Crow's Nest...

Lt. Gen. Mushtaq Ahmed Baig became a victim of suicide bombing in Rawalpindi. He was one of our kin, a medical doctor by profession. He was a healer; someone who everyone seeks when injured or dying. It is hard to believe that someone would consider him a villain in the larger scale of the politics. He was a doctor not a killer. True that he was a soldier but he was also a doctor. He was the surgeon general of Pakistan. I do not know him but his picture speaks of a gentleman who was pretty much innocuous and kind. Who would benefit from his death? Local Taliban have reportedly postponed their strikes till the new govt. comes into shape. So they in all possibility are out of the suspect list. Any political party has no interest in destabilizing their new achieved political power. So they are out too. A personal/domestic disagreement leading to killing through suicide is a far fetched idea too. On the other hand Al-Qaeda will want to destabilize the country so that they can g...

It is actually a sad thing to note that Pakistanis in essence lack an international outlook. In the global village we are just another nation who looks at everything from their own narrow perspective. One of the reason that comes to mind is the language barrier and little stress paid on learning one in Pakistani educational institutions. Language is a doorway to a new and different culture. Language is a plateform for information sharing. It is a way of expression. It is an effective way of cultural development and at the same time an effective tool for cultural development. We, as a Pakistani nation, do not interest ourselves with learning new and different languages. The result is that we end up knowing little concrete facts about the culture of the west that we so unintentionally admire all the time. Granted you can read translations and try and learn something about a society but that is a restricted form of learning. Granted that English is a global language and the...

Fidel Castro has officially stepped aside from the seat of power that he so diligently clung onto for the past half century. His name has been so maligned by the western media that any mention of Cuba provokes an unwelcome image of Fidel with it in everyone's mind. We forget to see a country but instead are forced to see a man - who we are made to believe is - a dictator. But finally Fidel Castro is a thing of the past. He is behind the curtain and Cuba has something new to celebrate for - a new leader. Raul can not be termed a new face as he has been hanging around his brother, lurking in the power corridors, since the revolution in 1959 . He personally saw to the execution of anti revolution people in the years ensuing the revolution. But for that matter change is welcome as that is the only permanent thing to go around uninterrupted in this world and in this cosmos. My concern is the change in the relationship between Pakistan and Cuba. Cuba was one of the first count...

The elections are done and dusted with. The past is over and the future lies ahead of us. Foe a common Pakistani or for any common citizen of the world all the most important thing is the stability in the budget in his/her life. In the end that matters to most Pakistanis - and what lead to the fall of the previous administration - is infact, the cost of living and inflation in day to day use commodities. I was going through the Economist's Intelligence Unit's forecast for Pakistan. Things are not very encouraging. For the year 2008-09 the economist predicts , The continuing instability may begin to have a strongly negative effect on foreign investment inflows. The economy is also likely to suffer from a lack of effective policymaking caused by political strife. The GDP growth is expected to slow down to 5.4% for the present year and the next year. Inflation will exceed the 6.5 - 7.5% target range and is expected to average 7.9%. When we look at the outlook of the key eco...

Mozilla Firefox has been a love at first sight for me. I stumbled upon the browser at Usman's place. Used it once and fell in instant love with it. It is way better than Internet Explorer 6 and 7. For one thing it loads pages faster and this enhances my web experience. For the other it can be customized to fit individual needs and likes and dislikes. The number of useful Add-ons is simply remarkable and each better than the other. It has been some time since I installed FireFox on my computer and since then I have been actively adding things to it. Zotero is one such tool of help that i find very useful. It has effectively taken away the need for a stand alone research tool. Zotero is a easy to use plug in that helps you collect, manage and cite research sources. It works from within the browser and integrates with almost any application. It has been brought to us by Center for History and New Media and George Mason University. Zotero features automatic capturing of cita...

YouTube is not available for browsing in Pakistan for the past one day. I say, 'not available for browsing', instead of 'banned' or 'blocked' because i have no concrete information as to the cause of the outage. The rumors are ripe that the outage is because of a ban on the domain enforced by PTA through PIE. This ban has been placed for the reason of blocking user access to amateur video of poll rigging in some parts of the country. Other rumors suggest that the ban has been placed by PTA to block access to soft pornography and other morally objectionable material available on the domain. In my opinion if this outage is a result of a ban on the part of PTA then it is most probably orchestrated by political factions that are most hurt by video footage showing their supporters rigging the elections like there is no tomorrow. But equally possible could be the problem at YouTube end. For the past one week or so most of what seemed credible information presente...

What is Nawaz Sharif thinking right now about this country, his party and himself? It is hard to believe that he can actually think. But let us assume for the sake of an argument that he is thinking. The thought about the country and reforming it is his last thought, to this much i am certain. Right now he is thinking of building himself and his part around himself as is the normal custom of any feudal party. He is thinking of ways to get into the parliament. He is not thinking of becoming the prime minister but he is certainly yearning for the post. He is thinking of staying behind rather than in the fore front so that the party that forms the govt. bears the burden of blame when this egg basket of development of their predecessors breaks suddenly on the resumption of normal governance in the country. He is also thinking about gettign rid of Musharraf as he fears him as someone who can make him wet his pants in the night. The restoration of pre 3rd November judiciary is not in...

Imran Khan has suddenly disappeared from the media. Either he is being ignored or he is ignoring. But he briefly appeared on the BBC Radio today and said what he had to say. He is as clear as ever before and has stated his stance with even more vigor. He says that he will keep on trying for the restoration of the judiciary. He will wage a struggle for the people's resistance. He will be the voice of the people. And he knows the power of the people is with him.

In the election results of the year 33 former ministers who were closely associated with Musharraf have lost their seats. PML-Q has suffered losses to the seats of those who were stalwarts of the previous administration and were thought to be close to Musharraf himself. the results express more so a disgust and hatred with Musharraf and anything even closely related to him. Otherwise PML-Q has been able to win seats of those members who were not closely associated with Musharraf. So we can safely conclude that this is a an anti Musharraf vote and not a pro PPP or PML-N or ANP vote. In other news the Govt. is now thinking of letting go of the Chief Justice of Pakistan who has been kept under illegal house arrest since November 3, 2007. Aitizaz Ahsan was freed not until the last minutes before election and now Chief Justice's imminent freedom spell something very fishy. What was so important about him that he was not released before elections? What special situation has arise...

Election results are pouring in. One of the results that i am impatiently waiting for is that of chief minister sindh Ghulam Arbab Rahim. I wrote about his corruption just a few days ago. Results from all the adjoining constituencies in sindh have been declared but that of his constituency remains unavailable. So much so that there is no mention of his constituency in the reports. No progressive results no nothing. I think that he is trying his best to manipulate the results and atleast save his seat. More upsets have occured since i last wrote on this topic . More routing of PML-Q has taken place in different parts of the country. But they have gained just sufficient seats to partner with PPP to form a simple majority Govt. in the center and in Balochistan. Similarly, to my utter dismay, MQM has a sizeable majority in sindh and will partner with PPP to form a coalition Govt. Altaf Hussain has been quick to offer his seats to the highest bidder in syaing that his party has forgotten...

The results of the elections are pouring in very slowly but steadily. There have been huge and unexpected upsets in the loss of Sheikh Rashid, Chaudhary Shujaat, Sher Afghan Niazi and Ameer Hussain. PML-Q is suffering a blow after another. PPP is emerging as the majority shareholder and a national party. PML-N is following close. ANP has once again asserted its show of strength in NWFP. All this is slowly happening. I am thinking about Imran Khan and Qazi Hussain Ahmed. What are they thinking right now? I think they must be thinking that they have made the biggest and almost fatal mistake by not participating the elections. the future of the country has been decided for the next five years. Elections have happened and since main stream parties are winning there is little hope of post election protests. In this scenario the hopes of both Imran Khan and Qazi Hussain Ahmed to run a struggle against the dictator have dashed to the ground. Both of them must be cursing their doom...

I am watching the special election transmission on Geo and Aaj TV . ARY is too boring to watch. PTV is not worth watching as it is portraying a false image which it has not supported with any evidence. The nation knows about the fate that it is going to to meet, therefore the turn out is very low from the very onset. The tension is ripe and already two people have died in election related violence today. This is apart from the PML-N candidate who has been assassinated in the early hours of the day in Lahore. Two of his body guards have also succumbed to injuries. Nawaz Sharif has expressed his concerna and condolances. All this is reaffirming my point of view that one should try and bring change through other means as electoral process is deeply flawed and not going to turn any miracle on us.

Parliamentary Elections are just 12 hours away in Pakistan. Unlike all previous elections i have reached the voting age for these elections. Now i can use my right to vote to select a candidate that i think represents future and progress. I can be part of the democratic process. I can be a miniature vector of change or towards change. But i will not use my right to vote. that means i will not participate in the process of electing representatives who will rule my country and my fate for the next five years, even more if they get their way like this present dictator, Musharraf. In doing so i will loose my right to object to any actions of the 'elected', more so selected representatives of this country. but this can be debated and in most probability i will not pass from any opportunity to pointing out wrong doings and mischief in the character of those who lead my unfortunate country in the future. I will not vote because i know the outcomes of the elections have been pr...

Dinar Standard is the Economist of the Muslim World. It publishes the list of top 500 companies in the Muslim world. And it has recently published an article detailing the scientific research efforts in the Muslim world. The list is very interesting for me. Pakistan is ranked number 8 on the list out of fifty odd OIC countries when it comes to number of publications in the past 10 years. Turkey is ranked on the top and outwins Pakistan by a factor of ten. The only countries doing good on the list are either oil rich or secular. More interestingly when it comes to number of Publications from individual universities in the OIC world none of the Pakistani universities are listed in the top 25. It is especially disturbing for me since i used to think that we at AKU are doing some good work in getting our way forward in research. But to my astonishment neither AKU, nor LUMS are listed in the top 25 list. this tells me a lot about the quality of education that we Pakistanis have to suff...

The HRW has released a report and an audiotape that contains the voice of Attorney General Malik Abdul Qayyum in which he is advising an unknown caller about massive vote rigging by Musharraf and PML-Q. The AG also advised the caller on what political party should the person approach to become a successful candidate for the upcoming elections. The AG's office has denied that he ever made any suggestions to this effect and speculates that the tape is fabricated. The HRW reports that the recording was made accidentally when Qayyum was giving a phone interview to a journalist but was interrupted on another phone by the unknown caller. If i can speculate Qayyum's brother is contesting this month's election on PML-Q ticket. In my mind the unknown caller was most probably his brother seeking advice on his future action plan. Here is the english translation of his conversation, Leave Nawaz Sharif (PAUSE).... I think Nawaz Sharif will not take part in the election (PAUSE).......

Every year 14th February comes and goes. Every year there is a lot of hustle and bustle, in the opinion sections of the Internet, where self righteous people of every kind flock to make head way on their point of view about what is right and what is wrong. The activity starts to build up in the beginning of February and chokes every forum till finally the day is over. Such is the colossal power of globalisation and media that every Pakistani now knows about the 'importance' of the day. But it is very sad to note that if not all then most of us just skim the surface and derive ideas out of the mirage. Almost none of the flockers know the roots of the tradition and people make very absurd statements about its origins . Very little is known about the Saint Valentine , after whom the day is named. But all accounts do not point to any relationship between this day and expression of sentiments of courtly love as we know them today. Nonetheless due to concentrated efforts of the...

The News reported the spending culture of the two former chief ministers of sindh, both of whom belonged to PML-Q. The money they spent was used for buying luxury cars, personal aeroplanes, gifts and entertainment, most probably women from across the border. Ali Muhammad Maher and Arbab Ghulam Rahim are both responsible for spending as much as Rs. 600,067,200 ($ 10,001,120) on their lavish lifestyles as chief ministers of Sindh. Maher had spent Rs86,372,700 out of the Rs42,739,600 budget for 2003-04 and Rs121,183,900 out of the next allocated budget of Rs 50,480,600. Rahim, who replaced Maher, spent Rs155,896,900 out of Rs78,440,000 allocation for 2005-06; Rs175,484,400 out of Rs129,230,000 budget for 2006-07; and Rs61,192,300 in the remaining period of 2007-08 out of the allocated budget of Rs140,792,800. According to sources, Arbab Rahim forced the Finance Department to purchase an aircraft for his travelling for which Rs600 million was allocated in the provincial budget. Besides,...

It is a rare occurance in the developed world. For younger generations almost unheard of. For my nephews a bizzare phenomenon but it does happen once in a while. There was a electricity breakdown here for about two to two and a half hours in the afternoon. It was a result of a thunderstorm that was accompanied with strong winds. There wasn't much left to do than wait for the electricity to be restored in the area as almost everything works with electricity from TV, Internet router to kitchen stoves. Candles could not be lit for the want of a match. Technorati Tags: weather Powered by ScribeFire .

Certain strains of Bird Flu have been detected in the poultry farms in Southern Pakistan. H5N1 strain has been identified in a family in Karachi . The news has brought back the fear and scare in the minds of the ordinary people who consume poultry meat regularly. The news has also affected the poultry business by bringing down the sales and damages to the poultry crops in the poultry farms. There is a lot of confusion about bird flu in the common man. Little information is shared by the official channels and people are, largely, unaware of the precautions they need to take when such outbreaks of bird flu occur in the area. The results are often chaotic and the resulting confusion adds to the management problems that the officials have to face, while handling such situations. In the following posts i will try to talk about bird flu from both medical perspective and common man's perspective but mostly concentrate on enlightening the common man. So, bird flu or avian influenza a...

This is a test post for testing this new template. I have shifted from a non blogger template to a blogger template. The transition was easier than i had thought. It took me less time than ever to keep my original links and change the remaining template of the blog. I have tried to get rid of coding problems in the page so that it loads faster and acts flawless. For some odd reason the template looks better in FireFox than in Explorer. I had initially made the shift using Mozilla Firefox but when i had a look at the blog in Explorer it had many minor problems that needed to be sorted out. I have sorted out most of them but the one in the external links section still remains. Actually this section is a complete mess. I had to do away with BBC Emergency link and the Emedicine search engine link. Hope you like this new template. It has a feeling of more space and openness as compared to the one i had before. I liked that one too but i like this one more. I have kept the same c...

Especially after the death of Benazir Bhutto last year the use of the surname 'Bhutto', has become much more common place in Pakistan. There is Shaheed Bhutto, Bhutto legacy, Bhutto will, Bhutto chehlum, Bhutto langar, Bhutto boy and what not. I am sure like geo this word will start appearing on every nook and corner of the country. It is therefore my humble suggestion to the evil ' Bhutto husband ' to get this name patented so that he for once can earn some money that is not through corruption and coersion. In this way 'Bhutto husband' will be able to establish a business profile within his family whereby he can claim patent money from his 'Bhutto son' who has taken the name of Bhutto. Technorati Tags: Pakistan , Bhutto Powered by ScribeFire .

A J McMichael and colleagues in their recent article in BMJ discuss the impact of global environment change and its impact on the helth status of population. They argue that human health is not an independent variable but dependent on the larger scale environmental changes that take place on earth. Doctors should be more sensitive to the global changes in environmental conditions as most of the time they are irreversible and cause greater damage than those hazazrds that are confined to a smaller area. The authors argue that the millinium development goals of UN do not take into full account the impact the environment change has on the human health. It is therefore possible that we may not be able to realize the goals if environment destruction continues. The millennium development goals are: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. Achieve univeral primary education. promote gender equality and empower women. reduce child mortality. improve maternal health. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria a...

Eli Manning takes New York Giants to the finish with his nerves and extra ordinary play in the last minutes of the game. Tom Brady sacked time and again leading to his team finishing 16-1. Technorati Tags: Super Bowl XLII Powered by ScribeFire .

There have been conflicting news coming out of the country about Aitzaz Ahsan . He was freed for a stretch of 24 hours before being put under house arrest for another 30 days . It seems his freedom was not a result of any reconciliation on the part of the dictator but a constitutional necessity. the govt. is barred from keeping any Pakistani under undue house arrest for more than 90 days at a stretch. The dictator knows well that Ahsan knows the law better than any. so inorder to to circumvent this constiutional point Aitzaz ahsan was let go for 24 hours. The dictator knows very well that Aitzaz Ahsan can do a great dela of damage to his dictatorship if left out in the open. But for how long?

His Excellency The President of the European Parliament, Brussels. His Excellency The President of France, Paris. His Excellency The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, London. Her Excellency Ms. Condaleeza Rice, Secretary of State, United States of America, Washington D.C. Professor Klaus Schwab, World Economic Forum, Geneva. All through their respective Ambassodors, High Commissioners and representatives. Excellency, I am the Chief Justice of Pakistan presently detained in my residence since November 3, 2007 pursuant to some verbal, and unspecified, order passed by General Musharraf. I have found it necessary to write to you, and others, because during his recent visits to Brussels, Paris, Davos and London General Musharraf has slandered me, and my colleagues, with impunity in press conferences and other addresses and meetings. In addition he has widely distributed, among those whom he has met, a slanderous document (hereinafter the Document) entitled: “PROFILE OF THE FORMER CHIEF ...