TTP claims Karachi suicide bombing and threaten more attacks

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on December 30 claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed 43 people in Karachi, and threatened more attacks on "the US ally", according to Daily Times. "My group claims responsibility for the Karachi attack and we will carry out more such attacks within 10 days," said Asmatullah Shaheen, one of the TTP ‘commanders’, who spoke by telephone to a Reuters reporter.

 

Punjab govt urged to allot land to poor women farmers

Link: http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=215993

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Saadia Khalid

Islamabad
The representatives of women groups, women’s organizations and human rights activists demanded of the Punjab government to allocate land to poor women farmers as well.

They hailed the decision of the Punjab government regarding allotment of land to landless peasants in Punjab, but stressed that the land should also be allocated to women farmers.

The representing organizations included Awam Dost Foundation-Bhakkar, Pakistan Welfare Society, Layyah, Women’s Organization for Rights and Development-Islamabad (WORD), Women’s Action Forum-Islamabad, Women Worker’s Helpline-Lahore, SYCOP-Muzzaffargarh, Peasant Women’s Society Okara, Nomad Center Islamabad, Mehrgarh Learning Center-Islamabad, Strengthening Participatory Organization-Islamabad (SPO), Potohar Organization for Development Advocacy, Islamabad (PODA) and Aurat Foundation, Islamabad.

The representatives of the organizations said that the government should not only allocate land to women farmers, but also facilitate them in cultivating the land by establishing agriculture support centres at UC level for women so that agriculture inputs especially indigenous seeds, fertilizers and machines such as threshers should be provided to women.

 According to them trainings should be organized through these centres for women peasants to further strengthen their knowledge, encourage organic farming and keep them updated on new techniques. Such progressive reforms in policies and legislation will not only eradicate gender discrimination but will also improve the status of women farmers in our country as key to national food security and nutrition.
The women’s groups and representatives of women farmers have struggled hard for years, through nationwide campaigns, advocating for policy changes based on social and economic justice to demand women’s right to land.

Women have always played a very significant role in the agriculture sector; about 79% of women as compared to 57% men are employed in the agriculture sector (ADB 2000). Their role as producers and providers of food, their contribution to the sustenance and survival of the household and economy is immense, it often goes unnoticed.

Women have always been on the frontline in the fight against hunger and poverty. But their agricultural work is often trivialized and seen as an extension of their domestic work.

Although legally women in Pakistan can own and inherit land but they have little access and control, when it comes to national policies or distribution of resources women is only implicitly mentioned. States can be more food secure by implementing and upholding new policies or laws that give women more secure rights to own or access land in their own right as citizens.

Education reforms in National Education Policy

Education Task Force to Implement Education Reform

Islamabad, Dec 22: Pakistan Task Force on Education will work to increase the capacity of the federal and provincial governments to implement the education reforms set out in the National Education Policy (NEP).

The official sources informed that the task force was approved by Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on the recommendation of Education Ministry.

It will support the federal and provincial ministries and prioritize and identify clear goals for improving the school system and set targets for improvement and cascade them out through the system.

The Task Force recently held a two-day meeting to look into the ongoing status, performance and capabilities of various stakeholders. The meeting focused on private and public sector partnership to remove disparities and implement a uniform education system in the country. It called on devising an effective mechanism to ensure the up-gradation of the educational system and meet modern day requirements.

Advisor to PM on Social Sector and Co-Chairperson of the Task Force Shahnaz Wazir Ali told this agency the task force has been given responsibility of upgrading the education system and devising a mechanism to address the issues of equity, quality and governance. The task force will focus on implementing the targets set in education policy toward achieving 85 percent literacy rate by 2015.

She said that private sector is contributing a lot in education sector and equipping the students with the latest educational facilities but public sector is lagging behind due to negligence on the part of previous governments.

She emphasized on adopting special measures to control the dropout rate and said private and public partnership can jointly bring positive reforms in the education sector. Shehnaz Wazir Ali and Sir Michael Barber are the Co-Chairs of the Task Force.

While other members include Secretary education, Saba Gul Planning Commission, Representative from Ministry of Finance, Chairman NCHD, Secretary of Schools from Balochistan, NWFP, Punjab and Sindh.

Secretary of Education, AJK, Gilgit-Baltistan, Director (Education), FATA. Dr. Muhammad Memon, IED, Karachi, Shahid Kardar, Former Minister of Finance, Punjab, Dr. Fareeha Zafar, Society for Advancement of Education, Lahore, Mehnaz Aziz, Children Global Network, Islamabad.

Ahsan Saleem Member on Board of Director, Citizen's Foundation, Representative of Religious Education, International Expert nominated by USAID and International Expert nominated by DFID, UK. APP

 

Education reforms in National Education Policy

Education Task Force to Implement Education Reform

Islamabad, Dec 22: Pakistan Task Force on Education will work to increase the capacity of the federal and provincial governments to implement the education reforms set out in the National Education Policy (NEP).

The official sources informed that the task force was approved by Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on the recommendation of Education Ministry.

It will support the federal and provincial ministries and prioritize and identify clear goals for improving the school system and set targets for improvement and cascade them out through the system.

The Task Force recently held a two-day meeting to look into the ongoing status, performance and capabilities of various stakeholders. The meeting focused on private and public sector partnership to remove disparities and implement a uniform education system in the country. It called on devising an effective mechanism to ensure the up-gradation of the educational system and meet modern day requirements.

Advisor to PM on Social Sector and Co-Chairperson of the Task Force Shahnaz Wazir Ali told this agency the task force has been given responsibility of upgrading the education system and devising a mechanism to address the issues of equity, quality and governance. The task force will focus on implementing the targets set in education policy toward achieving 85 percent literacy rate by 2015.

She said that private sector is contributing a lot in education sector and equipping the students with the latest educational facilities but public sector is lagging behind due to negligence on the part of previous governments.

She emphasized on adopting special measures to control the dropout rate and said private and public partnership can jointly bring positive reforms in the education sector. Shehnaz Wazir Ali and Sir Michael Barber are the Co-Chairs of the Task Force.

While other members include Secretary education, Saba Gul Planning Commission, Representative from Ministry of Finance, Chairman NCHD, Secretary of Schools from Balochistan, NWFP, Punjab and Sindh.

Secretary of Education, AJK, Gilgit-Baltistan, Director (Education), FATA. Dr. Muhammad Memon, IED, Karachi, Shahid Kardar, Former Minister of Finance, Punjab, Dr. Fareeha Zafar, Society for Advancement of Education, Lahore, Mehnaz Aziz, Children Global Network, Islamabad.

Ahsan Saleem Member on Board of Director, Citizen's Foundation, Representative of Religious Education, International Expert nominated by USAID and International Expert nominated by DFID, UK. APP

 

Side-effect (Crossroads)

Source: The News

Link: http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=213891

Friday, December 18, 2009

Harris Khalique

 

Pakistan is at a crossroads in a way it never has been. If it were only a military threat, there could have been a military solution. If it were a question of extending economic opportunities or sharing political power with an insurgent group, a somewhat simpler political solution could have been sought. But the nation is not only confused and fragmented about its foundations but also about the way forward from here when it comes to the role of religion in the functioning of the state. The crisis of identity withstanding, the crisis of ideology has never been sharper since 1971. Some of us including Wajahat Masood see it as a result of our inability as a country to resolve the fundamental issues of class, autonomy of federating units, and finally democratic dispensation in politics. In his latest book, "Taliban Ya Jamhuriyat: Pakistan Dorahay Par" (Taliban or Democracy: Pakistan at a Crossroads), he has discussed contemporary political developments within and outside Pakistan and their cascading effect on the society in which we live.

 

Wajahat Masood discusses the aftermath of Benazir Bhutto's brutal murder, the inability and limitations of mainstream political parties to deliver, the elite-capture of the state, the role of military in Pakistani politics for the last 50 years, dictatorships, threats to democracy and the current tussle between the state of Pakistan and the Taliban – both at the physical and ideological levels. He has a recipe for coming out of this quagmire, rooted in a deep historic analysis and knowledge about the experience of other nations in similar (not the same) chaotic situations. The good thing about this collection of articles or columns by Masood is the expanse that he offers to his reader. From a small happening in Islamabad of 2008 to what happened in medieval Europe, Masood brings together Pakistan's contemporary political history in the backdrop of international political experiences over the ages.

 

Masood is a good friend and I feel like praising him not just because he is a friend. He deserves to be praised for his clarity of thought, lucidity of language and the courage to speak up and be counted. He is both a foot soldier and a commander in fighting this battle of ideas against oppression, bigotry and ignorance. His remarkable work for raising consciousness about human rights in rural Pakistan through his writing, training and lecturing reflects on his commitment to translate his ideas into practice. I particularly praise him for writing and compiling this collection in Urdu. This understanding comes when you work with the common people of Pakistan and genuinely relate to their issues and sufferings. All new information or credible analysis about Pakistan continues to appear in English these days. There is nothing wrong if some find it easier to write in English but these works need to be translated, which sometimes happens but mostly doesn't. In English, we find many interesting articles, analyses, comments and books on both history and contemporary politics, some journalistic and some academic. Masood has a style and while he writes in an understandable journalistic fashion in Urdu, his analysis is laced with evidence and his take is academic and historically informed. This is the kind of writing we need in Urdu and other national languages of Pakistan.

 

Coming to the recipe Masood offers, it is revisiting and revising the national narrative and totally detaching clergy from the affairs of the state, democracy in both political process and social order, and finally equity and justice for all. Nothing short of that will save us.

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

 

 

Longman Online Dictionaries

Dear All,

 

This is to inform you that “SPO DRC” has subscribed a website named “Longman Online Dictionaries “. Longman Online Dictionaries is a fantastic resource site for teachers, institutions and students.

C.D version also available on Development Resource Centre (DRC).

 

Link: http://ldoce.longmandictionariesonline.com/main/Home.html

User name: roohi

Password: spodrc02

Regards,

Roohi Bano

 

 

Educational system improvements, upgradation

Source: The News

Government to upgrade education system

Islamabad, Dec 15: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Social Sector and Co-Chairperson Pakistan Education Task Force Begum Shehnaz Wazir Ali has pledged to devise an effective mechanism to ensure the upgradation of the educational system and meet modern day requirements.

She was addressing the first brainstorming meeting of Pakistan Education Task Force, held here Monday to sort out strategies to implement the policy in true spirit.

"To monitor and supervise the different phases of implementation of the education policy, Inter-Provincial Education Ministers' Forum (IPEM) will be created to check any stumbling block in its implementation," she said.

Private and public sector partnership is essentially needed to remove disparities and implement a uniform education system in the country, she said.

Federal Secretary of Education Imtiaz Hussain Qazi in his presentation on 'Education Scenario in Pakistan and Issues in Education Sector' highlighted various key objectives of the policy as well as the challenges. He informed the meeting that the budgetary allocations for education would be raised to seven per cent of the GDP by the year 2015 according to the education policy.

Imtiaz Qazi further informed that under the policy, enrolment of students in higher education would be increased from 4.7 to 10 per cent by 2015 and 15 per cent by 2020. The policy also sets a goal to ensure free Universal Primary Education (UPE) by 2015 and up to Class 10 by 2025. Other initiatives include improvement in teachers' qualifications, curriculum, textbooks, examination and learning environment.

Contrary, the present literacy rate in the country is 56 per cent, including 67 per cent males and 42 per cent females, which is the lowest in South Asia.