NEWS OR HYPE !

Today in Pakistan pick up your newspaper or switch on your television sets and scan through the news channels and the print .And tell, how many of you have found any positive thing about Pakistan between two news intervals, how many of you can proudly claim to present any good about Pakistan to the world, how many of you are happy with this kind of imaging of Pakistan to the rest of the world ?.

Undeniably and without any dispute in this present technically advanced age and times, the media is the most important and powerful source and tool, which reflects the image of the society.It builds consent of the nation for which the nation advances and cultivates in its intellect, culture and dynamism. In recent times the Pakistani media presents themselves with such a disbeliever image that it is to understand the reasons about certain irresponsibly,sensationalizing News being published and aired by few....

It is commonly felt that media is certainly responsible for all what happen in the country in terms of creating opinions and views of the people on any issue. They can make and break the news.However it is not the only the fault of the media alone,but some what the public is also responsible, because due to their interest the News channels are showing those type of news which scandalizes,creates a hype and rumors.Importantly it must be must realized that publishing or broadcasting unconfirmed and unauthenticated news,especially on national security issues is not going to be helpful, rather it is going to prove detrimental to the security interest of our country ! Therefore they should understand their responsibility well, in order to create harmony and valuable news

You see it is a fact that most countries around the world monitor foreign media takeovers or alliances, to ensure that national security is not compromised by foreign indoctrination. For instance in the US, foreign national are allowed to own a TV network.The same rule created difficulties for the Australian billionaire TV magnate Rupert Murdoch,who wanted to start his now famous right wing Fox TV Channel in the US.Thus in order to bypass the rule the billionaire applied for a US citizenship which he got and brought the Fox Channel to the US. Even starting a homegrown channel for broadcast on cable is difficult in the US if it doesn’t conform to the mainstream American values. This can be adjudged from the story of the Muslim TV network called Bridges TV which had to find 10,000 cable customers willing to subscribe to it before such a channel could be aired…

Just recall, how strict the US is in monitoring and restricting their media from not airing or publishing issue which could compromise the national security or interest…In the past their former Ambassador to Pakistan,even went to the extent of going after the scalps of our media personnel’s for having voiced contents which in their opinion could possibly harm their interest and security!…

Actually to be completely honest, I am quite perplexed with the foreign country's leaders and media's unusual focus on a poor country like ours. A single death occurrence of a journalist,or a domestic violence and criminal incident etc, grabbed extraordinary attention from them. Whence on the contrary they remained completely aloof and oblivious of the 35,000 civilian lives and 10,000 security personnel’s martyrdom in Pakistan!...

I feel it is time that we and the media learnt to differentiate between a single incident and an issue...The former is a solitary once in a blue moon kind of an event and the latter a continuous process over a period of time...The point is that a incident should be treated as a stray event and should not be hyped into reflecting as an issue which generalizes and drags a whole intuitions, community, society, nation or religion on trial...For instance we all agree that all Muslims Christians or Hindus etc are not terrorist,just because a few of them strayed and committed a wrongful act ?..

How many of you would agree with me that a particular event of a young man who got killed in a incident sometime back in Karachi-Pakistan by a rangers patrol party, was a random standalone incident and not a regular issue, such as being confronted regularly by the whole nation? For instance the ones pertaining to the deteriorating law and order situation, terrorism wave, energy and other economic crisis, which indeed can be termed as an issue to the extent that the whole institution should be put to trial ?....

It is public knowledge and I am certain that you are aware that the Kerry Luger Bill earmarked 50 million dollars just for buying media influence in Pakistan. Many Pakistani analysts have been given “grants” to study in the US and do “fellowships” in US think-tanks including govt. funded institutions like the US -Institute for Peace…

Don’t you feel that Pakistan should also have some laws and regulations which limit and deny such foreign acquisitions/interference in critical areas like oil companies, essential mineral resources and more importantly the media, thereby ensuring Pakistani media is free of foreign interests and solely dedicated to the welfare of the Pakistani nation? It is also important that our government take strict notice of such dole-outs which are designed to curtail the freedom of media in Pakistan ? .

OWN KESC AND BEAT THIS ENGINEERED POWER FAILURE GAME.

Summer is about to come around and so shall it entail the dreaded electricity shortage and prolonged load shedding to overcome the shortfall :)

Karachites prevail upon the government with a proposal to buy out the K.E.S.C, from the foreign investor and management for their failure to live up to the expectation of the contracts signed between them and the consumers at the time of providing the subscriber the connection.

I suggest,form a panel of experts consisting of lawyers,financial professionals,KESC union,Industrialists and civil society's office bearers etc.

After having done this let the panel vet the contract between the supplier and the consumer and...... the government's terms of sale of the utility to the present owner.After having identified the clauses in which the utility has failed to live up to it's contract and liable to be penalized the petition should be submitted to the Sindh High Court, for readdress.

This is just a loose frame work and strategy,but if undertaken in earnest with complete sincerity and devotion it can bear long term fruit for the citizens of Karachi.If it proves successful it can turn into a role model for all the supply company's status else where in the country.

In short, just like the devolution of political power through the local body system.This devolution of electricity supply power can be given to the grass root people to run in-accordance with their own capacities,while the generation of the power to be supplied is retained by the government at the centre as it presently stands.

I ,am not recommending a protest nor nationalization,rather it is a suggestion to evolve a solution turning the consumers into stake holders.This would generate responsibility as it is a fact that one is more careful,honest and attentive to things in which ones own benefit is at stake.Regarding power theft,I really doubt anyone could benefit stealing from his own coffer.

In my opinion,the sale of a necessary utility to foreigners is as good as cutting off ones own hands.

Blasphemy Law are maintained in more then a few Europeans countries, inclusive of UK and USA...

"When u attack Black people, they call it RACISM.

When u attack Jewish people,they call it ANTISEMITISM.

When u attack women, they call it SEXISM.

When u attack homosexuality,they call it INTOLERANCE.

When u attack a Country, they call it TREASON.

When u attack a religious sect, they call...it HATE.

But when...they...attack the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), they call it FREEDOM OF SPEECH? "

How can citizens of European nations which maintain blasphemy laws — and there are more than a few — cry foul when Muslims are offended by a cartoon, when they themselves press charges and demand imprisonment over something as simple as a pop star making negative statements about their religion and an artist in Russia? There may be a difference in the degree of punishment, but isn’t the intent the same, to silence those who don’t agree?

1) Polish pop star faces two years' prison for blasphemy

http://www.secularnewsdaily.com/2010/05/08/polish-pop-star-faces-two-years-prison-for-blasphemy/

2)Russian art exhibitors convicted of blasphemy

http://www.secularnewsdaily.com/2010/07/12/russian-art-exhibitors-convicted-of-blasphemy/

It is a fact that they indulge in hypocrisy and maintain dual standards. Blasphemy laws are maintained in more then a few in European country's inclusive of UK and USA...In, Christianity it carry's the same punishment as in Islam...Death!

Blasphemy laws - nowadays often altered to include blasphemy regardless of religion - exist in several countries, such as in:

Austria (Articles 188, 189 of the penal code)

Finland (Section 10 of chapter 17 of the penal code)

Unsuccessful attempts were made to rescind the law in 1914, 1917, 1965, 1970 and 1998.

Germany (Article 166 of the penal code)

Islamic Republic of Iran

Ireland

The Netherlands (Article 147 of the penal code)

New Zealand (Section 123 of the Crimes Act 1961)

Spain (Article 525 of the penal code)

Switzerland (Article 261 of the penal code)

The United Kingdom

Denmark (Paragraph 140 of the penal code).

Was up to revision in 2004, but failed to gain majority.

Has been discussed since, and especially after the Mohammed cartoons crisis.

The United States

In the United States, the First Amendment guarantees a relatively unlimited right of free speech, although some US states still have blasphemy laws on the books. Chapter 272 of the Massachusetts General Laws states, for example:

Section 36. Whoever willfully blasphemes the holy name of God by denying, cursing or contumaciously reproaching God, His creation, government or final judging of the world, or by cursing or contumaciously reproaching Jesus Christ or the Holy Ghost, or by cursing or contumaciously reproaching or exposing to contempt and ridicule, the holy word of God contained in the holy scriptures shall be punished by imprisonment in jail for not more than one year or by a fine of not more than three hundred dollars, and may also be bound to good behavior.

The history of Maryland's blasphemy statutes suggests that even into the 1930s, the First Amendment was not recognized as preventing states from passing such laws. An 1879 codification of Maryland statutes prohibited blasphemy:

Art. 72, sec. 189. If any person, by writing or speaking, shall blaspheme or curse God, or shall write or utter any profane words of and concerning our Savior, Jesus Christ, or of and concerning the Trinity, or any of the persons thereof, he shall, on conviction, be fined not more than one hundred dollars, or imprisoned not more than six months, or both fined and imprisoned as aforesaid, at the discretion of the court.

According to the marginalia, this statute was adopted in 1819, and a similar law dates back to 1723. In 1904, the statute was still on the books at Art. 27, sec. 20, unaltered in text.[1]. As late as 1939, this statute was still the law of Maryland.[2] It is unclear from the statutes and notes when Maryland's blasphemy statute was last prosecuted.

However, the US Supreme Court in Joseph Burstyn, Inc v Wilson 1952 held that the New York State blasphemy law was an unconstitutional prior restraint on freedom of speech. The court stated that "It is not the business of government in our nation to suppress real or imagined attacks upon a particular religious doctrine, whether they appear in publications, speeches or motion pictures."

The last person to be jailed in the United States for blasphemy was Abner Kneeland in 1838, as decided by the Massachusetts case Commonwealth v. Kneeland.

United Kingdom

Blasphemy laws in England have never been repealed. The last person in Britain to be sent to prison for blasphemy was John William Gott on 9 December 1921. He had three previous convictions for blasphemy when he was prosecuted... for publishing two pamphlets which satirised the biblical story of Jesus entering Jerusalem (Matthew 21:2-7), comparing Jesus to a circus clown. He was sentenced to nine months' hard labour.

In 1977, Denis Lemon, the editor of Gay News was found guilty of blasphemous libel for publishing James Kirkup's poem The Love that Dares to Speak its Name which allegedly vilified Christ and his life (Whitehouse v. Lemon). Lemon was fined £500 and sentenced to a suspended sentence of nine months imprisonment. It had been "touch and go", said the judge, whether he would actually send Lemon to jail.

In 2002, a deliberate and well-publicised public, repeat reading of the poem The Love that Dares to Speak its Name took place on the steps of St Martin-in-the-Fields church in Trafalgar Square and failed to lead to any prosecution.

Blasphemy in Christianity

Leviticus 24:16 states that those who speak blasphemy "shall surely be put to death".

Christian theology may condemn blasphemy, as in the Luke 12:10, where blaspheming the Holy Spirit is spoken of as unforgivable.

...However, in the simpler message of the time of Jesus, when Christian ideas relied upon the influence of natural authority against the then secular religious power of the Second Jewish Temple period, (positions exchanged in the centuries that followed), this admonishment may be interpreted as warning against an actual reaction from the Holy Spirit in the form of a curse that can irreparably harm a person (and thus be unforgivable but not by dictate). This statement in effect establishes the importance of this aspect of the Godhead, rather than setting an arbitrary law.

A careful reading of Mark (from the American Standard) shows this: Mark 3:29 "But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin." The more metaphysical aspects of early Christianity being now occluded by the dogma of secular religious authority.

The last prosecution for blasphemy in Scotland was in 1843.

Blasphemy in Islam

Blasphemy in Islam constitutes speaking ill of Muhammad, of any other prophet mentioned in the Qur'an, or of any Biblical prophets. Speaking ill of God is also blasphemy. Blasphemy is considered a very serious offence and may be punishable by death if charges are proven. British author Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses was seen by many Muslims to contain blasphemies against Islam, and Iranian clerical leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa in 1989 calling for Rushdie's death. More recently, the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons were criticised in part on the basis that they were blasphemous against Muhammad. The Egyptian government under pressure by the parliament banned the film The Da Vinci Code and is to confiscate the novel for containing blasphemy.

http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/scottish_anatomy/blasphemy.html

The Quran is a holy heavenly scripture and since the day it was revealed upon Prophet Mohammad (PBUH)) though the angel Jibrael (Gabrial) 1400 years ago.Not a comma or full stop has been changed in its contents and neither can any true Muslim ever even think of making a change in it.It is in its true and original form and this is the beauty and purity of this holy book and the miracle affects of its wisdom texts teachings.

If you go and re-read the above notes content you will come to understand that the Blasphemy law in Islam not only protects the honor and respect of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH),but in all earnest and fairness Protects.Jesus and all Prophets!

Moral of the story: You cannot live in a glass house and throw stones at others !...

Suicide attack,suicide bombing, homicide bombing, or "kamikaze, was not invented by the Muslims!

The suicide bombing: Suicide is Haram (Prohibited and sinful) committed in any manner.Having said that allow me to clarify the misconception that a suicide attack (also known as suicide bombing, homicide bombing, or "kamikaze") was not invented by the Muslim's.

Historically,the Bible Book of Judges recounts the story of the Jewish hero Samson and how he killed himself by bringing down the temple of the Philistines in order to kill three thousand Philistines.

In the late 17th century, Qing official Yu Yonghe recorded that injured Dutch soldiers fighting against Koxinga's forces for control of Taiwan in 1661 would use gunpowder to blow up both themselves and their opponents rather than be taken prisoner. However, the Chinese observer may have well confused such suicidal tactics with the standard Dutch military practice of undermining and blowing up positions recently overrun by the enemy which almost cost Koxinga his life during the siege.During the Belgian Revolution, Dutch Lieutenant Jan van Speijk detonated his own ship in the harbor of Antwerp to prevent being captured by the Belgians. In the 18th century John Paul Jones wrote about Ottoman sailors setting their own ships on fire and ramming the ships of their enemies, although they knew this meant certain death for them.

Modern suicide bombing as a political tool can be traced back to the assassination of Tsar Alexander II of Russia in 1881. Alexander fell victim to a Nihilist plot. While driving on one of the central streets of Saint Petersburg, near the Winter Palace, he was mortally wounded by the explosion of hand-made grenades and died a few hours afterwards. The Tsar was killed by a member of Narodnaya Volya, Ignacy Hryniewiecki, who died while intentionally exploding the bomb during the attack.

Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff intended to assassinate Adolf Hitler by suicide bomb in 1943, but was unable to complete the attack.During the Battle for Berlin the Luftwaffe flew Selbstopfereinsatz against Soviet bridges over the Oder river. These missions were flown by pilots of the Leonidas Squadron under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Heiner Lange. From 17 April until 20 April 1945, using any aircraft that were available, the Luftwaffe claimed that the squadron destroyed 17 bridges, however the military historian Antony Beevor when writing about the incident thinks that this was exaggerated and that only the railway bridge at Küstrin was definitely destroyed. He comments that "thirty-five pilots and aircraft was a high price to pay for such a limited and temporary success". The missions were called off when the Soviet ground forces reached the vicinity of the squadron's airbase at Jüterbog.

Following World War II, Viet Minh "death volunteers" fought against the French Colonial Forces by using a long stick-like explosive to destroy French tanks.

Moral of the story: Smell yourself first and then criticize or raise your fingers at other's, Possibly you don't smell so good either!

Source: for historical incidents www.wikipedia.com