When asked if he has identified assets that he plans to go after to recoup the $1.47 million, Mr. Kurshan said he wouldn’t want to tip him (Mansoor Ijaz) off. A story in The News Bank allegations Mansoor Ijaz false today said:

“Efforts to malign Mansoor Ijaz, the star witness in this week’s Memogate hearing here in London, moved into high gear over the weekend with revelations that Pakistani origin American business tycoon Mansoor Ijaz had been accused of fraud by a European bank in an effort to recover loans made to his corporations in 2007.”

Let’s first address “business tycoon” – I have attached a consolidated financial statement submitted by Mansoor Ijaz in 2007. Even if you were to take Mr. Mansoor Ijaz on his words MansoorIjaz Consolidated Financial Statement   his net-worth is $15 million. If that made someone a “business tycoon” you would find so many in the US that you would need several phone directories to publish every name. But if you take a closer look, that $15 million seems questionable. You will notice Mr. Ijaz claims his apartment in New York City is worth more that $5.9 million. A search of public record puts it at $4.4 million. Only a million and a half more than what Mr. Ijaz estimates. But that’s fine. The market did go down somewhat. It is, however, the only tangible asset.

Mr. Ijaz further values the stocks of Crescent (CHR) and Eco Drive (ECO) at $2.5 million and $9.3 million respectively. Neither of these are publicly traded companies. A records serach of “C” corporations in the state of Delaware comes up empty. It doesn’t mean these corporations are not active as privately held entities; I just can’t find any evidence of their operation. You can also try to Google Eco Drive and Crescent Investment + Mansoor Ijaz.

Mr. Ijaz also claims to posses jewelry/art/heirloom worth $477k, furniture/electronics worth $225k.

Compare that to his liability of $4.4 million and do the math yourself. What do you think is the net present value(NPV)?  No matter how fantastical your imagination, you would shy away from describing this gentleman as a “business tycoon.”

To substantiate my report, I have also attached the judgement issued by the New York Supreme Court. MansoorIjaz Default Judgement BSI case

Although many people exaggerate their socio-economic status, it becomes problematic when one uses that perception to exercise political influence. This is the reason why  I will continue to research this “ultra wealthy man” during coffee and lunch breaks today and tomorrow.

The attorney for Banca Sammarinese di Investimento (BSI) Mr. Peter Kurshan last week told me that his client has not received $1.47 million from Mr. Mansoor Ijaz and he is left with no option but to start collection enforcement. The challenge facing Mr. Kurshan and other creditors in New York apparently is that Mr. Ijaz has almost no assets to his name.

NEW YORK SUPREME COURT – CIVIL DIVISION issued a judgment against Mr. Ijaz in September of 2010.  In a conversation last week in New York Mr. Kurshan said; “given that he has not voluntarily satisfied the judgment in past two years we are forced to commence enforcement action.”

But Banca Sammarinese di Investmento is not the only creditor looking for Mr. Ijaz. Citibank also has a judgment against him for a relatively small amount of $16,021. Aurora Loan Services also filed a motion in New York Supreme court for an unidentified amount in 2007.

In 2002 Mr. Ijaz had similar financial difficulties: American Express Travel Services had sued him for $166,880. After New York Supreme Court decided in the favor of the creditor, Mr. Ijaz subsequently paid off his debt and a Civil Judgment Release was filed as an acknowledgment by American Express Travel Services that it had been paid. But this lien still shows up in public records.

Bank of New York had also moved New York Supreme Court in 2002 to recover a paltry sum of $58,698 and a judgment was issued but no release was filed.

Mr. Ijaz seems to again have faced serious financial hardships in 2008 when he requested to restructure his debt obligations. In a memo to Banca Semmarinese di Investimento on March 10, 2008 Mr. Ijaz made several outlandish claims, which appear more like fantasies than business plans.

In the March 2008 memo to the bank he wrote: “Aquarius Towers Las Vegas has reached  a definitive contract to fund Phase 1 of the project (US $50,000,000).” In his typical name dropping and success-by-association fashion, Mr. Ijaz said “the investor is a large Indian family that has real estate investments around the world, including over 40 apartment buildings.” He claimed that he was  friends with a friend of the owners and that he was traveling to Zurich and Geneva with them to do “due diligence”. He then claimed that once the fund was established he would get a regular “income for my role” and  would be in a position to pay off his debt to BSI.

In this memo Mr. Ijaz also claimed that the same un-named “investor” who was providing him access to the rich and powerful Indian family has also introduced him to another investment opportunity in yet another venture, Eco Drive Technologies. Mr. Ijaz claimed that his ‘friend’ had close ties with Tata Motors which had chosen to invest $10,000,000 in Eco Drive Technologies. Mr. Ijaz had suggested “these funds are investment funds only and therefore no income” could be expected for payment to BSI. “But the deals materiality arises from additional collateral becoming a part of the overall portfolio,” because Mr. Ijaz claimed to own a “significant share of the new company.”

He made similar claims about a company Hydropolis and Agios Shipping Limited.

Although Mr. Ijaz intimated that contracts had been signed on these various projects, oddly none of them materialized.

A search of the public record in the US suggests that Mr. Ijaz has a total of eight lien records against him and he only owns an apartment (flat) in New York. It could not be established if Mr. Ijaz has secured all of his assets in off-shore estates but the attorney for BSI plans to commence enforcement action shortly.

According to the court documents Mr. Ijaz not only defaulted on his debt obligation but is also accused of defrauding the bank by using funds loaned to his business for personal use.

Three questions arise out of Mr.Ijaz’s memo to BSI and non-payment of his debts for which he took ‘personal responsibility.’ Does Mr. Ijaz have the habit of making fantastical claims? Is it possible that his recent tirade against the democratically elected government of Pakistan was due to the financial burdens he faces? Has Mr. Ijaz moved out of the US with his assets to mitigate financial risks he faces by creditors and investors in his investment firm?

We don’t have answers to any one of these questions but we can say with mathematical certitude that a memo to BSI was written to restructure debt obligations in 2008 and  subsequently the New York Supreme Court ordered judgment against Mr. Ijaz in 2010.

While the mullahs in Lahore were waging jihad (at least through their hateful speeches) many progressive Pakistani and Indians were praying for peace. PHOTO: REUTERS

My blog on Express Tribune

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With the advent of the social web, a new level of interconnectedness between content and the content consumers has emerged – a new way of interacting with and accessing content. Washington Post (WP), for instance, can now be accessed through Facebook through WP’s social reader application.

Such an interconnectedness poses new frontiers in innovation and content consumption, there is no doubt about that. On the flip-side, however, this interconnectedness also poses new challenges (and opportunities) for content providers and content curators alike.

Understandably, a greater level of accessibility would lead to privacy issues if content providers had access to all data stored on another website. This obvious challenge in the new social web is overcome by authentication protocols such as OAuth:

“Everyday new website offer services which tie together functionality from other sites [...] a social network using your address book to look for friends, and APIs to build your own desktop application version of a popular site. These are all great services – what is not so great about some of the implementations available today is their request for your username and password to the other site. When you agree to share your secret credentials, not only you expose your password to someone else [...] you also give them full access to do as they wish. They can do anything they wanted – even change your password and lock you out.”

OAuth is a technology that, in simplest words, “delegates authentication”. That is, it lets users to allow partial access to their data without revealing the identity of the user. Most commonly, this can be seen in action when trying to authorize apps on social websites like facebook and twitter, or when a social network uses your address book to find friends.

OAuth’s flagship website has an interesting metaphor on what OAuth is – Valet Parking:

“Many luxury cars today come with a valet key. It is a special key you give the parking attendant and unlike your regular key, will not allow the car to drive more than a mile or two. Some valet keys will not open the trunk, while others will block access to your onboard cell phone address book. Regardless of what restrictions the valet key imposes, the idea is very clever. You give someone limited access to your car with a special key, while using your regular key to unlock everything.”

The advantages provided by a standardized protocol such as OAuth are obvious. In light of multiple APIs, one protocol allowing users greater privacy and accessibility is always more suited. Anybody who has been around the social web scene – which would be most of us – can see the significance and importance of such a standardized platform. A stable and ready to be implemented protocol is available on OAuth’s website, OAuth.net.

It is not a new concept, however: Different websites have their own versions of OAuth (some of these came before OAuth), such as Google AuthSub, aol OpenAuth, Yahoo BBAuth, Upcoming api, Flickr api, Amazon Web Services api and so on. But what OAuth aims to do is standardize the authentication methods on the web.

Image by leahculver via Flickr

Many websites may want to use their own APIs, but if OAuth can innovate fast enough and address a wide range of issues that APIs face today, its adaptation might become more widespread and diverse. From a content providers’ standpoint – it absolutely makes sense to use a standard protocol that “just works” rather than set up an authentication protocol for a new service.

With interminable new services and innovations in the web, such a technology will be in demand – and to a certain extent, it already is. If executed well, as is the case so far, OAuth may see a more widespread use and immense scale.

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I was not surprised by the University of California Berkeley’s decision to pick Google over Microsoft. Several educational institutions have shown proclivity towards Google. I was intrigued that the decision was not purely based on cost. Speed and ease of migration, integration with Collaboration tools, API alignment, and usability were the key factors that led to UC Berkeley’s decision.

While there were areas where Microsoft Office 360 shined but overall result of the analysis led UC Berkeley to pick Google for productivity tools.

Here is a link to the detailed matrix.. most comprehensive comparative analysis between Google and Microsoft, yet.

The following matrix supports the recent email and calendar solution for the UC Berkeley campus. This matrix is *not* intended to be a comprehensive review of all features but rather focused on items of particular interest to UC Berkeley. This matrix was one tool used in our assessment and was designed and written particularly for the UC Berkeley environment. It is based on the opinions of the assessment team.

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The evaluation was undertaken as part of the Operational Excellence (OE) sponsored Productivity Suite project and focused on features and requirements to meet key objectives of OE including service improvement, project and operating cost, speed of deployment, architectural alignment, accessibility, storage of data in the United States, and privacy and security issues. For more information, see Campus Selects Google as New Email and Calendar Solution.

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Former ISI Director Brigadier Ijaz Shah sheltered Osama bin Laden in a safe house in Abbottabad.

The Jamestown Foundation website is blocked in Pakistan, and I am reposting (without permission) on my blog.

In spite of denials by the Pakistani military, evidence is emerging that elements within the Pakistani military harbored Osama bin Laden with the knowledge of former army chief General Pervez Musharraf and possibly current Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani. Former Pakistani Army Chief General Ziauddin Butt (a.k.a. General Ziauddin Khawaja) revealed at a conference on Pakistani-U.S. relations in October 2011 that according to his knowledge the then former Director-General ofIntelligence Bureau of Pakistan (2004 – 2008), Brigadier Ijaz Shah (Retd.), had kept Osama bin Laden in an Intelligence Bureau safe house in Abbottabad. In the same address, he revealed that the ISI had helped the CIA to track him down and kill on May 1. The revelation remained unreported for some time because some intelligence officers had asked journalists to refrain from publishing General Butt’s remarks. [1] No mention of the charges appeared until right-wing columnist Altaf Hassan Qureshi referred to them in an Urdu-language article that appeared on December 8. [2]

In a subsequent and revealing Urdu-language interview with TV channel Dawn News, General Butt repeated the allegation on December 11, saying he fully believed that “[Brigadier] Ijaz Shah had kept this man [Bin Laden in the Abbottabad compound] with the full knowledge of General Pervez Musharraf…  Ijaz Shah was an all-powerful official in the government of General Musharraf.” [3] Asked whether General Kayani knew of this, he first said yes, but later reconsidered: “[Kayani] may have known – I do not know – he might not have known.” [4] The general’s remarks appeared to confirm investigations by this author in May 2011 that showed that the Abbottabad compound where bin Laden was captured and killed was being used by a Pakistani intelligence agency (see Terrorism Monitor, May 5). However, General Butt failed to explain why Bin Laden was not discovered even after Brigadier Shah and General Musharraf had left the government.

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General Butt was the first head of the Strategic Plans Division of the Pakistan army and the Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) under Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1990 to 1993, and again from 1997 to 1999. Sharif promoted General ZiauddinButt to COAS after forcibly retiring General Pervez Musharraf on October 12, 1999, but the army’s top brass revolted against the decision and arrested both Prime Minister Sharif and General Butt while installing Musharraf as the nation’s new chief executive, a post he kept as a chief U.S. ally until resigning in 2008 in the face of an impending impeachment procedure.

Brigadier Shah has been known or is alleged to have been involved in several high profile cases of terrorism. The Brigadier was heading the ISI bureau in Lahore when General Musharraf overthrew Prime Minister Sharif in October 1999. Later, General Musharraf appointed Shah as Home Secretary in Punjab. As an ISI officer he was also the handler for Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was involved in the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002. [5] Omar Saeed Sheikh surrendered to Brigadier Shah who hid him for several weeks before turning him over to authorities. In February 2004, Musharraf appointed Shah as the new Director of the Intelligence Bureau, a post he kept until March 2008 (Daily Times [Lahore] February 26, 2004;Dawn [Karachi] March 18, 2008). The late Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto accused Brigadier Shah, among others, of hatching a conspiracy to assassinate her (The Friday Times[Lahore], February 18-24).                                                                                                                           

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the Pakistani top military brass had serious differences on several issues. One of the most serious of these concerned Pakistan’s relations with Osama bin Laden. However, the disastrous1999 Kargil conflict in Kashmir overshadowed all of these. General Butt says that Prime Minister Sharif had decided to cooperate with the United States and track down Bin Laden in 1999. [6] According to a senior adviser to the Prime Minister, the general staff ousted Sharif to scuttle the “get-Osama” plan, among other reasons: “The evidence is that the military regime abandoned that plan.” [7] General Butt corroborates this. In his latest interview, he says that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had constituted a special task force of 90 American-trained commandos to track down Bin Laden in Afghanistan. If the Sharif government had continued on this course, this force would likely have caught Bin Laden by December 2001, but the plan was aborted by Ziauddin Butt’s successor as ISI general director, Lieutenant General Mahmud Ahmed. [8]

Arif Jamal is an independent security and terrorism expert and author of “Shadow War – The Untold Story of Jihad in Kashmir.”

Notes:

1. Author’s telephone interview with an Islamabad journalist who requested anonymity, November 16, 2011.

2. Altaf Hassan Qureshi, “Resetting Pak-U.S. relations” (in Urdu), Jang [Rawalpindi], December 8, 2011.  Available at http://e.jang.com.pk/pic.asp?npic=12-08-2011/Pindi/images/06_08.gif

3. See “Government – Army – America on Dawn News – 11the Dec 2011 part 2,”  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4bYHC2_ito&feature=youtu.be

4. Ibid

5. Author’s interview with a security officer who requested anonymity, Islamabad, May 2000.

6. “Government – Army – America on Dawn News –December 11, 2011, part 1,”                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4WLtaxxPPw.

7. Author’s interview with a former government minister who requested anonymity, Rawalpindi, February 2006.

8. “Government – Army – America on Dawn News –December 11, 2011, part 1,”                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4WLtaxxPPw.

 http://www.jamestown.org/programs/gta/single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=38819&cHash=b3da5dd4a1af2664ec4821b405dae77b

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Cloud applications, software used in a utility model, introduces a new dimension in usability and scalability, but it also posses new challenges in identity and access management, among others.

Businesses that use applications such as Google Docs, WebEx, Salesforce among others have to understand and solve the challenge of user authentication and entitlement. How should an organization ensure that employees access only the data they are entitled to? How should an organization make sure all user data is synchronized among various systems? When a user leaves, how should they de-provision the accounts so all access privileges are revoked? And above all, how can organizations make sure that all this is done efficiently, so that the advantages of cloud systems are not undone by these new challenges?

Managing identities in the cloud efficiently is a growing challenge and given the exponential speed at which the users of these services grow, efficient identity management is imperative. Some of the challenges in the identity management are:

1. User Provisioning and Access Control: Companies face the most challenges when it comes to adding new users, and giving them limited amount of control. Not only is this time consuming, but it also required resources specifically dedicated to giving certain rights and access to accounts.

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2. Automating users: In addition to the challenge of access control, provisioning of new users also need to be automated in order to be really scalable. This is currently not the case in most environments, where provisioning and de-provisioning of users is not automated. This requires time and dedicated human capital to focus on just adding new accounts and deleting unused, old ones.

3. Multiple Environments: When multiple environments are added to the equation, user management is especially difficult. Try to imagine synchronising information on hundreds of thousands of accounts on a daily basis, only in order to keep account data up-to-date in multiple environments. What is required here is a real-time data synchronization service that will update the multiple environments as and when changes take place.

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4. Limiting Scalability: Cloud applications boast scalability as one of their main advantages, but in terms of identity management, this may not be true. In fact, the lack of automation and challenges of multiple environments as described above may lead to limiting the scalability of cloud applications. While the applications themselves might be immensely scalable, manual provisioning and de-provisioning of accounts may limit their instant usability.

5. Lack of Industry Standard: Cloud computing is a relatively new, albeit promising, industry. With anything new, challenges need to be overcome as they are implemented and scaled up. This is especially true in case of cloud applications, where each organization has its own set up and its own standard of synchronizing and provisioning data and user access management. The lack of such an industry standard poses considerable challenges that companies need to overcome in order to make efficient and full use of cloud applications.

Large companies such as Novell, are working on products that will help synchronize identities in multiple environments and automate the process of provisioning (giving users the access) and de-provisioning (revoking access). Identity Manager 4, the newest product from Novell claims that it will overcome the challenges currently posed in identity management. It’s a new product, and a promising one at that – perhaps such products can help towards a more standardized identity management solutions for companies.

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New products and industries take a considerable time in becoming “perfect”, but this is a journey rather than a destination. Cloud applications have already shown their promise; their usability and scalability is unparalleled. Overcoming these challenges are a question of “when?” rather than an “If”. For now, these challenges need to be focused on and overcome, in order to make cloud applications more perfect.

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I had goosebumps reading the news yesterday that several criminals took stage in Lahore under the banner of JuD and aligned themselves with Pakistan army. Was it a conspiracy to malign Pakistan army, I wondered. Who could have been behind this? You see, I have no sympathies for characters like Hafiz Saeed who have eroded the Pakistani society and have pushed Pakistan in a state of profound crisis. These fundamentalists have pushed Pakistan in a crisis that is complex, and multi-dimensional with facets that touch every aspect of our lives: our health and livelihood, the quality of our environment and our social relationships, our ideology, economy, and politics. It is a crisis of intellectual, moral, and spiritual dimensions; a crisis of a scale and urgency unprecedented in 65 years history of Pakistan.

I called a progressive friend, a leading journalist to share my concern and at least rhetorically, he had gone back several years – suggesting we need a rag-tag army of imbeciles like Hafiz Saeed to counter threats from India. My friend had a fit when I suggested that India is not a threat. Winning the hearts and minds of the likes of my “progressive” friend is a major milestone for the retrogressive forces whose success means decline of Pakistan’s cultural steam and human decency.

Undoubtedly, India has the potential to become a regional hegemon and Pakistan must protect it’s sovereignty, independence and dignity.

But these wayward mullahs who have managed to drown the voices of reason and rationality are rapidly destroying our country. With Petro dollars supported tribal and Wahabi influence Pakistan’s social structures and behavior patterns have become so rigid that this country can no longer adapt to changing situations, it is unable to carry on the creative process of cultural evolution.

But I am lucky to have many other friends who are willing to give peace a fighting chance. While the Mullahs in Lahore were waging jihad (at least through their hateful speeches) many progressive Pakistani and Indians were praying for peace. A prominent Pakistani activist Beena Sarwar wrote on her wall:

There were a dozen people over at our place for nihari this afternoon, watching football (!!). We turned off the TV at half-time and sat in silence together to Pray for Peace Between India & Pakistan.

Here is my response to the Facebook posting mentioned above:

Beena Sarwar my friends know that I am not a “praying type” so I didn’t pause between Jets and Eagles game today to pray Had I taken a moment of silence I would have said the same lines that many of my tribe have been saying for centuries: “Dear God, I have come to the conclusion you probably don’t exist, but I’ve also come to the conclusion that any one view I hold may turn out to be mistaken, however unlikely the odds seem. So if you are there, if I am wrong will you please slap some sense into my people in India and Pakistan. Would you please explain to them that what divides them is so tiny compared to what unites them. Please give my friends on both side of the borders, courage to find the similarities instead of accentuating differences. Please give them the strength to negate the narratives of division crafted by those with hegemonic intentions. Please give them the intellectual integrity so they can recognize the good in each other. Please God – if you really have all the power that everyone assigns to you, will you please let South Asia unite in my life time. I don’t ask for much God- let my people travel and trade freely. Learn and entertain openly. Work and innovate collaboratively. Please God, if you are there….

I am glad to have people like Beena – but unfortunately she is an exception and not a rule. I am concerned about Pakistan’s outlook because there is an eerie uniformity of opinion. Even those who are tolerant, progressive, democratic are willing to condone mullahs. Whereas growing civilizations display endless variety and versatility, those in the process of disintegration show uniformity and lack of inventiveness.

Unless Pakistan’s progressive and democratic forces are willing to take on the retrogressive elements we will concede our right to opinion, education and way of life that is unacceptable to the mullahs.

Fundamentalists will prohibit freedom of expression and use all coercive apparatus to crush opposition. Education will be discouraged and whatever little is allowed, will be subverted by distortion of curricula. You can argue what is new- it has always been the case? It is the intensity that will change. We are not talking about tribal areas. This monster is already in cosmopolitan cities like Karachi and Lahore.

I want to simply point out that religious conviction and religious doctrine have contradictory effects. Some people are motivated by their religious beliefs to challenge oppressive social systems and oppressive relations in the world. At the same time, organized religion and much of religious doctrine is used to reinforce the oppression of the masses of people, to preach submission before the established authorities and their oppressive rule. In Pakistan, rulers have used religion to oppress masses- and we must not empower these mullahs to oppress us any further. As Lenin said, every reactionary order is in need of two functions, the hangman and the priest, and they go hand in hand and complement each other.

So unless you are ready to lock-up your sisters and daughters and throw away reason and rationality, you must fight back. Without an iota of doubt these monsters will destroy Pakistan to the point where you will not be able to recognize this country. It is not enough that Jamaat-e-Islami does not win votes- their ideology has hijacked our entire parliament- our entire nation. Unless you clean up your offices, your neighborhoods, and your educational institutions from these tyrannical imbeciles, Pakistan will not survive.

Stay on high alert! Don’t let proponents of past take over your beautiful cities like Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.

Image by Ann Douglas via Flickr

Ask anyone why Pakistan is rapidly losing a competitive edge in the global economy and you are bound to get a variety of responses; but lack of law and order, arcane bureaucratic practices, and rampant corruption usually top the list. Ask how to address these problems and you will get a long list of recommendations beginning with combatting the growing menace of violence.  Despite the obstacles there is usually a consensus that transparency can address the bureaucratic quagmire and corruption, and encourage entrepreneurs to take risk, profit, and prosper.

In my previous columns I have suggested that technology plays a vital role in achieving transparency. Let’s first understand what transparency in governance actually means. Open Government means “making the government processes and lawmaking as comprehensive as possible so that they are more easily understood by the public, as well as engaging citizens and enabling them to provide feedback on government activities.” Doing so is of course integral to achieving a peaceful and progressive governance model.  In a country such as Pakistan, which has never had democratic set up longer than five years, the struggle to achieve a transparent government is now clearer than ever.

Many Pakistanis feel that our leaders are inherently corrupt and therefore democracy can’t function. But instead of trying to fix the problem, my friends often take an anti-democratic stance. Just because one’s leaders, civil and military bureaucracy is corrupt doesn’t mean one should glorify anarchy or dictatorship. It would be like throwing the baby out with the bath water. Why not use technology to facilitate transparency in Pakistan’s governance model. Technology, if used adequately, has the potential of keeping politicians, bureaucrats, teachers, police and army officials honest.

In America the effects of technology on government transparency have been clear for several years, with websites such as Regulations.gov, usaspending.gov, and data.gov, allow those who wish to become more informed as to the inner workings of the nation’s political system to view documents and policies easily and conveniently. The Obama administration formally endorsed the concept of Open Government in 2009 and in just three years, investment in technology is already showing positive impacts.

Technology does not only serve the interest of the constituents but also provides opportunities for government agencies achieve economies of scale. In this way, the resources furnished by one government agency serve to improve another agency, as easily understandable data is placed in a centralized location.  Cross-agency sharing of data allows for unnecessary or inefficient practices to be examined or dispensed with.

Of course it is easy to understand how technology can be leveraged to enhance consumer awareness. It is no secret that many innocent citizens feel disenfranchised because of either petty fraud or coercion by local authorities. Awareness is always the first line of defense against localized fraud, schematic deception and bureaucratic coercion.

A practical example of the benefits of transparent government practices in America is Recalls.gov, a “smartphone” program developed by USA.gov.  As unfortunate as it may be, many products are recalled on a regular basis, some with very good reason.  Several regulating organizations including the Food and Drug Administration and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration regularly stream news of all their recalls to Recalls.gov, which posts real-time updates. An interactive database such as Recalls.gov makes the search for information and the struggle for consumer awareness much smoother. This wealth of information evolves constantly, thereby creating a fluid exchange between all levels of government, from the organizations based in infrastructure to the individuals themselves, including government employees and citizens.

Of course, technology can only accelerate transition; it doesn’t create the environment. A well considered policy that provides for checks and balances at multiple touch points reduces pilferage. To increase the confidence on public projects, it would make perfect sense for government agencies to post budgets and project plans online for anyone to see. Now if I see that 100,000 rupees have been spent on fixing a sidewalk in my neighborhood but no work or poor work was done, I can immediately report that on the website. I will be able to name and shame the contractor who took the money or thw civil engineer who signed off on the work. These are simple solutions a revolution is not needed to change Pakistan – just take simple baby steps in the right direction.

It is no secret that the same corrupt politicians, military and civil bureaucrats,  who loot and plunder the country will resist change, even if the prospects were bright for the country at large.

Crime  can be reduced simply by placing a sign that says “this establishment is under video surveliance”. These corrupt politicians and civil-military officials will be more cautious if they know that people are watching.

If you want to reduce corruption from Pakistan, you will need democracy- you will need people’s participation; technology enables that interaction.

Go to the Ministry of Information Technology (MoIT) and you will note this site that claims to be “The Official Web Gateway to the Government of Pakistan,” is less than impressive. You will find more engaging blogs and news outlets in Pakistan. There is nothing that I can do here… absolutely nothing. Compare this to websites I have mentioned above and you will began to understand the gap between an Open Government and one that only offers at best, a peep hole.

This article appeared in The News International: http://e.thenews.com.pk/12-19-2011/bfr_page3.asp

16 December 1971 marked the end of a nine month long saga of chaos; genocide, arson and rape, when Pakistan army surrendered East Pakistan to the Indian army. This day is etched as the day of ultimate betrayal in the hearts and minds of many Pakistanis who were promised by their President and Commander in chief that the fight would continue indefinitely, just a few hours before their 96,000 soldiers surrendered in Dhaka.

“Kill three million of them,” said President Yahya Khan, “and the rest will eat out of our hands.” Robert Payne writes in his book titled ‘Massacre’, referring to a meeting of Pakistan army’s top brass held
on February 22, 1971.

“For month after month in all the regions of East Pakistan the massacres went on,” writes Robert Payne. “They were not the small casual killings of young officers who wanted to demonstrate their
efficiency, but organized massacres conducted by sophisticated staff officers, who knew exactly what they were doing. Muslim soldiers, sent out to kill Muslim peasants, went about their work mechanically and efficiently, until killing defenseless people became a habit like smoking cigarettes or drinking wine. … Not since Hitler invaded Russia had there been so vast a massacre.” Robert Payne goes on to assert through his analysis that military dictatorship is the most corrupt form of government.

R.J. Rummel, in his book ‘Death by government’ describes: These “willing executioners” were fuelled by an abiding anti-Bengali racism, especially against the Hindu minority. “Bengalis were often
compared with monkeys and chickens” said Pakistani General Niazi, ‘It was a low lying land of low lying people.’ The Hindus among the Bengalis were as Jews to the Nazis: scum and vermin that [should] best
be exterminated. As to the Moslem Bengalis, they were to live only on the sufferance of the soldiers: any infraction, any suspicion cast on them, any need for reprisal, could mean their death. And the  soldiers were free to kill at will. The journalist Dan Coggin quoted one Punjabi captain as telling him, ‘We can kill anyone for anything. We are accountable to no one.’ This is the arrogance of Power.

Susan Brownmiller, in her book “Against our will: Men, women and rape” puts the number of women raped from 200,000 to 400,000. She wrote, “Eighty percent of the raped women were Moslems, reflecting the population of Bangladesh, but Hindu and Christian women were not exempt. … Hit-and-run rape of large numbers of Bengali women was brutally simple in terms of logistics as the Pakistani regulars swept through and occupied the tiny, populous land …”  Brownmiller quotes  a description of one such assault which targeted a recently-married woman, as reported by Aubrey Menen: “Two [Pakistani soldiers] went into the room that had been built for the bridal couple. The others
stayed behind with the family, one of them covering them with his gun. They heard a barked order, and the bridegroom’s voice protesting. Then there was silence until the bride screamed. Then there was silence again, except for some muffled cries that soon subsided. In a few minutes one of the soldiers came out, his uniform in disarray. He grinned to his companions. Another soldier took his place in the extra room. And so on, until all the six had raped the belle of the village. Then all six left, hurriedly. The father found his daughter lying on the string cot unconscious and bleeding. Her husband was crouched on the floor, kneeling over his vomit.”

The human death toll reported during this nine month long genocide varies from 300,000 to 3 million. Mukti Bahini, the armed volunteers waging guerilla war against Pakistan army with the help of India,
avenged by murdering Biharis, the urdu-speaking migrants. Tens of thousands of Bihari men, women and children were murdered, their property looted and women raped. Biharis saw another round of murder after December 16, as Bengalis celebrated their independence by killing the friends of Pakistan army.

With signing of the surrender document, 96,000 Pakistani soldiers and civilians were interned into Indian jails and camps. Indian government that gloated on the success of their war against traditional rivals and gleefully announced themselves as liberators of Bengalis, did not mind sending the perpetrators of genocide back to Pakistan, after a deal was struck on border disputes. Those who committed murder and rape of their fellow countrymen in East Pakistan returned home to
receive pension from the national ex-chequer and they were awarded lands. A commission was set to investigate the war but its findings were never made public in Pakistan.

Two and a half million Biharis languished in refugee camps and their demand to be repatriated to Pakistan was struck down by various Pakistani governments. Families in those refugee camps lived under inhuman conditions for almost four decades and saw another generation grow-up.  A few months ago the Supreme Court of Bangladesh decreed that Biharis be considered citizens of the country and allowed them to vote.

The army took over the rein of power again in Pakistan in 1977 and executed the elected Prime minister. They partnered with America in their war against Soviet Union in Afghanistan and the world forgot their crimes of 1971. There was military operation in Baluchistan. Sindhis were brutalized during Zia’s regime and Pakhtuns have been thrown in a war for 3 decades. The army/ISI, with its choke-hold on President Zardari’s government seems poised to push Sindhis into a clash again.

Pakistan army continues with its murderous ways and receives praise and aid for its efforts. With the International tribunal conducting trials and issuing warrants against culprits of crimes against humanity, one wonders whether Pakistan army did commit any crime or the victims of their crimes were not humans.