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| December 21, 2008 | Sunday | Zilhaj 22, 1429 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (05:00 GMT)
Gwadar Port to generate millions of jobs Sunday, 21 Dec, ISLAMABAD: Gwadar Port, fully functional now is expected to generate billions of dollars in revenue and create at least two million jobs. According to a report from a private TV channel, Gwadar will serve as an energy corridor for Central Asia, Middle East, South Asia and the western part of Asia. The significance of Gwadar is great to both Pakistan and China. Pakistan will now be able to have strategic depth southwest from its naval base in Karachi. The future business hub also provides a cheap trade route for shipping. (Posted @ 21:51 PST)
Air strikes leave eight dead in Momand Sunday, 21 Dec, KHAR: Four civilians, including two women, and four militants were killed and seven others wounded in air strikes on Mamond area of the Bajaur tribal region on Sunday. Officials said that fighter jets bombed a suspected hideout in Umary of Mamond district, in which four militants were killed and three were injured. The officials added that several hideouts were destroyed in the air attack in Umary, an area considered to be a stronghold of militants. Militants had reportedly constructed tunnels and planted landmines in the area. (Posted @ 17:45 PST)
War not in interest of both countries: Qureshi Sunday, 21 Dec, MULTAN: War between Pakistan and India is not in the interest of India or Pakistan, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Sunday. He said that Pakistan wants peace, not war but if war is imposed then ‘we know how to defend the country.’ ‘War is not in the interest of both Pakistan and India, however, Pakistan has the capability to defend itself and the government and the armed forces are fully alert.’ The foreign minister said while the country wants peaceful and healthy relations with its neighbours, it will defend itself should a situation arise. (Posted @ 19:41 PST)
Gakkhar plaza fire toll up to 13, six missing Sunday, 21 Dec, RAWALPINDI: The death toll from a massive fire that gutted Gakkhar Plaza, major shopping mall in Rawalpindi has risen to 13, with six others still missing, officials said on Sunday. Rescuers were combing through the debris in search of survivors at Ghakhar Plaza, which partially collapsed 12 hours after the blaze erupted in the early hours of Saturday, deputy city commissioner Haseeb Athar told reporters. ‘The incident has resulted in 13 confirmed deaths so far and 59 injuries, while six are still missing,’ the national disaster management authority said in a statement. Twelve of the injured were still in hospital receiving treatment, the authority said. (Posted @ 18:40 PST)
Iran police shut down Shirin Ebadi’s office Sunday, 21 Dec, TEHRAN: Iranian police shut down the office of a human rights group headed by Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi on Sunday, the deputy head of the Human Rights Defenders Centre, Narges Mohammadi, told AFP. ‘They have sealed off the office and are telling us to leave the premises without resistance,’ Mohammadi said. ‘Mrs Ebadi is there too. We have no choice but to leave.’ She said dozens of policemen had gathered in front of the group’s office in northwest Tehran and that the officials had not ‘shown a judicial warrant but only provided the number of a warrant.’ She said policemen in uniform and plain clothes had raided the office and made an inventory of its contents. (Posted @ 18:16 PST)
Jets kill four militants in Momand Sunday, 21 Dec, MOMAND: Pakistani fighter jets on Sunday attacked suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda positions in Mohmand, killing four militants, an official said. The air strike took place in Mohmand district of the Bajaur tribal agency, where troops have been engaged in fierce fighting with rebels since the launch of a major army operation in August. ‘Four militants were killed in an air strike,’ a local administration official told AFP. (Posted @ 17:45 PST)
India strike back after Pietersen century Sunday, 21 Dec, MOHALI: England skipper Kevin Pietersen struck a majestic 15th test century of his test career before India fought back to take two late wickets on the third day of the second and final test on Sunday. Pietersen stroked an aggressive 144 and all rounder Andrew Flintoff a patient 62 before both fell in the last two overs of the day to reduce England to 282 for six, replying to India's first innings 453 all out. Off spinner Harbhajan Singh trapped Pietersen leg before and Flintoff was caught off bat-pad against leg spinner Amit Mishra in what turned out to be the final delivery of the day. (Posted @ 17:42 PST)
Gakkhar plaza fire toll up to 10, six missing Sunday, 21 Dec, RAWALPINDI: The death toll from a massive fire that gutted Gakkhar Plaza, major shopping mall in Rawalpindi has risen to eight, with six others still missing, officials said on Sunday. Rescuers were combing through the debris in search of survivors at Ghakhar Plaza, which partially collapsed 12 hours after the blaze erupted in the early hours of Saturday, deputy city commissioner Haseeb Athar told reporters. ‘The incident has resulted in 10 confirmed deaths so far and 59 injuries, while six are still missing,’ the national disaster management authority said in a statement. Twelve of the injured were still in hospital receiving treatment, the authority said. (Posted @ 16:40 PST)
Fidel Edwards takes seven wickets to lift West Indies Sunday, 21 Dec, WELLINGTON: West Indies fast bowler Fidel Edwards took a career-best seven for 87 to help dismiss New Zealand for 371 on the third day of the second test in Napier on Sunday. New Zealand led the West Indies by 64 runs on first innings, thanks largely to a maiden test century from opener Tim McIntosh, but the margin would have been greater but for a wholehearted bowling performance from Edwards. When bad light stopped play 20 minutes before the scheduled close, West Indies had raced to 62 for two in their second innings with captain Chris Gayle on 36 and Xavier Marshall yet to score. McIntosh, playing in only his second test, batted for 456 minutes and faced 337 balls for his 136. (Posted @ 16:35 PST)
Zardari to visit Kabul in early January Sunday, 21 Dec, MULTAN: President Asif Ali Zardari has rescheduled his first official trip to Afghanistan, cancelled last week due to bad weather, for early January, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Sunday. Zardari had been due to fly to Kabul on Friday for talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on how to tackle the resurgent Taliban, but his plane was unable to leave Islamabad. ‘The president will visit Afghanistan in the first week of January, InshAllah (God willing),’ Qureshi told reporters. (Posted @ 16:07 PST)
Gaza truce recedes as rockets hit Israel Sunday, 21 Dec, JERUSALEM: Barrages of rockets fired from Gaza hit Israeli towns Sunday and the Israeli air force responded with a missile strike as violence surged following the official expiry date of a shaky truce. One rocket scored a direct hit on a house in the town of Sderot, the blast scattering rubble and furniture inside. 'Everyone is traumatized,' the house's owner, Maya Aviar, told AP Television News. (Posted @ 15:56 PST)
Bangladesh on alert after election death threat Sunday, 21 Dec, DHAKA: Bangladesh has tightened security for former premier Sheikh Hasina Wajed following Indian reports that extremists planned to kill her ahead of December 29 polls, an official said Sunday. Director general of the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) Hasan Mahmud Khandaker said they were investigating the threat reported by television channel CNN-IBN, which quoted unnamed Indian intelligence officials. 'Security has already been beefed up for Sheikh Hasina. The RAB and police are also making investigations into the threat,' Khandaker said. (Posted @ 14:44 PST)
60 Sri Lankan soldiers killed in fighting COLOMBO: Tamil Tiger rebels killed 60 Sri Lankan troops advancing toward their de facto capital, a pro-rebel report said, but the government denied Sunday that many soldiers had died. Meanwhile, the government said that its troops captured the strategic village of Nedunkerni in the northeast on Sunday. Clashes have intensified in recent weeks as the military continues a major push to capture the rebel headquarters and fulfill a promise to end the 25-year civil war. (Posted 13:14 PST)
Taliban kill two US ‘spies’ in N. Waziristan MIRAMSHAH: Taliban militants have killed two Afghan men in North Waziristan, accusing them of spying for US forces operating across the border, officials said on Sunday. The militants dumped the bodies of the men, brothers from the neighbouring Afghan province of Khost, in the village of Shiratala in the North Waziristan district. (Posted 12:37 PST)
Use of the royal ‘we’ By Anwar Syed
I BEGAN to think about this subject as my mind went to Mr Zardari’s excessive use of the personal possessive pronoun (my); something to which I shall soon return. The queen of the United Kingdom refers to herself in the first person plural pronoun (we) and to her things in its possessive case (our).
It was in 1169 that an English king, Henry II (d. 1189), first referred to himself as ‘we’. He was being harassed by his barons at the time, and he invoked the divine right of kings to convey that he did what he did with God’s authorisation so that his acts were God’s and his. ‘We’ then meant the king and God.
The idea caught on and subsequent kings and queens continued to use personal pronouns in the first person plural form. The practice spread to Europe, but it had already been in vogue in the Abbasid, Persian and Mughal courts. More recently, an instrument of abdication signed by Nicholas II opened thus: “In agreement with the Imperial Duma we have thought it best to renounce the throne of the Russian empire.” Commenting on the basic law of the state, the ruler of one of the emirates referred to himself as “We Qaboos bin Saad, Sultan of Oman.”
The pronoun ‘we’ is also used by popes, newspaper editors and columnists. We are not concerned with these usages. In royal usage, the intention sometimes was to assert that the speaker and his office were entitled to deference. In other situations the speaker meant to join his people with himself and wished to be taken as speaking both for himself and his people. The same holds for a high court judge or, among others, a member of parliament. ‘We’ in these cases includes both the speaker and the institution to which he belongs. A word now about the possessive pronoun ‘my’. It may denote the user’s ownership of the object named — as in ‘my car’— or the fact of his belonging to an entity — as in my country or my tribe. A politician in a democracy will avoid using it in its possessive connotation when he is referring to institutions.
Addressing a video conference organised by the Hindustan Times on Nov 22, 2008, Asif Ali Zardari declared that “I am not threatened by India”; let the people of Pakistan “force me and let the people of India force their leaders” to find a just solution of the Kashmir dispute: “I am glad I can say with full confidence that I can persuade my parliament” to consider ways of improving ties with India. On other occasions he has referred to “my economy”, “my budget”, “my deficit”, “my treasury”, “my foreign exchange reserves”, “my need” for $100bn.
In this connection it is noteworthy that he has been announcing policy initiatives and reaching understandings and accords with foreign governments without consulting the cabinet or the parliament in Pakistan.
Mr Zardari’s frequent use of the personal pronouns (I and my) raises questions regarding his self-perception. We know who and what he was and is, but we have to figure out how he places himself. We know, for instance, that he came from a moderately prosperous Sindhi land-owning family. He completed high school. His father owned an entertainment business in Karachi which he managed. Somewhere along the line, he caught Begum Nusrat Bhutto’s attention while she looked for a prospective son-in-law and Benazir was persuaded to marry him .This connection made him a public figure. He now was the husband of a formidable politician and, for periods of time, a prime minister’s husband.
Within days of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination on Dec 27, 2007, Asif Ali Zardari rose to be his own man, standing taller than he had ever been. Claiming that Benazir had named him as her successor, he got the PPP’s central executive committee to elect him as the party’s co-chairman. A few months later members of parliament and the four provincial assemblies were persuaded to elect him the president of Pakistan in preference to a former judge of the Supreme Court.
As president he is required by the constitution to perform his functions upon the prime minister’s advice. One may be astonished to find that in actual practice it is the other way round: it is the prime minister who acts on the president’s advice, not he on the prime minister’s.
Before Benazir’s death Mr Zardari was not a politician, leader or ruler. Since then he has been cast in all of these roles. It is possible that the potential for them lay hidden in the inner recesses of his personality, and it came to the fore when the call for it surfaced. He does have the knack of taking people along, even leading them up the garden path, so to speak. But it is not equally clear how long he can keep them in his camp. His performance as a politician and as a ruler is, to put it mildly, problematic.
Let us now turn to his frequent use of the possessive personal pronoun in the first person singular form (my). A couple of explanations come to mind. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that he feels that everything existing in Pakistan — land, people, institutions — belongs to him. Instead of identifying himself with the country and the state, he identifies the country and the state with himself. He may reject this interpretation if confronted with it, but that doesn’t matter, for it is to be expected.
Second, he may believe that the offices of PPP chairman and president of Pakistan invest him with majesty like that of absolute kings. Yet, he may be unaware that in that case he should use ‘pluralis majestatis’ — that is, ‘we’.
One of his close associates may consider telling him to be more selective in his use of the personal possessive pronouns.
The writer is a visiting professor at the Lahore School of Economics.
anwars@lahoreschool.edu.pk
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Editor: Abbas Nasir
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