We have now moved permanently!

We have now moved to www.micropakistan.org/blog. As the move is in real-time a lot of the information needs to be updated. The site is right now at its most basic. However, we will be adding features as we go along. Please visit that site to post your comments. DO NOT POST ANY MORE COMMENTS ON THIS SITE. Also, from now on all the new posts will be only exclusively put up there.

Thank you.

MicroPakistan Team

 

Islamic Finance has much to learn from the west

An interesting read. Mr Muhammad Saleem quetions the validity of effect of Islamic Finance on the world. He questions whether it is taking Muslims, as a community, forward. He compares it to venture capitralism in the West and its many advantages. I really don’t know too much about Islamic Finance apart from the diffrent products to be able to contribute to this. What do you think?

Islamic Finance has much to learn from the west
by Muhammad Saleem
Op-Ed page of the FT on January 19th

Proponents of Islamic finance maintain that as the Koran prohibits interest all financing must be done on a profit and loss sharing basis. In spite of all the lofty rhetoric in practice no more than five per cent of Islamic financing is done this way.

Instead, Islamic banks use a structure called murabaha, or cost plus pre-determined profit, for the vast majority of their finance deals.

Remarkably, the “profit” for an Islamic bank in a murabaha transaction and the interest a conventional bank would have charged on the same transaction happen to be exactly the same. Indeed Islamic banks in determining their “profit” even quote the rate as a margin over Libor or other similar indices!

 

Edhi for Nobel Peace Prize 2007

I had already put up the link to the Edhi Foundation website where you could nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize a couple of days ago. However, I thought it would be a good idea to put up a post about him just to give the readers an idea of this man’s great achievements and his humble beginnings.

 

New top level domains: MicroPakistan.org and MicroPakistan.info

We have now registered two top level domains, www.micropakistan.org and www.micropakistan.info. Hence, from now on you can use both these addresses to access the blog.

It has come to our attention that WordPress.com has been banned in Pakistan and that means that the blog cannot be accessed from Pakistan. Once we are able to get a hosting provider to put our blog on it should be freely accessible, but till then there are certain websites that can be used to get around this problem. Now, logically speaking people from Pakistan would not be able to see this post as they have no access to this website so if you know anyone who has not been able to get to the blog please direct them to the following websites.

Proxify
Anonymouse

Here they can access the blog by using proxies. If anyone knows of a better way to go around this stupid ban then please let us know. Thank you!

 

Pakistan: Upon Crossing The Rubicon

This document is significant as it illustrates the issues discussed by Mr. Khan during his visit of West Pakistan in 1948. It is unfortunate to see that a year after partition, the issues holding the country back from true progression in the right direction are the same issues that we are still dealing with presently.

Liaquat Ali Khan was the first Prime Minister of Pakistan and the head of the Muslim League, the dominant political party in Pakistan. It almost seems like fate as he issues a warning against fifth columnists active against Pakistan and three years after this visit he was assassinated. It is also interesting to note that he managed to quell the first coup attempt in Pakistan to overthrow his Government by Major General Akbar Khan in the famous or rather infamous Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case 1951, which can be seen as the Army’s first attempt to enter the political arena.

The assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan is definitely a moment to remember in our history. As it not only swelled the political vacuum already present from the Death of the Founder but it left the country’s most important neighboring and domestic issues to catch dust on the shelves.

Please click on the pictures below separately to enlarge.

 

Indian controlled Kashmir disagrees with Musharraf

Omar Farooq, who is also known as Mirwaiz, is in Pakistan to talk about his latest epiphany. People think that he is the chief priest of Kashmir. That is not true. I am surprised that people call him the chief priest of Kashmir, for there does not exist such a title in Kashmir. Omar Farooq is a priest or a mullah in Srinagar and again, not the Grand Mullah of Kashmir. I am going to call him Mirwaiz in this post. I don’t believe that this title of Mirwaiz amounts to anything substantive, but since he markets himself as Mirwaiz I am compelled to call him that. Mirwaiz has now realised that Kashmir (I am referring to the Indian Kashmir as Kashmir throughout this post) should stay under the sovereignty of India and that the armed struggle in Kashmir, which he supported for sixteen long years, is not going to achieve anything for him. Musharraf, on the other hand, has buried the argument which suggests that Pakistan has a historical claim over Kashmir and hence is willing to concede on the vexed question of Kashmir. Indians like this solution because they are on the winning side and have to make no concessions. Mirwaiz is doing this for his own benefit and so is Musharraf. But what about the Kashmiri people then?

 

NEWSFLASH: Karachi to have $43 billion islands (whaa?)

Emaar of Dubai is investing $43 billion to convert two islands off the coast of Karachi into resorts for the rich elite of the city. In recent years residents of Karachi have been facing a great deal of problems due to the increase in traffic, pollution, crime and lack of other basic amenities. Such a project would allow the crème de la crème to distinguish themselves from the millions of middle-class people in the city who have now, according to one socialite, turned it into a ‘shit-hole’.

The islands would also serve as a permanent getaway for its residents as all their needs would be provided for and they would be able to access the areas of Defence and Clifton by a $50 million bridge. The other Karachi ‘towns’ were already no-go areas for most people tipped to be buying property on these islands. However, it was a cause for concern that on national holidays, such as Eid, Independence Day, Defence Day etc., a lot of the inhabitants of deprived Karachi areas would migrate to Defence and Clifton to enjoy the only source of entertainment for the middle-class of the city, the Clifton Beach.

 

“….f***in’ animals, bunch of hyenas, go back to the zoo, it’s not pakistan this”

Seemingly, these words appear to be those of an uncouth, imbalanced and racist individual but no, they were spoken by none other than the cricketing pride and joy of South africa, a self admitted match fixer. I am talking about Hansi Cronje’s partner in crime Mr. Herschelle Herman Gibbs. Is it not ironical that a man at the lowest ebb of human conduct and morality is accusing over zealous spectators of animal-like behaviour? Keeping in mind that this exuberant behaviour is perhaps what provides one facet of cricketing entertainment, it hardly warranted such a reaction. A professional sportsman , an icon of sorts,  resorting to frequent punctuations of profanity with racist undertones to convey his sentiments; It’s Shameful. I would’ve thought that as a nation, we would’ve responded with a vehement call to bar Herschelle Gibbs from playing test cricket in pakistan at the least. The fault is mine, it slipped my mind that we are a passive collective. He would’ve had to say the above personally to our mothers or perhaps our wives, maybe then we would wake up .      

 

Truth: the lodestar of (a better) Pakistan?

Many of us will be acquainted with the western stereotype of Pakistan: hostile, intolerant and in some cases radicalised. Many of us will also be aware of the societal schisms within Pakistan itself. In the quest for a modern state, many Pakistanis have wholesale secularised themselves and those around them. More still are fairly rabid in their quest to eliminate all traces of Islam from Pakistan’s national consciousness. On the other end of the spectrum, we have the equally intolerant, highly literalist and in some cases bigoted self-anointed ‘defenders of the faith’, out to press their interpretation of Islam on any and all. An observation both sides of the chasm would do well to stare down into, however, would be that of the importance of truth- truthfulness towards others, and themselves. For this truthfulness would let us realise that there is to be no compulsion in religion, and yet that there are tangible benefits to be had from a more genuine incorporation of Islam in the fabric of Pakistan. This post will briefly seek to touch on this conceptual touchstone that I call truthfulness, and exemplifying some of its benefits to Pakistan’s overarching identification issues.

 

Irony

Interesting to compare the two oaths. More importantly the fact that there is a SPECIFIC mention of ‘political activity’ in the Pakistani oath while on the other hand all that US Armed Forces are asked to state is that they will ’support and defend’ the Constitution. Oh, and the Pakistani oath has been translated from Urdu into English so don’t think that just cause English is the American language they understand it better. It has nothing to do with comprehension. I guess for us oaths and promises are just things that we would like to get out of the way to carry on with what we want to do never to think of them again.

Oath taken by the Pakistan Armed Forces

“I, (NAME), with a sincere heart and God as my witness do solemnly swear that I will be faithful to the State of Pakistan and protect the constitution of Pakistan, which reflects the wishes of the people of Pakistan. Further, I will not indulge in any political activity and will perform my duties in the armed forces with full faith and honesty. I will go where and howsoever I am ordered to by land, air or sea and that I will obey all lawful orders given to me by my superiors without regard to any dangers and threats to my personal safety. May God be my protector and witness. Amen”

Oath taken by the U.S Armed Forces