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February 2011

Islamic Democracy

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By Qaisar Sultan

A white horse is not a horse, an old Chinese logic. Since horse is a shape and white is a color; something that denotes color cannot designate a shape.  On the similar lines, Islamic democracy is neither Islamic nor democracy. The enlightenment period changed the autocratic rules in Europe which lead to the political secularism, radically separating the realm of faith and that of the reason. We cannot call liberal democracy a “Christian democracy” or “Islamic democracy”. Democracy is simply empowering people that brings them freedom of thought, speech and practice of their faith. The maxim “Islamic democracy” helps religious fervor to grow; and claimants are not majority of people but those who intemperate the religion. The idea of democracy to religious zealots is to grab the power and convert the country into a theocratic state. In order to have a civil polity is to strive for a culture based on justice, compassion, equitable division of wealth, fairness, honesty and dignity of all the citizens. The value system should include reason accessible to, irrespective of the religious belief is part of that political secularism. The political secularism is not Christian, Hindu or Muslim polity.  It is helpful to find that sense of reason; we have all those reasons in our religion. The only danger is that the orthodoxy plays a crucial role in taking a fair political system to narrow interpretation of fundamentalist religious school of thoughts. A secular way of governance cannot be read as Islamic; if we only talk about a faithless culture. The liberal democracy that we are after is based on certain secular and liberal principles. First of all, if it is not in Quran or Sunnah, it cannot be an Islamic tradition or an Islamic law.  Quran talks about consultation among people, justice and equal rights. The Islamic governance and the attributes of Muslim leaders and principles of governance are described in Quran. The form of the government is not the essence of Muslim polity. The Islamic government should be based on justice and free from the corruption and evil. The problem lies in the mind set of those who represent and interpret our religious values. The orthodoxy and going back in time of old Muslim rules negate all of the secular and liberal principles. The debate should not be limited to atheist style hard core secularism where the religion has to be marginalized. The focus should be on the liberal views of justice, human rights, pluralism and rationalism. The modern corrupt rulers of Muslim states have taken the advantage of this mind set. The Islamic states have created a false elitism of corrupt, religious and feudal, rich and powerful, forces. What we call an Islamic state that has changed into an autocratic rule, refusing to include the very principles of Islamic values of justice and fairness. The freedom of speech is being denied in those theocratic governments. The dilemma for the extreme religious posture is if a state promotes their faith and curbs and opposes other faiths they feel very proud. But if in another country they ban their religious culture and values; and declares them minorities and treated them as such then we have difficulty with that. There is a refusal of robust debate that includes the sectarian, ethnic, financial responsibility, international sensitivities and tribal concerns. The rich, feudal and corrupt politicians, autocrats, military rulers take advantage of the prevailing confusion.Read More »Islamic Democracy

Raymond was ‘giving N-material to terrorists’

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A foreign website has claimed that “top-secret CIA documents found in Raymond Davis’s possession point to his links with ATF 373 – American Task Force 373 – and plotting to provide to al Qaeda terrorists ‘nuclear fissile material’ and ‘biological agents’ they claim are to be used against the United States itself in order to ignite an all-out war in order to reestablish the West’s hegemony over a Global economy that is warned is just months away from collapse.”

Pakistani sources are unable to either confirm or deny the claims and some experts even call the report itself “a part of psy-ops against Pakistan”. The unconfirmed claim was made through a story written by a less known Western writer named as Sorcha Faal. Read More »Raymond was ‘giving N-material to terrorists’

Two Pakistani universities ranked among top 200

Two Pakistani universities ranked among the top 200 Technology Universities of the World, one of them is Federal Government University, according to Quality Standard World University Ranking 2010.

However, another five Pakistani universities including Quaid-i-Azam University, National University of Science & Technology, University of Karachi, University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore and University of Lahore (Private Sector) ranked among World Top 600 Universities, according to World Ranking of Universities.Read More »Two Pakistani universities ranked among top 200

All went wrong after BB’s murder: Musharraf

Dubai: Former President Pervez Musharraf has said that he had meetings with Asif Zardari even after Benazir Bhutto’s murder and he indicated about retaining his presidency.

This he said in an interview with a private TV channel, adding that he could not do many things due to 9/11, as it was not possible then.

Former president said that he had several meetings with Asif Zardari which lasted for hours, in which they smoked cigars and had coffee.He said Pakistan Muslim League-Q would have won the elections if BB and Nawaz Sharif would not return to the country. All things went wrong after BB’s assassination.
Read More »All went wrong after BB’s murder: Musharraf

Islamabad: Applications for 2011-12 British Chevening Scholarships

Applications for the 2011-12 ‘British Chevening Scholarships’ programme in Pakistan are now open. The Chevening scheme offers successful candidates one year fully funded post graduate scholarships for study in the UK. For the 2011-12 programme scholarships are offered in the following areas of study: Security and Counter Terrorism, Governance and Democracy,Regional stability and conflict resolution, Media & Communications, and Economic Growth. Adam Thomson, UK High Commissioner to Pakistan said: “Chevening is a highly competitive process designed to identify the most promising of the next generation of leaders and influencers to promote an affinity and greater understanding between our two cultures.

We are very pleased to welcome new Scholars to study in the UK and wish them good luck for their future positions of influence and leadership in Pakistan. Read More »Islamabad: Applications for 2011-12 British Chevening Scholarships

THE SO-CALLED ADVENTURES OF ISI IN INDIA

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ALI SUKHANVER

 It is something very positive and encouraging that India has a very neat and clean judicial system. If on one hand, the non-Hindu minorities are being maltreated by the Indian security forces, on the other hand marvelously judicious courts of India are providing relief to the crushed ones. A few days back, in the second week of February 2011, the unshaken words of Virender Bhatt, the Additional Sessions Judge of a Delhi Court were resonating in the court room, determined with the passion of honesty and devotion to the sincerity to profession, “These four police officers have brought utter shame and disrepute to the whole Delhi Police force. In my opinion, there cannot be any more serious or grave crime than a police officer framing an innocent citizen in a false criminal case. Such tendency in the police officers needs to be curbed with a stern hand. Such black sheep, who are out to defame and bring into disrepute the whole police force, need to be identified from the whole flock and taken to task.” The worthy Judge was giving his verdict after hearing the case of seven Indian nationals who remained behind the bars for more than six years since the first of July 2005. The charge sheet filed against these seven so-called ISI agents said that these accused were arrested after a bloody encounter. The police also claimed to have recovered from them fake currency of Rs 50,000 , a sketch of Palam Air Force station, an AK-47 assault rifle, several magazines, cartridges and hand grenades. According to the charge sheet the accused persons disclosed that they were working on the directions of Pakistan’s spy agency ISI. However the honourable court remarked that the encounter story plotted by the police in this regard was ‘carefully scripted in office’, reported Times of India.Read More »THE SO-CALLED ADVENTURES OF ISI IN INDIA

Pride of a Nation

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Qaisar Sultan The Egyptians have finally found the dignity as people. One Egyptian woman put it bluntly that she was not proud to be an Egyptian before; and now she is. A poster read, “We… Read More »Pride of a Nation