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Islamabad diary
It was a ‘game-changer’, we all gushed, destined to change the face of Pakistan. No one could mention the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor without breaking into superlatives. Actual details were hard to come by but the rhetoric was intoxicating.
This was before our genius for statesmanship kicked in. When it did we are finding out that instead of reaching for the stars we are managing to dig ourselves into another hole. The controversy over the CPEC is spiralling in such a manner that the Chinese embassy has taken the unprecedented step of issuing a statement urging all parties to “strengthen communication…and resolve differences properly.”
Our Chinese friends can be forgiven for feeling miffed. Here they are holding out the prospect of all these roads, highways and power projects and we are speaking in different tongues. Seeing our performance they are likely to dwell in their minds on the merits of a one-party state.
The main charge against the Sharifs is that they have hidden everything behind a veil of secrecy and are not being open about maps and finances. Every now and then the Punjab chief minister makes another thunderous announcement about game-changing. Press him for details or ask him to show the actual maps and the highway/motorway alignments and the industrial zones and beyond his wagging finger, and eyes aflame with passion, there is little to see.
I can bet that if parliamentarians and corps commanders are subjected to a test about what the CPEC is about nine out of ten will flunk it. When the State Bank governor confesses to not knowing anything about the money and the loans, terms and conditions and repayment schedules, we get an idea of the mess the federal government has managed to create around this issue…which is supposed to alter the alignment of the stars in our favour.
But we should be honest with ourselves. Was any of this unexpected? Was anyone really expecting that the Sharifs, the two of them who are running the civilian half of this country, would transcend their limitations and turn overnight into a Bismarck couple on the CPEC?
Here were elected leaders who couldn’t get the threat of terrorism right. They had not the heart to take on the Pakistani Taliban. They could take no decision on Karachi. It was the army which knocked sense into them and the army, on its own, which declared war on terrorism – both of the religious variety as in Fata, and the ‘secular’ variety as in Karachi. When the army had taken the decision, the civilians hurriedly clambered aboard the terrorism bandwagon. It is another matter that they now give the impression that the resolve all along was theirs.
Given this record on what grounds was anyone expecting that coming to the ‘game-changer’ the same civilians, the same leadership class would become statesmen: bring all the provinces together and get everyone to sing from the same score?
The army is managing the internal security front and overseeing foreign policy. Visiting foreign high-ups invariably call on the army chief because everyone understands where the locus of real power rests. The army is providing security for the CPEC and raising an entire division headed by a two-star general (from our own resources) for this purpose. Without this guarantee there would be no corridor and no Chinese money coming in.
So how come, when the army has its finger in every pie, when it is spread all over, when it is handling all key issues, when it came to this supreme ‘game-changer’, this khan of khans, this king of kings, it left everything to the higher wisdom and statesmanship of the Sharifs? It doesn’t add up, doesn’t make sense.
Let us not be hard on Heavy-mandate PM and whiz-kid Punjab CM. They are doing nothing unusual. This is how they have been conducting business and politics – it being hard to make out where the one ends and the other begins – for the last 30 years. When they look at the map of Pakistan they see Punjab. When they look at Punjab they see Lahore. When they see Lahore what rivets their attention the most are the roads leading to Raiwind.
Being industrialists and businessmen, that too on an industrial scale, when they conduct state business with other countries it is but natural, given their background, that one eye is fastened on their own interests. With both the PPP leadership and the PML-N leadership the lines between public and private interest are blurred. It was not always like this. Once upon a time politics and commerce used to run on separate lines. Alas, not any more. Perhaps as a country we are atoning for sins unexplained.
I am not making any of this up. All reasonably well-informed Pakistanis know all this. But to return to the mother of all questions: how come in our holy of holies, the Vatican we call the General Headquarters, was the CPEC, this supposed definer of our future, left to the tender mercies of the Sharifs?
Give the Sharifs credit at least for being consistent. They are treating the CPEC as if it was one of their sugar mills, a karkhana of the Ittefaq Group. Again they are hardly to blame. They are just being true to form. Only in this case the army decided not to exercise the system of ‘checks-and-balances’ it not only exercises in other fields but thinks it its birthright to do so. Why?
Why intrusive interference in every other corner, every other aspect of national life? Why benign neglect and masterly inactivity, leaving the present leadership to its devices, regarding the ‘game-changer’? Or are we to think the unthinkable, what should hardly be put into words, that the Punjab-centrism of the Sharif approach strikes a chord with the larger Punjabi-ism of what euphemistically, when we want to take cover, we refer to as the ‘establishment’?
The CPEC was supposed to bring Pakistan together…tie up its constituent units, the four provinces and Gilgit-Baltistan, in a tighter framework of communication and economic integration. The Raiwind approach to the CPEC is fanning the flames of inter-provincial discord. The Chinese are not at fault. They know their history of the Long March and the subtleties of Mao Zedong Thought. In what institute of Marxism-Leninism could they have learned the subtleties of Raiwind thought?
The politicians can’t clear up this mess. They could forge no consensus on terrorism. The army did it for them. The Sharifs are in the driving seat…they cannot resolve the growing controversy regarding the CPEC. The differences are too wide, the suspicions too deep, civilian incapacity too glaring. It is a particular gift of PML-N ministers that whenever any of them speaks on this issue he manages to fan the flames of suspicion higher.
It’s the army which has to take the lead, behind the scenes, discreetly…but firmly, knocking sense into the political leadership, the way it did over terrorism.
Let us host Saudi princes and read out soothing words to them. But let us understand that the CPEC controversy is more important for us than the row between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Email: [email protected]
Posted by admin in Col(Retd) Riaz Jafri OP ED, Col.Riaz Jafri (Retd) Column, OPINION:OP-ED on January 11th, 2016
LETTER TO EDITOR
January 9th, 2016
The Saudi Iran conflict has placed Pakistan in a very trying situation as to what to do and what not to do. On the one hand the KSA is like an ever benevolent brother whereas on the other Iran a very helpful and trusted more than a neighbour. Pakistan has as such to play an extremely cautious balancing act between the two. However, what should have been essentially viewed as a political conflict by Pakistan, our Allamas and Maulanas in their josh e khitabat on our TV talk shows are unwittingly turning it into a sectarian foray. This is, to say the least, a highly dangerous and ill-omened indulgence on their part for the unity of the nation.
May I, therefore, request the electronic media through the columns of your august daily not to invite the clergy and clerics on their TV talk shows on this sensitive matter and instead solicit the views of the seasoned politicians and statesmen, the scholars of international and foreign relations and ambassadors, military strategists and the national security experts and the like of them to discuss the problem in depth and suggest steps to be taken by Pakistan on this issue. The matter must also be discussed in the parliament – preferably by the joint session of both houses – to develop a national consensus on the course of action to be adopted by Pakistan in resolving this unfortunate conflict between the two very important nations of the Muslim world.
Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)
30 Westridge 1
Rawalpindi 46000
Pakistan
Tel: (051) 5158033
E.mail: [email protected]
Posted by admin in Asif Zardari Crook Par Excellance, BILAWAL ZARDARI BAMBINO KINGS OF CORRUPTION, ISHAQ DAR:THIEF OF PUNJAB, LIAR POLITICIANS, Nawaz & Shahbaz Sharif's Business Scams, NAWAZ SHARIF, Nawaz Sharif :Abbaji Da Nikama Puttur.", Nawaz Sharif Massive Corruption, NAWAZ SHARIF MUZZLES PRESS, NAWAZ SHARIF SAGA OF ABSOLUTE & CHRONIC CORRUPTION, NAWAZ SHARIF THIEF, NAWAZ SHARIF US & SAUDI AGENT, Nawaz Sharif US Agent, Nawaz Sharif Womanizer, PIA Destruction By Nawaz Sharif, RIGGED ELECTION 2013, Sugar Industry Corruption By Nawaz Sharif & Asif Zardari & Bilawal Zardari on January 11th, 2016
Posted by admin in OPINION LEADER, Sajjad Shaukat, Sajjad Shaukat 's Column on January 11th, 2016
Present ‘different war’ is simply a clash of wills between two entities. Military thinkers agree that although the physical force will determine the type and scale of war, yet it is the will to fight or moral force which determines the outcome of war.
Clausewitz puts it this way, “One might say that the physical force seems little more than the wooden hilt, while moral factors are the precious metal, the real weapon.”
In his book, “Fighting Power: German and U.S. Army Performance, 1939-1945″, Creveld identifies the elements of moral force, whom he calls “fighting power, the willingness to fight and the readiness, if necessary, to die.” The greater these elements, the less vulnerable an armed force will be to ‘demoralization’. Quite opposite to ‘demoralization’, moral force, then, is the crucial factor in determining the combat power of any belligerent.
In this regard, more than 14 years have passed and the US-led NATO forces have been facing defeatism in Afghanistan in their longest war of history. The ambush attacks on their military installations and personnel by the Afghan freedom fighters have continued, particularly, targeting American bases, check posts and armed persons. While, the US-led troopers and their vehicles are equipped with sophisticated weaponry and modern technology, but they have badly failed in crushing the stiff resistance of the Afghan Taliban.
Likewise, in case of Iraq, the US-led forces occupied the country in 2003. When Iraqis started a war of liberation, Anglo-American forces became helpless before the stiff resistance of the freedom fighters. In that respect, the US President George. W. Bush had repeatedly said that Iraq is the main battleground of the ‘different war’ against the militants, and he would not withdraw the forces. However, US faced a humiliated defeat in that country.
In fact, despite their qualitative and numerical superiority over Iraqis (During occupation) and Afghans who are well-equipped with the elements of moral force, and have been showing unmatched courage by sacrificing their lives, the US-led forces have been demoralized.
We can note the same moral force or spirit of sacrificing their own lives in Pakistan’s armed forces, during the successful military operation, “Zarb-e-Azb”, which compelled the Indian-supported insurgents of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to retreat from North Waziristan Agency and other tribal areas. The jets of Pakistan Air Force have bombed militants’ hideouts in North Waziristan, and killed thousands of insurgents including foreign militants, while Pak Army has also killed several terrorists through ground offensive, and many of them surrendered before the army. And during street to street fighting, without bothering for their lives, and by air-dropping commandos at the risky places, Pak army made a great headway in disrupting the Taliban supply routes and links. While, there is a significant decline in motivation of suicide bombers, because most of the TTP Taliban have either been killed or fled their areas—they have been demoralized. What the US-led NATO forces could not do in the last 14 years in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s armed forces did within 14 months, while, geographically, the North Waziristan is the largest Agency and has the same topography like Afghanistan. It is also mentionable that unlike the American CIA which is part of the US global war on terror, Pakistan’s primary intelligence agency ISI captured several terrorists in Pakistan’s various regions, including suicide-jackets and weapons—thus thwarted their subversive acts.
Displaying moral courage like Pakistan’s armed forces, within three months, the Russian-led coalition of Iran, Iraq, the Syrian army-the National Defense Forces (NDF) and Lebanon-based Hezbollah have broken the backbone of the US-CIA-backed ISIS terrorists, Al-Qaeda’s Al-Nusra Front, the rebels and the mercenaries who have been fighting against the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government and against the current Iraqi regime as part of America’s double game (Of regime change). In this context, it is owing to the high moral force that Russian-led combatants have destroyed the strongholds, supply lines and installations of the US-led entities. Besides killing several commanders of the CIA-assisted militants, they have shattered the command and control system of the ISIS and their affiliated terrorist outfits. These demoralized militants have fled most of the areas in Syria and Iraq, which have been recaptured by the NDF and Iraqi military which is well-motivated with the fighting spirit of audacity and boldness. In this regard, recently Iraqi forces have defeated the ISIS terrorists and liberated the city of Ramadi which was occupied by the group in 2014. Now, without caring for their lives, Russia-led forces are successfully achieving their objectives.
Here question arises, as to why unlike the Russia-led combatants, the US-led forces have been demoralized. In this connection, it is important to know that in every kind of war, the victory or defeat depends upon the soldiers who know that for whom they are fighting for, and for what cause.
In this context, Russian President Putin has pointed out that he was exposing the secret designs of the US global war on terror—New World Order agents, their collaboration with the Zionist-led regime in America and Israel including fake war against ISIS. Regarding NATO countries, Putin also clarified by saying that he is attacking the New World Order, “not because he wants to establish some kind of super-power entity in the Western world, but because the New World Order is imposing an irrational, irresponsible and unlivable ideology upon much of the West.”
The people of the Russian Federation are in unity with the Russian forces, which is the main reason behind their great courage. Similar is true in case of the Syria’s NDF and Iraq-Iran military entities.
On the other side, America-led forces know that they are fighting for the interests of the Zionist Jews and Israel. Particularly, the US military personnel are well-aware of the facts that they have been sent abroad—Afghanistan, Syria and elsewhere in the world to maintain the supremacy of Israel, instead of protecting America whose citizens have been facing multi-faceted crises due to the prolonged phony war on terror. It is the major factor which have demoralized the US forces.
Obama’s dual policy and contradictory approach have also demoralized the US-led forces. In this respect, earlier, he had ordered the Defense Department to abandon the goal of training the Syrian rebels, after the failure of the US-supported rebels to topple Assad’s government, but, afterwards, he decided to send 50 Special Forces to Syria to help in eliminating the ISIS terrorists. Similarly, he agreed to keep the Syrian President Assad in power, but, later on, he backed out from his statement and remarked that the Assad would have to go. Then, again, he is favouring the Vienna meeting where the US Secretary of State John Kerry has agreed to maintain Assad in power. Meanwhile, ordinary Americans have been criticizing the double game of President Obama, military establishment and the US useless proxy wars which are being waged for the interests of Israel, at the cost of American tax-payers.
While comparing factors of moral force and ‘demoralization’ in connection with the combatants of this ‘different conflict’, it is also of particular attention that despite the use of every possible technique of state terrorism, the well-equipped Israeli and Indian security forces have, totally, failed in suppressing the wars of liberation in the occupied territories of the Palestine and Kashmir where freedom fishers’ resistance continues unabated.
‘Demoralization’ of the US-backed forces in Afghanistan, Syria, controlled territories of the Palestine etc. have resulted into their frustration and depression. Hence, they are killing the innocent persons through special military operations and aerial bombardment. Likewise, the US-assisted ISIS terrorists and their affiliated militant groups have also been massacring the innocent people, including their own warriors who have vacated the regions in Syria and Iraq. Many demoralized ISIS militants have deserted their comrades. They have also lost the support of local Muslims who have come to know that these brutal militants are distorting the image of Islam, and are misinterpreting Jihad which does not permit the any sort of terrorism. Moreover, in frustration, US have so far killed several soldiers of its own army and those of Afghan army in the friendly fire incidents, especially in Afghanistan.
Without any doubt, we can conclude that the US-led forces and the ISIS terrorists have been demoralized in this ‘different war’, as they are fighting for the supremacy of Israel in the entire world.
Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations
Email: [email protected]
Courtesy Veterans Today
Posted by admin in Women In Islam on January 7th, 2016
Introduction of Hazrat Ayesha Siddiqa
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Sayyidah Ayesha Siddiqah Radi ALLAHu Ta’ala Anha was the third lady to enter the house of the Beloved Habeeb Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him as his wife, and she was the only virgin in the consorts of purity of the Holy Prophet’s Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him house. She was of a tender age when she was married to Allah’s Apostle Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him. Historical records bear ample testimony to the fact that Sayyidah Ayesha Radi ALLAHu Ta’ala Anha was a precocious genius and was developing both in mind and body with rapidity peculiar to such rare personalities. This marriage is significant in the history of Islam in so many aspects. Firstly, it cemented the ties between Sayyiduna Rasoolullah Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him and his devoted friend Sayyiduna Abu Bakr Siddique Radi ALLAHu Ta’ala Anha who always stood by him in hour of trial and who sacrificed his all for the cause of Islam. Secondly, by this marriage, a lady of eminent qualities came under the direct influence of the Holy Prophet Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him at a highly impressionable age, and this provided her ample opportunities to penetrate into the innermost recesses of the sacred heart of the Beloved Habeeb Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him. She shared his company and thus was able to develop her potentialities and refine her taste perfectly in accordance with the teachings of Islam under the direct supervision of Sayyiduna Rasoolullah Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him. This young age was in fact very opportune for marriage as it has been clearly shown in the researches of psychoanalysts that much of the emotional of a mature person and most of those seemingly unaccountable leanings, tastes and tendencies comprised in the term idiosyncrasies can be traced to the experience of his or her highly formative age of either later childhood or early adolescence. Thirdly, all the wives of the Holy Prophet Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him with the exception of Sayyidah Ayesha Radi ALLAHu Ta’ala Anha were of advanced age and thus could neither share the feelings of the younger generation nor could they properly appreciate their point of view. The difference of age always stood as a barrier between them and the ladies of the younger ages. The only lady with whom young women could frankly enter into conversation and discuss problems without any reserve could be none but Sayyidah Ayesha Radi ALLAHu Ta’ala Anha. Thus, the marriage of the Holy Prophet Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him with Sayyidah Ayesha Radi ALLAHu Ta’ala Anha at an age when she was at the threshold of puberty was a great necessity, as it was through her that instructions could successfully be imparted to the young ladies who had newly entered the fold of Islam. Moreover, this marriage struck at the root of a wrong notion that had firmly taken hold of the minds of the people that it was contrary to religious ethics to marry the daughter of a man whom one declared to be one’s brother. The Messenger of Allah Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him, with the help of his personal example, showed to the people that there is a great difference between a brother-in-faith and the brother in relation to blood. The marriage, which is forbidden in Islam, is with the daughter of the brother in blood and not with the daughter of the brother-in-faith. Sayyidah Ayesha Radi ALLAHu Ta’ala Anha lived on almost fifty years after the passing away of the Messenger of Allah Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him. She passed away in the year 58 A.H. in the month of Ramadaan and was buried in the sacred graveyard Baqi al-Garqad of Madinatul Munawwara. Sayyidah Ayesha Radi ALLAHu Ta’ala Anha reported that the Apostle of Allah Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him said:
Sayyidah Ayesha Radi ALLAHu Ta’ala Anha used to play with dolls in the presence of the Messenger of Allah Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him and when her playmates came to her they left (the house) because they felt shy of the Holy Prophet Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him whereas Allah’s Messenger Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him sent them to her. People sent their gifts when it was the turn of Sayyidah Ayesha Radi ALLAHu Ta’ala Anha seeking thereby the pleasure of Allah’s Messenger Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him . Sayyidah Ayesha Radi ALLAHu Ta’ala Anha said: “The wives of Allah’s Apostle Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him sent his daughter Faatima Radi ALLAHu Ta’ala Anha to him. She sought permission to get in as he had been lying with me in my mantle. He gave her permission and she said: ‘Allah’s Messenger Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him ! Verily, your wives have sent me to you in order to ask you to observe equity in case of the daughter of Abu Quhafah.’ She (Ayesha Radi ALLAHu Ta’ala Anha ) said: ‘I kept quiet’. Thereupon, Allah’s Messenger Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him said to her (Faatima Radi ALLAHu Ta’ala Anha ):
“Faatima Radi ALLAHu Ta’ala Anha then stood up as she heard this from her father and went to the wives of Allah’s Apostle Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him and informed them of what she had said to him and what he had said to her. Thereupon, they said to her: ‘We think that you have been of no avail to us. You may again go to Allah’s Apostle and tell him that his wives seek equity in case of the daughter of Abu Quhafah’. Faatima Radi ALLAHu Ta’ala Anha said: ‘By Allah I will never talk to him about this matter’. Sayyidah Ayesha Radi ALLAHu Ta’ala Anha (further) reported:
This Hadith gives a clear glimpse of the home life of the Glorious Messenger of Allah Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him. The wives of the Holy Prophet Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him were all eminent ladies having deep Allah-consciousness, but they, after all, belonged to the human race and thus, could not completely banish those minor human weaknesses, which are ingrained in the very nature of the fair sex. They were all deeply attached to the Holy Prophet Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him and every one of them had, therefore, an earnest desire that she should get the maximum love and affection from the Prophet of Allah Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him. It was out of this spirit of envy, rather than jealousy, that they put forward this demand. It was a natural expression of their humanly feelings born of their love for the Beloved Habeeb Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him , and not an objection against the attitude and behavior of the “Mercy of the Worlds”. And they could not even conceive of it; and how could they, when all of them had been receiving the most beneficent treatment at his hand? Sayyidah Ayesha Radi ALLAHu Ta’ala Anha reported:
Sayyiduna Anas bin Maalik Radi ALLAHu Ta’ala Anha has said:
Sayyidah Ayesha Radi ALLAHu Ta’ala Anha is one of the four persons (the others being Sayyiduna Abu Hurayra Radi ALLAHu Ta’ala Anha , Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Omar Radi ALLAHu Ta’ala Anha and Sayyiduna Anas bin Maalik Radi ALLAHu Ta’ala Anha ) who transmitted more than two thousand sayings of the Holy Prophet Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him. The Holy Prophet Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him referring to her extensive knowledge of Islam is reported to have said:
Sayyidah Ayesha Radi ALLAHu Ta’ala Anha not only possessed great knowledge but also took an active part in education and social reform. As a teacher she had a clear and persuasive manner of speech and her power of oratory has been described in superlative terms. Men and women came from far and wide to benefit from her knowledge. According to the Orientalist, D.S. Margoliouth, he wrote:
Pearls of Wisdom by Sayyida Ayesha as-Siddiqah
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Taken from: Gateway to Heaven (A Concise Manual for Muslim Sisters) by Sayyid Shah Aal-e-Rasool Nazmi al-Husaini al-Qadiri Barakati Marehrawi & http://www.alahazrat.net/islam/introduction-of-hazrat-ayesha-siddiqa.php
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