Annoucement came days after high level US administration delegation visited Islamabad. In an exclusive report on May 17th, 2010, we published a report confirming that General Kayani will get an extension because American administrtion does not want to change local leadership mid-stream.

Today Pakistani Premier praised General Kayani’s professional capabilities and said his leadership qualities are valued both domestically and internationally. He said the decision to extend the term of COAS has been in consultation with the President Asif Ali Zardari ‘to ensure successful culmination of the ongoing war against terrorism’.

“The government is presently engaged in war against terrorism which is now in a critical stage,” the Premier pointed out, adding, this requires continuity of military leadership under the present Army Chief who led successful operations in Swat, Malakand and South Waziristan.

He said the Army Chief, due to his professional capabilities and leadership qualities, is looked upon with respect and honor both domestically and internationally.

The Prime Minister said the operations initiated against Army Chief remained engaged in the planning, execution and supervision of military operations, making possible success of the offensives launched against the militants.

General Kayani who succeeded Gen Musharraf as Pakistan’s 14th army chief on November 29, 2007, is a recipient of Hilal-i-Imtiaz and Hilal-i-Imtiaz (Military) for his meritorious services.

He served at various levels of command including his stint as Director General Inter Services Intelligence.

Besides being Chief of Staff Corps, General Kayani has also held the coveted post of Director General Military Operations.

General Kayani is a graduate of Fort Benning (USA), Command and Staff College Quetta, Command and General Staff College Fort Leavenworth (USA), Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies, Hawaii (USA), and National Defence College Islamabad.

He possesses wide ranging experience in Command, Instructional and staff appointments and has commanded an infantry Battalion, Infantry Brigade, Infantry Division and a Corps.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=251448

When I talk to my nieces and nephews, Pakistan’s millennial generation, I feel rejuvenated and perplexed, at the same time. I get excited because these young children are so creative and worldly. The minute I log into Skype, Gmail, or Facbook, my young buddies tell me about some technological experience or an epiphany they had on how to change Pakistan. I am invigorated listening to their ideas.

I am at a loss, however, when these bright young kids tell me how they struggle to find a job. I am baffled because they are looking for job the same way I did. Trust me it was a long time ago.

In 1985-86 when I was entering the job market with my peers, we had a routine. We would review all the vacancies announced in the daily ‘Dawn’ every week and mail our resume (we used to call it bio-data) to prospects. And, we waited. Like other struggling middle class families we did not know ‘people’ at the right places. But we applied for positions and prayed for an interview and all of us finally found work. Not necessarily doing what we wanted to do, but jobs that paid enough to make us get up in the morning.

That was 25 years ago. Men and women in India, Bangladesh and other developing countries were looking for work in the same way as we were in Pakistan. There was parity.

Now when I talk to people in India and the Philippines, Ukraine and Russia, Brazil and Poland, I find that unlike Pakistan, a growing number of employable youth in these countries are not looking for a job. They are interested in gigs. And that reflects the structural change in the post-modern job market across the globe.

The millennial generation across the world prefer being self-employed instead of becoming an employee. They can do that because of advances in computer and telecommunications technology. But these successful service providers (individuals) at portals such as eLance, Guru, oDesk, iFreelance had to change their attitude towards work.

Taking advantage of the rapid pace of technological change, a globalised market place and a boom and bust economy, millions of workers have found security in the idea of free agency. And, this spirit of enterprise has produced workers around the world that are more resilient, adaptable and entrepreneurial than their predecessors.

I personally know hundreds of successful individuals around the world who have traded in careers for gigs.

In the US this trend is pretty established. According to the Online Talent Report, more than 100,000 businesses listed 300,000 new jobs last year. Last month alone, the number of jobs posted grew by 30 percent from the previous month. And that trend isn’t exclusive to the United States and Europe. Data shows that there are online and self-employed workers all around the world with India leading the curve.

Demand for certain types of jobs such as mobile application programmers and social media management is far outstripping supply. So far, small businesses are the first to look for talent online. But larger enterprises are following, as well. AT&T, IBM, Cisco, Novartis, P&G and Kimberly Clarke are among a few that you will find posting transactional opportunities through their contractors or directly. Many more are expected to follow the suit.

Test this: go to craigslist.org for Pakistan and look for jobs/services offered and than go to any of the large Indian city and you will find that entire country of Pakistan has less than 10 percent postings compared to any Indian city. I am always told not to compare us with India because we are ‘special’. OK, just compare Pakistan and the Philippines and there is a difference in order of magnitude.

After speaking to several people in Pakistan, I realise that there are some real challenges that make it rather difficult to work from home. I will address that below. But I want to first dispel some established myths about the online marketplace first:

MYTH No 1: All jobs are posted by American and European employers and they don’t want to hire Pakistanis for several reasons.

Reality: Online hiring is not asymmetrical. It is a misnomer that service providers are from low-cost destinations and all buyers are from the United States and Europe. Some basic research will show that employers from across the world are taking advantage of a flexible workforce. With the Internet, the search for talented employees is no longer limited by geography. And, the same tool allows professionals to find work from anywhere, as well. I live in New York and I have provided services to employers in Indonesia, the Philippines and Brazil. And, I am just an individual.

Also, I have yet to find an American who will refuse a talented resource from any part of the world. Money transcends national boundaries and religion. Any Indian and Israeli employer will be happy to hire someone from Pakistan if the service is good and priced competitively. It is all about adding value.

MYTH No 2: Online jobs are for programmers only.

Reality: You don’t need to be a programmer to work online. Whether you are skilled for sales and marketing, finance and management; administrative or legal; engineering or manufacturing, you can work remotely. A majority of jobs today can be outsourced except those require a physical presence. Many of us have a full time administrative assistant (Executive Secretary, as they are called in Pakistan) sitting thousands of miles away.

There are several MBAs from leading institutions who provide management or marketing or sales-related services. Project Management work is pretty much done remotely. My brother works for IBM and he could be sitting anywhere in the world to do his job, and do it well.

I know several individuals in India and the Philippines who provide writing services to employers all around the world. And, you don’t need to be Mark Twain to find online gigs for writing. On an average, an individual who works eight hours a day can easily earn $600 to $2,500 per month, depending on their skills.

Accounting and legal services are also quickly emerging. I know several bookkeepers in Brazil and Argentina who provide accounting services to small businesses around the world. I know several lawyers who have paralegals sitting in India to do research and prepare court papers. The opportunities are endless.

Now let’s talk about some real challenges that an individual from Pakistan will have compared to their peers from across the border.

Challenge No 1: Many young middle class men and women do not have a credit or debit card and, thus, cannot sign up for services such as eLance, Facebook, iFreelance. There are at least two ways to address this; open a checking account with a global bank that has branch near you and make sure they will issue a debit card that can be used internationally. Or open accounts where you don’t need a credit card such as oDesk or post your services in places like Craigslist.

Challenge No 2: There is so much power outages that even if we get work (which is easy to find) we can’t deliver on time and, therefore, get negative feedback from employers.

I know this is real. We have more power outages than India, for example. I have no magic wand, but I will tell you if my livelihood was dependant on electricity, I would make secondary and tertiary plans to have minimum power to run a computer. I get a push back that we don’t have enough money to buy a UPS or generator. What about setting up small cooperatives with your friends and neighbours? Why don’t four or five of you get together and make it happen? The return on investment is so rapid and it will change your life. So what are you waiting for?

Challenge No 3: How will I get paid? Open a bank account or PayPal account (or other similar services). Of course, there may be a time when you put in several hours, and may not get paid, but there are ways to mitigate that risk. When you work with an established service you are pretty much guaranteed about the payment. These services charge a couple of points to cover your risk. But you will get paid.

Here is a challenge that many learn after they start offering services online: not everyone can work from home. You need lots of discipline because there are plenty of distractions when you are working from home. But I know several individuals in Pakistan, as well who do it really well. Setting up a place of work at home is a serious matter and requires careful planning. You must be comfortable to produce good quality work. You must be able to get up, take a shower (or not) and go through the routine as if you were going to work outside. Once you get to your desk you must be able to tune out your family and surrounding.

It is not that there are no Pakistanis. I see a few firms as top tier providers on oDesk, eLance and Guru. But there are a very small number of independent Pakistani individuals.

Here is my challenge to you: if you are educated and unemployed (BA, BCom, BSc at minimum) establish your practice online and make your first $100 and post a comment to let us know that you are on your way to making millions.

Chinese think tanks, scholars, diplomats, entrepreneurs, and journalists that I frequently meet seem to have divergent and pragmatic view of what constitutes ‘Chinese model,’ and how it differs from previously worshiped ‘Asian model’ or ‘Japanese model.’

Does President Zardari want to learn from Chinese experience of lifting approximately 300 million out of poverty? This would of course be a noble endeavor. But it will be terrible if our President thinks of ‘Chinese model’ as economic freedom but political repression.

I am sure he meant something – maybe he characterized the China model as export-oriented growth? But wait – wasn’t that Asian development model and our leaders used to lecture us how we should be following that model of growth until it fell apart.

Maybe President Zardari finds China’s success in selective industrial policy? But that would make it a Japanese model, wouldn’t it?

I wish I could pick my phone and call him and ask; “Mr. President, please tell me if you are absolutely convinced that China is really a success story? Please tell me if China’s growth was planned, intentional and by design? Please tell me if China’s footstep can be copied in Pakistan?”

I know our president is so witty he may have responded with a popular Chinese idiom: “A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.”

And, I respect that. There is no consensus on ‘Chinese model’ – economists, policy makers and entrepreneurs have their guesses but there is a consensus around pragmatism. China has been pragmatic in seeking opportunities and fostering innovation from the bottom up. The hallmark of China’s success has been it’s refusal to espouse any complete scheme of change. This has defined Chinese development style ever since the policy of reform was initiated in 1978.

Majority reforms in China have resulted from a process of experimentation, usually on a limited jurisdictional scale. China has 32 provinces. The bankruptcy law, for example, was tested out in one province and then it was rolled out to the rest of the country. Similarly, the special economic zones in four provinces were an important precursor to a whole raft of market-oriented reforms that followed.

In addition to the top-down experimentation, there have been plenty of bottom-up innovation and grassroots efforts. In fact, most rural reforms in China were driven from the bottom up. The disbanding of the communes, for example, was initiated when a commune decided to break ranks with party orthodoxy and decided to sell their surplus food on the market. This was a reaction to a desperate situation and it spread. Within the space of a few years, almost the whole country had followed suit. These things were allowed by the state; they were not designed by the state.

But the wisdom of the Chinese government was to step back to observe changes and to make room for good practices to spread.

Following the flow can be a good practice but not an economic model – at least not one taught in text books.

And, that brings me to second key ingredient of a model – “success.” It is true that China has lifted nearly 300 million people out of poverty but growth has been polarizing. China’s Gini coefficient (It is commonly used as a measure of inequality of income or wealth), has in a few years already surpassed that of the United States, which is rather interesting for a communist country. The fruits of growth have been largely shared, but there are also a lot of massive swaths of the population who are excluded from this growth. There has been massive dislocation that has resulted from this growth, too. Unprecedented scale of urbanization; from about 20 percent just a few years ago to nearly 50 percent today—the largest movement of people from the countryside to cities ever seen in the history of humanity.

Maybe President Zardari finds success in China but for many, jury is still out. However, all agree that China’s progress has been significant. Pakistan can learn plenty from the bottom up approach of China. It is high time that Islamabad allows provinces to make key strategic decisions and be around to cheer their progress.

Your Golf Home reported Friday that a twenty year old Pakistani who recently returned after completing undergraduate degree from US turned a pro golfer giving country some hope and a rising star.

Pakistan‘s youngest golfer Aleem-ur-Rehman, this week announced that he will be playing in all open championships as a professional player. Announcement came after he outperformed his peers and many senior players at the Lahore Gymkhana Golf Course, winning a slot in the prestigious CNS Open Golf Championship to be held in Karachi from July 15.

Young Aleem emerged as the top contender in the trials carding a round of 5 under par 67, including 8 birdies. He demonstrated superb play on the fairways and the putting greens.

During his stay in the US, Aleem took golfing lessons and paid attention to the tips and tricks from the global golf experts.

Aleem is the youngest Pakistani golfer to turn professional. It remains to be seen how far Aleem will travel and whether he will make name in global golf tournaments but he absolutely helps soften Pakistan?s image as a country on the brink of disaster.

It is rather erroneous that the city where Aleem launched his professional golfing career witnessed the gruesome suicide bombing that killed 45 people at the shrine of saint Syed Ali Hajwairi,popularly known as Data Gunj Bakhsh. Grieving Pakistanis look at younger generation of Aleem for delivering good news – and this young man is doing his part.

The army decides that the terrorist hijackers of the Indian plane enjoy sanctuary in Pakistan whereas Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif spend years in exile. The people have to know that it is the army which makes all the decisions.

Attacking Data Darbar, the Pakistan Army, through its hirelings, has sent the following messages to the people of Pakistan:

We, the military, are powerful enough to confront, challenge and offend the entire population of Pakistan.

You, the people, are not safe anywhere.

We, the military, can kill you people anywhere.

SURRENDER!

The minds of the people register the attacks on the other targets as localized incidents. A Shiite procession is attacked. An Ahmedi mosque is attacked. A shopping mall is attacked. Video and music shops are attacked. Girls schools are attacked. Political rallies are attacked. Hotels are attacked. All such attacks involve targets situated across one social chasm or, the other.

The shrines, on the other hand, are a symbol of the social and cultural unity of the people of Pakistan. Not just members of all the Muslim sects visit the shrines, but the people of other faiths– Hindus, Christians, Sikhs and others–go there. Strangely, even the atheists visit the shrines.

The shrines stay above the religious, sectarian, political and social divides; they are the symbols of the ultimate social and cultural consensus, representative of the absolute majority.

An attack on a shrine is an attack on the absolute majority intended to instill paralyzing fear in the people to make them surrender to the army through the terrorists.

The people of Pakistan would have to know that the Taliban and other terrorist groups are the hirelings of the Pakistani military operating strictly under its command since 1980.

As the U.S. military chased the Afghan Taliban out of Afghanistan in 2001, the Pakistani military took them in and gave them complete control over Swat and other northern areas. In a span of over eight years, Pakistani Taliban outfits, too, were created and groomed and the area attracted terrorists from all over the world.

The local population of these military-sponsored-terrorist-controlled areas groaned under tyranny as the army gleefully used this situation to extort the confused Americans of billions of dollars.

The people of the northern areas suffered more as the Pakistan Army staged it’s mock war with long-range howitzers and aircraft. The trained terrorists ducked and moved on whereas millions of inhabitants had to flee their homes to escape the Pakistan Army bombardment.

The terrorists destroyed girls schools and hand-picked people to be killed with assault rifles, hand guns or, knives.

The Pakistan Army destroyed the very homes of the people of the northern areas with its blanket bombardment, killing men, women and children indiscriminately and rendering the survivors homeless refugees.

As the refugees return to the ruins of their homes, the army-sponsored terrorists, too, are coming back to overlord them once again.

The army’s mock war against it’s own hirelings taught the people of the northern areas and the tribal areas a simple lesson; the tyranny of the terrorists is not as deadly and destructive as the bombardment of the army, at least, in the short run.

Now, it is Punjab’s turn.

Through the attack on Data Darbar, Lahore, the people of Punjab have been told to submit to the ruthless rule of the mindless terrorists. The people of Punjab are told not to ever ask the Pakistan Army to intervene and liberate them from tyranny. The army will gladly respond with artillery and aerial bombardment of the towns of Punjab just like it did in the northern and the tribal areas.

So far, the army appears to have achieved the following objectives:

Terrorizing the population to the point of total submission. Rising poverty, rampant unemployment, malnutrition, lack of clean drinking water, power outages and complete lawlessness have already rendered the masses utterly confused, unable to think clearly; they are ripe to be enslaved to an unprecedented degree.

The other objective the army has achieved is that of keeping the politicians on the leash. The politicians obey the army blindly. They allocate funds for the military budget as directed. They let the military decide the defense policy. Also, the politicians never bring the military-sponsored terrorists to justice.

It is an effective working formula for the military. Absolute lawlessness in the country further discredits the already discredited venal politicians and makes the thieving, scheming, manipulative military look better than the politicians. For the military, it is a win-win situation, except in the long run.

The illiterate terrorists ruling the population suits the military better than the government of the semi-educated politicians. With the schools and the hospitals closed in future, the education and the health allocations can be diverted to the military budget.

Another achievement of the army is that of keeping the Americans happy to a level where the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee of the United States, Admiral Michael Mullen, recently had nice things to say about the Pakistani military. To quote from Government Security News: “When asked if he felt the military leaders of Pakistan were doing a good job of safeguarding that nation’s stockpile of nuclear weapons, Admiral Mullen was surprisingly upbeat. “I’m as comfortable as I can be that the weapons are safe,” he said.”

If Admiral Mullen was trying to appease the Pakistani top brass, he was certainly in league with Chamberlain.

With the above achievements, the military feels secure and confident with no one to match it’s might.

In a country already suffering from half-a-century-long acute brain drain, doctors, professors, scholars, scientists, teachers, thinkers, writers, social workers and intellectuals are being murdered at a rate reminiscent of the Pakistan Army’s campaign against the Bengali intelligentsia during the last days of East Pakistan.

The fear of suicide-bombers eliminates political rallies and all chances of a mass uprising. The people are afraid to go to their traditional religious processions, to the shrines of their saints, to the house of their god.

Now, the only power to look up to and to fear and to bow before, is the mighty military and it’s terrorist hirelings.

Syed F. Hussaini is a veteran journalist and social commentator. He blogs at www.chowk.com

The theme of the conference was ‘Critical thinkers for Islamic reform — the way forward’. The moot began with the Friday prayers, and in keeping with the reformist approach seeking equal rights for Muslim women, the prayers were led by a woman scholar from Canada, Ms Raheel Raza, who delivered the sermon. The media was present in full strength as it was for the first time that a Muslim woman was leading the Friday prayers in the UK. Ms Raza’s sermon was focused on reform and change.

The most important thing for Islamic reformers is to have a deep conviction in the faith whose practices they seek to reform. All those participating in the conference were from diverse cultures; they spoke different languages but had one thing in common: pride in being Muslim. They were convinced that Islamic laws, as developed during the medieval ages, need urgent change, and that the Quran needs to be interpreted in keeping with new challenges emerging around us in a globalised society.

Edip Yuksel was once an orthodox scholar from Turkey. He has written extensively in the Turkish language from a conservative standpoint. However, over a period of time his views have changed after he became convinced that critical thinking on various Islamic issues is a must in modern times.

He concluded that earlier translations by eminent Muslim commentators (mufassirs), however scholarly, are not satisfactory for this age. Along with two other Islamic scholars, Layth Saleh al-Shaiban and Martha Schule Nafeh, he has attempted a fresh translation of the Quran. It has been published under the title, Quran: A Reformist Translation. It is worth studying as these three scholars have gone into the roots of crucial Arabic words used in the Quran to capture the real spirit of the holy text, cleansing it of the superstitious approach of the early scholars.

Some of the subjects discussed at the conference were: ‘The paradigm of Islamic reforms — history and heritage’; ‘Theological and philosophical imperatives for Islamic reform’; ‘New Quranic hermeneutics — Muslim law and Islamic reformation’; ‘Islam, science, culture and freedom — towards a Muslim renaissance’; ‘Gender, sexuality and human rights in Islamic discourse’; and ‘Media, war on terror and western foreign policy’.
All the discussions that took place were Quran-centric as against hadith-centric among those who stress on a conventional practice of interpreting Islamic law. Some scholars were of the opinion that a hadith-centric approach cannot admit reform and change, and that the Quran after all is totally divine so there is absolutely no difference of opinion about its text.

Many hadiths are not only controversial but also based on Arab culture, customs and traditions of the time. The Quran, on the other hand, goes beyond any geographical area and is not restricted by any time period. It is, in other words, beyond space and time and thus an eternal guide.

Some of the participating scholars felt that though many hadiths are controversial, there are also those which are in conformity with the Quran and normative in nature (apart from those which are contextual). The reformists believe that such hadiths can serve a useful purpose even for re-understanding the Quranic text and for making reforms in the existing Islamic law structures. Despite some such differences on these issues all participants were united in their desire for reform.

The participants also felt that values and principles are immutable, not laws based on these values and principles. Laws must remain dynamic and change with social needs. It is values which provide the moral base and stability to society, and that five values are most fundamental in the Quran. These are: the truth (haq), justice (adl), benevolence (ihsan), compassion (rahmah) and wisdom (hikmah).

No Islamic law should violate these fundamental Quranic values, and any laws framed to serve existing social needs must uphold these values. All reforms to be attempted should be with a view to strengthening these Quranic values, because the law is not the end but a means to achieve the implementation of these values. Also, any change and reform must keep as its aim the maqasid (objectives) and masalih (interests and welfare) of society. The conference concluded on this sagacious note.

The writer is an Islamic scholar who heads the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, Mumbai.
This article was published by DAWN on July 2nd, 2010

“Faisalabad—An elderly man died of a heart attack in Faisalabad as police officials and an employee of a sensitive department tried to arrest him. According to sources, Dr. Faqeer arrived at Fayyaz Colony on Tuesday night where two police officials and an employee of a sensitive department tried to arrest him. Meanwhile, he fell on the ground due to a heart attack. Hearing the commotion, the neighborhood people arrived at the spot after which the police officials fled the scene and the people apprehended the employee of the sensitive department and his companion. The local police arrived at the scene and moved the body to the Civil Hospital for autopsy whereas the two persons were arrested. Dr. Faqeer was a P.H.D. and had founded an institution for chemical research work.”

The above is an almost exact translation of a news story as its appears in the on-line version of the Urdu language Pakistani newspaper, “Jang.” The newspaper uses the term ’sensitive department’ to mean the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The story is dated Wednesday, June 30, 2010: Updated 0530 PST.

The sketchy and poorly written news item prompts the following questions:

What charges the officials had against Dr. Faqeer, Ph. D.?

Were the officials carrying any warrants against Dr. Faqeer? If so, who had issued the warrants?

Were the officials operating under the orders of the Federal Government or, the Punjab Government or, the ISI?

Was Dr. Faqeer visiting that neighborhood or, did he live there?

Without a doctor’s opinion, without the autopsy results, how did the newspaper determine that Dr. Faqeer died of a heart attack?

Was Dr. Faqeer beaten to death? Was he injected with some untraceable deadly chemical agent?

The police officials fled the scene; would they be charged with gross neglect of duty for abandoning their post and for failing to help a citizen in mortal distress? What are their names and positions?

What are the charges against the arrested ISI official and his companion? What are their names and positions?

Has an inquiry been ordered by any authorities to investigate the circumstances and the cause of Dr. Faqeer’s death?

What was Dr. Faqeer’s full name?

How old was he?

What is the name of the chemical research work institution he founded?

What kind of research was done at his institution?
Was the government objected to his institution or, his research?

Where did he get his doctorate from?

Was he ever associated with any Pakistani academic institution?

Did he ever work for the Government of Pakistan?

Was he ever approached to work for the Government of Pakistan?

Was he under surveillance or, investigation, by the Government of Pakistan or, the ISI? If so, for what?

Was he ever involved with any Pakistani weapons development program?

What are the names and ages of the family members he left behind? Where are they? How are they? What do they want to say?

The above questions can be answered by any or, all of the following:

The so-called independent Pakistani press, the international press, the Chief Minister of Punjab, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, the President of Pakistan, the Chief Justice of Pakistan, the chief of the ISI, the chief of the Pakistan Army, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Amnesty International, the United Nations.

In case, Dr. Faqeer had dual nationality, it would be the responsibility of the other country, as well, to investigate and determine the circumstances and the cause of his death.

Syed F. Hussaini is a veteran journalist and social commentator. He blogs at www.chowk.com