Numaan’s Diary

There is so much discussion going on about the presence of Black Water in Pakistan. I never paid attention to all the sensational text messages, emails and news articles appearing every where about Black Water and their not-so-secret missions.

I love Dr. Awab Alvi. I think he has his heart is in the right place. I was really surprised to see that an educated, enlightened person like him would buy all these rumors about black water. I am not a very good writer when it comes to debunking the sensationalism and putting the things in the right prespective.I will try my best to stay focused and clear.

Before talking about Dr. Alvi’s post. I would like to share some simple facts.

1. United States and Pakistan are close allies in the war on terror. This means that the two countries collabrate and co-operate with each other to strike against terrorist organizations. This collabration and cooperation is on many levels and the exact details of it can not be made public by either government due to security concerns.

2. United States provides Pakistani government billions of dollars for development. United States donated the most amount of money and efforts to help during the earthquake in Kashmir and to assist Pakistan with Swat Refugee Crisis.

3. The two countries have a long history of working together and it had always been mutually beneficial for both of them.

4. When our government have such strong ties with the United States, it is no wonder that we allow certain liberties to US agencies to work on our grounds. For example we have allowed them to attack militants in tribal regions using unmanned bomber planes. We have allowed them to build significant intelligence infrastructure and this we did long ago when the USSR invaded Afghanistan.

I believe that it is not such a big deal that we allow US security agencies a certain freedom to work towards our common goals like exterminating the Pakistani soil of Taleban. Our agencies must keep a check on the activities of US agencies in Pakistan to make sure that they do not harm our national interests. We will have to cooperate because we are allies in a war and our economy is dependent on that war.

Now lets talk about Dr. Alvi’s post which is based on several rumors in media.

1. The video at the end of the post: shows no proof of any kind (video clips, photographs, documents) showing black water doing all these things such as harassing Pakistanis or blocking roads. There are many roads blocked by security agencies in Islamabad. You can just show an image of a blocked road and claim that it is blocked by Black Water security personels.

2. The presenter in the video is a woman wearing Hijab and she ends her monologue with the line that “Pakistanis should realize that the United States is their real enemy”. Its more like an extremist propganda speech instead of an analysis by a professional defense expert.

3. In this video the analyst blames that the Black Water is on a mission to assasinate Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan. Do you people really believe that killing Dr. Khan has become so difficult for CIA that it had to hire a notorious organization to do the job? Do you really believe that such secret operations are carried out by renting houses openly?

3. Dr. Alvi requested people to help map black water in Pakistan. Perhaps Dr. Alvi forgot to watch the video he shared. The woman in the video told that Black Water has an office in Khayaban e Rahat which is not far away from where Dr. Alvi lives. So if Black Water are such bullies I think Dr. Alvi would have no trouble finding their offices and may be he will even get some shocking pictures as well. like Black Water munching french fries at McDonalds?

4. Dr. Sahab asks patriotic Pakistanis to help map and expose Black Water. How he is going to verify that the video or pictures or incidents reported to pakvoices are genuine?

I am not saying that there is no Black Water in Pakistan. I am simply saying that there is so much sensational rumors based journalism going on about things that are not important. We the patriotic Pakistanis should be more concerned about the crisis in Baluchistan, food mafia, water and power resources. These issues are the real security threats to Pakistan.

I strongly urge the Pakistani blogging community to please be responsible. There is very little difference between fact and fiction. Do not sensationalize things on your own. Get some documented proof or make sure that the sources you are referring to are showing some credible documented proof of the claims they are making.

A few days ago local media issued a video of a Girl getting flogged by Taliban in Swat. The brutality in the video has shocked the country. The news of the video spread across the country and people from all walks of the lives has condemned it.

This never happened in Pakistan. For the first time, people in Pakistan are thinking seriously about the Talibanization of their country. This video has shown them the true face of the Taliban. People all over the country are scared and worried that if government talks to Taliban and allows them to impose their Sharia Rule in the Swat region then they will impose such brutal laws on poor people of the region.

There is also question about the legal status of the agreement between the North Western Frontier Province and local fundamentalists. An agreement that establishes a parallel Islamic Sharia judicial system in the Swat district. It is clear that such an agreement is not supported by the constitution of Pakistan. Which gurantees equal rights for all citizens of Pakistan. This agreement hasn’t been presented in the parliament and it has not been signed by President of Pakistan. I am surprised that our national hero Justice Choudhry takes a suo moto action against the flogging of the poor girl in the video but totally ignores NWFP’s government’s illegal negotiations with terrorists and allowing terrorists to run their own brand of judicial system in a district of Pakistan.

Yesterday several human rights organizations protested in all major cities of Pakistan(Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad). People chanted slogans against Taliban, against terrorism, against the so called parallel judicial system, against the criminals who flogged the girl and demanded that Pakistan Army must continue the operation against Taliban.

Today there is an even bigger demonstration in Karachi called by MQM. Last night MQM’s volunteers distributed black flags and palmphlets all over the city requesting people to join the demonstration and raise their voice against Talibanization of Pakistan.

Yesterday, I was listening to Jameel Yousuf founder of Citizens Police Liason Comittee talking on Geo news during the terror attack at the Police training center in Lahore. He pointed out immensely huge flaws in our country’s anti-terror security practices. First of all he pointed out that the building of this current terror attack had no security at all. He also pointed out that in our country security means ill-equipped policemen guarding installations or VVIPs. We do not have lack of technology to fight terrorism in fact we have total absence of technology in all our security measures.

He bitterly described how foreign aid to train Pakistani police is wasted due to corruption. How government has always failed to control arms trade from tribal regions. How government failed to fight against kidnappings for ransom in all major cities of Pakistan. According to him these kidnappings for ransom are a major source of funding for local terrorist organisations. According to Mr. Yousuf, implementing the police order 2002 (Police Order 2002 PDF) is a good starting point to improve law and order situation.

Meanwhile US government has claimed that elements inside Pakistani intelligence agencies are helping terrorists. Apart from US concern, we must think ourselves that how we can fight terrorism in these conditions? The world has taken immense security measures to fight terrorism. Now these terrorists have very limited chances of attacking United States or allies, or India, or Zionists. So this leaves us the only easily accessible target to terrorists all over the world. Whether it is Al-Qaeda, or Baitullah Mehsud or any other so called Jihadi organization. They all have their base camps in Pakistan and they can easily target people of Pakistan whenever they want.

The picture Jameel Yousuf draw during this talk on television is so horrible but it described things very clearly that how come Pakistan is so easily targetted nearly twice a month by these terrorist organizations. The government must implement police reforms, improve co-ordination among law enforcing agencies and take strict actions to block funding for terrorists.

I left my house at around 2:30 pm. On reaching the street where my polling station was located, I noticed that there were no camps of Pakistan Peoples Party or MMA. Only the MQM camps were there and only their volunteers were present and in big numbers. I reched my polling station and surprisingly there were no polling agents of any other party but MQM. A huge number of MQM’s supporters were present inside the polling station. Since my all my relatives had always been devoted MQM supporters. Every one there thought that I am definitely going to vote MQM. They laughed when I showed my Identity card. They even asked me if I would like to cast another vote. I saw a 30 plus guy showing a pink slip of paper to presiding officer and getting a ballot paper without showing any identity card.

MQM’s volunteers were not only disturbing the polling process they were even spying on the polling booths. When I went inside to stamp on the ballot paper, a twenty plus guy was watching my ballot paper. I asked him to look away and when he disappeared I stamped my ballot papers. Dropped ballot papers in ballot boxes. I sat there with other MQM volunteers (they were all guys from my neighbourhood, some were relatives, cousins, etc.) no one asked me to leave the polling station and I saw many people coming showing identity cards of their dead relatives and casting votes. Many people came showing pink papers and casting votes, many people were accompanied by councillors, naib nazims, and MQM supporters.

When I was leaving the polling station I saw a forgein election observer accompanied by a Pakistani man and a woman. I thought for a while that may be I should talk to her, but then decided that it will be such a waste of time, she must have known whats going on by now.

Its quite clear now that Dr. Mirza Ikhtiar Baig has lost to Khushbakh Shujaat of MQM. What I don’t understand is that why MQM bothered to stage bogus votes when it was already quite clear that they would win easily?

Update: Dr. Alvi reports rigging in Gulistan-e-Johar Karachi. He noticed the same things that I have mentioned above.

The world was already worried about Pakistan’s madrassas and tribal areas being used as base camps for Taleban insurgents. But now they are panicked because it seems like the militants has started showing off their power in the capital of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the only muslim country with Nuclear weapons. The controversy revolves around a mosque known as Red Mosque and a madrassa run by the mosque,Jamia Hafsa, an Institute of Islamic studies. Recently the students of this madrassa attacked a house in Islamabad, kidnapped three women who lived in that house and demanded that Adultry cases must be filed against these women or else Jamia would arrange an Islamic court and punish the women itself.

Their Business is Jihad
The Guardian’s Declan Walsh visits Islamabad’s Red Mosque a hotbed of Islamic militancy at the heart of Pakistan’s capital.

Profile: Islamabad’s red madrassa

Trouble brews at Islamabad’s jihad-preaching mosque But their arrest and the seizure of the officers and an alleged manager of a local brothel during a morality dispute is a sideshow to more sinister activity inside the giant complex with 11,000 students.

The Daily Dawn’s Zafar Abbas calls it ‘The creeping coup‘.

ATP’s Adil Najam writes:

The hostage-taking by women students from Jamia Hafsa in Islamabad of the residents of a house that they allege is a brothel is not just another act of vigilantism and a breakdown of governance; it is also a manifestation of a nation divided against itself.

Below is a video showing Maulana Abdul Rasheed Ghazi, the head of madrassah and the mosque administration, telling about the Mosque, the Madrassa and the ideology that he and the madrassa students believe in.

City District Government of Karachi has banned Plastic shopping bags. During last few days the CDGK took strict action against the manufacturers of these Plastic bags, resellers and distributors. CDGK’s action has resulted into an acute shortage of paper bags, rubber bands and other packing materials that are widely used by local grocery stores and shop keepers. The shop keepers are facing difficulty to come up with some quick alternate to plastic bags.

There is no doubt that these plastic bags are dangerous for the environment and managing them with the garbage is real trouble for CDGK. Since there is no proper system of handling and disposing garbage, these plastic bags cause damage to city’s infrastructure such as electric and water supply and sewerage system.

It takes almost 500 to 1000 years for a plastic bag to decompose. It is possible to recycle plastic bags but it is an expansive solution for a city like Karachi. These plastic bags are so cheap that once used, there is no incentive for people to reuse them again. Every shop keeper, store and retailer offers a free bag with almost every thing. From Large electrical appliances to ice cream vendors, every one offers shopping bag for no extra cost. When mixed with other garbage these plastic bags create a huge mess of pollution. Even the developed nations are facing difficulty combating the disposal and recycling of plastic shopping bags.

The advantages of banning the plastic bags are unlimited. However, there are still some concerns over such an immediate action. This is a huge industry the ban would affect thousands of people involved in manufacturing, distribution and resell of these bags. Mass usage of Paper bags is itself not an environment friendly idea but these bags are easy to recycle and they get easily decomposed naturally.

Pakistan Cricket Team’s coach Bob Woolmer has passed away. To me, an average Pakistani, this is one of the many sad news that the nation is getting from everywhere.

1. The Cheif Justice Case
2. Police agression against lawyers protesting on the situation.
3. Police attack on the private television network’s premises in Islamabad.
4. Pakistani cricket team’s shameful performance against the Ireland in the cricket world cup.
5. And now Bob Woolmer’s death.

Bob Woolmer was a great Pakistani. He died while working for Pakistan. The nation is sad on this sudden loss.

The Google Zeitgeist now shows popular queries from Pakistan. In January 2007, the most popular query made by Pakistanis is Pakistan itself. Yes, the country we live in is just as mysterious and unknown to us as it is for any European or African.

We don’t really have any stars and celebrities of our own in Pakistan. The only Pakistani who made it to top 15 search queries, is Atif Aslam defeated by Sania Mirza the Indian tennis star.

Karina Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Aishwarya Rai, Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan and bollywood itself is one of the most popular queries made by Pakistanis. No matter how much Pakistanis love Bollywood and Indian Stardust, the search term Urdu is the eighth most popular query.

Karachi is the eleventh most popular search term, warid at 12 and Jang got the 13th position.

When Lahore is celebrating Basant, there is a man, Shaukat who entered the city with the dead bodies of his five children, injured and exhausted wife, and his now only child a baby girl.

The Supereme Court of Pakistan ordered a ban over kite flying in Punjab to combat the side effects of Basant. Government of Punjab, removed the ban for two days to celebrate Basant in Lahore. Strict measures are taken to protect innocent lives and infrastructure, and to maintain law and order during Basant. But how could you expect the wild masses to abide the law when the wild government itself has teared it up into pieces.

This, the country of contrasts is full of conflicting stories. In another city, Peshawar, schools were threatened to be attacked by suicide bombers if they do not end up their co eduction school system.

A provincial minister gets killed by a lunatic, who is crazy about saving the Islamic identity of Pakistani women. This is the country where one province is moving fast towards Talebanization and another province trying hard to depict liberalization and freedom by breaking the law.

A woman mourning over the dead body of her relative who died during the terrorist attack on Samjhota Express.

Women in Lahore wearing smiles and buying kites to celebrate Basant.

School girls in Islamabad running during the inter school competitions.

Principle of Girl’s school in Mardan, a city in Pakistani province NWFP. Wearing Burqa and telling media about the threat letters she has recieved from Taleban to follow the strict Islamic burqa guidelines.

Pakistan is entering into a new era of prosperity. The country has internet access in almost all cities. There are computer labs in schools and colleges, every other day you would see some government officer inaugrating a new computer lab in some school or college. Musharraf’s government is proud that they have made so many TV channels available to Pakistanis. All medium to large size companies, institutions and organizations have some www address printed on their business cards, posters and advertisements.

But I feel that we as a nation are absolutely clueless about what information is and how important role it plays in the development of nations. We know that our organizations, businesses or institutes need a www.myorganization.com.pk website. But we have no idea how to use the world wide web. We have fruits in our hands but we don’t know that in order to enjoy their juices we need to bite them. In 2006 Pakistanis can not download your utility bills. Even after yeas of hard work to bring these small but significant changes to lives of Pakistanis, we failed.

Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC), is a Pakistani company with a www.kesc.com.pk domain name. KESC supplies electricity to more than 14 Million residents, businesses and industries in the Megapolis and surrounding areas. This giant corporation’s website has only three links on their main page. Rest of the page is an screenshot of a website and is displayed in Gif image format. I remember KESC had a functional website sometime ago and I have downloaded my electricity bill from their website. I remember they had detailed information available. Now every thing is gone.

The Website has a picture telling visitors that KESC has 92 customer services centers, but no addresses, telephone numbers or email addresses available. A picture titled “Latest News” tells you about Federal Minister Mr. Liaquat Jatoi’s visit to KESC headquarters on 29 September 2006, nothing more on that is available.

I don’t know how many Bills KESC issues each month, but this URL is printed on the back of each KESC bill. I don’t know how many people make an attempt to look at the KESC website each day or month. But I find it quite suprising that they are so careless about all this.

The website (a poster actually) doesn’t disclose any contact information so I was unable to contact people who are responsible for this job at KESC. It has a link at the bottom telling that the website designed and maintained by e-Creatorz. I filled out the contact form on the e-creatorz website on January 19 and asked them about the situation. They didn’t disclose or clarify anything, simple told me to wait till the website is relaunched hopefully in a few days. Now after a month, www.KESC.com.pk still displays the flyer that you can get created by the graphic designers at Burns Road for RS.100. I don’t blame e-Creatorz for getting more money than they deserved. I blame KESC for being so cruel, barbaric and ignorant.

KESC and all Pakistanis who can not understand the importance of information, the broken websites, useless and contentless macromedia flashy websites, and the 30 minutes per week per student computer labs. These are the signs that Pakistan is not entering into any new era of prosperity. We are actually going back in the reverse gear. Yes we are making progress and working hard but in the wrong and totally opposite direction than the one that leads to knowledge, power and freedom.