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| November 30, 2008 | Sunday | Zilhaj 1, 1429 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (05:00 GMT)
Hundreds rally to keep peace between Pakistan and India Sunday, 30 Nov, LAHORE: More than 1,000 activists marched in the eastern city of Lahore and urged Pakistan and India to refrain from hostilities after the Mumbai terrorist attacks. The participants of the rally, organised by the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (Pakistan People's Movement) political party, marched on a main road and dispersed in front of the provincial assembly building.(Posted @ 20:17 PST)
Taliban kill 'US spy' in Pakistani tribal area: official Sunday, 30 Nov, MIRANSHAH: Taliban militants hanged and shot dead an Afghan man in a restive Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan, accusing him of spying for the US, an official said on Sunday. The body of Ajab Khan, 35, was found in the tribal district of North Waziristan on Sunday, a local administration official told AFP. (Posted @ 19:40 PST)
Mumbai attacks death toll revised down to 172 Sunday, 30 Nov, MUMBAI: The death toll from a wave of coordinated attacks on the western Indian city of Mumbai has been revised downwards to 172, officials on said on Sunday. The disaster management cell of the Maharashtra state government said the lower figure -- down from 195 -- was due to 'double-counting' of the dead at hospitals in the wake of the militant strikes. But an official told AFP that the figure could rise again, as more bodies were found. (Posted @ 19:11 PST)
Nearly 400 dead as clashes continue in Nigeria Sunday, 30 Nov, JOS: Residents delivered more bodies to the main mosque in the central Nigerian city of Jos on Sunday, bringing the death toll from two days of clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs to around 400 people. Rival ethnic and religious mobs have burned homes, shops, mosques and churches in fighting triggered by a disputed local election in a city at the crossroads of Nigeria's Muslim north and Christian south. It is the country's worst unrest for years.(Posted @ 19:03 PST)
India says no decision yet on Pakistan tour Sunday, 30 Nov, NEW DELHI: The Indian government is yet to decide whether to allow the national cricket team to tour Pakistan, amid serious doubts following the attacks in Mumbai, a government spokesman said on Sunday. 'Since the tour is in January there is still some time, we are discussing the issue,' foreign ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash told Reuters. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has sought permission to tour amid security concerns over playing in Pakistan. (Posted @ 18:31 PST)
Israel approves release of 250 Palestinian prisoners Sunday, 30 Nov, JERUSALEM: The Israeli cabinet gave its approval on Sunday to the release of 250 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture to Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert during talks on November 17 with Abbas undertook to free the prisoners. The talks in Jerusalem were the two men's first meeting in two months. Officials were not immediately able to give a breakdown of the vote in cabinet, which was not carried unanimously. Trade and Industry Minister Eli Yishai from the ultra-Orthdox Shas party told reporters before the meeting that he would vote against the release.(Posted @ 17:57 PST)
Suicide blast kills two in Afghan capital Sunday, 30 Nov, KABUL: A suicide attack apparently targeted at a foreign forces vehicle on a road running past the parliament building in the Afghan capital Sunday killed two civilians, Kabul police said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the suicide bomb, the second in the city in three days, but similar attacks have been claimed by Taliban-led extremists waging an insurgency.(Posted @ 16:41 PST)
India cancels Pakistan tour: TV report Sunday, 30 Nov, NEW DELHI: India's government has refused permission to send a cricket team for a full tour of Pakistan early next year following the deadly Mumbai attacks, Indian television reported on Sunday. The tour was cancelled amid a government probe into Pakistani links to the assaults on the country's financial capital by heavily-armed militants that left nearly 200 people dead. (Posted @ 16:31 PST)
Gunmen kill eight at restaurant in Mexico Sunday, 30 Nov, MEXICO CITY: Gunmen shot and killed eight people in a violence-plagued northern Mexico border city that is a target of the government's war against drug gangs, police told Reuters. A dozen hitmen opened fire at people dining together at a restaurant in Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, instantly killing seven of them and fatally wounding another, police said. (Posted @ 15:34 PST)
Six policemen, three militants die in clashes Sunday, 30 Nov, MIRANSHAH: At least six policemen and three militants were killed in gunfights in northwest Pakistan where the military is hunting al Qaeda linked Taliban, police said Sunday. Three policemen were killed and five others injured on Sunday when local Taliban fired rockets at a police pickup near the northwestern town of Lakki Marwat, senior police official Mohammad Alam Shinwari told AFP. (Posted @ 15:15 PST)
Malaysia to probe reports of Mumbai terror link Sunday, 30 Nov, KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will assist India in investigating reports that gunmen in the Mumbai attacks had used Malaysian addresses to rent apartments in the Indian financial capital, a local newspaper said on Sunday. The gunmen killed nearly 200 people over three days in attacks on two of Mumbai's best-known luxury hotels and other landmarks in the city. (Posted @ 14:47 PST)
Home Minister Shivraj Patil offers resignation NEW DELHI: Home Minister Shivraj Patil has submitted his resignation over the attacks in Mumbai that killed nearly 200 people, the ruling Congress party said on Sunday. 'Shivraj Patil has tendered his resignation,' Veerappa Moily, a senior Congress party leader, told Reuters. It was not immediately known if Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had accepted the resignation. Patil, who has long been unpopular in India, is in charge of much of India's internal security services. (Posted 14:00 PST)
Gilani cancels Hong Kong trip: spokesman ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's prime minister has cancelled a trip to Hong Kong to concentrate on addressing growing tensions with India after the Mumbai terror attacks, officials said. Premier Yousaf Raza Gilani was due to attend the Clinton Global Initiative summit on December 2-3 but an official from his office said he would instead deal with Indian allegations that terrorists who killed 195 people in its financial hub came from Pakistan. (Posted 13:15 PST)
Captured gunman links Mumbai attacks to Pakistan MUMBAI: The only gunman captured during the Islamist attacks on Mumbai has provided testimony of the operation's links to a Pakistan-based militant group, Indian press reports said Sunday, quoting intelligence sources. Ajmal Amir Kamal, whose young, clean-shaven face has become an enduring image of the attacks after he was caught on a CCTV camera wearing a ‘Versace’T-shirt, is reportedly being interrogated in a safe-house in Mumbai. (Posted 10:42 PST)
Grenade blast wounds 46 protesters in Bangkok BANGKOK: A grenade blast wounded 46 anti-government protesters in Bangkok, hospital officials said on Sunday, the latest escalation in the country's increasingly violent political crisis. The blast occurred around midnight at Government House, where thousands of supporters of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), who have occupied the prime minister's compound since August in a bid to unseat him, were attending a rally. (Posted 08:46 PST)
Karachi violence leaves 13 dead, several injured KARACHI: Thirteen people were killed and 77 were injured, including 11 women, in incidents of violence in different parts of Karachi on Saturday as ethnic tension continued to tighten its grip on the city of 16 million. According to a private television channel, Pirabad police said two unknown gunmen opened fire in the Bukhari Colony area of Orangi Town at about 2:30 p.m., killing two men and fleeing swiftly. Later, three bodies were brought to Orangi Town's Qatar Hospital while injured were being treated in different hospitals around the city. One person was also killed during firing in the De Silva town area. (Posted 05:27 PST)
We will stand 'shoulder-to-shoulder' with India: govt ISLAMABAD: A statement was released by the Pakistani government on Saturday following crisis talks within the cabinet in response to the 'evolving situation' following the 'barbaric act of terrorism' which took place in Mumbai. The statement, which was delivered by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi declared that the Pakistani governement, following a 'frank, candid' discussion which analysed the situation 'thread-bare', was unanimous in its condemnation of the attacks in Mumbai. (Posted 04:02 PST)
Battle for Mumbai ends after 60 hours, 195 dead MUMBAI: A 60-hour terror rampage across India's financial capital ended on Saturday when commandos killed the last three gunmen holed up in a luxury hotel engulfed in flames. At least 195 people died. After the final siege ended, adoring crowds surrounded six buses near the hotel carrying weary, unshaven commandos, shaking their hands and giving them flowers. (Posted 01:11 PST)
Andha dhun firing By Shehzad Roy
A PATRIOTIC visually challenged man goes to a policeman and requests to be recruited in the force, saying that he wants to help his country. The policeman, a little confused, asks him, “Tum toh andhey ho. Police mein kia karo gey?” (You are blind. What will you do in the police?) The sightless man replies, “Sir, andha dhun firing!”
Unfortunately, good intentions alone are not enough to change our country. Everybody is passionate about educating the masses but it seems that the strategy of providing this education is becoming less and less effective, like the andha dhun firing of the police. In our welter of ghost schools and drug addict shelters, our well-meaning NGOs come forward to add more and more school buildings. True, these structures are much whiter than our peela schools. They are cleaner too and have teacher-training programmes. But the larger problem of outdated textbooks remains unaddressed.
Buildings and furniture are important but do not constitute the core of the crisis in education today. Even teacher-training becomes ineffective when the basic tool of imparting education — a textbook — is severely substandard. A poorly trained teacher using a good textbook is still far ahead of a well-trained teacher using a poor textbook. If the textbook itself captivates a child and catches his interest half the battle is won. Of course, a teacher is invaluable in facilitating learning and understanding, clarifying ideas and motivating a child to progress. However, currently our textbooks and the majority of our government school teachers are failing to deliver.
Many new schools sponsored by NGOs are coming up. But in their vicinity only a few kilometres away invariably stands a structure that goes by the name of a government school. It has a building that is twice as big and a playground that would be the delight of any sportsman’s heart. But the sad thing is that this building is in ruins and the ground is home to stray animals and anti-social humans rejected by society. This is a school where the basic facilities are already in place.
They only need to be renovated. But no one wants to touch this school because philanthropists feel that by doing so they will dirty their hands. Their biggest fear in working with the government is that their contribution will be transient — a time will come when all their efforts will be rolled back. They will lose control over their domain when some one else with official backing will seize it from them. Then false accusations, for instance of land-grabbing, will be levelled against them.
On the rare occasions that NGOs do work in government schools, they only go as far as bringing about cosmetic changes, with good intentions of course. Take the case of the ‘adopt a school’ programme launched several years ago when patrons faced stiff resistance, when after bringing about structural improvements they tried to improve the working of a school. Can one really blame a person for feeling it is pointless working with the government if fundamentals like textbooks, teaching methods and the administration of a school are not to change?
The fact is that it is the NGOs that will have to bring about this change and they have to do it with zero tolerance. They are not willing to do that because this is controversial, requiring as it does their moving out of their comfort zones and confronting vested interests. What these NGOs and educationists do not realise is that working in the public sector of education is the only way out. It is without doubt a much harder fight to fight. But healthcare and education can only lie with the state if their provision reaches all and sundry. NGOs and passionate educationists can keep opening up new schools in the hope of educating our masses but what they do not realise is that their efforts will remain isolated and eventually ineffective.
The government alone has the resources with which to put together an education system that is both far-reaching and well-maintained. Although these resources are not being properly utilised, there is no denying the potential of the existing system — it only needs a lot of repair. The need of the hour is not more school buildings. A beginning has to be made by improving the existing infrastructure that the government has already created over the years.
If we continue to shun the public education sector, nothing will change. I request all the NGOs who seriously want things to improve to join hands and work together and strengthen the government education system. Let us create a culture of true learning and bring equality to these schools where the rich and poor can study side by side. Let us oil the government machinery so it can start running all over the country. Our NGOs bring their own technical resources and commitment; let us use this wealth collectively towards a common goal.
The writer, a singer, is president of Zindagi Trust, an organisation working for child welfare and education.
royzad@gmail.com
Founder: Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah
Editor: Abbas Nasir
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