Rawalpindi colleges academic blocks construction

Source: Daily times

Rs 394.1m for new blocks, labs in Pindi colleges

Rawalpindi, Nov 25: The provincial government has allocated Rs 394.1 million for the construction of new academic blocks and establishment of computer and science laboratories in Rawalpindi's seven boys and girls colleges, said Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MNA Hanif Abbasi on Tuesday.

 

During a meeting of the heads of the city's government colleges, Abbasi said efforts were underway to improve education and health facilities in the garrison town with the provincial government providing millions of rupees for the purpose. He said students would avail themselves of facilities of quality education after completion of these projects.

 

He said Rawalpindi would be made a model district regarding provision of quality education and health facilities, and speedy completion of development schemes was being ensured for the purpose.

 

The MNA said Rs 53 million was being spent on construction of new additional classrooms and auditorium in Government Degree College for Women, Dhoke Kala Khan, and Rs 4.1 million on construction of new rooms in Government College, B-Block, Satellite Town.

He further said Rs 25 million was spent on construction of a new auditorium in Government Waqarun Nisa Girls College, Tipu Road.

 

According to him, Rs 14.8 million is being spent on construction of Hashmat Ali Islamia College's new building. He said Rs 45.7 million had been allocated for the construction of Government Degree College for Women, Zafarul Haq Road, and Rs 70 million for the construction of new block in Government Girls College, Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Road.

 

Abbasi said Rs 68.5 million was being spent on construction of 10 rooms and other schemes of Government Degree College for Boys, Satellite Town. He visited the city's various colleges and inspected ongoing construction work there.

Lahore within

Source: The News

Link:  http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=209500

Friday, November 20, 2009

Harris Khalique

It was some conference in Kathmandu many years ago where I first spent time with Indians. I had neither been to India before nor to the UK or North America where one would meet so many. My only interaction until then was limited to meeting a few people who visited Pakistan to meet their relatives. They were generally unassuming Muslim Indians who would come here to attend a niece’s wedding or to offer condolences on an uncle’s death. After spending a couple of days together in Kathmandu, Indians and Pakistanis became friendly. I must say that the Pakistani contingent was far more informed about India than they knew about us. It seems to be the case still, partly because of Bollywood and partly because of our Indo-centrism in politics and foreign affairs. While sitting in a café almost every evening in Kathmandu’s famous tourist market, Thamel, Indian colleagues would debate about India-Pakistan relations, Kashmir and the need for peace. There was only one wish they all had in common, irrespective of whichever part of India they came from – the wish to visit Lahore.

In later years, I had the chance to become friends with many Indians while visiting India, the UK or other South Asian countries. I found the same desire for seeing and experiencing Lahore among most of them. For those coming from this part of the subcontinent who themselves or their parents had migrated during partition, the city lives and thrives in their imagination. For others, it is a city they fancy after hearing a lot about it from their seniors or reading about its history and culture. In subsequent years, some were able to visit and enjoy the ambience of Lahore but most couldn’t.

It is not just limited to Indians. When people from other parts of the world visit Lahore, they develop a liking for its architecture, gardens, culture and food. Punjabis anywhere in the world see it as their cultural capital while writers from any part of South Asia or those in the diaspora see it as one of the bastions of Urdu literature. Lahoris enjoy a unique pride and even those who have just migrated to the city, start being boisterous about their Lahori identity in no time.

But for most, even those who wrote their fond memories or now write about the history and culture of the city, Lahore is about the festival of Basant, the fort, the mosques, historic buildings from Mughal and British periods, The Mall, canal, parks, savoury dishes, fashion, models, film stars, artists, singers, concerts, shopping areas and affluent women and men exhibiting snazzy clothes and eating sumptuous food.
Sami Ahuja, the accomplished story-teller, takes us to a different Lahore in his latest collection of short stories, “Roonumai Mein Zam Honay Ka Mujrim.” He brings back the city that belongs not to the kings, princes, viceroys and governors, but the city that belongs to their subjects. In 14 stories, 12 about the residents who live by the 12 gates, one about Tibbi and one about Mori, Ahuja artfully renders the suffering of the working class, the poor and the oppressed, who were a majority in the past and who remain a majority now. Some of Ahuja’s earlier work is not only laced with historic metaphors but at times his language is not within the reach of an untrained reader of Urdu literature. The latest book is more accessible and confirms that Sami Ahuja loves real people of Lahore more than the ornate Sheesh Mahal. Recommended reading.

The writer is an Islamabad-based poet and rights campaigner. Email: harris@spopk .org

 

Press Release

Source: Dawn News

 

Title: Call to Improve Health Infrastructure

 

Link: http://epaper.dawn.com/ArticleText.aspx?article=17_11_2009_153_016

 

 

 

A Voice Silenced

Source: The News International

Link: http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=208281

Friday, November 13, 2009

Harris Khalique

Today, with a heavy heart and trembling fingers, I write another obituary. Obituary of a housing rights defender, a community rights campaigner, a voice of the poor, a beacon of hope for the downtrodden Baloch and Sindhi population of the great metropolis, whose ancestors inhabit Karachi since it was a fishing village.

Not just Baloch and Sindhi, the working class citizens of the city have little idea who they lost in Nisar Hussain Baloch. He was 46 and has left a widow, a toddler and millions of us behind him to grieve his murder and mourn our fates.

It is somewhat unbecoming to quote from one's own earlier writing but when I did a piece on Gutter Bageecha a few weeks ago which appeared in this very space, I wrote, "… the politics of intimidation, profiteering, patronage and prejudice can hold us together for so long." Those who perpetuate oppression for their short-term gains whether it be in the name of religion, ethnic identity or political ideology fragment us further and try to snatch away any hope left for peaceful solutions to the problems we confront.

I had a long telephonic conversation with Nisar in Karachi the night before I wrote about Gutter Bageecha in August last. He was agitated, unhappy and felt wounded by what was being done to the age-old public-park in his neighbourhood. Out of 1,017 acres, 480 acres were left as the amenity park already and the women and children of the area used it for leisure and respite from the heavily industrialised and polluted environs of old city. That was the night when Nisar had just returned from the Civil Hospital Karachi after attending to the wounded men and women attacked while peacefully protesting against encroachment in the name of building colonies and commercial enterprises. Law-enforcement agencies were criticised for their role during the whole episode. Nisar was strongly critical of both coercion and intolerance faced by activists like him in Karachi and of the PPP for its expediency and tardiness.

Nisar became the president of the Gutter Bageecha Bachao Tehrik (Save Gutter Bageecha Movement) and worked closely with organisations like Shehri and other citizen rights groups to marshal public support for the cause. Nisar's passion was educating the young in his low-income neighbourhood and started his illustrious career in social work by establishing a street school in Old Lyari where children were educated for free. Due to his political consciousness and a deep desire to change the world around him in favour of the disadvantaged, he soon became active in the areas of environmental conservation and provision of basic facilities to those who are kept at a sub-human level by powers that be for centuries. Even the creation of a new country and one government after another did nothing to change their fortune.

Nisar was shot dead on November 7 by killers who first intercepted his motorbike and then fired at him from close range. Old Golimar, Bada Board and Pak Colony areas were shut down in protest and people raised slogans against the city government of Karachi. With all the hype created about its efficiency and smartness, it is already accused of changing the status parks and playgrounds in middle and low income areas while developing a large tract of land in a posh area by the sea into Bagh-e-Ibn-e-Qasim. Alas! The claim of championing the rights of the downtrodden can be made no more.

The writer is an Islamabad-based poet and rights campaigner. Email: harris@spopk .org

Best Seller of the Year

I am pleasured to inform you that following “Best Seller of the Year” books are added to our Development Resource Centre (DRC), if any one is interested to get them issued.

S. #	Title of Book	Author/ Publisher	Basic Information
1	Dictionary	Longman	Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
2	The Idea of Justice	Amartya Sen	The book is about what justice means and has come up with an alternative to the existing model. While doing so, he is also creating an urge in the reader to ponder with the current judicial and social system as a critic.
3	The Reluctant Fundamentalist	Mohsin Hamid	The book is about the environment of mutual suspicion that followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Describes an encounter between "you," an American, and a bearded Pakistani who speaks of a high-flying career and love affair left behind in New York.
4	India- Partition Independence	Jaswant Singh
5	Hafiz: the Mystic Poet	Gertrude Bell	A Brief  Introduction to the Poet’s Time and Place A Summary of the Major Themes of the Poet’s Mysticism and Religious Tradition

The Holy Quran (Arabic, Urdu and English Text) is also placed at the DRC now.

Regards,

Roohi Bano

New Arrivals!

Dear All,

 

This is to inform you that followings journal/ Magazine are recently added our Development Resource Centre (DRC).

 

1. The Economist
2. Jehd-e- Haq ( HRCP)
3. Academy (Pakistan Academy of Letters)

 

 

Regards

 

Roohi Bano

 

Sovereignty, whose?

Source: The News International

Link: http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=206967

Friday, November 06, 2009

Harris Khalique

 

Who wouldn't want to be sovereign? Every state wants to be independent and every individual wants to be free. We are born free. It is our birth right to remain free all our lives, to do what we wish to do without being cumbersome for the community in which we live and the global human society of which we are an integral part. We should be free without being violent in our pursuits and by acknowledging that all humanity deserves the same rights and privileges which we demand for ourselves.

 

But this world is an unjust place. It begins with the family – the first oppressive social institution, particularly in conservative societies like ours. Then we come across stringent values in our communities, perpetuated by the powerful in the name of morality, so that their grip on our lives is not weakened.

 

Coming to Pakistan as a state, we have laws that discriminate against many of our citizens. Dispensation of justice in favour of the disadvantaged and realisation of things that are good in our constitution, like Article 38, to give an example, remain a distant dream. Nevertheless, we continue with the resolve to change the status quo.

 

Some concerned citizens of this country, public intellectuals, a section of civil society and many in the media, continue to struggle. Progressive forces are disjointed and puny at the moment, but they are there. A regaining of social and political consciousness can be witnessed in different quarters of our society, including young people after a period of disinterest and lull for almost twenty years. The change is good but hasn't borne fruit yet.

 

Then, there are foreign forces which uphold carefully designed international institutional arrangements biased towards maintaining power of the rich nations over the poor. But I do not blame them for our ills, for they act in their own interest. It is up to us to articulate our interests better, come to a stage where we are able to negotiate our terms from a position of strength and while siding with the weak and the disempowered, grow to become strong and powerful in the comity of nations.

 

Now, the question is, how do we come to a stage like that? It is going to be a long haul, but not as long as some analysts would like us to believe. The recent debate over the Kerry-Lugar Law, passed by the US Congress and endorsed by President Obama, has to be taken to a different level if we are serious about our prosperity and sovereignty.

 

One, the criticism that the law receives in Pakistani media is misplaced, out of context and of a knee-jerk type. There are parts of the text where the language is inappropriate in diplomatic terms, but it is up to us to refuse it. But could we ever do that? Never. Be it the incumbent PPP, the opposition PML-N or someone like Musharraf, they would have accepted it. Read the terms of the World Bank, IMF and ADB loans we accept.
Why? Because we have never been sovereign, we were never serious in changing the cruel economic order in our country which systematically marginalises the majority, we never let the interests of the common people of Pakistan be served by reforming agriculture, promoting industrialisation and making quality education available to all children. Whose sovereignty our television anchors and their guests are harping about? The landless peasant of Nawabshah, the poor shepherd of Kharan, the bonded brick-kiln worker of Muzaffargarh or the terror-stricken young woman of Swat?

 

The writer is an Islamabad-based poet and rights campaigner. Email: harris@ spopk.org

Blasphemy law will do damage again!

Source : Daily Times

The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Human Rights has urged the government to re-examine the blasphemy law and improve its procedure. When we say “re-examine” we may be expressing a secret desire to change the wording of the law to prevent it from victimising innocent people. We still don’t say “repeal” although that is what it deserves after what it has done to a lot of innocent people in Pakistan, of which nearly half have belonged to our poor Christian community. The Standing Committee is still a bit pusillanimous and has quickly added “procedures” knowing full well that the procedures have been changed a number of times in the past with no effect. The police doesn’t care for procedures or is perhaps forced to discard them in the face of those who want to exploit the Blasphemy Law. Yet, it should have noted that it is just one organisation — the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba — that causes most of the violence to take place under the law. A Lahore High Court judge is painstakingly recording the evidence of the wronged Christians of Gojra when their houses were torched in the last week of August. His pace is quite remarkable with 320 statements of eye-witnesses taken down. Meanwhile, however, the banned Sipah has not stopped its savagery: the Christian community of Mariamabad, a Catholic village in Sheikhupura district, has received threatening phone-calls from it vowing to reduce it to a pile of ashes like Gojra. The Standing Committee has complained that the intelligence units of the police do nothing to pre-empt Sipah attacks. Everyone knows that trouble starts from the mosques which can be put under unobtrusive surveillance if our spooks take time out from fighting mythical battles with Mossad and RAW. (And offering up a “desk” analysis saying Gojra was done by India.) As the PMLN leader Mr Javed Hashmi courageously and rightly stated in the house, the law has to be changed to prevent persecution of innocent Pakistanis.

 

Asia: A hostile ally; Terrorism in Pakistan

Source: The Economist

Clinton flies into a war zone

A VISIT to Pakistan this week by Hillary Clinton, America's secretary of state, was greeted in the grimmest possible fashion. A suicide-bomber exploded a car packed with explosives and killed over 100 people in a crowded bazaar in Peshawar, in North-West Frontier Province. The presumed culprits, the Taliban, have also reached the capital, Islamabad. On October 22nd an army brigadier was ambushed outside his house and killed by two gunmen on a motorcycle. In two bloody weeks more than 250 people have died in suicide-attacks in Peshawar, Islamabad and Lahore. Security agencies are warning of more murder to come.

Mrs Clinton visited Pakistan for several important reasons. She wanted to assure Pakistanis that America is no longer just a fair-weather friend. Rather, it is here to stay and support Pakistan in its fight against terrorism and poverty. A bill signed by President Barack Obama on October 12th grants Pakistan $7.5 billion in assistance for development and to alleviate poverty in the next five years.

However, that act of apparent generosity was spurned by most Pakistanis as "insulting and intrusive" because of conditions attached to it, which implied that Pakistan's army and security agencies were complicit in harbouring terrorists and undermining the civilian government of President Asif Zardari. Egged on by the army, the Pakistani press, its mindset forged by years of state-sponsored jihad against the infidels--the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s and India in the 1990s--has assailed the legislation as "dishonouring" Pakistan and serving only American interests. Indeed, until very recently, the predominant view was that the war against the Taliban was America's fight, not Pakistan's. Against this backdrop, Mrs Clinton came to Pakistan not just to pledge support in counter-terrorism but to prop up its fledgling democracy.

But first she has to resolve continuing strains in her country's relationship with Pakistan's powerful army. America has welcomed its campaign against militants in South Waziristan. But it wants the army to go further and to take the offensive in other parts of the tribal areas, where the Taliban and al-Qaeda have safe havens from which they are attacking NATO forces across the border in Afghanistan.

American pressure has been stepped up in the days leading to the presidential-election run-off in Kabul on November 7th. The Americans hope that Pakistan's efforts can help bolster turnout. But the Pakistani army is loth to divert too many forces from the Indian border, until the peace process with India makes some progress.

Pakistan's security agencies have long accused India of using its consulates in Afghanistan to foment a separatist insurgency in the province of Baluchistan. Now it alleges that India is indirectly financing the Taliban as "payback" for the insurgency sponsored by Pakistan in Indian-administered Kashmir for nearly 15 years.

Mrs Clinton also wants to knock opposition and government heads together, to reach a modicum of unity over the war against the Taliban and relations with America. In a cruelly opportunist move, the Pakistan Muslim League of Nawaz Sharif, a former prime minister, now a popular opposition leader, took up cudgels against the American aid bill. Meanwhile, Mr Sharif was giving the Americans secret assurances that he was fully on board.

So Mrs Clinton had her work cut out. Despite the American pressure, and despite the worsening toll in human lives exacted by the suicide-bombers, there is little sign of a change of heart in either the army or the Pakistani political opposition. The army still seems ambivalent about fighting the Taliban, and nervous about America's intentions. And the opposition still seems bent on destabilising the pro-American Zardari government.

 

Private schools to start online teaching

Source: The Nation

Islamabad, Nov 3: Due to the prolonged closure of leading private schools owing to security concerns, the administrators have decided to start assisting students online to prevent any academic loss, it is learnt.

As private schools of the city have announced extensions in vacations fearing incidents of terrorism, parents are concerned over the current situation as it is adversely affecting the education of their children. Private schools have started assigning homework to the students on their e-mail addresses.

"It is happening for the first time that schools have been closed for such a long time and it is still uncertain whether they would be reopened or not in coming days. There is not much time left for the mid-term exams so we have decided to give homework online. We have collected data in this regard including the e-mail addresses of students so that they can be contacted and given assignments", informed a teacher of Beaconhouse School Islamabad.

Some teachers of private schools have started taking classes in the homes of the students, and students themselves have been conducting combined study sessions to lessen academic loss and use the time effectively.

 

Centers for special education to be set up soon

Source: http://www.interface.edu.pk/students/Nov-09/Islamabad-private-schools-closure.asp#2

Islamabad: Ministry for Special Education has geared up the process of establishing Special Education Centers across the country. Official sources informed on Sunday that currently, the ministry is running its training centers in 42 districts whereas five centers are under-construction and would be completed soon.

"The process of constructing more centres has been initiated in compliance with the orders of President Asif Ali Zardari for setting up special education centres in each district," added the sources.

They said a portion of Special Education Centre Jhang has been completed and started functioning whereas the building would be completed in February 2010. Special Education Centre in Mirpurkhas, Kohat, Hunza and Sibbi would be completed in the near future, they informed.

There is only one centre in Karachi working under the federal ministry, which cannot cater to the needs of its population, they said adding that PC -1 for establishing another centre was approved in 1989 but is yet to be constructed. The news