Poet Atta Shad’s being remembered today

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KARACHI: Famed Urdu and Balochi poet Atta Shad is being remembered on his death anniversary today (Monday).

Atta Shad was born in 1939 in South Baluchistan. He is inarguably one of the foremost intellectuals from Balochistan.

His repertoire includes two collections of verse in Urdu and three collections of verse in Balochi besides three research related works that also include the Urdu-Balochi dictionary.

He was appointed the director of National Art Council Quetta in 1973. Atta Shad was the recipient of the Sitara Imtiaz for his services rendered in the filed of literature.

He died on 13 February 1997 in Quetta. TrendPK

DPC warns of protest if NATO supplies resumed

 

At a news conference, DPC leaders said they would stage a sit-in in front of the Parliament on Feb 20 in condemnation of restoration of NATO supply.

 

The restoration of NATO supplies would be tantamount to mocking national honour and sovereignty.

 

They also said All Party Conference (APC) would be held on Feb 23 on Balochistan issue.

 

They were speaking to the media after DPC session at a Karachi hotel on Saturday.

 

Those who attended the news briefing included Jamiat Ulema Islam (S) Chief Maulana Sami Ul Haque, Jamaat-e Islami (JI) Pakistan Chief Syed Munawwar Hassan, Jamiat Ulema Pakistan (JUP) Chief Sahibzada Abu Al Khair Muhammad Zubair, Jamaat Ud Dawa Chief hafiz Muhammad Saeed and Ahl-e Sunnat Wal Jamaat Chief Maulana Muhammad Ahmed Ludhyanvi.

 

While addressing, Maulana Sami Ul Haque said that the DPC leaders had discussed country’s situation in detail and decided to keep the decision of staging a sit-in at the Parliament on Feb 20.

 

The political and religious parties in DPC would join the sit-in. He said that DPC leaders’ conference would be held in Islamabad on Feb 19. DPC was extremely concerned on Balochistan issue and taking up Balochistan issue in the Congress of the United States was a direct interference in Pakistan’s internal affairs as she had done in Arab countries.

 

The statement issued by the US Defence Committee was provoking and serious. The DPC stands beside the people of Balochistan and would play their role to get the situation resolved. In this regard, APC on Balochistan issue would be held in Quetta on Feb 23 and Baloch nationalist leaders would be taken on board.

 

Speaking on the occasion, JI Chief Syed Munawwar Hassan said that people have welcomed the DPC across the country, which manifested their trust. The biggest challenge in the country was US interference.

 

He said that the war on terror was not Pakistan’s war and due to that war, issue of missing persons had terrorized the nation and led to military operation in the country.

 

The DPC’s agenda was clear that NATO supply should remain discontinued. NATO supply via Pakistan’s air routes was a matter of grave concern and the DPC protested vehemently on the statement of US ambassador.

 

He said that the incidents of targeted killings in Karachi had wreaked havoc on citizens and since the Karachiites had welcomed the DPC, the DPC would not leave them at the mercy of the target killers.

 

Sahibzada Abu Al Khair said that DPC would struggle for freedom from America.

 

Hafiz Saeed said that DPC had honoured those resolutions that the Parliament had discarded.

 

Shaikh Rasheed Ahmed refuted claims that a new political alliance on the pattern of IJI was in the making.

 

Nejad vows to inaugurate nuclear projects

 

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lashed out at Israel, saying the “story” of the Holocaust underpinning its existence had been “smashed”.

 

In a speech marking the anniversary of Iran s 1979 revolution, Ahmadinejad said his nation will “never yield” to Western sanctions and threats of military action from Israel and the United States.

 

A crowd of an estimated 60,000 people in Tehran s main Azadi (Freedom) Square cheered Ahmadinejad s words despite the winter weather. Many held aloft placards declaring “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”.

 

In pointed messages aimed at those two arch-foes, Iranian officials planted a full-scale model of a US spy drone captured in December at an entrance to the square, and hosted on the stage the Hamas prime minister of Gaza.

 

Hamas “will never recognise Israel,” Gaza leader Ismail Haniya told the crowd just before Ahmadinejad spoke.–Agencies

 

Only ZA Bhutto brought revolution: PM Gilani

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JARANWALA: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said that the only politician who brought revolution in Pakistan is Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, TrendPK reported on Saturday.

Many politicians talk about revolution but ZA Bhutto was the only political leader who made it happened, he said.

Addressing a public rally in Jaranwala, PM Gilani said that Muhtarma Benazir Bhutto struggled for the freedom of the media and judiciary and we, also, will have been serving the people as per Muhtarma’s manifesto either we remain in power or not.

The prime minister said that we proud our PPP workers and the massive progress which have been made in our regime is not carried out in previous regimes.

The PPP workers have never been sold and frightened, he said.

PPP is the only party that has rendered so many sacrifices, the premier said. TrendPK

‘Change politicians’ yet to convince voters: PM

 

Addressing a public rally in Jaranwala, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said that Muhtarma Benazir Bhutto struggled for the freedom of the media and judiciary and we, also, will have been serving the people as per Muhtarma’s manifesto. “We would continue to do so we remain in power or not,” said the PM.

 

The prime minister said that we are proud of our PPP workers. The massive progress which has been made in our regime is not carried out in previous regimes, he added.

 

He said that the people have not given the chance to those who are raising slogan of change and revolution.
 

US group rejects accusations of interference in Egypt

 

Accused of interference in Egypt s affairs, US pro-democracy groups whose staff are to be tried in Cairo reject charges they are working secretly for the US government, which largely finances them.

 

Barrie Freeman, director of the North Africa region for the National Democratic Institute (NDI), one of the US groups whose offices were raided in December, denied the NDI has a hidden agenda.

 

“We trained thousands of candidates, hundreds of them were from the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafist party,” Freeman told AFP, referring to Islamist groups that won a decisive majority in recent parliamentary elections.

 

“We don t favor any party over another. We don t fund parties directly. We don t fund revolutions. We trained poll watchers, we sent international election observers,” she said.

 

“The program components included bringing people who had been through transition in their countries at high level.

 

“We brought in a former general from Indonesia, we brought politicians from Chile and Poland to share their experiences,” Freeman said.

 

Since December, ties between the United States and Egypt s interim military rulers have become strained, and Washington has raised the possibility it could withhold military aid worth $1.3 billion a year.

 

“It s really puzzling,” says Charles Dunne, the Middle East and North Africa director at Freedom House, another US-funded group raided in November.

 

“There is a campaign to try to shut down or control completely the civil society in Egypt,” Dunne told AFP.

 

“We re involved in civic education,” he said.

 

Egyptian authorities disagree, accusing the groups of undermining the military-run government during a fragile transition following last year s ouster of longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak, once a close US ally.

 

Egyptian Judge Sameh Abu Zeid said in Cairo that the NGOs are operating “without license,” and that their work “constitutes pure political activity and has nothing to do with civil society work.”

 

But the US State Department said Thursday that it has not yet seen any document outlining the charges against the groups.

 

If convicted, the members of these organizations could be sentenced to five years in prison, according to another judge, Ashraf Ashmawi.

 

Activists opposed to Egyptian military rule see the accusations as an attempt to silence them under the banner of fighting “plots” from abroad.

 

The US-funded groups reject the charge they are secretly working for the US government.

 

“It s unfair,” said Eric Trager, a specialist at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

 

“If it s a foreign funding issue, these groups shouldn t be targeted exclusively, it should be the Salafist party, the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt is a poor country. Everyone receives money from abroad,” Trager said.

 

The NDI said it is financed up to 81 percent by the State Department and the US Agency for International Development. Its board of directors is chaired by Madeleine Albright, who was president Bill Clinton s secretary of state.

 

The NDI, which was present in Ukraine during the 2004 “Orange Revolution” and works on five continents, is not “affiliated” with the US government, said Kathy Gest, who is in charge of public relations.

 

John McCain, an influential senator and 2008 Republican presidential candidate, is the chairman of the board of directors of the International Republican Institute, also targeted by Egyptian authorities.

 

On its website the IRI says it is financed through subsidies from US government agencies.

 

For its part, Freedom House has a budget of $25 million for 2012, with $21 millions coming from the US government, according to communications manager Mary McGuire.

 

But for Thomas Carothers, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the question of financing is secondary.

 

“The same activities have been carried out in Belarus for at least 12 years and haven t produced very much,” Carothers told AFP.

 

“This idea that there is some kind of sinister technology that very quietly, the US or certain European actors go into countries and prepare them for revolution, is colorful and sounds like a good spy movie.”

 

Af-Pak Jihad attracting foreign fighters: Officials

 

The Afghan-Pakistan jihad is attracting fewer foreign fighters following the death of Osama bin Laden, the growing threat posed by US drones, and lack of funds, Western security officials say.

 

While no precise figure is available, it would appear that the number of would-be jihadists from abroad has been drying up, according to one security official who declined to be named.

 

However, more Pakistanis are willing to take up the fight and make up the numbers, he also warned.

 

“Over the past six months, young Frenchmen there have nearly all left Pakistan. There were 20 to 30 of them, who had either converted (to Islam) or had links to the Maghreb; today there are hardly any left,” he said.

 

“Other European countries whose nationals used to go to Pakistan to join the jihad have drawn the same conclusion — a drastic reduction over recent months,” he added.

 

The “Arab Spring” revolts also acted as a magnet, with a number of jihadists moving to Libya to join the fight to remove Moamer Kadhafi from power, he said.

 

“Fighting in Afghanistan is also less attractive because of the idea that the Afghan taliban want to concentrate more on home fighting and that world jihad is less and less their cup of tea,” he added.

 

For Frank Cilluffo, who co-authored “Foreign Fighters” for the Homeland Security Policy Institute, “first and foremost, military actions, including the use of drones, has made the environment less hospitable to foreign fighters traveling to the region, by disrupting Al-Qaeda s (and associated entities ) training camps and pipelines.”

 

Direct and indirect accounts by jihadists also speak of disarray within Al-Qaeda in northwestern Pakistan where activists avoid coming together for fear of being attacked and whose weapons training now takes place indoors because of aerial and satellite surveillance.

 

In a report, entitled “Militant Pipeline” describing the links between the northwestern Pakistani frontier and the West, researcher Paul Cruickshank quotes one Ustadh Ahmad Faruq, described as a Pakistan-based Al-Qaeda spokesman who recently acknowledged his network s difficulties.

 

“The freedom we enjoyed in a number of regions has been lost. We are losing people and lack resources. Our land is being squeezed and drones fly over us,” he reportedly said in an audio cassette.

 

“It s difficult to have reliable figures,” on the number of foreign fighters, according to Cruickshank, who is a fellow at New York University s Center on Law and Security.

 

“I think the drone strikes have been a major issue for the militants, the death of bin Laden is going to be a very big challenge as well. He was so important for a lot of these militants — he was the Al-Qaeda brand.

 

“By going over there they were joining his cause. The fact that he has been removed from the scene is likely to be a great recruiting challenge for Al-Qaeda,” he said.

 

“But the conflict is still going on in Afghanistan and in the radical circles it is still viewed as a very legitimate jihad. So it s likely that the number of volonteers is going to be diminished, but as long as there are US soldiers to fight, I don t think it s going to dry up entirely,” he added.

 

Hafiz Hanif, a 17-year-old Afghan who trained in northwest, recently told Newsweek magazine the number of foreign fighters there was dwindling.

 

“When new people came they brought new blood, enthusiasm and money. All that has been lost. Now leaders seem to spend all their time moving from one place to another for their safety,” he said.
 

Urdu poet Sufi Tabassum’s anniversary today

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KARACHI: One of the great Urdu poets, Sufi Ghulam Mustafa Tabassum is being remembered on his death anniversary today (Tuesday).

Sufi Tabassum was born in Amritsar on August 4, 1899. In 1927, he joined the Central Training College, Lahore, as a Lecturer, where he worked then till 1931.

In 1931, Sufi Tabassum joined Government College, Lahore, from where he retired as Head of the Persian Department in 1954. During this period he matured into a great poet, critic and teacher. He taught three generations of students, including Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Noon Meem Rashid and Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi who later became renowned poets. It was during this period that the best Urdu and Persian poems of Sufi Tabassum were written.

After retirement, he formed the Iranian Cultural Centre in 1955. He devoted all his energies to modernising the Persian used by the scholars of the sub-continent an effort that has borne fruit. He handed over the Iranian Cultural Centre to the Iranian Government in 1958 after serving as its Director for three years. In 1958, he joined the weekly Magazine called “Lail-o-Nahar” as its Editor.

During his editorship, Sufi Tabassum devoted a lot of time to writing for children. When his editorship ended, Sufi Tabassum joined Radio Pakistan as a Script Adviser. There again he distinguished himself as a broadcaster and commentator of literary subjects.

Thereafter, he became Chairman of the Pakistan Arts Council, Lahore, and Vice-Chairman of Iqbal Academy. He worked tirelessly for both the organizations, building for the first time a magnificent building to mature into a national institution, while for the latter he laboured relentlessly to organize the Iqbal Centenary Celebrations and to get extensive research done on all aspects of the great poet’s life.

He died on 07th February 1978. AGENCIES

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Dengue, drugs killing: Riaz seeks Shahbaz’ head

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LAHORE: Punjab Opposition Leader Raja Riaz has called for resignation of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif in the wake of deaths caused by dengue fever and spurious drugs in the province.

He said “I and guru will live and do politics in the country. We will not go to Jeddah.”

“It is test of Shahbaz Sharif that he resigns,” said the opposition leader.

He stated that his party would not leave the people of Punjab alone.

“It is our right to talk about the miseries of poor people and we will not give up this right.”

He urged the chief minister to disclose the person involved in drugs and dengue incidents.

Israel may strike Iran: US Defense Secretary Panetta

BRUSSELS: US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta believes there is a “strong likelihood” that Israel will strike Iran’s nuclear installations this spring, the Washington Post said Thursday in an editorial.

When asked about the opinion piece by reporters travelling with him to a NATO meeting in Brussels, Panetta brushed it aside.

“I’m not going to comment on that. David Ignatius can write what he will but with regards with what I think and what I view, I consider that to be an area that belongs to me and nobody else,” he said.

“Israel indicated they’re considering this (a strike), we’ve indicated our concerns,” he added.

The Post columnist said Panetta “believes there is a strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June before Iran enters what Israelis described as a ‘zone of immunity’ to commence building a nuclear bomb.”

President Barack Obama and Panetta are “said to have cautioned the Israelis that the United States opposes an attack, believing that it would derail an increasingly successful international economic sanctions program and other non-military efforts to stop Iran from crossing the threshold,” he said.

“But the White House hasn’t yet decided precisely how the United States would respond if the Israelis do attack.”

Panetta said Sunday in an interview with CBS that Iran needed “about a year” to produce enough enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon, and one or two more years to “put it on a deliverable vehicle.”

Iran insists its nuclear project is peaceful and has threatened retaliation over the fresh sanctions, including possibly disrupting shipping through the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

Israeli media reported in October last year that the option of pre-emptive air strikes on Iran was opposed by the country’s intelligence services but favored by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak.

Israeli television said Mossad chief Tamir Pardo raised the possibility of a unilateral strike on Iran during a visit last week to Washington. AGENCIES

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