? Methinks that in Pakistan lawyers and rabble-rouser are two names for the same profession. If Hitler had been arrested the same rights of due process would have come into play for him as for you and me. What America is doing in Guantanamo and its other concentration camps is an abomination to due process. So important is du

The Arab People: Voices of Reason to be heard

By Mahboob A. Khawaja, Ph.D. At the latest American Republican Presidential debate in Jacksonville, Florida (Thursday, January 26, moderated by Wolf Blitzer, CNN anchorman), Abraham Hassan, an American citizen of Palestinian descent asked a simple question as to how the candidates will facilitate a peaceful resolution between Israel and Palestine. The moderator asked Mitt Romney to respond first. His answer sounded far away from being a rational perspective. Romney alleged that peace was unthinkable as Palestinian were teaching in school books to kill the “Jews” and attacking Israel with rockets fired from Gaza.  Then Newt Gingrich turned the philosophical jargon and repeated the previous stance that “Palestinians were an invented people.” The moderator did not ask Ron Paul and Rick Santorum for any response. Abraham Hassan stood for a while to make follow-up concern but was not given the opportunity. Watching the debate on this issue, one gets the impression that the two cand

Respect of the dead bodies: US Style

An example of ultra civilization - US Marines Desecration of dead bodies by US soldiers in Afghanistan By S. M. Hali Just when it appeared the US was getting a hold over the Afghan conundrum (mostly of its own making), by agreeing to hold a dialogue with the Taliban and permitting them to establish a political office in Doha, the release of an atrocious video of US Marines desecrating the dead bodies of Taliban creates international furor. The 39 seconds video posted on Youtube depicts combat-ready Marines desecrating the remains of several bodies on the ground; it’s titled "Marines peeing on Taliban." The monstrous atrocity has been criticized by all and sundry. Among other condemnations, Afghan President Hamid Karzai censured the video showing US Marines urinating on the bloodied corpses of several Taliban fighters. In a statement, President Karzai's office said: "The government of Afghanistan is deeply disturbed by a video th

NATO: The Salala Massacre

NATO’s Naked Aggression Against Pakistan And The Hegemonic Israeli-Indo-American Strategy Behind It By Martin Iqbal and Jonathan Azaziah NATO's Bloody Attack On Pakistan: The Motive In the early morning of Saturday 26 November two NATO Apache helicopters, an AC-130 gunship, and a number of fighter jets perpetrated a sustained and deadly attack on two Pakistani army border posts on the Afghan-Pakistan border. Located high on the Salala mountain ridge, the two army posts were brutally attacked for approximately two hours. In what was evidently a naked act of aggression, the US-led forces bombarded the border posts for forty-five minutes, left for twenty minutes, and subsequently returned – attacking for a further hour. Twenty-four Pakistani soldiers including two officers were murdered in the assault. The sustained nature of the attack precludes the possibility of it being a mistake, as claimed by the U.S. government. The United States Military would have us believe tha