The author is a retired air vice marshal and a former ambassador of Pakistan
I must admit I am not too fond of the bureaucracy. I do not know who is. Do not get me wrong, I am frequently impressed with their intellect, grooming, promise and potential; it is in their very distant and deliberately cultivated perch that they exhibit on matters all important that a cold remoteness and insufficient empathy may begin to become obvious. You see, I was exposed to this bureaucratic trait quite intimately and did not come out singing praises. They remain the all important cog, though, that keeps the machine of governance going — no doubt about that — but then that is all there is to their role. Take the cog out and the machine stops, put it back in and it is running again. The more crucial refrain though is, what is the machine producing? On that, the bureaucrats want to have no truck with. Someone else must push in material and get a product that they need. Else, the ....... Read More

The author is a  a lawyer based in Islamabad.
One of our most persistent national myths — put forward by both the state and its detractors — is that Pakistan was created in the name of Islam.
It is said that Pakistan was created with the use of the slogans “Islam in danger” and “Pakistan ka matlab kya, La illaha ilallah”, both slogans which — ironically — were never used by Quaid-e-Azam himself. Indeed Jinnah ruled out “Pakistan ka matlab kiya, La illaha illallah” when he censured a Leaguer at the last session of the All India Muslim League after partition in these words: “Neither I nor the Muslim League Working Committee ever passed a resolution — Pakistan ka matlab kiya — you may have used it to catch a few votes.”

Nevertheless, the fact that Pakistan was created as a result of a group’s nationalism, which was based — in whatever watered down form — on common religious beliefs, has damned Pakistan to a perpetual i....... Read More

The writer is regional coordinator of ICIMOD, Islamabad.
A study conducted by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) revealed that there are some 5,218 glaciers (15,040 km/sq area) and around 2,420 glacial lakes in Pakistan. Of these, 52 lakes are dangerous with a potential to outburst thus causing flash floods. According to the ICIMOD report: “These lakes are potentially unstable because their end moraines are composed of unsorted and unconsolidated boulders, gravels, sands and clays. Furthermore, they are frequently reinforced by frozen cores (permafrost) that, like the glaciers themselves, are now beginning to melt. As the volume of a lake accumulating behind an end moraine increases, the hydrostatic pressure builds up to put additional stress on the moraine dam causing it to become more unstable. Eventually it may fail and release much or all of the lake water.”

The report goes on to say: “Depending on t....... Read More

The Nation, May 20
PERHAPS nothing more shows the present government’s detachment from its basic duties as much as the existence of a Geological Survey of Pakistan Report predicting not just the avalanche due to rock sliding, but also that it would lead to flooding. The Report was submitted to the government in September 2009, and included a number of recommendations on what needed to be done to contain the damage, but they were not followed, and the Kashmir Affairs Minister has only now announced relief measures.
The Minister, at a press conference in Islamabad on Tuesday, disclosed that 13,000 people would be displaced, and arrangements for their rehabilitation were being made. He also said that there would be seven helicopters on standby. The neglect of the Report is particularly incomprehensible when it is kept in mind that the affected area, Gilgit-Baltistan, formerly the Northern Areas, has always elected PPP governments, one of which is presently i....... Read More

The Dawn, May 20
ALPURI, May 19: The district administration has chalked out an evacuation plan by dividing Shangla into three zones to cope with any situation in the wake of possible breach in the Hunza artificial lake.
The decision was taken at a meeting held here on Wednesday under DCO Syed Altaf Hussain. District planning officer Nasir Ahmed, who was appointed as focal person, briefed the meeting about the possible damages if the lake developed breach.
Talking to journalists after the meeting, Mr Ahmed said a comprehensive plan had been prepared to meet the challenges.
He said each zone would be supervised by a special committee, which would comprise tehsildar, SHO, DSP and ADO (education) concerned.
He said it was estimated that 3,230 families comprising 24,146 individuals would be affected in the district by the lake breach, adding 57 government buildings, 45 seminaries and mosques, 2,460 shops, seven hotels, one bank and three poult....... Read More

By Josy Joseph in The Times of India

New Delhi: Kashmiri terrorists and refugees from Jammu and Kashmir in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir have both received a pay hike. According to latest inputs from various intelligence agencies, Pakistani authorities are now offering terrorists coming to fight in J&K a monthly salary in the range of Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000. This is a huge jump from the average pay of Rs 5,000 they were getting earlier.
The reason for this benevolence is obvious. There has been a drastic drop in violence levels in J&K and militancy needs a revival if the separatist agenda has to continue to grab global attention. The number of terrorists in J&K is now hovering around 700, an all-time low since militancy erupted in the state in the late 1980s.
The desperation among terror groups is also visible in the return of Furqan, one of the senior most Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives who had been the group’s launch commander based in PoK for some years now....... Read More

Dialogue matters: edit in The Daily times, May 13
The recent SAARC Summit in Thimphu, Bhutan, promised many things aimed at promoting regional harmony and cooperation but the most promising development was a breaking of the ice between India and Pakistan on the sidelines. In continuation of that effort –as agreed to at the summit — the foreign ministers of both countries, Shah Mehmood Qureshi and S M Krishna, will be meeting for extended talks on July 15 this year in Islamabad to discuss the various issues that have remained contentious so far.

However, in the wake of the Mumbai attack’s subsequent conclusion — Kasab’s conviction — it is the issue of terrorism that will obtain top billing. Both countries, although extremely weary of this scourge, have nevertheless, time and again, locked horns on it. The fact that the interior ministers of both countries, P Chidambaram and Rehman Malik, will be meeting in Islamabad on June 26th to set the tone ....... Read More

The writer is a graduate of Boston University.
Pakistan-India relations since independence have revolved around mutual distrust, uncertainty, disappointments, tensions and fear of conflict.

We should seriously think as to why it`s so, especially when both countries gained independence from a single colonial power through a political process, negotiated between the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League. While we often hear people from both sides say, had the two countries been one, we would have been a force to reckon with, both in might and economy, I wonder why India and Pakistan can`t draw strength from each other as friendly and stable neighbours, sharing a common past, heritage and civilisation.

Bilateral disputes between them remain unresolved, their cooperation bounded by severe limitations. India thinks Pakistan is an irritant impeding India`s emergence as a key player in the world economy and Pakistan feels that India has been trying to destabilise ....... Read More

Dialogue matters: edit in The Daily times, May 13
The recent SAARC Summit in Thimphu, Bhutan, promised many things aimed at promoting regional harmony and cooperation but the most promising development was a breaking of the ice between India and Pakistan on the sidelines. In continuation of that effort –as agreed to at the summit — the foreign ministers of both countries, Shah Mehmood Qureshi and S M Krishna, will be meeting for extended talks on July 15 this year in Islamabad to discuss the various issues that have remained contentious so far.

However, in the wake of the Mumbai attack’s subsequent conclusion — Kasab’s conviction — it is the issue of terrorism that will obtain top billing. Both countries, although extremely weary of this scourge, have nevertheless, time and again, locked horns on it. The fact that the interior ministers of both countries, P Chidambaram and Rehman Malik, will be meeting in Islamabad on June 26th to set the tone ....... Read More

Tarbela can absorb Hunza water: The Dawn, May 12
ISLAMABAD, May 11: The overflowing Hunza lake does not pose any threat to Tarbela dam which has sufficient capacity to store additional water.
Sources in the Indus River System Authority said the water level in Tarbela currently stood at about 1,388 feet, just above the dead level of 1,378 feet, that meant it still had more than 160 feet of capacity to be filled.
They said the storage level could be raised by 10 feet a day till such time it reached 1,500 feet.
When Tarbela’s storage level crosses 1,500 feet, safety require it to be filled at the rate of two feet a day.
The sources said Wapda had not intimated it about any decision to release water from the dam in anticipation of any unusual water inflows.
On Tuesday, Irsa increased water releases to Sindh from 60,000 cusec to 70,000 cusec to meet its additional irrigation requirements and Balochistan’s share has been enhanced to 6,....... Read More