Under a peace deal signed by the NWFP provincial government, the authorities say they will withdraw security forces and allow the pro-Taliban militants to impose Sharia law in Swat in return for promises to close training camps and end attacks. This is particularly astonishing as it involves secular nationalists of the Awami National Party that trounced the right wing JUI party in the last elections.
This announcement by Senior Minister of NWFP Bashir Ahmad Bilour followed a…
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Added by Riaz Haq on May 21, 2008 at 4:00pm —
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Yawm al-nakba (The Catastrophe) and Yom Ha'atzmaut (The Independence Day) occur on May 14 each year. But this year is the 60th anniversary of the events of May 14, 1948 that the Israelis celebrate as their independence day and the Palestinians recall the horrors of massacres of Palestinians and expulsions from their homes in what is now the state of Israel.
For a long time, the Israeli textbooks have either not mentioned or completely denied any violence and forced expulsions of…
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Added by Riaz Haq on May 17, 2008 at 8:30am —
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As the world food crisis becomes acute, entrepreneurs see opportunities to tackle it and make big money. Such efforts could give a much-needed boost to feed the growing population of the world. For years, big agribusiness companies have used new seed and fertilizer varieties to push yields higher. But as technology gains have slowed, the search for additional arable land has intensified. That's created an opening for entrepreneurs with visions of re-collectivizing the land in former communist…
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Added by Riaz Haq on May 14, 2008 at 11:30am —
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When Intel puts its weight behind an initiative, it automatically gets a boost. But when Google and Intel together join forces, no one in their right mind can bet against such a combined force. Mobile Internet with broadband access has achieved that inevitability with Google backing a Wimax joint venture between wireless veteran Craig McCaw's Clearwire and Sprint-Nextel. In addition to Intel and Google, this venture is also supported by Comcast and Time-Warner.
As the world goes…
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Added by Riaz Haq on May 8, 2008 at 10:03pm —
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"The mission was perfect," said G Madhavan Nair, chairman of the state-run Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). Mr. Nair was celebrating the latest successful launch by India of a mission with 10 satellites from the Sriharikota space center off India's east coast.
This latest success by ISRO makes India a serious contender in the fast growing $2.5B commercial satellite launch business expected to grow rapidly over the next several years. The BBC is reporting that the rocket…
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Added by Riaz Haq on April 28, 2008 at 8:00am —
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Food Price Hikes Hit Silicon Valley
By Riaz Haq
www.riazhaq.com
The prices of rice, chappati, besan, daals, spices and almost all staples consumed by silicon valley South Asians have experienced triple digit price inflation during the last year. After reading about food price inflation and shortages of staple foods in their home countries, Pakistanis and Indians are now feeling the pinch in Silicon Valley as Basmati rice is in very short supply even with a 300% price jump.…
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Added by Riaz Haq on April 26, 2008 at 10:03pm —
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As Mr. Asif Ali Zardari and Mr. Nawaz Sharif together consolidate their power in Pakistan, there are renewed fears that a new era of of unchecked corruption is about to hit Pakistan. Let's hope that these fears are unfounded. Unfortunately, the history tells us otherwise.
In the past, Pakistanis have had to withstand plunder from only one of them at a time. The question now is: Can Pakistan survive a combined assault by both of these "gentlemen" and their cabinet ministers in…
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Added by Riaz Haq on April 18, 2008 at 10:30pm —
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"If they demand that the Afghan refugees be returned to Afghanistan, we demand that they (the Urdu-speaking Karachi-ites) be sent back to India" so says Mr. Latif Afridi, the President of Peshawar Bar Association. This outrage from Peshawar followed the clashes between the lawyers in Karachi which were triggered by the violence of the lawless lawyers of Lahore earlier.
The lawyers movement started well and helped bring about a positive change in Pakistan as a manifestation of the…
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Added by Riaz Haq on April 14, 2008 at 6:20pm —
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Indian Sports Attract Big Money, Stars
By Riaz Haq
http://southasiainvestor.blogspot.com
As India's economy, business and industry experience rapid growth, large amounts of sponsorship dollars are flowing into the various sports including cricket, football and golf. At first, most of the attention was on the big cricket stars such as Sachin Tedulkar grossing million of dollars a year. Then came the Indian Cricket League(ICL) and Indian Premier League(IPL) drawing the…
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Added by Riaz Haq on April 13, 2008 at 8:32am —
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The criminal behavior of the lawyers in Lahore has shocked the nation and the world. They not only kidnapped and injured former federal minister Dr. Sher Afghan Niazi but they threw rocks and flattened the tires of the ambulance that was taking him to the hospital for treatment. Mr. Aitezaz Ahsan, the leader of the lawyers movement, has resigned from his position as the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association.
While some may be tempted to call it an isolated incident, the…
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Added by Riaz Haq on April 8, 2008 at 10:42am —
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A Pakistani film company is rushing into the production of a movie based on the life of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto in collaboration with noted Indian filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, according to a news report in Pakistan Link.
Given the multi-dimensional significance of Benzair Bhutto to Pakistan and the world, it is not surprising that Lollywood and Bollywood together see her as an interesting subject to put on the big screen. What is surprising is the following statement by…
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Added by Riaz Haq on April 7, 2008 at 9:32am —
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Eighty-one percent of Americans believe the US is headed in the wrong direction, says the latest NY Times/CBS poll conducted recently. This is the worst ever reading of dissatisfaction since this particular poll began in the 1990s. Although the public unhappiness has been rising since the early days of the Iraq war, it has taken a new turn for the worse in the last few months, as the economy has seemed to slip into recession. There is now nearly a national consensus that the country faces…
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Added by Riaz Haq on April 4, 2008 at 3:32pm —
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The province of Sindh in southern Pakistan is a rural region of dusty mudbrick villages, of white-domed blue-tiled Sufi shrines, and of salty desert scrublands broken, quite suddenly, by floodplains of wonderful fecundity. These thin, fertile belts of green—cotton fields, rice paddies, cane breaks, and miles of checkerboard mango orchards—snake along the banks of the Indus River as it meanders its sluggish, silted, café-au-lait way through the plains of Pakistan down to the shores of the…
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Added by Riaz Haq on April 2, 2008 at 7:37am —
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With global commodity prices and inflation hitting new highs, Pakistan and other emerging economies are faced with serious challenges. The rising inflation of staples such as wheat has already claimed Pakistan's former ruling coalition as a victim. Many other developing countries' governments are likely to fall as well unless these challenges are addressed effectively.
Knowing the importance of wheat for Pakistanis, the government of Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani has begun…
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Added by Riaz Haq on March 31, 2008 at 11:10am —
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"Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was not and is not an angel" said Mr. Muneer A. Malik, the President of the Pakistan Supreme Court Bar Association, during an interview with Philip Reeves of NPR radio broadcast in the United States last year. This interview took place in 2007 after President Musharraf sacked Mr. Chaudhry and Malik launched a campaign to restore Mr. Chaudhry.
While I strongly disagree with Mr. Musharraf's decision to fire Mr. Chaudhry, I am curious to find out what Mr.…
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Added by Riaz Haq on March 30, 2008 at 6:25pm —
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by Ruth Marcus of The Washington Post
It's a measure of America's multicultural journey over the past half-century that we've gone from "God and Man at Yale" to Allah and Woman at Harvard.
In a contretemps scarcely imaginable in William F. Buckley's day, Harvard has closed one of its gyms to men for six hours a week so that Muslim women can exercise comfortably. "Sharia at Harvard," warned blogger Andrew Sullivan. A Harvard Crimson columnist blasted "Harvard's misguided…
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Added by Riaz Haq on March 27, 2008 at 4:00pm —
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Makhdoom Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani has been elected and sworn in as the new prime minister of Pakistan. He won by a margin of 264 to 42.
The new prime minister belongs to an influential and spiritual shia family of Multan, born on June 9, 1952 in Karachi, Pakistan. His father was a descendant of Syed Musa Pak, a leading Sufi spiritual figure of Multan of the Qadiri Sufi Order of Shi'a Islam. Syed Musa Pak hailed from the Iranian…
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Added by Riaz Haq on March 25, 2008 at 4:00pm —
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As the Muslim world celebrates the birthday of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) today, it's important to remember his teachings and the life he lived to learn how to deal with the serious crises Muslims face today. Here is how I remember the Prophet I know from my reading about his life:
Secular Education:
The Prophet I know instructed Muslims to "go as far as China to seek knowledge". It was clear at the time that China was not a Muslim nation. It is therefore safe to…
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Added by Riaz Haq on March 21, 2008 at 9:44pm —
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Concerted Campaign Against China
By Riaz Haq
www.riazhaq.com
With China's resurgence on the world stage and its hour of
well-deserved glory approaching at Beijing Olympics this summer, those
opposed to China are out in force to spoil it for the Chinese people.
The efforts to recruit athletes to stage protests in front of the news
media during the Olympics and the recent troubles in Tibet and Western
China do not appear to be spontaneous. The…
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Added by Riaz Haq on March 20, 2008 at 10:27am —
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As Pakistanis suffer greatly from the twin crises of hyper inflation and prolonged, daily power cuts, the life for them is getting more and more difficult every day. The traditional approaches to solve these problems such as increasing governmental subsidies for food and fuel and building more conventional fossil-fuel based generating capacity are not likely to work cost-effectively and sustain ably in the long run. It is time for Pakistanis to explore creative options to find workable,…
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Added by Riaz Haq on March 18, 2008 at 7:00am —
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