Pakistan Link - February 26, 2016

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Friday, February 26, 2016

VOL. 26/9 - 17 Jumadul-ula 1437 H

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Come January 2017, I Will Miss President Obama Delhi Wants ‘Respectful’ Ties with Islamabad: Mukherjee New

US & Canada $1.00

Chinese Opportunity Being Overblown: Khar

Hillary Clinton Versus Bernie Sanders

Nuclear Deterrence Is a Factor of Stability

Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants a “mutually respectful relationship” with Pakistan, his government’s policy paper said on

Tuesday.

The policy paper was read out

by President Pranab Mukherjee as his traditional address to a joint sitting of the parliament’s two houses, which kicks off the annual budget session.

The Modi government’s agreeable posture appeared to follow reported progress in Pakistan with the Pathankot attack probe. The statement also came ahead of a possible meeting bet¬ween Prime Ministers Modi and Nawaz Sharif in Washington next month during a nuclear security summit.

The president said the government was committed to forging a “mutually respectful relationship” with Pakis¬tan and in creating an

MUKHERJEE, P28

The meeting was attended by the top military and civil leadership of Pakistan. The participants noted with satisfaction that Pakistan has the requisite credentials that entitle it to become part of all multilateral export control regimes, including the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG)

Islamabad: The National Command Authority on Wednesday stated that nuclear deterrence is a factor of stability in South Asia and expressed its resolve to maintain full spectrum deterrence, in line with the policy of credible minimum deterrence.

Ahead of the upcoming nuclear security summit to be held next month in the US, Pakistan has ratified the Convention on Physical Protection of Nuclear Material (Amended).

The approval in this regard was given by the premier, who is the

chairman of the NCA. “As a responsible nuclear state, Pakistan would continue to contribute meaningfully towards the global efforts to improve nuclear security and nuclear non-proliferation measures,” said a statement released by DETERRENCE, P28

For news, updated round the clock, visit

www.PakistanLink.com Fata Operation Forced Haqqanis to Flee: Kerry Washington, DC: The ongoing

military operation in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) forced the Haqqani network to relocate, said US Secretary of State John Kerry while defending the Obama administration’s decision to sell eight F-16 aircraft to Pakistan.

The network’s presence in Fata was used as the main argument against the proposed sale during a congressional hearing on Tuesday.

“They continue to support the Taliban, the Haqqani network and to give safe haven to Al Qaeda,” said Senator Bob Corker while opposing the proposed sale.

“They drove the Haqqani network into new locations. And it’s an ongoing process,” said Secretary Kerry while rejecting the senator’s argument. But he acknowledged that some “entities” were still there, “complicating our efforts very significantly.”

Mr Kerry appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday to defend the administration’s budget for 2017, which provides $50.1 billion in dis-

KERRY, P28

PSL a Victory for Pakistan, Says League Chairman

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy Seeking Second Oscar

Sharif Brothers Wary of NAB Cases: Imran Khan

Islamabad: The Pakistan Cricket Board received an overwhelming response from millions of cricketstarved fans, even if it didn’t succeed in spotting a new fast bowler or unearth a new batting star in its inaugural professional Twenty20 league in the United Arab Emirates.

Islamabad United, led by Pakistan Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq, defeated Quetta Gladiators by six wickets at a packed Dubai International Cricket Stadium late Tuesday to conclude a three-week Pakistan Super League.

Millions of fans stayed tuned in across Pakistan until after midnight throughout the tournament, which also featured teams including Pakistan Twenty20 captain Shahid Afridi’s Peshawar Zalmi, all-rounder Shoaib Malik-led Karachi Kings and ODI captain Azhar Ali’s Lahore Qalandars.

“It’s our own league, I haven’t missed a single ball of it,” said Yousuf

n By Cassandra Szklarski

Kotli: Pakistan Tehreeke-Insaf (PTI), Chairman Imran Khan We d n e s d a y said the Sharif brothers (PM Nawaz Sharif and Punjab CM Shahbaz Sharif) are petrified as the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is investigating 12 cases of corruption against them.

Addressing a public meeting at Azad Kashmir’s Kotli district, he stressed that elimination of corruption was necessary for the country’s progress, adding any hurdle that comes in the way of independent accountability must be done away with.

Lauding PTI’s governance in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, he claimed that corruption was at

PSL, P28

Toronto: Earning an Oscar nomination is thrilling for any filmmaker.

But when you’re a documentary filmmaker known for championing human rights, it also becomes a powerful political tool.

Such is the case for Pakistani-Canadian filmmaker Sharmeen ObaidChinoy, who competes for her second Oscar on Sunday in the short documentary category for “A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness.”

The film examines the case of an 18-year-old Pakistani girl who survived a brutal attack by her father and uncle bent on an “honor killing.”

This will be Obaid-Chinoy’s second bid for an Academy Award. Her short documentary “Saving Face,” about brutal acid attacks in Pakistan, won in 2012. She is one of only 11 female directors to have won an Oscar

Obaid-Chinoy says the Oscar nomination has sparked discussion around religiously motivated mur-

ders. “There’s a national discourse that has started in Pakistan about honor killings and it’s in all the

newspapers and everyone’s talking about it,” says Obaid-Chinoy, whose Ka

SHARMEEN, P28

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IMRAN, P28

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OPINION

P4 – PAKISTAN LINK – FEBRUARY 26, 2016

Pakistan Link President

Arif Zaffar Mansuri

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n By Abdul-Majeed Azad

C

Cleveland, Ohio

ome January 20, 2017, I will miss Mr Barack Obama: both as the US president and a wonderful human being.

I’ll miss his exemplary decency, his basic humanity and his unwavering fortitude. I’ll miss his generous, expansive and all-embracing outlook towards all Americans and others around the globe.

I’ll miss his genuine compassion for all. I’ll miss his crying in public without an iota of embarrassment, shame or guilt, when talking about the Sandy Hook School massacre and the need for gun control.

I’ll miss the dignity he brought to the office of the President of the United States, unlike the disgrace this nation had to endure during the Watergate, Iran-Contra and Lewinsky fiascoes.

I’ll miss his strong and innate will of containment, thus avoiding bloody skirmishes on the international stage as much as possible.

I’ll miss his diplomacy – both with his friends and adversaries on the national and global levels. I’ll miss his conscientious commitment to science and environment and the zealous pursuit to mitigate poverty, illiteracy and life-threatening diseases on a global level.

Today when the language of presidential debates - especially in the GOP camp - has reduced to nothing but a mixture of unabashed racial slurs, unchecked profanities and low-life guttural lingo, I’ll miss President Obama’s eloquent oratories. I’ll miss his fine statesmanship that reminded us of Rev. Martin Luther King, President John and Senator Robert Kennedy, all at once.

People might but history will

n By Saeed Qureshi

W

Dallas, TX

Mr President, I’ll Miss You!

not forget the speech of President George Bush to the Israeli Knesset where he denigrated aspiring Obama’s willingness to talk to Iran and Cuba calling it a ‘foolish

ship. This too, history would not forget.

But most of all, as a Muslim and an American I’ll miss a president who had the courage to go

“I entered the race for the White House because of what I want for you and for every child in this nation. I want you to grow up in a world with no limits on your dreams and no achievements beyond your reach, and to grow into compassionate, committed women who will help build that world. And I want every child to have the same chances to learn and dream and grow and thrive that you girls have.

That’s why I’ve taken our family on this great adventure.” delusion’ equating him to a ‘Nazi appeaser’. Today, Mr Obama’s farsighted diplomacy has tamed the hardliners in both these countries, thus thawing the decades-long animosity and transforming suspicion into cooperation and friend-

to a mosque, venerate the greatness of Islam, remind my people of their rich legacy, acknowledge their contribution, appreciate their belonging and assure their place in the United States, especially when the rhetorical onslaught on Mus-

Hillary Clinton vs Bernie Sanders

ith a backlog of the double-digit defeat in the New Hampshire primary, Hillary Clinton bounced back with renewed vigor and robust confidence during the sixth debate of the Democratic Party race and the second exclusively between Mrs. Hillary Clinton and Senator Sanders. The debate was held on February 11, 2016 at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

Milwaukee is the largest city in the State of Wisconsin.

While both the candidates were quite aggressive in describing their policies as the next president of the United States, Mrs Clinton appeared to be more composed, persuasive and eloquent. She responded to the jabs of her Democratic opponent in a calm and unruffled tone. In response to the personal salvo from Mr Sanders such as “Secretary Clinton, you’re not in the White House yet,” Hillary chose to deflect it by ignoring the comments.

Comparing the merits of both the Democratic contenders, one may point out that Sanders if elected would be a fresh entrant into the power corridors as well as occupant of the highest and most prestigious position of the president of the United States.

If elected, Mr Sanders would be the first Jewish president of the United States. He is known as a pro-

ponent of socialism. He may face stiff resistance from well-entrenched private enterprises and business cartels in implementing his socialist agenda.

Understandably, there could be hurdles in his way from the Congress where the Republicans, who are sponsors of huge businesses and financial enterprises, would pose a challenge.

Even their Democratic cohorts may oppose Sanders’ agenda of change. Senator Sanders’ socialist manifesto encompasses no tax breaks to billionaires and “creation of millions of jobs for low-income kids so that they’re not hanging out on the street corners.”

In his debates, Sanders’ entire focus has been on overhauling the economy, taxation on the affluent classes and expanding health-care.

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It means that in a capitalist economy based upon free enterprise, he wants to expand and enlarge the role of the government.

He aims at diminishing the influence of huge business enterprises like Wall Street, insurance companies, and banks as well as industrial and business cartels. He wants Medicare and other social services to be under the control of the government; partially or wholly.

This is like a revolution although it cuts across the influence of the wealthy classes and cartels. His plan to extend and expand the government network would entail huge additional government spending for which he would increase taxes on the affluent sections.

Mrs Clinton, if elected, would be the first female president of the Unit-

lims has never been more vicious and anti-Islam sentiments never louder.

During his two terms in the office, we witnessed several fine traits of Mr Obama’s character as a President, as a loving husband and a devoted and doting father.

He challenged the runaway and fugitive dads who by choosing to abscond shirked their paternal responsibilities and deprived their kids the greatest gift of their life: love.

When he was getting ready to run for the presidency, in an emotional letter to his daughters, which succinctly captured his yearning to serve the country, he wrote: “I entered the race for the White House because of what I want for you and for every child in this nation. I want you to grow up in a world with no limits on your dreams and no achievements beyond your reach, and to grow into compassionate, committed women who will help build that world.

And I want every child to have the same chances to learn and dream and grow and thrive that you girls have. That’s why I’ve taken our family on this great adventure.”

By this solemn proclamation, he put in the heart, mind and mouth the words that every father in America would like and should be able to tell his children.

Recently, he publicly crystallized his feelings for the First lady, Michelle Obama, saying: “I’ve made a lot of great decisions as president. The best decision I ever made was choosing you. Thanks for putting up with me. I love you.”

If you ask me, that is the most awesome legacy of this man.

Yet, come January 20, 2017, I’m afraid many of these presidential as well as humane qualities would simply cease to exist or even matter, in the most sacred citadel of democracy on this planet. ed States of America. She is a moderate and wants to bring about changes in the present setup of governance for which she claims to have ample experience and a package of far reaching reforms for the economic uplift of the country and for extending more benefits and services to the people.

In Mrs Clinton reckoning, Mr Sanders’ package of plans would cost the national exchequer additional trillions of dollars or 40 per cent over the existing spending. She claims that Senator Sanders was not being truthful in revealing the cost of the programs, such as, his proposed expansion of government healthcare.

On the volatile issue of the immigrants both seem to be on the same page. Both support a benign policy about immigration and maximum accommodation of the uproot HILLARY, P24

Vi e w s and opinions expressed by authors and contributors in articles, letters, opinion pieces, reports, advertisements, etc appearing in Pakistan Link and Urdu Link are their own.

The paper neither shares nor endorses them and thus should not be held responsible for the views/opinions of the writers & advertisers.

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OPINION

P6 – PAKISTAN LINK – FEBRUARY 26, 2016

Obama’s Challenge to Muslim Americans Begins at Home n By Athar Javaid

“

Washington, DC

Right now, many Muslim Americans are worried because threats and harassment against their community are on the rise,” President Obama recently wrote in a commentary for Religion News Service. “We’ve seen Muslim Americans assaulted, children bullied and mosques vandalized, and we’ve heard shameful political rhetoric against Muslim Americans that has no place in our country.”

The president’s words recognize higher levels of anti-Muslim rhetoric and violence in America, the intensification of an Islamophobia that spiked after 9/11.

What is going on?

On one hand, American society is conflating Islam with the group that calls itself the Islamic State and reacting to Muslims in a way reminiscent of its 1940s internment of ethnic Japanese. On the other hand, there is concern that acts of radical Islamic fundamentalists present a threat to the nation.

A non-exhaustive list of such events might start in 2009, when 13 people were killed and 30 were wounded by a lone gunman at Fort Hood, Texas. In May 2010, a car bomb was poised to go off in New York’s Times Square. Recently, two shooters killed 14 people in San Bernardino, Calif. — the latest tragedy among a

number far too large.

There is fair and growing angst within American society about the behavior and treatment of Muslims. But the greater concern should be the emergence of a vicious cycle arcing from fear, to grievance, to violence.

Are we already spiraling?

While the 9/11 hijackers were foreign nationals, those behind more recent attacks are often American-born or naturalized citizens. Many grew up in this country and even earned college degrees by virtue of their U.S. citizenship.

To prevent similar events in the future, we may be inclined to ask of past perpetrators: “Were you motivated entirely by religious radicalization, or was your anger sparked by mistreatment and disenfranchisement?” Whatever the answer, the required response will involve the Muslim community, a part of which has shown little inclination to address the problem of the radicalized within it.

We’re seeing now that events like those since 2009 make victims of survivors as well as the deceased. Muslim communities in North America and around the globe mourn alongside the bereaved, but with their grief there is also the fear that all who practice Islam will come to be perceived as terrorists. The natural reaction is to turn inward, and as current events show, it is reasonable for Muslims to be fearful.

But it is also reasonable to believe that homegrown terrorist attacks can be prevented, and if

at home — first with immediate family members and then friends, co-workers, community mem-

“You are not Muslim or American. You are Muslim and American,” Obama said in his RNS commentary, echoing a recent speech at a Maryland mosque. It is as much a statement of fact as it is a challenge, and in both cases, it begins at home we are learning anything, it’s that the best opportunity — and the responsibility — to do so begins

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bers and religious leaders. It ends with law enforcement authorities.

What can Muslims do to

break the cycle of violence and Islamophobia?

Work within Muslim communities to identify extremism and radicalization before it culminates in violence. Uniting a community under a common goal can turn strangers into friends and make the communities warmer, more vigilant and safer for everyone. Neighborhood and community watches do this already and are organized for the same purposes — safety and crime prevention. A wellrun program can achieve greater socialization, spot early signs of concern and effectively prevent crime without abandoning personal privacy.

American society is made stronger and more resilient when it is a community of overlapping communities and when responsibilities are shared.

“You are not Muslim or American. You are Muslim and American,” Obama said in his RNS commentary, echoing a recent speech at a Maryland mosque. It is as much a statement of fact as it is a challenge, and in both cases, it begins at home.

(Athar Javaid is president of INDUS — Mobilizing People’s Power, a Washington, DC-registered 501(c)3 tax-exempt think tank and advocacy group dedicated to a progressive and politically stable Pakistan, strong US-Pakistan relations and community integration and civic promotion in the United States)

OPINION

FEBRUARY 26, 2016 – PAKISTAN LINK – P7

The Drinkable Book: Using Science for Saving Lives

n By Farhana Mohamed, MBA, PhD

discrimination to make this world a better place by enhancing quality of life.

Los Angeles, CA

Picture courtesy WaterisLife

A

ccording to the World Health Organization, 3.4 million people die every year in developing countries due to water-borne diseases. (C. Mathers et al., 2009). Since about 1.1 million people in the developing world do not have access to clean potable water, the odds of people continuing to die with the lack of availability of clean water are staggering.

There has been quite a bit of scientific research on ways of providing safe drinking water such as using chlorine and iodine tablets, UV radiation, ceramic filters, etc., but their usage is not widespread due to knowledge-barrier, cost, equipment cost, and other barriers. The novel Drinkable BookTM introduced in 2015 not only increases awareness by educating the user about water safety, hygiene, and basic principles of sanitation, but its pages can be used as filters to remove 99% of bacteria from the untreated water to produce drinkable clean water without compromising taste.

Dr Theresa Dankovich, an American chemist, invented the technique during her PhD research at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. She presented her groundbreaking findings on August 17, 2015, during the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston. The book’s thick pages, coated with non-hazardous silver nanoparticles, act as filters and hence called the pAge Drinking Paper - with Ag as the abbreviation for argentum, Latin name for silver.

The book uses green technology such

Rodents onboard n By Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd) Westridge, Rawalpindi

S as non-toxic silver particles and edible ink.

Each page is removed and placed in a simple filter holder; when untreated water is passed through the filter, it removes almost all bacteria and turbidity.

One page conveniently cleans up to 26 gallons of water and the whole book can be used for one year or more depending on use. During her post-doctoral research at Virginia University and Carnegie Mellon

founded by Dr Dankovich and her team in 2015 to collaborate with other non-profits for expanded testing of the drinking filter paper. In 2016, the team founded for- profit, FoliaWater, for scaling up production and enabling global distribution of the product, but with the same humanitarian mission to provide clean water worldwide. The Drinkable BookTM also underscores the importance of enhancing literacy in the

The book uses green technology such as non-toxic silver particles and edible ink. Each page is removed and placed in a simple filter holder; when untreated water is passed through the filter, it removes almost all bacteria and turbidity University, Pennsylvania, Dr Dankovich and her team tested the pAge Drinking Paper in South Arica; she also worked with a couple of charities, including WaterisLife, to successfully test the Drinkable BookTM in several developing countries such as Ghana, Haiti, Kenya, and Bangladesh. The future plan is to translate the book in several languages and test the filters for viral and other non-bacterial water-borne diseases.

A nonprofit, pAge Drinking Paper, was

developing countries as a means of introducing sound health-oriented preventable technologies. As the Folia Water states, “All technological advancement is contingent upon literacy and education, so Folia Water products include educational materials that allow users to gain control of their water quality, sanitation, and health”.

The Drinkable BookTM is yet another example where scientists, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists work together without

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ome hefty and robust mice were found in a plane of a private airlines. This is a very serious and highly hazardous matter. The rodents are known to relish to gnaw at and chew upon the plastic outer covering of cables thus rendering the inside current carrying conductors bare which could cause short circuiting.

There is no dearth of such wires and cables running all over the aircraft. Some of these wires carry higher voltages for the lights, fans, kitchen appliances, motors and AC, etc. Others carry lower voltages for a plethora of highly sensitive and crucial communication and navigational gadgets and avionics. Any short circuiting of the higher voltage carrying wires could ignite a fire. Nothing could be more dangerous for both the plane and the passengers than, God forbid, any of these happening. Now all wiring and cabling of the plane is concealed and once the presence of a rodent is established in an aircraft, no matter for how small a period, no one can say for sure that none of the wires have not been damaged. The entire cable network and harnesses have got to be thoroughly checked and tested to ensure that no short-circuiting would take place at any future time. That means grounding of the plane for quite some time to check it up thoroughly.

I sincerely hope the airlines would do that and not just get rid of the mice and put the bird to flying again.

OPINION

P8 – PAKISTAN LINK – FEBRUARY 26, 2016

We Should Blame Ourselves - 2

n By Dr Basheer Ahmed Khan

O

Garden Grove, CA

n January 31, 2016 in the Worlds Apart program aired by RT, a German psychologist was called to probe the psychological makeup of people who are alleged to have committed rape on New Year’s Eve in Germany. He felt that the refugees were brainwashed by their religious leaders into believing that anyone who did not belong to their religion was their property and they could do anything with them; make them slaves, rape or kill!

I have studied Islam for about 50 years and I have not come across any such teaching of any authentic Islamic scholar. I think that these “Experts” alone have access to such secret Islamic teachings to demonize Islam.

Many news channels have claimed that after this New Year incident in Germany, and every such atrocity perpetrated by masked men shouting Islamic slogan, the popularity of right wing parties opposed to refugee influx into Europe has increased manifold. True, that nobody likes people from far off places to take the jobs in their country and destroy the dream of open borders between East and West Europe, but to demonize a whole religion and subject its followers to untold misery is not acceptable under any law.

It is essential for world peace that laws are made to make the diffusion of falsehood against people and nations a culpable offense. Media channels hurling unsubstantiated allegations should give full opportunity to the accused nations and

cept any other religion. This verse is being used to incite people of other faiths against Islam and Muslims by Muslim-bashers for their own agendas. A few masked or bearded “war-

people to defend themselves by confronting the accusers on the same channel. This will be a service to our own people and nation who have been pushed on a wrong course because of this one-sided propaganda.

This alibi of media bias is only half truth, and the other half is that we Muslims have become selfproclaimed spokesmen of Islam and Muslims without having the knowledge of Islam and a p p e a r on media to promote ourselves for small gains at the cost of Islam and Muslims. We have become selfproclaimed Mujahids (warriors) of Islam to destroy Islam, Muslims and Muslim countries in the name of defending them.

In 2004 when Islamophobia was fresh and full of steam, a dissident wanted to promote himself by alleging that text books in his country teach the supremacy of Islam over all the other religions. A leading cable channel invited the director of PR from the embassy to explain this allegation which is actually a verse of Qur’an: The only acceptable religion in sight of Allah is Islam (Ch3 V19). This spokesman of the Muslim Government said: Our government has appointed a committee to go into all such matters and recommend changes in the syllabus. This was an unwarranted and wrong confession to make Islam and Qur’an guilty of blame alleged by a self-seeking individual by quoting out of context a verse from the Qur’an. The poor defense by the information officer made Islam a totalitarian religion that does not ac-

This alibi of media bias is only half truth, and the other half is that we Muslims have become self-proclaimed spokesmen of Islam and Muslims without having the knowledge of Islam and appear on media to promote ourselves for small gains at the cost of Islam and Muslims. We have become self-proclaimed Mujahids (warriors) of Islam to destroy Islam, Muslims and Muslim countries in the name of defending them riors” who shout Islamic slogans and carry out heinous crimes forbidden in Islam provide more ammunition to the Muslim-bashers in the mainstream media.

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If one reads the Qur’an he will find several verses and even whole chapters in praise of prophets and people of other faiths to take away air from the sail of this false accusation leveled against Islam that it scorns at other faiths and teaches to dominate over them.

One of the basic requirements for a Muslim to be a Muslim is that he should respect all prophets who came before Muhammad SA and respect all scriptures revealed to them (Ch3 V84). This is not just in respect to the prophets who are mentioned but also those which are not mentioned in the Qur’an (Ch4 V163164). Allah commands Muslims to respect the objects of worship which the people of other faiths hold in reverence (Ch6 V108).

With regard to the followers of other prophets with their own scriptures, Allah says in the Qur’an: From amongst the people of the book there are many who are steadfast on the straight path, they recite the verses from their scripture in the night when they prostrate before Him. They believe in the One true God to whom everything belongs and in the day of judgment. They command what is virtuous and forbid what is wrong and vie in good deeds. These are the “righteous people”. Whatever good these people of other faiths do will not be denied by Allah and He is aware of who is truly conscious of Him (Ch3 V113-115).

Righteous people is a title reserved for good practicing Muslims and is used here for the people of other faiths and yet some people have the

audacity to accuse Islam of being disrespectful to other faith.

When the Muslim emperors went into war to expand their empires, as all emperors did, they changed the context and connotation of certain Hadith and misinterpreted certain Qur’anic verses to incite and mobilize the gullible Muslims for their warfare. These misquotes are now being quoted to brand Islam as a religion which is intolerant of other religions and seeks to change them by force of sword. While hurling this allegation against Islam they ignore many verses in the Qur’an which speak against coercion in religion (Ch2 V256, Ch110 V6, Ch10 V99-100, Ch28 V56, Ch17 V15 etc.). History belies this claim that Islam was forced by sword on huge nonMuslim populations in countries ruled by Muslims for centuries. Yes some bad Muslim rulers have erred but they were bad rulers like the bad rulers that had always ruled in every religion. For those who enjoy Islam- and Muslim-bashing neither the teachings of the Qur’an nor the annals of history have any meaning.

What is important to them is their agenda of creating chaos and fishing in troubled water by demonizing Muslims through false allegations.

Allah commands Muslims to respect the objects of worship which the people of other faiths hold in reverence (Ch6 V108). Killing of innocent people is a serious crime which has serious punishment (Ch25 V68) and it is like killing whole mankind (Ch5 V32). If some “Muslim” is killing non-Muslims, or breaking idols and destroying historical sites he is individually responsible for it and BLAME, P9

OPINION n By Professor Nazeer Ahmed

S

Concord, CA

ummary: Drawing upon historical experiences in the context of American exceptionalism, this article presents a bold and comprehensive approach for Muslim life in America. The Akhlaq e Nasiri of Nasiruddin al Tusi (d 1274) was a transformational benchmark in Islamic history and represented the quintessence of the creative efforts of a civilization struggling to survive the Mongol onslaught. Similarly, the challenge before Muslim intellectuals in the twenty-first century is to renew the faith from within using the guidance of the Qur’an and the Seerah of the Prophet while staying within the paradigm of the American Constitution and the Bill of Rights. A renewal from within is essential at this critical time. The alternative is to melt away into the secular milieu as has happened with the previous waves of Muslim arrivals.

1. The Historical Context The Mongol invasions of the thirteenth century (1219-1263) devastated the eastern part of the Islamic world. It is hard to exaggerate the death and destruction caused by Genghis Khan and his descendants.

Great cities like Samarqand, Bukhara, Merv, Nishapur, Esfahan and Ghazna were decimated. In 1258, Baghdad the seat of the Abbasid Caliphate fell. Ninety percent of the population of the cities was killed or enslaved. In the countryside, the devastations were complete. Dams were leveled. Agricultural land became waste land. Scholars were killed; libraries burned. Millions perished and entire regions were depopulated. In short, the curtain fell on the classical Islamic civilization.

The conquering Mongols replaced the Sharia with their own Yasa (Rasa), a compendium of ancient rituals. The ensuing spiritual vacuum led to a three-way contest between the Christians, the Buddhists and the Muslims for the soul of the Mongol. The Armenian Christians as well as the Byzantines sent emissaries to Karakorum, the capital of Mongolia, to convert the Great Khan. Christian women were offered as wives to Mongol princes.

Doguz Khatun, a Nestorian Christian of the Keraite clan, was one of the chief wives of Hulagu Khan.

Buddhist and Christian monks were active educating the Mongol ruling elite about the virtues of their respective faiths.

The situation was stark indeed.

As they were the former rulers, the Muslims were singled out for repression. Those who survived the butchery were turned into slaves.

The adhan of the muezzin was replaced by the sounds of the conch.

Halal meat was banned. The believers were compelled to eat the carcasses butchered by the Mongol nomads.

In its darkest hour, the innate spirituality of Islam rose to the challenge. As if by Divine plan, the foundations of an Islamic renewal had been laid before the first Mongol soldier set foot in Khorasan.

The encyclopedic works of Imam Al Ghazzali (d 1106) had given Tasawwuf a firm anchor within Kalam. The spiritual legacy of Shaikh

FEBRUARY 26, 2016 – PAKISTAN LINK – P9

Bonding with America ...

Akhlaq e Amrikiye: A Manual for Survival of Muslims in America

Abdel Qader Jeelani (d 1186) had spread throughout the eastern part of the Islamic world. Egypt and North Africa were blessed with the likes of Ibn al Arabi (d 1240) and Shaikh Shadhuli (d 1258). Even in the cacophony of war, the sublime poetry of Mevlana Rumi (d 1273) resonated from Konya in Turkey.

Khwaja Moeenuddin Chishti (1236) lit the light of shahada in the plains of India. The contributions of these sages would be great in any social context. But to produce great works of spiritual literature amidst the cacophony of war is a mark of genius.

Zawiyas sprang up in hamlets away from the mayhem and convulsion of cities. Here, the light of faith was kept alive, as if there were a thousand candles flickering in a thousand isolated huts even as the lamp was extinguished in the major cities by the ravages of invasion. It was these zawiyas, the huts and hamlets scattered throughout the region that provided the seeds for an Islamic renewal.

The outcome of the tug of war between Christianity, Buddhism and Islam hung in the balance for almost a century. During his return from Central Asia, Genghis Khan was open to religious discourse.

On his return from Khorasan, he met with Sufi Shaikhs and was instructed in the tenets of spirituality in Islam. A year later he met a Tao monk Chuji. Following the example of Genghis Khan, his descendants experimented with all three religions, often switching from one faith to another. In this spiritual contest Christianity and Buddhism clearly had the initial advantage as the Muslims were utterly devastated. The future of Asia and of the world hung in balance.

When Genghis Khan died (1227), his vast empire broke up into four parts: the Yuan dynasty of China, the Chagtai Empire of Central Asia, the IlKhans of Persia and the Golden Horde of Russia, each ruled by a son or a grandson of Genghis.

The interrelationship between the four parts were often tense due to dynastic rivalries. These tensions

provided the political context for the spiritual competition between Christianity, Buddhism and Islam.

The first break in this contest came with the conversion of Baraka Khan (1257), ruler of the Golden Horde in Russia. It is related by Abul Ghazi that during his campaigns in the Caspian Sea area, Baraka Khan came in contact with Sufi shaikhs in a caravan from Bokhara and was so impressed with their pious disposition, humility and innate dignity

The challenge before Muslim intellectuals in the twenty-first century is to renew the faith from within using the guidance of the Qur’an and the Seerah of the Prophet while staying within the paradigm of the American Constitution and the Bill of Rights that he asked them to explain to him the tenets of their faith. The shaikhs not only explained the outward rites of the religion but exposed him to the spiritual dimensions of Tasawwuf and Tazkiyah. People do not change their faith that easily and the conversion of a ruler to the faith of a conquered people is a momentous historical event. The Mongols were a nomadic people in tune with nature and the innate spirituality of man. The spiritual discourses with the Sufi Shaikhs must have touched a sympathetic chord in the soul of the Khan, and he accepted Islam.

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Religion influences politics.

There ensued an alliance between Baraka Khan of Russia and the Mamluke Sultan Baybars of Egypt.

This linkage was of enormous help to the Egyptians who were locked in mortal combat with the Il Khans of Persia. In the year 1262, at the decisive battle of Ayn Jalut near Jerusalem, the Mamlukes defeated the Il Khans. It was a decisive battle in world history. The Mamluke victory saved the Islamic world from total destruction.

In this age of tumult, mayhem and destruction, the name of Nasiruddin al Tusi (d 1274) stands out as a scholar who survived the Mongol onslaught. Born in Tus in the year 1201, his early education included the Qur’an, Hadith and Ithna Ashari fiqh. He then proceeded to Nishapur which was at the time a renowned center of learning and studied mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, logic and tasawwuf from some of the great masters of the age.

To avoid capture and execution by the Mongols, he fled from one city to another, and sought refuge with the Nizari Ismailis in the mountain hideouts of Alamut, in northwestern Iran. When Alamut fell to the Mongols in 1256, Nasiruddin was captured and was pressed into the service of Hulagu Khan.

Nasiruddin made extensive contributions to physics, astronomy, trigonometry, biology and philosophy. The famous Tusi couple is named after him. Recognizing his scholarship, Hulagu Khan built an astronomical observatory for him in Marageh, Iran. Al Tusi spent the last years of his life at this observatory compiling the Zij I Ilkhani, an astronomical treatise. The Zij was an atlas of the heavens and contained tables for calculating the positions of planets and stars based on observations made at the observatory over a period of more than ten years.

Ibn Khaldun regards Al Tusi as the greatest scientist of his era. However, in this article we are focused not so much on his contributions to the natural and astronomical sciences as on his works on ethics

and the sciences of man. Faced with near extinction, the Islamic civilization was direly in need of ethical and spiritual anchors to renew itself.

Nasiruddin was well suited for this task. He was trained in the ethical precepts of the major maslaks (schools of jurisprudence) prevalent in Persia - the Ithna Ashari, the Sunni and the Ismaili. Among the other sages of his age, Nasiruddin is reported to have met, in his youth, the well-known Sufi Shaikh, Fareeduddin al Attar (d 1219), celebrated for his treatise Mantiq at Tayr (Conference of the Birds).

Nasiruddin wrote a treatise on ethics, Akhlaq e Nasiri. The word “Akhlaq” is derived from its root Arabic word khulq, meaning creation. Functionally, it means, “to serve what God has created”. In everyday usage, it means the intrinsic character of a person. It is the outward manifestation of the presence of God in one’s heart. Just as tasawwuf addresses the purification of the heart, Aklaq addresses the outward expression of this purity in spacetime. Succinctly, Akhlaq is an attribute of a person disposed to fulfill God’s command: “I created not beings of fire and beings of clay except to serve Me.” The Akhlaq e Nasiri is considered a landmark work that provided an anchor for the development of culture in the Muslim world for five hundred years. Following the example of Al Tusi, kings, emperors and noblemen in later centuries compiled their own volumes on ethics.

The Mogul emperor Jehangir, for instance, ordered the compilation of a treatise, Akhlaq e Jehangiri, a book of ethics for the Mogul empire of South Asia and its composite culture. The Qur’an describes the Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) as a possessor of “tremendous character” (Wa Innaka La’ala Khulqin A’zeem- And Indeed (O Muhammad), you are endowed with a tremendous character). To be continued.

BLAME FROM P8

Islam and Muslims of that country should not be collectively harassed and victimized for it.

We should blame ourselves for not learning enough about our religion to live by it and to defend it against the actions of some misguided people. Beyond this we should blame ourselves for becoming spokespersons for Islam without its real and complete knowledge, thereby discrediting it by design. We should blame ourselves for sidelining competent people from every level and placing ourselves in that position to enjoy its glory for a short period of time at the expense of our people and our countries. More than this we should blame ourselves for becoming a barrier between truth and billions of others who are seeking truth to emerge out of the confusion that surrounds them.

Without a worthwhile media channel to present the overall true Islamic life, the image of Islam and Muslims gets tarnished more with every stupid act of every misguided person. The 24-hour satellite “Islamic channels” that we have should be used more imaginatively and effectively to portray true Islamic life, Islamic heritage, Islamic ceremonies, Islamic history etc. to present a true picture of Islam and Muslims to dispel ignorance and bigotry that is destroying our world.

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FEBRUARY 26, 2016 – PAKISTAN LINK – P11

Prime Minister Comes under Fire over Huge Expenses on Foreign Tours

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and wife Kalsoom Nawaz arrive at Bandaranaike International Airport in Katunayake, Sri Lanka, on January 4

Islamabad: Pakistan’s billionaire prime minister has triggered outrage after billing $2.2 million per year in travel expenses and spending one-fifth of his term abroad.

Nawaz Sharif has embarked on 65 foreign trips since taking office in June 2013.

The cost of Sharif and his officials spending on the 185 days overseas has reached more than $6 million — or $187,000 monthly, the country’s foreign ministry revealed in a report presented to parliament last week.

The average worker in Pakistan earns a monthly income of around $116, according to figures published by the UN’s International Labor Organization. Sharif ’s official monthly salary is about $1,600, which he donates to public education projects.

According to a the foreign ministry document, Sharif visited the UK 17 times for a total of almost two months. He also visited the US four times and China three times.

The prime minister has attend-

ed just 36 of the 256 National Assembly sessions held since he took office.

Sharif — a billionaire industrialist who also serves as foreign minister — has long been criticized for his frequent travel abroad. A Gallup poll released last week showed that more than half of Pakistanis think he spends too much time on foreign tours.

Amid the backlash, the threetime prime minister’s political opponents criticized his travel expenses as “ridiculous.”

“All our problems are domestic,” said Shafqat Mehmood, a senior opposition leader with the Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf party. “Terrorism, bad governance, schools being attacked, and the prime minister spends 6 million bucks on 65 foreign trips?”

A senior official at the prime minister’s office denied suggestions that Sharif ’s travel costs were excessive.

“If you compare Mr. Sharif ’s average entourage size of 17 to that

of former prime minister [Yousaf Raza] Gilani or [Raja Pervaiz] Ashraf, who used to take over a 100 people on junkets, then the difference is quite apparent,” the official told NBC News.

Sharif ’s political allies insist that his frequent travel was money and time well spent in the national interest.

“It is of note, that unlike previous expenditures and trips, the prime minister’s efforts have resulted in $47.5 billion in foreign investment,” said Daniyal Aziz, a member of parliament for Nawaz’s Pakistan Muslim League. “One can clearly justify that such proportion of investment in Pakistan’s future and rising stature is the reason for these trips.”

According to World Bank data, Pakistan was the country with the 37th lowest GDP per capita — $1,316 — in 2014. That compares to $54,629 for the US. Sharif is one of Pakistan’s richest men and is reportedly worth more than $1 billion.

Chinese Opportunity Being Overblown, Says Hina Rabbani Khar

Islamabad: Harboring great expectations with regard to China as panacea for all its ills would do no good to Pakistan as the former’s own role in the emerging scenario would matter a lot in the upcoming great game in the region.

Former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar, who was among the panelists at a session titled ‘Contemporary Great Games’ and moderated by historian Ahmad Rashid, made this observation.

Others in the panel included Swedish Pakistani Qaiser Mahmood, US journalist Steve Coll, Italian journalist Vivana Mazza and former Kyrgyzstan president Roza Otunbayeve.

Ms Rabbani said there was no denying the fact that Chinese investment was going to impact Pakistan in a big way, strategically and economically, but the prospect was being “overblown”.

She claimed China was more massively investing in Central Asia as compared to Pakistan. The actual Great Game would unfold in South China sea and the areas around it, she added.

She said in the contemporary

great games the non-state actors had a much more important role.

To Ahmad Rashid’s query about the response of Europe, especially Italy, to the migrant or refugee crisis, Ms Mazza said: “The crisis had been used by right-wing political parties to legitimize their stance against immigrants.

She said the refugees crisis had created a lot of apprehensions among the Europeans, especially incidents like Paris attack were seen with a great concern.

“I go to schools and kids ask me whether the militants would come riding boats,” she said, adding that the right wingers were exploiting such concerns to their advantage.

She said Italy was a homogeneous society but the influx of refugees would change it, rather the whole of Europe.

Ms Roza, who had been a member of Kyrgyzstan communist party, said her country was coming out of the hangover of communist rule and HINA, P20

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Security Raised for President ahead of Qadri’s Mercy Plea Decision

Islamabad: President Mamnoon Hussain’s family has confined itself to the Presidency for fear of a backlash as he is expected to decide the clemency plea of Malik Mumtaz Qadri, the self-confessed killer of Punjab’s former governor Salmaan Taseer.

Qadri, a former police commando, assassinated Taseer in Islamabad’s Kohsar Market on January 4, 2011 for his support to a blasphemy accused. An Anti-Terrorism Court convicted and condemned him to death – a ruling also upheld by the Islamabad High Court and Supreme Court.

A review petition of Qadri was also turned down by the top court

on December 14 last year, leaving him with the last option of to file a clemency appeal to the president.

Religious parties have threatened nationwide protests if Qadri is hanged. In view of a possible backlash, the president’s family has been moved from Karachi to the Presidency in Islamabad, sources told The Express Tribune.

Currently, only the president and the prime minister are provided security under the ‘Blue Category’ – the highest security protocol for anyone in Pakistan. “Despite these heavy protocols, security of the president has been further beefed up as he is about to decide the mercy appeal of Qadri,” said an official privy to the development.

The president has three sons.

And the official said last year one of his sons, Salman Mamnoon, escaped a bomb attack on his convoy in Hub, near Karachi. Three people were killed in the attack claimed by a banned separatist group, Baloch Liberation Army.

Another senior security official told The Express Tribune that overall security in Islamabad would also be reviewed if Qadri’s mercy plea was rejected by the president. “Security situation will be reviewed following the decision. And most probably the district administration will impose Section 144 in the capital,” he said.

Secretary to the President Shahid Khan refused to comment on the issue.

Imran Farooq’s Murder: UK’s Decision on Extradition of Suspects Awaited Islamabad: The government has

decided to hold a final round of talks with Britain to determine whether it is serious about the extradition of the alleged murderers of Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) leader Dr imran Farooq. Dr Farooq was bludgeoned and stabbed to death in September 2010 near his apartment in the Edgware area of London.

A source privy to the development told Express News that Pakistani authorities will seek the opinion of the UK authorities on any possible extradition within a week.

“The alleged culprits will be prosecuted in Pakistan if the UK authorities are found reluctant about extradition,” he said.

The source said at one time the UK authorities were very keen to lay their hands on Dr Farooq’s assassins; however, now they seem less interested in pursuing the case.

“Pakistani authorities are left in very strange situation by the UK as now they are least bothered about the investigation into the case going on in Pakistan,” he added.

He said Pakistani authorities consider it a conscious move on part of the UK authorities and have noted that MQM chief Altaf Hussain now enjoys good relations with them.

“The government of Pakistan has extended full cooperation to bring the culprits to book and has kept on sharing the necessary information with Scotland Yard,” he said.

He said the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has documentary evidence to prove the conspiracy and intent of murder.

One of the alleged culprits –

Moazzam Ali – is the main character and facilitator, who transferred the amount into the bank accounts of the alleged murderers – Syed Mohsin and Kashif – to get the murder plan executed, he said.

“All such records, like bank accounts details and telephone calls, are with the FIA investigators,” he claimed. He said report of a Joint investigation Team (JIT) – formed prior to the registration of a case in Islamabad – had also been shared with Scotland Yard and British authorities.

The alleged culprits –Moazzam Ali, Khalid Shamim, Syed Mohsin and Kashif Kamran – are being investigated by the FIA. Mohsin Ali confessed – before Anti-Terrorism Wing of the FIA in a court of Islamabad additional deputy commissioner – that he and Kashif had murdered Dr Farooq.

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FEBRUARY 26, 2016 – PAKISTAN LINK – P13

Pakistan Property Market Basks in Dubai Slowdown

Karachi: A flow of money from a slowing Dubai property market to Pakistan has pushed up prices, as much as double in some areas.

Property dealers and developers said higher demand, especially in Karachi and Islamabad, was driving prices higher on a daily basis.

In contrast, investors said Dubai market had lost attraction, falling by 15 to 20 per cent in recent months.

According to Dubai Annual Market Update Report issued in mid-December, average residential property rates have fallen 16pc and 14pc year-on-year for apartments and villas, respectively, while overall unit transactions declined by 33pc.

However, it was also noted that money laundering was checked by the law-enforcement authorities, particularly in the wake of operations against terrorism and its abettors. Recently, some money changers were grilled in this regard by the authorities while a big money changer is already in custody over charges of money laundering.

“Ample liquidity for property investment is pushing prices everywhere, particularly in Karachi and Islamabad,” said Ashraf Hameed, the director of property developer Value Housing.

He cited closer monitoring of cross-border money movement and improved law and order situation in Pakistan as reasons behind the uptrend. “We have no problem of law and order in Islamabad while the situation in Karachi has also improved significantly.”

M. Anwar, a private investor residing in Karachi, said: “Property prices in Dubai have dropped 15 to 20pc in commercial and semi-commercial areas, and 5 to 10pc in posh areas.”

Pakistanis have been leading investors in Dubai properties and

According to Dubai Annual Market Update Report issued in mid-December, average residential property rates have fallen 16pc and 14pc year-on-year for apartments and villas, respectively, while overall unit transactions declined by 33pc

achieved top position a year ago.

Most of them were businessmen, politicians, government officials and those who migrated to other countries and shifted their property in Dubai for better returns.

It is also believed that illegal money earned through corruption found Dubai as safe haven. The balance of trade has been in favor of the United Arab Emirates. In FY15, imports from the UAE were $7.4 billion while exports were just $1.3bn. Imbalances due to illegal trading could be much higher.

Since money laundering has substantially reduced these days, the exchange rate, particularly in the open market, is stable for more than a couple of months with slight fluctuations.

Exchange companies said the demand for the US dollar is normal.

“The State Bank of Pakistan and the government took money laundering as a very serious offence and a number of money changers came under investigation. It discouraged

Dosti Bus Service between India and Pakistan Suspended

Lahore: The Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) on Sunday suspended the Dosti Bus Service between Lahore and Delhi after caste violence in the Indian state of Haryana crippled life on Friday, DawnNews reported.

Ten people have died in caste protests which triggered widespread arson and looting in the north Indian state, police said Sunday, as New Delhi faced a water crisis after mobs shut down a key supply.

Thousands of troops with shoot-on-sight orders were deployed on Saturday in Haryana state, a day after week-long protests turned vio-

lent with rioters setting fire to homes and railway stations and blocking highways.

The manager of the Dosti Bus Service told media that 20 passengers had booked seats to travel to Delhi Monday, all of whom have been notified of the postponement.

A date for the resumption of the service has not been announced yet.

The Jat caste is leading the protests, demanding quotas for government jobs and university placements, saying they are struggling to find employment and education opportunities despite India’s strong economic growth.

people and even if it has not stopped completely the scale of such shady transactions has shrunk,” a money changer remarked.

Leading currency dealers told Dawn privately that several illegal exchangers indulged in unlawful activity of money transfers. Many such outfits were operating openly from many cities of the country.

Non-Bailable Arrest Warrants for Musharraf Issued Again Islamabad: An additional district and sessions judge on Saturday issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf for his ‘deliberate’ absence from the proceedings of the murder case of Lal Masjid cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi.

The judge, Pervaizul Qadir Memon, observed that the conduct of the accused (Musharraf) shows “he is bent upon not to appear before the trial court deliberately and intentionally to face the trial in person and is seeking justice while in his drawing room.”

In September 2013, the Aabpara police registered an FIR against Gen Musharraf on the direction of the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

Haroon Rashid, the son of Abdul Rashid Ghazi, had filed a petition with the IHC seeking legal action against the former military ruler for launching a military operation against Lal Masjid. His father Rashid Ghazi and grandmother Sahib Khatoon were killed in the operation.

The military operation was launched in July 2007 after the civil administration failed to get a children’s library on the premises of Lal Masjid vacated from the possession of the mosque administration.

In April 2013, a commission held Gen Musharraf, the then prime minister Shaukat Aziz and his political allies, responsible for the military operation in which 103 people were killed.

During a recent public appearance in the sessions court of Islamabad, Maulana Abdul Aziz, a cleric of Lal Masjid and the elder brother of Rashid Ghazi, announced that he was ready to pardon Gen Musharraf for the military operation. The announcement, however, annoyed some of his close aides, including MUSHARRAF, P20

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Islamabad Anticipates Putin’s Visit to Seal Pipeline Deal

Islamabad:

Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to visit Pakistan in coming months to inaugurate a gas pipeline project in which Russia will be investing billions of dollars.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has sent an invitation to Moscow and Russia has shown willingness to send its head of state, according to Mobin Saulat, the CEO and managing director of Inter State Gas Systems, the Pakistani company handling the project.

“Maybe before June,” Saulat said hopefully, referring to Putin’s arrival.

Saulat attributed Russian interest in the project to changing regional dynamics, both political and economic.

“We are 200 million people.

And we provide a gateway to other South Asian countries,” he said.

Energy officials meet: As a sign of Russian interest, he pointed out that Pakistani officials and energy experts, on a recent Moscow trip, were able to meet the heads of Russian energy giants Gazprom, Rostec, and Rosneft for the first time in more than two decades.

Russia also wants to supply liquid natural gas to Pakistan. Saulat said in time Pakistan should expect to import 4 million tons per annum of LNG from Russia. Pakistan recently signed a deal with Qatar to provide LNG. Economic incentives apart, both sides might have strategic and political motives for working together on this project.

Russia likely views the deal as an opportunity to expand its influence in key areas of South and Central Asia.

“There’s a great deal of thinking that this has more geopolitical underpinnings rather than commercial ones,” said Khurram Hussain, a business and economy journalist, and a former Pakistan scholar at the Washington-based think tank Woodrow Wilson Center.

He sounded doubts, however, about the pace of the project.

“I take agreements that have been signed in a veil of secrecy with a great deal of skepticism,” said Hussain, adding that if the government wanted to start the project in a few months, now is the time to let analysts review the terms and conditions.

Boosting Pakistan’s economy: He acknowledged that the deal, if it goes through, would be good for Pakistan. “Pakistan is in dire need of foreign investment in infrastruc-

ture and the only parties that are willing to step forward thus far have been other states, particularly China,” he said.

While the current venture is a state-to-state project, it might give a signal to the private sector that Pakistan’s economy has powerful backers. Russia will spend from $2 billion to $2.5 billion, which is almost 85 percent of the cost of building the pipeline.

The 1,100-kilometer structure will be able to transport 1.2 billion cubic feet of gas per day throughout Pakistan, from Karachi to Lahore. The first phase of the three-phase project is expected to come online in two years, with the final completion date scheduled for some time in 2019. LNG, from any country that comes to Karachi port, will be re-gasified and sent through this pipeline to the north.

With time, the pipeline will help replace the aging infrastructure currently used to transport gas within Pakistan.

Russian involvement: Pakistan initially approached China, Russia, and Qatar for the financing of the project and received favorable responses from all. In the end, the government opted for Russia in order to diversify its regional partnerships.

Saulat said the Russians “immediately responded.” Russia already has sent teams to survey the route and is in the process of designing the project.

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and his Pakistani counterpart Shahid Khaqan Abbasi signed an agreement when Novak visited Islamabad in October.

Saulat expects the deal to usher in a new era of Russian investment in Pakistan. “In the next few months you’ll see more and more Russian delegations coming in,” he said.

MQM Demands Ouster of Sindh Governor Karachi: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) on Saturday reiterated its demand to sack Sindh Governor Dr ishratul Ibad and urged the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) to endorse its stance.

Since 2002 Dr Ishartul Ibadhas been the governor odf Sindh and is the longest serving governor in the history of Pakistan. He was backed by MQM for the post of governorship in the early era of Parvez Musharraf.

Until 2011, Ibad was considered a close aide of MQM chief Altaf Hussain and ‘a man of crisis’ who could always be relied upon to come up to the expectations of the party chief.

Not anymore. MQM stalwarts now privately accuse him of betraying the party, indulging in corruption for himself and submitting to the PPP for personal gains.

MQM leaders had demanded his resignation in May 2015, but then, due to Rangers’ pressure, they had silently withdrawn their demand.

As the current political scenario has brought two political rivals back on table, MQM has urged PPP to endorse its stance on Sindh governorship as a part of their deal.

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Pakistan’s Parliament First in the World to Go 100% Solar

Islamabad: Pakistan’s parliament

has become the first national assembly in the world to be powered entirely by solar energy. .

The legislative body, known as the Majlis-e-Shoora, is in the capital city of Islamabad.

Construction on the project began last year with funding provided by the Chinese government as “an act of friendship,” the Independent reported.

The plant, which cost $52 million to build, produces 80 megawatts of electricity, 62 of which will power the national assembly and 18 of which will feed into the national grid. According to PV Magazine, the parliament could save an estimated $1 million per year in energy bills with the new solar power plant.

Feb. 12 marked the first time members of parliament met while

the lower house was being powered by solar. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is expected to formally “switch on” the program later this month, Dawn reported.

“This is the first project of its kind [in a public building] in Pakistan, and later more public buildings will be converted to solar power to overcome the energy crisis,” Munawar Abbas Shah, special secretary at the national assembly, said previously. “The consumption of electricity in the parliament even jumps over 2 megawatts in summers when the house is in session.”

The Israeli parliament installed solar panels on its roof last year, creating at the time the largest solar array on any national assembly in the world. Its 1,500 panels covered 10 percent of its energy use.

In Pakistan, nearly half of all residents are not connected to the national grid. Residents who are connected to the grid regularly experience rolling blackouts and power outages. And the problem is only expected to get worse in the coming years.

“Within the next few years, Pakistan’s peak power demand is likely to exceed current installed capacity by nearly 10,000 megawatts,” The Wall Street Journal reported. “Total energy demand will nearly double in the next 10 years, and quadruple in the next 60.”

Pakistan’s solar insulation is one of the highest in the world, and foreign investors are taking note. They invested more than $3 billion in Pakistan’s renewable energy sector in 2015.

One example is the Quaid-iAzam Solar Power Park, a partnership between Pakistan and the Chinese company Xinjiang SunOasis. When the $130 million project is complete in 2017, it will be the world’s largest solar farm.

It’s part of a larger project, the $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Construction on the first phase, a 100-megawatt, 400,000-panel pilot project, was completed last year in just three months. When the entire project is operational, the site could have 5.2 million photovoltaic cells “producing as much as 1,000 PARLIAMENT, P24

Music and Art Bring India and Pakistan Closer: Sharmila Tagore

Lahore: Addressing a packed mar-

quee on Saturday while delivering the keynote address at the Lahore Literary Festival (LLF), celebrated Bollywood actress Sharmila Tagore expressed her delight at being in Lahore.

Attired in a simple maroon sari, Sharmila said this was the first time she had stepped foot in Pakistan via Wagah. Entering her hotel room, hearing vintage Bollywood tracks playing and coming across books on artist AR Chughtai had reminded her of how similar India and Pakistan were.

Speaking about her childhood, she said she had grown up in a joint family. “Everyone lived in my grandfather’s house,” Tagore said. One of my uncles was affiliated with the Indian National Congress (INC) while another was a communist so I was used to witnessing heated debates that ended inconclusively, she said.

Tagore had been exposed to a myriad of views since her early years.

The veteran actress said that her liberal upbringing in Calcutta was at odds with the sense of morality prevalent in Bombay when she relocated to the city. “The actresses wore white, sipped Coca-Cola and did not smile,” she said while speaking about what was expected of a leading lady back in those days. It was in this era that Tagore donned a bikini for a Filmfare cover and An Evening in Paris came out that left the society stunned by another appearance of hers in a swimsuit.

She was naive and it had taken

her time to make sense of the society.

“I received a lot of flak for it,” Tagore said. She had taken a conscious decision to redefining her public image after understanding the sense of morality peculiar to Bombay. “I wanted to be taken seriously,” Tagore said.

Tagore shed light on her association with celebrated filmmaker Satyajit Ray. She said he did not value money. The audience still connected with the romance in his work primarily because of its “essential humanism.”

While his work was not premised on politics, she said Ray was interested in exploring the impact politics had on peoples’ lives as a writer and director. His work was about the everyday struggles of ordinary people. “There were no villains and heroes in his movies,” she said.

Tagore also spoke about his simplicity. “He answered the phone and responded to letters himself,” she

said. Talking about her experience of working with a man of such high standing when she was just 13 years old, Tagore said she was not particularly aware of it. She said it was easy to work with Ray as he would explain scenes. “I implicitly felt I could trust him,” she said.

“I worked in a film even before I watched one,” Tagore said. Earlier, she had stated that allowing children to watch films was frowned upon in her family. Tagore said her father had instantly given his consent to her working with Ray as he was cognizant of his international standing.

She said Ray had transformed filmmaking into an art form. She felt that Ray’s Devi was one of her best works.

The film depicted a clash between growing religious orthodoxy and an emerging rationality. “Ray had to defend the film by saying that it was not against Hinduism but against orthodoxy,” Tagore reminisced.

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‘Pakistan Airways’ Registered as a ‘Premium Service Subsidiary’ of PIA

Karachi: A new organization,

Pakistan Airways, has been registered as a ‘premium service subsidiary’ of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).

This was announced by a spokesman for the national flag carrier in a statement on Saturday.

He said the step would improve the service and image of the airline.

Secretary Privatization Commission Ahmed Nawaz Sukhera last week confirmed the government’s intent to move ahead with privatization of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).

“Currently, it is under consideration to bifurcate PIA into core and non-core businesses.

The core business will comprise PIA flight operations, landing and handling, kitchens, training

and education, engineering and healthcare, which will be handed over to the strategic investor,” Mr Sukhera said, adding that the non-core business, such as real estate and hotels, would not be handed over to a strategic partner.

Opposition to the sell-off was intense. PIA employees in early February went on protest after the government refused to accept a four-point agenda proposed by the Joint Action Committee of PIA employees and put off privatization.

However, the protests ended on Feb 9 after “a kind friend advised us to call off the strike,” JAC chairman Sohail Baloch had said, urging “all airline workers to work with full dedication and pay no heed to anyone trying to disrupt flight operations”.

Government Neither Irked at, Nor Afraid of, NAB: Nisar

Islamabad: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Sunday said the federal government is neither afraid of, nor annoyed with, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and is not planning to clip the body’s powers.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Nisar clarified that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had only advised NAB not to threaten businessmen and investors after receiving complaints from the community, reported Radio Pakistan.

“This institution, NAB, was created by former dictator General Pervez Musharraf to target PML-N, and the previous PPP government too used it against PML-N but if the bureau could not bring anything against the party in those years, how can they do it today?” asked Nisar.

He accused the previous PPP government of making money from Haj revenues , adding that other corruption scandals like “EOBI, PSO, Abandoned Properties Evacuee Trust, New Islamabad Airport and PIA” all emerged during the PPP regime.

Nisar stressed that FIA has played an impartial role in investigating these scams, adding that the PML-N government is ready to brief all opposition parties over the issue.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday had said that the NAB is harassing government officers and bureaucrats are afraid of taking decisions (signing of files of different projects) because of the “NAB harassment”.

“The NAB terrifies the government officers, hindering them from performing their duty,” the premier had said.

Commenting on Nawaz Sharif ’s remarks, PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari said the FIA was also doing the same against the PPP. “Mian Sahib, not only NAB but your FIA is also doing the same job. Dr Asim is not involved in corruption, and one of your ministers has also conceded this,” he said in a statement.

PTI’s lawyer had approached the Lahore High Court against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for allegedly undermining the independence of NAB. Advocate Gohar Nawaz Sindhu said in his petition that the court should restrain the prime minister from interfering in the affairs of thE NISAR, P24

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Community Link Friday, February 26, 2016

VOL. 26/9 PAGE 18

Kentucky Coal Country Embracing the Faithful

17 Jumadul-ula 1437 H

PAGE PAGE 22 17

PAGE 18 egum PAGE

Trump’s Remarks on Muslims Elicit Challenge

The KP Police Officer Battling Criminals

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Pakistan Seeks a Knowledge Corridor with the United States

Prof Ahsan Iqbal claimed that the knowledge corridor would help to enhance the ratio of Pakistani students in US universities, which is presently low compared to India and Bangladesh

n By Abdus Sattar Ghazali

P

akistan’s Federal Minister for Planning and Development, Prof. Ahsan Iqbal, says that like the famed China-Pakistan economic corridor, Pakistan desires a knowledge corridor with the United States. The Minister, on a visit to California, was addressing a gathering of Pakistani Americans at the Mehran Restaurant in Newark on Sunday, February 21.

The two countries agreed on establishing a Pak-US Knowledge Corridor during prime minister Nawaz

Sharif ’s visit to the United States last year to enhance bilateral ties in the fields of education, science and technology.

Prof Ahsan Iqbal said that this corridor envisions partnership between Pakistan and US universities to produce 10,000 Phds in the next ten years for the country. Pakistan needs 10,000 Phds by 2025 to fulfil the present government’s initiative to set up sub-campus of universities at district levels and to fulfill the needs of faculty at these campuses.

The Minister said that the Knowledge Corridor would help to enhance the ratio of Pakistani stu-

dents in US universities, which is presently very low compared to the other countries in South Asia. The large number of students trained through this corridor in US universities would serve as agents of change when they returned to Pakistan, he added.

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Prof Ahsan Iqbal added that the knowledge corridor would help to enhance the ratio of Pakistani students in US universities, which is presently low compared to India and Bangladesh.

He was of the view that past governments in Pakistan used to buy

tanks and aircraft from the United States, but no government went for the “academic weapon” of the US – universities – which was indisputably its real weapon.

The federal minister further said the government had increased CORRIDOR, P24

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The Muslims of Appalachia: Kentucky Coal Country Embracing the Faithful

Bilal Ahmed, 22, is a Muslim in a predominantly Christian county who has forged strong friendships nearby. Kevin Williams

n By Kevin Williams Prestonsburg, Kentucky: With its coal-caked hills, isolation and deep poverty, Southeastern Kentucky is probably not the first place that springs to mind when one considers the Muslim experience in America.

But nonetheless a small Muslim community has settled in the Appalachians, making a home forged in the ash-black-smudged margins. Friendships are made and communities are established, even as a wider debate rages around the prejudice of GOP frontrunner Donald Trump’s call for a ban on Muslims immigrating to the US. Bilal Ahmed, 22, is from Elizabethtown, an affluent area near Louisville. But he decided to come to the University of Pikeville near the Virginia border to challenge himself and get out of his comfort zone. He described his freshman immersion in Pikeville as “brutal,” not because of anti-Muslim backlash, but just adjusting to college life.

In fact, after the first semester, Ahmed was so homesick that he filled out an application to transfer.

But then exams intervened. Ahmed was taking Biology 151 and stressing over an upcoming exam, so he stepped out of his comfort zone and approached the kid behind him, asking him how he planned to prepare for the big test.

“We started studying in the library together and just hit it off and became best friends from that time on,” recalls Shey Spencer, 23.

The two went on to become resident assistants, tutors in organic chemistry, and co-founded a campus chapter of National Society of Leadership and Success.

Ahmed credits his friendship with Spencer, a soccer and tennis player, as convincing him to stick it out at Pikeville, a decision the aspiring eye surgeon is now happy he made. Ahmed’s social circle gradually expanded and, like Spencer, many of his new friends were conservative Christians steeped in Bible Belt culture.

Ahmed has a theory for why he and others have been well-received in Appalachia.

“The foundation of my friendship is that both groups — Muslims and people from Central Appalachia — feel marginalized. Muslims are viewed as terrorists, Appalachians as uneducated and poor,” Bilal says. So the two groups have found common cause aside a mainstream media machine that paints

both groups with the same broad brush.

Such cross-creed friendships in the heart of Central Appalachia do not surprise Christopher Green, an associate professor of Appalachian Studies at Berea College in Kentucky.

“Many people outside the area don’t think about it, but Central Appalachia is an incredibly diverse region religiously. You have Baptists, Pentecostal, Holiness, Catholic churches and mainline churches, there is a tremendous diversity of religious experience through Christian denominations,” Green says. Because of this, he says, “There is tremendous respect for people who hold religion close, no matter the denomination.”

Kentucky has three medical schools: one in Louisville, one in Lexington, the other in tiny Pikeville. The medical school has enough Muslim students to have a Muslim Doctor’s Association.

University communities are generally welcoming of outsiders.

While Bilal will pack up and head to Toledo, Ohio, to finish his medical studies, there are Muslims who have grown up in the area — so many that in 1999 a mosque was opened here.

Outside of Prestonsburg, a short drive north on US 23 is the Big Branch of Abbott Creek Road, a small ribbon of asphalt that disappears into the folds of the area’s unyielding hills. Travel a mile or two and it appears in a holler — as locals call narrow valleys tucked in the hills — an elegant mosque, its Arabic script standing out in an area more known for its thoroughly accented English than Middle Eastern languages. Welcome to Masjid Al-Farooq.

While mosques in other southern states have experienced increasing turbulence and threats, the Prestonsburg mosque has generally been met with nonchalance.

“I got one call after 9/11 from someone at 2 am,” recalls Syed Badrudduja, the mosque’s imam who is also a well-known local surgeon. And that phone call, the imam notes, wasn’t even from the area; it was from Ohio.

The insular, protect-our-own culture of eastern Kentucky extends to the Muslims who call the area home.

“People have been very kind.

Even after 9/11 people would come up to me and say `if anyone gives you problems, we’ll take care of it for you, we have your back,’” Badrudduja says. He says that the

mosque serves a need in remote southeastern Kentucky.

“There are a few Muslims in every county. The whole area was in need of a mosque,” Badrudduja says, saying the mosque draws worshippers from as far away as Hazard and Harlan, in addition to neighboring Pikeville and Prestonsburg.

On a recent day, about 20 men gathered in the mosque for traditional Friday prayers. Almost everyone in the room was a medical professional: cardiologist, surgeon, pediatrician. There was one accountant. The professionals are drawn from all areas of southeast Kentucky and neighboring West Virginia. The vice-imam, a pediatrician, led the group in prayer. One man in surgical scrubs came with his son. Cell phones are ubiquitous.

If someone were ever injured on the premises there’d be a doctor in almost any specialty to help.

Yassin Khattab, originally from Syria, is the only private-practice pediatrician in the underserved area around Prestonsburg. He has over 5,000 patients from a sevencounty area. He says the Muslim physicians play such an important role in the community’s health that they are made to feel very welcome.

Khattab said one of his nurses recently came to him visibly upset and asked: “What will happen if Donald Trump is elected?”

“Nothing,” he said. “I’ll still be here practicing medicine.”

Meanwhile, Khattab’s son Asaad blogs about his life growing up as a Muslim in Prestonsburg. He was intrigued by Donald Trump’s candidacy in the beginning.

“But then he started saying all of those horrible things about Muslims, so I didn’t like him anymore,” Asaad says.

Asaad attended a “Muslim home school” located behind the mosque for a time (his younger siblings go to public school) and then started his college studies at Big Sandy Technical College before transferring to the University of Kentucky, and then Eastern Kentucky University to finish. He hopes to study to become a dentist.

Assad studied for a year in Syria between high school and college.

But Asaad can’t imagine himself practicing dentistry anywhere but eastern Kentucky.

“I want to contribute and give back to my community,” says Asaad, 22. “The Muslims that they are putting on the news do not represent us.”

Muhammad Ahmad is a cardiologist in Pikeville. He says that many Muslims come to rural areas as part of their visa and work study programs that require them to set up shop in an underserved area for three years. But, Ahmed notes, in the case of Pikeville, most stay far longer.

“This is a nice place to stay and raise a family,” Ahmed says.

The warm welcome comes as no surprise to Robert Musick, chaplain for the University of Pikeville.

“I feel passionately that Appalachia is different. We are not Southern,” Musick says. “We are deeply central Appalachian, ScotsIrish, and we’re a very welcoming, hospitable people.” - Al Jazeera

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Trump’s Remarks on Pig’s Blood, Muslims Spark Challenge

Suzanne Barakat, center, speaks during a February 2015 press conference announcing the establishment of a memorial scholarship in the names of her brother and two others who were shot to death in Chapel Hill, NC. Barakat on Monday challenged GOP presidential hopeful Donald J. Trump to a debate after Trump’s remarks on Friday about killing Muslims with bullets dipped in pig’s blood. Chris Seward The News & Observer file

S

n By Liam Stack

uzanne Barakat, the sister of a Muslim student killed alongside his wife and sister-in-law last year in an attack in North Carolina, challenged Donald J. Trump to meet with her after a speech in which he spoke approvingly of killing Islamic terrorists with bullets dipped in the blood of pigs.

Barakat, 28, a physician in San Francisco, said the comments and other anti-Muslim rhetoric from Trump, including a proposal to ban Muslims from entering the country, have contributed to an atmosphere of intolerance that she fears could have deadly consequences.

“It allows for the Average Joe to see Muslims the way Craig Hicks saw my brother and his wife of six weeks and her sister,” she said, referring to the man who killed her relatives last February. “As ‘The Other,’ as subhuman, because of their faith.”

Trump has not responded to Barakat’s invitation for a face-to-face meeting, she said. It was delivered on Saturday via Twitter, a platform the Republican presidential candidate has frequently used to telegraph his views and to attack people, places and things that he dislikes.

“Trump speaks as if he is the authority on American Muslims,” said Barakat. “Well, if you mean it then call me up and meet with me and let’s have a chat.”

Trump made his remarks about blood-dipped bullets at a rally on Friday in South Carolina, before winning the state’s Republican primary the next day.

At a rally on Friday, Donald Trump told a South Carolina crowd a typically Islamophobic and very gruesome story about something General John Pershing did to Muslim prisoners in the Philippines when that nation was an American colony. “He took 50 bullets and he dipped them in pig’s blood.” “And he had his men load his rifles and he lined up the fifty people, and they shot 49 of those people. The pig’s blood part is important, of course, because devout Muslims shun pork.

The story, which has circulated online for years, has been dismissed as unsupported by historical documentation or evidence by websites that fact-check Internet rumors.

Trump used it to illustrate his call to push back with brutal force against both Islamic terrorism and political correctness.

“This is something you can read

in the history books,” Trump told his supporters, adding, “Not a lot of history books, because they don’t like teaching it.”

According to Trump’s telling, Pershing brought an end to terrorism after he captured 50 terrorists and executed 49 of them with bloodsoaked bullets. The general told the sole survivor, “‘You go back to your people and you tell them what happened,’” Trump said.

Pershing used pigs’ blood, Trump said, because Muslims have “a whole thing with swine and animals and pigs, and you know the story – they don’t like them.”

The moral, Trump said, is, “We better start getting tough, and we better start getting vigilant and using our heads, or we’re not going to have a country, folks.”

Muslim-American groups reacted with horror to the remarks.

Nihad Awad, the Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement that Trump had “crossed the line from spreading hatred to inciting violence” in ways that placed MuslimAmericans “at risk from rogue vigilantes.”

A little more than a year ago, Barakat’s brother Deah, 23, was shot and killed at his home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, alongside his wife, Yusor Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister, Razan Abu-Salha, 19. A neighbor, Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, turned himself in to police later that day.

Hicks was charged with three counts of murder, and federal authorities are investigating whether the killings constituted a hate crime.

Hicks’ wife has said she believes he killed them over a dispute about parking.

In the year since their deaths, Barakat has spoken out repeatedly about the rise of anti-Muslim sentiment and met with President Barack Obama at a round table for MuslimAmericans.

Barakat said Trump’s remarks, delivered not long after the anniversary of the killings in Chapel Hill, were “a moment when I just said, ‘enough is enough.’” ”I want him to tell me to my face that he would ban someone like me if he were to become president of this country,” she said. “I want to show him pictures of Deah and Yusor and Razan and tell him about who they were and what they did. I want him to tell me to my face that I don’t belong here.” – The New York Times

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Islam Was a Religion of Love, and the Taj Mahal Proves It

I

n By Haroon Moghul

n the early 1630’s, right around the time the Puritans were beginning to build Boston, Mumtaz Mahal died in childbirth. In those days, tragically, many women died in similar circumstances. But Mahal was a queen. Her husband was ruler of what may have been the wealthiest empire in the world. His power and riches were immense.

But he could not save the love of his life.

In one night, the legends went, all the emperor’s hair turned grey. Grief-stricken and inconsolable, the man whose very name meant “King of the World” ordered her to be entombed. Shah Jahan, the fifth of the sixth great Mughal rulers, commissioned an immense white marble mausoleum, to be set upon a pedestal and surrounded by gardens that echoed the Muslim conception of paradise.

If Shah Jahan wanted the world to remember her as he did, then certainly he accomplished his aim. Rabindranath Tagore called it “a teardrop on the face of time.”

UNESCO calls it a World Heritage Site.

Most men know it to mean their every romantic gesture will never be enough. You can buy her roses after all, but can you build her a Taj Mahal?

But I propose we see it as a vision of what Islam used to be, and what Islam could be, a building dedicated to love, and to love across boundaries that seem more like vast chasms today. Shah Jahan was a Sunni ruler from a Sunni dynasty. His beloved wife, however, was Shiite. Far from being doomed to fight, they fell in love. They married. They produced the next emperor. And they are now buried peacefully beside one another.

It might strike you as surprising that one of the most famous buildings in the Muslim tradition is a monument to love.

What’s the first word you think of when you hear “Islam”? Go ahead, be honest. Probably, you didn’t think of “love.” It might be the last thing on your mind. Probably, the first words that you reflexively associate with Islam are the opposite. But there was a time, a very long time, when love, for friends, for intimates, and for God, was the central theme of the Muslim faith, and in the way some Muslims today say “Islam is a religion of peace,” they’d have said “Islam is a religion of love.”

Struggling to make sense of God’s demand that we worship Him exclusively, early Muslims quickly seized upon an analogy to love, a passionate and consuming love that left no room for the other; so powerful was the image and universal the sentiment it declared, that the next great debate seemed to be about whether the lover merged himself into God, and forgot his own personality and reality or instead remained besotted by God, but still a complete and whole person.

Does the moth, as the poets would have said, merely revere the candle, or perish inside it?

Muhammad, who Muslims believe modeled the love of God for humanity, was called (and is called) ‘the beloved of God’; the funerals of Sufi saints were called ‘weddings,’ because after a lifetime of preparation for meeting God, the moment was at hand.

But, of course, for a theme of religion as love to make sense, people had to be comfortable with love in all its manifestations.

These days we think of autobiography as a quintessentially modern genre, a product of our more advanced interior lives, our greater awareness of ourselves as compared to people in previous eras, who maybe just weren’t as introspective. But St. Augustine’s “Confession” was just such a work, and given that we have a blindspot when it comes to well over a thousand years of Muslim history, we should know that a medieval Central Asian prince nicknamed Babur ended up producing one as well. He called it the Babur-Namah, or, simply, “the book of Babur,” a quixotic, surprisingly honest, and even endearing account of his attempt to live up to

his ancestors.

Descended on one side from the great, rampaging Genghis Khan, and on the other from the brutal, powerful Tamerlane, Babur was convinced he should be king, but his trajectory rather more resembled Jim Kelly’s Buffalo Bills. Time and again, Babur nearly reached the throne, only to lose it. On some counts, he captured the great cities of Central Asia six times, and lost them seven times. Well aware of the definition of insanity, and keen perhaps not to historically embody it, Babur eventually and reluctantly headed south, to Kabul. A problem the blueblooded have: If I cannot have the empire I want, I must settle for the empire I can have.

Though he was outnumbered ten-toone, the young prince’s troops prevailed.

(Babur brought gunpowder to a swordfight.)

The Mughals, as they’d come to be called (it’s just Persian for “Mongol”), quickly became the wealthiest empire in the Muslim world, ruling over more people than even their contemporaries, the Ottomans. They went to battle with cannon and elephants.

They dressed in rubies and pearls. They produced the Koh-i-Noor diamond. They were, in a word, filthy rich. They built majestic mosques, fantabulous palaces, and unbelievable gardens. Their very title, “Mughal,” has entered our language as “business mogul.”

But they were part of a much bigger world than indicated by their borders. Another Turkic dynasty, of Ismaili Shia Muslim origin, had taken over Iran: they were the Safavids. The Ottomans, who held the Caliphate, were also of Turkic, but Sunni, origin. Though these three empires fought, and often ruthlessly and terribly, they were also bound by a common culture. Persian was the language of distinction, poetry was practically an obligation, and music, arts, aesthetics, all of these were shared, exchanged, and transmitted across borders.

It’s not so different from how although many medieval European dynasties were constantly at war with each other, they nevertheless intermarried, esteemed French, and consumed and produced a common culture, even across Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox differences. Maybe, in the case of the medieval Muslim world, sectarian differences mattered even less. In that world of trade and exchange, of conflict and collaboration, it was unremarkable that a Sunni dynast should marry a woman of Shiite origin, or that their sons should vie for the throne, or that a man might fall in love with a woman and build her an ethereal monument, or that this relationship might be the closest template we have to understanding God. The Mughals are of course long gone now, and so is their world. It’s been done in by colonialism, sectarianism, a rush to

modernization, and the great cultural distance that has opened up over centuries. But perhaps it’s worth revisiting, even a little bit.

I’m not rosy-eyed about that past. I certainly don’t think medieval monarchy is a model for the modern Muslim world, or any part of the world. These were kings and queens, who came to power through force.

But that doesn’t mean they can’t speak to us.

The Mughals and Ottomans were more tolerant than many of their contemporary rivals. They were progressive for their time, and I don’t just mean compared to Muslims.

These certainly weren’t secular democracies with any concept of human rights, but they

But I propose we see it as a vision of what Islam used to be, and what Islam could be, a building dedicated to love, and to love across boundaries that seem more like vast chasms today. Shah Jahan was a Sunni ruler from a Sunni dynasty. His beloved wife, however, was Shiite. Far from being doomed to fight, they fell in love. They married.

They produced the next emperor. And they are now buried peacefully beside one another also didn’t force their subjects to change religions.

They also cultivated a culture, rich and dynamic, that easily crossed boundaries, and that left us with world heritage. Instead of destroying the world’s heritage. And at the center of that philosophy was love. It was love that animated Rumi’s poetry; far from being some outlier in the Muslim world, he was a traditionally trained Sunni Muslim scholar, who communicated in unforgettable verse a worldview that most Muslims would have shared.

How else, after all, would you make sense of a God you cannot see, and a re-

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lationship that must be exclusive, except through love, which is, like God, invisible but nigh omnipotent, capable of moving men and mountains—no enemy ever unseated Shah Jahan’s empire in his time, but the loss of his love nearly broke the man.

That idea of love was enough to animate a Muslim world that was tolerant enough to see Sunni and Shiite married, not mired in enmity.

There’s a reason South Asian Islam is so incredibly diverse and pluralistic—and that openness ran from everyday villagers who mingled across sect and religion all the way up to an emperor and empress, so deeply in love that their romance remains etched upon the face of the world. The interior of the building is adorned with Qur’anic verses, not only in a fervent wish to see the queen, and the husband who so honored her, sped by God to paradise.

But because love of one’s wife and love of one’s God were not just seen as complementary, but of the same kind; the former was the model for the latter. The Taj Mahal is of course many things to many people.

For my beloved wife, it’s an unfair marker to hold a husband to. (I swear I would if I could.) It should also be a monument to Sunni and Shiite harmony, a reminder of a time when the core of the Muslim faith was love: Love of a person for himself, for his family, for his neighbors, for his Prophet, for his God. A time that shall come again. When Islam can be progressive for its time, when we will make the world beautiful, when we can be unapologetically Muslim and shamelessly besotted, because God is beautiful, as Muhammad said, and loves beauty.

(Haroon Moghul is President of Avenue Meem, a new media company, a Fellow at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding and hard at work on his memoir, “How to be a Muslim”, Beacon 2017. The Washington Post).

HINA FROM P11

it was confronted with radical Islam.

She deplored that non-state actors were getting stronger as they were mobile and were infiltrating schools.

Steve Coll said that like Pakistan there were many governments in the United States including Congress and Pentagon and that the era of counter insurgency interventions was over.

He said though there was a discussion on defining the Pakistani identity and the struggle among various identities, he had great faith in the binding power of Pakistani nationalism, which was stronger than that witnessed in other countries.

Qaiser Mahmood hoped Europe would adapt to the change being heralded by the refugee crisis by “finding a new way to define MUSHARRAF FROM P13

Tariq Asad Advocate, who is pleading the Rashid Ghazi murder case on behalf of the complainant. Haroon Rashid had nominated Gen Musharraf as the sole accused in the case.

After completing the investigation, the Aabpara police in its challan submitted to the court placed Gen Musharraf in column No 2.

This column is used for an accused who the investigation officer considers innocent but does not discharge him on his own and wants the court to decide his fate.

Since the proceedings in the murder case commenced in the trial court, Gen Musharraf moved several applications seeking an exemption from personal appearances. The trial court in April 2015 rejected his exemption plea and on June 19 and July 24, 2015, issued non-bailable arrest warrants.

Gen Musharraf through his counsel challenged the trial court order and the issuance of the warrants saying that he could not personally appear in the court due to an ailment.

Malik Tahir Mehmood, the counsel for Musharraf, also submitted a medical report to the court in support of the arguments seeking his client’s exemption.

COMMENTARY n By Priyanka Srinivasa

F

Washington, DC

or the past few months, hate speech has been on the rise, marginalizing those most vulnerable. Through campaign

promises that rattle crowds of supporters fascinated by the loudest and mightiest, the United States is alarmingly growing used to hate speech in the same of National Security and defense. What threatens our democracy is mob rule and fear that slights minorities. As Islamophobia is on the rise- a reaction to global events, we ask what will save us from hate?

What America needs- more than anything is a love poem.

Last week on the Library of Congress podcast “The Poet and The Poem” with host Grace Cavalieri, Ambassador Akbar Ahmed, the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University, recited and discussed his poetry from his anthology Suspended Somewhere Between. (The Library of Congress podcast is available at http://www. loc.gov/poetry/media/avfiles/poetpoem-akbarahmed.mp3).

Lauded by BBC as “the world’s leading authority on contemporary Islam,” Ahmed has published more than a dozen books, countless articles, and served as the High Commissioner of Pakistan to the UK. He is currently writing the fourth book to his quartet Journey into Europe a contemporary study of the Muslim community in the context of European history and society. Parallel to his career in the Pakistani civil service, Dr. Ahmed wrote poetry, reflecting on a political world around him and a world behind him. Poems heavy with history like fruit on the limb- he reflected throughout his politically contentious career the ramifications of both this political world and making sense of the

FEBRUARY 26, 2016 – PAKISTAN LINK – P21

Love Poems for America

I saw it in your eyes I heard it in Rumi’s poetry I know it was in Gandhi’s gaze I sensed it in Mandela’s oratory I saw it in Jesus’ ways What is this riddle and what is its part?

What is this enigma and mystery?

What can reveal the secrets of the heart? me?

What has the power to change It is God’s greatest gift It raises us high above It is the bridge over the rift It is love, love, love

divine. After an illustrious career watching South Asia and the Islamic world rapidly change, Ahmed sat down in the cool marble confines of the prestigious Library of Congress to share much needed wisdom about a “world on edge”.

At the core of Ahmed’s heart, as he reveals through his poetry are two things – first, a deep unbridled desire to understand his world-Islam, South Asia, the fall of empires, and the new dawn of change in the world; and second, to come faceto-face with humanity. When asked why he wrote poetry, Dr. Ahmed responded “poetry is a deeply personal pastime. Poetry is an escape”.

Poetry, as Ahmed furthers, goes beyond ethnic and national lines.

There is something universal and raw about the experience of living and needing to describe one’s world.

As long as humans have spoken, poets have been composing poetry as a way of stripping down to the truth: attempting to describe the way they are in the world with words that can only symbolically hold experience. These cathartic murmurs are beyond the individual to something larger- leaving identities of ‘Other-

ness’ to our side to embrace something beyond us yet simultaneously so personal. We need poetry to be human. Like breath- it is vital.

Dr. Ahmed began the hour with the poem “Train to Pakistan”a heart-wrenching poem narrated

by Ahmed as a boy- remembering the bloodshed of Partition that swallowed the Punjab in 1947. He described how passengers going between India and Pakistan were murdered but the conductor was left alive, driving in carcasses across the border. Dr. Ahmed described his childhood in the throws of nationbuilding between India and Pakistan. As he says “a world where there was so much conflict and bloodshed”. Yet at the same time, he ends on an unsettling note knowing that the violence on both sides of Pakistan and India was out of a “desperate need to love and be loved”- understanding that violence is deeply rooted in the clinging of identity.

Although Partition took place seventy or so years ago, the mechanisms of violence have occurred in other struggles. Whether in Rwanda or Burma the way in which Ahmed describes violence and the need to

transcend it through recognition of the human is universal- a need of transformation.

To this Cavalieri asked Ahmed if “all statesmen should write poetry”. As the Ambassador chuckles he says, yes. Poetry is central to finding humanity. Being able to connect with what makes us human is central to understanding how to run a state. Ahmed stresses that poetry leads to a deeper understanding of the collective human experience.

Poetry is a tool. Poetry gives us a stronger spine.

At the end of the hour, Dr. Ahmed reads one of the strongest poems in the collection. The poem is titled “What is it that I seek”.

What is it that I seek?

A force of such might it sets me free A light so bright It blinds me I heard it in the voice of the nightingale I know it was in the hearts of the wise I sensed it in the lover’s tale

sure

Give it in generous measure Give it as if there’s no tomorrow Give to all you meet this treaGive it and banish sorrow”

What makes this poem so special is the immediacy of seeking beyond the violence and terror – past the clouds into something divine.

Here Ahmed confronts his faith, an exercise of finding his own Islam through seeking. In it he finds that it is love – love that is the champion.

This poem in many ways is America’s love poem- a single rose. What we need more than ever in America is a semblance of truth and mitigation of fear. Perhaps it is the unknown that needs to be embraced and with its caress, a recognition of the power of giving and of love. Listening to the poems it was easy to see why Grace Cavalieri gave Ahmed the title, “Ambassador of the Heart”.

Priyanka Srinivasa is a graduate from American University, Washington DC, and has recently completed an MA from Cambridge University in the UK. An American with an Indian background, she is a trained anthropologist, a published poet and activist.

It’s No Silicon Valley, but Pakistan Is Building Its Own Startup Scene

F

n By Seung Lee

or tech entrepreneurs, there is no better Goldilocks zone for startups than Silicon Valley. With angel investors galore and an entire local culture celebrating the importance of startups, there is no easier place for bright-eyed techies to join the race.

But how do startups get off the ground and thrive in less-than-optimal environments of the developing world, where jargons like disrupt and scale have yet to crack the mainstream?

In the past five years, Pakistan’s startup ecosystem has grown from a nascent colony to a self-sustaining environment. Zameen, an online real estate startup based in Lahore, has ridden that startup wave in developing a Zillow-like app and website that allows users to search and buy real estate listings in Pakistan’s largest cities.

Like many famous US internet companies, Zameen started with a gamble. In 2006, Zeeshan Ali Khan and his brother left their e-commerce business in the United Kingdom to move to Pakistan and started Zameen in their bedrooms.

Back then, online-only services in Pakistan were rare, but Ali Khan followed the money coming into Pakistani real estate from expats

living abroad—a million of whom lived in the United Kingdom. Now Zameen employees 500 people and has offices in nearly all major cities in Pakistan.

“Zameen.com came into being when we realized there was a desperate need for a trustworthy online real estate enterprise in Pakistan, especially given the importance the average Pakistani attaches to property,” Ali Khan tells Newsweek in an email. “Back then the state of internet infrastructure in Pakistan was extremely poor but the offline property market was exploding. Facilitated by large investments from the Pakistani diaspora, people found that investing in real estate would earn them significant returns.”

Pakistan’s fast-growing economy and, perhaps more importantly, large English-speaking population has provided a backbone to encourage startups to form and work with foreign companies.

The country has seen startup hubs form around elite universities in cities like Lahore and Karachi—similar to Boston and San Francisco—in the last few years. The Punjab province, where Lahore is located, has been the major hotspot for startups in Pakistan. Plan9, the Punjab provincial government-run technology incubator, hosts over 80 startups. Ali Khan believes there are

A screenshot of Pakistani startup Zameen’s website. ZAMEEN

140 startups in Lahore, a city of 5 million people.

But Pakistani startups are still minnows compared to those in Silicon Valley. Cultural and economic norms, like being predominantly reliant on cash for transactions, are big obstacles for startups. Despite leading the South Asian region in consumers using mobile payments, only 9 percent of Pakistani men and 2 percent of women have used mobile phones for money transfers. Around 39 percent of Americans have used mobile banking in 2015, according to a report from the Federal Reserve.

To accommodate its cash-

www.PakistanLink.com

based users, Zameen employs motorcycle riders to collect payments from Zameen agents across 30 Pakistani cities in person. “The situation is improving, and a lot of people are beginning to feel more comfortable with online payments and even mobile transactions,” says Ali Khan.

Earning public trust for a littleknown startup—a concept now just becoming understood in Pakistan— was a big challenge as well. When Zameen began, it discovered most of the Pakistani property market undocumented, and reliable data was nearly non-existent.

Pakistani consumers, including

Ali Khan’s family, had a hard time becoming comfortable with Zameen and its Silicon Valley-inspired ideas.

“My family was a little apprehensive when I told them I wanted to start a business of my own,” Ali Khan says. “Today however, the attitudes have greatly changed, thanks to the startup ecosystem that is supporting the startup culture in Pakistan.”

The two biggest hurdles Zameen and fellow startups face are the low penetration rates of 3G/4G mobile Internet and the lack of support from its government. In 2015, only 22 million out of 182 million Pakistanis had 3G/4G technology, leaving little room for startups to continue growing and scale upwards with their online services.

Infrastructural issues like 3G/4G technology need the government’s help, but such support has been lacking, according to Ali Khan.

For Zameen, the major problem has been the government’s slow progress in installing a real estate regulatory authority to better regulate land ownership. Without a regulatory body, the real estate in Pakistan looks more like the Wild West than an organized body.

But seemingly catching wind of its burgeoning startup scene, Pakistan’s national government has announced their plans to launch SCENE, P28

COMMENTARY

P22 – PAKISTAN LINK – FEBRUARY 26, 2016

Pakistani MMA Pioneer: Donald Trump Has Given People ‘the Green Light to Be Bigoted’ n By Marc Raimondi

B

ashir Ahmad is a graduate of an American university and served in the United States military. He is also a practicing Muslim who has lived part of the last six years in Pakistan helping to build the mixed martial arts scene in the country.

Ahmad has been back home in Virginia, just miles from Washington, DC, since July preparing for the birth of his first child. The words of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump have been very much on his radar.

Trump said in early December, in the wake of the San Bernardino shootings, that he would be in favor of not allowing any Muslims into the United States until there was a viable vetting process to determine who was and who was not a terrorist. Trump has also said, even before the attack, that he’d be interested in requiring MuslimAmericans to register with a government database.

Ahmad is not so much concerned with what Trump has to say.

He doesn’t believe the neophyte politician will be elected President.

Ahmad is more concerned with how Trump’s words have affected others and what that means for him in the country he has lived since he was 2 years old.

“What Trump says really doesn’t bother me much, because I don’t take the guy seriously,” Ahmad told MMA Fighting. “What does bother me is when you have supporters. He’s bringing out an ugly side of a lot of people. Some people who felt that this kind of stuff was hurtful or inappropriate are thinking it’s OK now. They’ve kind of been given a green light to be bigoted.”

Ahmad, 33, currently competes for ONE Championship in Asia, but his contributions to the sport of MMA exceed that. In 2009, Ahmad moved from Virginia to Pakistan and started a gym called Synergy in Lahore. It was a tiny space that also doubled as his apartment. He brought in coaches from all different disciplines and explained to them MMA. Synergy was the first MMA gym of its kind in the area. Ahmad took a jiu-jitsu class in college and fell in love with it. After graduating George Mason University in 2008, he traveled to Asia to train in different martial arts. It dawned on him then that he wanted to bring MMA to Pakistan, the country where he was born and where his parents lived for a good portion of their lives.

Since 2009, MMA has grown immensely in Pakistan. There are multiple affiliates of Synergy now.

One fighter, Waqar Omar, has made it to ONE (along with Ahmad) and others are having success on the regional scene. Ahmad also

n By Ali Akbar

D

Peshawar

istrict Superintendent Police Aneela Naz has worked hard to earn a name in a male-dominated police force.

As she makes her way into her office, a man stands up in a gesture of respect: she is one of the few women serving the police department for almost two decades. Inside, she settles down in her chair, glancing at a stack of forms waiting to be signed. The room is as sparsely decorated as other police offices in Khyber Pakhthunkhwa; aside from a desk and a plaque with her name, there isn’t much else.

“I don’t know how 19 years have passed,” DSP Naz laughs. Over the years, she has learnt it all: from learning how to operate every type of weapon to going on raids and operations alongside her male colleagues. She has topped every course and now trains both men and women in the formidable police force.

Naz has seen the KP police force transform from a team with only 19 women, to one with over 600 serving in different departments all across the province.

A woman doing a ‘man’s’ job: Fresh out of school and looking for a job in 1996, Naz was discouraged from joining the police force.

“Even thinking of joining the police [for women] was considered bad in society,” she remembers.

Despite hailing from a conservative village tucked away in the district of Lakki Marwat, Naz’s father was a learned man who refused to conform. He moved to Peshawar so his children—two daughters and three sons—could get good education and make something of their lives. Today, all five siblings

runs PakMMA, which sanctions and promotes MMA events in Pakistan. It is the first organization of its kind.

For all he has done for Pakistan, though, Ahmad has realized that he is culturally more American. He did all his schooling in the United States and was stationed overseas for the United States Army in his 20s. If Trump does get elected, Ahmad doesn’t plan on living with his family in Pakistan full-time despite Trump’s views on Muslims.

“I think it’s become even more important to have people from Muslim backgrounds in the United States,” Ahmad said. “If people actually do go back to their home countries, I think they’re kind of abandoning what America really means. And they’re kind of kowtowing to bully tactics.”

In Pakistan, Trump has become a topic of conversation, Ahmad said. He said that people there have compared him to some Pakistani leaders -- the ones who single out ethnicities to further their pub-

lic careers. Ahmad said there was even a hashtag about that on Twitter in the country.

“You’re just like Trump, but you’re here in Pakistan,” Ahmad said of some leaders. “It’s the same mentality, just a different country. ... A lot of times politicians and a lot of other political figures or religious figures will kind of use the latent sentiments of the mob [to get ahead].”

Ahmad has lived half the time in Pakistan over the last six years with most people knowing he was raised in America. He hasn’t faced any prejudice because of that. And Ahmad said the same goes for how he, as a Muslim, is received in Northern Virginia. He said he hasn’t experienced one drip of racism.

“People pretty much across the board don’t like American foreign policy,” Ahmad said. “That’s very different from saying they don’t like Americans. I’m very comfortable telling people over there I was raised in the United States and I feel comfortable telling literally

Meet Aneela Naz, the KP Police Officer Battling Criminals and Stereotypes

are government employees in different departments.

Naz finally joined the police force as an assistant sub-inspector in 1996. Soon after her bold decision, Naz’s close family members cut off relations with her family as they “felt embarrassed” by her career choice. One uncle specifically told her: don’t show up anywhere in your police uniform.

Her decision to take on the job was not well received by her neighbors and extended family either. They increasingly felt the profession was associated with corruption and bribery, and were alarmed at her decision as there were hardly any women in the police force.

Sit together, raid together: “The concept of men and women having different abilities has ended now; we are no longer considered different,” says Naz. At the time she joined, men and women had separate training and hardly worked together. She particularly noticed a gender bias when it came to promotions but says that isn’t the case anymore. It helps to have a police force with over 600 women, including dozens of officers and a handful of DSPs. Neither is there compulsion upon women to behave or act in a certain way. There is no dress code prescribing a traditional shalwar kameez, or the more western pants and

www.PakistanLink.com

anybody that.”

Ahmad is not a liberal, either.

He considers himself an independent, but leans toward being libertarian. Ahmad said he has voted for Ron Paul in the past and would be inclined to vote for Republican candidate Rand Paul if he were to earn the nomination. Trump is someone he would almost consider supporting -- it not for the messages contained in his campaign.

“At first, I just thought this guy was a comedy routine,” Ahmad said. “But wow. He’s very legit. I think he’s done a very good job of harnessing the power of the American mob. That’s the way I’ve seen what he’s done. He’s catering to the lowest common denominator in people. He’s a smart guy. I don’t know who he has around him or what their plan is, but it almost seems like he’s got somebody from the Kardashians’ social media team telling him to go out there and do anything -- make a sex tape, do something. Say something crazy.”

Ahmad and his wife are right now adjusting to the birth of their son. He’ll fight Jimmy Yabo at ONE: Tribe of Warriors on Friday in Jakarta. Ahmad wants his son to read and write the Pakistani language of Urdu, but doesn’t have any specific plans to raise him in Pakistan.

There’s a very good chance his son will grow up, like he did, in the United States. And now, more than ever, Ahmad finds himself asking questions about that future.

“What percentage of America really feels unwelcoming towards me and people like me?” Ahmad said. “I do feel hurt when I think that there’s possibly -- and we don’t really know -- possibly a significant majority who feel like they’ve been given the green light to let a very ugly side of them come out.”

shirt. “There are two uniforms,” Naz explains.

Both options are available to female officers to choose from.

Getting to a stage where men and women train and work together was difficult, but now life is easier. Naz says today women have no problem working alongside men, and in her case, even training them.

In her training sessions across the province— including in Mardan, Swabi, Charsadda and Nowshera— Naz interacts with both men and women. “Men and women sit together, and they raid together,” she smiles.

A force of women for women: At specialized training schools all over KP, female officers undergo intensive physical training, and learn how to shoot and handle weapons and artillery.

“Our ladies have learnt to be tougher after doing these courses,” Naz says. “They can face challenges themselves.”

But she feels women should consider the profession for more than just the learning skills it has to offer. “It’s a meaningful way to help people,” she says. “People know we can help solve women’s problems.”

Naz describes the various stations where citizens, especially women, have started coming in regularly because of the presence of female officers. Naz feels they offer a welcoming environment for women, who generally do not feel comfortable confiding in male officers.

In comparison, the moment they enter a station and see another woman sitting behind a desk waiting to talk to them, they open up.

“Women can share their problems with other women,” Naz says. “They can say what they really feel.”

NAZ, P28

FEBRUARY 26, 2016 - PAKISTAN LINK

WOMENS WORLD

WOMEN

By Rubia Moghees rom time to time in our 'beauty talk' section we feature different designers who share their experiences, achievements and beauty secrets with us. This month You! talks to Erum Khan , who creates beautiful outfits...

Erum Khan is a Lahore-based designer who started off her career some five years ago. She has been showcasing her collections quite frequently at various fashion shows.

Erum Khan is known for her out of the box designs and is bold enough to experiment with different cuts, silhouettes and exquisite craftsmanship. She brings an array of designs on the runway and last year she presented an all-white collection with elaborate gowns at bridal fashion week. And recently, she designed a gorgeous wedding attire for renowned TV personality Sanam Jung. Erum Khan has two outlets one in Lahore and other one in Islamabad - and very soon she will be stocking at select outlets in Karachi as well.

You! Tell us a bit about your inspiration? Tell us about how you developed your aesthetic?

Erum Khan: Basically, I have done MBA in marketing but I have always been naturally inclined towards beauty and arts. I think that creativity and aesthetics are God's

F

FEBRUARY 26, 2016 – PAKISTAN LINK – P23

gift and a creative person can actually get inspiration from anything - it can be a beautiful painting or nature's bounties.

You! What is your design philosophy?

E.K: My design philosophy is very simple, even though I am into bridals; I try to keep my designs very minimal, intricate and classy. I am into couture therefore I keep my design elements very elegant and within the parameters of modern styling and traditional cuts.

You! What are top five winter trends?

E.K: 1. Fur is in vogue this time.

2. Also, velvets are back with a bang. 3. Coats take on longer dimensions. 4. Leather appears to be stylish this fall. 5. Fringes and feathers.

You! What new trends did you introduce in your latest collection showed at BCW? E.K: I personally loved the collection that I showcased at the BCW. 'Dastoor-e-Ishq' was all about the fusion of modern cuts, intricate designs and traditional artwork.

Each piece was telling a story of its own. We did thorough research on each motif that had been embroidered on the outfits. Basically with this collection I tried to introduce a new tinge of modernism yet sustaining the traditional essence of our brand.

You! What makes a successful

designer?

E.K: For a designer each day should be a new learning experience for him/her. I totally believe that designers are born artists and it is a passion that comes from within. I started designing because I love to create beautiful pieces. I don't take this as a money minting business and simply love what I am doing.

Aesthetics are God gifted but a good designer only evolves with training.

BEAUTY CORNER You! What is one cosmetic you cannot do without?

E.K: These days I cannot live without Pro Long Wear Mac Eyeliner You! When it comes to cosmetics, which brand do you usually use?

E.K: My entire cosmetic line consists of NARS, MAC, Too Faced,

Benefit and Naked Cosmetics You! Do you go to salon regularly for your facials?

E.K: I visit the salon regularly but I go for blow dries not for facials

www.Pakistanlink.com www.PakistanLink.com

You! Do you prefer going to a spa or salon?

E.K: If I want to relax then defi-

and drink a lot of water, juices and eat lots of fruits You! Do you use anti-ageing

nitely spa You! Your favourite perfumes?

E.K: Daisy Dreams by Marc Jacobs You! Your beauty regimen?

E.K: I take extra care of my skin

creams?

E.K: I don't need anti-ageing creams right now (laughs) You! Do you believe in treatments like Botox?

E.K: Oh, that is a big NO.

COMMENTARY

P24 – PAKISTAN LINK – FEBRUARY 26, 2016

Ways to Be More Aggressive with Your 401(K) n By Saghir Aslam Rawalpindi, Pakistan

(The following information is provided solely to educate the Muslim community about investing and financial planning. It is hoped that the Ummah will benefit from this effort through greater financial empowerment, enabling the community to live in security and dignity and fulfill their religious and moral obligations towards charitable activities) There are two ways to be more aggressive with your 401(k): adjusting your asset allocation and increasing your contribution rate.

The numbers of active participants in defined contribution plans nearly double the number of 1992.

Take age into your analysis Investment choices in 401(k) can be heavily influenced by risk tolerance, but age should also be a factor, people nearing retirement may want to make up some ground by being aggressive, is when you are more than 15 years from retirement. At 10 to 15 years until retirement, a common recommendation is to be 60% in stocks and 40% in bonds. Generally speaking, cut back equity investments 5% every five years, and monitor asset allocation every three years.

“As people get older, they should be a little more conservative with asset allocation”.

Be aggressive with early contributions An easy way to be aggressive with a 401(k) outside of your asset breakdown is to invest what HILLARY FROM P4

ed people from war-ridden societies.

But their perception and plans differ in regard to their settlement.

Mr Sanders criticized Mrs Clinton for telling CNN in 2014 that the children who entered the United States from Central America should be sent back, which was taken by the Latinos with a great deal of bitterness.

However, Mrs Clinton clarified that she was not against children coming into United States. She merely wanted to convey to the parents that they should not send their children to America alone as they invariably fall into the hands of smugglers.

During their debate quite an interesting situation developed. The moderator asked both contenders to name their role model leaders. Mr Sanders named Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. In comparison, Hillary mentioned the legendary South African leader Nelson Mandela and Mr Obama. This was interpreted as a race-based choice: Sanders for white leaders and Hillary for none-whites.

As a senator Bernie Sanders is a very experienced person. In case of victory he would be one of the senior presidents. His advanced age (74) may hamper his decisionmaking powers. He is earnest about his ground-breaking reforms. On the contrary, Hillary Clinton is relatively younger (68). She possesses a reservoir of experience first as the first lady and second as the secretary of state in foreign affairs. By virtue of her being the Secretary of State

you can early in your career-at least enough to reach an employer match, the 15-40-85 method. That means saving 15% of your income for 40 years, which should give you enough money at retirement to live on 85% of your preretirement income. As retirements increase in length, however and depending on what you want your retirement to look like, your numbers may vary.

Your financial advisor can help you determine what you need to save, even early on.

Many employers 70% to 80% match employee 401(k) contributions. Historically, those matches most often have been dollar for dollar, he says up to 4 % of their salary. But just investing up to that level of employer match only gets workers to an 8% contribution.

Some employers have tried to help encourage their workers to save more by offering a 50% match for employees who contribute up to 8% of their salary. And in general, people are saving more. The current average employee contribution is about 7.6% of salary. But most workers still fall short of annual contribution limits, which are $18,000 for 2015.

“People are not saving nearly enough for the type of retirement that they are expecting”. “The big(2009-2013) during the first tenure of president Obama, Mrs Clinton lays claim of having wider and extensive experience in the domain of Foreign Affairs.

Mr Sanders rebuts this claim by censuring Mrs Clinton’s 2002 vote to authorize the war in Iraq and for being responsible for the consequent ouster of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in Libya. He alleged that her myopic and erroneous view on Libya and Iraq led to civil wars which are still raging.

On the most pressing question of discrimination against AfricanAmericans in employment, education, housing and the criminal justice system, both Mrs. Hillary and Sanders seemed to be on the same page.

Yet Secretary Clinton went beyond by denouncing the faith-based discrimination, especially against Muslims, whom she described as the first line of defense for the United States.

It appears that Mrs Clinton is focused on reinforcing her support among the minority population to dilute the influence and relative popularity of Senator Sanders among the youth, minorities and underprivileged, low income groups and working classes. (The writer is a senior journalist and former editor of Diplomatic Times. He also served as a diplomat) PARLIAMENT FROM P15

gest lever they can pull is increasing their contribution rate”.

I. R. A. And. Roth. I. R. A These are other great vehicles for retirement. Here we will talk about individual retirement account (I. R. A. ). Uncle Sam allows you to put away invest money regularly each month or once a year however it fits best in your schedule.

One can save invest little over $5000.00 each year for your retirement. Even though you are saving small amount each year, you will be happily surprised how it grows.

Key is to start investing early and invest regularly. Inshallah you will see this turn in to millions by the time you retire. At a later date I will write in detail about I. R. A. Mand. Roth. I. R. A. Both have pros and cons. I will share information with you and you can decide what you think you like what will fit better in your program, one thing I would suggest whatever vehicle you decide but do invest you be glad that you did.

(Saghir A. Aslam only explains strategies and formulas that he has been using. He is merely providing information, and NO ADVICE is given. Mr Aslam does not endorse or recommend any broker, brokerage firm, or any investment at all, nor does he suggest that anyone will earn a profit when or if they purchase stocks, bonds or any other investments.

All stocks or investment vehicles mentioned are for illustrative purposes only. Mr Aslam is not an attorney, accountant, real estate broker, stockbroker, investment advisor, or certified financial planner. Mr Aslam does not have anything for sale.)

NISAR FROM P15

NAB. He stated that the NAB is an independent institution and has the powers to hold investigation against any person involved in corrupt practices.

CORRIDOR FROM P17

the Higher Education Commission’s budget from Rs 48 billion to Rs 78 billion and it wanted to raise the amount further to Rs 100 billion. He said the government would establish universities or sub-campuses in all districts to provide higher education opportunities at the doorstep of the poor.

He said the government was making efforts to achieve the goals of Vision 2025 and Pakistan would be included among top 25 economies of the world by 2025.

Prof Ahsan Iqbal also spoke about the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor which is a collection of projects currently under construction at a cost of $46 billion which are intended to upgrade and expand Pakistani infrastructure. The Minister said that the Corridor would change the face of Balochistan which would be linked with all provinces. He said the solution to the current Balochistan problem is economic development.

In his view, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and Pak-US Knowledge Corridor will prove game changers for Pakistan.

Prof. Ahsan Iqbal said you may be watching Pakistani TV channels but the picture depicted by these

megawatts of electricity—equivalent to an average sized coal-fired power station—and enough to power about 320,000 households,” China Dialogue reported.

CORRIDOR, P28

www.PakistanLink.com

Support Hidaya Schools Due to corruption, mismanagement and poverty, the state of schools in economically depressed areas of under-developed countries are in a deplorable state. Hidaya opens schools in rural areas which have none to begin with, as well as adopts and operates “ghost schools” which have been shut down.

Hidaya is currently operating 81 schools with over 10,0 00 students from 1st to 8 th grade in poverty stricken areas of Pakista n.

It co st to ru s about $160 appr n a cla oxim ssro om ate eac ly 40 st of hm ont udents h.

Donate Zakat & Sadaqah to Support Hidaya Schools

Hidaya Foundation 866.2.HIDAYA | www.hidaya.org Hidaya Foundation is a non-profit 501 (c)(3) charitable organization with Tax ID # 77-0502583

Exchange Rates for Currency Notes* Countries

USA

UK S.Arabia Japan Euro UAE

Buying Rs. 105.80 150.75 28.10 0.91 116.5 28.90

(*24 February, 2016)

Selling Rs. 106.05 151.45 28.25 0.94 117.00 29.05

RELIGION

FEBRUARY 26, 2016 – PAKISTAN LINK – P25

Al-Fatihah: The Prayer and the Message

Gems from the Holy Qur’an

n By Dr Muzammil H. Siddiqi (Khutbah at ISOC – Dhul Qi’dah 1, 1421/ January 26, 2001)

I

n the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

Praise belong to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. 2. Most Gracious, Most Merciful. 3. Master of the Day of Judgment. 4. It is You we worship, and it is You we ask for help, 5. Guide us to the straight path, 6. The path of those you have blessed. 7.Those who incurred no anger, and who have not gone astray. (al-Fatihah 1:1-7) Surah al-Fatihah is the first Surah of the Qur’an. According to most of the authorities this was the first Surah that was revealed to Prophet Muhammad – peace be upon him - when he was in Makkah. Before this he received some verses of Surah al-‘Alaq, Surah al-Muzammil and Surah al-Muddathir, but as a complete Surah, al-Fatihah was the first one.

The word al-Fatihah means “opener”. So this Surah is the opener of the Qur’an. It has seven verses that are repeated by every Muslim many times during the course of his/her daily prayers.

Thus the Surah is also called the “al-Sab’ al-Mathani” (al-Hijr 15:87) that is “the Seven Oftrepeated.” This Surah has many other names: Umm al-Qur’an (the Essence of the Qur’an), AlAsas (the Foundation), Al-Shafiyah (the Healer), Al-Kafiyah (the Sufficient) etc. In Al-Bukhari it is mentioned that the Prophet – peace be upon him - said that this was “the greatest Surah in the Qur’an.” (al-Bukhari 4114) It is also reported: Ubayy ibn Ka’b reported that the Prophet – peace be upon him - said, “Allah did not reveal in the Torah, nor Injil like Umm alQur’an and this is the Seven Oftrepeated and it is (the one about which Allah said) ‘it is divided between Me and My servant and for My servant is whatever he asks.’ (al-Tirmidhi 3050) Surah al-Fatihah is both a

From the translation by Muhammad Asad (Leopold Weiss) About the translator: Muhammad Asad, Leopold Weiss, was born of Jewish parents in Livow, Austria (later Poland) in 1900, and at the age of 22 made his first visit to the Middle East. He later became an outstanding foreign correspondent for the Franfurter Zeitung, and after years of devoted study became one of the leading Muslim scholars of our age. His translation of the Holy Qur’an is one of the most lucid and well-referenced works in this category, dedicated to “li-qawmin yatafakkaroon” (people who think).

prayer and a full introduction to the message of the Qur’an.

As a prayer it contains the praise and glorification of Allah and the human request for Allah’s guidance, direction and blessings. According to a Hadith: Abu Hurairah says, “I heard the Messenger of Allah says, ‘Allah says, I have divided the prayer between Me and My servant in two halves and for My servant is whatever He asks for. When the Servant says, ‘Praise be to Allah the Lord of the worlds,’ Allah says, ‘My servant has thanked Me.’ When he says,’ the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate’ Allah says, ‘My servant has praised Me.’ When he says, ‘Master of the Day of Judgment’ Allah says, ‘My servant has glorified Me.’ And He says, “My servant has submitted to Me.’ When he says, ‘You we worship and You we ask for help.’ Allah says, ‘This is between Me and My servant and for My servant is whatever he asks.’ When he says, ‘Guide us to the straight path…’ Allah says, ‘This is for My servant and for

My servant is whatever he asks.’

(Muslim 598) As an introduction to the Qur’an it contains all the basic principles that are given in detail in the Qur’an. It tells us that we are surrounded by Allah’s grace and favors. He is the Source of all love and mercy. We should be thankful to Him. Our life is not permanent. We shall die one day and He will judge us. He alone is the Master of that Day. We must worship Him and Him alone. We must seek His help and He has all the power to give us whatever we need. It reminds that Allah is the only one who can really guide to the straight path. It calls for righteous actions in this life. It speaks about life after death and of the consequences of human action and behavior. It tells that the true guidance comes through God’s Prophets and Messengers.

They were the people who were truly guided and they received Allah’s grace and mercy. Those who turned away from that path were those who went astray and they incurred the wrath of God and His punishment.

The Surah tells us: 1. The essence of religion is thankfulness to Allah.

2. Allah is the Lord and Sustainer of the whole universe.

3. Allah is very kind, loving and merciful.

4. Allah is also the Judge and He does not tolerate injustice, evil and sin.

5. The Day of Judgment

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will come.

6. Worship should be only to Allah and all prayerful requests should be directed to Him alone.

7. One should continuously seek Allah’s guidance and remain on the path of truth and righteousness.

8. True righteousness comes when we follow the example of those who were righteous and who were under Allah’s grace:

After this introduction comes the whole Qur’an. Al-Fatihah is the prayer and the Qur’an is the answer to our prayers. AlFatihah is the introduction to the Qur’an and then we have the whole Qur’an the Prophets, Messengers, and pious and devoted people of Allah.

9. One should always be careful not to make the most Merciful angry with him.

10. One should never ignore the path of guidance and should always be careful not to go astray.

After this introduction comes the whole Qur’an. Al-Fatihah is the prayer and the Qur’an is the answer to our prayers. AlFatihah is the introduction to the Qur’an and then we have the whole Qur’an.

Chapter 4,Verse 48 Verily, God does not forgive the ascribing of divinity to aught beside Him, although he forgives any lesser sin unto whomever He wills: for he who ascribes divinity to aught beside God has indeed contrived an awesome sin.

Chapter 4,Verse 75 And how could you refuse to fight in the cause of God and of the utterly helpless men and women and children who are crying, “O our Sustainer! Lead us forth [to freedom] out of this land whose people are oppressors, and raise for us, out of Thy grace, one who will bring us succour.”

Chapter 4,Verse 83 Will they not, then try to understand this Qur’an? Had it been issued from any but God, they would surely have found in it many an inner contradiction!

Chapter 4,Verse 125 And who could be of better faith than he who surrenders his whole being unto God and is a doer of good withal, and follows the creed of Abraham, who turned away from all that is false – seeing that God exalted Abraham with His love?

Chapter 4,Verse 152 But as for those who believe in God and His apostles by endeavoring to make a distinction between [belief in] God and [belief in] His apostles and make no distinction between any of them – unto them, in time, will He grant their rewards [in full]. And God is indeed muchforgiving, a dispenser of grace.

Chapter 4,Verse 155-158 And so, [We punished them] for the breaking of their pledge, and their refusal to acknowledge God’s messages, and their slaying of prophets against all right, and their boast, “ Our hearts are already full of knowledge”- nay, but God has sealed their hearts in result of their denial of the truth, and [now] they believe in but few things -; and for their refusal to acknowledge the truth, and GEMS, P28

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FEBRUARY 26, 2016 - PAKISTAN LINK

SPORTS SPORTS

FEBRUARY 26, 2016 – PAKISTAN LINK – P27

Islamabad United beat Quetta to lift PSL Final

DUBAI: Opener Dwayne Smith and wicket keeper batsman Brad Haddin scored fiery half-centuries to help Islamabad United beat Quetta Gladiators by 6 wickets to lift the firstever Pakistan Super League (PSL) title here at Dubai International Cricket Stadium recently.

The West Indian made 73 runs off 51 balls while the Aussie scored 61 in 39 deliveries as United achieved the challenging 175 run target with ease in the 19th over.

No Gladiators bowler could put a stop to flow of runs throughout the United innings leaking too many bad deliveries much to the disappointment

of Quetta fans.

Anwar, McCullum, Cheema and Zulfiqar Babar shared a wicket each for Gladiators.

Earlier, Ahmed Shehzad and Sri Lanka great Kumar Sangakkara also scored half-centuries to lift Quetta Gladiators to 174 for the loss of 7 wickets setting a 175 run target for United.

Gladiators lost two early wickets for 33 but then Shehzad and Sangakkara changed the scene adding 87 from 56 balls for the third wicket partnership. Shehzad made 64 runs off 39 deliveries with 9 fours and a six and the Islander scored a 32-ball 55, hitting

7 fours and two sixes.

Kevin Pietersen with run-a-ball 18, Anwar Ali 13 and Grant Elliott with 12 were the other notable contributors.

Andre Russell was the pick of the bowlers, grabbing three wickets for 31.

Irfan took two while Badree and Mohammaf Sami shared a wicket each for United.

Islamabad United captain Misbah-ul-Haq had won the toss and invited Quetta Gladiators skipper Sarfraz Ahmed to bat first in the final of inaugural edition of Pakistan Super League (PSL) here at Dubai International Cricket Stadium earlier in the evening. J

Sharjeel, Sami Named for Asia Cup, WT20 Duo to replace injured Babar Azam and Ruman Raees KARACHI: Pakistan selectors named opener Sharjeel Khan and pacer Mohammad Sami to replace Babar Azam and Ruman Raees, respectively, for Asia Cup and World Twenty20 recently.

At the same time, they announced that Khalid Latif would replace Iftikhar Ahmed for World T20.

The PCB said Babar and Ruman had sustained injuries and were not available for both the events. Babar got a fracture when he was hit on his left forearm in a practice session during PSL and after CT scan it was revealed that he has a fracture in his forearm and as per Doctors report would be out of cricket for three to four weeks, the PCB said.

Ruman suffered a grade 1 hamstring strain and would take some time to recover completely before he starts bowling in the nets, added the board.

After having looked at the performance of the players in the PSL competition, the selection committee, along with Captain Shahid Afridi and Head Coach Waqar Younis, came to

the conclusion that Sharjeel and Sami should be included as replacements for injured Babar and Ruman, said the PCB statement.

It said Khalid would replace Iftikhar as he showed tremendous power-hitting ability in the PSL matches.

"Khalid Latif could not be made part of the Asia Cup squad due to some technical reasons but would join the squad for the World Cup," said chief selector Haroon Rashid.

The participating teams of the World Twenty20 championship can make last-minute changes to their squad till the March 8 deadline.

Sharjeel, a left-handed opener from Hyderabad whose last appearance for Pakistan was in August 2014, got the selectors thinking with a blistering 117 runs off 62 balls in the Pakistan Super League eliminator against favourites Peshawar Zalmi.

Sharjeel, who has played 11 ODIs and three T20 Internationals, savaged the Peshawar attack led by national T20 captain Shahid Afridi to guide Islamabad United to a surprise spot in the final. J

India, Pakistan to Renew Rivalry in Asia Cup

DHAKA: India and Pakistan will renew cricket s most bitter rivalry this week after a two-year gap when they face off in the Asia Cup, a contest for regional supremacy which is also a final rehearsal for the World T20.

The biennial 12-day tournament, which is being held in Bangladesh for the second time in a row, begins

on Wednesday night when the hosts take on India at Dhaka s Sher-eBangla stadium -- the venue for all the matches.

Local supporters will be looking to see if Bangladesh s sharp improvement in 50-over cricket will translate into an upturn in their performances in the shortest form of the game, with

the World T20 in India only weeks away.

But most eyes will be on Saturday s glamour tie when India and Pakistan take to the field together for the first time since the last World T20 in 2014.

India-Pakistan showdowns usually draw hundreds of millions of television viewers, making it the biggest box office attraction in the sport.

But diplomatic tensions have meant that the two teams have not played any bilateral series for more than three years and their rivalry is therefore restricted to multi-national tournaments.

Pakistan, furious that India has rebuffed repeated pleas to play a bilateral series at a neutral venue, will be desperate to cause an upset against their giant neighbour.

With the reigning champions Sri Lanka going through a rebuilding phase, most pundits expect India to cement their position at the top of the T20 world rankings ahead of their staging of the format s premier tournament. J

Bangladesh Lifts Ban on Umpire Nadir Shah DHAKA: Bangladesh recently lifted the 10-year ban on former international cricket umpire Nadir Shah, allowing him to officiate domestic matches.

Shah was banned in March 2013 by the Bangladesh Cricket Board after a sting operation by an Indian TV channel found him apparently willing to fix matches for cash.

The private India TV channel aired footage in October 2015, showing that the 52-year-old Shah was willing to give LBW (leg before wicket) decisions on demand.

Shah, who has stood in 40 oneday internationals and three Twenty20 internationals, was one of six umpires caught in the undercover investigation, including three from Sri Lanka and two from Pakistan.

All six were subsequently suspended by their own cricket authorities but they have consistently refuted the allegations.

"We have found that the others umpires found guilty for the same offence had not been punished for more than three years," BCB president Nazmul Hassan told reporters. J

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Lahore Board Win Badminton, Hockey Titles ISLAMABAD: Lahore Board girls steel the limelight on the last day of the Inter-Board Sports (Girls) competitions as they won both hockey and badminton finals, played at Rodham Hall and Naseer Bunda Stadiums respectively recently.

Pakistan Sports Board DDG Academics, M Shahid was the chief guest on the occasion while DDG Facilities Agha Amjedullah, Director Azam Dar, Media Director Shazia Ejaz, Assistant Director Hostels Malik Imtiaz Hussain, chairmen and secretaries of 22 boards along with other dignitaries were also present on the finals.

The badminton final started with quite delay as excessive load shedding left the PSB with no other option but to start the final 2-hours from actual time. In the hockey final, Lahore just steamrolled Mardan as Lahore was on goal-scoring fiesta and goals were coming thick and fast from all corners and the Mardan girls, looked meagre spectators in the entire match. Amina put the champions ahead in the 3rd minute, soon it was 2-0, when Aqsa scored second goal.

Lahore scored half a dozen more goals in the second half through Sania, Mehak, Meh Rosh, Shabeena, Asifa and Batool. Islamabad grabbed third place after thrashing Faisalabad 7-0 in the play offs. Shazia Ejaz led from the front for Islamabad, as she scored five goals, while Amina and Wajida scored a goal each to cap the day for the capital girls. It was a highly tense and close encounter witnessed in the badminton final between Lahore and Islamabad

board. Lahore must consider them very lucky to survive close scare as Islamabad took the final right down to the wire before going down fighting.

Lahore drew the first blood as they took 1-0 lead, but Mehak played highly aggressive game to level things. It was all left on 3rd and deciding match between champions Irum and Islamabad's Ghazala. Irum won the first game 21-19, Ghazala bounced back and took the second game 21-18. It was battle royal witnessed in the third and final game. The score kept on changing from one way to another as both girls fought gallantly. Irum had twice chances of winning the match at 21-20 and 22-21, but Ghazala twice came from behind and level the score. But finally at very crucial stage Ghazala committed a huge blunder, which costs her dearly as Irum won the game 25-23 to ensure Lahore grab the title. Mardan begged third position after comfortably beating Bannu 2-0.

In overall Inter-Boards Sports (Girls) competitions 2016, BISE Lahore got the 1st position with 10 points, BISE Sahiwal with 6 points remained second and hosts BISE Mirpur AJK remained third with 5 points.

It was for the very first time respectable Rs 14,000 cash was awarded to individual gold medal winner, Rs 10,000 to silver medallists and Rs 5000 to bronze medallists, while Rs 7,500 each was awarded to team event gold medallists, Rs 5000 each to silver medallists team and Rs 3500 to bronze medallists teams. J

PAKISTAN

P28 – PAKISTAN LINK – FEBRUARY 26, 2016 the awesome calumny which they utter against Mary, and their boast, “Behold we have slain the Christ Jesus, son of Mary, [who claimed to be] an apostle of God!” However, they did not slay him, and neither did they crucify him, but it only seemed to them [as if it had been so]; and, verily, those who hold conflicting views thereon are indeed confused, having no [real] knowledge thereof, and following mere conjecture. For, of a certainty, they did not slay him: nay, God exalted him unto Himself – and God is indeed almighty, wise.

ect offered by APPNA: 1,500 physicians had offered their services to provide medical advice via phone.

However, there was no response from the government of Pakistan which was very frustrating, Dr. Mubashir Rana informed. The Minister responded by saying that ‘you may not be approaching the right people, you should have contacted me.’

Pakistan Consul General in Los Angeles, Abdul Jabbar Memon, thanked all the guests who attended the community gathering at a short notice.

SCENE FROM P21

DETERRENCE FROM P1

GEMS FROM P25

a national incubation program— copying what the Punjabi provincial government has been doing for its Lahore startups for years. “Government’s support for the tech startups in Pakistan has come a bit later than desired,” says Ali Khan. “But I believe these measures will encourage the startup culture in Pakistan.” – Scoopnest.com NAZ FROM P22

Rectifying misconceptions: Today, the same uncle who felt embarrassed by Naz’s profession now introduces her with pride to his friends and relatives. “It isn’t a negative concept for them anymore,” she beams.

“I know they feel proud of me when they introduce me to others.

Naz represented the Pakistani police during a conference in the UK, where she also received an award for serving her country. Now that her relatives see what she has achieved, she says they treat her with greater respect and dignity. They no longer harbor misconceptions about women in the police force.

“It is now considered a respectable institution,” Naz says. She feels more and more women are attracted to the police force because of the department’s comfortable environment.

CORRIDOR FROM P24

channels is very pessimistic. It is not a true picture. “Pakistan is not what you see on TV channels.”

He enumerated the achievements of the Nawaz Sharif government and said in 2013, there was 20 hours loadshedding, terrorist incidents were taking place every week, international media had declared Pakistan the most dangerous country of the world while Karachi was burning. But now after three years the Pakistan Army was advancing and terrorists had fled their safe havens. The international media was declaring Pakistan as the next emerging destination of investors.

Likewise, Karachi’s situation had improved manifold.

About the energy sector, Prof Ahsan Iqbal said that the government is giving top priority to this sector: not only is the power generation capacity being increased but the transmission lines are being modernized since they cannot sustain increased load. He said the Diamer Bhasha Dam, in GilgitBaltistan is being built for hydropower generation. It will also serve as a water reservoir. Pakistan’s next challenge is to overcome the water crisis and building a dam is the top priority of the government.

Dr Mubashir Rana, President of the 3500-member Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America (APPNA), complained that there is lot of talk about the government’s encouragement of projects of overseas Pakistanis but little happens in practical terms. He referred to the Tele-Medicine proj-

the NCA. The NCA also comprehensively reviewed the safety and security mechanism of Pakistan’s nuclear program and expressed satisfaction on the measures in-place to ensure highly effective security of nuclear assets.

The participants of the meeting also reposed full confidence in the command and control system of the national strategic arsenal and appreciated the high-level of preparedness of the strategic forces.

While taking note of the growing conventional and strategic weapons’ development in the region, the NCA expressed serious concerns over the adverse ramifications for peace and security on this account.

NCA reiterated its determination to take all possible measures to make national security robust; enabling it to effectively respond to the threats to national security without indulging in arms race.

The meeting’s participants noted with satisfaction that Pakistan has the requisite credentials that entitle it to become part of all multi-lateral export control regimes, including the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), for which Pakistan seeks adoption of a non-discriminatory approach.

The meeting was attended by the top military and civil leadership of Pakistan.

SHARMEEN FROM P1

rachi-based company SOC Film specializes in investigative and socially motivated content.

“I think that that’s a win in itself because it’s such a difficult topic and people shy away from it, normally.”

Obaid-Chinoy, whose accolades include a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, a Crystal Award from the World Economic Forum and a state honor from the Pakistani government, says she’d been wanting to make a film about honor killings “for a long time.”

“But it transpired that almost always the subjects of the film would be killed, so by the time anyone would hear about an honor killing there’d be no one left to tell the story,” she says from Los Angeles.

“One day I was reading the newspaper and I came across these two lines about a young girl who had been shot by her father and her uncle and thrown in a river and she had survived miraculously.”

The first time she met Saba, who was attacked for eloping with a poor boy her uncle disapproved of, ObaidChinoy was struck by her fortitude.

“For someone who is not very educated — I mean, she could barely read and write — she had this wisdom about her that was years ahead of her. And she wanted to tell her story. She was eager to tell her story and you know it’s a documentary filmmaker’s dream to have a character that shines on camera and she really does shine on camera.”

After Saba’s attackers were im-

prisoned, her family and community pressured her to forgive them so the charges could be dropped in accordance with Pakistani law. Obaid-Chinoy says this legal loophole must be closed before real change can happen.

“People actually believe that it is OK to kill a woman in the name of honor. And people routinely get away with it. That mindset was very hard for me to digest,” says Obaid-Chinoy, a dual citizen who lived in Toronto from 2004 to 2015.

“I’m also a product of Pakistan, I was born and raised there, I come from a city and it’s only the luck of the draw that I am who I am. I could be Saba.”

This will be Obaid-Chinoy’s second bid for an Academy Award. Her short doc “Saving Face,” about brutal acid attacks in Pakistan, won in 2012.

She is one of only 11 female directors to have won an Oscar.

“You work your whole entire life so you can be at an event like the Oscars and sometimes take a break so you can appreciate the work you have done,” she says.

“I’m a workaholic and I seldom take breaks but I will take a break for Feb. 28 and I will get there and I’m going to walk the red carpet and appreciate the fact that I’m there with some of the best in the world.”

She’s considered to be the first winner from Pakistan, a country where outspoken women have been gunned down for challenging the status quo.

“One has to be determined about what one is doing and I’m very determined about what I am doing,” she says.

“A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness” will air on HBO Canada on March 7. - The Canadian Press KERRY FROM P1

cretionary funding for the Department of State and the US Agency for International Aid. “We are helping Afghanistan and Pakistan to counter violent extremism,” Secretary Kerry told the lawmakers while explaining why the administration was seeking $742 million for Pakistan as well. The hearing turned into a mini-debate on America’s ‘complicated’ relations with Pakistan.

Senator Corker, who chairs the committee, accused Pakistan of practicing “outright blatant duplicity”, as it maintained friendly ties with the US but continued to support the extremists as well.

He claimed that a “tremendous amount of US taxpayers’ money” had gone into Waziristan, changing “the context of those areas” and yet they did not stop supporting militants.

He then moved to Islamabad’s request for purchasing eight F-16 aircraft from the United States and pledged to continue opposing the deal if Pakistan did not stop the alleged duplicity.

Mr Kerry assured the senator that the State Department had evaluated ‘all aspects of the counterterrorism efforts” with respect to Pakistan’s impact on Afghanistan.

He said that a few weeks ago, he met Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Switzerland and discussed US concerns about the need to “rein in particular terrorist groups that are either home-grown in Pakistan or are using Pakistan as a sanctuary”.

IMRAN FROM P1

the lowest level in KP compared to what is being faced by other provinces of the country.

He said corruption was an essential item for the corrupt elements, as it involves money and power, adding

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Man Allegedly Brandishes Gun, Yells ‘All of You Should Die’

IRS Phone Scammer Caught by Leonia Police Facing Deportation

n By Nick Visser

n By Mary K. Miraglia

St. Louis: A Muslim couple said they were threatened by a man wielding a gun while house hunting in St. Louis, an event emblematic of the growing Islamophobia in America.

Rabie and Marwah Ayoub say they were looking for a new home when Leonard Debello asked the family if they were Muslim. They say he then shouted, “All of you should die,” before going inside his house to get a weapon and brandishing it at the couple.

“This state allows you to carry a gun and shoot you,” he allegedly said. “You, your wife and your kids have to die.”

An image obtained by local CBS affiliate News 4 appears to show Debello holding a gun while standing outside his home.

An officer with the St. Louis County Police Department told The Huffington Post on Tuesday that the case was still under investigation and would be presented to the prosecuting attorney’s office, but no action had been taken yet aside from a brief arrest on Sunday. Debello later told News 4 he regretted the incident and had forgotten to take medication for PTSD that day.

The St. Louis chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations has called for the act to be prosecuted as a hate crime. Faizan Syed, executive director of the chapter, said the event has stoked fear in the city’s Muslim community and prompted the local religious council to hold an emergency meeting.

He said the incident wasn’t just directed at the Ayoubs, but rather the entire Muslim faith.

“That’s the nature of hate crimes, they don’t just target one specific individual or family,” Syed said. “The crime itself has implications for a group and the effects happen to everybody within our community.”

Syed said the rhetoric coming from the Republican Party during the presidential primaries, particularly from businessman Donald Trump, has “definitely mainstreamed Islamophobia,” and that acts of hate have spiked in the city.

The three leading Republican candidates, Trump, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, have all stood by increasingly frightening anti-Muslim campaigns.

“We now feel and we now see that it’s almost an OK reality to target Muslims, to bully Muslim kids,” Syed said, while noting this isn’t just about Islamophobia. “In America there is an issue of greater acceptance of intolerance to other people.”

During a press conference on Tuesday, Rabie Ayoub said he now feared for his children’s safety, as the family currently lives just a few blocks from Debello.

“He wasn’t sorry when he pulled the gun, he wasn’t thinking about it. He was ready to shoot. If he shot me, my wife or kids, what’s his apology going to do,” he said. -The Huffington Post

Leonia, NJ: An Indian national busted by a Leonia detective in a $170,000 IRS phone scam that claimed 70 victims in 32 states was sentenced to time served in exchange for a guilty plea and a promise to cooperate with prosecutors.

Her lawyer said that Nikita Patel, 25, “plans to stay in the area and go back to school.” But the INS has placed a deportation detainer on her, so she must remain in the Bergen County Jail for now.

Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Brian Lynch said he will work hard to see that Patel -- who was in the US on an expired visa -- is sent back to India.

Her partner, Akash Satish Patel, also pleaded guilty and was deported.

The Patels -- who aren’t related -- acted as runners, collecting funds wired by unsuspecting victims.

“In some cases, the victims lost their life savings,” Leonia Police Chief Thomas P. Rowe said last fall.

One of those victims contacted Leonia police from Lexington, KY in early September.

A scammer threatened to have him arrested if he didn’t pay a $1,400 tax debt, then had him wire the money to a MoneyGram account in the name of “Vincent Arora” at a CVS store on Broad Avenue, he said.

Detective Michael Jennings got a surveillance video of the pickup, created screen shots and issued a statewide alert.

Contacting MoneyGram, he discovered that a “Vincent Arora” conducted 30 or so transactions in a week in various statewide locations.

MoneyGram later alerted Jennings that a scheduled transaction in Watchung. Police missed their target by 10 minutes, but surveillance video showed that it was the same man as in Leonia.

MoneyGram again alerted Jennings to a scheduled transaction at an Elizabeth CVS in early September. The manager gave him a description of the thieves and a license plate number.

Elizabeth police followed the car and seized the Patels, Rowe said.

Leonia police picked up the pair and found $9,140 in cash in the car, along with MoneyGram receipts from throughout the state. They also found $10,822 in Nikita Patel’s apartment.

Authorities hope they can now find the ringleaders.

It’ll be tough: The Patels said that they got victim information from call centers in India. - – Daily Voice

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was PSL FROM P1 wary of NAB for the same reason.

Mustafa, a 19-year-old college student in Islamabad.

MUKHERJEE FROM P1 “PSL is more than a World Cup to environment of cooperation in combating cross-border terrorism. He me, I wished it could have been played in called upon all MPs to discharge their Pakistan.” responsibilities in a spirit of cooperaAn attack on the Sri Lankan tion and mutual accommodation. team’s bus in 2009 at Lahore shut the Asserting that the govern- doors on Test nations touring Pakistan ment was fully committed to firmly before Zimbabwe broke the deadlock dealing with all challenges con- by playing a limited-over series — also cerning India’s security, President in Lahore — last year. Convincing forMukhe¬rjee said terrorism is a eign players from other major cricket global threat and strong counter- countries to tour Pakistan was almost terrorism measures are necessary impossible, so the PCB finally decided worldwide to eradicate it. to host the PSL on neutral venue.

CLASSIFIED & MATRIMONIAL

FEBRUARY 26, 2016 – PAKISTAN LINK – P29

Classified Section Long Term Job Long Term Job 5-10 yrs-/Live-in Nanny (lady) to help 8yrs old boy, school going child and minor light household work.

Must have US valid driver license and be independent-Salary $1000-$1400 per month. Contact Mr. Ali 951-805-2474 or saliusa@outlook.com.

3 Fulltime Positions in Cerritos CA Warehouse Person Needed Full Time: Have background in warehouse minim -um 3 years Good for attention to detail.

Able to make ups/fedex/usps/dhl labels Basic MS Office Experience Must have paperwork to work in the US Salary is $3k a month --------------------------------

Technical Person Full Time Needed: Have background in computer knowledge and know how to research online Good for attention to detail.

Good on Research on line and google Basic MS Office Experience Must have paperwork to work in the US Hourly Rate $15 per hour ---------------------------------

Marketing Person Full Time Needed: 3 years previous working Marketing experience Social Media Experience (Facebook, Twitter, etc) Must have a BA degree in Marketing Salary $52k a year -------------------------------------------

Call for details ask for Shakeel 562-394-8190 M-F call after 6pm / Saturday-Sunday after 10 am Located in Cerritos, Mon-Fri, Full Time email resumes: career@planetcellinc.com

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Matrimonial Link 50 year old divorced project manager in US seeking a bride. MS Electrical Engineering and MBA. I look much younger than US Citizen, Pakistani, my age. A simple Urdu-Sunni, Business, Financially and down to earth person Professional Settled, looking for someone Age 40, divorced, similar from a 5-8 height, good looking, decent background, seeking a suitable US Citizen preferably 40 or below. professional partner.

A moderate and open Contact minded Shia. Caste 951-805-2474 or no bar. For further td@esecurityauditors.com information, please Place Your Matrimonial Ad Today email: pflandc@ Buy 3 Get 1 FREE! gmail.com call: 714-400-3400 or Email: Sales@pakistanlink.com

Place Your Matrimonial Ad Today Buy 3 Get 1 FREE! call: 714-400-3400 or

US Citizen, UrduGujrati- speaking, Muslim Sunni, height 5”6, weight 160 lbs.

We are looking for a humble, selfless lady, preferably over 65, who could be a suitable match for my father.

Please contact Cell 310 895 0056

Email: Sales@pakistanlink.com

Shahnawaz Matrimonial Free Matrimonial Service

Contact:

Mahbano Khan Cell: (562) 746-9439 e-mail: khanmahbano@gmail.com

Sunni family seeks proposal for 31 yrs daughter tall 5 ft 6 inches slim fair pretty working as an executive for a leading bank.

Proposals invited from well settled professionals. Please call at 301 525 8941

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P30 – PAKISTAN LINK – FEBRUARY 26, 2016

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FEBRUARY 26, 2016 - PAKISTAN LINK

ENTERTAINMENT

ENTERTAINMENT & LIFESTYLE

FEBRUARY 26, 2016 – PAKISTAN LINK – P31

hile Sajal Ali gears up to make her big screen debut with Anjum Shehzad's Zindagi Kitni Haseen Hai, her younger sister also joins the film fraternity with Nabeel Qureshi's Actor In Law. After acting in hit TV serials such as Bunty I Love You and Rung Laaga, Saboor will now rub shoulders with big stars like Mehwish Hayat and Fahad Mustafa in the film.

"I'm playing the role of Fahad Mustafa's sister in Actor-in-Law. Lubna Islam plays the role of our mother.

In the story, no one in our family supports Fahad, and I'm the only one who helps him in everything he does," Saboor said about her character in the film.

"Nabeel Qureshi offered me this role. It's a second lead, and [I'm good friends with] Nabeel and Fahad, so I accepted it. I'm very excited to do my debut film," she added.

Sajal's director Anjum Shehzad is also helming Fahad's first film production, Band Toh Ab Bajay Ga, so the film industry (or at least some parts of it) appears to be operating like one big family!

W

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P32 – PAKISTAN LINK – FEBRUARY 26, 2016

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