Pakistan has 6.5 million out of school children: Unesco

Hmmm. Right.

Islamabad, Dec 01: Pakistan is among the few countries where illiteracy is on the rise and it ranked second in the world with 6.5 million out of school children, a Unesco report said.

India follows Pakistan at the third spot with 4.5 million such children, Dawn reported quoting Unesco’s education for all global monitoring report 2007.

Nigeria with some eight million out-of-school children stands first.

 

Cafe: Where LoC means Lots of Coffee

Where LoC means Lots of Coffee by Vinod Sharma – The Hindustan Times

Islamabad

One need not travel to Lahore and Karachi any longer for a taste of the Pakistani entrepreneurship, humour and its thinking people’s irrepressible urge for democratic freedom. The proof lies in the pudding served 24X7 at Civil Junction, a thoughtfully named cafeteria in the heart of the Pak capital.

CJ’s ‘Vajpayee’s cup of Coffee’ is one hot favourite: old, poetically smooth, chronically alone, mythologically brewed, firmly soft and, in short, more than you can expect.

“There is no foreign hand in its making,” the cafe’s elaborately done menu assures of the cuppa served since the Indian and Pakistani troops were eyeball-to-eyeball on the borders.

Of identical vintage and price, ‘Musharraf Guesspresso’ is CJ’s best bet: khaki and brewed under high pressure of discipline. Its base very, very strong; the real kick being in its aftertaste!

 

Pani Piyoun Magar Kahan Se?

Welcome to Pakistan. A slowly progressing South Asian country sitting in a key location within a world increasingly effected by globalization. It has progressed in recent years under the tenure of General President Pervaiz Musharraf in the areas of sports, corporate business, export, agriculture, banking infrastructure, communications. Additionally, the media which will soon have, if all goes according to plan, 52 channels and 120 FM radio stations but in the last decade Pakistan has gone to even such lengths to progress in nuclear technology alongside India that it was willing to risk the repercussions of economic sanctions. What about the basic necessities that the citizens of a country should rightfully have?

 

POSTCARD USA: Ah! the Pakistani mindset! By Khalid Hasan

Conspiracy as a cause of events is a constant in Pakistan. The theory is packaged in a paradigm that can be slapped on any situation. In other societies conspiracy theories are marginal; in Pakistan they are mainstream

Finally, somebody has worked out as to what ails Pakistanis. The Columbus of this effort is Mohammad Abdul Qadeer, professor emeritus at the School of Urban and Regional Planning at Queen’ University, Kingston, Canada. He lives in Toronto. I suppose you need to be physically at a distance from what you are observing to get its contours right. When you are close, you can’t see the wood for the trees.

Qadeer, who once wrote a book on Lahore from a sociologist’s and urban planner’s point of view, when told that Pakistan had won a hard-fought Security Council seat, beating India, observed, “What Pakistan needs is not a seat on the Security Council but more public toilets in Lahore.” He has just published a book in London on Pakistan and what our social strengths and foibles are. He has devoted a section of the work to the Pakistani mindset and he seems to have got it right.

 

Shoaib Akhtar: The best and the worst

Shoaib is a uniquely Dickensian character. He is the best of entertainers, he is the worst of entertainers. He is the best of entertainers because in recent cricket history nobody can match the energy and the excitement that Shoaib brings on to the field. He is the worst because unlike most entertainers he disappoints when you expect the most off him. He disappoints by not showing up. It would be fair to say that you either hate him or love him and after so many years of disappointments most people would be inclined to see this man out of the team due to his ‘apparent’ lack of discipline and ‘attitude’ problems. This is where I stop agreeing with these people. I am not contesting the allegations, but the desire to see him out of the team.

I have gone from loving Shoaib when he first came on the world stage to hating him and now I am back to loving him. And if his career was to end today I would stick to this view of mine. However, let’s have a look at his career stats first as that gives a good indication of a player’s calibre. 165 wickets in 42 tests at an average of 25.69 and 208 wickets in 133 ODI’s at an average of 23.33. These stats aren’t the most amazing you’ll ever see, but they aren’t that bad either for a man who has rarely been completely fit. The real story of his career is the one I am going to tell you now.

 

Classics: Ali Azmat – IM on the Fringe

This video of Ali Azmat on IM on the Fringe is highly entertaining. Ali is entertaining not only for the way he speaks, but the insight that he gives into his career and the lives of musicians. I particularly love the line where he says, ‘These poor guys make nothing…they don’t make shit…now upar se ur going to take taxes…why don’t u take my ‘chaddis’ as well man’. On the Fringe is a very well done show and Fasi Zaka, the host, makes it a point to ask probing questions when interviewing musicians rather than indulging in glorifying talk about their achievements.

 

What Would Life Have Been Like for Muslims Under United India?

14^th August 1947. The day which saw the biggest mass migration in recorded history. The day which saw a nation existing for centuries divided into two separate nations; one for the Muslims and one for the Hindus. For many politicians, this day was the day which shattered their dream of a united India, with Muslims and Hindus living together peacefully. For others, it was the day which saw their greatest ambition being realized; the day which they had been waiting for had finally come. However, this day was filled with tragedy, as more than a million lives were lost during the cross-border migration, with both Muslim and Hindu fanatics trying their best to kill as many people of the other religion as they could find. It is a commonly held view amongst Indian politicians that Pakistan was brought about by the disappointed ambition, the vanity and the intransigence of one man, Mohammed Ali Jinnah. However, the view shared by most Pakistanis is that Jinnah was our saviour; who rid us from Hindu dominance, and created for us our own separate nation, where we are free to practice our religion, enhance our culture and further our own interests. 

 

NEWSFLASH: Real Estate 101 for Army Officers

In an unprecedented move Pakistan Army, the 7th largest army in the world, has introduced a new course to be taught at Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul. The course is titled Real Estate 101 and will be compulsory for all those entering Kakul. As this will form the heart of the officer corps it is thought to be imperative that they have the basic knowledge to deal with the real estate that they will acquire later on in their careers. In light of the introduction of this course, compulsory English Language courses have now become optional as it is felt that regardless of the courses offered the officers continue to speak their unique brand of English.

Advanced level real estate courses are now being devised for the National Defence College in Quetta where senior officers were initially taught the art of higher military strategy.

 

Golf Anyone?

It’s a cold, dark night. The leaves outside my window are rustling as the cool winter breeze whispers through their branches. I sit alone in my room, wondering how Karachi got so cold this year. The coastal city rarely experiences such cold waves. Whatever cold we do get is quickly dissipated by the warmer coastal breezes and beautiful sunshine. But it has stuck around for a considerably long time this year. As I ponder the various causes, Al Gore and his global warming documentary come to mind.

Midway through my train of thought I also begin to wonder why it is a cold, “dark” night…I mean it’s the middle of winter-so WHY THE HELL AM I EXPERIENCING LOAD-SHEDDING???!!

 

Political Jungle: Musharraf, Nawaz Sharif or Benazir Bhutto

I have been discussing the future and past of Pakistani politics with a number of Pakistanis lately in London. Before I write anything substantive, I shall make a confession. That is, I am not a Pakistani citizen and more importantly, I have never been to Pakistan. Hence whatever I am writing here is an outsider’s view of Pakistani politics.

Many people argued that with the end of Zia-ul-Haq there would emerge a new and different kind of politics in Pakistan. After Zia, Pakistan voted in Benazir Bhutto and as a result, she began her tenure as the Prime Minister in late 1980’s. Benazir Bhutto had all the credentials to become an exemplary leader of Pakistan. Being a scion of Bhutto family, which has produced a number of political figures, including President and Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, she was well known all over Pakistan and coupled with her Oxford-Harvard education she was supposed to be urbane, sophisticated and one who would change the course of Pakistani politics forever. But she turned out to be worse than anyone who has ever ruled Pakistan.