Pakistan

I am big Pashmina fan. Even the name (that comes from pashm in Persian) sound musical to me and I love that gauzy weave. Just touching soft and warm Pashmina tells you what it is! Pashmina products are all time trendy and stylish. People of class from all over the world use these products - shawl, scarf and many more.

Given my interest, one of the best places I have found to shop for Pashmina is Spencer's Pashmina. Neatly laid out and user’s friendly site has a great collection of Pashmina products. Explore and find what they are offering and how. They have something for everyone. Imagery of the products is good and it gives a feeler of how one will look wrapped in one of those shawls.

What is more, their custom dye option makes them stand out from the rest. Ask for color you want and Spencer's Pashmina will deliver exactly the same.

Some of their shawls are already on my wish list.

Pakistani blogospehre is growing each year and many new bloggers have entered the cyber world. During the outgoing year, Pakistani blogs have been noticed by international and regional media, Pakistani news channels not to mention the millions at home and abroad.

Here are Top Ten Posts 2009.Congratulations and well done.

For a nation put to sleep by many a sermons of religious purpose, the mass bloodshed of innocent brethren comes as no surprise. We pray to an invisible God, believe in the words of the invincible preachers and devote our lives to chant verse after verse like imbecile parrots. We believe in those who make us believe in them and abandon any who dares dissent. We declare those who worship our exclusive Gods in any way other than the one deemed appropriate by us as heretics. And yes, we do condone the execution of one transgressor after another in the name of blasphemy.

We, the people of the fading green flag, the aloof crescent with the bleak star, take religion seriously. We live and die for it. We kill and reincarnate in its name. We trace our origin and destination to be religious perfection. And we perfect others more than ourselves. We perfect our neighbor before our kin. We burn their mosques before illuminating our own. And we ostracize them before including ourselves. We march forward as a herd of mindless sheep whose shepherd has gone astray. And once lost in utter chaos we hold faith. In time of need and otherwise, we always hold faith.

While our faith is intense and potent, we rest it in the hands of self-appointed custodians and go about carrying our affairs with the nonchalance of beings bereft of responsibility. We believe in them and their virtuous service but we do not take onus of our blind acquiescence. We condemn the strangers executing our brethren one after the other but we never wonder about where the wizards of doom emerge from. We plough to make our land fertile for strife and exonerate those planting the seeds of bloodshed. And when it is time to reap the fruit of our doing we stare exasperated at each other pointing fingers.

You see, we are believers. We believe and we believe well. If only we were thinkers or doers.

In a highly tragic incident 36 innocent people including 17 children, 10 civilian, 9 Army personnel embraced shahadat when terrorists attacked a mosque in Parade Lane, Rawalpindi. Reportedly 4 terrorists approached a mosque inside officers residential colony in Parade Lane, Rawalpindi Saddar and hurled grenades on Namazies followed by indiscriminate firing. Meanwhile two suicide bombers entered the Mosque and blew themselves killing 35 Namazies who were offering Jumma prayers. Security forces personnel in the area responded immediately and 2 other terrorists were killed in exchange of fire.

Baluchistan is area wise the largest of the four provinces of Pakistan. It is the smallest province in terms of the population. Ever since independence there has invariably been lot of hue and cry regarding the deprivation of the rights of the people of Baluchistan. All governments to date have been accepting the existence of this deprivation and announcing different packages and incentives to make up the deprivation. However, the hue and cry regarding the deprivation has continued to increase despite all these efforts. In the recent past, particularly, after the death of Nawab Akbar Bugti and killing of a few more political leaders, this hue and cry has gathered a new momentum and now the voices of secession from Pakistan are on the increase.

People of Baluchistan feel that they are not getting the due share of development and their democratic rights of freedom of expression, equal opportunities etc are also not respected. The other sore point is about the royalty for the mineral resources like natural gas from Sui gas fields, copper from Saindak, marble etc. In the last few years there have been a large number of people from Baluchistan who, according to the political leadership, have gone missing as they have been picked up by the security agencies, namely, army. People of Baluchistan are against the involvement of the army and even the establishment of new cantonments. Gwadar port is yet another sore point where non Baluchis have purchased lot of land and are working in various projects which is going to change the demography of the area. Notwithstanding the poor standard of education, the people of Baluchistan want all public office vacancies to be filled by them and not from outside Baluchistan.

It is in this backdrop that the present government had promised to alleviate the sufferings of Baluchistan through a package. The said package has been placed before the national assembly. The Baluch leadership’s response has been twofold; the political leadership of Baluchistan was not taken into confidence while preparing the package and that the package falls well short of the demands of the people of Baluchistan. Yet another cry has been that the people of Baluchistan wanted these promises to be converted into deeds and going by the past precedence, they had all the reservations about the implementation of the package.

Even if the Baluchistan package presented in the National Assembly is well intentioned, it’s not being perceived as such. Wouldn't it have been better that all the elected and non elected political leadership was taken on board while preparing the package. If this was not possible, the least which could have been done was to present the package in the Provincial Assembly of Baluchistan prior to its approval by the National Assembly and the government.

Finding his name in recently published list of beneficiaries of National Reconciliation Ordinance, the advisor of Punjab Chief Minister and principal secretary of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Saeed Mehdi has tendered his resignation stating that he never made any corruption nor took advantage under NRO. He further said that he was involved in the matter maliciously, therefore, quitting from the office as moral obligation. Mehdi said he would not accept any official designation till clearance.

Unless there are some hidden and political ramifications, the resignation of Saeed Mehdi is indeed commendable. Is he going to be the lone exception or going to be followed by hundreds of others in the government led by the worthy President of Pakistan?

As per the press reports, MNA Javed Hashmi, who also heads the NA human rights body’s sub-committee on American private security firm Blackwater’s alleged presence in the country, said that the US was purchasing land in the suburbs of the federal capital Islamabad, including Malpur, Sihala and the Simly Dam area. He also said,“Influential people in Islamabad are renting out their houses to Americans,” and added “as per preliminary information, it is an established fact that Inter-Risk and DynCorp are training recruits in Peshawar”.

There has been a lot of hue and cry on part of the residents of Islamabad for many weeks about abnormal activities of the foreign diplomats and nationals. It has been the subject of the media, too. There have been reports that foreign nationals are employing highly trained retired soldiers of the special services group of the army in large numbers offering them very attractive salaries.

There is a need to probe into the matter to verify if all this is true or mere speculations. Based on the probe, government should take appropriate measures in either case and let the people know about it.